While at St. Petersburg, Prince Gortschakoff took the governor into the archives of the foreign office, and showed him the correspondence which took place between the Emperor Napoleon III and Alexander II of Russia concerning the recognition of the independence of the Confederate states. The Emperor Napoleon addressed an autograph letter to Alexander II, stating that the government of Her Britannic Majesty and his government were ready to acknowledge the independence of the Confederate States of America, and invited him to join with them. To this the Emperor of Russia answered, also in an autograph letter, that the people of the United States had a government of their own choice, and that they were using their best blood and treasure to defend it, and not only would he not do anything to oppose them, but he would reserve freedom of action to proceed as he deemed necessary under the circumstances. Soon after, the Russian fleets appeared in New York and San Francisco. Governor Curtin read the two letters of the emperors himself, and gave me the contents, the substance of which I have just given. Very sincerely yours, JEREMIAH CURTIN. The potent action of Russia in our hour of bloody stress, which held the hands of England and Napoleon the Little, speaks louder than the strident clamor of the American ingrates, who, forgetting our debt to the Muscovite, would make us the ally of the Briton, the deadly enemy of our friend and of us. Under the Providence of God, the action of Alexander II saved this republic from being torn asunder, and we were base indeed, if in these days we were to turn from the friend of our hour of need to take the hand red with the blood of a hundred helpless races. THE “ANGLO-SAXON” SHIBBOLETH CONDEMNED. BY HON. WILLIAM McADOO,[4] NEW YORK CITY. MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: I came here to-night simply to excuse myself for not being able, as requested, to read a paper which I had promised your committee on “Immigration to the United States from the Province of Ulster in Ireland.” If I am still honored by your Society, I will be glad to read it at a future meeting, with a view to showing not only the influence of this immigration on the history of the United States, but the fact that these immigrants considered themselves Irish without any qualifying clauses, and were so regarded in America, England and Ireland. Modern political exigencies are playing sad havoc with ethnology. If an Irishman becomes distinguished at home or abroad, in field, forum, market or shop, he is immediately made an Anglo-Saxon; but if he brings up in the police court he is simply a common Irish Celt. The “Anglo-Saxon” race is claiming everything good in the world, and they are bent upon leaving not much of the world for anybody else.