The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JAN UARY 27, 1863

GG DINNA FORGET."-FRIDAY NEXT.-
ST. JAMES'S HALL.
Grand Attraction.—Sig. Giuglini, Miss .ank s, Mr. Lawler,
Mr. Fielding, a band of twenty arps, and the " Naticuredonal
Melodies Choir" 400 voices). —Theh best seats can be se
at Mr. Austin's ticket office 2S, Piccadilly, W.—Admission Is.
Sofa stalls (numbered) ss. each.

ANTERBURY HALL.—LAST WEEK of the
LANCASHIRE: CHAMPION PRIZE HAND-BELL
RINGERS, at half-past Nine o'clock.
Immense success of the renowned Pantomimic Entertain-
ment, THE ENCHANTED HASH-, thirteen characters,
sorely sustained by E. Marshall.
'the Comic by Unsworth, Eugene, Arthur Lloyd, Frank
Hall, and Miss Georgina Smithson.
GRAND OPERATIC SELECTIONS, as usual, conducted
by Mr. Jonglimans,

H E O X F OR 1),
6, OXFORD ST BEI:T.
THE LANCASHIRE CHAMPION PRIZE HAND-
BELL RI N GERS,
Twelve Performers on Sixty-six Bells.
Conductor, Mr. E. BENSON.
Drew Dean's Flute Solos. lees, four-part Songs, Choruses,
&c., and other music attraoti ns, including a Grand Selec-
tion from GLUCK'S opera " ALCESTE," now produced for
the first time in this country, and supported by the entire
company, full band and chorus. Conductor, Mr. F. Jongh-
mans.
Miss Caroline Parkes' Pantomimic Sketch, " Little Red
Riding Hood."
George Hodson's Irish, Miscellaneous, and Ventriloquial
Entertainment.
Unsworth's great Stump Speech, "Or any other man."
Eugene's burlesque Scenas and Dances.
W. Randall's New Comicalities, &e., every evening.
The provincial Engagements of the Bell-Ringers compell-
ing them to leave London, their Last Appearance, on
SATURDAY, 31st instant, is reluctantly announced.

THE LONDON PAVILION.-
Messrs. LOIBL and SONNHAMMER beg respectfully
to announce that their ANNUAL BENEFIT will take place
on THURSDAY EVENING next, the 29th inst. They
acknowledge with thanks the very liberal support hitherto
awarded them, and trust their future endeavours to please
and entertain will prove sufficiently meritorious to meet with
a response eq tally gratifying. On the occasion of their
Benefit a special programme will be arranged representing
such a galaxy of talent as was never presented to the public.
The LONDON PAVILION, Tichborne-street.

120 PERFORMERS will appear at the
LONDON PAVILION on THURSDAY NEXT,
the PROPRIETOR'S BENEFIT. Novelties in abundance
will be produced ; all the favourites in London will be there ;
the bill of fare will be prolific in sensation and artists of ex-
traordinary skill; in fact, the entertainment will be one of
astonishing magnitude—brimful of talent, and calculated to
please everybody.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Windmill-street, Piccadilly.
Open nightly for Promenade. There is added to the
above elegant Establishment a Grand Conversation Saloon
Reading Room, and Smoking Lounge. French, German, and
English papers taken in. The musical arrangements under
the direction of Mons. Boulcourt.
The Band is composed of the best Musicians in the metro-
polis. Admission ls.—Manager, M. Grenet.

ARGYLL ROOMS.-JULLIEN'S PROME-
NADE CONCERTS will take place at the above
Rooms on TUESDAY, Jan. 27th. On this occasion the Pro-
gramme will include Selections and Arrangements from the
Works of the following Masters :
Mozart—Rossini—Meyerbeer—Donizetti.

The Dance Music from the repertoire of the late M. Jullien,
Admissio, I

Manager, M. GRENET.

JULLIEN'S PROMENADE CONCERTS.

-1/TONS. JULLIEN has the honour to announce
J-V_L that his FIRST PROMENADE CONCERT in Lon-
don will take place at the
ARGYLL ROOMS, on TUESDAY, January 27.
On this occasion the Programme will include selections and
arrangements from the works of the following masters :
MOZART, I ROSSINI, I MEYERBEER, I DONIZETTI.
A Grand Quadrille from Howard Glover's Opera, " Once
too Often," and the ballet music will be chiefly selected from
the repertoire of the late M. Jullien.
Programmes and full particulars will be duly advertised.
Admission—One Shilling.
Manager, M. GRENET.

SAWYER'S FAMOUS LONDON DINNER
FOR THIS DAY,
At 2s. 6d. each Person.
SOUPS.
Vermicelli.

Hare.

--- --
FISH.
Cod and Oyster Sauce. Fried Fillets of Brill.
ENTREES.
Minced Beef, Polonaise.
JOINTS.
Saddles of Mutton.
SWEETS. Sirloins of Beef.
Black Cap Puddings. Orange Jelly.
Cheese and Salad.
THE LONDON, 19', FLEET-STREET.

Turkey a la Reine.

France and the Southern States.

The Washington correspondent of the New York
Tribune, writing on January 3, says :
For some time past the members of the diplomatic
corps have been occupying their leisure hours by
indulging in all sorts of comments upon an impor-
tant interview which is said to have recently taken
place between Louis Napoleon and Mr. Slidell. Al-
though I have been acquainted with the details of
these accounts, the want of positive evidence that
such a conversation as I have heard related had oc-
curred caused me to hesitate before transmitting it
to you. I bad, in fact, no ground for believing it,
except conversations between members of a profes-
sion which has never had the reputation of being
a school of truth. However, as some details of
that interview are plausible enough to be true,
and as certain opinions said to have been then ad-
vanced by the Emperor of the French coincide
with statements I have seen elsewhere; and since,
moreover, this interview is spoken of and the lan-
guage approved by several members of the Foreign
Legation, whose conversation on that subject may
very well indicate the tendency of the foreign
policy of France, I communicate to you a full re-
port of what I have myself heard related. Accord-
ing to the account which comes to me, Louis Napo-
leon had no sooner reached his chateau at Com-
peigne, coming from Biarritz, where he had spent a
portion of the summer season, than Mr. Slidell,
who previously to this had several interviews with
his Majesty, solicited another audience, which was
immediately granted. The Emperor received him
with greater earnestness of manner than he had
ever shown before, and after the exchange of civi-
lities usual on such occasions, he abruptly addressed
him the following question :

"Do you think, sir, that if I should propose to
your Government the means of adjusting its diffi-
culties with the North, without injury to its rights,
dignity, or honour, this proposition would be con-
sidered to impose any obligation on your Govern-
ment to use its influence in conciliating the alien-
ated sections of the Union, so as to make its
reconstruction possible ?"
Mr. Slidell, startled by this inquiry, remained for
a moment silent, looking at the Emperor with an
expression in which both surprise and embarrass-
ment were visible. Recovering from his astonish-
ment, he replied that he had received no instruc-
tions from his Government on that subject, and that
consequently he could give no satisfactory answer to
his Majesty. He was assured, however, that any
proposition coming from him would not fail to be
received by the Confederate Government with the
greatest respect and weighed with the utmost care.
" Assure your Government," continue] the Em-
peror, " that my firm belief is that the time has ar-
rived when an attempt at reconciliation must be
made, unless by a fatality which I should sincerely
deplore, the two disaffected and hostile sections of
your country, giving up the hope of ever living to-
gether again under the same Government, should
finally determine never to unite under the same
Constitution. I should be sorry, however, to learn
that they have come to such a conclusion, especially
on account of the South, which, notwithstanding
the wonderful energy, skill, and gallantry it has
displayed in this struggle, must ultimately yield to
the superior power of the North, and sooner er later
experience the fate reserved to the weakest. If,
instead of exposing itself to this probable chance,
and to the sufferings and miseries of a protracted
war, some means could be devised by which the
Southern Confederacy should be brought back into
the Union, reserving to itself all its rights, as well
as those which are inherent in its own insti-
tutions, as those explicitly and impliedly contained
in the Constitution, how much more desirable would
such an agreement be than persistence in the dan-
gerous and difficult effort to establish its indepen-
dence."
" I will not dispute your Majesty's views on that
subject," replied Mr. Slidell ; "I will simply re-
mark that this would require the consent of both
parties, and that this consent, considering the state
of public opinion, North and South, seems to me
very difficult to be obtained."
" Great empires cannot exist without mutual con-
cessions and sacrifices," rejoined the Emperor. "The
North, I understand, is ready to make them—to in-
demnify you for all your losses, present and future,
and to take you back again as soon as you express
that desire. Think of it, Sir f. The preservation
of the largest and most powerful empire which
ever excited the surprise and admiration of the
world depends, perhaps, upon the readiness of
your Government to reply to these advances and
upon the support it will lend to the project of re-
conciliation which I have decided to propose."
" The North will never receive us back with sla-
very ; and, as for ourselves, we will never consent
to take the North back again while its policy is
abolition," replied Mr. Slidell.
" But suppose the North buys up your slaves,
will not, in that case, abolition starve and die out ?
Where will, then, be the pretext for separation, for
irrepressible conflicts ? I see none. If, on the con-
trary, the South persists in its idea of independence,
and, deaf to all entreaties and considerations, re-
solves to uphold the institution of slavery, and to
make it the basis of its social and political fabric, I
cannot help thinking that its obstinacy will put
obstacles in the way of its recognition by European
Powers, and materially obstruct the probability of
its national existence."
"Your Majesty," replied Mr. Slidell, "has already,
in previous conversations, alluded to the subject of
slavery, and has even told me how repugnant it is
to the feelings of France to be compelled to receive
into the councils of nations the representative of a
country where that institution was looked upon as
of Divine right. You have also demanded whether
it was not possible for the Confederate Government
at Richmond to take some steps towards the gradual
extinction of slavery, and I have replied to your
Majesty by showing the Montgomery Constitution,
and by explaining to you how, in virtue of their
sovereign rights, our local Legislatures alone were
empowered to act in the matter. I can do nothing
else now than to confirm to you my previous state-
ments, and to repeat that a reform in the position of
the black race in the Confederacy is a question of
locality, of time, and manners and habits of politi-
cal economy, of education and instruction. As I
had the honour to tell yon before I do not believe
slavery capable to resist the strong, civilised cur-
rent of immigration, the introduction of a perfect
system of political economy, the progress, in an un-
developed country, towards a higher moral and in-
tellectual culture. Besides, the commotions of civil
war have awakened the negro from his lethargy,
and caused him to be a much more dangerous
enemy to his masters when he meets them than he
was before."

" This," continued Mr. Slidell, taking a letter
from his pocket, " is asserted to me by a gentleman
of high standing in Louisiana. I am informed in
this letter that since the arrival of the Unionists in
that State the spirit of independence and the love
of freedom have mine such progress among the blacks
that they have become unmanageable. In New
Orleans especially, where their contact with the
French have imparted to them a portion of that
spirit which produced the San Domingo revolution,
and where an experience of compensated labour has
largely influenced the temper of the slaves used, as
your Majesty knows, to hire themselves from their
masters, a compulsory return to slavery and the
maintenance of that institution in that locality
would be attended with the most mischievous con-
sequences. Those considerations cannot fail to ex-
cite the attention of those directly concerned in the
matter, and to awake the solicitude of the Confede-
rate Government, which, although having no power
in the premises, will nevertheless exert its influence
in the manner best calculated to promote the gene-
ral interests of the nation."
ii Do you mean to say these States would free

their slaves if they were left to themselves?" asked

Louis Napoleon.
" They would, if they were sure the independ-
ence they covet will be secured to them. There are
certain States, such as Louisiana, Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and perhaps Mississippi, in
which slavery has become either dangerous to the
whites, or useless, or profitless. Now that the
tremendous commotion produced by this civil war
has scattered the seeds of freedom every-
where in the New World, and awakened
in the hearts of the black instincts heretofore
unknown, it is impossible for me to point to a
single locality in which the attempt at perpetual
maintenance of slavery has not become a peril of
every hour to the white race. This is so true, that
my friend from Louisiana writes me that the first
act,of the Legislature of that State, after it shall be
restored to the Government to which it properly
belongs, will be to pass a bill for the gradual eman-
cipation of the slaves.
" This is undoubtedly a very satisfactory pro-
spect," replied the Emperor; "but allow me to say
that I doubt whether the plan will be as efficient, as
prompt, and advantageous to the South as the pro-
posal made by the North to pay for all your slaves.
This project, I know, offers serious difficulties; but
what method of solution does not P I know also
that a reconciliation between the North and the
South and a reconstruction of the Union upon its
former basis have serious and apparently insur-
mountable obstacles to encounter. I believe, how-
ever, that the duty of my Government is to attempt,
by all possible means, to favour an amicable set-
tlement of your difficulties, and to bring you back
to the same flag under which you were two years
ago so happy and glorious a people. It shall not be
said that France, which had a hand in the founda-
tion of your Republic, will do nothing to preserve
it, and to save it from anarchy. Be pleased to ac-
quaint your Government with my intentions; in-
form it that my object is to conciliate the South and
the North by means of a proposition in which moral
influences alone will be set at work."
Mr. Slidell promised the Emperor to follow punc-
tually his instructions. The subject being exhausted
he withdrew, and wrote immediately to his Go-
vernment an account of this remarkable interview.
Such is an exact account of the story now told
and commented upon in nearly all diplomatic circles
in Washington.