these Weeds, Sandfords, Hughes, Bigelows, and
whoever else may be there? They cannot find means in their brains to
better direct, inform, or influence the European press. Almost all the
articles in our favor are only defensive and explanatory; the
offensive is altogether carried by the secesh press in England and in
France. But to deal offensive blows, our agents would be obliged to
stand firm on human principles, and show up all the dastardly
corruption of slavery, of slaveholders, and of rebels. Such a warfare
is forbidden by Mr. Seward's policy; and perhaps if such a Weed should
speak of corruption, some English secesh may reprint Wilkeson's
letter. In one word, our cause in Europe is very tamely represented
and carried on. Members of the Chamber of Deputies in Paris complain
that they can nowhere find necessary information concerning certain
facts. There Seward's agents have not even been able to correct the
fallacies about the epoch of the Morrill tariff,--fallacies so often
invoked by the secesh press,--and many other similar statements. I
shall not wonder if the public opinion in Europe by and by may fall
off from our cause. Our defensive condition there justifies the
assumptions of the secesh. As we dare not expose their crimes, the
public in Europe must come to this conclusion, that secesh may be
right, and may begin to consider the North as having no principle.

And to think that all these agents heavily phlebotomize Uncle Sam's
pockets to obtain such contemptible results!

Many persons, some among them of influence and judgment, still speak
and speculate upon what they call the starving of the rebellion. They
calculate upon the comparative poverty of the rebels, repeating the
fallacious adage, that money is the sinews of war. Money is so, but
only in a limited degree, and more limited than is generally supposed;
more limited even now when war is a very expensive pastime.

This fallacy, first uttered by the aristocrat Thucydides, was repeated
over and over again until it became a statesmanlike creed. But even
Thucydides gave not to that _dictum_ such a general sense, and
Macchiavelli scorned the fallacy and exposed it. When poor, the
Spartans have been the bravest. The historical halo surrounding the
name of Sparta originated at that epoch when the use of money and of
gold had been almost forbidden. The wealth of Athens began after the
victories over the Persians; but those victories were won when the
Athen