out strong bodies of cavalry northward toward Front | eral Thomas, with the Army of the Ohio, was disRoyal on the right and Mount Jackson on the left. Sheridan broke camp at Cedar Creek November 9, and fell back to Newtown, and on the 10th to Kearnstown, four miles south of Winchester, the enemy's cavalry under Lomax pressing close upon his rear. Lomax attacked on the 12th and was repulsed; Powell's cavalry division pursued him beyond Front Royal, capturing two guns and 150 men. On the 21st a cavalry reconnoissance was undertaken by Custer, Powell, and Devin, the latter moving toward Front Royal and up the Luray Valley, while the two former advanced beyond Mount Jackson, encountering Early's main column at Rood's Hill, on the north fork of the Shenandoah. A sharp skirmish ensued, in which the Federal loss was about 60.

After a short engagement the enemy abandoned the town. Washington also was abandoned November 9.

slaves in the army, Mr. Davis recommends that slaves to the number of 40,000 should be "acquired" by the General Government, who should be employed not merely as ordinary laborers, cooks, and teamsters, but as engineer and pioneer laborers. He recommends that these slaves should be liberated on their discharge after faithful service, rather than that they should be manumitted at once or retained in servitude. He is opposed, under present circumstances, to arming the slaves; but he adds, "The subject is to be viewed solely in the light of policy and our social economy. Should the alternative ves-ever be presented of subjugation or of the employment of the slave as a soldier, there seems to be no reason to doubt what then should be our decision."

The Confederate privateer Florida, Captain Morris, was captured October 7 by the U. S. Steamer Wachusett, Captain Collins, at Bahia, in the Bay of St. Salvador, on the Brazilian coast. Captain Morris and a good portion of the crew were on shore at the time of the capture. The vessel was taken in Brazilian waters; but Captain Collins thought the act justified by the indulgence of the authorities at Bahia in allowing harborage to the Florida, which had in a number of instances burned American sels within the limits of Brazilian jurisdiction.

The Report of Mr. Trenholm, the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, presents the following essential points: Six dollars in specie is worth one hundred dollars in 6 per cent. bonds, or one hundred and thirty-five dollars in currency. The total domestic debt of the Confederacy on the 1st of October was $1,147,976,000, besides bounty bonds due to soldiers, the amount of which is not given. Moreover, there is the foreign debt, put down at £2,200,000; this, when reduced to "currency," amounts to about $250,000,000; so that the entire public debt is really more than $1,500,000,000. During the last six months the debt had increased at the rate of more than half a million of dollars a day. The Secretary presents an elaborate scheme for giving value to the currency. The essential features are: No more notes to be issued; one-fifth of the taxes to be pledged for the reduction of the outstanding notes until the amount of "currency" is reduced to $150,000,000. The specific taxes which the Secretary recommends should be appropriated to the redemption of currency are the "tithes" levied upon cotton, wheat, and corn. Estimating cotton at 50 cents a pound, wheat at $4 and corn at $2 a bushel, these tithes will produce $90,000,000 a year. This amount applied annually would redeem the outstanding notes in four or five years. "If Congress does not," says Mr. Trenholm, "interpose to restore the currency by means of voluntary action, it will assuredly rectify itself by some violent and disastrous revulsion."—The expenditures for the year beginning January 1, 1865, are estimated, "with an improved currency," at $774,000,000. To meet this the Secretary proposes taxation, including tax in kind of $360,000,000; duties and miscellaneous receipts are estimated at $5,000,000; the remaining $409,000,000 to be derived from the sale of bonds and from certificates of indebtedness.

The Confederate Congress reassembled at Richmond on the 7th of November. In the Senate 13 members were present, including three from Kentucky and Missouri. Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President, was absent, and the chair was occupied by Mr. Hunter. The House consists of 106 members, of whom 62 were present, including 15 from Missouri and Kentucky. Excluding these States, which are in no practical respect members of the Confederacy, hardly half of the members were present.-The Message of President Davis opened with a congratulatory review of the campaign of 1864. At the beginning of the year, he said, Texas was partially in the possession of the enemy; now no Federal soldiers were in the State except as prisoners. In Northwestern Louisiana a large Federal army and fleet had been defeated, and had only escaped with a loss of one-third of its numbers, and a large part of its munitions and vessels. Arkansas had been nearly recovered; and the Confederate forces had penetrated into Missouri. On the east of the Mississippi, in spite of some reverses, the Confederates had been on the whole successful; Northern and Western Mississippi, Northern Alabama, and Western Tennessee were in their possession. On the sea-coast the successes of the Federals had been confined to the capture of the outer defenses of Mobile Bay. Their armies had been defeated in different parts of Virginia; and after a series of defeats around Richmond, they were still engaged in the effort, commenced four months before, to capture Petersburg. The army of Sherman, though it had captured Atlanta, had gained no real advantage beyond the possession of a few fortified points which can be held only by large garrisons, and are menaced with recapture. The Confederacy, Mr. Davis said, has no vital points. If Richmond and Wilmington and Charleston and Savannah and Mobile were all captured, the Confederacy would remain as defiant as ever, and no peace would be made which did not recognize its independence.-In respect to The Report of Mr. Seddon, the Confederate Sec. the relations between the Confederacy and foreign retary of War, details the military events of the nations there had been no change. European Pow- year. It is absolutely necessary, he says, that the ers had failed to do what might have been expected Confederacy should put its entire fighting populafrom them; and until they, by recognizing the inde- tion into the field; he therefore urges that all men pendence of the South, declared that it was impos- between the ages of 18 and 45 capable of bearing sible for the Union to reduce the Confederacy, it arms should, without distinction of occupation or could not be expected that the Union would do so.- profession, be subjected to service, and called to the Mr. Davis recommends the repeal of all laws grant- field," and that consequently "all exemptions, exing exemption from military service. He says that cept of officers absolutely essential to the conduct "no position or pursuit should relieve any one who of the Confederate and State governments, be abolis able to do active duty from the enrollment in the ished." The slaves and the free population over army," unless he can be more useful in another or under military age, and those unfit by physical sphere, and this can not be the case with entire disability for actual service, he thinks will be able classes. The military authorities should have the to furnish supplies for the armies and the people.power to exempt individuals only whose services He discusses at length the question of arming the may be more valuable in than out of the army.-In | slaves, with its necessary adjunct, their emanciparegard to the great question of the employment of tion. Any legislation for this purpose, he says,

must have the concurrence of the separate States. | take such an enterprise. The decision of the question of extradition has been postponed in order to enable the prisoners to procure testimony from Richmond.

If this should become necessary he is in favor of it; but he adds, "It will not do, in my opinion, to risk our liberties and safety on the negro while the white man may be called to the sacred duty of defense. For the present it seems best to leave the subordinate labors of society to the negro, and to impose its highest, as now existing, on the superior class."

An arrangement has been effected, after many delays, between the Union and Confederate authorities, involving the exchange of many thousands of prisoners. The arrangement has primary reference to the sick and disabled, all of whom are exchangeable man for man, each officer to be reckoned at a certain number of privates, according to a schedule agreed upon. It is supposed that from 8000 to 10,000 on each side will be accordingly exchanged. The Confederate prisoners are sent on board Union vessels to the entrance of the port of Savannah, where the Union prisoners are to be deliv

The steamer Roanoke, plying between New York and Havana, was seized on the 29th of September, when just out of Havana, by a party of Confederates, who had come on board as passengers. The vessel was taken off Bermuda, where her passengers were put on shore, and the steamer burned. The captors were commanded by Lieutenant Braine, who not long since seized in a similar manner the Ches-ered.-By another special arrangement, entered into apeake when just out of New York. The Confed- between Generals Lee and Grant, each belligerent is erates were arrested by the British authorities at allowed to send necessary supplies and comforts to Bermuda, but were set at liberty after a short de- its prisoners in the hands of the other. Blankets and tention.- -The Confederate raiders who made the clothing being articles of immediate necessity for attack upon St. Albans have been demanded by the the Confederate prisoners, and these not being proGovernor of Vermont on charge of murder and rob- curable at the South, and not from Europe in time bery. Their leader, Lieutenant Young, produced to be of use, the Government is allowed to send a commission and orders from the Confederate Gov-cotton to the North to be sold, and the proceeds apernment authorizing and directing him to under-plied to the purchase of these articles.

Literary Notices.

Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Scott, LL.D. more truly written if other men who have acted a Written by Himself. The career of Winfield Scott great part in public affairs would narrate their achas been an honorable and singularly fortunate one. tions as fairly and succinctly as General Scott has The two great disappointments of his political life-done. (Published by Sheldon and Company.) his supersedure for the Presidential nomination by Margaret Denzil's History; annotated by her IlusTaylor in 1848, and his defeat for the Presidency by band, issued anonymously in the "Cornhill MagaPierce in 1852-were blessings in disguise. For zine," is the most original and powerful novel of the the ten years during which his public life lasted season. It contains plot and incident enough for after the latter of these, no other man stood so high half a score of "sensation tales," yet so skillfully in the regard and esteem of his country. From first are they managed that until the close the reader to last his record was pure. For half a century he fails to perceive how masterly the skill was. It is has lived in the public eye, and no man dared charge a drama in which every event and episode is arhim with a corrupt, and few with an injudicious act. ranged from the first scene; the slightest circumHe was born in 1786, near Petersburg, in Virginia. stance, apparently incidental, or accidental, has a Left his own master at nineteen, with a moderate bearing upon all that follows. The characters, competency, he began the study of law; but the though mainly out of the common range of life, are prospect of a war with England in 1808 induced him artistically true, for all act throughout in perfect to change his profession for that of arms, and at the consistency with their natures. There are at least age of twenty-two he received a commission as Cap-four characters which are absolutely fresh creations. tain of Artillery. War having been declared in 1812, he was promoted to a Lieutenant-Colonelcy, and sent to the Northern frontier. It was chiefly owing to him that the campaigns here were not a series of disasters. Desperately wounded at the Battle of Lundy's Lane-in all except the numbers engaged one of the great battles of history-he was borne half dead on a litter for more than seventy miles by the gentlemen of the country, who relieved each other at the edge of every town. Three months before he had reached the age of twenty-eight he was appointed Brigadier-General; and four months later he was promoted to Major-General, a rank which he has held for forty-one years. In 1849 he was named Lieutenant-General, a grade which had been vacant since the death of Washington. In 1861, broken with age and infirmity, he was compelled to retire from active service. But his mental vigor was unimpaired, and he has worthily devoted his well-won repose to writing the memoirs of his long and honorable life. History would be better and

These are John Denzil, the bluff, tender seaman, the annotator of his wife's sad story; Arthur Lamont, apparently so weak, yet really so strong, able and willing to bear the imputation of infamy rather than expose the infamy of others; Godfrey Wilmot, the pervading evil genius of the story-yet so far from being wholly evil-who never appears in person on the scene, but whose shadow is forever projected upon the wall; and, above all, Mercy, the "Torment" of poor John Denzil. The sombre conclusion of the story, which could not have been other than it is, will not please those who prefer the old stage ending of Lear to that devised by the perfect genius of Shakspeare. (Published by Harper and Brothers.)

Webster's Dictionary. It is too late to speak of the general merits of Webster's Dictionary. The completeness of its vocabulary, and the compactness and accuracy of its definitions, have long been acknowledged. The new edition, prepared under the supervision of Professors Goodrich and Porter, of Yale, with the co-operation of thirty or more

er.

From Dan to Beersheba, by Rev. J. P. NEWMAN. In the compass of a single moderate volume Mr. Newman presents a graphic description of the Land of Promise, as it now appears, drawn from personal observation and a faithful study of the works of others. Its special purpose is, by describing Palestine as it now is, and comparing it with the accounts of its former condition given in the Scriptures, to il

scholars in special departments, presents many | ten by "M. l'Abbé ***.” Its popularity was imfeatures of great value. The most striking of these mense, and strenuous efforts have been made to disis the profuse introduction of pictorial illustrations, cover the author, but hitherto without success. It the number of which is stated at more than 3000. has been acknowledged to be a heavy blow at the These are usually inserted in their appropriate place mixed civil and ecclesiastical system of France. in the Vocabulary, and all of them are grouped to- One who reads it from a French stand-point and as gether in an Appendix at the close, arranged ac- a polemical work, will find it intensely interesting. cording to subjects: those relating to Architecture, Viewed simply as a novel-a delineation of incident Botany, Natural History, etc., being placed togeth- and character-it is faulty, and in parts at least The type adopted for the catch-words is such as dull. (Published by Harper and Brothers.) to allow the diacritical marks indicating pronunciation and accentuation to be distinctly shown. The Vocabulary has been greatly enlarged, so as to keep up with the continual growth of a living language. The whole number of words given is now stated to be 114,000, being 10,000 more than are found in any other Dictionary of the language. The "apparatus" prefixed or appended to the Vocabulary presents, in addition to that contained in former edi-lustrate the accuracy with which the sacred writers tions, some entirely new articles. Professor Good- record the facts of their own day, and the truthfulrich's Table of Synonyms has been distributed ness with which they foretell what was to come. The throughout the text in the appropriate places. An book is written in a glowing and animated style, admirable outline History of the English Language, which removes it from the mere dry detail of a by Professor Hadley, forms a part of the Introduc-guide-book, rendering it not only useful but intertion. Mr. William G. Webster's collection of words esting. (Published by Harper and Brothers.) and phrases which, without having become fairly English, are of frequent occurrence in books, is very full and satisfactory. The list of "Common English Christian Names," with an explanation of their significance, is exceedingly curious. An entirely new and very acceptable addition to this edition is Mr. Wheeler's "Vocabulary of the Names of Noted Fictitious Persons and Places." As a first attempt in this department the article is altogether remarkable. There is hardly a character, epithet, or place which has made its mark in literature, which is not here referred to author and work, with a brief descriptive note. We have touched only upon a few out of many of the merely incidental features which distinguish this new edition of Webster. The great essential characteristics, only more fully developed, are the same as in previous editions. Viewers are thrown render their histories the most perfect ing it as a whole, we are confident that no other living language has a Dictionary which so fully and faithfully sets forth its present condition as this last edition of Webster does that of our spoken and written English tongue. (Published by G. and C. Mer-dustry, it would be almost impossible to make a dull riam.)

Under the Ban. The popular literature of France at this day is "protestant," in the broadest literal sense of the word. No man can hope for a great audience unless he sets himself in fierce opposition to some of the forms in which society is organized. Thus Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables" is a fierce protest against the whole frame-work and structure of French social life. Renan's "Life of Jesus" is a protest against the theology of the Catholic Church. "Under the Ban" is a vehement protest against and fierce attack upon the ecclesiastical system of France, and, by consequence, of all Catholic Europe. Under the guise of a story, the author sets forth the Jesuits as unscrupulous intriguers; the higher orders of the clergy as selfish hypocrites; the lower orders as illiterate and prejudiced, without liberty, even if they had the capacity, of thinking for themselves; abjectly subject to the civil powers, by whom they are paid, and with no protection from the tyranny of their spiritual chiefs. The work, under its French title of Le Maudit, "The Accursed," purports to be the biography of a priest who has fallen "under the ban" of ecclesiastical authority. It was put forth anonymously, merely purporting to have been writ

Queens of Song, by ELLEN CREATHORNE CLAYTON. This is a series of biographies of about forty of the most celebrated vocalists who have appeared on the lyric stage during the last two centuries, beginning with the early French singer, Marthe le Rochois, and ending with Teresa Tietjens, including such names as Anastasia Robinson (who became Countess of Peterborough), and Lavinia Fenton (who became Duchess of Bolton), Catalani, Pasta, Sontag, Malibran, Grisi, Garcia, Alboni, Jenny Lind, and Piccolomini. The "queens" have been selected with the two-fold object of including those who have won the highest renown in their art, and others who, less famous as artists, have had a career and fortunes which furnish an instructive moral. The circumstances into which famous actresses and sing

epitome of certain phases of the society and manners of their times; their lives, unlike those of great writers, abound in incident and anecdote. With such a subject, and with a reasonable amount of in

book. The author has made one emphatically readable. (Published by Harper and Brothers.)

Idyls of Battle, by LAURA C. REDDEN. Apart from the poetical merits of this little volume, it derives a special interest from the personality of the author. Since the age of eleven, now some fifteen years ago, she has been absolutely deaf. During all those long years she has not heard the sound of a human voice; yet under the nom de plume of "Howard Glyndon" she has won a respectable place in literature. It is certainly remarkable that her poems, composed under such disadvantages, should be faultless in rhyme and, with hardly an exception, accurate in rhythm. (Published by Hurd and Houghton.)

Arctic Researches, and Life among the Esquimaux, by CHARLES FRANCIS HALL. In former numbers of this Magazine we have given, from proof-sheets, a general view of the scope and character of this work. Now that it is completed, and we may look upon it as a whole, we need only repeat that, as regards both matter and manner, it takes place in the first rank of the records of travel and adventure for which the last fifteen years has been so prolific. (Published by Harper and Brothers.)

NOOD-MORROW and a happy New Year to all | auspiciously begun is the new story "Armadale,"

GOOD Wanda Easy Chair cento not by Wilkie Collins, who, with Anthony Trollope and

but wish it, and invoke a benediction on the generous Charles Reade, forms the triumvirate of young Enreaders who hail this Magazine with ardent month-glish novelists, successors to Bulwer, Thackeray, ly salutations.

and Dickens. Of these three Trollope is unsurpassed for photographic fidelity to the ordinary details of ordinary modern life; Reade is remarkable for a willful and sparkling power, and undeniable genius; while Wilkie Collins is superior to any En

plots. You know as you begin that he intends to inveigle your interest, and you are inveigled. You know that he is weaving a spell from the moment you begin to read, and you are consciously and delightedly entangled. So intense and remarkable is this interest, as, for instance, in "The Woman in White," that the characters themselves become subordinated to it, and are almost vague and shadowy, like passengers seen passing in an express railway train. It is the train and the rush, not the people, which the spectator sees.

And why should they not, indeed? For the Magazine has now become a cairn, a monument. It is of itself a library, and each new number a chapter in the valuable volume which every six numbers compose. If you have a set of this Maga-glish novelist for the interest and ingenuity of his zine from the beginning, you have already, with the present issue, one hundred and seventy-six numbers, bound, if you choose, in thirty handsome volumes. And, for variety and interest of reading and copiousness of illustration, you will not easily find thirty other volumes superior to them. Indeed, if the Easy Chair were called upon to furnish, say a Western home upon the frontier, or a Maine farm-house, or any household any where with thirty books, not of reference merely, not only of useful knowledge, | but thirty books that should appeal to the interest of the youngest and the oldest and the middle-aged, with the best stories of the best living authors, with the finest poems, the most rollicking passages of travel, histories, biographies, essays, sketches of inventions, discoveries, and manufactures, with humorous and characteristic anecdotes, he would certainly select the volumes of Harper's Magazine as the library desired.

Nor is this said to the prejudice of any of its contemporaries. "There is room enough for thee and me," quoth my Uncle Toby, as he dismissed the fly. Let it be so with us, O zealous brethren! and the Easy Chair and his companions between these gay covers will be either the fly or Uncle Toby, as you will.

See! The blithe cherub, ever young, who sits upon our crown and bestrides the globe, still blows his airy bubbles that float bright and perfect as ever. The flowers his brethren scatter, flowers of spring and summer, of autumn and winter, are they less fair and fresh and fragrant than when those lavish hands began the scattering fifteen years ago? The blossom-woven shafts still stand erect. The goodly tomes beneath are as solid and mysterious as ever. One day doubtless they will be opened and all their wisdom poured into these pages. Are these, then, the manuscript volumes of "a disappointed man ?" The conditions upon which the Magazine may be brought to your hands regularly and without trouble to yourselves are all recorded upon the last side of the cover. Upon that interesting page the Easy Chair is amazed to read that you may have the Monthly delivered at your post-office for four dollars and twenty-four cents a year. Think of it, noble brethren, who with the Easy Chair spread this monthly feast! The total result of our combined labor every month, the pampered and luxurious Public may enjoy for such a trifle! But if the sly Public choose to unite in clubs of five subscribers they can send twenty dollars and receive six copies, giving them one extra copy every month, the disposition of which may profitably create a generous rivalry. And this, dear brethren, as the good pastor says, this is the accepted time. The beginning of a new volume (it began last month) is a most favorable season for forming clubs. And in this game clubs are certainly trumps, and are sure to take the odd trick.

The new story, "Armadale," opens with unusual skill even for Wilkie Collins. When you have read the number you will be very sure to read every other number to the end. "How does it come out?" is the inevitable question as you lay it down. The contrast between the picturesque village groups in the little German village of Wildbad, gathered toward sunset of the first day of the season at the Baths to await the diligence, and the coming of the sick man with his terrible burden, which he throws off, and his life with it, in the village inn, is most artistically managed; and in the present number the wonder deepens as the mysterious figures glide across the stage.

Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend" has a most original character in Eugene Wrayburn, while there is a grotesque extravagance in such personages as Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Lammle and Georgiana Podsnap. Yet the kind of life they represent is clearly indicated, and Podsnap himself is one of the creations of Dickens which enrich current conversation and literature with a new and expressive word.

Meanwhile, turning from the stories, the thousands of readers who recall the remarkable interest with which they pored over the pages of this Magazine which contained Abbott's "Life of Napoleon," will be glad to renew their monthly meetings with that author, as they will do in his "Heroic Deeds of Heroic Men," which is a series of sketches of the most striking and memorable events of the great war. The series began in the December number with the North Carolina expedition of the brave Burnside, one of the purest patriots and noblest men that the war has revealed.

Nor must a faithful Easy Chair forget to mention the "Tour through Arizona" of Ross Browne, whose fame is established as one of the most entertaining of living travelers who tell their travels. Mr. Browne's style is flavored by that of the frontier region in which he is so fond of wandering; and his quick, humorous eye, his undaunted patience, his familiarity with wild life and wild men, all combine to make his tales of adventure not only entertaining but valuable.

Is not a fond Easy Chair justified, then, in complacently congratulating itself upon its co-laborers, and the intelligent reader upon the literary rations provided for the Spring campaign? And those of Among the especial attractions of the volume so which he has spoken are but a part of the noble