** In the rank and military experience. If M. Thiers substantial results followed the success. feels warranted in ascribing the loss of Water-end, too, as might have been anticipated, unless loo in part to Marshal Soult's inexperience as a some such decided success as that sought over staff-officer, we may believe that General Lee Butler had been gained and enabled the concenand other Confederate generals must have suf-tration of the scattered Confederate forces, Genfered serious detriment from the extraordinary eral Lee was forced step by step to follow the abnormal staff organization imposed by Jeffer- march of his opponent. son Davis, and specially prescribed by orders in the face of law, in April, 1864, just as General Grant began his campaign. Surely even the general reader in this must see one cause for the defeat of Confederate armies-a cause that must have tended to clog the efforts of the highest genius, and made success impossible, denied, as Confederate generals were, the aid of staff-officers of the character employed by their adversary, and such as have been available to all successful commanders, since Frederick down to the recent war in Italy, on both sides. The removal of Johnston from his command and the substitution of Hood, who was expected by Mr. Davis to strike at least " one manly blow" for the defense of Atlanta, few will now venture to deny was a sad mistake for the Confederates. That was indeed "the feather that broke the camel's back." When Sherman began his march from Atlanta the inevitable issue was pointed out unless a force was collected strong enough to vanquish him after he had penetrated deeply into the interior, where defeat would entail not merely a foiled but a deAbout the middle of May, 1864, General stroyed army. If permitted to traverse the land Beauregard reached Drury's Bluff below Rich- unchecked the consequences were mortal. Bold, mond, and had an interview with General Bragg, prompt measures alone could avert dire calamat the time exercising a species of general com-ity. Great sacrifices had now become inevitamand. This officer appeared to apprehend that ble; the "heroic treatment" could alone serve General Lee, yielding to the pressure of superior the "sick man" now. Especially after the fall numbers, must before long give way and lose of Savannah was this urged upon those in powRichmond. Beauregard replied that he did not er, who as little comprehended the crisis as the regard the situation as so unfavorable if the antidote. Even when General Beauregard diright remedy were promptly applied. He then rected the evacuation of Charleston, and urged pointed out the isolated position of Butler, south a similar course with respect to Wilmington, so of the James, as affording an opportunity for as to provide a force with which to fall upon his destruction with a superior force, and that Sherman, Mr. Davis wrote such a dispatch to such a force might be assembled if General Lee General Hardee, commanding in Charleston, as would furnish 10,000 men. Falling upon But- led him to suspend the evacuation, and obliged ler under such circumstances General Beaure- Beauregard to assume command and to direct gard thought his capture was inevitable, and imperatively the measure to be completed. Of with him must fall the dépôt at Bermuda Hun- course Wilmington, of no use since the fall of reds. This effected, at a concerted moment Fort Fisher, was held to the last; and with no he would throw his whole force upon General force afield to check his course Sherman marchGrant's flank while General Lee made an at- ed like Fate through the heart of the country. tack in front. All circumstances favored the plan, and General Bragg expressed his approbation. Mr. Davis, informed of it, came at once to see General Beauregard, who explained all its details and earnestly urged the attempt. Mr. Davis seemed much impressed, but objected that it would involve the retrograde of General Lee from his position at Spottsylvania Court House, which "could not be thought of." "Yes," rejoined the General, "what of that when it will enable him in two or three days at most to gain a great victory?" That is, when like the Titan he would touch the earth to spring up refreshed and all the stronger. This line of argument was fruitless. Nothing that affected General Lee's army, howsoever temporarily, could be entertained. Beauregard had said that he might beat Butler without the force he desired, though it would be, like so many other Confederate successes, without material profit. This ability to gain the color of victory caught Mr. Davis's attention and the attempt must be made. It was made. Butler was driven from his position the next day; but, just as Beauregard predicted, no *And yet Soult had been Chief of Staff in Spain; also in 1794, under Lefebre, at battle of Fleurus. In the conduct of civil affairs the same traits have characterized the régime of Jefferson Davis which we have sought to show governed his military administration, and with the same baleful results for the cause placed in his keeping. We shall not have space, however, to spread the proof upon the record, except so far as this may be done by the relation of two occurrences. When Mr. Toombs quit the Cabinet to become a Brigadier-General, Mr. Hunter of Virginia took his place, which he soon left, for reasons best known to himself, to take the seat of Senator in Congress, only secured after a warm contest. There was a Virginia statesman preeminently fitted to succeed Mr. Hunter in the Cabinet. We mean W. C. Rives, whom all recognized as a man of great breadth and accuracy of culture, enlarged views of statesmanship, and who, having served as a diplomatist with high credit, was regarded as of a grade superior to those generally employed in that capacity by the United States. His connection with the Cabinet must have given weight to the cause abroad. But Mr. Davis could not stifle that characteristic distrust and intolerance of superior men of independent minds, which have made him, times. Thus in a little while almost every person of ability, nearly every one of spirit, was driven from the councils of the South and the direction of affairs, leaving the Government to a large degree in the hands of those from whom efficient administration was not to be expectedselected as they were for instruments thought to be best adapted to his purpose: that of absorbing in himself all the substantial functions of the State. by his course as President of the Confederate | and wishes as the only safe rule and law for the States, at once a patricide and a moral suicide. It was enough that Mr. Rives was brought to his notice as one whom the people would like to see among his advisers. That looked like dictation-like an interference with his prerogative. Mr. Judah P. Benjamin was transferred to the State Department; General Randolph-as it happened, a gentleman of real administrative ability as well as of too much independence to remain a Cabinet officer merely in name-was made Secretary of War, though at the time little known for capacity beyond the place of his residence. As obstinate as James II. or George III., whom he greatly resembled in many traits of character, as in the management of public business-with the same tendency to employ mediocrity and the same dislike for independent ability-Jefferson Davis for four years illustrated, A little later Mr. Davis also appointed as his Attorney-General-the law adviser of his Government a gentleman doubtless of much civil worth, but who at the time was a lieutenant-like his monarchical prototypes, that no two colonel under General Bragg, in arrest under charges for an act of recent insubordination of such flagrant character as to make General Gladden place him for a time in close arrest in his tent in charge of an armed sentinel. Mr. Davis must be judged at the bar of history by the aggregate results of his administration. He must be measured by what was done or left undone-successes and reverses-either directly by himself or through the instruments of his will, the men on whom he relied for the performance of the highest services of the State. Brought to this rightful test, what statesman of whom history tells us will be found more deficient than Jefferson Davis? Had he been equal to his position he would have known how to develop, combine, wield the splendid resources of his land in such a manner as to produce the largest possible results. With his long experience and acquaintance with the public men of the United States he should have known the best men to call around him, and should have known, too, the best course for baffling the statesmen opposed to him. Foregoing his predilections as well as his antipathies-like Napoleon as in the case of Moreau and Talleyrand-he should have been wise enough to attach to his Government and secure the services of men of talent, even though perchance not well affected personally toward them. A genuine leader of men would have done so-would have stifled personal passions, which alone, it would appear, have influenced Mr. Davis since an early day. Swayed by these, and amorous to an incredible degree of the office-giving powers of his place, and the exercise of which absorbed by far the larger part of his waking hours, he was blind alike to those insuperable as to those favoring circumstances or favorable occasions which the statesman will be quick to recognize. As a natural consequence of the predominant qualities of the man, there immediately grew up in the South a party of "President's Friends," from whose ranks, as far as possible, were drawn the occupants of all civil places. Men for the most part malleable to his will, who, looking up to him as the source of the highest wisdom in both civil and military affairs, upheld his views natures are so widely opposite and unlike as the willful and the wise. Imperious, yet without genuine vigor of character, pride and weakness were strangely blended in his actions. It was said of George III. that he even scorned victory whose laurels had been culled by Chatham. Mr. Davis looked with a moody brow and a skeptical lip when either Johnston or Beauregard tendered the trophies of successful war. Napoleon, once urged by an undistinguished general to confer upon him the marshal's baton, exclaimed: "It is not I who make a marshal—it is victories!" What Napoleon would not attempt Mr. Davis did without hesitation, making major and lieutenant generals who previously had not been in battle, and if possibly capable, had never had opportunities to show capacity for high command; some of whom too, we may add, whose promotion has not been justified by subsequent events. The longer he held power the narrower grew his conceptions, the more imperious his will, until to differ from or cross the orbit of his fancies, or even to run counter to the plans and wishes of his favorites, became a personal affront. No man in as high and critical a position ever less understood the value of wise, independent ministers, or was ever less able to give up a minor personal object for the sake of a major advantage. He and his ministerial clerks, always as sanguine as Napier describes the British Cabinet to have been in 1810, like that Cabinet were always "anticipating success in a preposterous manner"-always displaying little practical industry, and quite as little judgment in preparing for contingencies. In no instance did he and his favorites comprehend at their value the golden opportunities that more than once were vouchsafed them, and by seizing which with a resolute hand they might have neutralized the superior resources of the United States. With a leader like William of Orange in his stead this had surely been accomplished. We have heard much, from Mr. Davis and his friends in the last months of the struggle, concerning the frightful extent of desertions from Confederate armies. Unquestionably this evil was very great; indeed, so numerous had deser tions become that, added to the natural tendency of all but regular troops to quit their colors in times of serious reverses, some of the Confederate corps, like a circle in the water, were almost "dispersed to naught." But here too the handiwork of Jefferson Davis may be made apparent. The broadcast, inevitable interposition of his prerogative of pardon by the second year of the war had made it plain to the men of the army that there was the fullest immunity for desertion. A merciless, inexorable personal adversary we know Mr. Davis ever was, and never less so than during the time of the giant struggle of his section for independence. How then may we account for this almost invariable mercy granted to those whose acts made success impossible? Gibbon, summing up the character of Constantine, uses language which we find singularly applicable to our subject-in whom there has been manifestly the same "timid policy of dividing whatever is united, of reducing whatever is eminent, of dreading every active power, and of expecting that the most feeble will prove the most obedient." In fine, his course may be likened to that of the captain of a ship of war in action with a greatly superior adversary, who, while nailing his flag to the mast-head and shouting stout words of defiance to his foe and of supreme confidence to his crew, nevertheless from the outset of the battle has been secretly scuttling his vessel and all his boats besides. [Since the foregoing paper was in type I have read an able article, in the July number of the Quarterly Review, on "The Close of the War," which presents Mr. Davis in a highly favorable light as a wise statesman, to whom was mainly due such successes as the Confederates achieved. This writer urges as the "obvious" and "the principal cause" of the failure of the Southern people to win independence, "the great superiority of the North in numbers and resources." In other words, that necessarily 23,485,722 souls overcame 7,666,325. This proposition, in the face of history, I dispute. The disparity in numbers and resources was formidable truly, but not so great, after all, as that with which Frederick the Great had to contend during the "Seven Years' War," when handling his resources in accordance with the true principles of the art of war-not squandering them habitually by division, as combinations of Austria, Russia, Sweden, and France, despite their numbers and resources," and raised up "a new power to rank among the first-rate monarchies of Europe."-T. J.] did the Confederate President-he foiled and defeated the THE MY BURGLAR. THE story of my burglar is as follows: if indeed you can call a man a burglar who meets you at mid-day, sitting on the grass, instead of choosing the far more appropriate and classical midnight hour, illumined by the fitful rays of a dark-lantern and the gleam of a polished blade. Such as he was, however, he was the only burglar I ever met, although I have been nightly on the watch for him ever since I can remember. I must begin by describing what delightful little picnics our particular "set" used to indulge in a few years ago. Model picnics; none of your crowded omnibuses, with a brass band on the top, and fifty incongruous people unable to escape from each other for a long, long weary day; spoiling all the silent beauty of woods and rocks; flinging their lemon peel and empty bottles down the silver waterfalls, and generally fulfilling the spirit of the old hymn-lines: "Where every prospect pleases And only man is vile." Ours were little impromptu affairs: a boat-load of friends sailing down to the Cove or Lighthouse, or some other favorite spot, or a drive in our several carriages to Mount Carmel or Wintergreen Falls; with no greater preparation than could be crowded into the hour during which the party would be proposed, arranged, and started. It was on a bright June morning five years ago that such a boat-load of friends assembled at the water-side, matronized as usual by sweet bright little Mrs. Gilbert and her dear old doctor, whose united presence insured the complete success of any of our little festivities. There was the usual set, Amy and Adelaide, Professor Tucker and his sister, a clergyman, a lawyer, an officer, my rattle-brained cousin Charley of the senior class, and last but not least to each other were Frank and myself. As usual, Mrs. Gilbert's immense hamper was lifted out of the carriage with much ceremony and deposited on the wharf, putting to shame the little baskets which Amy and I carried, filled with any thing we could find at the moment in the larder. Mrs. Gilbert's larder was always in picnic order, and we grew to depend a good deal upon that well-known hamper, and to think our duty done if we carried forks, spoons, and cups enough to aid in dispatching its liberal contents. Frank's great dog, of course, accompanied him, for our picnics would not have been at all complete without good old Nero. But unfortunately this day, as we sat on a pile of boards waiting for the sails to be hoisted and the cushions to be placed, Amy's red shawl, which she always carried for the picturesque, was flung not into the boat but into the water; and, of course, dear old Nero, being a Newfoundland, could not for an instant refrain from jumping to its rescue, so that both were in quite too dripping a condition to be thought of as companions in so limited a space. "No, no, Nero!" cried Frank, as the dog sidled up to me for a comfortable shake over my white dress, "you're in no state for a boat ride with ladies, so you may lie down and take care of this till we come back;" and he flung the dripping shawl up on the wharf, where it lay in a gorgeous scarlet heap, and beside it lay down its obedient guardian; and as we pushed off we knew that thus they would lie, and so we would find them when we sailed home under the setting sun. How beautiful was the sea that day! how cool the breeze which swept us dancingly along, and how the Fairy dipped and skimmed with her great white wings spread and her colors flying! Frank took his seat by me, yielding his post of responsibility and honor as master of the boat to Captain Heavytop, whose nautical knowl- maids were tired with their work and contented egde formed the theme of much of his conversa- with their spoil, and returned to our midst, tion, and whose uniform and whiskers were at looking cool and comfortable, with their round least highly ornamental by way of figure-head, hats wreathed with sea-weed, while their deas I thought Amy seemed to appreciate. Five voted cavaliers toiled by their side, laden with years ago uniforms were by no means the drug shawls and fish-pails, nets, and bundles of shells, in the market which they have since become, and with a generally moist and dispirited look, and a girl who had "a soul above buttons" was which excited my compassion, as contrasted strong-minded indeed. with the cool loungers under the trees. Amy sat a little apart, with "Buttons," as Charley persisted in calling the resplendent captain; and I noticed that he had furtively drawn from his pocket a blue-and-gold Tennyson, and was reading to her his favorite extracts. It is always these "logy" Heavytops who take you by surprise by betraying their hidden poetry of mood, and go about with those dreadful little books, ready on every occasion to produce them with as much suddenness, and as little welcome, as they would a pocket-pistol. So thought not fair little Amy, however; and as I heard the lines, But I must not dwell on every incident of that bright sail, as I sat by my lover's side, with our thoughts known only to each other, and our vows-two days old-known as yet to none on earth but my dear old father. We sailed along into the boundless future, bright to our eyes as the sea before us, our hearts dancing like the little waves around the prow, and thinking"Thus shall we sail, hand in hand, heart by heart, through life!"-knowing not nor dreaming of the sound of battle, the separation, the agonized hearts, the sick bed, and the honorable wound which should at last restore the maimed hero to his home, to bear through life the remembrance and the proof that he has fought and bled for his country! The sea told us none of these things as it splashed and babbled around our boat. The wind whispered them not, as it came freighted with the songs of birds and the scent of clover meadows. Blessed wind and kind sea! We were happy that day, without a shadow of care or dread upon our spirits! "She looked so lovely as she swayed The reins with dainty finger-tips," rolled out in a deep, suppressed bass voice, and remembered that I had met the happy pair cantering side by side through Laurel Lane only the day before, I felt that the case was a foregone conclusion. "Take away those slimy reptiles!" cried Charley, shrinking before the pail which the panting Professor had deposited upon the grass. "Restore the horrid monsters to their native element ! See, I am going for a swim, and I will so far sacrifice my feelings as to bear the dreadful burden to the water's edge, and restore the wretched creatures to their beloved waves!" "Really I am much obliged to you, Mr. Grant!" replied Adelaide. "Hands off that pail, if you please!" proposal," said the good old Doctor, fanning himself with his hat; "this heat is dreadful, and a swim would be delicious. What say you, gentlemen-shall we leave the ladies to prepare the table, and shall we go down to Inlet Cove to cool ourselves off a little ?" The proposition was unanimously acceded to, with a sigh of regret for Nero, whose duty on such occasions was to keep watch on shore over the clothes of the bathers. Of course in so retired a spot there was little danger, as all agreed, of any stragglers who might meddle with their property. Our favorite sea-side spot was a grove about half a mile beyond South End, where the rocks piled up at the water's edge were washed twice a day by the tide, which lapsed away, leaving behind in the crevices little natural aquaria full of shrimps and anemones, green sea-lettuce, and pretty little fish and snails. Every such discovery was a treasure to Gertrude Tucker and Adelaide Wade, who were now speedily at work. "I quite approve of one part of Charley's with their tin pails with perforated covers upon their arms, dipping up all sorts of tiny monstrosities, uttering little shrieks as they tried to seize the swift slimy creatures in their white fingers, and gallantly aided by the Professor and the clergyman, each armed with a minute fishnet. Dear to each maiden's heart was the tank in the bow-window at home, and bitter and illconcealed the rivalry between them. They paid each other daily visits. "How very thick and dark the water looked in your aquarium yesterday, dear Adelaide!” I heard Miss Tucker saying, in a sympathizing tone. "You should "Still," said Dr. Gilbert, "I think I clean the rocks and filter the water, I think. In shall leave my watch behind. Here, my dear," fact, I would advise a complete change of water. turning to me, "you're the only woman I know I tried it myself a short time since, and mine is who ever sits still for ten minutes, so I confide as clear as crystal." "Thank you, dear!" says it to your care," and he threw into my lap his Adelaide, lovingly; "but I go upon purely ponderous old repeater, with its massive chain. scientific principles, and make my aquarium "After such a recommendation," said Frank, entirely self-supporting-the animal and vege- "I can not do better than follow the Doctor's table life just balancing each other." And Mrs. example," and he laid his watch in my hands. Gilbert and I laughed softly, as we went up the "Permit me also," said the Captain, handing rocks arm in arm to seek the friendly shelter of over the contents of his fob; and, laughingly, the grove. each gentleman in his turn bestowed upon me, An hour later even our indefatigable mer- as I sat on the grass, his watch and purse, Char ley, particularly and solemnly, confiding his pocket-book to my care, as if I did not know how light a charge it was. A moment after the Fairy reared her white wings, and courtesied coquettishly round the Point of Rocks, bound for Inlet Cove. "And now to business," cried Mrs. Gilbert, briskly. "One thing is evident-Helen is a fixture; she can't stir with all that plunder in her lap, so I propose that we should bring her leaves, and let her make herself useful by weaving the wreaths for the table." So they brought me oak-boughs, and bunches of grass, and wild roses; and then laid the cloth, and prepared to arrange the contents of the hamper. The hamper! Where was it? High and low, far and near, they searched-on the rocks and among the bushes-but no trace of its comfortable rotundity appeared. shepherdesses and Cupids was on the back of this toy, and altogether I thought it a fit offering for Amy, and a highly desirable thing that the worthy Captain should soon take to himself a wife to cure him of a little redundant foppishness, which does not seem to thrive under the matrimonial yoke. The Professor's and the lawyer's watches were like themselves-entirely proper, entirely unremarkable. Sensible and plain and useful, and so much alike that they only could reclaim each his property, I could not distinguish between them. The clerical watch was perfect in its way-exactly the right size, with a hunting case, a very quiet guard, and every thing severely en règle. Then came poor Charley's silver watch, which he blushingly deposited among the folds of my dress; and I mentally resolved that if, before his next birthday, his parents had not awakened to the fact that their boy had grown into a man, I would make my dear father choose him one fit to graduate in. Then, of course, I studied Frank's pretty old "The boat," suggested Miss Tucker; but Mrs. Gilbert had herself seen that the boat was thoroughly emptied. No, it must have been left behind; and as we recalled the scarlet heap beside which Nero laid him down, we felt, with fail-fashioned watch. It had been his mother's, and ing hearts, that under that shawl and beside the dog reposed the hamper, "lost to sight, to memory dear;" but that a day of starvation at South End would be ill repaid by the sight of its wellknown plethoric beauty on our return. he valued it greatly. It had a quaint-looking wreath around its face of different golds, greenish, white, and deep yellow; and it had a magical coiled edge, which made it look thick at one point and slender at another, just as the With shame and contrition Amy and I opened light fell upon it. I knew Frank loved every our baskets. Plenty of forks, spoons, and gob- thing his mother had worn, and I laid it tenderly lets, gleaming with silver and aristocratic with down upon the softest folds of my dress, and crests; but a dozen hard-boiled eggs and a pa- took off my glove for the first time that morning per of macaroons made a poor preparation for to look again at the betrothal ring which he had a sea-side meal! What was to be done? yesterday slipped upon my finger. It was a "Those dreadful men," sighed poor Mrs. Gil- sky-blue forget-me-not, of enamel, with a great bert, "will come back as hungry as wolves! diamond dew-drop in the centre. It gleamed The only thing we can do is to see what can be in the shade, and shot out lustrous rays as a bought at the boarding-house at South End. stray sunbeam fell upon it; and I sat entranced, Helen, hand me over the Doctor's purse; and feeling all the hopes and promises bound around you come with me, Amy. And I think if Ade- my life of which that circlet was an emblem: laide and Gertrude will climb that fence and go and heard no more the plash of the waves, or across the fields they will find a farm-house the sound of the breeze, but glided off into a about half a mile off, where they can get some- sweet golden day-dream of youth and love. I thing-potatoes to roast, if nothing better." heard no sound of oars, nor saw any shadow Luckily the oven we had built of stones months upon the rocks, until in the silence of my soul before was still standing; so we plucked up a footstep struck sharp upon my ear, and, lookcourage, and they went off, two and two, leaving up, I saw at the entrance of the grove an ing me sitting, as before, weaving garlands, with my lap full of watches! And now, I think my reader will agree that the appropriate moment for my Burglar to appear is drawing nigh! There is much individuality in a watch's face. I never had so good an opportunity for studying the matter as when I was thus left alone twining wreaths, and gazing down at my golden lapful. There was the Doctor's plump, overgrown, old-fashioned repeater, just such as Mr. Pickwick might have carried, with its faded greenish face, and its tinkling bell when you pressed the spring; and beside it lay in strong contrast the Captain's exquisite and lady-like little article, twenty-five minutes slower than the Doctor's watch, which was the model for the whole town, and almost shamed in punctuality the sun itself. A little painted picture of evil face and a ponderous form; a little boat drawn up upon the beach, and myself alone with a new terror. Quick as thought I dropped the leaves and grasses with which I had been playing upon my lap, and looked as resolute as I knew how to, hoping against hope that the intruder on my peace might prove more innocent than he looked, perhaps even pass by without remark. Not he! The villainous countenance was close beside me, and a harsh voice remarked: "Mornin', ma'am; I thought you seemed to be alone." "Yes, for a moment," I replied, "but I have a large party of friends at hand;" and I tried to steady my voice and nerves, and conceal my fright. "Yes'm, I saw them; at least the gen'lemen of the party. They was down yonder a mile or so, and are having a fine swim |