The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-20 00:00:00

INDIA.

The education of the native women of India is making
progress. The report of a Native Girls' School examina-
tion which has taken place at Madras, shews that the
school has been carried on for twenty years, and turned
out many promising scholars, who are now doing well. A
caste day-school has an average attendance of 100, and
some Brahmin girls are among the pupils. The manner
in which the girls passed the examination was a testimony
to the success of missionary labours in this important
direction.

(From the Anglo •American Times.)

In
eleetiorensptoontdheinfrteo thesiden formal
cy,GenernalotGiflreaanttiopnroomfisheids
to take as his advisers men who are prepared to
carry out the principles of economy, retrenchment,
and honesty, but he declined to mention the names
of the members of his Cabinet until the nomina-
tions wure sent to the Senate.
Last Tuesday the President sent to the Senate
for ra'ili,‘ation the Treaty with Columbia, giving
to the United Sates an exclusive right to construct
the Darien Ship Canal. Considering that Caleb
Cushing's mission to Bagota has been everywhere
pronounced to be a failure, this telegram takes
us all by surprise. It was asserted that the people
of Columbia were so dull that they could not see
their owu interests, and needed a little annexing
to brighten their rusty facultim
The Supreme Court has decided that contracts
made specially payable in gold are legally payable
in gold, which is an important step on the way to
specie payment'tlC is now possible to base transac-
tions in the United States on what is recognized by
the world as money, and this will facilitate what
would otherwise have been a violent change from
a paper to a specie basis. We hope that there may
be no decision on the constitutionality of the Legal-
Tender Act, for an adverse judgment by the Su-
preme Court would have an unfavourable influence
on what is now working towards so satisfactory an
end ; though such considerations cannot be per-
mitte] theoretically to stand in the way of the deci-
sion of any legal tribunal, who have to deal accord-
ing to law and equity, not expediency.
Although amalgamation is the order of the day
at Washington, there is an intention of erecting
the Revenue Bureau into a distinct department of
the Government, and giving its chief a seat in the
Cabinet.

The New Tax Bill having passed the Senate has
gone to the President. We cannot tell what its
provisions are. By Tax Bill of course is meant
the Internal Revenue Bill, which was when the last
mail left on its passage through the House, and we
will have to wait some time before we get full
particulars. The pamphlet of the bill, consisting
of 124 pages, was takEn up on the evening of the
2d February where the House left it last session,
at section 121, page 61. On that night Mr. Schenck
got so far as to propose the striking out of the sec-
tions from 139 to 326, relating to tobacco, snuff,
and spirits. In his speech he alluded to a report
generally believed throughout the country that some
member would spring upon the House a proposition
to increase the tax on spirits. This rumour he
denied, an 1 the notion he denounced, as the'reduc-
tion on whisky had worked well, and he did not
believe that any person with honest purpose, or
With any other purpose than rascally speculation,
had set afloat such reports.
The following telegram was received from Wash-
ington last Sunday The House of Represanta-
tives has passed a bill repealing all laws authorising
the issue of bonds excepting for railroad subsidies,
or for the conversion of coupons into registered
bundS." This must be the bill einbodying the features
of that lately presented by Representative Judd, of
Illinois, to prevent the Secretary of the Treasury
from selling or transferring any more bonds or
issuing any more notes bearing interest or other-
wise, by which all future Secretaries of the Treasury
will-be prevented from making such issues without
the consent of Congress.
At the same time the following telegram was re-
ceived :

The House has also passed bills prohibiting secret sales
of bonds or gold by the Government and prohibiting the
acceptance of national currency by banks, corporations, or
persons, as collateral securities for loads.
_ .

The bill as follows was first introduced into the
Senate by Mr. Conkling in compliance with the
petitions of leading houses in New York, Phila-
delphia, Boston, and Chicago:—

_ .
&ellen 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of United States of America in Congress
assembled. That from and after the passage of this Act
no percentage, deduction, commission, or compensation of
any urnount or kind, shall be allowed to any person for the
sale, negotiation, or exchange of any bonds or securities
of the United States or of any coin or bullion disposed of
at the Treasury Department or elsewhere on account of
United States ; and all Acts or parts of Acts authorizing or
permitting, by construction or otherwise, the Secretary of
the Treasury to appoint any agent, other than some proper
officer of his department, to make such sales or negotia-
tions of bonds and securities, are hereby repealed. Sec. 2.
And be it further enacted, that after the passage of this Act
all exchanges, purchases, or sales of the bonds of the
United States shall be made by inviting the competition