The Portland daily press., 1865-01-13
"a oavslry Officer" a Dlaotwood,

"A Cavalry Officer" IN Blaokwood,
An amusing instance Of the way In which
public sentiment on American affairs d manu-
featured in England, may be found In an ar
ticle IA -BlackwoodA for December, entitled
"a Visit to the Cities and Camps of the Con-
ederate States, ls63'e4," by Cavalry OF
ficer. The writer claims to have spent year
in the C. S. A., and to have enjoyed UNUSUAL
facilities for observing the character anu
habits of the people, the spirit oy WINCH 'ney
are animated in the present struggle ana the
working of their institutions. For bis enjoy
ment Of these advantages we must, OF course,
take his word, but he certainly has not pro6ted
by them very greatly. Any one less capable
Of forming an intelligent opinion for himselfit
would be hard to find. His boundess con-
ceit and his equally boundIess credulity made
him ready prize to those who had their own
reasons for deceiving him, and they would
seem to have fattered him into such com
Portable estimate of himself and them, that he
was ready to swallow anything they chose to
tell. According to him all Confederate Of
uCcEo dIc pCEtCCb SCAsAOh&Ong bA0NSb SOAA t~OuS
and humane,-all the common people of the
south animated by an unconquerable love OF
liberty and hatred Of the "atrocious tyranny
of the Yankees" As for slavery, it is mild,
patriarchal institution, the especial delight of
the negro, who is invariably too much attached
to his "massap to leave him, except upon
compulsion, and whose sunny existence is dis
turbed by no fear except that of being skid
mapped" by the Yankees Hear what he says:
"If any one in the South wished to make
sure of getting into trouble, he need only
abuse or ill-treat negro; and though the
boy might be submissive, he would soon:
have every white man in the neighborhood
down upon him, and perhaps revolver or
two emptied into his body q 20
S Take another specimen. Speaking of the
"false and malicious report circulated in the
north, of the ill-treatment of Federal prisoners
in the hands Of the chivalry, he says that the
Libby Prison was kept scrupuiously clean and
we'll ventilated, that there was abundance of
wholesome food, and that over forty negro
servants were kept expressly to wait upon the
officers confined there. To shoot them per-
haps when they looked out of the window
"At Belle Isle in the James river, there were
about 5000 prisoners, living In tents in regn-
lar confinement, wirh plenty of room for ex-
ercise, any amount Of water, bathing allowed
in the season, and better rations than the Con-
gfederate soldiers get in the field, though nom
inally the same They had been on Belle
Isle six months when went there, and
counted 70 graves on the island. Where
we're the rest?) As many haze died in one
day at Fort Delaware-so Capt. Balls Lieux,
the commandant OF Belle Isle, informed me-"
The italics are ours. OF the Virginia far
mers, he says:4 A .8
"They are all kind, hospitable, good fellows,
little depressed by the bad times, and at be-
ing obliged to keep their political sentiments
to themselves. They run no small risk In har-
boring US too. Iffound out, it would go hard
with their persons and properly. Only a few
days ago the family of gentleman of large
property in Maryland entertained two rela-
tives, southern soldiers, at their house during
the absence OF the owners. They were found
out; the gentleman, who knew nothing OF the
matter, was sent to Fort Warren his property
was confscated, and the ladies of the family
were sent south without being allowed to
take anything with tham. They subsequently
earned their living by needle word at Gordons-
Vile" gas s-,-,,e,ae.
Really, one cannot help wishing that a little
Of this kind of rigor actually had been prac-
siced towards those border state traitors, male
and female, whom the excessive leniency of
the government has left free to work such in-
calculable mischief with perfect impunity.---
We have space for but one more choice ex-
tract The writer is describing his visit to
Richmond. 81 called on Mr.. Benjamin, the
Secretary of State, and was fortunate in find
ing him at home and alone. We talked about
the war, and the foreign prospects of the Con-
federacy, atrocities which the Yankees seem
to delight in committing wherever they have
chance. }sW sss5ae EEssas
"' Ifthey had behaved differently Mr.. Ben
jamin remarked; it they had come against us
observing discipline, protecting women and
children, respecting private property, and pro-
SA"Auitn6 % euOil July OuJ0St ZIG PustAuS uOwh
Of armed resistance to the Federal govern
ment, we should perhaps have found it more
difficult to prevail against them. But they
could not help showing their cruelty and
rapacity; they could not dissemble their true
nature soh'ch is the real cause of this isar.-
II they had been capable of acting otherwise
they would not have been Yankees. and we
should never have quarreled with them.p has
Perhaps this is enough. One can readily
understand how much of this kind of stuff
should find Its way into the columns OF the
London Morning Herald, or of the Liverpool
Courier, but that Magazine like Backwood's,
with character to sustain, should offer to its
readers FIVE and twenty pages of matter so
palpably composed of equal parts of falsehood
and faulty, is almost surprising. In the pres
ent encouraging aspect of affairs we can well
afford to smile atthese efforts to blacken and
iljure the cause it has cost US SO much to de-
fend, but the time has been when they were
not wholly without their baleful effect. The
fact that we have reached point where such
shafts have no longer power to harm US, is q
good test of progress. arr,,sa a;asoa.a
,Yga
iarg Qlinnsaa of tho 0au;tol -