The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-23 00:00:00

excessive.

The news from :Algeria i 3 to the effect that all is not so
,ranquil iu th..t quarter as could be wi.ihed.

THE A IIERICAY GOVERNMENT AND THE
CUBAN INSTIRRECTIOA:

------ji.---._,

The Washington. correspondent of the New York,
Tribune, writing on the Bth instant, says : " Cuban
matters are becoming more important and interesting
each day, the interest being enhanced by the action of
our own Government, and the presence here of intern-
rent representatives from the insurrectionary forces,
who are daily gaining influential friends by the repre-
sentations which they are enabled to give. There can
no longer be any doubt of the attitude of cur Govern-
ment in reference to the American prisoners held
by the Spanish authorities, nor of the decision to main-
tain a faithful neutrality as between the contending
parties on the island. There is no doubt, however,
that our Government Is ill unhesitatingly demand the
immediate and unconditional release of all the American
prisoners, and that all efforts at interference
on the part of citizens of the United States will be peremp-
torily dealt with. This is rendered more apparent each
day by the action of the President and heads of
departments. The Navy Department is especially ac-
tive in its preparations to prevent interference by our
citizens.

STARTLING PUBLIC PRAU_DS
AMERICA.

Th 3 Congressional Committee appointed last year to in-
vestigate certain suspicious doings in-the Department of the
Treasury which is devoted to the printing of 'notes- and bonds
has issued a remarkable report. ri
-:po committee say that
they have found, with regard to nearly every description of
Government securities, discrepancies in the accounts be-
tween the number printed and number issued, showing that.
sorne of them disappeared after learving the printing press;
they have found the Looks kept in the most careless
way, no record at all being preserved of many very im-
portant transactions, and a very imperfect ane of others;
that no pains whatever have been taken to secure the proper
numbering of the Government bonds, the work being actually
left, without verification, largely to the memory of the
person in charge of the printing machine. The testi-
mony tends to ahoy, the Committee say, that " the
numerical registers of issue are rather theoretical than
actual records of transactions ;: that is, that the clerks in
charge did not compare each issue of their bonds by their
consecutive numbers with the registry entries, or make the
entries in the register from such comparison ; but that they
made up the entries in the . register, as a rule, by
taking the first and last number-of any particular lot of secu-
rities, and making the entries from. those, and assuming that
all the numbers between wore consecutive regularly, and not
duplicate. It is also suggested as t 6 the duplicate coupons,
that as they are numbered at a different time from the num-
ber on the bond, they may have been duplicated and the
bond not."

A telegram from Oxford states that a challenge
from America to row a four-oar race in August from Mort-
lake to Putney has Leen received by the president of the
University Boat Club and accepted.
The great "penknife question" in the Civil
Service has been set at rest by the cancelling of the order
that no more penknives should be issued. The matter
was, it is stated, carefully considered by the Cabinet.
At the last meeting of the
.11oyal Humane
Society the bronze medallion was given to W. J. West, a
bandsman in the Rth Middlesex Volunteers, fur saving
the life of Mr. Fairbourne, a private in the 4th Middle-
sex, at the Dover lleview, under the exciting circum-
stances detailed at the time.
The engineer, Benkupin. Danks, who recently
caused the death of a mar, named Careless, a doggy and
uuderlookor at the Iteddall Bill colliery, by drawing the
skip in which the men were being pulled to the top of the
pit over the pulley, has been coturnit ed fur trial on a charge
of manslaughter.

On 'Wednesday a gymnast, called Alvantee, was
performing on the high trapeze at Day's Concert Hall, Eir-
rningharn, he lost.his hold, and, hurled beyond the net in-
tended to meet such accidents, he felt upon the foctlightE.
The unfortunate man vtas sellout4ly injured in the back and
'