ond, for instance, has never yet been in the command of a
Southern general.

There are indications of a speedy peace, although we are environed by
sea and by land as menacingly as ever. The _Tribune_ (New York) has an
article which betrays much desperation. It says the only way for the
United States Government to raise $300,000,000, indispensably necessary
for a further prosecution of the war, is to guarantee (to the
capitalists) that it will be the _last_ call for a loan, and that
subjugation will be accomplished in ninety days, or never. It says the
war must then be urged on _furiously_, and negro soldiers sent among the
slaves to produce an insurrection! If this will not suffice, then let
peace be made on the best possible terms. The New York _World_ denounces
the article, and is for peace at once. It says if the project
(diabolical) of the _Tribune_ fails, it may not be possible to make
peace on any terms. In this I see indications of a foregone conclusion.
All over the North, and especially in the Northwest, the people are
clamoring for peace, and denouncing the Lincoln Emancipation
Proclamation. I have no doubt, if the war continues throughout the year,
we shall have the spectacle of more Northern men fighting against the
United States Government than slaves fighting against the South.

Almost every day, now, ships from Europe arrive safely with merchandise:
and this is a sore vexation to the Northern merchants. We are likewise
getting, daily, many supplies from the North, from blockade-runners. No
doubt this is winked at by the United States military authorities, and
perhaps by some of the civil ones, too.

If we are not utterly crushed before May (an impracticable thing), we
shall win our independence.

JANUARY 30TH.--There is a rumor that Kentucky has voted to raise an army
of 60,000 men to resist the execution of Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation.

Fort Caswell, below Wilmington, has been casemated with iron; but can it
withstand elongated balls weighing 480 pounds? I fear not. There are,
however, submarine batteries; yet these may be avoided, for Gen. Whiting
writes that the best pilot (one sent thither some time ago by the enemy)
escaped to the hostile fleet since Gen. Smith visited North Carolina,
which is embraced within his command. This pilot, no doubt, knows the
location of all our torpedoes.

Nothing further from Savannah.

Mr. Adams, the United States Minister at London, writes to Mr. Seward