r in McClellan's army is disgusted with McNapoleon,
and speaks with contempt of the reckless waste of men, of material,
etc. He calls it cruel, brainless, and uses a great many other
exclamations.

The healthful activity of Stanton, his broad and clear perception of
almost all exigencies of these critical times, are continually baffled
and neutralized by the allied McClellan, Blair, Seward, New York Times
and New York Herald. Such an alliance can easily confuse even the
strongest brains.

The colonization again on the _tapis_, and all the wonted display of
ignorance, stupidity, ill-will, and phariseeism towards genuine
liberty.

Seward gave up his Yucatan scheme. Chiriqui has the lead. And finally,
some foreign diplomats try to make conspicuous their little royalties.
So Denmark tries to cultivate the barren rocks of St. Thomas with the
poor captives. It will be a new kind of apprenticeship under cruel
masters. I hear that Mr. Lincoln is caught in the trap, and that a
convention _ad hoc_ is soon to be concluded. This time, at least, Mr.
Seward's name will remain outside.

I am uneasy, fearing we may commit some spread-eagleism towards France
during this present Mexican imbroglio. I will do my utmost to explain
to influential senators the truth concerning Louis Napoleon's
political conduct towards the North, the absurdity of any hostile
demonstration against France, and the dirt constituting the substratum
of the new Mexican treaty.

"French policy may change towards us," say the anti-Napoleons; "Louis
Napoleon will unmask his diplomatic batteries," etc., etc.

Well, Louis Napoleon may change when he finds that we are incorrigible
imbeciles, and that the great interests, which to defend is his duty,
are jeopardized; but not before. As for masked batteries, I considered
worse than fools all those who believed in masked batteries at
Manassas; and in the same light I consider all the believers in
diplomatic masked batteries. I was not afraid of the one, and am not
of the other.

Not one single French vessel has run, or attempted to run, the
blockade; not one has left the ports of France, or of the French West
Indies, loaded with arms or ammunition for the insurgents. As for the
barking of French papers, or of some second or third rate saloons,
barkings thus magnified by American letter-writers, I know too much of
Paris and of society to take notice of it. I am sure that the whole
rebel tross in Paris, male and fem