Mountains and thrust himself between Pope’s rear and Washington, and again Stuart made a raid on the Federal camp. Pope was now completely outmanœuvred, so he was fain to fall back on the Potomac and the strong lines of Washington. Lee pushed on, intending to raise Maryland. He was checked by McClellan at Antietam, and recrossed the Potomac, but without being pursued. Jackson now captured the Federal garrison at Harper’s Ferry. A month elapsed before McClellan renewed his advance on Richmond, and in November he was dismissed from his command. Halleck was now Commander-in-Chief, and Burnside, McClellan’s successor, transferring the struggle [Illustration: MR. PEABODY.] to the Rappahannock, undertook to advance on Richmond--a movement which was partly forced on him by the Government at Washington, in order to redeem the _prestige_ it had lost through McClellan’s failures. On the 13th of December he was defeated by Lee with great slaughter at Fredericksburg, the news of this victory creating much excitement in England. This ended the campaign for the year. New Orleans was all that the Federals had to show for two years’ campaigns. Their invasion of Virginia was rolled back, and the partisans of the Southern States in England pointed to this fact as a proof that the Union could never be restored by force. In the Northern States the Abolitionist faction had now absorbed the Republican Party. Slavery was abolished in the district of Columbia, and Lincoln was induced to say that he was now ready to restore the Union with or without slavery. Finally he issued his proclamation on the 22nd of September, declaring that he would recommend Congress to pass a Bill to free all slaves in rebel States. In England the proclamation was sneered at as an act of confiscation, and Lord Russell sent a despatch to Lord Lyons, scoffing at it with ill-concealed malice as “a measure of war, and a measure of war of a very questionable character.” The naval operations of the belligerents also gave Lord Russell several opportunities for controversy. He waxed very indignant over the blockade of Charleston harbour, where the Federals had sunk ships loaded with ballast. In January the Confederate cruiser _Nashville_, after preying on American commerce, ran into Southampton Water for repairs. Mr. Adams, the American Minister in London, warned Lord Russell that her conduct had been almost piratical, to which Lord Russell replied that as she bore the commission of a recognised belligerent she would be allowed to make such necessary repairs as would not increase her fighting power, and that care would be taken to prevent the Foreign Enlistment Act from being infringed. The excitement created by the _Trent_ affair was dying out, when the country was startled to find a United States cruiser, _Tuscarora_, moored in Itchen Creek, and watching the _Nashville_. Her officers and men were accused of prowling suspiciously close to the _Nashville_, and people began to ask if the