The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-17 00:00:00

That man was a major. That one was a captain. This
was a lieutenant. The next was a sergeant.. They were
all at work as quietl3 as if they had never left the com-
positor's desk. I said, " What did you do when the men
left you?" He replied, "I gave every one of them a
written understanding that when he came back his place
was ready for him. Not one of them had a shilling of
pension, and they would have been insulted if it had been
offered to them." I will now say a few words on the re-
construction of the South. One thing which very much
gratified me in my visit to America was my interview with
the President. I was with him for some time, and I will
say at once that he is a man who, once seen, is never for-
gotten, for he is one of nature's true nobility—(cheers)—
a man who not only has talent and mind, but who, thank
God, has a heart. Andrew Johnson was himself a South-
erner, and was not very well treated by his countrymen
there, from his determination to uphold the cause of the
Union. But it is well for them that Andrew Johnson
knows how to forget and forgive. He has met his brethren
of the South in the only way in which they could be met
to be conciliatory. He does not make them sacrifice their
self-respect in passing them back to his confidence. A man
goes to him and says " I am very sorry for what I have
done. lam perfectly willing to take the oath:: His reply
is, "My friend you are pardoned." I myself read one of
those pardons, and the only condition is this, if the person
so pardoned ever possesses a slave or abets slavery that
pardon ceases. (Cheers.) In cases of this kind it
is desirable that facts should be verified, I will say that it
refers to Colonel Drury, who was one of the foremost men
of the South. On the day that Lee surrendered he called
together 1,000 slaves and said to them, "You know that I
have done my best to keep you as slaves, but you are now
free men. If you will continue to work for me I will
give you as high wages as any one else. I will put your
children to school, and do what I can to make you comfort-
able." I have reason to know that only three out of the
1,000 left Colonel Drury. I came home in the Scotia with
one of those gentlemen who, like our dear friend, George
Thomas—(cheers)—is one of the Society of Friends. He
told me that Colonel Drury had informed him that the men
had done more work since they had hired to him as
workmen than they ever had as slaves. This gentleman
to whom I referred as a fellow passenger had been sent
on a mission to the South to distribute a sum equal to
£15,000 collected by the Society of Friends. This he had
done in the most judicious way amongst the freedmen of
the South, and I think you will agree with me that it
would be well if we of all other religious denominations
were to imitate the example of the Society of Friends, and
go and do likewise. (Hear, hear.) I think it would be a
right, a graceful, and a proper thing if the whole Church,
of every denomination—Episcopalians, and all others—.
were to join in doing something in this good work. You
recollect what the North did for our starving operatives
during the cotton famine. The North wants no help of us,
but I think it would only be graceful and right for us,
now to do the best we can to assist the suffering masses of
their lately freed slaves. (Hear.) Let me say now that I
have no fear for the South, because it is not handed ever
to the care of overseers and middle men as was the case in
Jamaica. The owners aro themselves brought into contact
with their own workmen. Their interest therefore bids
them treat the workmen fairly. But if they do not, what
has the President done ? He has appointed a commission
of three in each district—one appointed by himself, one
elected by the planters, and one selected by the freedmen.
To this commission every question of dispute between the
owners and their workmen is referred. With regard to
wages, cases of such disputes have arisen, and men have
received notice from this commission to give their work-
men a fair rate of wages or the Government would with-
draw such men from their employ. The North have
determined, in regard to this matter, that the men who
work should be treated fairly, while at the same time they
desire to treat employers in the spirit of reconciliation, of
fairness, and of equity. I will tell you what one of the
first men in New York said to me when he came on board
the Scotia to bid me good bye. No man in Bristol does
one quarter the business that this gentleman did with the
South. I asked how he would get on with his Southern
customers. He said " I have sent for them all to New
York, and told them that the debts they owed must be
paid as soon as they could, and in the mean time their old
credit could be reopened on condition that they took off
their coats and went to work. And," he added, "they are
doing so." Now, if such is the case, if the policy of the
President and the feeling of the people is working
together in this harmonious way, and if at the same
time a strong hand is kept on the colored, man, and he is
made to feel that while he will be protected in all that
is right, but the hand of power will be laid on him if ho
does that which is wrong, things will not be in America
as they are in Jamaica, where we emancipated our slaves
and let them take their chance. The slaves are emanci-
pated, but they will be made to understand that they must
do their share in the shape of work as well as the rest of
the community. (Cheers.) Now ono word with regard
to Fenianism. (Cheers and laughter.) Now what does
Fenianism in America mean ? It means that a number of
poor foolish Irishmen in America, having more money than
they know• what to do with, allow others to pick their
pockets. (Hear, hear.) An Irishman in America is in a
different position to what he is at home. In America he
is entirely his own master, and is easily led away by such
men as Train—a man of some notoriety here—(laughter)
—who lectures and spouts and turns poor Pat's head.
When I spoke to my American friends on the subject they
said, "You are not foolish enough to attach any impor-
tance to this stupid nonsense ?" When I came to inquire
further I found that there was not an Irishman in Con-
gress, either in the House of Representatives or in the
Senate, or in any office of trust, who had anything to do
with the movement. It is strictly confined to hewers of
wood and drawers of water for the American people. It
excites their contempt. These poor Fenians are not in a
position to do us any injury, and we can afford to show
them pity here. (Cheers.) With regard to the question
which has agitated men's minds more than any other
during the last few months, viz., the correspohdence
between Earl Russell and Mr. Adams, I shall say at once
tkat I do not believe in the remotest degree that it can
ever end in war. (Cheers.) The American people have
no idea of such a kind. In addressing the Union League
at New York I laboured hard to show how impossible it
was that two such nations—in advance of all other Powers
in civilisation, possessing the most valuable commerce in
the world, of the same race and ancestry, speaking the
same language, having the same laws, bound together by
the same religious ties—could imbue their hands in each
other's blood. It would be going back to the days when
barbarism ruled, instead of Christianity and civilisation.
(Cheers.) The question, however, is one of the deepest
interest, as regards the rights of neutrals and belligerents ;
and I, as member for one of the great commercial centres,
will not let it rest. I say that the course of true state-
manship is to remove it out of the path of the future.
(Cheers.) Difficult it may be to say who is right and
who is wrong; that is not my province, but there are
authorities —there is Grotius, there is Puffendorff, there is
Wheatstone, there are great constitutional lawyers, who,
in the decision of the question, would not be biassed by
any political feeling. I say the idea of Earl Russell for a
commission is an admirable one, but it must be fairly ap-
pointed, and competent to judge of the difficult questions
submitted to it. But when its verdict is delivered, whether
for right or wrong, England must abide by it. (Cheers.)
I know the feeling of my countrymen is, that we should
never be asked to pay for the damages done by the Ala-
bama; but in the case of nations, as in the case of indi-
viduals, the stronger can afford to do right. If one of
your merchants had made a mistake, and had the moral
courage to make reparation, would you think less of him
or think him less worthy of your confidence ? (Cheers.)
It is only the man of small pretensions who cannot afford
to do right.. England would do justice to the smallest
nation on the face of the earth ; so she can afford to do it to
the most powerful. She cannot afford, now that a ques-
tion of difference arises, to put her back to the wall and
in a fit of obstinacy say we will not have the question die-
cussed. On this subject the Chief Justice of the United
States three days before I left spoke as follows

" The maxim which underlies our great struggle was
of British origin, and stood at the front of ,British juris-
prudence—' He is to be held accursed who does not favour
freedom.' By the adjudication of a great English law-
giver, the soil of Groat Britain it was declared should
never be trodden by the foot of a slave. That maxim
England has at length applied to all her colonies, and now
we have followed her example of emancipating all our
slaves. Our soldiers on their banner, and our sailors on
the masthead have borne the motto, No slaves for ever
and ever,' and the declaration was soon to be incorporated
in the great fundamental law of the nation. Far distant
then should bo the day when two such nations should
meet in strife on the battle-field. There are grave and
important questions now between the two countries, and
full well I know that our people if summoned will respond
as before. Yet in this Christian age I believe that two
such great people could not suffer their Governments to
go to war. They would do justice to the honour and
rights of each other. It was an old principle that when
arbitration was offered no nation should go to war with
one which so offered it."

I must refer for a moment again to the close of the
last message which Mr. Lincoln ever delivered, and it was
this :

" With malice towards none, with charity for all, firm-
ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us
strivo on to finish tho work we are in, to bind up the
nation's wounds, and care for him who shall have borne
the battle, and for his widow and his orphans. To do all
which may we achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.
I close with that. That is what America wants. I
believe that at the present moment, in binding up the
wounds of the South, in doing justice to herself, in put-
ting her finances in order, she is most anxious to settle
this question on terms of amity and fairness. Slavery
being abolished, I feel convinced that two such nations will
continue to preserve peace and goodwill to each other
and to the world. (The hon. baronet resumed his seat
amid the cheers of the meeting.)

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.—The Mayor of Brad-
ford has convened a public meeting of the inhabitants of
that town, for Wednesday evening next, to " consider the
propriety of urging upon the Government the introduction
of a substantial measure of Parliamentary reform, on the
opening of the first session of the new Parliament." The
requisition for the meeting is signed by no fewer than
2,000 inhabitants, including merchants, manufacturers,
tradesmen, artisans, and others.