The New York herald., 1863-11-18

celpts; prices ranged from IS - $5a head. Swine
in lighter supply, and despite tho rain sold freely
at higher prices corn fed, SIC G,c and still fed, 6xo
&c. The total receipts 6Ac6 beeves l2 cows, 769
veals, 1918 sheep and lambs, and 80, COS swine.
Our Commercial Interesss-New York
Merchants and the Secretary OF the
Navy.
We desire to call the special attention of
American public to the correspondence which
we publish elsewhere, between several leading
merchants Of this city and the Secretary
Of tho Navy. The subject Of this oorres-
pondence has for q long time engaged the at
tention and wounded the pride Of every pa
triotic citizen of this republic; and, since Sec
retary Welles promises no redress and proposes
no remedy for the evils Of which our merchants
complain. we wish to appeal from him to higher
and more efficient authorities. b
It is indeed most calling to the national
pride that four or five feet Anglo-rebel cruis-
ers should be allowed to drive our commerce
from these and defy our navy of five or six
hundred vessels-ofwar. Practically we have
now no American commerce. Neutral ships do
oil our carrying trade, and the majority Of
these neutral ships are owned by Englishmen,
who thus reap the only profits Of the Anglo
rebel depredations upon our merchants.
Trading vessels are advertised in our col
umns to sail on such and such days
"under neutral flags, as If the flag of the Union,
whose shelter commerce once eagerly sought,
were now to be avoided like pestilence.
Three years ago twice as many American than
European vessels cleared from New York.
Now the proportion is reversed. The number
OF foreign vessels clearing from this seaport il
double the number Of American vessels, and,
Of course, the number Of arrivals is divided In
the same ratio No American can consider
these facts with cd acency or Indifference.
Ths.ehsin1Vts WI oHnsesa are Of a.da-
cidedly different sort We have been grum-
bling about them quite long enough. The time
has now arrived for prompt and decisive action
II we were at war with some great naval
Power we might look upon this destruction of
our commerce as one of tho necessary evils Of
war, and might console ourselves with the re-
Election that We had at least the chance Of re-
taliation. But the rebel confederacy Is not q
naval Power. The four or Ave ships with which
England has supplied JEFF Davis cannot be
said to compose navy. The rebels owe
their success upon the seas not to their own
efforts, but to the assistance OF England and
the supineness and imbecility Of the Navy
Department. Secretary Welles has obliged
his friends with percentages and contracts,
and has thus largely increased the num-
ber of our ships-of-war; but that part of his
duty which ought to be esteemed the most
important he has utterly failed to perform. He
is a Secretary Of land navy, not Of an ocean
navy. He or his agents can purchase ships, or
charter ships, or have ships built; but when
the ships are once upon the blue water he
appears to lose all further interest in and con-
troll Of them. Six hundred vessels against
hve-that is the relative strength Of the Union
and the rebel navies. But If any one were to
base an estimate of their comparative strength
upon the records of the work which each has
done ct sea he would DO compelled to state
that the rebels have six hundred men-of-war,
and we five slow and leaky tubs. This dis
graceful discrepancy must be laid to the &C.
count of Secretary Weller.
The war of 1912 conclusively demonstrated
that we had then the fastest vessels In the
world. How have ships built at private yards
in England been permitted to surpass us! We
have now the best sailors In the world, and our
iron-clads are indubitably superior to any
others aaoat. There remain, therefore, only
two points Of naval excellence in which We
could be surpassed, and those are range of
guns and speed Our heavy guns are unequal
led, as all the recent experiments have abun-
dantly proven. We lack only speed. Singu-
larly'cnough, we, the fastest people on the face
Of the earth, do not possess navy Of the fastest
ships We have few swift war vessels, like
the Vanderbilt and Iroquois; but the great ma
jority Of our men-or-wsr are 40 slow that Noah's
Ark would have the advantage Of them in
stern chase, or could choose her own position
in agbt Some persons say that this Is tho
fault Of the model, and others that il is the
fault Of the engines. We assert that il is the
fault OF Secretary welles II is his business to se
lect the proper models and to order the proper
engines, aud he does not do It, Why he does
not is known only TO the initiated. There are
whispers OF fine contract pickings, and rumors
that certain parties lead the venerable welles
by the nose, and throw sawdust in his eyes
whenever they like; but whether these wbis
pers aud rumors be true or not we decline "a
decide. We do know, however, that, although
The present style Of vessels Is entirely ineff.
cisnt, Secretary welles goes on building hun
dreds more like them, aud that this is most
promising subject for Congressional investigs.
ton.
We ask President Lincoln 10 consider tho