The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-19 00:00:00

THE PANAMA CANAL PROJECT.

The scheme matured in the United States for the con-
struction of a ship canal through the Lithraus of Panama
proved a failure, in consequence of the refusal of the
Columbian Serrate to grant the concession. It appears
that an attempt has been made to induce the. Senate to
reconsider this negative vote, but it has declined to do so.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
As a serious riot • threatened in Kansas on the
Cherokee neutral lands, we learn by the New York
papers of the Bth inst. just arrived that the Pre-
sident had ordered troops to enforce the law'. The
settlers had taken the law into their own hands,
and had driven away all who had not warmly,
espoused their side, giving these the choice of re.
maining and being hanged. It is hard on this State
to have a settlers' rising at one end, for they had
imported powder and looked as if they meant to
fight, and an Indian war at the other.
- - Mr. Justice M'Carthy of the London Star de-
livered a lecture at the Cooper Union, New York,
on the 7th instant, on the Alabama question. Mr.
M4Carthy commenced by saying that he was not an
American, although he had warmly sympathized
with the North, ncr was he an Englishman, and
therefore, though loyal to the Queen, free from pre-
judice. The Tribune, while doing ample justice to
his remarks, says, " ha is by no means free from
prejudices" ; but it is just possible that the Tribune
its< if may not be unbiassed.
Attorney-General Hoar has given a long decision
in answer to a letter from Peter Cooper, the
President of the New York, Newfoundland, and
London Telegraph Company, to the effect that a
State cannot grant to a foreign comp any the pri-
vilege of landing a telegragh cable on the shores of
the United States. This decision is stated to be in
strict accordance with the position all along taken by
Congress, whose power to act in the matter the
Attorney-General considers to lie in the clause of
the Constitution, giving to that body the regula-
tion of commerce. What effect this will have ou
the French company we cannot tell, but it is clear
that they will not be able to " lobby" through
at Albany their right to land, and the cable is now
being laid.
The question rased by the application of Doug-
lass for admission into the Printers' Union of IVash-
ington will perhaps cause trouble before it is settled,
not in his case, but in that of other coloured men.
Two of them, Johnson and Parker, obtained work
as bricklayers in the Washington Navy Yard, under
a recent order of Secretary Borie. Johnson was a
slave, until given his freedom on his 21st birthday,
and he served under the national flag for four years
and three months during the Rebellion, while Parker
was then employed in the Navy. The rules of
the Bricklayers' Union impose a fine of $5 on a
member found working with a bricklayer who does
not hold a card from one of the societies. On the
night of the 13th the Union held a meeting with
closed doors, when the question of a strike, unless
these men were removed, was earnestly debattd.
Although the cautious represented the folly of con-
tending against the Government the majority was
against them, the resolution being adopted that the
white bricklayers at the Navy Yard should be waited
on, and urged not to work with the coloured men.
Johnson begged the president of the society to-let
him have a card, but ,was refused.
Minister Curtin has appoirted as his personal
secretary and diplomatic Attache to the Legation
Mr. Robert H. Gratz of Pennsylvania. He will
sail from New York, accompanied by Mr. Coffee,
Secretary of Legation, and Mr. Gratz, on the 17th
of June. Mr. Curtin received his instructions May
'3l, and both the President and the Secretary of
State desired him to impress upon the Czar that
his friendship towards 'the Washington Govern-
ment is fully appreciated and reciprocated. A
grand banquet had been given to the Minis-
ter bAore leaving Philadelphia. The following
United States Minister and Consuls have been
appointed :—Jatnes Russell Jones, Minister Resi-
dent at Belgium ; J. Mason Rice, at Brindisi ; 0.
H. Irish, at Dresden; B. 0. Duncan, at Naples ; J.
G. Moffet, at Pernatnbuco ; Thomas Adamson,
jun., ac Honolulu ; and J. C. Cover, at Fayal. Mr.
Pile has been nominated Governor of New Mexico

instead of Miniiter to Brazil, to the astonishment

and disappointment of Geinral Crow, who had been
confirmed, but was disqualified, as he, having served
in the Confederate army, could not take the " iron-
clad oath." General Crow hoped that Mr. Mit-
chell would be permitted to hold the office till Con-
gress removed his disabilities on its meeting in
December, but the incutnbent:wa3 obnoxious to the

Administration, so the President would not wait.

With his usual wisdom and good taste Chief
Justice Chase wrote as follows in response to an
invitation to be present at the decoration of the

_ .
graves of the Union dead at Charleston :
" The nation cannot too tenderly cherish the memory
of her dead heroes, or too watchfully guard the well-being
of those who survive. And 'may we not indulge the hope
that ere long we who adhered to the National cause will
be prompt also to join in commemorating the heroism of

our countrymen who fell on the other side, and that those
who now specially mourn their loss, consenting to the
arbitrament of arms, and resuming all their old love for
their country and our country, one and indivisible, will
join with us in like commemoration of the fallen bravo of
the army of the Union."

General Logan dated an order from Washington,

June 2, as Commander- in-Chief of the Grand Army

of the Republic, officially to eii)lain why the graves of
the Confederates had not been decorated as well as

those of the Union soldiers. It was announced at

Washington that they would be, and many staunch

Southerners from Georgetown heights took part in
the ceremony on this understanding. But the
Bard received orders, and sentinels were placed to
force the restriction at Arlington not to decorate
4;fif.., graves of the Southern dead. General Logan,

in reply to the exaggerated rumours arising from

this much-censured proceeding, paid—

" We strew flowers on the graves of our comrades, and
prevent their being strewn in the national cemeteries at
the same time on the graves of such rebel dead as may be

buried therein, not becausC wo cherish any feelings of hate
or desire to triumph over individual foes, but because we

seek to mark in this distinction and manner the feelings
with which the nation regards freedom and slavery, loyalty
and treason, Republican principles and those of s:avehold-

iug oligarchy."

Mr. Newman, the chaplain of the United States

Senate, upheld this decision in these words—

"Such dezorations should be only when it had been
first decided by, the Christian Church to pay honours to
Judas Iscariot, and until we had ourselves agreed to com-
memorate Benedict Arnold."

The Treasury .receipts are a matter of surprise
both at Washington and New York, and are taken by
the people to be the first fruits of Grant's adminis-
tration. The policy of Secretary Boutwell; coupled
with the enormous strength he acquires from the
daily increa,itig revenue, is blaring down all opposi-
tion andinflucnciagthepriceof gold toan extent that
many refused to believe before that policy was tried.
The statement: of the debt on the Ist June is about
the most satisfactory ever published. The figures
furnished by jteuter through the telegram are in-
accurate. The coin belonging to the Government
in the Treasury had decreased considerably, while
the currency has' increased. even in a greater ratio,
as have also the coin certificates of deposit. This
is the shnple'reitilt of the Secretary's system, who
sold during May $5,000,000 of gold, for which he
received $7,000,000 in currency. Though he bought
$3,070,000 worth' of bonds at a premium of about
$700,000 in currency, the receipts for sale' f the gold