yet matured; they had better stayed at home.

Confiscation is the great word in Congress or out of it. The property
of the rebels is confiscable by the ever observed rule of war, as
consecrated by international laws. When two sovereigns make war, the
victor confiscates the other's property, as represented by whole
provinces, by public domains, by public taxes and revenues. In the
present case the rebels are the sovereigns, and their property is
therefore confiscable. But for the sake of equity, and to compensate
the wastes of war, Congress ought to decree the confiscation of
property of all those who, being at the helm, by their political
incapacity or tricks contribute to protract the war and increase its
expense.

Mr. Lincoln yields to the pressure of public opinion. A proof: his
message to Congress about emancipation in the Border States. Crumb No.
1 thrown--reluctantly I am sure--to the noble appetite of freemen. I
hope history will not credit Mr. Lincoln with being the initiator.

American nepotism puts to shame the one practised in Europe. All
around here they keep offices in pairs, father and son. So McClellan
has a father in-law as chief of the staff, a brother as aid, and then
various relations, clerks, etc., etc., and the same in some other
branches of the administration.

The Merrimac affair. Terrible evidence how active and daring are the
rebels, and we sleepy, slow, and self-satisfied. By applying the
formula of induction from effect to cause, the disaster occasioned by
the Merrimac, and any further havoc to be made by this iron
vessel,--all this is to be credited to McClellan.

If Norfolk had been taken months ago, then the rebels could not have
constructed the Merrimac. Norfolk could have been easily taken any day
during the last six months, _but for strategy_ and the _maturing of
great plans_! These are the sacramental words more current now than
ever. Oh good-natured American people! how little is necessary to
humbug thee!

Oh shame! oh malediction! The rebels left Centreville,--which turns
out to be scarcely a breastwork, with wooden guns,--and they slipped
off from Manassas.

When McClellan got the news of the evacuation, he gravely considered
where to lean his right or left flanks, and after the consideration,
two days after the enemy _wholly_ completed the evacuation, McClellan
moves at the head of 80,000 men--to storm the wooden guns of
Centreville. Two hours after the news of the evacua