The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-17 00:00:00

NOTES FROM AMERICA.

A correspondent writing on. November 30th, says
A. J. MUntlella, M.P., whose recent address on labour in
New York met with the displea,ure of the " Working
Men's Union" in that city on account of his declaration
that every working man had the right to decide for him-
self whether he would or would not belong to a • Trade
Union, has found a strong ally in the New Yorle Journal
of Commerce. It says that the " Working Men's
Union " liked neither Mr. Mundella nor Mr. Hughes,
and that, in fact, the Trade Unionists of this
country like no one who has a word ,of sound
criticism or good advice to offer them. Mr. Mun-
della's sentiment it describes as " a declaration of
human freedom, of the rights of man," and says no
resolution or threats will prevent that sentiment
from spreading among working men who are capable
of thinking for themselves. The New York Press,
while, for obvious reasons, they. do' not take
Mr. Mundella's side of the controversy, are quite as
careful not to commit themselves in favour of the trade
unionist dogma. One of those military re-unions so com-
mon in this country occurred at Cincinnati last week—
the. re-union. ,of the "Army of the Cumberland."
Among the prominent officers present were Generals
Sherman and Hooker. General Sherman advised his
companions in arms to laboUr' for the advancement
of the nation's grandeur in peace with the same
zeal with which they had protected her honour in
war, and, comparing our country favourably with
war-devastated France, argUed in favour of - peace.
General Hooker, on the other hand, was all for war. He
desired to take part in one more conflict, and that for the
acquisition of Canada. The peace and-the war speeches
have gone to the country, and the verdict has come back
in general praise of Sherman, and in general condemna-
tion of Hooker. America wants no more wars—not even
for Canada, or the Alabama claims, or to please some
restless military chieftains or pOlitical enthusiasts.. She
knows what a costly and unsatisfactory luxury a war is,
and her motto for a generation to come will be President
Grant's words, " Let us have peace."

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.
The Marquis of Lorne visited the Royal Arsenal a
second time on Thursday, and went through various work-
shopS. The arsenal will be closed from the Friday before
Christmas Day until the Tuesday morning after. Mon-
day will be given as a holiday, and the half-day lost on
Saturday will be made up by working overtime.
It is rumourel that a committee of inquiry into the loss
of her Majesty's ship • Captain will be presided over by.
Lord Dufferin, whose chief qualification appears to be his
kinsmanship to the Duke of Sotherset.
The Vanguard, new ironclad, was brought into Devon-
port Harbour on Thursday. Her crew will be turned
over to another ship pending the alterations to be made in
the Vanguard. •
The long-expected promotions in the War Office have
'at last been decided upon, and the Civilian learns that
they are not likely to prove satisfactory to many able
and zealous officials. Our contemporary hears of one or
two -extraordinary instanees'of junior clerks being .foisted
over the heads of men very many years their seniors.
Some days since a large draught from the depot of the
73rd Regiment arrived 'at Gravesend from' Newcastle-on-
Tyne, the depot being attached to the 34th Regiment at
that place, to be conveyed to Ceylon, to join the service
companies there. While at Gravesend the draught was
attached to the General Depot Battalion' at Gravesend,
and occupied the barracks at Milton, used during the
summer for the troops who •go through a course of rifle
practice at the Milton range. On Thursday the draught,
embarked at Gravesend for Ceylon. It was under the
command of Captain W. Gordon.
The War Department has just perpetrated another
Basco. Several months- ago it was determined, contrary to
the advice, of practical men, to construct a large number
of brass field guns. The Department was warned that
these would not stand rapid fire, but the warning
was unheeded. Experiments ' •soon chewed that
the practical men were rigiri. The metal got
fused, and the guns became useless. (A little
later . our military attache c with the German army
sent home word that nearly all the brass guns taken from
the French had been found more or less damaged in
the same way, and it has' now been determined to abandon
these guns, and to substitute wrought iron or steel.
tubes.

CHATHAM AND THE EDUCATION ACT. --- The
Chatham Committee of Education state that the result of
the appeal made by them to the ratepayers, does not
justify them in proceeding in their endeavours to supply
the existing defictencies of school accommodation in that
town by voluntary efforts. A School Board now appears
inevitable.

FATAL DISH STER AT SEA.— About midnight on
Thursday, as the screw steamer Flora, of Glasgow, from
Dunkirk to Grangemouth, was proceeding np the Firth
of Forth, she was run into by another vessel, supposed to
be the Prima, of Flensberg. The Flora Almost imme-
diately sank, The crew, 18 persons all told, were saved,
but they had barely time to take to the boats., During
the gale which 'raged at the same place, the.sloop Earl
Seafield, of Macduff, from Fraserbur, to Leith, with
grain, was driven ashore on Leven ,Saalds, and all hands
lost. The vessel is expected to he got off.
NARROW BALLOON ESCAPE.—A. loam; from
Belleisle, in a French provincial paper,' announces 'the
landing in that island, which is situate fifteen miles from
the coast of Brittany, of the balloon Jules Favre, which
left Paris on the • 30th ult., • with two passengers. It
started at midnight with a northerly wind, and the pas-
sengers etxpected- to be carried towards Lyons ; but as
their electric apparatus did not work, they could not tell
what direction they were taking. At six the next morn•
ing they found themselves approaching the sea, which,
peeping through the fog, they took for the river Marne
or Seine, until the low Murmur. os its waves became
audible. They w ere driven towards Belleisle with such
impetuosity that there was great danger of striking
against a rocky promontory. The balloon twice grounded
and reascended. One of the passengers jumped out, :and
sustained a contusion of the leg and throat by collision,
with a wall ; the other was Gown out senseless, bu
revived, though somewhatseriously hurt. The despatchest
which the balloon carried were sent off on the 2nd to St.
Nazaire.

. .
BITCHE.—An account from the only Lorraine
fortress yet untaken by the Germans says :—Everywhere
the fortress bore marks of the bombardment that.it lately
endured ; but beyond the burning of the barracks little
damage appears to have been done, as the soldiers were
protected by casemates cut in the solid rock, which forms
a distinguished feature of Bitche and renders it impreg-
nable, except to famine. We then saw the Maire, and
with him inspected 'the town ; the bombardment con-
tinued for 11 days and 11 nights without intermission
from four batteries of heavy siege guns. Onb third of
the town, or 98 houses out of 320, have been burnt
entirely ; about 100 more are so utterly smashed and shat-
tered by the shells as to be uninhabitable •, exit for the
women and children was refused by the Bavarian com-
mander, the object being, by burning the town, to compel
the fortress to surrender ; so far from that, the only mes-
sage sent by the town to the Commandant was to request
him to hold out. Of a population of 2,500 inhabitants
before the slop but 1,200 remain, mostly very poor, those
better off having left after the bombardment, during
which their houses were burnt down, and are now,scat-
tered over the country. Many of these had with their
savings bought their houses in the town, and these, burnt'
are now entirely ruined.