The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-29 00:00:00

TIRE SEASON.

The London season has commenced, and the
vketropolis is full. Full too at a time when the
country is so very beautiful. All theifreat families
have left their mansions, parks, and lawns, with the
freshness of spring upon them, paid are now helping
to choke the over-full, and certainly not lovely,
metropolis. Why is this ? Fashion, we are told, it
inexorable. No matter that real enjoyment cannot be
had. Excitement can, and the on e must make up for the
other. Moreover, materfamilias urges that she wants
her daughters to marry. And so she leaves the more
healthy country and comes to ruinously expensive
London., there, amidst the feverish whirl of balls
and parties, to get her daughters mated for life. The
DailmNews asks whether all this is necessary:—
" We would ask if everybody cannot he seen and every-
body get married without everybody rushing up to
London for the purpose at a certain time,.and that time
the most delicious one of the rural year? We fancy that
folks married and gave in marriage before the days of
the iron rail, and still go through those indispensable
ceremonies in countries where iron rails and their con-
verging points at a metropolis are as yet wholly unknown.
As for free and frequent intercourse with comparatively
distant neighl:ours, that, no doubt, was a matter difficult
of attainment before steam was applied to locomotion;
but the very same ease and rapidity of moving about
which we now owe to railways can sm ely he utilised in
carrying people from county to county, and from one part
of the country to another, as in carrying them all up to
London."

AMERICAN FLVANCE, 1865-1869.*

(Fromthe An3lo -American Times.)
This article thus opens---“ The public debt of
the United States amounted, on tt.e Ist July, 1860,
to a capital of £13,400,000. On the Ist July, 1865,
according to Mr. M'Culloch's latest report, the
debt, including unliqnidated claims, exceeded
£600,000,000. During fnir years the Government
expenditure averaged nearly £500,000 a day." The
reviewer considers Ithat the contest between the
President and Congress alone prevented political
parties from being formed anew on financial
theC o Confederate
l
grounds oonf tthhee smubAnmiswsihoen
doifrecttheed
St tes.
policy of the Johnson Administration he does not
think highly, and though the President • interfered
little, that little neither increased his •
reputation
as a financier nor as a statesman. On Mr. M'Culloch
and his subordinates fell the labour and re-
sponsibility. That gentleman gained his financial
experience in Indiana, when that State was a p trt
of " the West," and so skilfully conducted the State
Bank that it maintained specie payments in 1857
when all its rivals had suspended. On Mr. Chase,
the Secretary, in 1861 converting the hank-note
circulation into a national currency, he selected
Mr. M'Culloch for Comptroller of the Currency.
In 1864 Nlr.:Chase was succeeded by SenatorFessen-
den, who, after nine months, returned to the Senate
in preference, and M'Culloch was promoted to be
Secretary of the Treasury. The Reviewer describes
Mr. M'Culloch hs good in his judgment and advice,
unquestioned in integrity, patient, hopeful, courage-
ous; but he had no weight, no influence,easy in temper,
and inclined toyield; therefore, however forcible and
just his remarks, no one attended, Congress seized
his finictions, and left him to carry out its policy
with which be had only. a moderate sympathy.
Mr. Rollins was neutralized by political jealousies,
and Mr. Wells' duties were consultative only. Con-
gress distrusting the Executive assumed some of its
functions, but unfortunately the members had been
✓ taught to regard with contempt mere administration
!s compared with the moral questions on which they
y were returned. " The leaders of Congress, brought
• up as they had been to study moral abstrac-
t'
tiobs alone, carried, as heads of committees
_ and framers of bills, the wildest financial theories
✓ into practical effect. They undertook, with the aid
11 of their boldest and ablest member, the late Thad-
a dens Stevens, of Pennsylvania, to make laws of
▪ political economy by Act of Congress, and they
succeeded so far as to"throw the economical fabric
of society into an unnatural and unsound condition,
likely to last many years, and to cost the nation
; either a more or less violent shock if corrected, or
a still severer blow to its credit and honour if al-
lowed to become chronic." The Reviewer then goes
on to discuss " rings" and their influence, asserting
that " no bill that has money in it is said to have a
chance of becoming law without paying tax to some
one in its passage. On the surrender of the South-
ern armies the embarrassment of the Treasury was
great, but the people took up at once £100,000,000
of Seven-Thirty notes, and from
that time there has
always been a surplus instead of a deficiency. The
financial difficulties belong to the two classes ;
those which relate to the management of the debt,
including the depreciated Legal- render currency,
and those which relate to revenue. Mr. M'Culloch
turned his attention first to the Currency, but Con-
gress declined to give him supreme power in deal-
ing with it, limiting him to withdraw £2,000,000
of greenbacks in six months, and afterwards
£BOO,OOO per month. After reducing the amount
from £80,000,000 to £73,000,000 hard times came ;
a cry was raised against contraction, and Mr.
M•Culloch yielded, and stopped redemption. On
the meeting of Congress, in spite of the Secretary's
protest, a Bill was passed withdrawing the power
of contraction. The Reviewer defends Mr. M'Cul-
loch's policy in accumulating a large gold reserve
in the Treasury to encourage regular trade and to
discourage speculators, and he managed to liquidate
£260,000,000 of temporary obligations within three
years after the war, more than £125,000,000 being
actually paid out of surplus revenue; but he is of
opinion that all England considers him to be in error
in devoting so large a sum to the discharge of a
debt whlie industry was suffering under such de•

I structive taxation. An excellent summary of the
attacks on the national credit is then given ; the
proceedings of Congress ; of the politicians to make
political capital ; the real feeling of the nation ;
and what the repudiators got for their pains. All
which is familiar to our readers, and we are glad to
see how admirably correct the " Review" is. The
Reviewer proceeds to discuss the way in which the
Government raised the necessary revenue. There
was no want of money, for the country was very
wealthy, the Northern Stags being untouched by
the war; but how to collect it proved the problem.
The excessive taxes imposed were destructive
to healthy industry and violated every economic
law. After enumerating these imposts, he adds,
" Perhaps the most mischievous tax of all, which
eat into the heart of society like a cancer, was that
which resulted from the additional profit charged
by every tradesman or manufacturer, as a compen-
sation, for the risks to which he was subjected by
the daily fluctuations of the currency." To this
system and to this vitiated currency the Reviewer
attributes the corruption .which has undoubtedly
been developed. Productive pursuits ceased to

* " Edinburgh Review," April, 1869.

yield a return comparable to the rapid gains of
trade' and speculation--the rural districts threw
their surplus population into the great cities, which,
in spite of the rise in rents and cost of living, rapidly
grew. The currency acted as a violent spur to
speculation and a 3 a screen to profits ; smuggling
became a system and fraud • a habit. This state of
things attracted the serious attention of Congress,
and the still more serious attention of really patrio-
tic citizens, but though Congress stormed, it did no-
thing effectual to check the tide. The system of
officering the Government service was ingeniously
contrived to give force to the current; but, not-
withstanding the efforts made in both Houses, no
change took place. We write from memory, but
the Reviewer does not appear fully to appreciate
what a tremendous check corruption would receive
in the passage of such a bill as that of Mr.-Jenckes,
of Rhode Island. He asserts with truth what Mr.
Wellsallirms, that the effectof greenback currency is
to make the rich richer and the poor poorer ; to make
speculation a trade, and to generate huge corpora-
tions, whose wealth and power create oligarchies
in their States. Strong and severe as is the article, we
are bound tosay that the writer has put down naught
in malice, and its point and force are derived from its
simple truth. Although the overflow of corruption,
leaving its slimy traces all over the country, breeding
plagues in its malaria, is not a pretty picture for
Americans to contemplate. They do not object to
hear the truth from a foreign critic. It is below
what their own papers state to be the case, and the
Reviewer can substantiate all he Rays from official
documents. Still we hold with the Hon. Thomas
A. Jenckes that it is but a temporary phase, one of
those manias which follow other periods of excite-
ment, and which end in a general smash when
people will awake to a stern reality, and learn by
experience that they must not only be honest them-
selves, but force their neighbours to be honest as
well ; and that any lapse from this rule will surely
tend against the weal of society. It is but the scum
which has boiled up to the surface that we see,
while beneath it is clear and pure. Before the war
there were those who affirmed that all martial quali-
ties had died out in the trading, peddling Yankee,
yet the world knows how this was belied by events.
We hope the first step in reform is the passage of
the Civil Service Bill ; that the Courts and Le3gisla,
tures will be purified ; but, above all, that society
will learn to stigmatize crime, and cease to hold
that success makes any difference.

IHE PACIFIC IMILIW.4D.

The Union Pacific Railway fight continues un-
abated, indeed grows in dimensions and crops up
everywhere. In Utah, in Washington, and in New
York it excites great interest;; in the courts and in
the Legislature it is the all-absorbing topic. De-
bate has followed debate, recrimination has followed
recrimination, and the public are utterly at a loss
to judge of the merits of a case wherein tho de-
fendants openly proclaim on the witness staid • and
in the halls of the Legislature the rascality of the
plaintiffs, and the plaintiffs assert as confidently
the rascality of the defendants. In the examina-
tion there is a wide discrepancy between the affi-
davits sworn to, and the evidence given, and in
Congress the speeches on the subject deal very
freely with the characters of the directors. Senator
Stewart, of Nevada, made a savage attack on both
the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the
Credit Mobilier. The latter he asserts to have de-
feated the I,iw which intended the stock to be open

for subscription by subscribing a little, then closing
the books, and building the road out of the enor-
mous subsidies obtained for bonds. The Senate con-
cluded by passing a motion to direct the President
to fix the point of junction according to the legal
rights of the respective roads; and another motion
was agreed to, offered by Mr. Davis, of Kentucky,
to investkate whethcr or not 'the character and all
the franchises of the Union Pacific Railroad and
its branches have not been forfeited, and to execute
all necs ssary legal proceedings if they have ; second,
to investigate whether the said company has not
made illegal dividends upon its stock, and if so to
execute the neces,ary legal proceedings to have the
same reimbursed ; and third, to investigate whether
any of the directors, or agents, or employes of the
company have or have not violated any penal law,
and if so to institute the proper criminal proceed-
ings againsts all of them who have done so. The
House Committee on tue Pacific Railroad, after
hearing arguments for and against the Union and
Central Pacific Railroads, decided to suggest the
adoption of a resolution asking the House to autho-
rize the continuance of the investigation and the
taking of testimony during the recess of Congress.
A joint resolution was eventually passed by Con-
gress, after long and adjourned debates, by the
Senate. It provides that stockholders of the Union
Pacific Road shall bold a meeting in Boston on
April 22 to elect directors and establish the general
office at such place as they may select ; that Ogden
shall be the point of junction of the two roads; that
the Union Pacific shall continue laying the track
until reaching Promontory Summit, but the Central
Pacific shall pay for and own the same from Ogden ;
that the President shall appoint Gommissioners to
examine into the condition of the roads, and shall
withhold a sufficient amount of bonds to insure their
completion as first-class roads in every respect, and
that the Attorney-General shall institute an exa-
mination as to whether the two roads have forfeited
heir franchises, and, if so, to proceed against them.
tithe House Committee agreed to withholdgfrom both
companies the bonds on the 80 miles of road be-
tween Monument Point and Ogden until the ques-
tion of junction was settled, a decision which quickly
brought the companies together to arrange their
differences. In the meantime the legal squabbles
progressing in New York are becoming a bore.
The affidavits, the speeches of counsel, the ruling
of judges are interminable ; however, the latest de-
velopment is of interest, namely, that a clerk of
Mr. Dorrant has credited to his private account
$5,000,000, against which the Union Pacific draw
eheques when it wants money. By direction of the
Secretary of War, the military route of travel to
the Pacific coast is fixed by the Pacific Railroad,
and $2OO advance mileage will be paid to officers
under orders from the East. to California, Oregon,
&c.

CRIME IN.PEILADELPHTA.

TWITCHELL'S CONFESSION AND DEATII._For thosee
of our readers who do not know the circumstaneesi.%
may mention that a man named Twitcher,llo°ll3s
a good position in society iu Philadelphia, was
victed, after a fair trial) of the murder of Mts.'
.1,,
his mother-iu-law, whose body was discovered IYI7O
beneath the window of her house, from which Sti,
had been thrown. It appeared evident on isvesred
gating the room that the old lady had been maid
tot
wheu asleep on the sofa, and that the perretr,e.it,
had cast the body through the window. is', a
chell au t hu wife were arrested ou suspicion
tried ; the former was found Guilty and condoms',
o
to death, toe latter being Acquitted. The stral,-(1,,
of the act, coupled with the social position of 11
accused, excited towards this case an unusual doi;r,o
of attention. Every effort that money or thlcr7,
could exert was made to save the culprit
and, these failing, he was supposed, ill e.°os,
d,
junction with his wife, to have made
a coal
Wen, throwing the guilt on her, who, as air°. /0
acquitted, could not again be tried. His coule6slo
bo
is as follows:—" I wen,. to my room on the 141
of the murder; and instead of going to bed Iha
down ou the lounge iu my room and fell asteeP
My wife was in bed at the time. I was loathed uy
her repeated calls, and ran down to the diais,gl
room, where found her much excited, saying,
have had a quarrel with fnother and killed her.
UO LOG know whether she said, • Save Biel' or
di
I-lelp we, hide me!' but at last we threw Lilo 13%0
of airs. out of the window, to make it 1001;"
it she fell out. I went down stairs aua washed Oil
hands and lace at the hydrant, then went to °do
rueful, Undressed, anti WCut to bed. i‘ly With e6lllO
up afterwards and gut into bed, where we staid
until Saran Campued rung the bell. 1. tbW a
Were 111 bed tenor twenty Minutes. I wade
buieLllll VOW to the eternal Litchi that night tot
would never reveal it, but cannot keep it °"1)''I,
longer. 1 “111 sorry that, .1 Mae said I knew no'lli%
of it, but I did with toe vow in lny mind, and
save my Wile. 1 HOW Make these uia~f~atir~a teat 1
may have puttee With laud. (Signed) tit.oi"
nviTCIIELL, juu. lu presence ut the liev. eaCurge
bliughurst and IV ithain B. Yetkius." SuUiGiy
after the confession, but before it was publfs""
Mrs. l %vacuai visited her husband ior the 13i;
time, and had a ConVeisatiOli withthe Itelr'
lfrOtn him she learned, in reqdl
to tier eager questions, iliac Twitchell had couttl6s
and connected her with the murder. "
exclaimed 11115. kwitchell, "he IS a the
greatest, Vidaid On the face of the earth. 01135 k:
lug wnetner he intended LO make any stateulc"
u.,the scaffold sae was answered that he old. r-Lild
knowledge appeared to disconcert her that ne'cVs-
p .per reporters would be present-. She did not Ir
peat her but left the city shortiy after, IL°a
it was diem iffisely rumoured that the vva'
where to be found. on learning °-G
Mr. Bringhurst lital published Lis cauiesaion, de-
etarat it to have been against his d,.sire •and '3°ll:
se") as he only wished it to become known 'ait'l
his execution. IVhile asserting its discrepancies to
be the best proof of its truth, he was unable to
o
tell whether his wife was dressed or not when
called him down, being, he declared, so Attuned by
what sue had toldhim. When quesciou i ,
more closely on the mot yes of his confession; ht.
said, did it because may wile deserted toe. 136;
fore last Friday week she called to see
me twice
week, but always seemed in a hurry to get 31°1'
and did not show any affection for me. On the 0,";
casiou of her last visit the officer of the prison toldbe-
that fromthat time out she might see Inc every day
it she desired. When leaving I said to her'
Cawilia, there must be some light thrown hP°:
this thing.' She only replied, I will came 50,4
11
again.' She then left, and I haven't seen I.`"
since. I think it hard that she should abandon jo
now after the sacrifices .1 have made for her.
immediately after her acquittal she had told me 610
0
whole truth, I believe my life would Lava been
saved. I see the shameful death I am to hie tja
Thursday, but I would not change places with net,
for I will die with the 'cousciousuess of yielding tip
my life for a faithless and criminal wife, while sd"
will live, after Thursday, with toy blood added
her soul, which is already stained with that of her
mother. The truth will perhaps never be knawij'
for when Thursday dawned the day on which 110
,
was to be executed, Twitehell was found by his
keeper dead in his bed. On the previous night bed
gave Mr.
.Briughurst the key with which h ,„
e P"„
wound up his watch, remarking, it was the last tilnu.
He saw Eaton, who was to be executed the si'lia
day, and remarked, "Jerry, you will have to o
alone, l will not be with you, but mum's the
On this being told the officers of the prison, his cell
was carefully searched, even the looking-glass hel";„g
taken away. lie suffered intense mental ag°l
when visited by three Catholic priests, and evince
an overwhelming terror at his impending fate. 'A,I
12 o'clock he was walking about his cell, b AV
a.m. when the keeper looked iu he was in b via)
the blanket over his head. When next the keePer
;
visited him it was 5.15, when the blanket W 8
thrown down to his middle and his face looked
deathly, though the neck was still warm the 10
were rigid and cold, his mouth open, his hands
clenched, and discovered he was dead. There 105 a
piece of liquoric.: with the end bitten off, but Pr;
Shapleigh discovered a bottle wrapped in, pacerie •
the toe of a boot half tilled with a solution of cyanid
.
of potassium, the other portion having evidestiv
he eu poured into a tin cup and swallowed 11 the
prisoner as he lay in bed. Thus perished Twitched'
who commenced his career of crime by a frstt
which he followed by a murder, then by a °L:
fession believed to be a lie, and lastly by au/6hA;
So deep was the interest in the case that the Ledge
of Wednesday Lad to be reprinted, a thing wllic
find
never before occurred in Philadelphia, and we
that most correct of journals with the Wedifesda',
heading still over the Thursday's paper. The Eves;
ing Star of that city sold 95,000 copies, said to be t,1,,,
11
largest edition ever printed by a Philadelphia dill'
paper. Gerold Eaton slept comfortably while
rwitehell was in the agonies of death, then got tiP;
1.1;
took his bath, ate his breakfast, bid his wife fare
well, and, as the noosJ was being adjusted,
turned to the person who was fixing it, and sit
"So help me God, I did not do it." His body W;
acted oc by a galvanic battery ; the eyes were
opened, the heart pulsated, and one arm was raised
-
under heavy charges. It was on the night of th
12th of June that he, while drunk, met Timid°y
Heenan and attempted to shoot him, but was re;
strained by his companions. The party • 'tod
other saloons, and, at a later hour, encountere
Heenan on the street, when Eaton made a 5ee12.13.,,,,
unsuccessful attempt to discharge his pistol at. 121;
Subsequently, however, while Heenan was encle
vuuring to help a friend, who was drunk, out of the
street, he came close to Eaton and his party: and
was shot, and died next morning. Eaton and °,lle
of his associate, were.arrested and put on trial „r
murder, of which he was found guilty, and, alter
being respited by Governor Geary, was finally
executed.

Births.
ASSHETON —On the 20th inst , the wife of Ralph ASS.'„tom
Esq., M.P., of a daughter... DORM ER—OU the 27th just at Shaftesbury 'Souse, e' r
siugton, the lion. Mrs. liubert .r
Dormer, of a L:augl'e'''

Marriages.
BATRUH
Li
ST—BIBTON—On the 24th lust , at St. eo--
fg010;
Hanover-square, Lieut.-Colonel Ilervey. Bathurst, 1.
the Grenadier Guards, to Ada, only daughter of Sir
Ribton, Bart.
xrnry'e,
HACKMAN—BLIGHT—On the 28th inst., at St. w-i-rtlel
Bick ford, WilEam George Hackman, Esq. of Citlviltet
House, Long Ditton, Surrey, to Caroline, third dallo
of the late W. S. Blight, Esq., of Bideford.

BECK WITII— Deams.
On the 27th inst , Mr. Charles Beckwith, of
Milner-square, Islington, and Oat-lane, E.C.
MAO"
BLANCIIAV —On the 2eth inst., at the Red Homy,
street, Hackney, Alr. Henry Louis Blanchard, age'
illy
11UNDAY—On the 27th inst., at 11, King-street, SiavVi-
-12
Dr. Charles Munday, aged 58.

W
London : Printed and Pnblishe3 by WILLIAM ANT)n,.I33 1.4
of No.-112, Strand, Printer, at rim SUN Udle,, o°, of
strand, in the Preeinot of the do vuv In the ("23'.
Aliddleeer,Thuraday, Apill 22, 1862.