The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING,

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

TAE IRISH CHURCII COMMISSMNERS.

Speculation is at last ended by the announcement
of the three gentlemen whom Mr. Gladstone pro-
poses to make commissioners of the Irish Church.
To the appointment of Viscount Monek, who has
done good service to the State as Governor-General
of Canada, no possible objection can be taken. His
lordship is an Irishman by birth, education.
and title. lie is in his 50th year. Tht
appointment of the Right Hon. J. A. Law
son is more questionable, simply because iL
is intended that he shall continue to be one of the
judges, whereas it may well be doubted if his new
duties will not occupy all his time. Mr. Lawson is
also Irish by birth and education, and was a scholar
and gold medallist at Trinity College, Dublin, and
for five years held the Professorship of Political
Economy in that University. He was called to the
bar in 1840, and made a Queen's Counsel in 1857.
Ho was appointed law adviser to the Crown in Ire-
land in 1858, Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1861,
and Attorney-General in 1865, and went out with
the Russell-Gladstone- Government in 1866. He
sat for Portarlington in the Parliament of 1865-8,
having previously unsuccessfully contested Dublin
University. He was not a candidate at the last
election, and last year was appointed a judge of the
Court of Common Pleas. He is 52 years of age.
Mr. George A. Hamilton, who is to be Mr. Lawson's
colleague, was formerly his competitor, having
beaten him in a contest for the representation of
Dublin University in 1857 by 791 votes to 272.
Mr. Hamilton is a grandson of a former
Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, was born
in 1802, and is therefore 67' yeafa old—rather an
advanced age to undertake his new duties. He was
educated at Rugby and Oxford. He unsuccessfully
contested Dublin county in 1826, 1830, and 1832, and
the city of Dublin in 18:35, but was seated on
petition, after an inquiry which lasted fourteen
months. He was beaten again for the city in 1837.
He was returned for the University in 1842, on Mr.
Jackson becoming a judge, and continued to repre-
sent that constituency until January 1859. He
was a strong Conservative, and pronounced himself
in favour of " sound scriptural education," 1-11 e with-
drawal of the Maynooth grant, and " the protection
of the Established Church against spoliation." Thus
the supporters of the present Establishment will have
a friend on the commission. When Lord Derby
first became Premier in 18,52 Mr. Hamilton was
appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He
held the same post in Lord Derby's second Adminis-
tration, and in January 18.59 was appointed perma-
nent assistant-secretary. He subsequently became
permanent secretary. It will be seen that two
of the commissioners are Liberals and one is a
Conservative,

" THE OWL."'

The feathered symbol of wisdom has little that is
new to tell us this week. Two facts are worth men-
tioning. One is that there will be a recommenda-
tion in the forthcoming report of the Courts Martial
Royal Commission for the abolition in Coto of brand-
ing. As we do not brand our civil criminals, there
seems no reason why we should brand military
criminals. If photography is sufficient to apprise us
of a previous conviction in the one case it should be
sufficient in the other.

The second piece of information is that "the
electors of Dumfriesshire are preparing a case for
the consideration of the Select Committee on
Municipal and Parliamentary Elections, presided
over by the Marquis of liartington ; and the forty-
two parishes in the county are to furnish illustra-
tions of the peculiar description of ducal pressure
under which it lr:s come to pass that Major Walker,
who was himself worsted in December last at the
general election, was enabled last month to defeat
Sir Sydney Watcrlow, who on each occasion was his
opponent."

impress this upon the Ciovernment. liome
Secretary said that London was truly charged with
having the worst description of cabs of any capital
in Europe and that the Government hoped to bring
forward a bill on the subject this session.

MAY 6, 1869.

WASHINGTON, April 16.
It is not surprising that amid the throng and
Babel of office-seekers around the White House,
I the Senators, and the Public Departments
Washington, that mistakes should he made. If
Carl Schurz, a simile Senator, almost, before he
' had made his first speech, received 7,000 applica-
tions for office when of right he had na offices to
give and had no business even to recommend, what.
must be the number that a Cabinet Minister would
get or the head of some great branch of a Depart-
ment. A. B. Ketchum was nominated Assessor of
Internal Revenue of the Ninth District of New York
by mistake, as he happened to be already nominated
and confirmed by the State. A great number of mis-
takes in natnin4 wrong men have been made. Mr. N.
D. Sperry, a supporter of the late President, who was
expelled from the Republican EXecutive Committee,
has been made Postmaster at New Haven, but
several Johnson men have been appointed, a few of
them being nominations that had stood over frAn
last session. The people also make mistakes. They
reported a nominee to a nost to be black, but he
turned out on inquiry to be the President's cousin,
as usual the spiteful say, for it is one of the
charges brought against General Grant that
he quartering the clan on Uncle Sam. Negroes
nowadays are coming in for their share of
good things. Some have been set to work iu the
mechanics' department of the navy-yard for the
first time. Mr. J. R. Clay, au African, was one of
the few men who declined an appointment ; he was
nominated Minister to Liberia, but he had evidently
no wish to return to Africa. Justices Nelson and
Grier will, it is thought, retire, under the provisions
of the new Act, which enables those who have
attained the age of 70, after a service at their post
of not less than ten years to do so, retaining their
133 - Some suppose that Attorney-General Hoar
will get the additional judgeship of the Supreme
Curt created by the law. The President, however,
desires to retain him, and he desires to remain in
the Cabinet. Mr. Fisher doos not take over the
Patent Office, to which he has been nominated
Commis,sioner, for the present, as he is about to
leave for Cincinnati to prepare fur his residence in
this city, and Judge Foote will remain in charge
till he is ready. Mr. Richardson, the Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury. is getting i•id of the
Women clerks by the score. He has already signed
100 discharges, and another 100 permanent vacan-
cies will be created in a few days. Speaker Blaine
stole away by a back door from home yesterday,

and left an eager uf urnee-beekcia waiting tor

the opportunity of button-holeing him at the front
door. Mr.Vau.Aernam,the Commissionerof Pensions,
is to take over his ()aloe from Governor Cox on the

Ist May. Senator Sumner's great speech on the
Alabama Convention is generally accepted as a fair
statement of the subject, as seen from the American
side. It is not, perhaps, as tersely and lucidly
argue I as was expected, and presents weak points
through which holes will be driven on your side.
The "little" bill is, however, growing, and shows
a marvellous tendency to increase. American ideas
have always been noted for expansion, and the
people are pre-disposed to take broad views on this
subject, more especially on the " naughts" to follow
the first figure representing the damage. Senator
Howard spoke against the San Juan Boundary
Treaty foe an hour, but no vote has been
reached, nor in the case either of the Darien Canal
treaty. At the National Academy of Science,
the Honourable Samuel B. Ruggles stated, o❑
invitation, the progress in Europe of monetary uni-
fication. It commenced in 1863 at the Berlin Statis-
tical Congres 4, and it has progressed with such success
as t,) inclnaa te❑ European nations, containing
130,000,000 inhabitatit3, to which Germany would
soon all ano!. her 3,000,0,:►0 au 1 Ru sia 68,000,000.
Ile cons: Jere 1 tae plan of the Paris Conference to
be sufficiently metrical for all practical purposes,
and that any new scheme would but keep the United
States in perpetual isolation, sending American
coins into the mints of Paris and London. Chief
Justice Chase has delivered the opinion of the Su-
preme Court in the long-pending Al'Ardle case, and
:ifter elaborate argument dismissed the appeal of
the petitioner for want of jurisdiction.

PARIS, April 29.
The summer season basset in i❑ Paris, everything
has changed as if by enchantment, and the culti-
vators of the vine are looking forward to a viutagT

execution receive•-the fall amount of the fee he
would be entitled to for collecting the judgment,
EVeD though he does not secure a cent. It is calcu-
lated that this would add to his perquisites a quar-
ter-million of dollars, which would enable him to
pay $lOO,OOO for its passage. Its effect will be to
throw the collection of debts into the Bankruptcy
Court. Our Senators are now closely watched to
see who are under the influence of Tammany. A
bill has been passed forbidding the leasing of stalls
in the New York markets to non-residents. By
this means men from New Jersey will be unable to
carry on such business hero. From the South the
report is that the, sharp cold we have experienced
was severely felt by the cotton plant, which was
just rising above the ground. Though the days are
hot even here, the nights are frosty, and snow is stil
in the woods and on the hills. The Sun has been
writing uron Horace Greeley telling why he went to
Washington. Its correspondent asserts that his
object was the English mission, but he failed in
bringing the President over, so he went to the
Senate and lounged about till he heard the nomi-
nations, when "he indulged in a volume of not
polite abuse of the Administration "to every one
that would listen to him, and at sunset was seen
making tracks for the railroad depot behind a huge
target-bag filled with the good advice he hal in-
tended for Grant." It also asserts that he could
not be relied on for courage to maintain American
rights. His effort, too, to secure for Major-Gene-
ral Walbridge the New York Collector ship, was so
outrageous as to shake the President's faith in the
philosophers's common sense, and though it did not
help Walbridge it helped to settle Greely, adds the
Sun, for Grant did think of sending him to Eng-
land before he saw it; at least so says Mr.
Dana, who has himself got a good appointment.
Mr. Greeley answers that if the President thought
of bestowing the English mission on him, he never
intimated it to any friend or suggested that he
might be nominated for any office. Ile always un-
derstood that Mr. Motley had been decided on, and
the wisdom of that choice had never been con-
tested by him, for be believed it to be a good oae,
and he has always give► it his hearty approval.
Apropos of Mr. Greeley, there is a handsome por-
trait of him, painted by Mr. F. B. Carpenter, on
exhibition at the National Academy of Design.
considered to be the best yet taken. A prisoner
was brought before one of the New York Counts the
other day charged with being a member of aVigilance
Committee and spreadinginflammatory reimrts aboul
crime in the Courts. Notice has been given of the
36th annual meeting for the. 11th of May of the
American Anti-Slavery Society. Frederick Doita-
lass will address it, and I hear there will be a great
demonstration in honour of Emancipatioa D.ny.
An article in the Tribune on the annexation of
Canada, in which, by the way, you were hand-
somely mentioned, has attracted great attention,
and sPt all our journalists writing on that subject.
The New York Time..' rooh-poohs the ilea, and
asserts that there aaadd be no chance of persuad•
leg the Canadians to accept such a benefit, Athou.,4ll
it is generally believed that their gain would he the
greatest. I find this in one of our papers—'• The
Can idiar. Cattle imported into the United States
daring the first three months of 1869, have greatly
exceeded in value thos I imported during the same
period in 1868. The value for the first three
months of 1869 was $236,252, par ng $17,250
duties. The value for the first three months
of 1868 was $131,303, paying $26,260 duties."
The brokers believe they have gained a triumph on
the question of taxing their loans as capital. It
was supptsed that As-sessor Waster was supported
by the Deputy-Commissioner at Washington, and
he stated that be would press the question -into
the Courts for a decision, if the Senate did not take
it nut of his hands by " rotating" him out of office
It appears, however, that he has been " rotated"
out, and .Mr. Cleveland appointed his successor, at
which the brokers greatly rejoice, considering it a
triumph for themselves.