The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-08 00:00:00

DE PBOFUNDIS•

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Vice-Admiral Elliott writes a most grievous lamen-
tion on the decay of our merchant service, and the
rapidly-increasing loss of life and property through
shippingdisasters. Ships aro now frequently sent to
sea in a defective condition, because so in-
effectual are the laws of survey by which
certificates of seaworthiness aro obtained, that,
long after ships aro unsound and unsafe, they
are allowed to be loaded with heavy cargoes and
human freight, and, in fact, they are run to perish.
The insurance covers the loss and a new vessel is
provided. Not only does life and property suffer
from this system of sailing unworthy ships, hut
likewise from the decline in the British sailor class.
Denationalised, demoralised, and supplanted is the
fate of the English tar. Much of this risk is owing
to the Free Trade policy, for during the glorious
times of Protection the crew of every ship was
required to be two-thirds-English, and a certain num-
ber of apprentices had to be carried. The Admiral
calls for a reversal of this policy in favour of recipro-
city, and for an Act of Parliament more strictly
defining and forbidding what is unsafe in navigation.

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 18.
The habit of enclosing in letters sent by mail
BUMS of:money, has created a numerous set of thieves
connected with the postal departments. Greenbacks
are convenient thus to despatch, but it tempts the
carrier, and makes thieves even of the postmasters.
Many newspapers have bitterly complained of in-
tercepted letters containing remittances. A mail
agent named R. J. Schooner has been arrested, being
detected in the act of opening and abstracting $24
from a letter, which he after wards tore up. He was
doing a fine trade between Philadelphia and New
York on the New Jersey Railroad. There is much
dissatisfaction among the Johnson Republicans who
have lately been removed from the post-office, many
of whom have seen war service. The work on the
new building is pushed vigorously that the founda-
tion may be laid before the frosts set in. Eighteen
feet below the surface a very old Indian scalping knife
was turned up. The Harvard crew arrived in
Antwerp,them a welcome. Surveyor and No. 2, North Pier, was
the City of
giveto
Cor-
nell boarded the vessel at Staten Island and was the
first to congratulate them on their return. Mr.
Shea tendered them the hospitality of the New
York boat clubs while they remained in the city,
and amid loud cheers they were driven to the Astor
House, where a sumptuous feast awaited them,
and on that evening they figured at a great banquet
at Delmonico's.. All I can tell you is that whatever
might have been their mush and fruit training-diet
in England, they have been doing their best since to
make up for lost time. Loring and Fay, the bow
and the stroke oar, only, of the actual crew have
returned, Simmons, Burnham, and Lyman remain-
ing in Paris as well as the substitutes, Bass and
and Rice ; but Win. Blaikie, their Secretary, and
Messrs. Edward Dudley, A. 0. Evans and T. B.
Ticknor, members of the senior class at Harvard,
accompanied them, also C. H. Elliott, their boat
builder. In the Gay of Antwerp were Signor and Mrs.
lan officer well knownin connection
with the river transport during the war, and whom
Blitz; Gen Parsons
was also on board. A "professional" gentleman
mentioned in your columns,
I have seen frequently
excites no small share of attention, the celebrated
James Mace, who has arrived in sound condition
ready for the fray. Ido not know who this pugilist
is to fight, but I suppose some one is in for it. The
Peruvian Minister has been serenaded at Gramercy
Park by the friends of Cuba, as a compliment to
his Government, for the handsome way in which
they have acknowledged Cuban independence. The
Junta is very confident that recognition will soon
be accorded by our Government. They say that
President Grant has freely expressed his own views
in their favour. Asa Packer has arrived from Penn-
sylvania, and has been eagerly consulted on the
state of affairs in the Democratic camp here.
A great effort is in progress to patch up the.
rent, but with doubtful success. The Citizen and
Round Table maintains that the design of substitut-
ing Chief Justice Chase for Governor Seymour
just before the Presidential election was conceived by
August Belmont, and to that unjustifiable act the
defeat of the Democrats was mainly owing, his
object being to forward the interests of the foreign
bondholders.
The movement now in progress is to
get Mr. Tweed to declare that he does not aspire to
a place on the National Executive Committee, when
Mr. Belmont may withdraw, it is asserted, of his own
accord. Richard W. Bleecker has been made Pre-
sident of the North American Fire Insurance Com-
pany in place of Mr. James Otis deceased. The
new Fire Department of Brooklyn has been brought
into operation ; the 179 men are dressed in blue
overcoats, with white metal buttons, and caps the
same as those of the New York firemen. There
are 13 engines and six hook and ladder trucks, with
nine hose carriages always ready for use. A very
remarkable instance of devotion to duty occurred
yesterday week on a drawbridge of the New
York and Newark Railway. Albert G. Drecker
had to close it just as a
passenger train was coming
up, and while on the work his son, a small boy,
fell off the bridge into the water. The father had
to continue his work while the child was drowning,
the choice being before him of saving his offspring
or wrecking the train. The boy was drowned, as the
watchman elected
ascould toeod
welldoh his duty
humanyundera hseig.
painfulo
cir-
cumstances The
Humboldt Centennial was favoured by delightful
weather. The medal struck to commemorate the
hundredth anniversary of his birthday is of bronze,
twoinches in diameter, with a profile head of Von
Humboldt, with the legend on the reverse—" Eart 4

and Heaven he explored, Revealed Nature, and .
Freed the Mind." It was executed by Anthony C.
Paquet of Philadelphia. The president of the
Monument Association, Mr. Detmold, formally
presented it to the commissioners of the park, and
his excellent speech was responded to by Mr. An-
drew Greene. The procession , under Gen. Louis Bur-
ger, marched in imposing array from Great Jones-
street to the Central Park, when the bust was un-
veiled, and in the evening there was a grand banquet
at Kranbz Hall, Fourth-street. The occasion has been
generally observed throughout the country by our
German citizens, with the hearty sympathy of all
the native born Americans who know anything of
the man whose memory the world honours. Some
one facetiously remarked, on hearing that milk had
risen in price on account of the drought, that he
was not aware that water was so expensive. We
are told that standard milk should contain 88 of
fluid to 12 of solid substances, but here 93 is the mark.
We have, however, this advantage over you in Lon-
don that, so far as I am aware of, New Yorkers have
not as yet undertaken to make milk, while I un-
derstand there are with you regular manufactories
where calves' brains, chalk, and other things are
used for the solid substances, and I prefer our
thin milk to such a thick mixture, but it would
be preferable if the milk were left alone. The
West side coopers are now on strike. The So-
ciety of United Coopers, No. 8, has caused the
strike on account of the masters violating the rules

in employing green hands and men not members
of the union. Their work consists in baling and
hooping boxes used by dry goods houses, in which
they earn from $l7 to $l.B a week. The first num-
ber of a new evening journal, called The Republic,
appeared on the 10th September ; St. Clair Arliel-
way, formerly of the Trenton Monitor, is the editor,
and William H. Hallock, of the Journal of Com-
merce, manager. A new weekly has also just come
out, The National Guardsman, to advocate the esta-
blishment of a national guard, and to uphold the
interests of citizen soldiers and of the militia gene-
rally. Secretary Boutwell has been in town and
interviewed extensively, but though he takes in the
ideas poured into his ears, I can scarcely say that
his are a mutual interchange of views, for there is
next to nothing to be got out of him. " Sun-set"
Cox has returned from Europe, and was met by a
number of his friends, who gave him a hearty wel-
come and afterwards a serenade; Ex-Secretary Borie
is also here on private business. Mr. Asa Potter,
who was once Secretary of State for Rhode Island,
was thrown out of his carriage in Broadway yester-
day and seriously injured. The horses ran away,
and their driver was badly hurt. The number of
these accidents is surprising, and proves bad driv-
ing. Here is the latest instance—Mr. W. Heaton, a
merchant in Boston, was thrown from his carriage
on Thureday, and died yesterday from the injuries
sustained—Sheridan Shook has been honourably
acquitted of any lot or part in the fraud on the
Government, agratifying result to the many friends
who were present, including Thurlow Weed. The
other parties will have to face the charge them-
selves. Matteson, the deputy, who received the
missing cheque for $7,000 from Alexander and
Co., which was never credited to the Government,
has waived an examination, and his case will go
to the Grand Jury. Among the arrivals here are
Major Jas. Haggerty by the steamer India from
Glasgow and Koopmanschap from San Francisco.:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17.

The Celestial Mission is at a discount, and it is
clear that Americans are not impressed with the
notion that Peking is a paradise. Horace Greeley
stated in his paper that nothing could induce him
to accept it; the Hon. John Bigelow, editor of the
New York Times, declined it, when it was tendered
the result being the same with ex-Senator Frelinghuy -

sen of New Jersey. The President has made General
Sherman ad interim Secretary of War, many believ-
ing that the permanent appointment will not be filled
up till the meeting of Congress. The legality of
holding two offices is questioned, but it has been
decided that there is nothing to prevent the Gene-
ral from commanding the army and acting as Sec-
retary of War at the same time. There are several
other cases, such, for instance, as that of Judge
Richardson of the Massachusetts State Court, who
is Assistant-Secretary of the Treasury ; and a case
also in point is that of General Young, and you
even have one in Europe in General Sickles, ‘N ho
is not cnly Minister to Madrid, but has brought
there with him a General's staff. Many papers de-
nounce these incumbents of double appointments as
" bloated I luralists," representing us as drifting
into the sinecure system, out of which you in Eng-
land have been struggling, and General Sickles fur-
nishes a fertile subject for abuse, sound though he
be on the main question, and notwithstanding that
he left a leg at Gettysburg. A statement has been
going the rounds that the confession signed by Mrs.
Sickles and read at the trial, is said by her to be
untrue and obtained by force, that she signed it
without reading it, and was therefore ignorant of the
contents; but against this it is urged that the confes-
sion was in her own handwriting. By the wording of
Sherman's Commission, as Secretary of War, he is
appointed till the end of the next Session of Con-
gress, but he has to elect which salary he will take.
The name of Gettysburg recalls the fact that the
officers who went there to mark out the positions
had a grand dance, and have been heartily abused
for their levity on such a spot. One set condemn
the gathering as perpetuating an ill feeling, de-
claring it to be got up too from the vilest motive 3,
by a ring of laud speculators, who wished to adver-
tise the mineral-waters, so that, altogether, the
Gettysburg affair proved a failure, All the citizens
of Pennsylvania and Ohio iu Washington are to pro-
ceed to their respective States, to vote, the Republican
ticket, of course ; reduced rates of fare on the rail-
roads have been secured. Few reside here who be-

long elsewhere, except office-holders, and they know
which way to vote, because their masters tell them.
It saves them any trouble in the way of thinking,
and as their services are supposed to be wholly given
to the Executive Department, they have no right to
expend energy or thought which might be utilized in
the service, especially as they thought business belongs
to the head of the bureau. Our President, however,
cannot be brought to see things in the pure light of
a party politician, and he is a decided stumbling-
block in the way of those who desire to coerce, in
the interests of party. Greenbacks continue to pour
in in small sums as contributions to the Rawlins' Fund,
which will be made up, it is thought, to $lOO,OOO,
New York contributing one-half. The Treasury
Department has discovered a new mode of re-
trenchment very disagreeable to the clerks, indeed
if anything could " choke off " an American from
office the treatment of these gentlemen might be
expected to do so. But an American official is like
a wife, the more she is beaten the fonder she is
of her place. An estimate has been made of the
loss through the absence of clerks, and it is found
to figure up to a total for the Revenue Department
alone of little short of a half million of dollars,
without including the men who are late, and those
who take now and then an odd half hour, and some
five-and-twenty clerks have had black marks put
against their names and their monthly compensa-
tion reduced. Supervisor Fulton, who is an active
agent against the whisky rings, has been here con-
sulting with Delano. He wholly opposes compro-
mises, advocating a strict administration of the law,
and it is believed that the Commissioner fully sup-
ports his view. Captain James Burns has been
ordered with his company of cavalry to South
Western Virginia to assist the collectors of Internal
Revenue. All the distilleries • and bonded ware-
houses are to be provided with a Townsend lock
Ifrom the Manufacturing Company at Buffalo. The

doors are to be fitted with the requisite hasps and
staples; and these locks, at the expense of the
owners, and the supervisors are directed to see that
this is done. henry Wilson, who was once Pay-
master in the United States Navy, has been putting
his knowledge there acquired to some account. Two
bills have reached the Navy Department, from San
Francisco, purporting to be signed by him, which,
if the signature be genuine, shows that he drew
$604 in gold on forged papers, ordering him to
proceed to China, and draw on the Department for
his expenses. A comparison proves the signature to
be his, and he was recently seen in California.
Commissioner Delano left last night for Ohio, and