ice
were not made, they would be assigned to companies. They protested
against this as despotic, but there is no remedy.

APRIL 5TH.--Cold rain all night and all day; wind northwest.

The Quartermaster-General _now_ recommends that no furloughs be given,
so as to devote the railroads to the transportation of grain to
Virginia.

The Commissary-General again informs the Secretary of War, to-day, that
unless the passenger trains were discontinued, the army could not be
subsisted, and Richmond and all Virginia might have to be abandoned, and
the country might be pillaged by our own soldiers. Not a word against
the Southern (Yankee) Express Company.

Our prospects are brighter than they have been for many a day, and the
enemy are doomed, I think, to a speedy humiliation.

I saw a note to-day from Mr. Memminger stating his fears that the amount
of Treasury notes funded will not exceed $200,000,000, leaving
$600,000,000 still in circulation! It is true, some $300,000,000 might
be collected in taxes, if due vigilance were observed,--but _will_ it be
observed? He says he can make between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 of the
new currency per day. If this be done, the redundancy will soon be as
great as ever. Nothing but success in the field will prevent an
explosion and repudiation of the currency, sooner or later.

APRIL 6TH.--At mid-day it cleared off; wind still northwest, and cool.

Beans (white) were held to-day at $5 per quart! and other articles of
food in proportion. How we are to live is the anxious question. At
auction old sheets brought $25 a piece, and there seemed to be an
advance on everything, instead of a decline as was expected. The
speculators and extortioners seem to act in concert, and the government
appears to be no match for them. It is not the scarcity of food which
causes the high prices, for wood and coal sell as high as other things,
and they are no scarcer than at any former period. But it is an
insatiable thirst for gain, which I fear the Almighty Justicer will
rebuke in some signal manner, perhaps in the emancipation of the slaves,
and then the loss will be greater than all the gains reaped from the
heart's blood of our brave soldiers and the tears of the widow and
orphan! And government still neglects the wives and children of the
soldiers,--a fearful risk!

But, alas! how are our brave men faring in the hands of the demon
fanatics in the United States? It is said _they_ are dying like sheep.