The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-18 00:00:00

AMERICA.

SOUTHAMPTON, FRIDAY.
The United States mail steamship Fulton, Captain
J. A. Wootton, with mails of the 4th inst. from
New York for England and France, arrived off
Cowes this morning and proceeded for Havre. She
has a small quantity of specie for France, but none
for England. Among her passengers are the Hon.
C. J. Faulkner, United States' Minister to France,
and family; also the following exiles from Hayti:
—General M'emlla Clemene, Lieutenant-Colonel
Richelieu St. Martin, Lieutenant-Colonel Brener
Prophete, and Lieutenant-Colonel Sydney Pro-
phete.
The long-pending battle for the Speakership
was brought to a close on the afternoon of the Ist
by the election of Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey,
a Republican of moderate views. He received
exactly the number of votes necessary to effect
an election. Upon the first ballot, 233 mem-
bers being present, and 117 necessary to a choice,
Mr. Briggs, of New York, added his vote to those
which Mr. Pennington had secured the day before,
and Mr. Pennington having thus 117 votes was
declared elected. He was conducted to the chair
by Messrs. Sherman and Bocock, and the oath of
office having been administered the members were
also sworn in. After a scene of much confusion a
committee was appointed to inform the Senate
that the House was ready to proceed to business,
and then an adjournment to Friday was carried.
The Senate, after the transaction of unimportant
business, went into executive session, and subse-
quently adjourned.
In the Senate, on the 2d, Mr. Davis, of Missis-
sippi,S introduced resolutions on the relations be-
tween the several States, and between the States
and
Government: Mr. Fitch, of
Indiana, then took the floor to speak upon Mr.
the Federalseral tes ta
Brown's resolution. He praised the Administra-

tion, upheld Slavery, and denounced Mr. Douglas
The House of Representatives was not in session.

The Republicans in Washington were jubilant at
night over the election of Forney. They paraded
the town, accompanied by a band of music, and
called upon Forney and his especial friends and
supporters. Forney, Hickman, and Haskin made
speeches, and Haskin read a letter of Forney's,
apologising for the celebrated Forrest letter.
A Washington correspondent of the New York
Times transmits to that journal what he represents
to be a Presidential programme arranged between
the Republican and American members of the
house. According to this story, Mr. Edward Bates,
of Missouri, is to be brought forward as a candidate
for,
, with General Cameron as Vice-
President. theid e
nt.
he
"platform" is to be distinctly na-
tional and CoNervative, and Mr. Seward is to be
compensated, for the omission of his name, with
the French mission, and the reversion of the higher
office in 1864.

The Maryland Legislature had received a series
of resolutions from the Legislature of South Caro-
lina, proposing to call a Disunion Convention. Out
of respect to a sovereign State the resolutions were
allowed to be read, but in the debate which followed
only two members sustained them. In a letter to
the Governor of South Carolina Governor Hicks
writes that Maryland can see nothing but injury
to herself in the establishment of a foreign asylum
for her fugitive slaves on the borders of the State.
Ex• Governor Chase, of Ohio, had been chosen
United States' semator by the Legislature of that
State. The vote stood, for Chase, 75 ; Pugh, 54 ;
and Corwin, 5.

The Senate Committee for investigating the affair
at Harper's ferry discharged Realf from further at-
tendance. on the 3d, and he left for New York.
Senator Wilson was examined, and detailed an in-
terview he had had with Col. Forbes in the Senate
Chamber, early in May, 1858, wherein Forbes re-
peater? the thrice-told tale of his Kansas work and
the sufferings of his family, and warned the senator
against the rash projects of John Brown. Mr. Wil-
son at once wrote to Dr. Howe, mentioning the
suggestions of Forbes, and urging him to place be-
yond the reach of Brown the arms sent to Kansas
by the Boston Committee. This recommendation
Ml. Wilson had supposed to have been adopted,
and had known nothing more of the matter until
the outbreak at Harper's-ferry had occurred. While
these innestigationa were proceeding at Washington
the trial of Stevens was going on at Charleston, and
ended in his conviction as one of the conspirators
in the Harper's-ferry outbreak.