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

THE FRENCH. ARMY AT ROME.

this difficulty, which has now culminated in open
war, was pending, I was on the coast of Africa,
where, of course, I could not enter into the merits
of the case ; but, as a Southern man, I felt that I
would give all my energies to sustain the stars and
stripes. (Cheers.) When the question was presented
to my mind whether I should identify myself with
my State, and withdraw from the United States
service, I could see nothing but the United States
Government, which I had pledged myself to sup-
port. (Applause.) Sticking to that text, I readily
arrived at the conclusion that I had but one duty to
perform, and that was the duty I owed to the
United States Government, of which I had been
for 24 years a humble representative. When I saw
those who were seeking the disruption of this Union
turning their eyes to the two great Powers of
Europe—England and France—as their only hope,
it seemed to me a pitiable thing that men who had
contended that no foreign Power should put its foot
on this continent should now be so ready to wel-
come their aid, and I felt the full force of the ob.
ligations which we all owe to the Government. Capt
Wilkes put me forward in the position which has
called forth the expression of your feelings to-
night, and I take little credit to myself for the part
I took in the act which seems to have met the
approval of the Government and of the people of
the country. It was by no means an agreeable
duty to go on board and arrest my old friend, Mr.
Mason, whose family is connected with me by
marriage, though we are not, as some of the papers
have said, cousins. I knew pretty well what I had
to do, and I knew, soon after I got on board the
vessel, that I should have something more to con-
tend with than the four gentlemen I was to
take with me to the San Jacinto. Mrs. Slidell
and her daughters were there ; they were
womanly and ladylike ; but they were under
a great deal of excitement, and you may
well imagine that they gave utterance to a good
many not very pleasant expressions. I extended to
them the courtesy, agreeably to the instructions of
Captain Wilkes, of a passage in the San Jacinto,
which they declind, and they were permitted to go
on their way to Mope, and I made as short work
of the matter as I could. (Laughter and applause.)
There was nothing at all meritorious in what I
did. I introduced myself to the captain of the
Trent, who received me properly ; but when I in-
formed him of my mission, he demurred consider-
ably to the proposition. Seeing Messrs. Mason and
Slidell not far off, I told him it was not necessary
to insist upon is hat I had at first demanded, an ex-
amination of his passenger list, as I had tangible
evidence that my friends were on board. I then
addressed Messrs. Mason and Slidell and told them
my mission. They intimated that they would not
go unless force were used. I then told them I was
prepared for that—(cheers)—and in a short time I
had sufficient force on board to impress every one in
the ship with that fact. Lieutenant Greer, of the
San Jacinto, came on board, and took quite as active
a part in the transaction as Lieutenant Fairfax did.
He was rather apprehensive that the ladies and the
mob would overcome me, and presented six very
inoffensive marines on board, to be made offensive
if necessary. (Applause.) That give rise to
the report about a charge of the marines
with fixed bayonet on the ladies. Messrs. Mason
and Slidell conducted themselves with a good deal
of propriety under the circumstances. Mr. Mason
was perfectly courteous throughout. Mr. Slidell,
as we all know, has more crustiness in his disposi-
tion, but it must be remembered that he had much
more to embarrass him, having his wife and family
with him ; therefore it was more difficult to impress
him with the belief that I intended to carry out
the purpose of my visit. He said he would not go
unless I employed more force than I then seemed
willing to show; but by the aid of the officers the
gentlemen were removed on board the San Jacinto,
where they were made very comfortable. With the
spirit of men brought up in naval or military life
we felt desirous to make them feel as little as pos-
sible the discomforts of imprisonment. On arriv-
ing here I was instructed to escort them to Fort
Warren, and introduce them to Colonel Dimmock,
to spare them the mortification of being placed in
the hands of the United States Marshal. I took
leave of them with those feelings which strike me
as perfectly natural under the circumstances. When
we were about to part, Mr. Mason said he could
not express how much gratitude he felt for the at-
tention and kindness he had received. (Applause.)
I feel the full force of your kind exhibition of feel-
ing to-night; but I take no credit at all to myself
—it belongs entirely to Captain Wilkes. It affords
me great pleasure to be here, for I am no stranger
to Boston. I went to school in Jamaica Plain, and
I have :often, as a boy, been to Faneuil Hail, and
listened to Mr. Everett and some other great men
of Massachusetts. As I stand here to-night my me-
mory goes back to the time when our fathers of
Virginia and Massachusetts were boon companions,
and made good cheer in the city of Boston; and it
is with a great deal of satisfaction that I receive
your welcome here to-day with Capt. Wilkes."
(Cheers.)
The Hon. George J. Bigelow, Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in the course of
his remarks, spoke as follows :
" But, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, this act of
our guest and his associates does certainly present a
very grave question of international law. Without
pretending to have made a very thorough search
into the matter, I venture to say that England, un-
less she falsifies her own conduct, unless she falsi-
fies the statements of her own statesmen, unless she
sets aside the judgments of her own
judiciary, can-
not undertake to make an issue with us upon this
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statements of her own statesmen, and, above all, to
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which
gallant officer has seen fit to pursue. (Applause.) It is
perfectly true that England may, if she sees fit, make
an issue with us on this question ; an astute man
may draw nice distinctions ; but if England is go-
verned by the principles by which she professes to
be governed, she can make no just quarrel with us.
(Cheers.) Common sense teaches us—we need not go
to law books to find it out—that it does not require
the " transportation of arms, powder, or shot, to
make it contraband of war." Men who go out
from our midst, for the purpose of building up the
Confederacy and destroying our government, are as
much engaged is a belligerent operation, the sbip
that carries them is as much engaged in a belligerent
operation, as if she bore arms or munitions of war.
Sophistry must yield to clear reason, and no one can

The Paris correspondent of the lUorning Post
(second edition) says :
In my communication of yesterday I sent you an
article from tho Constitutionnel which gave the
cost of the French army of occupation at Rime from
1849 to 1861, viz., 128,225,000 fr, fhe statement is
much commented upon, not that the figures arc new,
but from the fact of a Government journal parading
them before the public at a moment when the

nation's budget is under revision by M. Fould. The

Minister of Finance would doubtless like to econo-

mise in future the 9,480,000 fr.. which the present
condition of Italy demanded for the French forces
in 15.,31 ; and I have no hesitation in saying that
an effort will be made by M. Fould and some one
or two other members of the Cabinet to withdraw
from Rome, Politically the occupation is a scandal
to the French nation, and a continued source of
humiliation—humiliation to an extent far beyond
what the public is aware of. The non possunzus is
' but a mild answer compared to some France has
received when, as military guardian of the Papacy,
she has made the most reasonable demands to im-
prove the governing system. The people who have
paid their millions to maintain, with bayonets, a
corrupt and corrupting Government get from the
Church nothing but insult and ingratitude from the
crew of cardinals. The Pope, who owes so much

to Napoleon 111., aye, in 1848 49, too, orders his
clergy to conspire against his throne, and plants a
hostile cabal in the very Tuileries. And it may be
asked—" Is France for ever to find an army for the
Popes of Rome ?" Unless the Papacy renounces
its temporal power, anti the Popes of Rome become
the friends instead of the enemies of theltalian people
a foreign soldiery must ever mount guard at the
Vatican, unless Roman Christianity retrogrades to
the pretensions, habits, customs, ideas, and feelings
of the middle ages. One may ask, too, what good
has France done to the Roman Church herself by
this expensive military guardianship ? She has
permitted the Pope to govern just as he likes, and
after 12 years misrule of his people, his Holiness
could not now remain 12 hours in Rome after the
withdrawal of the foreign . force, Twist and turn
the picture how you may, it is most unsatisfactory,
and you cannot find out one light spot. The press
of France, saving the journals of the Jesuits, have
long protested against the occupation of Rome by
the troops of this country, simply to support an
oppressive Government opposed to France-created
free Italy; and there are in the Imperial Council
those who have spoken boldly on the subject, but
still ultramontanism triumphs—the Church blesses
universal suffrage, and the ignorance of the masses.
Popery has yet a large stock-in-trade to work with
even in the France of 1861. Tf Rome can command
her members in the Parliament of Protestant Eng-
land, she can, of course, exercise a.wonderful power
in a Roman Catholic country, however infidel may
be the great cities of the empire. We witnessed
this last session in the Legislative Chambers ; we
shall hear more when the deputies meet in January ;
and I fear a majority will condemn M. Fould's de-
..siied economy, as regards saving the country the
expense of the Roman occupation, an occupation
which has SG long prostituted the flag of France.

THR AIIf_ENITIES OF TILE AIIERICAN
PRESS.

The Yew York Times alludes to an article in the

Yaw York Berta as follows :

"Is it at all surprising that language like this,
habitually used, with every conceivable phrase and
form of malignant exasperation, by a professed
friend and organ of the Government, claiming,
moreover, to have a hundred thousand subscribers,
and to represent, with a special fidelity, the senti-
ments of the great body of the American people,
should arouse a bitter hostility against the cause of
the Union among the people of England ? If the
Government will take care that its policy in dealing

with England is not misrepresented or misunder-
stood by the English people, we have not the
slightest fear of any disastrous consequences. That
policy will be found to have been marked by the
most friendly sentiments, coupled with a purpose to
maintain our own independence, and to insist upon
the due observance of justice and international law.
While President Lincoln has taken good care to have
England understand that we cannot submit to
wrong, he has been equally careful to show that we
ask nothing but what is right. As a measure of
ordinary precaution, the Government owes it to
itself and the country that these infamous and in-
cendiary attempts to embroil us in war with Eng-
land should cease. The Administration is suffering
infinite embarrassment, and the country is incur-
; ring serious peril from this cause every day. These
diatribes are copied far and wide into the columns
of the hostile press. They are rehearsed and quoted
by every agent and ally of the rebel Government as
proof of the envenomed hostility towards England of
the Government and people of the Northern States.
They are contrasted with the dignified and decorous
terms in which Southern journals speak on the same
topic, and are used with the skill of practised
diplomatists everywhere in Europe, to alienate
those who should be our friends, and to blacken the
cause which, for purposes of more effective mischief,
the Herald pretends to serve. The gentleman to
whom we have referred declares that the Govern-
ment of England is thoroughly and heartily desir-
ous of preserving friendly relations with the United
States ; but that if these intolerant and devilish
provocations to the pride, the self-respect, the pre-
judices, and the passions of the English people are
to be continued, with the apparent acquiescence or
the toleration of our Government, it will be
impossible for the Ministry to stem the torrent of
passionate wrath which will sweep against it.
President Lincoln, they allege, has shown that he
does not lack the power or the courage to check
and suppress such utterances, when they seem to
him dangerous to the public welfare, He has exer-
cised it baldly and fearlessly in many less flagrant
cases, and if he fails to do so now it can only be
because he is not without sympathy with the motive
which underlies them. It is useless to disguise the
fact—the Administration is in a very large degree
held responsible abroad for the general spirit and
temper of the Herald upon the subject; and so long
as this continues to be the case, we must be pre-
pared for any extremity to which the exalted pride
and excited passions of the Euglish people may
drive the Government, which holds its power only
by the sufferance of their representatives. It is an
easy matier for any man with a torch to set a town
on fire ; even so paltry and stinking an instrument
as a lucifer match may fire a magazine which shall
blow up an army to atoms. The devilish disposi-
; tion is all that is needed, and of this the incendiary
course of the Herald for the last three months has
shown that it has no lack."

The government have ordered the Royal Mail
steamer Parana to be surveyed, to ascertain her capabilities
for the conveyance of troops.