The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-23 00:00:00

THE GENERAL COUNCIL.

Austria has signified her intention of allowing all the
bishops to attend the Council, and has communicated this
decision to Bavaria, advising her to do the same. Mgr.
Fessler, Bishop of St. Ilippolyte, near Vienna, and Chief
Secretary of the Counel. arrived in Rome a day or tw

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
NEW YoRK, June 5.

We have experienced one of the most ridiculous
positiGns in a strike among the waiters in the hotels
for higher wages. At present their pay is $3O a
month, and they want $35. The Brevoort, the Al-
bemarle, the Gramercy Park, and the Union Place
Hotels have been obliged to give way, while the
Fifth-Avenue, the Clarendon, the Astor, the St.
Nicholas refuse, and 309 waiters have struck, their
places being taken by any that could be got in the
highways and byways. The men belong to a trade
union numbering 1,800 members, and they are
powerful enough to keep up the strike for an inde-
finite period, in which they have been joined by the
coloured waiters. They had a meeting on Wednes-
day, when-a. Conference Committee Woo voted down
by a large majority, as they thought tlienrst steps
towards a compromise should come from the pro-
prietors. Even the head waiters of the Sr. Nicholas
have joined the movement, and messages have been
sent to Philadelphia, Boston, and Albany for waiters,
while the boarders in some of the hotels had to go
out for breakfast to the restaurants. About 80 men
were secured by Mr. Borrow for his hotel at Long
Branch. The smallpox is on the increase at Black-
well's Island, and people along the shores opposite
the island have moved away. Rumours prevail as
to the progress of the disease, but the health officers
say it is • decreasing in the public institutions, and
that there have been but few cases in the tenements.
We have had bad .weather ; much rain, and great
variation in the temperathre, which add to the death
return, and tell severely on the delicate,and was parti-
cularly unfortunate for the Jerome races, which took
place last Tuesday. Mr. Jas. Fisk (jun.) is as usual
in the courts on charges of libel against Mr. Bushell,
director of the Pacific Railway, and others. The
slander was contained in the complaint filed by the
Directors against the Erie Railroad Company. The
point 'of the defence was that Fisk cannot take as
against himself the libel against the Erie Corpora-
' tion, and the Court ha-s reserved judgment. The
President has pardoned • George Myers, who has
been in Sing Sing for four months, under a sen-
tence to pay a fine of $250 for passing a counterfeit
greenback ;
as there is little chance of his earn-
ing the money in Sing Sing, he has been let out.
Concerning these pardons an interesting case is to
come before Judge Blatchford. You may remember
that the Dams, the whisky thieves, were par-
doned
by President Johnson, shortly before-he left
the White House, but before it could be brought
into effect General Grant succeeded, and revoked
it.
The Dupnys have sued out a writ of Habeas
Corpus, and the question will be argued in the United
States District Court whether President Grant
could legally set aside his predecessor's official acts
of clemency.
The Grand Opera House closes to-
day, and other theatres will also soon do so for the
summer; the French piece Patrie was not the success
anticipated. In the fall, it is said, all the places of
amusement will open on a lower scale for admission.
Commodore Meade has recommenced proceedings
against those whom he alleges were instrumental
in confining him in a lunatic asylum in October,
1868, laying
damages at $200,000. The case of
the Quaker
City continues to be agitated. The
owners filed their answers to the libel on Monday,
denying that she was to be fitted out as a privateer.
On Thursday the owners renewed their application
for the rekase of the vessel, asserting their loss by
her detentiont.to be
$l,OOO a day. The matter is
to be brought by the district attorney before Judge
Blatchford, and it is thought that when the required
bonds are filed the vessel will be released. The
United States Marshal Barlow denies that the Arago
aided in conveying the Perit's filibustering expedi-
tion-to Cuba, but he acknowledges that the latter
vessel did carry unarmed men as passengers, and
arms and ammunition as freight. This the Spanish
Consul thinks to-be an admission in effect, not un-
like that made by the Lairds, as it concedes the
matter in dispute. The action at the Bay of Nips