Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-09-12

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dogmaticslly on all points but from Information
gathered from various private sources we can draw
some very significant nferences; and writer In
the last numberof Blackwood's Magazine TO whom
we refereed last week. only recently returned from
the interior Of Russia, supplies some facts OF the
utmost importance and apparently of unquestion-
able authenticity The sinews OF war--the neees-
saries Of life 10 the warrior-are men, food lead,
gunpowder, and money. Men, undoubtedly Rus
sa has Ia abundance but who are these menY
They are the tillers Of the soil they are the prop
erty of the mobiles; they are the wealth OF the
country. Every soldier enlisted is productive
laborer withdrawn. Now, already since the
began there have been three conscriptons of IL
in the 900; and, as the best men are selected,
the producing power Of the country is diminished
by each levy in Tar greater ratio than that iudi-
Gated by these figures.
OF these productive laborers, 800, 900, as we
have seen, have been already sacrificed, and the
terrible drain continues with unchecked rapidly.
The loss of mem. e. the abstraction OF peasants
ON their works. the loss Of food also. But
even were it not So (and doubt the agricultural
produce of Russia Is generally in such Overlooking
abundance as TO allow for considerable dminution)
the difficulty Of conveying provisions to the troops
in the Crimea is immense, and perpetually increas
ing. OF water carriage there Is none; we have
efectually stopped that Russia has neither roads
nor railways--at least in the south; and during
the rainy season, and for sometime afterwards the
tracks across the steppes are impossible, and the
sacrifice both of men and beasts OF burden in at
tempting to convey stores TO the Peninsula has
been enormous. We have already destroyed vast
magazines OF provisions in the Sea of AzoH; and
OF the two roads into the Crimea, that from East
ern Russia, across the tongue Of land, and an art
fetal bridge, inside of the tongue OF Arabat, will
we have reason TO believe be soon Git it has not
already been) broken up and rendered impossible
by our daring and enterprising seamcn. When
this feat is accomplished, the Isihmus of Perekop
will be the only channel Of supply.
Saltpetre and lead have always been articles OF
import into Russia, and their consumption during
this war has been unprecedented. So embarrassed
is the government now becoming for the first Of
these, that we learn they have demanded the sur
render of whatever has been amassed in private
hands Lead which is too heavy to be of easy
transport, has become very scarce. Sometime since
we heard that they were stripping the churches
in various quarters, and the price oflead had risen
to 9240 a ton. For money they arc still worse off.
No one IL disposed TO accepta Russian loan; and,
in spite of their gold mines, the precious metals
have nearly disappeared from circulation. Paper
issues have greatly superseded the metallic curren-
cy; and, the ruinou5 md wastefnl system of levy
ing contributions in kind, has been largely resort
ed to. At the same time, the effective blockade
of nearly all channels Of export have crippled or
ucSuOycu tudb lOItiSl COulHlcfCc from WHICH Ule
Russian propretors derive 50 large portion Of
their wealth; while the stoppage of the supply of
salt has carried perception of the privations and
Inconvenience Of war into every hovel through
out the Empire.
The account we have given above, of the con-
diton OF the currency, is confirmed BY the follow
ing extract;
g Since the beginning Of the present year, there
has been great scarcity Of silver and gold coin in
the Southern provinces of the Empire, though
gold was very plentiful last autumn This scarcity
may be accounted for by the merchants withdraw
ing their capital from trade. As few of them have
any confdeneein the paper circulation they avaed
of the gold, then very plentiful, which
all disappeared in this way in very few weeks.
friend of mine, who was in Simpheropol in Feb
ruary, wishing to change hundred-rouble note
into notes of one, three, and five roubles each,
obliged to pay 10 per cent. for the exchange and
he assured me that If any small article were pur-
chased, the value of which did not amount to
rouble, the merchant would rather lose the sale
than give coin in exchange, though he was, per-
haps, making profit Of loo per cent. upon the
ticle. This state of things is gradualr travelling
Northwards. In Ekaterinoslav it was the same in
April, and in Kharkoff, in May, there was gr,
difficulty in procuring CON- especially gold and the
smaller silver-money. Kharoff is large CONNER.
cial town, and the capital Of Ukraine. The issue
of notes has recently been very great. All this
tends to prove that every sinew Is now strained 10
bursting to carry on the war;"
II is obvious that, If the above representations
be correct--and we have every reason for believ-
ing them to be strictly so--the resources Of our
antagonist must have been strained TO the very
utmost and have been expended at a rate which
cannot long continue without producing complete
atrophy and exhaustion. If the supply Of men do
not fail, food, transport, ammunition, and money
will. We have only TO persevere and push the
war with vgor and without relaxation, and we are
certain Of ultimate and not very distant success.
We believe that Russia would long since have
given way had she MT been encouraged by the
language of the factious here to suppose that there
was dissensons in our councils and weakness in
our resolutions We feel confident that she would
have accepted our terms at Vienna, had she not
found reason to believe that she could persuade
our regulators to recede from them. We suspect
she would yield now on the best conditions she
could obtain, If the strange proceedings and Ian
guage Of some of our most eminent men in Par
lament did not buoy her up with false hopes To
Mr. Bright and Mr. Gladstone We deliberately hold
that We owe the prolongation Of this saDguinary
war; we shall be gIieycd, indeed, if we have TO
add Lord John Russel's name to theirs. II is
curious fate Russia's best allies have always been
found among her foes and victims. Her most eff
fective generals and soldiers have never been in
her own camp, but in her adversary's Cabinet.
Letter from Col. Kinney.