The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-22 00:00:00

STORY OF A SOMNAMBULIST.

The inhabitants of a Silesian village were recently
startled by the announcement that tone of their number
—a young girl—had become a somnambulist, and that she
saw visions, and had received the gift of prophecy to an
unprecedented degree. Instantly the interesting creature's
fame was spread far and wide, and people made
long journeys to enjoy the privilege of seeing and
hearing her. At last, tired of easy triumphs at home, she
resolved to go forth to new conquests among strangers,
and consequently set out for a neighbouring village. Here
she was received by many admirers, and conducted to a
dwelling prepared for her beforehand. Hundreds of
people at once came crowding to the house to catch a
glimpse of the far-famed' prophetess, and, resolved
not to disappoint them she announced her intention
to proceed with one of her mysterious ceremonies forth-
with. She began by asking the crowd to sing a hymn, in
the midst of which, marvellous to say she opportunely
fell asleep. Just as the singing was about to cease, she
rose from the stool on which she was sitting,
and in a state of trance, lay down on the floor
with her arms stretched out so as to form the shape
of a cross. In this position she was raised by
her friends end carried to a sofa. Then commencd
the real part of the performance. With upturned eyes,
and every feature expressing the most rapt devotion, she
declared to the eagerly listening audience that she saw
" the heavenly Jerusalem ;" and then followed
glowing descriptions of unearthly splendour, and
music such as never greeted mortal ears. By
and bye she came down to more mundane
subjects, denouncing unbelievers, and threatening them
with the most awful punishments. She ahen uttercd
many prophecies, some of a rather personal character—
one that she was herself soon to pass on foot from Europe
to America 1 At this point the startling disclosures were
brought to a sudden stop by the entrance of the
police, who, Certain that so large a number of
people could be about no good, pressed forward, and
took " the observed of all observers " into custody, Let
us hope that some vision was vouchsafed to her by which
she soon escaped from the hands of her very unpoetic and
unbelieving persecutors. But meanwhile it does not say
a great deal for the much-boasted culture of the German
people that so many of them should give such ready
credence to so obvious an impostor.—Globe.

An inquest on the body of the late Mr. J. C.
W. Lever, formerly manager of the Starand Garter, at
Richmond, has been held. The deceased perished in the
fire which destroyed this well-known hotel on the 12th of
January last, and his remains were not discovered until
a few days ago. A verdict of accidental death was re-
turned.

The Era points out a practical difficulty which will
always prevent the use of the new theatre in the Hay-
market as a house for the production of grand opera. It
is too small to pay. The very limited stage in the old
house has been replaced in the new building by a hi, -ger,
at the expense of the " seatage." The consequence is that
where there was space in the old building for 300 stalls,
there is not room in the new for more than 120.

That the principle of loading guns from the breech
is not an invention of the present day is a fact that has
been brought to our notice through the kindness of an
eminent London gunmaker. We have been favoured
with a gun made by one Barber, of Newark, in the last
century, which not only loads from the breech, but
charges, primes, and cocks itself, by one action. The
pawder and bullet magazines are on either side of the
stick, and we need hardly add, it is a flint gun. —Land
and Water.

ROUMANIA.—The last news from Roumania is
very unfavourable, and the situation of Prince Charles is
described to be most critical. The agitation partakes of
a double character, one part of the Opposition wishing to
restore Prince Cong and the other endeavouring to secure
a Republic. The latter is conducting itself with great
violence, and one of its organs in the press calls upon the
Roumanians to resort to arms and chase the German in-
truder from the sacred soil of Roumania, in order that
they may proclaim a Republic with Jean Bratiano at its
head.

MEnco.—The latest advices from Mexico foretell
new disturbance of a serious character. Hostilities have
broken out in the Magatlan district, and revolutionary
proclamations are rife. A strong opposition to Juarez is
said to be the cause of the trouble. There is a movement
in favour annexation to the United States. Many of the
best citizens favour annexation in the hope of permanent
peace. Filibustering is said to have begun in California,
and it will no doubt be responded to from the States and
territories lying along the Northern Mexican boundary
and also from the South.

OALCRAFT'S RETAINEIL—In consequence of the
respite of the convict Cunningham, Mr. West Watson,
City Chamberlain, on Thursday, intimated to Calcraft,
who had been engaged to carry out the last sentence of
the law, that his services would not be required. As one
of the stipulations of that dread functionary on accepting
an engagement is the payment of £5 in the event of his
not having to leave London, that sum was remitted along
with the communication.—North British Mail.

PROVINCIAL GAMING HOUSES.—A correspondent
informs us that "in Windsor, almost under the shadow of
the Castle walls, and at the back of the Town Hall,
a gambling-house has been open during the Ascot
and Windsor race meetings for many years past."
"It is kept," he says, "by a cheerful fraternity
of night-house proprietors and betting men, and large
sums change hands nightly under their auspices. The
Windsor police can hardly be said to be unaware of its
existence, as I have before now been shewn the way to it
by one of that active and intelligent body of men. Would
it be too much to ask, in the interest of public morality,
that steps should be taken to put a stop to the nuisance ?"
—Pall Mall Gazette.

SPARTAN HEROISM IN THE PRESENT DAY.—Th()
New York Army and Navy Journal comments very tem.
perately and sorrowfully on the subject of the collision
between the Bombay and Oneida, and says :—" Spartan
heroism survives to-day ; but where Spartan civihsation
taught its sons to save first those who were most useful
to the Republic and to leave quickest to perish the
infirm and helpless, Christian gallantry gives the first
chance of life in stress of peril to those who are
too weak to seize it for themselves, and snatches first from
death the sick and suffering. The spectacle of that boat-
load of 'sick survivors saved out of the wreck, in which,
standing by their posts, the brave and strong went man-
fully down, is noble and pathetic: Nor are such spectacles
lost to the world, being immortal in the spirit of self dero,
tion and manly heroism they kindle."

OUDA.—The second carnival celebration took place
at Habana on the 6th of March. The concourse of people
was unprecedented, and fully fifty-thousand people joined
in'the procession, but no disturbances took place. Captain-
General do Rodas has issued a proclamation in relation to the
'murder of Isaac Greenwaldth, and the execution of-Zamora.
He says that the latter was justly executed for his crime,
for he outraged the law, and disgraced the Spanish flag,
under whose protection Greenwadth was at the time of his
assassination. A brother-in-law of the American Consul
at Trinidad, who was in prison on a charge of sedition, has
committed suicide. Eighteen laborantes have been court-
martialed in Bavamo, documents havingbeen found upon
the person of Mircano, implicating them in the movements
Of th: i=urgents.

The Echo understands that the proposition to
form London into one school district under the Education
Bill is to be withdrawn, and that a plan for two divisions,
east and west, the former to include the City, is to be sub-
stituted, Mr. W. Torrena is likely to move the
amendraea.

A California paper says the Japanese " will wit
universal respect by a sort of heathenish habit they have
of minding their own business."

THE RELIGIOUS Dirrre uLTY. --Arch de aconDew-
son gives the John Bull some facts as a sample of what is
to be found in many parishes. The parish of East Brent
population 800, contains four schools all in his hands.
The schools are :—The National school, on the books, GO ;
present at diocesan inspector's examination, February 25,
1870, 48. 2. Dames' school, 18 ; 3. Ditto, 43 ; 4. Middle
school, 13. Total, 104. The condition of admission to
all these scholarr, is the having been baptised in the Church
of England. The rev: gentleman can see his way to no
other rule.

uari.nal Uullen has expressed from .1-Come his ap-
proval of the Government Coercion Bill

A. contemparary says that the wife of a weli-
gnown dissmting minister has eloped with a captain.

Twenty-three farms in the neighbourhood at
Swindon are infected with the foot-and-mouth disease.

Returns are being made by the chief towns of the
statistics of drunkennoss duce the new Beer Act came
into operation. 0r ;.a ••• • 4

Fever has broken out in several of the pauper
establishments in the metropolis. At the school recently
built at Highgate several childron died last week, owing,
it is thought b.Y.tin medical, mfai—t9 prsrerowanz.

THE NATIONAL MONUMENT TO ABRA•

HAM LINCOLN.

(Translated from the " Riforma," of Florence, Italy, Feb.
22, 1870.)
Even though " Ingratitude with the vulgar is a
vice innate," it is equally true that the public
directs its admiration and its affection to those who,
from time to time, appear a'nong men to sweep
from existence the shame of humanity, and to wipe
a ay its tears. To honour uici it is the crowning
beauty of greatness. Hardly had the American
people recovered from the horror cf that ass •ssina-
don which struck down Abraham Lincoln, than
they applied themselves to the task of raising a
sum sufficient to erect, at Springfield, Illinois, a
bronze monument which should be worthy of the
man whose mine is written side by side with that
of Washington. For if Washington, by founding
the American Union, merited the gratitude of his
country, surely Lincoln, who preserved that Union,
and abo ished slavery, s merited the gratitude of
humanity. The commission for this monument
being thrown open to competition 32 designs were
presented, upon the examination of which the
honour of preference was bestowed upon that of
Mr. Larkin G. Mead, an American sculptor, whom
the Italian School, the School of Michael Angelo
and of Canova, reckons among its pupils. For the
execution of this design, the idea of which, we
may here mention, was conceived before the death
of Mr. Lincoln, the city of Florence was selected.
We visited, a shoot time since, the studio of Mr.
Mead, and were stuck by the manly and command-
ing figure of the President, through whose noble
and majest.c countenance shines the great mind
which conceived and ultimated the liberty of the
slaves. The statue, colossal in size, and standing
erect upon the monument, holds in the left hand a
scro 1, upon which is written " Emancipation,"
and in the right the pea with which Abraham Lin-
coln erased from the page of human history the dis-
grace t f slavery. As a symbol of the Union to
which he dedicated his life,there stands at the side of
the statue the consular fasces, about which is thrown
the glorious banner of the Republic ; the banner
which at Mobile and at Richmond waved for Liberty
and Justice. At the foot of the fasces rests a crown
of laurel, that crown which humanity, with one ac-
cord, placed upon the brow of the great. citizen. At
the angles of the monument are placed four groups,
representing the various force 3 which were united
iu the Tttanic war of Secessionists and Unionists—
namely, cavalry, infantry, artillery, and the marine.
The talent with which Mr. Mead has designed the
monument, and the boldness with which he has
modelled this colossal statue, and surmounted the
difficulties which the precise neatness of the modern
costume, so different from the grace of the heroic
mantle, presents to the artist, reveal in him beyond
doubt a profound knowledge of his art. But the
pros ince of art is passed when life is to be infused
into the inert material. Then to art must succeed
inspiration ; to the compass, sentiment ; to aesthetic
rules, a spirit capable of reflecting as in a mirror,
the greatness of the hero whose form is to glorify
the clay ; then the artist, the new. Prometheus,
would fain wrest from the gods the vital spark ;
and, in the noble frenzy of his genius, shivers the
marble because it speaks not. And in this also
Mr. Mead has exceeded our expectations. We ear-
nestly hope that, by exhibiting the model of the
monument, he will give the inhabitants of Florence
au opportunity to judge of the sincerity of our
words and the exactness of our impressions. And
we feel sure that all will admire the work of Mr.
Mead, and will render homage to the memory of
Abraham Lincoln, who is no in-we a citizen of
America, but a citizen of the whole world—a glory
to humanity.

FUNDING THE UNITED STATES DEBT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES.
PARIS, March 16.
_ _

have frequently encountered in the
American papers, and in circulars reprinted in
your columns, the views of a very patriotic writer,
who has devoted much time an I space to the task
of inducing others to believe that European in-
vestors are ready to give up obligations of the
United States, bearing interest at six per cent.
in coin, payable in the United States, and to ac-
cept in place thereof obligations to pay interest
here at the rate of four per cent. I think there are
few Americans who would not be gratified if the
fact was as the enthusiastic writer referred to as-
sures us it is. I have looked in vain for any con-
vincing proof that there is a disposition anywhere
in Europe to make the exchange referred to, and
the writer of the circulars has failed to adduce any.
We may safely assume that buyers of securities at
the great bourses of Europe will hardly give our
bonds preference over those of European countries
in good credit, the rate of interest and other con-
ditions being the same. What reasons are there
why they, in such a case, should prefer our bonds ?
It is a fact greatly to be regretted that the United
States, though as well able to pay the obligations
as any country on the globe, suffers in the estima-
tion of European financiers by reason of the fact
that repudiation, entire or partial, is a subject fre-
quently discussed, not only in Congress, but in
political conventions and newspapers. '1 he ques-
tion, whether or not our debt is to be repudiated, is
one which no American will stop to discuss, for we
all feel entirely certain that such an iniquity can
never be consummated ; but foreigners, men who
do not speak our language or comprehend the
peculiarities of our politics, are alarmed when the
subject of repudiation is mentioned. I suspect
that a New York capitalist, who hal been in-
duced to. invest largely in Prussian Five per
Cents., would feel some uneasiness if he were
to read in his morning newspaper that a proposition
had been made in the Prussian Chamber to pay off
the nit oral debt in an irredeemable paper cur-
rency, and that not only did a large party in the
country favour such repuliadon, but it was openly
discussed in
.the public journals. On learning that
Herr Somebody, the influential member of the rul-
ing party iu the Chamber and the most powerful
with the Executive, wits openly in favour of such
repudiation, he would hardly be willing to ho!d his
securities long, much less to convert them into the
same kind of paper at a lower rate of interest. Yet
the writer alluded to expects the German and other
capitalists to do just this. Frankfort-on-the-Maine
is beyond question the largest European market for
American bonds, and it is so considered by all Euro-
pean capitalists. It may be regarded as tolerably cer-
tain that whatever the great dealers at that c ntre
do, other dealers in Europe will do. Let us see
what they consider the value of American securities
and those of Governments of undoubted credit, and
as to whose debt no word of repudiation has ever
been, or is likely to be, uttered anywhere. On
March 12 Prussian Four-and-a-Half per Cents sold
at 931, Four per Cents. at 841 ; Bavarian Four-
and-a-Half per Cents. at 92k; Wurtemburg Four-
and-a-Half per Cents. at 91g. These three coun-
tries named enjoy an unexceptionable credit, and
their securities are held chiefly at home for perma-
nent investment. On the same day United States
Six per Cents. of 1862 sold at 951, those of 1865
at 95g. What good reason is there to believe that
capitalists will prefer our Four per Cents, at par to
the Four-and-a-Half per Cents. of their own Go-
vernments at 91 or 92? What is to compensate
them for this sacrifice of more than 15 per cent.?
It may be that differences in the method of com-
putation, taxes, &c., may slightly diminish the dif-
ference shown, but they cannot materially alter it.
Anxious as every good citizen must Le that Mr.
Boutwell may succeed in reducing the rate of inte-
rest, and thus lighten the burthen of taxation, I
have conversed with very many leading bankers at
London and at Frankfort on the subject of the
rate of interest, and I have yet to find one who
believes that any considerable amount of the debt
can be converted at less than 5 per cent., and have
yet to find one who does not treat the 4 per cent.
proposition as one bordering on the absurd. No
good is done by advocating a course of action which
can never be successfully adopted; in fact, such
agitation is mischievous. If Mr. Bout well has been
led to believe that the money-lenders of Europe are
ready to exchange Six per Cent. Bonds for those
bearing interest at 4, even though it may be payable
here, it is time he was undeceived. The time to
discover his error is before he has made the attempt
to do a thin°. which, I believe, no financier of any
experience has ever openly stated to be within the
range of possibility. If there are any facts within
the knowledge of the advocates of the 4 per cent.
doctrine (if there is mare than one such advocate),
drawn from actual experience, which go to stio%,
their theory to be sound, it is to be regrett •d that,
to place of much speaking and many glittering
generalities, they do not plainly state them, and
allow plain men to judge whether or not all the
world is mistaken in relation to this business.
_*

[Our correspondent is certainly in a position

which gives him good opportunities of forming
the opinion he has so forcibly expressed. His
remarks are applicable to every money market
in Europe, as well as to those of Germany, to
which they are chiefly confined. Money is, how-
ever, cheaper in London than in Frankfort, and a
Five per Cent. Loan, if not a Four-and-anilf,
could have been floated, had Congress sanctioned
the payment of the interest in Europe. 'Will that
clause erased, we hold, with our correspondent, that
a Four per Cent. Bond is a simple absurdity. -
ED. A. A. T.]

AMERICAN AFFAIRS,

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

Among the latest items of mail news are thts

—The North Carolina House lies refused to provide for
paying the interest on the State Bonds. South Carolina
will pay the interest on its bonds in gold. The Tennessee
Legislature has made no provision for paying the interest
on the State debt. Portland, Me., is paying its coupons in
gold. The Wall-street Journal reports :—" Southern State
Bonds are heavy on the new North Carolinas and Ten-
nessees, the former having declined to 201. Virginias,
Georgias, and Missouris are however strong." The rise in
the Virginias' in the London market and the satisfactory
standing of that State's credit, with the growing confidence
in it, may soon teach North Carolina and Tennessee that,

whether honesty be the best policy for individuals or not,
it is unquestionably so for communities. A large ma-
jority of the North Carolina Legislature passed the Bill
repealing all acts authorising special tax bonds or requiring
that taxes be levied to pay interest on them ; and the
House refused to provide for any interest whatever, either

on the new or old bonds. From Tennessee the news was
that the Bill reducing the new bonds to the price at which
they were sold has passed to a second reading, and the
Finance• Committee has favourably reported on it.

O'Donovan Rossa's letter, which we published

last week, has been answered by the Government, and the
Times has devoted a leading article to show the prisoner
up in the worst light. The statements published by the
Marseillaise have been contradicted in seriatim. They
consist of assertions often made before, inquired into, and
proved to be untrue ; and partly of incidents, only deriving
importance from the falsehood with which they have
been embellished. Rossa is declared to thrive upon the
food he gets; to work in au airy, well-lighted room, or at
healthy employments outside. A Bible or other religious
book is given at the discretion of the priest. He was
indulged in the letters he was allowed to write; but such as
falsely described his treatment were stopped. Three or
four times he was stripped between Feb. and May, 1867, as
he was in the habit of passing oat surreptitious communica-
tions. He was punished for reading when he ought to have
been working, and he was refused permission to visit
another prisoner. To show the falsehood of the story of
the attempt to strangle Rossa, a letter is published giving
another account of his being harnessed by the neck to a cart,
and being allowed to tilt up would have strangled him had
not the noose slipped over his head. The letter was stopped
by the prison aut!torities, and is now sent to the daily
papers to show how these charges are concocted. Then
the Governcr gives his own version. Finally, it is as-
serted, that the slightest punishments have been inflicted,
and only for offences which could not be overlooked in a
convict prison, and great care has been taken to deprive
the prisoners of an excuse for complaint in even the ap-
pearance of undue severity. Most of the Fenian prisoners
have so ccnducted themselves as never to have been
subjected to punishment, but the more notorious of them
have proved wanting in the "patience and fortitude" to be
expected from political prisoners. Among these O'Donovan
Rossa is represented as about -the worst. He was remark-
able, says the document, above all the other prisoners for
his ungovernable temper and his resistance to the ordi-
nary i ules of prison discipline." It adds :—" If men in
such a position cannot see the folly of measuring their
strength with the authorities of the prison, and applying
themselves by force or cunning to violate or evade the
rules, they have only themselves to blame when they
suffer unnecessary inconvenience and exceptional punish-
ments." We do not see the strength of the observation
that political prisoners should be expected to display an
extraordinary amount of patience and fortitude, unless the
Governor recognises in them an extraordinary degree of
virtue. If injustice stirs up all the antagonism of our
nature, latitude ought to be given to men who consider
themselves "patriots," imprisoned and subjected to the
treatment of convicts for performing what they have been
taught to regard as the highestduty connected with this
o rld.

POLITICAL NEWS. —General Sherman has issued
an order, turning over the control of affairs in Mississippi
to the State authorities. The Fourth Military District is
abolished, and Mississippi attached to the Department of
the Cumberland.--The Virginia Legislature, March 2,
elected John L. Marye, jun., Lieutenant Governor, and
W. 13. Ruffner, Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Radicals declined voting for Lieutenant Governor,
asserting that the election was unconstitutional. —The
friends of ex- Congressman Whittemore have arranged for
a series of public meetings in the Third Congresssional
District of South Carolina, with a view to his re-election.
Whittemore is to speak in defence of his disposal of
cadetships. Leading papers fail to see Whittemore's
guilt, hidden as it is behind the fact that the money he
took was used for a charitable and unselfish purpose;
and if such a paper as the Boston Advertiser excuses the
crime, it is not surprising that an ignorant constituency,
like that of Whittemore, should take a similar course.

ELECTION NEWS.—The House Committee on
Elections, by a vote of 7 to 5, decided against the admis-
sion of Mr. Segar as Representaiivo at large from Virginia,
on the ground that the State is not entitled to such &-
presentative.
BUDGET OF PERSONAL—The Rev. Henry Ward

Beecher is said to have declined a 825,000 call from Chi-
cago.—The father of the Hon. Anson Burlingame, Joel
is living in Dunton, Cook County,
Julia Coffinbury is a Wisconsin Commis-
sionerßi
iu
Illinois.—Miss
ni
sgo. Burlingame,
tee,
ei
sdsEs s.yerger, the murderer of Colonel Crane,
has been surrendered by the military authorities to the
Sheriff of Hinds County, Mississippi, and committe d to
stand trial for murder.—J. C. Thompson, deputy postmaster
at the University of Virginia, was sentenced in Richmond
Feb. 28 to 10 years' imprisonment, for robbing the mail.—
James Fisk, jun., is reported to be ambitious of building a
more magnificent depot in New York than Vanderbilt's
monster station. He has offered $600,000 for a site on
Ninth-avenue.—Corti, at present Minister of Italy at the
Hague, it is reported, has been appointed to succeed Cer-
ruti, as Italian Minister a. Washington.— Chang, the
Chinese giant, has joined an Ethiopian minstrel troupe.—
Mr. Henry D. Palmer, manager of Niblo's Garden, arrived
at New York on the 28th Feb. in the steamship France
from Europe.—The Right Rev. Thomas Foley has been
consecrated Bishop of Pergamuc and Bis'aop Coadjutor of
Chicago, Illinois.—Mrs. Dr. Mary Walker has brought an
action against a New Orleans policeman for not driving
away the crowd of vulgar little boys who threw mud on
her pantaloons. This is the costume that was muddied:
—A chinchilla cloak, trimmed with satin;. a velvet hat
trimmed with lace and gold wheat; a broadcloth dress,
cut in gabriella style, and pants of the same.—Edwin
Forrest is playing in Ohio ; Joseph Jefferson is said to be
ill at Mobile.—President Grant says ho hopes Congress

will adjourn early, so that he can go to Long Branch early
in June-General Wool has bequeathed $2,000 to General
Hardee.-Fisk, jun., contemplating another op3ratic ven-
ture, has sent Max Maretzek to Europe as his agent.-
The impeachment trial of Judge Harrison, before the
West Virginia Legislature, was prevented March 2 by his
resignation of his office to the Governor a few minutes
before the proposed arraignment.-In the Louisiana Le-
gislature Auditor Wickliffe has• been unanimously im-
peached.- The M'Farland trial will not be commenced
until March 21, and is expected to last at least one month.
The prisoner is not in good health, but is cheerful, and
sanguine of an acquittal. His visitors average six or seven
per diem, many of them being ladies.- Marshal 0. Roberts
has been appointed Receiver of the Franklin Telegraph
Company.-The failure of the usurious banks of Naples
has spread a panic in Rome. Among the sufferers are
Count de Caserte for 80,000 francs, General Zappi 30,000
francs, and the Princess ,Sciarra and the Marquis reodoti
for considerable sums.-We learn from tho Paris papers of
yesterday that Father Hyacinthe was present at Count
Montalembert's funeral, and that he appeared in the dress
of a layman.- Senator Revels made his first speech in the
Chamber last Thursday in favour of universal amnesty and
universal suffrage.
"ALTERA ItY.—Alessrs. Harper Brothers have just
issued a valuable work, entitled the "Andes and the Ama-
zon," by Professor James Orton, who, with his party, fol-
lowed that great river from its source to its mouth. Such a
book cannot fail to be of a most interesting character.-
Henry B. Stanton, the well-kncwn lawyer and politician,
is writing a history of the New York bar, with biographi-
cal sketches of its principal members, fro .n its earliest
organization to the present time.

OBITUARY.—Captain Jacob W. ilugg, one of
the most 'prominent shipping-masters of Baltimore, died
on Sunday, Fob. 27, aged 69.—The numerous friends of
the young and gallant Lieutenant L. A. Hughes, of the
United States Army, of Hagerstown, Maryland, will re-
gret to hear of his recent sudden death, caused by falling
down the shaft of 4 mine in California, which ha was in-
specting.