The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-23 00:00:00

DEATU OF THE EA2L OF WICKLOW, K.?.

Sir William Howard, third Earl of Wicklow, Viscount
Wicklow, and Baron Clonmore in the peerage of Ireland,
also some time lord-lieutenant of county Wicklow, died
at his town residence, 2, Cavendish-square, on Monday
morning, the 22nd instant. The deceased Earl, who was
born in 1788, and succeeded his father in 1818, was
elected in 1823 a representative peer for Ireland. In 1829,
at the request of Lord Aberdeen, his brother-in-law and
intimate friend, he seconded the Address in the House of
Lords in support of Catholic emancipation. From that
time he took a leading part in all debates relating
to Ireland, and spoke frequently on the subjects of the
tithe rent-charge and of the Irish Church generally, whcse
interests he always warmly espoused, while at the same
time lie insisted that the State ought liberally to endow
the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth. His lordship
supported the bill for the removal of the Jews' civil
disabilities, and took some part in the debate on the
bill for repealing the corn laws. Since the Earl of
Aberdeen's death Lord Wicklow has gradually be-
come less regular in his attendance at the House of
Lords, but was usually in his place to promote the
interests of the Irish on omasions such as the recent
Fishery Bills. He was known in Ireland as a kind and
liberal landlord, and while in health made a point jof
residing on his estate in that county during some portion
of the year. His lordship was educated at St. John's
College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1808. In 1816
he married Lady Cecil Frances, daughter of John, first
Marquis of Abercorn, by whom he had issue seven
daughters, three of whom survive him. The peerage and
estates devolve on Charles Arnold, a lieutenant in the 9th
Lancers, and aide-de-camp to the Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, son of the late Hon. and Rev. Francis Howard, a
brother of the deceased.

(From the Anglo -American Times.)
If the Times' correspondent at Philadelphia
simply recanted all he had written last year, to
prove that the United States would pay the Five-
Twenty Bonds in greenbacks, he might be permitted
to slide out of his false position, however awkwardly,
but he accompanies the recantation by a false
statement of the circumstances. He says :
" During six months past there has been a great change
of sentiment in the United States on the subject of paying
the debt. Last autumn, repudiation was openly advo-
cated by many leading public men of both parties, and
the greenback payment theory seemed to have taken
complete possession of the Western States. The taxa-
tion of the bonds found a majority to support it
in the House at the close of the last session ; and
in order to hold their own in the West, against the
Democrats who claimed to be the special champions
of repudiation, the Republicans throughout the Mississippi
Valley either kept silence or had to advocate the green-
back theory. sow, however, all has changed. The sen-
timent of the country is unmistakeably in favour of an
honest payment of the debt. One of the leading advo-
cates of Repudiation last year, General LOG N, of Illinois,
has publicly recanted, and come over to the honest Bide.
The same House that in July voted by a majority in
favour of taxing the bonds declared almost unanimously
against it in February. The Congress that could not be
brought to declare in favour of honesty before, has, under
the pressure of public opinion, passed General SCHENCK'S
Bill by large majorities in both Houses. Senator SHER-
MAN, of Ohio, who last spring reported that the bonds
might under the law be payable in greenbacks, and that
this ought to held as a rod over the bondholders to compel
them to reduce the interest, is now the author of the
amendment of the Senate which makes the bill even a
stronger declaration of honesty than when it passed the
licuse. The country is evidently determined to honestly
pay all its debts and all the interest, and, to do this, is de-
termined to begin an era of economy, so that the world
may see there is a surplus revenue sufficient to redeem
some millions of debt every year. The new President is
one of the strongest advocates of honesty in the country,
and he intends to use all his energy, ability, and power to
repress abuses, promote economy, and stifle Repudiation,
so that the good opinion the world is forming of American
credit may bo maintained and strengthened."
If he did not, he ought tv have known that the
sentiment of the country is not changed, that the
intention always was, honestly, and in the most
liberal construction of the contract, to meet every
liability. There was much discussion, and a strong
effort made by unscrupulous politicians to gain
votes by raising the question. Unfortunately for
the bondholders, and for the credit of the United
States, the great Democratic party incorporated
Repudiation as a plank of their platform, and
it was this appeal to rascaldom that gave the
subject a vitality the Republicans feared so
much that they were compelled to shuffle and
manoeuvre. We have all along asserted that the
sentiment of the country never favoured it, but
the tactics of Politicians, the best proof being that
the subject came up with the elections the more
prominently as the party strife approached a climax.
There may have been men deluded into the belief
that more of their fellow-citizens were dishonest
fools than honourable men of sense, and perhaps
even the dweller in the " City of Brotherly Love"
might Lave enrolled himself among the number.
They miscalculated, however, as they are now com-
pelled to acknowledge, for the discussion of the
question brought out so completely the strength of
the bondholders' position, and that an attack on it by
thepeople would be but an attempt to destroy their o wn
strong fort, that common sense alone, independently
of honesty, was sufficient to deter them. The sen-
timent of the country, then, never did favour repu-
diation; and had the Democratic writers for the
London press not been actuated by ulterior motives
they would not so grossly have misrepresented it.
Those motives we have before alluded to, but it is
as well here more distinctly to point them out ; and
in this we are aided by the Philadelphia corre-
spondent, whose letter appeared last Wednesday
in the Times. Alluding to the rise in the Bonds
and the fall in gold in New York he says :
"These movements result from but one thing—the in-
creased confidence that is felt abroad in the credit and
honest intentions of the United States, for American
prices always follow and are ruled by the quotations of
Five-Twenty Bonds iu London."
Now, admitting this, what was their object during
the crisis of the late political struggle in America
in depreciating to the utmost the price of the Bonds in
London? The attempt wasmadebyllcutocratic writers
of a marked strive. and they were successful, for they
Commanded the Times, the otuitaititi, and other
great Lonlou newspapers. If the price in Wall-
street reflects the price in London by influencing
this market they influeeced all. The Democrats were
pledged to the doctrine of Repudiation, and what
told most in their favour was thedisgust created in the
American mind by the low value set in every Bourse
on the "promises to pay"of his country. That a nation
continental in extent ; the greatest exporter of the
chief staples grown; with railroads equalling in length
those of Europe ; with telegraphs exceeding those of
the world ; with a population considerably greater
than that of the United Kingdom and all her colonies;
with a debt not so large, but a growing ability to pay
infinitely larger, should have its Bonds on a par with
bankrupt, dishonest, or contemptible Governments,
was gall and wormwood. The world's belief in
American dishonesty was thus outspoken ; that is, the
creditor allowed the debtor who could at pleasure
escape the liability, to feel that he was held to be a
dishonest scamp. Predictions of repudiation tend to
their own fulfilment; and nothing is more an in-
centive to throw off a burden than that the person
for whom it is carried should count it as worthless.
When Six per Cent. Bonds were quoted in the Lon-
don market at between 60 and 70 they were ap-
praised at a greenback redemption rate, and it
strengthened the argument of the Democrats to
point to a fact proving that this was the opinion
everywhere held by the dealers. Each fall on this
side was an extra inducement to repudiate on the
other ; but, on the contrary, if there had been such
a rise as the Bonds have experienced in Europe
since the commencement of the year, repudiation
theories would have been annihilated, and with
them every Democratic argument and chance.
For this reason it was essential in the party advo-
cates to throw down the price in Europe, more
especially on the London Stock Exchange--and
hence their persistent efforts. Happily there is
more sense in the United States than they gave the
people credit for, and their endeavours egregiously
failed. It is very well now for the Philadelphia
man to say that the feeling in the country has
c'aanged, consigning into oblivion the elaborate
calculation by which he sifted Congress and as-
signed to the Representatives of each State their
places on his Repudiation ticket. Nations and
Legislatures do not change with such marvel-
lous rapidity ; and it must be remembered that
the members whom he thus analysed had been elected
on party questions, prominent among which was
greenback redemption. Upon what ground, except
one of his careful surveys, can he assert that the
changebe alleged has taken place? There has been no
election to show the feeling of the country since, but
it was, as shown by an election, that he then de-
clamd it. It may now suit his purpose to shuffle
out of his false teaching as it can no longer aid his
party, and to attribute to the fickleness of the people
the fact that they refused to follow the dishonest
lead he had predicted with such certainty. We
leave the dweller in the " City of Brotherly Love"
on the horns of his own dilemma, to explain to his
countrymen as best he may that the majority in
the United States were not rascals, only, because
they are so fickle.

GEN. GRANT'S HEALTH AND HABlTS.—Walk-
ing down Pennsylvania-avenue this morning I met Gen.
Grant on his black horse, trotting quietly towards his
headquarters. He was never looking better in his life,
and the sight of hint reminded me to state a fact about
hint in this letter, which I have known for 1301119
time. The general's physical condition is better than it
has been for twenty years. His eye is clear, his hand
firm, and he has every app.aranceof robust health. Some
time ago ho came to the decisi la that he would not use
intoxicating liquors at public dinners which ho is com-
pelled occasionally to accept. What his habits are
when at his own table with his wife and children I
do not know, nor is it any business Of mine or the
public's; but everybody who has seen hint at a dinner
within six months gives the same report—" Gen. Grant
doesn't drink a drop." At the last act dinner which
ho attended, as istihtee.cusltnoT,shh?arltf
tanndaotzhee general's dozen
glasses
werew e r
all full, heb oyneatch plttasting a drop, till, becoming annoyed by
the number, or because they were in his way, he asked
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