The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-10 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENLNG, APRIL 10, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

THE BUDGET.
The resolutions setting forth the provisions of the
Budget occupy three folio printed pages of the par,-
liamentary sessions papers. There are no fewer
than thirty-four different articles which, under the
abolition of the shilling duty on corn, will be set free
from taxation. These include every conceivable
variety of farinaceous food, from wheat to " bear or
bigg," from barley t 9 " manna croup." The exa-
miners for the India Civil Service competitive exami-
nation would puzzle their candidates not a little by
requesting them to translate all these terms into
French or German. The remission of the duty on
hair powder involves only three articles ; but it will
be new to some of our readers, we suspect, that
starch is applied to this purpose. One would have
thought that this material would have made a
flunkey's hair stand on end. " Mum "is the
next word we have to deal with; it is one of the
recognised terms of the brewers' vocabulary, and
henceforth both mum and spruce will be subject to a
duty of a guinea the barrel of 36 gallons. Other
sorts of beer will be taxed according to the specific
gravity of the wort before fermentation; viz.,
from Bs. for a specific gravity not exceeding
1,065 degrees to 16s. for a specific gravity
exceeding 1,090 degrees. The new excise duties
on male servants, carriages, horses, armorial
bearings, and horse-dealers occupy a page, and
vary from 10s. 6d. for a horse, to £l2 10s.
for a horse-dealer. The most simple of
the resolutions are the sth, which totally repeals •
the excise locomotion duties; the 7th, which
repeals the percentage duty on fire insurance ; and
the Bth, which repeals the excise duty on tea
licenses. This, the last resolution, includes coffee,
cocoa-nuts, chocolate, and pepper, as well as tea.
The repeal of the taxes on locomotion will pro-
bably have one effect which Mr. Lowe did not con-
template. It will lead to the revival of stage coaches
by way of rivals to the railway trains. The coach
from London to Brighton has proved so successful
that it is intended to run one from London
to Dover over Shooters' Hill. A. coach will
also run to Sevenoaks. The truth is, Lon-
doners are so weary of being, whirled
to and from town perhaps every day of their lives,
that they want a change—a change which will give
them an opportunity of going over hills instead of
under them of seeing a glorious view instead of
being buried in thick darkness. A tunnel has long
ceased to be a novelty. We must go back to the
days of our fathers in order to enioy the delizhtful
spectacle of four gallant horses galloping down
hill. Twelve miles an hour will then be much more
of a sensation than sixty miles an hour is now.

bergs, earthquakes, and hurricanes will do business
with agents not empowered to buy, they run the
risk of having the bargain contemptuously set aside
by the Legislature, and there is then no use in blaming
the Republic, and calling that, bad faith, which is
really their own ignorance of the power of the men
with whom they deal. Senator Sumner's earnest
remonstrance may prevail, and the United States
complete the purchase, but indications lead us to

incline to a very different opinion.
Our readers who turn to the article on the Tenure-
of-Office Act in another column, and see the lecture

Senator Sprague fired at the galleries of the Cham-
ber, will sympathise with those accustomed to occupy
these seats, as they cannot know how to behave in
view of the action taken by the Senators themselves.

On March 26, when discussing thelndianAppropria-
tion Bill, the two distinguished Senators, Morton
and Fessenden, took headers into each other. Fes-
senden spoke with contempt of Morton's financial
theories, and Morton sneered bitterly at Fessenden
as a lecturer to the Senate. The galleries naturally re-
garded this as in earnest, but while eagerly looking for
a further development of the quarrel they found the
Senators chatting together in the most friendly way
and shaking hands. Unless the Senators tell the
spectators when to laugh and when to cry they can-
not know. We recommend the coursepursued by the
lady in " Great Expectations" who sends for Pip,
and says, " Now, play." If Senator Sprague would
exclaim when the time came, " Now, laugh," the
galleries would know what to do.
The Andrew Johnson, whom the Times correspon-
dent killed some days ago, is "up and at 'em." De-
spatches from Greenville, of March 26, state that
after suffering intensely from Bright's disease he has
recovered, and is in his usual health. He was an-
nounced to speak at Knoxville last Saturday, on
Tuesday at Nashville, and at Memphis and Louis-
ville on the 26th inst., and we have no doubt there
are some, when they hear what Andy says, who will
regret that the rumour which prevailed for an hour
did not prove to be true. The report circulated at
Washington was that the ex-President had died at
his home in Tennessee at eight o'clock on the morn-
ing of the 25th of apoplexy, and great excitement
prevailed till the evening, when the truth came out,
that he had a stroke of paralysis on the right side,
but that he had much improved. The family phy-
sician in Washington, Dr. Nims, had been tele-
graphed for to proceed at once to Greenville.

The Nation in one of its little leaders again
alludes to Mr. Montgomery Gibbs in connection with
the Secretaryship of the Paris Legation. These are
its words :—" Mr. Gibbs may be a very estimable
gentleman, but with a large and worthy and per-
spicacious portion of the public he is not in good
odour. One thing against him is that he was sent
abroad in 1863 to report on the mode in which
foreign imports into America were valued in
the invoices, and that a Congressional committee,
which investigated his doings after his return, re-
ported that be was not considered in New York
a desirable exponent, advocate, or representative
of an individual enterprise requiring responsibility,
integrity, and veracity ;' that he had while abroad
made for himself an unenviable reputation,' and
that he had while there resorted to shifts, disguised
names, constant misrepresentations, purposely to
mislead, deceive, and entangle,' from which the
Committee not unnaturally infer that it was well-
nigh impossible he could be a gentleman and man
of honour.' We may guess, therefore, the effects
upon the American name, and the efficiency of
American diplomacy, of the appearance of a Secre-
tary of Legation at Paris with this kind of reputa-
tion, and of whom a Committee of Congress has
spoken in this fashion." As we never saw the Re-
port, we are not qualified to give an opinion on the
subject, but we know that Mr. Gibbs has been
employed on special business by the Government
in New Orleans, that be was recalled from Europe
for the purpose, and that he brought that business
to a successful issue. It certainly is strange if the
late Administration could thus employ him, while with
the present Administration he stands so high that
he was supposed to be the favourite for a respon-
sible position, yet, should be, what this Committee
describes. In fact the contradiction is so great that
there must be some mistake.
Mr. Henry C. Carey has written a series of
letters in a New York daily, in answer to the Re-
port of Commissioner Wells. Exception has been
taken to a remark of Mr. Carey, that the Commis-
sion was influenced by British gold. Whenever
one man now differs with another in the United
States, he who is contradicted usually retorts with
the charge of corruption ; it is well known, that he
who has had the audacity to dissent is a member of
the Whisky Ring, stole spoons during the war,
served shoddy in his contracts or paper shoes, or wa3
bribed for his vote. The man who becomes a Free-
trader, more especially if he ever professed Protec-
tion principles, is declared to have his new opinions
well ballasted with British gold. The amount of
British gold which must have been spent in this
way ought to have sent down the premium in Wall-
street. We would like to know who gives it, for
we much wish to dip our hands in that abundant
stream. If there are men in England idiotic
enough thus to spend their money, it is a great
pity that their names and address should be un-
known to the hungry mob, always in pursuit of
fools. It has been suggested that Mr. Carey's best
plan would have been to prove the assertion, and
save himself the reams of paper he used to contro-
vert the Special Commissioner's statements. We
confess we would require some of this British gold
befor*e we undertook to read these letters. All we
know is, that oee of the arguments used by Mr.
Carey was, "You are a thief, and have been bribed
with British gold." What did Mr. Carey get for
writing thirteen letters, each enough to fill two
columns of close print in the Times?
Secretary Boutwell has asked Congress for autho-
rity to anticipate the payment of the interest on
Bonds, and it was passed by the Senate, and is now
under the consideration of the House Committee
on Ways and Means. The Chairman, Gen. Schenck,
thinks that the Secretary has already full authority
under existing laws, and therefore there is no ne-
cessity for such legislation. This he pointed out to
the Secretary, and the other members of the Com-
mittee agree with him. Of course, Secretary Bout-
well intends only to invite application from those
who desire such prepayment ; not to force on the
holders money they may not want, with a rebate of
6 per cent. discount. He has no more right to make
a man take money not due, fixing the terms upon
which this should be done, for one year than for ten ;
and to those who mostly invest in such securities to
derive a regularly paid income from a reliable source,
it would be peculiarly bard, to have to take their
income when Secretary Boutwell pleases, at a rate of
discount decided by Congress.
Representative Lynch, of Maine, has succeeded
in getting a Select Committee of Congress ap-
pointed to inquire into and report at the next session
the causes of the great reduction of American
shipping tonnage engaged in the foreign carry-
ing trade, and the general depression of the
navigation interests of the country, as well as to
suggest the most advisable measures for in-
creasing American ocean tonnage, and to regain
for the States the foremost position the Union
once held as a maritime power. Many motions
are now before Congress to forward the establish-
ment of steamship lines with Europe. There is a
New York and Antwerp Company, which asks for
a remission of duties on shipbuilding materials, and
the contract for the mails not exceeding the postage
of that they carry. One bill by Senator Wilson pro-
poses aline between New York andßostonandEurope,
for a 10 years' contract, with a subsidy not exceed-
ing pop() for each round trip. The North Ame-
rican Steamship Company of New York is patronized
by Governor Fenton, who has introduced a bill giving
that, together with the Commercial Navigation Corn
parry of the State of New York, and the American
Steamship Company of Boston, a con tractfor 15 years,
the compensation being the sea and inland postage on
all the mails carried. There is another bill of the
National Steamship Company of the State of Dela-
ware, introduced by Senator Conkling. They want,
with the remarkable modesty characteristic of Dela-
ware, the Government to supply all the money
meded, and to pay them exorbitantly and for a
very long term of years, for carrying the mail; but
they offer no guarantee. The bill appears to be a
curiosity of legislation) And nit* hays required no