ord.
Major Maynard, instead of bringing 120, gets in but 30 or 40 cords per
day. I am out of wood, and must do my little cooking in the parlor with
the coal in the grate. This is famine!

Congress passed a bill a few days ago increasing the number of
midshipmen, and allowing _themselves_ to appoint a large proportion of
them. Yesterday the President vetoed the bill, he alone, by the
Constitution, being authorized to make all appointments. But the Senate
immediately repassed it over the veto--only three votes in the negative.
Thus the war progresses! And Mr. Hunter was one of the three.

The President, in reply to a committee of the State Legislature, says
Gen. Lee has always refused to accept the command of all the armies
unless he could relinquish the immediate command of the Army of Northern
Virginia defending the capital; and that he is and ever has been willing
to bestow larger powers on Gen. Lee; but he would not accept them.

This makes me doubt whether the President has signed the bill creating a
commander-in-chief.

It is _said again_, that Commissary-General Northrop has resigned.
Doubtful.

Still, there are no beggars in the streets, except a few women of
foreign or Northern birth. What a people! If our affairs were managed
properly, subjugation would be utterly impossible. But all the statesmen
of the years preceding the war have been, somehow, "ruled out" of
positions, and wield no influence, unless it be a vengeful one in
private. Where are the patriots of the decade between 1850 and 1860?
"Echo answers where?" Who is responsible for their absence? A fearful
responsibility!

Gold is _quoted_ at $35 for $1--illusory! Perhaps worse.

The statistics furnished by my son Custis of the military strength of
the Confederate States, and ordered by the President to be preserved on
file in the department, seems to have attracted the attention of Mr.
Assistant Secretary Campbell, and elicited a long indorsement, saying a
calculation of the number of casualties of war was not made--all this
_after_ the paper was sent in by the President. But the estimate _was_
made, and included in the reduction from the 800,000, leaving 600,000.
Judge C thinks 200,000 have been killed, 50,000 permanently disabled,
and 55,000 are prisoners; still 500,000 availables would be left.

Custis has drafted, and will send to the President, a bill establishing
a Corps of Honor, with a view to excite emulation and to popularize the
serv