By the Hammonia at New York we have another of
Mr. Russell's letters to the London Times.
We make the following brief extracts.
Prince Napoleon's visit to Manassas.
Gen. Beauregard did not make a very good impression on the
Prince, it is said, although his French is natural to him as a New Orleans creole.
It is said by the people who can see a long way into millstones that the
Prince will certainly propose an arbitration, and that his visit is made with the object of securing for
France the position which would certainly be given to the power that might render an agreement possible.
Mr. Seward not only exhibited an inclination to let the
Prince go if he liked — he seemed to think it would not be possible to find any sound reasons to object to the expedition.
Now, it strikes an outsider that if the United States Government was angry with
Great Britain for placing the
Confederate States army on the footing of belligerents, and if it has always maintained that the troops of the
Confederate States army, so called, are rebels, the visit of the heir to the throne of
France minus one in the present imperial succession, attended by a
United States General and escort, to the camp of the rebels and to the
Generals in command of them, with the sanction of the United States Government, and the return of the party to the
United States lines, is one of the most extraordinary cases that has even been permitted to occur by any Government in the world.
I doubt if any neutral prince would have been allowed to pass from the allied lines into
Sebastopol and to have returned to the allies by either side; but there could be no "if" in the matter at all had the one side been considered and proclaimed the other to be rebels.
Notwithstanding the great expenditure there is but little excitement visible at
Washington, unless one goes into the
War and Navy Departments, where crowds of contractors block upon the passages, each waiting for his interview with an unhappy Minister or his representative.
In
America these personal interviews are the rule.
Each man is entitled, perhaps by the theory of the
Constitution, to walk in and take out his own share of the public time; but the pressure is so great that some men have been there for a week or ten days without the particular person they desire to favor.
The streets are now clear of soldiers.
The galloping of orderlies is very much reduced in proportion as things get into order, and on the other side of the river there is incessant drilling and plenty of hard work, principally in completing a great abattis from
Fort Ellsworth, at
Alexandria, across the front of the position.
None of this, however, is seen in the capital itself.
No compromise.
Before
Manassas some wonderful combination of good luck and dexterity on the part of ‘"the devil of compromise"’ might have led to an adjustment, or a patching up of the torn seams and tattered flag of the republic.
The
North could not now in honor submit to amalgamation with all the taint of base metal on her part of the compound.
The continent of
America could not hold Northern men in the face of defeat, insult, and contempt from the men of the
South.
Indifference.
Governor Jackson and his friends--
General Lyon and
Colonel Siegel--fight and retreat, advance and countermarch, and engage in numerous skirmishes, without adding one particle of force to the cause in which they are engaged, and the mass of the people stand neutral between them.
Governor Wise flies through
Western Virginia before the Federalists, burning bridges and tearing up railroads, and the inhabitants, possibly, are disgusted equally with both sides.
These desultory operations contribute little or nothing to the end of the war.
