The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-27 00:00:00

GREECE.

The project of cutting a canal through the Isthmus of
Corinth has again come on the tapis at Athens. It is
thought that the completion of the Suez Canal will be a
favourable time for commencing this work, as a
large body of skilled men will then become dis-
engaged. The fact that public attention is
being turned to such topics speaks well for the
revival of a peace feeling in Greece. No such favourable
opportunity of constructing a canal through the Isthmus
of Corinth is ever likely to recur. A glance at the map
of the Mediterranean shews how important such a
canal would be for the trade of all the ports of
France, Italy, and Austria with Smyrna, Constantinople,
and the Black Sea. The ports at both ends of the canal
would not require any very great expenditure, and the
canal, if made, could be kept open at very little cost. Its
length would be three miles and three quarters. The
Times correspondent observes that this work would cost no
more than a fleet of ironclads to drive the Ottoman navy
out of the Mediterranean, for which the Greeks are raising
subscriptions.

(From thee Anglo-American Times.)
By the cable we learn that Mr. Moses 11. Grinnel
has been nominated by the President Collector of
Customs at New York, and the nomination has
been confirmed by the Senate. Rumour had so
positively assigned the appointment to this gentle-
man as to make it almost certain. It is important to
the Treasury that this post should be filled by a man
whose energy and honesty are unquestionable, for
the funds there raised, and the taxes gathered, are
enormous, greater by far than in any one office in
any other city of the globe. Mr. Smythe, having
failed in his diplomatic object, is now quite out in
the cold, and meets the fate he lately meted to so
many of his subordinates.

The President has ordered the following assign-
ment of Military Commanders :—General Meade,
to the Division of the Atlantic ; Terry, Depart-
ment of the South ; Sheridan, Department of Loui-
siana ; Hancock, Department of Dacotah ; Canby,
First Military District ; Reynolds, Fifth Military
District ; Emory, District of 'Washington. General
Gillem is ordered turn over the Fourth Military
District to the next senior officer and rejoin his
regiment. The World thought the appointment of
Hancock to Dacotah due to spite on the part of Grant.
Hancock was urged on the Democratic party by
his friends as a candidate for the Presidency, and the
iTiorld thinks that Grant pays him off by posting
him to such an outlandish place as Dacotah—un-
aware that the Department comprises the State of
Minnesota, as well as the Territories of Dacotah
and Montana, with head-quarters in the most
charming town on the Mississippi, St. Paul. The
Hartford Courant, in allusion to the World's re-
marks, states that Grant met Hancock in Wash-
ington after the Tammany Convention, and, cor-
dially accosting him, was passed unnoticed, or, in
other words, " cut," by his junior officer. Whatever
truth there may be in this, and we doubt if there is
any, Gen. Hancock has been assigned a pleasant com-
mand. In New Orleans there was tremendous ex-
citement when it was known that their old enemy,
Phil. Sheridan, was coming hack in triumph.
The annual election in Connecticut takes place
on the sth April, and the following are the can-
didates :

Republican. Democratic.
Governor ... Marshall Jewell. James E. English.
Lieut.-Gov. Francis Wayland. Ephraim H. Hyde.
Sec. State... Hiram Arpleton. Leverett E. Pease.
Treasurer... David P. Nichols. Edward E. Moseley.
Controller... James W. Manning. Jesse Olney.

Congress.
District 1. Julius L. Strong. James Dixon.
H. Stephen W. Kellogg. James F. Babcock.
111. H. H. Starkweather. Abiel Converse..

JV. Sidney B. Beardsley. William H. Barnum.
The election in New Hampshire came orf on the
9th March, showing a Republican majority of
about 4,200. Her three members were all re-
elected, and though the vote does not equal that
cast for President Grant, yet it is a Republican gain
on all other elections.

Maine, South Carolina, and Arkansas have rati-
fied the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment, mak-
ing twelve States that have done so, as far as we
know. Two have rejected it, Georgia and Dela-
ware. The value of Georgia's vote, however, we
are unable to decide, as it has fallen back into an
unreconstructed condition, and under military rule.
A delegation from that State had an interview with
the President, and in reply to his question " What
Georgia would do about this amendment," one said,
" Pass it, of coarse ;to give the d--d Yankees a taste
of negro rule." One branch of the Georgian Legisla-
ture ratified it, and then repenting, re-considered the
vote when Mr. Joshua Hill tried to lobby it through,
for he knew that if the Legislature did not swallow
that pill, he and his colleagues might knock in
vain at the doors for admittance into Congress.
The Cunard and Inman contracts have been
ratified, as Mr. John Burns declined to modify
the terms arranged with the late Government. A
meeting was held by the Liverpool Chamber of
Commerce, on Wednesday, to discuss these con-
tracts. It was there announced that the Select
Committee, by the caging vote of the Chairman,