The New York herald., 1865-02-18

DR.. Gwin, In view Of great Southern seoesn
emigration to Sonora In either event we guess
that Price has "gone 10 stay" and that Kirby
Smith and his posse before long will bring up
the rear on the same line Of travel
The Rebel Finances-The Collapse OF the
Confsdoracy.
Already the simple want Of money-the
mere fact that there Is no money in the coun-
try-has had very great influence in breaking
down tho rebellion. The failure to pay the few
soldiers that the confederacy had left after
Shermans successes in Alabama has done more
to break up the Southern armies since then
than we have done. II has doubtless caused
large share Of those desertions that Lee now
promises to forgive II the soldiers will only re-
turn to duty. He promises to forgive, but be
does not even yet promise to pay. One OF the
rebel papers laments tho want Of patriotism
which It sees in the fact that people In the
confederacy never call the rebel money by
any other name than "trash" Its worthless
ness Is recognized in more practical and worse
ways than that, and is so positive that the peo-
pie would apparently as lieve be without It as
to have it It is not recognized as money, and
the indisposiNon to take II has paralyzed all
trade and industry in the South.
But bad as all that has been, the Southern
leaders now propose to make It worse. They
propose at once to throw aside all the fimsy
pretext of national credit represented by pieces
Of paper, and to clare forced loan of every
thing in the Southern States. They indicate
disposition to give up their disguises, and to
appear boldly in their real characters as the
plunderers of people by a gigantic applica-
ton of the doctrine that property is robbery.
They have no money, but they can make plenty.
But suppose they make its People to-day re-
quire two hundred dollars in paper for the
specie value of one dollar; tomorrow they will
require three hundred; the next day four,
and 90 on. And now the leaders say this is
farce. What is the use of all this bother OF
buying paper. and printing, and all that Let
us come out openly, and take what we want at
once, since we have the power. Such is their
proposition, as put forth in the Richmond
Enquirer, to seize all "cotton, tobacco, meat,
forage and negroes"-to kill the goose that
laid the golden egg. And not satisfied with
that, they propose that then all the rebel bonds
should "be taken likewise" There is infinitely
little value in rebel bonds as they are, and
these leaders propose to legislate even that
little out of existence.
Aside from all military success or failure,
this proposition is the collapse of the rebellion
It is an acknowledgment of the reputation OF
the rebel cause by the Southern people;
declaration that those people have no faith in
the cause and no hope from it, and will not sup
port it nor give it the means Of subsistence,
except under the same compulsion that would
induce them to give to the highwayman. It is
q declaration of war made by the rebel leaders
against the Southern people and their property,
and claim that governments are not made for
the people, but the people for the government
The condition that 1t indicates assures us that
the end Of the struggle is near, and the effect it
will have upon cultivation must prove the last
ounce to the dreadfully overladen rebel cause.
GENERAL LEES APPEAL TO THE DEsERrERs.-
The rebel General Lee has issued an order to
his army, calling back the stray sheep to the
fold, and promising pardon to all deserters who
return to their commands within sixty days.
On three previous occasions JEFF. Davis issued
manifesto of similar character, but appar-
emily without any effect; for, SO for from the
stragglers availing themselves Of the pro6fered
clemency, Davis was compelled to admit, in
one Of his remarkable speeches in Georgia,
that two-thirds of the rebel army were absent
without leave-that is to say. deserters. No
sooner does General Lee obtain supreme COM
mand than he insinuates the same fact If that
was true which Davis asserted then-and we
canpot doubt its authority-it Is far more 80
now, because we know that deserters are COM
ing into our lines at all quarters in vast num-
bers. They are arriving at General Grants
lines by hundreds every day. Each steamer
arriving from City Point brings numbers of
them to Washington eager to take the oath Of
allegiance In the Shenandoah valley they are
focking into Sheridan's lines; while in Georgia
and the two Carolinas the spread Of "loyalty"
is immense it has, in fact become contagious
since the transit of Sherman through those
States.
General Lee evidently feels the effect of de-
sertion most materially in his own thinned
ranks He does not appear to know how his
own army stands; for he complains that its
efficiency and discipline is greatly impaired "by
men leaving their proper commands to join
others in which they find service more agree
able" thus showing the utter decentralization
which exists in his army. Perhaps It may be
found that the more agreeable service is that Of
the United States. 1t is evident from this order
Of General Lees, and the previous manifestoes
Of JEFF. Davis, that the rebel armies are melting
away, and with them all chances of the "con-
federacy." Even If the hopeless financial con-
dition of the South, the absence Of money, of
war mat<rid, the effectual shutting out Of
blockade runners, with supplies frem abroad