The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-26 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

THE IRRIGATION COMPANY OF FRANCE.—An application
has been made to Vice-Chancellor Alalins for an injunc-
tion to restrain the Irrigation Company of France from
transferring its assets to the Compagnie Gdnbrale des
Canaux et Travaux. The petitioner was a
shareholder, named Fox, who objected to the proposed
transfer, and who, morever, presented a petition for the
compulsory winding up of the company, whose affairs are
now in process of voluntary liquidation. The Vice-
Chancellor ordered that the company should be continued
until £B,OOO had been paid into court for the satisfaction
of the petitioner's claims.

THE BUENOS AYRES RAILWAY COMPANY.—A petition
was presented in Vice-Chancellor James's Court in the
case of "Fielden v. the Buenos Ayres Railway Com-
pany," which presented some unusual features. A share-
holder instituted a suit against some of the
directors, and his solicitor, Mr. Jones, made a serious
blunder in arresting two of the defendants for not putting
in an answer, when the time for putting it in had not
expired by a fortnight. Serious costs and
liabilities were incurred, and Mr. Jones gave
the plaintiff a letter by which he agreed to
indemnify him from all the costs of the suit. The plaintiff
died in March, 1869, his estate being sworn under £2O,
and his executor finding this letter among his papers
informed the two defendants who had suffered
from false imprisonment. They therefore prayed that
the executor might be ordered to revive the suit, and that
Mr. Jones might pay all the costs. Under ordinary
circumstances the revival of a suit for the mere purpose
of getting costs is not allowed, but the petitioners con-
tended that. Mr. Jones had acted illegally in giving the
letter of indemnity. The Vice-Chancellor did not think
Mr. Jones ought to pay all the costs, but as such a letter
was improper for a solicitor to write, he must pay the
costs of the petition.
LIABILITY OF A BUILDER ERECTING A HOARDING ON A
FOOTPATH.—In the Court of Common Pleas, before Mr.
Justice Wines and a Middlesex common jury, Mrs. Ann
Dickens, a laundress, 70 years of age, brought an action
against Mr. Robert Charles Cooke, a builder, to recover
damages for injuries sustained through the alleged negli-
gence of the defendant's servants. The defendant was
executing some repairs at a house in Theobald's-
road, Holborn, in November last, and erected
a hoarding in front of the house, with-
out laying down a supplementary foothpath around
it. This only left about twenty inches for foot
passengers, as a portion of the hoarding projected nearly
two feet. The plaintiff was passing that place on the
22nd of November, when she stumbled over one of the
projections, and broke her thigh, thus rendering her
unable to follow her usual occupation. For the defence
it was contended that the projection was of a trifling
character, and that there was sufficient room left for pas-
sengers. The jury found for the plaintiff, with £6O
damages.

A FICTITIOUS PIR3I.—The two men Ward and Solo-
mon, who have been charged by the West of England
En,pneering Company with conspiracy, having represented
themselves as agents in connection with a firm at Mel-
bourne, have been committed for trial.
THE ROBBERY BY SOLDIERS.—John M'Gooren ,a private
in the 9th Lancers, stationed at Hounslow, has been sez
tented Brantford to six months hard labour for robbing
an inn in High-street, Hounslow, by getting in at the
window. The other soldiers implicated in the robbery
were not identified.

The promptness with which the Royal Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Dumb Animals put a stop to
the bull-fight at Islington the other evening has met with
its reward, as a lady, the friend of the bull, has just sent,
to the secretary a cheque for £lOO, " to mark her approval
of such spirited conduct."

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

-4.-
(From the Anglo-American Times.)

A rumour in Washington appears so far to have
obtained credence as to be forwarded to Europe through
the cable, that Mr. Thornton opposed the Darien Ship
Canal project unless Great Britain was allowed an equal
participation in the enterprise in accordance with the
existing treaty ; which was followed by another report, to
the effect that Secretary Fish had made satisfactory re-
presentations to Mr. Thornton in reference to the Darien
Canal. "The rumour that the latter had presented a
formal protest to the American Government on this sub-
ject is denied."
John Warren, the Fenian Colonel, has presented
through General Banks a petition to Congresa for $500,1,00
damages against Great Britain for false imprisonment.
Colonel Warren desires to fight England on the principle
Punch ascribes to a special constable—"lf I kill you. it's
nothing; but if you kill me, it's murder." The O'Neill
faction of the Fenian Congress met in New York last
Tuesday, the object being, as reported, to co-operate with
the Red River insurgents.
A bill was introduced into the House of Repre-
sentatives by Mr. Halbert E. Paine of Wisconsin, on the
Bth April, providing that the next House shall be com-
posed of 275 members, and of such members as any State
thereafter admitted may be entitled to, and directing the
Secretary of the Interior to ascertain from the preliminary
census report of 1870 the basis of representation and the
appointment of each State. By a telegram of last Monday
from Washington, we learn that this bill was passed, the
members being fixed at 275. The appointment is altere
so as to reduce the New England representation, and in-
crease that of the Western States by four members.
Mr. Schurz introduced a bill into the Senate on
the 30th March fixing the Tuesday next after the first
Monday in. November as the day upon which Representa-
tives and Delegates to Congress shall be elected through-
out the country, and it was referred to the Judiciary Com-
mittee. The elections begin with the year, keeping up an
eternal round,much to the injury of business and encourage-
ment of pernicious agitation and excitement. The same
bill was brought into the House by Mr. Heaton on the 4th
inst., with the addition that the elections should take
place in 1872, and every second year thereafter, on that
day, and it was carried by 114 to 40. The Tuesday after
the first Monday in November is the day for the Presi-
dential election and that fixed by all the great States for
their elections.
Mr. George W. Julian, Democrat, of Indiana,
has presented a joint resolution to amend the Constitution
by adding a Sixteenth Article, as follows :—" Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of sex. Section 2. Congress shall have
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Three champions of the sex have come forward to contend
for the highest prize in the gift of the people—among
them Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia, who desires to crown
a long life spent in agitating for women's rights by realiz-
ing its success in her own person in attaining to the chief
Executive power. The other two are Mrs. Woodhull of
the firm of Woodhull, (Malin, and Co., and Mrs. Train,
the wife of the well-known "George Francis." The ques-
tion has been suggested—Will Mrs. Woodhull or Mrs.
Train be willing to allow that they are over 35 years of
age as prescribed b 1 the Constitution ?
Fernando Wood made a severe attack on Gen.
0. 0. Howard from his place in the House on the 6th of
April. A letter from the General to the Representative
was read by the clerk, in which the writer complained of
a previous remark, that he, General Howard, had grown
rich in the Freedman's bureau, and the bill then before
the House would leave at his control $6C0,000. Mr. Wood,
acknowledging the correctness of the words attributed to
him, said they were uttered on a firm conviction of their
truth. General Howard had disbursed $12,965,359, and,
being personally responsible, had challenged investiga-
tion, which, considering the rumours in circulation, the
House should order. The first charge was that ho had
given, without authority, to the Howard University
Hospital, 500,000 dollars; that land sold for the benefit
of the Howard University was made over improperly
to members of his family and staff, and paid for by bonds
of the First Congregational Church; that brick manufac-
tured by the company of which he is a director was used
for the buildings, though this brick was unfit, and so worth-
less that portions of the building have fallen down, and cost
in repairs, $13,000; that the Government lumber was usid
by the Brick Company, and part of the timber was sold to
its employes; that he pays rent from the bureau funds to
the University for his headquarters; that he draws throe
salaries—as Brigadier- General, as Commissioner of the
Bureau, and as Head of the University—that he has im-

properly given the funds to churches and religious asso•

ciations, and allowed traffic in lands by his employes,
participating in the pecuniary profits resulting; and,
generally, that he is the head of the ring known as
the Freedman's Bureau Icing; and Mr. Wood concluded
by offering a resolution ordering an investigation. A long
debate ensued, when Mr. Wood announced his realiness
to be responsible for all charges he made, General Butler
stating that the charges should be investigated, and if
proved, General Howard dealt with severely, but if refuted
the gentleman from New Ycrk to be thus dealt with for
making himself the tool of a malicious gang. During the
debate the Speaker ruled that Mr. Wood, according to the
precedents of the past ten years, was privilegad to say
what he pleased of persons not members of Congress.
While stating this he strongly censured the practice, de-
claring the privilege to bo greatly abused, as it gives mem-
bers the power t) attack private citizens who have no
opportunity to reply. It was this which forced General
Sherman to have recourse to the press, and will probably
force Gen. Howard into the same course.

Generals Butler and Banks have strenuously
aided the President in the effort to secure the ratification

of the treaty with San Domingo, and failing with the
Senate to get a joint resolution passed for the annexation
of the island. General Grant advances powerful reasons
in favour of the project. lle asserts that the exchanges
are against the United States, mainly, not from the undue
importation of European produce, but of West Indian, for
which payment is adjusted in England. The United
States is a great consumer of sugar, tobacco, and of such
staples as San Domingo grows in perfection ; and in
American hands the island would quickly rival Cuba,
and acquire an export at least as valuable. As a military
position it flanks Cuba and commands the Gulf of Mexico,
and with it, in American hands, the power of Spain
would be brought to a speedy end in the Queen of the An-
tilles. One of the President's arguments is, that if Ame-
ricans do not move, Great Britain will. But we can assure
General Grant that he is wholly in error if he says this
with any other motive than as an inducement to his fellow-
citizens, for there is no chance whatever that any con-
sideration could make England add such territory to her
dominions. That little game has been "played out" in
the old country; nor should the late experience of the
young one fire its heart in emulation. It has bought its
" bear-garden," and does not know what to do with it ;
but the New York Times suggests that it should be turned

into a penal settlement, a sort of American Siberia, which,
perhaps, would be the best use to which Alaska could be
applied. The Financier still holds out hopes to the Lon-
don holders of the San Domingo Bonds, asserting a good
chance of the measure yet being carried, according to
private telegraras.

Mr. J. P. Root, of Kansas, has been nominated
by the President as Minister to the Hague, in place of

Gen. Hugh Ewing. Mr. Root is a resident of Kansas, and
at present Senator Pomeroy's clerk, at whose solicitation
he has been named. The President has also nominated

Moses Hallett as Chief Justice for Colorado. The follow-

ng nominations have been confirmed by the Senate :—To

ba Consuls =James R. Wheeler of Massachusetts, at King-
ston ; J. B. Gould of Maine, at Birmingham ; J. B. Kerr
Mobile, at Scio ; Benjamin D. Merton of Rhode Island, at
Colonia, Uruguay; C. W. Kleeberg of the District of
ColuAbia, at Verviens ; D. H. Batchelder of New Hamp-

shire, at Londonderry ; James Lorimer Graham, jun., at
Florence; Thomas F. Wilson, at Matatnoras ; David
Eckstein, Victoria, Vancouver's Island; C. M. F. Petard,

Strasburg; W. K. M. Bergen, Algiers; J. C. Cover, Fayal ;
W. B. Jones, Brindisi.

The only information which had reached Secre-
tory Fish relative to the fisheries in British waters uas a

communication from the American Consul-General in

Canada, enclosing a copy of the bill on the subject intro-

duced into the Canadian Parliament, which commences

with a preamble, as follows :—" Whereas it is expedient,
for the more effective protection of the inshore fishoiies of

Canada against interference by foreigners, to amend the
Act entitled 'An Act respecting fishing by foreign vessels,'

and repeals the third section of ,the Act, so that foreign

♦essels shall not approach any of the fishing shores nearer
han three miles without a license, the penalty being tho
orfeiture of such vessels." The President sent a message
to the House of Representatives, forwarding the report of
the Secretary, and stating that he had ordered a small

active steamer to be sent to the waters wherein those

fisheries are chiefly carried on, to warn and protect the
United States fishermen. Mr. Robeson, in compliance
with the President's directions, ordered the United States

steamer Despatch from Norfolk to Prince Edward's

Island, with instructions to let the American fishermen

know that without a licence they will not be permitted to
_ _ _ _

fish within three miles of the shore. These ridiculous