The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-28 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, JANUARY 28, 1862.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
4i—highest since noon yesterday.
33—lowest this morning and during the night.
45—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.84.
WlND—Westerly; rain during the night and morning
afternoon tine.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JAN. 28, 1862.

FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND men, and FITE
HUNDRED MILLIONS of dollars, was the magnificent
vote of the extra session of Congress convened by
Mr. LINCOLN last summer. The men have been
obtained, and do not seem to be too many if the need
of numbers is tp--I.)e tested by their: capacity to move,
against the enemy. On that point we are imperfect
judges; some,.--ive know, think that fewer men
better drilled, handled, and equipped, would have
been a much more effective body. But whether
or not the men be all needed, the money, and much
more will certainly be required, :if disbursement is
to go on at the present rate. A Mr. DAWES, who
seems to be a kind of JOSEPH HUME in the
Mouse of Representatives, has given us an American
photograph of the American contract system, which
beats anything we can recollect in our own times,
though it appears to be entirely founded on official
data. Our Admiralty Board and Crimean managers
may now hold up their heads and save their blushes,
I even for old shortcomings. Dover and Galway
contracts will appear but modest doings when com-
pared with the wholesale purchase of political sup-
port by contracts of all kinds with Union patriots,
for the supply of the patriot army.
Here a few specimens from Mr. DAWES' select
beauties of the army contract system. No. I. is a
contractor for beef. He was to find the army 2,200
head of cattle. Now, No. I. knew nothing about
beef, but he could by looking into price late know
the whereabouta of the price of cattle. He takes,
therefore, so good a margin, that within twenty-
four hours he sublets the contract to No. 11.,
who does know the price of beef, and by
the transaction No. I. puts into his pocket the nice
little sum of 32,000 dollars, or about
£6,400. But No. 11. and his copartners had their
pickings out of the affair. They apply to the
actual dealers in cattle, and pocket in their turn
more than £5,200 above the real value of the cattle.
So that these animals, by the time they reached
the patriots who were to eat them, had, through
the operations of the patriots who furnished them,
cost about £6 a piece more than they were worth !
To this was to be added the cost of conveyance, for
it seems it took the cattle longer to reach Washing-
ton than it did the heroes of the Potomac to eat
them when they got there. Perhaps those heroes
have learned in the school of ULYSSES, and can
can manage each three whole chines of a fat hog at
three dinners in one day.

Men must eat now, as well as in the days of the
siege of Troy. But, as the patient Greeks

" Were renowned as HOMER writes
For well-soled shoes no less than fights"—

so, the heroes of Ball's Run certainly required a
good supply of the same articles. Mr. DAWES com•
plains, however, that they were poorly supplied
with them, which may help to explain the non-
advance of MTLELLAN, shoes being as essential to
an advance as to a retreat or "Run." The accuser
saye, however, that the army has already worn out
a "million of shoes"—(is that a pair a piece for the
500,000)—and that on every one of these there has
been a waste of more than three shillings, which
should mean that in the little matter of shoes, some
Northern patriots have shared £150,000 among
them. We can only hope they are not paid yet, and
that the money will reach them in the shape of Mrs
CHASE'S inconvertible and depreciated paper. Mr.
DAWES adds that " three-quarters of a million of
dollars have been already worn out, and another
three-quarters of a million of dollars upon shoes is
now being manufactured." He tells us that con-
tracts in this department have been so plentiful
that Government officials have gone about the
streets with their pockets full of them—made
presents of them to clergymen of parishes, and
used them as plaisters for old political sores.
Mr. DANvEs enumerates other things which have