The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-16 00:00:00

TIIE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 16, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

The hope that a collision will be avoided grows from
hour to hour. It is true that most of the Bishops have
at the last moment yielded to pressure, and will, to the
number of fourteen or sixteen, support Lord Har-
rowby's amendment, if it is carried to a division.
It is true that the Bishop of Chester, for instance,
yielding to the strong representations of the Orange
party, who are so numerous in his diocese, will not
vote for the bill, as he had intended. But it is
now admitted that Lord Derby does not wish
to throw out the bill by only a small majority,
inasmuch as that would expose the weakness of his party
in their own House, while it would not suffice to de-
feat the bill eventually. It is also well known
that the representations of many conspicuous members
of his own party have not been without weight,
and that he is beginning to doubt the wisdom of pushing
matters to extremities. Last night he had a two hours'
conference with the Marquis of Bath and other peers. It
is now generally thought that Lord Harrowby will with-
draw his amendment, or, in case he should not be pre-
vailed upon to do so, that the Conservatives
will, as a body, abstain from voting. It is ex-
pected that important amendments will he made if
the bill gets into committee, and Lord Granville's promise
that these should receive the most careful attention of the
Government leads to the hope that no serious collision will
take place between the two Houses.'

TI; E Cit ISIS.
The Daily Telegraph believes that Lord Derby
will speak on Thursday, and since the State ball at
Buckingham Palace takes place on the evening of
that day, the division will probably not be taken
until between twelve and one on Saturday morning.

Our contemporary adds :—" The general impression
now is that the bill will go into committee ; and since
in the present clay every such assertion is ordinarily
submitted to the test of figures, it may be worthy of
record that bets of 50 to 40 have been laid on a result
favourable to the Government." On the same subject
the Morning Advertiser says:—" We have received
intelligence from a well-informed quarter, just as
we are going to press, to-the effect that there is no
longer a doubt that the bill will be thrown out by the
Lords." Tho - Morning Post will not venture to
prophecy, but remarks that the hearty reception
which Lord Carnarvon's speech had from the Con-
servative benches may well make the leaders of the
Opposition feel doubtful as to the result. The
Morning Star lays great stress upon the speech of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and thinks that the
look of things was, at all events for the first night,
unmistakably favourable to the bill. The 7inzes does
not repeat or revoke its prophecy of Monday ; the
twin Conservative journals, Standard and Herald,
are so little confident of the result that they refrain
from anticipating it.
Though what the Lords will do is very uncertain
as yet; what the Government will do in case the bill
is rejected, becomes clay by day more plain. There
can be little doubt but that an autumnal session will
be held. The Daily News declares that this is what
will be done, and justifies that course as being accord-
ing to precedent. Earl Grey did the same thing in
1831. Then, as now, the Government had a
majority of more than 100 in the House of Commons,
fresh from a general election. On July oin that
year the Reform Bill was read a second
time by a majority of 116, and on September
21 it was read a third time by a majority
of 113. On October 8 the Lords rejected it by 109
to 158, whereupon the Commons carried a vote of
confidence in Ministers by a majority of 131.. On
the 20th Parliament was prorogued, and on the 12th
December the Reform Bill was once more intro-
duced. On the 22nd of March following it was again
read a second time in the Commons, by a majority
of 116 ; and on April 14 the Lords read it a second
time by 184 to 175. On May 7, in committee, the
Government was defeated on a motion of Lord
Lyndhurst by a majority of 35. Earl Grey re-
signed, but within ten days was again in office,
armed with the King's authority to create a suffi-
cient number of peers to ensure the passage of the
bill.
A correspondent of the Daily News finds prece-
dents later back for the proposed course. On the
accession of William and Mary, the Bill of Rights,
which fixed the succession, passed the Commons and
was rejected by the Lords,because no successor to the
Crown was provided in case Mary, Anne, and William
should all die childless, which they actually did.
Amendments were proposed, but the Houses could
not agree upon them, and finally in 1689 the King
prorogued Parliament from the 21st to the 23rd of
October, when the bill was passed through both
Houses. The next precedent of the kind is in 1707,
when Queen Anne prorogued Parliamentfrom Friday,
April 8 till the following Monday, on account of a bill
relating to frauds on the Customs. Another pre-
cedent is furnished by the prorogation of Parliament
from October 20th to November 22nd at the time of
the great Reform struggle of 1831-32. It is there-
fore evident that this means of surmounting a poli-
tical deadlock has been previously resorted to when
the us:ial interregnum between two sessions threatens
to be embarrassing.
Mr. Gladstone, like Mr. Bright, has been writing
about the Irish Church Bill, and, like Mr. Bright's,
his epistle has been called forth by a public meeting.
A meeting at Bradford passed resolutions of confi-
dence in the Premier, which resolutions were for-
warded to him. In reply he writes :
"So far as that resolution refers to myself personally,
I accept the communication with respectful gratitude. So
far as it expresses the sense of the great community of
Bradford with reference to the Irish Church Bill, I regard
it as giving utterance in words to that deep and intelligent
conviction to which the nation gave by its acts, at the
time of the general election, the most authoritative con-
stitutional expression, and which, I believe, it still
cherishes with unabated confidence and resolution.`

ae uenieu 111 RD ne Was enner a iory or a I..ni-
servative, or (pointing to a petticoat, which was
held up before him on a pole) that he
was brought forward under Lady Clifton's
influence. He concluded by demanding " the good
old cry of ' Seymour, Clifton, and the indeneulextle of
Nottingham !' "

violent assault. He appears to have shot with a
double-barrelled pistol his wife and little girl when
asleep. This awoke the boys, who fled for their
lives; but Kobel must have again loaded the weapon
and shot himself in the breast, when he left his
room in his shirt, and was arrested, dangerously
wounded, inNorfolk-street, bleeding profusely from
two gunshots. The man was evidently insane, and
there is reason to hope that although desperately
wounded his wife and child may recover. A feud
has existed between some youngsters in Sheriff-
street and Pitt-street—the former led by John and
William Purcell, the latter under Peter Delany.
On Saturday they had an altercation, and on Mon-
day they again met and vowed vengeance when they
next came in contact. John Purcell borrowed a
single-barrelled pistol from the bar-tender of a
saloon to defend himself against Delany's threats,
and meeting on Tuesday night William Kiernan be
had an opportunity of using his weaaon, for he was
assaulted by that roan, when he pulled it from his
pocket and shot his assailant through the head, then
ran, but was captured. The prisoners are of a low
grade, two indictments for burglary being pending
against Tracy, who was one of the body. guard of a
city official, once an alderman. and a useful man in
primary elections. Early on Tuesday morning a
party of Spanish sailors were jeered at while mov-
ing along Oak-street singing national songs. They
retorted, and a fight ensued, in which the Spaniards
freely used their sheathed knives, when Wm. Bradley
and Peter Brynes were dangerously wounded. The
steamer Norwalk, off Pierrepont's Stores, Brooklyn,
was run into by a stone-laden scow when on her
way to Prospect Park Races ; down she went,
flop ! but fortunately there were no passengers on
board, and the crew could swim. Messrs. Smith,
Lewis, and Wilson lose $40,000, unless they can
recover from the owners of the scow, as the steamer
was not insured. The Cunarder Russia, in charge
of a pilot, sank the Austrian ship Figlia Maggiore;
the one was just from Liverpool, the other from
Marseilles, when they collided off Bedloe's Island,
and down went the Austrian vessel, submerged to
her lower yards, whereby somebody loses $lBO,OOO.
The Russia, in avoiding a small boat containing a
man and woman, was caught by the ebb, and sank the
ship. The steam-tug William Parkes was getting up
steam at Pier No. 15, foot of Wall-street, when
the boiler burst, and Captain Ramsay found him-
self flying through the air, under an undue pres-
sure of steam, in a wrong direction. I fear he
is seriously hurt, as are Charles Powell and
the steward, and the vessel, which belonged to
Philadelphia, has bad all her upper works blown to
pieces. I regret to record several suicides, which are
becoming an ugly feature in our society. They
say that a dull November in London is so depress-
ing that people drown themselves like kittens in the
Thames ; but I incline, after some travel, to the
opinion that a bright, dry, exhilarating climate leads
to more suicides than your dull weather. It is not the
down-hearted manthatlays violent hands on himself
but the excited man, whose fit borders on insanity
while it lasts. We have an exhilarating climate,
combined with all manner of artificial excitement,
and if our gambling mode of. business leads to fraud
it leads also too often to suicide. But these remarks
are general, and in ne degree have reference to re-
cent cases. Mr. B. H. Van Auken was found in
the office of the Durango Silver Mining Company,
of which he was President, lying on the floor in a
pool of blood, with his throat cut, but not deal. The
razor had slipped from his hand and it lay by his side.
He is believed to be wealthy, and no motive can be
assigned for the act which has caused so profound a
sensation in financial circles and among his friends.
It is feared that the wound will prove fatal. Charles
Starr, 27 years of age, superintendent of the Tarry-
town Gasworks, committed suicide the same day.
Last Saturday, at Brooklyn, Thomas Leonard, a
lad but 17 years old, hanged himself. The accidents
from explosions reported from all parts of the
country show that we as recklessly blow each other
up. The bursting of a locomotive on the New York
Central at Rochester wrecked several cars, of course
making a wreck of the engineer and his assistants.
A number of men at Cincinnati were wounded, one
mortally, by the bursting of the Cincinnati gaso-
meter. At Mount Holly, New Jersey, a locomo-
tive exploded, killing Platt and Gaskell, and wound-
ing two other men. It is satisfactory to record the
iarie Railroad had to pay Mrs. Carhart $3,250 for
killing her husband, besides establishing this right of
a woman, if the railway companies are thus fined for
the damage resulting from their carelessness, parsi-
mony will be found expensive,and we will bave fewer
accidents. Gen. Robt. knderson, known in connection
with Fort Sumter, sailed in the Ilanzmouia on Tues-
day for Plymouth, as did our Consul for Ham-
burgh, E. Robin and Dr. Scbuetz, Consul at
Antwerp. The number leaving daily increases, all
the steamers being full. Senator Chandler has
sailed with his wife and daughter, in the hope that
a European tour will benefit his health. Senator
Oshorn, of Florida, has left, but so nu.nerous are
the departures of well known persons that I cannot
attempt to particularize. Same West Point gra-
duates met last Saturday in the College, with Pro-
fessor Webster in the chair, and General Webb, as
Secretary, to organize for social purposes, and a
committee was elected to frame a Constitution.
The Prospect Park races came off this week. This
is the Brooklyn meeting, and it was well attended.
Red Rover was the favourite in the trotting sweep-
stakes, mile heats, in harness. His time was 2.40 k.
Jeremiah Dacey shot John Mullady during a
quarrel in a Brooklyn cigar store in Hicks-street
ou Wednesday, and his victim died oa Thursday.
James S. Clarke, an actor of Tammany 'Theatre,
has been charged with and arrested fcr stealing a
Chickering piano. On Fifth-avenue a kerosene
lamp exploded, with it is feared fatal injury to Mrs.
Franica Blauw, and burnt her two children. Last
Wednesday a tornado occurred between 5 and G
p.m., enveloping the city iu dust, but this was
laid by the rain immediately following. It had been
hot and sultry, but it immediately became cool.
The Comptroller of New York accepted on Wed-
nesday proposals for $1,000,000 street opening and
improvement bonds. The New York Life Insur-
ance Company takes $568,500 at 101.16. Henry
Clews and Co., $200,000, at 101.50 ; the New York
Savings Bank $75,000, and the remainder by vari-
ous individualS, at rates ranging from 103.25 to 105.
A ridiculous story was in circulation that Mr. A.
'l'. Stewart wanted to avail himself of his place as
Commissioner on the site of the new Post-office, to
do a good stroke of business by selling his store for
the purpose, as if the most, profitable business in
the world was thus to be disposed of advanta-
geously. Mons. Chevalier makes to-day his first
ascent in his balloon from Landmann's Park
Messrs. Peter B. Sweeney, Hutchings, and Douglas
Taylor have gone, and Judge Michael Connolly
is going, to Europe. Harry Genet has retired from
political life, as Tammany Hall does not approve of
his way of making money. Mr. J. Townsend Con-
nolly, the son of the Comptroller, was married on
Thursday to Miss Adrienne N. Oxnard, of Pitts-
burg. At Trinity Chapel, on Wednesday, Miss
Clara Jaffray, the daughter of the millionaire,
was married to an Englishman named Ruse ;
a grand reception was afterwards given at the
home of the bride, on Second Avenue. Small-
pox is on the increase, I feir, and it is attributed to
the emigrant vessels. During the voyage of the Leo-
erulia, from Bremen, eight deaths are said to have
occurred, and one in a vessel from tlambargh.
Some steamers have been detained in the lower
bay in quarantine on account of small-pox, chiefly
among Swedes. The Herald is angry with the health
officers, and desires to have the head of the depart-
ment removed. The Charles 11. Marshall was
launched on Wednesday from Webb's yard, in the
presence of a large concourse of spectators. Mrs.
Tenney, widow of Professor Tenney, has succeeded
to the post held by her late husband as librarian of
this State. Captain W. Taylor, with the ship Zetua,
as well as the ship Margaret, both of Aberdeen,
with all hands, were lust at Caribou Island, off
Anticosti, with the exception of the mate, who has
just arrived at New York.

WASHINGTON, May 28,

Perry Fuller arrived last Saturday to answer the
charges of fraud brought against him by a sFo-
dal Treasury agent. He has warned the papers in
New Orleans which attacked his administration of
the Custom kleuee that on his return he will re-

quire them to substantiate their assertions or re-
tract them. General Dyer has by order returned
to his duty as Chief of Ordnance ; but though the

Court of Inquiry has acquitted him of the charges,
considering that there wa., no evidence to go before
a court-martial, yet his opponents, headed by Nor-
man Wiard, one of the chief witnesses against him,
intend to bring the matter before Congress when it
meets. The Judge-Advocate-General received a
letter from Mr. Wiard commenting in no measured
terms on the proceedings, asserting a bias on the
part of the officers against him and in favour of
General Dyer. Cornell Jewett hail an interview
with the President on Monday touching the rela-
tions between England and the Republic. During

he war he was in England, and had many inter-

views with leading statesmen there on the subject,

more especially with Mr. LayarJ, then Under Sec.
Teary for Foreign Affairs. Ile desired that jiis
rice might be done to England, as he cold;

positively assert that the wish of the Govern-
ment was to maintain neutrality, and avoid parti-

cipation in the strife. While discussing the subject
Mr. Jewett remarked on the popular belief that Mr.
Motley had proceeded to London without iustruc-

lions, whereon the President said that instructions
had been given of which the public knew nothing.
Mr. Thornton had au interview with Secretary Fish

regarding the Quaker City, which he represented to
be of English ownership, and unjustly and oppres-

sively detained in New York on the plea that she
was chartered by the Cubans. After some inves-

tigation action was stopped by learning that the
New Yo-rk Courts had issued a libel on the vessel.
Colonel Selleck, on behalf of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Gettysburgh Monument Association,
has secured from the Secretary of War tent accom-
modation for 4,000 persons, to be erected at Gettys-
burg on the 4th of July, so as to help in housing
the visitors on that anniversary. Thirty supernu-
merary officers of the 17th and 44th Regiments
have been sent to Virginia as officers of registra-
tion, whereby the Treasury saves the salaries which
would be paid otherwise to civilians. General and
Mrs. Grant, accompanied by a large party, will
leave next Thursday in the Tallapoosa, to reach
Annapolis in time for the Grand Ball which
will take place next Friday evening. Baron
Watterstedt, Minister from Sweden and Nor-
way, is to go home for the benefit of his health ;
he is now at Annapolis. The ball to come off there on
Friday is to be given by the officers and midshipmen
of the Naval Academy. Admiral Porter gave up
the superintendency of that institution on accept-
ing his present position, and this is a farewell enter-
tainment to Mrs. Porter. Generals Grant and
Sherman, Secretary Borie, and other distinguished
persons will attend. Mr. S. B. ,Ruggles has been
nominated by the President as delegate to the In-
ternational Statistical Congress at the Hague. The
Hon. B. F. Wade has not yet replied to the offer of
director of the Pacific Railroad. A Northern route
is to be explored, and the party is now being orga-
nized to pass from Lake Superior to Puget's Sound.
Mr. Canfield, as agent of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road Company, asked General Sherman for a mili-
tary escort to protect the party while mapping out
the course. The Indian Commission met on Wed-
nesday to consider how best to dispose of the
$2,000,000 allowed by Congress to forward the in-
terests of the Indians. Colonel Parker was present
yesterday, but not at the first meeting. Mr. A rney,
formerly Governor and Indian Agent in New Mexico,
thinks all Indian children, from 10 to 16, should be
placed in the industrial schools or the reservations.
The legal status of the Indians, the advisability of
making treaties with them, the ctange in the laws
relating to the purchase of provisions, and the pay-
ment of annuities are being discussed ; ,25,000 are
to he set aside for the expenses of the Commission.
There has been a great dinner over Mr. Corcoran's
gift, and 1 say over, for it was given at Georgetown
Heights, in the house of Henry D. Cooke, one of
the trustees. With the exception of General Raw-
lins, who is, I fear, really ill, so much so indeed
that he may have to retire, all the Secretaries were
present at the banquet ; as were also the President,
General Sherman, the Hon. Charles Stunner, Pro-
fessor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, Quar-
termaster-General Meigs, and Mr. J. W. Forney.
Colonel T. P. Ochiltree, once editor of the Houston
Telegraph, and afterwards a gallant though a rebel
officer, and lastly a repentant, reconstructed, and
loyal Southerner, is to get the Ttxas supervisorsbip
of Internal Revenue. Mr. Reverdy Johnson's
household was sold yesterday in his house on Ver-
mont-avenue, without reserve, and the house, as I
before informed you, has been bought by Mr.
Corcoran.

SIR,—If an American were to look through the
address books at the various Continental banking-
houses, he might be led to think that the greater
part of the military forces of his country were
engaged in travelling over Europe. He might also
imagine that the New York SESOSTRIS had commenced
already the reformation of America, by sending a
large delegation of females in the service of Mars.
At least, he would find the initials U.S.A. after the
name, and upon the baggage, of nearly all his
country people ; and he might not be aware of the
ridiculous mistake that is so frequently made with
regard to their meaning. U.S.A. means nothing
else than United States Army, and is generally used
throughout the military branch of our Government
as the abbreviation for the same. One finds it
stamped upon army goods and equipments; it is
also printed in official documents. Those who
are members of the army usually place it after
their names ; and they only can lawfully use
these letters.. When, therefore, Americans go
trailing over Europe with the army mark upon their
baggage, they both show their ignorance regarding
a subject on which they ought to be informed, and
also make themselves invariably an object of ridi-
cule to those who have the right to use U.S. A.
If the New Yorker or South Carolinian imagines
that the stranger will be at a loss in what country to
locate his little city or State, he might enlighten
him by writing U.S. of A., but not U.S.A. It is

he little word " of "which distinguishes between

the country and the army. But even this would be
laughed at by foreigners as a provincialism. A
Parisian would think the idea of writing the name
of France after that of his city ridiculous. An
Englishman never writes London, England; a Ger-
man, Heidelberg, Baden; an Italian, Naples, Italy;
or an Egyptian, Cairo, Egypt. Surely our large
cities and States are well enough known to render
the addition of United States of America unneces-
sary. It is purely an Americanism, and the sooner
we are rid of it the sooner will there be one subject

less regarding which foreigners can smile. For

my own part, I have always found that giving the
name of my State was sufficient to mark me as an
American, and I have no desire to become ac-
quainted with an IGNORA3ILTS who locates Miune-
suta in any country but the right one.

A correspondent raises Mr. Forster's query, " Why
did not the English Government at the outset of
the whole affair issue a proclamation denouncing
all who should engage in fitting out vessels, man-
ning and sailing them on the high seas, who if detected
or caught should be tried and punished as pirates ?"
He adds that Lord Palmerston had established such
a precedent in 1846 or 1847 when the boundary
question ran high:between England and America, and
George Bancroft was United States Minister. A
foolish gunmaker on Tower-hill then stuck a notice
in his window, something to this effect—" Antici-
pated war with America ; a vessel sailing under
Mexican colours will ship effective seamen ; good
pay and chances." An American happening to see
it, brought the circumstance to the notice of his
Minister ; and our correspondent believes that about
the month of July or August of that year a proclama-
tion appeared in the Times and other papers warn-
ing all taking an interest in such matters to beware,
for if caught they would be punished as pirates.
There would be little difficulty, he believes, in look-
ing up this proclamation, and in verifying the facts.
Our correspondent does not perceive that the Ala-
hanza and other cruisers were commissioned ships
as alleged, the property of a belligerent Govern-
ment. The Richmond Government, being recog-
nized as belligerent, once their vessels fully com-
missioned got fairly to sea, they could not be treated
as pirates like his instance wherein the vessel
would begin to capture and destroy on her own