The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-07 00:00:00

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HER MAJESTY,

OSBORNE, Jan. 6.
The Queen and Princess Helena drove in the
grounds yesterday.
Princess Louise rode on horseback.
Lady Churchill and the Hon. Emma Lasedles
have succeded the Dowager Countess of Mount-
Edgcumbe and the Hon. Lucy Kerr as lady and
maid of honour in waiting.

The Prince and Princess of Wales at
Holkbam.

IloLxfum, Jan. 6.
The ball given last night by the Earl and Coun-
tess of Leicester to their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales was a most brilliant
and successful entertainment. The company
alighted at the great entrance, and entered the
Egyptian-hall. This was brilliantly lighted, an-
tique vases on pedestals being placed at intervals
along the side, while blooming flowers were inter-
twined between the fluted lonic pillars. The apart-
ments devoted to the ball were the saloon, the
south-west and south-east drawing-rooms, and the
statue and Claude Lorraine galleries. The saloon
and south-west drawing-room were especially de-
voted to dancing. The statue-gallery was the sup-
per-room, while the south-east drawing-room was
adapted as a card-room.
The earl and countess received their guests in the
saloon, which was brilliantly lighted by 300 wax-
lights. The portico of the south front, into which
the saloon opens by three large windows, was en-
closed for the orchestra. It was formed in imita-
tion of a bower; two large vases filled with flowers
were in the centre, and it was lighted by candelabra
on pedestals. The Prince of Wales led off with the
Countess of Leicester in the first quadrille, and the
Earl of Leicester's partner was the Princess of
Wales.

Supper was announced soon after midnight, when
the Prince of Wales led the Countess of Leicester,
and the Earl of Leicester the Princess of Wales, to

the statue-gallery, where a choice entertainment was
provided. A select party accompanied the royal
guests to the supper-room, and after a short interval
parties of the general visitors followed. Dancing
was prolonged to an early hour this morning, the
prince and princess remaining to the last.

It is expected that their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales will honour Lord and Lady
Walsingham with a visit 4,t Merton Hall, Norfolk, during
the present month.
The Duke and Duchess of Manchester, who
arrived in town on Wednesday from Paris, have left town
for Kimbolton Castle, Hunts. _

The Earl and Countess Craven and the Ladies
Craven return to town in the early part of the ensuing
week, preparatory to the marriage of the Earl of Coventry
and Lady Blanche Craven.
Lady Griffith, wife of Sir Richard Griffith, Bart.,
expired at Dublin, on the 2d inst., in her 10th year.
Sir Vincent Corbet, Bart., and Lady Corbet have
left the St. George's Hotel. _ _

Sir Augustus Clifford has left town for Broad-
[ands, on a visit to Lord and Lady Palmerston.
_

Sir George and Lady Macpherson Grant and Mr.
and Mrs. Silvertop have left Brown's Hotel.

The Right Hon. the Chanceller of the Exchequer
left town yesterday for Hawarden Castle, Chester.
The Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson arrived in
town yesterday afternoon from Theberton House, Suffolk,
and proceeds to-day to Osborne, to attend the Queen's
Council.

A marriage is arranged between Lord Rosehill,
of the Scots Fusilier Guards, and Miss Elliot, eldest
daughter of Admiral George Elliott, Admiral-Superinten-
dent at Portsmouth. _ _

The marriage between Viscount Sudley, eldest
son of the Countess of Arran, and the Hon. Edith Jocelyn,
second daughter of Viscountess Jocelyn, will take place
next month.

A Talk with Mr. Charles Sumner,

The Scotsman gives the following from the diary

of a Scottish gentleman -who has recently visited the

Northern States :

Newport, Rhode Island, Monday, August 22, 1864.-7

:et Mr. Charles Sumner at dinner. He spoke of Lord

Russell's speeches ; said that on the whole he preferred their
style to that of most speeches which are now delivered
in Parliament ; that there was something very terse and
classical about the diction ; and that he preferred
Lord Russell's speeches even to Mr. Gladstone. Of
Mr. Canning's despatches, ho said that he thought

their sarcastic tone had had some share in exasperat-
ing the disputes between England and America,
which culminated in the war of 1812. In point of style,
however, he considered theth the finest specimens extant of
this kind of writing. When he adverted to the Trent affair
I asked him how it happened that Mr. Welles, a member

of the Cabinet, in his report, which was appended to the
President's Message, had thanked Capt. Wilkes for seizing

Mason and Slidell. He said it, was in consequence of the

unfortunate manner in which the Government is con-

ducted under Mr. Lincoln ; that each member of the Admi-
nistration considers himself responsible solely for the
affairs of his own department, and acts without concert
with the others. He thought Wilkes's seizure of Mason

and Slidell might be justified by British, but not by
American, precedents ; nor by American interpretations

of international law:— He has evidently a great contempt

for Seward; says that he knew nothing of international
law when he came into office, and that when an awkward
case arises he never thinks of inquiring into it till a

formal demand is made for reparation. Mr. Sumner said
he had objected strongly to Cassius Clay's appointment to
Russia, but that Lincoln and Seward had urged him so
strongly about it that at last he had agreed not to take
an active part in-opposing the nomination. He says
Gortchakoff complains bitterly because Clay will write
to him in French. Gortchakoff understands English

)erfectly, but can make nothing of Cassius Clay's French.
-le said there was one of Lord Russell's despatches which

would give rise to trouble hereafter. I asked him which ;
he said that despatch in which he replies to some demand

for compensation for damage done by the Alabama, by re-

questing that no more demands of the kind may be sent in.
I said that as Lord Russell had, before that despatch was

written, gone fully into the case of the Alabama, including
the question of the liability of the British Government for

damage done by her, it could not be expected that ho
should re-open the matter on every occasion on which a claim
for compensation might be put forward. He admitted that

was so, but still objected to the curtness of the despatch.
He complained of the recognition by the British Govern-
ment of the Confederates as belligerents. I asked him
how we could refuse to recognise the Confederates as bel-
ligerents when the United States had done so ? From the
very first the United States authorities had treated Con-
federate prisoners, not as malefactors, but as prisoners
of war. He said the United States had done this for
fear the Confederates might retaliate on Federal pri-
soners. I said the very fact that the United States
authorities were afraid of retaliation by the Confederates,
went far to show that the latter ought to be recog-
nised as a belligerent power, and that, looking to the
actual state of things, considering that there were
6,000,000 of people in insurrection, that they bad
placed large armies in the field, and that there was a
regularly organised Government firmly established at
Richmond, the British. Government would have been
acting in contravention of the principles which had
always guided them if they had refused to recognise the
Confederates as belligerents. He said that the recogni-
tion of the Confederates us belligerents was a step toward
recognising the Confederacy as an independent power—a
course which the British Government ought not to take
under any circumstances ; that at the beginning of the
war the , British Government ought to have declared that
they never would recognise a State whose existence was
based on slavery. I said—Suppose, for the sake of argu-
ment, that the United States were to give up their attempt
to bring back the Confederates by force into the Union,
that the war was to come to an end, and the United States
were to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate
States, would it then be reasonable to expect that the British
Government should refuse to recognise the Confederate
Government ?—for that is the course to which we should be
committed if the British Government had taken the step which-
you say they ought to have done. Yes, said Mr Sumner,
whatever the United States may do the British Government
ought to refuse to recognise the Confederate States. Mr.
Sumner said that the war now going on was a war against
slavery; and that we ought to have recognised it as such•
I quoted the declaration of the President, that the war was
being carried on to restore the Union ; that if doing away
with slavery would restore the Union, he would do away
with slavery ; and if maintaining slavery would save the
Union, he would maintain slavery. Mr. Sumner said that
if I looked to the action of the United States Government
I might no doubt make out a case, but that I ought rather
to look to those anti-slavery principles by which England
had hitherto been actuated.

RESIGNATION OF AN IRISH JUDGE.-DUBLIN,
Friday.—Mr. Justice Ball has announced his intention of
resigning. It is said that the Attopey-General,
O'llagan, M.P., will•oucceed him. •