The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-31 00:00:00

AMERICA.

By the Royal Mail steamship Canada we have
advices from New York to the 17th, and Boston to
the 18th instant. She has brought $232,539 in
specie on freight.
The steamer Europa arrived at New York on the
16th inst.

The Senate had agreed to a resolution directing
the Committee on Naval Affairs to inquire into the
expediency of making some suitable acknowledg-
ment by the United States to the officers and crews
of the British ship Three Bells and the American
vessels Kilby and Antarctic. After a spirited debate
the Bulwer and Clayton treaty had been laid on
the table.

In the House of Representatives the Judiciary
Committee, to whom had been referred a resolution
proposing an amendment of the constitution as to
the mode of electing the President and Vice-Presi-
dent of the United States, made a report stating
that there were evils inseparably connected with the
present mode of election, and offering a resolution
for the appointment of a joint committee to con-
sider the matter and report a remedy. Mr. Ewing's
amendment proposes to abolish the intervention of
electors and distribute the general ticket into the
same number of districts as each State has senators
and representatives.
A meeting had been held at New York and reso-
lutions unanimously adopted to present Captain
Creighton, of the ship Three Bells, Captain Lowe,
of the Kilby, and Capt. Stouffer, of the Antarctic,
with some pieces of plate for their conduct in the
case of the San Francisco. A suggestion was made
in one of the journals to present the former with a
ship.

The packet-ship Continent had arrived at New
York in 42 days from Liverpool, with the loss of
44 of her steerage passengers by cholera.
The remaining persons, with the exception of 16
soldiers and two seamen, of the wrecked steam-
ship San Francisco, had arrived at New York in
the ship Lucy Thompson, having been transferred
from the Kilby. The Kilby, with the remainder,
arrived at Boston on the 17th.

Captain Ericsson, in a letter to the newspapers
respecting the caloric ship, states that there is not
the slightest cause for doubt in relation to this en-
terprise. The new engines are completed, and
have been at work several days, their operation
proving conclusively that the practical difficulties
which attended the first arrangement have all been
overcome. The new engines are much reduced in
size, while their principle of action is the same as
before, with the exception only, that condensed
atmospheric air is employed in place of the ordi-
nary atmospheric for producing the motive power.
This modification admits of an increase of power,
limited only by the capability of retaining the pres-
sure in the machine. Some difficulty has been
experienced in this respect, and it is this which has
caused some delay recently. The obstacle is, how-
ever, nearly removed, and the public will shortly
have au opportunity of judging by practical evi-
deuce of the merits of the caloric ship.
John Mitchell's paper, the citizen, contains the
following instructive information respecting vitriol
as an article of defence :

" A Friend' asks us what the English papers mean
by vitriol. We shall tell him. After the French Revo-
lution of 1848 the United Irishman, Mr. Mitchell's paper,
contained an article giving a minute account of the bar-
ricades and street fighting as practised in Paris, and
among other methods adopted by the citizens for check-
ing the advance of soldiery through the streets, throwing
down furniture and paving stones, firing from behind
windowshutters, &c., the writer mentioned that some
ladies judiciously sprinkled the advancing troops with
vitriol, which was simply a fact : and we may now add
that the same thing was done in Berlin, and with whole-
some effect. Is our friend' shocked ? Foolish friend,
read Froissart, and you will find that melted lead, red-hot
sand, everything that could penetrate the joints of men's
armour, and cause them all the varieties of intolerable
agony, were the common means of defence for cities and
towns—and to facilitate these operations defensive
walls were usually built with projecting machicolations.
Did our friend ever see the Congreve rocket used in the
British service, so cunningly devised for maiming,
scorching, scattering blood and brains ? This is all hy-
pocritical trash. In war, everything that will either
1.5111, hurt, burn, or blast an enemy is good. Bless your
innocent heart ! vitriol is nothing. If there had been,
as there ought to have been, an insurrection in Dublin
11848, and if the women in the upper storeys could have
rained hell fire upon the enemies of their country, they
would have watered the revolutionary garden till it blos-
somed like the rose."
Accounts had reached New York from the city of
Mexico to the sth. An important treaty had been
concluded between Mr. Gadsden, the American
Minister, and the Mexican Government. The
Mexican. treaty agreed to give 39,000,000 acres in
mesilla Valley for $20,000,000, of which $5,000,000
were to be reserved for paying claims, including the
Garay grant, &c. It was understood that Mr. Sloo
pays the Tehuantepec Company $2,000,000 for the
relinquishment of all their rights. The Trait d' Union
notices the Gadsden treaty favourably, and says it
was received with joy by the public. General Lom-
bardini was dead,
and General Almonte had suc-
ceeded him
in command of the army. General
Alcosta, the Minister of War, had resigned on ac-
count of ill health. The details concerning the de-
struction of the Walker expedition to Sonora were
received, but nothing later, except the reported
capture of the Caroline. Galveston advices of the
6th state that Cara,vajal had been acquitted by the
United States' Court. Colonel Sloo had effected
a contract with the firm of Sykes and Co., of Eng-
land, for the construction of a plank road across
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Havannah advices are to the Bth. Very little
business was doing in sugars, owing to the
„small
Stocks. The stock on hand was about 35,000
°°xes- No material alteration in other products.
The New York money-market on the 17th was
easier. Money was in good demand, at 9to 121 7
per cent, for short first-class paper, andper cent.
("1 call. Exchange on London, 109 to 109 f. Be-
fore the arrival of the Baltic's advices, cotton was
dull, with a declining tendency. After the arrival
of the Baltic more activity prevailed, and holders
were unwilling to accept the low offers of buyers.