The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-27 00:00:00

THE S!JN, LONDON,- MONDAY EVENING, DECIMBER 27, 1869

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Although our space is filled with the valuable
Reports of the Washington Cabinet, to the exclu-
sion even of the news, notwithstanding the addition
of a Supplement, we make room to offer our readers
the best wishes of the season. it is a matter-of not
small congratulation to the Editor to be able to re-
port a marked improvement in the relations be-
tween the two great kindred nations. We care
little for diplomatic relations; what we mean is the
sentiment prevailing in what in America is called
"the great heart of the people." We wish that
Englishmen could see as we do the result of their
course in America. When the tone towards the
Union is venomous and unjust, it meets with a reply
couched in just as irritating language and expressions
hovering between dislike and contempt. This is
sure to be repeated in England, and those who had
no idea that they had given the provocation, quote
the words in proof of the Republic's undying
enmity. When, however, England's course is
friendly and just, the response comes quickly from
the other side ; indeed so readily as to show how
united the nations are. There is a party in Eng-

laud that bates the Republic, and there is a party
in the Republic that hates England ; but this a
sectional, not a general feeling in both, and the
more the one people knows of the other the less will
be the evil influence these two vicious sections can

It is a fine thing that two mighty nations
so closely related can be played against each other
to serve the purposes of a narrow Tory clique, or a
few unprincipled Irish-American politicians. Our
effort bas been to assist in spreading the knowledge
which will annihilate the influence for evil. Nume-
rous letters bear a cordial, perhaps too generous,
testimony to our share in so good a work, of which,
did we only believe a tithe, we would be satisfied
that we bad not lived wholly in vain. But to whom-
ever the credit be due, the fact is undeniable, and
we desire to include it in our Christmas congratu-
lations.

exert.

General Butler introduced a bill on the day after
the assembling of Congress to repeal the Tenure-
of-Office Act, and it was referred to the Judiciary
Committee, which, as we last week announced, re-

ported favourably upon it. The President, in his
speech, takes strong ground against the Act. He
says it is inconsistent with a faithful and efficient
administration of the Government, and asks what
faith can the Executive put in officials forced upon
him, and those, too, whom he has suspended for
reasons. The House will willingly pass the bill for
the repeal, and the Senate will pass it as a boy
takes medicine, with a wry face and against the
grain ; and that piece of special legislation will
disappear from the Statute Book until another
Congress takes up the cudgels against another
President.
Another bill has been introduced by Mr. Hill, of
New Jersey, to abolish the franking privilege, the
abuse of which is denounced in very plain terms by
the Executive. It destroys the hope of a postal re-
venue sufficient to cover the expenses ; it fills up
the bags with matter which nobody would take the
trouble to send except gratis, forgetting that Uncle
Sam has to pay heavily for the transport over his
big domain ; and.-as the document does as little good
to the sender as to the receiver, the only result is
to burden the Post-offices with unnecessary work.
We hope that Mr. Hill will succeed, but Congress
holds on tenaciously to its perquisites and privi-
leges; indeed what surrender has it ever made
but that of the title of Honourable, which, though
formally abandoned by the Senate, has been re-
tained as a matter of courtesy, and this makes the
Senators as much Honourable as ever. Uncle Sam
can better afford that the title be retained, which
does no harm to any one, if only the franking pri-
vilege be surrendered.
The President sent a letter to the House of Re-
presentatives in reply to its resolution calling for
information on the negotiations with Spain about
Cuba, which showed that it was incompatible with
the public interest to furnish copies of the corres-
pondence with General Sickles, and the House Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs has postponed the Cuba
question until after the holiday recess. During the
reading of the Message the only part received un-
favourably was the reference to Cuba. Still Sena-
tor Sumner, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee, does not consider that the time has arrived
for recognizin .; even the belligerency of the insur-
gents. Senator Cameron brought up a resolution
in the Senate requesting the President to commu-
nicate any information he may have regarding the
civil and political condition of Cuba if not incom-
patible with the public interest. The President,
while satisfying neither party, manages to throw
the responsibility of action on the Legislature.
Eighteen of the Spanish gunboats sailed last Sun-
day evening from New York for Cuba, and the
remainder on Monday.
Mr. Mungen, of Ohio, has drawn from the Repre-
sentatives an expression of opinion which will set-
tle politicians who hoped to make capital out of re-
pudiation. His speech advocating repudiation was
followed by great excitement, and leading men of
his party denounced his doctrine, emphatically re-
pudiating it as a part of their party platform ; so
the repudiators shuffle off the responsibility by
disowning a cry which they at one time believed the
nation would have taken up. Nothing could more
clearly have shown what a " dead duck" repudia-
tion is than the action of the Representatives, who,
it must be remembered, had not so long ago a leaning
that way, but have lately been in communication
with their constituents. It should also be observed
that commercial and financial affairs in the United
States are so depressed that if ever the nation
would seek relief from oppressive burdens by such
a course it would be now. The House adopted,
by 123 yeas to 1 nay, a resolution declaring that
"any proposition, directly or indirectly, to repudiate
any portion of the debt of the United States is
unworthy of the honour and good name of the
nation, and the House, without distinction of party,
hereby sets its seal of condemnation on any and all
such propositions." The one negative vote was
given by Mr. Jones, a Democrat, from Kentucky.
W. Cornell Jewett, through Senator Sumner,
presented a petition asking Congress as a means of
vindicating the dignity and sovereignty of the na-
tion to suspend the workings of the French cable
on American soil until France authorized the land-
ing -of a cable from America on French soil, and
guaranteed that all American despatches should
freely pass over France through the hands of Ame-
rican agents. The Senator went on to remark that
there was a bill on the table of the Senate which
met the prayer of the petitioner, and he proposed
calling it up on an early day. A similar bill has been
postponed in the House till after the holiday re-
cess, but it is probable that the operators at Brest
may find a sudden interruption of communication,
which the other cables may inform them has been
caused by the Duxbury office being closed, and a
sentry placed at the door by the Executive in com-
pliance with an Act of the Legislature.
They appear to be gay at Florence, the drift of
American travel having set south, through Italy. In
La Nazione, of the 18th instant, there are two notices of
American festivities. The United States Consul-General
James Lorimer Graham, seems to have gathered at his
table all the literary celebrities, among them the American
Minister G. P. Marsh, Mr. Trolloppe, Mr. Stnalley, and
others of different nationalities. On the 17th, Mr. Dicker-
son Eyre gave a grand ball, which La Nazione describes
as a brilliant affair, got up regardless of expense, and kept
up with the greatest spirit till 5 o'clock in the morning.
One of the charms of such a gathering is the variety --
American and English, French, German, and Russ:an,
mixed with the gay Italian, in the tine halls occupied by
their Atnet lean host.
We recommend the expedient thus described by
the New nrk Tribune to tho consideration of families in
Ireland who are in danger of their houses being broken
lute by parties in ~earth of anus. There ought at bast
to be no lack of the material in the land of potatoes:—
" Hot potatoes aro an entirely now. defence against bur-
glars; but they were recently used -with excellent effect
in Madison, Ohio. A yoting woman -was left in charge of
a house, the family having gone to church. The rascal
put in aa appearance and demanded zhe pocket-book of
paterfamilias. The noble young lady:immediate'y opened
upon the thief a battery of the above-m entionod vegetable
in a smoking-hot condition. The suppll of potatoes being
exhausted, the courageous damsel' tied' tho knave most
unaffectiouately ; and by this time he had concluded to
leave, which he did in a burned. and bighly-bewildered
condition."

General John C. Fremoat Xas arrived at Wash-

- -
Ington to look after the interests of the Memphis and El
Paso Railroad. The General knows how to proceed, and
the bill passed the House during the last session. The
right of way only is asked, and a strong pressure will be
brought to secure it. But there are other interests, and
the bill is opposed by many who have no faith in the
line nor in the ability of the corporation to carry it to a
success. It is, however, a fact that about the shortest
road to the Pacific is that which General Fremont proposes
to construct, but we know nothing of the means at his dis-
posal should Congress throw the way open.
American Consuls, if Mr. Sargent's bill passes
Congress, will be required when they reside in wheat-
exporting countries, and other cereals which may come
into competition with American product 4, to send to the
State Department quarterly reports as full and accurate
as they can get, showing the condition of the crops, to be
published in the monthly circulars of the Department of
Agriculture. In default of such information, the farmers
who have to trust to chance often become heavy losers.
Californian produce shipped to England, may through
ignorance of the facts come into competition with au
overflowing crop from Russia and the Danubian pro-
vinces, which had the farmers and the shippers known
the former might not have grown the staple, or the
latter might have directed it to a better market.
The Philadelphia► Ledger say s—" The average
number of suits begun for or against the Erie Railway is
said to be seven a week, and it is believed that one-half
the New York lawyers are retained on one side or the other.
No suit was ever yet known to advance as far as judg-
ment.'" The London Times takes a more serious view of
the position, also quoting the Ledger, which considers the
important fact to be whether individual judges can at will
and with impunity defeat the laws of the State and pro-
tect rogues from punishment. The Times remarks- -"From
the further heavy fall of 11- to-day in Erie Railway Shares, it
is assumed that the attempt recently made in the Supreme
Court of the State of N ew York in favour of the shareholders
has failed, and that the judges from whom injunctions
were obtained to support the defiant mendacity of the
management have been successful. Apart from the feel-
ing of sympathy for the victims in this undertaking, it is
necessary to keep the facts constantly before the English
public, since many United States enterprizes are otherwise
likely to be brought before them. It may be urged that
New York is only one of the States of the Union, and that
the circumstance of there being a total absence in that
State of any security for investors should not be used to
the injury of the others. But New York is to America
what London is to the United Kingdom, and the coudition
of affairs which prevails in the highest centre of wealth
and commercial intelligence is not likely to be much sur-
passed in inferior localities."
The Monarch, with Mr. Peabody's remains, and
the United States corvette Plymouth, weighed anchor on
Tuesday at 10 a.m. Mr. Peabody Russell, the nephew of
the philanthropist, has accompanied the body of his uncle
in the Monarch. The House of Representatives has
adopted a resolution "authorizing the President to make
such preparations for the reception of the body of the dis-
tinguished philanthropist, Mr. George Peabody, as aro
merited by hit glorious deeds, and in a manner commen-
surate with the justice, magnanimity, and dignity of a great
people." The brother, nephews, and nieces residing at
Zanesville, Ohio, have left for the East to attend the fune-
ral of their distinguished relative.
It is evident that the affairs at the Red River
Settlement do nut progress so favourably for Canada as
the earlier telegrams indicated. The news by mail was
that :the half-breeds, leaving the insurrection to take care
of itself, had gone out on a buffalo hunting party. It may be
that Governor M'Dougall, taking advantage of their ab-
sence, enlisted Sioux Indians and others, and advahcod
with Colonel Dennis on Fort Garry. if so, Riell seems
to have been prepared, for he is reported at the head of
460 armed men, to have seized the prominent Canadian
sympathizersiu the settlement,to have then taken possession
of the Fort opposite Pembiva, in Dacotah, to which Gov.
M'Dougall had retired ; and Col. Dennis, it is added, was
retreating. George Francis Train of course managed to
extract a little no'oriety out of the affair. They had been
calling that gentleman very hard names, both on the Pa-
cific slope and in the West, but they have not succeeded in
silencing that ready talker, for he harangued a meeting at
Buffalo on the 18th,when he denounced the Government at
Washington for pertnittingMCDougall to organise an armed
force on United States soil. An American paper says—
"A young Catholic priest and an avowed Fenian, named
O'Donoghue, is charged with having supplied the brains
of the insurrection." We recommend that gentleman to
the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities at Rome.
Senator Carpenter spoke strongly in favour of
recognizing the Cuban insurgents as belligerents in the
Senate on the 16th December ; but Mr. Sumner opposed
the resolution, consistently maintaining the attitude he has
all along assumed on this question of international law. It
is asserted that the President consulted him before writ-
ing his Message on the subject of Foreign Relations, and
the Message bears evidence of the Senator's spirit, toned
down by the caution of the Executive. It is thought in
America that Grant's allusion to the settlement of the Ala-
bama claims would excite uneasiness in England.
Among the passengers by the Scotia is the great
Philadelphia banker, Anthony J. Drexel. We say Phila-
delphia, because the head-quarters of the firm are in that
city, though the branch houses of Drexel. Winthrop, and
Co., New York, and Drexel, Harjes, and Co., 3, Rue Scribe,
Paris, stand in the first rank of financial firms in those
cities. Mr. Drexel proceeds to Paris to join his family,
and the American papers say that he will remain abroad
for six mouths. By the same vessel, Mr. Bowles, the well-
known Paris banker, also returned, and Mr. Hodgson, a
member of the firm of Baring Brothers. Mr. Bowles has
been at the Palace Hotel, Buckiugham Gate, during the
week, as is Mr. Cyrus W. Field, who has just arrived from
New York and the Far West, where he was out buffalo
hunting iii Kansas. By the way several distinguished
Americans met at that hotel on Tuesday, including Gene-
rals Banks and Burnside.
General Sherman traces back his descent to
Samuel Sherman, a founder of Connecticut, and one of the
first settlers of Weathersfield. An American paper says
he has been elected a member of the Army and Navy Club
of London, "a distinction never before conferred on an
officer of the United States." We do not know about that ;
but we do know that general Burnside on his arrival in
London was at once ievited to become an honorary mem-
ber of the Junior United Service Club, which, with its
predecessor, the United Service Club, are the two
oldest and best-known of the military clubs.
Vice-President Colfax published an article in the
New York Independent in answer to the Mormon argument
against his speech in Utah. He reproduces its best points
and fortifies them, effectually breaking down the Mormon
plea for charity because of their religion, and tolerance
because of their past Persecutions, by showing that it was
not for their religion that they were persecuted, polygamy
being in no sense a tenet of that religion. An exodus
has taken place from Salt Lake City back to Independence,
Missouri, to the annoyaece and dismay of Brigham Young.
The discontents repudiate polygamy, and it is their inten-
tion to settle down in that region, and build a tabernacle
of their own, where they may enjoy Mormonism in its ori-
ginal purity.
We learn,w ith some regret,that the Ways and Means
Committee has, if the report be true, decided to increase
the duty on manufactured iron, even though it be slightly.
Tea and coffee, molasses and syrup, melado or cane juice,
rice, salt, lumber and timber, hides and skins, printing
paper, and iron in pigs will be exempt from import duty if
the Bill of Mr. Stevenson, of Ohio, just introduced, passes.
The rumour is of a reduction of $2 on pig-iron, though
the main concessions will be on tea, sugar, and coffee.
The report of Mr. Wells, which the cable informs us has
just been sent in, was expected to contain some hard hits
against the Protectionists who threatened to oppose the
printing of that report.
The misrepresentations of some English papers,
the Standard, Telegraph, and Saturday Review, for instance,
on the Richardson-M'Farland case, are little to the credit
•f these journals, though Americans are so accustomed to
their style that they look for little else from them. Mr.
Richardson is depicted by all as an adulterer, although
there is no evidence to support this; and he is represented
as a mere travelling correspondent, holding a subordinate
position on the press, although there is ample evidence to
the contrary. He was an able and well-known writer,
who had secured a position, through his ability and in-
dustry, if not of affluence,at any rate of comfort. His subor-
dinate position on the Tribune was one of its proprietors,
having five shares—Horace Greeley himself only holding
ten—and those five being worth upwards of £6,000. As an
author he had published books. the sales of which were al-
' most unprecedentedlylarge,and the Telegraph might with as
much truth have written of Dr. Russell or Mr. Hepworth
Dixon as holding subordinate positions on the press. What
surprises us is that such a paper as the Saturday Review
should be read by Americans at all. Its remarks on the
United States are simply beneath contempt, it being diffi-
cult to discriminate between what arises from ignorance and
from venom. Its comments on American books are laugh-
able, and have given rise to the opinion in America that
that is its weakest department; and so it is, although we
are not aware that it is particularly strong in any other ;
but it is wonderful what assurance can do when dealing
with ignorance. To show what the criticisms of these
papers on this affair are worth, evidence has been elicited
that Mrs. M'Farlaud separated from her husband in the
spring of 1867 entirely uninstigated by Mr. Richardson,
Mr. IlTarland's conduct compelling her to take that
course, and forcing her to maintain herself and one of the
two children which remained under her control by her
own exertions.

Lx-Secretary Stanton has been appointed Asso-
ciate J ustice in the Supreme Court in succession to Judge
Crier, and the nomination was confirmed la,t TII-sday iu
the Senate by 41 votes against 11, the minority we pre-
sume being the whole Democratic strength in the CLam-
ber. Justice Grier stands next to Justice Nelson as the
oldest on the Bench, having been appointed by President
Polk in 1816. He tendered his resignation on the 11th
inst., to take effect on Ist February next. Thus two
leaders of the Republican party have been seated on the
Supreme Bench. Senator Carpenter proposes to increase
the salary of the Chief Justice to $12,500, and of the
Associated Justices to $lO,OOO, little enough for such

posts, but the President favours only $lO,OOO to the former
and $9,000 to the latter, and these will probably be the
rates. The Senate has also confirmed Mr. Frederick Low

as United States Minister in China. Doubtless that Mis-
sion has been raised to the first rank, as recommended by
the President, and we may here congratulate the Hon.

Anson Burlingame on the very high compliment paid to
hint in the President's Message to Congress. It is not
often that citizens of the United States receive such an
honour, and those who do ought to appreciate it greatly.
Information has been received by him that the Peking
Government has ratified the Treaty with the United
States, and Mr. Brown, the Secretary, is on his way to
Washington from China. Mr. Henry Blow has been con-
firmed as Minister to Brazil, and we suppose his mission
will embrace Paraguay, as no United States Minister
under present circumstances is to be sent there, and
Brazil really rules over the territory of Lopez.
The Overewl-Gurney trial has ended, as all ex-
pected, iu the acquittal of the directors. When these
1 gentlemen were brought before the Lord Mayor and com-
mitted for trial, there were bursts of applause in the Court.
When theso gentlemen were brought before the Judge,
and acquitted by the Jury there wore bursts of applause
in the Court. We presume that the spectators regarded
the affair as a farce, from beginning to end, and they are,
perhaps, right. Few believed in the criminality of the
new Directors, who had much to lose and little to gain
in lending themselves to palming off on the public an in-
solvent concern. They lost all, and were fearfully
punished for a culpability never beyond mere negligence,
and we heartily congratulate these gentlemen that the
law has confirmed the decision of society. But it does not
alter the broad facts of the case in the slightest degree. The
Overend-Gurney affair will remain a blot on England's
commercial reputation. It was a gigantic swindle, and as
such is the most prominent of the numberless swindles
of the fraud panic. " Overend-Gurney" has come to sig-
nify the natme of that panic, and when foreigners allude
to it they do not mean " the house at the corner" in par-
ticular, but the collapse, through dishonesty of Joint-
stock enterprise iu England. Almost in the same Eng-
lish paper, in which we read of the "intense satisfaction"
with which the verdict was received in the city, we see
certain proceedings in New York and the action thereon in
the Courts of that State held up to public scorn and
censure, and England warned against investing in the
undertakings of a country which affords them so little
legal protection against spoliation. Evidently it makes
no small difference uhether the robber is a New Yorker
or a Cockney.

BUDGET OF PERSONAL.—CaIeb H. Needles, Esq.
was mainly instrumental in getting up the monster peti•
tion in favour of the Cuban insurgents presented by Sena

tor Cameron on the opening of Congress.—Wyoming hav-
ing organised, the executive officers are John A. Campbell,
Governor, and Edward M. Lee, Secretary. The judicial
officers are J. 11. Howe, Chief Justice Supreme Court; W.
T. Jones and J. W. Kingman, Associate Justices; J. M.
Carey, Attorney-General ; Church Howe, United States
Marshal. The Representative in Congress is S. F.
Nuckolis. S. Allen-Bristol is the editor and proprietor of
the Wyoming Tribune published at Cheyenne.—A mauso-
leum to cost $65,000 is to be erected over the remains of
the late Henry Keep at Watertown„ New York.—Mrs.
Grant, it is said, has instructed all the ushers and attend-
ants at the White House to wear swallow-tailed coats. -
Treasurer Spinner wrote all his report, 187 pages, him-
self, and sent it to the printer.—lteverdy Johnson has
been making a speech at Baltimore, in which he takes
ground against the recognition of Cuban independence.-
Theodore Parker married Mr. Millarland to Miss Sage.
Henry Ward Beecher married Mrs. 11‘Farland to A. D.
Richardson. All the witnesses to both ceremonies are

living.—The New York World says :—" -Pere Hyacinthe
and Henry Ward Beecher held a most amicable interview
on Tuesday, neither understanding a word the other said."
Ex-Senator Henderson of Missouri is very ill at his
home in that State.—The Trilune evidently does not want
capital punishment abolished until M'Farhtnd is conscien-
tiously hung.—Boston Post.—Senator Fenton and daughter
arrived in the steamship Allentania from Hamburg on the
11th inst., and are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.—The suit
against the New York. Tribune for libel, brought by J.
Nelson Luckey, has been decided in favour of the defen-
dants.—Morris S. Hill, cashier of the National Bank of
Somers, Westehester County, is under arrest on a charge
of embezzling 530,000.—Father Hyacinthe spoke on the
evening of the 9th Dec., although suffering from a severe
cold, to one of the finest audiences ever gathered in New
York in the Academy of Music ; the lecture was in French,
and for the French Benevolent Society.-Gen. Bosecrans,
from California, was one of the guests of the Union
League Club, at a social gathering on the 9th inst. He is
about to attend the meeting of the Army of the Cumber-
land at Indianapolis.— On Wednesday Mr. Hepworth
Dixon arrived in London from his long journey in Russia.
In the course of five months' travel he has traversed the
length and breadth of the country, from Solovetzlo, in the
White Sea, to the Crimean battle .fields, on the Black Sea,
from Warsaw to the Ural Mountains.
JOURNALISM. —Petersburgh Index bids farewell
to the old men of the Old Dominion, and turns to wel-
come the young Virginians who are hereafter to be the
law makers, leader,, and rulers there.—The Canadian
press contemptuously call Winnepeg-dorn tho " Half-breed
Republic."—The editor of the Danbury (Ct.) Time.; is going
into the "interviewing" business, and evidently to s ene
purpose. Lie gives notice as follows :—" We shall inter-
view' a number of our citizens this week on the subject of
finance." —The New York Evening Republic has suspended
publication. This leaves ten evening newspapers in the
field in New York.
Of Hon. F. E. Spinner, the United States Trea-
surer, the New York, Herald says: —" Treasurer .Spinner
wants to get out of office before he does any harm. Thiz<
is a new idea in office. lle tenders his resignation because
he is frightened by the fact that four billions of dollars
have passed through his depaittnent without a defalcation.
He knows such fortune cannot hold for ever, and he wants
to get out of the way before it changes. Unfortunately
for his wishes he is the sort of man the country wants to
keep in place."