lt, hats of
beaver, hats of straw, caps, military and civil--an endless variety.
'But the womens' bonnets,' added he, 'are all just alike in shape.'

'No, there are some exceptions,' said I, with a sly glance at the owner
of the jockey.' On which the old gentleman laughed again, and was about
to reply; when arrival of the train at its destination brought our
conversation to a sudden stop, and the motley assemblage, whether
crowned with hat or cap, bonnet or 'jockey,' parted company, never to
meet again on this side of the Dark River.

THE OBSTACLES TO PEACE.

A LETTER TO AN ENGLISH FRIEND.

MY DEAR SIR:--I have your late letter inquiring, as did several of its
predecessors, how soon this terrible Civil War is to end, and why we do
not close it at once by consenting to Disunion. These inquiries are
natural from your point of view; I have briefly answered them already;
but the subject is of vast importance, and we have good reason for our
desire that correct views respecting it should prevail among the
enlightened and just in Europe. We feel that we are entitled to the
earnest and active sympathy of such men as you are in every country and
of every creed. We feel that we have unjustly, by artful
misrepresentations, been deprived of this, and that we have suffered
grievously in consequence. Let me endeavor, then, to restate our
position somewhat more fully, and to show wherein and why we impeach the
justice of the criticisms to which we have been subjected even by humane
and fair-minded Englishmen.

I need not, at this late day, prove to you that Slavery is the animating
soul of the Rebellion. The fact that no compromise or adjustment of the
quarrel was proposed from any quarter during the inception and progress
of Secession, which did not relate directly and exclusively to Slavery,
is conclusive on this point. Projects for arresting the impending
calamity were abundant throughout the winter of 1860-61. Congress was
gorged with them; a volunteer 'Peace Congress' was simultaneously held
on purpose to arrest the dreaded disruption, and attended by able
Delegations from all the Border Slave and most of the Free States, many
of the former now fighting in the Rebel ranks; but no one suggested that
any conceivable legislation on any subject but Slavery was desired or
would be of the least avail. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, the
Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, and, perhaps, the ablest man
in it, who resist