Observe here, if you please, the part performed by the Government,--not only its consent to the manufacture, but the promptitude of this consent. This was not easily accomplished, as the well-indorsed witness testifies:-- “This question of making the cartridges _at the Government works_ was a difficult one to get over. But it is done.” Naturally difficult; but the agent of France overcame all obstacles. Then as to price:-- “The price _the Government_ will charge for the guns and cartridges will be ----, or as near that as possible.” Always “the Government”! Then comes another glimpse:-- “The forty thousand guns cannot all be shipped immediately, as they are distributed _in the various arsenals throughout the country_.” That is, the Government arsenals. Then appears one of our officials on the scene:-- “_The Chief of Ordnance_ thinks it may take twenty to thirty days before all could be brought in.” Then again the witness reports:-- “_The Chief of Ordnance_ estimates the cost of the arms, including boxing and expense of freight to bring them to New York, at $20.60 currency.” Then as to the harness:-- “_The Government_ have not full complete sets to the extent of twenty-five hundred after selling the number required for the fifty batteries.” Always “the Government”! Then, after mentioning that some parts of the harness are wanting, he says:-- “I have made arrangements to have this deficiency made good by either _the Government_ or by outside persons.” But the Government does all it can:-- “In the mean time _the Government_ have ordered the harness to be sent here immediately.” Then at the close the witness says:-- “I forgot to say _the Government_ have no Spencer rifles, having never had but a small number, and all of those you have bought.” And he adds-- that “they have from three to four thousand transformed Springfields,” which he “may think best to take _after examination_,”-- showing again his intimate dealings with the Government. Such is the testimony of Mr. Remington, the acknowledged agent of France. It is impossible to read these repeated allusions to “the Government” and “the Chief of Ordnance” without feeling that the witness was dealing directly in this quarter. If there was any middleman, he was of straw only; but a man-of-straw is nobody. If Mr. Remington’s character were not vouched so completely, if he did not appear on authentic testimony so entirely above any misrepresentation, if he were not elevated to be the model arms-dealer, this letter, with its numerous averments of relations with the Government, would be of less significance. But how can these be denied or explained without impeaching this witness?