At New Orleans I became acquainted with General Gaines, who was then one of the notabilités of the celebrated St. Charles’ Hotel. Since I left the United States (in the ill fated Great Britain, on the 1st of August,) the General's name has frequently appeared in the public prints, in consequence of his being summoned to take his trial before a Court Martial, for raising Volunteers to serve in the Mexican War on his own responsibility. The veteran General received a slight reprimand, intended rather to act as a check on the impetuosity and unconstitutional assumption of military authority on the part of others, than as a serious reproof to one who had given nearly three parts of a century to the service of the Republic, and whose residue of life would cheerfully be yielded for her safety or her welfare. He has since been appointed to active service, and ordered to proceed to the seat of war. It is a usual, perhaps it is a natural presupposition, to connect the idea of youthful military men with this youthful Republic; we forget that though three score years and ten are as one day in the age of a nation, yet that they comprise the life of man.