TEXAS. 



468,061 including a balance of $36,866. The 

 expenditures were the same, with a balance of 

 $15,819. Up to the same date the public works 

 at the Texas Penitentiary had turned out 2,258- 

 660 yards of cotton goods and 293,298 yards 

 of woollens, of which the larger part had been 

 distributed among the army. The State foun- 

 dry had not bee successful in the manufac- 

 ture of cannon. Large quantities of percussion 

 caps had, however, been made in the State. 

 The governor recommended the appropriation 

 of at least $1,000,000 (to be based on cotton 

 bonds, or that cotton be purchased and paid 

 for in bonds, to supply the State with arms and 

 munitions of war. He declared himself op- 

 posed to any peace which did not recognize the 

 independence of the Confederate States. He 

 " regards reconstruction" as intolerable on any 

 terms, and would admit no State into the Con- 

 federacy whose laws did not recognize and pro- 

 tect slavery. 



The tyrannical conduct of the rebel authori- 

 ties in impressing men and seizing provisions 

 produced great dissatisfaction throughout the 

 State, alike among the soldiers and the people. 

 Two serious riots occurred at Galveston. In 

 one case, the troops, being short of rations, 

 turned their guns on the town and compelled 

 the commandant to give them what they want- 

 ed. In. the other instance, the troops paraded 

 the streets in a body, took the poor rations that 

 had been issued in the morning and burned 

 them in the public, square, and demanded fresh 

 and better ones, which were accordingly fur- 

 nished. Desertions were numerous sometimes 

 as many as 50 or 60 a day. About 2,000 de- 

 serters had fortified themselves near the Eed 

 River, and defied the Confederacy. At last 

 accounts they had been established at that ren- 

 dezvous for eight months, and were constantly 

 receiving accessions of discontented rebels and 

 desperadoes. 



The following were reported to be the prices 

 of some articles in the State, in rebel money: 

 corn meal, $10 a bushel ; flour, $2 per Ib. ; cof- 

 fee, $20 per Ib. ; sugar, $1 per Ib. ; butter, $3 

 per Ib.; eggs, $4 a dozen; calf boots, from $150 

 to $175 per pair. 



Blockade running via Nassau was brisk dur- 

 ing the year. It was principally done by 

 schooners, to and from the Brazos river, taking 

 out cotton and bringing back materials of war, 

 provisions and selected goods. Ten schooners 

 with cotton were counted at one time in the 

 Brazos river waiting a chance to get out. The 

 enemy established a signal corps all along the 

 Texas coast, in expectation of the arrival of a 

 fleet of iron or steelclad blockade runners from 

 Europe ; but they did not come. The Anglo- 

 rebel steamer, Sir Wm. Peel, with over 900 

 bales of cotton was captured by the sloop of 

 war Seminole, as she was running out. She 

 had taken to Matamoras a cargo of arms and 

 ammunition contributed by the Southern As- 

 sociation in Europe ; and it was believed that 

 after landing her cotton at Nassau or Havana, 



THACKERAY, WILLIAM M. 829 



she was to be converted into a privateer. 

 Her crew consisted of 60 men, some of whom 

 belonged to the British navy. 



The Legislature generally sustained the rebel 

 cause during the year, but refused to pass a res- 

 olution recommending Congress to declare the 

 Confederate notes a legal tender. 



At the fall election Pendleton Murray was 

 chosen governor. He is a native of Alabama, 

 a lawyer by profession, and said to be intense- 

 ly devoted to the Confederate cause. 



THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE, an 

 English author, born in Calcutta in 1811, died 

 in London, December 24th, 1863. In early 

 childhood he lost his father, a civil officer in 

 the service of the East India Company, and 

 when about seven years of age was carried to 

 England. A vivid recollection of the country of 

 his birth remained with him through life, and 

 traits and reminiscences of Anglo-Indian so- 

 ciety often occur in his novels. In London he 

 was sent to* the Charter-house school, *and 

 thence went to the University of Cambridge, 

 which, however, he left without taking a de- 

 gree. Inheriting upon coming of age a prop- 

 erty of about 20,000, he went abroad with 

 the idea of making art his profession, and for 

 several years pursued his studies and travels in 

 Germany, France, and Italy. He finally decided 

 that literature rather than art was his proper 

 vocation, and that the latter, if followed at all, 

 should be made subordinate to his literary 

 labors. The loss of a considerable portion of 

 his property by unlucky speculations induced 

 him to rely upon his pen for support, and re- 

 turning to England, at the age of twenty-five, 

 or thereabouts, he commenced the long strug- 

 gle toward fame and publicity, which was at 

 the last crowned with success. 



His first essays were hi the London "Times," 

 and were on subjects connected with art and 

 general literature. He then became a regular 

 contributor to "Eraser's Magazine," under the 

 pseudonymes of Michael Angelo Titmarsh and 

 George Fitz-Boodle, Esq., and produced a va- 

 riety of tales, criticisms, descriptive sketches 

 and verses, which, though lively, and often 

 showing originality of thought and direction, 

 had more in them of the trifler than the worker 

 with a purpose. Then came travelling sketches 

 of men and manners, of which the " Paris 

 Sketch Book" (2 vols., 1840) was his earliest 

 separate publication, followed by the "Irish 

 Sketch Book," and an amusing and highly 

 characteristic account of a voyage to the East, 

 entitled "From Cornhill to Cairo." During 

 this period of gradually growing reputation, 

 his hand could be frequently traced in the 

 pages of Fraser, where his " Men's Wives," his 

 " Yellow-plush Papers," his " Shabby-Genteel 

 Story," his "Great Hoggarty Diamond," and 

 his " Luck of Barry Lyndon," successively ap- 

 peared. None of these obtained popularity, 

 though the last is one of the most vigorous 

 and dramatic tales in English literature. They 

 are all marked by an exaggerated humor for 



