The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-01 00:00:00

PENALTIES.

Regarding the present as a favourable opportunity, I
call the attention of Congress to the penal laws providing
for the punishment of offences against the postal service.
The penalties prescribed are iu many cases too severe,
and, by reason of their apparent harshness, have tended
to create a sympathy in the minds of jurors and others
in behalf of this class of offenders. Experience has shown
that the certainty of punishment, more than its severity,
deters from crime. I recommend that the terms of impri-
sonment in most cases be shortened and graduated, with a
more careful regard to the nature and character of the
offences which the framers of the laws designed to punish
and prevent.

I have the honour to be, with groat respect, your obe-
ient servant, JNO. A. J. CE SWELL,
The President. Postmaster-General.

NE.WSVENDORS' BENEVOLENT AND PROVIDENT
INSTITUTION. —Charles Dickens, Esq. (the President)
will take the chair at the annual dinner, in behalf of the
fends of the Nowsvendors' Benevolent and Provident
Institution, at the Freemasons' Tavern, on the sth of
April. It will be remembered that ill health prevented
Mr. Dickens from filling this position in April last. We
congratulate the newsvendors upon gaining so able a
chairman, and recommend their deserving institution to a
generous public.

Swindling is the rage. William E. Gray, son of
the Rev. H. E. Gray, for eight years chaplain to the United
States Senate, is the hero of rather a good specimen. He
came up to New York little over two years ago from
Shelburne Falls with high recommendations from Con-
gressmen Butler, Pomeroy, and Morrill, and got a place as
cashier in the house of Dimock and Co. His exemplary
conduct and strict attention to business, as well as highly
!floral character—at all times refusing wine and cigars—
won for him a high position with his employers, and when
he severed his connection with them they gave him a
eulogistic recommendation. He hired a desk in New-street,
receiving from a member of the Gold Board a Power of
Attorney to operate there, and after preparing his friends
for the change three weeks ago, he opened a grand office
on Broad-street, calling himself William E. Gray and Co.,
and procured loans from leading Wall-street bankers. A
week previously Jay Cooke and Co. discovered that some
of his bonds had been altered from lower denominations,
but Gray immediately withdrew and changed them. On
the 10th of December the Bank of the Commonwealth de-
tected forgeries among Gray's collaterals, and forced
him at once to close his account, giving notice to the State
agents, but making no effort to secure his arrest. Gray
was made at this time a member of the Mining Board, bu
the cheque given for the fee was immediately protested
On the 11th Dec., about 11.30 a.m., a lady stopped with
a carriage before his office, to which was transferred a pack-
age, supposed to contain securities. On that day, for the
first time for weeks, ho went to his residence and took
away his effects. He afterwards called at the Mechanics
Bank, where he deposited three New York State Bonds of
$lO,OOO each as collaterals, as he desired to overdraw his
account. With the money thus obtained he procured from
Jay Cooke and Co. a quantity of U. S. Coupon Bonds, car-
rying off also 50,000 shares of the Quartz Hill Mining
Company, deposited with him as the basis of a " corner '
in that Stock. The Bonds left with the Mechanic.'
Bank turned out to be three of the $l,OOO issue stolen a
year ago from the office of E. J. Woolsey, for which
the State had given new bonds. Gray's office books
indic.ite that he bad previously worked with stolen bonds
and securities of various mining companies, among them
Cumberland Coal Company's 6 per Cent. Gold-bearing
Bonds, and the Ruby Silver Mining Company of Nevada,
3,700 shares of which were hypothecated. On his desk
was found the following letter addressed to a lady clerk
of the Treasury Department, at Washington :—" Dear
Birdie—Do not write to mo until you see me. I will be in
Washington, Tuesday, or Wednesday, and have insured
•ny life for $5,000, for your benefit." He had also been
in that department, where he made the acquaintance of a
;ort of swell mobsinan, named T. IL Pratt, who did the
stealing, Gray doing the swindling. Gray's stock-in-
trade was his meek appearance and reputation for honesty,
and ho appears to have operated with a sublime "cheeki-
ness," wiich enabled him successfully to face the first
liscovery of his villanies. Pratt did the alterations as
well as the stealing. Gray's lady acquaintances appear to
be numerous, and billets doux kept pouring in after his
departure for the enlightenment of the detectives. One of
these ladies has been arrested. The swindle falls heavily
on the Street, the ruffians having as yet escaped with
plunder amounting to $lOO,OOO, mainly effected through
alterations in New York State bonds.

Governor Macdougall is said to favour a rail-
way from Pembina to Fort Garry, and thence westward,
confining the connection through British territory to Daw-
aun's summer route of portage. It was rumoured that ho
would bo recalled, while the mail news is that the rebels
had placed Governor M"ravish under a close guard on
account of his remit proclamation. The sentinels furced
Captain Campbell back to Ame: icon soil, on his attempting
to enter Fort Garry, informing him that if he carne again
ho instantly bo shot. A asole.ration of iutlepesactivb
had been issued by the insurgents, in which they protest
against the transfer against their consent, asserting the
Provisional Government to be the only lawful authority
in the territory, While they declare they will resist the
transfer they express their willingness to negotiate with
Canada to secure a good government, and assure the pros-
perity of the people. This unsatisfactory state of affairs
has caused the Government of the Dominion to postpone
the payment of the purchcse money to the Hudson's Bay
Company until next spring. There is one thing the com-
pany will certainly not have to sell, and that is provisions,
as the insurgents are rapidly eating them all up.
The Times, containing the account of Seward's
capture, the begging-letter impostor of Philadelphia, with
an editorial thanking Postmaster-General Creswell, Spe-
cial-Agent Petheridge, and Mr. T homson, the Consul at
Southampton, for ferreting out the fraud, was forwarded
by the British Embassy in Washington to Secretary
Crests ell. The same paper has published long extracts
from 8 vcretary Robeson's Report, followed by an article on
what "sat Minister says about the British Navy. If the
U. S. F scretary of the Navy's Report be generally read,
it will disp9l 't delusion in the United States regarding

Mr. Moncure D. Conway will, it is said, return
to America this year partly for a visit, after an absence
of six years, and partly on a lecture tour. The Nest
York Ind pendent says that he was received so cordially
on Lis arrival in England in 1863 " by such friends of
America as the Duke of Argyll, John Bright, `Thomas
Hughes, and P. A. Taylor, and such literary men as
Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, and Fronde, and was
drawn, not only into a delightful social life, but into
opportunities of literary usefulness, especially in the in-
terests of America, that he was beguiled into a residence
now not likely soon to end." The fact is that Mr. Con-
way's literary engagements in London closely and pro-
fitably occupy his time, and he is become a well-esta-
blished and highly appreciated member of the metropo-
litan literary community, a place few succeed in securing,
and feel little inclinatian to relinquish when once at-
tained. When he returns to America it will be in next
lecture season, and perhaps not prolonged beyond it, and
one of his subjects is said to be his tour in Russia made
last year, with unusual opportunities of seeing there all
classes of society.
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