The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-26 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(Prom a Correspondent of Times.)
PHIL4DELPHIA, Sept. 12.

The recent remarks of the Times deprecating any
cessation of peaceful relations between England and
the United States have been received with marked
attention throughout America. That our people
are hostile to England, thatthey avail themselves of
every opportunity, of every public meeting—no
matter for what purpose it may be called—to heap
abuse upon England, and to apparently stir up dis-
sension between thetwo countries, no one will deny;
but the hostility goes no further than mere talk ; it
is only the froth of the orator, not the heartfelt de-
sire prompted by real or fancied wrongs. It is the
fashion withus to abuse England, as it is the fashion
with England to ridicule America, and has been for
years ; and though our newspapers are filled with
invective, and everything that turns up, whether it
be a border raid, a rebellion, or an epidemic, is re-
garded by them as a just cause for immediate war,
no one who truly understands the American people
anticipates for an instant that war will ever begin.
The ties between England and the United States
are far too strong to be broken by an ordinary ex-
citement, nnd with us the talk of war has con-
tinued too long the universal custom for any one to
believe it serious. If the war tide gets too high,
prudent counsellors at once appear, and it ebbs
again. Ever since the war of 1812 this course has
continued, and for two generations our people have
lashed themselves into periodical excitement against
England, but the enmity was only on the surface.
Beneath was always found a settled idea, that while
it was fine to abuse England it was not at all
necessary to go to war with her. The true Ameri-
can feeling was shown when the Prince of Wales
visited us. No popular American chieftain was
ever received more tenderly or more kindly treated
than he. The entire American nation was at his
feet, and were he to come again the self-same story
would be told of us. To-day a company of English
capitalists are travelling through the United States,
attended with the most jealous care by the people,
having every want supplied and every wish antici-
pated, and yet, in the midst of all, the abuse of Eng-
land continues. A stranger visiting us might well
think all this invective meant something; he might
believe the Fenians, parading about with tawdry
banners, howling against England in uncouth Celtic,
were not the most harmless set of people in the world,
and could well be excused for his mistake, for when
he realty found us out he would discover as the brave
Tatnall did in the China seas, " that blood was
thicker than water," and that while America some-
times said hard things of her mother she never came
to blows.

The great assurance that there can be no war is
the feeling of the Government of the United States.
The President and all his Cabinet consider that the
breaking of peaceful relations would be very foolish,
and they are prepared to make anyhonourable sacri-
fice to maintain them. They have an econimical fit,
too; a war would cost money, and nothing could
now induce them to spend it. The people are crying
out for retrenchment, and so earnestly has the Pre-
sident laboured to save money that he has at length,
by dismissing subordinates and disbanding armies,
reduced the expenditure of the Government within
the revenue. The machine has run down, and so
pleased are all at the prospect of relief from its bur-
dens that no excitement against England, however
great, can for many a long year wind it up to the
tension necessary for a war. The army has been re-
duced until now barely 200,000 soldiers are on the
rolls, and of these between 5,000 and 8,000 are dis-
banded weekly. No ordinary excitement can again
s well the ranks, and the Federal army at present under
arms is too busily engaged in keeping the Indians
quiet and guarding various rebellious spots still exist-
ing in the South, to be spared for Canadian forays
or transport across the ocean. No Englishman need
fear an American war, and the louder we blow the
trumpet of abuse the greater assurance he may have
that there is nothing but wind in it.

The standing army of the United States on Sept. 1
consisted of 18,000 regulars, 100,000 white volun-
teers, and 90,000 negroes. Of these 150,000 were
in the tie1d,.20,000 in hospital, and the others either
absent on leave or preparing for muster out of the
service. Large reductions are still to be made in
the army, for the President intends at a very early
day to substitute for the troops now garrisoning the
Southern States the old-time militia force under the
control of the State Governments. By Jan. 1 the
only United States' troops needed will be those in
the Indian country on the Rio Grande, and the
garrisons of the forts along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts. The Southern States will be free from mili-
tary control, excepting by their own State Militia.
The President, on the Ist September, wrote to Go-
vernor Sharkey, of Mississippi
it is believed there can be organised in each county a
force of citizen militia to preserve order and enforce the
civil authority of the State and of the United States, which
would enable the Federal Government to reduce the army
and withdraw to a great extent its forces from the State,
thereby reducing the enormous expenses of the Govern-
ment."

The President began with Mississippi because it
was the first State the Reconstruction Convention of
which had met and re-established the State Govern-
ment, and he will follow the same course in every
other State as fast as the Conventions meet and
restore the laws. Governor Sharkey has begun the
formation of his militia, and the Federal military
authorities, who had first pfohibited it, have been
ordered to keep their hands off. The withdrawal
of Federal troops has begun, and they are assem-
bling at Jackson, preparatory to going North. So
much pleased are the people with the prospective re-
storation of the civil power that the Jackson (Mis-
sippi) Daily News has nominated Andrew Johnson
for the next presidency. The Radicals curse him
more bitterly than ever, and on all sides threaten an
impeachment ; but the Democrats gradually draw
more closely to him, and before very long he will
receive their heartiest support.
ThatthePresident is bent on a very Conservative
course there is not the slightest doubt, and addi-
tional evidences are dailygiven that he meditates an
universal amnesty. His views on the question of
confiscation have undergone a complete change, and
by recent orders all confiscations of Southern pro-
perty are stopped, and although a legal course of
confiscation is pointed out, it is with so many checks
and obstacles that very few estates can be seized.
He has ordered the military all through the South
to allow the people the most enlarged liberty com-
patible with the preservation of order and the secu-
rity of emancipation. Trade restrictions are an-
nulled ; the mere swearing to support the Constitu-
tion of the United States makes a man a citizen ;
men whom the Southern people indicate are made
their civil officers ; and to the Conventions is
left the exclusive right of designating who shall be
voters. The South is being restored to its original
independence and prosperity as rapidly as the poverty
of the people and the awful desolations of war will
allow. 'The only thing Baur
ing the happy prospect
is the fear in some quarters of a war between the
arri-
e
and, to prevent this the g
,
whites and blacks,
sons in.the interior of Georgia and Alabama
hav
and arms taken away from
both strengthened,
both blacks and whites. It is thought the vigilance
of the military can keep off an intestine war,
but there certainly is much bad blood con-

tinually visible.
Mr. Seward, who has for some time past been
labouring in the cause of Maximilian, has at length
convinced the President and all the Cabinet but Ur.
Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, that Maximilian,
is really the ruler of Mexico ; that the Juarists are
broken up ; and that the wisest course for the
United States to pursue is to. treat Maximilian as
the Emperor and ultimately recognise his govern-
ment. Several Cabinet Councils have been held in
which Harlan so strenuously supported Juarez and
urged the President to send him aid, that the Pre-
sident at the last meeting rebuked him for his en-
deavours to embroil the country in a foreign war.
The President is not yet prepared to recognise Maxi-
milian, but the recognition will come some day, and
at present the policy of the country is fixed not to
give Juarez the slightest encouragement.
These are very lively times in Missouri, and all
other questions are absorbed in the paramount one
raised by the refusal of the clergymen and others to
take the test oath imposed by the new Constitution.
This oath is not only required of clergymen, but of

lawyers, grand jurors, and a variety of other civil
officers. The Governor has done nothing yet against
the non-juring clergymen, and to more than one
person has acknowledged himself powerh ss to en-
force the law. In the case of lawyers and grand
jurors, however, the Courts have a direct power, and
in several cases gentlemen have been turned out of
court who were conscientiously opposed to taking
the oath. Some smart individuals who were in this
predicament have caught the authorities in a well-
arranged snare. The oath required to be taken makes
the citizen of Missouri swear that at no time since
the beginning of the war has he given aid or com-
fort to the enemies of the State, or even wished
them success. This of course was aimed at the
Southern sympathisers, but was a little too sweeping
in its provisions, for in the early days of the war
the Missouri State Government was itself tinctured
with secession, and the enemies who opposed and
finally overthrew it were the very Radicals who
now wish to force this oath down the throats of the
people. So, early last week, in St. Louis, when the
judges of the courts called upon the lawyers and
grand jurors to file the evidence of their having
taken the oath, a certain John How, who was called
as a grand juror, met the judge of the criminal
court with the following protest :

"In view of Article 111. of the new constitution which
is referred to in the oath .1 am required to take as a grand
juror, I wish to state that in the winter of 1860 and spring
of 1861 I was in constant consultation with other citizens of
St. Louis seeking and preparing to overturn the then State
Government of Missouri ; that, as one of a committee of
safety appointed by President Lincoln, I urged on General
Lyon the use of all his power and arms to depose said
State Government. In short, I was loyal to the United
States and disloyal to the State Government. I would,
therefore, respectfully ask of the honourable court to be
excused from serving as a grand juror.—l am, very respect
fully, your obedient servant, "Jona; How.

"St. Louis, Sept. 4.
" Hon. Judge Primm, Criminal Court."
The judge could do nothing but excuse Mr. How
from serving as a grand juror, and the new phase
of opposition to the oath thus developed has consi-
derably complicated matters. As the oath now cuts
both ways—against Radicals as well as against
every one else—the prospect of its soon becoming a
dead letter is very bright.
The President has lately been importuned by the
Radicals to compel the Southern branches of the
various Churches to reunite with the Northern
ones, and to force the Episcopal bishops in the
South to read the prayers for the health and long
life of the chief magistrate. He has positively re-
fused to interfere in either case, and has strictly en-
joined all subordinates not to even appear to influ-
ence the subject. He told the Radicals the
Constitution gave him no power in the premises,
and he did not see fit to take it. To a prominent
Episcopal layman in New York the President has
written a letter, stating that, while he would in no
case interfere in the matter, he " expressed the hope
that the right hand of fellowship would be given to
the Southern dioceses, in order that at least one of
our great religious denominations might preserve
its national organisation." The President thinks
the example of confraternity among the Episcopal
dioceses will have a powerful influence upon Con-
gress when the Southern members apply for admis-
sion during the coming winter. The Methodists,
North and South, are still hammering away at each
other, and all hope of reunion for them is out of the
question. Their hatred of each other seems inten-
sified by the restoration of peace.
General Steedman, who commands the Federal
military in Georgia, has reported to Washington
that a conflict between the whites and blacks is
imminent, and so incensed are the planters at the
partiality for the negro shown by the Government
that he fears a new insurrection. To counteract
this he has ordered all the citizens of Georgia to
deliver up to the military authorities before Septem-
ber 30 such arms as they possess, and that after the
expiration of that time the provost-marshals shall
seize all they can find. Whether General Steedman's
information be true cannot, of course, be determined,
but it is very strange that Georgia should be the only
State requiring rigorous measures to suppress an in-
cipient rebellion. It is quite probable that Steedman's
Radical notions have somewhat warped his judg-
ment. General King, one of his subordinates com-
manding at A.ugusta,is so much in lovewith a paper
currency that he has annulled all contracts made in
his district on a gold basis. The people, it seems,
cannot sell their goods for the only money there i&'
any safety in receiving.
From Virginia it is reported that the first negro
mail carrier ever employed by the United States has
been awarded the contract for a route near Leesburg
on the Upper Potomac. Destitution still exists in
many parts of Virginia, and it is said that a grand-
daughter of Chief Justice Marshall and a descen-
dant of Thomas Jeffersen are among those who daily
beg their bread of the Federal Commissaries. On
the 4th of September the elections for delegates to
the Reconstruction Convention were held through-
out South Carolina. The Southern Rights ticket
was universally successful, no other being voted in
many places.• The more sincere a candidate had been
in his services to the Confederacy the more votes he
received. In Alabama the restrictions upon ship-
ments of cotton to the seaboard have been removed,
and the trade is now free. Large receipts are in
consequence reported at Mobile, and prices are less
firm. At New Orleans, however, the receipts are
said to be decreasing rapidly, and prices are advanc-
ing. General Canby, at New Orleans, who seems
to be pursuing a confiscation policy on his own ac-
count, has forbidden the corporation of the city to
interfere with the sale or lease of the wharves, as he
claims them as captured property of the Government.
All the white soldiers now on garrison duty in Ken-
tucky are to be disbanded and sent home. This is in
accordance with the President's policy of gradually
withdrawing the troops from the Southern States.
At the endof September the only troops in Kentucky
will be 5,000 negroes, and the next State election
will be comparatively free from military interference.
A strong effort is being made by the New York
Chamber of Commerce to procure the passage of a
law by the approaching Congress for the payment '
of customs in legal tenders. It is thought, should
such a law be passed, there would be a speedy re-
turn to specie payments. The Chamber of Com-
merce wishes to procure the endorsement of its
views by all the Boards of Trade throughout the
country, but thus far in other countries it has only
developed antagonistic views. Gold and corn
speculators are afraid of a return to a specie basis.
Nothing new is developed in financial circles. Dur-
ing last week $2,500,000 in 5-20ths were sold to
foreign houses, and the orders this week promise to
be quite as heavy.

On the 2d of October the first pitched battle on
the question of negro suffrage will he fought in
Connecticut. On that day the people vote for or
against a constitutional amendment decreeing negro
suffrage throughout the State. There are no side
issues to warp the judgment, and the election will
be a fair test of the vexed question. The Repub-
licans have taken sides for the amendment, the De-
mocrats against it. The Radicals do not seem to
be very sanguine of the early success of their dar-
ling idea, for the New York Tribune argues that,
although there will be present defeat, there will be
pocrataie_ncew..
ultimate victory, and urges the friends of the negro
In Ne.w. York. city a portion of
the havedern
and cYno are dissatisfied with the plat-
form Democratic con candidates adopted by the recent State
to be hevldeni
Convention have called a State Con-
vention,Fernando Wood is at theewYo
York on September 18.
but the rank and file do not give bottom o.
it much
the movement,
They will ultimately unite in voting forthe support.
ticket, or at most will take away but a
smairlenguular
num-
ber of votes.
It is announced that Edwin Booth, the tra-
gedian, brother of J. Wilkes Booth, has been per-
suaded to abandon his retirement, and again appear
on the stage. He will appear at the Winter Garden
Theatre in New York about the Ist of October, and
preparations are being made to give him a magni-
ficent reception.
The Navy Department has recently ordered a gun-
boat to sail by way of the St. Lawrence to Detroit

and the Lakes. This action of the Government is
important, as it confirms the termination of the long-
existing treaty stipulations between Great Britain
and the United States, restricting the naval force on
the Lakes.

The Federal military have driven the hostile La-

dians right and left from the overland mail and
telegraph routes to California. The wires are again
working and stages running. The Indians are in
heavy force, however, at various points on the wes-
tern border, and fully 50,000 Federal troops are
required to watch them.
Over 400 miles of the Russian-American telegraph
have been completed on the Pacific coast of Rus-
sian America. The work is progressing rapidly,
and bids fair to be completed before a cable can be
laid across the Atlantic. There are many tele-
graphic enterprises on the tapir in America. Be-
sides a proposed line connecting South America,
Cuba, and Porto Rico with Florida, and another
between Cuba and Vera Cruz, an American com-
pany has -procured from Maximilian the exclusive
right to construct various lines in Mexico. They
are to have 15 years' monopoly of the business, pro-
vided they construct 125 miles in eight months.
There is very little news reported from Mexico.
The French troops on the Rio Grande are to be with-
drawn, and their places supplied by native Mexicans.
Baron de Bruan, a Mexican officer, who recently
wrote an insulting letter to the Federal General
Brown, whereby the peaceful relations of the two
countries were endangered, has been dismissed. As
another peace-offering to the North, it is announced
that Maximilian will not receive any Confederate
officers in his service.

The delegation of English financiers who are
visiting America are at present in the oil region of
Pennsylvania. On Saturday, September 9, they
were entertained at a grand banquet at Meadville,
Pennsylvania, by the directors of the Atlantic and
Great Western Railroad. Sir S. Morton Peto spoke
on behalf of the delegation in reply to the speeches
of welcome, and after partaking of an elegant re-
past the company broke up—the guests well pleased
with the hospitality extended them by the people of
America. They will spend the greater part of the
present week in closely examing the oil region.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

EAST GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

The report of the directors adverted to the defeat
of the bill brought before Parliament last session
for enabling the Midland Company to subscribe
£lOO,OOO towards the capital of the East Glouces-
tershire Company. The rejection of this bill had
placed the directors in a position of considerable
difficulty, preventing the signing of the contract for
the construction of the line. Subsequent commu-
nication took place with the Midland Company,
which resulted in a resolution of the Midland Board
authorising an agreement by which they were to
work the East Gloucestershire Railway when com-
pleted, upon terms which would secure payment of 5
per cent. per annum upon £300,000 of A or preferred
stock, and £200,000 of debentures, and the applica-
tion of the additional earnings (after payment of the
working expenses) to the payment of dividend on
the deferred capital. The Great Western Railway
Company, however, disputed the right of the Mid-
land Company even to enter into an agreement for
that purpose, and the question had accordingly been
referred to the arbitration of. Capt. Galton, the re-
feree appointed by the Board of Trade. In this
state of things an arrangement had been made with
the contractors to continue the works upon terms
which the directors, under the circumstances, con-
sidered desirable for the interests of the company.
The call payable in May last had been well responded
to, and a large part of the Parliamentary expenses
in obtaining the act, as well as the purchase money
for land taken, had been paid.
The report of Mr. Liddell, the engineer, stated
that the works of the line commenced in the spring
had been limited to that part which required the
greatest length of time for its completion—viz., the
Sandywell tunnel and excavations—and in which
considerable progress had been made.