The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-23 00:00:00

THE REPRESENTATIVE REFORM ASSOCIATION,

At present this association, which has for its object
the adoption of Mr. hare's scheme of representation,
is making little progress. it has received several
influential accessions to its ranks ; and Mr. Morrison
is endeavouring to get one of its members, Professor
Fawcett, added to the select committee of the House
of Commons charged with examining into the mode
of conducting elections. No doubt, under any
circumstances, Mr. Aare will have an opportunity of
explaining his system to the committee. It is no
mere theory, but is actually in operation in Norway.
The association considers that the present device
for the representation of minorities is a misnomer.

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

- - -

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
NEW YORK, March C.

George Wilkes, of the Spirit of the Times, arrived
by the steamer Samaria, much improved in health,
and lost no time in hurrying to Washington to
keep Grant straight in his Cabinet and on the
Alabama question ; for the editor of that sporting
journal is far from confining himself to sporting mat-
ters. Col. M'Clure has published. a card in explana-
tion of his interview with Gen. Grant, about which
he says the papers have given au erroneous impres-
sion. He merely went there to present a letter
from the Hon. John M. Read, which evidently im-
pressed the General, and led to a conversation on
the Cabinet. He urged no one, but earnestly
bogged, that representative Republican politicians
should be selected. Like Uriah Heap, he now turns
out to be a " 'umble individual," who would not pre-
sume to insist on any particular man as the confiden-
tial adviser of the President. It was reported here,
early in the week, that Mr. John A. Cisco would
be selected for the Treasury Department, and he
left those who questioned him under the impres-
sion that he had been communicated with on the
subject. Among those who have started for Wash-
ington, whose name is "legion," are a number of
pickpockets, who will, I dare say, be more success-
ful as pocket-seekers than the crowd who have gone
as office-seekers. Central Park is to have another
statue ; a marble monument of Alexander Von
Humboldt will be erected on the hundredth anni-
versary of his birth, which will be the 14th of next
September. Baron Von Gerolt is one of the
Committee. We have had some bitter weather, so
cold as to dispel the expectation of reaching Albany
by boat as yet, and the ice is now reported to be
very thick above West Point. Here, as elsewhere,
the gas is complained of. When I was in London
I was told that nowhere else was it so yellow, dim,
and impure, and looking at a lighted lamp through
a fog at night, I was compelled to admit the truth,
while on one, bright and frosty, I was equally sure
that 'Cockneys did their gas companies injustice.
New Yorkers have male such a fuss about their
illuminators that the State Legislature has sent a
committee, who sit at the St. Nicholas Hotel, to
inquire into the subject, and the gas is being
analysed, and the pieces are to be held by the savans
under the noses of the directors of the New York,
Manhattan, and Harlem Companies.
_These people,
however, hold their noses so high that nothing
gasa
is
t
expected to come of it. By furnishing bad
exorbitant prices they have accumulated great
wealth, and we all know what the wealthy can do
here. They have only to rob the public en masse
and wholesale, and dole out to the public's protec-
tors a portion of the plunder. 'I here are a few
philanthropists, seine people term them a nuisance,
who are more than ordinarily active at present.
Paul Bagley is one; but he, Congressmen rejoice
to know, is on your side to get the Fenians liberated.
May he make China his ultimate destination, now
that the death of King Theodore has left no pri-
soners in Abyssinia for him to look up ! Mr. Bergh's
philanthropy takes another direction ; for he is the
friend of the beast. He wants to make smooth the
path of the lamb to the slaughter and the horse with
its load. He has just been making a tour of the
city, and the drivers have bad a gentle hint that

his eye was on them, and that the laws for the pro-
tection of animals would be enforced.

WASHINGTON, March 5.
We bad a week of great excitement, as we had
to instal General Grant as President of the United
States. Washington is literally crowded. The
national imagination has been spurred by the secresy
with which the Cabinet appointments have been
kept, and every office-seeker is fired with the hope
that his man may be brought in. We have fifteen
new Senators, and a crowd of new Representatives ;
we have nathering of Governors, naval and military
men of distinction, among them Admiral Farra-
gut and General Sheridan ; we have editors, the
most active of whom is Henry C. Bowen, of the
Independent. Horace Greeley is also here, and
George Wilkes, just arrived from Europe. The
Union League of America is in session, and there
are men of mark connected with that organization.
They commenced business by filling posts as follows :
—The Hon. John W. Geary, Governor of Penn-
sylvania, was elected National President ; G. W.
Godard, of Brooklyn, Vice-President; and Thom s
C. Baker, of New York, National Secretary. The
following were elected to the National Executive
Committee from New York :—Geo. H. Van Cleft,
Waldo Hutchins, Geo. S. M'Waters, Wm. V. Alex-
ander, and Jacob M. Patterson, jun., with Messrs.
C. W. Godard, Volney Green, and Joseph Reeve
from Brooklyn. Washington is unlike any other
place in the world, for there is no other city so
wholly and purely political. At one time filled to
overflowing and rampant with excitement, at an-
other dull, silent, and intensely stupid. At inter-
vals it boils up till it furiously blows off steam, but
never have we been blowing away so much as
within the last few days. Every corner is occupied,
every hotel filled, the talk is incessant, for every little
politician has his own Cabinet, and private but
reliable information. The Rev. Dr. Punshon is
in the crowd. Ex-Governor Hamilton Fish has.
seen Grant, and men say that he will be Secre-
tary of State. Governor Cox has come up
as the most likely for Ohio, but, strange to say, he
is not here. Stuart, of Philadelphia, is, but it is
doubted now whether he is Grant's choice. A. T.
Stewart is also here ; the difficulty is not in telling
you who is here, but who is not. It is hard to say
whether the outgoing or the incoming President is
most pestered with callers. Grant would be if the
road were open, but it is not so easy to get an in-
terview, and when got it is generally very unsatis-
factory. Andrew Johnson is most worried for par-
dons. If half is to he believed of the loose talk
picked up in the streets and at the bars, he must be
driving a roaring trade in pardons; but few who
coolly assert this believe it themselves. Callicott,
after desperate efforts, has failed, and his friends
say that it was because his funds were insufficient.
Spangler and Arnold, implicated in Lincoln's mur-
der, have been released from the Dry Tortugas,
which finishes the list of those connected with that
tragedy. Numerous other pardons have also been
obtained. The last reception was on Tuesday, and
the White House was a picture. It was not a mov-
ing but a jammed, blocked up crowd. The carriage-
way was filled with ladies and gentlemen in evening
dress, while the building was already occupied by
those who had assembled early, and rushed iu when
the doors were opened. The efforts made to get in
were considerable, but nothing compared to those
to get out. Hats, cloaks, wraps were lost, and a
woman who went in elegantly dressed came out
battered and torn. Several fainted, and it was im-
possible to procure an exit till some files of
soldiers cleared the way, as the police were
powerless. Scenes so congenial almost make an
honest man turn pickpocket, but there was no
necessity thus to improve the occasion, for those
were there whose trade it was, and three were cap-
tured in the act. The refrain of John Brown arose
from the outside, and it is passing strange that that
should be the last tune that greeted Andrew John-
son's ear in the Executive Mansion. His daughter,
Mrs. Patterson, left it next day for the house of the
Secretary of the Navy, and the President becomes
the guest of M. John Coyle of the lntelligencer.
On the 4th, the crush and the excitement culmi-
nated. I suppose you will publish full accounts of
what was done on Inauguration Day. Mad it not
been for the rain the scene would have been worth
coming hundreds of miles to see ; as it was, it im-
pressed every beholder, so stupendous was the
gathering. To-day President Grant took Mrs.
Grant to the White House, but admitted no visi-
tors to the Executive Office. There he awaited
notice that Congress was ready to receive any
communication, which he received from Commit-
tees of both Houses at a quarter past 2 p.m. Gene-
rals Schofield and Howard, and Admiral Farragut,
however, managed to see him, as did Senator Joshua
Hill, of Georgia. Commissioner Rollins has re-
signed, and received a very complimentary letter
from General Grant. Ex-Senator Wade bid the
President good-bye before leaving for Ohio. Ex-
Secretary Welles ordered a general court-martial
to meet before retiring ; his assistant Mr. Faxon
returns to Connecticut. The crowds are now
hurrying away with the same eagerness with which
they came. Five thousand tickets were sold at the
Baltimore depot in eight hours, extra trains were
put on, but the impatient multitude made such dis-
turbance that thirty were arrested.