have devolved upon you, has given me very high fratification as a proof of you regard and frendship. I would be happy indeed if I could accept the kind invitation to myself and wife which your letter conveys, and I hope the day will come when I shall be able to see you again in your own land enoy the hospitality which I have received before and which you offer to me again.

Little did I think when we last met in London that the disruption of your glorious Union was wither possible or near at hand, thought I knew that in any danger or difficulty that might arise your voice would be heard on the rightful side and that no exertions of your would be spared to do a true man's duty.

I would not have run the risk of boring you with politics in reply to a letter offiendship, but the excitement in London and throughout England is so great in reference to the unfortunate seizure of Messrs. Slidell and Mason that I cannot refrain from telling you what I see and within memory such a burst of feelmg as has been created by the news of the boarding of the La Plata [Tren].

The people are frantic with rage, and were the country polled I fear that 999 men out of 1,000 would declare for immediate war. Lord Palmerston cannot resist the impulse if he would. If he submits to the insult to the flag his ministry is doomed-it would not last a fortnight. But he is decided to demand reparation, and Lord Derby has made no secret for the past two or three months of his opinion that England ought immediately to recognize the Southern Confederation.

The whole feeling of the people has undergone a change. Sympathy was but coldly expressed for the South. Now it is warm and universal. I deeply deplore and lament what has happened, and could I believe that your Government could or would undo it and disavow the act of the captain of the San Jacinto I should rejoice and consider it a blessing to my own country as well as to the United States. The scene in the Reform Club when the men arrived was more exciting than anything I ever witnessed, and staid and sober men (as Englishmen generally are) became violent demonstrative and outrageous. Englishmen would rather fight any power in the world than with America, but I do assure you their blood is up and they men mischief im this business.

A paeceful member of our Parliament declared to me that if this insult were not atoned for he was no use for a flag; that he would recommend the British colors to be torn into shreds and sent to Washington for the use Presidential water-closets, and that he would rather becomer a U. S. citizen than continue any longer to be thought an Englishman. The whole people express the same feeling though not quite so forcibly or idiomatically as this gentleman. I mix a great deal with people of all classes of society and have the means of feeling the public pulse as thoroughly as any man in London and I give you openly the result of my observations.

The Southern men in London, of whom I know several, are delighted and think it the best thing that could have happened for their cause. Threy already see the South recognized by England and France in unison and cannot conceal their exultation.

I am afraid you will think this but a rambling and incoherent letter, but it is because I so admire and esteem you that I write what comes uppermost, perhaps not without being touched with the contagious excitement of everybody about me, excitement which you know is dif-