The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-09 00:00:00

GREAT ST. JAMES'S-HALL—WORLD of
MAGIC, Second Sight, and " Begone. Dull Caro,"
every evening at & A Day Performance, SaturdaT, at 3.
" The most varied entertainment in the metropolis.' —Vide
the Press. Admission, ls.

PROFESSOR and the Misses ANDERSON.—
Farewell season. —World of Magic. Second Sight, and
the original Indian Basket Trick, in conjunction with Fre-
deric the great) Maccabe, the unrivalled ventriloquist, mimic,
and character actor.

VREDERIC MACCABE, Ventriloquist, Mimic,
do., in his original entertainment, "Begone, Dull Care,"
" Miss Mary May," " Early in the Morning." Balcony, 2s. ;
reserved seats, 3s. ; stalls, as. ; at Mr. Austin's office, St.
James's hall, 23, Piccadilly.
A. NIKKO, Acting Manager.

H E 0 X FORD.
6, OXFORD STREET. W.
The Oxford and Canterbury Hall Company (limited).
SIXTY-SIX, by J. Offenbach, performed by
Misses Russell, Barrie, Walmealey, Tyrell ; Messrs. A. St.
Albyn, Husk, and Green, with full Band and Chorus.
Conductor, Mr. F. Jonghmans.
Belle', Comedy, Burlesque, &c., by the celebrated
bans. Messrs. Duriah and Davis, and the Misses TE2SY
and SARA. GUNNISS.
NO ricE —The Oxford has been entirely Redecorated.
Altered, Newly Lighted, and Ventilated, and now is one of
the most agreeable places of resort in the kingdom.—OPEN
EVERY EVENING at Eight o'clock.
The Classical Ballet, entitled THE BRIDAL of BEAUTY,
in which Miss TESSY GUNNISS will make her re appear-
ance THIS EVENING.
Admission—Area, 6d.; stalls and balcony, le.; private
boxes, 10s. 6d.

CANTERBURY HALL.
KO KO RI KO.
This wonderful entertainment, having proved the greatest
hit ever made, will be repeated EVE R.r EVENING, in ad-
dition to the Operatio_Sele3tions, supported by the whole
talent of the establishment.
Comedy, Burlesque, and Ballet by 3lrq. and Hr. Randall,
Me-esra. Durtah and Davies, the D'Aubans, and Arthur
Lloyd.

Director, Mr. F. Jongmane.
All visitors to London at this season should pay a visit to
the above establishment

mADAME TUSSAUD'S EXHIBITION.._
Established 30 years, at the Bazaar, Baker-street.
NEW ADDITION.—In accordance with the season, the
Exhibition ha. been entirely re-e nix llished. The whole or
the ancient Court Dresses of the most costly description,
faithfully copied from the most minute pictures. have been
renewed. Modern 4 ourt Dresses of the most splendid de-
scription, selected from the first houses in Paris and London,
and probably never equalled or surpassed, are now on view.
Life-size Models of DOCTOR E. W. PRITCHARD and
CONSTANCE KENT are now added.
Open from Ii a.m. tllllO p.m.
Admittance, One Shilling; Extra Rooms, Sixpence.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Great Windmill-street
Piccadil. RE-PEN the eason on .
DAY, Sept. 9.1 y will
The above Rooms haveS tire
been enIySATUR re.
decorated by Herr Rubardt and assistants.
Musical Director, M. LUIGI CURTI.
Manager, Mons. GRENET.
Doors open at half-past 8 o'clock; close five minutes to V
o'clock.

THE 'UNITED STATES.

(Prom the Times Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Aug. 25.
It would be incorrect to state that the probable
destiny of the African race in this country is the sub-
ject of discussion here, for it is a remarkable fact
that no subject ever is discussed, unless a prominent
thread of personalty is woven in with it. If one
topic more than another vitally concerns the public
welfare, it is the National Debt, and yet it is very
rare to see anything written or hear anything said
about it better than vague generalities, and peremp-
tory contradictions of English papers which take up
the question as involving a financial problem of the
deepest interest. It would, perhaps, be a hasty in-
ference to draw that no party in the country under-
stands thoroughly any involved question of political
economy, or is able to discuss with advantage even
the provisions which ought to be made for the pay-
ment of the debt. Yet that is the impression created
in the mind of any observer who finds that the debt
is less a theme of remark than the last murder in the
streets, and that even the best informed men in the
country are content to say, " The finances will keep
as they are for the present. We have no time to
think of them now." This same unwillingness or
inability to probe far down into the difficulties before
the country, this tendency to leave events to shift
for themselves, is alio shown whenever any, doubt
is expressed as to the condition of the freedman.
The success so suddenly gained in the late war has
exaggerated the confidence of the people in their
power to overcome any possible embarrassment that
may present itself. "We shall pay our debt, and
provide for the negro," say some, and when they
are asked how they propose to do it they fall back
upon the old generalities, and speak of the latent
resources of the country and the industry of the
people. They can scarcely overestimate either of these
advantages, but it would be more satisfactory to see
that they-depended on something besides the drift of
events, and were proceeding upon principles which
were at least well defined to themselves. Although
the war ended so fortunately for the Federal arms, it
ought not to be forgotton that all kinds of mistakes
were made in its management—that armies were
enlisted for only three months' service, . enormous
bounties paid, and the military commanders weak-
ened by incessant interference on the part of the
Government, If similar errors are committed in
the attempt to consolidate the peace so hardly won,
the fortunate accident of a Grant or a Sherman may
not fall into the lap of the Government to rescue
it from the consequences of its want of foresight,
and, according to the present plan of groping in the
dark for some door of escape from financial and
other difficulties, false steps might easily be made
which would render the victory gained by the
Northern arms a mere sound.
There is an endeavour, such as it is, to "settlapthe
negro question," to use the concise terms invented
by the politicians of America. A series of experi-
ments is now in course of trial which so far as I can
understand them, will, if they succeed, make it de-
sirable for the white man to find a home somewhere
else than in the Southern States, and if they fail will
"settle the question" thoroughly by practically ex-
terminating the negro. People who yield unquestion-
ing belief to all that Mr. Greeley, Mr. Sumner, and
Mr. Chase urge, look forward with confidence to the
plan of investing the negro with the full rights of
citizenship, and a general intermingling of race to
follow.' "Deal with the negro," they say, "as with
any other citizen. Let him alone." Well, they have
let him alone for four months, and one result is that
over 40,000, according to trustworthy estimates, have
perished of hunger, or diseases induced by exposure
and want of food. It is av,aiaonable, therefore, to
assume that this scheme of " letting the .ogro
alone" is susceptible of some improvement, and that
on the ground of humanity the (4overnment which
has set him free must now provide for him. There
is no evading this responsibility; All the Southern
papers are full of stories of famishing freedmen, and
even the Abolitionists show their appreciation of the
magnitude of the danger by preserving au intense, and
perhaps a judicious, silence respecting it. The more
moderate section of politicians do not scruple to
express profound regret that emancipation was not
gradually attempted ; but in order to achieve that
the South must have consented, and it never would
yield a single point: The irrevocable step having
been taken, it remains to be seen how the Govern-
ment will deal with their black fellow-citizens, and
how also they propose to readjust the labour market
in the South.
The public in England are already acquainted
with the germ of the Government policy in relation
to the freedman. There is a special department for
dealing with all questions relating to negroes, under
the superintendence of Gen. Howard. Other officers
are appointed to make tours of inspection through
the different states in which slave labour has hitherto
been employed, If the negroes have any complaint
to make against their masters they must make it to
this departMent, or " bureau." What has been done
down to the present time is very insignificant.
Chiefly, Gen. Howard has made long speeches, in
which he announces great intentions for the future.
In an address recently delivered by him in Maine he
indicated the following as the means by
which he
thought the whole difficulty might be most conve-
niently disposed of. I quote his own words, although
in an abridged form :—" Get more of the spirit of
Christ. That will substitute love for hate. The
Christian churches and benevolent societies should
come forward to aid the bureau. We should love
our neighbours as ourselves, and obey the Govern-
ment in
all
but things."egro e s
The ethics are not to be con-
demned, cannot live upon ethics, and
nwhat they are asking for is food. Gen. Howard,
however, is no doubt anxious to prove himself
something more than a moral teacher. He and
his subordinates are trying to organise a system of
free labour—that is, they propose to any planter
who wants servants, " Make a contract with a cer-
tain number of negroes, and we will see that it is
fulfilled on both sides. The negro shall not run
away
o from,
under the circumstances this is the
b
that
could be made ; at any rate, it is
neefit ,
Perhaps
proposal you, and you shall not beat or sell the
g r
hard to devise a better; but affairs are not yet in a
train for it to be tried with advantage. There is this
obstacle to be met—all negroes are not willing to
leave their masters ; and this further difficulty, that
very few
negroes. The other day a planter said to an old
negro,
4c Jim, do you know you are free now ?"
masters are now able to find food for their
" Yes, I hear," said the man doggedly, " but what
good is it to me ? I don't want another master—
you're good enough for me. Will the Government
find me a better ?" Yet this man and all his compa-
nions had to be made to understand that they must
leave the plantation whether they would or not, and
the parting scenes between slaves and masters have
not been always of that character which current no-
tions on the subject of slavery would lead one to
expect.

To pursue a little further into detail the law which
Gen. Howard has projected, with the sanction, ap-
parently, of the Government. In South Carolina
some of the deserted plantations have been handed
over to the blacks. " This plan," Gen. Howard told
the people of Maine, " has succeeded, and has been
followed elsewhere. Near Norfolk, near Richmond,
and opposite Washington, abandoned houses, as
well as lands, are rented by coloured people, or by
the employers of such." This is essentially a scheme
for colonising the South with blacks, and I do not
think it is regarded with approbation by any class,
except the Abolitionists, who would scarcely be sa-
tisfied if New York and all that it contains were
given to the blacks and their heirs for ever. There
are, besides these old plantations, farms belonging
to the Government which are given to the freedmen.
General Howard states that he is iei3Olv.ed to or-
ganise some plan for educating the children of
negroes, and that ho is determined the black shall

be placed on an equality with the white in courts
of justice. In this last measure he has succeeded
thus far, several cases having occurred in which the
evidence of negroes was refused by the judge, or ob-
jected to by counsel, and in each instance the freed-
man triumphed. All cases of this kind are now
carried to provost-courts, so that it is not possible
to avoid taking the evidence of any negro who may
be competent to give it.
A deputation of coloured persons recently, waited
Hupon General Pahner, at Lexington, Kentucky. In
the course of his remarks to them he said, " I have
already expressed my apprehension that but little
more than nominal liberty is possible to a majority
of the coloured people." This is a recognition of
the fact that the negroes are not and cannot be fit
to enter the State armed with all the privileges and
power of a citizen. Their ignorance is, of course,
dense beyond description ; to this hour many of them
don't know what it means to be "free." General
Palmer told the negroes that they " would not, in
any considerable numbers, be welcome anywhere in
this country." This •is so true that no one in the
United States would think of even questioning the
statement, and the Chase party continue to harp
on the old string—" Give the negro a vote, and
make a man of him." It seems a burlesque of the
question. The very men who would scarcely give
the benefit of clergy to any one who defended
the cause of the South are the first to 'laugh at
theories of benevolence towards the negro. We
did not-want to touch slavery as it 'exiated," say
they on all occasions ; "we wanted to keep it out
of the Territories. As to the negro, he has been the
curse of our country, and is likely to remain so, and
we are sot going to quarrel among each other for
the honour of keeping him." If volumes were
written to the contrary, the fact would be patent to
every one who had lived in a Northern city a week
that the feeling of the people is against the negro.
Yet those who thought him worth going to war
about can scarcely deny that be is worth a vote.
A new social code of law for the negroes has been
issued by the department referred to above. It
provides that all marriages in existence at the time
when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued
shall be valid and binding ; no persons will be
allowed to live together until their marriage has
been duly solemnized. Another condition I quote
as it stands in this curious code :
"_lf a man living without a wife find two wives restored
to him by freedom, the ono having children by him and the
other not, he shall take, the mother of his children as his
lawful wife, unless he show cause as provided in section
111., rule 4, first.

The clause referred to relates to the production
of proper certificates of marriage before either party
can lay claim to husband or wife. Here is another
set of rules :
"A husband living with a wife, having no children by
her, may be permitted to take a previous wife, provided,-
1. He have children by such wife who are still minors.
2. That such wife have no other husband known to be living.
3. That his present wife assent to such change of their mar-
riage relations."
How far these new regulations will tend to make
the negroes a moral people no one but Chief Justice
Chase could venture to foretel.
You will have seen that General Hitchcock has
made public an important statement with reference
to the alleged refusal of the Federal Government to
exchange prisoners during the war. His answer
is precise, and is supported by documents now in the
possession of the Government. He affirms that "at
an early period of the rebellion a regular cartel for
the exchange of prisoners was agreed upon, based
upon a full recognition of belligerent rights in the
South, the agreement signed by Gen. Dix and Gen.
Hill for the respective Powers at war, being duly
announced in public orders by authority." That so
long as this cartel was respected in the South it was
fitithfully observed by the Federal Government; that
it was violated by the South " wider circumstance-s-
-of great aggravation," a message being sent by Jef-
ferson Davis to the Confederate Congress stating
that Union officers who were captured in command
of coloured troops would not be exchanged, but de-
livered over to the State authorities for punishment.
Then citizen prisoners were taken by the Confede-
rates and held as hostages that the Federal Govern-
ment would not arrest any one on account of his
opinions. Perhaps those who believe that the South-
ern leaders never could effect an exchange of pri-
soners will read this passage :
"It must be understood that the rebels might at any
time have resumed the system of exchange agreed upon in
the cartel by receding from the assumed right of bringing
before their State authorities Union officers captured while
serving with coloured troops themselves ; but, although
they never exercised or put in force the threat against offi-
cers, they would never agree to acknowledge the right of
coloured troops to treatment due to prisoners of war; and
as the Government of the United States had exorcised the
right of employing coloured troops as part of the force
against the rebels, their claim to such protection as the
Government could give was one which did not admit o
discussion."

With reference to the charges against the Con-
federates of starving their prisoners, my epitome of
the evidence on the subject having been disputed, it
may be that Gen. Hitchcock's statement will have
greater weight :-
46 In the meantime the sympathies of friends in the
North naturally became awakened, and large quantities of
supplies of all kinds were sent to Fortress Monroe, whence
they were forwarded for the relief of the prisoners at Rich-
mond : but the moment they passed beyond the control of
our agents they fell into the hands of the most unprincipled
and shameless scoundrels that ever disgraced humanity.
It is in proof that large quantities of supplies furnished by
the benevolence of the North for the relief of suffering
humanity in Southern prisons were piled up in sight of
the objects for whose relief those supplies were sent, but
beyond the line of the prison guards ; and while the pri-
soners were thus in sight of their own boxes, they were
not only forbidden to touch them, but compelled to witness
depredations upon them by the guards themselves, who
feasted upon their contents, leaving the victims of war a
prey to that merciless barbarism which will make one of the
darkest pages in the history of a rebellion which will itself
remain an astonishment to all posterity for its almost cause.;
less existence."

It has been alleged that the Federals retaliated
upon Confederate prisoners. How is it that if they
did there is not one word of evidence extant in proof
of it ? How is it that not a complaint was ever
made by a Confederate prisoner of his treatment ?
With reference to the assertion that ,6 Confederates
lay rotting on Johnson's Island," it may be sufficient
to say that not one particle of proof is offered in
support of the statement, and that Lieutenant-
General Hooker, who was in charge of the depart-
ment in which Johnson's Island was, assures me
that he personally saw that the prisoners were well
housed, well fed, and well clothed, and he challenges
any one to produce an atom of evidence to the con-
trary. Assertion against assertion, the word of the
officer in command must be as weighty, one would
suppose, as that of an officer who spoke from hearsay,
and who never visited Johnson's Island. As to the
proof, it is all on one side in this affair.

PLYMOUTH, Friday.—The schooner Scout, belong..
ing to Messrs. Hunt and Henley, of Dartmouth, from Lab-
rador, with the first cargo of this season's fish, arrived in
the Sound this morning. The City of Ottawa and the
Jessie Boyle, with timber, being the first ships from Quebec
on the second voyage this year, also arrived this morning.
STEAM SHIPBUILDING ON THE CLYDE.—The Arno,
paddle, built and engineered by Messrs. Caird and
Co., for the West India Royal Mail Company, has gone into
service. Messrs. Caird and Co. have closed a contract with
the Norddeutscher Lloyd, of Bremen, for two sister
steamers to the Hermann ; the first to be completed at the
end of next year, and the second in the spring of 1867. The
steamers will be each about 2,100 tons burden. The Cisne,
launched by Messrs. Aitken and Mansel. The vessel has
a twin screw, of 330 tons, builders' measurement, has
been built by the order of Captain A. Santos for trading on
the River Plate, and will be fitted with engines of 60-horse
power by Messrs. James Aitken and Co., Cranstonhill. The
Limena, paddle, built and 'engined by Messrs. Randolph,
Elder, and Co., with engines on the double cylinder prin-
ciple, for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, has made
a run between St. Vincent and Montevideo, a distance of
3,686 nautical miles, in 11 days 20 hours, thus attaining an
average speed of 12i knots per hour, on a consumption of
24;wt. of coal per hour.