The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-31 00:00:00

via City Point to-day, and has been during the
evening in close consultation with the President and
Secretary Seward, touching a proposition of Jeff.
Davis in regard to commissioners for peace.
" Spies from head-quarters of the Army of the
Potomac, who returned from Richmond yesterday
morning, report the significant fact that General
Lee has sent his family away from. Richmond.
They also state that at the rebel capital there is but
one subject thought or talked of, and that is
peace."
- -

The Associated Press publishes the following
despatches respecting Mr. Blair :
" Washington, Jan. 16.
" The Republican in an extra says :
" A private despatch from City Point announces
that the Hon. Frank P. Blair sen., returned from

that place from Richmond yesterday morning, and
immedirtely left in a steamer for this city.
" Mr. Blair is expected to arrive here some
time this afternoon."

Another despatch :
" Francis P. Blair arrived at the Navy Yard this
afternoon in the steamer Don, the flagship of the
Potomac flotilla. Much speculation is indulged as
to the result of his visit to Richmond, but nothing

definite can be ascertained concerning it."
The Richmond Examiner of the 14th inst. says:—

" The version of Mr. Blair's interview with Presi-
dent Davis is that he (Blair) wrote Davis a letter
inquiring whether he would receive a social visit
from an old friend ; that Davis responded, and that
_ _ _ _ .

the interview took place, at the end of which Davis
delivered Mr. Blair a letter to President Lincoln, in
which he declared his willingness either to receive
commissioners from the United States to treat of
peace, or to send them duly credited if they would
be received at Washington."
The Richmond Enquirer of the same date says:—

" Francis P. Blair, of Lincolndom, is still in this
city, stopping at the Spottswood Hotel. Nothing
reliable has yet transpired in regard to his mission.

Several members of the Confederate Congress and
of the Legislature waited on him at his rooms yes-
terday, and at once resolved themselves into a com-

- -
mittee of the Whole on the state of the Union."

The Richmond Whig of the same date says :
" There were no developments to-day relative to
the mission of Mr. Frank P. Blair, sen. His move-
ments even are not revealed to the public."

The New York World, in a despatch from its
Washington correspondent, dated 16th January,
says:—
___. _ _

" During his stay in Richmond, from Wednesday
to Saturday, he (Mr. Blair) had an interview with
Jeff. Davis, Secretary Benjamin, and Mr. Seddon,
Secretary of War, besides several Congress men.
• • • . On his return here he remained for some
time at General Grant's head-quarters
This evening Mr. Blair, sen., and his son Mont-
gomery, late Postmaster-General, called on Presi-
dent Lincoln and spent some time. What passed
at this interview is as yet unknown to outsiders, but
to the latter Mr. Blair has intimated very decidedly
that he went on no official mission, and that he did
not receive any official or semi-official communica-
tion while in Richmond. So far as is known of
what he actually heard in Richmond relative to
peace, it is believed that the tenour and details
were consonant with the articles in the Richmond
papers on the same subject, so frequently repro-
duced in your columns."
The New York Herald's Washington correspon-
dent states that Mr. Blair's mission was one of a
purely private character, and says that the pass
accorded him to enter the rebel lines not only
recited that he was understood to come upon pri-
vate business, but restricted him to the transaction
of such business exclusively. "Mr. Blair's chief
object in going to Richmond was to recover, if pos-
sible, some valuable title deeds abstracted from his
house by the rebels, during the rebel raid against
Washington. Some of these were recovered." The
Herald also states that Mr. Blair was not autho-
rised to make any peace propositions, but hoped to
be able to lay before his quondam friends, who ara/
now leaders of the rebellion, such suggestions
might tend to bring about a conclusion of the war.
"He was everywhere kindly received, and had
frank and free conversations with Mr. Davis and
numbers of others of the leading men of the South,
but these resulted in nothing clPfinitP_" The
Herald's correspondent concludes by saying :—" N
propositions, either written or verbal, were made by
Mr. Davis to Mr. Blair, nor was he made the bearer
of any to his Government. As far as political
affairs are concerned, his mission was without
result."

The .New York Tribune's Washington correspon-
dent says :—" It is needless to say that Jeff. Davis
has sent no letter to Mr. Lincoln, and made no sign
of lowering the Confederate flag—none whatever.
Ex-Governor Jacobs, of Secesh and Kentucky, came
up from Richmond with Mr. Blair. He represents
the feeling for peace to pervade all classes in that
city, and to extend to officers of high grade in the
army. Among the working classes, he says, it
amounts to an actual demand. He predicts that
there will be a cessation of hostilities within two
months, and a proposal of peace upon some terms
of reunion from the Confederate Government to

ours,

" This is quite a contradiction of the indications
of a fact reported by an officer arrived to-day from
the interior of North Carolina, that the rebels have
already in the field, armed and equipped, thirty re-
giments of freed slaves."
The New York Times of to-day publishes the
following leading article upon the " Rumours of
Peace" :

"We reiterate the conviction we have already
expressed that the reports of attempted or intended
negotiations for peace which are so diligently pressed
upon public notice are utterly without foundation.
We see nothing here or at Washington to give them
the slightest claim to the slightest credit. Unless
the most explicit assurances in the highest quarters
are utterly unreliable, neither Mr. Blair, nor Mr.
Singleton, nor anybody else has gone to Richmond,
either to open negotiations with the rebel Govern-
ment, or to sound the rebel officers as to their wishes
and expectations in regard to peace. That Mr.
Blair, being at Richmond, will talk about peace is
very likely, and it is possible, though not at all pro-
bable, that he will learn from Mr. Davis and Com-
pany something on this subject which we do not
know already. Mr. Blair sought permission to go
to Richmond exclusively on the plea of private
business, and he has no shadow of authority, direct
or indirect, to say one word on behalf of the Go-
vernment concerning the terms of peace.
" The Government seeks peace earnestly, and
with a determined purpose to secure it. But it does
not seek it through negotiations of any sort with
the rebel Government—still less on the basis of
what the leaders of that Government may indicate
in conversation with individuals as terms on which
it will be conceded. President Lincoln and those
associated with him, the Union men in Congress
and elsewhere, regard the war waged against the
Government as a rebellion ; they determined at the
very outset to treat as such, and to suppress it by
force of arms ; and from that time to this, in spite
of discouragement and defeats, in spite of open hos-
tility from those whose political sympathies are with
the rebels, and of the more dangerous counsels of
timid and mistaken friends, it has persevered in that
determination. All the last election the issue was
fairly made throughout the loyal States, and the
people, by an overwhelming majority, decided in
of insteadres tor restoring
favour of thatmepthreoped osfedre:ttocrinhigea peace c f
the opposite plan
it by negotiation. The Government has accepted
that decision as an imperative endorsement of its
energy and augmented
policy, and it is pursuing thatipot
seekslicy fresh
vigour.
freedom, through war, more resolutely
dthere andhas
never
vo
er more
exclusively than ever before. An
been
eadttimhaen since
tothseeewkaper baecgeafnroiravhet nh
ei t wasCo
d e lde
es s-
rate authorities in any other way.
"Those, therefore, who are looking for peace
through private diplomacy, or, as
a consequence,
immediate or remote, of personal interviews with
officials of the rebel government, are, in our judg-
ment, resting
their hopes on a false basis. A very
little reflection, it seems to us, will convince any one
that all such attempts, even if they were compatible
with the principles
on which the war has been con-