weapons, and more

accustomed to resort to

physical means of self-defence. It is also true, that they are generally less accustomed to luxury, and are more ready for camp life than we are. The wealthy young men have also been more accustomed to command, than the corresponding class with us." Familiarity with the use of arms, and the power of enduring camp life, are no mean advantages when a war suddenly occurs. From his youth, the Southerner is habituated to command others, and where there is the habit of command, there will be a correlative instinct of military obedience. The Northerner will obey with impatience, under feelings of restraint that seek escape. His position is repugnant to all his former theories; impatient of control as a child, impatient of authority as a youth, it is impossible he can be docile under the bonds of discipline. The constant idea torments him also, that his officer is no better than himself, and has no right to be so. The Southerner, on the other hand, will accept his position, whether to command or obey, as the proper order of things. Of personal courage

there is abundance on both sides-no braver people exist. The Northerner undoubtedly is naturally as courageous as the Southerner; but all qualities are strengthened by use and association, and the Southerner is habituated to an indifference to danger and recklessness of life, unknown in the North. Such a people are not easily subdued. Conquests should only be

attempted by the more martial race; but here the invaders are decidedly a less martial people than those to be subdued.

The late history of India strikingly proves how greatly the value of any military force depends upon the officers. The sepoys had proved their excellence as soldiers, in a century of war; when the mutiny ejected their officers, they had abundance of their own well schooled in regimental knowledge. The force appeared the same; its evolutions were perfect, it retained to the last an unbroken sense of discipline. But events soon proved it a mechanical thing out of which the spirit had passed, and the troops that for a hundred years had conquered, from Plassy to Sobraon, were miserably routed in every encounter. In the war of the Punjaub, the sepoy led by British officers overthrew the Sikh. A few years later the two races are again opposed, the sepoys under officers of their own, and now the Sikhs, whom they had vanquished before, drive them in terror from the field.

There is a direction, apart from, yet associated with military aptitude, in which the advantage is unquestionably with the South. Political ability

will not decide the fate of a battle, but will tell with decisive effect on the result of a war. The superiority of the Southerners in this respect, none will question. Webster observed that it would be vain to dispute, that the lead in the politics of the United States, had been a Southern

lead. We have seen how great a majority of the statesmen of the Union they have supplied. The Southerners, indeed, are just as superior to the men of the North in political and military talent, as the Northerners are superior in mercantile skill, literary ability, and inventive genius. There seems a natural division of mental powers, in which, whilst those of the Northerner have a wider range, and may be greater in the aggregate, it so happens that those allotted to the Southerner are precisely such as are effective in war. Of this political capacity there has been clear evidence, already, in the history of the contest. On the part of the South has been witnessed from the first one direct, able, resolute line of action. Starting from the bare ground, with a village for a capital, they organized at once a complete system of government-placed their ablest men in office-passed laws adapted to their position-instead of insulting other powers, endeavoured to conciliate themand in place of occupying their time in speeches, at once proceeded resolutely to prepare for the conflict that might ensue. In this there is power -stern, manly power-such as grasps the victory in war.

There is another difference between the belligerents, which, when forming an estimate of probabilities, we cannot overlook difference of motive. The people of the North invade the South for the avowed purpose of maintaining the Constitution-for the real purpose of sustaining

that ambition which upholds itself on the magnitude of the Union. This motive affords scope for declamation-orators will handle it with exciting effect-they are now denouncing as "miscreants and traitors" all who counsel reason. Beyond this, it will strongly affect the minds of many excellent Northern men who believe that the Union is a benefit, and are oppressed with a gloomy feeling, akin to that of the time of Lord North-that with the loss of the Southern States the sun of America sets for ever. But these will not be the actual combatants. The enthusiastic Unionist, the excited Abolitionist will be found in clubs and committee rooms, not on the field of battle. Enlistment soon subsides into an affair of bounty-of contracts to raise men at so much per head. Conscription has already been muttered. Those whom we have described will be most of them the editors, orators, and contractors of the North. In the actual warfare will be found Irishmen, Germans, small farmers, mechanics thrown out of work. There is nothing in a Constitution, or in abstract conceptions of union, to rouse feelings of self-devotion in these the bone and sinew of the army. Already has been seen a form of patriotism that no country ever displayed beforeregiments walking away from the first field of battle to the sound of the enemy's cannon.

All this will be different on the other side. The Virginian will fight in defence of his own soil, as the Northerner would fight were New England

invaded. With him it will be no ideal abstraction -no theme of declamation-no question of public policy. It is the defence of his own land, and his own home. This all can understand-every eye can see it it speaks to every man-it rouses every heart. No matter to him about the rights or wrongs-the invader is on the soil. These men cannot turn away from the battle to seek their home; the battle is in the home.

The material obstacles which the South presents to an invading force, are matters on which a more positive judgment may be formed; they are those which apparently must decide the result. The force on the defensive has the advantage of choosing the position, on which to fall back, and accept an engagement. The invader comes on the strength of an assumed superiority, which he is bound to vindicate. To him retreat is fatal; and to pause, in the midst of a hostile nation, would be as one who hesitates on a sand-bank when the tide is rising around him. He has to answer every challenge, and to overthrow all that bar his way. It is true he may have the alternative of turning the positions that have been occupied; but even with experienced troops this operation is full of danger-with raw forces difficult in the extreme. Besides, in a country so vast, and of such variety, it will always be possible to select and occupy positions that cannot be turned, except under disadvantages so great, that the assailant is forced to attack in front as the lesser evil. If it