AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealander, Volume XIX, Issue 1762, 8 January 1863, Page 3

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

To tbe Editor of the “ Evening Mail.” g IR) While General M‘Clellan hesitates to trust himself in the valely of the Shenandoah the Confederates appear to have suffered a serious reverse in the West. It is stated that General Price attacked the strong position of Corinth in the belief that the Federal force there had been greatly reduced on Buell s departure for Kentucky, and that heavy reinforcements had since arrived unknown to him. However this may be, it is plain that he found the position too strong ; nor is this remarkable, as two commanders in succession have been fortifying it for months, and the intrenchments will be mounted with the heavy guns brought by Hallock from Pittsburg Landing. The loss assigned to the Confederates may be perfectly true, but in these wars in the West losses of this kind produce a very singular result. It has been a common practice with the Southerners to re-appear alive after being “ slaughtered.” to be found in increased numbers subsequently to annihilation, and after complete rout and demoralization to fight more vigorously than before. General Price has not always been fortunate as a commander, having suffered more than one previous defeat, but he has always contrived to appear again apparently as hearty as ever. No item of the intelligence by this mail is really so important as the recovery in the premium on the gold, alter payment of the October dividend, and its advance beyond the highest point j'et attained. In a movement of this kind it*is much easier to go from 34 to 60 than

1 it was to reach 24. Looking to the closing of the canals,, the price to which grain has fallen here, the amoint of imports to be paid for, and the distrust of paper already discernible in the advance on railway shares, *,he 1 future of Federal finance is dark, indeed. Writers in I this country have been taunted with predicting a catastrophe that has never occurred. It is quite true that it has not occurred yet, nor is it in the power of any one to gauge beforehand the exact force or duration of a popular delusion. So long as people choose to believe that creating debt is creating wealth, while they urge their bankers to make loads upon securities with the argument that they ought not “ to concern themselves as to their intrinsic value” —so long as they are eager, with national insolvency before them, topay for stocks more than their price when in the midst of unclouded prosperity, a mania of this kind must have its day. We cannot foretell the precise date of its collapse any more than that of a man’s death, but we may as safely assert that it will come as that he will die. Mr. Chase now informs us that he is spending at the rate of £155,000,000 sterling a-year. The whole income of the Federal Government when the war began was £11,000,000, and to this day it has not been thought prudent to send the tax-gatherer round. In Buenos Ayres the paper dollar, originally worth 4s. 6d., has long been down to 2d. The affairs of a small community may go on in spite of this, but it does not seem possible to work very long an expenditure of £155,000,000 a-ycar with machinery of this kind. It has been argued that when the winter rain fills rivers the gunboats will alter the aspect of the war. But the last season was unusually favourable tor them, and we have seen the result. Gunboats are exceedingly useful as adjuncts to a superior force. If the land force be inferior to that of the enemy they may afford some shelter in defeat, but whenever an invasion reaches that point both army and gunboats would be better at home. Besides, both rivers leadinu to the interior, the Cumberland and Tennesse, are already in the hands of the Federals, who occupy the positions in gaining which the guuboats were of service. The Mississippi is navigable the year round, and all the rains of winter will not ma'kc one additional river. Hence no result of any real importance can be expected from this cause". Another argument, and a reasonable one, is based on the new levies of the North and the apparently irresistible force they promise to supply. It is not" improbable that when they appear in the field the Southern Generals will have to fall back again and bide the time, not distant, when regiments of 1,050 will answer the roll call with 500 or with 300 men. In Kentucky they will probably fall back at once if the bounty men and conscripts are pushed into the field, instead of being reserved for another campaign. In March last the Northern army, nominally 700,000, was, undoubtedly, 500,000 strong. To meet the shock of this, the Confederates, when it first broke upon them, had not 150,000 men with the colours. The belief prevailed throughout the South all the winter that Europe would not permit the war to go on, and no one entertained it more firmly than Mr. Benjamin, then Secretary at "War. In the West there was nothing that deserved the name of an army, and the force that evacuated Manassas did not really exceed 40,000 men. Small bodies on many detached points of the coast made up the rest ; the aggregate being within the number named. Hence the campaign opened with the forces in the proportion of 500 to 150, or more than three to one. As a matter of course, the smaller force was at first driven back, but the people of the South soon awoke to the reality, and we know with what effect. In the East they have expelled the invasion altogether; in the West their armies are further to the North than at the opening of the contest. As it is improbable that any very decisive events will occur before winter sets in, it is important to consider what will be the relative strength oi the armies next March, should the war unhappily continue. Suppose that the nominal force of the North at the opening of this campaign will exist in reality next year. It is, indeed, difficult to imagine how the Washington Government will support and handle in the field 700,000 men. Whatever the number of men, there are limits to the supply of arms, stores, transport, and the power of floating paper money.' Were the North next month to call for and obtain another million of men, this, so far from adding to its strength, would weaken it. They must be fed and paid, and they could neither be brought into the field nor used there to advantage in a country so ill adapted for the operation of very large armies. But, taking 700,000 as the number on the one side, what will be that on the other ? It may be safely estimated that the Confederates have now 300,000 men under arms, and that in March next, when the new levy will come into action, they will have 450,000, including irregulars and all branches of the service. If, then, the attempt to subdue the country has proved futile when the proportionate strength was as 500 to 150, what will be the prospect of success with the numbers as 700 to 450 ? With these elements, and basing a judgment upon the experience of the past, there cannot be a reasonable doubt of the ability of the t-outherners to maintain its independence. That independence has been doubted as a matter of fact on the ground that the war still continues. The independence of a nation is a question whether its people possess a Government which, maintaining law and order, and fulfilling the functions of administration, is supreme and unquestioned within its own confines. It matters not that others, outside of its confines, dispute its rights, or whether it be at war with those disputants. If a state of war or of blockade, or the occupation of certain points, were a denial of independence, then every war in Europe would extinguish the separate existence of some great power. The South is to-day an independent Power, self-governing, self-re-liant, at war with another community. It has been de facto an independent Power for nearly two years, and we cannot dispute that a fact exists because there are those who hope and strive to destroy its existence. No one can have read without emotion the letter from New Orleans which appeared in your columns on Tuesday last. Where are those who sympathize so keenly with Venice, and what was ever her lot when compared with this forlorn Venice of the West ? At the worst no Venetian was denied the comforts or even the charms of life. Here a malignant despotism is not content with sending merchants into dungeons with ball and chain, but seeks now to crush the conscience of a whole community under oaths of allegiance wrung by suffering and terror, and known by all the world to be repugnant to the truth. This Northern Haynau seems to be now impelled by a spirit purely vindictive, more especially aimed at the women, whose spirit has defied him, and it seems but too probable that on the first pretext he will carry out his threat, turn the ermed Negroes on the defenceless citizens, and glut himself with a vengeance from which every instinct of our nature recoils. Nor does he confine himself to Mr. Lincoln’s subjects. Mr. Lingham, a British subject, a man well known and respected, of quick habits, and delicate health, has just been ordered to three years’ imprisonment in Fort Pickens. Another gentleman Mr. Maude, is sentenced to one year only, but with the addition of a ball and chain to his legs. Mr. John G. Robinson, an Englishman, on presenting a check to the Bank of Louisiana, was told, by order, that it could not be paid unless he first took the oath of allegiance. Here is the population of one of the greatest cities of the world at the mercy of a man, making his fortune out of their sufferings, eager to entrap in order to confiscate their property, sending whomsoever he may choose into imprisonment, with ball and chain, and threatening and preparing a fate to which history has no parallel. And all for what ? No blood has been shed in that city except by himself. Incapable of resistance, it surrendered at once, and has submitted in silence. The whole crime of its people is, that, under the lawful authority of their State, they desire to follow the example which Northern patriots or rebels set them, and be ruled by a Government which their hearts incline to and which their judgment approves. General Wadsworth, the Government candidate for the State of New York, tells us that the triumph of his party will enable the Union “ to dictate terms to the woild in arms.” This is not inviting to the parties to be dictated to, especially to ourselves, the first to be favoured. If it were possible for these people to make the South a Poland, or some day to arrange terms—not difficult for Northern ingenuity to contrive even with the ingredient of independence,—can any one doubt that the instant result would be the march of the army of the Potomac into Canada ? Let this war go on fo"r another year, and we may reap a reward for our patience such as Kentucky now enjoys as a return for her anxiety to offend neither party. To do the Northerners justice, they put no disguise on their intentions. They are hurrying on Monitors and ironclad frigates, and do not attempt to hide for whom they are intended. We are in the position of one who looks on while a strong infuriated man is attempting to kill a weaker opponent, and who sits patiently on a chair, waiting till the knife be drawn out and presented to his own breast Such a course may be very praiseworthy, but it has not the appearance of being very prudent. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, s. Liverpool, Oct. 18.