apers we learn that the defeat at
Charleston is called by the enemy a RECONNOISSANCE. This causes us much
merriment here; McClellan's defeat was called a "strategical movement,"
and "change of base."

We have some rumors to-day, to the effect that Gen. Hill is likely to
take Washington and Newbern, N. C.; Gen. Longstreet, Suffolk; and Gen.
Wise, Fort Magruder, and the Peninsula--he has not troops enough.

Gold advanced 7 per cent. in New York when the news of the
"reconnoissance" reached that city.

We are planting almost every acre in grain, to the exclusion of cotton
and tobacco--resolved never to be _starved_, nor even feel a scarcity of
provisions in future. We shall be cutting wheat in another month in
Alabama and other States.

Among the other rumors, it is said Hooker is falling back toward
Washington, but these are merely rumors.

The President is in a very feeble and nervous condition, and is really
threatened with the loss of sight altogether. But he works on; and few
or no visitors are admitted. He remains at his dwelling, and has not
been in the executive office these ten days.

Col. Lay was merry again to-day. He ordered in another foreign
substitute (in North Carolina).

Pins are so scarce and costly, that it is now a pretty general practice
to stoop down and pick up any found in the street. The boarding-houses
are breaking up, and rooms, furnished and unfurnished, are rented out to
messes. One dollar and fifty cents for beef, leaves no margin for
profit, even at $100 per month, which is charged for board, and most of
the boarders cannot afford to pay that price. Therefore they take rooms,
and buy their own scanty food. I am inclined to think provisions would
not be deficient, to an alarming extent, if they were equally
distributed. Wood is no scarcer than before the war, and yet $30 per
load (less than a cord) is demanded for it, and obtained.

The other day Wilmington _might_ have been taken, for the troops were
sent to Beauregard. Their places have since been filled by a brigade
from Longstreet. It is a monstrous undertaking to attempt to subjugate
so vast a country as this, even with its disparity of population. We
have superior facilities for concentration, while the invader must
occupy, or penetrate the outer lines of the circumference. Our danger is
from within, not from without. We are distressed more by the
extortioners than by the enemy. Eternal infamy on the heads of
speculators in art