At the opening, Senator SUMNER rose to a personal explanation. In fact,
he always does. He said that General PRIM had disowned having had any
thing to do with him upon the Cuban question. General PRIM was perfectly
correct. (Applause.) He did not know much about the Cuban question; but
he flattered himself that he was familiar with the gurreat purrinciples
of Eternal Justice, and he intended to apply them to the solution of all
our political problems. He said that Lord COKE had justly and eloquently
observed _de minimis non curat lex._ He thought this would apply to our
relations with the Island, where, although the sugar-cane lifts its
lofty top and the woodbine twineth, the accursed spirit of caste still
prevails. He begged to bring to the attention of the Senate and the
country the amended lines of the sacred poet:

"What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Cuba's isle;
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile?"

The Senate would say with CICERO, _de non apparentious et non
existentibus, eadem est ratio_, and they would remember with reference
to the revolutionists of Cuba the great saying of Lord BACON, "Put a
beggar on horseback, and he will go to the Senate from Massachusetts."
Whatever the issue of the Cuban contest might be, he could lay his hand
upon his heart, and say with the Mantuan bard, "_Homo sum_." or, in the
language of our own Shakespeare, that which we call a rose by any other
name would smell as sweet. These were all the sentiments he could find
in his library which bore directly upon this subject.

Senator SUMNER then introduced a bill to provide for the resumption of