he Secretary of War, in
the absence of the President, has been making suggestions to Gen. Lee,
none of which does he deem it good policy to adopt, the Secretary not
being versed in military matters.

A private note from Gen. Lee, dated the 13th inst., which I saw to-day,
informs the Secretary of War that much of the benefits he anticipated
from his movement, then in progress, must be lost, from the fact that
the enemy had been informed of his purposes. This it was the duty of the
government to prevent, but Mr. Seddon, like his predecessors, cannot be
convinced that the rogues and cut-throats employed by Gen. Winder as
detectives, have it in their power to inflict injury on the cause and
the country. The cleaning of the Augean stables here is the work which
should engage the attention of the Secretary of War, rather than
directing the movements of armies in the field, of which matter he knows
nothing whatever.

The Secretary of War wrote a long and rather rebuking letter to-day to
Mr. Sheffey, chairman of the Committee on Confederate Relations, of the
General Assembly, who communicated a report and resolutions of the House
of Delegates, in relation to details of conscripts, and the employment
in civil offices of robust young men capable of military service, and
urging the department to appoint men over forty-five years of age to
perform such services, and to impress free negroes to do the labor that
soldiers are detailed for. The Secretary thinks the Confederate
Government knows its duties, and ought not to be meddled with by State
Governments. It touched Mr. Seddon nearly.

By the last Northern papers I see President Lincoln has issued a
proclamation calling for 300,000 more volunteers, and if they "do not
come when he calls for them," that number will be _drafted_ in January.
This is very significant; either the draft has already failed, or else
about a million of men per annum are concerned in the work of
suppressing this "rebellion." We find, just at the time fixed for the
subjugation of the South, Rosecrans is defeated, and Meade is driven
back upon Washington!

OCTOBER 25TH.--We have nothing new this morning; but letters to the
department from North and South Carolina indicate that while the troops
in Virginia are almost perishing for food, the farmers are anxious to
deliver the tithes, but the quartermaster and commissary agents are
negligent or designedly remiss in their duty. The consequence will be
the los