The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-28 00:00:00

AMERICA.

REUTER'S EXPRESS,
(Per the Asia.)

NEW YORK, Aug. 15 (Evening).

The news from the South has no special political
significance. The Provisional State authorities are
exercising their powers without opposition, and
generally receive all necessary co-operation from
the inhabitants.

The freedmen in some sections are reported to be
industrious and orderly ; but generally the reverse
seems to be the case, numerous disturbances between
them and the whites are reported, and there are in-
dications that a general movement of the blacks
northward will soon take place, as they believe that
they can by that means secure better wages and
easier work. They are said to be leaving Virginia
for New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio by thou-
sands.

The Washington correspondent of the New York
Herald states that in Virginia the freed negroes are
perpetrating great outrages, killing cattle, sheep,
poultry, and hogs, and devastating corn-fields and
orchards ; the inhabitants being afraid to protect
their property on account of their dread of having
difficulty with the Federal negro troops. Governor
Pierrepont and the State officials generally are said
to apprehend serious trouble yet between the white
and black inhabitants, as a deep feeling of animo-
sity is said to exist.
It is rumoured that the Cabinet meeting at
Washington on the 11th instant was a very
stormy affair, and that it was fully manifested on
that occasion that important changes will be neces-
sary before harmonious action can be secured. The
removal of Secretaries Welles and Stanton is pre-
dicted by some journals, and also the resignation of
Secretary Seward.
The number of major-generals retained in service
is so great that there is now, since the disbanding of
the bulk of the Federal army, a major-general to
every five hundred private soldiers. It is said that
the President insists upon an immediate cessation of
this ridiculous extravagance.
Governor Holden, of North Carolina, has issued a
proclamation, appointing the 21st day of September
for an election throughout the State of one hundred
and twenty members to the State Convention to
meet at Raleigh on the 22d of October next. All
paroled or amnestied officers and men of the late
Confederate army who are duly qualified by right
of residence, and by having taken the oath of
allegiance to the United States, shall be allowed to
vote.
Governor Marvin, of Florida, addressed his fel-
low citizens at Jacksonville, on the 2d inst. He
officially informed them of the plan adopted
by the President for the purpose of recon-
struction. The Governor defended the $20,000
exception in the amnesty proclamation as being
justifiable in consideration of the supposed superior
intelligence and great responsibility of the wealthy
classes which rendered their offence more deserving
of punishment, while at the same time they possessed
greater proportionate facilities than the poorer classes
for obtaining special pardons. The Governor pro-
nounced slavery as utterly dead. He urged the
people to unite in making every proper exertion to
restore the state to its former prosperity. Re
exhorted the freedmen to make good use of their
"WIT-acquired privileges, and not to relapse into

idleness and crime, and solicited for them the indul-
gence and aid of the white people.
The following despatches concerning the Atlantic
cable have been received to-day :
" Aspy Bay, Aug. 15.
" A large vessel hove in sight at 6 this morning.
At this hour, half past 9, she is within four miles of
the shore. Flags are seen gaily flying from her."
" heart's Content, N.F., Aug. 11,
via Aspy Bay, Aug 15.

" The schooner First Fruit, from Cardiff, arrived
at Harbour Grace, N.F., this morning. She makes
the following report :

" On the 6th August, at 4 a.m., saw steamship
Great Eastern and British war steamer Terrible.
At 6 a.m. saw a beacon buoy with a flag upon it
marked " Great Eastern, No. 5." The Great
Eastern and Terrible were then about five miles
south-east from the beacon buoy. The weather was
quite foggy. The Terrible reported that the cable
parted on the 2d of August. The First Fruit then
laid two sails to the mast and hoisted her ensign.
At noon the Terrible came near the First Fruit and
received from her information of the bearings of the
beacon-buoy. The position of the buoy, by the
account of the First Fruit was in lat. 51.40, long.
38.

" ' The weather here this morning is mild, but a
thick fog prevails."
It is considered probable that the cable, owing to
some accident, had been cut and floated by the
buoy, and that it might yet be picked up and suc-
cessfully landed.

Visit of the French Fleet to Portsmouth.

PORTSMOUTH, Aug. 27.

It may be that the reception which is to be given
to the French fleet on its arrival here on Tuesday
and the entertainments which are to take place dur-
ing the few days it remains anchored in those waters
may turn out to be but a poor reflex of the brightly
varied festivities of Cherbourg and Brest. With all
our wealth and the great appliances which that
wealth can command, we may be about to furnish
another illustration of the oft-repeated statement
that in the art of dispensing a hospitality at once
graceful and magnificent we vainly endeavour to cope
with our allies. If this should be so, it will be from
no want of strenuous exertion on the part of our
naval authorities nor from the lack of hearty co-
operation with them on the part of the people of
Portsmouth and its vicinity. For days past, as has
been already notified in our columns, the work of
preparation for the approaching fetes has been going
on with the utmost vigour ; and results have been
already produced which cannot fail to be highly
gratifying to all those who take an interest in their
success. Nor is it by any means a light task which
those have undertaken upon whom the execution of
the necessary arrangements devolves. The pro-
gramme which has been laid down is most compre-
hensive. Balls and banquets and concerts, and re-
views and fireworks—and these, too, to be carried
out on a scale of unwonted splendour—figure from
one end to the other of the list.

From Tuesday morning until Saturday there isto
be one continued round of sight-seeing and feasting
and dancing, and it will be strange, indeed, if by
the time it is all over the youngest midshipman on
board the united fleets is not ready to admit that he
has had, at least for the present—for youth is all
but insatiable in such matters—his fill of pleasure.
Since the arrival of the Lords of the Admiralty
from Brest on Friday morning a fresh impulse has
been given to the preparations which are being
made in every direction.
The Duke of Wellington, on board which a pri-
vate dinner is to be given on Tuesday evening, by
the Duke of Somerset, to the French Minister of
Marine, M. de Chausseloup-Laubat, and the Admi-
ral and chief officers of the French and English
fleets, is undergoing from stem to stern a process of
lavish decoration. In the quadrangle of the Royal
Naval College, the transformation of which into a
vast and glittering ball-room is being rapidly effected
under the superintendence of Mr. Wood, C.E., of
her Majesty's dockyard, a dinner on a more exten-
sive scale will be given on Wednesday, while on
Thursday the civic authorities of Portsmouth will
entertain, in an immense circular tent, which has
been constructed for the purpose on the square plot
of ground, about two acres in extent, known as
" Governor's Green," the French and English officers
at a banquet, to be followed by a promenade con-
cert and ball. At the dinner on Wednesday, the
invitations for which will be issued by the Lords of
the Admiralty, four toasts are to be proposed—
" The Emperor of the French," " The Queen of
England," " The French Navy," and " The British
Navy." The moment the health of the two Sove-
reigns is being drunk will be made the occasion of
firing a Royal salute from the combined squadrons,
and of a simultaneous illumination of the several
ships of which they are composed.

A review of the troops in garrison here on Friday
morning, a dinner at the Royal Naval College in
the evening, at which the Lords of the Admiralty
and the principal French officers will be the guests
of Sir M. Seymour, and a ball, to which the ladies
especially seem to bo looking forward as the most
brilliant event in a week for them of brilliant promise,
will, it is thought, bring the fetes to what it is earnestly
hoped maybe a successful close. That,however,which
is intended to be the chief feature in tke whole round
of the festivities is precisely that as to the success of
which the greatest apprehension prevails. It is
feared that the ballroom, ample though its propor-
tions may seem to be—for it is 165 ft. long by 55ft.
in width—may be so inzonveniently thronged as to
render that which is the main object of a ball im-
possible. Should these fears be realised the Admi-
ralty, who have entire control over the arrangements,
will have so far at all events followed the model
which was set them at Cherbourg as to have copied
the only mistake which was there committed, without
perhaps having it in their power to point to artistic
triumphs such as those which rendered the ball at
Cherbourg, notwithstanding • the inconvenience
caused by overcrowding, a scene rarely splendid.

Any shortcomings in mere decoration would be
more than compensated by the enjoyment which a
sufficiently clear space to dance would afford, at
least so say the ladies, and they have the great ma-
jority on their side. It may here be mentioned inci-
dentally that the bill given on board the Vile de
Lyons at Brest on Wednesday last seems to have
been unusually brilliant. Of the magical process by
which the deck of this vessel was converted into a
floating pleasure ground, with shaded walks and
scented groves, where, in the intervals of the dance,
the cool air and delicious perfume of flowering plants
might be inhaled as in some choicely-stocked garden
on land, those who witnessed the scene speak in
terms of rapturous admiration, mingled with a sigh
of regret at feeling themselves obliged to abandon all
hope that the approaching fetes can be characterised
by anything so fairylike and enchanting. Indeed,
nothing of the kind will be attempted here, for the no-
'tion has been completely given up of having a ball of
any description on board the Duke of Wellington or
any of the vessels in the harbour. The work of de-
corating the extemporised room at the Royal Naval
College is, however, proceeding very satisfactorily,
and it is expected that when completed it will form
a ballroom not altogether unworthy of the occasion.
As to the banquets there is every reason to think
they will be very sumptuous, and that as mere culi-
nary displays they will not be discreditable to us as
a nation--a point not undeserving of notice in an
age when every man, and particularly every French-
man, however sceptical he may be in other matters,
at least believes in a cook.

The hour at which it is anticipated the French
squadron will reach Spithead is noon on Tuesday,
and the Lords of the Admiralty will come down
here to-morrow to be in readiness to receive it.

The squadron, which is to consist of nine large
men-of-war and four smaller vessels, will be headed
by the Reine Hortense, with the French Minister of
Marine on board, and will be met at Spithead by the
Osborne, bearing the Admiralty flag. Then will
there be a rare expenditure of powder, as the Eng-
lish ships just returned from the shores of France
thunder forth a welcome to their late companions
on their arrival in English waters, similar to that
with which they themselves were received but a few
days since in the harbour of Cherbourg. The
Reine Hortense, followed by the Osborne, will im-
mediately afterwards proceed into Portsmouth har-

bour, and will be greeted, as she passes the Spit
buoy, with a salute from the Victory, displaying the
French flag at the fore. A visit will, as soon as the
Reine Hortense comes to an anchor in the harbour,
be paid by the Lords of the Admiralty to M. de
Chasseloup-Laubat, which, with that despatch so
laudable in distinguished personages, the French
Minister of Marine will probably return within a
quarter of an hour, after he sees that their Lord-
ships have got safely on board the Osborne. In
short, visiting, and little else, will be the order of
the day on Tuesday afternoon, from the moment
the French fleet has taken up its position at Spit-
head until its principal officers avail themselves of
the invitation of the Duke of Somerset in the

evening.

And now the weather, that most important con-
tributor to the success or failure of any pageant,
great or small, demands a passing word. At Cher-
bourg it neutralized the effect of an imposing spec-
tacle, and sadly marred the success of efforts -which
deserved a better fate. A FrenCh traveller once
described, on his return home, the year in England
as being made up of eight months of winter and four
of bad weather ; but let us hope that those French-
men, if there be any, who are now about to visit
our shores for the first time will have reason to carry
away with them a. more favourable impression of
our climate. To-day, at all events, is as beautiful
a day as can well be, the rays of a hot sun being
pleasantly tempered by a gentle breeze. Should
to-morrow and the remaining days .of the week be
equally bright and cloudless there will be an in-
gredient of success present at the fetes here which
no ingenuity on the part of our versatile allies could
supply for their own.