The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1862.

2HE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Tunes' Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, OCT. 21.
Gold is down again from 37 per cent. premium
to 31®; but not from any return of public confidence
in the financial or general policy of the Govern-
ment, or faith in the speedy termination of the
The rise was too sudden to be quite natural,

war.

...__. _
and the fall is a reaction consequent upon the

alarm of the bankers at the excess of unsound spe-
_

culation of which the fluctuations in the price of that

commodity were the incentives, and which has led
many of them to adopt the extreme measure of re-
fusing to lend " green backs" and other paper cur-
rency upon the security of that which is really the
best security in the world—gold. It is not likely
that they will persist in this determivation, though
they may have recourse to such measures as may
be within their power to throw impediments in the

way of the wild class of speculators—such, for in-

stance, as withholding from publication the price
of gold, now notified twice a day in Wall-street in

the official list of the Brokers' Board. But this

measure and any others within reach would effect
but little benefit, even if they did not throw the
business out of the hands of the more respectable
bankers and agents into those of an inferior class,

just as the railway share mania in Capel-court
picked up the rejected business of the Stock-Ex-
change, and made bad worse. The real causes of
the rise in gold are the over issues of paper money

and the belief of the commercial public that a col-

lapse of the national credit must occur if the war
continues—a belief that is aggravated by the whole
course and conduct of hostilities, and by the convic-

tion which, in spite of brag and boasting, forces
_ _

itself on the public mind, that if " imbecility" be
too strong a word to express the character of the

administrative incapacity, " gross and glaring"
exactly hits it. No one believes that the alarming
rise in gold is permanently checked ; and if Gene-
ral MiClellan goes into winter quarters, which
some of his friends and all his foes believe to be

his intention, notwithstanding his recent reconnais-
sance to Charlestown, the premium will inevitably
reach a much higher point than it has yet done ;
and perhaps produce a crisis too unpleasant for
contemplation.
The great question of the hour is what M'Clelian
will do if permitted to retain the command ? Will

he offer the Confederates battle, or will the Confe-
derates reassume the offensive, and force a general

engagement along the lines ? Three days ago a

pitched battle was believed to be imminent. It is
now asserted that the autumnal campaign is at an

end unless the Confederates will it otherwise; and
that if any advance of the Federal forces be made

it will not be ander the leadership of Gen. M'Clel-
kn. The most sinister rumours are in circulation,
too wild and improbable to be repeated, and only

sides. He has little if any other distinctive claim
to support than his order to his soldiery
a year ago

. -
at Baltimore to shoot any one who attempted to
haul down or insult the national flag. He is there-
fore believed to be a thorough and uncompromising
friend of the Union, and if he goes to the poll will
certainly attract voters from both of the other can-

didates,bat whether in sufficient numbers to imperil

the election of Mr. Seymour is the point to be ascer-
tained. There can be no doubt of the strong Con-

servative reaction that has commenced, of which

Gen. Wadsworth, the Ultra-Abolitionist candidate,
is far more likely to be the victim in the State of
New York than Mr. Seymour. Gen. Dix refused
to become a candidate a month ago; and, as he is
one of those real soldiers of the Union who think
that their proper place in the day of peril for their
country is the battlefield, it is probable that he will
persist in his refusal to enter political life, especially
to take part in a contest where success is doubtful.
Mr. Lincoln's proposition to the coloured men who
waited upon him by invitation some time ago at
Washington, that they should emigrate en masse to
Central America, or anywhere else, provided they
would but leave the-United States, proved him to be
deeply imbued with the prejudices of his own State
of Illinois against that unfortunate race. How
strong those prejudices are in America—except in
Massachusetts and the other bleak and bitter little
States of New England—has never been sufficiently
appreciated in Europe. As an element in the solu-
tion of the slavery question the pretidice or anti-
pathy deserves to be taken into rbetat,. and the
proceedings that have just occurred in that very
State are of a character to cause even Mr. Lincoln
himself to reconsider the policy of Abolitionism to
which he seems to have been impelled against his
instincts and his judgment by the guiding of the
Tribune and the goading of Mr. Wendell Phillips.
The number of freed negroes—fugitives who have
recently sought refuge in the free States, and who,
both prior and subsequent to the publication of the
President's proclamation, have come within the

lines of the Federal armies or congregated at
Washington and New Orleans to be maintained

at the expense of the Government—has been

such as to alarm both General Halleck and
General Butler, Washington and the district of
Columbia are overrun with negroes, for whom em-

ployment cannot be found, and whom the Go-
vernment is consequently obliged to feed ; while
General Butler has an immense population of old
and infirm negro men and women and large num-
bers of children to maintain, at an expense which is
so heavy as to alarm even that Imperial personage.
To lessen the difficulty the Government, in some
districts, has been billeting the able-bodied black

labourer upon the farmers, and has even introduced

them into Illinois, where a State law exists against
their importation. The order draughting negroes
emanated from the War Department, and has
created such dissatisfaction throughout Illinois

that mass meetings have been elsewhere summoned

to protest against it " as a gross and flagrant out-
rage on the laws of the State and the rights of the

to be illegal and punishes him for it ? There is
nothing in the published reports to show that the
judge has ordered the release of the men; and if
they are still in prison the victory in the case rests
substantially with the Government (minus the cost
of 100 dole.), and public liberty in Vermont is as it
was before. at the mercy of any one who chooses to
infringe it, at the expense of a slight penalty to be
paid out of the public taxes.

OCT. 22.

Gen. Scott has published a long memorandum in
the Washington Intelhgencer which he addressed
to the Government in March, 1861, prior to his
second, and shorter, communication to Mr. Seward,
read at the great democratic meeting in this city last
week by Mr. Van Buren. The object of the publi-
cation is to show that the General submitted a plan
to President Buchanan for the garrisoning of the
Southern forts before the civil war actually burst
forth, which would, if adopted, have prevented that
catastrophe. The publication was not necessary to
vindicate the General's loyalty to the Federal Go-
vernment, which was not at all impugned:by his letter
to Mr. Seward. Its effect will be to strengthen the
public conviction that he was almost the only man
of his time, not a member of the Southern councils,
who thoroughly appreciated the seriousness of the
impending crisis, and the fearful magnitude of the
war, and that President Lincoln and Mr. Secretary
Seward were as wrong, but from different motives,
in not listening to his advice, as President Buchanan
and Mr. Secretary Lloyd.
The Chamber of Commerce of this city passed
yesterday a string of violent resolutions on the sub-
ject of the injuries inflicted upon American com-
merce by the Confederate steamship Alabama, in
which they endeavour to throw the whole blame
and responsibility upon the British Government,
that does not prevent private speculators from
building such ships in English ports. The resolu-

tions breathe war and bloodshed, and are very gene-
rally condemned as alike unjust, impolitic, and in-
temperate. The Chamber had nothing to say upon
another little matter, of which everybody is talking,
though the details have not yet found their way
into the newspapers, and which threatens to assume
very formidable proportions—namely, the seizure
and destruction on the coast of Cuba by the Federal
ship of war Montgomery of the British ship Blanche,
laden with cotton and bound from the neutral port
of Matamoras to the neutral port of Havannah.
The seizure and destruction were accompanied by
gross personal violence to the Spanish Alcalde, and
will doubtless bring remonstrances from both the
British and Spanish Governments. The subject has
created a very unpleasant feeling in commercial
circles, and has been jealously excluded from the
newspapers, by order, it is supposed, of the War-
office.