The position of Missouri was similar to that of Kentucky. The State endeavored to avoid taking part in the war. Troops had been organized with hostile designs against the Government. These were forced to surrender by Captain Lyon, (afterward appointed General). At St. Louis an attack was made by the populace, on the 10th of May, upon the United States volunteers; they returned the fire, killing some twenty; an _émeute_ on the next day resulted in the loss of several lives. General Harney, who had been put in command of this district, entered into an agreement with the State authorities, that was disapproved by the Government, and he relieved from the command, which was then given to General Lyon. The attitude assumed by the great powers of Europe in relation to the American war was important. That of England, indicated by the royal proclamation issued on the 14th of May a determination to maintain a strict neutrality in the contest between the contending parties. The proclamation went on to forbid all British subjects from taking part in any way in the contest, by enlisting in the army or navy of either party; by fitting out or arming any vessel; by breaking any lawfully established blockade, or carrying to either, troops or any articles contraband of war. This proclamation, taken in connection with the explanations of the Ministers and the speeches in Parliament, had an unfriendly aspect toward the United States, recognizing, as it did, the Confederate States as belligerents, and, by implication, entitled equally to the right of carrying prizes into the ports of Great Britain. In the House of Commons, Lord John Russell said that the character of belligerency was not so much a principle as a fact; that a certain amount of force and consistency acquired by any mass of population engaged in war entitled them to be treated as a belligerent. A power or a community which was at war with another, and which covered the sea with its cruizers, must either be acknowledged as a belligerent or dealt with as a pirate. The Government had come to the opinion that the Southern Confederacy, according to those principles which were considered just, must be treated as belligerent. In this critical condition was the country when the Government prepared to advance its armies into Virginia. OCCUPATION OF ALEXANDRIA, Va. ASSASSINATION OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH. MAY 24, 1861. The defenders of the Union had been gathering at Washington and in its vicinity for more than a month, in answer to the call for troops, that rang through the land clear as clarion notes. The arduous labor of providing for and disciplining the large number of untrained recruits, collected in such haste, had been met with energy and perseverance by the officers of the government. Very much had been accomplished, notwithstanding all the embarrassments incident to an extensive and untried field of labor.