The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-05 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, THURSDAY.
The Etna, which touched at Queenstown yester-
day, has arrived.
The Secretary of the Treasury had advertised for
au additional loan of eight millions, an amount
which he thinks will be sufficient to carry the Go-
vernment through to the end of the current fiscal
year.
In the Senate on the 20th, the Douglas resolu-
tions coming up, Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, made
some remarks, in which he declared reunion to be
impracticable, and that there remained only the
two alternatiVes—war or the ack now led gment of the
independence of the seceded States as a nationality.
He offered a resolution that the President, with the
advice of the Senate, be vested with full power i
and authority to accept the declaration of the se- I
ceded States, that they constitute an alien people,
and that he conclude with them a treaty acknow-
ledgin g their independence as a separate nation.
He defined secession to be revolution, only to be
met by war or peaceful negotiations. It was not
the design of the Constitution to substitute the
military for the civil power, and the law of domi-
cile and the allegiance due to the State must neces-
sarily govern in a State which has separated itself
from the Federal Government. On the 21st Mr.
Bayard continued his remarks in favour of acknow-
ledging the independence of the Confederate States.
He hid the whole responsibility of disunion upon
the Republican party, and argued the right of pro-
perty in slaves and the duty of protecting it.
Before he concluded the Senate went into Execu-
tive Session, after which it adjourned. On the 22d
the Douglas resolutions were taken up, and Mr.
Bayard resumed and concluded his remarks, con-
tending that if the United States do not recognise
the independence of the Confederate States foreign
nations will ; and this would be calculated to produce
a conflict between the two sections of the country.
Mr. Timothy 0. Howe, of Wisconsin, opposed the
resolutions, first on the ground that they were un-
necessary, for Mr. Douglas's arguthent indicated
that he had already possessed the information he
sought to obtain. He (Howe) was not satisfied that
the Secretary of War had the information desired.
He was opposed to giving the country the intelli-
gence which the resolutions demand. As to the
assumption whether they were to have peace or
war, the danger was no less imposing than a hostile
nation in a threatening attitude. If they had a
public enemy confronting them, would it be wise
to publish, for their information, what forts they
could have, or possess, by what force they could
hold them, and what money would be required ?
The last Administration did not, at least, communi-
cate such information to the public. Nor did
he believe that it was prudent to impart
it to the friends of the Government.
He gloried in the American Government,
respected and feared at home as abroad, and
said that a rib had been taken from their body in a
horrid dream, and that, according to Douglas, it
would require 285,000 men to enforce the laws in
that portion of the country which it assumes to
control. In political as well as in other affairs it
was safe sometimes to wear the visor down, and to
follow one's intuitions as the most carefully studied
course. He afterwards proceeded to draw an out-
line of the policy of the President, which was, to use
peaceful means if peaceful means will suffice. This
was the settled proposition of the Administration.
After a severe attack upon Mr. Douglas, and the
assertion that the Republican party had not been
guilty in their previous conduct, he gave way to an
Executive Session.
The President had submitted to the Senate, for its
advice and consent, the proposition of the British
Government to refer the San Juan question to the
arbitration of Sweden, the Netherlands, or Switzer-
land. From these it was for the United States
Government to make the selection. The Committee
on Foreign Relations had made a favourable report
upon the subject and recommended the choice of
Switzerland.
The two indictments against John B. Floyd, ex-
Secretary of War, had been dismissed by the
Washington Court as untenable.
Among the latest foreign appointments conferred
by the Senate were the following :—Rufus King,
Minister Resident at Rome; Bradford R. Wood,
Minister Resident at Denmark ; Anson Burlin•
game, Minister to Austria ; Elisha 0. Crosby,
Minister Resident at Guatemala; J. 0. Putnam,
Consul to Havre ; Freeman H. Morse, Consul to
London ; James H. Anderson, of Ohio, Consul
to Hamburg; Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, Consul-
General to the British North American Provinces ;
Thomas Corwin, Minister to Mexico ; S. Sandford,
of Connecticut, Minister to Belgium ; Captain
Britton, Consul to Southampton. Mr. Alexander
Dimitry, Minister to Nicaragua and Costa Rica,
had been recalled.

Rumours having been current at Washington that
Fort Sumter would not be evacuated by Major
. Anderson's forces, considerable pains had been taken
to contradict them. A despatch says :
"It is positively certain that it will be abandoned
speedily. It is equally certain. that Fort Pickens
will not be reinforced. All the signs are favourable
for a peaceable solution."
From Charleston vt e learn that measures had been
taken by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Mem-
minger, to prevent the introduction of goods by the
inland routes. At all railway connexions between
the Confederate and border States officers had been
stationed to enforce the decrees and tariff regula-
tions of the Confederate States. The same precau-
tion had been taken to prevent smuggling on the
coast line. It is stated that proposals had been
received from Mr. A. M. Weir, a London steamship
owner, formerly of the Galway Company, and Messrs.
Laird and Co., the well known shipbuilders, offer-
ing to raise in Great Britain half the amount neces-
sary to secure the establishment of a direct line of
steamship& between Charleston and Liverpool. It
is proposed that a joint-stock company shall be
formed in England under the Limited Liability
Act, in which the Charleston shareholders will be
placed on the same footing with all others. The
company once formed three iron screw propellers
are to be built and run as a regular line between
Charleston and Liverpool. It is intended that they
be of 1,800 tons measurement and 250 horse-power
with capacity for 4,000 bales of cotton, taking the
bale at 4401 b. The total cost of each steamer, it is
calculated, will net amount to more than 235,000
dols., or 705,000 dole. for the three, the proportion
to be raised by the people of Charleston being
235,000 dols. The .proposal had been warmly taken
up by the leading merchants of that city, and a
committee had been appointed to solicit subscrip-
tions. President Davis's veto of the bill relating to
the Slave Trade, passed by the Congress of the Con-
federate States, had been published. He obj ects to
the clause providing that slaves imported contrary
to law shall be sold at auction, unless some foreign
State or society will receive them in charge and
deport them for " future freedom." This provision
he considers antagonistic to the policy declared in
the Constitution—viz., to prohibit the importation
of African negroes. The vote was sustained by the
Congress, 24 to 15. The completion of the floating
battery at Charleston had been celebrated by a
salute of seven guns, each gun representing- a
se
eged State. By pediclamation of General Bragg,
Of the. Confederate army;. all vessels were forbidden
"'
to 11, •
bah supplies to war vessels off Pensacola, or
to Fortpick- -
Co nfederac ens, under penalty of forfeiture to the
In accordance with this proclama-
tion a Fede3;:ai
Per iacola. 121,714 vessel had been seized off
until the third Many
Convention had adjourned
Republican :day In December. The St.
Lo uis
,‘ The inference to 13-o. d
of
aailissost uri is in
the Convention i 8 that isiti:!awn from the action of
teas vnable mode favour of evevv
and,
calculated to call
back: the seceded States,
meat sure, favours apeacesbi, se n default of such
aatiodo of the Union
from the Southern Confederacy, and
as to . aelso that her
mind is in a state of suspense
question of
her re tiring from the Union on
the happening of
the ,:antingencies mentioned."
A telegram from Memphis announces that the
Arlo mesas State Convention, on the 20th, T,amea _
Secession ordinance, subject to approval by a vote
Of the I yeople. The Arkansas Convention, after re,
jectin g.a Secession ordinance by a vote of 39 t 035,
finally, agreed that the question should be referred

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