January 27.—In a speech delivered on the opening of the French Legislative Session to-day, the Emperor Napoleon made use of the following language in alluding to American affairs: “The civil war which desolates America has seriously compromised our commercial interests. Nevertheless, so long as the rights of neutrals are respected, we must confine ourselves to the utterance of wishes that these dissensions may soon be terminated.”
—In the Western Virginia Legislature a proposition was introduced to provide that no slave should be brought into the new State, and that all children born to slaves after July 4, 1865, should be free. The State was, also, to take measures for the apprenticeship of these children. The proposition was referred to the Committee on General Provisions.
—The following order was issued from the War Department, at Washington, to-day:
“Ordered, that the Rev. Bishop Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Hon. Hamilton Fish, of New-York, be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to visit the prisoners belonging to the army of the United States now in captivity at Richmond, Virginia, and elsewhere, and under such regulations as may be prescribed by the authorities having custody of such prisoners, relieve their necessities, and provide for their comfort, at the expense of the United States, in pursuance of the order heretofore made on this subject, and that said Commissioners be requested immediately to signify by telegraph to the department their acceptance or refusal of this appointment, and report in person at Washington without delay.[1]
—Diplomatic correspondence passed between Earl Russell and Secretary Seward, in which the former condemns in strong terms the fact of the British schooner James Campbell, captured for a breach of the blockade, having been brought to New-York with the British flag flying under that of the United States. Mr. Seward replies that the unseemly act was occasioned by a misapprehension of his duty on the part of the Federal officer who directed it, and that orders have been issued to prevent a repetition of the same.
[1] The Norfolk Day-Book of January 30th says of this appointment: The Hon. Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, who succeeds General Cameron in King Lincoln’s war office, favors us with a remarkable document, the cool effrontery of which excites our unqualified admiration. This document published in our issue of yesterday, after reciting the heroic services of the prisoners now in our hands, goes on sic:
“It is therefore ordered that two Commissioners be appointed to visit the city of Richmond, in Virginia, and wherever else prisoners belonging to the United States army may be held.”
The exquisite modesty of this proposition to send official Inspectors of our defences and general condition entitle Mr. Stanton to the reputation of being the most impudent man among all King Lincoln’s proverbially impudent subjects.
The distinction has been earned—let it be awarded.
