ause," if
he proclaims the necessity of indiscriminate impressment, etc.

JANUARY 13TH.--Clear and pleasant--but little frost. Beef (what little
there is in market) sells to-day at $6 per pound; meal, $80 per bushel;
white beans, $5 per quart, or $160 per bushel. And yet Congress is
fiddling over stupid abstractions!

The government will awake speedily, however; and after Congress hurries
through its business (when roused), the adjournment of that body will
speedily ensue. But will the President dismiss his cabinet in time to
save Richmond, Virginia, and the cause? That is the question. He can
easily manage Congress, by a few letters from Gen. Lee. But will the
potency of his cabinet feed Lee's army?

A great panic still prevails in the city, arising from rumors of
contemplated evacuation. If it should be evacuated, the greater portion
of the inhabitants will remain, besides many of the employees of
government and others liable to military service, unless they be forced
away. But how can they be fed? The government cannot feed, sufficiently,
the men already in the field.

Everybody is conjecturing what Mr. Blair has proposed; but no one
expects relief from his mission, if indeed he be clothed with diplomatic
powers--which I doubt.

The President, I believe, is calm, relying upon the loyalty of his
cabinet. But he is aware of the crisis; and I think his great reliance
is on Gen. Lee, and herein he agrees with the people. What will be the
issue of the present exigency, God only knows!

I believe there is a project on foot to borrow flour, etc. from citizens
for Gen. Lee's army. Many officers and men from the army are in the city
to-day, confirming the reports of suffering for food in the field.

There is a rumor that Goldsborough has been taken.

Mr. Secretary Seddon is appointing men in the various districts of the
city to hunt up speculators and flour; appointing such men as W. H.
McFarland and others, who aspire to office by the suffrages of the
people. _They_ will not offend the speculators and hoarders by taking
much flour from them. No--domiciliary visits with _bayonets_ alone will
suffice.

Of thirty Federal deserters sent to work on the fortifications of
Lynchburg, all but four ran away.

It is understood that the President announced to Congress to-day the
arrest of the Hon. H. S. Foote, member of that body, near
Fredericksburg, while attempting to pass into the enemy's lines. This,
then, may have bee