The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-24 00:00:00

meeting of the citizens of seven counties of Virginia,
between Richmond and Lynchburg, has been held,
at which the rate of wages to be hereafter given the
negroes was fixed. The farm hands are to have $5
a month, and $1 a day during harvest time. The
employer boards the negro, but the negro will have
to clothe himself, and pay for his medical attend-
ance. This arrangement will rule in Virginia, and
probably throughout the South. The system was
adopted in North Carolina before it was in Virginia,
and is said to be working successfully.
The amnesty proclamation is still a subject of dis-
cussion. It is reported that many of the wealthy
Southerners who signed Mr. Lincoln's proclamation
of amnesty are congratulating themselves that they
escaped the proviso in President Johnson's which
exempts from pardon all persons who are worth
more than $20,000. This proviso is considered
superlatively foolish. Considerable difficulty is an-
ticipated in carrying out the provision that exempts
from pardon all persons who left this country for
the purpose of aiding the South in foreign lands.
The more prominent of these are of course well
known, but the difficulty is to ascertain the thou-
sands who went abroad and kept their movements
in the dark. The exemption will give rise to unend-
ing false swearing and fraud.

The assassination trial has continued all this
week, but, as nearly every witness called has been
merely asked questions concerning Dr. Mudd's or
Mrs. Surratt's character, or Payne's insanity, or
Atzeroth's cowardice, the trial has been almost devoid
of interest. One of the witnesses on June 8 testified
that the Union Leagues had a secret branch, the
members knowing eoch other by a system of Free-
mason signs. This public development of a secret
political body extending all over the country has
startled the people. The days of " Know Nothing"
clubs are revived.

The Federal armies are being rapidly disbanded.
Eighty thousand soldiers have already left the camps
at Washington for home. The Texas expedition has
all left Fortress Monroe, the last transports sailing
on June 8. Texas and Western Louisiana are to be
held by military occupation. The garrisons in other
parts of the South, except in the large cities, will be
gradually removed.

It is reported that Trenholm, the Confederate
Secretary of the Treasury, is at Abbeville, South
Carolina ; that Robert Toombs has committed sui-
cide in Georgia; and that John C. Breckinridge
has escaped from the Florida coast.
All Confederate prisoners of less rank than major
are to be released at once. Six thousand imprisoned
Confederate officers have asked for pardon under
the provisions of the amnesty proclamation. Ten
guerillas were hung last week by the people of Cass
county, Georgia.

Vessels are now at City Point, Virginia, taking
on board the French tobacco so long stored in Rich-
mond. It is to be shipped to France.

The United States Government has demanded
from Spain the surrender of the Stonewall, now lying
at Havannah. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed
for the receipt of a reply. It is reported at Wash-
ington that the claims for damages inflicted by the
Alabama will be pressed by this Government ; but
the indications are that they will not be pressed so
far as to cause a rupture between the two countries.
Two hundred thousand people in Virginia, white
and black, are daily fed by the Government. Eleven
thousand of them are in Richmond. In Georgia it
is stated that small change is so scarce that eggs are
used as currency.

It is stated that the Mexican Liberals have issued
letters of marque against French commerce, both
on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

• -

TIMES.—The Select Committee on the operation
of the Court of Referees, after hearing the evidence
of many witnesses, has arrived at a decision which
was easily to be foreseen. In the main object of
saving the time of members the experiment could
not fail to be successful. A part of the inquiry has
been unnecessarily lengthened, but the issues on
which the Referees exercised exclusive jurisdiction
have been of course withdrawn from the cognizance
of Select Committees. In former years little stress
was laid on engineering details, except for purposes
of comparison with some alternative scheme, and the
estimates were in general accepted, without investi-
gation, on the faith of the engineer for the promoters.
Opponents have been encouraged to raise both
classes of questions before the Referees in the hope
of obtaining decisions which are conclusive in their
favour. An awkward curve or gradient was not
necessarily fatal when it was of considerable public
benefit ; but the report of the Referees that the
works were in themselves objectionable has practi-
cally prevented the further progress of the Bill to
which it applied. In the far more numerous cases
in which the engineer has passed the preliminary
ordeal it may be said that the time and expense of
inquiry have been absolutely wasted. It was ex-
tremely unlikely that a bridge or a tunnel designed
by an engineer of the highest rank would be either
impracticable in itself, or obviously injurious-to any
important work or navigation ; but it was the duty
of the Referees to hear evidence against the project,
and in one or two instances they have devoted
a week or ten days to the inquiry. A small frac-
tion of the time would have sufficed to exhaust the
controversy before a Select Committee. Several
bills have been stopped on the ground that the esti-
mates were insufficient, and it may be assumed that
in future Sessions engineers will take the simple
precaution of allowing a margin. It may be
doubted whether a liberal estimate will promote
economy of construction, and it is certain that it
will involve an additional burden in the form
of interest on the deposit. if any estimate
' has been intentionally placed too low, the pro-
moters have deserved the penalty they have
incurred, but the public interest may have been
compromised by the postponement of a useful un-
dertaking. Mr. Wilson Patten, who guides the
judgment of the House on all questions relating to
private business, has long held the opinion that Par-
liament would do well to abandon its private juris-
diction. It was probably with this purpose that he
established the system of Referees, and the Com-
mittee over which he presided now recommend the
House to take further steps in the same direction.
In the next Parliament it is proposed that three
permanent courts should sit throughout the Session,
under the presidency of as many salaried members.
The chairman of committees, with two or three
assessors, will determine questions of locus standi,
or of the right of petitioners to appear. There is
no difference of opinion as to the convenience of
referring this part of the inquiry to a permanent
tribunal, and the decisions of the referees on the
subject have been generally received with satisfac-
tion. The chairman of two additional courts are
also to be members of the House, and it is evidently
unreasonable to expect that heavy judicial labours
should be performed without remuneration. On the
other hand, it is probable that sticklers for Parlia-
' mentary precedent will object to the payment of
members, especially as they will be withdrawn from
the discharge of more legitimate duties. The func-
tions of the chairman of committees, who is now
the only paid member, with the exception of the
Speaker, are essentially Parliamentary. A paid
judge or juryman receiving evidence on estimates
and gradients can scarcely be said to act as a repre-
sentative of the people. The proposal of the com-
mittee is evidently intended to prepare the way for
an entire abandonment of private legislation by the
House of Commons. The other members of the
court are not necessarily to have seats in Parliament,
and it is evident that no member of the House will be
found to undertake so thankless and onerous an office.
When there is a question whether a duty shall be
discharged gratuitously or at a handsome salarythere
can be little doubt of the result. During the present
Session two gentlemen of opposite politics, favoured
respectively by the heads of the two great parties,
have received £l,OOO a year each for acting as as-
sessors to the Chairman of Committees or to Mr.
Adair and Mr. Hassard. If the House of Commons
proceeds to create several other paid offices in its
own patronage, a strange innovation will have been
introduced into constitutional practice. The com-
mittee recommend that the jurisdiction of the re-
ferees shall be largely extended. The Court is to
examine the engineering merits of alternative and
competitive lines of railway as well as of the pro-
jects which are primarily submitted to their notice,
and in all cases, with consent of parties, the referees
may hear evidence and report on the whole bill to
the House. 'I he committee mentions, with appa-
rent approval, the suggestion of one of the witnesses
that the Chairman of Ways and Means, the chair-
man of the chairmen's panel, and one other member
should, at the commencement of each session, select
such private bills as, in their opinion, ought to go
before the referees, and that the latter should con-
sider the whole matter and report their recommen-
dations for adoption to the House. As there would
be no intelligible principle to guide the discretion
of the Chairman of Ways and Means and his
colleagues, it is improbable that the House will
place in their hands so arbitrary and invidious
a power. It is impossible to anticipate the opeta-