The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-30 00:00:00

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

broad nostrils, and high cheek-bones. On his head
was wool instead of hair; his whiskers were little
flocculent black tufts, and his skin was as dark as
that of the late Mr. Dyce Sombre or Sir Jung
Bahadoor himself. lam neither sentimentalist nor
Black Republican, nor negro worshipper, but I con-
fess the sight caused a strange thrill through my
heart. I tried in vain to make myself familar with
the fact that I could, for the sum of 975 dols. be-
come as absolutely the owner of that mass of blood,
bones, sinew, flesh, and brains as of the horse
which stood by my side. There was no sophistry
which could persuade me the man was not a man—
he was, indeed, by no means my brother, but assn•
redly he was a fellow-creature. I have seen slave
markets in the East, but somehow or other the
Orientalism of the scene cast a colouring over the
nature of the sales there which deprived them of the
disagreeable harshness and matter-of-fact character
of the transaction before me. For the Turk, or
Smyrniote, or Egyptian to buy and sell slaves
seemed rather suited to the eternal fitness of things
than otherwise. The turbaned, shawled, loose-
trowsered, pipe-smoking merchants speaking an
unknown tongue looked as if they were engaged in
a legitimate business. One knew that their slaves
would not be condemned to any very hard labour ;
they would be in some sort the inmates of the
family and members of it. Here it grated on my
ear to listen to the familiar tones of the English
tongue as the medium by which the transfer was
effected, and it was painful to see decent•looking
men in European garb engaged in the work before
me. Perhaps these impressions may wear off, for I
meet many English people who are :the most stre-
nuous advocates of the slave system, although it is
true that their perceptions may be quickened to re-
cognise its beauties by their participation in the
profits. The negro was sold to one of the bystanders
and walked off with his bundle God knows where.
" Niggers is cheap" was the only remark of the
bystanders. I continued my walk up a long, wide,
straight street, or more properly, an unpaved sandy
road, lined with wooden houses on each side, and
with trees by the side of the footpath. The lower
of the two stories is generally used as a shop
mostly of the miscellaneous store kind, in which
all sorts of articles are to be had if there
is any money to pay for them ; and in
the present case, if any faith is to be attached
to the conspicuous notices in the windows, credit is
of no credit, and the only thing that can be ac-
cepted in exchange for the goods is " cash." The
unfailing photographer, who may now be regarded
as the pioneer of civilisation, and who marches,
with his friendly sun, to the western desert, is, of
course, here ; and so is the German confectioner,
the French jeweller, the Irish dry goodsman or wet
goodsman, as the case may be ; nor is the Birming-
ham gun trade quite unrepresented, nor are music
and books without their " emporiums." At the end
of this long street, on a moderate eminence, stands
a whitewashed or painted edifice, with a gaunt, lean
portico supported on lofty, lanky pillars, and sur-
mounted by a subdued and dejected-looking little
cupola. Passing an unkempt lawn, through every
shabby little wooden gateway in a brick frame,
and we ascend a flight of steps into a hall, from
which a double staircase conducts us to the vesti-
bule of the Chamber. Anything much more offen-
sive to the eye cannot well be imagined than the
floor and stairs. They are stained deeply by.tobacco
juice, which has left its marks on the white stone
steps and on the base of the pillars outside. In the
hall which we have entered there are two tables,
covered with hams, oranges, bread, and fruits for
the refreshment of members and visitors, over
which two sable goddesses, in portentous crinolines,
preside. The door of the Chamber is open, and we
are introduced into a lofty, well lighted, and com-
modious apartment, in which the Congress of the
Confederate States hold its deliberations. A gal-
lery runs half round the room and is half filled with
visitors—country cousins and farmers of cotton and
maize, and haply seekers of places great or
small. A light and low semicircular screen sepa-
rates the body of the House, where the mem-
bers sit, from the space under the gallery which
is appropriated to ladies and visitors. Inside
this fence are rows of seats and desks disposed
in semicircles, and there is a similar disposition
of armchairs, close to the table, at w hich sit the
two or three official reporters and officers of the
House. The clerk sits at a desk above this table,
and on a platform behind him are the desk and
chair of the presiding officer or Speaker of the
Congress. Over his head hangs the unfailing por-
trait of Washington, and a small engraving, in a
,black frame, of a gentleman unknown to me. So
much for the brick and mortar part of the bui:ding.
Of its living furniture one might have more to say
than I have if he had fuller opportunities ; but as
far as I could judge, an assembly of more calm,
determined, and judicial-looking men could not be
found in any country in the world. No one who
cast his eye over those grave heads, some massive
and full, others keen, compact, energetic—could
doubt that he was in the presence of men with a
great work on hand and with great capabilities for
the execution of their task. Seated in the midst of
thenrat a senator's desk I was permitted to " assist,"
in the French sense, at the deliberations of the Con-
gress, Mr. Howell Cobb took the chair, and a
white-headed clergyman was called upon to say
prayers, which he did upstanding, with out-
stretched hands and closed eyes by the side of the
Speaker. The prayer was long and sulphureous,
one more pregnant with gunpowder I never heard,
nor could aught like it have been heard since

6' Pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick."
The rev. gentleman prayed that the Almighty might
be pleased to inflict on the arms of the United
States such a defeat that it might be the example
of signal punishment for ever,—that this President
might be blessed, and that the other President
might be the other thing,—that the gallant, de-
voted young soldiers who were fighting for their
country might not suffer from exposure to the
weather or from the bullets of their enemies ; and
that the base mercenaries who were fighting on the
other side might come to sure and swift destruction,
and so on.
Are right and wrong mere geographicall, and the
astex-
pressions ? The prayer was over at
House proceeded to business. It must be re-
membered, by the by, that this provisional Con-
gress of the Confederate States is a very curiously
constituted body. It consists of delegates sent
by the Convention of each State in the pro-
portion in which that State was entitled to send
representatives to the Senate and to the House of
Representatives of the United States; and, as the
Convention of the Southern States which have se-
ceded did not refer their acts to the people of their
States, it may be assumed that the Congress is now
sitting without any direct ratification of its powers
from the people beyond that implied in the forma-
tion of the Conventions. Although each State has
several delegates in Congress it is only entitled to
one vote on a strict division. In this way some curi-
ous decisions may be arrived at, as the smallest
State is equal to the largest, and a majority of the
Florida representatives may neutralise a vote of all
the Georgia representatives. For example, Georgia
has ten delegates ; Florida has only three. The vote
of Florida, however, is determined by the action of
any two of its three representatives, and these two
may, on a division, throw the one State vote into
the scale against that of Georgia, for which ten
members are agreed. It will readily be understood
how many difficulties of this kind can arise, but
practically we are assured they do not present them-
selves. No one can tell, however, whether they do or
do not, for the Congress transacts all its business in
secret Session, and finds it a very agreeable and
commendable way of doing it. Thus,to-day, for ex-
ample, after the presentation of a few unimportant
motions and papers, the Speaker rapped his desk
and announced that the House would go into secreti
Session, and that all who were not members should
leave. The only business which was not routine
was in reference to a resolution passed at public
meeting in a parish in Louisiana, from a
wili°o'uontathe mo-
tion of one of the delegates, was read out
State and to
pledged the planters to tendeor_tthe
annual proceeds
the Government " the whole f
newspaper by the clerk at theo
tthbel
what may be nem-
of our crops, deductingonly
expenses during the continu-
unn. Another auaentdionweheric,ha
ance of the present
hostilities."
hotel there was another
As I was returning to the.
small crowd at the
fat, flabby, perspiring, puffy man, was trying to
perspiri
sary for our currentfo
who stood on the deal box beside
sell a negro girl
him. she was dressed pretty much like a London
tsherevNanewt gcirult.ofsthhee, ltoowo,eh-rjaiotaried'ai'l'•liotutlteobfupnldalcee,
in
nxcheeprt
hand, and looked.woounitaantgtohiengforan
that her shoes were mere shreds of leather patches,
6 excitel O dollars,
competition, but
said,
ao
inde,
and her bonnet would have scarce passed muster in
was this young buyers from a pair of
large sad eyes. "Niggers were cheap ;" still here
,w,
Nouoltdsoblidd,toa-nddayt,
upset price of
auc-
tioneer, after vain attempts to raise the prices and
you may get down." She stepped down from her
box and walked off down the main street without
further notice, while the auctioneer sauntered away
in another direction. In the evening it was whis-
hSe a l ;