The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-22 00:00:00

MR. 2HURLOW WEED UPON ENGLAND

Mr. Thurlow Weed has addressed the following
etter to the Committee on National Affairs of New

York :

" Albany, July 1, 1862.
" Gentlemen,—I receive, with a grateful sense of
he honour they confer, the very flattering resolu•
Lions adopted by the Common Council of your com-
mercial metropolis. I accept them, frankly and
proudly, as emanations rather of your own gener-
ous constructions than as merited by any service i
may have been in my power to render our country.
" If, during a temporary residence in Europe, I
have been enabled, in some degree, to relieve the
complications in which our affairs were involved—
to do something toward vindicating our Govern-
ment from unjust aspersions, or to aid in turning
back the tide of popular sentiment setting so
strongly against our cause, it was owing to the

prompt and and generous confidence reposed in me
by our distinguished representatives in England
and France. In bearing testimony, as is both a
duty and a pleasure, to the ability and fidelity of
Mr. Adams and Mr. Dayton, I cannot forbear to add
that, rising above considerations which might have
disturbed Ministers less truly devoted to their

country, they not only accepted unofficial co-ope-
ration, but disembarrassed my colleagues and my-
self by cheerfully facilitating our efforts. It is a
pleasure, also, to add that, on several occasions
and in essential ways, I was efficiently aided by
Mr. Sanford, our indefatigable Minister to Belgium.

. -
Nor could the Government in a season of trial and

difficulty have made happier selections of consul in
Paris and London. Messrs. Bigelow and Morse

are discharging their responsible duties in a manner
worthy of all praise.
" Our Government was by no means too prompt
in inviting some of its citizens to visit Europe. It
is to be regretted that two or three eminent gentle-
men, to whom it is understood that invitation ex-
tended, were unable to accept it, for the field was

large and the labourers few. In the designation of
Archbishop Hughes and Bishop M'llvaine, how-
ever, the Government was peculiarly fortunate. The
services of those enlightened and eminent divines
and devoted Union men, the former in Paris and
the latter all over England, were seasonable and
effective. Their exalted positions, their high cha-
racters and their fervid zeal, gave weight and autho-
rity to their statements and opinions.
" Secession, while undermining for ultimate re-
bellion, was thoughtful of the importance of the
favour of Europe. The South, with its long-

cherished purpose, worked as diligently abroad as a,
home; the North, unconscious of the great crime
meditated, slept. Active emissaries of Secession,
abided too-often by sympathising Ministers and
consuls, settled the public mind or. the other side
of the Atlantic against us. Public opinion was
formed against the Union before our side of the
question was presented or heard. By turning truth
end for end, and reading history backwards, we
were held by Europeans as the aggressors. The
last three months of Mr. Buchanan's Administration
were almost as injurious abroad as at home; for
there, as here, loyal men only occupied the places of
disloyal Cabinet and foreign Ministers too late to
nip the rebellion in the bud.
" Unfortunately, there were causes as well as pre-
text for the lack of sympathy which we encoun-
tered in Europe. The Governments of the Old
World remember that, from the nature of our insti-
tutions, our own Eympathies have generally run with
those who struggled to overthrow monarchies, and
that we have shown alacrity in recognising the in-
dependence of such as struggled successfully. With
the nations most intimately connected with us the
Morrill Tariff was regarded with great disfavour.
In England it was believed that we not only
cherished unfriendly feelings toward that country,
but that we desired a disruption of friendly relations.
The emissaries of rebellion seized upon these
causes and pretexts to turn the current of feeling in
their favour. It was, too, plausibly urged that the
difference in climate, soil, habits, and want of con-
geniality' between the North and South, constituted
such radical discordance that our union had become
an impossibility. Indeed, these fallacies were so
successfully pressed, that Mr. Gladstone, in a recent
speech at Manchester, stated that the Union was
but a co-partnership, dissoluble whenever passion
or caprice prompted in any of the parties a desire
to withdraw. That eminent statesman—if for a
moment we adopt his theory—overlooked or ignored
the circumstance that our Secession copartnerners,
in retiring, broke open the safe, and stole valuable
securities, the common property of the firm—or, in
other words, that, in seperating, they seized the
fortifications, the arms, the Custom-houses, the Post
office, and the public moneys—acts of treason in a
public, or of robbery in a private sense, which
would, perpetrated in England, have consigned
them to the Tower or the Penitentiary.
" While England, France, Belgium, and Germany
begin to experience serious inconvenience and em-
barrassment from their short supply of cotton, I do
not apprehend immediately that these Governments
will intervene, though with the two former the sub-
ject been
_even more impatient than England. not,
how eve froth
unfriendliness, but because the Em-
peror assume,.' in
ew.th food.
the absence of employment to sup-
ply his peopl"
But we have nothing to fear from Europe if we
the
are successful in
prosecution of the war. Fort
Winchester, Donelson, Nashville,
•hester New Orleans, and
gem phis are our strongest
'
arguments against in-
tervention with Government,
future
military that determine all
measurement.
re, however, t two
well-founded
reasons for
qu,e,sTtihotei:eb
byynannrehending
can I doubt the embroilment with
Prapri
Eugland. Nor 6tY of dwell-
earnestly upon a danger fraught
vital to th
so e welfare with consequences of
both nations. The Trent affair, though happily be-
cause rightfully settled, has left an arrow With
poisoned barb festering in our flesh and irritating
our nerves. The impression that England, willing
to take us at disadvantage, availed herself of the
erring judgment or impulsive zeal of a naval com-
mander, to wage war upon us, has obtained through-
out the country. That England expected war, and
intended war, making with unparalleled alacrity
and in gigantic proportions preparations for war, is
admitted to be true. But with opportunities favour-
able to a correct understanding of the views- of the