The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-01-15
Troubles of the Southern Con-
federacy as Recorded in
"The Times"
The Rebellion Hemmed Round
with Disaster---Efcacy Of the
Blockade Tribute to North
ern Earnestness--Lack of
Faith in the South.
An Angl0-Rebel View of the Sit
uatiOn.
Correspondence of the London Times.

Correspondence of the London Times.
RICHMOND, Nov. IA, 1863
The Confederate States are rapidly ap-
preaching a stage in this war which will
test more than ever the stubbOrnness and
tenacity of their temper and patience, and
can only be successfully encountered by
national spirit as systematic as it is resO
lutte. Their enemy, with as much eytinac-
ity, and far more sagacity than heretofore,
hems in the edges of the "rebellion on
every side, avoids the frequent recurrence
of pitched battles and general engage
ments, pounces with hawk like sweep
upon isolated and inadequately supported
bodies of men, evinces possession of adj
mirable secret information, keeps the Con-
federate Generals constantly on the rack,
and, harassed by irruptions of cavalry,
makes his superiority of numbers, and
still more his abundance of supplies for
horse and man, more and more felt, and
finally is investing the ports of Secessia
with a Gordon of vessels so numerous as
for the first time in thirty months to make
access to the Confederate coast really dam
gerous and difficult. On the other hand,
in rebeldom itself the Federals have a
powerful ally in circumstances which, to
my thinking, save from the beginning,
quadrupled the magnitude of the Confed-
crate task. No one who has been con-
versant with the Northern States during
the last two and half years, can have
failed to notice with establishment the
faith, stronger than death, the Northern
ers have exhibited in their "star," their
manifest destiny" their "religion, :"
their Alpha and Omega, their dream of
dominion from sea to sea, and (to quote
from Mr.. Everett's worlds " from the icy
Pole to the flaming belt of the Equator. F."
No parallel faith has ever been exhibited
by the Confederate States in their future.
Six great Southern victories in the field
and three drawn battles, exhausting the
nine principal collisions of the war, the
entire absence of any such panic routs as
Bull Run or Chickamsuga, the tried inef-
ficacy of the Federal blockade, the unmo
Tested predatory flight of Alabamas and
Fleridas at sea, have altogether failed to
inspire the masses of the South with 1.-THE
of that confidence in themselves which nei-
Their defeat, nor disaster, nor hope deferred,
nor illusions dispelled, have ever shaken
out of the Northerners. Deny it who may,
there is something sublime in this shadowy
earnestness and misty magnifcence of
Northern faith and self-reliance. Would
that could see promise of future and final
Southern triumph in any corresponding
quality of the Southern mind! In many
fashions Southern unfaith crops up and re-
coils upon the Confederate Government,
making, for instance, Mr.. Memminger's
task, though he takes his stand upon raw
material, worth sixty or seventy millions
of pounds sterling, Hereulean as compared
with Mr.. Chase's, who issues vastly larger
promises to pay on security of breadstuff
exports worth only sixty or seventy mill
lions of dollars. There are, of course,
other reasons to account for the fact that
three dollars in "greenbacks Z" will buy
two dollars in gold, while it requires thirty
paper dollars of the Confederacy to buy
like sum; but the fundamental explana-
ton of the discrepancy in value of the ire
deemable paper issues of the two sections
lies in the vastly superior faith in them
selves of the Northern people For many
months we have heard throughout the
Confederacy the cuckoo cry, "Do some
thing to arrest the depreciation OF the cur
rency, or we perish;" but nothing has
been done hitherto, and, as is now seen by
everybody, we are on the brink of preci
pice. 1t is universally admitted that the
country is richer in everything that con-
stitutes wealth than it was twelve months
ago; that there is sufficiency of meat
and far greater abundance of cereals than
last year; that fruit aud vegetables have
been granted us in unusual abundance;
that Richmond has supplies of coal and
wood vastly in excess of those laid in
against last winter-in proof of which l
may mention that the streets are now as
well lighted as those of London, whereas,
last year, their Cimmerian darkness was a
favorite theme of the New York Herald;
but, in spite of these facts, unfaith in Con-
tederate currency grows apace; the farm
ers refuse to part with their crops on any
terms; flour fetches 500 barrel, and is
rising; bacon is close upon So a pound;
everything is proportioately dear, and
nothing plentiful save Confederate cur
rency, until, at last, woman going to
market has been heard to exclaim: 81
ey, and I carry a pocket-book to fetch
home the slice of beef which it buys"
In this emergency all eyes turn to the
Confederate Congress, which meets upon
the 9TH of December, and never was gra-
yer question submitted to a deliberative
assembly than that which awaits it's imme-
date discussion. Some eight hundred or
nine hundred million dollars are afoat in
a community which could with difficulty
sustain q circulation of two hundred mil
lions, and, worse than all, Mr.. Memmin-
gers paper-mill is at work harder than
ever, until the dollar, which now repre-
sents value of fourpence English, prom
ises shortly TO be worth only four far
things. The redundant currency has.
somehow, to be funded, fresh Issues to be
suspended, limited amount of circulat-
ing medium to be put forth, and solemn