The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-01 00:00:00

Pius the Ninth and President Davis,

La France publishes the following letters from
Richmond to Rome, and from Rome to Richmond :
" Richmond, Sept. 23, 1863.
" Very Venerable Sovereign Pontiff—The letters
which you have written to the clergy of New
Orleans and New York have been communicated to
me, and I have read with emotion the deep grief
therein expressed for the ruin and devastation
caused by the war which is now being waged by
the United States against the States and people
which have selected me as their president, and your
orders to your clergy to exhort the people to peace
and charity. lam deeply sensible of the Christian
charity which has impelled you to this reiterated
appeal to the clergy. It is for this reason that I
feel it my duty to express personally, and in the
name of the Confederate States, our gratitude for
such sentiments of Christian good feeling and love,
and to assure your Holiness that the people, threat-
ened even on their own hearths with the most cruel
oppression and terrible carnage, is desirous now, as
it has always been, to see the eud of this impious
war; that we have ever addressed prayers to Heaven
for that issue which your Holiness now desires; that
we desire none of our enemy's possessions, but that
we fight merely to resist the devastation of oar
country and the shedding of our best blood, and to
force them to let us live in peace under the protec-
tion of our own institutions, and under our laws,
which not only ensure to every one the enjoyment
of his temporal rights, but also the free exercise of
his religion.

" I pray your Holiness to accept, on the part of
myself and the people of the Confederate States,
our sincere thanks for your efforts in favour of
peace. May the Lord preserve the days of your
Holiness, and keep you under his divine protection.
(Signed) "JEFFERSON DAVIS,
"President of the Confederates States
of South America."

To this the Pope replied in the following letter
"Illustrious and llonozrable President, salute,-
tion.--We have just received, with all suitable
welcomes, the persons sent by you to place in our
hands your letter dated 23d of September last. Not
slight was the pleasure we experienced when we
learnt, from these persons and the letter, with what
feelings of joy and gratitude you were animated,
illustrious and honourable President, as soon as you
were informed of our letters to our venerable
brothers John Archbishop of New York, and John
Archbishop of New Orleans, dated the 18th of
October of last year, and in which we have with
all our strength excited and exhorted these vener-
able brothers that in their episcopal piety and soli-
citude they should endeavour, with the most ardent
zeal, and in our name, to bring about the end of
the fatal civil war which has broken out in those
countries, in order that the American people may
obtain peace and concord, and dwell charitably to-
gether. It is particularly agreeable to us to see
that you, illustrious and honourable President, and
your people, are animated with the same desires of
peace and tranquillity which
we have in our letters
inculcated upon our noble brothers. May it please
God at the same time to make the other peoples of
America and their rulers, reflecting seriously how
terrible is civil war, and what calamities it endan-
gers, listen to the aspirations of a calmer spirit, and
adopt resolutely the part of peace. As for us, we
shall not cease to offer up the most fervent prayers
to God Almighty that He may pour out upon all
the peoples of America the spirit of peace and
charity, and that Ho will stop the great evils which
aflict them. We, at the same time, beseech the
God of mercy and pity to shed abroad upon you the
light of his grace, and attach you to us by a perfect
friendship.
" Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the 3d of De-
cember, 1863, of our Pontificate 18.
THE LATE MR, THACKERAY.

(From the Atheneum.)
A story, the result, we suppose, of some misappre-
hension, has been printed in the lounger's column of a
weekly paper, to the effect that the name of William
Makepeace Thackeray had been proposed for the
vice-presidency of the National Shakspeare Com-
mittee, and had been rejected by a large majority
As this story has found its way into other journals,
it is ()my respectful to the dead to explain that no
such fact has occurred. Mr. Thackeray's claims to
a place among the vice-presidents of the National
Shakspeero Committee have never been raised, and
of course they have never been discussed. This is the
simple truth. Some months ago a circular invita-
tion was sent to the author of " Vanity Fair," as to
many other eminent persons. By some mischance
or oversight, no answer was returned. A few weeks
later the committee, as a mark of honour to Mr.
Thackeray, passed a resolution that a special invi-
tation should be forwarded to him ; which invitation
was duly written and sent by the secretary of the
day, acting for the general Secretary, who was then
absent from Europe. At the next meeting of the
committee, a member proposed that yet another
special invitation should be sent. A gentleman who
had taken an active part in voting the previous
invitation, rose to inquire whether the reply to it
had been received; and on it being said that the
answer had not yet come to hand, the chairman
explained to the member who proposed sending a
third invitation pending the receipt of an answer to
the second, that it would be better to wait for Mr.
Thackeray's reply. This being the apparent sense
of a meeting nearly sixty strong, the proposer of the
third invitation seemed to acquiesce; and no one
imagined that by adopting a course so decent the
great humorist's claims would be in any degree put
in doubt. Subsequently, however, the member
pressed his motion, which, on being put to the vote,
was supported by no more than nine; the great
majority considering it, not improper, but merely
ill timed. These are the whole of the actual feats.
We venture to say that the gentlemen who voted
against this injudicious motion were Mr. Thackeray's
true friends—those who felt most strongly his
claims to a high place on the committee, and who
counted most confilently on his co-operation.

DE TOCQUEVILLE says that "a newspaper is the
only instrument that can drop the same thought into a thou•
eand minds at the same moment."