The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-11 00:00:00

force, and only appears small by comparison with'
the greater armies which were in existence at an
earlier period of the struggle. Six months ago the
Peden 1 Government had 700,000 troop i in its pay,
and the number was believed to be so much more
than sufficient for the suppression of the rebellion
than a cry arose in the Senate to stop enlistments,
and they were stopped accordingly, by authority of
the War Department.
,It appeared, however, en
1 subsequent investigation that only 540,000 men
were actually under command ; the remaining
160,000 representing the full strength of regiments
and brigades that were not complete, although
somebody or other in high position,
as yet undis-
covered or unpunished, drew pay and rations for
the whole, and allowed subordinates or accomplices
to pocket the difference.
During those six months the only battles or
series of battles attended with severe loss of life to
either side have been three. The first was at
Shiloh, when Generals Grant and Buell were op-
posed to General Beauregard, and when the
slaugliter on each side was greater than any ad-
vantage derived by either. The second was in the
unfortunate invasion of the Virginian Peninsula by
General M'Clellan, and the ill-advised change of his
base of operations from the Chickahominy to the
James. The third was the masterly movement of
the same General from Washington to Sharpsburg,
resulting in the quasi-evacuation of Maryland by the
Confederates, and what appears to have been, at
the best, the drawn battle of Antietam. The pre-
cise loss cflife on these occasions has never been
stated, and is probably unknown, but has been re-
presented as very large by the Generals engaged
and by the tradition of the soldiers who took part
in them. If the Federals lost 20,000 men in killed
and wounded in each of these series of battles,
which is a very high estimate, 60,000 men would
be accounted for. But between 540,000 and 280,000
the difference is 260,000. And if only 60,000 have
been killed in battle there still remain 200,000
men who have melted away from the armies
of the North in this short interval, or, in round
numbers, 1,160 per day. Fever, dysentery,
and sickness, and the hardships of camp
life, operating on the delicate frames of youths of
18 and 20, must have carried off a large percentage.
Capture by the enemy will account for many thou-
sands, and perhaps the military hospitals may at
this moment contain as many sick and suffering sol-
diers as might constitute a respectable army were
they competent to take the field. To these must be
added the three months' volunteers, who have re-
turned to their homes ; and if all these added toge-
ther do not fully account for 260,000 men, the bal-
ance must be ascribed to desertion.

These figures:are by no means cheerful, but are
quite sufficient to justify the President, if he really
means to attempt the conquest of the South and its
retention afterwards as a military dependency, in
appealing to the North for an additional army of
600,000 men. The number will be none too many
for the purpose ; and if, after they are raised and
equipped, they melt away as rapidly as the former
levies, he will require at least the half-million more
which be is said to demand as a reserve, to enter
upon the spring campaign, should the war last as
long. Can the country stand such a drain ? Is there
patriotism, or obstinacy, or settled purpose enough
in the North to meet such enormous draughts upon
its energy ? The Abolitionists, a large section of the
Republicans, a smaller section of the Democrats,
and all who are making fortunes out of the war, re-
ply in the affirmative. These are for the present in
the ascendancy, if not in the majority. They rule
the country. They overawe or overbear public opi-
nion in the press. They imprison or otherwise coerce
those who dare to differ from them. They bluster so
loudly as to affright that large class of timid people
who pray for peace and quietness, and only ask of
their Government permission to attend to their own
affairs, untroubled by war, and untrammelled by
politics.

But there is a thinking class behind all these,who
answer the pregnant question in the negative; who
doubt the persistency of their countrymen; who do
not think the retention of the South advisable, if
the Southern people object; and who, in any
case, are of opinion that the conquest of the
whole continent, from Panama to the grave of
Sir John Franklin, would not be worth one-half
of the treasure that has been expended, or a thou-
sandth part of the blood that has been shed in the
apparently interminable strife. Time alone can
show which of these is right; but if the war party
are accurate in their estimate of the resources, the
character, and the determination of their country-
men, neither Persian, nor Assyrian, nor Greek, nor
Roman, nor Briton, nor Gaul, was or is equal to
, the Northern American. The Southern American,
being of the same race and equally brave, if not
more than equally obstinate—when shall two such
giants come to terms ? The premises being granted
hostilities must last until eithek the North on the
South be depopulated or exhausted; and, instead
of being a war of 90 days, it will be one of 30 years
at the least, Perhaps, however, it may turn out
ere all is over that the Americans are not so much
better than the rest of the world, ancient or modern,
as the largeness of their continent leads them to
imagine ; and that pride, and patriotism, and obsti-
nacy, and " bounce," may all yield at the right mo-
ment to the inexorable necessity of paying the i
piper—a personage who takes no more account of
great democracies than of small monarchies, and who
has no more respect for an autocrat and an Emperor
—tracing back his genealogy for a thousand years
—than he has for a simple-minded lawyer elected
by universal suffrage to the Presidency of a Re-
public, The turn of this potentate has yet to come ;
and his hand, when it falls, will be heavier than has
fallen upon any nation of our time.
Among the countless symptoms of disunion that
begin to be apparent in the North, the meeting of
thirteen Governors of States in convention at
Altoona is among the most prominent. These
gentlemen, though supporting a war for the suppres-
sion of" State Rights" in the South, cling more or
less to " State Rights" in the North. They deli-
! berated in secret, and adjourned after two meet-
ings from Altoona to Washington. The Republican
journals assert that their only object is to support
the Government; while the Democratic journals
assert, on the contrary, that their desire is to coerce
the Government, and compel Mr. Lincoln, if they
can, to dismiss General M'Clellan in favour of Gene-
ral Fremont, or some other Abolitionist, and to
issue at no distant date, a new proclamation of full,
complete, unconditional emancipation.
These lat-
ter add that the President was fully informed of
their designs, and issued his proclamation of the
22d to take the wind out of their sails. The action
of these persons is not only officious and unwarrant-
able, but appears to be unconstitutional, if they
claim in their assemblage or convention to be any-
thing more than private citizens. As Governors
they have no title or power, when they leave the
boundaries of their own little commonwealths, and
have no right to confer with each other ex officio, or
form alliances for controlling or even advising upon
public affairs. Their proceedings, whatever they
may turn out to be, will be watched with extreme
jealousy ; and if they presume to make stipulations
for enrolling volunteers on only such conditions as
they may choose to present, they will be clearly
liable to the operation of martial law, as set forth
in the President's second proclamation of the day
before yesterday. The programme of their proceed-
ings which they have chosen to publish is harm-
less enough. There was no need of their assem-
bling at Altoona, or Washington, or anywhere else,
merell t° inform the President that they supported
the Cl'velninenut and approved his proclamation on
slavery ; and
the wilful public persists in
believing that inenjeld
1.03.8
eoteze, as in others, there was a
wheel within a
_..oand that the particular
wheel which they then
nu wed the world to see was
tahte mechanism.
not the main or motor-wheel of
The Republican Convention
._ Syracuse have
nominated General Wadsworth as
Gentenrltirts eatahntredunigdgoatnlee
for Governor of New York.
Fremont disappear from the lists; and tilepix and
will be a fair and simple issue between
Horatio Seymour on the one side and
Wadsworth on the other. The Democrats feel General
eoa:
fident of success, and,shthoeuldresthuletys
ig.naicnotnhgerevsisctwoz which they anticipate,
be such as may inaugurate a new and important
chapter in the history of the war and the fortunes
of Mr. Lincoln's Administration,