Interesting from Europe.
The European mails give some intelligence of interest.
Death of Mr. Dayton.
A letter from the Yankee consul at Paris to Mr. Thurlow Weed thus announces the death of Mr. Dayton:
Our friend, Mr. Dayton, died about 10 o'clock this morning while visiting at the Louvre Hotel. He had called upon Mr. Vanderpool, but not finding him in, went to the apartment of Mrs. Eckles, (widow of Judge Eckles,) asked for a seat, and soon complained of feeling dizzy. He became alarmed about his symptoms, and begged her not to leave him. He died there upon the sofa in a very few minutes.--His funeral will take place on Tuesday.
This event has spread a cloud over us all. I have been so occupied with preparations for the funeral that I have but a moment to devote to this letter.
Mr. A. H. Layard on the War.
Mr. A. H. Layard, M. P., Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, made a speech to his constituents on December 1, in the course of which he referred to American topics as follows:‘ He did not believe it possible that any liberal government would now engage in foreign intervention or enter into another Holy Alliance. But to abstain altogether from foreign politics was quite another matter. We could not hold aloof from Europe — remaining apart from all that occurred on the continent — refusing to mediate when our mediation might lead to peace. If that was what was intended by the advocates of nonintervention, then it was that intervention would be most dangerous to this country. We must, however, always exercise that intervention with caution, and due consideration for others as well as ourselves. * * * * He denied that the debate of last session had changed the foreign policy of this country. That debate was a great party struggle. The opposition had began to think that there was a great conservative re-action, but in the division they found out their mistake, and that there was an enormous majority of the constituencies of England and Wales in favor of the Government.
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Some attempt to terminate the War Anticipated.
The London Times, in an editorial on the position of affairs in America, thinks it probable that President Lincoln may make some attempt to terminate the war by negotiation, but it doubts whether the terms will be accepted. It says:‘ Each party may reconsider its position by the light of four years experience. Each may again learn its own mind, and take its decision. There is a new reign, though of the same king. Such an occasion has not happened before since the beginning of the war; nor, for four years to come, is it likely to happen again.
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Miscellaneous.
The highest legal tribunal of Scotland, not long since, decided that, according to the Scotch law of marriage, consent is the essence of the contract, and is sufficient to constitute marriage without any ceremony or publication, or even without the parties living together; that if the parties seriously and actually consent to be man and wife, from that time forth they are man and wife, in Scotland.Miss. Brand, who is called the "Miss. Nightingale of New Orleans," has just made her appearance in England. She is reported to have spent three years in attendance upon the sick and wounded Confederate prisoners in that city, and to have been, at length, expelled by General Canby.
"Tom Thumb" and his family have, at last, gone to Paris. The General became disgusted on account of the public exhibition of a new fat boy — a little chap only ten years old, and already nearly five feet high, and weighing about two hundred and sixty pounds.
Thackeray is to have a bust in Westminster Abbey among the great men of England. It is to be placed close by the effigy of Addison.
