The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-25 00:00:00

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for the miseries of the past. Some persons argued,
not without show of reason, that the North would
do all that was necessary for the South. After all
the tremendous exertions they had made it would
be wrong to say that they were not able, but even
though able there were still the strongest reasons
why the English people who sympathised with the
negro should give their help and afford something
from their resources that the prosperity of the negro
might be more rapidly accomplished.
Mr. T. HUGHES, M.P., seconded the resolution,
and said he considered it a great honour that the
people of this country should have the opportunity
of taking part in such a work as that in which the
people of the United States were now engaged. He
believed that in a year or two the sufferings of the
negro would disappear ; unless, therefore, the pre-
sent moment was taken advantage of, no future op-
portunity would be afforded to the people of this
country to deepen and widen the bonds which tied
them and the American people together.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. SHAW, the follow-
ing resolution was also adopted :
" That this meeting considers the closer union of
the British Freedman's Aid Associations in this
benevolent labour is of great importance, -and that
the national form which such an union (comprising
more than 30 associations) has ;taken is eminently
adapted for its purpose, and would earnestly com-
mend the claims of the union to the favourable co-
operation of all friends of freedom."
After a vote of thanks to the chairman the pro-
ceedings terminated.

PRICE 4d.
STAMPED sd.

side galvanized wires, covered with Manilla, are
hour ever made in another branch of the Construc-
tion Company's Works. Here, too, a massive
grappling rope of wire and hemp is being made.
The Great Eastern had no grappling ropes on her
last eventful voyage, and upon their absence, and
the inefficiency of their substitutes, the failure and
disappointment of last year's expedition mainly rests.
This year she will have on board the giant rope we
saw slowly approaching completion, which is made
on an improved principle, and has been triumphantly
tested to bear far more than the strain ever needed
during the picking up process last year. Further,
the testing apparatus has been so improved by the
inventions and additions made by Mr. Willoughby
Smith that a flaw will be detected with certainty
either before, or the instant it has been paid out.
Add to this, that the picking-up machinery has been
vastly increased in efficiency, and it will be readily
seen that the experience of last year has not been
thrown away. It is, of course, Loped that the ad-
ditional precautions taken will render flaws and
faults all but impossible ; but it is a cheering assur-
ance to know that they are unimportant. Upon
this simple fact ocean telegraphy must be content to
rest. No human effort can positively ensure against
casualties, and the obvious consideration is how to
make casualties harmless. Capt. Anderson main-
tained, after the expedition of last year, that pick-
ing up an Atlantic cable ought to be as easy as pay_
ing one out, and to have made
speaksthe v
opinionofolinue s n
expedition the fact of the next, , one
the genius of the mechanists, and for their chances
of success.

The National Freedman's Aid Union of Great
Britain and Ireland.

A public meeting to inaugurate the Union was
held yesterday afternoon at the Westminster Palace
Hotel, Victoria-street. The Duke of Argyll presided;
and among those present were Sir T. F. Buxton,
M.P., Mr. Bright, M.P., Mr. T. Hughes, M.P.,

T. Norton, Mr. J. Forster, Mr. B. H. Cadeney
(Birmingham), Rev. A. Raleigh, D.D., Rev. Wm.

Shaw, Mr. R. Ferguson (Carlisle), &c.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings of the
meeting, said that, having presided over a meetingil
connection with one of the associations of the Union
last year, he would have been pleased if some one
else had taken the chair on the present occasion, but
he feared there was still a certain amount of shyness
among our public men in taking part in aid of the
freedmen of America, not from a want of personal

sympathy for the liberated slave, but from a vague
feeling that it was more or less an interference with
American politics. Now, he had no sympathy with
that feeling. The war was over, and although there
were strong personal contests still existing in the
United States, we in this country had no interest in
those contests except as far as they might be con-

cerned in the question of negro labour. Beyondsee-
ing the negro fully possessed of his civil rights,
which alone could render the abolition of slavery of
any value, we should take no partwhatever in Ame-

rican politics properly so called. No one had a greater
desire than he had to leave those matters exclu-

sively to Americans themselves, and no one felt more
confidence than he did that they would arrive at a
wise and just settlement of all those questions which
were at present in dispute. They were simply met
in the cause of humanity to assist the negro in that
state of transition through which he was passing,
and before the new conditions of labour to which he

would have to adapt himself were settled. It was

quite clear that the Government of this country
could not interfere to alleviate the sufferings of the

negroes, but as individuals they could and ought to
do so. The-noble duke then read passages from the
Third Annual Report of the W estern Freedmen's
Aid Commission, showing the manner in which the
money that had been already contributed by the
union had been distributed in America in affording
relief to the destitute negro procuring work, fur-
nishing useful materials and necessary implements,
establishing schools, providing medical help for the
sick, and in promoting other works of beneficence.
Up to the Ist of March last the money raised by the
union was about £BO,OOO. With regard to the ques-
tion as to the ability of the negro to support himself
by honest labour, his Grace thought the report they
had received was satisfactory. Under all the cir-