The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-27 00:00:00

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
It is rumoured that the PRESIDENr has selected the
person to be nominated as Mr. Adams' successor.
Among others two are mentioned, the present Secre-
tary of State and Mr. REVERDY JOHNSON, whose Sena-
torial term will expire next year. It is stated that Mr.
SEWARD vainly endeavoured to induce Mr. ADAMS to
recall his resignation ; and it is also hinted that the
PRESIDENT desires to supply the Minister's place with
one who will take a strong and decided stand both on
the questions of naturalization and of claims for
compensation to American citizens who during the
war had sustained losses from cruisers fitted out in
England.
Charles Francis Adams was born at Boston
on the 10th of August, 1807. He was taken
by his father to Russia in 1809, and returned to
the United States in 1817. In 1821 he entered
Harvard College, where he graluated, and in 1829
he married a young lady of his native State. He
was elected for the House of Representatives of
Massachusetts in 1811-2-3, and for the Senate in
1844 and 1845. He was coupled with Mr. Martin
Van Buren on the Free-soil Ticket as candidate for
the Vice-Presidency in 1848, but defeated. In
December, 1859, he took his seat for his native
State in Congress ; but in March, 1861, on Presi-
dent Lincoln's assuming the reins of Government
he was nominated Minister to Great Britain. In
April of that year he sailed from Boston, arriving
in London in May. Almost immediately after his
departure those difficulties commenced which have
made his diplomatic duties in Great Britain a series
of arduous and delicate attempts—hitherto success-
ful—to prevent a collision between the nations. The
United States were astonished at the unfriendly
attitude of the ruling classes in England, forgetful
that abuse of them had always been the note on
which so many of their stump orators and politi-
cians had dwelt. Such a sound cannot continually be
heard without familiarising the ear, and impressing
the brain. Those thus abused are not aware
that socially, no such feeling of enmity exists in
America, as the politicians and stump orators repre-
sent. The speeches are reported, reproduced in
English newspapers, and being circulated exten-
sively through the country, are accepted, as re-
flecting the public sentiment of the United States.
Believing then in American enmity to England, it
is not surprising that these classes rejoiced to see
the Union rent, and openly expressed their satisfac-
tion. It was among such a community that Mr.
ADAMS was thrown—he who had been educated in
a State that more than any other, represented the
principles for which the United States contended.
While undergoing the annoyance of an enforced
association in a society with whom on this vital
point there was the reverse of sympathy, he had
diplomatically to bear up in a capital little less
than hostile, against a series of great mili-
tary disasters, which tried his country to the
utmost. But the real difficulty of his mis-
sion consisted in foiling the machinations of
those who on the one side hated the United States,
and those who on the other, hated Great Britain.
This has been, and we' fear will long con-
tinue to be, the whirlpool into which the
Ministers of both countries, as well as their
statesmen, must ever strive against being
sucked. America teems with men who detest
England, and whose earnest wish is to embroil her
in war with the United States. Throughout the civil
conflict, the Confederacy had willing and able agents
in England, in Canada, and the West India Islands,
whose grand design it was to force England into
the strife. On the 23d November, 1864, his Ex-
cellency wrote to Earl RUSSELL—" It has become
once more my painful duty to make representations
respecting the manner in which the territories in
America under the authority of Great Britain, both
continental and insular, are systematically used by
the insurgents against the United States as bases
for hostile proceedings of every description. The
motives for such proceedings seem to have been two-
fold. The first and the most obvious is to do as
much injury to the people of the United States as
possible, but the second and far more inciting one
has been to stimulate the Government and people
of the United States to so great a degree of irrita-
tion as to prompt hasty acts of retaliation which
might ultimately affect a permanent breach of the
friendly relations between the two countries. By
this means it is hoped that the natural result of a

struggle perceived from the first to be unequal
might be changed by the intervention of a powerful
ally to the failing side The attention
of my Government has been constantly fixed upon
the necessity of averting the dangers springing out
of this nefarious policy." This despatch closes
with a curious prediction. Hia Excellency says—
" Political agitation, terminating at times in civil
strife, is shown by experience to be incident to the
lot of mankind, however combined in society.
Neither is it an evil confined to any particular
region or race. It has happened heretofore in
Canada, and what is now a scourge afflicting the
United States may be likely at some time to revisit
her. In view of these very obvious possibiaies I
am instructed respectfully to submit to her MA-
JESTY'S Government the question whether it would
not be the part of wisdom to establish such a system
of repression now as might prove a rock of safety
for the rapidly multiplying population of both
countries for all future time." Mr. Adams had not
to wait long to see this realised. Terror had been
carried into the United States towns and villages
bordering on the frontier of Canada by the nefari-
ous designs of men who hated the United States
and cared not for England. But two or three years
elapsed, when far greater terror was carried into the
cities—to the very seat of Government in Canada,
by men in the United States who hated England
and cared not for the Union. England looked on
with so much indifference that she did not even in-
form herself of the feeling prevailing among the
American borderers at the time of the St. Alban
raids. She was somewhat aroused by an order of
Major-General Dix instructing all military com-
manders on the frontier to cross the boundary if
necessary, in pursuit of marauders, to capture them
wherever found, and to send them to headquarters
for trial and punishment by martial law. The
General concluded his order by earnestly desiring
the inhabitants of the frontier districts to abstain
from all acts of retaliation on account of the out-
rages committed by rebel marauders, leaving mea-
sures of redress to the public authorities. That
order was disapproved by the PRESIDENT, although
it gave general satisfaction to the people. Mr.
CHANDLER, speaking on the subject in the Senate,
Dec. 14, 1864, observed, "I have no expectation
of making the Senate understand the intense ex-
citement that exists on the Canadian border. In
my own city, which is within musket range of the
Canadian shore, thousands of the citizens have been
under arms for a long time in a continuous state of
alarm for fear of incendiaries, murderers, burglars,
and robbers from the Canadian frontier." He quoted
from the letter of a gentleman :—" The anxiety
growing out of the mist and doubt encircling every
rumour that reaches us is not to be endured. Will
you give it your attention, for I think it involves
sooner or later, if not properly heeded, war with Eng-
land." Precisely the same "little game" was played
by the Confederates and their well-wishers, as is
now played by the Irish-Americans and theirs ; the
difference being, in the oue case, that the United
States was the scene of action ; and in the other,
first Canada, then Ireland, and, lastly, Great
Britain. It was not till England became the theatre
of the incendiarism, murders, burglaries, &c., that
the people fully realized what it was that excited
in America the intense and overpowering irritation ;
and we most fervently hope that the small taste
which the Fenians have given them may smooth
the path of future diplomatists when dealing with
the questions raised by these firebrands. Mr.
ADAMS has now had seven years of this work, and
if he pines for the retirement of QUINCY, it is no
wonder. The folly of the two nations which per-
mits a set of desperadoes to keep them perpetually
in hot water, which allows some threatening question
to be for ever looming in the horizon, which makes
laws—one would suppose expressly to accommodate

these ruffians—will, we fear, always keep the Bri-
tish Ambassador at Washington and the American
at St. James's fully employed. Like most of these
international evils it springs from mutual ignorance
of each other, for could both countries see the ques-

tion from a neutral and clear stand-point, as little
aid and sympathy would be tendered by England
to American rebels as by the United States to British
rebels. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, it is said, will
return to America in April next, and if the cry of
that blind bird the Owl is to be relied on a section
of advanced Liberals will unite to do him honour
before his departure.

GENERAL ➢iARKETS.

(From Messrs. Belding,

"eith, and Co.'s Circular.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 1868.
ipal kinds of Produce at this
of
Barley, bshls.
Malt, bshls.
Peas, bshls.
Pork, bbls.
Cut meat, pkgs.
Lard, pkgs.
Beef, tcs. and bbls. 18
Whisky, bbls. 111
Petroleum, bbls.

The receipts of the princi
port siuce our last have been
Ashes, bbls. 6
Flour, bbl 6,381
Flour, bags
Cornmeal, bbls.
Cornmeal, bags
Wheat, bshls.
Corn, bshls.
Rye, bshls.
Oats, bsbls.

Ashes have been in limited demand to-day, at $8.25 to
8.50 for old Pots, and $10.25 to $10.50 for old Pearls pa
100 lb.

Coffee has been moderately active at full prices, includ-
ing Java at 24c. to 25}c. ; Maracaibo, 16c. to 1810. ; La-
guayra, 16c. to 17c. ; Rio, 12c. to 171 c. ; Native Ceylon,
18c. to 20c.; St. Domingo, 14tc. to 151-c., in gold, per lb.
Stock, 146,654 bags.
Cotton has been freely purchased to-day at a further
fractional advance in prices, on a very moderato offering
of all grades, the market closing very firmly, with an up-
ward tendency. The aggregate sales since our last have
been 6,600 bales, including 2,276 bales to shippors, 1,935
bales to spinners, and 2,369 bales to speculators.