The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-09 00:00:00

Americans need not flatter themselves that they I
will ever see the end of this Income and Property
Tax, unless they repudiate their war debt, or pay
it off by a depreciated currency, in which the
hundred cents of the paper dollar may not fetch
above 10 cents in silver or brass. In that case
alone will they be able to rid themselves of the
grievous infliction. And, in paying it, they will have
the additional mortification of reflecting that they
incurred it in vain ; that they did not bring it upon
themselves in the heroic attempt to repel foreign in-
vasion and preserve their own liberties, but for mere
lust of power and dominion, and in the attempt—
possibly futile—to reduce an unwilling people, con-
verted into a separate and distinct nationality by.
sorrow and suffering, to subjection to a rule which
they abhor; to extend empire at the expense of
liberty, and to reduce into democracy a rule which,
had it been enforced or enforceable in the case of
Washington and their forefathers, would have seen
the United States a colony of Great Britain to this
day.

One great feature of the Tax Bill is the immense
patronage it will give to the Government in the
nomination of assessors and collectors. It was origi-
nally proposed to pay these persons 3 dols. per day,
and a dollar for every hundred names on the tax
lists : but the sum has been raised to 5 dols. per day,
the percentage remaining the same. If no more
than 500 assessors be appointed for the Federal
States, with their population of 20,000,000 and up-
wards, a very simple arithmetical rule will enable
any one to calculate that the collection of the in-
come and property tax will cost the Government near
upon 10,000,000 dols. or £2,000,000 per annum ;
and as it will not yield, under any circumstances,
more than 60,000,000 do's., it will follow that the
cost of collection will be about 13 2-3 per cent.—
rather a heavy rate, and a bad bargain
Government and people, though very good for the
assessors. both for

From Richmond come nothing but rumours—
thick as hail, and as transient—of the approaching
battle or evacuation. No one knows which it is to be,
M'Clellan
or what to expect. The public mind
ndis by no
might means
at ease on the subject. In a battle,
chance to be defeated ; while the evacuation of the
city, though in one sense damaging to the Confederate
cause, would tend to prolong the war, and transfer it
to some position further to the South where the Confe-
derates might make another stand, sure of having on
their side and against the invaders of their soil, all the
fatal influences of their warm climate and undrained
marshes. The New York journals are whistling
loudly to keep up their courage, and that of the
people, but a thousand circumstances daily occur to
show that the Government at least is fully aware
of their danger, and that M'Clellan's demands for
men have been met to the fullest extent that cir-
cumstances and the safety of Washington will allow.
His army suffers already from the deadly influence
of the swamps of the Chickahominy, seething and
festering in the hot sun. Hundreds of sick, disabled,
and wounded soldiers daily arrive in this city from
the Peninsula, while the number of those who are
draughted back to supply their places are not as one
to ten. In fact, though the truth is concealed as
much as possible, the Federal armies are much more
numerous in the Paymaster's Department at Wash-
ington than they are in the field. Many a regiment
nominally complete with 1,000 men is actually in-
complete with 450, or even with less, while the
volunteers are generally dissatisfied, and eager to get
home. An immense number of officers are absent
on furlough from their regiments—so many as to
excite the notice of the most careless observers ;
and the fine fellows of this city and of Boston, who
started off in such glorious enthusiasm to defend
Washington a month ago, when Gen. " Stonewall "
Jackson effected his brilliant dash into the Shenan-
doah Valley, are clamouring to get home again to
avoid the " villanous saltpetre" that has consigned
89. many valiant combatants to perdition. The
weather has, in fact, become too hot for the hotter
work of battle, in the estimation of many " brave "
volunteers. The fight before Richmond—if there
is to be a fight, which is lay no means certain—will
be the last great fight of the summer ; for, in case
of the evacuation of the city, General M'Clellan
will scarcely follow the retreating but unvan-
quished foe into the interior, until cold. weather
shall render it safe to subject his nnacclimatised
soldiery to the risks of such an enterprise. As for
General Beauregard and his movements, it is utterly
useless to report what is said of him one day and
contradicted on the next. He may be at Oko-
lona ; he may be at Charleston; he may be at
Mobile; he may be at Vicksburg, or he may be at
Richmond; for to every one of these places the
lying telegrams have consigned him. More likely
that at either of these places he may be preparing a
movement against Washington which will throw
" Stonewall" Jackson's raid into comparative unim-
portance. The truth is that nobody in the North
knows where he is, what force he commands, or
what he is doing. It is conceded that his army can-
not be disbanded, or all the world would know it ;
and it is surmised that the capture of 10,000 of his
men by General Pope, of which so great a vaunt was
made a fortnight ago, is, if not an error in the fact,
a great mistake in the figures, and that four nume-
rals might express the total more accurately than
five. It is also admitted that Beauregard's evacua-
tion of Corinth is the most masterly achievement of
the war ; that it has rendered Halleck's army en -
tirely useless, and placed that General in a position
perplexing, if not somewhat ridiculous. The last
report concerning him, derived from a Southern
paper, is that he is himself at Richmond, and has
left the " invincible Bragg" in command of his army.
If this be so, the North can match the South with
another " invincible" as invincible as he—spelling
his name without one of the terminal consonants
which belong to the patronymic of the Confederate
hero :—an "invincible brag" that commands in
Congress and in newspapers, that pervades the
whole Northern mind as the atmosphere pervades
the earth, and that may even survive the discomfi-
ture of M'Clellan before Richmond.

There has been serious fighting on James Island,
near Charleston, but no accounts have been received
from the Federal officers in command, or, if received
by the Government, have not been published in the
newspapers. Confederate statements in the Charles-
ton journals claim, a victory over the Federal troops
and gunboats in a battle fought on Monday, the
16th inst., but they talk of the victory in a manner
too gloomy to allow any one to believe that it could
have been much to boast of.

Vicksburg and two hundred miles of the Missis-
sippi
are still in the possession of the Confederates.
Commodore Farragut steamed up to the place, and
went back again ; but Commodore Davis, from the
other side, has not been able to proceed so far down
the river. The mysterious Beauregard is by some
believed to be there with a large force. Time will
show how this is, but it will certainly be strange if
t
e conqueror of New Orleans should be foiled at
Such a place as this.
. Congress is still debating the propriety of authoris-
ing
no: to issue his 150,000,000 dollars of
lug mr. Chase
.
New York, %it'll'
and ruin.
be of the same
Go-
vernment should
kor " green-backs." Mr. Baker, of
Mr.
a the measure will lead to disaster
opinion,
of New Mexico, appears to
ratZthaatptrhofit out of the inflation
, but would rather the Go-
oer good thing should fall
' of the currency than
shaving-shops."
to the lot of the banks
ientyti,_ is opposed to
notoriety,
;whiledtih thinks it will
Even Mr. Morrill, of tariff
Lovejoy
the " initiation of such a system,:,
drive coin out of the country
denounces banknotes which do eat represents
whether issued by the banks or by the Pecie
. Government,
but thinks if any one is to enjoy such a.
ernment. In the melajtli'll_ege it
should be the Gov
is leaving the country very rapidly, and gold, which
was down to 6,1 per cent• premium, rose yesterday
to '7l. Gold is- entirely withdrawn from eireula
tion, and silver is becoming so scarce that small
tradesmen will rather enter a purchasers name in
the hooks than give change for so small a matter as
a dollar.
_......

"TILE LADIES of LovEL LEIGII."—By the author
of "Margaret and her Bridesmaids," Sce• 3 vols.—There
The
is much in this book that is well worth reading.
portraits of the three ladies are delicately and
gracefully
drawn, the tender-hearted Pamela especially being a sketch
quite in the best manner of the popular author of "Margaret
and her Bridesmaids." The vain, heartless Ferdinand is
perhaps, however, the most skilfully drawn character in the
tale. The form of the story is autobiographical, a style
well suited to this writer.—John