--
Signs at the North.--We have conversed with a highly intelligent and reliable gentleman who left
Baltimore on Thursday last.
How he got here we do not intend to say. He says
Maryland is like a train of powder just waiting to be touched off — that the Confederate army is hourly expected with ill-repressed impatience.
Our informant says he heard soldiers of the
Northern army who had been in the
battle of Manassas, make statements respecting the
South and
Beauregard's army such as he dared not utter.
To their credit be it said they are telling the truth and exercising a salutary influence.--Statements were made in public places in
Baltimore by returned soldiers such as the following: ‘"The Southerners are better armed, better equipped better officered, and animated with better sentiments than we are — they are unconquerable."’
We learn from the same source
Lincoln has succeeded in getting one hundred and fifty millions of his loan taken, or rather proposals have been made to that extent, by the Banks of
Boston,
Philadelphia, and New York, the same being payable in quarterly instalments — say fifty millions every three months, in the currency of the Banks, they taking Treasury notes as security at the rate of seven and three-tenths.
The
Banks expect to have the first payment returned to them in deposits before the second is due, and this arrangement is an indication that they lock upon peace as more than probable before three months are ended.
All the passengers who have lately arrived from that section concur in the belief that the process of disintegration in the
North has begun and is going on hopefully; that the
Northern people are demoralized by the defeats at
Manassas and in
Missouri; that there are decided indications of peace, and that it is utterly hopeless to raise another army for the invasion and subjugation of the
South, and very doubtful if they can even defend
Washington.
