The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-29 00:00:00

THE LONDON COMPANIES.

The City companies of London, with their im-
mense wealth in so many cases lying nearly idle, have
just been told how they may, with advantage to the
country, lay out their money. At a prize distribu-
tion to the evening scholars at King's College,
London, Dr. Barry, the principal, invited the Lord.
Mayor, who distributed the prized, to use his influence
in obtaining the funds of these companies for for-
warding the work of technical education, which the
college was about to commence. The Lord Mayor
Dromised to do so.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The labour agitation in the United States con-
tinues and increases. The decision of the Attorney-
General on the Eight Hour Law is met by vigor-
ous opposition from those it affects ; and in their
interests members of both Houses have brought
strong pressure to bear on the President. General
Banks is among these, and he asserts that Congress
meant the law to be interpreted as the workmen
interpret it, and not as Judge Hoar interprets it ;
and that when Congress meets, any defect will be
remedied so as to make the intention clear. The
President is pressed to issue an order on the subject,
which he very properly declines to do, and so does
the Navy Department, replying to the arguments of
General Banks that they have no business with the
intentions of Congress, they have simply to execute
the laws, and for the interpretation of those laws
they have to apply to the Attorney-General. Strikes
are on the increase ; one on a grand scale having
begun in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Thou-
sands of miners simultaneously stopped work, while
acting in a way so orderly as to be thought to show
an extensive organization, and it is feared the de-
termination of both sides will embarass the country
ere the dispute is settled.
Mr. Thomson the recently appointed Consul at
Southampton has answered Mr. Smalley's charges
as requested by the Secretary of State. He says
he never met Messrs. Rost and Yancey, the rebel
Commissioners, and therefore could not, as alleged,
have hired a special train to convey them to Lon-
don. But we do not (perhaps being obtuse) see the
sequence as it is seen by Mr. 'Thomson and ac-
cepted byMr. Fish, for the act, may be independent
of a personal acquaintance. Indeed we doubt if
Mr. Thomson ever made such a statement, though
he distinctly denies the truth of the report. In a
card to the Tribune he writes :—" The head and
front of my offending was to hand a sealed letter
to Mr. Rost, at the request of Robert B. Camp-
bell, our Consul at London. I never knew or spoke
to Mr. Yancey, or paid either of them any atten-
tion whatever." Nor did he apply for a post from
the Southern Confederacy, or utter a word or per-
form an act favourable to the rebellion. These
charges had been made against him before, and al-
ways disproved. First, on his removal by Presi-
dent Lincoln in 1862, when he satisfied Mr. Seward
they were unfounded ; main before the Senate Gan-
mittee on Commerce, when, after a thorough inves-
tigation, he was confirmed in a former appointment;
and now by the London correspondent of the Tri-
bune, whereon his explanations have, he asserts, sa-
tisfied Mr. Fish. Ile ascribes the charges to a quar-
rel he had hadwith Mr. Moran, now Charge d'Affaires,
and he insinuates that Captain Britton, the present
Consul at Southampton, has resuscitated them, not-
withstanding Mr. Smalley's disavowal. Mr. Thom-
son was to leave for his post in England at the end
of the month. s.

kday or two after Mr, Thomson's card to the