The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-04 00:00:00

PRUSSIA AND AMERICA.

The Berlin correspondent of the Independance
Beige, writing on the Ist inst., says :
" I have received some details respecting the
despatch which Count Bernstorff has addressed to
the Prussian Envoy at Washington. The point of
right is not entered into in detail. It is first mid
in this documentjhat the news of maritime measures
taken with regard to the Southern States would
create the fear that the rights of neutral navigation
might be endangered. Touching on the Trent

affair, the despatch expresses the hope that Captain
Wilkes may have acted without instructions.
Should that supposition not be founded, which the
Prussian Goverrinl,lit hoped it might doubt„ it
must be admitted that the rights of all neutral States
had received a serious injury. The Prussian Minis-
ter points out that the demands made by England
are not of a nature to hurt the dignity of the Go-
vernment of the United States and of its President;
it expresses the hope that those demands will be
granted by America. Iris Majesty the King of Prus-
sia has always been animated with the most benevo-
lent sentiments for the United States. His Majesty
has charged Count Bernstorff to dwell particularly
upon that point, and to recommend the maintenance
of peace in the most urgent manner. Prussia would
rejoice in having contributed to prevent a conflict.
Should, unhappily, a contrary decision already have
been taken when this despatch reached Washing-
ton, the Government of the King would nevertheless
feel satisfaction at having expressed itself in favour
of peace."

" According to advices from the Havannah, of
the 7th of December, Vera Cruz had been evacuated
by the Mexicans, who had carried off the guns of
the fortifications to Puebla and Mexico. The
Spanish Government has authorised General Ser-
rano, Captain-General of Cuba, to establish a regu-
lar service of steamers between Vera Cruz, Havanna,
St. Domingo, and Porto Rico."

THE OTHER SIDE OF TIIE QUESTION

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON SUN.

New York, Dec. 19,1861.
SlR,—The rational and dignified language and
audi alteram parte7n spirit of your paper respecting.
the Mason and Slidell affair, induce the hope that
reason will yet have sway, and that violent lan-
guage will not necessarily be followed by violence
of action, which all good men on both sides of the
sea must deplore. You will receive by this steamer
abundant evidence that the English people have
been misled and inflamed by a distorted statement

of what did occur; that so far from violence, rude-
ness, and outrage of manner, Lieut. Fairfax con-
ducted himself throughout with refined courtesy and
decorum ; and that for the express purpose of
causing as little annoyance and inconvenience as pos-
sible to the ship and her passengers, and as little
detention as possible to her mails, the extreme right
(which seems to be conceded by the London Times
and other objectors) of taking her into port for
condemnation was not pursued. Surely the animus
of Captain Wilkes in
_this respect was net "an
outrage." As to the fact that the two persons
taken from the Trent were "contraband," we have
(as you will see by the American papers) their own
avowal, and the official declaration by Jefferson
Davis in his message to the Rebel Congress.
It is difficult for plain people here to understand

how the forbearance to exercise a belligerent right
to an extreme and most injurious degree can consti-
tute an offence at all, still less an offence of so
aggravated a character as to call for war between
the two great Christian nations. Shakespeare
must have erred, and we must henceforth hold that
to take less than the bond is to exceed the sin of
Shylock.

Can it be that the violent imputations on this
Government are sincere ? Is it possible that they
speak sincerely who talk of the design of this Go-
vernment to force a war with England ? Can we
err in believing that the Trent affair is the mere
pretext for joining the rebels in an attempt to de-
stroy this Government ?
You can hardly imagine the astonishment with
which the people of this country have regarded the
hostile tone of so large a portion of the British press
towards us since the outbreak of the rebellion. At
no former period did there exist so kind and cordial
a feeling on the part of the American people towards
England. I need hardly refer to a stronger illustra-
tion of this fact than the spontaneous, warmhearted,
enthusiastic, unselfish outburst of kind feeling from
all our people, of all classes, high and low, rich
and poor, which greeted her future King on his
visit to us last fall. That the very first manifesta-
tion thereafter of English feeling towards us should
have come in the shape of an eager, over-prompt
recognition (as equal belligerents) of the rebels and
traitors who seek to destroy this Government, did
indeed amaze us. The surprise was no less than
would be that of England were the American Go-
vernment in like manner to recognise any section of
England, or Ireland, or India, immediately on a
revolutionary outbreak. This surprise was none
the less because of the alacrity of sympathy which
it manifested towards a body of men who not
only seek to overthrow our Government but to esta-

blish a new Government, having for its corner-stone

the right and policy of extending and perpetuating
human slavery. Is there a chapter in the history
of our Anglo-Saxon race that records such a
change as that philanthropic, liberty-loving, anti-
slavery England should so suddenly reverse her
sympathies and her teachings to favour such an
insurrection and to promote such an end !
An intimation from England that she could not
sympathise with a Government founded on human
slavery, and committed to its perpetuity and ex-
tension, would have nipped the treason to humanity
in its very bud.

The idea that the United States Government,
while tasking its energies and resources in sup-
pressing the rebellion, and struggling for its very
existence, seeks to bring on a war with England,:is
really so preposterous that it seems silly to combat
it. It would be necessary to search very labo-
riously among our whole population to find any
one so stolid as to suppose that we could at this
time willingly incur war even with the feeblest
chief of a petty island in the Pacific.
Now, with no:disposition to reciprocate harsh lan-
guage or offensive suggestions, I may state the fact
that the apprehension here is very general that
England is about to play a most unworthy part
towards us in this hour of our trial and distress;
and that if the pretext of the Slidell and Mason
affair is disposed of, some other will be speedily
invented for assailing us, and " giving aid and
comfort" to the rebels. We have English blood
in our veins here, and therefore with English can-
dour say that such a course will not be in accord-
ance with English honour or with English courage.
We have been educated to honour England, and
to trust in her faith and truth. She may see the
day when our friendship will not be valueless. She
may have trouble with belligerents, and need the
services of a friend, or " neutral," who will not
turn against her in the hour of her utmost need.
Heaven grant that such may be our relation to her.
It seems as though the English papers, which are
so vindictive and bitter in their assaults on this
country, were edited by American rebels. Their
language is in the stereotyped phraseology of se-
cessiondom. The "impossibility of subjugating
8,000,000 of people"—the wrong of "coercion"—
the "determination of the rebels to die in the last
ditch, and that every man, woman, and child will
perish sooner than submit," are the formulas that
have become utterly unmeaning from their staleness
and their emptiness. There is no necessity or design
of " subjugating" the 5 (not 8) millions—but there is
a necessity of putting down the despotic and tyran-
nous rebel leaden, whose reign of terror has subju-
gated the people of a portion of the country, and
,compelled them to shut their lips, and to appear
willing aids in defiance of law, and in revolutionary
schemes which in their hearts they abhor. As to
the "dying in the last ditch," and all that sort of
thing, it is so much more Gascon than English that
we wonder at finding it so current in England.
Then, too, the systematic perversion of styling this
war as one between the Northern and Southern
States, instead of between the United States Govern-
ment and Rebels in a portion of the States; the
systematic perversion of styling this Government
as a mere league or alliance of sovereign and inde-
pendent States, instead of a Government—a unity
—formed by the people of all the States; these
things are an imposition on the people of England
which has no warrant save in the false teachings of
traitors.

If England will forbear hostile nets towards us
the rebellion will be speedily eru2hed, and com-
merce will resume her benign reign, and promote
the happiness of the people of England and Ame-
rica.
• C. L.

ROYAL IIORT1( ULTURAL )S%)CLET.II.

--~

At, a meeting of the council, specially !surnmontel
on Thursday last, the following autograph letter
from his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was
received :

" OSBORNE, DEC. 28, 1861.
" Gentlemen,—Prostrated with overwhelming
grief, and able, at present, to turn her thoughts but
to one object, the Queen my mother has constantly
in her mind the anxious desire of doing honour to
the memory of him whose good and glorious cha-
racter the whole nation in its sorrow so justly ap-
preciates.

" Actuated by this constantly recurring wish, the
Queen has commanded me to recall to your recol-
lection that her Majesty had been pleased to assent
to a proposal to place a statue of herself upon the
memorial of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which it
was intended to erect in the New Horticultural
Gardens.

" The characteristic modesty and self-denial of
my deeply-lamented father had induced him to in-
terpose to prevent his own statue from filling that
position, which properly belonged to it, upon a me-
morial to that great undertaking which sprung
from the thought of his enlightened mind, and was
carried through to a termination of unexampled
success by his unceasing superintendence.
" It would however now, her Majesty directs me
to say, be most hurtful to her feelings were any other
statue to surmount this memorial but that of the
great, good prince, my dearly beloved father, to
whose honour it is in reality raised.
" The Queen, therefore, would anxiously desire
that, instead of her statue, that of her beloved hus-
band should stand upon this memorial.
" Anxious, however humbly, to testify my re-
spectful and heartfelt affection for the best of
fathers, and the gratitude and devotion of my sor-
rowing heart, I have sought, and have with thank-
fulness obtained, the permission of the Queen my
mother to offer the feeble tribute of the admiration
and love of a bereaved son, by presenting the statue
thus proposed to be placed in the gardens under
your management.—l remain, gentlemen, yours,

" ALBERT EDWARD.
" To the Council of the Horticultural Society."
The letter having been read, the council resolved
—" That under the lamentable and afflicting cir-
cumstances in which the council are placed by the
irreparable loss which they, in common with the
nation, have sustained by the decease of their late
president, the gracious offer of his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales should be accepted ; but at the
same time that ho should be assured that they con-
template the loss of her Majesty's statue with very
great regret."