THE PRESS,
PUBLISHED DAILY (SUNDAYS EXCEPTED.)
BY JOHN W. FORNEY,
'TICS, No. 111 SOUTH FOURTH STRUT.
TUE DAILY PRESS,
SFIRTREN CENTS R WFF.k. paable to Carrier.
w e d to Subscriber P s E
out of th C ity at Szo the rrr DoLtarte
r,„eybrum, FOUR DOLLARS FOR SIX MONTH% TWO Do
roilo FOR TIERS !dorms—invariably in advance for the
rue ordered.
.1- Advertisements ineerted at the usual rates. SIX
p i es constants a square.
• THE TAI-PiEEKLY PRESS,
Sidled to Subscribers out of the City at Foos DOL.
Li la nil tumuli, in advance.
COMMISSION MOUSES.
N"An.rk
. .
WELLING, COFFIN, & - CO
Pl2O CHESTNUT STREET.
Offer for sale. by the Package—
FEINTS, BROWN AND BLEACHED SHEETINGS AND
SKIRTINGS.
DRILLS, CANTON FLANNELS.
COTTONADES, CORSET JEANS.
SILESIAs, NANKEENS.
COLORED CAMBRICS, SEAMLESS BAGS.
BLACK DOESKINS AND CASSIMERES.
UNION CLOTHS, skruggrs.
MAID LINSEYS, NEGRO KERSEYS.
KENTUCKY JEANS.
AL9O,
SKT•BLUE KERSEVS, INFANTRY CLOTHS,
ARMY FLANNELS, 1D and 12-ounce DUCK, &c., &o
deB•wwtSw
FRIL A.DELPHIA
" BAG " •
bIANUFACTORY.
13IT BLAP BAGS, OF ALL SIZES,
FOR CORN, OATS, COFFEE, BONE DUST, &a.
ALSO, •
SEAMLESS BAGS,
O( standard makes, ALL SIZES, for sale cheap, for not
cash on delivery. •
GEO. GRIGG.
JalMf No. 249 and . 221 CHURCH ALLEY.
QEAMLESS BAUS.
2,000 CANADA A, alt Cotton, 17 ounoes.
3,OOO, FAX)ILELLY , s, " "
1,000 AMOSKEACI C., " •
3,1X0 HAMPDEN E., half Cotton.
For sale low by
GRIGG. & HARMSTEA.D,
MERCHANDIZE DUCKER.%
No, '4l STRAWBERRY:Street,
,('COTTON YARN.
BTPERIOR COTTON YARN, No. 10.
FOR SALE BY
YROTIIINGRAM & WELLS. -
00s.tf
SHIPLEY, HAZARD, &
HUTCHINSON,
110. 112 CHESTNUT STREET,
COMMISSION MERCHANTS
FOR THE SALE OF
PHILADELPHIA-MADE GOODS.
aa'Tßm
ATLANTIC COTTON• MILLS.
MEETINGS AND SHIRTINGS.
CHARLES AMORY, JR., & CO.,
205 CREECH ALLEY,
GENTS' •FIJRNISHING • GOODS.
FINE SHIRT MANUFACTORY.
A- The subscriber would 11100. attention to his
IMPROVED CUT OF SHIRTS,
Which Le makes a specialty in his business, Also, can.
pia ully receiving.
NOVELTIES FOR GENTLEMEN'S WEAR.
J. W. SCOTT,
OENMEMEN'S FURNISHING STORE,
No. 814 CITES fI'XITT STREET, - -
Four doors ',low the Continental.
1101ADAY PRESENTS.
Nos. 17AND 3 NORTH SIXTH STREET.
JOHN C. ARRISON,
(FORMERLY .7, BURR 7,IOOREJ
Has now in store an elegant asaortment of
I GENTLEMES WRAPPERS,
ALSO,
SCARFS, NECK TIES, GLOVES, &a.,
del34 In Great Variety.
CLOTHES-IV RINGERS.
WILLIAM
DEALEE IN HOUSE.FURNISHING GOODS,
No. 1020 _CHESTNUT STREET,
Arent for the sale of HALEY, MORSE, & BOYDEVB
PATENT SELF-ADJUSTING
- CLOTEIES-WRINGER,
Believed to be the best CLOTEES-WRINGEA in use.
It will wring the largest fled Quilt or smallest Rand
-I:lerehief drier than can possibly be done by hand, in
very much less time.
N. B.—A liberal discount will be made to dealers,
n03.3m
SEWING MACHINES. -
SINGER'S
SEWING MACHINES,
For Family . Sewing anti Mon enduring Purposes.
810 CHESTNUT STREET.
lal3 3n3.
WHEELER & WILSON •
SEWING MACHINES,
CRIS CHESTNUT STREET,
deo m
THE WILCOX & GIBBS
FAMILY
, SEWING MACHINItS
uYe been greatir improved, making it
ENTIRELY NOISELESS,
and with Self-adjusting Hemmers, are now ready for sale
;Dr FAIRBANKS & EWING,
te27-tf 718 CHESTNUT Street.
CABINET FURNITURE.
CABINET FURNITURE AND BIL
LIARD TABLES.
MOORE & CAMPION,
No. 261 South SECOND Street,
connection with their extensive Cabinet Business, aro
hew manufacturing a superior article of
BILLIARD TABLES,
~d have
8: n 8731;101N 3 r 1 1 1 1 41(1 O d li t i h ch e
the
2re pronounced by all who have used them to be Napo•
for to all others,
For the quality and finish of these Tables the mann.
facturere refer to their unTrwroas patrons throughout
the Union, who are familiar with the character of their
Rork. ati23-8m
DRUGS AND CHEMICALS.
ROBERT SHOEMAKER ad CO.;
Northeast Corner Fonrth and RACE Streets,
PHILADELPHIA,
WHOLESALE DRUGGISTS,
IMPORTERS AND DP.4T,IIRS
FOREION AND DOMESTIC
WINDOW AND PLATE GLASS,
MANUFACTURERS OP
WHITE LEAD AND ZINC PAINTS, PUTTY, &a.
damn FOR TEE CELEBRATED
FRENCH ZINC PAINTS.
Dealers and consumers supplied at
1304 m VERY LOW PRICES FOR CASH
000$
DOZEN HICKORY SHIRTS.
I ' ooo 134 . P R IT'AB I L. A rIPIA L S " .
500 do, I.N_ SHIRTS.
ASS 4INELF I T
500 do. ILO‘V-PRICED
wIIITE MUSLIN SHIRTS.
1,000 do. DEN I'M OVERALLS.
11 0,000 PAIRS COTJOIADE PANTALOONS.
For sale by
DENINTETT, Ruck . , & CO.,
I'al3-1m Mannfactarev , . 21T CRURCII ALLEY
„
EVANS & WATSON'S
- SALAMANDER SAT/
ST ORE,
16 SOUTH FOURTFI STREET,
, , PRILADELPHIA, PA.
+. 4 arra variety of FIRE-PROOF SAFES always 01
srl
BODES & WILLIKAIS 107 SOUTH
WATER Street have In store, and offer for sale—
Lay er R a i s i ns _ w h n i e and quarter boxes.
11, R. 11 41 10
citron, Orange and Lemon Peet
Vtarrants, Dried Apples.
Lulled Peaches, new, hal vea and quarters, and pared:
Beans t _Canada Whole and Split Peas.
Tanclsh and Malaga Pigs -
Aire Oil, quarts and pints.
Hewn and. Cat ary Seed. -
Prioress, Bordeaux, and Sicily Almonds,
French Mustard, English Pickles, &c.
Turkish and French Prunes.
Fresh Peaches, Blackberries Cherries,
rem, Tomatoes Corn, Peas:Sze.
li srmically.seafed Meats, Soups, Ste
Sardines, halves and quartors,
TERRA COTTA WARE:
Fancy Flower Pots.
Han King Vases.
Fern Vases, with Plants.
Orange Pots..
Ivy Vases, with Plants.
CassoLetts Renaissance.
Lava Vases Antique.
Consols and Carlatadea.
Marble Busts and Pedestals.
Brackets, all sixes.
With a large assortment of other FA2IGY 000 PS,
HAISTMAS PRESENTS, most of whica are
17.,11Qtyclore etand imported fnr our own sales, and wlll
nee found any other eatabliehment. ' -
S. A. HARRISON,
1.010 CHESTNUT Btrset.
VOL. 6.-NO. 147.
t)rtss.
The publishing firms of Brown & Tag
gart and of F, A. Brown & Co., Boston,
having been dissolved, Mr. B. W. Taggart
and Mr. J. A. Thompson, both connected
with the ]ate houses, and both known as en
terprising and honorable men, have asso
ciated themselves as Taggart & Thompson,
at 29 Cornhill, Boston, the old stand of B.
B. Mussey & Co. They have purchased
from the assignees the stock and stand of
the late firm of F. A. Brown. Co., which
includes, besides valuable school and juve
pile books, the Encyclopa3dia Americana in
14 and Francis. Bacon's Works in 15 vo
lumes. The fifth volume of the latter,
edited by those excellent Cambridge scho
lars, Messrs. Spedding, Ellis, and Heath,
is the first book issued by Taggart &
Thompson. Printed at the Riverside press, .
it is as beautifully got up as the preceding
volumes were, and contains further portions
of Bacon's Philosophical writings, in
cluding "The New Atlantis," written
about 1624, and ;first . published in, 1628, the
most considerable, though not finished, of
Bacon's few works of fiction. The whole
work will be completed in five volumes
more, to be issued .in rapid succession.
This is a finer and cheaper edition than the
Original English issue, and has notes and
additions expressly contributed to it.by the
learned editors. Mr. Joseph Buck, 134 Li
brary street, is agent here for this edition of
Bacon's works.
There is nothing •iu Europe at all like
"The United States Blue Book," compiled
by J. Disturnell, published by J. 11. Colton,
New York, and sold here by T. B. Peter
son, special agent for Pennsylvania. Foreign
Governments arc afraid to let their people
see how the public money is distributed
among office-holders. There never has been
any such fear in this country. The list here
given contains, corrected to November,
1862, the names of officers and agents, in
all branches of the national service, with his
rank, place of birth, and emoluments. It
also gives the regular and volunteer force
of the United States, and the names, force,
and conditioh of all ships and vessels be
longing to the Navy, taken from official au
thorities, together with the Census of 1860,
by States and Territories. The book is very
complete and accurate, and might be called
Tlie Office-Seekers' Manual.
AGENTS,
" Studies," by John A. Dorgan, publish
ed by Yenkel & Brother, is the name of a
small volume of Miscellaneous poems, chiefly
lyrical, written by a gentleman of this city.
They are the result of a high poetical faculty,
clear intellect, rich fancy, and a good ear for
music. Our favorites are the sonnets, the
TriuMph of the Truth, Poppies, the Legend
of the Dead, Solomon, Endymion, Tann
bruiser, In Arctis, and Burns. Mr. Dorgan
should have remembered, when writing his
Burial of the Conqueror, that Mrs. Tiernan
had previously exhausted that subject in a
splendid ballad. The lines, in page 67 :
"Though fallen on stricken field they lie,
Or blacken on the gallows-tree,
Freedom ! Thy dead can never die,
Because they died for thee : .
Their names are written on the sky,
And all the tongues of land and sea
Repeat the holy syllables
To all futurity,"
remind us, too much, of that grand passage
in Byron's Marino Faller°, where Israel
Bertuccio says
"They never fail who (lie
Ina great cause : the block may soak their gore;
Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city gates and castle walls—
But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,
They but augment the deep and swelling thoughts
Which overpower all others, and conduct
The world at last to freedom."
Mr, Dorgan, however, has no Jack of
originality. The following piece, theigh
short, is One that, in tender pathos and sim
pie: expression, Wordswort4 might haYe
owned
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
My wasted cheeks are wet
With tears of Vain regret
For all I should remember not
And all I should forget,
Mrs. Gaskell, whose husband is an Uni
tarian preacher in England, has written,
among Other things, ,an excellent novel
called Mary Barton," and - "Life of
Charlotte Broute,!'the error of the last be
iug that needlessly running into scarf. kag:,'
she traduced the character of a lady living
in Leeds, in her fuse edition, - and had to
alter, omit, and .apologize in her secohd.
Her new story entitled " A Dark Night's
Work," now Sithtiltaneonsly appearing in
All Yecu. Round foid. Ha4er's Teddy,
will be completed in March, - to be followed,
in both publications, by a new-serial work
of fiction by Charles Reade, author Of "yeg
Woffingtdn" and the Very striking; social
story " Never too Late to Mend."
PHILADELPHIA.
The cOnchisitm of Mr; Wilkie Collins':
splendid romance, " Name," appears in
the last nttmber of Harper' s 'Weekly , in which
it had the great advantage of being lillustra,
ted by numerous wondAngravings from ori
ginal designs by :John McLellan, of. New
Tork. "No Name", will be published in
book form, by MesSrs. Harper, in a few
days. As a whole, :it is superior to " The
- Woman in White," in which the pinguid
and smiling villain, Count Fosco, is a great
er creation of character than Captain
Wragge, in the new tale.
"1 7 .erfier7s Pride," by AILS. Henry Wood,
will be completed in :once a Treek, in four
or five weels., but will be published here in
a few days, in .book iform, T. 8.. Peterson:
ha - ving purchased the proof-sheets in ad
'Vance, from which he' prints the work.
1 4 Vernees Pride" will be followed in Ohm
r,.ll 7 cele by a new novel by Niss M. A.
Bradden, :author of `"-Lady AudleY's Se
cret" and "Aurora Floyd "—..the last of
which,- republished by Peterson; : - Nye noticed
last reek. ' These female writers are very
prolific—with theipen.
3lr. - Henry Morford, well known as editor,
dramatist, and poet, has a new volume of
prose in press; which will:be publishedby
Carleton, New York. It. will be called
Sprees and:Splashes ; or ; Droll ißecollee
tions of Town and Country" and will con
sist of: stone :.m sketches, the product o
fancy and, Observation, : making' precisely
the 'sort of book to put into your pocket
and read in a railway ear or steamboat
coSily
in a whiter evening's stay-at-home
sitting, or under a great shady tree in some
rural Vretreat on a summer afternoon, when
the dolee ien fe is a:hmtry, indeed.
Colored Soldiers during the Revolutionary
To the Editor of The Press:
Sin: The Historicai Society of Pennsylvania
possesses a manuscript volume, brought from Paris,
containing a list of the French officers who served
in the American army, or with it, during the Revo
lution, The following is a translation of the closing
paragraph, The writer is speaking of the Vicomte
de Fontanges, a Major General at the siege of Sa
vannah:'
" According to - a note which one of my friends has
furnished, me, M. de Pontan,ges commanded, under
d' Estaing, a legion of free mulattoesand negroes
of Saint Domingo. 'rhisiegion saved the army at
Savannah by bravely covering its retreat. Among
the blacks who then distinguished themselves were
AndrO,Rigaud,. Beauvais, Nillatte, Beauregard, and
- Lambert, who afterwards bees:me - generals under
the Convention and also Henri Ilhristophe; the
.f u t ur e King of liayl I.
Signed, CHEVALIER DE PREUDHOMIE."
THE GUERILLA MORGAN.— The Buffalo
Commercial Adrcrliacr says it is currently believed in
that vicinity that the famous guerilla chief Morgan
is none other than a fellow named Timothy Fuller,
who formerly lived in Erie county, Pennsylvania,
and was sent thence to the penitentiary for cattle-
Atealing. After serving out his time be went to
Kentucky and chnnged his naineto`Morgan. He is
in congenial business now. • • ' •
•
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1863:4,
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Oh, how shall these avenge us,
With look, or word, or kiss,
For all the bliss that might have been
And all the pain that is.
COURT MARTIAL OF GEN, PORTER.
The Trial of Gen. Fitz John Porter—lie is
Found Guilty of all the Charges' Pre
ferred—The Findings Approved , by the
President—The General Dismissed from
the Service of the United States.
Last week, Judge Advocate General Holt laid the
record in the case of General Fitz John Porter,
which he had spent three days in making up, before
the President, who, on Wednesday last, signified his
approval of the findings of the court-martial, and
ordered the sentence to be carried into execution.
The findings are that he is guilly on every one of Me
charges prej'ared, and the sentence is that he be dis
missed from the service.
The review of testimony by Judge Holt, which
forms a part of the record, is considered extremely
able. The Court which thus disposed of a case of
multiform and, in one sense, national interest, was
composed as follows :
Major General Hunter presiding; Major General
Hitchcock, Brigadier Generals Rutus King, Prentiss,
Ricketts, Casey, Garfield, Buford, and Morris, with
Colonel Holt, the Judge Advocate General, as judge
advocate.
The charges on which General Porter is convicted
were these :
CHARGES AND SPECIFICATIONS
EXHIBITED AGAINST MAJOR GENERAL FIT 7. JOHN
PORTER, OF THE. VOLUNTEERS OF THE U. S. ARMY,
BY B. S. ROBERTS,. BRIGADIER GENERAL U. S.
VOLUNTEERS, AND INSPECTOR GENERAL. OF MA
JOR GENERAL POPE'S .AILMV.
OnABol I.—Violation of the 9th Article of War
Specification I.—ln this, that the said Major Gene
ral Fitz John Porter, of the volunteers of the U. S.
army, having 'received a. lawful order, on or about
the 27th of August, 1862, while at 'or.-near Warren=
ton Junction, in Virginia, from Major General John
Pope, his superior and commanding officer; in the
following figures and letters—to wit :
H.EADQUARTURS ARMY OF VIRGINIA,
BRISTOW STATION, Aug. 27, 1362 3P. M.
Major gcrieral.F. T. Porter,
,Wayrento,r.elotP,lnzk:
—(3-EminAt : The Major General ,61... 1 ;:it- 0 1 1±.:e.;,.
recta that you start at one o'clock to-night, aiiV
come forward with your whole corps, or such part
of it as is with you, so as to be here by daylight to
morrow morning. Hooker has had a very severe
action with the enemy, with a loss Of about 30
killed and wounded. The enemy has been driven
back and is retreating along the railroad. We must
drive him from Manassas, and clear the country be
tween that place and G eines v ille, where McDowell is.
If Morel has not joined you, send word to him to
push forward immediately. Also, send word to
Banks to hurry forward with all speed to take your
Place at WRlrenton Junction. It is necessary, on all
accounts, that you should be here by daylight. I send
nn officer with this despatch, who iv!!i conduct you
to this place. Be sure to send word to Banks, who
is on the road to Fayetteville, probably in the direc
tion of Balltown. Say to Banks, also, that he had
best run back the railroad trains to this aide of
Cedar Bun. If he is not with you, write him to that
effect.
By command of Major General POPE.
GEO. D. ItucoLES, Colonel and Chief of Staff.
P. B.—lf Banks is not at Warrenton Junction,
leave a regiment of infantry and two pieces of artil
lery as guard till he comes up, with instructions to
follow you immediately. if Banks is not at the
junction, instruct. Col. Cleary to run the trains back
to this side of Cedar Run, and post a regiment and
section of artillery with it.
By command of Major General POPP:.
GEO. D. lluoomi.s, Colonel and Chief of Staff.
Did then and there disobey the said order, being at
the time in the face of the enemy. This at or near
Warrenton, in the State of Virginia, on or about the
28th of August, 1662.
Specification 2.—ln this, that the said Major Gen.
F. J. Porter, being in front of the enemy at Manas
sas, Ira., on or about the morning of August 29,
1862, did receive from Major Genf Pope, his superior
and commanding officer, a lawful order in the follow
ing letters and figures, to wit :
HEADQUARTERS ARMY 01 , VIRGINIA,
CENTREVILLE, Aug. 29, 1862.
GEMS. MCDOWELL AND PORTER : Xon will please
move forward with your joint commands towards
Gainesville. I sent Gen. Porter written orders to
that effect an hour and a half ago. Heintzelman, Sl
eet, and Reno are moving on the Warrenton turn
pike, and must now be not far from Gainesville. I
desire that, as soon as communication is esta
blished between his force and your own, the whole
commend shall halt. It may be necessary to fall
back behind Bull Run, at Centreville, to-night. I
presume it will be so, on account of our supplies.
I have sent no orders of any description to Rick
etts, and none to interfere in any way with the
movements of McDowell's troops, except what t sent
by his aid-de-camp last night. which were to hold
his position on the Warrenton pike until troops from
here should fall on.the enemy's flank and rear. Ido
not even know Ricketts' position, as 1 have not
been able to find out where Gen. McDowell Was,
until a late hour this morning.
• General McDowell will take immediate steps to
communicate with General .Ricketts, and instruct
him to join other divisions of his corps as soon as
practicable. If any considerable advantages are to
be gained by departing from this order, it will not
be strictly carried out. One thing must be held in
view, that is, the troops must occupy position Am).
which they can reach Bull Run by morning. The
indications are that the whole force of the enemy , is
moving in this direction at a pace that will bring
them here by. to-morrow night or the next day. My
own headquarters will, for the present -be With
Heintzelman's corps or at this place.
JOHN POPE, Mayor Gen. Com(Pg.
Which order the said Major Creneral Porter did
then and there disobey . . This at or near Manassas,
in the State of Virginia, on or about the 29th of Au
gust, 1862.
Spec(fication 3.—ln this, that the said Major Gene
ral John Porter, having been in front of the
enemy during the battle of Manassas, on Friday, the
29th day of August, 1862, did, on that day, receive
from Major Gen. John Pope, his superior and com
manding officer, a lawful order in the following let
ters and figures, to wit: - •
lisanquanTmcs IN THE FIELD,...A.DgIiSt 29, 1562.
MUM' Porter:
us': Your line of march brings you in on the ene
my's right flank: I desire you to push forward into
action at once on the enemy's flank, and, if possible,
on his rear, keeping your right in communication
with General Reynolds. The enemy is massed in
the woods in front of us, but can be shelled out as
soon as you engage their flank. Keep heavy re
serves, and use your batteries, keeping well closed
to your right all the time. In case you are obliged
to fall back, do so to your right and rear, so as to
keep you in close communication with the right
wing. JOHN POPE,
Major. General Commanding.
Which said order the said Major General Porter
did then and there disobey, and did fail to push for
ward his forces into action, either on the enemy's
flank or rear, and in all other respects did fail to
obey said orders. This at or near Manassas, in the
State of Virginia, on or about the 29th of August,
1862.
Specification 4.—ln that the said Major General
Fitz John Porter, being at or near Manassas Junc
tion, on the night of the 29th of August, 1862, did
receive from Major General John Pope, his superior
and commanding officer,
a lawful order in figures and
words, as follows, to wit :
HEADQUARTERS ARIL)' OF
In the Field near Bull Run, Aug. 29, 1862-8.50 P. M.
Major General Fitz. John Porter:
Immediately upon receipt of this order, the precise
hour of which you will .aeknowledge, you will
march your command to the field of battle of to - -
day : and report to- me° in person for orders. You
are to understand that you are to comply strictly
with this order, and be present on the field within
three hours after its receipt, or after daybreak to
morrow morning. JOHN POPE,
Major General Commanding.
And the said Major General Fitz John Porter did
then and there disobey the said order, and did per
mit one of the brigadesof his command to march
to Centreville, out of the way of the field of battle,
and there to remain during the entire day of Satur
day, the 30th day of. A itaust. This at or near. Ma
nassas Station, in the State of Virginia, on the 29th
and 30th days of Augwit, 1862, - .
Specification s.—ln his, that the said Major Gene
ral Fitz John Porter beingat or near Manassas
Station, in the State Of Virginia, on the night of the
29th of August, 1862, and having rebeived from his
superior and commanding officer, Major General
John Pope, the lawful order set forth in the specifi
cation 4 to this charge, and then .and, there disobey'
the same; anctil it-the other brigade attached
to his command, eing- the brigade ' commanded by
Brigadier General A. S. Pratt, to march to Centre
ville, and did therebygreatly delay the arrival of the
said Gen. Pratt's brigade on the field of battle of
Manassas, on. Saturday, the 30th of August, 1862.
This at or near Manassas, in the State of Virginia,
on or about the 29th day of August, 1862.
CHARGE 2.—Violation of the S'ith Article of War.
- - -
Specification I—ln this, thatithelsaid Major General
Fitz John Porter '
during the battle of Manassas, on
Friday, ,:the. , 'Ath tigy of. August, 186:2, and while
within sisht-of - the field, and in full hearing of its
artillery, - did receive from Major General .Tohn Pope,
his superior and commanding officer, a lawfvl order
to attack the enemy, in the following figures and
letters, to wit :
HEADQUARTERS IN THE FIELD, Aug. 29-I, , a' P.M.
MAJ. GEN. PortErt : Your line of march brings
you on the enemy's right flank. I desire you to push
forward into action at once on the enemy's flank,
and, if possible, on his rear, keeping your right-in
communication with Gen. Reynolds. The enemy is
massed in the woods in front of us, but can he shelled
out as soon as you engage their flank. Keep - a heavy
reserve, and use your batteries, keeping well closed
to the right all the time. In case you are obliged to
fall back, do so to your right and rear, so as to keep
you in close communication with the right wing:
. JOHN . .POPE;
Major General Commanding.
'Which said order the said Major General Porter.
did then and there shamefully disobey, and did re-
treat from the advancing forces of the enemy, with-.
out any attempt to engage them, or aid the troops
who were already, fighting greatly.superior numbers,
and were relying on the flank attack he was thus
ordered to make to secure a decisive victory, and to
'capture the enemy's army, a result which must have
followed from said flank attack, had it been made by
said General Porter in compliance With the said
order which he so shamefully disobeyed. This at or
near Manassas, in the State of Virginia; on or about
the 29th of August, 1662. •
Specification this, that the said :Major Gen.
Fitz John Porter, being with his army corps on
Friday, the 29th of Aug - uat, 1862, between Manassas
Station and the field of a battle then pending be
tween the forces of the - United States and those of
the rebels, and within sound of the guns, and in the
presence of the enemy, and knowing that a severe
action of great consequence was being fought, and
that the aid of hie corps was greatly needed, did fail
all that day to bring it on to the field, and did shame
fully fall back and retreat from the advance of th e
enemy, without any attempt to give them battle,
and without knowing the forces from which he
shamefully retreated. This near Manassas Station,
in the State of Virginia, on the 29th of August, 1862.
Srcrification 3.—ln that the said Maj. Gen. Fitz
John Porter, being with his army corps near the field
Of battle of Manassas on the 29th of August, 1863,
while a severe battle was being fought by the troops
of Major General Pope's command, and being in the
belief that the troops of the said General Pope were
sustaining defeat and retiring from the field, did
shamefully fail to go to the aid of said troops, and
did shamefully retreat away, and fall back with his
aimy to the Manassas Junction, and leave to the
disaster of a presumed defeat the said army and did
fail, by any attempt to attack the enemy, to aid in
averting the misfortunes of a disaster that would
have endangered the safety of the capital of the coun
try. This at or near Manassas Station, in the State
01 Virginia, on the 29th of August, 1862.
Spccification 4.—ln that the said Major General
Fitz John Porter, on the field of battle at Manassas,
on Saturday, the 30th August, 1862, having received
a lawful order from his superior officer and com
manding general, Major General Sohn Pope, to en
gage the enemy's lines arid to carry a position near
their centre, and to take an annoying battery there
posted, did proceed in the execution of that order
with unnecessary slowness, and, by delays, give the
enemy opportunities to watch and know his move
ments. and to prepare to meet his attack, and finally
so feebly fall upon the enemy's lines as to make lit
tle or no impression on the same, and did fall back
and draw away his forces unnecessarily, and with
out making any of the great personal elTorts to rally
his troops to meet the sacrifices and to make the
alEtance demanded by the importance of his posi
tion and the momentous consequences and disasters
of a retreat at so critical a juncture of the day.
B. S. ROBERTS, 13rig.-Gen. Volunteers and
Inspector General of Pope's Army.
A True Copy. J. HOLT, Advocate General.
The last specification was Immediately abandoned
hv the judge advocate for want of evidence to sus
..
taro it.
the President approved the finding at 4 o'clock
Wednestlay afternoon. Gen. Porter first heard of his
PHILADELPHIA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1863.
fate casually about 6 from a correspondent of a paper.
When told that he was at that moment dismissed
from the service, he was powerfrilly affected, as tvell
as astounded. lie had only lately applied to the
President for a leave of absence.
Letter from Captain Palmer, ofthe Ander
son Cavalry.
The following letter has just been received from
Captain Palmer, by a gentleman residing in this city,
and has been handed to us for publication :
BALTIMORE:, Jan. 22 1863.
Mr Dann Sin : I have succeeded in making my
escape from rebeldoni, and will be home in a day or
two, after a visit to Washington.
I am much grieved to hear of the troubles exist
ing in the Anderson Cavalry, and all the more so
when I think that they might never have occurred,
had I not unfortunately been taken prisoner before
the completion of its organization.
I have read General Bosecrans' Field Order, No. G,'
and approve every word of its. Nothing can excuse
such an act of insubordination, and no extenuating
circumstances prevent history from recording that
over half the regiment" marched to the rear to the
Sound of the enemy's cannon.'"
Ilemembering the character of the men, most of
whom I recruited personally, and the admirable
manner in which they behaved when. Longstreet
threatened the Cumberland Valley, I find it difficult
to realize that, in four months, they could so utterly
have lost all patriotic spirit and soldierly pride;
and cannot but believe that they will yet prove
themselves worthy of their colors, and of the name of
"Pennsylvanians." Better material was. never
summoned to battle, in .any age or country, than
that which composed this regiment at the time
of its organization. But it would appear that lack
of discipline has produced its usual and normal
effects.
If it were possible for the gallant conduct. of a part
to atone for the defection of a majority, it has been
fully done by " the noble three hundred." Their
heroism has shown what the regiment might have
been had the spirit of discontent and insubordination
not entered into it.'" 1 heard of the death of Rosen
garten and Ward from the rebels while yet in cap
tivity. They had been my companions-in -arms for
a year, and no one knew better than'myself the gal
lant stuff they.:were made of, I fondly liOped the
''mews untrue, but on my retain the unweloomed con
firmation is forced on me that these braVe soldiers
have perished in their generous rivalry 7 -each to
outdo the other to deeds vf Oaring ailz;
votion.
I hear that some of the friends of the insubor
dinate members of the regiment have, in my .ab
sence, charged that there was some deception in
the representations made at the time of recruit
ing the regiment. After I reach Philadelphia
I desire that all such individuals should call
on me, and present, personally, any charges
of deception,
and any other complaints or
charges whatsoever; • or, if they prefer, make
them public through the newspaper press, that
I nifty have the opportunity of satisfying their
authors of the injustice of them. But, as the con
dition of the regiment requires my immediate pre
sence at Nashville, I request that nit such persons
should prefer their charges during my stay (of a few
days) in Philadelphia, or else, by implication, ac
knowledge that they_ were mistaken.
The regiment was authorized by the Secretary of
War, in consequence of an earnest request made to
that effect by General Buell, who then commanded
the Department of the: Cumberland. That general
considered the- " Andergon Cavalry," from the cha
racter of its material, &c., peculiarly well fitted to
be attached to his headquarters in the field, to act
AB escort, scout, make reconnoissances, and perform
such duties as the old Troop had done, together with
other and still more honorable service which the old
Troop could not perform from its inferior numbers.
General Buell not only intended it for this purpose,
but stipulated expressly that it should be composed
of the same quality of men as the old troop,: in order
that they might. be fit for the intended position.
It is true that a whole regiment is not-need
ed for a "body-guard," so called—but daily
alternate details would have been made
therefrom for the ordinary headquarter duties,
and the trhoic would have been attached to head
quarters, and have been do hand for any service re
quiring intelligence and spirit.. After my capture,
and before the regiment 'reached the West, General
Buell was relieved, and General Rosecrans took
his place. Commanding generals always choose
their own escorts, and assign regiments to particular
duties in their departments as they think best. The
War Department usually his nothing to do with
this.
Thus, the old Troop was recruited for General
Robert Anderson, but before it was fully organized,
both he and General Sherman, his successor, who
had, on taking command, also chosen the Troop as
his escort, had been relieved, and were followed by
General Buell, who, only because it suited him,
ratified the choice of his predecessors.
In the present case. General Ilosecrans, who had
a perfect right to choose his escort, did not, it ap
pears, select the Anderson Cavalry. Every man in
it knew when he joined the regiment that it was to
be attached 'to General Buell's headquarters, as it
would undoubtedly have been. But if the War
.De.
partrnent or the President chose to remove that Gene
ral the men had no right to believe that they would
descend as a legacy to hie successor—who was yet un
known as such—although there was a reasonable pro
bability that the same qualities which induced Gen.
Buell to select them for the post of honor would
influence him who succeeded. This only was beyond
question. Every man knew that he was taking an
oath to serve the United States for three years or
the war, to obey his superior officers and to• tight
the-rebels ; which, if done well, would earn them as
high honor as this.world can give.
Hoping to see you ancialt my.frien4
I am, Yours, very respectfullk, -
- WM. J. PALMER..
pIPIRE OF JAPAN,
Arrival of the " Wyoming "—lnternational
Courtesies Treaty Stipulaiions Trade
With England.
JAPAN, Nov. 25, . 1662.
The grzet feature of the day here is the arrival of
the long-looked-for United States- shiri-.Wymning.
Immediately on her arrival General Pruyn left Jed
do to Accompany the Wyoming to that, city, where
she anchored about three and a half miles from
the landing place, owing to. the want of depth of
water.
It has never been the custom of the Japanese. to'
salute either the flag of other nations or their repre
sentatives. Some time since Sir Rutherford Al
cock insisted on being saluted. The Japanese Go
vernment being then in somewhat of a perpleked
position, in consequence of the withdrawal of.;the
English and French legation from Jeddo, consented
to fire a salute, but there was no heart in the affair.
It was forced from them under circumstances . they
could not well control, and they did fire a number of
guns, which satisfied the then English minister, but
was not at all satisfactory to the English at large.
The Japanese commenced firing at daybreak, and
continued to fire at intervals until sundown, leading
the people to believe that they were merely prac
tising. In fact, they did not intend to fire a salute,
nor did they do so. It was arranged to fire a salute
to our minister, which was promised shortly after
his arrival in the country, but deferred until they
(the Japanese) should have one of their war vessels
present. On the 7th inst. the Japanese flagship
hoisted the American flag and gave Gen. Pruyn a
salute of seventeen guns, the first salute ever given
to a minister by the Japanese. It was returned by
the Wyoming, which hoisted the Japanese flag.
Gen. Pruyn has thus broken into their hitherto
exclusiveness and etiquette, which has been one of
the most difficult feats to accomplish. The Japanese
have surrounded themselves with a cordon of eti
quette which has, up to this t i me, proved the greatest
obitaele to free intercourse with the higher orders of
the country. The salute refereed to took place pre
vious to the Wyoming going up to Jeddo.
On the Monday following the Wyoming left for
Jeddo with our Minister and Consul, COI. George S.
Fisher. The day following, the Third Minister,
with a host of dignitaries, visited the Wyoming.
On Thursday salutes were exchanged between the
Wyoming and the war ship Otstidinmurrah,• This is
the first time that a minister of so high a rank ever
visited a foreign vessel-of-war, and is quite opposed
to the etiquette usually insisted on by the Japanese.
On the day following the Wyoming was visited by
the chief officers of artillery and marine, who wit
nessed "boat practice with howitzer," and also the
management of heavy guns (which had ;previously
been shown to .the . :Minister.) The day following
an official interitiew 'with all the :Ministers took
place, on which occasion Captain McDougal and
Col. Fisher, an American consul, were presented.
Mr. Fisher was the first Consul ever admitted, as
such, to their presence. Captain McDougal was
presented with a sword, two pieces of rich silk, some
fruit, &c.
The merchants have yet much to complain of.
Many of the treaty stipulations are not regarded by
The Japanese. Vexations still exist, but these will
one after the other be removed, and then Yokohama
will be one of the most desirable settlements in the
East, with salubrious climate, a picturesque country
and abundance of creature comforts. Yokohama is
not to he despised. Japan is taking a high stand as
an exporting country. She will export about 20,000
bales of silk this year, against 5,500 bales exported
from China.
A trade is springing up directly' with England.
Several ships have cleared direct for London, loaded
with valuable cargoes of teas and silk. There is
abundant scope for American capital and enterprise.
As yet but one American house has cleared vessels
for New York. Most of the Japan tea shipped to
London is re-exported to the United States. It would
be more advantageous to ship direct to the United
States.
Our settlement is fast improving. An Episcopal
church' is nearly completed, in the Gothic style.
Handsome residences are going up in the various
localities. A permanent race-course, club-house,
and cricket-ground are in a state of forwardness.
The Wyoming leaves for Shanghae to-day. She
visits the different ports in China, when she returns
to Japan. We look forward to her return with
much pleasure, Captain McDougal and his officers
having made a most favorable impression on their
countrymen.
INITIAL ADVANTAGE OF FREE LABOR
IN THE SOUTH.--11 New Orleans letter gives the
following instructive fact : "I have just met an old
friend, whom I not only find a loyal man but ac
lively.en gaged in aiding the Government. His father
owns the estate on the river below the city, known
as the 'Magnolia estate'—the large brick building
looking, with the sugar mill. like a village on the
banks of the river, as we -came up. He says he is
hiring the negroes by the month, and they work day
and night in the cane, in this, the most driving of
plantation work. They need no urging; they work
too much. He says the large hospital he has for the
sick negroes, which was always sure to be filled at
this season, is now without a tenant, and all are
over-anxious to work."
PRINCELY GOOD NATURE IN ROME.—One of our
letters from Rome (says the London Atheneum) has
some gossip about the visit of the Prince of Wales.
The Prince ran round the studios with the ease of a
private gentleman. Re bought only two pictures—
one from Perry Williams, the other from Rudolph
Lehmann. At the studio of the latter an incident
occurred which exhibits the thoughtfulness ,nd good
nature of the young Prince. Mr. Lehmann was
arranging his room and whitewashing his lobby,
when an Italian valet de place rushed in upon him
announcing, "11 Principe Inglesc!" The artist was a
little embarrassed; the Prince tried to put him at his
ease by asking to see his book of portraits. Even
that was at home—not at the studio. "Mr. Lehmann
offered to go and fetch it. " Row long will it take
you 1" asked the Prince. "A quarter of an hour."
"Then 1 will wait with pleasure."' The Prince
lighted a cigar, and Mr. Lehmann rolled home in the
Prince's carriage. Louis the Fourteenth, under a
similar trial, had to say, " J'at failli allendre." The
Prince sat out the time, and bought one of the un
finished pictures on the wall; the artist returned,
and had the honor of a sitting and an invitation to
dinner. A portrait of the Prince of Wales has been
added to Mr. Lehmann's remarkable book of con
temporary heads."
THE CHESS CHAMPION.—A Paris correspondent
says : " Since my arrival, I have met with Dir. Paul
lllorphy, the famous American chess player, about
whose doings and whereabouts such contradictory
reports have been circulated in the United States.
111orphy has not been on any rebel general's
staff, nor has he taken s o y part in the war. He left
New Orleans long after the capture of the city by
the Federal forces, and went- to Havana, taking
passage thence to Cadiz, and reached Paris a few
days ago. •Kolish, the eminent Hungarian player, is
also here, and chess amateurs are making efforts to
bring about a meeting between the greatest chess
genius of the woad and another star not unworthy
to encounter the master. Morphy, however, assures
me that he has rennuuced chess altogether, and the
unhappy state of entre at home will not permit him
to bring to the task of meeting a great player the
calmness and coolness which are essential to aucems.
He has also matters of more importance to occupy
hie mi9d, and seems to be in feeble health."
HOW . A FREE PEOPLE CONDUCT
LONG WAR:
A CHAPTER FROM ENGLISH HISTORY.
BY CHARLES J. STILLE
We have known hitherto in this country so little
of the actual realities of 'war on a grand scale, that 1
many are beginning to look upon the violent opposi a I
tion to-sthe Government, and the slowness of the '
progress of our arms, as signs of hopeless discourage
ment. History, however, shows us that these are the
inevitable incidents of - all-wars waged by a free peo
ple. This might be abundantly illustrated by many
remarkable events in English history, from the days
of the Great Rebellion down through the campaigns
of the Prince of Orange, and of Marlborough, to the
wars which grew out of the events of the French Re
volution. 'War is alWays entered upon amidst a vast
, deal of popular enthusiasm, which is utterly unrea
' soning. It is the universal voice of history, thatsuch
enthusiasm is wholly unreliable - in supporting the
prolonged and manifold burdens which are insepara
ble from every waravaged on an extensive scale,
and for a long period. The popular idea of war is a
speedy and decisive and an immediate occu
pation of the enemy's capital, followed by a treaty
of peace by which the objects of the war are perma
nently secured. Nothing is revealed to the excited
passions of the multitude but dazzling visions •of
national - glory, purchased by small privations, and
the - early and complete subjugation of their enemies.
It is, therefore, not unnatural that at the first reverse
they should Yield atonce to an unmanly depression,
arid, giving up ally - oe; lost, they should vent upon
the Government fo ,its conduct of the war, and upon
the army and its gesierals for their failure to make
their dreams of vicOry.realities, an abuse as unrea
soning as was their riginal enthusiasm.•
- Experience has',
_• fight the .English people that
the progress of'-a ettir ..never fulfils the popular ex-.
bectations ; thatiarthaugh.victory may be assured at
ast to patient andsiitiring vigor and energy in its
prosecution, yet daring the continuance of a long
war there can he nOrell-foundeff hope of a uniform
and constant ser.iga • of brilliant triumphs in the
field, illustratine4he profound wisdom of the •
. policy of the Cabliset ;. that, on the contrary, all
mar, even that whiph is most successful in the end,
consists rather,- checkered fortunes '
of alternas
of victory a d disaster, and that its conduct
is - generally may ed by what were evidently,
}when viewed In. e light of experience, blunders
so - z!f!ritur in - tlat)s - telley adopted by the Govern
ment, or in the Itiegy o.' s,: • . gerieialg, that the
le
wonder is success - was achieved at all. The P.n-g
-lish have thus beezi::taught that the true character
istic of-public 'opinion in its judgment of a war
should be, not so much hopefulness or impatience of
immediate results,ffut rather a stern endurance—that
Ring-quality of heroic constancy which, rooted deep
in a profound conviction of the justice of the cause,
supports a lofty public spirit equally well in the
midst of temorary disaster and in the hour of as
sured triumph. - • . .
' We have h4d no such experience here. Our people'
are; perhaps;! more - easily excited by success, and
more readily d epressed by reverses, than the English,
and it is, therefore, worth while to consider how
they carried on War on a large scale and for a pro
tracted period: It will be found, if we mistake not,
that the denunciations of the Government, so com
mon among us of late, and the complaints of the in
activity of the' array, haVe their exact 'counterpart
in the history of the progress of all the wars in which
England has been engaged since the days of the Great
Rebellion. He - who draws consolation froth the les
sons of the past; will not, we think, seek comfort in
vain when he discovers that in all those wars' in
which the Government and the army have been so
bitterly assailed (ecept that of the American Revo
lution), England has at last been triumphant. It is
worth while s then; to ;look into English history, to
understand how war is successfully carried on, not
withstanding the - obstacles which, owing to a per
verted public opinion, exist within the nation itself.
These difficultietOlthough they inhere in the very
nature of a free.sovernment, often prove, as we
shall see, more - fruitfiff of embarrassment to the
favorable prosecution of a war than the active opera
tions of the enemy.. .
We propose to, illustrate the propositions which
we have advanced by a study of the series of cam
paigns known in English history as the Peninsular
War. We select this particular war because we
think that in many of its'events, and in the policy
which sustained it, there are to be observed many
important, almost startling, parallelisms with our
present struggle. We have, of course, no reference
to any similarity existing in the principlewhich pro
duced the two wars, but rather to the striking re
semblance in the modes adopted by the 'two people
for prosecuting War on a grand scale, and for the
vindication of a' principle regarded as of vital im
portance by them.
The Peninsular War,
on the part of England, as.
was contended by-the Ministry during its progress,
„ 'and as is now universally recognized, was a struggle
not'only to maintain her commercial supremacy.
(which was then; as it is now, her life), but also to
protect her own soil . from invasion by the French,
by transferring ' the scene 'of conflict to distant
Spain. The general purpose of assisting the alli
ance against- - Napoleon seems always to have
been a subordinate motive. It is now admitted
by all historians,-,that upon_ success in this war
depended not only England's_ rank among nations,
'but her very 'eseistenee•as an independent people.
The war was carried on for more than five years, and
on a scale, so - ittenethe number of men and the extent
of the military operations. are concerned, until then
wholly unattempteff by England in her European
wars. The reault, 'as it need not be maki s was not
. only to crown the,British arms with the most bril
liant and undying lustre, but also to-retesin:perma
- nentiy in their places the party whose eirdylitle.to
pub/W.1'214r wae s thatthey had- ail : lol'bn the' war .
against the most serious obstacles, and brought it to
a successful terinination. Thus was delayed, it
may be remarked, in passing, for at least twenty
years,. the adoption of those measures of reform
which at last gave to England that place in modern
civilization which had long since been reached by
most of the nations of the Continent, by passing
through the trials of a bloody revolution. If we,
then, in 'our dark. hours, are inclined to doubt and
despondency mate the final result. let us not forget
the ordeal thriaugh which England successfully
'passed. 'We sl - ^l4-find.3hat,,,in the commencements
there was the same wild . arid - unreasoning enthu—
siasm with which we are familiar; the same bitter
abuse and denunciation of the Government-at the
first reverses ; the same ignorant and impatient cri
ticism of military operations ; the same factious and
disloyal opposition on the part of a powerful party ;
the same discouragement and despondency at times
on the part of the true and loyal ; the same prophe
cies of the utter hopelessness of success ; the same
complaints of grievous and burdensome taxation,
and predictions of the utter financial ruin of the
s country; the same violent attacks upon the Govern
' ment for its arbitrary decrees, and particularly for
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; the same
difficulties arising froth the inexperience of the
arty; and the same weakness on the part of the
Government in not boldly and energetically support
ing the army in the field. These- are some of the
more striking parallelisms between the Peninsular
Warand our own struggle which a slight sketch of
the progress of that war will render very apparent.
, The insurrection in Spain which followed immedi
ately upen a knowledge of the intrigues of Napoleon
at I3ayonne in April . 1801, by which the royal fa-'
- mily was entrapped into an abdication of its right to
the throne, and Joseph Bonaparte made king of that
country, roused universal admiratiou and enthusi
asm in England. It WAS thought by all parties that an
obstacle to the further progress of Napoleon's schemes
of the most formidable character had at last been
found. It was the first popular insurrection in any
country against Napoleon's power, and consequently
when the deputies fromthe Asturias reached Engl s rid,
• imploring succor, their appeals excited the popular
feeling to the highest pitch, and the opposite parties
in Parliament and the country vied with each other
in demanding that England should aid the insurrec
tion with the whole of her military power. It is
Curious to observe that, when the question of aid
was brought before Parliament, Mr. Canning and
Mr. Sheridan, who had probably never acted together
before on any political question, rivalled each other
in their praise of the Spaniards, and in their expres
sions of hope and belief that Napoleon had at last
taken a step which would speedily prove fatal to
him. Large supplies were voted by acclamation, and
an important expedition, afterwards operating in
two columns—one under the command of Sir Sohn
• 'Moore, the other under that of Sir Arthur Wellesley—
was despatched to A rlie Peninsula to aid the insur
gents. It is not our purpose to trace the progress of
this expedition, but merely to notice the effect which
its immediate results, the retreat to Corunna, and
the Convention of Cintra, produced upon popular
feeling in England. As we look back on the history
of that' time, the folly and madness which seized
upon the popular mind when the terms of the Con
vention-of Cintra became known can only he
-ex
plained by recalling the high-wrought and extrava
gant expectations of immediate success with which
the war had been entered upon. , 'By this Conven
tion, and as the result of a single battle, Portugal
- was wholly evacuated by the French ; yet, such were
the unreasonable demands of public opinion that,
because the whole French army. had hot been made
prisoners of war, the Ministry was almost swept
away by the outburst, and it could only control the .
storm by removing the two generals highestin rank.
It required all the family and political influence of
the third, Sir Arthur - Wellesley, to enable him to re
taro his position in the army. The disastrous_ re
'treat of ,Sir John Moore's army to Corunna, and
the enisy triumphs of the French at that period
throughout all Spain, plunged the English into- de
spair. Going from one extreme to another, men who,
only three months before, had quarrelled with the
I army in . Portugal because it had not given them the
spectacle of a French marshal and twenty thousand
of his soldiers as prisoners of war at Spithead, now
spoke openly of the folly of any attempt at all. on
the part of England to resist the progress of the
French arms in the Peninsula. In Parliament there
was the usual lame apology for disaster—an attempt
to shift the responsibility from the Ministry to the
general in command ; but the great fact that all their
hopes had : been disappointed still remained, and,
I after the explanations of the Government, the gene
' •ral despondency became more gloomy than ever.' It
is not difficult, in the light of history, to see where
the blame of failure should reit. Any one who is dis
posed now to sneer and cavil at the shortcomings of
our own Administration, to impute to it views short
sighted and impracticable in their policy, and to blame
it for want of energy and vigor in the prosecution of
the war, has only to turn to Col. Napier's account of
the stupid blunders of the English Government, its ab
surd and contradictory orders, its absolute ignorance
not only of the elementary principles of all war, but
of the very nature of the country in which the army
was to operate, and of the resources of the enemy,
to he convinced that had its mode of carrying on
hostilities (which was the popular one) been adapted,
in six months not an English soldier would have re
maimed in the Peninsula except as a prisoner of
war. The history of this campaign contains im
portant lessons for us ; it shows conclusively that
the immediate results of- war are never equal to the
public expectation, and that if this public expecta
tion, defeated by thei imbecility of the Government,
or soured by disaster in the field, is to be thesole
rule by which military operations are to be - judged,
- no war for the defence of a principle can long be
carried on.
Fortunately for the fame and power of England,
the Ministry, although ignorant of the true mode of
pt °scenting hostilities, had sense enough to perceive
that their only true policy was perseverance. They
were strong enough to resist the formidable opposi
tion which the events we have referred to developed
in Parliament and the country, and undismayed by
the experience of the past, concluded a treaty with
the Provisional Government of Spain, by which they
pledged England never to abandon the national cause
until the French were driven across the Pyrenees.
The army was placed upon a better footing,. was
largely reinforced, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was ap
pointed to the chief command. The Governnient,
not yet wholly awakened from its illusions,sstill
thought it practicable to reach Madrid in a single
campaign, and to that end the efforts of Wellington
were directed. It became necessary first to dislodge
Soult at Oporto, and the magnificent victory of the
English gained by the passage of the Douro at that
point went far to revive confidence at home in the
invincibility of their army. Yet so clear is it that
victory in war often depends upon what, for some
better name, we may call mere good fortune, that we,
have the authority of the Duke of. Wellington him
self for saying, that this army, which hadjuat exhi
bited such prodigies of valor, was then in such a
state of demoralization that although "excellent on
parade, excellent to light; it was worse than an
enemy in a country, and liable to dissolution alike
by success or defeat." Certainly. no severer 'criti-'
cism has ever been justified by the ineknerienceand
want of discipline of our own raw levies than that
contained - in this memorable declaration. A little
reflection and candor might perhaps teach us, as
it did the English, that nothing can compensate for
the want of experience, and that every allowance
is to be made for disasters where it la necessary
to educate both officers and soldiers in the actual
presence of the enemy. Wellington - soon after
wards moved towards the Spanish frontier, hoping
by a - junction with the army under ()Lauda to fight a ,
battle with the French, which would open to him the
road to the capital. The battle was fought at Tab%
vera, and although it has since been claimed by the
.English as one of their proudest victories, and the
name of Talas - era is now inscribed upon the stand
ards of the regiments who took part in it with those
of Salamanca and Vittoria, yet the result was in
the end, that Wellington was obliged to retreat to
Lisbon just three months after he had set out from
that place, having left his wounded in the hands of
the French, having escaped as if by a miracle from
being wholly cut off in his retreat, and having lost
One-third of his army in battle and by disease. Of
course the blame was thrown upon the want of co
operation on the part of the Spaniards. This we
have nothing to do with ; it is the result of the cam
paign with which we are concerned. Dependence
upon the Spaniards was certainly, as it turned out,
a fault, but it was one of the fair chances of war,
and it was a fault in which Wellington, made wise
by experience, was never again detected.
When the news of the untoward result of this
campaign reached England, the clamor against the
Government and against Wellington was quite as
violent. as that excited by the disasters of Sir John
Moore's army. The opposition in Parliament took
advantage of this feeling to rouse public opinion to
such a manifestation as might compel the termina
tion of the war in the Peninsula and drive the Min
istry from office. The Common Council of London,
probably a fair exponent of the opinions of the mid
dle class, petitioned the King not to confirm the
grant of .4:2,000 a year, which the Ministry had suc
ceeded in getting Parliament to vote to Wellington.
The petitioners ridiculed the idea that a battle at
tended with such results should be called a victory.
" It should rather be called a calamity," they said,
"since we were obliged to seek safety in a precipi
tate flight, abandoning many thousands of our
wounded countrymen into the hands of the 'French."
In the • opinion of the strategists'in the Common
Council, and of their friends in Parliament, Wel
lington might be a brave officer, but he was no gene
ral,• he had neglected the protection of his flanks
and his line of communication. When it is remem
bered, that at this very time, Wellington, profiting
by the experience of the past, was diligently making
hie army really effective within the lines of Torres
Vedras, from which stronghold it was in due time
to, sally forth like a giant refreshed, never to rest
until it had planted the English nag on the heights
of Toulouse, we may perhaps smile at the presump
tion of those'who, sincere well-wishers to the cause
displayed only their ignorance in their criticism. But
What shall be Said of those who, knowing better, being
quite able to understand the wisdom of the policy
adopted by the general to insure success in the stu-'
pendous enterprise in which the country was en
gaged, yet with a factious apixit and with the sole ob
ject of getting into power themselves, took advan
tage of the excitement of the ignorant multitude to
penalize the energies of the Governmentl
That hideous moral leprosy, which seems to be
the sad but invariable attendant upon all political
discussions in a free government, corrupting the
very sources of public life, breeding only the base
spirit of faction, had taken complete possession of
the opposition, and in its sordid calculations, the
dishonor of the country, or the danger of the army,
was as nothing provided the office, the power, and
the patronage of the Government was secured in
their hands. It mattered little to them, provided
they could drive the Ministry from office, whether
its downfall was brought about by blunders in Spain,
or by the King's obstinacy about Catholic Emanci
pation, or by an obscure quarrel about the influence
of the Lords of the bed-chamber. The sincerity of
these declamations of the opposition was curiously
enough put to the test some time afterwards, when
the Ministry, wearied by the factious demagoguism
with which their measures were assailed, and under
standing perfectly their significance, boldly challenged
their opponents, if they were in earnest, to make a
definite motion in the House of Commons, that
Portugal should be abandoned to its fate. This
move completely unmasked their game, and
for a time silenced the clamor, for it was per
understood on all hands, that deep in the
popular heart, undisturbed by the storms which
swept over its - surface, there was a thorough and
abiding conviction of the absolute necessity of re
sisting the progress of Napoleon's arms, and that
the real safety of England herself required that resis
tance should then be made in Spain. Still this noisy
clamor did immense mischief ,• it weakened the Gov
ernment, it prolonged the strife, it alarmed the timid,
it discouraged the true, and it so far imposed upon
Napoleon himself that thinking that in these angry
invectives against the Government he found the real
exponent of English sentiment, he concluded, not
unnaturally, that the people were tired and disgusted
with the Ivar, and that the privations which itoc
visioned were like a cancer, slowly but surely eating
out the sources of national life.
In the midst Of these violent tumults at home,
Wellington Was silently preparing for his great work
within the lines of Torres Vexlrat. It would not be
easy to overrate the difficulties by which he was sur
rounded.. He was fully aware of the outcry which
had been raised against him; he knew that Am a
Cabinet weakened by internal dissensions, and on
the verge of overthrow from the vigorous assaults of
the opposition, and from its own unpopularity occa
sioned by the failure of.the IValcheren expedition,
and the disasters in the Peninsula he could expect
no thorough and reliable support. Indeed,the Govern
ment, almost in despair, threw the whole responsi
bility for the military measures on the Continent on
him alone. He accepted the responsibility in a most
magnanimous spirit. "I conceive "
,he writes, "that
the honor and the interests cif the country re
quire that we should hold our Position here as long
as possible, and please God, I will maintain it as
long as I can. f will neither endeavor to shift from
my own shoulders on those of the ministers the re
sponsibility for the failure, by calling for means
which I know they cannot give, and which, per
haps, would not add materially to the facility of at
taining our object; nor will I give to the ministers,
who are not strong, and who must feel the delicacy
of..their,own.-situation, an excuse for withdrawing
the fumy. froni's petition which, in my opinion, the '
honor and interest of the country require they should
maintain' as long as possible." Animated by this
heroic sense of duty, the Commander-in-Chief pre
pared to contend against the 200,000 men under Mas
sena, whom Napoleon had sent to chase him into
the sea. He had, to oppose this immense force, but
25,000 English soldiers, and about the same number
of Portuguete, tolerably organized. Secure within
the lines of Torres Vedras,
he quietly waited until •
the want of provisions, and the utter hopelessness of
an assault upon his position, forced upon Massena
the necessitpof retreating. Then instantly pursu
ing, in a series of battles, of almost daily occurrence,
he drove Massena out of Portu,gal, and reached once
more-the Spanislifrontier in May, 1811, nearly three
years after the English had sent an army to the as
instance !of the. Peninsula. Here he rested for a
longtime, making preparations for the siege of Ba
dajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo, operations requiring time,
and the success of which was essential to the safety
of the army in its further progress. Still, so little
was 'Wellington's petition, military and political,
understood in England even at that time after all
the proofs he had.given of consummate ability, that
public clamor was again roused against the mode
adopted by him for conducting the war. As there
were no disasters at which to grumble , the people
talked of "barren victories," because, ike those of
Crecy and Aginconrt, they brought no territorial ac
quisitions, forgetting then what they have never
been weary of boastingly proclaiming since, that
these victories were the hest proofs that their army
was distinguished by the highest military qualities,
which. properly directed and supported, were capable
of achieving the most glorious results. So profound
was the conviction of the immense superiority of the
French, both in numbers and in the quality of their
troops, that the public mind was in a state of fever
ish anxiety, and many of the stoutest hearts-gave
way to despair. Aboutthls period Sir Walter Scott
writes to 'Mr. Ellis: "These cursed, double-cursed
news (from Spain), have sunk my spirits so much;
that I am almost at disbelieving a Providence ;. God
forgive me but I think some evil demon• has been
permitted n.
permitted in the shape of this tyrannical mon
ster, whom God has sent on the nations visited
in his anger. The spring -tide may,. for aught I
know, break upon us in the next session of Parlia
ment. There is an evil fate upon us in all we do at
home or abroad." So Sir James Mackintosh, wri
ting to Gentz, 'Vienna " I believe, like you} in a
,
resurrection because I believe in the immortality of
civilization, but when, and by whom, and in what
form, are questions which I have not the sagacity
to answer, and on which it would be• boldness to
hazard a conjecture. A dark and stormy night; a
black series of ages, may be prepared for our pos
terity, before the dawn that opens themore perfect
day. Who can tell how long that fearful night may
be before the dawn of a brighter morrow 3. The race
of man may reach the promised land ; but there is
no assurance that the present - generation.will not pe
rish in the wilderness." As if to render the situation
snore gloomy, if possible, the Marquis of Wellesley,
the brother of Wellington, left the Ministry upon
the avowed ground. that the Government would not
support the war with sufficient vigor. History has.
stripped his conduct of any such worthy motive, and
shown that the real trouble was his anxiety to sup
plant Mr. Perceval. At the same time the attack
was kept up in the opposite quarter. " No.man in
his senses," said Sir Francis Burdett, "could enter
tain a hope of the final success of our arms in the
Peninsula. Our laurels were great but barren, and
our victories in their effects mere defeats." Mr;
- Whitbread, too, as usual, was not behindhand with
his prophecies. "He saw no. reason," he said, " to
alter his views respecting peace; war- must other
wise terminate in the subjugation of either of the
contending Powers. They were both great ; . but
this was a country of factitious greatness France
was a country of natural greatness."' So General
Tarleton " had the doctrine of Mr: Fox in his favor,
who wished for the pencil of a Cervantes to be able
to ridicule those who desired to- enter upon a- Con
tinental war."*
Thus. from universal enthusiasm in favor of the
war, public opinion, at first manifesting
itself through the factiousspirit of the opposition, at
length spoke through all its. organs, in tones of de
spondency and despair, of the situation and pros
pects of the country, and simply because there-had
not been that sort of 'military success which it could
understand, to sustain and direct it. Universal dis
tiust seized upon the public. mind, and had it .not
been for the heroic constancy of that great Com
mander, whose task in supporting the Ministry at
home was at least as difficult as that of beating, the
Fiench•in Spain, the glory of England had sunk
forever.
Yetsit happened, as it so often happens in the or
der of Divine Providence, in the moral as in' the
physical world, that the night was darkest just be
fore dawn. Amidst all this universal despondency
and sinister foreboding, events were preparing which
in a few short months changed the whole face of
Europe, and forced back that torrent of revolu
tionary success which had spread over the whole
Continent, until it overwhelmed the country where
it had its source in complete ruin. The discussions
in Parliament to which we have referred took place
In Februar 1612. With the successful siege of
- Ciudad Rodrigo on the eighteenth of January of
that year, with the fall of Dadajoz on the 26th of
March, tke first battle of Salamanca on the 20th of
'July, and Napoleon; invasion of Russia in June in
the same year, begat. the downfall of the French
Empire.
Wellington at last reached Madrid in August,
1812, more than four years later than lie ought to
have done, according to the strategists of Partin-,
inept and the Press. This was all forgotten ar
the moment,•so magic a wand is held by success.
The fickle voice of popular applause was again
bend, echoing the spirit of confidence which his
persistent and undaunted conduct had revived in
the hearts of his countrymen. His career of victory, .
however, was destined not to be unchecked, and
when, after his occupation of Madrid, his unsuccess
ful assault upon' the Castle of Burgos rendered a re
treat to the Portuguese frontier and the evacuation
of the capital a proper military movement, although
that reti eat was'compensated for by the abandon
ment of Andalusia by the French, in order to concen
trate their whole force against him, still the blind
multitude could not be made to understand it, and
began again to murmur.
It is not now difficult to see that the victory at
Salamanca was really what the far-seeing sagacity
of Marshal Soult predicted at the time it would
become "a prodigious historical event," that it
was the pivot on which at that time hinged
the destinies of England, one of those battles
of which we see perhaps a dozen only in the
• The followihg description of the opposition of that
day. taken from the Ammo/ Regist , r for ISI2 hears so
striking a likeness to the peculiarities of the leaders tot'
an insignificant but restless faction among us,' than.,
omitting the old-fashioned drapery of the proper MUTICS.•
they seem to have sat for the photograph. It may he
remarked as n, most singular eirennistanee, these
persons in this country who profess to have the gresiest
abhorrence of ministerial tyranny and oppressioralook
with the utmost coolness on the tyranny and oppression
of Bonaparte. The regular apposition do not mention it
with that abhorrence which might be expect:at front •
them ; but the leaders of the popular party in Psesliament
go further. They are almost always ready to find an
excuse for the conduct of Bonaparte. The totost violent
slid unjustifiable acts of hix tyranny raise but feeble
indignation in their minds, while the most Pritlins act of
ministerial oppression is inveighed al,,nsiust with the
utmost bitterness. Ready and unsuspecting eredenco is
ifiV(ll to every account of!Bonaptirt*A successt while
the accounts of the stccea , of his oripon.i-nts aro received
with coldness and distrust. Were it not for those things,
the conduct of Dtr . Whitbread and his friends would be
hailed with more satisfaction t and inspire more con
fidence with the real layers tat their country; for they
deserve Ample credit for the undaunted and unwearied
liminess with which they hove set themselves
abuses, and against e\ cry ioitanoo of oppresiloa,"
THREE CENTS.
whole course of history which are really de
cisive of the fate of Empires. It completely un
loosed the French power in the Peninsula, and pre
pared the way for the great success of Vitoria, the
next year, which gave the coup de grace to the French
military occupation of Spain. It is not our present
purpose to trace the history of the next campaign,
but it,is curious to observe the effects produced by
assured success upon that public opinion which had
shifted so often and so strangely during the progress
of this eventful struggle. The opposition, as their
only hope of escape from political annihilation, and
thinking to swim with the popular current, abused
the ministers for not supporting Wellington with
sufficient earnestness, complaining that they had
taken the advice which they themselves had so often
and so eloquently tendered. Rut it was of no avail ;
this wretched charlatanism was too transparent to
impose upon any one, and of the great party who
opposed the war, no one ever after rose to office or
power in England. It required a whole generation,
in the opinion of the English constituencies, to ex
piate.the faults of those who had sneered at thegreat
Duke, and had called the glorious fields of Vineiro,
Busaco, Talavera, Fuentes d'Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo,
and Badajoz, names which had become associated
with the proudest recollections of English renown,
"mere barren victories, equal in their effects to de
feats."
- We pass now to the consideration of another class
of difficulties inherent in the prosecution of every
war, and generally of far greater magpitude than any
other—those connected with the raising of the vast
sums of money required for the support of military
operations. In this important matter, if we mistake
not, there are some striking points of resemblance
between the English experience during the war, and
our present situation. It is the fashion among many
who seek to excite the public alarm on this subject
from unworthy, and sometimes, it may be feared,
from treasonable motives, to represent the enormous
outlay of the nation's wealth which is poured out to
save the nation's life, as wholly unparalleled in his
tory. Yet it may be asserted, without any fear of
contradiction, that England, with a population then
little more than half of that which now inhabits our
loyal States, with resources infinitely less in propor
tion'at that time than our own, her manufacturing
industry so far .as external outlet was concerned
wholly crippled by the operation of the French con
tinental system and her own •orders in Council, ex
pended, durinz every year of the Peninsular war, as
large an annual sum as has been required here each
year to create and keep up the gigantic force now in
arms to put down the rebellion. During the five
years that the.wariapted, her average anneal ?t••
nenditnre exceeded ninety' hipliOns of Pounds ster
ling, orttour hundred 'and fifty millions of dollars,
which is about the sum which is demanded of us.
No one, of course, pretends to say that this rate of
expenditure is not appalling, yet it concerns us to
know that it is not unprecedented, and that these
vast amounts have been raised from national re
sources far inferior to our own. It should not be
forgotten,. also, that they represent the money
price of England's independence, and if ours is se
cured by a far greater outlay, we certainly are not
disposed to quarrel with the wisdom of the invest
ment.
The question is, how were these immense sums
raised in England ? The man who would have pre
dicted, at the commencement of the war With
France, that the English national debt would at its
close exceed one thousand millions of pounds stet
hog, and that the country would be able to bear such
a burden, would have bee regarded as a visionary
as wild as he who in um country, two years ago;
might have foretold the present amount of our na
tional debt; and have contended that, in spite of•it,
the public . credit would remain unimpaired. The
difficulty in England of raising these vast sums was
tenfold greater than it is here. Napoleon, looking
upon England the Southern people have been
taught to regard us, as a purely commercial nation,
undoubtedly placed more reliance for ultimate suc
cess upon the instinct of money getting, which
would shrink from the pecuniary sacrifices necessary
in a prolonged struggle, than upon the mere victo
ries of his army. Hence he pursued, during his
whole career, an inflexible purpose of ruining Eng
lish commerce, and by a series of measures known
as the Continental system, endeavored to exclude
English ships and English products from the mar
kets of the world. The effect of these measures,-al
though' not so serious as he wished and had antici
pated, nevertheless crippled enormously the re
sources, of England just at the period when they
were most needed.
Taking the three years before the issuing of the
Orders in Council and the vigorous 'enforcement
Of - the Continental system, which were coincident
in point of time with the commencement of the
Spanish war, the average annual exports, sank
from fifty-seven millions to twenty-three millions,
taking the average of three years after they had
been in operation. Taxes were laid on at a most
burdensome rate. The income tax was ten per
cent., and besides, specific war taxes amount
ing to more than twenty millions a year were
imposed. Notwithstanding all these taxes, the
debt increased beyond the annual income more
than one thousand millions of dollars during the
Peninsular war. Discontent and violence among
the laboring classes, became universal, and it was
remarked that the achievement of the greatest vic
tories in Spain was celebrated in England "amidst
a population who had been prevented by the bur
den of taxation on the absolute necessaries of
life, from securing a livelihood by the strictest
industry, and thus pauperism had been generated
throughout the land, a pauperism aggravated by a
spirit of pillage, which it required a strong military
force to repress." Bankruptcy and ruin fell upon
the trailing classes, and absolute exhaustion of the
resources of the country seemed almost reached. The
public stdcks had sunk to such a degree that the
three per cents., which are now always above so per
cent., were rarely higher during the war than 65 per
cent., and so depressed at last had the public credit
beeonie, that the last loan of the Continental war
that of April, 1815, was taken by • the contractor at
53 per cent., and paid for in the depreciated papei of
the day, and yet the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was congratulated even by the opposition for having
made " a good operation." The Bank was in a state
of chronic suspension, the buying and selling of gold
were prohibited to the public under severe penalties,
and yet etery gold guinea which was sent by the Go
vernment to the army in Spain (and nothing else
:would answer the purpose of money in that country)
cost thirty per cent. premium. limy England sur
vived all this complication of troubles is one of the
marvels of history, but it is not our purpose to dis
cuss that question. The eat fact that the money
required was raised somehow is all we have to do
with at present.. 'When me have been at war for
twenty years, and are forced, in order to' raise the
means of carrying it on, to submit to one tithe of the
sacrilices;whichlwere endured by the English, we may
then perhaps begin seriously to consider the money
value of the Union.
The lesson which the review we have taken of the
progress of the Peninsular war teaches, is, it seems
to us, one of hope and encouragement for if it shows
anything it proves clearly that in the support of
public opinion, and in the means requisite to main
tain a great army, those fundamental essentials of
reel military success, our Government is immeasu
rably stronger than the English ever was at any-pe
riod of the war. It teaches also another impor
tant lesson, and that is, that there is such a thing
as public opinion falsely so. called, which is noisy
just in proportion as its real influence is narrow
and restricted. One of the most difficult and delicate
tasks of the statesman is to distinguish the true
from this false opinion, the factious demagogue from
the grumbling but sincere patriot, and -to recognize
with a ready instinct the voice which comes from
the depths of the great heart of the people, in warn
ing it may be sometimes, in encouragement often,
but alwaySechoing its abiding faith in the ultimate
triumph of the good cause.
We have confined ourselves in our illustrations to
the discussion of questions as they affected the suc
cess of purely military operations, because we feel
that lure our grand business is to clear away the ob
stacles, real or fancied, which may in any way fm-
pair our military efficieney. In military success
alone, we are firmly convinced, is to be found the
true solution of our difficulty, the only force which
can give vitality or ;permanence to any theory of
settlement: As the matter now stands, it is idle to
hope for either peace or safety until this question of
military superiority is unmistakably and definitely
settled. Upon this point then, the increase of our mi
lit ery. efficiency, which embraces not merely thelm
provement of the condition of the army, but also,
as we have endeavored to show by English exam
ples, and in a greater degree than is often supposed,
the support of the Government in its general policy
of conducting the war, should the efforts of all those
who influence public opinion be concentrated.
There is a certain"class of men among us,.not very
numerous,- perhaps, but still,. owing to-their position
and culture. of considerable influence, who, aeons
torned.to find in the European armies their standard
of military efficiency, are disposed to doubt whether
a force, composed as ours is of totally different ma
t erials, can accomplish great results. We may admit
at once the superiority of foreign military organiza
tion, the result of the traditions of centuries of mi
litary experience, digested into a thorough system,
and carried - out by long-trained , °Mem perfectly
versed in the details of the service. Much inconve
nience has necessarily resulted in our case from the
ignorance of regimental officers, to-a. greater degree
probably, however, from a want of proper care and
attention on their part to the troops when in camp,
than from any gross incompetency or misconduct on
the field of battle. Instances of such misconduct
there have undoubtedly. been, but, considering . the
number of the officers, and their want of experience,
those instances are. .extremely rare, and when we
call to mind the number of officers . who have fallen,
while leading their men in battle, out of proportion,
as it undoubtedly is, with the losses in other (wars,
we may well palliate deficiencies in this respect, out
of consideration for their heroic gallantry and devo
tion. We do not underrate certainly the value of
good officers, but history tells us that great victories
have been achieved by armies who were no better led
than ours. The incompetency of his officers wasone of
Wellington's standing complaints in Spain. Most
of them knew absolutely nothing beyond. the
mere routine of garrison duty; they were all
what is technically called. "gentlemen," for each
one had purchased his commission at a high price,
but they had no systematic training in military
Schools, nearly all of them. had had no actual ex
perience of war, and their average intelligence
was undoubtedly below that of the men who hold
similar positions in our army.* All accounts
agree that at that period the scientific branches
of the great art of war were almost wholly neglected
in the British army, and such was the happy igno
rance of the elements of strategy, that at a court
martial composed of general. officers for the trial of
General Whiteloek in if-OS, for his failure at Buenos
Ayres, it was necessary to explain to the court what
WAS meant in military. phrase by the "right bank"
all river.
it is said again, by those who have the standard
of foreign armies always before their eyes, that
among our soldiers there is not a proper deference to
rank, tco much[carnaraderie in short, and that this is
fatal to discipline. But it should be remembered
that mere formal discipline may be one thing, and
the true Spirit of discipline another, and yet both
may answer the same purpose_ The first may be
more showy than the latter, but not more valuable
to real military efficiency. Everything depends on
the character of the soldier whole to be governed by
it. The British army is composed, as we all know,
of the refuse of the population, and in the war in the
Peninsula it was largely reinforced by the introduc
tion into its ranks of convicts taken from the hulks,
who were there expiating infamous offences. With
such men, motives based 031 a sense of duty were
powerless. .]drunkenness, theft, marauding, a • mu
tinous spirit under privations, and a fierce thirst of
license which defied all control in the hour of vic
tory, these were the brutal passions which could only
be checked by the equally brute hand of force.
But from such a vile herd, made useful only as a
slave is made useful, by fear of the lash, to the el
vilized;.sober, well-educaind American citizen, ani
mated with the consciousness that he is fighting for
a g,rest cause, in the success of which he and his
children have a deep personal interest, and who.
lear,ns obedience because both his common sense and
his sense of duty recognize its necessity, how irk
measurable is the distance! The American volun
teer,
in this respeet, has not had justice done to :kis
emellence, He is eertainly a soldier essentiallßsta
goieris, and when we hear sneers at his want of 'dis-
cipline ' let us remember that although he mr.f, not
regard his officers:is superior beings, yet experience
has alresdy shown that in the cheerful perfeamance
of his newrdutica under privations ; in hifsfreedpin,
cm those vices which in many minds are insepara.
bly associated with the very idea of a sohtier;,
courage, endurance, and steadiness in liattle;4l4o.,
more than, all, in those higher qualities. which, are
•
*We have no room to enumerate in dietali.., the coin
niaints made by the Duke, of the officers. of Lis army.
Those who arc interested in the sniiieet tufty ceiiitilt Col.
Gm wood's dib volume, pages 343, 343: 3i2,. "Xx„ - ae9,
and 44Y7,•The whole story is summed up, however, in the
tzP tent order occasioned by the tr.:orderly retreat frotn
Burgos, in which the Duke said ' that discipline had de
tetit during the campaign ha a grestier degree. thalt
he had ever witnessed, or CYO read of in any artilLand
chi:: without any disaster, or any nuusnal privation or
haidship; that the officers had from the first lost all yam
maud over their men, and that the trite cause of this un
happy state of affairs was to be found in the hahi btu l 72E
-of:et rof duly by the regtment al officerx:' Thi: is the
atircy of which the Duke said later, that "with it, he -
eotild go anywhere and de anything," and, good or bad,
iii a ved Europe—iii the English =ease.
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the fruit of his education, general intelligence., and
love of country, he presents himself to us as a figure
hitherto wholly unknown in military history.
One of the most cruel statements which party ran
cor has circulated in regard to the condition of the
army is, that the rate of sickness and mortality is
excessive, and that this is due to the neglect of the
Government. Fortunately, we have the means of
showing that these statements are false. From June
1,1861, to March I,lB62—nine months—the annual rate
of mortality for the whole army is ascertained to be
63 in a thousand, and the sickness rate 104 in a thou
sand. The returns for the summer campaigns are
not yet printed, but it will appear from them that in
the army of the Potomac, on the 10th of June, after
the battle of Fair Oaks, and while the army was
encamped on the Chickahominy, the whole number
of sick, present and absent, compared with the
whole force of that army present and absent, was
128 in a thousand. During the stay of the .army on
the Peninsula it lost less than 14,000 men by death
from disease and wounds, and the average sickness
rate during the campaign was about that which has
for some time prevailed in the whole army, less than
ten per cent. of the whole force. It appears, strange
to say, that the army was more healthy when in the
trenches before Yorktown, than at any other period
of the campaign. Compare this with the English
experience: We have already said. that IVel
lington lost about one-third of his whole army from
malarious fever on his retreat from Talavera ; on the
Ist October, 1811, the Anglo-Portuguese army had
66,000 men fit for duty, and 23,000 sick in hospitals;
and in the Crimea, while the anima? rate of mor
tality for the whole war was 232 in a thousand, the
period of active operations, the last three months of
1859, and the first three months of 1856 ; shows the
fearful rate of 711 deaths in every thousand men.
It cannot be doubted that to many the most unfa
vorable symptom of our present condition is the
slow progress of our arms. This slowness is more
apparent than real, for the history of modern war
fare scarcely shows an instance in which so great
real progress has been made in the same space of
time, and it is manifest that whenever our Northern
soldiers have had a chance of fighting the enemy on
anything like equal terms, they have• fully main
tained their superiority. It is none the less true,
however, that public expectation in this matter has
been much disappointed, and it is curious to-look at
some of the explanations given for it. The . Prince
de Joinville, in his recent paniphlet, speaking of the
battle of Fair Oaks, and of the neglect to throw
bridges over the Chickahominy at the proper time,
by means of which the whole rebel army might have
been taken in flank, and probably destroyed, ascribes
the neglect on one page to what he' calls la lenteur
Atnericaine, which he seems to think always leads
our countrymen to let the chance slip' of doing the
right thing at the right time, and again on the next
to "faule d'envanisation, Aue de lacrarehie, fat* de
lien, qui en restate entre Came du chef el Parma, lien
puissant qui permet a un General de demander a ses
soldats et d'en oblenir avenglement ces efforts extraord'i
noires out gagnent les battailles." In other words,
General McClellan, knowing that he could gain a
decisive victory by laying down half a dozen bridges,
which, it is stated, were all ready for the purpose,
actually refused to order his soldiers to do it, be
cause he was afraid they would not obey his orders.
And this is the Prince'sjudgment of an army, which,
a few weeks later according to his own account,
fought five battles in as many days, all, with one ex
ception, victories over an enemy at least double' its
numbers, and arrived at its new base on the James
river in excellent condition, and without the slight
est faint of demoralization. This illustration shows
the absurdity of ascribing the want of immediate
success to la lenteur Amerieaine a quality, by the way,
which \Ve learn for the first ;nue is one of our na
tional characteristics.
Among the many causes which might be named,
all perfectly legitimate, and presenting no obstacle
which a little experience will not remove, we ven
ture to suggest but one,. and that is the character of
the early military education of our higher officers.
The system pursued at West Point, although ad
mirable for qualifying officers for the scientific and
staff corps of the army, seems to fail. io teaching the
young soldier, what is just now the meet important
quality he can possess for command; the character
and capacity of volunteer soldiers. The system of
discipline he has been taught istliat Which governs
the regular army, a system modelled'uperr the Eng
lish, which is, with the exception of that in use in
Russia, the most brutal and demoralizing known in
any army in Europe. No wonder, therefore, that
when our educated soldiers are suddenly placed in
high positions, and with great. responsibilities, and
when they discover that the sort of discipline which
they have been taught is wholly out of place in
securing the efficiency of a volunteer army, they are
led to doubt whether it can ever be made efficient at
all. These prejudices, however, are wearing away
before the teat of actual experience. Generals are
gradually learning that they may confide in their
men, • even for desperate undertakings 3 they begin
to see in their true light the many admirable quali
ties of the volunteer; and he, in turn, begins to
understand something of that military system which
seemed at first so irksome and meaningless to him;
and the advance of the army in the essentials of dis--
cipline has been proportionably rapid.
There is a good deal of talk about the impossi
bility of conquering or subjugating the South, which
is based upon very vague notions of what conquest
and - subjugation signify. It is surprising to find
how even intelligent men have been imposed upon
by this favorite boast of the rebels and their sym
pathizers. A pretended saying of Napoleon is
quoted, that "it is impossible to prevent any
people determined on achieving its independence
from accomplishing its purpose ;" and it is con
fidently -asked whether any one ever heard of
the 'subjugation of twelve inillions,of people de
termined•to be free. - We'replY that history, an
cient and modern, is full of instances of the only
sort of conquest or subjugation which any sane man
proposes shallbe submitted to by the South. No one
thinks it possible or necessary, for the purpose in
view, to occupy the whole South with garrisons, but
simply to destroy the only support upon which its
arrogant"pretensions are based—namely, its military
power. This gone what becomes of all the rest 7 and
this remaining, where is there any hope of perma
nent peace and safety to us? For what is all war but
an appeal to force to settle questions of national in
terest which peaceful discussion has failed to settle ;
and what is an army, but only another argument, the
ratio. which it successful in decisive battles,
must give the law to the conquered'? To say nothing
of instances in ancient history, Poland, Hungary,
and Lombardy in our day were just as determined to
be free as the South is, and quite as full of martial
ardor; and certainly Prussia, Spain under the Bona
parte dynasty, and the French Empire, are all ex
amples of nations which valued their independence,
and had tenfold the resources for maintaining it which
the South possesses; yet the capture of. Warsaw, the
surrender of Villagos, the battles of Novara, of Jena,
of Salamanca, and of Waterloo respectively, settled
as definitively the fate of the inhabitants of those
countries and their future condition as if the terms
imposed by the conquering army had been freely and
unanimously agreed upon by the representatives of
the people in Congress assembled. And, in like man
ner, can any one doubt, looking at the present com
parative resources of the two sections, that if we
should gain two decisive battles, one in the East and
the other in the West, which should result in the
total disorganization of the two rebel armies, and
thus enable us to interpose an impassable barrier
between them, we should soon hear a voice inrplor
ing in unmistakable accents peace on our own terms?
It would not be a matter of choice, but of necessity;
a simple question of how far the progress of exhaus
tion had been carried, and that once settled, and no
reasonable hope of success remaining,the war would
not last a week longer. This is the experience of all
nations, and our Southern rebels, notwithstanding
their noisy boasting, do not differ in their capacity
of resistance from the rest of mankind. "Hard
pounding this, gentlemen," said the Duke of Wel
lington to his officers; as he threw himself within one
of the unbroken squares of his heroic infantry at
Waterloo, "but we'll see who can pound the longest ;"
and the ability of that infantry to "pound the long
est" on that day settled the fate of Europe for gene
rations.
Let us bend, then, our united energies to secure,
as much as in us lies, success in the field, and that
success gained, we may be sure that all things will
follow. Let us recognizewith confidence as co-work
ers in this great object all, never mind what opinions
they may entertain about the causes of the war, and
the new issues which its progress has developed, who
desire in all sincerity, no matter from what motive,
the success of our arms. Upon such a basis, the
wider and more catholic our faith becomes the bet
ter. "In essentials Unity; in non-essentials Li
berty ; in all things Charity ; 71 this should be our
motto. The only possible hope for the South is in
our own divisions. Let us remember that with sue-
cess all things arc possible ; without it, all our hopes
and theories vanish into thin air. With success in
the field, we should not only disarm the rebellion,
and rid ourselves forever of the pestilent tribe of
domestic traitors by burying them deep in that po
litical oblivion which covers the Tories of the Revo
lution, and those who sneered at the gallant exploits
of our navy in the war of 1812, but also force public
opinion abroad, whose faithlessness to the great
principles which underlie all modern civilization has
been one of the saddest developments of this sad war,
to exclaim at last; " Invidiam gloria superatli.l,
pi aro ;is DI ce.Azin m m Dm i:_l4
THE GREAT FRENCH COTTON FACTOR.—Richard
Lenoir, who has just obtained the posthumous honor
of giving his name to one of the great thorough
fares of Paris, was a celebrated manufacturer, born
in 1765 of a peasant family at Trelat (Calvados.)
He left his native village at the age of seventeen to
seek his fortune, and came to Paris, where, after
• commencing as simple porter, he engaged in business
as a dealer in cotton goods, and in the course of time
became one of the richest merchants of the period.
'Wishing to free trade in his own country from its de
pendence upon England, he created in France, for the
first time, factories for spinning and weaving cotton.
As a manufacturer he was very successful, and re
ceived great encouragement from Napoleon 1., who
decorated him with his own hand. The suppression
of the import duties in 161-1, however, brought on his
ruin, and he passed his latter days in straitened cir
cumstances. The real name of this remarkable man
was Francois Richard, but having taken' a partner
named Lenoir, the two names becaine indissolubly
associated, and' are applied only to Richard, He,
died in 1639,
A TABLEAU NOT AIRNTTONED IN THE IifILET.
During the month of December, while the opera Il
Poliuto was in course of performance at the San
Carlo Theatre, Naples, some of the audience found
it necessary to hiss an artist who waa..impopular.
In the midst of the exeitenient caused by this, some
persons, anxious to create a disturbancay threw from
one of the upper circles of the theatre ! &tic pieces of
paper on which were inscribed " Vivo. Garibaldi!"
having over them a small portrait oZthe hero. At
sight of these the entire audience brnke into. enthu
siasm ; the orchestra was forced to play Garibaldi's
Hymn, after which the disorder im.reased.so much
that the curtain was lowered, the rwsiebins left the
• orchestra, and the. opera was at Rapid.
THE POW ER HE ARISTOTLE'S R ,O.—tiffany
years ago, a m s ember of Ctueen'E-College, Oxford,
wandered Into a forest near his Jr-later, having a
copy of Aristotle in Greek in his s hand which h•s• in
tently read ; : a.wild boar of grab size, and fierce
with huagzr, attacked him ii - 5.41% open mouth, in
tending tc , ,,take the scholar at F-jaLo . llthfUl. Tile lat
ter thivstlvia.copy of Aristottuclown the throat' of
the beast . owhieh thereupon f.?4,dfirtel, at oncq,..killed
•by Ilmn pse.. in commemorab.on of this co_itory a
boa r's.head has from immemorial time hem served
up in thp,hall of the said ZOLlege even - Christmas
Dal, nod the custom was again honoi - ed.sisi the ob.
sen‘a.npe oa the specified •tayr.this season..
Tali *V SYRIAN Pnxs.s..- r ln theymisor.,*.of Viertna
there are at this time sexes, editors'uncacon
finementoincon-
finement for various Ochoes of their.pornsils, 'and
part of Austr4 some of the aaterritty are
imprisoned upon charps of telling th;,,%tritih' .
of the narratives of tee sufferers sc, - ,itel like a page
out-el Neapolitan tilatory under thrsofii'Bomba.
.
• A KINGLY "80 - N.)lor."— An Itaian journal rre.
tilts Jiang Victor limacianuel,with..a.bon met,utikred
during the late ranxisteriel cristig. 21Isjeq,ty, it
! affirms, felt desirw,s of going or 4 hunting cse day,
Wel was preventoA by heity.y rain. "Ah, said.he,
" I see that, wheilier I will oc,-.44, I must keep my
Chamber."
THY. ALHA r `i'AP.A.queet l Isabella or Spain re
cently paid s. visit to the Alhambra, its Granada,
And was so qtruck with th i s beauty awi t grandeUr of
the ',lace,. that she ordered its imnt ate.reaters..
tion, irrespective of expense.
REsut's oe A DLreA...he D. lie. Grpunont-
Caderow;se, who figu,ted so consilcupissly in. the re.‘
cent aier in Franse, and his. guaranui, Count
Despure, have appealed al:sail:lst the, judgment of
the Court of Assizes in favor of Madame Dillon and
her sons. The iwigicipal ground of the appeal ie. the
reversion of the annuity to the latter.
LAUARTINE e 2 EASR.....Lamarhne, says a Paris
letter, hae just received 400,00 a francs as the part
proceeds of a lottery, which will pay all his debts,
and enable him to end his days in comfort. The city
of Paris gave him a beautiful purse.
NONE BUT TEE BRAVE DESERVE TER FAIR.-
Several French journals speak of the approaching
marriage'of Marshal Canrobert to Mdlle. Macdon
ald, a relative of the Duke de Tarente, The Mar
khal WAI born in 1809,