The New York herald., 1862-01-31

against Gen. Mcclellan. The war goes on too
sluggishly for Mr.. Gurley, and he fatty con-
fesses that he is out of patience with this mas
terly inactivity. He does not understand it as
well as the rebels do; but, no matter, he insists
upon it that, as our army has been raised,
armed and equipped to fight, it ought to be
fighting, hit or miss. He says that while "our
soldiers are burning with desire to strike at
the traitors, and painting for the battle field" it
is painful to confess that all our efforts to single
out "a commander-in-chief exhibiting the will
and the requisite enterprise and genius to lead
our forces on to victory" have been in vain.
He says that Gen. Mcclellan is unequal to the
task of handling our armies Of over six hundred
thousand men, that his authority ought to be
divided, and that our generals who are willing
to fight ought to be indulged in the privilege.
He substantially declares that, while the victo'
ries we have gained have been without orders
from headquarters the victories we have lost,
and many golden opportunities for victory, have
been lost in pursuance of orders from Washing
ton, and 80 on to the end of the chapter.
These are serious complaints; but we think
they may be readily answered And. first,
with regard to the supervision of the whole
army and all its movements. in every de-
partment, by General Mcclellan Clearly this
is necessary in order that all the operations Of
every division of the army may be made to work
together. Next, with regard to the inactivity Of
the several grand divisions of the army. They
have been making good use Of their time in
arming, equipping and drilling, and in collect
n; ;lyo
and transportation for forward move
ment. Where everything needed for tho
movement of an army column, by land
or water, the government has been required
to produce from the resources of o peace
establishment of half q century, it has simply
been impossible to advance to battle with the
quickness of Napoleon, except to certain defeat
General Mcclellan, under the counsels of the
administration, has preferred the wiser course
of complete organization and equipment OF
his forces, by land and sea, and their distribu-
ton along the whole defensive line Of the ene-
my, before dashing in upon them.
We are confident, too, that with few days
of good freezing weather, sufficient to harden
the miry roads of Virginia, Kentucky and Mis-
souri,, there will be an end Of the croaking Of
such military critics as Mr.. Gurley. Meantime,
we contend that the inactivity of Mcclellan, in
the matter of actual fighting, is, in truth,
'masterly inactivity" against the rebels. They
confess it, they protest against it, and for three
months past they have left no devices untried
| to inveigle General Mcclellan into premature
advance He is ready now, and is only wait
| ing for a change in this unexampled winter
| season of rains and mud. If Mr.. Gurley, mean
time, can show how heavy artillery and bag
gage wagons can be trailed three feet deep in
mud, over the hills and hollows of Old Virginia,
let him call at once upon General Mcclellan.
| TIE QUESTION or TAxArIoN.-We recent
| ly published return showing the present
imperial taxation of Great Britain to amount
to Gi6,s02,7 ,74O, or about 1924 900 900 an
nually. Of this amount, the greater portion
| is derived from the excise and the property
tax. stamps, land and assessed taxes, and the
post Office furnishing the remainder. In ad-
dition to this there is local taxation amounting
annually to more than hundred millions OF
dollars, and chiefly levied in the form Of parish
rates. This gives us a total of nearly three
hundred and forty millions of dollars, raised by
| taxation among population Of thirty millions
of people. Now, If Great Britain can raise such
q sum annually, there is no reason why We
should not do so with equal facility. We have,
indeed, many advantages in our favor over the
Old Country. In the first place, although we
have few large landed estates and great accu-
| mutations of individual wealth, we enjoy more
general prosperity than the people of the Uni.
ted Kingdom and what property we have is not
generally heavily encumbcred with debt, a.
the estates of the aristocracy and landed
gentry Of England frequently are. We
have moreover, no class SO poor as tie
operatives dependent upon the cotton manufac-
lures, or the colliers in England, Wales and
Scotland, who are incapable Of paying taxes.
Fully onc-sixth of the population Of Great
Britain, from its extreme poverty, pays no di-
rect taxation to the government; but in this
country all are in q position to bear taxation,
and without suffering from pecuniary embar-
rassment in consequence. The same scale Of
taxation that applies to the British people would
apply to us; for our modes of living are as nearly
identical as possible. We live in the same
kinds of houses; we wear the same kind Of gar
ments; we eat and drink pretty much the saIno
kind of things; and, altogether, there is so
much in common between us that what answers
for the one would answer for the other.
The taxation of England is based upon the
long standing wealth and commerce Of the coun-
try, which have earned for it its greatness, and
in like manner we could base ours. We have
sixteen thousand millions Of property to be
assessed, and we are as able as we are willing
to pay whatever taxes the government may ro
quire to levy. 1t is true that already we havs
to pay considerable sum in local taxes; bu'
money is so abundant with us, and our extrava
gance is so proverbial, that 1t falls very lightly
upon us. In an old country like that of Eng
land wealth Is boarded more, and the rich ara