The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-08 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OP THE DAILY WM.

SlR,—Finding that all was quiet before Rich-
mond,
and that a civilian would be in no danger
and not much in the way, I ventared to run down
to the army of the James.
The army appears to be in good condition and
spirits. The supplies, I believe, are abundant ; the
hospital accommodations are evidently ample and
good. Ido not speak from my own observation,
which of course is very limited and precarious, but
from inquiry, in saying that probably no army in
history ever was so well cared for as this. And if
such is the case, it is surely a very strong proof
that the war is not being waged with mercenary
and worthless lives.
I see the same care for the dead as for the
living. The graves in the lines are decent ; and many
bodies, even of private soldiers, are embalmed and
sent home to their friends.

The soldiers are now lodged in leg huts built
by themselves : and time was a sort of rivalry• in
the contrivance of 1101116 parts of these huts which
looked lilip,tbe work of cheerful as well as of skilful
hands.
The extent of the fortified lines is immense ; and
the perfect finish of the works seems to betoken
willing labour, or at least ready obedience to com-
mend.

Everywhere you see skill in the use of the axe
and the spade, dexterity and inventiveness, the
signs of a native American army.
The fortifications and the hutting might seem to
indicate that the campaign was at an end. But the
chessboard is now very contracted, and the remain•
ing moves short. Richmond is visible from a signal
station iii the lines.

Of course I cannot pretend to speak of the
military qualities of the army. It must suffer
from the continual retirement of veterans whose
term has expired, and their replacement by
raw levies, who are unwisely formed into new
regiments, instead of being incorporated with the
old. The oligarchs of the Confederacy, as you
know, keep their veterans in the field by a very
simple expedient. Having induoed men to enlist
for a year, they voted them in for three, and then
till the end of the war : a violation of public faith
to which it would be difficult to find a paralleL As
• natural consequence, however, they suffer from
desertion in spite of the most vigilant efforts to pre-
vent it. Their most trustworthy troops, if lam
not misinformed, are a good deal employed in guard-
ing the rest.
The armies of the Potomac and James do not
live on the country. They are supplied from
their water base. Hence, perhaps, it is that
in the district occupied by them, though you see
many signs of conflict, you see no ravages. But in
truth the country, so far as I saw it in two days'
ride, or from the top of a signal-station command-
ing a wide view, bids defiance to the ravager.
Though close to the capital of Virginia, it is, with
the exception of a patch here and there, a wilder-
ness. Part of it is a relapsed wilderness, for
I saw the traces of former cultivation covered
by trees of about twenty years' growth. The
soil is evidently good, and the land will be
fruitful when it is tilled by free hands and opened
to emigration. Perhaps these armies may be con-
quering from slavery a home for the surplus popu-
lation of England.
The fact that the scene of this war is a vast and
I almost pathless forest (the good roads about the
lines being the work of the armies) evidently makes
ordinary military criticisms inapplicable. It is
difficult to imagine bow a line of battle
can advance, how it can even be formed,
or how artillery can be brought to bear in
a battle. A charge of cavalry is out of the ques-
tion ; and this makes the cavalry ineffective, and
the battles indecisive. Reconnoitring must also be
extremely difficult.
The two lines of pickets were lying close to each
other in front of their respective entrenchments,
without any wanton firing. Men who thus observe
the courtesies and humanities of war may surely,
when the war is over, live in good fellowship with
each other.

There seemed t be in this republican army
all due military subordination, and enough of
etiquette. At the same time there is a certain
republican equality of fare. The abode of General
Grant at City Point lea hut of one room, oontaining
a camp bed, a chest marked with the initials of the
owner, a table, and two or three chairs.

All Americans are hospitable to strangers, and
the officers of the army of the James were most
hospitable to me. Perhaps their hospitality may
have prejudiced me in their favour ; but they
appeared to me in manners and cultivation the
equals, at least, of any soldiers whom I had ever
seen. I rode for some hours in company with one
of them who had entered the army as a private,
and I think I never met a more perfect gentleman
in my life.
I saw, with the greatest interest, the negro
troops encamped close to the scene of one of their
most gallant exploits—the storming of the entrench-
ment on Newmarket Height. There can be no
doubt, I think, that these men are now the acknow-
ledged and respected brethren in arms of the whites.
This, to give the Beast as well as the Devil his due,
is the work of General Butler. That man's
indomitable energy and iron will (qualities
written on his face more plainly than on any other
face I ever beheld, unless it be the portraits of
Cromwell) have crushed all the obstacles that
stood in the way of this great moral and
social revolution. Ferro iis fibertas proventet—
the bayonet shall be their liberator—is the motto
of the medal he has caused to be struck
for the negro soldiers ; and he has made this
motto a practical truth. I will not attempt to
anticipate the calm judgment of history in an hour
of passion by discussing the controverted parts of
his career. To me he seems to be in all points,
good and evil, the model of a Revolutionary chief.
He was the first thoroughly to grasp the
idea of the Revolution being fulfilled by the
virtual destruction of Slavery ; he is the first,
as you ses by his Now York speech, to an-
nounce in broad terms a policy of amnesty and
oblivion. Like Denton, he has " walked straight
on his wild way," fearless of danger, and somewhat
reckless of opinion. I do not worship Revolutionary
characters. I hate the element from which they
spring, as I love the calm progress of regular im-
provement. But a Revolution has come, and I
suspect that in its melancholy annals Butler will
occupy a broader and perhaps a less odious page
than is commonly supposed.—l am, &0.,
GOLDWIN SMITH. I
Washington, Nov. 22, 1804.

THE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW.
Wednesday is generally the great day at the
Cattle Show, and yesterday it was quite great
enough to justify its reputation. The check-table
kept up an incessant click from morning until
night, and the various avenues leading to the
Agricultural Hall were almost impassable, from
the enormous number of vehicles all labouring to
get on in the same direction. There had been a
strong expectation that the Prince and Princess of
Wales would be among the visitors, but the public
were again doomed to suffer the pangs of hope de-
ferred. The directors, however, are not without
expectation that before the final closing the exhi-
bition will yet be honoured with a royal visit.
The sale of stock got on pretty briskly, but
we were informed that those butchers who
expect to become possessors of the great prize-
holders defer their purchases as long as possible
for fear of accidents in the case of such large and
tenderly reared animals. There is no doubt but
that ultimately purchasers will be found fur all
and at good prices.
We observed in a former notice that the cattle
show was complemented by a varied exhibition of
agricultural machinery, and in that department,
perhaps, the most remarkable articles are the steam
engines and " composite " threshing machines of
Messrs. Garrett and Son. The steam engine of
10-horse power is applicable to almost all the pur-
poses of the farm, ploughing the land in seed
time, and fitting the corn for market in harvest.
For the latter work it is made to connect by a strap
with the threshing machine, which is a perfect
model of mechanical ingenuity, and the latter,
aided by the communicated motive power,
threshes, winnows, measures, and sacks the corn
by one continuous operation ; and this with-
out injuring the straw, or losing a single grain of
corn in the operation. Messrs. Garrett supply
both machines to all the corn-growing countries of
the Old World, and we are rather surprised to find
that even in Egypt their economital value and
efficiency are better appreciated than in England.
With any farm of 300 acres or upwards there is a
saving of one-half the expense by the use of these
two machines ; and it may perhaps be worthy the
consideration of the statesmen who are now so
busy with " the Irish question " to inquire whether
such a rearrangement of the farms in Ireland as
would permit of the use of machinery of this de-
scription would not be the best means of increasing
the agricultural wealth of the country. From the
days when allusion could be made to ' the ox that
treadeth out the corn," and thence through the long
primitive " flail " period, there is a wonderful ad-
vance in the invention and production of agricul-
tural machinery like Messrs. Garrett's steam engines
and elaborate threshing machines. The annual
dinner of the club took place last evening at the
Freemasons' Tavern.