by the government, which are daily committed by British subjects in British ports and on the high seas, have become not merely annoying, but deeply injurious. We are doing everything possible to prevent a ripening of these disturbances into a war upon the ocean, which would probably leave no nation free from its desolating effects.

October 25, 1862.- Kentucky and Missouri, like Maryland, are free again. The war retires into Tennessee, as it has into Virginia. Expeditions up and down the Mississippi are nearly in readiness. General McClellan is preparing operations in Virginia, not so rapidly as our impatience demands, but, doubtless, with his customary care and comprehensiveness. General Mitchell will not long be idle before Charleston.

The delays of our new iron-clad vessels are painful and mortifying, but one cannot see where to charge fault.

October 27, 1862. The military events which seem to require a notice, when the mail is departing, are, first, the escape of the insurgents from Kentucky back into the mountains of Tennessee. General Buell's proceedings are, in some military quarters, thought to have been unnecessarily dilatory; he has been relieved, and General Rosecrans, a very vigorous and accomplished officer, assumes the vacated command. Second, General Schofield has defeated the insurgents in Arkansas, in which state they were attempting to make a stand after their second expulsion from Missouri. Third, General McClellan is on the eve of crossing the Potomac to challenge the insurgents as a beginning of the new campaign in Virginia. Fourth, reinforcements are going to our forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Orleans. These reinforcements will have all needful naval coöperation. There are various political manifestations in North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana, which are not destitute of significancy, but it would be premature, perhaps, to specify them. It must suffice to say that it is a mistake to assume, as seems to be so freely assumed in Europe, that the President's proclamation of warning to the insurgent states will be either unfruitful or even unheeded.

November 3, 1862. The military transactions which I have to relate are not striking, although they are not unimportant. The navy have reduced to occupation two new positions on the southern coast - Sabine Pass and Galveston. The blockading fleet has cap

tured three of the steamers which were fitted out in England and despatched from British ports with arms and other supplies for the insurgents.

General McClellan's army has crossed into Virginia, and its advance has already had some skirmishing with the insurgents in the rear of Leesburg, which is again occupied by the national forces.

The telegraph announces the destruction of another half dozen American vessels on the high seas by the steamer 290. The President is obliged to regard these destructions as being made by British subjects in violation of the law of nations after repeated and ample notice, warning, and remonstrances had been given by you to the British government. It is presumed that you have already brought the subject in that light to the notice of her Majesty's government. The legal proofs in support of a claim for indemnity will be collected and transmitted to you as speedily as possible.

It is hardly necessary to advise one so well acquainted as you [Mr. Adams] are with the working of our system of popular elections against being disturbed by the exaggerations of the political canvass which closes to-day. No apprehensions of any change of the policy of the country in regard to the suppression of the insurrection are indulged here.

November 10, 1862. At the present we are apprehending no insurmountable obstacles to complete success. Our army in Virginia, as you will learn from the newspapers, is already approaching the Rapidan, without having encountered serious opposition. General Grant is advancing into the heart of Mississippi. General Rosecrans is moving forward in Tennessee. Expeditions by land and water, greater in force than any preceding one, will soon be on their way to the southern coast.

November 18, 1862. The military movements, though important, are not striking. Major-General Burnside, now in command of the army of the Potomac, has put it in motion, and events of some significance may be expected within a few days. A part of MajorGeneral Banks' expedition is already afloat, and the whole will probably reach the important destination within a week. Some successful movements have been made in North Carolina and in Louisiana. Major-General Grant is advancing with apparent success in Mississippi, and additional columns to move by land and water are proceeding towards the Gulf from Cairo and St. Louis.

General Rosecrans is advancing towards the enemy in East Tennessee, and an iron navy is nearly ready to reduce the last remaining insurrectionary ports into Federal occupation. Of all the insurgent menaces which lowered upon us so thickly in September and October there is only one that now gives us anxiety, and that is the invasion by iron-clad vessels, which are being built for the insurgents by their sympathizers in England.

November 28, 1862. More iron-clads are necessary for the taking of Charleston. The building of them has seemed slow, but they are now beginning to move to their proper field of duty. The Ironsides and the Passaic have gone there, and eight more, I think, will reach Charleston in time to anticipate the fleets that are now fitting out in Europe.

November 30, 1862. I have expected to be able to inform you that General Burnside has advanced across the Rappahannock. His preparations are ready, and the movement is imminent. He has a large and fine army.

General Banks' latest day assigned for embarkation has passed. I trust he will be on his way when this despatch leaves the coast. The Passaic has at last left her port. The Secretary of the Navy reckons confidently on the rapid completion and despatch of sufficient iron-clad auxiliaries to reduce Charleston.

The gold speculation seems to have passed its zenith, and to be decidedly declining.

More of moderation and self-reliance is manifested by the people now than at any time since the war began.

Congress has come together in, I think, a good, practical, and patriotic temper. The President's message grasps the subject of slavery earnestly and confidently. It would be unbecoming even if it were possible, to predict the reception which his bold suggestion It is someof gradual and compensated emancipation will meet. thing to know, perhaps it is all that can be known now, that the great problem of the civil war maintains its importance, and secures the consideration it deserves. While the people hesitate, doubt, and divide upon each new suggestion that is made for the solution of the problem, they no longer shrink from contemplating and studying it. If they seem to the world to be slow in reaching it, the world ought to be reassured of their success by the reflection that no nation ever advanced faster in a task so complicated and so difficult. The great

question heretofore has been: Can the constitutional Union endure through the trial? There is no longer any ground for despondency on that point. When we compare the military and naval conditions of the country now with what they were when Congress came together a year ago when we compare the condition of our foreign relations now existing with that which prevailed when Congress assembled a year ago-we see evidences of strength, power, and stability which then it would have seemed presumptuous to expect. December 15, 1862. The excitement which attended the late political canvass having subsided, the public mind returns again from its wanderings to engage itself with the military situation.

The army under General Burnside, which had been some time gathering upon the north bank of the Rappahannock, crossed that river on Friday and Saturday last in perfect order, and with signal exhibitions of heroism. The insurgents were dislodged from the town, and retired to their defences upon the hills beyond it. At the moment when I am writing, however, General Burnside, for reasons not yet explained, has withdrawn his forces to the north side of the river, and the two armies are now separated from each other by its shores. General Burnside had, when he commenced crossing the river, one hundred and thirty thousand men under his command. The addition of General Sigel's corps gave the commanding general last night fifteen thousand more, and to-day he will receive still another fifteen thousand. It is not easily understood how a general could handle a force larger than this.

Major-General Banks sailed from New York fifteen days ago with reinforcements for New Orleans, and we suppose that he must before this time have reached and taken command in that city. With the additional forces which are now descending through the valley of the Mississippi under Generals Grant and Curtis and a very large land and naval expedition that is waiting at Cairo, as I understand, only for a slight rise of the river, it is expected that the Mississippi will be entirely freed from the insurgents, and become a base for operations eastward through Alabama and westward to the Rio Grande. Generals Curtis and Grant have had satisfactory sucGeneral Rosecrans, who is in command at Nashville, and is expected to operate against Chattanooga and the passes in East Tennessee, has been less demonstrative than was expected, but we have no reason to apprehend any ultimate failure of his projected campaign.

cesses.

The political atmosphere begins to exhibit phenomena indicative of a weariness of the war, and a desire for peace on both sides. There are suggestions, perhaps as yet all of them visionary, of terms or bases of conciliation. No propositions or intimations, however, have come from the insurgent faction, and of course none have been communicated by the government. The public mind has been recently too much disturbed by incidental and collateral questions to study closely the progress of the war, and to measure the exhaustion of the insurgents. We are, therefore, without any conclusive evidence of their actual temper at this moment.

The return of members of Congress from Louisiana, and the holding of elections for the same purpose in North Carolina and Virginia, have nevertheless an undoubted significance.

The intended demonstration of iron-clad steamers is yet withheld for want of sufficient vessels. We continually see new vessels launched, and the workmen engaged in preparing them. But we do not find ourselves in possession of the overawing force of that kind which is necessary for watching at Hampton roads, and reaching at the same time Mobile and Charleston. The Passaic, when she arrived at the place of rendezvous, was found to be somewhat incomplete. She was sent up to the navy yard here, and will go out in good condition to-day. The Montauk goes to sea to-day or to-morrow. The "290" still escapes us, but the navy redoubles its exertions for her capture.

December 26, 1862. The Secretary of War has, I think, adopted a policy which does not contemplate the acceptance of bodies of troops organized in foreign countries, even with the consent of their sovereigns.

The Secretary of War still retains under consideration the offer of General Garibaldi. It involves some considerations upon which the convenience of that Department must necessarily be consulted. It is a source of high satisfaction to know that the General has been so far relieved of his painful wound as to justify a hope of his rapid convalescence.

December 29, 1862. The proclamation of freedom to the slaves of the insurgent states will be promptly issued on the first day of January next; and it seems probable that a state of things will arise in the Gulf states that will be calculated to undermine the hopes that have been built there upon foreign intervention. Finally,