The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-10 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Special Correspondent of as Times.)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25.

"It is so clear we are right in seizing Mason and
Slidell that we will go on proving the point daily,
persisting on there being no doubt about it, demon-
strating that the justice and legality of the act re-
quire no demonstration. We will never cease in
maintaining in the face of the world that two and
two make four—or five, if we like." If need were
for any new proof of the influence of passion in
blinding the eye of reason it would be found in the
extraordinary manner in which the American press,
jurists, and speakers have treated the arrest of the
" ambassadors" of the Confederate States on board
the Royal Mail steamer Trent. But there are many
people who in private hold very different language.
The quiet little tongues of the Stock Exchange arc
hinting their doubts very unmistakeably, and I ven-
ture to assert that if the opinions of the judges of the
land were sought arivately they would pronounce
against " the bold and patriotic act of Commodore
Wilkes." The best legal authorities in this city are
against it. But with tho moral cowardice:which is
the result ofsubmission—habitual prostration to the
force of a majority—men will neither publish nor
write, nor speak spenly what they are free to con-
fess in the study the conversation corner. There
is a chorus all over the land of " Quite right—don't
be afraid," and an immense amount of mutual pat-
ting on the back. People ask," What does England
care about Slidelland Mason ?" and are astonished
to be told in reply that she cares something about
the law of nations and her national honour. If it
were believed really that Great Britain would take
any serious notice of the act there would be an im-
mediate panic in the commercial and monetary
world which would extend its effects to every class
in the Union, from the President who invests his
salary in the national loan down to the daily labourer.
But there is a sustaining hope that the Cabinet will
not do anything, that at the very outside there will
be a remonstrance and a lengthy correspondence,
which will end as many other matters of protocol and
despatch have ended before. As I write there is a
rumour that Messrs. Slidell and Mason are to be
surrendered. If it be true this Government is broken
up. There is so much violence of spirit among the
lower orders of the people, and they are so ignorant
of everything except theirown politics and passions,
so saturated with pride and vanity that any honour-
ssasession , even in this hour of extremity, would
prove fatal is It —staa ...s.astsay
them so unpopular that it would damage them in the
conduct of this Civil War. Admitting the general
diffusion of the arts of reading and writing among
the people, there is a special ignorance of anything
but American notions which is very astonishing.
I may mention in proof of this that I have received
several letters requesting me to appear in public for
the aid of benevolent or literary societies, the writers
of which were good enough either to elevate me to
the peerage, or were labouring under the delusion
that the noble earl at the head of the Foreign-
office was seeking relaxation from the cares of his
department by acting as your special correspondent
in the United States. These letters were written by
secretaries of associations or by people who wore
literary enough to keep collections of autographs.
Adulation, incessant flattery for party or personal
objects, have puffed up the mob with foul vapours
till they are nigh bursting with intolerance, and
have thinned away the skin of their balloon till it
is pouring out gas all over the land. How is any
honest, hard-handed Wisconsin lumberer, then, who
is sitting with his loaded rifle at full cock on the
stump of a tree, and reading his newspaper and
smoking his tobacco in the discharge of the highest
duties of a citizen and a sentinel, to know the truth
when he is assured by his best possible instructor
that the English aristocracy, having sent Mr.
George Thompson over to the States to destroy the
Union by tampering with the slaves, arc now de-
spatching enormous armies to Canada to seize upon
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, the prospe-
rity of which are an insult to their system and an
eye-sore to the Queen, the Prince Consort, and
the rest of the Royal Family ? How is ho to
resist the appeals to his prejudices daily instilled
into him when ho is told that he is the finest fel-
low in the world; that he is%the only freeman on
the face of the earth ; that the English hate and
fear him ; that " Vattel," and " Wheaton," and
" Ortalan " show Wilkes was wrong because he
did not seize and take the Trent into port for con-
demnation, and that he and a million and a half of
soldiers, the handsomest, tallest, stoutest, straight-
est, heaviest, bravest, best shooting, best march-
ing, best-disciplined, and best-principled that are,
have been, or ever will be —the cream of creation
in arms—will be called in shortly to avenge innu-
merable insults, and wipe out the systems which
suffering humanity all
aristocrats have in-
d
emperors,veot6
f o r tthe kings,
o
oppressiontyrants,
of and
uff
over the rest of the globe ? I would give a good
deal for a view of that man's head. Why, it must
be filled with:heroes, " such faultless monsters as the
world ne'er saw,", choke-full of victories that never
existed—teeming with" star-spangled banners" and
great Union processions, barbecues and bunkum
perorations, crowded with visions of demons like
Jeff. Davis and Lord Lyons, and the Duchess of
Sutherland, all wheeling round and dancing about
to a great crash of music, and the strains of
" Yankee-doodle," while muffled assassins move
through the throng, wrapped in cloaks above
which peep out the prongs of Britannia's
trident, the kepi of him of the Tuileries,
or
the fan of the Lady of Spain, stiletto
in
hand, seeking for an opening to get
a dig at the
Goddess of Liberty, who is at that moment engaged
in conversation with President Lincoln, Mr. Seward,
and the editor of his particular journal. He has no
chance of a cure—all access to medicine is shut out,
and the Wisconsin man will fight to the death in
support of his insanity—he will die before he will
give up Mason and Slidell. It is very probable—
if Mr. Jefferson Davis ever condescends to such a
thing—that he sang and danced with delight when
he heard of the capture of these gentlemen ; it is not
too much to suppose he sent them on their mission
because they were in his way. Mr. Mason is a man
of considerable belief in himself; he is a proud,
well-bred, not unambitious gentleman, whose posi-
tion gave him a right to expect high office, for
which in somo respects ho was unfitted at home,

while his manners, his accomplishments, and
his knowledge of society, as well as his modera-
tion of opinion in reference to the merits of other
systems of government, were well suited for a
foreign mission. Mr. Slidell, whom I had the
pleasure of meeting in New Orleans, is a man of
more tact, and is not inferior to his colleague in
other respects. Ho far excels him in subtlety and
depth, and is one of the most consummate masters
of political manoeuvres in tho States. He is what
is called here a " wire-puller"—a man who unseen
moves the puppets on the public stage as he lists—
a man of iron will and strong passions—who loves
the excitement of combinations, :And who in his
dungeon, or whatever else it may be, would con-
spire with the mice against the cat sooner than not
conspire at all. It struck me that he was living
sullenly apart from Montgomery, waiting to be called
in when I saw him, and I have no doubt Mr. Davis
selected him with alacrity for the post which he
was so well adapted to fill. Originally a Northern
man, he has thrown himself into the Southern
cause, and staked his great fortune on the issue with-
out hesitation, and with all the force of his intellect
and character. But even he believed that England
must break the blockake for cotton. Little did he
think then how prominent his name would become
in reference to the relations between his own coun-
try and Great Britain. It is not too much to say the
North gloats over the capture of these two men, and
would consider it an equivalent for Leesburg or
Columbus. Their hauteur, skill, and resolution
have made them many enemies, and personal anti-
paties of the strongest kind exist between them and
some of those who now have them in their hands.
The creation of a precedent founded on what ap-
pears to me to be an outrage on the comity of na-
tions and on the privileges of neutrals is not more
dangerous than submission to a wrong without re-
dress or apology, in order to avoid a quarrel with
a Power friendly as far as treaty goes, if not in sen-
timent.

The secret Secession organ of New York is play-
ing the game of the Confederates by exciting as far
as it has any influence, the ignorant masses against
England in reference to the Mason and Slidell arrest,
and in shouting out for a war with her sooner than
submit to the indignity of doing justice. The poor
Jack Padding, in his fear of detection, is holding on
by the skirts of the Secretary of State, and his cry
is, " Seward and I are quite agreed:on this! Seward
is my man, and lam Seward's man, Here we are to-
gether. His programme is this—We ask no favours
from England ; wesimply demand justice, and if she
will not yield that, we will fight her as we did be-
fore. If she will not listen to words then let us try
what virtue there is in cannon balls." It is a melan-
choly exhibition—degrading to the people who tole-
rate it and only offensive because the Americans do
not publicly repudiate, as they do privately, such pu-
ling braggadocio. When Mr. Seward permits his
name to be used in such a manner, and when the
White House is the headquarters of people who are
supposed to exercise influence over the " organ"
and the inmates of the House, there is colour for the
supposition that these miserable insults are not dis-
tasteful to persons who ought to shrink at all events
from the discreditable association of those who offer
them.

It is most extraordinary that, in matters deeply
affecting the object for which they are contending,
the North will ignore studiously and completely
the merits of the case in which so much is involved.
One would think that Mr. Everett might pause
before he cited the case of the Caroline or the
arrest of Mr. Laurens as cases in point, and that
writers in a respectable paper like the New York
Times, by the very magnitude of the issue, would
be restrained from engaging in the pucrilities which
form the staple of their articles on the arrest of
Messrs. Slidell and Mason, notably in their publi-
cation of Friday (November 22). Their arguments
go on tho assumption that they are " at war" with
the Confederate States, and that England has been
notified of the fact. It is notorious, on the contrary,
that the Government of the United States has
resisted and resented the idea that it is "at war,"
and has insisted that it is blockading its own ports,
having abandoned an absurd pretence of levying
duties outside which it was authorised by Congress
to do. When did the Government of Washington
declare war ? Was not Great Britain menaced and
affronted because she granted to the seceded States
belligerent rights limited in degree ?
" A neutral," says Wheaton, " is the common
friend of both parties, and consequently is not at
liberty to favour one party to the detriment of the
other." If that be so, henceforth, according to the
new practice of the United States' Government, we
are bound to carry no more despatches to Mr.
Adams, and to permit no messenger, envoy, ambas-
sador, or despatch in the service of the United
States to go in any of our ships to Europe, and
supposing the doctrine of the United States to be
true, we ought to take that course. We have assumed
a neutral character between the Northern States and
the seceded States; to the latter we have conceded
a position vested with belligerent rights. "A
neutral has nothing to do with the justice or in-
justice of the war." Granted that by the conces-
sion Great Britain gave an excuse for the exercise
of the right of search which the Americans claim as
a belligerent right, as long as they declare they are
not at war, but are merely suppressing an internal
commotion, they exercise it de leur tort in any case,
but in no case can they be permitted to exercise it
where the character of the ship is notorious, and
where, in the nature of things, she cannot be the
object of legitimate search or the subject of suspicion.
Are the captains of our mail steamers to determine
the political status of their passengers and act as
judges of international law before they permit them to
embark in their ships? To the captain of the Trent,
Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mason were merely passengers
Entered on the list in the ordinary way, and even if
he had read anything about them in the papers, at
most ho could know they were believed to be sent
by an unrecognized Government for a political pur-
pose to Europe, and he would have had no more
right to stop them, and examine their papers and de-
spatches, than he would have to subject Mr. Cassius
Clay or Mr. Thurlow Weed to a similar process. If
he was bound by the Queen's proclamation of
neutrality to object to the passage of the one, ho
was equally obliged to do so in case of the others.
Imagine the masters of the Dover and Calais
steamers interrogating Italian and Hungarian re-
fugees during the Austrian war as to their politics
and objects!
Sir W. Scott lays down expressly as a rule re-
specting contraband that it must be taken in delicto,
in the actual prosecution of the voyage to an
enemy's port. ( A dnz. Repts.," The lonia," vol. 3, p.
168.) Under the circumstances, the search of the
Trent for contraband could not be justified. Cap-
tain Wilkes knew the character of the ship, and was
well aware he could not find contraband on board
of her. Had she been sailing from Havannah full
of arms and munitions of war for Southampton, to
be thence -transferred to a vessel for Americain-
tended to run the blockade, she could not, never-
theless, be touched under any pretence whatever in
accordance with the law of nations. No writer has
ever laid it down of late days that an ambassador
of an enemy can be seized on board a neutral ship
which has sailed from one neutral port and is bound
to another. If the Trent were employed specially
to convey Messrs. Mason and Slidell and their de-
spatches, there might be some show of justification
for the seizure, but as it stands there is none what-
ever. De Hautefeuille indicates clearly that postal
vessels are exempt from such action ; they are so
necessitate rei. 'File New York Times very poorly
and weakly puts a case of an Ambassador of France
going on board a neutral ship of a small State to
form a hostile alliance against England in time of
war, and asks if an English ship of war would not
seize? If against law, and the seizure was made,
doubtless the State so aggrieved would have
grounds for making war and doing its best to obtain

_4OOeL, _
E S PAPER
e 34e. t
Governmen with disreapec
resisted b the Confederateseana they. liitie4a
their point where exchanges of ptisonerthaebeen.
made, or where the wounded have been sought for
by the Federalists under a flag of truce. The step
which Mr. Davis took in ordering the selection by
....es., lots of certain prisoners to be executed or punished
...4d. in the same way as a corresponding number of per.
sd. sons serving his Government, who have been sen-
tenced for piracy in the Northern Courts, will
checkmate the Government, which in matters of life
and death has shown a want of fixed principle and
decision. Colonel Corcoran and his unfortunate com-
panions will no doubt perish on the scaffold, or un-
dergo such other punishment as may be inflicted on
the officers and men who were taken in Confederate
privateers, but there need be no apprehension con-
cerning their fate. All solicitation and argument
has hitherto failed to induce the President to apply
to Richmond for an exchange of prisoners, though
his Generals are permitted to effect it in other places.
But it would be too great a triumph for the White
House at Richmond over the White House at W ash-
ington to allow it here, and wretches starve that
Presidents may hold their heads high and tall;
about " rebels," though in good faith I must
add that Mr. Lincoln is a very humane and kind-
hearted man. There has been another at tempt to beat
up the quarters of Wilson's Zouaves on Santa Rosa
Island above Fort Pickens, but the party which had
landed was discovered, and was forced to retreat
across the channel to Pensacola by the fire of the
vessels outside. There are reports that Col. Brown
is to receive orders to reduce Pensacola and my
ever-ready friend Gen. Bragg to submission. Eager
men say, "Nothing easier." It certainly is not a
work beyond accomplishment, considering the
means on both sides, bat I am not inclined to think
it will be attempted at present, and there is no
doubt that General Bragg will make a very stout
defence,-and, if driven to it, a fairly conducted re-
treat in case of overpowering force and fire. From
Beaufort there is nothing new.. The negroes have,
in some iirs;:incee dettroyed thettratttrs' property,
but there is reason to believe the great mass of them
remained quietly in their houses, and are now work-
ing in the fields as usual. The " Unionists" have
not yet appeared to hail the conquerors.
The white population have gone off, leaving all
their worldly goods behind them. The accounts
of what took place and what was seen when the
Federalists landed ought to make their politicians
entertain sortie doubts respecting their theories, or
the success of this novel process of evolving friendly
feeling. Still the work is to go on. The narrow
inlets will be all blocked up, and the great ports
narrowly watched. Cotton is to be collected and
ginned at Beaufort, and the negroes will resume
the picking under the eye of their new masters.
There they are welcomed, and their labour is sought
after, But it is difficult to see how the United
States authorities can retain them, as there is no
proof they were employed by their masters in hos-
tile works. Gen. Dix in the extreme East, and Gen.
Halleck in the 'West, alike aid the slaveholders in
retaining their slaves by ordering the troops not to
permit them to come within their lines, and declare
" they will not interfere with the condition of any
persons held to domestic service." In fact, the
policy of the Government on this point is quite des-
titute of any fixed principle ; it is essentially geo-
graphical, and governed by the expediency of the
place and moment. The Chicago platform has
broken into pieces under the cares and responsi-
bilities of office, and its supporters are groping in
the dark for the precious pieces, and crying out
against the wickedness of mankind and the untrust-
worthiness of the princes of the people. Mr. Lincoln
and Mr. Seward have thrown away their stilts ;
they are now in the easy-chairs of the Constitution,
and, no doubt, feel a pious horror of all these black
Republican fellows. 'Who cares for Col. Cochrane,
or for Gen. Fremont, or for Secretary Cameron
Who for the tremendous Jennison away West, who
swears he will not strike a blow unless he be autho-
rised to kill slavery ? There is one peculiarity in
the Government of the United States which sur-
prises a foreigner, and is not readily intelligible—
that vital differences on vital questions may exist
among the Cabinet. This arises from the fact that
the Cabinet in no degree resembles the body from
which it takes its name in European States. It can
scarcely be said to be responsible for any act of the
Executive. It is rather a Board of information and
advice, to which the President can apply or not as
he pleases; and when you refer to a statement from
Secretary This or Secretary That as a proof that the
views of the Government arc in any particular direc-
tion, the reply of your antagonist generally is,
" Who minds what Secretary This says ?—he isn't
of any account." However, as Mr. Secretary
Cameron issues instructions to the Federal Generals
which quite satisfy Mr. Sumner, it may be inferred
he is carrying his own way to some extent. Never-
theless, the cry to the President " to put his foot
down" is becoming very strong from both parties,
and it is not easy to see what particular doctrine is
going to suffer from the pedal imposition of the Pre-
sident. While the land operations are being in some
degree suspended—and frost and snow visit us to-
day—naval expeditions will be pushed on actively.
In a letter written two months ago, I stated that
the Government were about to send out a flotilla
of stone-laden ships to sink in the channels and
entrances to harbours along the Southern coast.
This is a curious mode of making up for the defi-
ciency of blockading power, and does not look as if
the North were very hopeful of a speedy recovery
or subjugation of the seceded States. The idea
is revived ; the vessels have been purchased,
have been filled with stones, and are ready to sail
with the expedition under General Butler, in order
to develop the notion of making the country pros-
perous by stopping trade and commerce in or out.
Twenty-five old whalers, of an average burden of
some 350 tons, have been prepared, so that they can
be readily sunk with their freight by means of pipes
inserted under the counter: The Mississippi flotilla
and expedition, which were in a state of suspended
animation, have revived once more, under the care
of Captain Foote, of the United States Navy, and
sever. gunboats of 15 guns each and 28 mortar
ketches are nearly ready for the water. It will to
difficult to manage these vessels in the current, and
the river is low at this period of the year; but the
foliage has disappeared from the woods on the banks.
If the expedition reaches Memphis there may be
well-founded apprehensions for New Orleans.
Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his Message, meets all
the dangers which menace his Confederation with
an expression of unalterable confidence in it, and of
hostility to the United States, which cannot be read
without admiration for the courage and resolution
of the man who has so far carried out his vast con-
ception with the utmost vigour and ability,
Although the accounts of destitution in the South
are exaggerated, there is no doubt they are ill pro-
vided in many points, and will be sorely tried in the
next four months. The Richmond papers some time
ago stated that on a calculated expenditure of
300,000,000 dollars there was a deficiency of
f 175,000,000, notwithstanding all Mr. Memminger's
efforts and the wholesale manufacture of " shin
plasters." Only one-half of the Confederate loan
has been taken, and the cotton bonds under present
circumstances are valueless. In nearly every con-
test with the Confederates it has been remarked
that their arms are very bad ; indeed, they fight at
every disadvantage—fowling-pieces and flint locks
opposed to sword-bayoneted Enfield and Springfield
muskets.

redress. But there is no parallel at all. The ques-
tion the New York 7inzes should put is this :—lf
England and France were at war, and the latter
sent an Ambassador to embark at Stettin and go to
Cronstadt in the Russian mail steamer, would Eng-
land justify the conduct of a captai❑ of one of her
armed ships who fired at the Imperial mail steamer,
brought her to, then by armed force dragged the
Ambassador on board his ship as a prisoner ? Would
Russia tolerate such an act for one moment ? But
the word" Ambassador" implies that he is the agent
of a recognised Power. When and where have the
Confederate States been recognised as a Power
competent to open diplomatic relations by an
Ambassador ? Mr. Laurens was on board an
American vessel—a vessel belonging to a rebel-
lious enemy, resisting the sovereignty of Great
Britain, which had not succeeded in esta•
blishing its independence. His case has no-
thing whatever to do with the arrest of
Slidell and Mason. Another wiseacre, who writes
to prove how the agents of the Persia respected
the Queen's proclamation of neutrality by refusing
to permit guns, &c., to be taken on board at Liver-
pool for the United States, forgets that the Persia
was sailing from a neutral to the port of a belli-
gerent. Guns were unmistakeable contraband
war ; Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mason can only ne
so by the introduction of some principle of law as
yet unknown to civilized nations. They were not
soldiers; if they were, it is not possible to main-
tain that they could have been seized, if they were
sailing from a Spanish to an English port, even
with an animus revertendi, unless they had hired
the vessel for their special conveyance. As bearers
of despatches, men cannot be seized and imprisoned
permanently on board neutral ships in which they
are sailing as ordinary passengers. A neutral ship
carrying contraband is liable to confiscation, but
her crew are only confined till they have given
evidence in the case.

It is the uniform law that when a capture has
been effected within the limits of a neutral territory,
i.e., within its seas, " the property must be re-
stored." Sir William Scott's judgment on that
point in the " Vrow Anna Catharina" has never
been questioned. For all intents and purposes the
property of Messrs. Mason and Slidell and they
themselves were, when under the British flag, on
neutral ground. "It is the right as well as the
duty of the neutral State to restore it to its owners."
Vattel declares that in whatever does not relate
to the war the neutral must not refuse to one of the
parties, merely because he is at war with the other,
what he grants to that other." But over and above
all these points is the fact, before insisted on in my
letters, of the special character of the ship itself.
The principle involved in that fact is not only
asserted by writers of authority, but was announced
in the postal convention between England and
the United States in 1848, in which it was ex-
pressly stipulated that, in case of war between
the two countries, the mail packets between
the two countries should he allowed to con-
tinue their service without molestation until six
weeks' notice had been given by either Govern-
ment of the intention to stop it, when they would
be permitted to return specially protected to their
ports. It never could have been foreseen that the
United States would have claimed the right to board
and arrest passengers in the Royal West India mail
steamers on the high seas, or we should have had,
no doubt, very explicit declarations on the point.
The character of the vessel should have rendered all
her passengers safe from molestation. If the flag
has any sovereign right and protecting power at all,
it is in the case of political refugees or offenders
who have sought its shelter. Admitting all that
can be said of them—even that they were " Ambas-
sadors"—i. c., that the Confederate States of
America are recognized by the United States of
America as a separate State—there would have been
a ground of grave remonstrance had they been
seized on board a common merchant ship bound
from Havannah for Southampton.
"For two centuries past," says Wheaton, " there
has been a constant tendency to establish the prin-
ciple that the neutrality of the ship should exempt
the cargo, even if enemy's property, from capture
and confiscation as prize of war. But this seizure
would put the world back many a long year. There
are certain things which a man cannot submit to
with the most peace-loving disposition in the world,
or if he does submit must bear the scorn of his fel-
lows. No word of war has been breathed by Eng-
land, while the air is full of menace over here, in a
capital shut up by hostile batteries from free access
to the sea, and protected by an army which has
now assumed a defensive attitude probably till the
return of fine weather next year ! The journals,
with some very few exceptions, are jubilant in their
exultation over a new difficulty—some new source
of strength to the Union. The sensitive capitalists
of New York are assured that if the United States
resolve to persist in the capture there is no danger
of war ; at all events, it will be long delayed by
negotiation and the usual diplomatic formalities.
There was no intention on the part of Captain
Wilkes to insult the British flag, forsooth ; he
took his prisoners with only such a display of
force as the ease required—of what can the
British Government complain ? In time of
war neutrals may be visited and searched by the
vessels of either belligerent, for in their confusion
the United States' papers have got into the habit of
considering the Confederates as belligerents—of
looking on them as we were unfortunate enough to
say we thought they were some time ago. Such are
ideas hammered on a thousand clanging anvils—a
pin beaten into foil. Capt. Wilkes when he stopped
the Trent by shotted guns knew perfectly well the
vessel could not contain contraband of war. Had
she been crammed with munitions of war, which
would have feund their way into the Confederate
States after they had been landed in England, he,
nevertheless, knew well he could not touch a mus-
ket cr a cartridge ; but he knew Mason and Slidell
were on board, and he was determined, coute Qui
coute, to have them.

Reviews and reconnoissances and foraging parties
occupy our Grand Army of the Potomac. There aro
also disputes to engage the attention of the autho-
rities, and it is reported to me to-day that General
Blenker, the idol of the Germans, has resigned or
intends to do so. That event would cause trouble
and dissatisfaction. It is obvious that a large army is
going into winter quarters. Long ranges of stabling,
sheds for stores, and wooden barracks are rising up
on both sides of the river and around the capital.
The prospect is by no means agreeable to many
thousands of soldiers. Volunteers are impatient of
standing camps and campaigning of this sort. The
pay and the distress at home are inducements to
remain in order to remit money to their families,
which they are doing very largely. Among the
Confederates the same repugnance to an inactive
hibernation exists doubtless to a greater degree. A
letter, attributed to General Beauregard, which
appears in the Southern papers, would imply that
there is more serious dissension higher up, and men
like Wigfall among civilians and Beauregard among:,
military men may be inclined to dispute the cautious
policy which Mr. Davis follows in the field.
The non-events of the week do not justify me in
transcribing the notes of my diary. The advance
of the Federalists into the two counties of Virginia
which lie on the left bank of the Chesapeake has
been hailed with pleasure by oyster eaters, and
various mysterious affairs—in which Zollicoffer,
Polk, Ben M'Cullagh, Price, Hunter, and Pillow
are mixed up in inextricable confusion with Big
Muddy, Wild Cat, and Great Licking—are reported
to have occurred down west. The rumour that the
Black Flag has been hoisted by the Confederate
troops and by the people in South Carolina must be
received with suspicion. The Cabinet of Mr. Davie
would never sanction the act, for they have been
struggling all along to obtain the status of a nation,
and to establish a right to the usages of war on the
ipart of their opponents. All attempts to treat their

It is rumoured that there is groat activity among
the slavers since the United States' squadron has been
ordered home. The port of New York is the head.
quarters of the slave trade, which is carried on in
Northern ships by Northern capital and Northern
men. The conduct of Mr. Barney, the collector,
in causing the slaver Augusta to be pursued and
captured when she had run out to sea after giving
bond, and the activity of the authorities recently,
may do something to destroy the trade—but the
Americans can scarcely complain of private indi-
viduals in Great Britain following their example
during the Russian war, and trying to run the
blockade for private gain, when we find the New
Yorkers at work supplying the Confederates, as in
the case of the schooner Mabel, seized by the
United States' sloop Dale while trying to run into
Fernandina, on her way from Havanna, with a