* * * * *

EDITOR’S TABLE.

Step by step the vast net is closing in on the enemy,—­little by little the vice is tightening,—­and if no incalculable calamity overtake the armies of the Union, it is but fair to assume that at no distant day the rebel South will find itself in the last extremity, overwhelmed by masses from without and demoralized by want of means within.  Government at present holds the winning cards,—­if they are only skillfully played the game is its own.  It is impossible to study the map and the present position of our forces with our resources, and not realize this.  ’Hemmed in!’ is the despairing cry from Southern journals, which but the other day insolently threatened to transfer the war to Northern soil, and to sack New York and Philadelphia; and, with their proverbial fickleness and fire, we find many of them half rebelling against the management of Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS and his coadjutors.

This is all encouraging.  On the other hand, we are beginning to feel more acutely the miseries of war, and its enormous cost.  The time is at hand when the whole country will be called on to show its heroism by patient endurance of many trials, and by living as well as dying for the great cause of liberty and Union.  Let it all be done patiently and without a murmur.  Every suffering will be repaid tenfold in the hour of triumph.  Let it be remembered that as we suffer our chances of victory increase, and that every pain felt by us is a death-pang to the foe.  Now, if ever, the Northern quality of stubborn endurance must show itself.  We, too, can suffer as heroically as the South boasts of doing.  It is this which in the course of events must inevitably give us the victory, for no spirit of chivalry, no enthusiasm, can ultimately resist sturdy Saxon pluck.  The South, foolishly enough, has vaunted that it is inspired by the blood and temper of the Latin races of Southern Europe, and it can not be denied that their climate has given them the impulsiveness of their ideal heroes.  In this fiery impatience lies the element which renders them incapable of sustaining defeat, and which, after any disaster, must stimulate dissension among them.

It should also be borne in mind that the most direct causes of our sufferings all involve very practical benefits.  The Southern press taunts our soldiers with enlisting for pay.  Let us admit that vast numbers have truly been partially induced by the want of employment at home to enter the army.  It is a peculiar characteristic of all Northern blood that it can and does combine intelligence and interest with the strongest enthusiasm.  No man was ever made a worse soldier by being prudent, any more than by being a religious Christian.  Taunts and jeers can not affect the truth.  The Protestant mechanic soldiery of Germany during the wars of the Reformation, the men of Holland, and the Puritans of England, were all reviled for the same cause—­but they