The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 18) 1869.

311SCELLANEOUS NE U'S.

nationally categories—Chttreh
of England (National), Dissenters (British
and Foreign), Wesleyans, Roman Catholic,
Jewish, Undenominational (Bible), Scotch Free
Church, Scotch Established Church, and Scotch.
Episcopal. To entitle a school to aid from the Edu-
cation Department, it must hoist and rally under the
Church colours of some one of these denominations.
Irish Catholics form 78 per cont. of the popula-
tion of this kingdom, -while not one of these nine
bodies forms anything like the same proportion of the
British, or oven of the English or of the Scotch
people. This system has been repeatedly modified in
detail. Royal commissions have investigated and
repOrted on its working! the code under which it is
administered has been often revised; but one essen-
tial feature has never been altered—its strictly
denominational character," Why, then, asks the
Professor, should the demand of the Catholic Bishops
to have this denominational system extended to
Ireland, provoke a burst of indignation ? especially as
it is a fact that in practice there exists in Ireland no
mixed or national system of education. It would be
as difficult to find a Protestant as a Druid in thou-
sands of the national schools.

meat expenses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 1 are
$585;000,000."

The damage. done by the gale at Boston on
the Bth instant is estimated at 1,000,000 dollars ;
and other towns of Massachusetts, as well as
of Maine awl New Hampshire, suffered consi-
derably. The American Puss comment at great
length on Canadian affairs, and generally pre-
dict an early separation of the British American colo-
nies from the mother country. A meeting was held
in Quebec Sept. 14 in favour of annexation to the
United States. It was attended mostly by Irish-
men. In the Avondale coal mine of Pennsylvania
108 bodies have been discovered. The colliery has
been thoroughly explored, and no other bodies have
been found. The above number, with two men
suffocated while attempting their rescue, makes a
total loss of 110, and not 200, as previously re-
ported. None inside escaped. Fifty-nine widows
and 109 orphans are made by this disaster. Great
destitution prevails, and subscriptions are being
taken for their relief. Some of the killed have
children living in Great Britain.

Erie railway shares have been rising, and so also
have Atlantic and Great-Western in connection
with them, first in Wall-street, and then in Lon-
don on large orders from America to purchase.
There is said to be in New York a strong " bull"
combination with some London speculators employ-
ing a capital of $25,000,000. The rise in Erie
brings in as purchasers whatever stray " bulls "
there may be at this season of the year about Lon-
don, and they all help to push up one of the most
dangerous and treacherous securities with which
they could dabble. The Erie is a great railroad,
and the combinations and amalgamations of the
board appear to be judicious, but the speculators
who buy Erie for a rise have got a very short
memory, or perhaps did not see, as they often might,
Wall-street strewn with the lame ducks who thought
their information good. The Erie shares registered
amount to $70,000,000 common, and $8,500,000
preferred, but if this be encouraging as less in
amount than anticipated, the suicidal competition
of the three great trunk roads for Western traffic
is not calculated to clee'r the geurine shareholder.
No one can deny that the Erie is a grand line, and
will one day be very valuable property to its owners ;
but what " no feller can understand" is whether the
proceedings of Fisk and Gould are really in the in-
terest of the railway or of selfish ends; while we
allow that their selfish ends may best be served by
forwarding the interests of the road, and that there-
fore the property may never have been while under
their management in the deplorable state the low
price of its shares would indicate.

The outrages on the negroes of Tennessee have
increased, 100 blacks having been driven into
Nashville from Rutherford county, and a similar
state of affairs prevails in Sumner county. A meet-
ing was held by the negroes, and ex-Governor
Foote said that 500 men would be sent as an escort
if necessary to protect them. A coloured man
asserted that the Governor's proclamation just
issued in view of the outrages amounted to nothing,
the "Regulators," as they call themselves, main-
taining their course unpunished and unarrested. A
letter was despatched to Brigadier-General Lovell
from the private secretary of Governor Senter, and
a body of troops in response was sent to the dis-
turbed counties to maintain order. There has
been a desperate fight between some troops in
Texa=, who endeavoured to arrest them, and the
band of outlaws under Jack Helm. Four :of the
brigands and one soldier were-killed, several on
both sides being wounded.

The International Congress of Working-Men
continues its session at Basle, and its socialistic
tendency is its most remarkable feature. It is im-
possible for the working-men of Europe t) as-
semble for any business without talking politics of
a very questionable character; indeed, of the Red
Republican type. Considering the numerous sub-
jects open for discussion affecting their own condi-
tion, which they left untouched, it may surprise
those who do not know them to find their remarks
mainly directed to the property and condition of
others. They want land to be cultivated in large
estates for the benefit of the human race, and most
of us would sit down and look on with hearty com-
placency while the work progressed by which we
were to be maintained. The difficulty would he
who was to labour; and how was the produce to be
distributed. These may appear very simple ques-
tions to the delegates, however d;fficult statesmen
and political economists might find them, for we
all desire to get as much as we can, and to do as
little as possible.
The news from Port-au-Prince, received by the
steamer Mexican, by which the Spanish Charge
d'Affaires arrived at Liverpool, is to 25th August.
Salnave was still before Aux Cayes, which place
continued to hold out. His two steamers had returned
there damagel. The rebel steamers Quaker City
and Florida had bombarded Gonaives, raised the
blockade, and had gone to Aux Cayes to look after
Salnave's men of war. From America the news
derived from the British war steamer Britomart
is that t'he Quaker City and Florida appeared off
the town of Gonaives on the Bth of August, which
they furiously bombarded till the 10th, injuring the
buildings, but only killing one citizen and two sol-
diers. The citizen killed had been struck by a
round shot in the house of the United States Con-
sul, Mr. Brooks; where he had taken refuge, and
one woman had died of fright. Six of the crews
had been killed and two injured, but the vessels
were not much damaged. The bombardment was
suspended to remove the women and children, when
close and sanguinary work was expected. The port
was at the same time attacked by troops, who were
defeated. All the barges had been captured, and
the place completely invested, while but little food
remained, and its capture was inevitable unless re-
lieved. The excitement was great at Port-au-
Prince, to which the Britonzart had carried 200 re-
fugees. The rebel war steamers Quaker City and
Florida are heavily armed, and Salnave's two vessels
are no match for them. The Official Journal
had lately published an Imperial decree promulgat-
ing the recently ratified Convention of the 16th
May, 1864, concluded between France, Brazil,
Hayti, Italy, and Portugal, for the establishment
of an international telegraph line between Europe
and South America.

Last Tuesday was the centenary of Humboldt's
birth. Great preparations were made in America
to do honour to the memory of a man so highly
esteemed, not only by his countrymen, but by the
world ; and a telegram informs us that the day was
observed by the Germans in the United States
amidst great enthusiasm. The North German Cor-
respondent devotes a leading article to the occasion,
from which we take this extract :
" The all-grasping, truly Catholic and harmonious mind
of Humboldt was a stranger to everything like prejudice
anti narrow-mindedness; he identified himself with every
effort to elevate mankind and to develope the germs of.the
good and great in the hearts of tho disciples of science.
For many years ho was the centre of the German republic
of letters, the patron of free thought, the model philoso-
pher and philanthropist of his age. His life was devoted
to science and humanity, and remained true to itself dur-
ing the long period of his earthly pilgrimagekwith a con-
sistency of which the records of our race present but few
examples."

The Springfield Republican heard a merchant,
who ought to know, assert—

" That not only we do not build many iron ships, but we
cannot buy them of the British builders ; it being forbidden
a British subject to sell a vessel to an American. We
cannot (says the Editor) vouch for this, but cases of purs
chase of this kind do not now occur to us. If we aro to
buy iron ships at all, out of our own country, it must
be in Went Britain, for they are scarcely made for sale
elsew hero."

Now, here is a leading paper, and as good a paper
as any we know, of Massachusetts too, which is
usually admitted to be the best informed of the
States, supposing that a British shipbuilder could
be barrel by law from selling ships to Americans.
As it happens, the reverse is the case, the American
being barred from buying ships from the British by
the Navigation laws of the United States; they can,
of course, buy them, blt they cannot register them
or fly on them the National Flag. As strange, too,
as the supposition that the British would tolerate
for a moment the prohibition of selling ships to
their American cousins, is the fact that the editor
overlooked that it was their readiness to make such
sales which caused the nation so much trouble. If
Semmes and the Southern agents, who purchased
the Alabama and the other Confederate cruisers,

were not Americans, then the Southern States were
further out of the Union than we thought. The
law regarded Semmes and the Confederate agents
merely as Americans, and had there been any pro-
hibition the Government would have had the power
of seizing the Alabama while being avowedly built
in Laird's yard for Americans. At the same time,
we rejoice to see the attention of leading American
organs drawn to a subject we have long discussed,
the necessity for so far altering the Navigation
Laws as to permit the citizens to purchase where
they please, and to register as American iron steam-
boats for their foreign trade.

The Mediterranean and Oriental Steamship Com•
pany have applied to the New York Chamber of
Commerce for co-operation in an effort to recover
the prestige of the American flag. They assert that
the American trade ;with Europe, including the lu-
crative passenger traffic, is monopolised by foreign
flags. A first-class line of steamers is to be estab-
lished by them between New York, Norfolk, and
other Southern ports and the Mediterranean, with
connections to the East Indies and China, by way
of the Suez Canal. They will despatch a vessel to
represent New York in the grand ceremony of open-
ing that Canal. The question lies not iu American
enterprise or capital, both of which would be forth-
coming in overflowing abundance for the establish-
ment of such lines, but in the laws and the ex-
pense of constructing steamers in America capable
of competing with those of Europe. Let the Ame-
rican flag cover a vessel belonging to an American
owner, who desires to place her on the American
register, whether built at home or abroad, although
she may remain in the event of her being a foreign
built vessel disqualified for the coasting traffic ;
and shipowners having attained to an equality will
soon have fleets flying the Stars and Stripes.
A sad calamity occurred last Monday at Shad-
wan, in the Gulf of Suez, whereby the screw steamer
Carnatic, 1,800 tone, valued at £BO,OOO was lost,
with several lives, all her mails and cargo, as well as
£38,000 in specie. She was one of the Peninsular
and Oriental Company's fleet, then on her way
from Bombay to Suez. Shadwan is an island at the
entrance to the Red Sea from the Gulf of Suez,
about 10 miles off the coast of Egypt. The loss
falls on the company, who are their own insurers,
and the shares have fallen heavily in consequence.
Messrs. Loring, lay, and Blaikie arrived safely
in New York, and were entertained last Tuesday at
a public dinner at Delmonico's. Mr. Simmons has
gone to Heidelberg to study. Alderman Elliott,
the boat-builder, returned with those of the crew
who sailed in the City of Antwerp, and we suppose
had his place at the banquet. At any rate he de-
served it, for the boat he built for the Harvard men
is said to be a model possessing many advantages,
and superior to that in which the Oxford men rowed.
Apropos of rowing, the race between Joe Sadler, of
Putney, and Walter Brown, the American champion,
comes off on the 7th October over the champion
course. Harry Kelley is training Brown in the
paper boat, weighing 221b5., which he brought from
America ; but it is thought that he will row in an
English wager boat built by Jewitt, of Dunstan.
The betting appears to be in Sadler's favour. So
eager is the desire in America to have another race
between Harvard and Oxford tried there that some
gentlemen have offered to defray all expenses of
the Oxford crew, Mr. Wm. Schwarz for one. If
the race be run on American waters it is but fair
that two other crews of the Universities should be
the competitors, as two months' training is sufficient
for one set for a long time.
Mr. Washburn, ex-Minister to Paraguay, who is
now in London, has written to some of the Metropo-
litan papers denying the statement that he had long
since retracted his report as to President Lopez.
Not only does he re-affirm him to be the monster of
cruelty he has represented him, but he asserts that
all testimony has proved the truth of his accusations,
and whatever evidence may hereafter be forthcom-
ing will fully establish it. General M'Mahon can
be heard on the other side, but as far as the balance
of testimony goes it is thus far in the favour of Mr.
Washburn. Tne Buenos Ayres Standard antici-
pates the close of the war, having learnt, on the
highest authority, that the Brazilian Cabinet bas de-
termined to finish the campaign. The hitch is, the
Triple-Alliance by which the Allies bound them-
selves to continue the war as long as Lopez re-
mained alive in Paraguay, and although there are
25,000 Brazilian troops to 3,500 Argentines, yet
the Argentine and Oriental Republics have as much
to say on continuing the war as Brazil. The object
of the struggle is supposed to have been achieved,
as Lopez is a fugitive, but he nevertheless occupies
aninaccessible territory, and may continue to do so
as a mere brlguLid as luug us any raraguayans ad-
here to him. But hostile operations will not cease
without another desperate effort, as shown by the
latest intelligence, dated Lisbon, Sept. 14. A Pro-
visional Government of three members has been
established at Assumption—namely, Messrs. Be-
doya, Seiyaga, and Rivarola. The Allied army
have begun active operations, Count d'Eu having
captured two forts of the enemy, occupying Velen-
zuela, and threatening Pirebebuy. Generals Osorio
and Barreto are co-operating on the enemy's flanks.
The Congressional Committee on retrenchment
which lately sat in New York, and visited the Cus-
tom House there, found corruption so prevalent
that they have decided to introduce a Civil Service
Bill during the neat session of Congress. The Pre-
sident holds the same views, and will recommend
the adoption of some such change, so it is probable
that the subject will reappear when Congress again
meets, with influential backers; but whether the bill
will assume the same form as that introduced by Mr.
Jenckes of Rhode Island or not, is as yet unknown.
The Committee found it difficult in any but one
way to account for the eager rush of men for posts
in the New York Custom House who might aspire
to what were apparently better places ; but they
seem beyond all things to be anxious to serve their
country on what to them could only be a mere
pittance. Their patriotism has in this decidedly
taken a peculiar turn, and ono evidently regarded
by the Committee with suspicion. We rejoice at
any circumstance which • promotes a measure that
we feel assured will in the highest degree be bene-
ficial to the Republic, and one, the importance of
which is as yet but little appreciated in the Union.

St. Louis is not to be baulked or sneered down
in its agitation for substituting itself as the Federal
Capital in the place of Washington. The chief
objection to the change is the expense, but the
Chicago Tribune comes forward with some plau-
sible figures, by which it arrives at the conclusion
that that would be but .1 mere trifle. It calculates
that all the buildings required for a century would
not cost more than $50,000,000 ; that deducting
the amount necessary to expend on the Govern-
ment edifices at Washington, as well as the
value of these buildings when vacated for a Na-
tional University, the entire cost would not ex-
ceed $10,000,000. Very few are found to defend
Washington, but its security lies in the dissensions
of its rivals. In the first place, Chicago and half
a dozen other Western cities would fight for the
Governmental prize, as did Toronto and Montreal,
while their great and really dangerous competitor,
New York, would combine them all against any
change. The most conspicuous candidate just now
is St. Louis, hence it is the city most abused. One
paper says that on the 30th August the Coroner
there held 11 inquests, which it thus classified : 2
of sunstroke, 3 of drunkenness, 1 of cholera, 1 of
drowning, and the rest miscellaneous, besides the
case of a child born dead and concealed in a coal
closet ; a pretty location, it adds, for Congress.
Inappropriate pastimes are not more uncommon
in the States than in other countries. At Cincin-
nati, on the 29th August, that is, on Sunday, a prize
fight came off near Mount Auburn, and this was
followed by another prize fight in Well Creek Bot-
tom, when Burns knocked Dennison out of time,
whatever that may be, but some goo] might have
been done had he knocked him into more appro-
priate time, and himself followed rapidly after. In
Louisville, Kentucky, live persons within the city
have been shot or cut at dancing parties. The
Tribune suggests that the music should be the Dance
of Death, followed by the Infernal Quadrilles, and
pieces should be arranged for full orchestra, with
groans of the wounded neatly introduced from the
Battle of Prague. Wherever shootings and blows
are going on, if a woman. be at the bottom of it, a