The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1869.

expenditiiie, he endorsed the policy of the urovern-
ment, believing their economy to be judicious, and
that it was the desire of the Administration to render
the various departments of State more effective by
lopping off a large proportion of superintendents and
this, that, and the other. He expressed his opinion
that the questions of education and local taxation,
which the Liberals had put forward in their pro-
gramme, would hardly be brought on in a tangible
form for some time, the great and difficult question
relating to Ireland demanding the preference.

of a troop of soldiers put an end to the struggle, after
several had been killed and wounded on both sides. The
attacks upon isolated houses remind one of the Irish
Whiteboys. In the province of Kowno a band of forty
assailed a large estate, bound twenty farm-servants, and
carried off plunder to the value of several thousand pounds.
Tae Polish peasantry have taken to this remunerative pro-
fession.

pany with a set of unscrupulous and greedy lobbyists, in
an attempt to misuse the power and influence of the Re-
publican party for private ends. It is the self-confessed
agent of monopolists, whom Mr. Wells, himself a Protec-
tionist of the Henry Clay school, exposes in his last report,
by facts and figures which no one of the monopolists has
yet met."

To this Mr. Greeley replied--" When the Republi-
can party had first elected its President, the editor
of The Post asked of Mr. Lincoln the appointment
of its publisher to one of the most lucrative Federal
offices in our city, and was gratified. Being a
party organ, the Tribune never presumed to do

Mr. J. J. Stewart, of Baltimore, was nominated
on the 22d January by President Johnson as Minis-
ter to Turkey,- thus showing the truth of the report
that at least the Executive intend the recall of Mr.
Morris. A telegram from Constantinople, dated
last Sunday, asserts that Mr. Seward had autho-
rized the American Minister there, during the rup-
ture between Turkey and Greece, to proffer in-
formally his good offices as a channel of cominuni-
cation betwee❑ the Government of King George
and the Sublime Porte. His Excellency Reverdy
Johnson and the Right Hon. Earl Granville arrived
at Southampton on Wednesday, and proceeded in
her Majesty's yacht Alberta for Osborne. We have
good reason for stating that Mr. Johnson will be
succeeded, shortly after the inauguration of the
President Elect, by a gentleman renowned in litera-
ture. A correspondent of ours, in sending us some
items of news from the Continent, asserts that the
Hon. E. B. Washburne will perhaps accept the
mission to Paris, but we hope he will not do any-
thing of the sort, for although therein he might
consult his own dignity and ease, he would not cer-
tainly consult the national interests ; for while
plenty of qualified men may be found to transact
the business of the United States in Paris, who
could take up the work Mr. Washburne dropped ?
whose place we fear would be as vacant in Con-
gress after his departure as was that left by Joseph
Hume in Parliament when he died. Besides the
Minister to Constantinople, the President made the
following nominations on the 22d January : —Selah
Waters, of Tennessee, to be Minister Resident at
Ecuador ; Delos Lake, to be United States Attorney
for the District of California; J. M. Grissom to be
Pension Agent at St. Louis. _ _

Mrs. Twichell has been released, as the trial sud-
denly terminated, by the Commonwealth abandoning
the case. The jury returned a verdict of " Not
Guilty," as all along expected, for the evidence
given against her husband failed to connect her
with the tragedy. When ordered to stand up, for
the first time she removed her veil and showed
a face marked with grief and premature age. We
learn from the president of the Universal Peace
Union that Hester Vaughan will not be executed,
and that the banker Jay Cooke will pay her pas-
sage back to England.
General Schofield has sent a report to Congress
on the working of the brevet-system in the United
States Army, asking the Legislature to repeal the
Glst A rticle of War, by which this " brummagem"
rank gives command and precedence. Captains in
the line are sometimes Majors-General by brevet,
by which the number of an animal OLIC3 rare in the
United States has been increased by 138. Brevets
sometimes answer on active service, but both in
England and in America they are usually carried to
an extreme, which ends in degrading the rank in-
stead of elevating the recipient. Somebody has
said that if anybody leaving a pier or a station in the
United States took off his hat and shouted, " Good
bye, Colonel," that the response would come from
at least half the spectators, but since then the
Colonels have be-ome Generals. We heartily ap-
prove General Schofield's action in this matter, for
men who wear the rank ought to have earned it.
Joseph Pease—he ought to change the "s" into a
"c," when he would be well named for the post he
holds as President of the Peace Society—has been
carrying on a correspondence with Lord Clarendon
and Mr. Reverdy Johnson, urging the incorporation
into the treaties under discussion an arbitration
clause for the peaceable solution of disagreements
which may afterwards arise in the interpretation of
those treaties. Lord Clarendon fully concurs with the
Peace Society, and so does his Excellency the Ame-
rican Minister, who has acted in accordance with it
in the Conventions referred to. The American
branch of the Universal Peace Union is now in session
at Washington. Numbers of men and women are
present from the different States, showing how wide
the peace feeling is in the Republic and how strong
the party. The peace they propose to bring upon
earth is no less than that of the millenium, delight-
ful in theory, but impracticable, as those who best
know human nature will say, when they hear the
resolution the association arrived at : " Resolved,
That all idea of punishment, both in the human and
divine government, should be done away with, as
at war with the law of love. The present system of
discipline in the family, the school, and the prison,
founded on this idea, is unworthy of civilization, to
say nothing of Christianity."
The following telegrams were received this week :
The Democratic Convention of Connecticut has
met. James E. English has been nominated for
Governor. Resolutions have been passed that re-
fer to (but do not take any decided ground on one
side or the other) the question of the payment of
the United States Debt in gold, but deny that re-
pudiation is favoured by the Democrats. Resolu-
tions have also been passed against Negro Suffrage.
The Convention promises to support President
Grant in every just and Constitutional measure be
proposes. A Constitutional amendment granting
Negro Suffrage was passed on Saturday by the
House of Representatives by 147 to 42 votes. It
goes to the Senate for consideration. The House
of Representatives, by 110 to 62 votes, has tabled
a resolution in favour of the annexation of the
Republics of Hayti and San Domingo to the United
States.

The London board of the Atlantic and Great
Western Railway directors announce that the line
having been leased to the Erie Company their func-
tions cease. They forward copies of the text to the
bondholders, together with thatof the supplementary
leases, but not of the Columbus, Chicago,and Indiana,
which the shareholders had not ratified. They give
no opinion, but leave the proprietors to judge for
themselves from the documents. They say, how-
ever, they think it right to add that they do not
doubt that the president, Mr. Stebbins, the Ameri-
can Board, and Mr. APllenry, who have struggled
with great energy with many difficulties and dis-
couragements, have made what they consider the
best arrangements practicable under the circum-
stances. The first effect has been to throw the
bonds down considerably, but whether this arises
from a want of confidence among the proprietors or
the machinations of speculators, we are unable to state.
After the long and steady rise, however, the reac-
tion is not surprising.
Commodore Vanderbilt's affidavit, read in the
New York Supreme Court on the 19th January, in
the case of Isaac N. Jenks against the New York
Central Railroad, is of interest. In it he states he
was President of the New York Central from De-
cember, 1867, and was present when the certificates
were authorized by the board. A rough estimate
was then made of the nett earnings, but he con-
fesses to knowing nothing about it. The statement
of the nett earnings applied to construction, read at
the meeting, was prepared by Clark and himself :
he did not recollect its contents, but it showed that
a very large sum expended on the road legitimately
belonged to the stockholders, and his only motive
was to give them what belonged to them. During
his connection with the road no earnings have been
applied toconstruction. If he could not save in working
$-2,000,000 ay ear lie would have nothing to do with it.
In answer to the question why his intention was not
made known to the public—" Made known !" he
exclaimed, " to the gang of .thieves and robbers in
Wall-street !" lie did not tell many of the direc-
tors for fear they would speculate in the stock, and
the knowledge was confined to himself, Mr. Clark,
and Mr. Chaplin ; and the meeting, by accident,
was held at Clark's house on the day of the deci-
sion. The certificate closes with the assertion that
the business of the road had been done last year for
$1,600,000 less than before by saving. The New
York Legislature is investigating the stock opera-
tions of that road and the Erie. A director of the
latter refused to tell what had become of the pro-
ceeds of the new stock, and so far checked the in-

quiry, but a very strong pressure will be brought
to bear on Albany by the press, and the Legislature
will probably be kept up to its work.

Governor Fenton's success and Governor Morgan's
defeat continue to be as great a surprise and mys-
tery as ever, and one authority saddles the result on
the universal scapegoat, the Erie Directors. That
ring is said to have heavily backed Fenton, while
Morgan was the public favourite, and it is alleged they
paid the Governor, for signing the bill they got passed
last winter, $25,000. The outcry raised against
Governor Fenton is considerable, and it is hoped
that he may meet it by a public investigation. Mr.
Hugh Hastings, the editor of the Commercial Ad-
vertiser, brings point blank charges against him,
and when threatened with legal proceedings openly
accepts the challenge, daring Mr. Fenton to take
the question into the Courts. As a party matter
the election is of no importance, as both are men of,
ability and of the same stripe. The New lark Sun
asserts that Mr. Fenton wished to withdraw in favour
of Marshal 0. Roberts, who went to Albany to see
if he had any chance, when he found that Fenton
was sure of the election. On proposing to return,
the ex-Governor wrote to him, stating that be was
willing and desirous to withdraw in his favour as
candidate for Senator, and to remain at Albany,
from which his letter is dated Jan. 15, to work for
his success. An interview followed, but Mr. Ro-
berts would not change his determination. The
Sun terms this " the great Seymour game of de-
clining ;" but we confess we do not understand Mr.
Fenton's drift.

Mr. William Douglas, writing from the Union
Club, New York, Jan. 19, to Mr. James Ashbury,
states that he has purchased the Sappho, as he
is desirous that she should again enter the lists
against the Cambria. Early in June he will
cross the Atlantic, when he feels confident Mr.
Ashbury will afford him the opportunity ; and the
conditions of the match can be settled at Cowes.
He wishes, however, to remark that for the Sappho
to show her ocean and winter cruising qualities, an
open course would place the yachts on a more equal
footing. Mr. Ashbury accepts his challenge in the
same frank, courteous way in which it is given, and
remarking on the great advantage the ,Sappho's
tonnage of 381, gives her against the Canibria's
188, he says—" The courses I suggest are-Ist,
round the Isle of \\Tight ; 2d, from the Isle of
Wight round the Eddystone Lighthouse and back ;
3d, from the Isle of Wight round the Cherbourg
Breakwater and back. These courses, in addition
to the various Club matches, will afford ample op-
portunity for displaying the qualities of our re-
spective vessels." We are glad to see this inte-
resting contest taken up in a spirit so friendly,
that whatever may be the result it can only lead to
increased harmony.