The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-26 00:00:00

PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND THE CONGRESS.

A MISCHIEVOUS CANARD.
(From the New York Times.)
The Philadelphia Ledger is a journal which ap-
preciates a reputation for accuracy safficiently to take
measures to detect the origin of the hoax which was un-
doubtedly practised upon it yesterday morning. It was
stated in its columns, with a show of authority, that the
President had applied to the Attorney-General for his
official opinion as to the constitutional competency of •
Congress in which ten states are deprived—not by their
own act—of representation ; and the plain inference
was that the President did not intend to recognise the
present Congress. This statement is now denied by the
President himself. lie has made no such inquiries. The
report was a fabrication, and there is reason to believe, or
suspect, at least, that it was invented for stock-jobbing
purposes—in other wards, as a cover for robbing persons
who might believe it. There are several con-
siderations which might have deprived the state-
ment of some of the importance attributed to it, even
if it had been true. (1.) If the Preaident had made
the inquiries alleged, it would not follow that his purpose
was to refuse to recognise the existing Congress. It
might have been the very reverse. (2.) He has already
recognised it by sending messages to it, by signing bills
which it has passed and thus making them laws, and by
putting those laws in execution. He could not now re-
fuse to regard it as valid without stultifying his own
action. (3.) Ile could do nothing in the premises with-
out the concurrence of a portion of the members,
sufficient with the Southern members to make
a quorum, and there is not the slightest reason to suppose
that he could obtain that assent. (4.) Action on his part
of the kind supposed would be illegal and revolutionary,
and would contradict the whole tenor of his conduct,
both official and personal, thus far. We have repeat-
edly pressed upon public attention the fact that contingen-
cies might occur in which the President might be con-
strained by his views of public duty to recognise a con-
gress in which all the States should be represented, in-
stead of one from which a portion should be arbitrarily
excluded. Rut the first requirement for such a contin-
gency would be the presence of a constitutional quorum—
s majority of all the members elect—which, under exist-
ing laws, would be 121. In the present Congress
there are more than that number of Union mem-
bers, and in the next Congress they will have
the same predominance. It is certain, therefore,
that if all the Northern democrats were to join all the
Southern members in the attempt to constitute a rival
Congress, they could not form a quorum ; and without a
quorum they would not be constitutionally competent to
transact any business whatever. The danger apprehended,
therefore, while the report was supposed to be true, was
mainly chimerical.

Lord Carnarvon distributed nearly 200 silver or
bronze medals and certificates of honour at Southampton
ou Tuesday List to exhibitors at the Loan Exhibition. The
recipients were ladies and gentlemen, tradesmen, artisans,
mechanics, soldiers, seamen, and household servants.
Many poor men exhibited specimens of workmanship, dis-
playing ingenuity and taste, and which proved, from the
time bestowed on them, that the men must have lived
lives of temperance and prudence. Lord Carnarvon de- We read in the New York Herald:—" That
livered the prizes from a dais in the magni.
I
smart, intelligent, enterprising, and fascinating lady, Mrs.
ficent lecture hall of the Hartley Institution, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, is up for Congress against the
surrounded by noblemen, members of parliament, Hon. Mr. James Brooks. Against such a competitor what
military, ecclesiastical, academical, and municipal
dignitaries in their various costumes, and before an im- ought Mr. Brooks to do? He is a ladies' man, and common
gallantry requires his retirement in her favour.
merge audience of ladies and gentlemen. The prize win- \Viten there's a lady In the easo,
nets went up to the dais amidst great cheering. It was i Of course all other things give place.
affecting to see a poor blind basket-maker, who had won Mr. Brooks, then, ought to surrender gracefully and
a prize for some exquisite basket work, rolling his sight- graciously in favour of the first petticoat for Congress. Why
less eyeballs around towards the audience while bewildered not? He did the best he could do at the last session of
by the applause that greeted him. Three orphan girls Congress to assist Thad Stevens in behalf of negroes'
from the Orphan Asylum won prizes for beautiful needle• rights and negro suffrage ; and Mrs. Stanton will do this,
work. His lordship rose from his chair to specially receive if elected, with far greater ability ; and in addition to this
and coogratnlate the poor forlorn girls, who appeared she will stir up every spark of gallantry in Congress in
supremely happy at the honours that were paid them. behalf of woman's rights and woman suffrage. Moreover,
Countess Fanny Raventloe, the daughter of with an influential lady in the House of Representatives,
Count Friederich Raventloe, has been appointed governess the roughs of that body would no longer make it a Tam-
of the younger children of the Crown Princess of Prussia, many Hall. Let Mr. Brooks retire."
in lieu of Finnish% von Dobeneck, who has monied Herr Marshal O'Donnell, who lately arrived in Paris,
von Jagow. is said to be dangerously ill in that city.
The Bishop of Meath met with a serious accident At the third day of the trial of Risk Allah Bey
on his arrival at the palace, Ardbiaccan, a few days ago, (Wednesday), there were many ladies in court for the
from the effects of which he is still suffering severely. The first time. The accused in the course of the day con-
gas bad been allowed to escape in one of the rooms, and plained bitterly of misrepresentation, denied that he
his grace having entered the apartment with a lighted had been banished Turkey for having robbed the eus.
candle, an explosion took place. He sustained a violent tom.bouse at Constantinople, and alleged that one
shock, but providentially escaped any serious injury. of the witnesses had industriously spread false re-
The synod of the Protestant Free Churches is to ports concerning him. A police commissary of Antwerp
meet at Nismes on the 25th of this month. In Buis gave evidence as to the finding of Readly's body, from the
this section of Evangelical doctrine has two chapels—one position of which suicide appeared unlikely, if not im-
in the Rue de Provence, where M. de Pressense possible. This witness, being rather bound, if anything,
preaches, and one in the Rue des Petits Hotels, founded to excuse the authorities of his city for having released
by Frederick Monod with money subscribed for the pur. Risk Allah, described the position of the body in language
pose in the Muted States. The latter chapel is entirely as guarded and reticent as possible, but still very much of
supported by voluntary subscriptions, which have so fallen a kind to destroy the theory of suicide, and, by cense-
off this year, in consequence of the financial crisis at glance, to set up the theory of deliberate murder. After
Frankfort, that M. Theodore lionod, son of the founder, a vigorous denial of the charge against him, and an cm-
is its sole chaplain. phatic assertion that at the time of his ward's suicide he
A letter from Prague describes a grand procession was absent from the hotel, defence Risk Allah's running
which has just taken place there in honour of the relics of of himself was brought to a halt by the adjournment of the
St. John of Nepomuc, whr was drowned by King Wends- proceedings till the following day.
laws because he would not reveal the secrets confided to The Liberti mentions that M. Jules Despeches
him by the Queen under the seal of confession. The eor• has chartered the Great Eastern for the conveyance of pea.
respondent writes :—" The Emperor Ferdinand looked on sengers between New York and Brest during the continu.
from • window in the Palace, and took much interest in anee of the Paris Exhibition next year.
the proceedings. Poor old man ! Despite his age and The mail from Shetland brings tidings of another
failing powers—failing for many years before and deplorable accident, the second within a few weeks, by
since his abdication—be takes too much interest for which five fishermen in the prime of life have been
his peace in many things. When be beard of Koniggrhtz drowned. On the 7th of August a boat, having on board
and its results he was much distressed, and remarked six men, belonging to the island of Unit, was swamped,
naively, ' They said I was a fool, but I don't see how I and all on board perished,leaving upwards of thirty widows
could have done much worse than all these wise people.' and fatherless children in utter destitution ; and last week
When the relics were brought into the Dom they were another boat, belonging to the same island, met with •
placed in the enormous sepulchre of silver, and the reli- like disaster, and out of a crew of six men only one was
gious services were ended by the chanting of aTe Dress saved. By the second calamity one fisherman has left •
by the Cardinal. All the alters were illuminated, the widow end roue children under eight years of age ; a
cathedral was a blaze of light, and the Hrsdachin and its second, a widow and four children under eight ; and •
palaces seemed a blaze of fire. For three days the reliquts third, a widow and one child under two years, as well ar
will be exposed in • chapel inside the cathedral, and for an aged widowed mother who was wholly dependent on
eight days solemn services will be performed in German him, while the parents of the other two men were almost
and Bohemian in the Dom." wholly dependent on them.