million of shoes have already been worn out, and a million more are being manufactured, and yet upon every one of these shoes there has been a waste of seventy-five cents. Three-quarters of a million of dollars have been already worn out, and another three-quarters of a million of dollars upon shoes, is now being manufactured. In that department of the Government contracts have been so plenty that officials have gone about the streets with their pockets filled with them, and of which they made presents to the clergymen of their parishes, with which were healed old political sores, and cured political feuds. Even the telegraph has announced that high public functionaries have graced the love-feasts which were got up to celebrate these political reconciliations, thus brought about while the hatchet of political animosity was buried in the grave of political confidence, and the national credit was crucified among malefactors.

"We have reported to us the first fruits of these contracts. A regiment of cavalry lately reached Louisville, 1,000 strong; and the Board of Army Officers there appointed for the purpose, have condemned 485 out of the 1,000 horses as utterly worthless. The man who exam

ined those horses declared upon his oath, that there was not one of them that was worth $20. They were blind, spavined, ringboned, afflicted with the heaves, with the glanders, and with every disease that horse-flesh is heir to. The 485 horses cost the Government, before they were mustered into the service, $58,200, beside more than an additional $1,000 to transport them from Pennsylvania to Louisville, where they were condemned and cast off. There are 83 regiments of cavalry to-day, 1,000 strong. It takes $250,000 to put one of these regiments on foot before it moves. Twenty millions of dollars had thus been expended on these cavalry regiments before they left the encampments where they were mustered into service, and hundreds of these horses have been condemned and sent back to Elmira, to Annapolis, and to this city, to spend the winter. Any day hundreds of them can be seen round this city, chained to trees, where they were left to starve to death. Gangs of two hundred horses, in various places, have been-thus left to die and rot, till the Committee on the District of Columbia have called for a measure of legislation to protect the city from the danger to be apprehended from these horse Golgothas. An ex-governor of one State offered to an exjudge of another State $5,000 to get him permission to raise one of these regiments of cavalry; and, when the ex-judge brought back the commission the ex-governor takes it to his room at the hotel, while another plunderer sits at the keyhole watching like a mastiff while he inside counts up $40,000 profit on the horses, and calculates $20,000 more upon the accoutrements, and on the other details of furnishing these regiments.

In addition to arms in the hands of the 600,000 soldiers in the field, there are numerous outstanding contracts, made with private individuals-not made upon advertisement, not made with the knowledge of the public, but by ex-members of Congress, who knew no more of the difference between one class of arms and another than does a Methodist minister. There are outstanding contracts for the manufacture of Springfield muskets, the first one of which cannot be delivered in six months from this day. There is a contract for the supply of 1,090,000 muskets at $28 apiece, when the same quality of muskets are manufactured at Springfield at $13,50 apiece ; and an ex-member of Congress is now in Massachusetts trying to get machinery made by which he will be able to manufacture, in some six months hence, at $21 apiece, those rifled muskets manufactured to day in that armory for $13,50. Providence, before six months will dispose of this

war, or He will disposeof us. Not one of those muskets will be of the slighest service in this emergency, or before the Providence of God, whether for good or for evil, will dispose of it. There are 1,090,000 muskets at such an enormous price. in addition to other outstanding contracts for the manufacture, some time hence, of 27,000 Enfield rifles. Besides, there are 75,543 sets of harnesses, to be delivered by and by, at the cost of $1,978,446.

I have not time to enumerate all these contracts. When we appropriated at the last session for this purpose $20,000,000, not less than thirty seven millions and some thousand dollars had been already pledged to contractors, not to purchase arms for the men in the field fighting their country's battles in this great emergency and peril, but for some future use, for some future occasion, or to meet some need of the contractors, I don't know which at this moment. Not only the appropriation of last session has been exhausted, but $17,000,000 put upon it. The riot of the 19th of April in Baltimore, opened this ball; and on the 21st of April, in the city of New York there was organized a corps of plunderers of the Treasury. Two millions of dollars were intrusted to a poor, unfortunate, honest, but incompetent editor of a paper in New York, to dispense it in the best manner he could. Straightway this gentleman began to purchase linen pantaloons, straw hats, London porter, dried herrings, and such like provisions for the army, till he expended in this way $390,000 of the money, and then he got scared and quit.

There is an appropriation, also, for the supply of wood to the army. This contractor is pledged the payment of $7 a cord for all the wood delivered to the different commands-wood collected after the labor of the soldiers themselves had cut down the trees to clear the ground for their batteries; and then this contractor employs the army wagons to draw it to the several camps, and he has no further trouble than to draw his $7 for a cord, leaving the Government to draw the wood.

PAY TO U. S. TROOPS.-The following were the rates, but have increased some ten per cent since the rebellion :

First Lieutenant..

21 00

Second Lieutenant......... 103 50 Musicians..

Officers are required to provide their own uniforms and equipments; but the men are clothed and armed by the Government.

FUNDS. It is an unusual length of time since we acknowledged in the Advocate the contributions of our friends. It will be seen that a few of them have shown a liberality that deserves our special thanks; but our receipts thus far are much less than our current expenses. We hope our friends who have not yet sent us their usual aid, will bear this in mind.