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Monthly Record of Current Events, July 2.

UNITED STATES. OUR Record closes on the 2d of July, while the issue of the operations before Richmond, to which all eyes have been so long turned, remains undecided. The official returns from the army have been so carefully withheld by Government that we can only give a bare outline of the leading events which have occurred during the month: — After the bloody but undecisive battle of Fairoaks, fought on the 31st of May and the 1st of June, nothing of decisive importance took place until the 26th, though were was continual skirmishing and firing at different portions of the line. At this time the right wing of our army had extended to the north of Richmond, covering an extent of many miles, the general depot for stores and munitions being at the White House, on the Pamunky River, some twenty miles in the rear; three army corps had crossed the Chickahominy, and were posted between that stream and Richmond. It became apparent that the enemy had been largely reinforced from various quarters and that our forces were not sufficiently numerous to maintain their long line, much less to assail Confederate capital from that direction.

It would seem that some days before General M'Clellan, now that the destruction of the Merrimac had put the James River under our control, had determined to make that his base of operations, and had made preparations to withdraw his right wing from its position. The supplies at the White House were accordingly moved down the Pamunky and York rivers, to be sent up the James, upon which the army, commencing with the left wing, was to be moved, crossing the Chickahominy, to be followed the right wing. On the 26th the enemy made attack in force upon our extreme right, at Mechanicsville; our troops, according to orders, falling back. Severe fighting took place on the three following days, the details of which, from official sources, will be published before this number of the Magazine reaches our readers; we do not therefore reproduce the isolated accounts furnished by various newspaper correspondents. By Monday our army had taken up its new position, resting on the James River, within the support of our gun-boats. Here their rear was assailed by forces from Richmond; and at the close of Monday, June 30, the date of our latest intelligence, it was presumed that the action would be renewed on the following day. As we have said, the official reports have not been published, and as we close it is impossible to say whether these operations of our army are to be considered a retreat or a strategic movement to secure a more favorable assailing position.

An unsuccessful demonstration was made upon Charleston on the 16th of June. The whole available force of this Department had been concentrated upon James Island, and the enemy were in forces near the centre of the island to prevent the advance upon Charleston. At Secessionville they had erected strong intrenchment. General Benham, who was temporarily in command — General Hunter having left for the head-quarters at Hilton Head — undertook to carry these works, in order to open a passage for direct operations against Fort Johnson and Charleston. The assault was bravely made, but was wholly unsuccessuful; after a severe fight of five hours our forces were repulsed, and driven back with a loss estimated at about 700 in killed, wounded, and missing. James Island was subsequently abandoned by us, and our troops withdrawn to the head-quarters of the Southern Division at Hilton Head.

General Pope having been appointed by the President to the chief command in the Shenandoah Valley, including the corps under Fremont, Banks, and M'Dowell, General Fremont asked to be relieved from the command of his corps, on the ground that "the position assigned to him, by the appointment of Major-General Pope as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Virginia, was subordinate and inferior to that heretofore held by him, and to remain in the subordinate command now assigned would largely reduce his rank and consideration in the service." His request was immediately granted.

On the 1st of July the President, in response to the official request of the Governors of eighteen States, issued a call for 300,000 additional men for the army.

From the extreme South and Southwest the intelligence is of comparatively slight importance. New Orleans is perfectly quiet under the government of General Butler, and General Shepley, the military commander; but neither there nor in Memphis is there apparent any considerable Union feeling. The report that Governor Stanly, of North Carolina, had closed the schools for colored people, adverted to in our last Record, proves to have been erroneous. — The position of the body of the army of Beauregard is not yet ascertained; the reports of the large numbers of prisoners taken during their retreat turn out to be unfounded. — It is reported that our gun-boats from up and down the Mississippi have met at Vicksburg, and that the attack upon that place has commenced. — The Cumberland Gap, the main avenue of communication between the Southwest and Virginia, was seized by our forces under General Morgan on the 18th of June, it having been evacuated by the enemy. — A gun-boat expedition sent from Memphis up the White River, in Arkansas, had an action, on the 18th, at Fort Charles, 85 miles from the mouth of the river. The fort was taken, with considerable loss; ours was also severe, a shot penetrating the boiler of the Mound City, one of our gun-boats, and a large part of her crew were killed or disabled by the escaping steam. — On the 25th the first train from Memphis to Corinth was attacked, twelve miles from the former place, by a body of the enemy's cavalry. On it were a company of Ohio soldiers, of whom ten were killed and a number made prisoners.

The Tax-bill has finally passed both Houses of Congress. Its special provisions are so numerous that our space will not permit us to give an abstract. We note only a few of the most important general features: They include direct imposts, averaging 3 per cent. upon manufactured articles, most of which, however, are specially enumerated; of those enumerated distilled spirits pay 20 cents per gallon, ales 1 dollar per barrel; licenses, varying from 5 to 200 dollars, upon almost every profession; stamps, from 3 cents to 1 dollar upon the paper used for bills of exchange, and from 1 to 20 dollars upon conveyances of real estate; the income-tax is 3 per cent. on the excess over $600 of all incomes up to $10,000, and 5 per cent. on those greater. To collect these taxes a Commissioner of Internal Revenue is to be appointed, at a salary of $4000, and various district collectors and assessors, as specified in the bill. Every

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person liable to taxation must — on or before August 1, 1862, and before the first Monday of May thereafter — make a return to the district collector of his district of his income, manufactures, etc., according to forms to be prepared by the Commissioner. The assessors are then to proceed throughout their respective districts and make strict inquiry in relation to all matters belonging to the taxation; if any person neglects to make out the required list, it is to be made out by the officer; any attempt at fraud is punishable by a fine not exceeding $500; if any person, after being notified so to do, neglects or refuses to make out the list, the assessor is to add 50 per cent. to the amount. The bill contains minute provisions for the collection of all the taxes imposed by the bill.

EUROPE. In both France and Great Britain reports are again rife of an intention on the part of these Governments to interfere directly, by mediation or otherwise, in the affairs of America. Nothing, however, has as yet transpired which warrants the belief that such a determination has actually been formed. In Parliament, on the 13th, Earl Russell, in reply to a question, said: "No proposals of this kind have been made cither on the part of her Majesty's Government to the Government of France, or from the French Government to ours. The French Embassador in London has received no instructions from his Government on the subject, and there certainly has been no communication upon the part of her Majesty's Government to the French Government. There was certainly no intention on the part of her Majesty's Government to interfere at the present moment." — On the 17th Mr. Lindsay, who had given notice that he should on that day offer a resolution for the recognition of the Southern States, said that he should postpone it until the 11th of July; before that, time he trusted that her Majesty's Government would see the necessity of taking in hand a question so grave and important, for it must be apparent to all men that before long those States must become an independent nation. — Mr. Hopwood gave notice that on the 1st of July he should offer a resolution, "That it was the duty of her Majesty's Government to use every means consistent with the maintenance of peace, cither in concert with the Great Powers or otherwise, as they may think it expedient, to endeavor to terminate the civil war now raging in America." — General Butler's proclamation concerning women who insult our flag or soldiers in the streets has been sharply condemned in Parliament and by the press. It was pronounced absolutely without precedent. Lord Palmerston said that it was "infamous, and, as an Englishman, he blushed to think that in our age such an act has been committed by a man belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race." The purport of the order seems to have been wholly misunderstood by all except Earl Russell, who said he had been informed that "there being in New Orleans a local regulation that women of the town creating a disturbance in the streets should be liable to be sent to prison, the meaning of the order was, that all women who should treat the American officers with contumely in the public streets should be held to be women creating a disturbance in the streets, and be sent to prison." Even on this interpretation he thought the order liable to lead to great brutalities, and wholly without justification. — The news of the reverse to the French arms in Mexico caused great excitement in France, and it was at once resolved to dispatch considerable reinforcements to that country; 12,000 men are to be dispatched forthwith. The French Government have also officially announced the blockade of the Mexican ports.