PROSPECTS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
THE weeks as they pass bring us no nearer to the close of 1 this awful struggle. The military movements are as inde- cisive as ever, the temper of both sides is just as determined, the signs of exhaustion, though perceptible, are still afar off, and the North shrinks, with a not unnatural fear, from play- ing its last great card. The fighting strength of the comba- tants is, perhaps, a little more equal than before. In numbers the Federalists have a slight advantage, for though Mr. Russell estimates the forces engaged at about 350,000 on each side, he omits the levy of forty thousand men just ordered by the Legislature of Kentucky. The Confederates have, however, the advantage of position. In the Fast, General Beauregard can, it appears, compel his rival to attack him on ground selected by himself. The Federal army is stationed at the apex of a triangle, of which Beauregard holds the base. One side is formed by the Potomac, and if McClellan tries the other, the line that is of low hills extending from Harper's Ferry to Manassas, he subjects himself to an attack in flank. A second defeat would imperil the Federal cause or compel the North to resort to a war of emancipation, and General McClellan shrinks from his terrible responsibility. He might, it would seem, turn Beauregard's lines by despatching a part of his army by sea, to land on some point of the Virginian coast, but he has not, according to American ideas, sufficient men for the work. Volunteers are still arriving in hundreds, but on the subject of numbers the American ima- gination seems incurably depraved ; and with three times the number that won Waterloo, the Federal General pro- nounces himself too weak. To outsiders, it seems as if the time and money expended in collecting these vast masses might have been better employed in drilling an army of thirty thousand highly paid and selected men, but that course would have been, doubtless, denounced as unpatriotic. The army, vast as it is, is therefore partially useless. It is com- posed of excellent material, and is supported at last by suffi- cient horsemen and cannon. But the officers are still half trained, and General McClellan cannot venture to lead them on to a front attack of a strongly defended position. The Confederates are equally unable to move. Beauregard has retired upon his old position behind Manassas, and seems content to await attack, and leave Maryland to its fate. The two armies, therefore, remain face to face, exhausting both powers by the expense of maintenance, but unable to bring on a general engagement. Unfortunately, Time, the great ally, is in this instance on the side of the South. Beauregard, if he can find supplies, can wait on the defensive for any indefinite time, while the Federal General, for political reasons alone, must ultimately commence the attack. The West will not bear inaction for ever, and already complains most bitterly that its troops are expended in guarding States too lukewarm to guard themselves. Operations on the coast are equally inconclusive. The ,Confederates have been repAlsed in an attack on Hat- teras Inlet, but the squadron blockading New Orleans is reported by one account successful, and by another sunk. An expedition, consisting of twenty ships, has left the Potomac for some point unknown, and the South is agi- tated by a danger it has no means of encountering. On the other hand, the blockade is constantly broken. Steamers with military stores run into Charleston in safety. The Southern Commissioners have escaped to Havannah, and a small Confederate fleet has made its way out of har- bour. The great ports of the South are not attacked, and, according to Mr. Russell, will not be, and the plan of landing small expeditions at twenty different points, and so distracting the central force of the Confederates, appears to have been abandoned.
Neither party appears to have gained an advantage in the West. General Price is still in retreat before General Fremont, but he travels more rapidly than his rival, and the advantage in numbers is three to two on his side. The recent capture of Lexington is, however, quite over- balanced by the success of the Freesoilers in Kentucky. That great State has thrown herself heartily in for the Union, and brings to the field 40,000 fresh men, and stores as yet unimpaired. Her adhesion places a new army on the Confederate flank, and, once engaged, the Kentuckians will not long hesitate to cross their own boundary. All this while there are no symptoms of any disposition to peace. We hear few reports from the South, but the few facts known indicate an unswerving resolve. The Confede- rate ranks are swarming with men. General Price, victorious or in flight, finds no difficulty in recruiting, and escaped slaves testify to plentiful supplies for the army. The planters, moreover, are carrying out their self-denying ordinance. The cotton crop is in Government hands. Orders have been issued to keep it away from the sea, and in Louisiana the governor has prohibited its transmission either by water or rail. The stories of dissension at Richmond have . died away, and the cities, reduced to idleness, only send out their populations to the war. There is no sound of a movement among the slaves, and no reliable account of any deficiency of food. Money has been replaced by paper, which repre- sents only cotton, but the notes appear to be taken, and requisitions supply the rest. In the North the people either are, or appear to be, absolutely unanimous. Recruiting, though slow for American impatience, still goes on on a scale without parallel in Europe, and every public meeting resounds with resolves for the prosecution of the war. The Democrats admit that, sooner than yield, even they will emancipate the slaves, and, on the 1st of October, thunders of applause greeted Mr. Sumner's advice to the people of Massa- chusetts to remember that Saulwas cursed for not hewing Agag in pieces. Arrests have become fewer; but in Missouri it has been proposed to confiscate the whole property of the Seces- sionists, and the first vote taken on the resolution was car- ried in its favour by 28 to 22. The tone of all speakers is perceptibly becoming fiercer, and one journal declares that the Republicans will accept another Bull's Run if it does but bring the public mind up to the point of emancipation. Money is still forthcoming, though there are signs of coming difficulty in this direction. The second loan has been taken up, and paper has not yet been declared inconvertible, nor have assignments been issued secured upon the waste lands. The peace party is coerced into silence, and all over the States the whole population expresses but one resolution—to fight on while men, and bread to feed them, are left in the country. Opinion changes so rapidly in the States, that it is vain to predict and almost to argue, but as yet no outsider can see a symptom of an approaching end to the struggle.
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