The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-30 00:00:00

have as yet signally failed. Nor will it astonish those
who are aware that the economists had no practical
experience, had no lessons in the past of other na-
tions, had no means to apply the laws of their
science to conditions not _fully understood. Hence
their failure ; nor that only, for their inability
to appreciate the changed circumstances led them
further into error than other people. A man who
works on the rules of science, if he accurately ascer-
tains the component parts, can accurately define
the result; but if he does not accurately ascertain
these particulars while he thinks he does, he will
make himself conspicuous for his error, for the
false premises must lead him into false conclu-
sions. What the political economist bad first
to do was to estimate correctly the material effect
of a gigantic European emigration into the United
States. This, though the very essence of the sub-
ject, has been nearly always left out, or but cur-
sorily glanced at. European economists consider the
value to the nation at which American economists
appraise au emigrant to be an exaggeration ; but
circumstances are proving that it is not, and in
this lies, as we apprehend, the secret. A hard-
working, able-bodied labourer, lands in the United
States, with his savings of from £l5 to £2O. In
Europe he is estimated as of but little account ; in
America his money represents but a very small part
of his value to the nation ; nor does it matter in
what direction his honest labour tends, whether
he works on wages, on a railroad, or on a farm ;
whether he settles on his own laud, or digs for
the precious metals in the mines of the Pacific slope.
In Europe he may be regarded as a good riddance,
and the first difficulty is to change this calculation,
carrying him to the credit side, as of a high value
in America. Indeed,",the economist must learn so to
take into account the immigration, as it works
such a change every half decade, that the Republic
of 1875 differs widely from that whose resources he
figured up in 1870, and, that from the nation, of
1880. If a new county was yearly added to Eng-
land, arising peopled from the sea, with its farms,
villages, and towns, with its roads, rails, and tele-
graphs, however accurate might be the financier's
calculation of the nation's resources at the moment,
his figures must be wrong after the lapse of a short
period. Although immigration does not make these
arbitrary additions to the Union, yet, practically, it
amounts to the same thing ; indeed, its fostering
influence is greater and more direct. Up to a certain
point the value of real estate, and the products of
agriculture will hinge on the density of pop:ilation.
Where the inhabitants of a town double, the value
of the land o❑ which it stands will, in all pro-
bability, have increased in even greater proportion,
anti the effect ou the general business of the coun-
try will be felt from one extremity to the other.
This constant upward tendency and ceaseless in-
crease in the volume of business has not been truly
appreciated by European economists, while every eco-
nomic blunder made by American financiers is not
only apparent, but exaggerated. Not seeing the
under-current of strength, while seeing the super-
ficial mistakes, the impression was formed in Eng-
land that there must soon be an awful smash, and
people have gone on wondering why it has not
come, and waiting for it till they have begun to
suspect their financial prophets and themselves to be
alike ignorant on the subject. The truth is, that
no one knows the full merits of the position. We
may go on speculating and predicting, but the
nation is a novelty in the history of mankind, wholly
and completely dissimilar from anything yet seen,
and all must be content to look on and learn. It
is not that the United States in a single particular
shows the fallacy of economic science ; on the con-
trary, if we could but grasp all the circumstances,
we would see that these laws are swiftly working
out a sure result, though here and there delayed and
interrupted by the blunders of mankind. But those
who, flying into another extreme, imagine that the
citizens of the Union will be carried harmless by a
chain of fortunate circumstances through reck-
less speculation and gambling will be equally at
fault, for America will have her periods of
catastrophe and depression as surely as other in-
dustrial nations, with this advantage, that they
will be less disastrous in effect and shorter in
duration, the recovery being more rapid, the lesson
not so deeply felt. We have heard it asserted by
those who had swung round to the other side that
the war averted the catastrophe—that the West,
then in a state of bankruptcy, was saved by that
event. This means that a nation may avoid a fi-
nancial collapse by taking its citizens from use-
ful labour to destroy the national property, turning its
resources into guns and powder to shoot each other
down. Could such a course be taken in America as
a means to escape from the effects of bad business,
we would be constrained to admit that the laws of
political economy did not stretch across the ocean ;
nevertheless, we have more than once heard shrewd
business men make that remark. The truth is, that
finding our predictions at fault we ought to admit
our ignorance, and confess that little reliance should
be placed on our speculations, that there are influ-
ences at work whose force we have no certain means
of ascertaining, yet which should form the very
basis of all these calculations.

NAVAL ITEMS.--The New York Sun maintains

the truth of the mutiny on board the Sabine. " The cable
telegrams which reported the discovery of a mutiny on
the Sabine at Cherbourg were true. The statement that
seven of the mutineers were hanged was untrue. The
frigate Sabine has been ordered home on account of this
mutinous conspiracy among her crew. Three witnesses,
sent by another vessel to avoid being tampered with, have
arrived in Boston. These facts have leaked out at the
Navy Department to-day. The Sabine was on a fancy
cruise with the graduating class of midshipmen, some 60
odd in number. Her commander is Capt. J. G. Walker, a
nephew of Senator James W. Grimes of lowa. Secretary
Bode and Admiral Porter sent her out to please Senator
Grimes, though the midshipmen and men were very much
wanted in the West Indian squadron, where vessels are
without sufficient crows. None but sailors were engaged
in the conspiracy. The trial is to take place at the Brook-

lyu navy yard after the arrival of the Sabine." The Navy
Department authorities, however, deny the published re-
port, the substance of which was telegraphed to Wash-
ington, that a conspiracy really did occur on board the
United States frigate Sabine. The Department mails, re-
ceived since the first report of the alleged trouble on that
vessel, contain nothing from her officers concerning any
outbreak.—Admiral Mundy sailed from Halifax ou the 4th
inst. iu the British man-of-war Revenge for England. A.
farewell address, signed by a large number of the citizens
of llalifax, was presented to him in the Dockyard. Rear-
Admiral Mequet of the French man-of-war Semiramis, and
Captain Roland of the France, also.left Halifax on the fol-
lowing day. -The United States steam sloop Kansas, from
Rio Janeiro, Aug 5, ria Pernambuco, Barbadoes, and St.
Thomas, Sept. 1, arrived at New York. She carries 9
guns, and has 120 officers and men, and brings 14 passen-
gers, sent home by the United States Government.

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