the James, and flowed in masses upon the rapids, on either side of the island. Water, left in buckets on the island, froze two or three inches deep in a single night. The men resorted to every expedient to keep from perishing. They lay in the ditch, as the most protected place, heaped upon one another, and lying close together, as one of them expressed it, "like hogs in winter," taking turns as to who should have the outside of the row. In the morning the row of the previous night was marked by the motionless forms of those "who were sleeping on in their last sleep," -frozen to death! Every day, during the winter season, numbers were conveyed away stiff and stark, having fallen asleep in everlasting cold. Some of the men dug holes in the sand in which to take refuge. All through the night crowds of them were heard running up and down to keep themselves from freezing. And this fate threatened them even more than it would have threatened most men, exposed to an equally severe temperature, even with such thin clothing and inadequate shelter, for they were starving! The very sustenance of animal heat was withheld; and one of the most urgent occasions of hunger, a freezing temperature, which makes the bodily necessity stronger, and the appetite for food greater, was given full opportunity to make havoc among them. So the last stay and power of resistance was taken away; the cold froze them because they were hungry; the hunger consumed them because they were cold. These two vultures fed upon their vitals, and no one in the Southern Confederacy had the mercy or the pity to drive them away. Only once was there heard a voice of indignant remonstrance in the rebel Congress from a noble-hearted statesman; but it was heard with indifference, and brought about no alleviation.

Read the rude words of these suffering men. They were fed as the swine are fed. A chunk of corn-bread, twelve or fourteen ounces in weight, half baked, full of cracks as if baked in the sun, musty in taste, containing whole grains of corn, fragments of cob, and pieces of husks; meat often tainted, suspiciously like mule-meat, and a mere mouthful at that; two or three spoonfuls of rotten beans; soup thin and briny, often with the worms floating on the surface. None of these were given together, and the whole ration was never one half the quantity necessary for the support of a healthy man. The reader will not be surprised to hear that the men were ravenous when the rations were brought in, nor remain unmoved by the simple and touching expressions which fell from so many of them: "There was no name for our hunger." "I was hungry, - pretty nearly starved to death all the time." I waked up one night, and found myself gnawing my coat-sleeve." "I used to dream of having something good to eat." "I walked the streets for many a night; I could not sleep for hunger." "If I were to sit here a week, I could not tell you half our suffering."

There were other indications of the desperate famine to which they were subjected. They gnawed the very bones which had been thrown away, sometimes breaking them up for soup. They were glad to get the refuse bread which was occasionally thrown to them by the guards.

They even ate the rats which burrowed in the encampment. A dog, belonging to an officer, straying into the enclosure was caught and secreted, and before he could reclaim his property, it was torn apart by the man who stole it, some of it eaten by himself, and the remainder sold to his comrades. So reduced were they, that they exchanged their clothing for food, and left themselves exposed the more to the cold. Under the temptation to secure double rations, many worked at their trades of blacksmithing and shoemaking for the rebel army.

But as the weary months drew on, hunger told its inevitable tale on them all. They grew weak and emaciated. Many found that they could not walk; when they attempted it, a dizziness and blindness came, and they fell to the ground. Diarrhoea, scurvy, congestion of the lungs, and low fevers set in. To add to their suffering, there came the unavoidable consequences of being herded and crowded together, but in this case especially aggravated by a most unnecessary restriction. A broad beach surrounded the island; and yet only about seventy-five men were permitted to bathe per day in the river, in squads of five or six at a time. At this rate it was literally and almost accurately what so many of the men state, that they were allowed to wash themselves only once in six months. "Lice were in all their quarters." Vermin and dirt incrusted their bodies. They were sore with lying in the sand. None, not even the sufferers with diarrhoea, were allowed to visit the sinks during the night, and in the morning the ground was covered and saturated with filth. The wells were tainted; the air was filled with disgusting odors.

We intended to give a pretty complete abstract of this report, but are compelled to reserve a few pages to our next number.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ATROCITIES OF THIS CONFLICT. - We cannot wonder that foreigners should look in a sort of incredulous amazement upon facts like the foregoing; but it seems passing strange, that persons of the least intelligence and candor should hold us responsible in any way or degree for such outrages. We have all along done everything we could to prevent and mitigate them, and now the whole responsibility for them rests on the slave-mongering rebel leaders, whom European aristocrats have so eagerly taken as pets to their bosom, and whose monstrous crime against humanity, freedom, and good government they have encouraged in every way they could consistently with their own safety. We responsible! The charge is an outrageous injustice, of which any organ of European opinion ought to be ashamed, and of which we complain chiefly on account of its influence in exasperating our people to such a degree as may lead in time to collisions that all will deeply deplore.

But how shall we account for such persistent, systematic atroc

ities? They are all due to slavery, -to the spirit it generates, to the habits it forms, and the exigencies requisite for its support. In such a country and age as this slavery can keep itself alive only by such means. We speak from a long and bitter experience; and no man, not familiar with our slave system, can well conceive its baleful influence in barbarizing and well-nigh brutalizing any community that adopt it as their leading characteristic. people that will abet or tolerate such a system, may be expected to perpetrate any deeds, however brutal or fiendish, that may be deemed necessary for its support and extension. Here is the key to nearly all the crueltics and barbarities that have disgraced the present conflict.

A

So far, then, from reproach, our government and people deserve the sympathy of all good men through the world for the humanity, forbearance, and indulgence shown in dealing with such a set of rebels. Incidental wrongs are indispensable from such a contest; but we doubt whether history can furnish an instance in which a rebellion, so inexcusable, gigantic, and atrocious, has been treated with equal lenity and equal freedom from the spirit and the deeds of malice or revenge.

OUR DEBT seems from official statement, made at the close of October, to have reached then $2,017,009,515, an increase of more than $61,000,000 during the last month. An increase in our expenses of two millions of dollars every day over and above all that the government is raising by a very high tariff, and by taxes, raised in some cases sixty or seventy per cent. above those of last year. We see that strenuous efforts are persistently made to convince our people that they are able to bear these fast increasing burdens; but there is a point beyond which they will not go, and the men intrusted with the management of our public affairs should take good heed not to exceed this limit. The pressure of these millions, accumulating at the fearful rate of two millions a day, must in time be sorely felt, and may, ere we are aware, create a fatal reaction. No logic, no array of our vast resources, can conceal the startling fact, that more than one eighth of all our wealth is now mortgaged to pay what this rebellion has already cost. How much more it is going to waste, none can tell; but the result is sure to furnish such a financial argument in favor of peaceful measures rather than those of war as the world has seldom witnessed..

* OF THE FLORIDA.-This piratical craft, after preying long ur commerce, was lately captured by the Wachusett, one of our amers, in the Brazilian port of Bahia, and immediately brought

our country. We must regret its capture, if it was made in gation of right or international law, and fear it may stir the warsit and aristocratic prejudices of governments that have long been watching to find us in fault. It would scem from what foreign papers report, that they are meditating some sort of a collective protest against the seizure of the Florida, and will doubtless be able to create some thing of a breeze in diplomatic circles, and perhaps to complicate, if not embroil, our foreign relations. The utterances of English and French papers betray an eager readiness to carp and complain; but we trust our rulers will have the wisdom, and spirit of candor and conciliation, requisite to avert all real danger of war from this and like occurrences to which we are now so constantly exposed.

AMOUNT OF LABOR EXPENDED IN MILITARY OPERATIONS. - We have heard of the military engine christened "Swamp Angel." Col. Serrel, who superintended the construction on which it was mounted, said it required 7000 days' work, and exposure to constant fire from numerous rebel batteries as soon as the work appeared above the grass. It stands on the very softest of mud, twenty-two feet deep, so soft that a man will sink into it out of sight if he attempts to walk on it. Ten thousand bags; filled with sand, were carried more than two miles, and 300 large logs and pieces of timber more than ten miles, to make the battery. Two miles and a half of bridges across the marsh had to be built to get to and from the batteries.

FUNDS - ANNUAL CONTRIBUTIONS.-December is the time fixed by long usage for our friends to forward their contributions; and we trust they will bear in mind that in times like these we need their aid more than ever, not merely because everything costs so much, but because we can now expect aid only from our most intelligent, reliable supporters. The cause, if sustained at all, must be well-nigh solely by such friends; and we are more and more convinced that it ought by all means to be kept alive through this fearful crisis. We are doing what we can for this purpose, and are quite willing to do much more than our share; but we shall need from our friends abroad all the aid the can render, and trust they will kindly consider our wants, and forwar the result at their earliest convenience.

Money Argument for Peace........198 | Rebel Treatment of Prisoners. .220

See last page of cover.

BOSTON:

AMERICAN PEACE SOCIETY.

CONGREGATIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING, 23 CHAUNCY STREET.