The mail in February or March is supposed to bring from the islands and intermediate ports all the reliable information respecting those ships that have arrived during the last four months. Therefore a ship not reported now must have either gone to some other port, or never left the northern seas, or been wrecked and lost. This was the case with the ship Citizen. There was no account of her arrival at the islands, agreeably to the intention of Captain Norton on his return from the Arctic; his friends at home, therefore, looked for the report of his arrival, if not among the first, certainly among the last. Besides, there were neither letters from him or his officers, none to relatives, none to the owners of the ship. Other families had heard from absent ones, and were made to rejoice; those interested in the fate of the Citizen, however, were filled with sadness and sorrow. The absence of letters was ominous of something fearful and distressing. Captain Clough spoke with Captain Norton on the 23d of September, in the Arctic Ocean, lat. 68 deg. or 69 deg. N.; and this was the last and only intelligence from the missing ship. This occurred, as it appeared, only two days before the wreck of the Citizen. Not having arrived at the islands, nor reported from any other place, the conclusion to which all came was at once reasonable and just--either that the ship was frozen up in the Arctic, or cast away on the coast, and her officers and crew, if living, among the natives. Reflections of this sort gave confirmation to the worst of fears, and wrought in the minds of relatives and friends, and the community at large, an alternation of some slight hope, on the one hand, that they might after all be safe, and, on the other, the distressing fear that they had completed their last voyage on earth, or perhaps were lingering out a miserable existence amid the rigors of an arctic winter. How little there was upon which to build a favorable hope! How weak and superficial the foundation which engrossing and prevailing apprehensions would not instantly sweep away and scatter to the winds! Indeed, whatever conclusions might have been drawn respecting the fate of the Citizen, her officers, and crew, how small encouragement there was in the whole field of imaginary probabilities in their favor, to relieve the minds of those at home from the constantly pressing weight of corroding anxiety and distressing solicitude respecting them! Uncertainty and suspense with regard to an important event is one of the most trying states of mind in which an individual can be placed. How true this is when the life of some friend appears to be suspended upon the slightest possible contingency! Now indications seem auspicious and hopeful; then, again, adverse and threatening symptoms dissipate every cherished anticipation.