The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-11 00:00:00

A SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

The Russian merchants at the fair of Nijni Novgorod are
about to petition the Government to establish a railway
communkation between St. Petersburg and China, through
Siberia. Its object will be to protect the Russian trade with
China from foreign compe'itien. The Russians declare
that the opening of the Suez Canal threatens to ruin
their tea trade. The Government seems disposed to adopt
the scheme, but has not yet decided where the railway
shall be.

CHOLERA AND RINDERPEST IN EASTERN EUROPE.

A committee of physicians has been appointed to inquire
into the outbreak of cholcra, at Rieff, in Russia. They
report that the majority cf cases present the symptoms of
Asiatic cholera, and many patients died in a few hours.
Among the victims was the daughter of the Governor-
General of the city. Rinderpest has made its appearance
in Silesia. -

TIIE NORTII-WEST BOUNDARY OF THE UNITED STATES.

The Americans have a Geographical Society as well as
ourselves, and at a recent meeting, held at the Cooper
Institute, a very interesting paper on the Physical Geo-
graphy of the North-Western Boundary of the United States
was road by Mr. Gibbs,of Washington. Mr. Gibbs was the geo-
logist to the commission which drew the line of the North-
Western boundary, and he explained that the whole line
was one range of mountains. On the narrow coast of
Washington and Oregon territory there were evidences of
the encroachments of the ocean. Tho whole Oregon shore
has been washed away from the 44th to the 47th parallel,
and along the Straits of Tuca the land is set back from
what once was the coast more than two degrees of lon-
gitude. The Pacific Ocean deepens suddenly on leaving
the shore, and along the coast of Cape Pendesceno, the
waves break in seventeen fathoms of water, while off Cape
Hatteras they break in not more than seven fathoms. The
southern portion of Colombia is heavily wooded, and the
climate mild. A waterfall on the Colombia river is 235
feet of a clear leap, the stream being only 100 feet wide. The
Cascade range of mountains in the interior is a continuation
of the Sierra Nevada, and contains many extinct volcanos.
The forests aro beautiful, and mosses and lichens abound,
but animal life is scarce. This land is very sparsely
peopled. The climate is humid and mild, and the snow
rarely lasts more than ten days in winter. During the
rainy season whole valleys aro submerged, and the
melting of snow on the mountains occasions floods
in the Frazer and Colombia rivers. Less than ten years
ago there was not a white man's habitation to be seen in
Washington and Idaho territories, whereas now they have
growing populations and numerous towns. Doubt-
less the tide of emigration will Boor got +Awards tho North-
West-

ACCIDENTS AND OCCUREENCES.—A. Cincinnati
despatch says that three persons were killed by the giving
way of the floor of the Coloured Baptist Church at Lexing-
ton, Kentucky, on Sunday, Nov. 21. The number of
wounded is not given.— Two men fell into a vat of boiling
water in a pork house at Louisville, Nov. 23. One of them
died the same evening, and the other is not expected to
live. —Memphis, Tennessee, Nov. 24.—A terrible affair oc-
curred near Tiptonville, Tennessee, on Sunday. A party
of masked men went to the house of William Jones, a
planter, for the purpose of disarming the negroes work-
ing for him. Jones having intimation of their coming
determined to resist, as the negroas have been peaceable
and well disposed, and made preparations for a defence.
When the raiders came they wore met with a destructive
fire, which caused them to retreat, leaving ono of their
number dead and two mortally wounded. The dead one
proved to be Robert Dickinson, living across the Ken-
tucky line. His cousin, Robert Bealchamp, died the
next morning. lie said he was misled into the scrape.
The excitement the next day was intense. Officers came
to arrest Mr. Jones and six of the negroes, but owing to
the excitement Mr. Jones was taken to the river iu charge
of the Deputy Sheriff, placed on the steamer Louisville,
and brought here, while the Sheriff, with the negroos,
started for Troy, but on the way were attacked by a posse,
who took five of the negroes into the woods and shot them
down. The Sheriff, by hard begging, succeeded in saving
the life of the other one, who was taken to Troy and
put in gaol.
.The excitement in Tiptonville is intense.
The parties on both sides aro well known, and it is sup-
posed that other blood will be shoal, even if the matter is
settled.

At this time, when the pr:uciplcs and practice of co-
operative societies engross so large a share of attention, it may
be well that Messrs. Parkins and Gotto should remind the no •
bili ty and gen try that they have fur the last twenty years adopted
the pract co of baying the best goods in large quantities direct
from the manufaAarers, marking every article iu plain figures,
and retailing hem at the smallest possible profit for ready
money; and where, front distance or other causes, cash pay-
ments have been impossible, they have never increased the price
of the articles delivered. They respectfully solicit au inspection
of their stock, consisting of portrait albums, writing-cases, dres-
sing-cases, dressing-bags, despatch boxes,' envelope-cases and
blotting-books, inkstands, desks, stationery cabinets, ornamental
g ods, purses, pocket books, cigar-cases, reticules, opera-glasses,
scent-cases, smelling-bottles, olectro-gilt awl elegantly-mounted
articles—in fact, an endless variety of articles to suit every taste
purpose, and pocket—Perkins and Gotto, 24 and 25, Oxford-
street, W.

The .spectator thinks that the President's is something
more than a moderate Message, it is the Message of one of
the older Presidents, of a ruler who,without much original
power of his own, regards himself as a representative of
the nation, and desires as far as ho can to represent their
sentiments rather than those of his party, or even of hid
own mind. His allusions to the South, for exemple, are
obviously carefully growled, but intended to show the
people the work of reeenetruelion, the testing task of the
Itepublican part,:-, lees cot been unsuccessfully performed.
Seven States, he says, have been "fully restcred;' ho
recommends that Virginis should also be admitted; ho
hints that the acts of Mississippi and Texas may be ap-
proved; and he is clay " revolutionary" as regards Georgia.
where the white majority have expelled the coloured re-
Presentatives, who, he thinks, should be recalled. At the
same time, he defends the freedmen from the customary
charge of laziness, urging that they, like other human
kings, work well when paid well ; and eulogise,, as he
well may, their ;.regress in education. Those sentences re-
present very fairly the sentiments of moderate Anunioans
of all classes, and so do the remarks on the finanece.
It is however, when he discusses foreign politics that the
President becomes a specially representative man. With
a skill which would be admirable, but for some absurdi•
ties involved in the result, he condenses into a few parct-
graphs all the ideas now floating about in the American
mind. In defiance of some of their ablest lawyers, the
Americans still persist in believing that the" unfriendli-
uess" of this country during the war constituted not only
a real grievance--which would he true enough, if the feel-
ing had beenunivorsal and had been acted on—but a basis
for international negotiation; that we ought to acknow-
ledge ourselves in the wrong, and make atonement in some
way satisfactory to their feelings. Peace abroad, retrench-
reconstruetion, and honesty at home, this is the
American programme as defined by President Grant,
and it is one which will do much to enhance their posi-
tion in the family of nations. They may rely on it, a
nation which pays off a national debt is the last nation
with 1; hich an old-established Power would like to
quarrel.

The John Bull says now that Dr. Temple's election is.
confirmed the one remaining barrier is consecration; and
there is no longer any room for the legal- and charitable
fictions which have so far been permitted to prevail. No
one has ever yet pretended that a Bishop can be compelled
by law to confer holy orders. Our Church writers uni-
formly appeal to the indefeasible right and power of the
apostolical function, as the final safeguard of our Catholicity
against the possible encroachment of the Resale. It is the
power of the keys in the Church of England which is now
to be tested. Dr. Temple very naturally cannot say what
an Apostle would do in his position. The case is incon-
ceivable. Not so the case of an Apostle (or primitive
Bishop)- solicited to lay hands on one who was not "blame-
less " before the Church. There was an Apostle who with-
stood another to the face because he was to be blamed.
There was one, and that the Apostle of love, who fled out
of the house rather than remain under the same roof
with a heretic. But we read of no Apostle
consenting to give the Holy Ghost by the com-
mandment of men. On the issue so raised,
there is no room for pleasing delusions. Its magni-
tude reduces every other question to insignificance
in comparison. However it may be decided, the
Bishops will be expected to satisfy other con-
sciences besides their own. -Under the eyes of the old
watchful adversary assembled in Council at Borneo in
presence of mocking unbelievers and Nonconformists at
home, they have to say- -whether there is a living Church
with Apostolic mission in this country, or whether the
Episcopste we have so long vaunted is, after all, a mere
department of the State, and its Catholic forms the dead
leaves of a decayed and sapless trunk. That Dr. Temple
is not "blameless," that something is needed to clear him
from just suspicion, the Archbishop has himself admitted;
probably every other Bishop in England save one is so con-
vinced in his own heart. If consecration be granted with
nothing done to satisfy this requisition, wo would rather
not speculate on. the consequences. -
The actual, proposal of a resolution in the Staffordshire
Chamber of Agriculture in favour of " Tenant-right" for
English farmers may well, remarks the Economist, excite some
surprise. The misfortune is that a wild idea of this sort,
if entertained at all among English farmers, or if they are
merely supposed to entertain it, will have a mischievous
effect on the settlement of the Irish land question. If it
is once thought by English tenants that the Irish precedent
should be followed here, English landlords will be preju-
diced against Irish changes, will discuss them as English
questions, and thus throw the whole weight of their
political influence into the scale against a bill for Ireland.
The unsuitability of England for tenant-right--for any
settlement of agricultural contracts by custom and much
more by legislation—may, moreover, be shown by expe-
rience. It happens that the Eriglish law already recog-
nises customs of letting when they have become general
in counties, just as it recognises customs of hiring, or of
buying and selling in particular markets; but informal
usages du not flourish. They are not only prejudicial to
cultivation, which is a necessity of the case, and against
the interest of landlords, but intolerable to tenants also.
In ono direction, it must be admitted, the English law
could be improver). The defeat, as we have often insisted,
is that the principle is not fully carried out. Land. is
treated like other property for certain purposes, but not
in all respects and for all purposes as the principle re-
quires, and the result is not good. Extraordinary remedies,
for instance, are given to landlords in recovering their
debts from tenants, and thus a premium on bad tenants is
created by the operation of the law. But reform of such
defects, though it would benefit the country, would be in
the very opposite direction to the principle of tenant-right
--the essence of which is to make law and usage accom-
plish what should be left to private contract. An agita-
tion for tenant-right in England would be exceptionally
mischievous, not only by " crossing" the settlement of an
Irish question, but by diverting- attention from the
farmers' trade grievances, which may:properly be redressed
and the suitable remedies for them.