The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-14 00:00:00

211 E SPIRIT OF 711 E MUSE 1.1. V

CONGRESS.

--~--

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Fighting BEN BUTLER.' furnishes a very good
specimen of the debater who fills the Ole'
ries of the House. He is quick, happy, for-
' cible, and earnest ; his words are all the stronger
because they are few, and the idea is not diluted ;
but his great forte is impudence. There never was
a man with a more undaunted front, or a more
brazen face. Who but he could have been seen grasp-
ing the hand of the man he had but a few mouths
before stigmatised as " the greatest criminal of the
age," when ho had led in the attack to hurl him from
the Presidential Chair. Yet, there he was iu the White
House, in his usual earnest way wishing ANDY JOHN-
SON many happy returns of the day which commenced
the year 1869. BuTLEe has lately returned to Wash-
ington from his Christmas holidays, like a giant re-
freshed and brimming over with pugnacity. Not
content with flooring; his enemies, he is knocking
his friends down right and left. An account of his
tussle with Mr. BINGHAM and Mr. FARNSWORTH.,
leaders of the Pepublicau party, will be found in
the letter of our Washington correspondent. Not
confining his assaults to them, he, as its self-
made champion, attacked Mr. DAWES in defence
of the Administration. More than half his speech was
not with the figures of the Chairman of the Commit-
tee of Appropriations, but with himself. Mr.DawEs'
relation to Government was that of Chancellor of
the Exchequer, yet he presented his Budget without
explaining an item, except in saying that the esti-
mates were extravagant and corrupt. As a part of
the administration his colleague ought to have sought
an explanation, instead of coming into the House with
incorrect statements to make a false impression on
the country. He had watched his colleague, and he
knew him to be constitutionally Conservative, and
Radical only by location. Mr. DAWES disliked
forward steps, and, as the elephant on a bridge,
refused, without a careful examination, to
trust the planks, but, unlike the elephant, he
did not pass over the bridge when satisfied. Ile
had seen him during the crises of ten years
held by Conservatism as by bands of new withes.
So it was,with him in the 14th Amendment ; so with
the 15th; so with the Reconstruction Acts. Mr.
DARES very properly replied that the matter was
not personal. But it is iu downright sparring that
BUTLER is in his element. He flies at anything,
from the Press and the PRESIDENT down to his col-
league, as he proved when the bill was pass-
ing through the House to abolish the franking
privilege. The Representatives had been fright-
ened by the unanimity expressed in the peti-
tions from all parts of the country for its
abolition, and they are said to hope that the
Senate will throw it out, though members who
have to face their constituents dare not. BUTLER
had this question to ask—Does the Bill cut off free
newspapers ? and when assured it did, he ex-
claimed "All right." In discussing this privilege in
a former speech, he expressed his desire to see it
abolished as an impediment and nuisance for every-
body and everywhere ; above all, after the impu-
dent howling of certain newspapers. " Ile wanted
to see every newspaper pay the postage for their use
of the franking privilege, in having the mails loaded
down with, in many instances, deleterious sheets,
spreading advertisements of quack nostrums and
abortion medicines all over the land. When the
New York Tribune paid at the same rate by weight
for the circulation of its blanket sheet that the poor
man paid for his letter, then the abolition of the
franking privilege would be nigh at hand. But
while newspapers withi4.l the county were sent free,
and weekly newspapers nearly free, he desired a
little modesty on the part of editors in demanding
the abolition of the franking privilege for other
people." Another instance of the courage with
which the Representatives can fly in the face of the
world is supplied by the speech of Mr. VOORHEES,
in the same debate. The doctrine on Which that
gentleman placed himself regarding repudiation,
with an absolute faith in its legality and justice,
was that embodied in the t 4 noble and upright"
resolution of the recent Democratic Convention of
ludiana—" that the debt should be paid in strict
compliance with the contract, the 5-20 Bonds being
payable in greenbacks. The law which authorised
the issue of the national currency said in very plain
and simple words that it is legal tender for all
debts, public and private, except duties on imports
and interest on the public debt. Therefore, if the
people owed anything else beside duties on imports
and interest on the public debt, the greenback
currency was a legal tender for its payment." The
case of Virginia shows bow quickly and how boldly
the members can turn round, for they passed
BINGHAM'S Bill, admitting the State without con-
ditions, by an immense majority, and afterwards,
by a majority quite as large, passed the Senate's
Amendments, which admitted the State under
wholly different circumstances. There was a fight,
too, over Georgia, about the interference of the
military in election affairs, raised, of course, by
BUTLER, who has acquired the soubriquet of
" Fighting Ben." Indeed, judging from the pro-
ceedings in the Senate, as well as in the House,
we might well suppose that the pugnacity of Con-
gress had been stimulated by the bad weather, and
that everybody was in a quarrelsome mood. Some
pent-up indignation was expended on the bead of
the absent Commissioner WELLS, over the printing
of whose report there was another struggle.
Having let off some of the steam-pressure, and the
weather improving with spring, affairs in Congress
will assume a more genial tone, and business will
thereby be accelerated. One bit of " chaff "
against Senator SUMNER is that he cowes all oppo-
sition by his threat, when thwarted, to speak for
two hours on the disputed subject.

The first Fox Club dinner of the season took
place at Brooks's, on Saturday. Among those present
were the Most Hon. Marquis of Normanby, Right Hon.
Earl of Dartrey, Right Hon. Earl of Charlemont, Right
Hon. Lord Mostyn, Right Hon. Lord Abercromby, Right
Hon. Lord Castletown of Upper Ossory, Sir Edward
M. Buller, Bart., M.P., Sir Hedworth William-
son, Bart., M.P., Right Hon. Stephen Lushington,
Hon. Hamilton H. A. Duncan, Hon. Edward S. Russell,
Lieut.-Colonel lion. W. Edwardes, M.P., Lieut.- Colonel
H. F. Custance, Colonel T. C. B. Challoner, Lieut.-Colonel
John D. Ferguson Davie, Mr. Augustus Keppel Stephen-
son, Mr. Edward A. Sanford, Mr. George Ridley, Mr.
Michael liiddulph, M.P., Mr. W. B. Beaumont, M.P., and
Mr. J. St. Aubyn, M.P.

Prince Arthur left New York, for Boston, last
Saturday week, and on his arrival proceeded to the
St. James's Hotel. After the funeral of Mr. Peabody he
departed last Tuesday afternoon for Montreal direct. His
visit to the United States can be truly said to have been a
great success. One of the errors he helped to dissipate
was the idea in America that the Royal Family are
much more educated and highly trained than intellectual.
There is a general opinion among Anglo -Saxons that
Princes neither have nor require much brains, and when-
ever one attains to any responsible position, it is always
supposed to be through interest, not merit. This mistake
has been best removed by sending the young gentleman
alone into the depot of American brains. At Washing-
ton he was an object of curiosity to great statesmen,
orators, and soldiers, who, while he little thought it, were
accurately measuring his mental capacity. From this
trying ordeal he bas emerged with flying colours, Genera
Sherman prenouncing the universal opinion that he is a ye ry
clever lad. Nor clever only, for he is modest yet dignified,
sprightly and good-natured, as easy to please as difficult
to ruflite, with a manner and bearing of a most polished
gentleman. Hence ho leaves a pleasant impression behind
and alike with women and men, for ho had two other good
qualities which told with each, being an indefatigable
dancer and a good sight-seer.

RAILWAY NEWS.--The earnings of the Union
Pacific Railroad for the six months ending December last,
amounted to $4,611,16133. The stockholders of the Lit tl
Miami and Columbus and Xenia Railroads ratified at Gin-
ciunati, Ohio, on January 25th, by an unanimous vote the
perpetual lease of those roads to the Pittsburg, Cincinnati,
and St. Louis Railroad, guaranteed by th Pennsylvania
Central Railroad, beginning December Ist, 1859, at an
annual rental, free of tax andassessment, of $480,010. The
stock of the Little Miami Railroad will be increased by a
17 pa • cent. stock dividend, making the total stock of both
roads $6,000,000. This arrangement gives the stock-
holders 8 per cent. annual dividends, payable quarterly,
less expenses of organisation. The Wilmington and Man-
chester Railroad, of North Carolina, together with all the
property of the company, has been sold to W. T. Walters,
of Baltimore, for $525,000—5250,000 being pail for the
South Carolina end and $275,000 for the North Carolina
end. The sale was- for cash, but certain preferred bonds
will be received in payment. Of these preferredsecuritieo
the purchaser holds $1,975,828.