the summit of the hill. Generals Johnston and Beauregard came to the front at this crisis, rallied the wavering troops, and turned the tide in favour of the South. General Kirly Smith, who happened to be passing along the railway with troops for Manassas, hearing the engagement going on, stopped the train and brought at this seasonable moment four regiments into action. In another hour all was over, and then took place that remarkable " tall walk so graphically and truthfully described by Mr Russell. More than four thousand smallarms and twenty-eight field-pieces, belonging to the United States army, fell into the hands of the Confederates.

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The Southern official account has not yet been published, but when it is, we think the public will read with surprise the list of articles actually carried over" to General Johnston's stores after the 21st of July. It will be seen that the celebrated masked batteries must have been altogether a myth, the battle having taken place at least two miles from where the nearest Confederate gun was situate on the morning, and at right angles to the position at which the attack was anticipated.

Several wounded soldiers were walking about the ground the day we visited it, who took great pleasure in showing us the places where the hottest parts of the contest took place. One of them, an Irishman, belonged to that gallant band of 800 who bore the whole brunt of the enemy's left for the first two hours in the morning. He told us that this force consisted of two companies from New Orleans, called respectively "Tigers" and " Wild Cats," the 4th Alabama, and some companies of the 6th and 7th Georgian regiments. He said he himself was bate up wid foitin," and when "Gineral Bewregard kem up wid rayinforcements in the afternoon and tould the 'Wild Cats' they had done enough-Bedad, they wint to the rear and got a few glasses of

whisky, and kem back to the 'foit' as fresh as the flowers of May!" On our remarking that we had heard that the 69th Irish New York regiment had fought very bravely on the side of the North, he replied, "Indeed they did, sir; divil a bitter. Troth, the Irish did the best part of the foitin a both sides, and no mistake." !!

A small pillar, in all respects like a milestone, has been erected on the spot where General Bartow fell. His last words are engraved upon it-"They've killed me, boys; but don't give up the fight." This is the only monument as yet erected; but numbers of graves are to be seen around the brow of the hill where the final struggle took place.

We have heard it frequently remarked that the volunteer system was tried and found wanting at the battle of Manassas ; but surely the best reply that can be given to such a statement is that the whole of the Southern army is composed of volunteers; and we saw many regiments which arrived in Virginia only four days before the action.

The time which we had allowed ourselves for our American tour being now nearly spent, we returned to New York, where we found most persons altogether in ignorance of the feelings and intentions of the South; and so strong is the confidence generally reposed in the numerical strength of their vast army, the alleged efficiency of the navy, and the great wealth of the New England States, that few persons are to be met with who think gloomily of the future. The hundreds of contractors, who are making large fortunes by the war, form no inconsiderable part of the public. The taxation consequent upon the State spending nearly £300,000 a-day has not yet fallen upon the people, while their worst passions are excited by an unscrupulous and one-sided press. Better men, and far more true to the Con

stitution, than the Government, would then be heard. Genius, virtue, integrity, now languishing in Fort Lafayette, if too late to save the Union, will then at least be exerted to bind together what remains. But, alas! a raging democracy now supports a Ministry which bears no reproof, and will endure no criticism; and signs pregnant with those consequences eloquently predicted by Sir Bulwer Lytton are rising in the political horizon. General Fremont has been removed from the command of an army over which he possessed undoubted influence, and although no success has hitherto attended its efforts, the supporters of the Union in the West are ardent admirers of its late chief. Whether he is destined to become the head of an Abolition Cabinet at Washington, or the dictator of a North-Western Republic, we cannot attempt to foretell; but we mistake the character of the man if he be contented long to remain in a subordinate position. One thing is, however, certain; his removal will not affect Southern politics. By this

measure, of course, Mr Lincoln wishes to impress upon the seceded States that it is his intention now to preserve the "institution" in all its integrity; but such a policy is too late. The South cannot believe in men who, merely catching at a straw, repudiate in the hour of peril the doctrines which they have hitherto held, and to which alone they owe their advancement.

In these islands, of course, we all pray for universal emancipation. We have made enormous sacrifices in the cause ourselves; but we cannot help sympathising with ten millions of people struggling for independence; nor can we think that the condition of the negro in the Southern States will remain long what it now is, but that, if European intercourse be established with the Confederacy, and she be admitted into the family of nations, commerce, always favourable to freedom, will then gradually but surely effect far more humane results than those which the most sincere Abolitionists can ever attain.

IF there be one characteristic which, more than another, distinguishes the intelligent portion of the British public, it is the desire to draw its own conclusions. It loves to be furnished with full and constant information of current events, but is suspicious of such accounts as bear the evident impress of partisanship. There is probably no newspaper writer whose letters have become so popular and so generally read as Mr Russell's; and, if we mistake not, they owe their popularity as much to the spirit of close criticism which pervades them, as to the remarkable powers of graphic description for which their author is famous. His exposure of pretensions and fallacies alike in his letters from the South at the outset, and in those from the North during the progress of the war of Secession, have rendered him unpopular with both parties engaged, but have gained for his statements a degree of reliance; while the strong Northern bias of the Times' New York correspondent deprives his representations of that effect which their ability would deserve.

It may be observed in passing, that in no respect is the contrast more strongly marked between English and "American" manners than in the different style and tone of the newspaper press of the respective countries. For, however eagerly educated and refined persons on the other side of the Atlantic may disclaim the tone of their Press as a true indication of public opinion, the record of events would not be uniformly garbled and inflated did simplicity and accuracy suit the appetites of those for whom the journalists cater. They read contentedly every day accounts of victories and successes gained by the Northern forces, by which it is hardly conceivable that they can be misled. On the other hand, among us at present the complaint is com

mon that we are excluded from all reliable intelligence of the position and prospects of the "rebels;" and we cannot help rejecting the marvellous tales, derived from Northern sources, of hard-won victories against heavy odds, and of the daily slaughter of the enemy in hand-tohand conflicts, which never lead to any appreciable results.

Under these circumstances, a statement, comparative of both sides of the position, and derived from recent personal observation, which the facilities afforded by the military commanders enabled the writer to make, may not be unacceptable to our readers, at a time when the impressions of writers in magazines and newspapers on the subject of the American war, all along uncertain and fluctuating, appear to be affected by recent accounts of the imposing preparations of the North. The disparity of the resources of the contending communities appears to be assumed, and a deduction is made that, as the Times not long since said, "the tide may be too strong even for the obstinacy of the Southern race to resist."

It is not indeed surprising, if, as the correspondent of the Times has owned, Englishmen at Washington and New York be led insensibly, by the boastful language of the newspapers and of public men, almost to a conviction of the strength of the community amongst which they are living. Every one must be conscious of having received such impressions under similar circumstances. But it is surprising to find existing a gross misapprehension, on the part of those who might be presumed to be well informed, of the distribution and numbers as well as of the condition of the Confederate forces. From the blindness with which, in the few engagements of the war, Federal generals have fallen into well-laid traps, and, if their despatches can

be believed, have uniformly found themselves confronted by superior numbers, when the disparity of force between their army and that opposed to them is their daily boast and demonstration,-it is impossible to doubt that the Federal generals are much worse served in respect of information than the Confederates, and that the latter must possess some means more reliable than the statements of deserters or spies. If, then, the want of intelligence suffered by those in authority be so great, that each advance of ten or fifteen miles into a country quite familiar to them exposes them to damaging and demoralising defeat, how much greater must be the ignorance of the general public, dependent for Southern news on what filters through these clouded sources. It may be useful to present to our readers some facts as to the position and strength of the Southern Confederacy which, though they may be at variance with received notions, we give either from personal observation, or on the authority of those we consider most trustworthy; and our facts are at least, we hope, untinged by what is called in America "sectional" spirit. We must, however, premise, that while we endeavour to give a correct statement of facts, we abstain altogether from prophecy. He would be a bold speculator who risked an opinion upon the result of a war of conquest, dependent for its prosecution upon the resolution of a most versatile people, and upon the achievements of armies as yet newly organised, which are operating over a vast area, and for the most part in a country so wooded and impassable, except by infrequent roads, as to be unsuited to extended military

movements.

With regard, in the first place, to the main Federal army of the

*

Potomac, there can be no doubt that, for its size, it is one of the best equipped which any nation has set on foot. Its transport is superb; its artillery numerous, well appointed, and of the best description; the physique of its men unsurpassed. It is, moreover, at the disposal of a Government virtually drawing at will upon the accumulated capital and the entire credit of the nation. For practical purposes, the President and his ministers are all-powerful. Such as the army is, and in so far as they can depend upon its good conduct, it is at their absolute disposal; and upon the use they are able to make of it depends the solution of the great question at issue. We have enumerated, as belonging to it, elements most valuable to its efficiency, and highly creditable to those who have employed so judiciously the resources at their command. We shall presently refer to its value in respect of certain military qualities, which neither the most competent war minister nor the most overflowing treasury can so quickly infuse into its character.

But before doing so, we cannot leave unnoticed the action of causes of weakness to the North, of which the effects, though not yet fully experienced, can hardly be averted but by some signal military success.

1. The strife of parties in the North is reviving. Republicans and Democrats are charging each other with culpability in the origin of the war, and differ widely as to its objects and limits. The former, avowedly or secretly, desire the subjugation, or at least the permanent restraint, of the Slave States; the latter, that the war shall be prosecuted only so long as may be necessary to induce the seceded States to accept of terms of compromise; and they would gladly give terms vastly more favourable to

the South than those proposed by Mr Crittenden with their consent, but contemptuously refused by Mr Lincoln.*

It may not be unworthy of remark that, in the elections to the State legislatures now going on, the results, so far as they are known, indicate a great gain to the Democrats, even in the New England States; and though Congress itself will not be actually affected thereby, we may fairly anticipate the growth of a feeling averse to the prolongation of a conflict inevitably crippling to the whole community.

2. The unpopularity of some of the leading Ministers is extreme with the moneyed men of the North, on whose support its power so much depends. In spite of the destruction of the liberty of the press, in which the constituted authorities and the mob have vied with each other, and the establishment of the American Bastille," a very general feeling seems to be making itself apparent, that great changes in the constitution of the Cabinet are necessary, and will be forced upon the President.

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3. The immense advances made by the banks of New York have bound up the fortunes of their proprietary in the war, but do not, as has been supposed, prove the confidence of their heads in its success. It is commonly believed, and was understood by the parties concerned, that had the banks not afforded to the Government the supplies necessary for the prosecution of the war,

the Treasury would, on its part, have opened a war loan to the public on terms which would have diverted from the banks the investments essential to their stability; while an appropriation of their bullion for the necessities of the Union would hardly have been a difficulty to the Government which has found the United States' constitution so elastic, and would certainly not have been cavilled at by the despotic majority. The bank directors probably thought that, as far as they were concerned, of two great dangers, the chances of war were, on the whole, the lesser and more remote.

4. But plainly impending are the consequences of the present system. The safeguards ordained by the authors of the constitution have long been withdrawn. Federal Republicanism has become Democratic Absolutism, which has borne its natural fruits- the extinction of personal liberty, a fettered press, a reckless expenditure. An inconvertible currency cannot be remote; and meanwhile the proved and alleged dishonesty of the departments produce general distrust,which goes the length of a belief that some members of the Government would plunge the country into foreign war from personal and selfish considerations. all, the widespread distress which must attend upon the collapse of all foreign trade, if we except the export of corn from the Westthe stagnation of manufactures, except such as serve the devouring

Worst of