line up the river some twenty miles, intending to find
a passage. He _might_ have come over last week but for a _ruse_ of Gen.
Lee, who appeared near Fredericksburg twenty-four hours in advance of
the army. His presence deceived Burnside, who took it for granted that
our general was at the head of his army!

M. Paul carried the day yesterday, in the Confederate Court, in the
matter of $2,000,000 worth of tobacco, which, under pretense of its
belonging to French citizens (though bought by Belmont, of New York, an
alien enemy), is rescued from sequestration. In other words, the
recognition of M. Paul as Consul, and the validity of his demands,
deprives the Confederate Government of two millions; and really
acknowledges the _exequatur_ of the United States, as M. Paul is not
Consul to the Confederate States but to the United States. This looks
like submission; and a great fee has been realized by somebody. If the
enemy were to take Richmond, this tobacco would be destroyed by the
_military_.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston is assigned to the command of the army of the
West.

To-day we have a dispatch from Gov. Pettus, saying authority to pass
cotton through the lines of the army, and for salt to have ingress, must
be given immediately. The President directs the Secretary to transmit
orders to the generals to that effect. He says the cotton is to go to
France without touching any port in the possession of the enemy.

NOVEMBER 29TH.--The Quartermaster-General publishes a notice that _he_
will receive and distribute contributions of clothing, etc. to the army,
and even _pay_ for the shirts $1 each! Shirts are selling at $12. The
people will not trust him to convey the clothing to their sons and
brothers, and so the army must suffer on. But he is getting in bad odor.
A gentleman in Alabama writes that his agents are speculating in food:
the President tells the Secretary to demand explanations, and the
Secretary does so. Col. Myers fails, I think, to make the exhibit
required, and it may be the worse for him.

I see by the papers that another of Gen. Winder's police has escaped to
Washington City, and is now acting as a _Federal_ detective. And yet
many similar traitors are retained in service here!

The Governor of North Carolina writes the President that his State
intends to organize an army of 10,000 men for its own defense, besides
her sixty regiments in the Confederate States service; and asks if the
Confederate States Go