The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-21 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)
LIVERPOOL, Monday.
The screw steamer Heels, from New York on the
9th inst., arrived here this afternoon. Her news
has been generally anticipated.
The .New y ork, World of the Bth does not place
perfect reliance on the report of the capture of Vicks•
burg . It says

"There is one point in connexion with the news
from Vicksburg which suggests some doubts re-
specting its correctness. The 'report purports to
come by a despatch boat which left Vicksburg at
10 a.m. on the sth inst., and reached Cairo on the
7th inst. before noon. As the distance between these
two points is 640 miles, it follows that this boat
must have run against the current of the Mississippi
at the rate of over 13 miles an hour, which is tre-
mendous travelling, as all know who have sailed up
that river. The despatch boat time is usually two
days between Vicksburg and Memphis, and it may
be that this news reaches us via Cairo, as the tele-
graph line is in operation between these two cities;
but it is not stated in the despatch. It is strange,
also, that Admiral Porter should make the announce-
ment of the surrender instead of General Grant, to
whom in courtesy and of right it belonged. We
hope the report is all right."
The following are the details of the repulse of
the Confederates at Helens, Arkansas :
CAIRO, July 7.
Between 8,000 and 9,000 Confederates, under Ge-
neral Holmes Price and Marmuduke, made an
attack on Helena on the morning of the 4th. They
advanced in three columns, but the roughness of
the ground prevented the rebels bringing up their
artillery, and they attempted to oarry their works
by assault. The entire column charged in the di-
rection of Fort Curtis, and took three lines of rifle
pits. The flank attack was not s 3 successful, which
subjected the centre to an enfilading fire which
swept them down in great numbers. They were
soon surrounded, and one whole brigade, numbering
840, was captured, 740 of whom arrived here this
morning.

" General Prentiss was aware of the contemplated
attack and was prepared. He had about 4,000 men,
and was assisted by the gunboat Tyler.
" Prisoners say the attack will be renewed. The
battle commenced at 4 a.m. The rebel loss was 1,500
in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The entire Union
loss was not over 100.

" General Prentiss is confident that he can repel
assault made.

"It is thought the rebel depredations near Lake
Providence were to draw the gunboats to that
point, thus to give them a better opportunity at
Helena."

THE RUSSIAN DESPATCH.

The following is the text of the Russian Reply
to the English Despatch on the Government of
Poland

PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF TO BARON BRUNNOW.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 1.

M. le Baron—Lord Napier has been instructed to
give me the annexed despatch from her Britannic
Majesty's principal Secretary of State to read, and
a copy of it. We have pleasure in learning that
Lord Russell admits with us the barren nature of a
prolonged controversy relative to the Ist article of
the Treaty of Vienna ; and that with us, likewise,
he deaires to place the question upon ground
which should offer more opportunities for
arriving at a practical solution. Before taking
our stand upon this ground we deem it use-
ful to put in a clear light our positions
respectively. The Imperial Cabinet admits the
principle that every Power signing a treaty has the
right to interpret the sense thereof from its own point
of view, provided always that that interpretation re-
mains within the limits of the meaning that is pos-
sible to be put upon it according to the text itself.
In virtue of this principle the Imperial Cabinet does
not dispute this right in any one of the eight Powers
which have concurred in the general proceedings of
Vienna of 1815. Experience has, it is true, demons-
trated that the exercise of such right issues in no
practical result. The experiments made already in
1831 have had no issue but to place on record the
divergence of opinion. Nevertheless this right exists.
It extends as far as the limits which I have indi-
cated above, and is incapable of obtaining a wider
range bat with the express consent of the contracting
party most directly interested. Accordingly it de-
pended upon the Imperial Cabinet to maintain the
strict application of this principle, observing the line of
action taken towards them iu thecourse of the month
of April last, with respect to events which occurred
in the kingdom of Poland. If, in reply to that ap-
peal, they went further into the subj, ct, it was en-
tirely owing to their perfect readiness to seek to
conciliate, and in order to reply with courtesy to an
appeal which bore a similar character. I will add
that another cause was, that in the intentions which
his Majesty the Emperor cherishes towards his
Polish subjects there was no purpose which could
dispose us to remove them from the light. This
consideration was perfectly brought out by your
Excellency when you informed the principal Secre-
tary of her Britannic Majesty that the Imperial
Cabinet was ready to enter upon an exchange
of views upon the basis and within the limits
of the treaties of 1815. That declaration
we adhere to, and my despatch of this day will
furnish the best proof of our perseverance in
the same disposition. Having thus confirmed the
genuine and sole character of the invitation which
we have addressed to the English Cabinet, we will
permit ourselves, after Lord Russell's example, to
precede the observations which we have to com-
municate to his Excellency by some reflections in
reply to the questions which he has entered upon
and proposed at the outset.

The principal Secretary of State of her Britannic
Majesty says that the basis of Government is in
every case the confidence which it inspires in the
governed, and that the ascendancy of the law over
the arbitrary element must be the foundation for
order and stability. A priori we subscribe to these
principles. We will only call to mind that their
indispensable corollary is respect for authority.
The confidence with which a government inspires
the governed depends not only on the good-
ness of its intentions, bat also on the convic-
tion imparted that it has the power of carry-
ing them into effect. If Lord Russell affirms that
partial tumults, secret conspiracies, and the influence
of cosmopolite strangers will not shake a Govern-
ment based upon confidence and respect for the
laws, he will also admit that neither confidence nor
legal conduct would be possible were that Govern-
ment to allow that a fraction of the people were
vested with the right of seeking elsewhere than
under the legitimately constituted authority, by
armed rebellion supported by hostile or foreign
parties, the well-being and the prosperity which
they might declare that they could not realise
without the aid of inspirations from abroad.
Lord Russell places before us six articles which
he considers to be of a nature to provide for
the pacification of the kingdom of Poland. In
communicating them to us her Britannic Ma-
jesty's Principal Secretary of State adopts in
part the point of view put forward by my de-
spatch of the 14th of April. This is an exchange of
sentiments, and to that form of expression we have
no objection to raise. I have clearly Indicated in
the despatch to which I refer the germs of practical
conbuct laid down by our august master, and the
developments reserved in his Majest3's purpose to
be given them when he should deem the proper time
to be come. In comparing them with his own views
Lord Russell will convince himself that the greater
part of the measures which he points to have al-
ready been decreed or prepared on the initiative of
our august master. The Principal Secretary of
State of her Britannic Majesty expresses the hope
that the adoption of tliese measures would lead to
the complete and permanent pacification of the king-
dom ot Poland. We are unable to share this hope
without certain reserves. Viewing the subject as we
do, reorganisation of the kingdom must in all cases
be preceded by the re-establishment of order in the
country. That result is dependent on a condition to
which we had called the attention of the Govern-
ment of her Britannic Majesty, and which is not
only unfulfilled, but is not even alluded to in the
despatch of Lord Russell. We refer to the material
assistance and moral encouragement obtained from
abroad by the insurrectionists. We are not aware
from what sources of information the Government
of her Britannic Majesty have formed their judg-
ment of the state of affairs in Poland ; we must
presume that they are not of impartial origin. In-
deed, we find Lord Russell himself establishing a
kind of similarity between the news published by
the St. Petersburg journal from statements fur-
nished under the control and upon the responsibi-
lity of the recognised agent of the Government, and
the inforneation of every kind which the London
journals borrow, without discernment or any gua-
rantee, from the most suspected publications of the
Polish revolutionary press. The confidence in-
spired by these publications has more than once
given cause for declarations which, in spite of the
formal denials given to them by daily events, have
contributed to mislead opinion in England. In this
manner have been propagated, in relation to the
brave Russian soldiers who fulfil in Poland a pain-
ful duty with devotion and self-denial, calumnies
and outrages which all Russia has felt with pro-
found indignation. If Lord Russell were exactly
informed of what passes in the Kingdom of Poland
he would know, as we do, that wherever the armed
rebellion has striven to acquire substance, to give
itself a visible head, it has been crushed. The masses
have kept aloof from it, the rural population evinces
even hostility to it, because the disorders by which
agitators live ruin the industrial classes. The insur-
rection sustains itself alone by a terrorism unprece-
dented in history. The bands are recruited princi-
pally from elements foreign to the country. They
gather together in the woods, disperse at the first
attack to reunite in other places. When they are
too closely pressed they cross the frontier to re-enter
the country at another point. Politically, it is a stage
display intended to act upon Europe. The principle
of action of the directing committees from without
is to keep up agitation at all cost, in order to give
food for the declarations of the press, to abuse public
opinion, and to harass the Government by furnish •
ing an occasion and a pretext for a diplomatic in-
tervention which should lead to military action. All
the hope of the armed insurrection is in this, it is
the object at which it has laboured from its rise_
Lord Russell will admit that in this situation the
measures which he recommends to us would with
difficulty find application practically. The greater
part, I repeat it, have already been decreed ; the
state of the country has, up to the present time,
paralysed their execution. As long as that
condition of things shall subsist the same causes
will produce the same effects. The presence of
armed bands, the terrorism of the central committee,
and the appearance of an immediate pressure from
without, would moreover take from these measures
the fitness of time, the dignity, and the effective-
ness, which we could promise ourselves in their

spontaneous adoption. We will go further. Even
when they could be put into execution with the
full extension with which they are invested in the
mind of the principal Secretary of State of her Bri-
tannic Majesty, they would have no prospect what-
ever of attaining the result which he has in view,
that of pacifying the country. If Lord Russell
follows attentively the productions of the press de-
voted to the Polish rebellion, he must be aware that
the insurgents demand neither an amnesty, nor an
autonomy, nor a representation either more or less
complete. The absolute independence of the
Kingdom even would be for them only a means
for arriving at the final object of their aspira-
tions. This object is dominion over provinces
where the immense majority are Russians by race
or by religion ; in a word, it is Poland extended to
the two seas, which would inevitably bring about a
claim to the Polish provinces belonging to other
neighbouring Powers. We desire to pronounce no
judgment upon these aspirations. It suffices for us
to prove that they exist, and that the Polish insur-
gents do not conceal them. The final result in
which they would arrive cannot be doubtful. It
would be a general conflagration, which the ele-
ments of disorder scattered through all countries
would be brought to complicate, and which seek for
an opportunity to subvert Europe. We have too
much confidence in the Principal Secretary of
State of her Britannic Majesty to allow that he
can approve an object as irreconcileable with
the peace and with the equilibrium of Europe,
with which are bound up the interests of Great
Britain, as they are with the maintenance of
the treaties of 1815, the only basis and the only
starting point of the overtures which he has just
made to us. Lord Russell quotes a passage related
by Lord Castlereagh of a conversation which that
statesman had with the Emperor Alexander I. in
1815, and which mentions the project formed by
this Sovereign to combine the Duchy of Warsaw
" with the Polish provinces anciently dismembered
into a kingdom under the sovereignty of Russia,
with an administration in accordance with the
wishes of the people." This idea was a passing in-
clination of the Emperor Alexander L, and one
which that Sovereign did not accomplish when he
was enabled to consider more maturely the interests
of his kingdom. At all events, this question must
be excluded even in an exchange of ideas made
within the limits of 1815. The only stipulation of
these treaties which can have made it appear doubt-
ful that the Emperor of Russia possessed the king-
dom of Poland by the same title as that by which
he holds his other possessions, the only one which
might have made his rights dependent upon any
condition whatever, and which explains 'the possi-
bility of an exchange of ideas with foreign Courts
upon the subject of his relations with that portion
of his dominions, is the vague phrase of Article 1,
which says " that the Emperor of Russia reserves
it to himself to give to this State, enjoying a dis-
tinct administration, such an internal extension as
he shall deem advisable ;" and that article which
says "that the Poles, the respective subjects of the
high contracting parties, shall obtain representation
and national institutions, regulated in conformity
with the mode of the political existence which each
of the Governments to which they belong shall
deem it expedient and proper to bestow on them.''
But the history of this period is not so remote that
the remembrance can be lost of the position which.
Russia held at the termination of the European
crisis which was brought to an end by the Treaty
of Vienna. From that time we should not be far
from the truth if we affirmed that the lst article of
the treaty of Vienna was prepared by, and directly
emanated from his Majesty the Emperor Alexander
I. The conversation with Lord Castlereagh cited
by Lord Russell is an additional evidence of this
fact.

After saying this the Principal Secretary of State
of her Britannic Majesty will dispense us from
giving an answer to the proposed arrangement for
a suspension of hostilities. It would not resist a
serious examination of the conditions necessary for
carrying this into effect. If it were to be defined
between whom it was to be negotiated, of what
nature the status quo was to be which it would
guarantee, and who was to watch over its execution,
it would readily be perceived that the provisions of
public law could not be applied to a situation which
would be a flagrant violation of such law. His
Majesty the Emperor owes to his faithful army,
which struggles for the maintenance of order, to
the peaceable majority of the Poles who suffer from
these deplorable agitations, and to Russia on whom
they impose painful sacrifices, to take energetic
measures to terminate them. Desirable as it may
be speedily to place a term to the effusion of blood,
this object can only be attained by the insurgents
throwing down their arms and surrendering them-
selves to the clemency of the Emperor. Every other
arrangement would be incompatible with the dig-
nity of our august master, and with the sentiments
of the Russian nation. It would, besides, have a
result diametrically opposed to the one recommended
by Lord Russell. As to the idea of a conference of
the eight Powers who signed the Treaty of Vienna,
which should discuss the six points adopted as
bases, it presents to us serious inconveniences, with-
out our being able to see in it any advantage. If
the measures in question are sufficient for the paci-
fication of the country, a conference would be with-
out object. If the measures were to be submitted to
ulterior deliberation, there would result a direct
interference of foreign Powers in the most intimate
details of the Administration, an interference that
no great Power could admit, and which certainly
England would not accept in her own affairs. Such
an interference would be neither in the spirit nor in
the letter of the treaties of Vienna, on the base of
which we have invited the Powers to a friendly
exchange of ideas. It would result in removing
still further the end which they propose to them-
selves by depriving the Government of its prestige
and its authority, and by further increasing the
pretensions and illusions of the Polish agitators.
The course which was followed in 1815 appears to
us to indicate clearly enough the nature of the deli-
berations which may take place upon questions bear-
ing, on the one side, on the general interest, and on
the other upon administrative details of the exclu-
sive dominion of the neighbouring Sovereign States.
At that epoch a distinction was practically esta-
blished between these two classes of interests; the
first have been the object of separate negotiations
on the part of the Courts of Russia, Austria, and
Prussia, between which the traditions of history, a
permanent contact, and an immediate neighbourhood
created a strict solidarity. All the arrangements
destined to regulate the interior administration and
the mutual relations of the Polish territories placed,
since the Congress of Vienna, under their respective
dominions, have been laid down in treaties con-
cluded directly between these three Courts on April
21 (May 3) 1815. They have been successively com-
pleted by a series of special conventions whenever
circumstances have required it. The general prin-
ciples mentioned in these treaties, and which could
interest Europe, have atone been inserted in the
act of the Congress of Vienna, signed on May 27
(June 9), by all the Powers invited to concur in it.
At present it is not a question of these general
principles, but the aciminist rative details and ulterior
arrangements would furnish useful matter for dis-
cussion by the three Courts, in order to place the
respective position of their Polish possessions, to
which the stipulations of the treaties of 1815 extend,
in harmony with present necessities and the progress
of time. The Imperial Cabinet declares itself from
ittihmethreeacdaybtioneeTt(elrt
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In any case the re-establish '
re-establishment of order is an
indispensable condition, which must precede any
serious application of the measures destined for
the pacification of the kingdom. This condition
depends greatly upon the resolution of the Great
Powers not to lend themselves to calculations which
the instigators of the Polish insurrection found
on or expect from an active intervention in
aid of their exaggerated aspirations. Clear and
categorical language on the part of those Powers
would contribute to dissipate these illusions, and to
thwart these calculations, which tend to prolong
the disorder and excitement of public opinion.
They would thus bring nearer the moment which
we invoke—that in which the tranquillisation of
passions and the return of material order will per-
mit our august master to labour for the moral paci-
fication of the country by putting into execution
the measures which his Majesty maintains both in
the germs already laid down, and in the develop-
ment of them which be has allowed to be foreseen.
Your Excellency will have the goodness to read and
give a copy of this despatch to the principal Sec-
retary of State of her Britannic Majesty.—Re-
ceive, &c., GORTSCHAROFF.

---„,fs,r,„
Court ortular,

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, July 20.
The Quee❑ and Princess Helena drove out this
morning.

Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess
of Wales arrived at Marlborough-house yesterday
morning from Frogmore, attended by the Mar-
chioness of Carmarthen, Lieut.-General Knollys,
and Captain Grey.
The Prince of Wales prEsided yesterday at a
meeting of the Council of his Royal Highness, held
at the office of the Duchy of Cornwall, Bucking-
ham-gate, St. James's Park. There were present
the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Warden of the Stan-
naries ; Sir William Dunbar, Keeper of the Privy
Seal; Sir William John Alexander, Attorney-
General ; and Lieutenant-General Knollys, Con-
troller of the Household of his Royal Highness.
Mr. Bateman, the Secretary, attended.

Mr. Vernon Heath had the honour to submit to

the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough-
house yesterday, a series of photographic portraits
of their Royal Highnesses, and a set of landscape
photographs of Windsor and Frogmore, taken by
command of the Prince.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, attended by
the Marchioness of Carmarthen, Lient.-General
Knollys, and Captain Grey, left London yesterday
afternoon for Osborne, on a visit to her Majesty the
Queen.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

WORCESTER, Monday.

Worcester is now en fete, being gaily decorated
in honour of the occasion of the cattle show, which
opened to-day.
The visitors to-day are of the select and aristc'
cratic class, the admission fee being fixed at 10s. 6d.
Taking a cursory glance over the numerous pens of
cattle, sheep, and pigs, and the horses, the general
remark made by the habitues of these meetings is
that it is one of the best collections of stock ever
brought together. The shorthorns are a magnifi-
cent lot of animals. They number 13 bulls above
three and not exceeding six years old : 15 bulls
above two and not exceeding three years : 28 bulls
between one and two years, and a large lot of 35
bull calves. Cows are not so numerous, there being
only 5 above three years old, 17 heifers in milk or in
calf, 17 yearling heifers, and 24 yearling calves, the
total of shorthorns shown for the society's prizes
being 150. The Herefords are less numerous, not
numbering 100. They are divided as follows :—Bulls
between three and six years old, 5 ; bulls between
two and three years, 10 ; bulls between one and two
years, 15 ; bull calves, 18 ; cows above three years,
18 ; heifers in milk or in calf, 8; yearling heifers,
17; and heifer calves, 8. Some surprise has been
expressed at the small number of Herefords brought
to the show, when it is considered that Worcester
is close to the great centre of the peculiar breeding
grounds of the Hereford stock. Disease has unfor-
tunately been of late very prevalent among the stock,
which no doubt may account for the comparative
paucity of the entries to-day. Nevertheless, some
of the most noted Herefordshire breeders sent stock
to the show, and among them are some splendid
animals.

There are just 50 entries in Devons, including
the names of Major-General the Hon. A. Nelson
Hood, who shows four of the late Prince Consort's
stock, and Mr. Buller, M.P. There are 14 Sussex
breeds, also 75 cattle shown among other " esta-
blished breeds."

The horses are a most noble lot of animals, from
the thorough-bred stud horse, full of blood and fire,
to the muscular and bony animal for agricultural
uses, and as they were paced out during the judicial
examination (which was publicly conducted), they
excited the admiration of every beholder.

The sheep number about 430 pens and indivi-
duals, and the pigs over 150. They are all remark-
ably good, and the judges have great difficulty in
awarding the prizes.