The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-14 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

BETTING AT MANCHESTER—SATURDAY.
EBOR HANDICAP.
7to 1 agst Claremont (taken)
Bto 1 agst Hollyfox (taken)
Bto 1 agst Nemo (taken)
10 to 1 agst Dalby (taken)
ST. LEGER.
6to 4 agst Gladiateur (offered)
12 to 1 agst The Duke (taken)
12 to 1 agst_Christmas Carol (taken)

Bishop Colens° v. the Chancellor of the

Exchequer and others,

Dr. Colenso, Bishop of Natal, has filed in Chan-
cery a bill of complaint against the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Vice-Chancellor Sir W. P. Wood,
the Archdeacon of London, Mr. Hubbard, M.P., the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York,
and the Attorney-General, in consequence of his
salary, which is paid out of the Colonial Bishoprics'
Fund, being withheld. It sets forth that in the
year 1841 the then Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr.
Howley) called a meeting of the clergy and laity at
Willis's Rooms, when it was resolved to make more
adequate provision for spreading the principles of
the Church of England in the colonies and depen-
dencies of the British Crown, the resolutions being
signed by all the Bishops of the United Church of
England and Ireland, who were appointed a com-
mittee ; Mr. Gladstone, Vice-Chancellor Wood, the
Archdeacon of London, and Mr. Hubbard being
appointed treasurers. When the Bishopric of Natal
was founded the council of the Colonial Bishoprics'
Fund agreed with her Majesty's Government to ap-
propriate for ever out of the proceeds of the fund to
the use of the Bishop of Natal the sum of £662105.
per annum. This annual income was duly paid to
the plaintiff after his consecration by the treasurers
down to and including the half-yearly payment due
on the sth of April, 1864, but has not since been
paid, and in the month of July, 1864, the plaintiff
received a notice from the clerk of the treasurers, in
which it was stated that they had directed the salary
hitherto allowed for the Bishopric of Natal to be
reserved and carried to a separate account, adding
the:following reason for so doing :—" The council
having received a caution against continuing to pay
the salary hitherto allowed for the Bishopric of Natal
from the Bishop of Cape Town, on the ground that
he had deprived the Bishop Colenso of that post, and
Bishop Colenso claiming to receive the same, it was
resolved that, under existing circumstances, the
salary be reserved and carried to a separate account."
The plaintiff having stated that he makes the arch-
bishops defendants, as representing the whole of the
Episcopal bench, and that he is advised that her
Majesty's Attorney-General is a necessary party
in respect of the questions which arise concerning
the irrevocable appropriation of a portion of the
fund to the endowment for all time of the see of
Natal, prays as follows :-1. That it may be de-
clared that out of the said Colonial Bishoprics'
Fund a sufficient part has been irrevocably ap_
propriated to the endowment for all time of the
Bishop of Natal for the time being, and that the said
annual income of £662 10s. ought, out of the said
fund, to be duly and regularly paid to the Bishop
of Natal for the time being, and that the same may
be ordered and paid accordingly. 2. That the first
four defendants may, in particular, be declared
trustees for the plaintiff of the two half-yearly pay_
meats reserved and carried to a separate account as
aforesaid, and may be decreed to pay the same to
the plaintiff, with interest, from the dates on which
they respectively became due as aforesaid. 3. That
the defendants other than the Attorney-General
may be decreed to pay the costs of this suit. 4.
That the plaintiff may have such further or other
relief as the nature of the case may require." Au
appearance has been entered on behalf of the de-
fendants, and the case will be argued after the long
vacation.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENOE—This day.

TILE UNITED STATES.

(1, rom the Times' Special Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, Aug. 1.

In the present straitened condition of the United
States Exchequer it is natural that those who have
the control of it should look with wistful eyes to-
twards those States and territories whose enormous
mineral wealth has only recently been discovered.
The course of legislation in America with regard to
its territories has not always been of the most eco-
nomical kind. The Government has been lavish in
the distribution of its wealth, forgetting that the
hour might come when it would need all the re-
sources within its reach. Whether the extra pro-
duction of gold is an addition to the world's wealth
or not, American economists hold that a time of
great production has always been a time of great
prosperity, and they point to the progress made by
Europe and America during the last 15 years in
corroboration of their views. "If our Govern-
ment," they are accustomed to say, " had not given
away its mineral possession in the Pacific States, it
could have fortified itself against the strains it is
now called upon to encounter. We need scarcely
have been inconvenienced pecuniarily by the war,
and our debt would certainly not have assumed its
present proportions." Even now it is not too late
for the Legislature to retrace its steps. What it
has lavished already cannot be recalled, but it may
cease to be prodigal. And as there is reason to be-
lielTß that this subject will be one of the earliest to
engage the attention of Congress, a review of it in
its past and present bearings may not be without
its uses.

When in 1801 the United States Government
bought the French possessions on the Mississippi,
and purchased, or went through the form of pur-
chasing, land belonging to the Indians, Congress
passed a law authorising the sale of all such lands to
colonists at a price not exceeding a dollar an acre.
The Government undertook to defray the cost of
surveying, and for some years the expenditure on
this account was not counterbalanced by the receipts
upon sales of land. But in process of time the
Eastern States became overpopulated, emigration
from abroad flowed towards this continent, and the
tide soon turned in the direction of the West. Then
the sales of land became so numerous that even at
the low rates demanded a large profit was left in
the hands of the Government. This surplus in-
creased so much that it became a source of weak-
ness rather than of strength to the Government, as it
led to corruption, and proved a real embarrassment
to the Administration. After long consideration it
was resolved to lend the money in hand to the
various States, the amount to be distributed pro
rata, according to population, and to be devoted to
educational purposes, internal improvements, and
objects of the like kind. Some of the States declined
at first to receive these loans, but they soon recog-
nized the folly of that course, and ultimately they
were accepted by all. The money thus lent has
never been returned, and although if the States
were called upon to pay it they would be obliged to
do so, yet their financial credit so involves the credit
of the Federal Government that it is quite under-
stood no demand upon them will ever be made.
Thus far the Government had merely been liberal,
and doubtless the stimulus it gave to the progress
and prosperity of the country fully Compensated it.
It was not until three or four years ago that, as some
contend, it squandered its resources, and this hap-
pened in the following way :
An Act was passed in Congress known as the
" Homestead Law," by which any person is em-
powered to claim 160 acres of the territories, or
" wild" land in the West, without paying a fraction
to the Government for them. It is only imposed as
a condition that the land shall be put under culti-
vation. Since that time it has been discovered that
these territories abound in gold and silver, which comes
into the hands of the first emigrant who is adventurous
enough to seek his fortunes in the remote West—
the tract which used to be called the " Far West"
being long since passed. This " Homestead Law,"
as I began by remarking, is now much regretted by
many financiers iu the country. More than one
public man has openly deplored its existence, and
one of the foremost wrote two letters recommending
that it be repealed. To this, however, there would
be many and grave objections. On the faith of the
guarantee given by the Government miners have
gone in large numbers to the mines of the Pacific

States --as for convenience they may be called--and
it is too late to withdraw from any engagement with
them. But might not all lands as yet unoccupied
be claimed by and on behalf of the Government ?
Congress would be reversing its former policy by
assenting to such a course, for so recently as its last
session, it made a law respecting the new State of
Nevada, which was as follows :

"No possessory action between individuals, in any of
the courts of the United States, for the recovery of any
mining title, or for damages to such title, shall be affected
by the fact that the paramount title to the land on which
such mines are, is in the United States; but each case shall
lie judged by the law of possession."

" The law of possession" is no other than the laws
made by the States—i.e., by the miners themselves.
Thus, then, the right of the miner to take up land
and claim it as his own has been reaffirmed, and
those who advocate his interests contend that no
alteration in the law can now be made with any
sense of justice. " At least," they say, " 150,000
of the miners of the Pacific have, for the last 15
years,
devoted themselves exclusively to explora-
tions. All they ask, and all they expect to receive,
is a mine when they find it. No money can buy
this kind of labour. Whatever action Govern-
ment may take, one thing is certain, that the
miner's possession and the miner's right will
never be disregarded." Yet during the last four
years the necessities of the Government have
forced it to disregard more than one " right," and
even to take a liberty here and there with the Con-
stitution, which would have shocked the people of
the United States in 1860, but which, by common
consent, they shut their eyes to in 1865.
This being the position of legislation with regard
,to these States and territories, it is necessary to
glance at the extent of the resources which are in-
volved. The chief mineral districts are Arizona,
Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico. Ari-
zona comprises New Mexico between the 109 deg.
of longitude and the Californian line, and, accord-
ing to Mr.M'Cormick, the secretary of the territory,
it embraces 120,912 square miles, or 77,383,680
acres—a district three times as large as the State of
New York. Besides the enormous mineral wealth
of this region, it is described as having splendid
arable, pasture, and timber lands. `'lt is a quartz
mining country, and only men, therefore, who go
with a little capital can hope to succeed. It is, how-
ever, already largely populated. The Commissioner
of the General Land Office, in a report submitted to
Congress in December, 1863, states that Arizona is
probably richer in minerals than any other territory
of equal extent, and he goes on to say, " The rich
silver mines of Nevada on the north, of Sonora on
the south, which latter have been traced into and
successfully worked into the southern part of the
territory (Arizona), recent discoveries in the valleys
of the Upper Colo
rado and its tributaries, and in
Western New Mexico and Eastern Arizona, all point
to this territory as the grand centre of the immense
mineral deposits of this region." The wealth of
Nevada, the last State added to the Union, is even
greater than that of this territory. Nevada lies
north of Arizona, and west of Utah—the Mormons
'being somewhat discomposed by the presence near
them of a rude and unholy mining population. It is
computed that Nevada could produce twelve and a-
half millions of dollars a day—provided there were a
thousand quartz mills at work, " of a capacity for
-reducing 50 tons each per day." This result is at
present problematical, but what is actually being
done may be inferred from the fact that in Septem-
ber of last year the product of the silver mines of
the district known as Washoe was no less than about
.$75,000 per day. In October, 1862, one of the
-counties in this State, Storey County, sent a contri-
bution of $20,226 22c. to the Sanitary Commission
of the United States. The chief mines are silver,
but quicksilver, lead, and antimony are said to be
abundant. It may be interesting to state that Ne-
vada sent two companies of troops for service in the
war, altogether about 350 men. Colorado, lying
• upon the western slope of the Rocky Mountains,
was made an organised territory in 1861, and in

1863 its mines yielded about $12,000,000. When
the Pacific Railroad is completed Colorado, in com-
mon with the other mineral districts, will find its
property greatly increased. In Idaho, gold, platina,
copper, and iron are said to be very abundant. A
semi-official statement informs us that •" gold has
been discovered on nearly all the tributaries and
head-waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers,
and still further north, reaching to and going beyond
our national boundaries." New Mexico is in a more
unsettled state than either of the above states or ter-
ritories, but its mineral resources also are known to
be very large. Altogether the prognostications of
those who affirm that the day is not far distant
when the product of American mines will reach the
sum of $500,000,000 per annum, however distant of
realisation they maybe, must not be pronounced al-
together visionary, or even extravagant.
It is not necessary to enter into further details to
show that the prize which the United States' Go-
vernment has relinquished is no light one. That
its revenues might be immensely increased by re-
pealing the Homestead Law, and selling its land at
a high rate, cannot be doubted. The question is
whether such a measure would not place a restriction
upon enterprise, and turn aside the capital which is
necessary to bring into use the hidden riches of
these regions. This matter Congress will probably
be called upon to consider, and in the meantime the
financiers may be forgiven if they maintain that in
dealing generously with miners and other pioneers
the Government forgot to be fair to itself, or just
towards the people of the United States as a nation.
The Mexican difficulty continues to wear an omi-
nous look, and the shrewdest amongst the public men
here regard it as the most serious of the troubles
now before the country. As I remarked in a pre-
vious letter, there is no doubt whatever that the
American people are wedded to the Monroe " doc-
trine," and I have since been informed on very high
authority that the Government is fully resolved to
be content with nothing less than the withdrawal
of French troops from Mexico and the retirement of
Maximilian. It will not be precipitate ; it is ready
to wait for months ; but its earnest hope is that
Napoleon, finding that his anticipations of the
success of the Southern Confederacy have not been
fulfilled, will voluntarily abandon Mexico. The
Cabinet believes he would never have gone there at
all but for his confidence in the ultimate establish-
ment of the Confederacy. However this may be,
they hope and think that he will now, in the lan-
guage of the day, " clear out." I doubt whether
the Government has sufficiently considered the fact
that the Emperor Napoleon has not as yet shown
a readiness to " clear out" of any place or position
where he has once established himself, and it is
impossible not to perceive that the confident ex-
pectation which is here entertained that he will
quit Mexico immediately the United States motions
to him to go, may possibly prove fallacious. " The
Emperor," I hear on every side, " will never go
to war with us. Me knows that we are too strong
for him. He will go quietly; if not, our Government
will compel him." That is the state of feeling, but of
course nothing will be done until the meeting of Con-
gress. I repeat, however, the important fact that the
Cabinet is resolved to insist upon carrying out the
Monroe principle, and if it keeps its purpose, and
Napoleon does not change his, it is evident that there
are yet formidable trials before the Republic.
The only news about Mr. Davis is that he is better
in health, and that no official announcement has been
made up to the time I write concerning the date of
his trial.