The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-09 00:00:00

then the burglar had been my relative, and had erg
been my friend—how could I fail to feel some pity
for him, along with the indignation which his crime
had excited ?" Semmes then gives a glowing picture
of the destruction of the Golden Rocket by fire;
High-flown terms abound—" the devouring flames
, eating up the Golden Rocket, and " the grim black
sides of the Sumter, like some great sea monster,
gloating on the spectacle—the intricate net-work, 3
pencil of fire, and many threads of flame, twisting
and wreathing like so many serpents that had re-
ceived their death wounds, while her captain looked
calmly on." Then lie tells what was done with the
flag, and bags of other flags taken from vessels
afterwards captured ; " hate's polluted rag," which
i
now rots beneath the waters of the English Channel
on board the sunken pirate—we beg the Admiral's
pardon—ship of war, the Alabama. Touching that
word " hate," so frequently and indiscriminatelf
used by the South as applicable to the North, sge
may observe that it is not unlike the drunken man
who insists that his neighbour is intoxicated. Zb
this day a New Englander cannot understand the
feeling of the South against him, and never really
believes it till he experiences it. The hate WaS
on one side, but that side was certainly.not that f
the North. The Fourth of July, which Semmes
claims by right as more a Southern than a Norther°
day, was not kept as is usual in American men-nt,
war, when the captain dines with the ward-roer°
officers. About that time he was singularly WV
in his pencillings of fire, for he managed to capture
seven unfortunate merchantmen. No book 00111,
be written more calculated to disgust the world
with privateering. The night made hideous with 000'
flagrations at sea ; the dangers which it has ahead);
pleased Providence to multiply on the deep Ile
only increased, but the property—aye, the lives"
even of neutrals placed at the disposal of aef •
scoundrel who, having sufficient means and enter-
prize, can fit out an armed vessel, and get a letter
of marque or commission, or whatever they may calll
it, from some pseudo Government, not recognize'
by any other on earth. We do not apply these
remarks to Admiral Semmes and the Administra-

tion he served, for we desire to be just, and not to
exaggerate, and we allow that in all the attributes
of force, and the extent over which for a period its
sway was acknowledged, it was a great Govern-
ment. But it is the principle and the examPle
against which we contend, and Admiral Semmes
may do a good he little intended in showing us the
interior working of such a system, himself sitting
in judgment on what may, perhaps, have been the
means of existence of those who never saw Americ3
or knew anything of the quarrel, and the. merciless
way in which he decided on questions of interns'
tional law, and applied the torch in the hope tbav
even remotely he might injure the enemy he hatel s°
much. We desire to ask this simple question-153
man steeped to his neck in malignity to be set as 5
judge and a ruler on the high seas ?—and to eice'
cute under theaattery of his ship his decisions with-
out reference or appeal ? That England should bale
applauded the hateful and contemptible work, for
which Admiral Semmes so glorifies himself, is 8
shocking instance, not so much of moral depravity
as of folly. Never was a precedent established s°
dangerous to herself, and it is almost incredible tha",
the mass of the nation could not see it at the
time, but required the just, calm judgmeh
of a Cobden to point it out, blinded as FilV
laud was by prejudice. If Admiral Serowe°
imagines that his book will receive. any eh;
thusiastic welcome in this country, he is M°s,
lamentably mistaken. .Those days, thank God'
have passed away, the illusion is dispelled, and
Englishmen are better able to appreciate the abuse
of the hated Yankee," the " vile Puritan," B';°'
The first volume treats of the cruise of the Sumter'
and the second of that of the Alabama. Of t"-

latter we purpose to give a separate notice.

Foreign Mail Packet Lisf.

MAILS DIIE.

Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton Feb 27'
Ditto, via Yarseilles
Ditto, via PIA ama ......... ....... ......... eb
Brazil, Buenos A yres, and Monte Video mar. I
Ditto, by French paokut . Feb, 'lt.
Cape Verde. by Brazil paozet
Cape of Good I lupe. Ascension, anti St. Helena, Feb. 1;
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton Feb. P
Gibraltar, via Southampton Feb 13'
Endia, via Southampton ......
.......... ..... Feb I,'
1-,1 ito, via MarseiLes
Malta, Egypt, &o. Feb 1
Ditto, Marseilles. F. b• 'w
Haitians, Cape of Good !lope, and Natal, via
Sc utlianq ton
Litt), Marseilles , b. I
Newfoundland . Fe
................ ....... ....... F. bl 6
Portugal .... ...... . gar. Z
United States , la nada ...
, California, &e., by ..... ..... British
packet
Ditto, by Canadian packet
Ditto, by L. aited States packet
Ditto ditte (Baltimore)
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe
- .• • • •:Fbb 10
Fee Feb• 1136
West Indies and Pazifio (except Mexico and Baba-Feb 13
mas) ......
Falkland Islands . ••••• .
1.
Cuba and Mexico .... ••• • . gar.
Bermuda, via Ha1ifax..........
Feb. --'
Bahamas, via New York