The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-09-23

| ern NchelltOn-The Beginning OF the
End.
The facts, Developments and testimony
crowding in upon us within the last few days
from Southern rebel newspapers and their
army correspondents, from Responding South
ern civilians and from oil other Southern
sources of information, in reference to the
present condition and prospects of the Confede-
rate cause, indicate, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, the speedy collapse of this gigantic
rebellion.
If the rebels have done wonders almost in
credible in puttingin into the field, from Virginia
to Missouri, and from Missouri to Texas, their
armies, amounting to two hundred and ninety
thousand men, they have been pushed to this
extraordinary achievement from the desperate
character of their enterprise Without money
or credit, or manufacturing facilities to any ex-
tent, and subjected to an eXhausting blockade
by land and sea, the managing conspirators of
this rebellion have realized the fact that they
must achieve some decisive result before De-
cember, or that their cause is doomed to swift
destruction. Hence the remarkable energies
and fertility in resources which they have dis
played in mastering, equipping, transporting
and subsisting their numerous armies, and
hence their formidable and threatening warlike
array in front of Washington.
Davis and his confederates have recognized
and acted upon this imperative necessity of
some military achievement before October,
which would secure their recognition by Eng
land, and her active Intervention against elm
coins blockade The capture of Washington
by Beauregard, or his occupation Of Maryland,
so as to revolutionize that State, and reduce
our federal capital to the straits Of regular
SIEGE it was, with good reason, believed would
be sufficient to win over to our revolted States
the recognition and the naval assistance of Eng
land. The whole game, therefore, of this des-
| perate Southern conspiracy has been staked
upon this "single hazard of the die"--the seizure
of Washington or the occupation of Maryland
| and with the failure of this enterprise the whole
fabric OF this rebellion crumbles to pieces.
That this enterprise has failed, that Wash
| ington and Maryland are now secure, and that
Beauregard is now most seriously concerned
for his own safety, we think is very manifest.
We are sure that his golden opportunity is
| gone, that henceforth he will be ANONYMOUSLY
repulsed in any attempt at any point to cross
| the Potomac Better still, we are confident that
the day is near at hand when he will have to
| fall back upon Richmond, with or without
| battle. Notwithstanding the report which we
received by telegraph yesterday, and pub
! lish in another column, we feel sure that,
| from their deficiencies in clothing, his
troops are already severely suffering from the
cool nights and chilling rains of autumn and
when impressed soldiers, accustomed to life of
ease and plenty, are thus thinly clad and reduced
| to the labors and exposures Of the tented field,
upon one meal of potatoes and salt per day,
they are close upon desertion or mutiny. Yet
such, it appears, from Southern testimony, is
the condition of Beauregard's commssariat,
while from similar deprivations according to
| another Southern witness, one-half of the army
of General Wise, in Western Virginia, was, at
the last accounts, sin hospital or not we'll
enough to be moved" How, then, will it be
with these rebel armies when they can no more
gather the loose cattle and sheep, and the green
corn, sweet potatoes and other vegetables and
fruits of the summer fields upon which those
troops have for some months been SO largely
subsisting? We can only answer that, deprived
of all these resources, and cut Off from exter-
nal supplies, the guerrilla armies, with or with
out battle, must melt away and disappear.
The frosts and SHOWS and naked fields
| of tho coming winter will be as fatal to
the thinly clothed rebel armies as were the
SHOWS of Russia to Napoleon. Our revolted
States have exhausted their military forces and
resources in their efforts to achieve European
recognition before the approach of winter Our
| loyal States, on the other hand, are just begin
ming to devclope their military strength, means,
materials ana facilities of all kinds. We are just
| beginning to realize the enormous advantages Of
the best government on the face of the globe,
and its incxhaustible resources Of cash and
credit, and the advantages of an absolute COM
mand of the sea against our rebels, and of q
profitable and increasing foreign commerce in
all parts of the world. Against such odds, in
Guiding twenty three loyal States against eleven
rebellious States, locked in by land and sea and
divided in their own counsels, the issue can
neither be doubtful nor very long delayed
In a word, if this Southern rebellion, like
Jonah's gourd, grew. up and overshadowed us
in single night it is beginning to fail, and will
soon be utterly wilted under the full blaze OF
day, after the first frost. With the blooming
of the flowers of May we anticipate such tri-
umph for the Union as will make even the cot
ton States uninhabtable by the arch conspira-
tors in this ignominious experiment Of q
Southern confederacy.
SPAIN AND THE SOUTHERN CoNFEpERACY.-We
hear it rumored that the Spanish Minister is in
possession of instructions to recognise the so
called Southern confederacy within a few days
and, in confederation of it, great stress is laid
upon the circumstance of his inviting six other
prominent foreign ministers at Washington to
Il. IL ID Ar hose d