The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-24 00:00:00

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

BALTIMORE, Aug. 11.

Years ago, as I happened sometimes to sit with
friends at a marble table in one of the Florentine
cafes, conversation would, in spite of all efforts to
the contrary, take a political turn ; when I, accus-
tomed to the free air of happier climates, too dull
to perceive that the voice of my interlocutors bad
sunk to a warning whisper, warming with my sub-
ject, and yielding to that foolish instinct which
makes us heighten our tone by way of strengthen-
ing an argument, would break into a loud key al-
most in defiance of their cautions undertone, until
my well bred prudent companions, made aware that
on nod or wink of theirs would sober me into dis-
cretion, began to rise and glide away one by one,
leaving me to recollect, as I found myself alone
master of the field, that I was in a country where
walls had ears, and where men were called to ac-
count for words as often as for deeds.
I was hardly prepared, as I crossed the Atlantic,
to find an American community haunted with all
the terrors of old-fashioned Italian espionage. The
gentleman who greets you at the reading-room, or
at any of the parlours of one of these palatial hotels,
casts an uneasy glance over his shoulder as he
shakes hands, fidgets in his chair as he starts the
momentous subject of the weather, and at last fairly
begs you to take him into your private room, as
" no talk can safely be carried on in these spy-beset
public apartments."
Gen. Schenk has decidedly inaugurated a petty
reign of terror in Maryland, town and country. He
is going about with ligited lantern at noon, looking
for " disloyal people," in a country where, if you
accept his own definition of the word, every man,
and, even more certainly, every woman, is " dis-
loyal." The Southern cause ought not to be gene-
rally the cause of the cities. Baltimore has little
or nothing in common with the interests of slavery.
There were not, at the first outbreak of the Civil
War, as many as 200 negro bondmen in the whole
town. Yet Southern feelings are very deep and
very widely spread in Baltimore. Out of 250 mem-
bers of the bar hardly a score are looked upon as
Unionists. The proportion among the rich merchants
and bankers is even smaller. I scarcely know a
family here—and my acquaintance begins to be pretty
extensive—that has not one or more than one mem-
ber out in the ranks of the Confederate army. I
know of cases where as many as five or six brothers
have gone off to Lee's camp from under the same
roof ; young men, hardly full grown, rolling in
wealth at home, softly nurtured, petted, and pam-
pered, have enlisted in the ranks as privates ; they
have borne and bear unheard-of hardships, declining
all aid and subvention from their parents, cut off
from all communication with them, too happy when
a secret scout or disguised messenger from General
Stuart goes the round of the houses where anxious
mothers are watching and praying, with the wel-
come though concise verbal message that their dar-
ling is " alive and well." _ _

And it is among a people so circumstanced that
the agents of the Federal Government are seeking for
" loyal" sentiments and are determined to enforce
them. The fight between North and South has al-
ready long since been fought here on legal ground;
and ever since the members of the State Legislature
were sent " to consider themselves" at Fort Wsrren
for 18 months, there has been no such thing as
even the pretence or semblance of law in Mary-
land. The military exercise supreme sway, and,
under their patronage, the Government has fallen
into the hands of that minority which had just been
crushed in 1860 before the outbreak of the civil
war. A stranger to local passions, and proud of
my neutral position, I shall not repeat all I hear to
the disparagement of that minority from the mouth
of their adversaries. That they are " men of no
rank, strangers to the country, Yankees for the
most part" is, however, sufficiently manifest ; con-
stituted into a Union party,backed by the bayonets
of a strong garrison, and by the helpless condition
of a State cut off from all communication with its
friends, and exposed to attack by land and sea from
its enemies, these Union men have the whip-hand
of their adversaries, and most unmercifully they use
it. To displease them is to be disloyal; the charge
of disloyalty is sufficient to send a man to prison or
to doom a woman to be forcibly conveyed across the
lines to Virginia.
Under such circumstances men are, as I said, soon
taught the bitter lessons of caution and dissimula-
tion. People hers dream of nothing but spies and
informers ; social intercourse is at an end, letters
are deemed unsafe, the clubs have been shut up, the
hotels aro shunned, the press is made to conceal
rather than to utter thoughts.
It is only if you are admitted into the privacy of
the Baltimore houses, if you disarm all suspicion,
and win titles to free intercourse with the people,
that you get at the real state of their minds and
hearts, when such an exhibition is made of their
feelings that it is only by the strongest efforts that
you can prevent your own from running away
with your calm judgment. I thought I knew some-
thing of the hatred of the Lombards for Austria or
of the Poles for Russia, but I am quite sure I had
no idea of such rancorous feelings as harbour in
Southern breasts against the mere name of
amoant of education, Yankee. There is no
no polish of manner, that has power to moderate
the ill will, or at least to soften its expression. The
sternest of men, the gentlest and loveliest of women,
are equally apt to speak
and behave as savages
whenever the hideous topic is brought in; and when
is there any other theme of talk introduced at any
moment among these excited people ? The mere
question of slavery moves them not ; Union or
Secession are words Which have lost not a little of
their import ; Democracy and Republicanism have
no very great weight on their mind. On all these
subjects they can reason. What stirs them up is
the word " Yankee.» It is against the North, as
such, that they cherish implacable hate. Rather
than be, I will not say reunited, but reconciled to
them on any terms, there is not one among them, if
you hear them, that is not willing to give up not
only life, but, what is infinitely dearer, home and
country, the most sacred domestic and social ties.
The strong, true instinct with them is in the event
of the ultimate downfall of the South to baffle the
North by universal emigration.
Of the grievances of the South against the North
previous to the opening rd the present civil war
there seems hardly anything mom to be said. I
hear now no great complaints of Yankee hypocrisy
and fanaticism on the subject of slavery, of their
tariff, of their jealousy of Southern superior abili-
ties and political ascendancy. It is the war itself,
they say, which has set forth the Yankee character
in its true light, and has roused in Southern bosoms
a resentment which no lapse of time would seem
likely to extinguish. In a war which for the North
was one of mere aggression ; in a war in which

NEWSPAPER

rptie,
the North was at least- four to •
.r 4
the South, why could not the for r 4rA
the same fair, honourable means as th tif-r,
Behold ! Virginia, Carolina, Maryland herself,l6t.re'
taken the field with all their chivalry; soldiers and
officers in their lines ere piltiemen ; the law of
nations, the calls of common ocurtesy and humanity
are obeyed by the armies une,er the orders of Lee,
on the battle-field as at a tournament. Before the
battle and after the victory th,o Southerner behaves
like a man who fears God, arx.d whose sword has no
edge where it meets with no resistance.

" The North," these Marylanders say, contrast-
ing the conduct of the two bel.ligerents, " the North
never took the field ; it fought its batiks by proxy ;
it led the scum of its own cities, the refuse of emi-
grant Europe, to the invasion of the South. Fs
soldiers are mere ruffians ; its cflicers, you see them,
greedy attorneys, low pec;dlers, crack-brained
choolmasters—a ruthlas, grasping, fanatical set, of
which the Schenks and the Butltrs are the proto-
types. All the horrors of war, the hardships and
sufferings, eithfr altogether inseparable from war-
fare on an extensive scale, or attributable to imper-
fect means and want of experience—the strict,
harsh, arbitrary measures attendant upon military
occupation and the infliction of martial law—all is
by these Southerners laid to the charge or the innate
base malice of Yankee nature. They have endless
tales of the refined, petty cruelty, of the coarsencEs of
language, of the outrageous manners by which the
mean victors wilfully, as they say, aggravate the sor-
rowful condition of the vanquished. A few of their
most striking cases of Yankee harshness and vul-
garity I gave you in a former letter. I have one to
add to-day which, perhaps, better characterises the
mutual feelings of the contending parties than any
of the foregoing.
A certain number of ladies of the Union party,
chiefly from the North, have taken upon themselves
the management of the Baltimore hospitals, which
are at this time full of the sick and wounded from
the fields of Gettysburg. The wife of a Yankee
schoolmaster, now at the top of political influence,
under Schenk's patronage, is at the head of this cha-
ritable association. On one of her late visits this
zealous woman walked into the ward of the Con-
federate wounded with a Federal flag in her hand,
and held the obnoxious stars and stripes over the
bed of a dying sufferer, saying, as she waved the
rustling silk in his very face, " There my friend,
you were loth to live under this glorious banner; it
must be refreshing to yon at least to die under it l"

It is by these shocking, incredible outrages
against good taste, no less than good feelings, that
the Yankees have laid for themselves so large a trea-
sure of hatred among these Southerners, who be-
lieve themselves, and who are, in my opinion, so
much more humane and gentle. Unfortunately, the
North is aware of this implacability of the Southern
people, and, as I have before hinted, contemplates
no less than the restoration of its power over the
land by the utter, reckless ruin and extermination
of its inhabitants. It was only after Lee's retreat
at Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg and Port
Hudson that the real intentions of the Republican
party in power at Washington began to reveal
themselves. It was then that the armament of
negroes on a very large scale and the all-sweeping
confiscation of rebel property were openly resolved
upon. But the thought that no quarter should be
given to the South, that none should be spared, and
the innocent perish with the guilty, was lurking
in many a Northern bosom at a very early time.
Witness the following paragraph, printed on the
21st April, 1862, in the Washington Globe—a paper
then, as now, under the immediate influence of the
Government :

" If such is really the will and purpose of the body of
the Southern people, and not merely the vain bravado
or desperation of, their ruined leaders, who would pull
down everything with them, in their own certain ruin
before Heaven let the final trial of power and truth and
justice in this question be made at once and for ever.
If with no complaint against the Government—for they
have never yet made any—they choose traitorously to resist
to the death the efforts of that Union, like a chastening
father, to bring them back, repentant, to its fostering arms,
let them die the death, let their very memory fade for ever,
and let their desolated fields be given to some better race who
will know how to cultivate them for the good of all man.
kind."

Here the doom—not of the Southern combatants
alone, but of all the race—was with sufficient clear-
ness foreshadowed. That doom is now being ful-
filled, and without inconceivable prodigies of valour,
or without foreign interference, it will not be
averted. It is true, there are noble hearts in the
North, and there are not ungenerous parties who
revolt against this unheard-of abuse of victory.
There are wary men and jealous parties who look
upon the subjugation of the South on these un-
sparing terms as an evil fraught with serious con-
sequences to themselves, a danger for the future
liberties of the Union, and for the independent ex-
ercise of single States. Opposition is already to
be heard thundering loudly in many an influential
Northern organ, and Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet
are made the subject of the most virulent attacks.
The blackest republicanism is rampant, however,
and the moderate, conservative, or "Democratic"
party, seem to have neither head nor heart. The
" Copperhead? are likely enough to stand by and
see the South immolated, though they ought to be
aware their own turn will come next.

The intense beat under which we are all suffering
seems to have prostrated, and to some extent dis-
organised, both the armies in Virginia. Thai of
General Meade, who has repeatedly tendered his
resignation, and is likely to be superseded. by Grant,
is said to be about to be drawn back "in front of
Washington." Lee is reported to have sent several
brigades to Charleston. His army is reduced in
numbers, and the sufferings, both in the camp and
in Richmond, are described as severe, The ther-
mometer is often up at 100 deg. there (we had it at
94 deg., and even 98 deg. here yesterday in the
shade). Illness is rife among the troops. All au-
thorities agree that "such a heat was never expe•
rienced in these parts of the American Continent."
There is in one of the Northern Papers an article
which I hope will not escape your attention, as it is
the best picture the Americans can draw of them-
selves, of their social and political state, and of the
men now guiding their destinies. The article is
entitled " Saratoga : Past and Present," and it con-
trasts the brilliant reunions of that favourite water-
ing-place in the days of President Van Buren, a
quarter of a century ago, with the riffraff which
congregate on the same cool spot now-a-days.
"That," says the paper, " was the classic age. This
is the age of shoddy. Then the destinies of the nation
were controlled by statesmen. Now a pack of poor,
crazy fanatics rule to ruin. The then Goddess of
Liberty was represented as a young and lovely
woman, fresh, vigorous, immortal. Now the repre-
sentative cf Liberty is supposed to be a hall-witted
fellow, who wears his trousers tucked into his boots,
and his old white hat on the back of his head, as if
the disorder of his dress were typical of the dis-
order of his mind Our politicians
used to be gentlemen, but now the majority of them
are arrant scoundrels. Society, politics, and, indeed,
the whole Republic, have lost their tone," &e. The
writer goes on to build his hopes on the future, and
in the " reconstruction of the Union, followed by a
general regeneration ;" but it remains to be seen
whether a restoration of the Union brought about
by "poor crazy fanatics," under the guidance of a
half-witted fellow," and at the suggestion of
arrant scoundrels, calling themselves politicians,"
—a restoration grounded on the extermination of
the white and the ruin and confusion of the negro
race in the South, will be conducive to that" rapid,
triumphant, and glorious progress" which this out-
spoken laudator temporis oat.. anticipates.

THE PRIMMEST, MINCING SYMPATHY—perhaps
ever put into words, is that expressed by the Queen
of Prussia in a note accompanying her Majesty's contribu-
tion of 50 Fredericks d'or to the Cobourg committee for the
erection of a monument to the late Prince Consort, a note
expressed in the manner following have.fonewed the
project of erecting a monument to the departed Prince
Albert in his native town with great sympathy, and desire
so much the more to participate in its execution, as the
ever-memorable Prince constantly stood on terms of close
acquaintance with me both as relation and friend ; tmd his
memory is esteemed and dear to me. with these feelings
I accompany your noble enterprise, for which the enclosed
contribution is intended, with my best wishes.—AVOLTSTK,e
Queen of Prussia—Coblentz, Ju►y 25, 1563."

LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1863.

The Princes of Germany are learning wisdom.
Truth, at last, is making itself heard in high places.
Not from without—not in the thundering accents
of popular revolution, but from within—from
within the sacred precincts of royalty, in the still
small voice of conscience-stricken conviction, comes
to-day the doctrine of reform and the promulga-
tion of popular rights. Magna est veritas, says the
Adage. We have only to wait, and truth must
and will be triumphant. It is a triumph, to-day,
to those who, like ourselves, have so long and so
strenuously preached those popular doctrines
to witness the steady and rapid progress
of their diffusion even in quarters the
least to be expected. What says the King of
BAVARIA in his recent address to the Emperor of
AUSTRIA ? The King of BAVARIA, a Sovereign
himself, speaking in the name of an essembled con-
gress of Sovereigns, Princes and Potentates of the
proud German race, and addressing his words to
the mighty Kaiser, the despotic head of imperial
Austria, the King of BAVARIA declares, in the
name of all these Princes, and the Emperor to
whom he speaks cordially agrees with him—" We
no longer misunderstand that the basis (of the
constitution) needs to be developed agreeably to
the spirit of the age, and especially by the
organic introduction of a representation of the
various Peoples." Is not this a step in advance ?
A Congress of Sovereigns take into consideration a
representation of Peoples! They recognise the
existence—the moral existence—of such bedies•
Not merely as " hewers of wood and drawers of
water"—not merely to labour and sow, to toil and
to be taxed, but—to be represented: The King of
BAVARIA is wise in his generation, but the chief
merit of his wisdom is due, no doubt, to a greater
and a yet wiser poten tate—thc Emperor of AUSTRIA.
He it is who, with a true prescience, has under-
stood the exigency of the hour. He has recognised
at once the Danger, the Difficulty, and the Oppor-
tunity of his position, and, like a skilful gene-
ral, availing himself of the Opportunity, has
set both Danger and Difficulty at defiance.
The Emperor of AUSTRIA has struck the key-note
to which his brother Princes have wisely—how
wisely !—hastened to respond. Hence the liberal
declaration of the King of BAVARIA, who, in the
course of his discourse alludes more than once to
" the spirit of the age," and the desire of the Princes
to conform to it. Had such an appreciation of a great
truth dawned upon the benighted minds of CHARLES
I. and Loues XVI., the STUARTS might have gone
to their graves Kings of England, and the BOUR-
BONS at this day might have been reigning
8611 in France. Every rule, of course, must have
its exception, every otherwise unanimous body
must have its dissentient unit. The Happy Family
of prudent Sovereigns have one foolish and refrac-
tory Brother. The King of PRUSSIA is acting on
the principle of the naughty boy who sulks in the
corner and "will not" take part in the general joy.
The punishment falls where, obviously, it is justly
due, on himself and on himself alone ! So be it.
The liberal and enlightened Sovereigns of Germany,
from a mistaken and exaggerated courtesy, had in-
vited the illiberal and unenlightened King of
PRUSSIA to take part in their deliberations. The
King of PRUSSIA knew better. What should he
do in such an assembly ? We should say to the
other Sovereigns, as we would say to the friends of
the refractory youth above-mentioned, who wish to
ccr"iliate and coax him from his corner—" Leave
him alone; he knows his right place. Let him
abide by his
own wise decision, and—take the conse-
quences le The deliberations of the other Princes
will be watched with a very general and well-
deserved interest in
rest this country. " The end we
aim at," Bees
theui(hOng of BAVARIA, " is clearly
before our eyes, although the paths which conduct
to it are nut yet prepared and are in part concealed
from us." The
end, however, is beforo them—the
development of the co
on in accordance with
the spirit of the age--the
design so daringly adven-
tared upon by the Emperor
of AUSTRIA. While
FRANCIS JOSEPH ill, for this Prudent declaration, so 1
in opposition to the foregone
tenets
the his Liberals of
winning golden opinions from
country, some zealous politicians will, Perhaps re-
pent them of the indignation „e
lavishly
bestowed awhile ago upon Mr. R
°EBTICK
He was among the first to recognise thou:
liberal indications on the part of the Kaiser, and,
like all men who are beforehand with any dis-
covery or innovation, he met only with obloquy and
iecreiulitiee. He is now to a certain extent justi-
fied, and we trust that the future deliberations and
resolutions of the Congress will yet further gua-
rantee and yet further justify his hopes and ex-
peetations. " Let us engage in the work with
calmness and firmness," says the prudent King of
BAVARIA, " with a sincere and honest will ; then
the benediction of the all, Powerfal will be with
ns, and will crown our labours," to which aspiration
the Liberals of England will very fervently and
unanimously respond—Amen !

It is often easier to work an important charge
than to rectify a mistake, easier to introduce a
startling innovation than to retrace the steps which
have been taken on the supposed road to reform.
Men will generally prefer to go a very long way

round to taking the short and simple path back
again, which they have just travel Seed, thinking
they were making rapid progress. Lt is therefore
an unusual, as well as satisfactory event, to find the
Westminster Board of Works so frankly and so
promptly admitting the error into which they have
been led, and so readily taking measures to put
matters right again. The outlines of the case are
familiar to the public, and it is undoubtedly one of
great hardship. For many years past an array of
stall and truck-keepers have been tolerated in the
Broadway, Westminster, and several adjacent
parts, as they aro in Tottenham-court-road, the
New Cut, Clare-street, Camden-town, Islington,
and countless other places. Some of these stalls
were, it seems, regarded as family possessions, and
in any case the owner's right to his stand and his
stall was unquestioned by any competitor. Many
of the occupants have held their posts for more
than 30 years, some of them being aged persons, who
would naturally be unfit for any other employment.
A regular al fresco market was thus carried on, the
activity of which any one may guess who has ever
passed through such a locality on a Saturday even-
ing. It needs the pen of a DICKENS to depict
piTcthwith
sufficient vivacity its busy and stirring life.
re-
gular tradesmen of the neighbourhoodhave,itwoul
would
seem, no objection to these supernumerary
pur-
veyors, and it is indeed probable that their interests
do not clash. A totally different class would stop
at a street-stall, attracted by the cry of " five whit-
in gs for a penny" from the customers who choose
he
huferome
the fishmongers' marble; and the myat
of cabbages and onions that greet the passenger at
every corner of the footpath with the assurance that
each is " the last penn'orth," are not very likely to
prove dangerous rivals of the regular supply. The
system, although it undoubtedly has its drawbacks,
fills a vacancy in our social life. It supports one
class and provides for another. It is indisputably
the market of the poor, and buyers and sellers, who
are all of the lower working order, would be heavy
losers by its suppression. It supplies the means of
regular and honest living to hundreds of poor hard-
working persons, who have probably neither expe-
rience, ability, nor, above all, capital enough to em-
bark on a larger scale. Oar sources of employment
are not so many, nor is our labour market so ill sup-
plied, that weshould lightly talk of closin g one honest
and useful means of getting a livelihood, and the
amount of distress, suffering, and indignation
caused in Westminster by the recent order for the
removal of the street stalls in the district may be
readily imagined. Acting, no doubt, from a mis-
taken wish to preserve public order and consult the
general convenience, the members of the Board of
Works passed a resolution at the close of last month
approving the report of their committee with
reference to obstructions on the footways and car-
riage-ways. Upon the passing of this resolution,
the Chief Commissioner of Police caused the stalls
to be removed, and loud were the lamentations of
the poor ruined stallkeepers. Who originated the
matter in the first instance we cannot say, but the
general impression on the part of the tradesmen,
whether the result of deliberate conviction or of
temporary compassion, appears to be in favour of
the maintenance of the old customs. How the dis-
placed vendors have occupied or supported them-
selves since the arbitrary decree that broke up their
ancient privilege we know not, but their time of
trouble has only been of short duration. Moved
by the distress and excitement felt throughout the
district, some of the residents in the neighbour-
hood took up the matter and exerted themselves to
obtain the rescinding of the proceedings. A body
was formed which was styled the Street Stall Com-
mittee, which has been actively engaged in the
movement. On Monday last a meeting of more
than a thousand persons assembled at the Temper-
ance Hall, Westminster, at which the committee
reported their proceedings, and a deputation was
appointed to wait upon the District Board of Works
and present a memorial asking for the return of the
stalls. In presenting this memorial, which was
numerously signed, the secretary to the committee
pointed out the hardship of the case, showing that
45 families, numbering 300 persons, had been sud-
denly thrown out of employment by the withdrawal
of a privilege which the costermongers had en-
joyed for the last 60 years. A licensed victualler
in the Broadway, who was also a member of the
deputation, testified, on the strength of 31 years'
experience, to the utility and practical service of
the street market to the families of the poor. An-
other tradesman, residing in Great Chapel-street,
gave satisfactory evidence as to the general feeling
of the locality; for he affirmed that having can-
vassed the neighbourhood for signatures to the me-
morial, he had only met with three refusals. Other
respectable shopkeepers expressed themselves
strongly in support of the memorial, and the de-
putation withdrew. The members of the Board
thereupon, with a candour and readiness that does
them honour, at once admitted that they had made
a mistake, and proceeded promptly to rectify it.
Having, of course, no personal interest in the mat-
ter, they had only endeavoured to carry out what
they believed to be for the general good ; but on
finding that the proceedings they had taken were
totally at variance with the feeling of the district,
and were the cause of much suffering to an honest
and industrious class of persons, they immediately
revoked the obnoxious resolution, and carried
a motion for the reinstatement of the
stalls. Mr. -WHITE, of Parliament-street, the
original mover of the resolution, alone re-
tained his opinion unchanged, but as he did not
vote, not being ambitious of so isolated a dignity,
this solitary exception did not mar the unanimity
with which the motion was carried. So that the
inhabitants of the Broadway and Chapel-street
will soon see the busy line of trucks fringing their
thoroughfares as of old, and the little community,
who probably regard their ancient positions with
as much pride and jealousy as the claimants to
larger domains, will hasten to repossess themselves
of the old time-honoured haunts. No sooner was
the good news wafted abroad than hundreds of the
poor, we are told, assembled as if, by magic, alter-
nately congratulating each other, and blessing the
authors of the change,
and expressing their joy,
we may be sure, in sufficiently demonstrative
fashion. We are heartily glad that the affair has
terminated so satisfactorily, and we hope it will be
a caution to well-disposed but officious reformers
to pause before they interfere too lightly with the
resources of humble industry. The employment
and decent maintenance of several hundred fami-
lies is no light thing in this busy metropolis, where
want is ao often the guide to crime, and the
cannot bYe sup-
pressionmeans of any
any less dofupeaornnibnyg t anhe hpoenl
political
te liveli-
hoodeeo
•
than by the humanitarian, as
onthmeirBtt'han a social calamity. It is of less conse-
quence that our carriage roads should be free from
all obstruction than that
our thoroughfares
clear from mendicants anOdurthfQi ee
vt
ews y
and
hoa u tt bl
ee
outer decorum gained in
an increase
be sadly compounded for by
in
nontblde
already overwhelming numbers of our criminal and
destitute population. Great credit is due to this
District Board for so quickly atoning for their
error, and still greater praise is due to those gen-
tlemen whose active and untiring efforts have won
the gratifying gaerLa of success, cad have ob-

tained for them the hearty thanks of their humble
co-parishioners.

Vox et preterea nihil should certainly be the motto
of the noble lord who presides over our foreign
policy, and perhaps more justly of the administra-
tion which he represents in that department. That
Earl RUSSELL means well, we do not doubt, and in-
deed in some cases, such as the late controversy wiih
the Brazilian Government, he has proved himself
ready to vindicate the rights of his country with
the sword as well as the pen. It is true that, in
such cases, there is no danger of war, and by taking
matters with a high hand a satisfactory result will
generally follow. It would naturally be supposed
That the same decisive line of action would have been
taken in regard to the conduct of a powerful State
that has not like others sinned against England,
by misadventure, or through the ignorance or over
zealousness of its agents, but one which glories in
the violation of international laws. The dignity of
t
mh e empireparta l
l y!
anddemands
whtehna tt
hhee rhsotna
honour
ens
rmaenndshinotuelrd d
iesteoafl
England is at stake, know no difference between
the mighty and the weak. But let us
glance at the voleminons correspondence which
has been carried on between Earl RUSSELL and
the United States Government on the question,
whether the United States Government shalt
violate the law of nations regarding neutrals,
and empower Customhouse agents at New York,
by the apse dixit of the Dictator, to stay British
vessels from leaving that port 'with cargoes con-
signed to firms in the English colonies, or, if per-
mitted to sail, requiring them to enter into an
undertaking that such cargoes shall not in any
wise fall into the hands of the Confederates.
Earl RUSSELL denies the right of Mr, LIN-
COLN to act in such a manner. He admits
frankly that the United States Government
has a right to forbi.d the export of any article from,
its ports which necessity or prudence may require
but he distinctl.y declares that it is unjust to make
an exceptiona.t case of English vessels. One would
have thought that this ought to have been enough
to show the 'Washington Cabinet the folly of the
act, and to have brought them to reason: No such
thing. More than a year has passed over since these
wrongs were first complained of, and British trade
between New York and the Bahamas is much in-
jured. After British merchantmen have been seized
on the high seas, under pretext that they intended
to run the blockade, and their papers pronounced
forgeries without any proof whatsoever, and the
very sanctity of our ports violated, Earl RUSSELL,
on the receipt of a despatch from Lord LYONS, in-
dites the following letter, instructing the Ambassa-
dor of the British Crown to re-open the question
just at the point where it first originated :

"Foreign-office, July 18, 1863.

"My Lord,—You will have learnt from my despatch of
the 10th ult., that as her Majesty's Government saw reason
to hope that their representations respecting the interference
exercised by the United States Government with the trade
carried on between New York and the Bahamas would not
remain without effect, they had not considered it necessary
to continue the controversy with t hat Government. In
this expectation, however, her Majesty's Government are
disappointed ; for it would appear from the representation
of Messrs. Tootal, Broadhurst, and Co., which accompanies
your despatch of the 22d ult., that the interference of the
United States authorities with this trade is still persisted
in, and I have according'y to instruct you to address a fresh
remonstrance on this subject to the United States Govern-

ment.—l am, &c.," RUSSELL,"
How is all this to end ? Can Lord P- ALMERSTON'S
Cabinet expect that any serious attention will be
paid to remonstrances only. Remonstrances can
alone have weight with such men as ABRAHAM
LINCOLN and Mr. SEWARD when there is a pressure
behind. This was forcibly demonstrated by the
affair of the Trent. Would the Southern delegates
have been released if ten thousand soldiers had not,
as it were, crushed through the ice into Canada,
and an English fleet been in readiness to threaten
New York, Boston, and Portland. This was a
lesson to American politicians; they found that
their overweening conceit had overrated England's
endurance, and underrated the promptness for
action when there was no help for it, or rather
when the people felt the insult, and the Ministers
were forced to resent it. Mr. LINCOLN has taken
the hint and profited by it ; he found it necessary
to give way ac the time, and did so at the expense of
the agent, the notorious Captain WILKES, who was
declared to have acted without instructions. For
all this he was at once elevated to the dignity of
Commodore. Since then a more crafty policy has
been followed, a sharp practice has been softened
down by smooth words, and while diplomatists are
arguing, American custom-house officers are dic-
tating to English merchants what they may
and what they may not ship, and Fede-
ral cruisers are overhauling any West In-
dian trader that they can catch. It is not to be
expected that this can last. Mr. LINCOLN is
playing a desperate game ; but then desperation
gives him courage. So long as he can befool Eng-
land, he may hold his own and trust to the doctrine
of chances. Let that doctrine be what it may for
America, North or South, it is high time that Eng-
land should be trifled with no longer. Let Earl
RUSSELL be deaf to all unnecessary verbal remon-
strances, and plainly let it be understood that Eng-
land will have her rights respected, and that if
these be wantonly infringed, her next remon-
strance will come from the cannon's mouth.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE,

THE SUMMER SEASON.

This theatre was reopened for the above purpose
on Saturday evening by Mr. Walter Montgomery
with a company selected from various of the Lon-
don houses.

The entertainments consisted of the "Merchant
of Venice" and the drama of " Lavater," iu both of
which Mr. Montgomery appeared, giving a most
vigorous impersonation of the Jew in the first place,
and of the Swiss philosopher in the second.
He was very warmly received and applauded,
and was ably supported in the play by the Portia
of Mies Atkinson, which was a genuine perform-
ance. We are happy to add that the house was
well filled.

To-morrow evening Mr. Montgomery appears in
Othello, and on Thursday in King John.

THE NEW BANKRUPT ACT AND IMPRISONMENT.
—As an illustration of the operation of the new
Bankruptcy Act we give the following results of the gaol
delivery in the metropolitan district, made by Mr. Registrar
Roche on Friday, the 21st inst. Since the abolition of the
Queen's Prison, which has been recently transferred to the
War Department, and will be used as a place for the deten-
tion of military prisoners, there are only two debtor prisons
in the metropolitan aistrict—Horsenionger-lane Gaol and
Whitecross-street Prison. In the former the Lumber of
prisoners confined for debt on the 21st was 20 ; of these 10
were included in the gaoler's return made on the lst of the
month, and of these three were adjudicated bankrupts and
released; the others, either as bankrupts who had been
remanded, or who had not been sufficient time in prison,
were not dealt with. At Whitecross-street the number of
prisoners for debt confined on the 21st was 104, many of
these being County Court commitments ; the number re-
turned by the gaoler on the Ist of the month as coming
within the jurisdiction of the Registrar was 26. Of these
14 were adjudicated bankrupt and released; the remainder
were not dealt with because the debtors had not been in
prison sufficient time, or were abaut to make arrangements
with their creditors. These details may lead to the infer-
ence that a system of friendly arrests as a preliminary to
pauper bankruptcy is still very popular. Although the
number of debtors in prison prior to October, 1861, was
he been large,exrected, the number is not so materially diminished as might
there being a continual influx of new
comers,

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE BOMBAY MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, AUG. 24.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Ceylon, Capt. Evans, with the heavy portion
of the Bombay and Mediterranean Mails has ar.
rived. She brings 58 passengers, 4 packages specie,
value £1,277, also 27 cases Indian shawls, 1 box
mosaics, 46 packages sundries, and 426 bales raw
silk, value £40,000 sterling.
The Ceylon experienced from Cape St. Vincent
to Pinisterre head winds and heavy sea ; across the
Bay of Biscay, light winds and fine weather.

On. the 15th, in lat. 36 21 N., long. 13 34 E.,
the Ceylon spoke the steamship Memon, steering
eastward ; on the same date, lat. 36 40 N., long.
12 40, the steamship Belona, bound west; on the
16th, in lat. 37 38 N., long. 6 42 E., s.s. official
No. 29,639, bound east ; 19th, in let. 36 15 N.,
long. 6 30 %V., s.s. Tiber, steering N.W.; and on the
22d, the company's steamer Pera, bound for the
East, with the outward mails of the 20th.
The steamer Ellora, with the outward mails of
the 12th, left Gibraltar for Alexandria on the 18th.
The Tangier, of Liverpool, 30 days from Sunder-
land, bound to Constantinople, passed Gibraltar on
the 18th.

Her Majesty's sh'ps Cossack, Malacca, Surprise,
and Psyche, were at Malta, and the Trident at
Gibraltar.

The Russian screw frigate Asleaba arrived a'
Cadiz on the 15th.

GIBRALTAR, AUG. 19.

The following British ships have arrived here:—
The steamer Arabian, 51 days from Liverpool, and
the schooner Stork, 10 days from Funchal, on the
15th; the schooner Catherine Ann, 3 days from
Alicant, on the 16th; the schooner Blue Vein, 21
days from Cardiff, on the 17th; and on the 18th,
the brigantine John and Mary, 22 days from Car-
diff, and the barque William Wilson, 19 days from
New York. The british brig Florist, with a
general cargo, left Gibraltar on the 17th, for
Liverpool.

Exchanges on London, 90 days' date, 49 to 60 ;
Paris, of. 28a. ; Marseilles, Of. 290. ;
Madrid, 8 days' sight, par; Cadiz, par to 1.- prem. ;
Genoa, sf. 29c. ;
Seville, par; Malaga, par to 1; Barcelona, g, prem. ;
Almeira, par ; Valencia, par ; Alicant, I discount.
Freights without change.

THE CONGRESS AT MALINES.
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
MALINES, Aug. 21.
Yesterday morning the labours of the Congress
were resumed, according to the programme, by the
separate meetings of the sections; and, to endeavour
to see something of them beyond the sth, which
bad hitherto engrossed my attention, and had led
me to visit it a second time from the interest the
first meeting had provoked, I went up to the hall in
which the 4th or Fine Art section met. It was
holding its third and last meeting, and had got be-
yond all the strictly artistic part of its programme,
to discuss questions of literature, which had some-
how or other been set down to it, under the respec
tive headings
of historical works and novels.
With regard to novels, which, from their attrac-
tive nature, may be made very useful to morality,
it was deemed that all discussion and controversy
should be excluded from such works, as not being
authoritative. One of the members called the
attention of the section to the class of novels
that may be called historical; and,
taking as models
those of Fabiola and Calista, as contrasted with
French and Italian works of the same kind, ex-
pressed a wish that those who so attractively weave
together history and fiction for the instruction of
many, should more carefully note and distinguish
for their readers what is fact and what is fiction.
Art criticism was also discussed; and as the sth
section had decided on the publication of an inter-
national journal, it was suggested that, practically,
a great desideratum in criticism could be attained,
namely, an international criticism.
At three o'clock the usual general meeting began
by the nomination of corresponding members of the
central committee for Italy, France, England and
Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Spain,
Portugal, and Spanish America. Mgr. Manning,
and Messrs. Wilberforce, Wegg-Prosser, and Sohn
Lambert, were nominated for England; and Mgr.
Woodlock, the Rev. Dr. O'Brien, the founder of
the Young Men's Society, and Major O'Reilly,
M.P. for Longford, were nominated for Ireland.
Then followed two reports from the fifth section,
ono on the intended international journal, the other
on the liberty of association. ' The former of these
was made the text, or rather the pretext, of a
speech by a Parisian lawyer who left us rather
confused in our notions. The latter was read by a
Belgian in a sensible manner. The power of associa-
tion existing in the Church was aptly illustrated by
thee r
e d
present,a ss
hadw with
which the Cardinal of Malines,
hsucceeded, but a few weeks before,
in reorganising
the college which the civil authori-
ties had attempted to destroy, by removing from
hie direction the town college. The Cardinal
issued a single appeal, and the means were imme-
diately forthcoming to purchase other premises,
where the whole body of professors and pupils were
duly transferred.
The General Secretary of the Congress, M,
Dupectiaux, announced that, in conformity with a
the central committee
would
ootueldoafppt hlye fifth section,
itself
to
gathering the statistics of
Catholics throughout the world. The baptismal
ge parish in Christendom will
readily of Catholics in any country
y multiplyingi
number of baptisms in a year
br e t r
give
v kee p t
the i n
the
number
every
by the average number of years of human life in
each locality.
A report from the 2d section, on the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul, in Belgium, was then read in
a rather plain-chant tone, and afforded us the pleas-
ing information that no less than 15,674 poor
families are relieved weekly by the society in Bel-
gium.
Mgr. Nardi, auditor of the • Supreme Court of
Rata in Rome, and the Signori Alberi, of Florence,
and Casoni, of Bologna, successively addressed the
meeting on the present state of the Catholics of Italy.
Mgr. Nardi noticed especially the noble efforts of
the Catholic press, as represented by the Azmonia
of Turin, and the Eco of Bologna, the latter of which
has already been condemned by the Piedmontese
to thirty-five sequestrations, 17 years of imprison-
ment for its editor, and £3,000 fine, and yet sends
weekly to the St Peter's Pence Associotion a sum
of 400 francs. He alluded to the triumphs of the
Church in the sufferings of its bishops exiled and
imprisoned in Italy. He spoke of having eight
days before taken leave of the Holy Father, who
had expressed to him the hopes he grounded on the
Mechlin Congress. He mentioned also that the
se, but they c
Catholics of Rome had already subscribed more
than
which a t
her
million
c ,p
e o f
wfarna
tnecds
tt
oo
refuse,
efhe ut. Peter's P"
hade'
claimed to be treated in the same manner as ether
Catholics, end to be allowed to contribute to relieve
their Father from dl threatened embarrassment and
dependence. Mgr. Nardi concluded by announcing
that on his return to Rome in a few days, his first
act would be to ask the Holy Father's blessing for
all the members of the Congress and for the country
in which they had met, that it might ever be free,
glorious, and happy.
Signor Alberi, in the course of a most spirited
address, expressed his feeling that the programme
of a free Church in a free State had been
applied to Italy in a manner to deride at once free-
dom, the Church, and common sense. He described
also the system of conscription and of loans and
taxations, as it was Low carried on by the Pied.
montese, as calculated to absorb the whole of the
public strength of Italy.
Signor Casoni, a remarkably fine looking man of
thirty, kept the assembly delighted by his address,
in which he described the Catholics of Italy as

having to sustain the attack and shock of the whole
of the enemies of the Church throughout the world,
and as being now in a state of persecution to the
extent of having no less than 1,200 monasteries
destroyed, 6,000 religious and nuns turned out
penniless from their homes, and 50 bishops impri-
soned or exiled.

During the address of Signor Alberi, the ap-
plause and rising of the whole assembly had greeted
the entrance of the eloquent champion of Catholic
rights, the Count de Montalembert. At the end of
Signor Catoni's discourse the proceedings were
suspended for half an hour, at the termination of
which they were resumed, the meeting becoming a
public meeting, at which ladies and other persons
provided with tickets were admitted. The great
intellectual treat of the Congress then began.
Tho COUNT DE NONTALEMBERT, after twelve
years' silence, o ace more addressed a public as-
sembly, which hung upon his words for an hour
and a half, as the monk of the legend listened
to the little bird's song for a thousand years,
as if it were a single day. The Free Church
in 'a Free State was his text, his own words stolen
from him by a great culprit, as he rightly observed.
He held to its truth, despite of its gross misapplica-
tion, and he pointed to Belgium as the realisation of it.
He described himself as coming thither, drawn by
the publicity still reigning in Belgium,glad to escape
for a time from a country which has consented to
become the least free of the Western world. He
spoke of the advantages for Catholics to understand
rightly the duties and opportunities of public life,
to know how to accept political changes which
could not be reversed. Democracy had now become
supreme in the world, and however he might have
occasionally been frightened by it as a man, he had
never been so as a Christian. The waters of the
flood, all destroying as they were, served but to prove
the safety of the Ark ; and, in the midst of revolution
and an unruly Democracy, the Church and the
Church alone, stood out as the refuge of society truly
affording it the right of sanctuary. When the
waters abated and the dry land reappeared as a new
world, it needed the more, as such, to be blessed by
the pervading influence of religion. Exclusive pri-
vileges and state protection had ever brought the
Catholic Church into a state of slavery to temporal
despotism, infinitely more prejudicial to it and de-
grading to its clergy, than:any amount of attacks
and insults on the part of heresy and infidelity.
In France, it was the man who dared to
say that the state was himself, who had
insulted the Holy Father in Rome, and had
imposed the moat servile yoke on the episcopate
who had repealed the Edict of Nantes. Ia 1771
Voltaire said--" lam not a Parliamentarist. I had
much rather obey a handsome lion than two hun-
dred rats like myself." His fine lion was a Louis
XV., who was the finisher of a political despotism
founded by a Louis XI. The modern restorer of
that despotism, that great man of prey, Napoleon 1,,
had restored the Church to its political status, but—
to oppress its ministers and cruelly handle its
supreme Pontiff, while he sought with all the in-
genuity of his satellites to enslave even the con-
sciences of the meanest among the faithful. In
modern States the protection of Government ever
implied servitude, and servitude of a minute kind
unknown to posterhl. Bureaucracy and centrali-
sation compressed us on all sides, and the Belgians
had to beware of this of all others, and not to vote
by their acts for an annexation which their honour
repelled. Let them look to the consequences of
restricted public liberty in a neighbouring country ;
it held down religion and honesty defenceless
against the attacks of the theatre, changed into a
laboratory of calumny and immorality, while the
very literature of fiction and romance was made
the vehicle of insulting God, and of degrading
the people's hearts by inducing them to hold
Him as a mere man. Democracy led essentially
to despotism, and could be defeated or rendered
innocuous only by a strenuous advocacy of freedom
for all. In 1849, one of the leaders of Democracy
in France, Felix Pyat, had dared to say that
the Republic held two powers, two swords,
from the sovereign people, the temporal and the
spiritual, for that the people was at once Pope and
King. Again, one of those very men at the Social
' Science Congress, held at Brussels that very. year,
had repeated with ferocious naiveté that he cared
but for one sword provided its handle were in his
own hand Such were the pretensions of popular
democracy. But they had to apprehend the effects
of a much more formidable attack from another
form of democracy, the Imperial form, which had
resources such as the old Ceesarism knew nothing
of, and which stole on to oppression under the
mask of protection. Popular freedom soon found
the want of religion, which had made the French
revolution powerless, politically speaking, however
poererful it had been socially speaking, so that it
might well be called :one grande esperance trompee.
Freedom was not too precious to be purchased
by that great and exclusive treasure of the
Church on earth—martyrdom for it had well
been called the last resource of mankind, an inven-
tion of Heaven to tame down the masters of the
world. He concluded for that day by expressing
his heartfelt admiration for the founders of the
Belgian Constitution, who had enriched their coun-
try with the four-fold freedom of Education, Associa-
lion, Religion, and the Press; while, to guard this
religiously, they had had a realy honest man for a
King, who had never infringed his oath. This
was received by the Assembly with long and en-
thusiastic cries of " Viva le Roi !" The venerable
President of the Assembly, also President of the
National Congress of 1831, Baron de Gerlache, who
sat among the audience, between the two cardinals,
hastened up the steps of the platform to embrace
the eloquent orator at the end of his address, which
left the whole Assembly in an indescribable state
of emotion.

V
.
Somewhat unfortunately, after this the rigour of
the programme imposed on Count Foucher de Cureil
the duty of delivering, and on us of listening to,
a rather clever speech on the fraternal spirit of
nations among themselves, and on the strength of
real national feeling, as evidenced by Poland.