From the North--foreign recognition — recruiting in Baltimore, &c.
A gentleman direct from Maryland informs us that before leaving he saw in a Baltimore paper, of July 31st, an allusion to a rumor that a member of the British Legation received a letter from Lord Lyons by the last steamer communicating the intelligence that the Confederate States had been recognized by the British Government. Very little confidence was placed in the truth of this rumor, but the decided tone of the latest English newspapers had occasioned apprehensions at the North that recognition, if not a fact accomplished, was an event not far distant.From the same source we learn that recruiting for the United States army is ‘"an up-hill business"’ in Maryland. With all the efforts that had been made, and pathetic appeals through the war newspapers, not more than twenty men had enlisted in Baltimore up to the 26th of July. There seems to be a pervading consciousness that the State's quota cannot be raised without resort to a draft. Yet it is feared that this step cannot be taken without danger to the abolition cause. Already large numbers of young men are preparing to leave should the alternative be adopted, and of those who remain there will be found but few who can he depended on to fight on the side of the North.--Deserters from the Federal army daily pass through the Southern counties of Maryland, going home, and the people help them along their way very willingly. Some of these men say that they have been deceived — that they didn't enlist to fight for niggers; but the majority declare that they have seen enough of the elephant and are tired of the war. They occasionally offer their revolvers for sale to the citizens at a low price, and our informant purchased a very fine Colt's pistol of one of them for three dollars. An incident occurred recently in Calvert county which is worth relating. --Two deserters from the 1st Massachusetts regiment visited the house of a gentleman and begged for food, which he readily gave them, and while they were eating he recalled to mind the fact that on a previous occasion his dwelling had been plundered and many valuable articles, including his wife's watch, stolen by the Yankees; and he now recognized in his guests two of the party who were engaged in that nefarious transaction. He mentioned the circumstance, but they stoutly denied all knowledge of it; they had never been in that neighborhood before. The gentleman then called his Irish overseer and asked him if he had ever seen these individuals, and could remember any incident in connection with them. Patrick gazed at them for a moment and exclaimed--‘"Faith, they are the same bloody thieves that stole me only pair uv shirts!"’ Two negro men were then quietly sent for, and the hapless Yankees, having been stripped and tied, were subjected to an indefinite number of stripes, well laid on by the willing hands of the ‘"contraband."’ ‘"Now,"’ said the gentleman, when he turned them loose, ‘"go and tell your master, Lincoln, that two negroes have flogged you from your heads to your heels."’
In Washington city there is a vast deal of speculation about the movements of ‘ "Stonewall Jackson,"’ and the constant departure of families, with bag and baggage, for localities further North, has given rise to the supposition in the minds of Baltimorean that they have a dread of an attack upon the Federal capital, though it may possibly be nothing more than the usual summer hegira. Dr. Day and his brother, who were arrested at Drainsville and imprisoned in Washington, have been set at liberty, in consequence of the release of some civilians at Richmond by the Confederate Government.
Common white cotton goods have gone up to 25 and 30 cents per yard in the Northern markets, and with a meagre prospect of an increased supply of the raw material a further advance is considered unavoidable.
