The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-24 00:00:00

fliE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY! 24, `11.862.

journey he requested me to go to the Palace to take
leave of him. I was exceedingly impressed with flit
Very great ludgment—l till not say propriety, for
it is not a sufficiently strong term—but the great
judgment and discretion with which he received the
attentions that were offered to him by such a variety
of classes and under circumstances so entirely novel
to him. lam persuaded that the spontaneous, ear•
nest, and affectionate veneration which was offered
through him to his honoured mother still continues
with unabated warmth in the bosom of all Ameri-
cans. (near, hear.) lam satisfied that nothing has
impaired those feelings, and I believe nothing will
ever occur that can impair them. (Hear, hear.)
We, as Americans, may at the present time claim to
take place next to Englishmen in affectionate sym-
pathy with the present sorrows of the Queen. The
Chairman then proposed " the health of Queen
Victoria," and requested Dr. Ferguson to speak to
the toast.

The Rev. Dr. FERGUSON, in performing the pleas-
ing duty to every Englishman of setting forth her
Majesty's title to the love and respect of all her
subjects, was delighted to find that the merits of his
Sovereign were so well appreciated by American
people. Adverting to the troubles in the United
States the rev. gentleman reminded the company
that England had by a costly oblation proved her
sincere hatred of slavery. If one party in the pre-
sent struggle fought for the maintenance of slavery
the other party was sworn to liberty. England and
the Northern States were alike solemnly pledged
to that sacred cause, and he invited all to join hands
and vow to relax no effort until the last links of the
chain fell from the limbs of the enslaved race.

" The Queen's health" was then drunk with loud
applause. _ _ .

The CHAIRMAN then proposed, " the health of the
President of the United States." (Loud cheers.)
Dr. M'GowAN, in briefly speaking to the toast,
said all Americans resident abroad must feel sincere
admiration for President Lincoln. Many of them
had been precluded by absence from discharging
their duties as citizens at home, and therefore they
were enabled to approach the consideration of pend-
ing questions with calmness and moderation. None
who had carefully studied the events of Mr. Lin-
coln's administration could wonder that the Ameri-
cans resident abroad felt that his past conduct was
a sure guarantee that their nationality would be
preserved. (Hear.) A year ago it was not so. Then
it seemed as though successful treason had left them
without a country. Like most Europeans, they (the
absent Americans) mistook the forbearance of their
loyal fellow countrymen for indifference, and their
hearts had failed them. It was however but for a
moment. The unanimous support accorded to the
President in his determination to restore the Union
in the recalcitrant States, the firmness and modera-
tion, the humanity and conservatism, which he had
exhibited in this trying moment of their country's
history, afforded ample evidence that he was in
every way equal to the crisis. (Hear, hear.) He felt
assured that Mr. Lincoln would maintain the ma-
jesty of the law without vindictiveness, and that
when rebellion should cease to jeopardise the
national existence, he would be found a magnani-
mous and a worthy representative of a Christian
people. (Hear, hear.) They might confide in
the patriotism of the President, and that, as far
as in him lay, the fair heritage from their fathers
should be handed down intact to their ch;ldren ;
that their empire would be preserved from the At-
lantic to the Pacific, including as a necessity the
absolute control of the Gulf of Mexico, mare nos-
trum—ia other words, that if their erring brethren
of the South would not be their fellow-citizens they
should be their subjects. (Cheers.)
Mr. G. THOMPSON also spoke to the toast, and
observed that Mr. Lincoln was entitled to the sym-
pathy, respect, and admiration of all men both in
his private character and as the elect of a great
nation, Some attempts had been made in this
country to create a feeling of hostility to the
Northern States, but he could say from experience
that those efforts had failed. He had addressed
many meetings at Manchester and other manufac-
turing districts ; but, although the working classes
were necessarily suffering severely from the present
condition of affairs, yet he found among them a
unanimous desire for absolute non-interference on
our part. (Hear, hear.)
The toast was drunk with long-continued ex-
pressions of applause.

Dr. M‘GowAN proposed " Our country," which
was responded to by Mr. SHEPARD.

The next toast was " The Union."

Mr. FREEMAN MORSE, United States' Consul in
London, said the Union was a never-fading senti-
ment in the heart of every loyal American where-
ever he might be. It was the morning and the
evening prayer, the thought by day and the dream
by night, that the glorious Union might be pre-
served one and indivisible. (Cheers.) There was
no time for him to enter upon an examination of
the various causes which had brought their country
into its present position, but the glorious Union
which had been formed for such noble purposes must
endure. The Union had established liberty ; it per-
petuated justice ; it secured human rights, founded
upon the marvellous Declaration of Independence,
which would live when then the columns of palaces
had crumbled into dust, when the old moss-covered
cathedrals of the country had mouldered away,
when its titled families with their pictures and
statues had passed into forgetfulness—that Decla-
ration would still live to proclaim the mighty
fact that all men were created free and equal.
(Cheers.) Governments were formed to protect life,
liberty, and property. For those purposes the
Union was formed, and they meant to make the
Union perpetual, even if every man's life were to be
made a sacrifice for it. (Cheers.) There had always
been a thorn in the American side—one planted
two-and-a-half centuries back. It was slavery. The
Constitution had not recognised slavery, but it was
only a matter of State sovereignty. But the Union
was not to be broken by any State at will. The
Union had great powers to exercise and great duties
to perform, and those duties it was performing now.
He was sent to this city as Consul, not by one or
any number of States, but by the Union of 33 States,
which were covered by one national flag. What was
it that gave them a high position iu the world but
the union of all the States ? There was no provision
in the Constitution that any single State could
break the union, and when he was asked, as he some-
times had been, " Why not let the South go ?" he
replied that there was no power to let them go with-
out destroying the Constitution. There was no
doubt that slavery was the cause of these troubles,
but the Constitution had never declared that one
man had a right of property in his brother man.
(Hear.) Slavery was no national institution, but
it had been fostered in the Southern States until it
had grown from comparatively small beginnings to
its present stature. Slavery had induced the South
to exert every art and chicanery to obtain power,
to get up Mexican wars, to threaten Cuba, to fili-
buster in Central America, and at last they de-
manded that slavery should be recognised as a na-
tional institution. They threatened that, unless the
Government recognised slavery north of the Mis-
souri line, they would go out of the Union. When
the present troubles were first threatened a Com-
mittee of Congress was appointed—one member for
each State, and of that committee he was a member.
They called upon their Southern brethren to state
their grievances, and various propositions were
made, but not one word of complaint was made of
tariffs or taxation. (Hear.) He therefore was con-
vinced that nothing but slavery was the cause of
their dissatisfaction. (Hear.) When South Carolina
promulgated her Act of Secession there was no com-
plaint of tariff or taxation, but the grievance was
slavery. (Hear.) Mr. Breckenridge, the Southern
candidate for the President's chair, in his platform
or declaration of principles, did not refer to taxa-
tion ; and, further, he would remind his hearers that
Mr. Palk, the candidate of the South at a former
election, had inscribed upon his banner "Palk and
the Tariff of 1842." (Hear.) From beginning to
end it was slavery, slavery. The South wanted the
North to go back to barbaric ages and to acknow-
ledge that one man had a right of property in an-
other. Then came the bombardment of Sumter and
the stealing of the national property in various;
ways, although that process had been going on for
years. before. When Floyd and his confederates
were in office the arms deposited in national arse-,

nals were gradually withdrawn from the free States
and sent into the slave States, of course With a
view to the results which were to follow. Conse-
quently, when the crisis came the North was almost
entirely disarmed, while the South was quite pre-
pared for a fight. What, then, could the North do
but wait until they could make arms and soldiers ?
When people in England thought that the North
had done nothing, let them consider that their con-
dition was. It took France or England seten or
eight months to train a Soldier so that he was fit to
enter upon the field, but the United States Govern-
ment, although it had raised 530,000 or 600,000
volunteers, who were ready to risk their lives and
fortunes to preserve the Union, yet required time to
manufacture those volunteers into soldiers. The de-
lay that had occurred had been a wise delay-
-(hear)—and the fruits would be seen presently.
There was now a noble army of 600,000 men deter-
mined to preserve the glorious Union. When that
was done they could lay aside their weapons and
return to their peaceful homes and pursuits. (Hear,
hear.) As to slavery, he could only say he thought
it was almost worth a war to have brought about
the present revulsion of feeling concerning it in the
North, which had awakened to the consciousness of
the vast evil that was growing in their midst.
(Hear.) The free people of the North would not
relax an effort until this detestable rebellion was
crushed, and ho would venture to predict that be-
fore another anniversary of Washington's birthday
came round the Union would be one and insepara-
ble, and the glorious old flag that waved above them
would again be acknowledged in every one of the
33 States. (Cheers.)
Mr. CYRus FIELD (New York) gave the toast
of " England and America." After referring to
the reception of the Prince of Wales in America,
the American expedition in search of Franklin,
and other incidents as proving the warm and
kindly feelings entertained in the United States
towards Great Britain, he said there could be no
doubt, however, that the cordial feeling between the
people of the two countries had of late been some-
what impaired. Designing and corrupt men on both
sides of the Atlantic had done all in their power to
create hostile feeling between the two countries.
The mistaken zeal of Commodore Wilkes had been
represented as an intentional insult to the British
flag. On the other hand, the American people had
been led to believe that Great Britain intended to
acknowledge the independence of the so-called
" Confederate States of America." All present must
be aware that the act of Commodore Wilkes was
unauthorised by the American Government, and
was not intended even by that officer himselfas
an
insult to Great Britain. Having a personal
ac-
quaintance with the President and almost every
member of his Cabinet, he knew that, next to crush-
ing out this wicked rebellion, their most earnest
desire was to maintain friendly relations with the
British Government. (Hear, hear.) He was now
in England to do what he could to carry out an
enterprise which he believed would bind the two
countries in the closest bonds of friendship—he re-
ferred to a telegraph across the Atlantic. (Hear.)
He did not believe for one moment that the English
Government could recognise the Southern Confe-
deracy as an independent Power, nor did he believe
they would do aught to assist in founding a govern-
ment the corner stone of which was avowed to be
slavery. (Hear.) The present struggle had been
compared by some to the war of 1776, but the War
of Independence was a just and holy war—the up-
rising of loyal but oppressed men. It was inau-
guara ted by the purest patriots ; its watchword
was " Liberty ;" its leader was Washington. (Hear,
hear.) The war now being waged against the
United States was the most unrighteous rebellion
the world had ever seen. Inaugurated by men who
had failed in their political aspirations, its watch-
word was " Slavery," its leader the repudiator of
the Mississippi bonds. (Hear.) England could
never recognise a government emanating from such
sources. It had frequently said, "Let the South go;
you can never live happily with them." He could
only say that if they could not live happily together
under one government, they certainly could not as
two nations. (Hear, hear.) There was no great
natural boundary between the North and the South.
The United States would remain an undivided
country from the great lakes and the St. Lawrence
to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the
- Pacific, and they would at the earliest practicable
moment remove from themselves the great curse
that had brought the present troubles upon them.
(Cheers.) England could never be jealous of the
rising greatness of her own offspring; nor could
America feel anything but pride in the power of
the great country from which a majority of her
people were descended. (Cheers.) That the friend-
ship between Great Britain and the United States
might be as enduring as the cliffs of Old England
herself was the prayer of every true American heart.
(Cheers.)

Other toasts—" Literature and the Press," " The
Poets of England and America," and " The Ladies"
—were given, and the company dispersed shortly
after 7 o'clock.

THE SCOTS FUSILIERS AT ST. JOHN'S.

The Colonial Empire, published at St. John's,
New Brunswick, gives the following account of the
reception given to the Scots Fusilier Guards and
other troops on their arrival at that place :—" With-
out in the slightest degree attempting to glorify
the doings of our fellow-citizens, and of the ladies
of St. John's, in their bountiful hospitality to the
soldiers now here, yet we must say, in fair justice
and all impartiality, that everything has been done
that the New Brunswick idea of entertainment
could devise to welcome the brave men who have
come among us, and to give them that hearty and
right loyal reception they so well deserve. On Jan.
23d the car shed at the railway station, some 400
Get long and about 60 feetwide, admirably warmed
and ventilated, was thrown open for the reception
of 900 men of the Scots Fusilier Guards, for each
of whom there were a seat and a well-filled plate of
the best our market could provide. Ham and turkey
were the staples, but there was every other sort of
good things besides. The vacant space was fully oc-
cupied by ladies, and there was certainly a good
display—there they were, not by scores, but by
hundreds—the fairest and most beautiful women in
all British America; after this assertion we defy
ali comers. The brigade band discoursed sweet
music as the guardsmen marched in with that regu-
larity which only thorough discipline can enforce;
and they were in a remarkably short space of time
seated at table with such quiet and precision that it
was hardly possible to conceive that 900 men were
fully seated and ready for an onslaught upon the
bountiful supply of good things before them. The
address of welcome was delivered by the Hon. C.
Watters, her Majesty's Solicitor-General, after
which grace was said by the Rev. Mr. Donald ;
then the feast began in earnest. We should require
a host of reporters, if we even attempted to describe
what was ' said or sung,' upon this glorous occa-
sion. All those who saw nine hundred splendid
men of the Guards richly dressed, and among them
their
.drummers and fifers in fancy costume, with
their pipers in the tartan, will long remember the
gorgeous scene and all its attendant circumstances.
Neither our limits nor the time at our command will
enable us to give more than a brief notice of this
festival. We must not omit to say that the Roth-
say Rifles m their Scottish costume formed the guard
of honour. At 6 o'clock in the evening there was
another display, for the third time, of fair women
and brave men, in the basement of the Union-street
Chapel. Some 140 of the Commissariat Staff and
Artillery were entertained most sumptuously—and
as'the tables were laid out and amply provided for
300, the vacant seats were occupied by ladies and
a gentlemen
and feasting amazingly. The address of welcome
w
theby city, who seemed to enjoy the fun
Mr. William Wedderbarn very
earnestly and effectively, grace was said by the
delivered
Rev. Dr. Richey, and when the good things had
been discussed there were addresses, and songs, and
e f
much good singing, with hearty, generous feel-
ing, so that when our reporter left there was a
full flood-tide' of, all that was genial and joy-
ous. If the efforts of the ladies and gentlemen
of St. John's fail to secure the good wishes of the
gallant soldiers now passing on to Canada, it cer-
tainly will not be for want of exertion."

GREAT SNIP COMPANY.

The report of the board of directors, to be pre-
sented at the ordinary general meeting of the com-
pany on Friday. At the time of the special general
meeting in November last the Great Eastern was at
Milford Haven, and the interval since has been
occupied in preparing the new paddlewheels, after
stern post, and rudder shaft, so that no delay should
take place in completing the repairs. One of the
paddlewheels has already been fixed in place, and
the other is in a forward state. In their construc-
tion an additional number of arms have been intro-
duced, and the efficiency of the diagonal braces
improved. By these means the general stiffness of
the wheels will be very considerably increased.
The after stern post has been reconstructed, and is
being fixed in place. To facilitate this operation,
and to reduce the time necessary for the ship to
remain on the gridiron, a cofferdam has been built,
which encloses the rudder of the ship ; the work can
thereby be continued 'without interruption at all
states of the tide. It may be well to remark that the
after stern post does not form any material part of
the hull; its principal use is in stiffening the keel
or prolongation of the ship's bottom beyond the
screw, in which the rudder works. The unsound
portion of the rudder shaft, which gave way during
the gale, has been replaced by one of larger dimen-
sions, by which a considerable increase of strength
will be obtained, and the recurrence of a similar
disaster prevented. In the event, however, of any
fracture occurring, the proportions of the new rud-
der shaft have been so disposed that the second or
lower steering apparatus will be available for steer-
ing the ship ; this has already been fixed in place.
The internal fittings, boats, &c., have been repaired,
and there is no doubt that the cost of the works
will not exceed the amount estimated in Nov. last.
Every effort is being made to complete the fixing
of the after stern post, so thatthe ship may be floated
by the next springs, if the tides serve—otherwise,
she cannot be removed from the gridiron until the
middle of the ensuing month. The proprietors have
been already informed that the hull of the ship was
perfect in every respect, and this has been further
confirmed by an examination made since she has
been placed on the gridiron. The bulkheads, doors,
&c., exhibit no indication or trace of having under-
gone any strain. The opinion of the committee
appointed to inquire into the causes which led to
the return of the ship and into the conduct of
Capt, Wallace is appended to the directors' report.
The directors have given much consideration to the
subject of the future employment of the ship. Over.
tures have been made to them for placing her in the
Indian trade, but they consider that the financial
position of the company would not justify them in
incurring the expense of outfit for so long a voyage,
unless there was a more decided probability that the
receipts would exceed the expenditure; they have
therefore determined upon again sending her to
New York, with every confidence that she will com-
mand a considerable share of the freight and pas-
senger traffic during the ensuing season, and that
by a judicious economy in every department, this
employment may be rendered remunerative. The
date of sailing will be advertised at the earliest
opportunity. The directors announce with great
regret that continued ill-health has compelled Mr.
Baker to relinquish the duties of chairman. He has
consequently resigned that office, but they rejoice
that they still have the benefit of his co-opera-
tion as a colleague; they have subsequently elected
Mr. Wm. Barber to fill the chair. The capital ac-
count has been charged with the amount of verdict
and costs given in favour of Mr. Russell—the amount
paid to Mr. Lungley in satisfaction of his claim for
extra work and the cost of alteration to the bearing
of the screw shaft, the fitting of feed pumps to the
boilers of the paddle engines, sheathing the main
deck, &c., all of which works were rendered ne-
cessary by defective construction in the first in-
stance and the requirements of the Board of
Trade. The action brought by Mr. Parry re-
mains on the same footing as at the ordinary
meeting last year. No steps have been taken by
him, beyond obtaining an extension of the time for
making the award under the reference to Ist of
June next. The working account for the year
(exclusive of the September voyage) exhibits an
excess of expenses over receipts of £5,660 ss. The
expenses comprise wages daring the alterations
previously referred to, interest on debentures, and
other items, which would not have been greater had
the ship been constantly employed during the whole
year ; the receipts, on the other hand, are for two
voyages only, the first of which, to New York, was
commenced, as the proprietors will remember, under
the must unfavourable circumstances. The special
account needs no comment—further than apart from
the actual pecuniary loss resulting from the dis-
aster, the directors deplore that the company were
thereby not only deprived of the opportunity of
offering the ship for the transport of troops (a ser-
vice which the experience of the Quebec voyage
had proved to be profitable) but also of employment
in the New York trade, at a time when the rate of
freights was most remunerative. It will be neces-
sary to make arrangements to meet the debenture
loan falling due on the 31st May; although the
directors do not anticipate difficulty in renewing the
debentures or placing them elsewhere. A balance
of £6,670 remains to be issued on account of the
second series of debentures, which amount it will be
necessary to raise to defray the, cost of coals, stores,
&c., for the next voyage.