The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-04 00:00:00

The following is the letter referred to above :

Sir,—Pardon me for saying it would have been as well
to have reserved your comments on the statements made by
Mr. Roebuck in the Houselof Commons on Tuesday night
until the debate was ended.

The debate is yet pending, and those comments can only
prejudge. In the meantime I think it due to Mr. Roebuck
to say that what he has stated is true, and shall be con-
firmed by me in Parliament with time, place, and circtuu-
stances when the debate is resumed. I have to regret that
it is postponed for a time even so long as the 13th inst.
You have been pleased to speak of us as self-constituted
Ambassadors. I have only to reply that at my first inter-
view with the Emperor, in January, 1861, I was accom-
panied by her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris. That inter-
view was proposed upon matters referring exclusively to
English and French maritime interests.

My subsequent interviews with the Emperor, preceding
the last, were upon a like mission. At some of them he in-
troduced the subject of the civil war in America, and spoke
freely upon it. Whatever he said was fully reported by me
at the time to Lord Cowley, with the Emperor's knowledge
and permission. The interview I had in company with Mr.
Roebuck on the 23d ult., to which he referred in the house,
was brought about by circumstances which, in due time,
shall be fully made known to the country. I should have
had no objection to make what then passed equally known
to Lord Cowley when returning to London from Fontaine-
bleau, through Paris, had time permitted.

I arc, Sir, your obedient servant,

8, Austin Friars, City, June 3,

Mr. S. LINDS.II.

HERALD.—We fear that the Foreign Secretary

is much too great a man to have leisure to read the
newspapers; but we beg to call the attention of
those who are less occupied or less exalted to the
real demands of the mercantile community, which
we submit must be imperatively urged upon the
Foreign Secretary in Parliament before the session
is over. In the first place, it is required that, a
somewhat less abject deference should be shown for
the decisi .us of Federal prize courts. No one wishes
to disoute the high character of the Supreme Court
of the United States; or to doubt that, even under
the tyranny of Mr. Lincoln, and while in fear of
arrest and indefinite imprisonment by martial vio-
lence, the judges of that court will do their duty in
a manner becoming the successors of Judge Story
and Chancellor Kent. Bnt what is affirmed is, that
the courts constituted ad hoc by the present Admi-
nistration are entitled to no more than that degree
of formal courtesy and official recognition which
must be accorded even to the authors of their
existence—that they are not respectable, that they
are not impartial, and that their proceedings should
be watched with extreme and jealous vigilance.
What is asked is, that our Foreign Office should
take steps to obtain prompt and exact information
regarding the proceedings of these courts ; and
should insist on the immediate reparation of the
obvious illegalities and iniquities of which those
proceedings afford evidence. It is not asked that
their decisions should be treated with as little respect
as was shown to the municipal courts of Brazil ; but
only that the British Government should see that
British subjects are not annoyed without due cause,
and are not robbed of their property by sentences
at variance with law, with facts, and with justice.
It is expected, too, that the Foreign Secretary shall
cease to be the apologist for the outrages of United
States naval officers on British shipping, and cease
to hold language which tends to release the Ame-
rican Government and tribunals from the whole-
some fear of being called to account for any acts
tending to the illegal restriction of British trade
and to the oppression of British subjects. Further,
it is not demanded that Lord Russell shall
protect any vessel which shall make an attempt
to break the blockade of a blockaded port, or to
enter, with arms or other contraband of war
on board, any Confederate port, blockaded or
otherwise, or any Federal port. All that is asked
of *him is, that ho shall strictly enforce that
rule of international law laid down by all judges
and jurists, controverted by no one, and expressly
declared by Lord Stowell, Admiralty judge, when
England was the great assertor of maritime belli-
gerent rights, which declares that " all trade be-
tween neutral ports is equally lawful," that there
can be no question in such trade of contraband of
war, and that the seizure of a vessel admittedly
bound for a neutral port, or the examination of her
cargo to ascertain its character, until it is ascertained
that she is not bound for a neutral port, is an offence
which no neutral power can suffer to pass unnoticed.
It is asked that he shall distinctly state in his place
in Parliament—in order to do away with miscon-
ceptions likely to arise from the language he has
already used.-that neutral vessels have a right to
carry what cargoes they will, for sale to whom they
will, and to what port they will, so long as it be
not to a port in actual possession of either bellige-
rent ; and that the ultimate destination of that
cargo, be it what it may, is a point which concerns
neither the ship that carries it nor the belligerents
who may visit her. It is asked that he shaii notify
to Mr. Seward, in the most courteous and conside-
rate terms which can be made clearly intelligible—

that no further iavasions of this rule will be allowed

by Great Britain. It may further be asked that he
shculd take occasion to suggest to that Minister,
hat during the continuance of the blockade of all
Southern ports the question of contraband of war
should in no case be raised, seeing that it can in no
case be relevant. There are r o unblockaded Con-

federate ports—or none which are admitted by the
Federalists to be unblockaded. A ship carrying a
cargo of books, or silks, or jewels, to a blockaded
port, is liable to confiscation ; a ship carrying a
cargo of cannon and rifles to Matamoros may not
lawfully be intercepted by Federal cruisers. Lord
Russell cannot refuse any of these demands; for
•hey are All in strict accordance wi, b law. It is the
duty of Parti,tunent to see that he no longer t-v-des
them. Fknady. while every one admits the bell,ge-
rent right of visit, and of deterpion ill sut,niciou,
cases, it is :.ffit med by Lord Russell himself t bat he
us. of this ii4ht :or purposes of vexation— that Is,
to harass or interrupt a lawful neutral trade—is
an offt.nce which cannot be tolerated by neutral
powers. Now, the trade between Liverpool and
Nassau, and the trade between London and Mate-
mores, whether in arms or in medicines, in powder
or in linen, is strictly lawful, in so far as the
Federal Government is concerned ; and yet the Fe-
deral cruisers do systematically interrupt that trade,
when carried on in British bottoms, to such an ex-
tent that vessel concerned in it are obliged to pay a
heavy premium for insurance against war risk. It
is demanded that by a peremptory remonstrance—
peremptory in purport, however friendly in form—
this hostile proceeding of the Federal squadrons
should be terminated. This demand, also, is in
strict accordance with the law, as laid down by all
jurists, and as admitted by Lord Russell and by
Mr. Seward. Such are the simple, lawful, and
equitable requests which have been addressed by
the mercantile community to the Foreign Secretary.
And if they be not complied with, in the presence
of the gross outrage committed on the Britishflag by
the captain of the Rhode Island, we trust the mat-
ter will be taken up by others, and that Parlia-
ment will request of her Majesty the dismissal of
a Minister more zealous for the interest of the
United States than for the rights of British com-
merce and the honour of the British Crown.

POST.—Much of the happiness of human life de-
pends upon the right management of apparently
small matters, and the fate of kingdoms has before
now been decided by the state of the gastric juice of
distinguished personages. Undoubtedly the com-
forts of home in every station of life are greatly en-
hanced by wholesome food and good cookery. The
ancients elevated the art of preparing food into a
profession, and even at the present day among
ourselves a French cook skilled in the culinary de-
partment commands a better income than many a
junior barrister or tutor. The Great Duke is said
to have greatly disconcerted a Parisian chef whom
he had taken into his service by declaring his utter
indifference as to what he ate. Yet, notwithstand-
ing the Spartan simplicity which characterised the
habits of that great man, there can be no doubt
that, as a French philospher once remarked, food
being a necessary of human life, it may as well be
made palatable as not. According to all reliable
accounts, the Greeks and Romans had a greater
variety of edible dishes and more elaborate
modes of preparing them than we now possess.
Apicius spent two millions and a half on the plea-
sures of the table, and then committed suicide
because the remnant of his fortune would not enable
him to continue his former extravagance. Roman
epicures could fatten up snails with paste to such a
degree that the shells of some of them would con-
tain many quarts. The livers of geese unnaturally
distended artificial means, young hawks, asses,
and portions of animals that would now never be
thought of as articles of food, were in those days
converted into dainties by the superior skill of the
cook. Many animals and fishes like the porpoise
were then highly esteemed, and altogether it may
be safely affirmed that the civilised nations of anti-
quity had more elaborate modes of preparing their
food, and a greater variety of it, than now exist.
Whether this state of things arises from a change
in the public taste with regard to articles fit for
sustaining life, or to the decline of the culinary art,
we are not prepared to state. We know, indeed,
that the humbler classes in our seaport towns have
strong prejudices against eating fish ; the inhabi-
tants of Ireland of every degree have a positive
aversion to young rooks and sucking pig, while the
English gipsy will enjoy a hedgehog roasted in a
ball of clay j but notwithstanding these circum-
stances, the fact cannot be denied that the great
masses of the inhabitants of the British Isles are
sadly deficient in varieties of food, and in economi-
cal and wholesome modes of preparing it.
Any plans, then, of a practical natare which
may be suggested for remedying these deficiencies
are surely worthy of public attention and support.
The Acclimatisation Society, whose annual dinner
took place the other day, proposes to domesticate in
this country all birds, fishes, and vegetables which
may be proved on trial to be useful additions to
the already existing articles of human food; and
their efforts so far have been attended with consi-
derable success, as their last report and increasing
subscriptions abundantly testify. We have little
doubt that the introduction of the Chinese sheep

into this country will ultimately prove a decided
success in every point of view, possessing as it does
a flavour superior even to that of Welsh, High-
land, or Portland mutton, and being twice as
prolific as any breed of sheep in this country.
Most people know the enormous waste which
ensues on cooking a joint of Cotswold mutton,
or one from the gross Lincolnshire animal ; but
if the Ong-Ti breed of Chinese sheep can be
successfully reared in this country, or crossed with
some of our heavier animals, a more delicate flavour
will be imparted to our mutton, and twice the num-
ber of animals kept on the same ground then are
now to be found. As to the introduction of new
sorts of fish into this country, little seems to have
been done. As yet only efforts are being made to
secure either the ova or living specimens of the
Murray cod, the mountain mullet of Jamaica, and
the Incio percs, all which are highly spoken of ; but
we venture to suggest that when they arrive they
shall be placed in private waters, as it is just possi-
ble, from our imperfect knowledge of their habits
and modes of life, they might if put into any of our
salmon, trout, or grayling streams, seriously injure,
if not ultimately destroy, some of our best native
breeds. Attention also is being directed to the fur-
ther distribution of grayling, charr, and crayfish
among our rivers and lakes in which they are not
now to be found ; and it is rather a remarkable lad
that there is not a grayling in any Irish river, nor,
until their recent introduction to the Clyde, in any
Scotch stream. There are to our certain knowledge
many waters in both the sister kingdoms eminently
suited to the habits of this beautiful fish. and we
trust to hear soon that some of the Irish rivers have
been stocked with it. As to the era 3 fish, we advise
the proprietors of all trout and salmon rivers to
make themselves thoroughly acquainted with its
habits and modes of life, and esnecially to ascertain
whether it has not a fondness for the spawn of other
fish, or before they ran any risks in placing it in
rivers where it may possibly do an infinite amount
of mischief ; and if once put into a stream it is very
difficult to get rid of it. The cultivation of the
Chinese yam seems on the whole, notwithstanding
conflicting accounts by those who have grown it, to
have been attended with satisfactory results, and in
France it is highly esteemed and extensively planted.
There is little doubt that when thoroughly acclima-
tised it may improve both in flavour and substance ;
and as the potato is still liable to disease, perhaps
from the use of artificial manures or over-cultivation,
this Eastern root may on trial be found to be a good
substitute. Lady Dorothy Nevin has been emi-
nently successful in the management of the Allan-
thus silkworm ; and this branch of industry, it is
thought, might be profitably pursued in this coun-
try, and prove a great boon to cottagers and others.
Altogether the efforts of the Acclimatisation Society
have been attended with considerable success.
Their sphere of operations and their subscriptions
increase every year; and as their objects are the
introduction of now articles of food and fresh
branches of industry, they cannot fail to secure the
sympathies and support of all persons interested in
the welfare of the nation.

BANKRUPTCY OF DION BOLICICAULT.—A petition
of adjudication of bankruptcy was yesterday pre-
sented ageinst Mr. Dion Boucicault, formerly an actor at
the Adelphi and Drury-lane Theatres, and afterwards
manager of the New Theatre Royal, Westminster, and the
author of the well-knewn drama the " Colleen Bawn."
Adjudication was duly made, the solicitors to the petition
being Messrs. Linklater. It is stated that the bankrupt,
having made a large sum of money at the Adelphi, entered
upon the occupation of the Westminster Theatre (late
Astley's), and there expended about £14,000 upon decora-
tions and improvements. A company was afterwards
started for the purchase of the bankrupt's premises, and the
bankrupt was to receive as much as £40,000 out of the pro-
ceeds. To the non-completion of that arrangement the
bankrupt attributed his failure. The bankrupt's liabilities
are stated in round numbers at £30,000 ; the assets are re-
nrned at £20,000, independently of a claim for £38,000
upon the New Theatre Company.
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COUNTRY MARKETS.

V

LIVERPOOL-FRIDAY.

At this day's market there was a small attendance, with
a retail demand for wheat, and late prices receded 2d per
cental. Oats are down Id per bushel, and oatmeal 6d per
load. Beans improved 9d to is per qr on the week. Flour
very dull, and 6d per barrel cheaper. Indian corn in good
demand at 3d per qr cheaper. Barley and peas were game
as before.