The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-07 00:00:00

'HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAY.—Morning, 511. 27m.—Afternoon, sh. 50m.
To-monucw.-Monaing, 6h. 14m.—Afternoon, 6h. 38m.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, DECEMBER 7, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
50—',ighest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
4S —this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.42. It must be stormy somewhere
near at hand.

WlND—Westerly ; light, with dull weather.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 7, 1861.

The ordinary details of Federalist and Confede-
rate movements to which we formerly looked with
so much interest seem almost trivial while we are
waiting for the President's answer to the English
demands ; they are, however, of interest still though,
as hitherto nothing decisive is effected on either
side. The last from the Potomac and Washington
is not indeed much more than opinion. We are
informed that it is a mistake to suppose, as we have
thought not improbable, that the grand army will
go into winter quarters without any important
advance this year. That, neither the policy of the
Government nor the tempo'r of the people will per-
mit this. The people, however, have been taught
by Bull's Run that temper is a bad general, and
policy must bend to military necessity.
The question of arming or emancipating the
slaves--a vital one in regard to that of final success
—still wavers in the balance. Recent intelligence
found a General speaking strongly in its favour,
and a secretary, Mr. CAMERON, endorsing his lan•
guage at Washington itself. This tithe we are told
that the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. SMITH, has
disavowed Mr. CAMERON'S policy, and declared that
it is not the policy of the Administration. But as
if to show that the question was passing into the
hands which control American secretaries, the
Democrats themselves are taking up the opinion
that to crush the rebellion the slaves must be made
use of, and this view is rapidly making way
amongst them. It is even said that that once om-
nipotent party sees in this policy their way to re-
gaining their lost political superiority. Mr. LIN-
COLN was forced into fighting,though preferring a
war of technical pleas. He may be obliged at last to
meet military necessities and popular demands by
consenting to emancipation.
The facts of the war are few. We read of the
reinforcement of General SHERMAN at Port Royal ;
the fitting out of fresh expeditions ; of twenty-five
vessels prepared by loading them with stones to
block up some Southern harbour ; of a grand review,
though not of a grand march; of the occupation by
Federal troops of the long peninsula,
forming the
eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, the greater part
of which belongs to Virginia; and of large quantities
of cotton being " gathered" at Beaufort on account
of the Federal Government, though we had supposed
the time for gathering cotton was pretty well past,
and of the bombardment of Pensacola. In Missouri
the Confederates still appear to be the aggressive
They have burnt a town to prevent their
opponents using it during the winter; and the ex-
Governor JACKSON and the Rump Missouri Legis-
lature, as we suppose it must be called, have passad
a Secession ordinance. General HALLECE, successor
to FREMONT, is already reversing his predecessor's
policy, and is prohibiting any more fugitive slaves
from entering the Federal camp. Tho reason or
pretext assigned is, that they carry valuable in for-
mation to the enemy.
Of the state of feeling in reference to the seizure
of the Trent we have not anything which affords
aP.v clue
The opiutieowr
ohfittiwill be done by the Government.
knew before ;
tsars. EVERETT and SUMNER we
'- that of the latter we know to be an
entirely mistaken
One. he being in error in regard

side.

Whatever the opinion at Washington, the opi-
nion at Richmond on the seizure of the Confederate
Commissioners was certain enough. Mr. JEFFER-
SON DAVIS has, we must say, however, in his Mes-
sage to his Congress, made the most clever and
dignified use of it conceivable. He hardly mekes
it a substantive part of his Message ; it is introduced
as one among many violations of law and right on
the part of the Washington Government. Of these
he rehearses a list, looking at which he represents
the South as now regarding the North only with
" contemptuous astonishment," and as rendering
the aversion of the South from reunicn with such
lawless wretches as more determined than ever.
Following on a long list of contemptible and cruel
violations of the laws of civilised freedom, comes
the extension of their injuries to the South even
under the jurisdiction of a neutral nation.
Mr. DAVIS does us the honour of accepting the
positkin we took from the first—using even the
identical illustration—" These gentlemen," he says,
" were as much under the jurisdiction of the British
Government, upon that ship and beneath its flag,
as if they had been on its soil, and a claim on the
part of the United States to seize them in the streets
of London would have been as well founded as that
to apprehend them where they were taken. Had
they been manufacturers; and citizens even of the
United States, they could not have been arrested
on a British ship or on British soil, unless under the
express provisions of a treaty, and according to the
forms therein provided for the extradition of
criminals. But rights the most sacred seem to
have lost all respect in their eyes." It may be
objected that Mr. DAVIS is not a more impartial
judge than Englishmen are. That may be so.
Still he is at least an independent thinker on
the same side.

Mr. DAVIS, with admirable dignity and tact,
abstains from any appeal to us, He merely states
the fact as one of many Northern crimes—in this
case against the sacred character of an ambassador
and the rights of England ; but he does not betray
in a single word the exultation he must feel that we
should thus be converted into enemies of the North,
or at least a nation wronged by it. On the contrary,
he explicitly declares that they have asked no aid
from foreign Governments, and mean to ask
none. He affirms as fact that their army
has protected them hitherto, and in the face
of every difficulty has won a series of re-
markable victories; while with every month of
the war they are becoming more and more compe-
tent to provide their own arms, and in everyway
to depend on their own resources. If they are
debarred from intercourse with the nations, they
are at least becoming every day less dependent
on them.
Mr. DAVIS seems still to labour under the de-
lusion that " Cotton is King." He thinks the in-
jury done to European communities fourfold greater
than that inflicted on the Southern States ! He
seems to have no idea that the wisest of us
believe it will be for the advantage of
the cotton manufacture, that the American
monopoly of raw material should cease, and
that England, at least, knows that it will
be for her permanent advantage that she and
other nations should be driven to India and to other
nations, not cursed with the hateful institution
which makes Mr. Davls's State a reproach to
himself, to his people, and to civilisation. Mr.
DAVIS may rest assured that England has no
sympathy with him or his Ambassadors. Had they
got safe here they would have had, perhaps, a sorry
time of it, as the Representatives of a State which
avows that slavery is its corner-stone. And most
assuredly, while we regret that our demand is for
the liberation of two slaveholders, we should have
exulted to reclaim any slaves of Messrs. SLIDELL,
MASON, or DAVIS himself, who had become freemen
by getting aboard a British ship. It is a deduction
from our interest in seeking the liberation of the
captured men, that they are themselves kidnappers
by profession, or at least buyers and sellers of their
fellow-men, who have an equal right, as all Eng-
lishmen think, to buy and sell Mr. DAVIS and his
Commissioners. We scout the Southern cause,
while we respect the naval territory of England.

In our impression of Thursday evening, we took
occasion to refer incidentally to the speech recently
delivered by the Hon. JOSEPH HOWE, clown at
Ashton under-Lyne. The speaker being the Prime
Minister of Nova Scotia—and the audience an im-
mense gathering of the working classes in this
country. Those remarks of Mr. HOWE'S, upon
which we briefly commented only the day before
yesterday, it may be borne in mind, by those who
glanced down our leading columns of that even-
ing, bear reference, in a particular manner, to the
sentiments with which the deplorable Civil War,
now raging between the Federalists and the Confe-
derates of the American Republic are regarded by
the population of our. North American Provinces.
The observations, however, which had been pre-
viously made by the same distinguished speaker,
in the course of the harangue delivered by him on
Tuesday last, at the important meeting which had
then and there assembled, for the express purpose
of welcoming him down .at Ashton-under-Lyne
—the introductory remarks uttered by Mr. HOWE
immediately upon rising to address his Lancashire
audience upon the subject of the American War,
although bearing but very indirectly indeed upon
that subject, were of a character so important that
we cannot but deem them entitled to a somewhat
more than merely passing consideration. We
hesitate, therefore, not for an instant in recalling
attention to this speech of Mr. HOWE'S at Ashton-
under-Lyne, while the vibrations of his earnest
voice are yet fresh in the recollection of those who
on the 3d instant had the satisfaction of listening
to him. They agree so entirely, those observations
of the Nova Scotian Prime Minister, with the
argument we ourselves have very recently been
maintaining in these columns—in a series of
articles, that at least, with all their shortcomings,

possessed the double merit of being thoroughly
heartfelt and carefully deliberated—that we re-
joice to note this anticipative coincidence of our
own opinions with those which were articulated so
very impressively on Tuesday last, by that emi-
nent Transatlantic Statesman and Administrator.
The observations to which we would here more
particularly direct the attention of the labouring
classes in this country were uttered by Mr. HOWE,
to all appearance, in a manner perfectly unpreme-
ditated.
,They were elicited, in fact, by a chance re-
mark addressed by the Chairman to this meeting of
Lancashire labouring men at Ashton-under- Lyne,
to the effect that " when he (Mr. HUGH BROWN)
looked at the fact that during the last 10 years
upwards of 2,000 British people had left these
shores to settle in the United States of America,
and when he looked at—he would not say the pro-
bability—GOD forbid that he should even contem-
plate the possibility of that great outlet for their
redundant population being shut up, for the work-
ing people of this country it would be the greatest
calamity that could happen"—viz , any collision
between this country and the Northern Republicans.
It was in reference to what had been thus said by
the Chairman on Tuesday, that the Nova Scotian
Prime Minister at once observed—almost upon the
instant of his rising, that while the Chairman
had spoken thus of "the possibility of the English
workman being shut out from the United States
and from homes in the New World, he (Mr. HowE)
was glad to be able to inform them, that if the
United States had the power to close their frontiers
upon the people of this country to-morrow, there was
in the northern provinces of their own empire a
country larger than the United States open to them
all !" "It was a mistaken notion to suppose," the
speaker went on immediately to say,—[and really
and truly many appear to argue as though this were
the most reasonable supposition in the world !]—
" It was a mistaken notion to suppose that Repub-
lican America owned the whole continent ; for the
flag of England floated over more than one half of
that vast country ! The British subjects who
lived in that northern portion of the continent of
America," Mr. HowE reminded his hearers, " were
3,000,000 of people now, and they had homes
for 100,000,000 if they would come!" In
testimony of which it was only necessary
to remark en passant that the northern provinces of
Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfound-
land, Prince Edward's Island, and the territory of
the Hudson's Bay Company, contain within them
in round numbers an extent of country not less al-
together than 4,000,000 square miles ! In other
words, as Mr. HOWE put it, these North American
provinces of Great Britain " are larger than the
United States before those States were divided.
And it could, therefore, be seen," he insisted, " that
there would be ample room and verge enough for
all the stray British subjects who might wander
across the Atlantic for centuries to come"—within
the limits of our transatlantic dominions! Let this
argument of the Nova Scotian Prime Minister be
laid well to heart among our industrial population.
More particularly, he said explicitly—almost in so
many words—these, our North American posses-
sions, " Could give a home and 100 acres of land to
every spare man in Lancashire, and not feel that
their territory was much diminished." Descending
to particulars, Mr. HOWE directed the attention of
his hearers in an especial manner to the temptations
to emigration held out by that province of our em-
pire—with the capabilities of which province he is
more intimately acquainted than with any other—a
province, remember, over the affairs of which, it may
be said, he presides at this moment in his respon-
sible capacity as its chief administrator ! Refer-
ring to Nova Scotia, "he might remark," he said,
"that it was 350 miles long, and nearly surrounded
by the ocean. The country was most like England
of any country on the face of the earth. It was
like England in possessing inexhaustible mines of
coal and iron; and where these were combined no
country could be despised. They had, besides, lime
and gypsum, and, in point of fact, every mineral
ore, and ochre was to be found in this little penin-
sula. Last spring the people began to dig gold ;
and he had brought over nuggets in the shape of
huge buttons that would not be a bad ornament for
a Court suit. The quartz had been pronounced by
the savans of England to be as promising as that
produced in the early history of the mines in Cali-
fornia and Australia; and if they should not prove
to be so rich eventually, they were less difficult to
get at, and would not entail privation and suffering
on the miners, the mines being accessible by deep
sea navigation, by navigable rivers, or by railways."
With sufficient reason might the Prime Minister of
Nova Scotia remark after this, as he did remark on
Tuesday, that " He sometimes smiled that they took
the trouble to send Englishmen to the far ends of
the earth, when they had a cheap and easy journey
to so eligible a country, where personal liberty was
secure." Where not only personal liberty was
secure, but where, although "they had their fights
and struggles for political position, they could
nevertheless show, as they had shown, that the
constitution of England could be transplanted, con-
solidated, and confirmed wherever the Anglo-Saxon
race was to be found." Again, we say, let these
earnest and truthful and most impressive remarks
of one of the leading administrators of one of our
splendid North American provinces be laid well to
heart by the labouring population of England.

THE WARD OF ALDERSGATE.—The requisition
to Mr. Besley, the eminent type-founder, to allow himself
to be put in nomination for the vacancy in the representation
of the Ward of Aldersgate, to which we referred c,n Thurs-
day, has already been so numerously signed as to preclude
the possibility of any other candidate coming forward.
What we stated on Thursday, namely, that Mr. Besley's
succeeding to the vacant alderman's gown was certain, is
now placed beyond a doubt.—Morning Advertiser.
REINFORCEMENTS FOR CANADA.—The Cunard
steamship Persia has been chartered by Government for
the conveyance of reinforcements to Canada. She will sail,
along with the Australian, in about 10 days. The destina-
tion of both vessels will probably be the Riviera dn. Loup or
the Island of Bic.

The vigorous preparations which are being made
by our Government in anticipation of war with America
have produced considerable sensation. At Portsmouth and
other dockyards there is a degree of activity that has not
been witnessed for many years past. It is understood that
the Guards have volunteered for foreign service. We learn
further that Government have sent out a number of non-
commissioned officers for the purpose of immediatel7 drilling
the Canadian Militia.

Considerable anxiety prevails as to the period
which will be allowed for mail communication with Ame-
rica in case of a declaration of war. This matter, however,
has been well provided for in a convention cmcluded be-
tween the two countries, dated the 15th of December, 1848,
when Mr. Polk was President of the United Stites and
Lord Palmerston was at our Foreign-office. By this it is
stipulated that, in case of war between the two nations, the
mhosanoaimlstTphteaheeaceempincreaoistacuoselnvdooitf the two services shall continue their navi-
gation " without impediment or molestation until six
o
weeks after a notification shall have been made on the part
of either of the two Governments, and delivered to the
co her, that the service is to be discontinued, in which case
they should be permitted to return freely and under special
protection to their respective ports."
I The bar silver brought by the Mexican packet
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mopf
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lastkshowing
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interval
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and
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referreda t co-operation nbyinG
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*trae,offering peace
Congressenos A
raenand
the
Government, had been favourably received, and Zit an
agent had been despatched to General Urciniza's head-
quarters in Entre Rios. It was believed that General
Mitre had abandoned all idea of invading the interior pro-
vinces,

Tr E 'T IN

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

PRESIDENT DAVIS'S

MESSAGE.

(PER THE EDINBURGH, via QUEEN STOWN.)
NEW YORK, Nov. 24.
The following is the text of President Davis's
Message to the Confederate Congress :

" TO TIIE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES-.

" The few weeks which have elapsed since your
adjournment have brought us so near the close of
the year that we are now able to sum up its general
results. The retrospect is such as should fill the
hearts of our people with gratitude to Providence
for His kind interpositirn on their behalf. Abun-
dant yields have rewarded the labour of the agri-
culturist, whilst the manufacturing industry of the
Confederate States was never so prosperous as now.
The necessities of the times have called into exist-
ence new branches of manufactures, and given a
fresh impulse to the activity of those heretofore in
operation. The means of the Confederate States
for manufacturing the necessaries and comforts of
life within themselves increases as the conflict con-
tinues, and we are gradually becoming indepen-
dent of the rest of the world for the supply of such
military stores and munitions as are indispensable
for war.

" The operations of the army, soon to be partially
interrupted by the approaching winter, have affor-
ded a protection to the country, and shed a lustre
upon its arms, through the trying vicissitudes of
more than one arduous campaign, which entitle our
brave volunteers to oar praise and our gratitude.
From its commencement up to the present period
the war has been enlarging its proportions and ex-
panding its boundaries so as to include new fields.
The conflict now extends from the shores of the
Chesapeake to the confines of Missouri and Arizona,
yet sudden calls from the remotest points for mili-
tary aid have been met with promptness enough not
only to avert the disaster in the face of. superior
numbers, but also to roll back the tide of invasion
from the border. When the war commenced the
enemy were possessed of certain strategic points
and strong places within the Confederate States.
They greatly exceeded us in numbers, in available
resources, and in the supplies necessary for war.
Military establishments had been long organised,
and were completed. The navy, and, for the most
part, the army, once common to both, were in their
possession. To meet all this we had to create, not
only an army in the face of war itself, but also mi-
litary establishments necessary to equip and place
it in the field. It ought, indeed, to be a subject of
gratulation, that the spirit of the volunteer, and
the patriotism of the people, have enabled us, under
Providence, to grapple successfully with these dif-
ficulties.

" A succession of glorious victories at Bethel,
Bull Run, Manassas, Springfield, Lexington,
Leesburg, and Belmont, has checked the
wicked invasion which greed of gain and the un-
hallowed lust of power brought upon our soil, and
has proved that numbers cease to avail ,when
directed against a people fighting for the
sacred right of self-government and the pri-
vileges of freemen. After seven months of
war the enemy have not only failed to extend
their occupancy of our soil, but new states and ter-
ritories have been added to our Confederacy ; while
instead of their threatened march of unchecked con-
quest they have been driven at more than one point
to assume the defensive, and upon a fair comparison
between the belligerents as to men, military means,
and financial condition, the Confederate States are
relatively much stronger now than when the
struggle commenced.
" Since your adjournment the people of Missouri
have conducted the war, in the face of almost un-
paralleled difficulties, with a spirit and success
alike worthyof themselves and of the great cause in
which they are struggling. Since that time Ken-
tucky, too, has become the theatre of active hostili-
ties. The Federal forces have not only refused to
acknowledge her a party to the war, but invaded
her for the purpose of attacking the Confederates
States. Outrages of the most despotic character
have been perpetrated upon her people. Some of
her most eminent citizens have been seized and
borne away to languish in foreign prison, without
knowing who were the accusers, or the specific
charges made against them, while others have been
forced to abandon their homes, their families, and
property, and seek a refuge in distant lands.
" Finding that the Confederate States were about
to be invaded through Kentucky, and that her
people, after being deceived into a mistaken security,
were unarmed, and in danger of being subjugated
by the Federal forces, our armies were marched
into that State, to repel the enemy, and prevent
their occupation of certain strategic points, which
would have given them great advantages in the
contest—a step which was justified not only by the
necessities of self-defence on the part of the Con-
federate States, but also by a desire to aid the
people of Kentucky. It was never intended by
the Confederate Government to conquer or coerce
the people of that State ; but, on the contrary, it
was declared by our generals that they would with-
draw their troops if the Federal Government would
do otherwise. Proclamation was also made of the
desire to respect the neutrality of Kentucky,and the
intention to abide by the wishes of her people as
soon as they were free to express their opinions.
These declarations were approved by me, and I
should regard it as one of the best effects of the
march of our troops into Kentucky if it should
end in giving to her people liberty of choice, and
a free opportunity to decide their, own destiny
according to their own will.
" The army has been chiefly instrumental in
prosecuting the great contest in which we are
engaged; but the navy has also been effective in
full proportion to its means. The naval officers,
deprived to a great extent of an opportunity to
make their professional skill available at sea, have
served with commendable zeal and gallantry on
shore, and upon inland waters, further details of
which will be found in the reports of the Secretary
of the Navy and Secretary of War.
"In the transportation of the mails many diffi-
culties have arisen, which will b 3 found fully deve-
loped in the report of the Postmaster-General. The
absorption of the ordinary means of transportation
for the movement of troops and military supplies,
the insufficiency of the rolling stock of railroads for
the accumulation of business resulting both from
military operations and the obstruction of water
communication by the presence of the enemy's
fleet, the failure and even refusal of contractors to
comply with the terms of their agreements, the
difficulties inherent in inaugurating so vast and
complicated a system as that which requires postal
facilities for every town and village in a territory
so extended as ours, have all combined to impede
the best directed efforts of the Postmaster-General
whose zeal, industry, and ability have been taxed
to the utmost extent. Some or these difficulties
can only be overcome by time and an improved
condition of the country upon the restoration of
peace, but others may be remedied by legislation,
and your attention is invited to the recommenda-
tions contained in the report of the head of that
department.
1 "The condition of the Treasury will, doubtless,
be a subject of anxious inquiry on your part. I am
happy to say that the financial system already
adopted has worked well so far, and promises good
results for the future. To the extent that Treasury
notes may be issued the Government is enabled to
borrow money without interest, and thus facilitates
the conduct of the war. This extent is measured by
thenthoet
epso
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fieldne n of
be
thus
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oceud
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h again
g pa
irno
pwhichuthese
proportion
no n
t hof
e
amount of the debts for which they are receivable,

and dues not only to the Confederate and
State Government, but also to corporations
and individuals, are payable in this me-
dium. A large amount of it may be circulated
at par. There is every reason to believe that the
Confederate Treasury note is fast becoming such a
medium. The provision that these notes shall be
convertible into Confederate stock being eight per
cent. interest, at the pleasure of the holder, insures
them against a depreciation below the value of that
stock, and no considerable fall in that value need
be feared so long as the interest shall be punctually
paid. The punctual payment of this interest has
been secured by the act, passed by you at the last
session, imposing such a rate of taxation as must
provide sufficient means for that purpose.
" For the successful prosecution of this war it is
indispensable that- the means of transporting troops
and military supplies be furnished, as far as pos-
sible, in such manner as not to interrupt the com-
mercial intercourse between our people, nor place a
check on their productive energies. To this end
the means of transportation from one section of our
country to the other must be carefully guarded and
improved ; and this should be the object of anxious
care on the part of the State and Confederate Go-
vernment, so far as they may have power over the
subject.
" We have already two main systems of through
transportation from North to the South—one from
Richmond, along the seaboard; the other through
Western Virginia to New Orleans. A third
might be secured by completing a link of
about forty miles between Danville, in Vir-
ginia, and Greensborough, in North Carolina.
The construction of this comparatively short
line would give us a through route from
north to south in the interior of the Confederate
States, and gives us access to a population, and to
military resources, from which we are now in a
great measure debarred. We should increase
greatly the safety and capacity of our means for
transporting men and military supplies. If the
construction of the road should, in the judgment of
Congress, as it is in mine, be indispensable for the
most successful prosecution of the war, the action
of the Government will not be restrained by the
constitutional objection which would attach to a
work for commercial purposes ; and attention is
invited to the practicability of securing its early
completion, by giving the needful aid to the com-
pany organised for its construction and adminis-
tration."

"If we husband our means, and make a judicious
use of our resources, it would be difficult to fix a
limit to the period which we could conduct a war
against the adversary whom we now encounter.
The very efforts which he makes to isolate and
invade us must exhaust his means, whilst they
serve to complete and diversify the productions of
our industrial system. The reconstruction which
he seeks to effect by arms becomes daily more and
more palpably impossible. Not only do the causes
which induced us to separate exist in full force,
but they have been strengthened, and whatever
doubt may have lingered in the minds of any must
have been completely dispelled by subsequent
events.

"If, instead of being a dissolution of a league, it
were indeed a rebellion in which we are engaged,
we might find ample vindication for the course we
have adopted in the scenes which are being enacted
in the United States. Our people now look with
contemptuous astonishment on those with whom
they have been so recently associated. They shrink
with aversion from the bare idea of renewing such
a connection.

" When they see a President making war without
the assent of Congress—when they behold judges
threatened because they maintain the writ of habeas
corpus, so sacred to freemen—when they see justice
and law trampled under the armed heel of military
authority, and upright men and innocent women
dragged to distant dungeons—when they find all
this tolerated and applauded by a people who had
been in the full enjoyment of freedom but a few
months ago, they believe that there must be some
radical incompatibility between such a people and
themselves. With such a people we may be content
to live at peace, but the separation is final, and for
the independence we have asserted we shall accept
no alternative.

" The nature of the hostilities which they have
waged against us must be characterised as barbar-
ous whenever it is understood. They have bom-
barded defenceless villages, without giving notice
to women and children to enable them to escape,
and in one instance selected the night as the period
when they might surprise them most effectually,
whilst asleep and unsuspicious of danger. Arson
and rapine, the destruction of private houses and
property, and injuries of the most wanton charac-
ter, even upon non-combatants, have marked their
forays along their borders and upon our territory.
"We ought to have been admonished by these
things that they were disposed to make war upon
us in the most cruel and relentless spirit, yet we
were not prepared to see them fit out a large naval
expedition with the confessed purpose not only of
pillage, but to incite servile warin our midst. If they
convert their soldiers into incendiaries and robbers,
and involve us in a species of war which claims non-
combatants, women and children, as its victims,
they must expect to be treated as outlaws and ene-
mies of mankind, There are certain rights of hu-
manity which are entitled to respect even in war,
and he who refuses to regard them forfeits his
claims, if captured, to be considered as a prisoner of
war, and must expect to be dealt with as an of-
fender against all law, human and Divine.
" But not content with violating:our rights under
the law of nations at home, they have extended
these injuries to us within other jurdisdictions.
" The distinguished gentlemen whom, with your
approval at the last session, I commissioned to re-
present the Confederacy at certain foreign Courts,
have been recently seized by the Captain of a
United States ship-of-war, on board a British
steamer, on their voyage from the neutral port of
Havana to England.
" The United States have thus claimed a general
jurisdiction over the high seas, and, entering a Bri-
tish ship, sailing under its country's fiag, violated
the rights of embassy for the most part held sacred,
even among barbarians, by seizing our Ministers
whilst under the protection and within the domi-
nions of a neutral nation.

" These geutlemen were as much under the juris-
diction of the British Government, upon that ship
and beneath its flag, as if they had been on its
soil, and a claim on the part of the United
States to seize them in the streets of London would
have been as well founded as that to apprehend them
whore they were taken. Had they been manufac-
turers, and citizens even of the United States, they
could not have been arrested on a British ship or
on British soil, unless under the express provisions
of a treaty, and according to the forms therein pro-
vided for the extradition of criminals. But rights
the most sacred seem to have lost all respect in their
eyes.

" When Mr. Faulkner, a former Minister of the
United States to France, commissioned before the
secession of Virginia, his native State, returned in
good faith to Washington to settle his accounts and
fulfil all the obligations into which he had entered,
he was perfidiously arrested and imprisoned in New
York, where he now is. The unsuspecting confi-
dence with which he reported to his Government
was abused, and his desire to fulfil his trust to them
was used to his injury.

"In conducting this war we have sought no aid
and proffered no alliances offensive and defensive
abroad. We have asked for a recognised place in
the family of nations ; but in doing so we have de-
manded nothing for which he did not offer a fair
equivalent. The advantages of intercourse are
mutual among nations, and in seeking to establish
diplomatic relations we were only endeavouring to
place that intercourse under the regulation of public
law.

"Perhaps we had the right, if we had chosen to
exercise it, to ask to know whether the principle,
that blockades to be binding must be effectual, so
solemnly announced by the great Powers of Europe
at Paris, is to be generally enforced or applied only
to particular parties.
" When the Confederate States, at your last ses•
sion, became a party to the declaration reaffirming
this principle of international law, which has been

recognised so long by publicists and Governments,
we certainly supposed that it was to be universally
enforced. The customary law of nations is made
up of their practice rather than their declarations,
and if such declarations are only to be enforced in
particular instances at the pleasure of those who
make them, then commerce of the:world, so far from
being placed upon the regulation of a general law,
will become subject to the caprice of those who
execute it or suspend it at will. If such is to be
the course of nations in regard to this law, it is
plain that it will thus become a rule for the weak
and not for the strong.
"Feeling that such views must be taken by the
neutral nations of the earth, I have caused the evi-
dence to be collected which proves completely the
utter inefficiency of the proclaimed blockade of our
coast, and shall direct it to be laid before such
governments as shall afford us the means of being
heard.

" But although we should be benefitted by the
enforcement of this law, so solemnly declared by
the great Powers of Europe, we are not dependent
on that enforcement for the successful prosecution
of the war. As long as hostilities continue the Con-
federate States will exhibit a steadily increasing
capacity to furnish their troops with food, clothing,
and arms. If they should be forced to forego many
of the luxuries and some of the comforts of life, they
will at least have the consolation of knowing that
they are thus daily becoming more and more inde-
pendent of the rest of the world. If, in this process,
labour in the Confederate States should be gra-
dually diverted from those great Southern staples
which have given so much of the commerce of man-
kind into other channels, so as to make them rival
producers, instead of profitable customers, they will
not be the only or even the chief losers by this
change of their industry.
" Although it is true that the cotton supply
of the Southern States could only be totally cut off
by the total subversion of our social system, yet it
is plain that a long continuance of this blockade
might, by a diversion of labour and investment of
capital in other employments, so diminish the
supply as to bring ruin upon all those interests of
foreign countries which are dependent on that
staple.
"For every labourer who is diverted from the
culture of cotton in the South, perhaps four times
as many elsewhere, who have found subsistence in
the various employments growing oat of its use,
will be forced also to change their occupation.
" While the war which is waged to take from us
the right of self-government can never attain that
end, it remains to be seen how far it may work a
revolution in the industrial system of the world
which may carry suffering to other lands as well as
to our own.

In the meantime we shall continue this strug-
gle, in humble dependence upon Providence, from
whose searching scrutiny we cannot conceal the
secrets of our hearts, and to whose rule we con-
fidetitly submit. For the rest we shall depend upon
ourselves.

"Liberty is always won where there exists the
unconquerable will to be free, and we have reason
to know the strength that is given by a conscious
sense not only of the magnitude but of the righteous-
ness of our cause.

" JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Richmond, Nov. 18, 1861."

The New York Herald of to-day, alluding to the
message of President Davis, says :
" As a summary of the rebel view of the position
of the belligerent parties since the commencement
of the civil war, it is interesting, and contains
some bold statements concerning the condition of
the South which will be received with no little sur-
prise, and will certainly be accepted with no cre-
dence whatever. To say that the document is re-
plete with misrepresentations as to the object as
well as the conduct of the present war, would do no
injustice to the composition of Mr. Davis. He
endeavours to present to the misguided people
whom he addresses the fact that the South is
invaded by a horde of barbarians, who are carry-
ing on the war in a fashion contrary to
the usages of civilised nations, He represents the
condition of the rebel States as progressing in
manufactures and other branches of industry, in
spite of the troubles which have overtaken them,
but he is unwillingly compelled to admit that the
chances of assistance and recognition from abroad
—upon which their hopes of success rested—are
very small, if not absolutely frustrated. It is, upon
the whole, a weak and wavering document, more
indicative of doubt and fear as to the future than of
hope and confidence in the cause of which he is the
representative. The message is viewed by the
Government in Washington and by all intelligent
persons as a singular intermixture of bombast
and falsehood, and as such it will be considered by
every one who peruses it carefully, and compares
its loose statements with the facts developed by the
incidents of the war from its commencement to the
present time.

NEW YORK, Nov. 23.
(Per Nova Scotian, by telegraph to Father Point,

and via Londonderry.)

The army of the Potomac has not yet been ordered
to march, nor have orders yet been given for it to
be hutted for the winter.

The apprehension felt by some that the enor-
mous machinery gathered together for the sup-
pression of the rebellion will be unused before six
months is groundless. Neither the policy of the
Government nor the temper of the people admit of
placing an army of half a million in winter quar-
ters.

Mr. George Francis Train has addressed a
letter from London to the New York _Herald, de-
claring that a number of vessels are fitting out at
English ports with ammunition for the South.
He makes a violent attack ou the British Go-
vernment, and declares that England's neutrality
is contemptible.
The Secretary of the Treasury has announced
that he will want no more money until February
next. Large quantities of Sea Island cotton will
soon be gathered on Government account in the
Beaufort district.

Large reinforcements for General Sherman's
naval expedition and two new expeditions under
Generals Butler and Burnside will move in a few
days.

PARIS, DEc. 7.

The Moniteur, in its bulletin of to-day, says :

" A letter from Beyrout, which we publish in
our columns to-day, confirms the news of the arrest
of Joseph Karam.
" Fuad Pasha and Daoud Effendi seem to have
acted on thit, occasion in accord with the European
Commissioners assembled at Beyrout, in order to
insure the execution of the new organisation of the
Lebanon, which has received the sanction of
Europe."

TURIN, DEC. 6.
The debate on the Roman question was resumed
to-day in the Chamber of Deputies.
Baron Ricasoli said that the advice given to the
Government during the debate had already been
adopted. He refuted the arguments of several
members who maintained that the only enemy of
Italy was France, and declared that he could easily
prove the contrary. "The principle of non-inter-
vention," he said, " having been agreed to by
France, proves that her friendship is free from all
pretension to supremacy. Italy is grateful to
France. She must, however, place herself in a
condition to act alone and without any foreign aid.
The state of things in the interior of the kingdom
is such as it must always be in a country that
is still in a state of revolution. The revolution
in Italy is more fortunate than those which have
occurred in other countries. No serious disturb-
ances can be cited, as none but common offences
have been committed. Public security certainly

leaves nothing to be desired. Although during
the last two years we have been compelled to
occupy ourselves more with political questions
than with questions of the administration of the
country, the forces of the little State of Piedmont
could not suffice for the new kingdom. The mili-
tary and police of the former Government were
corrupt, and could not be employed. We have
formed new elements." Baran Ricasoli then spoke
of the increase of the Bersaglieri and of the
changes which had been made in the personnel of
the high functionaries. With regard to the state
of things in the Southern provinces, he confirmed
the statements contained in the circular addressed
to the diplomatic agents of the Italian Government
abroad, and said that General Cialdini had pre-
vailed over the brigandage, and had retaken the
Basilicata and the territory bordering on the
Pontificial frontiers. Baron Ricasoli announced that
a treaty had been concluded with France for the
repression of brigandage.:,The abolition of the Lieu-
tenancy of Naples, he said, was the result of the
adoption of the principle of administrative unifica-
tion. The Lieutenancy of Sicily would also be
shortly abolished. Touching the Roman question,
he said that the transformation of the Papacy must
be effected by Italy in accordance with France. It
was
.necessary to persuade the Catholic mind in
favour of this project of arrangement. This he was
striving to do. France had not disapproved his
project; she only thought it was not an opportune
moment for presenting it to the Pope. Baron
Ricasoli concluded by asking the Chamber for a
vote, either frankly approving or blaming the
policy of the Government.

After Baron Ricasoli had concluded his speech,
the Minister of Justice rose and defended himself
against the attacks of the Opposition. The Minis-
ter explained the state of the judicial Administra-
tion, and announced that he would shortly submit
a new general code for the approval of the Chamber.

The Minister of War said that he preserved all
that he could of the old Bourbon army when in a
state of dissolution. The army of Southern Italy,
which was composed of volunteers, dissolved itself,
but the regimental lists had been maintained. By
means of these lists an army of 40,000 men could
easily be organised, more especially if Garibaldi, as
the Government hoped, would take the command.
The regular army numbered 262,000 men, 20,000 of
whom were on active service. The new levy would
give 94,000 in March next, when we should have
300,000 combatants. These, however, would not all
be trained soldiers. To make soldiers, particularly
for certain military branches, armies of long stand-
ing were necessary. If another war of independ-
ence were to break out, we should have recourse to
an appeal to the national enthusiasm. The nation
would find sufficient men for its own deliverance.
The Minister of War, in conclusion, said that Italy
had 120,000 National Guards, and arms and military
equipments in abundance.

The Minister of Public Works, who had just
returned from a visit to Naples and Sicily, gave a
long explanation respecting the condition of the
Southern Provinces, which was received with con-
tinual applause. The speech produced a great sen-
sation. The Minister of Marine then spoke, and
in the course of his speech assured the Chamber
that Italy would shortly have a navy almost twice
as strong as that of Austria.
Signor Petrucelli della Gattina afterwards at-
tacked the Government on the Roman question.

It is asserted that Garibaldi will return to-morrow

to Caprera.

The Nationalites of to day announces that the
financial report which Signor Bastogi, Minister of
Finance, is about to present to the Chamber of
Deputies will show a difference in the expendi-
ture of 200,000,000 f. compared with the ordinary
Budget.