the case with the true, confiding people in the country; but here,
contractors, martinets, and intriguers are the blowers of that
worship. Lincoln is as is the people at large; but a Seward, a Blair,
a Herald, a Times, and their respective and numerous tails,--as for
their motives, they are the reverse of Lincoln and of the people.

Victories in Kentucky, beyond the circumference or the direct action
from here; they are obtained without strategy and by rough levies. But
this voice of events is not understood by the McClellan tross.

Change in the Cabinet: Stanton, a new man, not from the parlor, and
not from the hacks. His bulletin on the victory in Kentucky
inaugurated a new era. It is a voice that nobody hitherto uttered in
America. It is the awakening voice of the good genius of the people,
almost as that which awoke Lazarus. This Stanton is the people; I
never saw him, but I hope he is the man for the events; perhaps he may
turn out to be _my_ statesman.

I wish I could get convinced of the real superiority of Fremont. It is
true that he was treated badly and had natural and artificial
difficulties to over come; it is true that to him belongs the credit
of having started the construction of the mortar fleet; but likewise
it is true that he was, at the mildest, unsurpassingly reckless in
contracts and expenditures, and I shall never believe him a general.
With all this, Fremont started a great initiative at a time when
McClellan and three-fourths of the generals of his creation considered
it a greater crime to strike at a _gentleman_ slaveholder than to
strike at the Union.

The courtesies and hospitalities paid to Thurlow Weed by English
society are clamored here in various ways. These courtesies prove the
high breeding and the good-will of a part, at least, of the English
aristocracy and of English statesmen. I do not suppose that Thurlow
Weed could ever have been admitted in such society if he were
travelling on his own merits as the great lobbyist and politician. At
the utmost, he would have been shown up as a _rara avis_. But
introduced to English society as the master spirit of Mr. Seward, and
as Seward's semi-official confidential agent, Thurlow Weed was
admitted, and even petted. But it is another question if this palming
of a Thurlow Weed upon the English high-toned statesmen increased
their consideration for Mr. Seward. The Duke of Newcastle and others
are not yet softened, and refuse to be humbugged.