Letters from London by Thurlow Weed

From the Albany Evening Journal.

FEBRUARY 16.

There have been, for several weeks, Sunday evening services at St. Paul’s Cathedral, attended by several thousands.  We went there this evening to hear Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio.  He preached from the 119th Psalm, 116th verse – His discourse was practical, earnest and able.  His clear voice and distinct utterance resounded through the immense nave under the dome to an attentive audience of between four and five thousand, after which the 238th hymn –

“Oh, for a heart to praise my god” –

was sung most impressively.  You can judge of the effect produced by the mingling of more than two thousand voices with the tones of a powerful organ.  The blessing was pronounced by the Bishop of London.

It has been intimated for several days, that Messrs. Mason and Slidell were prepared to make large concessions to obtain either recognition or intervention, from England and France.  For instance: To prohibit the African slave-trade; to authorize manumission; and to guarantee the freedom of slaves to be born, when twenty-one years of age.  I have not credited these rumors, but they come now from an English gentleman of high position.  Of course the last of these propositions cannot be made in good faith, for it is the last thing Slavery would consent to.  But in their desperation it is possible they may promise [it, though I doubt even this.]

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 2.  Note the bottom of the newspaper was cut off during microfilming, the text in brackets came from Thurlow Weed’s Letters from Europe and the West Indies, 1843-1862, p. 758-9