From Europe.
English views of the war in America.
The English papers continue to devote much attention to the war on this continent We append some extracts:
War Expenses and war taxes in America.
[from the London Times, Aug. 14.]
Every Englishman knows, by the experience of his own country, where the shoe would begin to pinch the American belligerents.
In that country, as elsewhere, any number of men can be procured to fight, after some fashion, in any cause good or had, if they are only well paid, well fed, well clothed, well housed, and moderately well commanded, with some prospect, if not of booty, at least of a whole skin So it becomes a question of money.
A confidence in money alone has always proved false; but money there must be, and there is no country in which it is more necessary than in the United States, where wages are high and work is abundant.
A war will cost there almost as much as it did here; for if the work is nearer home, and the area of the war somewhat less than the whole surface of this terraqueous globe, still, for that very reason, there is much interruption of the ordinary pursuits of life.
In the first place, all the bonds of debtor and creditor, whether public or private, and all the relations of business in cotton and other cultivation, are at an end. The State Governments themselves set the example of repudiation by refusing to cash bonds, or coupons, which can be traced to the possession of the other party in the struggle.-- Searching interrogatories are put, and must be answered on oath, before a State will pay interest which may field its way to hostile hands.
Meanwhile commerce is interrupted by blockades and privateers, and immense works commenced in the depth of peace are stopped by the withdrawal of hands and resources, and not less by a general diminution of confidence in the prospects of the country.
At Washington, flounce observes the old forms of Union, and supposes a tax to be levied on all the States.
It is obliged, however, to condescend to fact, and calculate on the certainty that only half the States will respond to the call. So the Congress of Washington is looking the difficulty, as they say there, ‘"square in the face;"’ not so ‘"square,"’ however, as they will one day have to look it. There appears to be no difficulty in the authorization of loans to any amount; indeed, at this moment Government has large powers for the issue of Treasury notes for three years, and has found the market, we presume, unfavorable for the exercise of its powers. The real question is how to find a proper basis for loans in an augmented and well paid revenue. This involves taxation, and, unfortunately, taxation appears to be a point on which the Eastern and Western States of the Federal Union are almost as much at variance as both are with the Southern Confederacy. The Western States have a particular objection to taxes; and when we read the war budget which the Congress seems finally to have decided on, one feels that such an objection may be expressed not only in good sentences on the floor of Congress but also in a not less formidable manner far West. Besides a direct tax of $20,000,000 apportioned among the States, and expected from only half, the new budget proposes a tax upon carriages, varying from one dollar to fifty; a tax upon watches, an excise duty on spirituous liquors of five cents a gallon, and on fermented liquors of sixty cents a barrel; and a general tax upon incomes, the rate of which, as well as the incomes liable, is not yet decided. Meanwhile, the Morrill tariff is untouched except by the imposition of additional duties. Every item in this budget suggests a financial war, as difficult, if not so sanguinary, as the war in the open field.
But there is another question which presents itself to the capitalist before even the solvency of a State, or the yield of a tax, or the final success of a cause, and that is, the number and frequency of similar calls. If we are to judge from the imme se figures on paper paraden by the Northerners, this is a war that may take rank with any of ours — with the European war, which cost us from first to last more than a thousand millions of money, or the Russian war, which cost us a hundred millions in two years. If the Government of Washington is obliged to ask for a hundred millions to-day, when and how soon will it have to repeat that demand? and how many such demands will it have to make this year, and for how many years? Every such demand will compete in the market with the bounds of the last, and our old folks can remember with what celerity a promise to pay £50.--Prudent people do not like buying stock at its present price when they know that twenty or thirty millions more will soon be thrown on the market for what it will fetch. Nor is this the only apprehension to damp the courage of the lenœer. Already, while this war is still in its very cradle, the bankers of the seaboard States are suggesting, in the form of Treasury bonds, a very large increase of the paper currency. How long would this be convertible? We may safely predict that it the war lasts as long as it now threatens to last, both sides will be driven to the same pitiable expedient of a deprecated paper currency as the mother country was in a similar extremity. No doubt there are enthusiasts in the United States who will lend money and buy Treasury bonds for three or ten years, all the more freely because they feel deeply the social and religious aspects of the quarrel. Thereby, too, for aught we know, be Abolitionists and philanthropists in this country who will buy American notes in a falling market, and prefer to give a good price for them rather than a bad one, because they care more for the credit of the Federal cause than they do for the amount of their own fortune. We cannot think, however, there are so many such people as largely to affect the quotation of American securities in our market.
Supply of cotton in Liverpool.
[from the London News, August 12.]
The commuted stock of cotton at Liverpool on last Friday evening was 989,070 bales, against 1,203,320 at the same period of last year, when the quantity was unusually large.
As regards the American qualities the stock is equal to about twenty weeks consumption at the rate lately witnessed; at this time last year it was equal to twenty-eight weeks consumption.
There then remains the important difference, as determining the market price, that last year there was every prospect of the American supply coming forward as usual, whereas now that supply is ordered to be stopped.
Another point to be weighed is that the draught upon our stock for exportation will probably be larger this year than usual, as continental, and, perhaps, even American consumers-will fall upon our market.
This renders it more requisite that we should diminish our own consumption.
As the home trade have of late possessed themselves of a considerable supply by buying at Liverpool, it is computed that the stock which they hold is of about the same amount as last year. These are only a few of the more prominent considerations, pro and con, which have to be estimated in attempting to arrive at conclusions respecting the probable future course of the cotton trade. We have adduced sufficient to convince the general reader of the serious, not to say critical, character of the present condition of affairs. At the same time, although the progress of apprehension is broadly indicated by the unprecedented extent of the business done in the Liverpool cotton market during the last six weeks, it would be wrong to omit from the account a number of points favoring the presumption that we shall yet side quietly over a considerable period before we arrive at the much dreaded cotton soarchty, which seems to be gradually creeping nearer and nearer.
There remains, then, only the anxious questions, never absent from the mind of the cotton speculator — Will any portion of the American supply come forward, and if so, what portion? Will the blockade be maintained in a way to secure its continued recognition by England. France and other States? Assuming that this point is resolved in the affirmative, what quantity of cotton will run the gauntlet of the blockading squadron? Given, a scarcity of the article and a high price at Liverpool and Manchester, at Havre and Mulhouse, together with an abundant supply in the Confederate States, and what will be the result! These are a class of questions the solution of which reacts with the future.
[The News might have added that a very large proportion of the stock now on hand is East India cotton, the staple of which is very short and of so inferior a quality that it is of little value, and can only be worked to advantage by a large admixture of the American staple.]
Miscellaneous Foreign News.
[per city of Washington.]
A new subject of controversy had arisen between the French Government and the Swiss Confederation.
The gendarmerie of the Canton de Rand some time since arrested a Frenchman in the valley of Dappes, which is a disputed territory.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs is said to have forwarded a protest against this not of sovereignty exercised on the French territory.
It is announced that the Government of Barae is puzzled to know how to treat this untoward event. The Paris deutes a rumor that the Emperor will accompany the King of Prussian into Germany.
The Independence says that the first act to the Bernstoff Ministry in Prussia will be the recognition of the Kingdom of Italy.
The tone of the semi-official journals of Pa-
ris, and good private information, lead the Paris correspondent of the Daily News to believe that a quasi solution of the Roman question is at hand, and that there will be, early in the autumn, a mixed Italian and French garrison in Rome the bulk of the French army of occupation being withdrawn to Civita Vechia, there to remain an indefinite time.
By an arrival from the West Coast of Africa, we learn that the slave trade was still very brisk, and in consequence, legal trade dull; it was anticipated that some of the factories would have to close.
Captain Beding field, of the British service, had been in active co-operation with the American squadron, and had taken two vessels fitted for slaves in the Congo river; also, a Spanish schooner, the Jacinto.
The Wrangler had taken an Ameirican bark, supposed to be the Ardennes, with 405 slaves on board.
The notorious slaver Storm King had come into Mango Grando with a legal cargo, (American flag and papers,) but hearing there were slaves to be had, pitched her cargo overboard, shipped a large number of slaves, and got away clear.
The steamer General Miramon (formerly the Greanock) had shipped a cargo at Kasinda in four hours, using American, Portuguese and Spanish colors, to suit the cruisers she happened to meet. Everything is done under the American flag until the slaves are actually on board, so that two or three English cruisers have very little chance to take prizes or check the trade.
[from the London Times, Aug. 12.]
The screw steam-frigate Immortalities, 51, Captain George Hancock, left Plymouth Sound on Saturday morning for North America.
[from the London Times, Aug. 12.]
Three batteries of Rival artillery have been ordered from India to Canada. The force will proceed overland upwards of 1,000 miles. Two hundred horses for the Royal artillery are on passage for Canada.
[per steamer Sententia.]
The prospect of a coming struggle between France and Austria is foreshadowed in the following extract from an article in the Paris Sickle, of the 13th of August. It says:‘ Austria is trying, but in vain, to concentrate around her the heterogenous races which are escaping from her domination. Hungary dared to resist her openly. Venetian, bent beneath a yoke of iron, and regarding with gloomy anger the cannon pointed on St. Mark's square — Venetian will rise to-morrow, and will in her turn resist. In Croatia, in the Tyrol — everywhere, in fact — the same symptoms are manifested. And Austria is afraid. Austria cedes, Austria grants constitutions. She mutters, though with a bitter grimace, the words of justice and liberty. What has happened? What signifies this sudden conversion? Austria, designated by De Maistra, as the great enemy of mankind. has become liberal. Has she become so willingly or unwillingly? No matter; the fact is there. The chastisement inflicted on the fields of battle of Magenta and Solferino is producing fruit. Austria bows down before what she formerly cursed; she adores what she burned.
Catherine Hayes died at Sydenham, England, after a week's illness.
A female rival of Blondin, who essayed to cross the Thames on a rope, opposite Oremore Gardens, came near meeting with a serious accident. She proceeded half way across but was unable to get any further, owing to the rope having become too slack, some of the guy ropes having been stolen. She dropped astride the rope, and as it was found impossible to throw lines up to her, she ultimately flung herself upon one of the guy ropes and gradually lowered herself into a boat amid the cheers of excited thousands.
The Russian and Swedish governments had declined to support the English project for a submarine telegraph in the Baltic and over Gothland to Liban.
The intelligence from New Zealand is again gloomy. Sedition was spreading among the natives. The Governor has issued a proclamation demanding obedience.
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