eption by Congress. But the sagacity of Mr. Seward caused its
typographical preparation in advance of presidential use. It therefore
becomes an antidote to the heated poison of the Palmerston or Derby
prints, which emulate in seizing the last national outrage for party
purposes. And its inspection enables the great public, after perusing
what Secretary Seward has written during the past troublous half year,
to acquire a calm reliance upon his skill in navigating our glorious
ship of state over the more troublous waters of the next half year.

The most cursory inspection of this volume must put to shame those
Washington news-mongers, who from March to December pictured the
Secretary as locked up in his office, in order to merely shun
office-seekers, or as idling his time at reviews and sham-fights. The
collection demonstrates, that his logic, persuasion, and rhetorical
excellence have in diplomatic composition maintained their previous
excellences in other public utterances; and that his physical capacity
for labor, and his mental sympathy with any post of duty, have been as
effective, surrounded by the dogs of war, as they were when tasked amid
the peaceful herds of men. The maxim, _inter arma silent leges_, is
suspended by the edicts of diplomacy!

Mr. Seward entered the State Department March the fifth (according to
reliable Washington gossip), before breakfast, and was instantly at
work. He found upon his table, with the ink scarcely dry, the draft of a
(February 28th) circular from his predecessor, Mr. Black (now U.S.
Supreme Court reporter), addressed to all the ministers of the United
States. That circular very briefly recited the leading facts of the
disunion movement, and instructed the ministers to employ all means to
prevent a recognition of the confederate States. The document in
question is dated at the very time when President Lincoln was perfecting
his inaugural; and why its imperative and necessary commands were
delayed until that late hour, is something for Mr. Buchanan to explain
in that volume of memoirs which he is said to be preparing at the
falling House of Lancaster.

From the dates of Mr. Seward's circulars, it is evident that he devoted
small time to official 'house-warming' or 'cleaning up.' Some time, no
doubt, was passed in consulting the indexes to the foreign affairs of
the past eventful four months, and in making himself master of the
situation. His first act is to transmit to all the (Bu