The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-04 00:00:00

The Marriage of the Prince of Wales.

Meetings of the Town Council of Gravesend
have been held to consider the arrangements
to be made for the disembarkation of the Princess
Alexandra, and to celebrate the marriage of his
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. It has been
resolved to celebrate both days by every possible de-
monstration of loyalty and rejoicing; and an ad-
journed meeting will be held to carry out the details. The
mayor intends to provide a dinner and tea a., the Town-hall
for about 150 of the poor inhabitants, and a ball will take
place at the Assembly-rooms.

An adjourned meeting of the Oxford Town Council was
held here yesterday to receive the report of the deputation
appointed at the last meeting to consult with the university
authorities as to the steps to be taken to celebrate the mar-
riage cf his Royal Highness the Ptince of Wales. The
mayor (Mr. W. Thompson) stated that the vice-chancellor
received the deputation with great courtesy, and had since
forwarded to him a communication, announcing the inten-
tion of the university to act in concert with the council,
and illuminate the various colleges. A proposition recom-
mending the citizens to illuminate on the occasion was
carried unanimously, and a committee appointed to consider
and adopt various plans suggested to be carried out on that
day. Two of the plans suggested were the erection of
triumphal arches where formerly the four gates of the city
stood, and a dinner to the aged poor and children, The
city will be brilliantly illuminated and decorated on the
occasion.


His Highness the Maharajah Duleep Singh has
arrived at Claridge's Hotel from Mulgrave Castle, York-
shire.

The Marquis To cvnshend has taken the Earl of
Cottenham's residence in Park-lane for a term of years.
The Earl and Countess of Shaftesbury and
family arrived in town yesterday from Broadlands, Hants,
Her ladyship has quite recovered from her recent indispo-
sition.

Viscount Canterbury has arrived in town from
visiting the Earl of Coventry, at Croome Court, near
Upton.

Viscount and Viscountess Sidmouth returned to
town on Monday from the Pavilion Hotel, Folkestone.
Viscount and Vidcountess Holmesdale are ex-
pected in town to-morrow from their seat in Rent. His
Lordship has taken a house in Berkeley-square for a term
of years.

Viscountess Jocelyn and family arrived at Cam-
bridge House on Monday, from Broadlands, Hants
Viscount Hill has arrived at Sr. Thomas's Hotel,
Berkeley .square, from Hawkestone, Shrewsbury.
The Bishop of Exeter and Mrs. Phiiipotts ar-
rived in town yes erday from the Palace, Exeter. His
lordship has taken a residence in Park-street, Grosvenor-
square, for the season.

Lord and Lady Rendlesham have arrived at the
Clarendon Hotel from Eglinton Castle.

Lidy Edith Ahues Hastings has arrived at
Claridge's Hotel from Willereley Hall, Leicestershire.

- -
Lady Elinor C4vendish was safely delivered of
a son on Monday at Woodlands, near Bagshot.
The Right Hon. Sir Wm. Jolliffe left England on
Saturday for a temporary residence in the south of France.
His absence will prob tbly be not of long continuance, as
114 must naturally be anxious to resume his duties in the
House of Commons, where his attendance is favourably
appreciated.

The Anti-Slavery Society and the American

Crisis.

A deputation of the committee of the British and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, and of its friends and supporters,
had an intervi,w yesterday with his Excellency C. F.
Adams, the United States Minister, at his residence in
Portland-place, for the purpose of presenting a minute on
the American crisis. Upwards of seventy gentlemen from
different parts of the country were present. In reply to
the deputation,
His Excellency said—Gentlemen of the com mittee, it is ex-
tremely interesting to me to have the privilege of meeting the
representatives of a society which has already made its mark
on the world ; especially so from the fact that you have
gone before us in America, and have done all in your power
to advance the great cause which we all have at heart. It
gives me much satisfaction to receive from your hands
this expression of your sympathy with my country in
the season of trial. I concur with you in deploring the
existence of this unfortunate war. But I must be permitted
to call your attention to the fact—not yet en irely under-
stood in this country—that it was entered into by the Pre-
sident with great reluctance, and not until after his delay
to take the necessary precautions against impending vio-
lence, had placed the very existence of the Government at
the capital in the utmost jeopardy. The attempt, by the
slaughter of those he was calling to his aid, and by apply-
-1
ing the torch to the railway communication with the loyal
region of the country, to insulate the President and his
Ministers at Washington, was in execution of a project far
deeper than you have been pleased to impute to the insur-
gents. It was not so much the establishment of an inde-
pendent Confederacy as the destruction of the old system
of government, and the substitution of a new one in its
place, which was in question. Convinced that the legiti-
mate action of the constitution, administered over the Union
in its true spiri , would endanger the coral, uance of their
ill-gotten subjection of human beings to perpetual bondage
they determined first to overthrow the Union, and next, to
reconstruct a constitution in a manner permanently to
establish their power to protect their so-called rights. This
new system they hoped to make the basis of another and a
very different Union. The struggle which has followed is,
then, as you must see, not simply on their side to gain in-
dependence for themselves, but rather to perpetuate their
ability to deprive other people of theirs. It actually still in-
volves the whole question of free institutions in America.
Either the new principle set up will be established, or it
must fall. If the former. what is to become of freedom ? If
the latter, where will slavery be ? Such is a plain statement
of the issue as it has been made up on both sides. If this be
true, surely such a conflict as has grown out of it, however
much i t may be honestly deprecated, cannot but be regarded
as involving morel ct nsequences of magnitude sufficient to
deserve the respect of all right-minded men. I trust that
you will now see the connexion which exists between the
maintenance of the President's first position and his later
measures. The policy of the rebellion is to perpetuate
slavery by the first dissolving the Union. That of the
Union is, on the contrary, to uproot slavery as its only safe-
guard against all future attack upon the principles of free-
dom. Hence the absolute necessity for the first appeal of the
President in support of the Union, and, secondly, for the
proclamation. Had the resistance to the Union been less
vigorously conducted, the adoption of such a measure as the
last just yet might have been more questionable. It might
have been still possible to graduate the treatment of the
evil by adopting expedients to soften the severity of its
operation with time. As it is I think few peop ein Europe
now doubt that the course of things is set against the per-
manence of slavery in America. The sentiment of the
civilise would pronounces its doom. If, so, greatly as this
bloody war is to be lamented, will it nct hereafter be
in history which have brought to the futu, ity of the human
reckoned among that class of civil convulsions well
.known
race an ample reward for the sacrifices and sufferings of
their predecessors? I shall take great pleasure, gentlemen,
in transmitting your vainute to the President of the United
States,