University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER LVI.

September 11th.—A soft-voiced, round-faced, rather good-looking
young man, with downy moustache, came to my room,
and introduced himself this morning as Mr. H. H. Scott, formerly
of Her Majesty's 57th Regiment. "Don't you remember
me? I often met you at Cathcart's Hill. I had a big
dog, if you remember, which used to be about the store belonging
to our camp." And so he rattled on, talking of old
Street and young Jones with immense volubility, and telling
me how he had gone out to India with his regiment, had married,
lost his wife, and was now travelling for the benefit of
his health and to see the country. All the time I was trying
to remember his face, but in vain. At last came the purport
of his visit. He had been taken ill at Baltimore, and was
obliged to stop at an hotel, which had cost him more than he
had anticipated; he had just received a letter from his father,
which required his immediate return, and he had telegraphed
to New York to secure his place in the next steamer. Meantime,
he was out of money, and required a small loan to enable
him to go back and prepare for his journey, and of course he
would send me the money the moment he arrived in New
York. I wrote a check for the amount he named, with
which Lieutenant or Captain Scott departed; and my suspicions
were rather aroused by seeing him beckon a remarkably
ill-favored person at the other side of the way, who
crossed over and inspected the little slip of paper held out for
his approbation, and then, taking his friend under the arm,
walked off rapidly toward the bank.

The papers still continue to abuse me faute de mieux,
there are essays written about me; I am threatened with
several farces; I have been lectured upon at Willard's by a
professor of rhetoric; and I am a stock subject with the
leaden penny funny journals, for articles and caricatures.
Yesterday I was abused on the ground that I spoke badly of
those who treated me hospitably. The man who wrote the
words knew they were false, because I have been most careful
in my correspondence to avoid any thing of the kind. A
favorite accusation, indeed, which Americans make against
foreigners is,"that they have abused our hospitality," which oftentimes
consists in permitting them to live in the country at all
at their own expense, paying their way at hotels and elsewhere,
without the smallest suspicion that they were receiving
any hospitality whatever.

To-day, for instance, there comes a lively corporal of artillery,
John Robinson, who quotes Sismondi, Guizot, and others,
to prove that I am the worst man in the world; but his
fiercest invectives are directed against me on the ground that I
speak well of those people who give me dinners; the fact
being, since I came to America, that I have given at least as
many dinners to Americans as I have received from them.

Just as I was sitting down to my desk for the remainder of
the day, a sound caught my ear which, repeated again and
again, could not be mistaken by accustomed organs, and placing
my face close to the windows, I perceived the glass
vibrate to the distant discharge of cannon, which, evidently,
did not proceed from a review or a salute. Unhappy man
that I am! here is Walker lame, and my other horse carried
off by the West-country captain. However, the sounds were
so close that in a few moments I was driving off toward the
Chain Bridge, taking the upper road, as that by the canal has
become a sea of mud filled with deep holes.

In the windows, on the house-tops, even to the ridges partially
overlooking Virginia, people were standing in high excitement
watching the faint puffs of smoke which rose at
intervals above the tree-tops, and at every report a murmur
—exclamations of "There, do you hear that?"—ran
through the crowd. The driver, as excited as any one else,
urged his horses at full speed, and we arrived at the Chain
Bridge just as General McCall—a white haired, rather military-looking
old man—appeared at the head of his column,
hurrying down to the Chain Bridge from the Maryland side,

to reinforce Smith, who was said to be heavily engaged with
the enemy. But by this time the firing had ceased, and just
as the artillery of the General's column commenced defiling
through the mud, into which the guns sank to the naves of
the wheels, the head of another column appeared, entering the
bridge from the Virginia side with loud cheers, which were
taken up again and again. The carriage was halted to allow
the 2nd Wisconsin to pass; and a more broken-down, whitefaced,
sick, and weakly set of poor wretches I never beheld.
The heavy rains had washed the very life out of them; their
clothing was in rags, their shoes were broken, and multitudes
were footsore. They cheered, nevertheless, or whooped, and
there was a tremendous clatter of tongues in the ranks concerning
their victory; but as the men's faces and hands were
not blackened by powder, they could have seen little of the
engagement. Captain Poe came along with despatches for
General McClellan, and gave me a correct account of the
affair.

All this noise and firing and excitement, I found simply
arose out of a reconnoissance made toward Lewinsville, by
Smith and a part of his brigade, to beat up the enemy's position,
and enable the topographical engineers to procure some
information respecting the country. The Confederates worked
down upon their left flank with artillery, which they got into
position at an easy range without being observed, intending,
no doubt, to cut off their retreat and capture or destroy the
whole force; but, fortunately for the reconnoitring party, the
impatience of their enemies led them to open fire too soon.
The Federals got their guns into position also, and covered
their retreat, whilst reinforcements poured out of camp to
their assistance, "and I doubt not," said Poe, "but that they
will have an encounter of a tremendous scalping match in all
the papers to-morrow, although we have only six or seven
men killed, and twelve wounded." As we approached Washington
the citizens, as they are called, were waving Federal
banners out of the windows and rejoicing in a great victory;
at least, the inhabitants of the inferior sort of houses. Respectability
in Washington means Secession.

Mr. Monson told me that my distressed young British subject,
Captain Scott, had called on him at the Legation early
this morning for the little pecuniary help which had been I
fear, wisely refused there, and which was granted by me.
The States have become, indeed, more than ever the cloacina

gentium, and Great Britain contributes its full quota to the
stream.

Thus time passes away in expectation of some onward
movement, or desperate attack, or important strategical movements;
and night comes to reassemble a few friends, Americans
and English, at my rooms or elsewhere, to talk over the
disappointed hopes of the day, to speculate on the future, to
chide each dull delay, and to part with a hope that to-morrow
would be more lively than to-day. Major-General Bell, who
commanded the Royals in the Crimea, and who has passed
some half century in active service, turned up in Washington,
and has been courteously received by the American authorities.
He joined to-night one of our small reunions, and was
infinitely puzzled to detect the lines which separated one man's
country and opinions from those of the other.

September llth.—Captain Johnson, Queen's messenger,
started with despatches for England from the Legation to-day,
to the regret of our little party. I observe by the papers
certain wiseacres in Philadelphia have got up a petition
against me to Mr. Seward, on the ground that I have been
guilty of treasonable practices and misrepresentations in my
letter dated August 10th. There is also to be a lecture on
the 17th at Willard's by the Professor of Rhetoric, to a volunteer
regiment, which the President is invited to attend—
the subject being myself.

There is an absolute nullity of events, out of which the
New York papers endeavor, in vain, to extract a caput mortuum
of sensation headings. The Prince of Joinville and his
two nephews, the Count of Paris and the Duke of Chartres,
have been here for some days, and have been received with
marked attention by the President, Cabinet, politicians and
military. The Prince has come with the intention of placing
his son at the United States Naval Academy, and his nephews
with the head-quarters of the Federal army. The empressement
exhibited at the White House toward the French princes
is attributed by ill-natured rumors and persons to a little pique
on the part of Mrs. Lincoln, because the Princess Clothilde
did not receive her at New York, but considerable doubts are
entertained of the Emperor's "loyalty" toward the Union.
Under the wild extravagance of professions of attachment to
France are hidden suspicions that Louis Napoleon may be
capable of treasonable practices and misrepresentations, which,
in time, may lead the Philadelphians to get up a petition
against M. Mercier.

The news that twenty-two members of the Maryland Legislature
have been seized by the Federal authorities has not
produced the smallest effect here; so easily do men in the
midst of political troubles bend to arbitrary power, and so
rapidly do all guarantees disappear in a revolution. I was
speaking to one of General McClellan's aides-de-camp this
evening respecting these things, when he said—" If I thought
he would use his power a day longer than was necessary, I
would resign this moment. I believe him incapable of any
selfish or unconstitutional views, or unlawful ambition, and
you will see that he will not disappoint our expectations."

It is now quite plain McClellan has no intention of making
a general defensive movement against Richmond. He is
aware his army is not equal to the task—commissariat deficient,
artillery wanting, no cavalry; above all, ill-officered,
incoherent battalions. He hopes, no doubt, by constant
reviewing and inspection, and by weeding out the preposterous
fellows who render epaulettes ridiculous, to create an
infantry which shall be able for a short campaign in the fine
autumn weather; but I am quite satisfied he does not intend
to move now, and possibly will not do so till next year. I
have arranged therefore to pay a short visit to the West, penetrating
as far as I can, without leaving telegraphs and railways
behind, so that if an advance takes place, I shall be back
in time at Washington to assist at the earliest battle. These
Federal armies do not move like the corps of the French republic,
or Crawford's Light Division.

In truth, Washington life is becoming exceedingly monotonous
and uninteresting. The pleasant little evening parties
or tertulias which once relieved the dulness of this dullest
of capitals, take place no longer. Very wrong indeed
would it be that rejoicings and festivities should occur in the
capital of a country menaced with destruction, where many
anxious hearts are grieving over the lost, or tortured with
fears for the living.

But for the hospitality of Lord Lyons to the English residents,
the place would be nearly insufferable, for at his house
one met other friendly ministers who extended the circle of
invitations, and two or three American families completed the
list which one could reckon on his fingers. Then at night,
there were assemblages of the same men, who uttered the
same opinions, told the same stories, sang the same songs,
varied seldom by strange faces or novel accomplishments, but

always friendly and social enough—not conducive perhaps to
very early rising, but innocent of gambling, or other excess.
A flask of Bordeaux, a wicker-covered demijohn of Bourbon,
a jug of iced water, and a bundle of cigars, with the latest
arrival of newspapers, furnished the matériel of these small
symposiums, in which Americans and Englishmen and a few
of the members of foreign Legations, mingled in a friendly
cosmopolitan manner. Now and then a star of greater magnitude
came down upon us: a senator or an "earnest man,"
or a "live man," or a constitutional lawyer, or a remarkable
statesman, coruscated, and rushing off into the outer world
left us befogged, with our glimmering lights half extinguished
with tobacco-smoke.

Out of doors excessive heat alternating with thunder-storms
and tropical showers—dust beaten into mud, or mud sublimated
into dust—eternal reviews, each like the other—
visits to camp, where we saw the same men and heard the
same stories of perpetual abortive skirmishes—rides confined
to the same roads and paths by lines of sentries, offered no
greater attraction than the city where one's bones were
racked with fever and ague, and where every evening the
pestilential vapors of the Potomac rose higher and spread
further. No wonder that I was glad to get away to the Far
West, particularly as I entertained hopes of witnessing some
of the operations down the Mississippi, before I was summoned
back to Washington, by the news that the grand army
had actually broken up camp, and was about once more to
march against Richmond.

September 12th.—The day passed quietly, in spite of
rumors of another battle; the band played in the President's
garden, and citizens and citizenesses strolled about the grounds
as if Secession had been annihilated. The President made a
fitful appearance, in a gray shooting suit, with a number of
despatches in his hand, and walked off toward the State Department
quite unnoticed by the crowd. I am sure not half a
dozen persons saluted him—not one of the men I saw even
touched his hat. General Bell went round the works with
McClellan, and expressed his opinion that it would be impossible
to fight a great battle in the country which lay between
the two armies—in fact, as he said, "a general could no more
handle his troops among the woods, than he could regulate
the movements of rabbits in a cover. You ought just to make
a proposition to Beauregard to come out on some plain and
fight the battle fairly out where you can see each other."

September 16th.—It is most agreeable to be removed from
all the circumstance without any of the pomp and glory of
war. Although there is a tendency in the North, and, for
aught I know, in the South, to consider the contest in the same
light as one with a foreign enemy, the very battle-cries on
both sides indicate a civil war. "The Union forever"—
"States' rights"—and "Down with the Abolitionists," cannot
be considered national. McClellan takes no note of time even
by its loss, which is all the more strange because he sets great
store upon it in his report on the conduct of the war in the
Crimea. However, he knows an army cannot be made in two
months, and that the larger it is, the more time there is required
to harmonize its components. The news from the Far
West indicated a probability of some important operations
taking place, although my first love—the army of the Potomac
—must be returned to. Any way, there was the great
Western Prairie to be seen, and the people who have been
pouring from their plains so many thousands upon the Southern
States to assert the liberties of those colored races whom
they will not permit to cross their borders as freemen. Mr.
Lincoln, Mr. Blair, and other Abolitionists, are actuated by
similar sentiments, and seek to emancipate the slave, and remove
from him the protection of his master, in order that
they may drive him from the continent altogether, or force
him to seek refuge in emigration.

On the 18th of September, I left Baltimore in company
with Major-General Bell, C. B., and Mr. Lamy, who was well
acquainted with the Western States: stopping one night at
Altoona, in order that we might cross by daylight the fine
passes of the Alleganies, which are traversed by bold gradients,
and remarkable cuttings, second only in difficulty and
extent to those of the railroad across the Sömmering.

So far as my observation extends, no route in the United
States can give a stranger a better notion of the variety of
scenery and of resources, the vast extent of territory, the difference
in races, the prosperity of the present, and the probable
greatness of the future, than the line from Baltimore by
Harrisburg and Pittsburg to Chicago, traversing the great
States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Plain and mountain,
hill and valley, river and meadow, forest and rock, Wild
tracts through which the Indian roamed but a few years ago,
lands covered with the richest crops; rugged passes, which
Salvator would have peopled with shadowy groups of bandits;

gentle sylvan glades, such as Gainsborough would have covered
with waving corn; the hum of mills, the silence of the
desert and waste, sea-like lakes whitened by innumerable sails,
mighty rivers carving their way through continents, sparkling
rivulets that lose their lives amongst giant wheels: seams and
lodes of coal, iron, and mineral wealth, cropping out of desolate
mountain sides; busy, restless manufacturers and traders alternating
with stolid rustics, hedges clustering with grapes,
mountains whitening with snow; and beyond, the great Prairie
stretching away to the backbone of inhospitable rock,
which, rising from the foundations of the world, bar the access
of the white man and civilization to the bleak inhospitable regions
beyond, which both are fain as yet to leave to the savage
and wild beast.

Travelling along the banks of the Susquehannah, the visitor,
however, is neither permitted to admire the works of nature
in silence, or to express his admiration of the energy of
man in his own way. The tyranny of public opinion is upon
him. He must admit that he never saw any thing so wonderful
in his life; that there is nothing so beautiful anywhere
else; no fields so green, no rivers so wide and deep, no
bridges so lofty and long; and at last he is inclined to shut
himself up, either in absolute grumpy negation, or to indulge
in hopeless controversy. An American gentleman is as little
likely as any other well-bred man to force the opinions or interrupt
the reveries of a stranger; but if third-class Esquimaux
are allowed to travel in first-class carriages, the hospitable
creatures will be quite likely to insist on your swallowing
train oil, eating blubber, or admiring snow-drifts, as the
finest things in the world. It is infinitely to the credit of the
American people that actual offence is so seldom given and is
still more rarely intended—always save and except in the
one particular, of chewing tobacco. Having seen most things
that can irritate one's stomach, and being in company with an
old soldier, I little expected that any excess of the sort could
produce disagreeable effects; but on returning from this excursion,
Mr. Lamy and myself were fairly driven out of a
carriage, on the Pittsburg line, in utter loathing and disgust,
by the condition of the floor. The conductor, passing through,
said, "You must not stand out there, it is against the rules;
you can go in and smoke," pointing to the carriage. "In
there!" exclaimed my friend, "why, it is too filthy to put a
wild beast into." The conductor looked in for a moment,

nodded his head, and said, "Well, I concede it is right bad;
the citizens are going it pretty strong," and so left us.

The scenery along the Juniata is still more picturesque
than that of the valley of the Susquehannah. The borders of
the route across the Alleghanies have been described by
many a writer; but notwithstanding the good fortune which
favored us, and swept away the dense vale of vapors on the
lower ranges of the hills, the landscape scarcely produced the
effect of scenery on a less extended scale, just as the scenery
of the Himalayas is not so striking as that of the Alps, because
it is on too vast a scale to be readily grasped.

Pittsburg, where we halted next night, on the Ohio, is certainly,
with the exception of Birmingham, the most intensely
sooty, busy, squalid, foul-housed, and vile-suburbed city I
have ever seen. Under its perpetual canopy of smoke,
pierced by a forest of blackened chimneys, the ill-paved
streets, swarm with a streaky population whose white faces
are smutched with soot streaks—the noise of vans and drays
which shake the houses as they pass, the turbulent life in the
thoroughfares, the wretched brick tenements,—built in waste
places on squalid mounds, surrounded by heaps of slag and
broken brick—all these gave the stranger the idea of some
vast manufacturing city of the Inferno; and yet a few miles
beyond, the country is studded with beautiful villas, and the
great river, bearing innumerable barges and steamers on its
broad bosom, rolls its turbid waters between banks rich with
cultivated crops.

The policeman at Pittsburg station—a burly Englishman
—told me that the war had been of the greatest service to
the city. He spoke not only from a policeman's point of
view, when he said that all the rowdies, Irish, Germans, and
others had gone off to the war, but from the manufacturing
stand-point, as he added that wages were high, and that the
orders from contractors were keeping all the manufacturers
going. "It is wonderful," said he, "what a number of the
citizens come back from the South, by rail, in these new metallic
coffins."

A long, long day, traversing the State of Indiana by the
Fort Wayne route, followed by a longer night, just sufficed
to carry us to Chicago. The railway passes through a most
uninteresting country, which in part is scarcely rescued from
a state of nature by the hand of man; but it is wonderful to
see so much done, when one hears that the Miami Indians

and other tribes were driven out, or, as the phrase is, "removed,"
only twenty years ago—"conveyed, the wise called
it"—to the reserves.

From Chicago, where we descended at a hotel which fairly
deserves to be styled magnificent, for comfort and completeness,
Mr. Lamy and myself proceeded to Racine, on the
shores of Lake Michigan, and thence took the rail for Freeport,
where I remained for some days, going out in the surrounding
prairie to shoot in the morning, and returning at
nightfall. The prairie chickens were rather wild. The delight
of these days, notwithstanding bad sport, cannot be described,
nor was it the least ingredient in it to mix with the
fresh and vigorous race who are raising up cities on these
fertile wastes. Fortunately for the patience of my readers,
perhaps, I did not fill my diary with the records of each day's
events, or of the contents of our bags; and the note-book in
Which I jotted down some little matters which struck me to
be of interest has been mislaid; but in my letters to England
I gave a description of the general aspect of the country, and
of the feelings of the people, and arrived at the conclusion
that the tax-gatherer will have little chance of returning with
full note-books from his tour in these districts. The dogs
which were lent to us were generally abominable; but every
evening we returned in company with great leather-greaved
and jerkined-men, hung round with belts and hooks, from
which were suspended strings of defunct prairie chickens.
The farmers were hospitable, but were suffering from a morbid
longing for a failure of crops in Europe, in order to give
some value to their corn and wheat, which literally cumbered
the earth.

Freeport! Who ever heard of it? And yet it has its
newspapers, more than I dare mention, and its big hotel
lighted with gas, its billiard-rooms and saloons, magazines,
railway stations, and all the proper paraphernalia of local
self-government, with all their fierce intrigues and giddy
factions.

From Freeport our party returned to Chicago, taking leave
of our excellent friend and companion Mr. George Thompson,
of Racine. The authorities of the Central Illinois Railway,
to whose courtesy and consideration I was infinitely indebted,
placed at our disposal a magnificent sleeping carriage; and
on the morning after our arrival, having laid in a good stock
of supplies, and engaged an excellent sporting guide and dogs,

we started, attached to the regular train from Chicago, until
the train stopped at a shunting place near the station of
Dwight, in the very centre of the prairie. We reached our
halting-place, were detached, and were shot up a siding in
the solitude, with no habitation in view, except the wood
shanty, in which lived the family of the Irish overseer of this
portion of the road—a man happy in the possession of a
piece of gold which he received from the Prince of Wales,
and for which he declared he would not take the amount of
the National Debt.

The sleeping carriage proved most comfortable quarters.
After breakfast in the morning, Mr. Lamy, Col. Foster, Mr.
—, of the Central Illinois rail, the keeper, and myself,
descending the steps of our movable house, walked in a few
strides to the shooting grounds, which abounded with quail,
but were not so well peopled by the chickens. The quail were
weak on the wing, owing to the lateness of the season, and
my companions grumbled at their hard luck, though I was
well content with fresh air, my small share of birds, and a
few American hares. Night and morning the train rushed
by, and when darkness settled down upon the prairie, our
lamps were lighted, dinner was served in the carriage, set
forth with inimitable potatoes cooked by the old Irishwoman.
From the dinner-table it was but a step to go to bed. When
storm or rain rushed over the sea-like plain, I remained in the
carriage writing, and after a long spell of work, it was inexpressibly
pleasant to take a ramble through the flowering
grass and the sweet-scented broom, and to go beating through
the stunted under-clover, careless of rattle-snakes, whose tiny
prattling music I heard often enough without a sight of the
tails that made it.

One rainy morning, the 29th September, I think, as the sun
began to break through drifting rain clouds, I saw my companions
preparing their guns, the sporting chaperon Walker
filling the shot flasks, and making all the usual arrangements
for a day's shooting. "You don't mean to say you are going
out shooting on a Sunday!" I said. "What, on the prairies!"
exclaimed Colonel Foster. "Why, of course we are; there's
nothing wrong in it here. What nobler temple can we find
to worship in than lies around us? It is the custom of the
people hereabouts to shoot on Sundays, and it is a work of
necessity with us, for our larder is very low."

And so, after breakfast, we set out, but the rain came down

so densely that we were driven to the house of a farmer, and
finally we returned to our sleeping carriage for the day. I
never fired a shot nor put a gun to my shoulder, nor am I
sure that any of my companions killed a bird.

The rain fell with violence all day, and at night the gusts
of wind shook the carriage like a ship at sea. We were sitting
at table after dinner, when the door at the end of the
carriage opened, and a man in a mackintosh dripping wet,
advanced with unsteady steps along the centre of the carriage,
between the beds, and taking off his hat, in the top of which
he searched diligently, stood staring with lack-lustre eyes
from one to the other of the party, till Colonel Foster exclaimed,
"Well, sir, what do you want?"

"What do I want," he replied, with a slight thickness of
speech, "which of you is the Honorable Lord William Russell,
correspondent of the London Times? That's what I
Want."

I certified to my identity; whereupon, drawing a piece of
paper out of his hat, he continued, "Then I arrest you, Honorable
Lord William Russell, in the name of the people of the
commonwealth of Illinois," and thereupon handed me a
document, declaring that one Morgan, of Dwight, having
come before him that day and sworn that I, with a company
of men and dogs, had unlawfully assembled, and by firing
shots, and by barking and noise, had disturbed the peace of
the State of Illinois, he, the subscriber or justice of the peace,
as named and described, commanded the constable Podgers,
or whatever his name was, to bring my body before him to
answer to the charge.

Now this town of Dwight was a good many miles away,
the road was declared by those who knew it to be very bad,
the night was pitch dark, the rain falling in torrents, and as
the constable, drawing out of his hat paper after paper with
the names of impossible persons upon them, served subpœnas
on all the rest of the party to appear next morning, the anger
of Colonel Foster could scarcely be restrained, by kicks under
the table and nods and becks and wreathed smiles from the
rest of the party. "This is infamous! It is a political persecution!"
he exclaimed, whilst the keeper joined in chorus,
declaring he never heard of such a proceeding before in all
his long experience of the prairie, and never knew there was
such an act in existence. The Irishmen in the hut added
that the informer himself generally went out shooting every

Sunday. However, I could not but regret I had given the
fellow an opportunity of striking at me, and though I was the
only one of the party who raised an objection to our going
out at all, I was deservedly suffering for the impropriety—
to call it here by no harsher name.

The constable, a man with a liquid eye and a cheerful
countenance, paid particular attention meantime to a large
bottle upon the table, and as I professed my readiness to go
the moment he had some refreshment that very wet night,
the stern severity becoming a minister of justice, which
marked his first utterances, was sensibly mollified: and when
Mr.—proposed that he should drive back with him and
see the prosecutor, he was good enough to accept my written
acknowledgment of the service of the writ, and promise to
appear the following morning, as an adequate discharge of
his duty—combined with the absorption of some Bourbon
whiskey—and so retired.

Mr.—returned late at night, and very angry. It appears
that the prosecutor—who is not a man of very good
reputation, and whom his neighbors were as much astonished
to find the champion of religious observances as they would
have been if he was to come forward to insist on the respect
due to the seventh commandment—with the insatiable passion
for notoriety, which is one of the worst results of American
institutions, thought he would gain himself some little
reputation by causing annoyance to a man so unpopular as
myself. He and a companion having come from Dwight for
the purpose, and hiding in the neighborhood, had, therefore,
devoted their day to lying in wait and watching our party;
and as they were aware in the railway carriage I was with
Colonel Foster, they had no difficulty in finding out the names
of the rest of the party. The magistrate being his relative,
granted the warrant at once; and the prosecutor, who was in
waiting for the constable, was exceedingly disappointed when
he found that I had not been dragged through the rain.

Next morning, a special engine which had been ordered up
by telegraph appeared alongside the car; and a short run
through a beautiful country brought us to the prairie town of
Dwight. The citizens were astir—it was a great day—and
as I walked with Colonel Foster, all the good people seemed
to be enjoying an unexampled treat in gazing at the stupendous
criminal. The court-house, or magistrate's office, was
suitable to the republican simplicity of the people of Dwight;

for the chamber of justice was on the first floor of a house
over a store, and access was obtained to it by a ladder from
the street to a platform at the top of which I was ushered into
the presence of the court, a plain white-washed room. I am
not sure there was even an engraving of George Washington
on the walls. The magistrate in a full suit of black, with his
hat on, was seated at a small table; behind him a few books,
on plain deal shelves, provided his fund of legal learning.
The constable, with a severer visage than that of last night,
stood upon the right hand; three sides of the room were surrounded
by a wall of stout honest Dwightians, among whom
I produced a profound sensation, by the simple ceremony of
taking off my hat, which they no doubt considered a token of
the degraded nature of the Britisher, but which moved the
magistrate to take off his head-covering; whereupon some of
the nearest removed theirs, some putting them on again, and
some remaining uncovered; and then the informations were
read, and on being asked what I had to say, I merely bowed,
and said I had no remarks to offer. But my friend, Colonel
Foster, who had been churning up his wrath and forensic
lore for some time, putting one hand under his coat tail, and
elevating the other in the air, with modulated cadences,
poured out a fine oratorical flow which completely astonished
me, and whipped the audience morally off their legs completely.
In touching terms he described the mission of an
illustrious stranger, who had wandered over thousands of
miles of land and sea to gaze upon the beauties of those
prairies which the Great Maker of the Universe had expanded
as the banqueting tables for the famishing millions of pauperized
and despotic Europe. As the representative of an influence
which the people of the great State of Illinois should
wish to see developed instead of contracted, honored instead
of being insulted, he had come among them to admire the
grandeur of nature, and to behold with wonder the magnificent
progress of human happiness and free institutions.
(Some thumping of sticks, and cries of "Bravo, that's so,"
which warmed the Colonel into still higher flights). I began
to feel if he was as great in invective as he was in eulogy, it
was well he had not lived to throw a smooth pebble from his
sling at Warren Hastings. As great indeed! Why, when
the Colonel had drawn a beautiful picture of me examining
coal deposits—investigating strata—breathing autumnal
airs, and culling flowers in unsuspecting innocence, and then
suddenly denounced the serpent who had dogged my steps
in order to strike me down with a justice's warrant, I protest
it is doubtful, if he did not reach to the most elevated stage of
vituperative oratory, the progression of which was marked by
increasing thumps of sticks, and louder murmurs of applause,
to the discomfiture of the wretched prosecutor. But the
magistrate was not a man of imagination; he felt he was but
elective after all; and so, with his eye fixed upon his book,
he pronounced his decision, which was that I be amerced in
something more than half the maximum fine fixed by the
statute, some five-and-twenty shillings or so, the greater part
to be spent in the education of the people by transfer to the
school fund of the State.

As I was handing the notes to the magistrate, several respectable
men coming forward exclaimed, "Pray oblige us,
Mr. Russell, by letting us pay the amount for you; this is a
shameful proceeding." But thanking them heartily for their
proffered kindness, I completed the little pecuniary transaction
and wished the magistrate good morning, with the remark
that I hoped the people of the State of Illinois would always
find such worthy defenders of the statutes as the prosecutor,
and never have offenders against their peace and morals more
culpable than myself. Having undergone a severe scolding
from an old woman at the top of the ladder, I walked to the
train, followed by a number of the audience, who repeatedly
expressed their extreme regret at the little persecution to
which I had been subjected. The prosecutor had already
made arrangements to send the news over the whole breadth
of the Union, which was his only reward; as I must do the
American papers the justice to say that, with a few natural
exceptions, those which noticed the occurrence unequivocally
condemned his conduct.

That evening, as we were planning an extension of our
sporting tour, the mail rattling by deposited our letters and
papers, and we saw at the top of many columns the startling
words, "Grand Advance of the Union Army." "McClellan
Marching on Richmond." "Capture of Munson's Hill." "Retreat
of the Enemy—30,000 Men seize their Fortifications."
Not a moment was to be lost; if I was too late, I never would
forgive myself. Our carriage was hooked on to the return
train, and at 8 o'clock P.M. I started on my return to Washinton,
by way of Cleveland.

At half-past 3 on the 1st October the train reached Pittsburg,

just too late to catch the train for Baltimore; but I continued
my journey at night, arriving at Baltimore after noon,
and reaching Washington at 6 P. M. on the 2d of October.

October 3d.—In Washington once more—all the world
laughing at the pump and the wooden guns at Munson's Hill, but
angry withal because McClellan should be so befooled as they
considered it, by the Confederates. The fact is McClellan was
not prepared to move, and therefore not disposed to hazard a
general engagement, which he might have brought on had the
enemy been in force; perhaps he knew they were not, but
found it convenient nevertheless to act as though he believed
they had established themselves strongly in his front, as half
the world will give him credit for knowing more than the
civilian strategists who have already got into disgrace for urging
McDowell on to Richmond. The Federal armies are not
handled easily. They are luxurious in the matter of baggage,
and canteens, and private stores; and this is just the sort of
war in which the general who moves lightly and rapidly,
striking blows unexpectedly and deranging communications,
will obtain great results.

Although Beauregard's name is constantly mentioned, I
fancy that, crafty and reticent as he is, the operations in
front of us have been directed by an officer of larger capacity.
As yet McClellan has certainly done nothing in the field to
show he is like Napoleon. The value of his labors in camp
has yet to be tested. I dined at the Legation, and afterwards
there was a meeting at my rooms, where I heard of all that
had passed during my absence.

October 4th.—The new expedition of which I have been
hearing for some time past, is about to sail to Port Royal,
under the command of General Burnside, in order to reduce
the works erected at the entrance of the Sound, to secure a
base of operations against Charleston, and to cut in upon the
communication between that place and Savannah. Alas, for
poor Trescott! his plantations, his secluded home! What
will the good lady think of the Yankee invasion, which surely
must succeed, as the naval force will be overwhelming? I
visited the division of General Egbert Viele, encamped near
the Navy-yard, which is bound to Annapolis, as a part of
General Burnside's expedition. When first I saw him, the
general was an emeritus captain, attached to the 7th New
York Militia; now he is a Brigadier-General, if not something
more, commanding a corps of nearly 5000 men, with

pay and allowances to match. His good lady wife, who
accompanied him in the Mexican campaign,—whereof came
a book, lively and light, as a lady's book should be,—was
about to accompany her husband in his assault on the Carolinians,
and prepared for action by Opening a small broadside
on my unhappy self, whom she regarded as an enemy
of our glorious Union; and therefore an ally of the Evil
Powers on both sides of the grave. The women, North and
South are equally pitiless to their enemies; and it was but the
other day a man with whom I am on very good terms in
Washington made an apology for not asking me to his house,
because his wife was a strong Union woman.

A gentleman who had been dining with Mr. Seward to-night
told me the Minister had complained that I had not been near
him for nearly two months; the fact was however, that I had
called twice immediately after the appearance in America
of my letter dated July 22d, and had met Mr. Seward afterwards,
when his manner was, or appeared to me to be, cold
and distant, and I had therefore abstained from intruding myself
upon his notice; nor did his answer to the Philadelphian
petition—in which Mr. Seward appeared to admit the allegations
made against me were true, and to consider I had violated
the hospitality accorded me—induce me to think that
he did not entertain the opinion which these journals which
set themselves up to be his organs had so repeatedly expressed.