“We receive by the last steamer from New York the report of a speech recently delivered by a person of great consideration in the councils of the present Government at Washington, who maintains that the favor already given to the Confederacy by England deserves the execration of humanity, and supplies, if necessary, abundant cause for war. The speaker to whom we allude is Mr. Charles Sumner, the President of the Committee of the Senate on Foreign Affairs. He denounced, we are told, as ‘a betrayal of civilization,’ England’s recognition of the Confederate States as belligerents, and her proclamation of neutrality. _The absurd injustice of this often repeated complaint is sufficiently shown by the simple observation, that, in recognizing the belligerent rights of the South, we did exactly what the Federal Government itself did_, and has continued to do from the commencement of the war. We did, moreover, what no power could have avoided, without absolutely intending to take a direct part in the subjugation of the seceding States. But Mr. Sumner correctly appreciates the consequences of this course, as adopted by ourselves and France, in perceiving that it insured to the South the free exercise of all the power of making war from its own resources which an independent state could possess.” The _Economist_, of London, a weekly journal, in an article entitled “Mr. Sumner’s Speech at New York,” among many remarks of bad temper and doubtful candor, said:-- “Mr. Charles Sumner has been delivering a speech before a crowded audience in New York which will cause much pain and disappointment to all friends and well-wishers of the Federal United States. It is weak in argument, unfair and unjust in its representations, and bitter in tone and temper. If men of Mr. Sumner’s education and position in America really believe the things they say and indulge the feelings to which they give utterance, it is clearly hopeless to attempt either to enlighten their understanding or to allay their irritation.… “Two other considerations will fully justify us in describing Mr. Sumner’s address as marked by the most distinctly unfair and unfriendly _animus_ toward this country. The first is, that he has carefully avoided doing the slightest justice to the strong Antislavery feeling which prevails among us, and even insinuates a disposition to favor the slave empire of the South.…