The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-26 00:00:00

T E SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 26, 1869.

MISCELLANEOI7S NEWS.

THE QUEEN.

If the Court Journal is accurate in saying that
the Queen will return to Windsor Castle on the
10th or 20th of February, a statement made a few
days ago that the Queen will open Parliament in
person must be unfounded. Her Majesty's subjects
will regret her absence on so important an occasion
as the opening of a new Parliament, elected by new
constituencies, and assembling under the auspices of
a new Premier. West-end tradesmen will, however,
be consoled by the promise that her Majesty will
reside at Buckingham Palace during a portion of the
season.

supporters complain that a system very lire canvas-
sing has been carried on by Mr. Jones ; but this
apart, the experiment has been eminently successful.
The anti-Ballot newspapers may call it a " fancy "
ballot, but the fact that the machinery has been
found " workable " can hardly fail to have an
influence on the discussion which is now being so
energetically conducted. An objection to the
plan used at Manchester is advanced by a
correspondent of the Times, which is likely to
" taboo" the use of the envelope for the future. He
points out how easily a blank card may be put into
the voting envelope, and the card itself placed at the
disposal of party agents.

INDIA.

The Earl and Countess of Mayo sailed for Madras on
the morning of December 30th, after a week of gaiety and
sight-seeing in the Bombay Presidency. At Poonah there
was a grand review and levee, the Viceroy being accom-
panied by Lord Napier of Magdala ; at Broach there was
an exhibition of industry and agriculture, which seems to
have been remarkably successful ; and at Bombay there
was the usual round of balls and receptions. The new
Viceroy has set to work to " get up " the country which
he is to govern. He has inspected the manufactures and
defences of Bombay, while the Countess has gone the round
of the schools and visited the principal native ladies. The
Times of India observes that Lord Mayo is resolved to
spare no pains in order to enter upon the duties of his
high station with as intimate and varied a knowledge of
the country as opportunity will allow. He received two
deputations—one from the Chamber of Commerce, and
one from the Bombay Association—and to both of these
he accorded such a reception as has left upon their minds
a very favourable impression as to his character and
ability, and led them to anticipate many substantial
benefits to India from his rule.
The conference between Lord Mayo and the Bombay
Chamber of Commerce lasted nearly two hours. The
deputation pressed upon his lordship the necessity of at
once taking action in the great public questions upon
which the prosperity of India depends. Trade languishes
in many districts owing to a total want of roads; railways
arc much needed, and the lack of irrigation is itself the
cause of famine. Lord Mayo entered into an animated
discussion on these topics, and assured the Chamber that
his attention should in particular be given to the primary
necessities of railways, roads, and irrigation. _

The mail brings a very melancholy bulletin of pestilence
and famine. Smallpox is raging in three large districts,
and bronchitis is prevalent to a remarkable extent in
another. Arcot, in Madras, is likely soon to be added to
the long list of famine-stricken provinces, in which the
severity of distress is in no respect diminished. Relief
works have, however, been undertaken in some districts,
and will speedily be established for the benefit of all.
We have not yet, it seems, heard the last of the Mutiny.
The Indian papers state that the sentence of death passed
upon Meer Hadjee, the murderer of Captain Douglas and
others on the 11th of May, 1857, has been confirmed, and
the convict will be executed at Delhi, near the scene of his
crimes.

THE PHILADELPHIAN CORRESPONDENT
OF THE " TIMES"

We conclude from his letter, dated Jan. 5, that
the Philadelphia correspondent of the Times has
been told by the oracle of Printing-house-square to
sing to another tune, otherwise we are utterly at a
loss to account for the sudden disappearance of
every " dismal prospect," all of which, with the
New Year, have vanished—except some financial
troubles. Our own intelligence was that last year
closed with heavy commercial failures in some of

the great cities of the Union, and that anxiety was
manifested regarding the soundness of trade. Its
very basis was threatened in cases now on trial in
the Supreme Court, wherein the constitutionality
of the Legal-Tender Act is disputed. Fraud had
grown to an overwhelming extent, the revenue was
not increasing, an Indian war was on hand, and
there certainly are as many causes now to make up
"dismal prospects" as when the wonderful corre-
spondent wrote of them some months ago. Indeed,
to a strongly pronounced Democrat, the " disnaals"
ought to have increased in the election of GRANT
and in the success of the Republicans. But some-
how or another, although the announcement of
GRANT'S majority,according to him, had sent up gold
4 or 5 per cent. at a bound, yet by one of those
graceful swings round the circle, fur which those who
work in and for Printing-house-square are celebrated,
the correspondent of the luminary, which from these
purlieus enlightens the world, now discovers that
the election of GRANT has transformed the "dismal"
into " cheerful" prospects. Here is what he says :
" The New Year opens with a cheerful prospect for
the United States. Trade is somewhat better than
it has been for a good while, and a marked im-
provement is anticipated. All classes of the mer-
cantile community, even the shipbuilders, have re-
covered from the despondency of last year, and now
hope, not without cause, for better things The
South is almost completely tranquillized, and the
asperities of politics have to a great extent disap-
peared from both sections." We imagine that he
got his cue from the office of the Times, where it
was perceived that the misrepresentations he has
been disseminating throughout Europe are shown
up to the damage of the'Times itself, in quarters
wherein they are likely to do harm, and that the
recoil in America tends to influence injuriously the
friendly feeling desirable to cultivate, and those
very negotiations England considers essential to
settle quickly and for ever. The letter referred to
is really worth reading, and because it bears out
all we have urged during the year just expired, we
reproduce this portion as a sample of the writer's
consistency, and ask our readers whether the Times
correspondent or the Anglo-American Times has
given the more correct information on American

affairs :
" Financial troubles alone seem to beset America;
for in everything else her prospects are bright. As
both Congress and the new PRESIDENT, however,
show a commendable desire to practise national
economy, and keep the expenditure much within
the income, it is probable that the country, without
any great derangement, will be able to return to a
normal condition of finance. This cheerful_ prospect
is due to a great extent to the popular confidence in
General GRANT. They expect to find in him an
honest, energetic, and judicious Executive, who
will endeavour to tranquillize instead of stirring up
strife, and who will try to make the burdens of
Government rest as lightly,upon the nation as pos-
sible. This feeling is shared by both parties, and,
with the exception of a few restless politicians, the
mass of the people intend to give him their support
from the outset of his Administration, confident
that their trust will not be misplaced. They expect
to rind him a moderate ruler, who will check the
extremes of both parties, and who will try to keep
that middle path which, under the American sys-
tem, is the only one that can insure tranquillity. The
American people are heartily tired of the bitter
and vexatious strife that has been waged between
President JOHNSON and Congress, and will therefore
I welcome a change that can give them a President
and Congress who will act in harmony. The cost
of all the expensive measures devised by Congress
to check the Executive will be saved ; the demoral-
ization in the revenue service caused by the dis-
putes between the two branches of the appointing
power will to a great extent be checked ; and, when
the public mind is quiet, those members of Con-
gress who desire to reform abuses and reduce ex-
:, -
penscs will be heard and heeded." The first ques-
tion suggested to the mind of any of our readers is
—IV by then did the writer to the best of his
ability aid the canvass of SEYMOUR ?----how comes
it that the nation whose trust is in GRANT to-day,
ceno
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I then, and long before, to point out the very facts
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' now shining so brightly before this correspon-
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folly of placing a Republican Congress in the Capitol
and a Democratic President in the White House ;
and as the former could not fail to be Republican one
of the strongest reasons we advanced for the election
of a Republican President was to secure this very har-
mony. Nor did it require much knowledge or any
great amount of acumen to predict that the cause
which had tended so much to keep alive Southern
political violence and ill-feeiing would, if continued
in Washington, be continued in the South, and that
therefore it would be ill-advised, if the country was
to be tranquillized, to encourage either in the White
House or in the Capitol the Southern spirit of re-
: sistance to a policy upon which the Northern mind
was fixed. Indeed it differs but little from the part
of the vicious boy, who, desirous of fanning the quar-
rel of his friends into au open fight, pats one on the
back, and asks if he is afraid ? and whispers in the
ear of the other, " he calls you a coward and a snob,
and says he will punch your head." Yet any per-
son who recollects what the correspondent Ills pre-
viously written must know that no such truths before
found a place in his letters, and that all the influ-
ence he dared to give in the columns of the Times
was exerted in favour of what he now shows would
have been so disastrous. Nor was he alone among
correspondents to English papers in these efforts;
for it was the bias of their communications which
spread throughout the country the general but
erroneous opinion that GRANT would be defeated ;
that it was desirable he should not be elected ; and
that it was still more certain and more true that the
Republicans would be unsuccessful in returning
their candidates to the House, a prediction even more
to be desired, though the Senate would remain
overwhelmingly Republican. Immediately after the
nomination in Tammany hall this cry was so loud
that it deceived the world, and it was not till the
Republicans fairly set to work and got accurate re-
turns of their strength that the errorbegau to be cor-
rected. It was the actual defeat alone that stopped
the facile pens of many—the Times correspondent
among the number. Then his "careful surve3 ," pre-
dicting an assured success, gave way to his " dismal
prospects." Still, however tardy may have been the
change—to whatever cause is attributable the dis-
covery of his errors—their open renunciation is
satisfactory to us, and, if spontaneous, creditable to
him. Yet it may be that be adopts all the well-known
habits of the 'limes; that he drops on his knees like
a Parsee to worship the rising sun, though his face
and his prayers may have been turned the day be-
fore towards Mecca with the exclamation ou his
lips, 4, There is but one GOD, and MAIIO3IET is his
prophet !"—Anglo-American Times.

Mr. Alexander S. M'Crae, the Liverpool broker,
in his last weekly produce statement, publishes a corres-
pondenmhe had with the American Minister on the sub-
ject of repealing the late Order in Council imposing re-
strictions on the importation of American hay. The cor-
respondence is introduced with this remark :—" Anybody
wishing to learn how the American Ambassador can re-
move restrictions on trade, as well as pacify a nation,
should read the following:—'lt is to be hoped that this
simple record of facts will show the American people the
vast and judicious influence their Ambassador exercises
amongst us, and prove, that however great, or however
small the occasion may be, he is always equal to it.'"
DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exports.
tion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Dunville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buildings, Strand, London W.C.—[Ad
TONAcilleut.]

" ECONOMY AND REFORM."

(From time Anglo-American Times.)

The speech of ELIHU B. WASHBURNE, of Illinoie,
on the Gth instant, in the House, on the Appro-
priations for the Session, is taken to indicate the
policy of the incoming Administration. The bark of
" the Treasury watch-dog" comes with a deep bay'd
welcome to the national ear, sick of hearing stories
of gross corruption, of lobbyists, of rings, of pecu-
lation, and of speculation ; of contracts, and of
shoddy. The speech was well-timed, preceding as
it did the discussion on the appropriations. Mr.
WASHBURNE asserted that the Republican party
triumphed in the last election because it was pledged
to honesty and economy ; to uphold public faith and
public credit, and to execute the laws. The strength
of the party which enables it to set at defiance exe-
cutive vetoes fixes on it the responsibility of go-
vernment. They have elected to the White House
a man true to the party, emphatically an honest
man, an enlightened statesman, to administer the
laws without fear, favour, or affection :--

"Added to other terrible evils brought upon the coun-
try by the war for the suppression of the rebellion is the
demoralization incident to all great wars and to the ex-
penditures of vast and unheard-of amounts of public
money ; to the giving out of immense contracts by -which
sudden and vast fortunes were made, the inflation of the
currency, which engendered speculation, profligacy, ex-
travagance, and corruption, by the intense desire to get
suddenly rich out of the Government and without la-
bour, and the inventions and schemes generally to get
money out of the Treasury for the benefit of indivi-
duals without regard to the interests of the Govern-
ment. While the restless and unpansing energies
of a patriotic and incorruptible people were de-
voted to the salvation of their Government, and were pour-
ing out their blood and treasure in its defence, there was
C,e vast army of the base, the venal, and unpatriotic, who
rushed in to take advantage of the misfortunes of the
country and to plunder its Treasury. The statute books
are loaded with legislation which will impose burdens on
future generations. Public land enough to make empires
has been voted to private railroad corporations; subsidies
of untold millions of bonds, for the same purposes, have
become a charge upon the pecple, while the fetters of vast
monopolies have been fastened still closer and closer upon
the public. It is time that the Representatives of the
people were admonished that they are the servants of the
people, and are paid by the people ; that their constituents
have confided to them the great trust of guarding their
rights and protecting their interests; that their position
and their power are to be used for the benefit of the
people whom they represent, and not for their own benefit
and the benefit of the lobbyists, the gamblers, and the
speculators who have come to Washington to make a raid
upon the Treasury."

The time has come to hold public men to a more
strict accountability—to scan with a more critical
eye their actions in the discharge of their duty.
General GRANT alone cannot secure the reforms in
the Public Service imperatively demanded. lie
must have an earnest and cordial support from the
other branches of the Government, particularly
of the Legislature. The responsibility of this Con-
gress to the next is complete. By its recklessness and
extravagance it can make appropriations of land
and mon y, which will destroy the national credit
and make the country an object of scorn to the civil-
ized world. Then without money or credit, unable
to command respect at home and abroad, the Re-
public will be held in contempt by the weakest and
the most pusillanimous of nations. " But," con-
tinued Mr. WASHRURNE, " one thing is clear, if
Congress cannot control the expenditures of the
Government ; if it cannot curb the executive
officers of the Government in spending the public
money, and if such officers are to be left practically
to determine the appropriations, then, I say, let
Congress abdicate, and let the people be saved the
expense of keeping up this expensive and somewhat
ornamental institution." It must always be a treat
for the lobbyist to hear " the watch-dog's" bark, and
it was all the louder in his late speech, as it heralded
the advent of his friend GRANT. The St. Louis
Democrat gives a report related by a prominent
citizen of St. Louis of a conversatiou he heard be-
tween General GRANT and a Senator from Louisiana.
A Judge wanted the Government to guarantee
the State bonds for the restoration of the levees.
In reply to GRANT'S quick and decisive utterance,
"I hope the Government will not do it ?" he re-
marked that the signature only was required to
enable the State to sell the bonds at other than a
ruinous discount without costing the United States
a cent. GRANT replied, "I never knew a Govern-
ment to become responsible for any amount that it
did not ultimately have to pay. You now want
the endorsement of the bonds. If that is given,
you will soon want to legislate for the payment of
the bonds." It was in vain that they urged on
him the millions of fertile acres under water. " Let
them overflow, and let them stay under water,"
said GRANT, " until their owners are willing that
Northern men and Northern capital should come in
and protect and improve them. Northern men
with ample capital are ready to make a garden of
your State, and you won't let them do it. Your
large landholders are as hostile to this United
States Government to-day as they have ever been ;
and if that Government should rebuild their levees
it would not change them a particle. I know no
way the Government could have adopted for re-
building the levees but to have confiscated the lands
of those engaged in rebellion, and used the proceeds
to restore the country. As that was not done,
nothing remains but to set your negroes to work,
and invite in and welcome Northern men ;" closing
the conversation with the remark, " that the
Louisianians will have to build their own levees or
stay under water until men should come in who will
build them." The Senator who waited on him about
the Union Pacific Railroad was served out with the
same sau3e, and there is a good deal of blank des-
spair and a bad time expected, at least in the Wash-
ington lobbies. The statesmen at the Capitol have
to learn the lesson GRANT taught the Generals in
the field. The President Elect is so quiet, silent,
unpresuming a man that those accustomed to " tall
talk" find the greatest difficulty in not believing him
to be a goose ; and the number of people sold in
this way exceeds the number of geese sold for
Michaelmas-day in England. The Generals, even
after some of GRANT'S most brilliant victories, could
not persuade themselves that he was anybody, and
often thus impressed presumed in a way they would
not otherwise have dared to do. The politicians,
even in spite of his renown, cannot refrain in pre-
sence of this modest being from trying the same
game. But they are beginning from practical ex-
perience to learn the style of man with whom, for
at least one term, it is decreed they will have to deal,
and the lobbyists do not admire the prospect.
We expect, if the opportunity offers, to see a furious
onslaught made on the General ; but a child might
as well fire a pop-gun at a man in armour, for he is
clad in proof, and he but requires the support of
the Legislature to sweep out of office a great deal
which has settled down there during the term of
his predecessor. GRANT knows that nothing grows
more rapidly than corruption or assumes so many
plausible disguises ; and being a plain, straight-
forward man, with a singular facility for pene-
trating at once to the core of a matter, he is
determined not to parley with, or entertain schemes
directed against the Treasury, no matter how pa-
triotic, in appearance, may be the motive. The best
patriotism is to raise the credit of the country, and
to lower the burdens of the people ; but plain a
truth as this may be it is too often forgotten and
too frequently set aside when any pet scheme has
to be forwarded, even by good men. If we be-
lieve one thing more than another about GRANT,
it is that he has no pet schemes except the national
one of increasing the credit of the country and
reducing the taxes, and the strength of his posi-
tion lies in the fact that the people generally know
this too.

Ilarper's Weekly opposes the new international
Postal Treaty between the United States and the United
Kingdom, which has just come into operation, on the
ground that the preference given to the circWation in
America of English thought and opinion amounts to a
direct discrimination in favour of the English subject over
the American citizen. The writer argues that through it
the United States Post Office will carry from one end of
the country to the other English book parcels up to 100 lb.
at 16 cents per lb., the charge on American books being
96 cents per lb., makinga difference of 600 per cent. against
American books, authors, readers, and publishers. The
writer overlooks the fact that tho advantage is reciprocal
the American author being placed on the same footing
regarding the United Kingdom. England, too, under-
takes to carry through the kingdom American parcels on
very favourable terms, addressed, to continental or colo-
nial countries.