sequences as would result from their conquest? If such a supposition prevails anywhere it can find no countenance in the history of the contest in which we are now engaged. In the commencement of this struggle our enemies had in their possession the machinery of the old Government. The naval and for the most part the military establishments were in their hands. They had too most of the accumulated capital and nearly all the manufactures of arms, ordnance and of the necessities of life. They had all the means of striking us hard blows before we could be ready to return them. And yet in the face of all this we have instituted a Government and placed more than 200,000 men in the field with an adequate staff anc ommissariat. A still larger number of men are ready to take the field if it should become necessary, and experience has shown that the only limit to the disposition of the people to give what may be required for the war is to be found in their ability. The enemy with greatly superior numbers have been routed in pitched battles at Bethel and Manassas in Virginia, and their recent defeat at Springfield, Mo., was almost as signal as that of Manassas. The comparatively little foothold which they have had in the Confederate States is gradually being lost and after six months of war in which they employed their best resources it may truly be said they are much further from conquest of the Southern States than they seemed to be when the struggle commenced.

The Union feeling which was supposed to exist largely in the South and which was known to us to be imaginary is now shown in the ture light to all mankind. Never were any people more united than are those of the Confederate States in their purpose to maintain their independence at any cost of life and treasure; nor is there a party to be found anywhere in these States which professes a desire for a reunion with the United States. Nothing could prove this unanimity of feeling more strongly than the fact that this immense army may be said to have taken the field spontaneously and faster almost than theGovernment could provide for its organization and equipment. But the voluntary contributions of the people supplied all deficiencies until the Government could come to their assistance as it has done with the necessary military establishments. And what is perhaps equally remarkable it may be siad with truth is that there has been no judicial execution for a political offense during the whole of the war and so far as military offenses are concerned our prisons would be empty were it not for a few captured spies.

Under these circumstances it would seem that the time has arrived when it would be proper in the Government of Great Britain to recognize our independence. If it be obvious that the Confederate States cannot be conquered in this struggle then the sooner the strife be ended the better for the cause of peace and the interests of mankind. Under such circumstances to fail to throw the great moral influence of such a recongnition into the scale of peace when this may be done without risk or danger may be to share in the responsibility for the longer continuance of an unnecessary war. This is a consideration which ought perhaps to have some weight with a nation which leads so largely as does that of Great Britain in the progress of Christian civilization.

that the British people have a deep policial and commercial interest in the establishment of the independence of the Confederate States must be Their real interest in that event is only a little less than our own. The great question of cotton supply which has occupied their attention so justly and so anxiously for some years past will then be satisfactorily settled. Whilst the main source of cotton