The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-22 00:00:00

MR. BANCROFT TO MR. ADAMS IN REPLY.

" New York, March 23, 1866.
"My dear Mr. Adams,—l have received from
you, by Lord Russell's desire, a copy of his letter to
you of 28th February last, in which he denies the
truth of certain allegations in my address to Con.
gress on the 12th of the same month. The passage
which he cites contains these three allegations :
That, as British Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, he viewed this Republic as the late Union ;
that he sent this view of our country through the
palaces of Europe ; and that he made haste to do
so. When Lord Russell calls to mind the authority
for these statements he must acknowledge them t 44,
be perfectly just and true.

" On the 6th day of May, 1861, Lord John Rus-
sell, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
wrote a despatch to Lord Lyons, in which he de-
scribes the condition of America as ' the disruption
of a confederacy ;' and he further used these words ;
—' Civil war has broken out between the several
States of the late Union. 'rue Ouvernment of Cho
Southern portion has duly constituted itself. Her
Majesty's Government do not wish you to make
any mystery of that view.' Here is irrefragable
proof of my first allegation.
" On the day on which the Minister of the Queen

thus wrote he addressed a despatch to Lord Cowley,
her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris, designating our
Republic as ' the States which lately composed the
American Union,' the late United States,' the late
Union;' and he enclosed in that despatch, for Lord
Cowley's instruction, a copy of the above-cited letter
to Lord Lyons. Having thus ostentatiously com-
municated his view of our country as the late
Union,' he asked in return to be made acquainted
with the views of the Imperial Government.' My
second allegation is therefore true in letter and in
spirit.

" That Lord John Russell, as Secretary of State,
was in haste to do this, appears from his not having
awaited the arrival of the American Minister of Mr.
Lincoln's appointment, and from those very letters
of the 6th of May, 1861, to Lord Cowley and to
Lord Lyons, for in those letters he confesses he had
not as yet ' received from Lord Lyons any report of
the state of affairs and of the prospect of the several
parties ;' but that on coming to the decision, which
was so momentous and unprecedented, he acted on
the reports of ' some consuls' and ' of the public
prints.'

" It is true that 24 days after Lord John Russell
had officially described our country, as the
disruption of a confederacy,' the late United
States,' the late Union,' he reproved a member
of the House of Commons for openly exulting
' that the great Republican bubble in America
had burst,' and owned that the Republic had been
for many years a great and free State." But he ut-
tered no expectation or hope of the restoration of
our Union, and rather intimated that the Americans
were about to destroy each other's happiness and
freedom. Lord John, on that occasion, rightly at-
tributed the rebellion to the ' accursed institution
of slavery,' and confessed that England was the
giver of the poisoned garment, that the former Go-
vernments of Great Britain were themselves to
blame for the origin of the evil.' But this confes-
sion must be interpreted by the light of his aver-
ments on the 6th of May, 1861, and by Lord Rus-
sell's later assertion that the efforts of our country
were but a contest for empire.'

" In speaking to the American Congress of the
life and character of Abraham Lincoln, it was my
unavoidable duty to refer to the conduct of the
British Government towards our country during his
administration, for nothing so wounded his feelings,
or exercised his judgment, or tried his fortitude.
" I was asked to address the two houses of our
Congress, and those only. When I heard that the
British Minister at Washington was likely to be one
of my hearers I requested Mr. Seward to advise
him not to be present, and through another friend
I sent him a similar message, which he received and
perfectly understood.

I need not recall words of 90 years ago to be
persuaded that in peace America and the United
Kingdom should be friends. I have a right to say
this, for when in the public service I proved it by
public acts, and, as a private citizen, I have never
wished our Government to demand of a foreign
Power anything but justice.

" Pray send Lord Russell a copy of this letter,
which he is at liberty to publish, and I consider my-
self equally at liberty to publish his letter, to which
this is a reply.—l am ever, my dear Mr. Adams,
very truly yours, " GEO. BANCROFT."

The ladies of Fayetteville, N.C., a few weeks
since forwarded to Mrs. Davis a cheque for the
amount of a subscription raised by them. Mr.
Davis has written the following letter of acknow-
ledgment :

" Fortress Monroe, Va., April 22.
"Mrs. J. K. Kyle, Fayetteville, N.C.

"My dear Madame,—l have the honour to acknowledge
yours of the 14th instant, enclosing a cheque to be for-
warded to Mrs. Davis as a present from the ladies of
Fayetteville.

" Sadly remembering how your homes were desolated
during the war, I could not have expected you, in the