Virginia, which began by volunteering as peacemaker in our civil troubles, seems likely to end by being their battleground; as Mr. Pickwick, interfering between the belligerent rival editors, only brought upon his own head the united concussion of their carpet-bags.  And as Dickens declares that the warriors engaged far more eagerly in that mimic strife, on discovering that all blows were to be received by deputy, so there is evidently an increased willingness to deal hard knocks on both sides, in the present case, so long as it is clear that only Virginia will take them.  Maryland, under protection of our army, adroitly contrives to shift the scene of action farther South.  The Gulf States, with profuse courtesies for the Old Dominion, consent to shift it farther North.  The Southern Confederacy has talked about paying Richmond the “compliment” of selecting it for the seat of government;—­as if a bully, about to be lynched in his own house by the crowd, should compliment his next-door neighbor by climbing in at his window.  It is very pleasant to have a hospitable friend; but it is counting on his hospitality rather too strongly, when you make choice of his apartments to be tarred and feathered in.

Thus fades the fancy of an “independent neutrality” for the Old Dominion.  It ought to fade;—­for neutrality is a crime, where one’s mother’s life is at stake; and the Border theory of independence only reminds one of Pitt’s definition of an independent statesman, “a statesman not to be depended on”.  How sad has been the decline of Virginia!  How strange, that in 1790, of the ten American post-offices yielding more than a thousand dollars annually, that stately old commonwealth held five!  Now “a poverty-stricken State”, by confession of her own newspapers,—­beleaguered, blockaded,—­with no imports but hungry and moneyless soldiers, and no exports save fugitives of all colors,—­what has she to hope from the present warfare?  Elsewhere riches have wings; in Virginia they are yet more transitory, having legs.  Two hundred million dollars’ worth of her property has become unsalable, if not worthless, within two months.  She has but two great staples:  tobacco to send North, and slaves to send South.  The slaves at present go only to the wrong point of the compass, at rates remunerative to themselves alone; and the tobacco-trade, for this season, will not even end in smoke.

But that which is now the condition of Virginia must ultimately be the condition of the other seceding States.  The tide of Secession has already turned, and such tides never turn twice.  The conspirators in Maryland and Missouri had but one opportunity, and it was lost; with it also went the whole cause of the Secessionists.  For one week the North shuddered, knowing the defenceless condition of Washington.  Now no Northern man shudders, except those whose Southern female cousins have not yet found a refuge with the household gods of the eminent Senator from Texas.