The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-19 00:00:00

MR. ALFRED MELLON'S CONCERTS.

Another week of these, delightful and thoroughly
popular musical entertaiments is drawing to a close,
with, on the part of the public itself, a growing
evidence of their appreciation. The nightly attend
dance in the Royal Italian Opera House at Covent
Garden, affords evidence of this, of the most conclu-
sive character. Nor is it matter for surprise
that it should be so—particularly now when
the vast majority of the places of public
entertainment (among these nearly the whole
of the Londan theatres) aro closed inhos-
pitably against all sight-seeing Londoners.
I'tanka to Mr Mellon, however—now that the Opera
[-louses are both of them closed, here at Covent
Gard( n, there at Her M9jesty's, when Drury Lane
is shut, and the Haymarket, and the St. James's,
and the Westminster, and &idler's Wells, and the
Lyceum—when even individual entertainers,
like Mr Woedin, have packed up their proper-
ties for a tour in the provinces—thanks, se
Bay, during this no-season among the generality of
managers, conductors, and entertainers, the-,,Es to
Mr. Alfred Mellon's enterprize ince matter of
these Concerts, we can enjoy `2.4, nay every, night
if we please, a feast of s7;eet sounds—music by the
most gifted maste,:, executed by the most accom-
plished perfe;aners. Medlle. Marie Krebs on the
piano, Carrodus on the violin, Mr Levy on the
corset-4-piston, Ali Ben Sou-Alle on the Turko-
phone, Madlle. Culotta Patti on that marvellous,
magical organ of her own—her voice ! Last even-
ing (another of Mr. Mellon's Thursdays!) was the
night set apart, this week, for the works of
Mendelssohn—as the previous Thursday had been
sot apart for those of Mozert and as next
Thursday (an exce:nionally grand attraction even
among these Thursdays) is to be set apart for
the wo=ks of Baethoven.

Meeting of Crowned Heads at Kissingen.

Galignani publishes an interesting letter from
Kissingen, giving a comparative sketch of its merits
over those of other watering places, and containing
an amusing account of the doings of Royal and Im-
perial personages there :
There are but few French here, and scarcely any English.
In the social aspect's of Kissingen there is a commendable
absence of the follies of fashionable life. There is no Casino,
no Kureaal, as at Wiesbaden, Ems, and Baden Baden, and,
consequently, the canons of good taste are not cifended by
the pre:esstious toilettes and vicious excesses which have
rendsered those places so notorious. In ifs secluded position,
its rural environs, and the every day life of the visitors,
Kissingen beats a strong resemblance to Schwalbach. Yet
t he appearance of the guests and the character of the waters
its the two places are the very antipodes of each other. At
Kissingen, the majority of the visitors are more or less over-
grown, more or less florid-looking, and the males out-num-
ber the females 10 to 1. The waters, with a plain dietary
regimen and plenty of exercise,are very efficacious in check-
ing any tendency to corpulency, and are useful in the cure
or dyspepsia and all derangements of the stomach. At
Schwalbach the visitors are generally thin, pale-looking,
and the females outnumber vastly ,the males. As the iron
waters enrich the blood, and the olject in taking them is
to add flesh and not reduce it, the exercise prescribed
to those taking the cure at Schwalbach is very
light, while the diet is rich and abundant. At the latte,
place the ladies remain sitting all day long on rural benches
under the trees, listening to the music; whilst at Kissingen
every path and corner is invaded from six to eight in the
morning and four to six in the afternoon by endless crowds
of mostly male promenaders, walking with intense energy,
and looking as if engaged in the performance of some solemn
religious duty. A flue band of music performs during the
hours of promenade. The visit of the Imperial and Royal
personages here produced no perceptible influence on the
usual routine of life. The Imperial family of Russia set a
notable example by the unostentatious style of their manners.
The Empress walked out in the beautiful grounds every
day, dressed in marked simplicity. Wherever she went, she
was the observed of all observers. She is a graceful-looking
woman, of slight physique, Saxon type of features, and ap-
parently about 45 years of ego. She took the cure regularly
under the advice of the best resident physician, whom
she consulted upon her arrival. She looked well, and
was not seriously indisposed, but the cruel rigour of the
Russian winters had tried her constitution severely, and it
was believed by her medical advisers that a thorough
change of air, with the use of proper medicinal waters,
would do her great good. Of the Russian Imperial family
who have been sojourning in Kiesingen, there wore, besides
the Emperor and Empress, two of the younger Grand
Dukes, the Grand Duchess Helen, and the Prince Imperial
Ccsarowitch, just turned 20, of fine personal presence and
very agre'able manners. He is at present, as you are aware,
making a general tour through Europe. The Emperor was
to be seen constantly during his stay walking about the
public grounds, and not unfrequently in the society of the
new King of Bavaria. His costume was a simple morning
dress, with a plain grey hat, in strirring contrast with the
military uniform which he invariably wears in public when
in Russia. Iu most of his rambles he was accompanied by
his favourite black setter dog, "Mylord," of English stock.
The young King of Bavaria had an opportunity of making
the personal acquaintance of the Emperor of Austria and
of the Imperial family of Russia. Ho is not yet nineteen,
but very manly in appearance, with a fine Raphaelite lace,
and expressive large blue eyes. He has been brought up
with his younger brother, under the guardianship of a
Protestant mother, in a strict and domestic manner, and
has seen comparatively little of life outside of his father's
palace. Indeed, his education was not yet completed, as it
had been definitely arranged that he should go to the Uni-
versity this winter, when all at once his father's demise de-
volved on him the duties of Royalty. His portrait, which
previously was scarcely known to the people, is at pre-
sent in every window. For two or three days prior to
quitting Kissingen, he was confined to his apartment by
the ef&cis of fatigue, and his re-appearance on the morning
of his departure, was a signal for quite an outburst of
popular enthusiasm,

Imprisonment of Four Italians in Bokhara

The Ilurkaru gives some details relating to the
imprisonment of the lealien adventurers, now sup-
posed to be lingering in the custody of the barba-
rous Khan of Bokhara, or, as is more probable,
condemned to the fate of our own unfortunate
Stoddart and (3:Rielly in the same inhospitable
region :—" The party consisted of four Italians and
an attendant, who acted as an interpreter and gave
hiavelf out as a Russian. They arrived at Bokhara
in October last and took up their quarters in a cara-
vanserai in the town. Here they were visited by
the Wuzeer, to whom they explained the object of
their mission. He closely examined their effects,
which comprised some merchandise, in the shape of
spring toys, jacks-in-boxes, a handaorgan, and other
euriosiqes, and after exacting a heavy duty he left
them, intimating that they would be allowed to
purchase small quantities of silk in the bezoar until
the King's pleasure was known. The Atneer was
at this time absent on an expedition to Bohan, and
on being apprised of the presence of these foreigners
at his capital, he ordered that they should be placed
in the principal fort, the B ola Hisser, but should nit
be treated as prisoners. On his return, the Ameer
granted them an audience, and inspected their curio-
sities. Their papers cubs( quently underwent a closer
.crutiny, and, unfortunately for the Italians, some
sketches of the country traversed by them, and a
plan of the bazaar o Bukhara itself, were dis-
covered, which roused the Ameer's worst suspi-
cions of their inimical character, and led to their
immediate removal to the notorious subterranean
prison known as 'the Al Khunna,' or Dark Well.
After a week's incarceration in this chamber of
horrors, the Ameer, it is alleged, relented, and
ordered the strangers back to the Bala Hisser, or
principal fort. This occurred i❑ November last,
and later intelligence received would seem to show
that they continued to be detained at this fort
pending a reference made to the Court of St.
Petersburg by the Ameer. Oa their removal to
the prison of the Darin Weil, orders were given for
the confl,:cation and public sale of their property,
and a few articles belonging to the captives have
thus found their way to the hands of the Punjab
authorities. We have in this circumstance a repeti•
thou of what happened to a portion of the property
of the lamented Stoddart, one of whose sextants and
•several hooks were brought to St. Petersburg during
nis captivity at Bokhara. Meanwhile the Chevalier
Bonhomme, as an envoy from the King of Italy, wil,
have reached Teheran, and will lose no time in for-
warding letters which he bears from the Sultan ot
Turkey, as head of the faithful, to the Ameer ot
Bokhara in behalf of the Italian captives. But it is
to be feared that, like that of the spiritual head of
Rome, the influence of the Ottoman Sultan in tem•
poral matters is very faint in the ultramoatane re
pions of Bokhara. The general impression is that
the influence of Russia alone can save the men, and
it is confidently expected, th4t it will be vigorously
employed."

Frederick Douglass on the American War,

The following is an extract from a recent letter
from Mr. Douglass to an English correspondent
who had helped to send out a box of clothing for
the distressed fugitives in Washington, D.C., and
who wished to assist the society conducted by
coloured people, Mr. Douglass's rebuke of Mr.
Lincoln's Government comes with peculiar force
from one of the sufferers :
My knowledge of the character and effichirey of
the Freedman's Relief Society at Washington was
obtained last summer by attending its annual
meeting at the Fifteenth-street Presbyterian Church
in that city. TPere were present about fifty ledies
and gentlemen. But these were to ail outward
seeming well entitled to the name I give them. I
never was in a more orderly or businese-fiae sseejey.
The Eight of these kind, good people tedeevoutitig
to do something towards miti-gating the sufferings
cf their race, and to essist in their improvement,
would have been gre...kving
to you. I shall send
Hour letter f.O Mi.; E. V. Brown,
H the correspond-
g 'secretary of the Washington Freedman's
Association. She is better able than I to give
you direct information as to what the society
has done, is doing, and proposes to do. When the
question of organising these Freedman's Associa-
tions was first raised I opposed eueh organisations,
chiefly on the ground that they would tend to keep
alive the hurtful idea that the negro cannot take
care of himself. And even now I insist that these
societies ought not to be necessary, and would not
if the Government and people of the country would
only be just in their dealings with them. These
newly-freed people are victimised on every hand.
Their strong men have been literally swept
Late the army, and the weak ones left to endure
untold suffering. Heretofore our Government has
hardly paid them money enough to buy the shoes
they march in. Had we justice we should not need
generosity.
You have said some sharp things in the Inquirer
of the conduct of the Weshington Government,
but none too sharp. the more you can say of the
swindle by which our Government claims the
I respect of mankind for abolishing elavery—at the
same time that it is practically re-establishing
that hateful system in Louisiana, tender General
Banks—the better. I have not readily consented
to the claims set up in the name of anti-slavery for
our Government, but I have tried to believe all
for the best. My patience and faith are not very
strong now. The treatment of our black soldiers
—the refusal to pay them any like equal con pels.
sation, though it was promised them when they
enlisted; the refusal to insist upon the ex-
change of coloured prisoners, and to retaliate
upon rebel prisoners when coloured prisoners have
been slaughtered in cold blood, although the Presis
dent has repeatedly promised thus to protect the
lives of his coloured soldiers—have worn my patience
quite threadbare. The President has virtually laid
down this as the rule of his statesmen : Do evil by
choice, right from neceseity. You will see that he
does not sign the bill adopted by Congress restricting
the organisation of State Governments only to those
States where there is a loyal majority. His plan
is to organise such Govern inents whenever there is
one-tenth of the people loyal !—an entire centra-
diction of the constitutional idea of Republican
Government. I see no purpose on the part of Lin-
coln and his friends to extend the elective franchise
to the coloured people of the South, but the con-
trary. This is extremely dishonourable. No rebuke
of it can be too stinging from your side of the
water. The negro is deemed good enough to fight
for the Government, but not good to vote or enjoy
the right to vote in the Government. We invest
with the elective franchise those who with bloody
blades and bloody hands have sought the life ef the
nation, but sternly refuse to invest those who have
done what they could to save the nation's life. This
discrimination becomes more dishonourable when
the ciretunstances are duly considered. Our Govern

went asks the negro to espouse its cause; csks him
to turn against his master, and thus fire his master's
hate against him. Well, when it has attained peace,
what does it propose P Why this, to hand the negro
back to the political power of his master, without
a single elEment of strength ti, shield himself from
the vindictive spirit sure to be roused against the
whole coloured race.

You can easily imagine that my life during all
this war has been an anxious one. Constituted as
I am, and identified as I am with the hated class
whose fortunes tremble constant.y in the balance,

there is no rest for my spirit amid this terrible

strife, My son Lewis has been honourably dis

charged from the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

but he is still with the regiment in South Carolina,

acting as sutler's clerk. My son Charles has been

in several of the recent battles rcucd Petersburg,
Virginia. A week ego he was still unharmed, We

take up the paper each morning with a hesitating
hand, for we know not what it may bring. Oar
country—l mean the North as well as the South—

seems rapidly tending to ruin. Our financial con-
dition is rapidly r, aging itself to the level predicted
for it by some of your statesmen as well as ours. Our
people don't want to b taxed to sustain the public
credit, end impose upon our financiers the Egyptian
task of making bricks without straw. Chase's re-
signation, I fear, will prove a heavy blow to our
credit abroad. Of all members of the Cabinet Mr.
Chase s perhaps the most anti-slavery. lam ex.
pecting to visit the freed men's camp about Wash-
;ngton and Atexandtia soon, and mAy hereafter give
you some account of their condition and prospects.
My friends about Washington think it does some
good to have me go down and talk to thew. I irm
sure it does me good.