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

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 after wards 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 Federal 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Davis's retaliation proclamation is withdrawn.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
9(11 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
States for the purchase of negroes. They also de-
clare President Lincoln to have pandered to Neo►
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 sale
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.
delptiia. 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 tort
Royal to repair, the rest of the fleet blockading
Charleston.

The blockading fleet has been largely reinforced'
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

NEW YORK, Feb. 7 (Evening)•
Money easy. Gold 561 ; exchange, 173. Stock.
steady. New York Centrals, 1191 ; Illinois, 92'
Erie, 76k. Cotton quiet; middling Upland, 86'
Flour dull, sc. lower; wheat dull, lc. lower. Corn
quiet.

The Emancipation Society and Mr. Lincolreo
Proclamation.

Sir T. Powell Buxton, Bart., has addressed the
following letter to the Editor of the Times
In your paper of Thursday you ask "whether the sons °e
Wilberforce and of Buxton, who have all been brought 111)
in the teaching of their fathers, now share the opinions °,
the present Emancipation Society as to the Proclamation 0'
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 roan/
isolated families of whites, and would inevitably end in
wholesale massacre of the unarmed, ill-organised, ignorant
negroes. Can you seriously ask whether the sons of WU'
berforce and cf Buxton approve this!)
I cannot doubt what view my father would have taken'
There was nothing he more earnestly deprecated, nothin
he so anxiou.ly dreaded, as the revolt of the slaves. Ola
letters and speeches during the battle for emancipation are
full of references to this greatest subject of anxiety. In a

letter dated October 15, 1832, he writes :--
"It the emancipation of the slaves were in my power'.,
could not dare to accomplish it without previous police ITV;
lations. These ought to be taken instantly, for I know (• AI
power of emancipating in one way or another is lits„,
drawing to a close. I mean, that the negroes will take I.t ;
work into their own hands. But whoever else is willing„a'
undertake the weight of so enormous a responsibility, I 97.
not, without considering the personal safety of all classco„'
Again, in a debate in the House of Commons on the 12Ph
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 mea
altogether I
an insurrection would inevitably take plac.eeo
I confess cannot with firmness contemplate so horribly
termination of slavery."
I hope no one will suspect, because none of my father:
descendants have taken a part in the recent emancipati°,
meetings, that our abhorrence of slavery or our zeal f°4'
emancipation has grown cold. God forbid that such slicult
be the case. I never was more strongly impressed than
am now with the cruelty, wickedness, and folly of the 09°°
tern of slavery ; I never was more convinced of its demo;
ralising effect upon both master and slave. Yet, in till
cause of the negro himself, I cannot regard with'appraa,
the act of Mr. Lincoln, which, if effective, must bring
about "so horrible a termination of slavery" as a servila

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Feb. 20.

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