The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-14 00:00:00

The late Confederate Mission to Washington.

The New York Tribane publishes a letter which
purports to be written at Richmond, and the object
of which is to explain away the various guesses
made by the Northern press as to the mission of
Mr. Stephens, the Vice President of the Confede-
racy, by stating what was its real nature. The
writer does so as fellows :
" The Vice President of the Confederate States
was sent to ask the President of the United States
to co-operate with the former government in mea-
sures conducive to the cause of humanity, to the
cultivation of the most Christian shapes of warfare,
such measures, in the first place, as might be agreed
upon between them to lighten the troubles of
prisoners and alleviate the pains of the wounded.
And had Mr. Stephens been so fortunate
as to procure the audience he so frankly
and simply sought I, for one, believe that
the mercy of his errand would have met with
proper recognition. This, however, secondarily.
The primary object of the Vice President's mission
was to protest,;in the name of his Government and
people, against the mustering and arming of the
blacks, which now constitutes almost the only clear
feature of your policy. He came to implore you, in
the name of a people wilose ability you have frankly
acknowledged, of soldiers whose resources must
have surprised you, of a government whose courage
and devotion and endurance you have felt, to this
consummation not to come at last. He came to
assure you on the good faith of his government, on
the simple truth of his fellow countrymen, that not
one single regiment or corps of negroes has ever
been brought into the Confederate service, to be
turned armed against you. He came to remind you
that such negroes as have from time to time been
found on breastworks and in trenches have been
caught with spades only or picks in their hands;
that such as have been found in regiments—an ill-
significant number—have been in all cases body
servants, sometimes of officers, sometimes of
privates, who of their own will, out of
the love which you know they bear us,
have chosen to follow their masters to the
death. And these you have found among your
prisoners. He could have told you, if diplo-
macy permitted sentiment (God save the mark!) of
many such chattels,' some of them white haired,
begging, stealing, fighting their way home again,
to the ole missus,' and the old place. with all that
was' left of the young masse—a lock of hair, or
a trinket. But no matter for that. He came to
talk to you of self-preservation, of retaliation, and
all that is shocking in the meaning of that word.
He came to tell you of the native devil that has
slept so long, to be awoke at last, in the bosoms
of a simple, dependent, affectionate race. He
came to implore yon in the name of God not to
do this abominable thing. Else he would have to
fall back upon statistics and the grim phraseologies
of war, and remind you that the 4,000,000 negroes
that appear in the tablets of your census for 1860
are the working hands of both sexes only. That
number does not include the superannuated or the
infants. Out of these 4,000,000, at least 750,000
able-bodied fellows, loving and trusting their
masters, and ready to follow them up to the mouths
of your cannon (ah ! do not continue to befool your-
drilled, in three months. They can be officered
self on that question of ties), can be enrolled, armed,
in every grade by their own masters--those
who have seen most service and won most
honour. They can be segregated, regiment
by regiment, with the white troops. In all
the departments the quartermasters, the commis-
sariat, and the medical white officers can admi-
nister for them. Superior commands in the black
regiments can be made the meed of gallant service
in the white. In fine, the entire system as it operates
in the Sepoy service in India, and as it has been
modifiers by distinguished British officers at the re-
quest of our government to meet the peculiarities of
our people—peculiarities which constitute incalcul-
able advantages, presenting as they do love and con
fidence, in place of hate and jealousy and suspicion
—can be put in working order at once. This is what
I tell you can be done. This is what the Vice-Pre-
sident of the Confederate States came to tell you
will certainly be done forthwith. Will you tell
your people this ? It is not for me to speculate upon
the consequences of these new and dreadful ele-
ments, whirled into new forms of conflict and com-
plication, to prolong and intensify the war. My
mind, in striving to grasp the subject, lets go
its hold, and shrinks as from something at once
terrible and loathsome. I cannot speak of things
which seem to cry aloud out of the future with the
tongues of women and of babes, with the contention
of angels and of friends, mixed of pity and fury.
But I do see in all this a hidden mine of power in
the South which your policy may in one fatal
moment spring upon the country, to bury all we
once loved and were proud of in an undistinguish-
able monstrosity of disgust and death."

English Words and Phrases borrowed from

jceland,

Many of our English country horse-calls may be
recognised in this Uttima Thule. The " Bok-a-ooff !"'
of Nottingham, or " Bok'n-waay !' of Yorkshire,
East Riding, are forms of the Scandinavian Bug-at
bend-aside; the same verb, ath buga, to curve, is
preserved in our word bucket, literally a curved
receptacle. So, also, the common shout, " Gee !
Gee uup ! fzch !" are forms of Ga- walk ; &Ltd the
Northumbrian Heck! is the Icelandic Hoegr ! (pro-
nounced Haikir). . . . I with that I had space
to give the origin of some of our popular super-
stitions and nursery tales, and to show what
assistance is afforded by Icelandic literature in the
clearing up the difficulties with which they are
surrounded. I can otily instance one ;
" Jack and Jill went up a hill
To fetch a pail of water ;
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after."

These two children are mentioned in the Younger
Edda, under the names of Hjfiki and Bil (which
have become in course of time, Jack and Jill), as
fetching water from the well Byrgit in the bucket
SGeg, on the pole Simul. These children were
taken up into heaven to &How the moon. Hjiiki
signifies " the quickening;" Bil, " the failings;'
and their attendance on the moon simply means
that the moon becomes full and wanes. By the
bucket of water I presume is signified the effect of
the orb on the weather. . . . . " Gaman,',
fun, is cognate with our slang expression, " gam-
mon !" Other of our vulgar terms are closely allied
to the Icelandic ; thus, " gaby," a fool, is related to
the verb " ath gabs," to make a fool of.
Brag (to boast), Icel. brags, rumour, renown.
Chap, Icel. kappi, a fighting man, a hero.
Dandy, Icel. Dtindi, anything good; drindis
mar, a worthy 'fellow. The word has certainly
changed its signification considerably.
Duffer (a stupid fellow), Ical. doff, laziness, from
the verb dofna, to be dull and stupid.
Fluke (a chance), Icel. fax, of a sudden, used
similarly, derived from the verb fitiga, to fly.
Fellow, Icel. felog, a comrade, literally one who
goes shares in money.
go go the whole hog. This I believe to be, to do
all in one stroke—hog to be the Icel. hogg. The
Icelanders similarly speak, of doing something
"met hoggi," all at once.

Lagged (outlawed), a contraction for utlag,
outlaw.

•Baring-Gould's Iceland.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—The adjourned
special general meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the Paddington Station, for the final declara-
tion of the poll upon Mr, Adams's motion for the election
of directors. The Hon. Spencer Walpole in the chair.
Captain Bulkeley (one of the scrutineers) read the report,
amidst interruption from Mr. Adams, who protested
against its being received. The following is au abstract of
the report referred to :—For the directors as proposed by
the board—proxies 23,550, representing £3,980,645 stock;
personal votes 1,569, representing £257,176 stock; total,
25,119 votes, representing £4,237,821 stock. For the direc•
era proposed by Mr. Adams—proxies 9,297 votes, repre•
377 personal votes, representing 69,
sewing L1,214,73S ; 164
stock; total, 9,574 votes, representing £1,283,902. 83z
proxies in favour of the directors were objected to by Mr,
Adams, representing £731,911 stock ; 251 proxie. to favour
of Mr. Adams were objected to by the directors, represent-
ing £178,359 stock) al4cl 1,160 votes,