The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 8, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS,

results, simply a very little blood-letting on tile parr
of the Frenchman, who appears to have been slightly
wounded by a sabre cut in the arm. It would have
been hardly worth while directiag public attention
to the affair but for the warning it gives to English-
men not to indulge in the strong language and still
stronger physical arguments with which they are
wont to treat impertinence in their own country."

IIEARTIISTONE MANURE.

The high rate of mortality at St. Kilda has drawn
forth some remarks, and has puzzled the doctors
exceedingly. Here, they said, was good air provided
for the people by nature, and yet they seemed in no
wise to be better for it—to be worse, indeed, than
the inhabitants of many large towns. Dr. Morgan,
the author of " Town Life Among the Poorest," has
discovered the reason for the high death-rate in the
hovels of St. Kilda. There is no smoke-hole in the cabins
which afford shelter to the people of the island.
Manure is so scarce in the island that the smoke
cannot be allowed to escape, it is too precious. For
twelve long months the soot is deposited in pitchy
layers upon the inner surface of the roof. With
the return of spring so much of the thatch as
is possessed of fertilising properties is carefully
removed, the roofing being restored to its original
thickness by the addition of fresh straw on the out-
side. The process is yearly repeated. To this indoor
manufacture of manure the frightful sacrifice of
infant life in this secluded island is, 1)r. Morgan
believes, mainly to be ascribed. There is something
grimly humorous in thus hoarding up puffs of smoke
to the destruction of human life.

establishing houses for able-bodied young women.
The case was argued by Mr. L. S. Chatfield, and
is exciting great interest, as it involves a vast sum,
and questions such as the apostacy of faith and the
failure of Protestantism. The subject was dis-
cussed on Thursday, the Court being thronged. In
answer to the allegations, Mr. Ilarrison alleged
that the Protestant faith was not mentioned in the
original endowment nor in the Prayer-book, which
brought to the ground one charge, the others he
attempted to show were equally untruthful, but
the plaintiff reiterated all in reply, and Judge
M'Cunn took the papers, and reserved his decision.
The Swedeuborgians have been in session, and had
a long debate on the words " diocese" and " pa-
rish," which Mr. Hitchcock desired to change into
" society," alleging that they belonged to the
Episcopal Church, through which the monarch-
cal system of England was applied to religious
matters in America. A difficulty has arisen
between Bishop Whitehouse and the Rev. Mr.
Cheney in Chicago. Mr. Cheney adheres to his
convictions as conscientious, and the Bishop gave
- him seven days to consider, which expired on the7th,
without the rev. gentleman changing his opinion.
The dispute sprang from the secession from the
Church of a Mr. Wood, who paid the Bishop a
parting visit, when the subject of baptism was dis-
cussed, and Mr. Cheney's views were cited, and the
ways in which he conducted the service. The Bishop
sent for him, and a controversy almost as serious as
that of Mr. Tyng is likely to be the result. A
movement is on foot to alter theforms of expression in
the Episcopal Prayer-book, other cases having arisen.
A curious scene occurred in the Court of Oyer and
Terminer at White Plains on IN eanesaay evening,
which very much astonished Judge Barnard. A
well-known lawyer, when in a state of intoxica-
tion, entered the Court, and insisted on the post-
ponement of the trial of his client, and that a spe-
cial term should be held for the trial. On the
judge delivering his decision in a peremptory way,
the inebriated counsel burst into a torrent of oaths,
and was in that state removed. The Quaker City,
or the steamship Columbia of London, was released
on Wednesday, and lost no time in getting off.
Several drinking fountains are to be erected in dif-
ferent parts of the city, under the superintendence
of the Board of Health. The deaths recorded last
week were 425, 161 marriages; and 220 births in
this city. Small-pox has been pretty well "stamped
out," and there now remain only a few cases of the
simplest type. In some districts of the city almost
every person has been vaccinated, and the children
in attendance at the various schools, public and pri-
vate, have been cared for in this respect by their
parents or teachers. The scare of the week has
been in the Cuban Junta, on the action of the
United States Government, through the Grand
Jury of the United States Circuit, which found true
bills of indictment against Jose Morales Lemus,
President of the junta, and Jose M. Boson, John
11. Lamar, Jose Mora, Colonel William C. O'Ryan,
Francisco Fesser, and Mariano Alvarez (members
of the same organization) ; warrants were issued
by Judge Blatchford for their arrest, which were
immediately served. President Lemus answered,
and was bailed for $lO,OOO ; O'Ryan and Mora
were taken, and with the rest gave bonds to appear
for trial, and immediately a big sensation arose
, among the friends of freedom, and several left
Washington in a fright. An evening paper intro-
duced the affair with the headings, " War on Cuba.
Crowning Infamy. The United States Fighting
Freedom ;" and the allies of Cuba spread the re-
port that Spanish spies guided the United States
officers to the capture. An officer of the Quaker
City was arrested on the charge of assaulting an
official in the discharge of his duty to watch the
fillibustering tendencies of the vessel. The Cubans
deny the truth of the report that cholera was epi-
demic in their island, their advices being that this
was the healthiest season ever known, and alleging
as the object to deter fillibusters. Anxiety is felt
about General Jordan's command, which having
Closed on a large Spanish force, an engagement was
imminent. All the expeditions sent from the
United States had succeeded in reaching Quesada's
army, consisting of well-armed and effective men,
and they have been felt most disagreeably by the
Spanish troops. Great confidence prevailed of
ultimate success in consequence of the aid thus
forwarded, and the recent action of Government is
all the more diseonraging, as it may interfere with
these well-eitablitled hopes. Last Wednesday
throe ladies were drowned by being thrown from a
carriage into a mill-pond, near Rochester. The
Union and Central Pacific Railroads have adjusted
their difference, and sell through tickets from cur
city, for $l7B 35 cents. in greenbacks, to San Fran-
cisco, first class, in eight days. The Erie direction
get the lease of their office for five years, as they
have managed to lobby their bill through our re-
putable Legislature. One great daily, alluding to
the proceedings at Albany, observes that, if the
rule holds, " the greater the truth the greater the
libel," what swinging damages our Legislature ought
to recover from the New York press. Mr Henry
E. Clark and Mr F. Frederick Gunther got a shake
and a frignt on Thursday, when driving from their
hotel to the ferry landing at West Point. Two
bard mouthed horses ran away, and with furious
speed rushed to the pier, upsetting the carriage and
plunging headlong into the water, where they were
drowned, nearly drowning the driver as well, and
injuring both the gentlemen.

WASHINGTON, June 18.

One of our citizens, William T. Smithson, has
brought an action against Edwin M. Stanton, late
Secretary of War, for $lO,OOO on account of tres-
pass and false imprisonment during the war, when
Smithson was incarcerated in Fort Lafayette for four
months without investigation, and he was re-arrested
shortly after being discharged, tried as a spy by
Court-Martial, and sentenced to five years' impri-
sonment, one of which he served in the Albany
Penitentiary, ere released by President Lincoln.
his property was attached, the furniture sold, and
his family driven from their house. The facts are
not disputed, but the question hinges on the
grounds. Smithson alleges that he was not a spy,
that the case was trumped up against him, the let-
ters on which he was convicted being forged, and
he moves that the originals be produced for the
Court's inspection. On the other side, it is as-
serted that Smithson was a spy, giving infor-
mation to the enemy under the assumed name
of Charles R. Cables, acting as their financial
agent, being so engaged when arrested, and that be
had advised the enemy to assault this city. Under
the advice of the Judge Advocate-General and the
Solicitor of the War Department the Secretary
acted as martial law allowed, and the sentence of
the Court was confirmed. It was due to the kind-
ness of the President and the leniency of the Admi-
nistration that Smithson was released after a year's
imprisonment, but not. pardoned, as the Govern-
ment desired to maintain its hold over him in case
of future misconduct. On the point of appropria-
ting his effects and ejecting his family, the defend-
ant relies for impunity on the Act of Congress of
July 17, 1862, to punish rebels, and further by the
Act of March 3, 1863, whereby the order of the
President or officers under his authority, during
the rebellion, shall be a defence for such acts, but
the plaintiff is determined to test the case to the
utmost, and to carry it in the event of an adverse de-
cision up to the Supreme Court. The Navy Depart-
ment seems determined to stop politics interfering
with business, and to exclude persons likely to create
dissensions, but orders have been issued not to dis-
charge workmen merely for holding political opinions.
The commandants of the Navy yards are forbidden
to allow persons to examitie models, plans, and in-
ventions, without special permission. Forty-one
vessels had their names changed last Tuesday ; some
of them rightly enough, but others, many think, ill-
, advisedly. To get rid of the ridiculous unpronouco-
able names Father Welles must have deeply studied
Indian history to disinter, was right enough ; but
not our well-known EA-stern Indian names, which
are as familiar to us as any others, such as Man-
hattan, Nantucket, Catskill, I suppose the Depart-
ment wished to be clear of every vestige of the old
Secretary, who would have been far better employed
for the sake of England as well as of our country
in rooting out such pests of the sea as the Alabama,
whose career many of our naval officers think he