The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 27, 1E69

MISCELLANEOUS !YEWS.

ELECTIONEERING ITEMS.

The Dirge majority iu favour of the Marquis of
Hartington at Radnor shews that it is one of the
safest pocket boroughs in the United Kingdom. As
Mr. Phillips must have known from the first that
he had not the ghost of a chance, his pertinacity
in going to the poll was probably owing
to his determination to enter a protest against
the constituency being sold to the Government.
The last contest in these boroughs was in the
year 1820, when Mr. Richard Price (C.) beat his
opponent, Mr. Lewis (W.), by a majority of 148 votes.
Mr. Price held the representation without being
molested until August 1847, when the Right Hon.
Sir T. Lewis (father of Sir George) was returned
without opposition. Ile was succeeded at his death,
in February 1855, by his son, who died in 1863, when
M
the late member, r. Green Price, was returned.
By the election of the Marquis of Hartington Mr.
Gladstone's Cabinet is now complete. Nine members
of it are in the Commons, six in the Lords.
The death of Sir John Vanden Bempde Johnstone
causes a vacancy in the representation of Scar-
borough. This makes the fifth death among mem-
bers of the llouse of Commons since the general
election ; three belonging to the Government side of
the House, and two to the Opposition. Sir John
was born in 1709, and married, in 1825, Louisa
Venables Vernon, second daughter of Archbishop
(Harcourt) of York. He was first returned for Scar-
borough in 1832, in conjunction with Sir G. Cayley,
and was again successful in 183.5 with Sir Frederick
Trench ; at the general election of 1837, however,
he was defeated by Sir George Cayley by a majority
of nineteen votes. In 1841 he was once more suc-
cessful, being returned at the head of the poll. He
has held the seat ever since, in spite of five contested
elections, and although Mr. George John Cayley has
made several strenuous attempts to obtain a seat for
the borough. In politics the hon. gentleman was for
many years reckoned as a Conservative, but durin g Lord
Palmerston's regime he was considered as belonging
to the followers of the noble lord. When Earl
Russell took office Sir John supported Mr. Gladstone
through the Reform Bill debates, and voted for the
Suspensory Bill last year. Hitherto he was opposed
to the Ballot, but it is probable that
the facts brought to light at the last general
election would have convinced him, as it has
many more members of the Liberal party, that secret
voting and free voting are essential to each other.
A supporter of the present Government will pro-
bably be elected to fill the vacant seat, Scarborough
having been for nearly twenty years a thorough
Liberal constituency. At the late contest the fight
was an exceedingly hollow one, the numbers being
—Johnstone (L), 1,826 ; Dent (L), 1,678 ; Cayley
(C), 742. In all probability the son of the deceased
baronet will come forward in the Liberal interest.,
THE PERMISSIVE BILL.

The Permissive Bill is endorsed by Sir Wilfrid
Lawson, M.P. for Carlisle, Mr. Bazley, M.P. for
Manchester, and Mr. Dalway, M.P. for Carrick-
fergus, and president of the Irish Temperance
League. The last-named gentleman was originally
of rather Conservative views, and is still a strong
Orangeman. Nevertheless he has now taken his seat
on the Ministerial side of the House. It may be
assumed that his decision has been influenced in
some measure by the extreme hostility which was
manifested against him by the Conservative party,

mount or remuneration wnicn he requires. meconmy,
'•txpenses incurred before the submission of an invert-
! tion will not be considered to give a claim for repay-
tnent ; and no liability for loss of time after such
submission Will be recognised, unless authorised by
one of the Under Secretaries of State. Thirdly, all
claims will be examined by a council at the War
; Office; and the amount recommended will be
included in the estimates, and not be considered due
until Parliament has passed it. Fourthly, no claim
for reward will be held established unless the inven-
tion has been adopted into the service, or substantial
benefit to the public has resulted from it.

lion), Colonel Norton, Colonel Heine, Drs. Sims
and E3,ans, Colonel Bardan ; Mesdames Norton,
Harbeck, Downing, the Misses Harbeck and Minnie
Haack ; Mr. Remington, Mr. Toppan (late Presi-
dent of the American Bank-note Company), and
numerous members of American society at present
in Paris. Dancing was kept up till 5 a.m., and the
company separated, after drinking a toast in
honour of the memory of Washington, and an-
other to the health of the Prince Imperial.
The body of Mrs. Surratt has been given up
to her friends for private burial. She was
hanged in 1865 for complicity in the assassina-
tion of President Lincoln ; but many doubt her
guilt, and among them such shrewed lawyers as
General Butler. The friends of Booth are also
asking for his remains to receive Christian burial.
A London paper, which the Times quotes as pub-
lishing a great secret, siys it was never known
before where he had been buried. Why a year
and a half ago the whole circumstances were pub-
lished in this paper, and were freely discussed in
America. The body was brought to Washington,
and interred in a building of the arsenal before
Secretary Stanton and some other officers, and the
room was boarded up, the key being taken away
by Mr. Stanton. John 11. Surratt, son of Mrs.
Surratt, is now in Brazil ; her daughter, Annie
Surratt, is a school teacher in Baltimore.
Cuban revolutionists now muster strong in New
York. The Cuban Junta has there its head-quarters,
and they excite sympathy ; theirs being considered
the Liberal cause, and a public rn eeting in aid is talked
of. The insurrection has been on a farlarger scale than
Europe was aware of, though the late accounts by
telegraph to Madrid speak hopefully and confidently
of its suppression, provided it receives no further re-
inforcement from abroad. Of course this is in allusion
to assistance from the United States. At Washing-
ton efforts are being made to induce Congress to ad-
mit St. Domingo into the Union, but success is not
anticipated. Beneath the movement is Baez, who
was raised to the Presidency in 1867, and he is
supposed to act under the influence of Americans
who have purchased large tracts of land in St.
Domingo, to which they thus hope to give value.
The strength of Erie interest has been shown by
the late action taken against its stock in Wall-
street. The stock brokers dealing in that and other
shares banished for non-registry held a meeting on
the Bth inst. at 51, Broad-street, to organize an in-
dependent board. Several brokers addressed the
meeting, and in the end a committee was elected
to draft a constitution. It is said that more than
200 members have already joined. It would never
do for the speculators to lose Erie, their favourite
stock, but we would like to know the standing of
the members of the proposed Exchange. Mr. James
Shepherd writes to the London Times to advise a
syndic, by means of which the European holders,
who o.rn half the Erie stock, might exercise a rea-
sonable control. He alludes to Mr. Gould's report,
wherein it is announced that since October last the
stock has so far been watered, that the increase
has been from $74,000,000 to $130,000,000.
One of the last bills Andrew Johnson had the
power to veto as President was the Copper Tariff
I3ill,which, of course, he did. It was returned to the
House of Representatives with his objections last
Monday, and on Tuesday was at once passed by 115
to 56, and sent up to the Senate, who made it a law
bya majority of 38 to 11 on Wedesday last. The im-
porters of copper memorialized the President to veto
it, but they might have been quite certain that the
veto would have no effect. By it the tax on blue
vitriol is raised 100 per cent. ; the price in Europe
of sulphate of copper per lb. being 5 cents and the
import tax 5 cents per lb.
An important vote was given Feb. 10, by the
house Committee on Reconstruction, the propo-
sition being to admit the State of Mississippi with
its present Government, and with the Constitution
framed for it by the last Convention, but voted
down by the people. The vote in the Committee
stood for the proposition :—Bingham, Norris, and
Paine, 3. Against it--Boutwell, Brooks, Beck,
Beaman, and Farnsworth, 5. The Senate Com-
mittee on Judiciary has determined to report in
favour of modification of the Constitution of Vir
ginia, as suggested by the committee of nine.

Professor Goldwin Smith intends to deposit his
valuable historical library in the Cornell Univer-
sity-, to which he now gives his services gratui-
tou.dy. The Board of Directors met Feb. 11,
when Mr. Cornell reported progress. The resources
are now $76,774 per annum ; the expense for pro-
fessors, $38,300; the receipts have been $105,000,
and expenses $171,610. A. D. White, President
of the University, presented his report, giving in
detail the operations of the Institution.
The rise in 5-20's continues, those bonds having
now gone over 80 on the English Stock Exchange,
while the upward tendency is as marked in Wall-

street. Besides the decline in the price of gold,
the very distinct expression of Congressional opinion
with regard to their payment has imparted con-
fidence in Europe. Last Wednesday General
Scheuck's Finance Bill passed the House of Re-

presentatives. It provides that the public debt,
not otherwise specified, is payable in gold, but
postpones the payment till the value of greenbacks
equals gold. It also legalizes gold contracts. The
vote was 119 to 61.

The Union League Club of New York, met on
the 11th inst., Mr. John Jay thanked the Club for
the honour conferred upon him in his re-election to
its presidency. He congratulated them upon its
success, socially, politically, and financially, as
proved by the report for 1868. Finally, Mr. Jay
remarked—" The gentlemen who have successfully
brought about the Congressional investigation in
the frauds by which, in the recent election, the
the vote of the people was overborne, are I believe,
prepared to suggest further investigation of an
equally important character. For the accomplish-
ment of our common ends we require only pru-
dence, harmony, and unity, and with these, I
think, we may regard the Club, despite all that it
has accomplished, as still in its infancy, and anti-
cipate for it a long career of increasing usefulness
and honour."

A canal is proposed from a point in Alabama on
tho Tennessee river, to the tide water at Bruns-
wick or Savannah, crossing the Coosa in Georgia,
the Chattahochee, and the Ocmulgee ; 290 miles
in all. The cost is estimated at $5,000,000, but
Southerners believe it will pay admirably and open
up a splendid district. It will enable boats to pass
from St. Louis to the seaboard without breaking
bulk.

Triibner's Literary Record contains a remarkable
extract from Mr. Catlin's work, about to be pub-
lished, entitled " The Lifted and Subsided Rocks
of America, with their Influences on the Oceanic
and Land Currents." Mr. Catlin announces " the
discovery of a river under the Rocky Mountains,
many times larger than the Mississippi, its course
nearly twice the Mississippi's length, and gliding
through the clean and vast rocky cellars of the up-
heaved mountains, without the losses by alluvial
absorptions and solar evaporations which diminish
valley rivers, it takes along in its course the sink-
ing streams and lakes of the mountains of Mexico,
and with them, perhaps by a hundred mouths in its
deep bed, debouches unseen into the Caribean Sea
and Gulf of Mexico." ID imagines a similar

river to flow underneath the Andes, running from

the 30 (leg. S. lat. to the North, emptying into the
Carribean Sea. Six thousand years ago the two

rivers met beneath the Antilles, which ended in un-

derming them, and these islands are but the tops
of a sunken mountain chain. The joint influence
of these rivers on the Carribean Sea raises its
Western surface several feet above the level of the

ocean, which rushes through the Gulf of Mexico,
sweeping round its west coast, and, gathering up
the Rio del Norte and the Mississippi, pours its

vast flool into the Atlantic at the Florida Cape,
becoming the Gulf Stream, until now, says Mr.
Catlin, one of the mooted problems of the World.

Every change of climate, every storm, a shoal cf
herrings, or their absence, all are attributed to the
Gulf Stream ; and we think that Mr. Catlin's ac-

count will but add to its mystery.

Five Senators out of the eleven composing the
Railroad Committee of that body, have prepared a

minority Report shewing the objections to the
Omnibus Pacific Railroad Bill. The Philadelphia
Ledger thus sums up these objections Four

roads are add by this bill, and the members of ``the
minority say that the uniting of measures having
no relation to each other, for the too apparent pur-
pose of combining strength for the whole that
might not be obtained for the separate parts, has
never been deemed an honest mode of legislation,
and has never added fame to Legislative bodies.
History, it is asserted, furnishes dishonourable ex-
amples of that kind of legislation in Congress and
in the State Legislatures. This mode of legislation is
corrupting in its tendencies, and conveys upon the
face of it the impression that the measure is one
of more than doubtful propriety. After dwelling
upon the necessity of curtailing, in every way, the
expenditures, and reducing the debt of the United
States, the report says that the magnificent scheme
of railway construction embodied in this bill pro-
poses to guarantee the interest for thirty years on
$30,000 per mile of nearly five thousand miles of
railroad—being a guarantee by the Government on
about $150,000,000 of bonds, of nearly $9,000,000
of interest, annually, amounting in the aggre-
gate in thirty years to the enormous sum of
$270,000,000."

From New York we learn by telegraph, dated
21st instant, that revolutions have broken out in
several States of the Republic of Mexico, and that
Negrete has captured Puebla. According to news
from Cuba large numbers of the insurgents are
surrendering to the authorities. The latest news is
that the loan required was fully subscribed and the
insurrection was said to be at an end. From Athens
it is announced that the American- Minister has
written a letter to the Greek Government, in which
he states that the United States desire most sincerely
that peace should be maintained between Turkey
and Greece; he has also been authorised by his
Government to offer his good services to both parties
in such a manner as not to compromise the neutrality
of the United States.

The New York Evening Post exposes the fallacy
of the statement lately made in some London
papers that European emigration was exhausted,
and that Americans would have in future to trust
to their ingenuity in devising machines to take the
place of physical labour. That journal gives the
figures for the last eleven years' immigration iuto
New York, and the increase is steady and con-
tinuous; the average for the first five years being
82,093 ; for the next five, 203,202 ; and for the
last year, 211,359. The argument for a con-
tinuance of the stream is unanswerable. Granted all
that can be said against the cost of living in the
Republic, the taxation and other drawbacks, still
the United States remain, and must remain, supe-
rior to the old countries as a working man's home.
So long as that superiority continues, emigration
will continue, and the Post remarks on the fact
that more than 60,000 English landed in New
York in 1867 and 1868, and it calculates " that
we shall for many years to come enjoy the chari-
table delight of welcoming many thousands of effi-
cient British labourers every year to the broad
fields, boundless resources, and free institutions of
United States. They are coming, " three hundred
thousand more."

The official correspondence has been laid before
Congress between Admiral Davis and President
Louez. In it Bliss and Masterman are described as
criminals engaged in a horrible conspiracy, yet " he
(Lopez) would cheerfully consent to the de-
livery of the criminals, provided it were requested
in a manner more in conformity with the fact
of their being accomplices of ex-Minister 'Wash-
burn, and the first immediately acquainted with his
intrigues in the character of conspirator and agent
of the enemy, of which he is accused in the national
tribunals." Admiral Davis responded that it was
no part of his duty to offer or refuse any terms
affecting the legal criminal condition of those per-
sons. Again, referring to the friendship of the
United States towards Paraguay, he asked that
Bliss and Masterman be embarked on board his
vessel, subject to the dispositions of the Govern-
ment of the United States, of whose justice and
friendly sentiments President Lopez could entertain
no doubt. President Lopez acceded to the request
of Admiral Davis, saying, however, it could nut be
complied with in the sense of a reclamation, but of
a graceful courtesy on the part of the Goverment of
Paraguay towards the United States.