The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-31 00:00:00

once with your religious duties from whatever quar-
ter it might come." But, in the face of the restora-
tion of the government of the United States, the
bishop expresses his willingness that the prayer for
the President shall be used " as soon as the military
rule shall cease to be exercised over us." "To use
that prayer at present," continues the bishop,
" would be equivalent to wishing the success and
continuance of a domination which, even in its
mildest form, is repugnant to the spirit of any.
people." There is nothing objectionable in this lan-
guage, for the Cabinet does not desire to keep a
military government in any State a day longer than
is necessary. The States have only to obey their
Provisional Governors—and let it be remembered
that the nominees of the inhabitants were appointed
by Mr. Johnson in nearly all cases—and to hold
loyal conventions, and there will be no necessity for
military power. But Bishop Green goes on to state
his opinion that the Northern and Southern Churches
should remain distinct organisations. He refuses to
return to the old bond of union.
So, too, the Bishop of Georgia has announced
that before he could consent to attend the conven-
tion he must be assured the North will pursue a cer-
tain line of conduct. "I was not anxious," he writes
to a journal, " to be myself the first to submit my-
self to the yoke which had been prepared for me."
The four Southern bishops who died during the war
must have their memories guarded. " The reputa-
tion of the dead is in our keeping, and we can fra-
ternise with nobody who would willingly disturb
their ashes." He continues in a passage so expres-
sive of what is held to be the Southern view, that it
is desirable to quote the larger part of it
" You wonder, in your letter, that the Bishop of Georgia
did not lead the way in such action as the Bishop of Texas
has taken. It is very easy for you, sitting in the midst of
plenty, with everything nourishing about you, with the
world fawning upon you because of success, with a future
seemingly as bright as prosperity can make it, to wonder at
our backwardness in acknowledging the blessings of peace
and reunion ; but the case is very different with us whose
homes are desolate, whose friends and relatives and chil-
dren are utterly impoverished, whose social order is totally
subverted, whose future is dark and almost hopeless. I can
humble myself under the mighty hand of God, and I can
call my people to patience and endurance, hut even through
grace I can do no more. Ido not mean to complain. We
entered upon this struggle, which was irrepressible and
forced upon us, after having counted the cost ; but I should
be a hypocrite if I came forward with any smile upon my
face and said that I rejoiced in it. I do not rejoice in it;
but I have taken the oath of allegiance, and mean to keep
it, and I have advised my people to take it and be good
citizens, and above all to do the best for the poor unfortu-
nate negroes, whose future is dark and miserable beyond
conception. Already are they perishing by thousands, and
the whole race will now go out before civilisation (so
called) and competition, as the Indians are doing. We can
survive the change, and one day flourish again, but not
they ; their fate is sealed ; and the edict of Puritanism has
already gone forth, If you cannot and will not work you
must die.' The furthest I can go in behalf of these fana-
tics is to cry Father, forgive thorn, for they know not
what they do.' I cannot write any more now. My heart
is too full. If I have erred, and can be shown my error, I
shall be ready, by the grace of God, to humble myself and
acknowledge my sin ; but until then I wish all my words
and deeds to be before all Israel and before the sun.' lam
afraid of only one judge, and He is the judge of the con-
queror as well as the conquered. Success, with Him, is not
the measure of right and reward."
It is impossible not to respect such sentiments as
th they
these ; but it is likewise painfully impossible not to
perceive with what new and g
menace the people. " This," Lyave the enemies dangers
the South, " this comes of the President's clemency
policy. This is the result of forgiving too easily.
We ought to have punished them with the traitor's
fate, instead of offering to lend them money to re-
pair their railroads and bridges and bring their pro-
duce to market." Language like that of Bishop
Elliott is only beat into fresh bullets to be aimed at
the heart of the South. We do not find Gen. Lee
thus adding oil to the flames of passion. Does he
feel the loss of his cause less than Bishop Elliott?
It cannot be ; but the great leader of the Southern
armies is silent. If he cannot do good he will not
do harm. To all who write to him his advice is said
to be the same—" Return to your homes ; till your
land ; obey the Government. lam your comman-
der no more." There is not less dignity in this
language than in Bishop Elliott's, but it has the ad-
ditional merit of being harmless. The effect of the
bishop's words is shown in the changing tone of the
Northern press. It has, for the most part, been
urging the Government to strive its utmost to recall
the South. It now utters cries of warning. Until
very lately, it has constantly recommended Northern
merchants to aid the South ; now it advises them to
beware of traitors. If this goes on, in what fresh
calamity will it end? " None can be so infatuated,"
says a writer in a North- •• ' •- •• •
to advocated a policy of full and complete amnesty
and forgiveness, " as to suppose that the Union will
continue to look lightly upon that incendiary malice
which seeks to reopen old wounds and provoke, or
perhaps undertake, another national assassination."
In fact, a change is passing over Northern opinion
and feeling. The time may come when all who are
instrumental in producing that change, however
slight their share of the work may be, will have rea-
son to keenly regret their folly.
It may be asked, " Did, then, the North expect
the South to give up all that it had fought for
without a murmur ? Do they ask Southern men
to sing praises to the conqueror while they put on
his chains ?" This is what is sometimes said,
but it is only said by persons who forget the
position which the South made for itself, and
misjudge the position which the North is now
anxious to see it assume. In the first place, it is
not asked to wear chains ; there is no talk of the
conqueror. What is said to the Southern men gene-
rally is pretty much what a Northern said to a
Southern General the other day—" You made a
gallant fight of it, and we only beat you by supe-
rior numbers." And, with regard to expecting the
South to yield without a murmur, it is of little con-
sequence what anybody " expected." What we
know is that unless the South tills its fields it will
continue to starve ; that unless it makes the best of
its land, Northern emigrants will do so instead.
There are some people who are always arguing over
again the causes of this war, as if hungry men could
be filled by that process. The South fought as long
as it could stand, and when it fell its mischievous
friends stood over it and said, " You are not beaten.
Only lie still down there, and your foe will soon be
obliged to give in." They keep repeating this yet.
The consequence is that pressure is being brought
to bear upon Mr. Johnson to take a harsher course
with the Southern States. The South has not a
monopoly of the quality of forgiveness. Has the
North suffered no wrong? Were the treachery of
Buchanan's Cabinet, the robbery of the national
stores, and the precipitancy of a bloody war—were
these all nothing? Are there no desolated homes
in these States ? The Bishop of Georgia should in
quire of his brethren here, and learn.

Whether the attempts of the Government to re-
organise the South prove successful or not, there
was no wise course before Mr. Johnson but to
make the experiment. He has followed closely in the
steps of Mr. Lincoln, who had evidently planned
exactly such a scheme as the one adopted by the
present Administration. In two proclamations
issued by Mr. Lincoln in 1863, in his last Presi-
dential Message, and in the speech concerning the
reconstruction of Louisiana, made only a short time
before his assassination, he exactly marked out the
course which Mr. Johnson and his advisers have
since pursued. The Government, therefore, is en-
titled to the credit of having done all that the
wisdom of those who know the country best can
suggest. It is necessary to ascertain whether
the South can be trusted or not. If Southern
leaders' or Southern sympathisers are anxious
to make the experiment a failure, they may easily
o so, only they ought to be prepared to offer some-
thing better. The Government may be attempting
an impossibility in endeavouring to bring back the
South into the Union, without ruining every South-
ern man. So much the worse for the South if it is
wrong, for it will be very easy for it to alter its
plans, and Southern land will still be included within
the former Union, whatever may become of those
who once occupied that land.

The State Convention of Misosippi hag jusc in-
troduced several ordinances which deserve notice.
One ratifies all judicial proceedirgs and State laws
which have taken place or beat enacted during
64 war ; another prohibits the Legislature from
imposing any Qiyil (Usability or punishment on any

A MYTHICAL ESTATE IN AMERICA.
(From the North, British Mail)
On the 22d July last the following advertisement ap-
peared in the North British Advertiser :—" Wanted, a per-
manent person to go to America to take possession of an
estate. A copy of the title-deeds will be given. Apply at
7 To this, there it;
reason to believe, a largo number of replies were made. From
the applicants one from this city was selected, who was in-
formed by the advertiser that he was deemed a very suitable
person as regarded qualifications and abilities. A corres-
pondence at once took place. The first two or three letters
received here had no signature, and their peculiar and dis-
jointed composition otherwise having suggested the belief
that the statements they contained were in the Baron Mun-
chausen style, the matter was placed in the hands of Mr.
Miller, of the Guardian Society, with a request for advice
and assistance.
The advertiser, who in a subsequent letter signs "M. E.
C. Rochester," and in another "E. M. C. Rochester," goes
on to explain that sho is the heiress of an estate in Ame-
rica, which is situated 350 miles from New York, near
Rochester Vale, and bounded by the Genessee Valley ; that
it formerly belonged to Mr. David Rochester, son of Mr.
David Rochester, minister in America, who died and left the
estate to her under several conditions, one of which was
that she should assume the name of Rochester; that two
trustees were appointed to see the wishes of deceased
carried out, both of whom aro now dead ; that the estate,
for want of a proper person to look after it, had been "shut
up" for two years, and it was for the purpose of rendering it
remunerative that a person was now wanted to go out and
take charge of it ; that the property was worth £50,000,
and a person understanding the cultivation of land would
in the first year clear for himself an income of from £6OO
to £7OO, the extent or boundary being two miles in length
and breadth; tea, wines, and perfumery having been culti-
vated to a great extent, while oils were extracted from the
plants. But now comes the important and essential part of
the business. Tho lady heiress goes on to say that in con-
sequence of the groat trust which would necessarily be re-
posed in the person appointed to take charge of the estate,
a sum of £lOO would require to be deposited in her hands,
and security given for a like sum—the deposit to be re-
turned at the end of the first six months, in the event of
the person appointed proving " honourable," while his
salary would be running on besides. In one of the letters
referred to she states that sho had chosen him (tho Glasgow
correspondent) out of 50, and adds that she has just been
waited on by a respectable party from Warwickshire, who
had brought with him £l5O in money and £2,000 of secu-
rity ; that six others called on her with £lOO of deposit,
and £2,000 of security, but that as they did not know so
much about land as sho wished the had declined their appli-
cations, while she urgently requests the former to come
to Dundee and have a personal interview, when the agree-
ment would be signed and settled.
It was deemed expedient that the heiress should be visited,
and Mr. Miller sent a person from his establishment to see
her and make investigation. The lady was found lodging
in an attic of a four-storey house in a low quarter of Dundee.
She is described as being about 50 years of age, swarthy
complexion, full dark eyes, long dark glossy ringlets, promi-
nent check bones, and wants some of her front teeth. Her
dress is shabby genteel, and she attempts to speak with an
English accent with a slight lisp. On further investigation
it was found that for several years this woman has been living
on her wits, and is known to the police of Dundee as a fortune -
teller and swindler; that on the 11th September, 1862,
she was convicted of falsehood, fraud, and wilful imposi-
tion before the sheriff and a jury at Forfar, when she was
sentenced to 40 days' imprisonment under the name of Helen
Maria Meldrum ; that on the 14th March, 1863, she was con-
victed of theft and fraud before the sheriff at Aberdeen,
under the name of Maria Crichton or Adams. It is said she
imposed on a professional gentleman in Edinburgh by her
story of the large estate, and that he made her certain ad-
vances, till, by correspondence, he ascertained the whole
affair to be a myth.
We hoar every day of the ingenious devices resorted to
by male swindlers throughout the country, but it is a rare
thing to meet with a female possessed of so much impudent
assurance as is displayed in the case we have narrated. Sho
has, however, quite overdrawn the picture. Whoever heard
of the Genessee Valley producing tea and wines ? Though
tho amount of gullibility on the part of some people is quite
astonishing, there is little fear that this woman's story will
bring her the desired £lOO. Not a few, however, must have
been put to inconvenience, loss, and annoyance, and it is
desirable that the career of this female advertiser should
speedily be brought to a close.
T.

HE IV OLVERHAMPTON MURDER.—Yesterday
afternoon the corpse of the murdered woman was interred
near to that of her mother, in the churchyard of Totten-
hall. The prisoner continues to harp upon the money that
was taken from his pockets when he was arrested ; and to
a constable in private clothes who is watching him, but
who he thought was a patient, ho has remarked, "As soon
as I get a little better and can get my money, 1 shall
Look it."