27 FEBRUARY 1864, Page 2

A meeting of Americans in London was held last week

in Regent Street, to organize a committee to work in concert with one formed in Paris, for obtaining subscriptions or goods towards the great fair to be held in New York on the 28th of March, for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission in theFederal States. The working of the Com- mission has so recently been explained both in our special correspond- ent's letter and in our own columns that we need not further refer to it; but we must record Judge Winter's extraordinary statement that seventy millions of dollars (or about 14,000,0001. without allowing for depreciation of the currency) " have been collected in the States for the Commission since its foundation." The Commission has existed about two years and nine months,—which would give, if Judge Winter's figures have been correctly reported, a voluntary subscription of more than 5,000,0001. per annum from a population of about 20,000,000, or at the rate of 11. per annum for every family. If this be true, the result is almost a revolution in the whole theory of taxation. The Americans would according to this have put upon themselves a voluntary tax equivalent to a 7d.or 8d. income-tax. But we think there must either be some error in the figures, or that the State Governments have contributed largely to the funds. We trust that the New York fair of the 28th March may be a grand suectes.