to our saddened
hearts. The last act in the bloody drama was about to close on that very
day at Appomattox Court House, and before that sun had set, the
Confederate Government had become a thing of the past. We, who were
abroad, were not unprepared for the final catastrophe; for we had
learned on our arrival at Liverpool of General Early's defeat in the
valley of the Shenandoah, and the accession to General Grant's already
overwhelmingly large forces of General Sheridan's cavalry; and of the
junction of General Sherman with General Schofield. To oppose these
mighty armies, there were 33,000 half starved, ragged heroes in the
trenches around Petersburg, and about 25,000 under General Johnston in
North Carolina.

This may not be a proper place to allude to the fearful penalties
inflicted upon a people who fought and suffered for what they deemed a
holy cause. But it should be proclaimed, in the interest of truth and
justice, that the South since the close of the war, has been preyed
upon by unprincipled adventurers and renegades who are determined to
rule or ruin. But a brighter day will come. Calumny and injustice cannot
triumph forever. That distinguished officer Colonel C. C. Chesney of the
British army in a volume of "Military Biography" lately published by
him, in allusion to General Lee, writes thus: "But though America has
learned to pardon, she has yet to attain the full reconciliation for
which the dead hero would have sacrificed a hundred lives. Time can only
bring this to a land, which in her agony, bled at every pore. Time, the
healer of all wounds will bring it yet. The day will come, when the evil
passions of the great civil strife will sleep in oblivion, and North and
South do justice to each other's motives, and forget each other's
wrongs. Then History will speak with clear voice of the deeds done on
either side, and the citizens of the whole Union do justice to the
memories of the dead." Surely all honest men and true patriots will
rejoice to see that day.

The firm of Fraser, Trenholm & Co. was represented in Liverpool by a Mr.
Prioleau who was by no means anxious for the consignment of the
Chameleon in ballast; with a cargo on board the case would have been
different. He evidently considered her a very big and unsalable
elephant, and repudiated the part of showman. The vessel was therefore
turned over to Captain Bullock, who acted with his usual tact and
discretion in the subsequent transactions conn