the enemy, repeatedly foiled in his efforts for its capture, is now seeking to raise new armies on a a scale such as modern history does not record, to effect that subjugation of the South so often proclaimed as on the eve of accomplishment.

"The perfidy which disregarded rights secured by compact, the madness which trampled on obligations made sacred by every consideration of honour, have been intensified by the malignity engendered by defeat. These passions have changed the character of the hostilities waged by our enemies, who are becoming daily less regardful of the usages of civilized war and the dictates of humanity. Rapine and wanton destruction of private property, war upon non-combatants, murder of captives, bloody threats to avenge the death of an invading soldiery by the slaughter of unarmed citizens, orders of ba nishment against peaceful farmers engaged in the cultivation of the soil, are some of the means used by our ruthless invaders to enforce the submission of a free people to foreign sway. Confis cation Bills of a character so atrocious as to insure, if executed, the utter ruin of the entire population of these States, are passed by their Congress and approved by their Executive. The moneyed obligations of the Confederate Government are forged by citizens of the United States, and publicly advertised for sale in their cities with a notoriety that sufficiently attests the knowledge of their Government, and its complicity in the crime is further evinced by the fact that the soldiers of the invading ar mies are found supplied with

large quantities of these forged notes as a means of despoiling the country people, by fraud, out of such portions of their property as armed violence may fail to reach. Two, at least, of the Generals of the United States are engaged, unchecked by their Government, in exciting servile insurrection, and in arming and training slaves for warfare against their masters, citizens of the Confederacy. Another has been found of instincts so brutal as to invite the violence of his soldiery against the women of a captured city.

"Yet the rebuke of civilized nian has failed to evoke from the authorities of the United States one mark of disapprobation of his acts; nor is there any reason to suppose that the conduct of Benjamin F. Butler has failed to secure from his Government the sanction and applause with which it is known to have been greeted by public meetings and portions of the press of the United States. To inquiries made of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States whether the atrocious conduct of some of their military commandants met the sanction of that Government, answer has been evaded, on the pretext that the inquiry was insulting; and no method remains for the suppression of these enormities but such retributive justice as it may be found possible to execute.

"Retaliation in kind for many of them is impracticable, for I have had occasion to remark in a former Message that, under no excess of provocation, could our noble-hearted defenders be driven to wreak vengeance on unarmed men, on women, or on children.

But stern and exemplary punishment can and must be meted out to the murderers and felons who, disgracing the profession of arms, seek to make of public war the occasion for the commission of the most monstrous crimes.

"Deeply as we regret the character of the contest into which we are about to be forced, we must accept it as an alternative which recent manifestations give us little hope can be avoided.

"I am happy to inform you that, in spite both of blandishments and threats used in profusion by the agents of the Government of the United States, the Indian nations within the Confederacy have remained firm in their loyalty and steadfast in the observance of their treaty engagements with this Government. Nor has their fidelity been shaken by the fact that, owing to the vacancies in some of the offices of agents and superintendents, delay has occurred in the payments of the annuities and allowances to which they are entitled. I would advise some provision authorizing payments to be made by other officers in the absence of those especially charged by law with this duty.

"We have never-ceasing cause to be grateful for the favour with which God has protected our infant Confederacy. And it becomes us reverently to return our thanks and humbly to ask of His bounteousness that wisdom which is needful for the perform ance of the high trusts with which we are charged."

At the end of the autumn, an attempt was made by the French Emperor to engage the Governments of Great Britain and Russia, in a joint effort with himself

to mediate in the struggle that was devastating the Continent of America. For this purpose, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed a despatch to the Ambassadors of France at London and St. Petersburg, dated October 30, in which he said:-

"Sir, Europe watches with a painful interest the struggle which has been raging for more than A year upon the American Continent. The hostilities have provoked sacrifices and efforts certainly of a nature to inspire the highest idea of the perseverance and energy of the two populations; but this spectacle, which does so much honour to their courage, is only given at the price of numberless calamities and at a prodigious effusion of blood. To these results of a civil war, which from the very first assumed vast proportions, there is still to be added the apprehension of a sørvile war, which would be the culminating point of so many treparable disasters.

"The sufferings of a nation towards which we have always professed a sincere friendship would have sufficed to excie the sincere solicitude of the Emperor, even had we ourselves not suffered by the counter-blow of these events.

"Under the influence of the intimate relations which the extension of intercourse his multiplied between the various regions of the globe, Europe itself has suffered from the corsequences of a crisis which dried up one of the most fruitful sources of the public wealth, and which became. for the great centres of labour the cause of the most sad trials. As you are aware, sir, when

the conflict commenced, we held it our duty to observe the most strict neutrality, in concert with the other maritime Powers, and the Washington Cabinet has repeatedly acknowledged the honourable manner in which we adhered to that line of conduct. The sentiments which dictated it to us have undergone no change. But the benevolent character of that neutrality, instead of imposing upon the Powers an attitude which might resemble indifference, ought rather to make them of service to the two parties, by helping them out of a position which seems to have no issue.

"From the commencement of the war an armed force was set on foot by the belligerents, which, since then, has almost constantly been kept up, and, after so much bloodshed they are now in that respect nearly in the same position. Nothing authorizes the presumption that more decisive miltary operations will shortly occur. According to the last news received in Europe, the two armies, on the contrary, were in a condition that would not allow either party to hope within a brie delay for any decided advantage to turn the balance and accelerate the conclusion of peace. "All hese circumstances taken together point to the opportunity of an arnistice; to which, moreover, under present circumstances, no strategical objection can be nade. The favourable dispositions towards peace which are beginning to manifest themselves in the North as well as in the South might, on the other hand, second the steps that might be made to recommend the idea of a truce.

"The Emperor has, therefore, thought that the occasion has presented itself of offering to the belligerents the support of the good offices of the maritime Powers, and His Majesty has charged me to make the proposition to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, as well as to the Court of Russia. The three Cabinets would exert their influence at Washington, as well as with the Confederate States, to obtain an armistice for six months, during, which every act of war, direct or indirect, should provisionally cease on sea as well as on land, and it might be, if necessary, ulteriorly prolonged.

"These overtures, I need not say, would not imply on our part any judgment on the origin or issue of the struggle, nor any pressure upon the negotiations which might, it is to be hoped, ensue in favour of an armistice. Our task would consist solely in smoothing down obstacles, and in interfering only in the measure determined upon by the two parties. We should not, in fact, believe ourselves called upon to decide but to prepare the solution of the difficulties which hitherto have opposed a reconciliation between the belligerent parties.

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Would not, moreover, an agreement between the three Courts respond sufficiently to their intentions? Would it not give to their step the character of evident impartiality? Acting in concert they would combine the conditions best suited to inspire confidence; the Government of the Emperor by the constant tradition of French policy towards the United States; England by the community of race; Russia by the marks of friend

ship she has never ceased to show to the Washington Cabinet. "Should the event not justify the hope of the three Powers, and should the ardour of the struggle overrule the wisdom of their councils, this attempt would not be the less honourable for them. They would have fufilled a duty of humanity, more especially indicated in a war in which excited passions render all direct attempts at negotiation more difficult. It is the mission which international law assigns to neutrals, at the same time that it prescribes to them a strict impartiality, and they could never make a nobler use of their influence than by endeavouring to put an end to a struggle which causes so much suffering, and compromises such great interests throughout the whole world.

"Finally, even without immediate results, these overtures would not be entirely useless, for they might encourage public opinion to views of conciliation, and thus contribute to hasten the moment when the return of peace might become possible."

But neither England nor Russia was disposed to grant the desired co-operation. At all events, Russia would not act without England; and, on the 13th of November, Earl Russell addressed a despatch to Earl Cowley, Her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris, in which, after recapitulating the substance of the proposal of the French Government, he went on to say :

"Her Majesty is desirous of acting in concurrence with France upon the great questions now agitating the world, and upon none more than on the contingencies connected with the

great struggle now going on in North America. Neither Her Majesty the Queen nor the British nation will ever forget the noble and emphatic manner in which the Emperor of the French vindicated the law of nations, and assisted the cause of peace, in the instance of the seizure of the Confederate Commissioners on board the Trent.}

"Her Majesty's Government recognize with pleasure, in the design of arresting the progress of war by friendly measures, the benevolent views and humane intentions of the Emperor.

"They are also of opinion that, if the steps proposed were to be taken, the concurrence of Russia would be extremely desirable.

"Her Majesty's Government have, however, not been informed up to the present time that the Russian Government have agreed to co-operate with England and France on this occasion, although that Government may support the endeavours of England and France to attain the end proposed.

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But is the end proposed attainable at the present moment by the course suggested by the Government of France? Such is the question which has been anxiously and carefully examined by Her Majesty's Government.

"After weighing all the information which has been received from America, Her Majesty's Government are led to the conclusion that there is no ground at the present moment to hope that the Federal Government, would accept the proposal sug gested, and a refusal from Washington at present would prevent any speedy renewal of the offer.

"Her Majesty's Government

think, therefore, that it would be better to watch carefully the progress of opinion in America, and if, as there appears reason to hope, it may be found to have undergone, or may undergo here. after, any change, the three Courts might then avail themselves of such change to offer their friendly counsel with a greater prospect than now exists of its being accepted by the two contending parties.

"Her Majesty's Government will communicate to that of France any intelligence they may receive from Washington or Richmond bearing on this important subject."

An address to President Lincoln was adopted at a meeting of Governors of the Federal States, held at Altoona, in Pennsylvania, on the 24th of September, "to take measures for the more active support of the Government." In this they said:

Impressed with the conviction that an army of reserve ought, until the war shall end, to be constantly kept on foot, to be raised, armed, equipped, and trained at home, and ready for emergencies, we respectfully ask the President to call for such a force of volunteers, for one year's service, of not less than 100,000 in the aggregate, the quota of each State to be raised after it shall have filled its quotas of the requisitions already made for volunteers and for militia. We believe that this would be a measure of military prudence, while it would greatly promote the military education of the people.

"We hail with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope the Proclamation of the President

issued on the 22nd instant, declaring emancipated from their bondage all persons held to service or labour as slaves in the rebel States, whose rebellion shall last until the first day of January ensuing."

The address concluded thus:"And now, presenting to our national Chief Magistrate this conclusion of our deliberations, we devote ourselves to our country's service, and we will surround the President with our constant support, trusting that the fidelity and zeal of the loyal States and people will always assure him that he will be constantly maintained in pursuing with vigour this war for the preservation of the national life and the hopes of humanity."

But symptoms are not wanting to show that the North is beginning to grow weary of the war. In the course of the autumn the State elections took place, and the result was generally favourable to the Democratic party, which in America represents the Conservative element. This party, in contradistinction to the Republicans, has always been well disposed towards the South, and if it gains the decided ascendancy, the Confederates will have good reason to hope from it a peaceful settlement of the great question of Secession.

The citizens of the North have also been disgusted by the exercise of arbitary powers on the part of the Government, which has amounted to a virtual suspension of civil liberty. The writ of Habeas Corpus has been made a dead letter under political arrests, for the officers in whose custody the prisoners were placed refused to recognize the