Our Confederate contemporary assures us that England is still very
popular in the Confederate States, though Lord Russell is not. If so, we think the monstrous insults and injuries inflicted, according to Mr. Belshaw's account, on himself and other British subjects, at General Bragg's head- quarters, to which we called attention a fortnight ago, were a strange mode of manifesting this good-will. Lord Russell has this week replied to Mr. Beishaw's request for redress by an odd intimation that his "claim should not bo lost sight of, in case communications should be opened with the so-called Confederate authorities, with a view to obtaining redress for British subjects who have suffered ill-treatment in the Con- federate States." We do not understand why there should be any hesitation in " opening communications " for that purpose. We always supposed that one of the chief motives for recognizing "belligerent rights" was to fix responsibili- ties of this kind on some definite authority. If Mr. Davis re- fused compensation—which is unlikely—reprisals Avould cer- tainly be far better justified than they were recently in Brazil.
