The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-10 00:00:00

FIIE SUN, LONuoN, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 10 1E65.

be divulged, I made no allusion to it in my letter of
yesterday. Immediately on the receipt of the de-
spatches, which were brought here by a special
courier, a Cabinet meeting was called by the Presi-
dent, and the whole matter laid before the officers
of the Government. General Grant, who had made
arrangements for a brief visit to his home in New
Jersey, was apprised of the meeting, and requested
to attend. On being informed of the agreement
entered into by General Sherman, he at once pro-
nounced it unauthorized, and in no way binding on
the Government. Referring to his own action at
the time of Lee's surrender, he said that he then re-
garded the terms granted to Lee as too generous,
but as they were dictated by President Lincoln he
had no option but to present them. He thought he
could have forced General Lee to accept terms that
would have been more satisfactory to those who did
not approve the late President's leniency ; but
keeping in view the great importance of not humi-
liating the officers and soldiers of Lee's army, and
regarding obedience as duty, he offered the terms
advised by President Lincoln, and as,those terms
were satisfactory to the Government and to a
majority of the people, he did not regret their ac-
ceptance. But he was exceedingly annoyed at what
he regarded as the imprudent and totally unautho-
rised generosity of Sherman, and declared that the
arrangement to which he had given his consent
must be promptly repudiated by the Government.
Had Sherman demanded the capitulationof John-
ston's army, and paroled all the officers and men on
the same conditions accepted by the army of
Northern Virginia, keeping entirely out of the view
the political status of the States in rebellion, and
the conditions on which the people could resume
their political rights, under the Constitution, Gene-
ral Grant would cordially assent to such an agree-
ment, leaving all the political aspects of the case to
the decision of the civil authorities and the arbitra-
ment of the Courts. Sherman had taken a wholly
unauthorised liberty in exceeding his province as a
military commander, and his action must be dis-
avowed by the Government. President Johnson
and every member of the Cabinet promptly indorsed
General Grant's views, and expressed themselves
very strongly in disapproval of the action taken by
Sherman. The president and Secretary of War
were particularly incensed against Sherman, aA
declared that he must be at once recalled and the
army of Johnston pushed with all vigour until it
must surrender. General Grant was requested to
proceed immediately to North Carolina, take com-
mand of Sherman's army, and follow Johnston
wherever he might go. Grant left Washington
yesterday afternoon for Newbern, and will thence
proceed to Raleigh, where, superseding Sherman,
he will move rapidly after Johnston, and, should
the latter retreat, follow and fight him to the last."
President Johnson, on the 24th, received a dele-
gation of loyal men from States which had joined
the Confederates, and, in reply to their address, re-
marked that—

"He and they had gone through similar suffer-
ingS, but that, great as those sufferings were, they
should not force any but teinperate, just action.
But he knew that justice must temper mercy. He
had learned that when executive of a State, and he
had also learned that it was time for people to un-
derstand that treason was not a mere difference in
politics, in which one party triumphed over and the
other simply failed. It is the highest of crimes,
though since the days of Burr and Jefferson our
people seemed oblivious of the fact. He had been
accused of being too lenient when holding execu-
tive power heretofore, and had learned that cle-
mency might be injustice. It had even been said
by one skilled in treason that when traitors become
numerous enough treason becomes respectable ; and
to become a traitor was to constitute a portion of
the aristocracy of the country. He would now say,
God protect the country from such an aristocracy
He repeated, therefore, justice to the conscious
leaders, mercy and amnesty to the thousands whom
they had deceived or driven into rebellion. They
tried to murder a nation ; if they had succeeded the
life of the nation would have been reft from it, the
Union would have been destroyed. The Constitu-
tion defines treason, and under that definition it
required no great acumen to ascertain who had
been or who were traitors. He believed they could
all soon return to their homes, that law and order
would be then restored, and the banner of the
country again float over every inch of territory
within the area of the United States. And so,
thanking them collectively and individually, the
President concluded his reply with the assurance to
all that he intended to do his duty fully."
Washington advices say that the President has
no intention of dispensing with the services of Mr.
Seward. The following is also stated :
" In an interview with the President to-day Sena-
tor Harlan, after mentioning his nomination by Pre-
sident Lincoln and confirmation by the Senate to
be Secretary of the Interior from the 15th day of
May next, stated his desire to disembarrass Presi-
dent Johnson by placing the office at his disposal.
The President remarked that he wished the arrange-
ment made by his predecessor to continue.

LAW INTELLIGENCE —(This Day).

~_-

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Goulburn.)

IN RE COL. WAUGIt.-APPLICATION FOR RELEASE, AND ()FPO-

BITION BY LORD GARVAGIL

An application was made this morning by Mr. Chidley
on behalf of this bankrupt, that he might bo released from
custody, he being now a prisoner for debt under three
capita.
Mr. Bagley opposed on behalf of Lord Garvagh, who is
one of the detaining creditors.
His Honour refused the application.

AuGum BRAVAIS.—The biography of a scientific
man is often science itself, and this is the case with
" Eloge Historique d'Auguste Bravais" by M. Elie
de Beaumont, the distinguished geologist and Per-
petual Secretary of the Academy of Sciences. We
cannot enter into the particulars of a life of unparal-
leled activity, every hour of which, so to say, was
marked by some incident of scientific interest ; and
will therefore only mention a characteristic trait
of the indefatigable traveller and naturalist
whilst yet a boy. Young Bravais was not more than
ten years old when his elder brothers, returning from
a trip to the Pilat, a mountain at a few leagues'
distance from Annonay (Ardeche) where they lived,
brought with them a quantity of new flowers and curious
insects, at the same time describing in glowing terms the
spectacle of the sun rising behind Mont Blanc. The
boy could not resist the temptation ; he disappeared one
morning, and only returned on the following day, with
flowers and insects, informing his parents that he had
passed the night on the summet of the Pilat, had drunk
water at the source of the Gier, and seen the sun rise from
behind Mont Blanc! Such was the future member of the
Institute, whose exploration of the Polar regions, and sur-
veys and observations in those high latitudes, contributed
in such an unusual degree to the advancement of various
branches of science. From among the different subjects
touched upon by M. Elie de Beaumont, we will select that
of white rainbows, which many of our readers may be un-
acquainted with. This phenomenon is sometimes observed
in low fogs, and at a short distance from the spectator.
The common rainbow had been explained by various
philosophers, including Descartes and Newton, by us
refraction and reflection of sunlight playing on the rain
e
until
drops; but the white rainbow remained unexplained nt
Bravs ar esrhe oe w
thee d
thickness that when
of a
whose cloud
wateryi s o r formed
filmed i
eof littlec o n
p n.s
ehol-
lowduest
within 38 and 55 hundredths of the inner radius, a lumi-
nous white bow of a radius of from 34 to 40 degrees (and,
ttheereefdo.re,lnsmeoanlliemronthcalnoutdhse
thcoenimwaotnerryaiennbvolevl)opme fthe
globules is thinner than the proportion above stated admits,
and this prevents the formation of a white rainbow.
Bravais, born at AllllOll/13, in 1811, died at Versailles in
1863, of the consequences of a brain fever.
TRIALS OF LIFEBOATS AT CHERBOURG.—Some
comparative trials were made on the 3d and 4th inst.
at Cherbourg with some French-English lifeboats, under
the superintendence of some officers of the French Imperial
Navy and Capt. Ward, R.N., Inspector of Lifeboats to the
National Lifeboat Institution. Three of the English life-
boats had been built under the superintendence of the Na-
tional Institution ; one of the French lifeboats was on the
plan of M. Lahuro, and the others from the design of M.
Moue. One English lifeboat only was tried on the occa-
sion. The boats underwent the usual harbour trials of
self-righting, self-ejection of water, and testing their sta-
bility, and in each particular the superiority of the English
lifeboat was manifest. Tho French naval officers thought
very highly of the English lifeboats, and spoke in special
approval of the completeness of their equipment in every
respect, and the evidence they showed of every detail hav-
ing been considered and provided for by English
National Lifeboat Institution.

111-1I11,1)

SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLocK.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

CHESTER RACES—Tins DAY.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
MEMBERS' PLATE.

Moulsey

Zisca..

Four rau.
WELTER CTJP.

Clown
Stanton
Miss Bowser colt

Six. ran.
CHESTER CUP.

Ilighflyer's clam colt
13uckfoot
Leprochaun
Helen

1

Twenty-one ran.
Won by a neck. Length between second and third; two
. lengths between third and fourth.

Lucy Long.
Quoen of Trumps
Light