compelled to exhibit a marked distinction between their practice and their theory, and were driven by force of circumstances to treat in Virginia with men on terms of entire equality, who in Washington they denounced as 'traitors' and 'rebels.'

In ordinary international wars the defeat of the vanquished may be so crushing as to wholly disorganize the political institutions of the States, or even to effect an entire change in them, as was the case with France at the close of the Franco-German war. But in all modern contests between different countries there has remained at the close of the struggle a vested sovereignty in the people of the defeated States, which the conquerors themselves have acknowledged, and they have been permitted to decide upon the authority who should act for them in pledging the national faith, and thus arranging the conditions of peace. But when General Lee was forced to abandon his lines around Richmond, the Executive Government of the Confederacy was compelled to retire with him or to quickly follow, and when the armies under Lee and Johnston surrendered, and the officers and men dispersed to their homes under parole, there was no longer a common central authority to whom the several States could refer. Indeed, after Mr. Davis and his Cabinet were driven from Richmond they never found a resting-place in which they could remain long enough to examine the condition of affairs and to reorganize further resistance. President Davis was soon captured; the Vice-President, Mr. Stephens, and the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, were shortly afterwards arrested; Mr. Benjamin, who was the Secretary of State, and General Breckenridge, the War Secretary, happily escaped and got out of the country; and thus it will be perceived that the civil organization of the

Confederate States was destroyed simultaneously with the military power which gave it vitality.

The politicians in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, and the Republican senators who had professed extreme views on the question of secession, had now the opportunity to enforce their favourite theory-a theory so often and so vehemently enunciated by Mr. Seward in the declarations that the integrity of the Republic is unbroken,' the so-called Civil War is only an insurrection,' the Southern people are rebels,' and the Government at Richmond represents merely a domestic faction.'

The Southern States were without a common rallying point, and were thus deprived of the strength which results from union, even if they had not been too thoroughly exhausted to make any further resistance. The people in the conquered States had no other resource than to submit, and the victors, with an external manifestation of clemency, imposed conditions in the way of test oaths, political disabilities, alien governors, universal negro suffrage, and executive interference with elections, which have left a permanent stain upon the political institutions and the political integrity of the whole country.

By the conditions under which the military leaders of the South had surrendered, the whole population actually in arms against the United States were protected against any civil prosecution, and it would have been so manifest a violation of those conditions to proceed against any of them by indictment for 'treason,' that the extreme men in the North were forced to abandon that purpose. Reasonable men also perceived that it would not be either rational or just to prosecute mere civilians for alleged offences which had already been condoned in respect to the military forces of the Confederacy. It is well known that several prominent leaders of the Re

publican party were desirous to act with extreme rigour, and were disposed to treat the vanquished Southerners with all the penalties commonly inflicted upon traitors and rebels, but their hot tempers and harsh counsels were not suffered to prevail, and they were forced to exhaust their malice in vituperative speeches, which I refrain from quoting, having no wish to revive animosity on the one side, or to provoke a blush on the other.

The civil as well as the military and naval representatives of the Confederate States abroad were excluded from 'pardon,' under the so-called Amnesty Proclamations, which were issued immediately after the war, and none of them could have returned to the United States without the certainty of arrest, imprisonment, or, under the most favourable circumstances, the alternative of taking what has not been inaptly called the iron-clad oath.' The course to be followed by officers, whether of the civil or military service of the Confederate States, at home, was plain. As sensible men, they could only submit to the requirements of the situation, and look for consolation to the future, with its cheering promises of recuperative energy, wealth, and freedom. The representatives of the Confederate Government abroad were in a different position. Their duties had compelled them to enter into large business transactions with persons in many branches of trade, who had always acted with scrupulous fidelity in the fulfilment of their engagements, and who had undertaken large contracts for forward delivery upon the personal guarantee of those whom they knew were authorized to pledge the credit of the Government.

I suppose it is hardly necessary to demonstrate that contracts made by the representatives of the Confederate Government were valid in law, and that there was the

same reciprocal obligation to fulfil them as existed between the agents of the United States and the tradespeople with whom they had contracted business engagements. It is sufficient to state that when the sudden collapse of the Civil Government at Richmond was known in Europe, the very best legal advice was sought, and the opinion of eminent counsel was that the acts of all Confederate agents duly appointed by the proper authority at Richmond, and which had been done within the limits of their prescribed power, would be recognised and confirmed by the English Courts; and that no Confederate agent, and no person who had dealt with him, could be held to a responsibility greater either in kind or degree towards the United States than that which the Confederate States could have exacted. The foregoing opinion appeared to be in accordance with common-sense and common notions of equity, and it was afterwards confirmed by the judgments of the Courts, when the United States attempted to seize property alleged to have been acquired by the Confederate Government, without acknowledging and paying the claims or liens of those who were in possession.

There were two fiscal agencies of the Confederate States in Europe during the Civil War. The commercial house of Fraser, Trenholm and Co. were the bankers, or, as they were officially called, the 'Depositories,' of the Treasury. At a very early period of the war, one or two sums of money were remitted to special purchasing agents for specific purposes, and were at once expended for these purposes; but as soon as Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Co. received their official appointment, all remittances, whether in cash sterling or produce, were made to them, and they were instructed to place the funds to the credit of the several Depart

ments, and to pay the drafts of the purchasing agents in Europe, as well as bills drawn by the heads of departments in Richmond, or their representatives elsewhere. Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Co. opened a special set of books for the record of their financial transactions with the Confederate States, and those books contained a complete register of all the funds the Treasury Department was able to place in Europe by export from home.

·

During the year 1862, General Colin J. McRae was sent to Europe as a special agent of the Treasury, his functions being to regulate the disbursement of the socalled Erlanger Loan,' and to negotiate the sale of Treasury Bonds. The heads of the several departments sent drafts upon him to meet the wants of their purchasing agents, which he had to honour from the abovementioned sources, and his office was also to do all that was possible to keep the bankers in funds.

After the fall of Fort Fisher, about the middle of January, 1865, intercourse with the Confederate States was cut off through the sea-ports. There were, it is true, one or two shoal bays on the coast of Texas into which supplies might still have been sent, but then there was but little chance of the Trans-Mississippi States holding out if the military power of the Confederacy elsewhere was once destroyed; and as the strategic points on the banks of the Mississippi were in possession of the United States, and numerous gunboats patrolled its waters from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans, no quantity of supplies sufficient to justify the cost and risk of transport could have been got across, even if they could have been safely landed on the Texan shore. The financial agents of the Confederate States saw that remittances must cease after the capture of

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