She now reclaimed it again. Lincoln, or rather Seward, did not deny her right to do so, but made different excuses for delay in giving up possession. This was very tiresome; but the excuses were plausible, and the Carolina Commissioners, though treated with a good deal of discourtesy, remained on at Washington in the hope of accelerating matters a little.

At last they were appalled by a rumour that all these pourparlers were only a blind; and that while Lincoln and Seward were throwing all this dust in their eyes, they were underhand preparing to throw fresh provisions into Sumter, with the intention of then refusing to evacuate it. Yankee honour was not a thing to be relied on very much; but this seemed rather a strong measure even for Yankees. Still they knew something of the high-minded hero of the curry-comb story. And though they gave the President credit for honesty at that time, yet it was supposed that his abilities were not of a very high order, and that he would therefore be easily led. So they thought it might be at least as well to make some inquiries on the subject. They did so through the means of an ex-judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, a man of Southern origin, but devoted to the cause of the Union. The story of this gentleman's negotiations with the President and Mr Seward

on this subject, is a sickening record of baseness. They are too long to be related at length. But the upshot of them was this: that after numerous prevarications and numerous evasions, Mr Secretary Seward was driven to the lie direct. He informed the mediator, on the President's authority, that there would be no attempt to supply Sumter without giving notice to the Governor of South Carolina. Hardly had this assurance been given than further intelligence arrived that an expedition for the purpose so plainly repudiated had actually arrived at Charleston; that just before this, in anticipation of such an event, for the rumour had spread rather wide, the Carolinians, still anxious to avoid a rupture, had offered the Commandant of the fort, if he would promise not to open fire unless he was attacked, that they would on their part abstain from attacking him: that this offer had been refused; that the intention to place the State forces between the fire of the fort and that of the fleet, had thus become transparent; that in consequence the Governor had ordered the fort to be attacked, and if possible captured; and that it had hardly hauled down its flag before the appearance of the expected fleet had shown how justifiable was the attack, and how necessary was the promptitude with which it was made.

The cannon of Beauregard was the signal for the

Northern declaration of war. Here was an excuse for hostilities. The audacious secessionists had fired, yes, actually fired at the "star-spangled banner." It was true that they had been forced into doing so by the low trickery of the Government. But this was rather to the Government's credit, as it showed that Mr Seward, though he had made himself ridiculous about President Taylor's horse, was really a smart man, and one of our most talented citizens. Besides, it was absurd to suppose that the Gulf States could go if the almighty North would not let them. They must be taught to know their place. "Let them kick up their heels for a while and they'll soon tire of it;" such was the President's elegant remark. Neither honest Abe nor smart Seward, nor their Republican followers, nor even the Northern Democrats, knew what South Carolina and Louisiana could do.

If the attack on Sumter enraged and united the North, the Northern declaration of war united the South. The States which had followed the lead of South Carolina had all belonged to the class of which she was the chief representative-the cotton and sugar communities of the Gulf. The States which lay between the Northern frontier of South Carolina and the Southern frontier of Pennsylvania, had as yet made no sign. If South Carolina was the typal State of the secession, the typal State of these more

northerly ones was Virginia. The Virginian character was to that of South Carolina what might be inferred from their different climates. They stood to one another in the relation of Sicily and Tuscany; the one ardent and hot-blooded, intolerant of oppression, quick to resent an injury, and always ready to strike a daring blow the other not perhaps less sensitive or less high-spirited, but possessed of more selfcontrol, checking the impulses of passion by the sentiments of association, capable of any amount of venture when the occasion arose, but anxious not to force it on, and willing to endure much rather than break up what memory has endeared to her. Like her Italian prototype also, she abounds more than any other region of the land to which she belongs in the genius of her sons. Both Tuscany and Virginia have been fertile in statesmen: but where Tuscany produces poets and painters, Virginia produces soldiers. I know not whether this contrast of the two great States of the Confederacy will be considered truthful. There is, however, some satisfaction in personifying them under these characters, and I believe that I am justified in so doing. England may well be proud of both her children; and it is a pleasure to feel that these two, perhaps more than any other States of America, possess the English blood most unalloyed. I am not aware whether South Carolina possesses

any man who may be a fair representative of his country. I have a sort of idea that the Virginian character is realised in Lee.

I think Virginia has always acted up to the account I have tried to give of her. She always keeps within her strength, and never pushes forward but when there is some good reason for it. But when she does come forward, she does so in imperial style. At the time of the War of Independence, she was in no hurry to act; but when New England was up in arms against an infliction on the part of our ancestors one hundred-fold less than she has been the means of inflicting on the Southerners, when the unfortunate tea-chests were flung into the sea in the port of Boston, and when the English armies and fleets were advancing to punish the rebellious colonists for their contumacy, Virginia, though not herself invaded or threatened, sprang forward to the rescue, on the ground that an attack on one colony was an attack upon all. It is probably not too much to say that her intervention was the saving of New England: it is certainly not too much to say that her intervention led to the foundation of the Union; for it was her intervention that gave to the struggling communities of the New World the advantage of the arms and counsels of Washington. She not only founded the New Republic, she also nursed it through the period