The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-22 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

The New York Commercial List says :
" Inactivity:in general trade, increased buoyancy in stocks,
and the continued activity in military circles are the notice-
able features of the times. In commercial circles there still
appears to be a general indisposition to embark in any new
enterprises or to invest in any speculation,
if we may except
a few commodities which have attained to extremely high
Prices in consequence of the action of the Government in
enforcing a rigid blockade of ports in the Southern States,
or in view of the difficulties undor which traffic with
those sections has been prosecuted during the past few
weeks, and consequent diminishing stocks. Everywhere
there is dis Position manifested to husband available means,
and operations in general merchandise are accordingly li-
mited to immediate necessities. According to the Semi-
iiah News, the shipments of rice from Georgia to Northern
ports will be continued. Financially, there is nothing of
unusual interest transpiring, As wao generally ardicipated, '

the last weekly Bank statement; shows a decrease in the
loans, specie, circulation, and netdeposits.
"The condition of the banks May 4, as compared with the
preceding week, was as follows
May 4. April 27.
dole. dole, dole.
Loans.... 124,610,166 .. 124,817,154 Decrease .. 206,988
Specie.... 33,054,254.. 38,991,683 Decrease .. 937,429
Circulation 9,296,399 .. 8,840,476 Increase:.. 455,923
Deposits .. 94,977,381 .. 96,788,759 Decrease ..1,811,378
"The difficulties by which the shipping interest is beset
are not confined to the coasting trade, but are gradually ex -
tending. A letter written by Captain Remington, of the
barque Mustang, which sailed from Havannan on the 26th
ult., states that he had been chartered to proceed to Reme •
dios, to load sugars for a port north of Hatteras, at 5 dols.
50c. per hhd. The Spanish merchants were afraid to ship
by American vessels, owing to the existing difficulties, and
were giving French and English the preference. A large
number of vessels at this port, now that trade with all the
Southern ports is prohibited, have laid up. This is pro-
bably the ease at all the Northern ports. The Philadelphia
North American of Monday, in this connection, says of the
New Jersey coasting vessels that ' the vessels of our sister
State that have been employed in the Southern coasting
trade are mostly laid up, and will so continue until the war
is ended. Tom's River and Barnegat are the favourite
places for coasting harbours. Many of the sailors, how-
ever, are employed in piloting ships—not unfrequently by
the Government—their knowledge of the coast being per-
fect, from Sandy Hook to Key West.' Among the most
important failures announced within the three days, is that
of Mr. Joseph Hobson, the great lumber dealer, of Saco,
Maine, whose liabilities are said to be large, exceeding
400,000 dole."
The money market wore a very quiet aspect, and rates of
discount had a downward tendency. For other than strictly,
prime paper, however, rates continued irregular and uncer-
tain. Loans on call, Stock securities, 5 to 51 ; ditto, other
good securities, 6 to 61; prime endorsed bills, 60 to 90 days,
51 to 6 ; ditto, four to six months, 61 to 7.
Foreign exchange was firmer, and a good business had
been done. On London, 60 days' bankers' bills, 1041 to
105 ; ditto, commercial bills, 102 to 1031; ditto, with bills of
lading, 1011 to 1021; ditto Southern and Canada Bank
bills, 104 to 1041; ditt, short sight bankers' bills, 106 to
1061.
The stock market exhibited a more buoyant feeling. The
stocks of the seceded States still continued to be daily bought
and sold. The latest qu9tatiens were as follows •—The Go-
vernment Fives, 761 • Coupon Six per Cents. of IsBl, 891 ;
Twelve per Cent. Treasury Notes, 1011 ; and Ten-and-
Three-Quarter per Cents., at 991 ; Virginias, 451; Mis-
souris, 40 ; New York Central, 74; Erie, 22 ; Illinois Cen-
tral, 62; Rock island, 384. The market closed very firm,
and the demand for stock was quite animated.
Cotton was rather more steady under a moderate inquiry
for the home trade, and prices were supported. Middling
Uplands, 12i. Thy arrivals had been—
Florida 192 bales.
South Carolina
North Carolina

Total . 630 bales.
Total import since Ist inst.
Total import since Ist September 424,967 bales.
Export from Ist to 7th of May.
1861. 1860.
Cotton, bales 7,064 .. 2,292

EZPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS TO THE
_4ll-ERMAN MINISTER IN FRANCE.

Imperfect statements of Mr. Faulkaer's inter-
view with N.. Thouvenel, the French Minister for
Foreign Affairs, concerning the application of the
commissioners of till
Southern Confederation, hav-
ing found their way ;nto the press, the American
Government has consentOd to the publication of the
correspondence :

(No. 119.)
Legation of the United States, Paris,
April 15, 1861.
Sir,—l called to-day upon M. Thouvenel, at
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was piomptly
admitted to an interview. Agreeably to your re-
quest, I handed to him a copy of the inaugural
address of President Lincoln, and added that I was
instructed by you to say to him that it embraced
the views of the President of the United States,
upon the difficulties which now disturbed the har-
mony of the American Union, and also an exposi-
tion of the general policy which it was the purpose
of the Government to pursue, with a view to the
preservation of domestic peace, and the maintenance
of the Federal Union. Here M. Thouvenel asked
if there was not some diversity of opinion in the
Cabinet of the President as to the proper mode of
meeting the difficulties which now disturbed the
relations of the States and general Government. I
replied upon that point I had no information ; under
our system the Cabinet was an advising body ; its
opinions were entitled to weight, but did not neces-
sarily compel the action of the President. The
executive power was by the constitution vested ex-
clusively is the President. I said that I was further
instructed to assure him that the President of the
United States entertains a full confidence in the
speedy restoration of harmony and unity of the
Government by a firm, yet just and liberal policy,
co-operating with the deliberate and loyal action of
the American people. M. Thouvenel expressed his
pleasure at the assurance. I further said that the
President regretted the events going on in the
United States might be productive of some possible
inconvenience to the people and subjects of France,
but he was determined those inconveniences shall
be made as light and transient as possible, and
so far as it may rest with him, that all strangers
who may suffer any injury from them shall be
indemnified. I said to him that the President
thought it not impossible an appeal would be made
before long by the Confederate States to foreign
powers, and amongst others to the Government of
France, for the recOgnition of their independence.
That no such appeal having yet been made, it was
premature and out of p:.‘ce to discuss any of the
points involved in that de2icate and important
inquiry; but the Government of the United States
desired the fact to be known that whenever any
such application shall be made, it wiLl. meet with
opposition from the Minister who shall then repre-
sent that Government at this Court. I said to him
that my mission at this Court would soon terun-
nate, and I should have no official connexion with
the question whcih it was anticipated might arise on
the demand of the Confederate States for recog-
nition
of their independence; that my place would
soon be supplied by a distinguished citizen of the
State of New Jersey, a gentleman who possessed
the confidence of tb.e President, who fully 53m1Pa-
thised in his public views, and who would doubtless
come fully instructed as to the wishes and views of
the United States, and that the only request which
I would. now make, and which would close all I had
to say in the interview, was that no proposition
recognising the permanent dismemberment of
the American Union shall be considered by the
French Government until after the arrival and
reception of the new Minister accredited
by the United States to this Court. M. Thou-
venel, in reply, said that no application
had yet been made to him by the Confederated
states in any form for the recognition of their inde-
pendence ; that the French Government was not in
the habit of acting hastily upon such questions, as
might be seen by its tardiness in recognising the
new kingdom of Italy ; that he believed the main-
tenance of the Federal Union in its integrity was to
be desired for the benefit of the people of the north
and south, as well as for the interests of France,
and the Government of the United States might
rest well assured that no hasty or precipitate action
would be taken on that subject by the Emperor.
But whilst 'he gave utterance to these views, he
was equally bound to say that the practice and
usage. of the present century had fully established
the rights of de facto Governments to recognition
when a proper case was oade out for the decision
of foreign powers. Here the "official interview ended.
The conversation was then farther protracted by
when the new tariff
an inquiry from M. Thouvenel
would go into operation, and whether it was re-
garded as the settled policy of the Government ?
I told him that the first day of the present month
had been prescribed as the period when the new
duties would take effect ; that I had no: yet ex-
amined its provisions with such care as wocild jus-
tify me in pronouncing an opinion upon its merits ;
tUt it was condemned by the commercial classes of
the ciuntry, and that I had no doubt, from the
discont°nt manifested in several quarters, that the
subject would engage the attention of Congress at
its next meeting, and probably some important
modifications would be made in it. The finances
of the Government were at this time temporarily
embarrassed, and I had no doubt the provisions
of the new tariff wet'!l adopted with a view, al-
though probably a mistaken one, of sustaining the
credit of the treasury as Duch as of reviving the
protective policy. He then asked me my opinion
as to the course of policy that would be adopted
toward the seceding states, and whether I thought
force would be employed to coerce them into sub-
mission to the federal authority. I told him that I
could only give him my individual opinion, and that
I thought force would not be employed ; that ours
was a Government of public opinion, and although
the Union unquestionably Possessed all the ordinary
powers necessary for its preservation, as had been
shown in several partial insurrections which had
occurred in our history, yet that the extreme power
of the Government could only be used in accord-
ance with public opinion, and that I IN-as satisfied
that the sentiment of the people was oppo2ed to the
employment of force against the seceding ,qates.
So sincere was the deference felt in that coun.trY
for the great principle of self-government, and so
great the respect for the action of the people when
adopted under the imposing forms of state organi-
satlon and state sovereignty, that I did not think
the employment of force would be tolerated for a
moment, and I thought the only solution of our dif-
ficulties would be found in such modifications of

our constitutional compact as would invite the
seceding states back into the Union, or a peace-
able acquiescence in the assertion of their claims

------
boopoinoiwoniso,thaantd
wt ho
to a separate soverergnty. M. Thouvenel ex-
pressedther rupture of the Confederacy, by causing
the remaining southern gates to make common
force would his
euldeinteptliodynitoenatfu°r-t

cause with those which had already taken action on
the subject.—l am, respectfully, your obedient
servant, CHARLES J. FAULKNER.

Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State.
(No. 7.)
Department of State, Washington,
May 4, 1861.
Sir,—The despatches of your predecessor, Nos.
117, 119, and 120, have been received. The latter,
acknowledging the receipt of our letters of recall,
and announcing his intended return, requires no
special notice. No. 117 bears the date of sth of
April last. It contains only an exposition of Mr.
Faulkner's views of the policy which the Govern-
ment ought to pursue in regard, to the disturbed
condition of affairs at home, but, at the same time,
gives us no information concerning the state of
affairs in France.

The instructions heretofore transmitted to you
will show you the President's views on the subject
Mr. Faulkner has discussed, and these will be your
guide, notwithstanding any different opinions your
predecessor may have expressed or left on record at
Paris.

No. 119 bears date of the 15th April last, and
contains a report of an official conversation, and
also of an unofficial one held between Mr. Faulkner
and M. Thouvenel. In the former conversation M.
Thouvenel:as ked Mr. Faulkner whether there is not
some diversity of opinion in the cabinet of the Presi-
dent as to the proper mode of meeting the difficul-
ties which now disturb the relations of the states
and the general government. Mr. Faulkner, in
reply, said that he had no information on the sub-
ject. The matter is of no great moment, yet it is
desirable that there be no misapprehension of the
true state of the Government in the present eme-
gency. You may, therefore, recall that conversation
to M. Thouvenel's memory, and then assure him
explicitly that there is no difference of opinion
whatever between the President and his constitu-
tional advisers, or among those advisers themselves,
concerning the policy that has been pursued and
which is now prosecuted by the administration in
regard to the unhappy disturbances existing in the
country.
The path of executive duty has, thus far, been
too plainly marked out by stern necessity to be mis-
taken, while the solemnity of the great emergency
and the responsibility it involves, have extinguished
in the public councils every emotion but those of
loyalty and patriotism. It is not in the hands of
this administration that this Government is to
come to an end at all, much less for want of har-
mony in devotion to the country. M. Thouvenel's
declaration that the United States may rest well
assured that no hasty or precipitate action will be
taken on the subject of the apprehended applica-
tion of the insurrectionists for a recognition of the
independence of the so-called confederated States is
entirely satisfactory, although it was attended by
a reservation of views concerning general principles
applicable to cases that need not now be discussed.
In the unofficial conversation, Mr. Faulkner says
that he himself expressed the opinion that force
would not be resorted to to coerce the
so-called seceding States into submission to the
federal authority, and that the only solution of the
difficulties would be found in such modifications of
the constitutional compact as would invite the
seceding states back into the Union, or a peaceable
acquiescence in the assertion of their claim to a
separate sovereignty.
The time when these questions had any perti-
nacity or plausibility has passed away. The United
States waited patiently while their authority was
defied in turbulent assemblies and insidious prepa-
rations, willing to hope that mediation, offered on
all sides, would conciliate and induce the disaffected
parties to return to a better mind. But the case is
now altogether changed. The insurgents have in-
stituted revolution with open, flagrant, deadly war,
to compel the United States to acquiesce in the dis-
memberment of the Union. The United States
have accepted this civil war as an inevitable neces-
sity. The constitutional remedies for all the com-
plaints of the insurgents are still open to them, and
will remain so. But, on the other hand, the land
and naval forces of the Union have been put into
activity to restore the federal authority and to save
the Union from danger.
You cannot be too decided or too explicit in making
known to the French Government that there is not
now, nor has there been, nor will there be any—the
least—idea existing in this government of suffering
a dissolution of this union, to take place in any way
whatever. There will be here only one nation and
one government, and there will be the same re-
public and the same constitutional union that
have already survived a dozen national changes
and changes of government in almost every other
country. These will stand hereafter, as they are
now, objects of human wonder and human affection.
You have seen on the eve of your departure the
elasticity of the national spirit, the vigour of the
national Government, and the lavish devotion of
the national treasures of this great cause. Tell M.
Thouvenel, then, with the highest consideration and
good feeling, that the thought of a dissolution of
this union, peaceably or by force, has never entered
into the mind of any candid statesman here, and it
is high time that it be dismissed by statesmen in
Europe. —I um, air, respectfully, your obedient ser-
vant,
_

(Signed) Wm. H. SEWARD.
To William L. Dayton, Esq., &c.

=
THE CIVIL WAR I,v AA-ERICA.

(From the Times.)

Every one will look with some interest at the
Message of the President of the Confederate States.
The political documents which come to us from the
other side of the Atlantic are often prolix and dull,
dwelling on endless details, and troubling them-
selves about many things which in other countries
are left to less important channels of communica-
tion; but an apology for secession will command
the attention of all who are watching the conflict in
America with fear, or sympathy, or curiosity. It
need hardly be said that Mr. Davis gives an histori-
cal retrospect cf the relations between the States
which formed the late Union, and endeavours to
prove from it that the Southerners, in seceding,
have only availed themselves of a right which was
inherent in their respective States, and was by no
means aonulled by the Federal compact. Foreigners
have alwayo been struck by the legal tone which
pervades the discussions of American statesmen.
While the Judws of the new Republic are fonder
of resorting to frst principles than their brethren
in the old country, the politicians, on the other
hand, discuss questions of public polity in the spirit
of lawyers interpreting an tot of Parliament. The
two tendencies, doubtless, arise from the nature of
a Confederation which, while it brings into the
closest private relations men living under different
and conflicting laws, yet unites their public inte- '
rests only through the medium of a formal docu-
ment called a Constitution. This Constitution, every
sentence of which bristles with the decisions of
Federal Judges and State Judges during 70 years,
has now received another and most important gloss
from the pen of Mr. Jefferson Davis, the President,
and in every way the master spirit, of the new
Confederation.

As this lengthy document will be found in another
place, we shall do no more than point out that the
question, so far as public law is concerned, depends
on this—Did the individual States which re-
sisted Great Britain 80 years ago impliedly reserve
the right of secession when they entered into the
federation known as the United States, and
framed the Constitution of 1787 ? Certain points
are perfectly clear. In the first place, they were
previous to 1787—that is, for four years after Great
Britain acknowledged their independence—abso-
lutely sovereign and independent of each other.
During the Revolutionary War they were, in fact,
united only as England, Spain, and Portugal were
united in the Peninsular War, when an English
General was Commander-in-Chief of the army of
t2ll three kingdoms, without any prejudice to the
independence of our allies. On the other hand,
there can be no doubt that secession was never con-
templated by the parties to the Union of 1787. The
States which were unwilling to ratify based their
opposition on the grounds that care had not been
taken to place beyond a doubt the absolute indepen-
dence of the individual States in all matters not ex-
pressly made over to Congress. Amendments were
made in the Constitution expressly affirming the
reservation by the States of all their sovereign
rights and powers:not expressly delegated to the
United States by the Constitution. Thus the right
of making;laws,.of contracting State debts, of alter-
ing State Constitutions, and, in short, of doing all
that is necessary for the maintenance of civil society
without the interference of the Federation, was
settled before entering into the compact. But it
does not follow from this that the individual State
had a right to withdraw those powers which it had
ceded to the Federation. Because it retained some
sovereign powers, that is no reason why it may not
have effectually and permanently parted with
others. South Carolina, for instance, gave to the
United States the right of maintaining an army and
navy, and of taxing her for their maintenance, as
s:llemnly as she reserved the right of regulating her
own banks or her own criminal courts. The right
of coiniri: money and the right of establishing a
Post-office
-ere is legally alienated by the State as
u
the right of dea..11114.
was reserved. In tu: Constitution thei:' is
the Union, or a rest:PlP"
with slavery within her limits
no pro-
vision for a dissolution oL"
tion of the powers granted to ...111e Federal Govern-
ment; and this is at least an argument in favour of
the opinion that the Constitution, when ratified,
must be taken as binding for ever, and that when
each State adopted it it ceased to be a nation as
completely as England or Scotland in 1707.
The question, therefore, it seems to lap e%ll hardly

be settled merely by an interpretation of the Con-
stitution of 1787. The point really is whether the
States of the American Union were in 1860 States
in a fair and reasonable sense of the words " Sove-
reign States," such as would, according to the laws
of morality and of nations, have a right to dispose
of their own destiny, and to be the supreme judges
of their own welfare. A written Constitution, like
any other document, must be construed with a
proper regard to the circumstances of the parties,
and their probable intentions in adopting it. Mr.
Davis, therefore, evidently feeling that a mere
verbal criticism of the Constitution proves little
either way, enters into a history of the dissensions
which have long embittered the two sections of the
Republic against each other, and thus labours to
prove that secession was a necessary remedy for
intolerable evils. We have been lately so thoroughly-
informed of the peculiar grievances of the South-
erners that we are not surprised to hear that the
Abolitionist Associations and the opposition to the
Fugitive Slave Law were sufficient injuries to jus-
tify the Slave States in withdrawing from political
association with the North, and that it was a piece
of knavery in the people of the Northern States to
attack the " institution" after they had made money
by selling their own negroes to the cotton-growers
when slavery was no longer profitable at the North.
The slaveholders, says Mr. Davis, bought the
negroes " without harbouring a suspicion that their
quiet possession was to be disturbed by those who
were inhibited not only by want of constitutional
authority, but by good faith as vendors, from dis-
quieting a title emanating from themselves." These
apologies for a violent political act will be esti-
mated at what they are worth. Mr. Davis, however,
approaches nearer to the true cause of secession,
when he speaks of the conflicting interests of the
two sections—the one being purely agricultural,
and desirous of free trade, as producing the most
valuable staple in the world, while the Northerners
"have endeavoured to render the common Govern-
ment subservient to their own purposes, by im-
posing burdens on commerce as a protection to their
manufacturing and shipping interests. It is indeed
plain that the election of Mr. Lincoln was the oc-
casion more than the cause of secession. For many
years all that has kept the two sections of the Re-
public together has been a feeling of patriotism and
the possession of common historical traditions. The
best apology for secession is, in truth, the fact that
it has taken place. Most people in America thought
that the reverence for the Union would counter-
balance the diversities of interest and feeling, but
they were wrong. A slaveholding community, un-
der an almost tropical sun, has separated itself, per-
haps unjustifiably, but still quite naturally, from
the traders and shippers, and mechanicians and
farmers, of a Northern land. Mr. Davis's view of
the question is at least supported by the "inexorable
logic of facts." He contends for the sovereign rights
of States and the utility of a double confederacy
on the continent. Now it is plain that the principle
of State sovereignty is practically assumed by every
State in both Federations, and the newspapers
chronicle the alliance or the neutrality of this or
that community just as if they were speaking of
independent nations. Finally, it seems likely that
the States will divide themselves according as they
are free-soil or slaveholding, and thus show that the
I new Confederacy is at least founded on a principle
which has a reality for the American people.
However, the time when this kind of argument
could avail has gone by. Mr. Davis, while making a
studious display of moderation, and endeavouring
to conciliate the good will of European nations, is
perfectly aware that his theories depend for accept-
ance on the rifles of his fellow-citizens. The
tribunal which decides questions tf international
law is usually a stern one. If the North prevails, it
will prove that the Union was a nationality; if
the South makes good its indep9ndence, it will
prove that the Union was a partnership during
pleasure. This is what has to be decided, and we
must wait the event. For the present there is no
indication of a peaceful issue. The secession of
the Border States seems to have been hastened
rather than delayed by the formidable prepara-
tions at the North. Tennessee and Arkansas are
said to have gone over. The former is a great ad-
dition to the resources of the Southerners ; the
latter is of comparatively little weight. Virginia
and North Carolina are preparing for the war which
must take place on their borders, while Kentucky
still remains neutral, though the Governor is said
to be in correspondence with the Secessionists. On
the other hand the enthusiasm of the North is as
great as ever, and the first movements in the war
may be shortly looked for, though they will, it is
said, be limitedto the occupation of Harper, s Ferry
and one or two other places on the Virginian fron-
tier. A more important matter is, however, men-
tioned. We have already anticipated that the
campaign could not begin in earnest for some
months, and that the volunteers who marched to
Washington must be replaced by regular troops.
This, it is now declared, will be the case. Though
there may be desultory fighting in the interval, yet
the real invasion of the Confederate States is not
to take place till the fall of the year, when it is to
be executed by a standing army of 100,000 men.