The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-21 00:00:00

RA IL WAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans lllO .. 1110
Northern -
Now ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 1180 .. 1181 25
Geneva 402 50 ..
Southern
Western
Eastern

Sardinian
Austrian

370
510 - .. 511 25

Lombard
North of Spain O • . .
Saragossa.. ..
Ditto to Barcelona ....

582 50 .. 582 25
540 .- .. 540 -
582 50 .. 582 50
337 50 .. 338 75

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, FEB. 21.

In yesterday's sitting of the Committee on
Polish affairs none of the Ministers nor any Royal
Commissioner was present, and no communication
was received from Government. The Committee
resolved that this circumstance should be entered in
the protocol of the sitting.
The proposition of the Liberal section of the
Chamber in reference to Poland was agreed to al-
most unanimously, three members only voting
against it. Upon the essential points of the pro-
position, indeed, unanimity of opinion prevailed.
MM. Bonin and Sanger were opposed to any aid
being given to Russia..

PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA.,

BERLIN, FEB. 19.

The interpellation of Messrs. Schulze and Carlo-
witz, signed by 175 Deputies—to the effect whether
a treaty had been entered into by the Prussian
and Russian Governments with respect to assis-
tance to be rendered by tha former Power for the
suppression of the Polish insurrection, and also
regarding the contents of any such existing treaty
—was brought forward in yesterday's Chamber, in
consequence of the attempt made by the Polish
Deputies to extract that information from the
Ministry. On the question being put by the Pre-
sident, in the usual form, whether, and when,
the Government would reply to the interpellation,
M. von Bismark replied that it declined doing so,
but alleged no motive whatever for the refusal. This
caused great sensation in the Chamber. The debate
that ensued was rather of a local than general inte-
rest. Waldeck made a telling speech, and declared
that the whole civilised world would disapprove the
loan of Prussian troops to assist in the perpetuation
of Russian absolutism. The blood of Prussia's sons
was not to bepoured out to support an arbitrarypolicy
in favour of a foreign Government. The system of
the Bismark Cabinet was that of the Elector of
Hesse, in the last century, who sold his subjects to
be slaughtered in America. The speech was re-
ceived with great applause, in which the galle-
ries ventured to take part, and were, therefore,
threatened with clearing if the offence were re-
peated. M. von Bismark protested that his feeling
for the honour of Prussia was at least as strong as
that of Deputy Waldeck_ Dr. Virchow declared it
highly desirable that Government should reply by
a negative to the statements that had obtained ci,-
culation and credence to the effect that not only
had the Prussian Government agreed to cross the
RiLsian frontier, but that the Russians were to he
allowed to cross that of Prussia and to wage war
against the insurgents on Prussian soil. 'The Cham-
ber had a constitutional right to make inquiries on
this head. He (Dr. Virchow) expressee, sympathy
for the population of the kingdom of Poland, a
sympathy shared by the whole civilised world. The
Government would have acted more wisely by coun-
selling that of Russia to mildness towards the Poles
than by entering into such a convention. M. von
Bismark declared his disapproval of the idea of
giving advice at St. Petersburg. Such a step, he
said, might easily lead to reciprocity ; at which the
Chamber laughed very much, probably taking the
ambiguous remark of the Minister-President as a
naive admission that his Government, did things
which even Russia might bejustified in denouncing.
It is to be observed that the statements abroad con-
cerning a convention with Russia acquire add itional
weight because chiefly derived from what has ap-

peered in the semi-official press, also upon an inter-
cepted despatch-published in the Czas,but the authen-
ticity of whichM. von Bismarck yesterday denied,
from which it would appear that unsolicited by the
Ru,!sian Govere:iknt, the Berlin Cabinet had sent mi-
litary envoys t' "'t. Pettzsburg to proffer assistance
and urge its acceptance. No admission O!"aiZr*ind
w 4
could be obtained from the PINALer by this second
attempt to wring from-14m the truth concerning the
alleged convention. St, a third attempt is to be
made in the form of a resolution, yesterday moved
by MM. Hoverbeck and Carlowitz, and which says
—" The Chamber of Deputies resolves to declare
that the interest of Prussia demands that the Go .
verument should not afford assistance, or show
favour of any kind, to the Russian Government or
the insurgents in the insurrection that has broken
out in the Kingdom of Poland, and also should not
allow either of the contending parties to enter
Prussian territory without previous disarming."
The motion, supported by 134 deputies, was referred
to a committee, which has been chosen today.

AMERICA.

ARRIVAL OF THE AUSTRALASIAN.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)
NEW YORK, FEB. 10 (Evening).
Rear-Admiral Dupont officially reports from
Port Royal on the 2d that, during a thick haze
on the morning of the 31st ult., two Confederate
iron-clads came out of Charleston and made a raid
upon the blockading squadron.

They attacked the steamer Mercedita, rendering
her motive power useless. The captain of the Merce-
dita then surrendered. A Federal officer went on board
the Confederate vessels to make arrangements. The
officers and crew of the Mercedita were paroled, but
nothing was said about the ship.

The Confederate vessels next attacked the steamer
Keystone State, damaging her seriously. Three
Federal vessels came to her assistance, and she was
towed off.
Some other Federal vessels were also damaged.
The Confederate vessels afterwards passed to the
northward, receiving the fire of the Federal fleet,
and took refuge in Swash Channel. The Merce-
dita and Keystone State were afterwards towed to
Port Royal.
The Federal casualties amounted to 24 killed and
23 wounded.

General Foster's expedition has arrived at Port
Royal. It was supposed that it would leave for
Charleston immediately.

The Federa' steamer Montauk has relinquished
the attack on Fort Mac Allister on the Ogechee
River. The Montauk was struck 46 times, but
sustained no material damage.
A Federal regiment of coloured volunteers has
made several expeditions from Beaufort into
Georgia, Florida, and up St. Mary's River. They
had several encounters with the Confederates,
and are reported to have been always successful.

General Hunter has in ormed the Confederate
authorities of Georgia that he should hold all
prisoners in close confinement, and answerable
with their lives, for the safety of the Federal officers
captured by the Confederates, until President
Davis's retaliation proclamation is withdrawn,

LONDONDERRY, Feb. 20.
The steamer Norwegian, from Portland on the
9th inst., which arrived here this evening, brings
9,000 dols, in specie.

NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (Evening).
Resolutions have been introduced in the Illinois
Legislature declaring President Lincoln's policy
unconstitutional, and denouncing the taxation of
state. for the purchase of negroes. They also de-
clare President Lincoln to have pandered to New
England in not using the means at his disposal to
open the Mississippi, denounce the Morrill Tariff,
" by which the East enriches itself at the expense
of the West, and recommend a convention at
Louisville to obtain an armistice and the cessation
of hostilities.

The correspondent of the Chicago Tribune says
that in some counties of Illinois there is widespread
disaffection, and organised efforts are made to resist
Government authority.
NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (Evening).

The steamer Princess Royal has arrived at Phila-
delphia. She brings details of the Confederate
attack on the Federal fleet off Charleston, which
show conclusively that there is no foundation for
the assumption of the Confederates that the
blockade of Charleston was ever raised by the de-
parture of the Federal fleet. Only two vessels out
of eight or ten were disabled and compelled to leave
—the Mercedita and Keystone State. Neither
were sunk nor captured, and both went to Port
Royal to repair, the rest of the fleet blockading
Charleston.

The bloL kading fleet has been largely reinforced.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (Evening).

Money easy. Gold 564 ; exchange, 173. Stocks
steady. Ne* York Cen►rals, 1191; Illinois, 92 ;
Erie, 761. Cotton quiet; middling Upland, 86.
Flour dull, sc. lower; wheat dull, ic. lower. Corn
quiet.

The Emancipation Society and Mr. Lincoln's
Proclamation.

Sir T. Fovvell Buxton, Bert., has addressed the
following letter to the Editor of the Times :

In your paper of Thursday you ask "whether the sons of
Wilberforce and of Buxton, who have all been brought up
in the teaching of their fathers, now share I,he opinions of
the present Emancipation Society as to the Proclamation of
Mr. Lincoln."
If the Proclamation means anything—if it is not a dead
letter -it means to attack the weak point of the South by
exciting an insurrection among the slaves—an insurrection
which would commence by producing untold misery to many
isolated families of whites, and would inevitably end in a
wholesale massacre of the unarmed, ill-organised, ignorant
negroes. Can you seriously ask whether the sons of Wil-
berforce and cf BinuonApprove this P
I cannot doubt what view my father would have taken.
There was nothing he were earnestly deprecated, nothing
he so anxiouly dreaded;as the revolt of the slaves. His
letters and erephys during the battle for emancipation are
full of references to this greatest subject of anxiety. In a
letter dated October 15, 1832, he writes :--
"If the emancipation of the slaves were in my power, I
could not dare to accomplish it without previous police regu-
lations. These ought to be taken instantly, for I know our
power of emancipating in one way or another is fast
drawing to a close. I mean, that the negroes will take the
work into their own hands. But whoever else is willing to
undertake the weight of so enormous a responsibility, I nut
not, without considering the personal safety of all classes."
Again, in a debate in the House of Commons on the 12th
of June, 1833, he says:—
" Were an amendment on this plan to be moved and car-
ried, and we were in consequence to lose this measure
altogether, an insurrection would inevitably take place, and
I confess I cannot with firmness contemplate so horrible a
termination of slavery."
I hope no one will suspect, because none of my father's
descendants have taken a part in the recent emancipation
meetings, that our abhorrence of slavery or our zeal for
emancipation has grown cold. God forbid that such should
be the case. I never was more strongly impressed than
am now with the cruelty, wickedness, and folly of the sys.
tern of slavery; I never was more convinced of its demo-
ralising effect upon both master and slave. Yet, in the
cause of the negro himself; I cannot regard with approval
th
)iuof slavery" 9which, if effective, must bring
about
ct of
~.
sM
o horrible
termination
as a servile
war.

ARRESTS OF YOUNG POLES BY TILE PRUSSIAN
AUTHORITIES.—"Ishe Paris papers publish the fol.-
lowing letter, dated Warsaw, Feb. 15 :—" The Prussia°
authorities do not merely insure a free passage to the Rus-
sian troops, but they arrest travellers who appear suspicioho•
Three young Poles, pupils at French schools, who recently
quitted Paris for Poland, have been arrested at Thorn, and
handed over to the Russians." One of the young raevi
named M. Kopercynski, was a pupil of the military sap°
of St. Cyr. The French students in Paris are much elv
cited by the event.
The sugar crop at Mauritius is the largest ever
known. Nearly 10,000 immigrants arrived in the i/314tv!
last year. The French, India, and China Mail Steerao,
packet Company ire about to establish a blanch line bug r
tween Mauritius, Reunion, and Aden. The export of
from Mauritius to Australia steadily increases.