founded on what he had observed at the grand Austrian reviews. He laid particular stress upon the rapidity with which the powder smoke swallowed up lines in grey, and rendered them invisible to an antagonistic force. That this was the fact had previously been shown by experience and statistics.

In 1859 and 1860, KEARNY resided in Europe, and in the latter year EDWIN DE LEON, "late confidential agent of the Confederate Department of State in Europe," in his "Secret History of Confede rate Diplomacy Abroad," admits that KEARNY rendered important service to the Loyal North while in Paris. This is his language: "While the interregnum in the diplomatic representations lasted, by the lagging on the stage of the reluctant veterans of Mr. BUCHANAN'S Ministers, before the new ones had arrived to represent the views and wishes of Mr. LINCOLN's administration, one Minister made himself wonderfully active, at both the English and French foreign offices; and in other places where public opinion was to be influenced. This was Mr. SANFORD, then, as now, Minister to Bel

which designate the State service. This often places a State officer in an unpleasant position, and renders a long and embarrassing explanation necessary, unless he wishes to practice deception and sail under false colors.

Over and above the many cogent reasons urged, • the following addi-' tional recommendations may not be without weight. At morning and evening twilight; in foggy, muggy, and rainy weather, a body of men thus clothed would be undistinguishable at a very short distance, and amid the smoke of battle they would be swallowed up at once in the clouds of kindred hue. Grey and yellow, or gold, form the richest dress in the world; without bullion, it is the cheapest, taking into consideration its serviceability, it is national to a great degree, and last, not least certainly, it is the least fatal to its wearer. Grey, it is stated, was the uniform of the English troops in the reign of WILLIAM III., and is now again adopted by the Light Infantry on account of its suitableness for corps exposed to practiced marksmen, and, themselves, assigned to the dangerous duty of sharpshooters. It is now worn by the Austrian riflemen, and good reasons must have dictated the choice, for it was not appropriate to any province of the Empire.

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"It would appear, from numerous observations, that soldiers are hit, during battle, according to the color of their dress, in the following order: Red, the most fatal; ("our scarlet is more distinguishable than any other color (BATTY'S Campaign of 1815, page 160); the least fatal, Austrian grey. The proportions are: red, 12; rifle-green 7; brown 6; Austrian bluish-grey, 5." (JAMESON's Journal, No. 105.)

General PHILIP KEARNY stated that, during a sham fight he saw at Prague, in Bohemia, in 1851, in which seventeen thousand men, with thirty-four pieces of artillery and a rocket brigade were engaged, he was particularly struck with the admirable fitness of the GREY DRESS of the Austrian riflemen, of which a full battalion, about one thousand, were acting as skirmishers; at times invisible, when the powder-smoke rolled over the field, disappearing in its curling clouds on account of the similarity of their uniform, and again appearing when least expected like phantoms, as the breeze, aided by the movements of the combatants, drove aside the sulphurous canopy. He added, he was astonished at the facility with which they were lost to view, and that uniforms of grey cloth, for riflemen, had not been maintained in this as well as in every other country where military propriety orappropriateness of dress is the object of constant and scrupulous attention." Brigadier General DE PEYSTER's Report of 1852; ECLAIREUR 11, page 81.

gium, but who gave himself a roving commission, and worked indefatigably, some said obtrusively, on the Northern side. So omnipresent and so brisk was he in his movements, that some wicked wag dubbed him—the 'Diplomatic Flea;' and though perhaps open to the charge of over-zeal, or officiousness, he certainly was one of, if not the most efficient advocate of the Northern cause in Europe.

"GENERAL FREMONT, who was then in Europe, also threw the whole weight of his name and influence on the Northern side, as did also Gen. PHIL KEARNY, whose social qualities had given him influence in certain circles in France. The great horde of Americans resident abroad possessed but little weight or influence, either from intelligence, culture or distinction of any kind. They were chiefly people of good incomes, who left home because they found themselves or imagined themselves (GOOD)-of more consequence abroad; and at the commencement of the war it was rather their style (!) to affect sympathy with the Southerners, as representing the more aristocratic side" (BETTER).

It is very curious, but equally true, that in whatever character, KEARNY undertook to shine, he always played his part well; his hospitality was princely, his equipages and horses inferior to none in style, beauty, and qualities. His taste was chaste and elegant, and in his appreciation of the beauties of nature, nothing could exceed his delight in them or his judgment in the selection of points of view. Since his resignation in 1851, his wanderings were worthy of a more lengthy notice, for he reveled in perils, in the gratification of his instincts, from which the majority of even the boldest men would have shrunk, or at all events, have but rarely indulged their fancies. It is very unfortunate, as noted more than once before, that his correspondence between 1851 and 1861 seems to have entirely perished, since KEARNY wrote well, and described what he saw concisely but with a peculiar force, which rendered his descriptions "word-pictures." Had he ever written a book, it would have been a gallery of word-pictures, for, as he often declared, the people of our day demand and will not be satisfied with any other style of writing.

Thus, all the pains possible have been taken, to follow the hero of this sketch throughout all his various wanderings, and it is to be regretted, for the sake of the reader, that so few data from the hand of KEARNY have rewarded the diligent search made for them.

Judging from what has been preserved, or what still lingers on the memory, they would have amply repaid perusal, and his letters alone, edited with care and judgment, would have constituted in themselves not only an agreeable and instructive book, but, like MICHELET'S "Life of LUTHER"-constructed almost entirely from his correspondence would have presented the best word-portrait of KEARNY, and the most attractive and satisfactory history of his remarkable career.

"My two months' absence has been all that a military man could have desired—a school of such grandeur as rarely occurs, even here in the Old World-and the drama has been complete.

"Leaving Paris the day after" (10th June) "the emperor, I arrived just two days before him (14th July).

"I have roamed about everywhere, and in the day of Solferino, I was not only present with the line of our cavalry skirmishers, (but) as well in every charge that took place. That day I was mounted from six in the morning till eleven at night-scarcely off my horse even for a few minutes-depend on it, he was a good one. The cavalry of the guard came up some sixteen miles in full trot and rapid gallop to take our places, under fire; for there was a gap we had to stop. I remained until I saw the Mincio passed and Peschiera invested, and the whole Austrian army demoralized and broken up.

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"The night before the battle I had a miraculous escape, having been inveigled by false guides into the midst of the Austrian masses.* "There are seven American officers following the Piedmontese army. I am going to the baths of Homburgh for awhile. Paris is very warm, more so than I have ever known it. My health has been excellent until I arrived home. When at Turin I had a coup de soleil.

"The peace has taken us by surprise-it is in consequence of some underhand and revolutionary moves of Count CAVOUR, which the emperor had to put a stop to.

"Very truly, yours,

"PHILL."

When General KEARNY returned from Italy, while in conversation with the writer, he expressed the utmost admiration for the French army, and their doings at Solferino, he seemed to feel that the Austrians might have won the battle, or maintained their position, had they held out with greater tenacity or been aware of the condition and dislocation of the Allies. The reader may remember that quite a stampede was reported, just as occurred at Wagram in 1809, and according to the journals some of the French troops did not stop until they reached Brescia. The presence of NAPOLEON III. in front of Solferino, at the crisis, electrified the French, and a renewed attack, fed with fresh troops, carried the keypoint of the Austrian position. Then, the scale long poised, declined, deciding the victory against FRANCIS JOSEPH.

The letter with which this chapter opens, written within three weeks after the great battle to which it refers-a battle in which General KEARNY so distinguished himself as to win (a second time) the cross of the Legion of Honor-covers the whole ground; tells the whole story.

KEARNY, like others of his race, was a very unequal man in his conversation. At times he was particularly reticent, and seldom prone to narrative. In referring to his military service, he usually alluded to it incidentally and as a means of illustrating a question under discussion, or to give point to an argument, rather than directly as a matter in which he was personally interested.

* General KEARNY had just such another hair-breadth escape after Glendale, 30th June, 1862, and at Chantilly, 1st September, 1862, a similar plunge into the skirmish line or lines of the Rebels cost him his life. Doubtless, it was his previous immunity made KEARNY feel that he bore a charmed life.