Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 2.
Frank Moore, Ed.

---

[119] in the form of volumns, and, having passed through the ordeal of criticism, are part of the literature of his country. Nowhere has his liberty of speech been so furiously arraigned, and his vocation so denounced, as in the United States. A correspondence in another column will show how little support, truthful, exact, and candid as he is, he is likely to receive there, even from those who might be supposed above the madness of a mob.

He had stated that at New Orleans British subjects had been forcibly impressed into the ranks of so-called volunteers. On their resistance he said that they had been knocked down and dragged off, and only released after energetic representations by the British Consul to the authorities. When we find it admitted by Colonel Manning, aide-de-camp to the Governor of the State of Louisiana, that there do exist at New Orleans volunteer corps called the Carroll Guards, which he admits to be without any recognized military organization, to be so far beyond the control of the authorities, and for whom, therefore, he wisely declines to be responsible, our readers will easily understand how British subjects, in common with other people at New Orleans, would be liable to great outrage, notwithstanding earnest wishes to the contrary on the part of the authorities. Those authorities wish two things not easily compatible. As politicians they wish to enjoy the benefit of a strong popular feeling and a large force of volunteers. As the conservators of public order, they wish no man to be forced, and British subjects, at all events, to be left alone. Mr. Russell frankly admits that they acted on the latter feeling as soon as the opportunity occurred, and that he erred in charging them with a degree of evasion before they released the British subjects who had appealed to the Consular aid. They had been released, it appears, with as little delay as was necessary to receive the statement of their case. Thus far the story is very intelligible. The Carroll Guards go about the workshops and wharves of New Orleans compelling this man or that to join their ranks. They meet with occasional resistance and excuse, particularly that of being subjects of the British crown. They don't care much for this, perhaps because they don't believe it, perhaps because they have heard the American theory that every person who lands in America with the intention of residing there acquires the rights and the duties of an American citizen. The Consul is asked to appeal in their favor, and the Governor, on hearing their statement and that of their captors, lets them go, but not till they have suffered some detention and outrage. When this is undisputed, when it must be admitted that it was matter for record, and when the Governor of Louisiana cannot think himself ill-used, we do not see why he should seize on the admission that no evasion had been practised to invite general disbelief in Mr. Russell's statements. In every good society in this country, when a man frankly confesses that subsequent information leads him to withdraw or qualify a word, the conclusion is that he sacrifices every thing to truth. In the deportment of the Governor of Louisiana the conclusion is that he may be safely put out of the question altogether.

This is a matter that should be known, for it helps to illustrate the state of things in the United States; and the government of Louisiana has not mended matters, or served its cause, by attempting to discredit the informant who has told the simple truth.--London Times, August 13.

---

War expenses and war taxes in America.

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 bad, 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 find 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, finance 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