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

THE SUN, LONDON, THUIISDAt EVENING, MAY 30, 1861.

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, MAY 29.
The City of taltimote, which touched at Queens-
own yesterday, has arrived.
The accounts from the blockading squadron are
:nteresting. The Charleston Mercury, of the 13th,

says :—.
" The steam-frigate Niagara, which it was stated
some days since was coming off this port to blockade
the harbour, was first noticed off here at an early
hour on Saturday by pilot• boat No. 4, then outside
the bar, and also from the steeple of the Custom-
house. The pilot-boat had observed in the offing
on Friday evening what appeared to be a merchant
ship bound into this harbour, and which not being
in sight on Saturday, was no doubt ordered off by
the Niagara. Towards midday the frigate disap-
peared, but returned off the port in the afternoon.
On Saturday Capt. Robert Lockwood, pilot, in boat
No. 2 (the W. Y. Leitch) took to sea the schooner
Minnehaha, for Baltimore, and soon after leaving
the schooner outside he went on board his boat,
when he made in the offing, standing in, a square-
rigged vessel. Night coming on, and the Niagara
being in sight, he thought it, best to send his pilot
boat into port, and to take his skiff and one hand
and proceed to the bark. He reached her about 7
p.m., and found her to be the barque Hilja, from
Liverpool, in ballast, consigned to Messrs. R. Mure
and Co., of this city. The tide being too late to get
her into port, he remained on board during Satur-
day night, hisskiff being taken on deck and carefully
stowed away. On Sunday morning, it being calm,
the pilot was unable to get her under way, and at
half-past 8 she was boarded by a boat from the Nia-
gara, commanded by Lieut. R. L._May,who informed
the captain of the Hilja that the port was blockaded,
the rebels inside having fired on Fort Sumter with a
garrison of less than 100 men, gave him a Yankee
paper containing the latest news, and mentioned
that an army of 100,000 men had been landed on
the coast of Louisiana. The captain of the Hilja
informed the Lieutenant that he was short of
water and requested to know if the Niagara
could supply him; but he was informed that the
frigate had a shorter supply of that than any other
necessary article. The following is a copy of the
endorsement of Lieutenant R. L. May on the papers
of the Hilja :
" Boarded May 12th, and ordered off the whole
Southern coast of the United States of America, it
being blockaded.

"`R. L. MAY.
" Lieutenant United States Steamship Niagara.'
" The officer remained by the Hilja for about 20
minutes, when he left. The boat's crew had each
a revolver in a belt attached to the waist. Mr.
Lockwood left the Hilja about 10 o'clock, and
reached the city in his skiff, accompanied by
a valuable boat hand, who remained faith-
ful, although appearances indicated that the boy
had only to open his mouth, when he might have
had a passage to some other place than Dixie's
Land. The Hilja went off during the day, and
will proceed to the British provinces.
"The British ship Monmouth, from Liverpool,
and the ship General Parkhill, from the same place,
were seen off the bar yesterday, and were ordered
off, and we understand that the Niagara had pre-
viously sent off three other square-rigged vessels.
During Sunday the Niagara went well off shore,
accompanied by two of the above vessels, and while
she was absent the British ship A. and A., Captain
Hutchinson, from Belfast, stocd in from the east-
ward, when the Niagara made after her ; but the
ship having much the start was run into shoal
water, where the frigate could not well approach
her, when the Niagara put about and proceeded
south. Should the boats of the Niagara omit to
board the A. and A, before morning she may be got
into port with the aid of steam. The race was
anxiously watched from the wharfs and also by a
party of gentlemen who were out in the pilot-boat
Rover, Captain Evans. They went alongside and
spoke the ship."
The same journal of the following day says :
" The British ship A. and A,, from Belfast, which
we reported in our last issue as having anchored
near the outer busy of North Channel, after having
been chased by the Niagara, Escaped being boarded
by the man-of-war on Sunday night, and was suc-
cessfully towed into port by the steamer Gordon,
yesterday morning. The officers of the Niagara
supposed the A. and A. to have been ashore when
she anchored, she was so close in ; but in this sup-
position they were mistaken, and the ship has got
into a port, where she w ill wake a snots slxperior
freight, say about lid. for Uplands, and lid. for
Sea Island cotton. The British ship Susan G.
Owens went to sea yesterday for Liverpool, and it
was rumoured that she was boarded by a boat from
the Niagara, and her papers strictly examined ; but
the pilot who took her to sea informs us that he
watched her closely after she got outside until sbe
had almost disappeared, and that no such event took
place. She was, when last seen, going off finely,
with all her canvas set. So far as we can ascertain,
no outward bound vessel has yet been stopped.
" The Niagara was about ten miles south-east
from the Snip Bar yesterday, and was there
visited during the afternoon by Mr. Robt. Bunch,
her Britannic Majesty's Consul at this port, who
left the city about two p.m. in the steamer Charles-
ton, and proceeded on board the Niagara, where he
was received with the usual salute, and had every
courtesy extended to him, and every matter in re-
lation to the blockade satisfactorily explained.
All neutral vessels now in this port would be
allowed a reasonable time to leave, but none would be
allowed to come in. The A. and A., which got in
yesterday, and whose manner of getting into port
rather disturbed the nerves of some cotton ship-
p, willr bmeasatlelrosweefdfetoregigonuvnemssoelelssteexdp.
eeAteldl ohpeerne
will be received on board the Niagara and given to
the parties when they come off the Bar, but no
sealed communications will be received. A fleet
of eight or ten sail, with Commodore Stringham,
is expected off here shortly, when the blockade will
be rigidly enforced all along the coast. They ex. -
pa
wrietshsewdataerw, ihlluitngthneesesaptotaihnasvaeilesdupepilliiendsuthehe haste
that it could not be done. The commander
of the Niagara was pained at the position
he had to occupy in reference to the seceded
States, but he intended to carry out his orders.
Mr. Bunch says the Niagara is a formidable-
looking ship, has a noble crew of about 600 men, is
loaded down with provisions and war material,
decks piled up with shot and guns of the most for-
midable size. The only Charleston ships ordered
off have been those reported—say, the Monmouth,
the General Parkhill, and the Hilja, all from Liver-
pool„ The Eliza Bonsai!, the Sir Allan M`Nabb,
Sec., have not yet been seen. Several other British
vessels have been ordered off, two of which, it is
said, were bound to Savannah, but their names we
did not learn. No vessels appeared off this harbour
on Monday, so far as we could see or learn, and the
Niagara had a quiet day, but she keeps steam on all
the time, and moves rapidly when under way."
On the 14th the American ship Arago, with a
cargo of tobacco from Richmond, Virginia, valued
at 150,000 dols., was seized in the Chesapeake by
the gunboat Quaker City. There was a prize crew
placed on board by Flag-officer Stringham, of the
squadron, her destination being New York. The
following gunboats were on the blockading squad-
ron—The Harriet Lane, off the mouth of the James
and Elizabeth Rivers; the Monticello, off York
River ; the Quaker City, at the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay. The Dawn and the Yankee were
at anchor off Fort Monroe waiting orders. The
steam frigate Minnesota, Flag-officer Stringham,
arrived off Old Point Comfort on the morning of
the 13th inst. The ports of Florida had been put
under blockade since the 6th inst., and the yacht
Wanderer, of slave-trade notoriety, had been seized
off Key West by the Crusader. The steamer City
onf g t n , rßichmond,eport arrivedreported
having at
passed Philadelphia
the u fromnite d
steamer Yankee 30 miles south of Cape Henllh
Slortpaasetens,
with three prize steamers in charge.
Fromal ong
Charleston we learn that active prepara-
tions were
goingt forwardhe seaboard. to
o increasen thtihs the
sduebfjeenecte
the
hoef
the State
Charleston Iliercury, May 14, says-
" Orders have been issued from headquarters for
the immediate organisation of the 9th Regiment
S. C. V., which will be made up of citizens from
the parishes and districts of our sea coast, all of
whom are acclimated, and by their habits of life are
accustomed to boating and shooting. They know
thoroughly every island and inlet on our coast, do
not mind exposure, are familiar with the use of the
small-bore rifle and the hunting knife, and if called
on to meet invaders will do it in an old-fashioned
and wonderfully effectual manner."
Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, had written
avr
uiigni
mipoartsantetamlesthteirp toc Company, Washington.
clkveans,hianggetnotn.of the G-
overnor Letcher, of Virginia, having seized two

steamers belonging to the Virginia Steamship Com-
pany, and offered to pay for them, Mr. Heineken
asked 11r. Seward's reasons for considering it an act
of treason if he (Mr. Heineken) should accept Go-
vernor Letcher's offer. Mr. Seward answered that
the Executives of all those States now in insurrection
against the United States with the design to over-
throw it 3 Government were parties to their treason,
that if was treason for them to buy or seize ves-
sels to ')e used against the Government, it was
equally treasonable for any one to sell them vessels
or receive pay for vessels seized by them for sach
purpose; and that the Government would visit on
such sel er or receiver all the penalties of treason.

The following rumours had been telegraphed
from Wtshington
:
"It is useless to.disguise the fact that the lead-
ing members of the diplomatic corps in Washington
are engaged in constant and anxious discussion on
the course it may be necessary for them at any day-
to adopt. 'They have recently received urgent in-
structions from their respective Governments to in-
form then with the utmost precision of the chances
of the two sections in their present deadly quarrel.
It is leaking out that the Governments in question
declare tnat their commercial interests are identi-
fied in a great degree with the South, and that if
they are forced into taking sides with either, they
will be cmpelled to look carefully after cotton and
free trade. England is disposed to move cautiously
in this important matter, and is playing her usual
game of urging France to take the chestnuts out of
the fire. Tie country may not generally be aware
that there this moment an agent of tEe French
Emperor traVeliliag in the, South, by the name, of
Baroche. He is instructed to say that he is simply
collecting information for the Commercial. Bureau,
for the Minister of Public Works, but this artifice
is too transparent to deceive the most credulous.
He is a political more than he is a commercial
agent, and his despatches, regularly forwarded to
Paris, necessarily exercise great influence over the
mind of the Emperor. What may be the final con-
clusions of France, whether she will think it her
interest to play into the hands of the revolutionary
party in the South, remains to be seen.

It was understood that an army of 15,000 Fede-
ral troops would be concentrated in and about Fort
Monroe.

The report of the removal of the remains of
Washington from Mount Vernon by the Secession-
ists was totally false.
The Virginia papers report continued arrivals of
Confederate troops, and their departure for points
not designated.
From Havannah we have advices to the 11th.
The Southern privateer steamer William H. Webb
entered the port of Havannah with the United
States flag flying, and sought a clearance from the
Consul-General. This was denied, when the vessel
was immediately transferred to British subjects,
hoisted the Union Jack of England, and sailed for
New Orleans. The sugar-market of Havannah was
still dull, and sugars heavy (no sales), at 51 reals to
6 reals for No. 12. Stock, 225,000 boxes. Molasses

12 reals per keg, and nothing doing. Freights active
for all European vessels; no inducement for United
States bottoms.

2IIE CIVIL W.AI? Is AJLERICA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

MONTGOMERY, CAPITAL OF THE CONFE-
DERATE STATES OF AMERICA, MAY 8.
In my last letter I gave an account of such mat-
ters as passed under my notice on my way to this
city, which I reached, as you are aware, on the
night of Saturday, May 4. I am on difficult ground,
the land is on fire, the earth is shaking with the
tramp of armed men, and the very air is hot with
passion. My communications are cut off, or are at
best accidental, and in order to reopen them I must
get further away from them, paradoxical as the
statement may appear to be. It is impossible to
know what is going on in the North, and almost
the same to learn what is doing in the South out of
eyeshot; it is useless to inquire what news is sent
to you to England. The telegraphic communica-
tions are now broken, so are the mail routes.
Newspapers and letters now and then reach well-
known people here from New York in six or seven
days.. IlTent*,_h.vrry.on with txeraak dons rapidity.and even the figgtuing lags behind tnem. The
people of the South at last are aware that the
" Yankees" are preparing to support the Govern-
ment of the United States, and that the secession
can only be maintained by victory in the field.
There has been a change in their war policy. They
now aver that "they only want to be left alone."
and they declare they do not intend to take Wash-
ington, and that it was merely as a feint they spoke
about it. The fact is there are even in the compact
and United South men of moderate and men of ex-
treme views, and the general tone of the whole is
regulated by the preponderance of one or the other
at the moment. I have no doubt on my mind that
the Government here intended to attack and occupy
Washington—not the least that they had it much
at heart to reduce Fort Pickens as soon as possible.
Now some of their friends say that it willbe a mere
matter of convenience whether they attack Wash-
ington or not, and that, as for Fort Pickens, they
will certainly let it alone, at all events for the pre-
sent, inasmuch
gtmoneltsahtress
climate.eteh soon
they
lose
as the menacing attitude of General
Bragg obliges the enemy to keep a squadron of
their best ships there, and to retain a force of Re-
fSetdaetreasthesoldarTe oprtruegpaasr
can
enormously l
Theys a
have
spare inve
discovered,
from
cmpo ovds
eii
rst
eei oda ns, e t ws
too,
e etr
hed
aethey
e
position is of little value so long as the Unitedl
iaungdfoKrety West.heeonfieStu, But thandewChoenn-
they have organised their forces, they will make, I
am satisfied, a very resolute advance all along the
line. They are at
present strong enough, they
suppose, in their domestic resources, and in the
difficulties presented to the advance of a hostile
force by the nature of the country, to bid defiance
to invasion, or, at all events, to inflict a very severe
chastisement on the invaders, and their excited
manner of speech so acts upon their minds that they
begin to think they can defy, not merely the United
States, but the world. Thus it is that they declare
they never can be conquered, that they will die to
a man, woman and child first, and that if 50,000, or
any number of thousands, of Black Republicans get
100 miles into Virginia, not one man of them shall
ever get out alive. Behind all this talk, however,
there is immense energy, great resolution, and fixed
principles of action. Their strategy consists in
keeping quiet till they have their troops well in
hand, in such numbers and discipline as shall give
them fair grounds for expecting success in any
campaign with the United States troops. They are
preparing with vigour to render the descent of the
Mississippi impossible, by erecting batteries on the
commanding levees or embankments which hem in
its waters for upwards of 800 miles of bank, and
they are occupying, as far as they can, all the stra-
tegical points of attack or defence within their
borders. When everything is ready, it is not im-
probalee that Mr. Jefferson Davis will take the
command of the army, for he is reported to have a
high ambition to acquire reputation as a General,
and in virtue of his office he is Generalissimo of
the armies of the Confederate States. It will be
remarked that this plan rests upon the assumption
that the United States cannot:or will not wage an
offensive war, or obtain any success in their
attempts to recover the forts and other property
of the Federal Government. They firmly believe
the war will not last a year, and that 1862 will
behold a victorious, compact slave-holding con-
federate Power of 15 States under a strong Govern-
ment, prepared to hold its own against the world, or
that portion of it which may attack it. I now but
repeat the sentiments and expectations of those
around me. They believe in the irresistible power
of Cotton, in the natural alliance between manufac-
turing England and France and the cotton-pro-
ducing Slave States, in the force of their simple '
tariff, and in the interests which arise out Jf a
system of free trade, which, however, by a rigorous
legislation they will interdict to their neighbours in
the Free States, and only open for the benefit of their
foreign customers. Commercially, and politically,
and militarily they have made up their minds, and
never was there such confidence exhibit( d by any
people in the future as they have, or pretend to
have, in their destiny. Listen to their programme.
It is intended to buy up all the cotton crop which
can be brought into the market at an average price,
and to give bonds of the Confederate States for the
amount, these bonds being, as we know, secured
by the export duty on cotton. The Government,
with this cotton crop in its own hands, will use it as
a formidable machine of war, for cotton can do any-
thing, from the establishment of an empire to the
securing of a shirt button. It is at once king and
subject, master and servant, captain and soldier,
artilleryman and gun. Not one bale of cotton will
be permitted to enter the Northern States. It will be
made an offence punishable with tremendous penal.

ties, among which confiscation of property, enor-
mous fines, and even the penalty of death, are
enumerated, to send cotton into the Free States.
Thus Lowell and its kindred factories will be re-
duced to ruin, it is said, and the North to the direst
distress. If Manchester can get cotton and Lowell
cannot, there are good times coming for the mill-
owners.

o
uedraoplharcarvtoeeuttnesoohm.i
rte:nneeas
uTtty:egihassahoetnewhsnehrdpabla
lretfvfi
for the
atatfahokrhgiteeerhneaeceGoeui
tadrbol t
ttvooncennapror
Government.
itroonmownfnaetgit
shnhl
will
themselves
cropah.
ibmreemafi Frssefkesoloudlerrytes
circulatinge:dteshaaa neonct
nhddor
within the limits of the Slave States. This
bondsv
li
bl l e bi esws
uisecuredleldboenar
the by the
interesttfhaei t Ah
at
tat
nlodof
ptsheeer-
f the proceeds of the duty of Ith of a cent.
pound of cotton exported. All vessels
with cotton will be obliged to enter into
give security that they will not carry their
to Northern ports, or let it reach Northern
to their knowledge. The Government will
cotton for cash to the foreign buyers, and
thus raise funds amply sufficient, they con-
all purposes. I make these bare state-
ments,nd I leave to political economists the dis-
cussionf the question which, may and will arise
the acts of the Government of the Confede-
tates. The Southerners .argue that by
from their unnatural alliance with the
oNbro stcoccmbltfwmttbtohoeoaeuhruaenhrooaweooiarnlaetenrtrinellgTll
reeddrgsaeiendltsddtedotiktfkii
v.
ehsh:snahuofpbeelleeifoailfgmaeontusrooctrovussatpyrcgihrnrot.
they will save upwards of 47,000,000 dols,,
nearly £10,000,000 sterling, annually. The
estimated value of the annual cotton crop is
200,000,000 dols. On this the North formerly made
at least 10,000,000 dols. by advances, interest, and
exchanges, which in all came to fully 5 per cent.
on the whole of the crop. Again, the tariff to raise
revenues sufficient for the maintenance of the Go-
vernment of the Southern Confederacy is far less
than that which is required by the Government of
the United States. The Confederate States propose
to have a tariff which will be about 121-7 per cent.
on imports, which will yield 25,000,000 doles The
Northern tariff is 30 per cent., and, as the South
took from the North 70,000,000 dols. worth of ma-
nufactured goods and produce, they contributed,
they assert, to the maintenance of the North to the
extent of the difference between the tax sufficient
for the support of their Government and that which
is required for the support of the Federal Govern-
ment. Now they will save the difference between
30 per cent, and 121 per cent. (171 per cent.), which
amounts to 37,000,000 dols., which, added to the
saving on commissions, exchanges, advances, &c.,
makes up the good round sum which I have put
down higher up. The Southerners are firmly con-
vinced that they have "kept the North going" by
the prices they have paid for the protected articles
of their manufacture, and they hold out to Sheffield,
to Manchester, to Leeds, to Wolverhampton, to
Dudley, to Paris, to Lyons, to Bordeaux, to all the
centries of English manufacturing life, as of French
taste and luxury, the tempting baits of new and
eager and hungry markets. If their fasts and sta-
tistics are accurate there can be no doubt of the jus-
tice of their deductions on many points; but they
can scarcely be correct in assuming that they will
bring the United States to destruction by cutting off
from Lowell the 600,000 bales of cotton which she
usually consumes. One great fact, however, is un-
questionable—the Government has in its hands the
souls, the wealth, and the hearts of the people.
They will give anything—money, labour, life itself
--to carry out their theories. " Sir," said an ex-
Governor of this State to me to-day, " sooner than.
submit to the North we will all become subject to
Great Britain again." The same gentleman is one
of many who have given to the Government a large
portion of their cotton crop every year as a free-
will offering. In his instance his gift is one of 500
bales of cotton, or £5,001 per annum, and the papers
teem with accounts of similar " patriotism" and de-
votion. The ladies are all making sandbags, cart-
ridges, and uniforms, and, if possible, they are more
fierce than the men. The time for mediation is past,
if it ever were at band or present at all, and it is
scarcely possible now to prevent the processes of
phlebotomisation which are supposed to secure peace
and repose.
There was no intelligence of much interest on Sun-
day, but there is a general belief that Arkansas and
Missouri will send in their adhesion to the Confede-
racy this week, and the commissioners from Virgi-
nia are hourly expected. The attitude of that State,
however, gives rise to apprehensions lest there may
be ,a division of her strength ; andsaasLaggression
on her territories by the Federal Government, such
as that contemplated in taking possession of Alex-
andria, would be hailed by the Montgomery Go-
vernment with sincere joy, as it would, they think,
move the State to more rapid action and decision.
Montgomery is on an undulating plain, and covers
ground large enough for a city of 200,000 inhabi-
tants, but its population is only 12,000. Indeed,
the politicians here affect to dislike large cities,
but the city designers certainly prepare to take
them if they come. The lines of the streets run at
right angles over this plain, and the houses are
sparsely sown at the margins of the broad avenues,
most of them with a little garden or enclosure, and
trees around and in front of it, so that the city looks
like a vast aggregate meeting of small country par-
sonages. The houses are of wood, painted white,
or of red brick, many only one story in height. The
churches are numerous, small, and rather eccentric
in the character of the architecture. There is a
large negro population and a considerable number
of a colour which forces me to doubt the evidence
of my senses rather than the statements made to me
by some of my friends that the planters affect the
character of parent in their moral relations merely
with the negro race. A waiter at the hotel, a tall,
handsome young follow, with the least tinge of
colour in his cheek, not as dark as the majority of
Spaniards or Italians, astonished me in my igno-
rance to-day when, in reply to a question asked by
one of our party, in consequence of a discussion on
the point, he informed me he " was a slave." The
man, as he said so, looked confused ; his manner
altered. He had been talking familiarly to us, bat
the moment he replied " I am a slave, sir," his
loquacity disappeared, and he walked hurriedly and
in silence out of the room. The river Alabama, on
which the city rests, is a wide, deep stream, now a
quarter of a mile in breadth, with a current of four
miles an hour. It is navigable to Mobile, upwards
of 400 miles, and steamers ascend its waters for
many miles beyond this into the interior. The
country around is well wooded, and is richly culti-
vated in broad fields of cotton and Indian corn, but
the neighbourhood is not healthy, and deadly fevers
are said to prevail at certain seasons of the year.
There is not much animation in the streets, except
when "there is a difficulty among the citizens," or
in the eternal noise of the hotel steps and bars. I
was told this morning by the hotelkeeper that I was
probably the only person in the house, or about it,
who had not loaded revolvers in his pockets, and
one is aware occasionally of an unnatural rigidity
scarcely attributable to the osseous structure in the
persons of those who pass one in the crowded pas-
sages. _ _ _

MONDAY, MAY 6.

To-day I visited the Capitol where the Provi-
sional Congress is sitting. On leaving the hotel,
which is like a small Willard's, so far as the crowd in
the hall is concerned, my attention was attracted
to a group of people to whom a man was holding
forth in energetic sentences. The day was hot, but
I pushed near to the spot, for I like to hear a
stump speech, or to pick up a stray morsel of
divinity in the via sacra of strange cities, and it
appeared as though the speaker was delivering an
oration or a sermon. The crowd was small. Three
or four idle men in rough, homespun, makeshift
uniforms leant against the iron rails enclosing a
small pond of foul, green-looking water, surrounded
by brickwork which decorates the space in front
of the Exchange Hotel. The speaker stood on an
empty deal packing-case. A man in a cart was
listening with a lack lustre eye to the address.
Some three or four others, in a sort of vehicle which
might either be a hearse or a piano van, had also
drawn up for the benefit of the address. Five or six
men in long black coats and high hats, some whit-
ling sticks, and chewing tobacco, and discharging
streams of discoloured saliva, completed the group.
" N-i-ne h-hun—nerd and fifty dollars ! Only
nine h-hun-nerd and fifty dollars offered for him,"
exclaimed the man in the tone of injured dignity,
remonstrance, and surprise which can be insinuated
by all true auctioneers into the dryest numerical
statements. " Will no one make any advance on
nine hunnerd and fifty dollars ?" A man near me
opened his mouth, spat, and said, " Twenty-five."
" Only nine hunnerd and seventy-five dollars
offered for him. Why at's radaklous—only nine
hunnerd and seventy-five dollars ! Will no one,"
&c. Beside the orator auctioneer stood a stout
young man of five-and-twenty years
of age, with a
bundle in his hand. He was a muscular fellow,
broad-shouldered, narrow-flanked, but rather small
in stature ; he hal on a broad, greasy, old wide-
awake, a blue jacket, a coarse cotton shirt, loose
and rather ragged trowers, and broken shoes. The
expression of his face was heavy and sad, but it was
by no means disagreeable, in spite of his thick lips,