The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-26 00:00:00

POLITE BRIGANDAGE.

The Duke and Duchess of Saxony have been captured
by brigands whilst driving out in the neighbourhood of
Sorrento. They fell into the bands of the most able and,
it appears, the most polished of Italian robbers—Fuoco,
the Neapolitan. As soon as this great personage learned
who his prisoners were, he at once took off his hat,
politely handed them to their carriage, and, giving a five-
franc piece to the coachman, said, with a final bow,
" Will your Highness deign to excuse the audacity and
insolence of my men, and carry away with you a favour-
able recollection of the poor Neapolitan Fuoco?" The
Duke sent the robber a watch and chain valued at £l6O.
This looks a good deal like encouraging roguery ; but
then the Italian Government cannot put down brigandage,
and strangers therefore have some interest in teaching the
robbers the value of good breeding.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

Mr. Reverdy Johnson has returned to the prac-
tice of the law, and is already at work on the gold
contract case of Messrs. Abell and Co. against the
Chesipeake Bank, involving a claim for a special
gold deposit of $3,000, made in 1861. This case
has been to the Court of Appeals of Maryland, and
is now on trial for the second time at the Supreme
Court of Baltimore City. On appearing for the
plaintiffs he was cordially welcomed by the Court
and members of the bar, and he is to dine with
the city authorities. Mr. Johnson was promptly
"interviewed" on landing by a correspondent of
the New York Times, who intercepted him at his
house, near Baltimore, and represented his face as
wreathing into smiles, and his eyes twinkling at
the recollection of the jolly English dinners which
he so heartily enjoyed. " They dine at eight," he
said, " and they are grand affairs." Of England
he spoke in the warmest terms, as the outspoken,
courageous, sincere person he is; terming his recep-
tion there an ovation. " They are a proud and
powerful people, and are not to be frightened into
any concession they do not believe to be just." He
considers Mr. Sumner's speech preposterous, and
asserts the Senator wrote to England last January
that had the protocol sent by him (Reverdy Johnson)
been concluded three weeks earlier it would have
been unanimously approved. He is going to show
that he strictly obeyed his instructions, of which Mr.
Sumner himself approved. Ile spoke disparagingly
of the London correspondent of the Tribune, as the
man Smalley ; but he considers it will all come
right in the end, and that there will be a reaction
in his favour. Nor is this prediction without
grounds, for already the Tribune is protesting
against the continued abuse of a lawyer to whom
the Union is indebted for substantial services, who
eminently adorns his profession, and who lost his
seat in the Senate because of his manly Anti-
Slavery vote.

Many persons carelessly assume that civilization
must progress of its own impetus, that it cannot re-
trogade, and are therefore the less impressed with
the necessity of throwing their small individual efforts
into the scale. Though at a time wheia the world
did not possess the press and rapid locomotion,
yet we have seen in many instances a direct re-
lapse of mankind into barbarism, and we know that
it is with the utmost difficulty, and only by a sus-
tained effort, that Christianized savages can be kept
from falling back into idolatry. At the Presbyte-
riam General Assembly, at Mobile, it was asserted
that many blacks since emancipation, had lapsed
into heathenism, and that obi-worship was reviving
among them was shown by the testimony of several
clergymen. If this is to be the end of
.emancipa-
tion, the North might as well have accepted the
Domestic Institution of the South, and preserved
the Union without the disastrous war. In the face
of the influx of Chinese heathenism, and the diffi-
culty of Christianising that race, it would be awk-
ward if the negro relapsed into the idolatrous prac-
tices of his African progenitor.
There is a league in Nova Scotia now agitating for
the annexation of the province to the United States.

Supposing that the Repeal League Convention suc-
ceeded in securing the votes of the majority for
separation, not only from the Canadian Dominion,
but from the British Empire, and annexation to
the United States, what right would they have to
give effect to such a decision against the wishes
of the majority of the New Dominion in particular
and of the British Empire in general? Supposing
that the United States desired to avail itself of the
resolution of the majority in Nova Scotia, by what
arguments could they show that Nova Scotia had
any more right to secede from the British Empire
without the sanction of that Empire than South
Carolina bad from the Union against the consent
of the Union ? We desire to see the subject of
annexation discussed as a whole, not piecemeal, by
fractional parts, which can only raise bad blood.
The action of the Union against secession as re-
gards itself, bars its advocacy of secession as regards
its neighbour, the New Dominion. _ .

The wheat crop of California is likely to be this
year the largest that State ever knew, as the weather
has been all that could be desired during the most
critical period. It is probable that the quantity for
export will equal 20,000,000 bushels. In the face
of this and a falling grain market the anxiety of
the Californians is, "What will they do with it?"
Australia would be surfeited even by a small portion
of that quantity ; the harvest in Europe is likely to
be good, and large in the Eastern States of America.
The decrease in the average yield of the Prairie
States is a marked feature in American agricultural
statistics. The average yield in Illinois and lowa
is now not over 12 bushels per acre, and 10 in Ohio
and New York ; this is the result of wasteful farm-
ing, which mercilessly uses up the land. The States
at present standing highest in their average yield
are California and Minnesota, which give fully 20
bushels per acre. We may here observe, as regards
the latter, that most satisfactdif accounts have been
received at Bartholomew House by the Secretary of
the Minnesota Land Association of the emigrants
recently despatched. It is a singular fact that at
present California can send grain to Liverpool
cheaper than any State of the Mississippi Valley.
We cannot understand why such should be the case
while the " Father of Waters" tenders his mighty
flood gratis to the carrier ; but it is said to be so,
although St. Louis is working vigorously to make
itself the principal emporium, and the Mississippi the
channel. St. Louis and Chicago are the great rivals,
but, backed by the Mississippi, the former, it is
said, will eventually beat the latter.
The Pennsylvania Republican State Convention
met last Wednesday and nominated John W.
Geary for Governor. This meeting was looked for
with interest in England, as indicating the Repub-
lican platform in the autumn elections—whether
the threatened Alabama plank would be inserted or
not. The Irish Republican Association of Phila-
delphia issued an address, in view of energetic ac-
tion being taken on the Alabama question, urging
all Irishmen to join the Republican party, and
officers of other Irish associations issued similar
,addresses. This insane attempt to make political
capital out of a question of international right failed,
as we all along said it would, for the common sense
of the nation was sure to run counter to it. If it
were not for that sense of right and equity im-
planted in what is sometimes called, often with a
sneer, the " great heart" of the people, the politi-
cians would do some queer things; but that " great
heart" often violently jerks them from their erratic
course into the right road, and their never was a
finer instance of this than what they got for the
attempt to make political capital out of repudiation.
The politicians, seeing that they were on the wrong
track, but only after the defeat of a hostile
movement—

"Resolved, that we have confidence•that tho general
Administration will wisely and firmly protect the interests
and the dignity of the nation in respect to Our just claims
against Great Britain, and we endorse the action of the
Senate in rejecting the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty known
as the Alabama Claims Treaty."

General Rutherford B. Hayes was re-nominated
Governor of Ohio on the same day by the Republi-
can Convention of that State, without the Alabama
question being touched on further than to endorse
the President's foreign and domestic policy.
Writing to the 7 ivies from Toronto, a Canadian
thus alludes to the wasteful cultivation on the
Prairie States :—" Every year the production of
wheat is being pushed farther and farther to the
West. The moment the virgin soil is exhausted
the farmers move still farther westward. The ai-
vantage of Upper Canada is that we are c 1033 to a
manufacturing country, whose population is rapidly
increasing, while its power of agricultural produc-

tion is largely declining." Slowness may, there-
fore, occasionally tell in favour of a country, and
Virginia, even in a greater degree than Canada,
could assert that it possessed the advantages of a
rich unoccupied agricultural country in proximity to
a manufacturing community rapidly increasing.
Mr. Rose, the Finance Minister, considers that the
injury done by abrogating the Reciprocity Treaty
was much exaggerated in Canada. Trade since then
had improved ; in lumber 44 per cent.,with a prospect
of a much greater increase, as all the States south of
Maryland must depend for future supplies on the
forests of Canada. Western lumber too, goes west, to
the country openedby the Pacific Railroad which will
add some of the Eastern States as customersof Canada.
The revenue of 1867-8, the first year of Confedera-
tion, was $13,835,460 ; expenditure, $12,973,211.
For the ten months of 1868-9 the revenue was
$13,744,656 ; and the expenditure, $13,470,635.
The Governor-General's salary is to be maintained
at $50,000, the motion to reduce it to $32,000 hav-
ing been defeated by a large majority. The neces-
sity of immediately opening up the Red River was
dwelt on in connection with the acquisition of the
Hudson's Bay Territory, as the State of Minnesota
was pushing forward a new railway, and it was
asserted that a Government road had been opened
already, one-third the distance from Lake Superior.
The bargain with the Hudson's Bay Company gives
great satisfaction, and the liberal tendency of the
Imperial Government towards the colony has much
gratified the Canadians. The feeling the writer
considers to be against independence, though
there is some talk on the subject. Nova Scotia
has been discussing annexation to the United
States, but with little effect on the public
mind ; the local Government gradually gives
way, and will soon see, the writer observes, that
Confederation is the best thing for that province.
The assimilation of the currency is delayed till the
coin be fixed as a standard by the commercial na-
tions of the world. The emigrants recently arrived
are described as fully employed and well satisfied.
Last Tuesday Sir John Young prorogued the Par-
liament, in a speech expressive of satisfaction at
the progress of consolidation and retrenchment.
Prince Arthur was to sail for Canada to join the
Royal Engineers on the 14th August in the Inman
steamer, the City of Paris, and would remain in
Canada for nearly a year.
Senator Sprague continues to deliver himself of
dreary forebodings on the future of the Republic.
That young man claims to have made a great dis-
covery, but it is hard for his fellow-citizens to dis-
cover in what the discovery consists : whether the
dismals be due to a want of balance or to a want of
money at a low rate of interest. The Senator, in
his recent speech near Newark, Rhode Island, said—
I have discovered that in consequence of the want of
this balance of power in the interests of the people, Spain
has been compelled to occupy a snbordinate and inferior
position for centuries, and :when I see that Mexico, in
consequence of this want of balance, has been stricken to
the dust, I know that such will be the fate of the Ame-
rican people—you, here assembled!—unless you rise in
your m,ght and demand a different condition of things—
demand that the inequality which has existed between us
and France, England, and Germany, the nations with
which we are obliged to compote, shall exist no longer ;
and demand of those who manage our affairs an intelli-
gent administration of them, or we will not sanction the
Government itself. . . . Your industries are destroyed
from your inability to protect and strengthen them. My
idea is, that neither in tariffs nor in free trade can v""
protect your industry. IL can only be done by measures
for producing and procuring money as easily as it can be
produced and procured in other countries. Capital costs
in our production seven to eight times what is paid by the
producer on the Continent. The cause of this is, capital
is massed. Capital is the essential element in all our pro-
ductions. By the operation of Treasury surplus and sur-
plus receipts on the general market, the massing of capital
w'll be done away with, speculation will cease to be pro-
fitable, and capital will seek natural and productive invest-
meats. Stability to the market and to society will follow."
In consequence of America's weak and unsubstan-

tial position foreign nations have imposed on her,
and cheated her out of her just rights. We can I
assure Mr. Sprague that foreign nations on hearing
this remark will open their eyes very wide in sur-
prise. He thus concluded:—
" I do not desire to mass capital, but 1 desire it for the
uses of the people. I desire that it may be used upon a
more secure and safe foundation, and that it may become
the servant of the people, and be protected as such."
The accounts received at New York from Rio
Janeiro are by no means propitious for the opera-
tions of the Allies in Paraguay. The war there is
said to be assuming a hazardous and more danger-
ous character than ever. Lopez appears to have
erected works of great strength throughout the Cor-
dilleras since the fall of Angostura, to carry which
must separate the Brazilian army from its fleet, to
which it has hitherto owed no small share of its
success. There are reports doubtless untrue that the
Allies had been defeated, but unquestionably they
have a hard task before them, as Lopez is said to have
10,000 men in the entrenchments, with 80 or 90
pieces of artillery. The America Legation in Paris
is informed by General M‘Mahon, the United States
Minister to Paraguay, under date May 2, that he
was at the headquarters of Lopez, with whom he was
on friendly terms. A rumour, to which little cre-
dence is given, is current at Buenos Ayres, that
peace, through his intervention, had been concluded
with the Allies on the basis that Lopez should leave
the country. The latest advices from Paraguay
were to May 15, at which date the army was in
readiness to march, and nothing was said about de-
feats except those of a few small foraging parties.
From Washington, on Tuesday, it was announced
that " the State Department does not sustain the
course adopted by Mr. Webb, the United States
Minister at Rio, in the embroglio with Brazil." Mr.
Webb has arrived in New York from Rio, and had
an interview with the Secretary of State. He con-
demns the course of the Brazilian Ministry in the
conduct of the negotiations which induced him to
demand his passports. That Ministry had, how=
ever, receded from their objectionable position
through the intervention of the English Minister
before Mr. Webb withdrew, and in consequence
the notes that afterwards passed had been with-
drawn.

Georgia has been the scene of considerable ex-
citement, as a struggle has been progressing in
Warren county between the Kuk-lux and the civil
authorities, aided by the military. A judicial in-
junction was obtained by the former for making
further arrests, after two companies of soldiers had
been ordered to Warrenton, Georgia, by General
Terry, to aid in the discovery of the murderers of
State Senator Adkins. Some of the difficulties in
the South now assume more of a revenue fraud
type, the people having taken to business and given
up politics. Numbers of illicit btills have been
seized in Tennessee and other States, and General
Sherman has directed military officers in the South
to aid the revenue officers, whenever resisted in
the performance of their duties, or unable through
other causes to collect the revenue.
The latest intelligence received at New York
from Cuba was unfavourable to the Spaniards.

The insurrection, which bad almost died out, had
revived by the successful landing of fillibusters, of
whom it was calculated there were 5,000 in the
Cuban army, and that 30,000 stand of arms had
been got on shore. The forcible deposition of Dulce
by the volunteers probably tended to strengthen the
revolt. Great activity existed in New York about
the time the mail steamer left ; two or three expedi-
tions having sailed, leaving others organizing.
The President, according to later news by cable, has
put his foot down upon these proceedings; Colonel
Ryan and other Americans, with several Cubans,
having been arrested on the 17th, but though they
were released next day on bonds of $5,000 each to
appear for trial, and half that sum to keep the peace
towards Spain, yet six others of the Junta were
arrested on Monday night, and the recruiting sta-
tion brok en up. Colonel Ryan, however, escaped
from the custody of the United States Marshal on
Wednesday night, and was reported to have sailed
with an expedition to Cuba. The New York
Herald denounced this action against the Junta

as arising front timidity and vascillation, and
as inspired by the Spanish Minister without the
knowledge of Secretary Fish ; but it is clear the
Herald is wrong, and that the Administration is
acting vigorously to stop this open and audacious
infraction of the I.►w, after submitting the case
to the Attorney-General, and the Spanish Minister
has been assured by the State Department that the
neutrality laws shall be promptly enforced. These
arrests extended to Baltimore and Richmond. Mean-
while the Spanish steamer Fernando captured the
American schooner La Lave, laden with war mate-
rials, and after sending her to Havannah she was
despatched to Jamaica for adjudication. Why to
Jamaica ?

General Grant left Washington on the 9th inst.,
by the night train to New York. After the two
first passenger cars came the sleeping cars and the
President's car, wherein were his wife, two children,
his brother-in-law and wife, and Secretary Boutwell.
Near Annapolis junction, in Maryland, 21 miles
from -Washington, the engine knocked down a cow
that hadstrayed on theline; the legs of the poor beast
got under the wheels of the baggage-car, throwing
it and the two first passenger cars from the rails
by which they were overturned. The couplings
broke, and the first car was so whirled round as to
block up the road; the front of the second car was
driven in by the collision, and so violently cap-
sized as to be dashed to pieces ; and the third,
a sleeping car, though shattered in front, was less
forcibly brought up, the others having acted as its
buffer. Fortunately, for the President and party,
they were in the last car, and therefore felt the
shock in a modified degree. The foremost wheels
of the one before theirs were thrown from the track,
but that in which the President's party were re-
mained on the line. It was quite dark, and in a
part of ,the road, passing through a cutting 20 feet
high. The train was going at the usual st eed, and
such an accident could scarcely have happened caus-
ing less injury. Those hurt were almost wholly con-
fined to the first car. Mr C. W. Wield, of At-
lanta; Georgia, emigrant agent of the State, and
then on his way to Europe, had his face and head
badly hurt, and will probably lose an eye. Ile is
still at the junction, it not being considered safe to
remove him. Mr. C. W. Wells, of Albany, N. Y.,
was somewhat injured, but was able to pursue
his way home. Mr. Evans, of Alexandria, was
brought back to Washington and sent to his home
in Alexandria. The train also carried into Wash-
ington, next morning, one man from Georgetown,
slightly injured, one coloured woman, whose head
was badly cut, and three coloured men, bruised.
Mr. G. W. Clapp, of Washington, received a scalp
wound. Mr. R. J. Piggott, Internal Revenue
officer of'New York, was slightly wounded in the
head, M'Cunn, abrakesman, had his left leg broken,
Mr. H. A. Hall, of Washington, received a slight scalp
wound, and Mrs. Esmer of Washington received a
wound in her shoulder. The President lit his
cigar and calmly surveyed the scene, but his narrow
escape is said to have affected him, and has doubt-
less caused a sensation throughout the country.
Many hours elapsed before the road was cleared,
and, although General Grant was urged to stop at
Philadelphia he preferred to pass on to New York,
reaching West Point before he halted.
If Washington is the city of magnificent dis-
' tances, it is also the city of sensational inventions.
The last rumour is that the present British Minis-
ter is to be superseded, by a representative of the
highest rank, who through a liberal hospitality, a
regular series of English dinners like those that cost
Mr. Reverdy Johnson so much, is to feel the pulses
of the Senate before reopening the Alabama ques-
tion. The Senators' dignity will admit of nothing
less than a Duke as host, and they are desirous
wereesiro to
personally testing what the seduction
which an old Senator like Reverdy Johnson suc-
cumbed. While condemning the insidious poison
they arc curious to ascertain what it tastes
enstsesliaktee,
but
this can only be accomplished by the
ad-
journing to London to corn
p I et thee
pAes,
a great number of Senators are at t present
and Buckingham Palace will be vacant when the
Pasha leaves in a few days, we suggest that no
time be lost in taking advantage of so good an
opportunity royally to house these dignataries
and after a series of grand entertainments,
and a " fine time generally," to settle the matter

off hand. If England could get all the Senators to
wreath their faces in smiles at the recollection 3f her
dinners, like her old friend Reverdy Johnson, even
a Chandler would be soothed, and as Mr. Motley
may act on our suggestion, we here distinctly claim
and record the idea as our own. Mr. Thornton will,
it is said, be " promoted" to Madrid. The notion
that this change will be'promotion is almost too good,
and furnishes an instance of the speed at which
England moves. A European Ambassador might
naturally prefer a post in Europe, but there is some-
thing preposterous, regarding Ministerial rank, in
placing Washington under Madrid.
The paper mill in Pennsylvania has turned out a
new and improved greenback paper, known as the
French silk variety, through the fibres of which red
and blue threads run. All the present greenback
and fractional currency, now in a horrid state of
dirt and dilapidation, is to be called in, and the new
issue will be ready on the Ist July. One of the ad-
vantages of the new currency is that it cannot be
counterfeited, which is extensively done with the
old, at least in its present state. The Government
ought to have gained largely by lost and destroyed
notes, but counterfeiting may have deprived the na-
tion of this gain. The Comptroller of the Currency
has issued the following instructions and explana-
tion of the law relating to the publication of reports
of National Banks :

"Banks are required to publish their reports as soon as
possible after they are made to the Comptroller, and such
publications must be an exact copy of the original reports,
omitting only schedules, classifications of loans, and dis-
counts, the affidavit of the cashier or president, attesta-
tion of directors, and such of the printed items and of re-
sources and liabilities as remain blank in the reports fur-
nished to the Comptroller."

The number of letters last year passing out of
and into the United States by sea was over eleven
millions ; those despatched being 5,900,000 ; and
received 5,228,000. Of these Great Britain got the
lion's share, being little short of half—two and a
half millions being despatched to, and two and a
quarter millions received from Great Britain. France
only ranks for half a million each way; the quantity
to and from Germany being three times as great,
one and a half millions. The proportion must be
mainly influenced by emigration, and it will be
found that the mail bags to Germany increase more
rapidly than to any other country. Over a million
of letters was the addition in one year. Of the
gross number, the Cunard steamers carried nearly
three millions ; the Inman about two millions ; the
North German Lloyd and the Hamburg and Ame-
rican together over four millions.

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THE LIVERPOOL AND LONDON' and
GLOW: INSURANCE CO%IPANY.
Offices—l, Dale:street, Liverpool; 7, Cornhill; and

Charing-cross, 'London.

The Invested Funds now amount to £3,401,055, the
Fire Revenue to £836,816, and that of the Life to V 59,039.
The moderate rates of premium, with a guaranteed fixed
Bonus for the Life Pol'cies of this Company, and their
value as SPECIAL SECURITIES to third parties,
render them particularly advantageous. Whole-world
leave is granted on reasonable terms, and claims are paid
thirty days after admission.
JOHN ATKINS, Resident Secretary.

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