The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-08 00:00:00

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, DEC. 24.
(PER EUROPA, via QUEENSTOWN.)
The steamships Edinburgh and Arago, with Euro-
pean news to December 12, were intercepted off
Cape Race on December 21, and their news ob-
tained.
The steamships Australasia and Persia, bringing
European news to the loth inst., were intercepted
off Cape Race on December 23, and their news, in-
cluding the intelligence of the death of the Prince
Consort, was telegraphed.
The steamship Teutonia arrived at New York on
the 22d_of December, and the steamship America,
after touching at Halifax on the 23d of December,
where she left despatches for the British fleet, ar-
rived at New York at 11 o'clock on the morning
of the 24th inst., bringing the European mail of
the 7th.

riend,

Great suspense continued to exist on the Trent
question. The Washington correspondents of the
New York journals furnished the most conflicting
statements on the question at issue, so much so that
their accuracy might well be doubted. A very
general belief, however, had gained ground that
Mr. Seward forwarded a despatch to Mr. Adams in
London one week after the seizure, informing the
British Government that Captain Wilkes acted
without instructions from the Federal Government;
and, as it was supposed this information might,
perhaps, modify the demands made by the British
Government, an unfounded impression prevailed
that Lord Lyons had delayed the delivery of the
despatches brought out by Capt. Seymour, Queen's
messenger, in the Europa, until he had received
further advices from England, dated subsequently
to Mr. Seward's despatch to Mr. Adams. These
advices, it was hoped, might have been brought by
the America, which arrived here on the 24th. The
general popular feeling was undoubtedly extremely
hostile to England and to the demands of the
British Government. There was no doubt, how-
ever, that the surrender of Messrs. Mason and
Slidell would be accepted by the public as a neces-
sity of the position the Federal Government was
placed in in regard to the rebellion ; and the idea
that the hands of the Federal Government would
thus be left free to restore the Union by force of
arms would, for the time, compensate the public
for what they considered the humiliation of com-
plying with the demands of England; but the
bitter feeling against England would, there is
no question, be much increased by their surrender,
and the Trent affair would neither be forgotten nor
forgiven by Americans.
The following letter from a writer in the Fiala-
idelphia Press fully pourtrays the feeling of many
Americans on this subject :
" WASHINGTON, DEC. 18.
" England knows she is strong. This is our hour
of weakness and she may make it her opportunity
.to strike. She can now be arrogant and insulting,
for now her arrogance and insult cannot be re-
sented. The northern coast is exposed to her large
and powerful navy, our towns are not fortified, and
she may bring desolation upon our people and our
manufacturing interests. All this she knows. Her
armaments are large and well appointed; her army
has been increased almost to a war footing; she is
prepared to throw large bodies of troops into the
eastern and northern portions of our Republic ;
Canada is filled with armed men, and the frontiers
of Canada are simply so many garrisons. Our com-
merce is at her mercy. In the Mexican Gulf there
is a large British fleet which could render our newly
gained strongholds on the southern coast untenable,
and accomplish the destruction of the brave men at
Port Royal, Hatteras, and Santa Rosa Island. She
3nay break our blockade and entirely nullify our
expeditionary operations. With the Potomac vir-
tually blockaded, an immense army under Beaure-
gard in our rear, Washington would probably fall.
With the Chesapeake Bay open to any navy that
may choose to enter, with a disloyal population in
Maryland, with enemies along the Virginia and
Atlantic coasts, England could precipitate a fearful
'series of disasters, and perhaps with the aid of the
Southern armies turn the bloody tide of war upon
the Northern States.
" It may be, in view of all these grave considera-
tions and the sad necessities of the case, that in order
to avoid a war which could only end in our discomfi-
ture, the Administration may be compelled to con-
cede the demands of England, and perhaps release
Messrs. Mason and Slidell. God forbid !—but in a
crisis like this we must adapt ourselves to stern cir-
cumstances, and yield every feeling of pride to
maintain our existence. If this contingency should
ever arise—and I am only speculating upon a dis-
agreeable possibility—then let us swear, not only to
ourselves but our children who come after us, to re•
payithis greedy, insolent, and cowardly Power with
the retribution of a just and fearful vengeance. If
England in our time of distress makes herself our foe
and offers to be our assassin, we will treat her as a
foe when we can do so untrammeled and un-
menaced by another enemy."
The writer then suggests several methods " by
'which to baffle Engand if she is disposed to take
part against the cause of civilized freedom on this
continent," one of which is to submit the whole case
to the arbitration of Russia or France, or both
together, and continues as follows ;
" Should the British Government accept any one
of these suggestions or explanations the case can
readily be adjusted. Should she refuse there can
be but one judgment pronounced. She will forfeit
the respect of every civilised Government on earth.
" But whether she accepts or rejects them, this
much is written in the book of fate—that if she has
attempted to embarrass or to assail the United
States in their present mighty trouble she has made
eternal foes of all the loyal millions of America and
/heir posterity for ever.
"If we do concede the demands of England, how-
tver, it will only be because we desire to crush this
rebellion, as a duty we owe to mankind. It will be
because we prefer to master the great evil and do
not wish to be alienated from our duty by an inter-
national and comparatively unimportant quarrel ; it
will be because we prefer national salvation to the
gratification of any feeling of national pride.
Jt will be a great act of self-denial. But when we
come from this rebellion it will be with a magnifi-
cent army, educated and organised, and with the
sense of this wrong weighing upon them. It will
be with a navy competent to meet any navy upon
the globe. It will be for us then to remember how
England was our enemy in the day of our misfor-
tune, and to make that remembrance a dark and
fearful page of her history and an eternal memory
in our own."
At the annual dinner of the New England So-
ciety, held at Astor-house, in New York, Dec, 23,
some of the speakers referred to the Mason and
Slidell question. The following extracts from the
speeches of the Hon. R. J. Walker and Mr. Everts,
the President of the Society, give some idea of the
popular feeling on this question—
Mr. Walker did not advocate war with England,
but if England, forgetting a common language, a
common race, and a common history of liberty—if,
forgetting all these things and all her alleged prin-
ciples of 30 years, she shall make herself the ally of
that Power which has derided all these, if we do
not fight her now, she will have sown the seeds of
an everlasting hatred, and the time will come when
the flag of the American Union shall float victo-
riously over every acre of Britisaa-American soil.
(Loud and long continued cheering.)
" Mr. Evaits, introducing the next regular toast,
said that, as President of the Society, he would re-
mark, upon a thought suggested by some words let
fall by the hon. gentleman who had last spoken,
that he was decidedly of the opinion that if to this
envious quarrel thrust upon us by our haughty
sisters there was to be added the frown of our jea-
lous mother, we can settle the whole family quarrel
now very nicely together. (Great hilarity and ap.
lause.)"
Mr. Seward, who was unable to be present on the
occasion, sent the following letter of excuse. This
letter is dated Dec. 11, before the receipt of the
European advices on the Trent question—
"To C. A. STETSON, ESQ., ASTOR-HOUSE.
" I),,partment of State, Washington, Dec. 11, 1861.
" Dear Sir,—Pray present my apology to the sons
of New England for declining their invitation to the

son."

New England dinner. My duties here allow me
little enjoyment of the holydays.
" If it were an Old England dinner instead of a
New England feast, I would certainly strain a point
to attend. I would like so good an opportunity to
show our cousins across the seas that there is no
material benefit or moral influence tha can accrue
to us that will not also increase the prosperity and
greatness of Great Britain, and that every disaster
that befals the United States is also pregnant with
suffering and sorrow sooner or later to be borne by
Great Britain.

" Express my warmest acknowledgments to the
committee, and believe me, ever faithfully your

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD."
The press generally is certainly hostile to Eng-
and ; the argument generally used is that if there
.3 war with England it will be forced upon the
United States by England; that the United States
are desirous of peace ; at the same time entirely
ignoring the various acts of the Federal Govern-
ment in regard to England since the commence-
ment of the rebellion ; more especially the un-
usual proceedings in the forcible seizure of the
Commissioners Mason and Slidell, none of which
proceedings tend to strengthen the bonds of peace
between the two countries. Many of the jour-
nals contain elaborate arguments to prove that
Ireland is ripe for revolt, the Few York Even-
ing Post going so far as to state that official infor-
mation had been received in Washington to that
effect. They also argue that it would be the inte-
rest of France to remain neutral in the quarrel, in
order to avail herself of a tariff which would at once
be passed in favour of the admission of French
goods into the United States for the next 10 or 15
years on such terms as to entirely exclude British
goods from the market.
The Washington correspondent of the New York
Times writes as follows on the feeling at Wash-
ington :

" If I can judge by what I feel and hear I should
utter a wail over the fading prospect of a brush
with our great ancestor. Do you know that if there
is one great sentiment that Jonathan always nurses,
and cherishes, and hugs to himself, and heartily
believes in, it is the sentiment of hatred to Bull,
and to those habits and customs to which Bull is
given ? If there is any regret felt at the taking of
the rebel Commissioners from the deck of a British
steamer, it is the regret that he may have thereby
given our sanction to a right which Bull has always
claimed to exercise, and which we have as resolutely
refused to concede. Say what you will about
friendly relations, cousinly love, commercial inte-
rests, and business alliances, there is really and
sincerely no more good faith between us and them
than there was 50 years ago. The old Adam in us
is always ready for a fight with the mother coun-
try. Be :sure of one thing. The country is in
no mood to brook arrogance from England. The
fear that the people seem to have is that the Go-
vernment ;may seek to shun a conflict by some con-
cession or explanation, or else a dalliance of the
negotiation that may have the semblance of a wish
to maintain existing relations."
The New York Herald indulges in the following
characteristic remarks :
" In the Mexican war we had only 20,000 men
employed. At the conclusion of the war the volun-
teers were disbanded, and they were the source of
great trouble to our Government engaging in fili-
bustering expeditions to Cuba, Nicaragua, and other
neighbouring States. If the survivors of an army
of 20,000 caused the Government so much uneasi-
ness, what would be the consequence if a million of
men, filled with military ideas, and many of them
fired with ambition and the:lust of conquest, were
to be disbanded and left without employment ?
The most difficult problem in France is what to do
with its armies in time of peace. The soldiers can-
not bear the idea of inaction. If they are not en-
gaged with a foreign foe, there is every danger of
their embarking in domestic revolution. In order
to preserve peace at home the rulers of France find
it necessary to war against their neighbours at brief
intervals. What, then, is the American Govern-
ment to do with the immense fighting mass which
will be left on its hands when the Southern war is
over? It must be immediately employed in vindi-
cating the Monroe doctrine, and be directed against
European domination on this continent till every
vestige of it is swept away. Mexico must be made
free to choose her own destiny without European
intervention, and Cuba and Canada must be an-
nexed at one blow to the United States. All the
West India Islands must be conquered. They pro-
perly belong to the American continent, and all
European rule on the coast of the Pacific must be
terminated by the American republic, one and in-
divisible,' and henceforth a military public like
ancient Rome, reducing the neighbouring nations
to her sway, but giving them also her freedom and
power, at the same time allowing them to retain
their own domestic institutions. Thus, she grew in
greatness and glory, but the narrow-minded Puri-
tanism which would meddle with the domestic in-
stitutions of the Southern States would prevent for
ever the expansion of the American Republic and
kindle undying hatred in the breasts of the van-
quished. There is no statesmanship in this con-
tracted sect. Under other auspices, therefore,
will it be necessary to send forth armies con-
quering and to conquer, till this vast continent
is ours. Such is the manifest destiny of the
Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races blended together in
the United States; and never shall their pure Cau-
casian blood be deteriorated by adulteration with
the negro like the unfortunate republics of Mexico,
Central and South America. England knows that
the last shadow of her dominion in the New World
must vanish as the mist before the rising sun so soon
as we shall have settled our domestic difficulties;
hence her design is to prevent a settlement. But by
our energy and rapid movements let us baffle her
schemes and the game is ours."
The New York Press generally makes but little
comment upon the death of Prince Albert, beyond
giving his obituary. The New T ork, Times, however,
has the following remarks :
" The death of Prince Albert is without political
significance. We might indeed speculate upon the
possibility of a domestic calamity of this character
diverting momentarily the attention of the British
public from the war topic, but let us rather follow
reverently to the grave this man, who, being a
Prince, knew also to be a good citizen, a public bene-
factor, and an object of popular regard and respect.
Thus much, indeed, is eminently due to the father
'rom a people who so recently did honour to the

The New York Herald contains the following
reflections on the death of his late Royal High-

ness :
" The effect of his decease will doubtless be to al- •
lay in a measure the irritation of the British people
consequent upon the affair of the Trent. The sen-
timent of loyalty in England is so deep and devoted
that it approaches personal reverence and affection,
and this sudden visitation of death to the Royal
household will for a season occasion general sorrow,
in the midst of which animosities languish and anger
abate& Tho English people now so wildly exaspe-
rated at the inhabitants of the Northern States, ought
not to need the reminder that, although we do not
participate in their grief, we share in their respect
for the memory of their Prince deceased. He had
many traits which good men honour, and his
memory will be honoured hero as it deserves, irre-
spective of any temporary irritation between the
motherland and our own."
The Yew York Times publishes the following
news from Port Royal :
" Port Royal, South Carolina, Tuesday,
December 17.
" The stone fleet has departed in tow of several of
our transports for Charlestown. The Marion is just
in from Tybee with information that the rebels
attacked our forces—whether by land or sea 1 know
not—last night. Pulaski shelled our gunboats.
The damage is at present unknown. Capt. Fuller
has gone to Beaufort for the winter, and his De-
partment will soon follow. He has charge of the
town and the property there entirely.
" Operations against Warsaw Island were in pro-
gress, but nothing had been accomplished when the
Ericsson left. She will leave for New York on
Monday. Adjutant-General Thomas has received
a letter from MOor-General Butler, who is now