The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-18 00:00:00

BY ELICTRIC TELEGRAPH.

GRAVESEND, Tuesday Morning.
Arrived, July 17—Forsyth, from Cronstadt ; Parrock
Hall, from St. Kitt's.
Arrived, July 18—Furet, Napoleon, and Walkyaren
from Gravelines ; Agamemnon, from Aalborg ; Marian,
from Malmo; Karsina, from Groningen; Dorothea, from
Stolpemunde ; Clonalvon, from Port Natal.

DEAL, Tuesday Morning.
Passed—Betty, from Singapore for London; Royal Vic-.
toria, from Quebec for Hull; Woodhouse, of Sunderland,
and Eliza Young, of Shields, both from west for north ;
screw steamer Brenda, from Odessa for London ; Hums,
from Richmond for Hull ; Attila and Cross Fall! from
Quebec, and barque Greay, from Grenada, all for London ;
B. B. Green, from London for Cardiff ; Aratic, from west
for north ; barque Pallas and Frenderne, both from west
for London.

The coupons of the Delaware and Raritan Canal
and Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transpor-
tation Companies duo August next will be paid en
presentation at the Consolidated Bank.
_ _

Mr. W. A. Ogg, of Messrs. Prince, Ogg, and Co.,
has joined the London board of directors of the
Southern Insurance Company of Melbourne.
During the last few days there has been very
little animation exhibited in the markets for foreign
and colonial produce. Sugars have only been in
limited request, without any material change as re-
gards prices. Operations in tea have been postponed
until to-day, when a considerable quantity of China
produce will be offered. Coffee and rice have re-
mained dull, at about previous rates, while few
dealings have been reported in either saltpetre or
tallow.

The fine bar silver brought by the West India
steamer has been sold at 60id. per oz., being an
advan6e of id. on the price obtained for that by the
previous packet. Transactions have, however, been
effected in the interval at 60d. and id.
The Union Bank of Australiahaveinvited tenders
on the Ist August next for £500,000 Six per Cent.
Debentures of the colony of Queensland, being part
of a loan of £1,019,000 authorised by the local Le-
gislature for immigration and other works. A pay-
ment of 10 per cent. will be required on allotment,
and the ipmainder on the 12th of October. Tho
debt of the colony previously to the authorisation of
this loan was £831,236.
The following gold ships are announced to be on
their way home from Melbourne :—The Wellesley,
which sailed on the 11th of April, with 4,239 oz. ;
the Suffolk, on the 28th of April, with 31,700 oz. ;
and the Swiftsure, on the 20th of May, with 71,828
oz.—making a total of £429,068.
THE EMIGRANT SHIP WILLIAM NELSON.—The
Jouriud du Havre announces that the following good news
has been rceeivod in a despatch from St. John's, Newfound-
land, under date of the 3d inst. :—" Thirty passengers of
tho William Nelson, which was burnt at sea on the 26th
ult., while on her passage from Antwerp to New York,
have been landed hers by the Meteor, bound from Porto
Rico to Queenstown."

VINDICATION OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.—Mr. Jeffer-
son Davis has suddenly become famous again.
For nearly a month his name, outside of the assassination
trials, has scarcely been mentioned. The talk about ,him
at present has been raised by the publication of a letter
signed by John B. Vau Dien, who claims to have been a
clerk in the Confederate War Department. He says that
iu the latter part of February, 1865, he was present at a
conversation between President Davis, Secretaries Benjamin
and Breckinridge, and two strangers, one of whom was
named Booth. In this conversation Booth said a plan was
formed by parties in the North and Canada to capture or
assassinate Mr. Lincoln ; that he had a full list of names,
and all they wanted was an official recognition on the part
of the Confederate authorities, and then the project would
certainly be executed. He said no pecuniary aid from the
Confederacy was wished, as that was already secured ; that
they were not after gain, but were actuated solely by a de-
sire to render the Confederacy a service, by removing the
tyrant who was the cause of so much suffering, and the only
obstacle in the way of a speedy peace. Mr. Davis and Gen.
Brockinridge, says the writer of this letter, both ex-
pressed their hearty condemnation of the plot, and ad-
vised Booth to think no more of it ; that they were can-
fident their cause was just, and God in His own good time
would give them the victory without their resorting to
anything but the most honourable warfare. Booth was
not convinced, but retired, saying, •‘ Ho must die." Van
pie saysstnatmen
e het, and iswiliing to be "qualified" as to the truth of
this that his business in the Confederate War
Department being to endorse and file away all documents
received there, he knows that no documents wore received
from parties in the North with reference to the assassination
of Mr. Lincoln. Many propositions wore received from the
South, however, offering to capture or assassinate Mr. Lin-
coln for certain sums of money, but they never received
the least attention, and were always passed over without
official notieo. The frankness with which Mr. Van Dien
makes these statements is considered good evidence of their
truth, and there are few persons in the country who now
believe that Jefferson Davis had anything to do with the
assassination. There are no further developments about
his trial, and there is a growing belief that the Government
does not intend to deal harshly with him. There aro ru-
mours, however, that, in addition to the indictment for
treason, counts will be presented charging him with com-
plicity in the assassination. If there over is a trial, it wil
no doubt be had in the district of Columbia.

THE

ATES

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)
PHILADELPHIA, July 3.
In the -United States the end of the month of
June always brings with it a general examination
of the Government finances. It is the end of the
fiscal year. So prompt are now the calculations of
the Treasury Department at Washington that, with
an estimate for about ten days at the end of the
year, the entire receipts and expenditures can be
given almost as soon as the year closes. During
the year just passed the expenditure of the Go-
vernment amounted to the enormous sum of
$1,200,000,000, or over $3,500,000 each day. The
receipts were, from Customs, $76,501,882 22c., a
falling off from the amount received during the
previous year of over 28 millions. From sales of
public lands, the Government received $831,439 40c.
The receipts from the internal revenue were about
$205,500,000—a large increase over the previous
year. The total receipts of the Government from all
sources were $282,833,321 42c. The deficit for the
year was $917,000,000, which was made up from
loans and mortgages on posterity. The present rate
of Government expenditure will continue until
October 1, when a considerable retrenchment can be
effected, but the expenditure for thefiscalyearending I
June 30, 1866, will not be less than $700,000,000,
while the receipts will fall short of $300,000,000.
Loans must be resorted to for some time to come.
This statement of receipts and expenditure brings
with it several other interesting financial exhibits.
The imports at New York for 11 months ending June
1, 1865, were $150,271,911, a decrease of over
$65,000,000 from the first 11 months of the preced-
ing year, when the imports exceeded $215,000,000.
It is supposed by many that the large amounts of
cotton to be shipped to Europe from New Orleans
and other Southern ports will turn the current of
exchange in favour of America; but this expectation
is almost certainof disappointment. It isthe opinion
of commercial men that our imports will increase
largely, but our exports will merely increase in an
infinitesimal degree. Excepting the small cotton
crop of the South, of which enough estimates have
been made to establish its meagreness beyond possi-
bility of doubt, there is nothing the United States
can calculate upon for an increase of exports. The
recent circular of instructions issued by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, by which all the Treasury
agents are dismissed for want of further employ-
ment, will do more to bring the cotton trade back
to a free and legitimate traffic than all else that has
been said and done since the end of the war. All re-
strictions are to end at once, and every Treasury
agent is to close his account as soon as he receives
the circular of instructions. • From and after July 1
the duty of receiving captured and abandoned pro-
perty in the South, with a very few exceptions, will
be discharged by the regular Customhouse officers.
These orders will do much to restore confidence in
trade, especially the cotton trade. Heretofore the
many unseen obstacles that sprang up at all
points in the way of the cotton trade frus-
trated all calculations, and the business was as
bad for all concerned in it as if the blockade had
not been raised. If cotton does not now speedily
come forward, there will be reason to apprehend
that the stock in the South has been over-estimated.
Foreign exchange has been somewhat depressed for
a day or two, but whether this was caused by the
reported insurance of heavy cotton shipments from
Southern ports for Europe, or was the result of
large purchases of Government loans to be sent to
England, cannot be determined. Other orders
from London for American loans are yet to be
filled. 103 is the price named, and the total pur-
chases made and to be made are about $1,000,000.
An interesting statement has recently" been made
of the falling-off of American commerce produced
by the war. In 1860 the commercial movements of
the United States were :—lmports, $400,122,296 ;
exports, $362,163,941. 'Three years of war reduced
this greatly, and in 1864 we find the imports to be
$252,187,587 ; exports, $331,899,459, a decrease of
over 30 per cent. The results for 1865, when offi-
cially announced, will show an even more unsatisfac-
tory stats of affairs. These exhibits, and the fact,
which has been fully demonstrated, that foreign
countries have gained in proportion to our losses,
have caused intense dissatisfaction with the present
tariff Taw, and already its repeal is being extensively
discussed. The Protectionists are becomi ig seri-
ously alarmed, for the state of the public mind is
such that at the next session of Congress a strong
effort will be made to have the tariff altered and the
duties placed upon a basis into which free-trade
principles will enter largely. President Johnson's
wishes for free trade, and the absolute necessity of
avoiding prohibitory duties in order to increase the
imports and the revenue, are hastening the death of
the present tariff. Protection has been proven a
failure, and new counsels will hereafter prevail.
Each day as it passes proves more and more con-
clusively that President Johnson is in favour of
treating the South with generosity. The people
now are universally in favour of moderation. The
question is not now, " What is the best punish-
ment for traitors?" but, " What is the easiest and
speediest mode of restoring Southern prosperity ?"
I do not believe that a single Southern leader will
be tried for treason, or, if tried, will be punished
with death. The newspapers already are outspoken
in favour of Jefferson Davis, and the general wish
seems to be to pardon all the leaders, and forget the
war as soon as possible. President Johnson is con-
tinually in receipt of. anonymous communications
urging the hanging of Mr. Davis, of which the fol-
lowing is a specimen

"Twin Springs, Linn County, Kansas, June 17, 1865.
qfr. President,—Dear Sir,—We would very 'aspect-
fully request you to have Mr. President Davis hung, be-
cause we want him hung. If you don't hang him, there
might bo a few from Kansas to do it for you. Pleare let us
know what you will do about it.
" Very respectfully,

"MANY CITIZENS."
The commentary of the New York Tribune, the
leading Radical Republican organ, upon this is," It
is not at all probable that Mr. Johnson will be in-
timidated by the indignant intimations of ' many
citizens,' or by any similar communications coming
from anonymous sources." Mr. Davis's case, in
America, is considered an extreme one, but I
scarcely believe that one-third the people of the
North are in favour of hanging him. The Govern-
ment is resolutely opposed to taking any steps in
the matter, and he is no nearer a trial to-day than
he was when captured in Georgia. In short, Mr.
Davis is just now a huge elephant, and neither Go-
vernment nor people know what to do with him.
Could he be suddenly removed from the face of
the earth all would feel heartily relieved.
General Ewell, well known as the successor of
Stonewall Jackson, has written a letter to a friend
_from his prison in Fort Warren, Boston, in which
he speaks of the manner in which he espoused the
Southern cause. lie says, on returning sick from
Arizona in the spring of 1861, he found the war just
begun, all the highest United States' army officers
resigning, and General Scott publishing in a letter
that the United States would divide into four parts,
showing that he thought all was over. A. United
States' senator said he would march a Northern regi-
mentto help the South for every one sent against her,
and a California Congressman called for forcible re-
sistance to the inauguration of President Lincoln,
yet nothing was done with any of these men. Gen.
Ewell says he took up arms with the South from a
painful sense of duty, and by doing so he lost a fine
position, for all the pay he received in four years
from the Confederate Government was not as much
as one year's pay in the old army. Now he lan-
guishes in prison, while persons who did all they
could to bring about the war are in favour in the
North and holding high office. Howell Cobb, of
Georgia, was in Macon recently, and counselled on
the part of the people a cheerful obedience to the laws
of the United States. He believed slavery to be dead,
and thinks the South will have a prosperous future.
President Johnson has at length issued his procla-
mation for the reconstruction of South Carolina. It is
in all its parts similar to those already promulgated
for the other Southern States. Benjamin F. Perry
is named for provisional Governor, and he is said to
enjoy the confidence of a large portion of the people
of the State. Florida is now the only State to be
reorganised. Affairs in the South look more hope-
ful than they did some time since. In many places
the crops have been gathered, and they will for