The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-30 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

A letter from New York, to a contemporary,
dated Oct. 16, says :
The visit of the Prince of Wales and his suite to
New York has been made since my last letter, and,
without trespassing on the province of your able
special (who, by the by, has been at the same time
receiving his honours from the gentlemen of the
New York press, as an acknowledgment of the
fidelity and justice of his reports, especially in those
matters wherein he has differed with some of the
New York journals)—without trespassing on his
province, I may say that the Prince has left nothing
but the most favourable opinions and the best feel-
ings behind him. With the exception of Sunday, a
part of which was rainy, he had beautiful autumnal
weather, so that he was fortunately able to be out
of doors most of the time, and to give the thousands
of curious spectators an opportunity of seeing his
face. But for the breaking down of the Academy
floor before the dancing began, and a pardonable
freedom from court restraint on the part of some of
the venerable gentlemen who had the management
of the ball, there would have been nothing to mar
the pleasure of the festivities. Yesterday the Prince
went up the river to West Point. To-day he goes to
Albany, and to-morrow to Boston, where they pro-
pose to give him a ball, and to sing him a new
song by Longfellow.
The State elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Indiana last week resulted more favourably for the
Republicans than their leaders had hoped for. The
majorities are so great as to leave no doubt how
the vote of those States will be cast in November.
Unless the opponents of Lincoln can contrive to
secure the vote of the State of New York against
him, they have no chance of preventing his elec-
tion. They are sensible of this, and are now making
great efforts to secure a united opposition vote upon
an electoral ticket selected from the three parties
respectively supporting Mr. Bell, 31r. Douglas, and
Mr. Breckenridge. I have no belief myself that
they will succeed in making a union. The three
parties differ radically as to the powers of Con-
gress over the Territories. Mr. Breckenridge and
his friends claim that Congress has no power to
legislate slavery out of the Territories, but that,
on the contrary;slavery exists there under the Con-
stitution, and Congress is bound to legislate to
protect it. Mr. Douglas and his friends claim that
Congress has no power to legislate for or against
slavery in the Territories, but that the first settlers
have the sole power of determining that question.
Mr. Bell and his friends, so far as their views are
known, claim that Congress has the power to
i le-
gislate slavery out of the Territories, but that tis
not expedient to exercise that power. You will see
that these differences are radical. Unless success
is sure, it is not probable, under such circumstances,
that the mass of the voters of either party can be
brought to sacrifice their principles by supporting
the other. Still, the coalition do not despair.
Money and exertion, they say, may yet save New
York from the Republicans. The Herald of this
morning, for instance, says :
" Within the interval of grace of three weeks to the
election, the State of New York may be saved, and Lincoln
may be thus defeated ; but not a day should be lost in the
call for this suggested metropolitan union meeting, as from
a committee of public safety."
The same journal, however, foreseeing the pro-
bable failure of the effort, is already preparing
the way for a peaceable submission to the election
of Mr. Lincoln. In another column of the same
issue it is stated that the South—.
"Feel assured that the Republican party will have little
to plume itself upon. First, the popular majority in the
nation will be largely against Lincoln ; secondly, the United
States Senate will be decisively against him ; thirdly, the
next House of Representatives will surely contain an anti-
Republican majority; fourthly, in no Southern State will
Lincoln find men of any repute to accept office under him
as collectors, or postmasters, or marshals, or in any of the
lowest subordinate capacity. These facts are sufficient to
show that the Lincoln Administration would be paralysed
at the outset for any evil purposes against the South, and
would be dependent ma the indulgence of that section for
carrying on the Government. The fight againk Lincoln
therefore, will be carried on 'nest effectively within the
Union."

Thus fade away the threats of disunion as the
chances of the election of a Republican President
increase.
The Court of Appeals of this State has just an-
nounced a decision which is a striking illustration
of the evils of hasty legislation. 'The revised
statutes of New York contained, among other things,
:rimes and Punistiw,iics ; •
wherein it was provided that certain offences should
be punishable with death, and that " the punish-
ment of death shall in all cases be inflicted by
hanging the convict by the neck until he be dead."
Last winter the philanthropists made an effort to
have capital punishment abolished. They had a
long hearing before the Assembly Committee, which
resulted in a compromise, providing that only
treason and murder in the first degree should be
hereafter punished with death, and that the sentence
should not be carried into execution within a year
after conviction, during which time the convict
should be kept at hard labour. The repealing clause
of the new act was intended to embrace. all the
clauses of the old act inconsistent with it ; but, by
some error, it included the words that I have
quoted above. I understand that the Court decide
that the new law, having abolished the only statute
defining hanging as the mode of punishment, and
itself prescribing no new mode, there is now no
known sentence which can be pronounced against
a person convicted of murder in the first degree.
Thus, by the possible mistake of a clerk, or the
trick of an agent, the Legislature of the State of
New York have been forced into the temporary
abolition of capital punishment.
From Costa Rica the North Star brings us news
of another of the chronic disturbances of the petty
Spanish-American Republics. President. Mora,
who had been seduced into a revolutionary move-
ment against Costa Rica by false intelligence, was
shut up in a log and mud fort at Puntas Arenas, at
the head of 300 men. Here he was attacked by the
troops of the Republic, 1,300 strong, and after a
useless resistance was captured and shot, together
with his generals. By the same steamer we have
news from Peru of the disallowance of the American
claims against that country, from Bolivia of re-
newed revolutions, and from Ecuador of the suc-
cess of Gen. Flores. The whole Spanish-American
country, from Brazil to the frontier of the United
States, including Mexico, seems to be rapidly re-
turning to a worse state of barbarism than existed
in the days of Columbus, Cortez, and Pizarro.
Exchange on London within the past day or two
has fallen to 108; to 1081, with a flat market.
There continues to be a demand for sound invest-
ments; speculative investments are not quite as
firm. The earnings of the leading railway lines
continue large. The earnings of the Erie Railroad
for September were 600,124 dols., being an increase
of 137,326 dols. on the earnings for the same month
last year. The receiver of the Ohio and Mississippi
Railroad has filed his fifth monthly report, show-
ing gross receipts amounting to 92,238 dols., and
current operating expenses 57,591 dols. The market
closes with the following quotations :—Tennessee
Sixes, 901 ; Virginia Sixes, 902 ; Michigan Sixes,
100 ; North Carolina Sixes, 98 ; Missouri Sixes,
791 ; Illinois Central Bonds, 971 ; Erie, Ist Mort-
gage, 104 ; Erie Thirds, 931-; Erie Fourths, 871 ;
Erie Convertibles of 1871, 70; New York Central,
901 ; Erie, 401; Erie Assented, 40; Michigan
Central, 681.