few would be likely to arrive at New Orleans in fit condition to attack the fortifications that would await them, and to defeat many times their own number, whom there would have been ample opportunity to assemble during the four months that march must occupy.

There is a resource which has been frequently alluded to abstinence from which has been described as proof of almost sublime magnanimity -that of declaring at once emancipation of the slaves, and so prostrating the South at one fell blow. This at first, as the resolve of some principle shrinking from no sacrifice, all would have respected, whatever the opinion of its wisdom. Now, as an act of revenge and spite, because the people of the South could not otherwise be subdued, it would stamp on the page of American history a stigma dark and indelible-that never, we trust, may appear there. Beyond this it would be an impotent act of vengeance. If the negroes resolve to rise, they will wait for no act of Congress-without such resolve on their part, a proclamation would be addressed to the idle wind. And how would it help the slaves to rise who are a thousand miles off-who is to take it down there, to read to them-to go provided also, as he need be, with railway tickets and other arrangements for the removal of four millions of human beings? To leave them where they are, would simply be to light the flames of servile war, and this, as we have seen, would speedily be quenched in blood

leaving only behind the waste of so much human life, and a never-dying memory to avenge.

The proclamation of Fremont is another striking illustration how with politicians this great question is simply one of the convenience of the hour. The Unionist-the Northerner in sentiment, may retain and rejoice in his slaves; in the Southerner it remains a crime. Slavery has existed in all ages, in many countries; here alone conscience has been graduated - reduced to calculationtaught to discover in the slave three-fifths of a man-to discern in him a thing, "contraband of war"—and now to declare the ownership of him a party-coloured crime-sinful in the opponent, blameless in the ally. What conceivable outrage on principle could be more worthy of a proclamation that copies the ferocity of the Mexican creole, and ordains that fellow-countrymen are to be shot, and this in the name of Union-for the simple crime that, as citizens of the State of Missouri, they obey the orders of the lawful authorities of their State?

It results from the previous considerations that there is but one contingency that might permit this conquest to be achieved. It is possible that a series of victories won by the North might, although barren of military result, induce feelings of despondency, of panic, and thus induce the people of the South to lay down their arms. This seems indeed the only theory, or rather hope, cou

sistent with reason. On what ground can it be

based? We have seen the extreme improbability of such victories, but assuming that they should occur, New Orleans is 1,400 miles from Washington; no panic can span that distance. No reason appears why greater effect should be produced by the capture of any city than by that of the capital when taken in the last war. On this point, on the 28th January last, Mr. Iverson spoke thus in the Senate: "You boast of your superior numbers and strength, but remember that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. You have 100,000 fighting men; so have we. And fighting upon our own soil, and to preserve our rights, and vindicate our honour, and defend our homes, our firesides, our wives and children, from the invader, we shall not be easily conquered. You may overrun us, desolate our fields, burn our dwellings, lay our cities in ruin, murder our people, and reduce us to beggary, but you cannot subdue and subjugate us to your will. You may whip us, but we will not stay whipped. We will rise again and again to vindicate our liberty, and to throw off your oppressive and accursed yoke, and we will never cease the strife until our race is extinguished, and our fair land given over to desolation."

This does not seem the language of those who will lose heart on a defeat, or on a series of defeats, or who, possessed still of ample means of material resistance, will be subdued by moral dismay. Where hatred exists, defeat adds to its bitterness-it does not change it to alarm. We

have already seen what ties were severed-what long-continued efforts were made by this same people when the only motive that existed was the desire of self-government. Success was then achieved through a long and often dismal career of losses and defeats, by the simple power of perseverance. The policy to be adopted now by the leaders of the South needs no invention. They have but to retreat and endure, leaving time and space and the expenditure of the North to decide the contest. Defeats in battle occurred before; perseverance triumphed in spite of them. This knowledge indeed gives now a support which their fathers had not. With them it was a desperate venture, of which the end had to be darkly conjectured. Now, to the force of their example is added the sustaining power of full knowledge of that result. And the prize that allures ambition is incomparably more dazzling than any hope of the earlier time. There was then the desire of independence, with no accompaniment of other gain. The colonies had no material interests to be promoted by the attempted change, and there were some that looked to suffer and did suffer heavily for years. Here, to the old desire of independence and self-government, is added the escape from the thraldom of Northern monopolists, and liberation from a rule not only regarded as alien, but felt to be repulsive.

There will indeed glitter before the eye of the aspiring an empire in the future far beyond that

of the colonist-an empire extending from the home of Washington to the ancient palaces of Montezuma-uniting the proud old colonies of England with Spain's richest and most romantic dominions combining the productions of the great valley of the Mississippi with the mineral riches, the magical beauty, the volcanic grandeur of Mexico and commanding the materials of commerce throughout this wide expanse, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, no longer trammelled by the restrictions nor taxed by the cupidity of others. To these as incentives to effort or motives for endurance, those were feeble that sustained this people in their previous struggle. Here are objects that stimulate ambition, inflame imagination, enkindle hope, engrafted upon others that address themselves to reason and to justice. All know the tenacity with which in every age and country nations have clung to the thought of liberty. And no instance can we find where, in addition to that impulse, there were motives so powerful as these. In this view we must expect that the people of the South will maintain this struggle for their independence as arduously, and for as many years, as were needed in the first instance to acquire it.

What, then, must be expected as the issue of the war, in this anticipated perseverance of the Southern people? We have seen that they possess the advantage of greater experience and natural aptitude, both in political and military