The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-11 00:00:00

THE FISHMONGERS' COMPANY.

The Company of Fishmongers dined together on S ttur-
day night—the Prime Warden in the chair. ;The speeches
of the members were of the usual character, and would
hardly have deserved notice but for the circumstance tbat
among the guests of tho evening were the Hoa. Dudley
Mann and the Hon. W. L. Yancey, the plenipotentiaries
of the Confederate States .1 America. Their health was
proposed by the Prim, I.74iden, and Mr. Yancey replied.

. _
Mr. YANCEY said—Li :on the part of Americans I sin-
cerely respond to the sent in.ent just expressed by the Prime
Warden for the restoration of peace in America, Such a
wish proclaimed by a company of intelligent Englishmen
must kindle a corresponding spirit in the bosom of every
enlightened and impartial American. The name of American
no longer represents a united people. There exists now two
American nationalities—the Confederates and the Federal
Americans. I—as you may, perhaps, be aware—am a Con-
federate, or—as the Federal American, unmindful of the
character of our common forefathers, disdainfully terms me,
a rebel. But the justice and the sense of right of this great
government, promptly coincided in by France, and Spain,
speedily wiped out that stigma from our brows, and my
countrymen are acknowledged here, at least, to be bellige-
rents. Though indebted to an enlarged and enlightened
view of the public law, and not to the mere grace or favour of
England for this acknowledgment of our unquestionable
rights and lotus standi, I must freely express here to-night
that deep sense of thankfulness, which I am sure all my
countrymen feel, for its early public avowal—" Vie dat qui
silo dat." (Prolonged cheers.) From no other power could
it have come so gracefully. In this—" the old country"—
the principle of self-government is recognised and prat •
tised, however blended with the prerogative of the Crown
and the privileges of the aristocracy. To your institutions
Americans are indebted for the chief of those vital prin-
ciples which have caused them to style their republic—

" The land of the fr e
And the home of the oppressed."
Such invaluable rights as the old English writ of habeas
corpus, of a speedy trial by jury, of freedom of speech and
freedom of the press, are the main pillars of American con-
stitutional liberty ; and I am both happy and proud to say
are observed at least throughout the Confederate American
states as vital and practical rights, even during their stern
struggles to preserve their "national life." (Hear, and
cheers.) I feel how unbecoming it would be in me to intrude
upon such an occasion as the present any merely partisan
views of the causes which have broken up the late Federal
Union. No matter what they may have been, one thing is clear
and that is that the contest now going on is upon the part of
the people of the Confederate states for the right to govern
themselves and to resist subjugation by the North. (Hear,
hear.) They occupy a territory as large as England,
France, Spain, and Austria together—they are ten millions
in number—they are chiefly producers of important raw
materials, and buyers of every species of manufactured
goods. Their pursuits, soil, climate, and production, are
totally different from those of the North. They think it
their interest to buy where they can buy cheapest and to
sell where they can sell dearest. In all this the North differs
totoccelo from ahem, and now makes war upon us to enforce
the supremacy of their mistaken ideas and selfish interests.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) In defence of their liberties
and sovereign independence the Confederate states and
people are united and resolute. They are invaded by a
power numbering 20,000,000 ; yet fur eight months has
the Confederate Government successfully resisted—aye, re-
pelled—that invasion along a military frontier of 1,000 miles.
Though cut off by blockade from all foreign trade, their
internal resources have been adequate to the equipment and
maintenance in the field of an army of over 250,000 troops.
Can all this be, and yet these 6,000,000 of whites be divided ?
The idea is preposterous. So much has been said about our
efforts to obtain foreign intervention that I may be allowed
to declare emphatically that the Confederate States have
neither sought nor desired it. They can maintain their in-
.o f
o.A so u to their
dr ee cs oi
rge-.
np
ietni
odne nbcye
theintact
wbeyr
st ho ef itrboowwnn sr til
de, nt gb taht
They are a people, a nation, exhibiting elements of power
which few states of the world possess. But they have no
reason to complain, nor do they feel aggrieved, because these
great powers see fit for a season to defer their formal recog-
theirthatb
such action by
recog-
nition and reception into the family of nations. However
they may differ with them as to the period
when
ree,ognition
is
should take a
place,question o
the y fullyt
bedetermined
those countries each for itself and with reference toits
own interests and vows of public policy. Other nations
having trading relations with us have quite as much interest
to send ministers and consuls to us as we have to send
such representatives to them. (Hear, hear.) Why then,
shall there not be a peace ? Simply because the North in
its pride will not admit that to be a fact—a fait accompli—
which Old England, followed by the first powers of Europe,
has recognised, and which the Confederate government
and armies have repeatedly demonstrated to be a stern and
bloody fact—the fact that we are a belligerent power. There
can be no basis for negotiations, or for peace proposals
or consultations so long as the Confederates are deemed to
be and are treated as rebels. (Hear.) But when our ad-
versary shall become sufficiently calm to treat us as a belli-
gerent power, the morning of peace will dawn in the hori-
zon. When that hour shall arrive I think I may say the
Confederate Government will be inflexible upon one point '
only—its honour and its independence. For the gre,tain:
Iterest of peace and humanity it will yield much_an!h
_tel;
merely material or of secondary importance. (Mr. 1 c
sat down amid loud and continued cheeriAg.) •