The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-12 00:00:00

CO-OPERATIVE BANKING.

Mr. Ludlow writes with regard to his scheme of
co-operative banking that it is unadvisable to throw
open to all the world the banks which he proposes to
establish, because they would at first be the objects
of much suspicion and jealousy, and it would there-
fore be necessary to prevent panics that might be
got up if any persons other than those interested in
co-operation were allowed to make deposits.
A few years hence this objection may no
longer exist. In the meanwhile there is plenty of
opportunity for doing business on a large scale.
There are 200,000 co-operators dividing £400,000 a
year, and with collective balances in hand of about
£150,000, besides all their individual resources ; there
are also at least 500,000 trade society men, whose
collective balances cannot possibly be reckoned at
less than £1,000,000. From these two sources alone
a sufficient starting capital should be obtainable/ even
if one could not touch the Building Societies,
which have, probably, some £3,000,000 disposable,
or the Friendly Societies, whose reserved
capital has been reckoned at from L 11,000,000
to £20,000,000. The great object of these
banks is to meet the difficulty that distributive co-
operation has by this time at its command more
capital than it knows what to do with ; that, over
and above large sums deposited with joint-stock
banks at a low rate of interest, its most successful
establishments are, in one shape or other, daily
paying back capital to members and depositors, and
amongst such depositors to trade societies, which
find themselves thus compelled to take their money
ovt of the co-operative movement.

party resigning (From. the Anglo-American Timm.)
The Democratic tactics, to defeat the XVth
so as to
Amendment in Indiana, by the members of that
prevent
a seats
uimn the
b oi
nSgt a tpe rLe
seogni
ts a thuar:e,
failed, as the Republicans proceeded to pass the
Amendment, and the Attorney-General pronounces
their course to have been legal, and the Amendment
lawfully passed. The Republican State Conven-
tion of Kentucky4met on the 28th May, and recom-
mended the speedy ratification of the Amendment.
These are the States whose ratification of the XVth
Amendment has as yet been signified to the Secre-
tary of State :—Missouri, March 1, 1869 (Defec-
tive) ; Kansas, Feb. 27, 1869 (Defective) ; North
Carolina, March 5, 1869 ; West Virginia, March
3, 1869 ; Massachusetts, March 9-12, 1869 ; Wis-
consin, March 9, 1869 ; Mline, March 12, 1869 ;
Louisiana, March 5, 1869 ; MichL!an, March 8,
1860 i SouthC;irolina, March 16, 1869 ; Pennsyl-
vania, March 26, 1869 ; Arkansas, March 30, 1869.
On the 27th May the Rhode Island Senate adopted
the Amendment by a vote of 22 to 11.
Secretary liontwell will acquire more knowledge
of human nature in a year or two of office than the
experience of a life teaches others. From the ra-
pacious office-seeker, such as Dr. Mary Walker, to
the man who remits him, as one did the week be-
fore last, $lOO, with the observaion that it comes
" from one who wants to be honest," he gets an in-
sight iuto every variety of temperament. The
amount of advice he receives anonymously, or with
tile name perhaps of a barber's clerk attached to

the document, or in interviews; ought to- carry a
Finance Minister over any difficulty; and as he
cannot require it all, we recommend him to make a
fair distribution to Greece; Spain, Austria, and some
of the Republics down South, where it might be
utilized. A gold "bull," quite a different style of
animal to the calf Nebuchadnezzar set up, saturated

with patriotism, and overflowing with a desire to
benefit his country, earnestly, warns him to con-
sider what the result may be of his reckless mode of
dealing with the gold surplus. It seems to have
been a habit in the Treasury Department to loan
money in anticipation of salaries, doubtless conve-
nient for a hard-pressei clerk, but not the system
on which men of business conduct their establish-

ments, hence the Secretary has stopped it; but he
has reduced the working hours from 4 to 3 o'clock,

to take effect from the Ist June.

It will be long before the Washington Depart-
ments lose their vestiges of the rebellion. An in-
quisitive Senator got three boxes opened which had
been sent by the War Department into the Trea-
sury for safe keeping during June, 1865, as they
were said to contain articles of great value. The
army of the Tennessee under Sherman had sent
them from Georgia and other States from the banks
abandoned before the approaching Union Army.
On being opened diamonds, pearls, and other pre-
clops stones, set in brooches, rings, and necklaces,
were displayed, with a variety of rare and costly
jewellery. Besides gold and silver plate, some of
great age, there were silks, velvets, and laces ; the
amount of specie was small, but the quantity of

Confederate notes and bonds was very large, as
well as notes of State banks. A difference of
opinion exists on the disposal of this property,
sonic officers of the departments holding that it
should be returned, the family crests, initials, and
monograms being stamped on many of the articles:
Others that they ought to be sold for the benefit of
the Treasury, and others that their disposal will re-

quire a special act of Congress. The sales of con-
fiscated property have been negligently transacted,
and in consequence the Treasury has suffered. Mr.
Boutwell, at present investigating the circum-
stances, has directed his attention more especially
to Virginia, where rebel property bas been sold
under the authority of officials at low prices to
themselves, and even the proceeds pocketed by the
purchasers. General Beauregard furnishes us with
another example of these vestiges. Shortly before
the war, he then a Major, was superintendent of
the West Point Military Academy, but he was
sent in January and February, 1861, by the War
Departnient to his old post at New Orleans. Lately
the Treasury Department have discovered that he
owed $10.30 ets., which he was requested to pay.
To this Beauregard replied by enclosing his ac-
count for $165.50 cts. transport to New Orleans,
which the Department at the time had failed to
pay him, asking that the difference between the
accounts should be remitted. The Treasury had
to submit the claim to the law officers, and it was
decided under a recent Act of Congress that it
could not be admitted.

It was raining at Washington on the 28th M.y.
and it looked as !f it intended to rain on the 29th,
which was to be observed ai a general holiday ; all
the departments, offices, banks, and leading busi-
ness houses being closed. Commemoration Day
this year having fallen on a Sunday many of the
committees iu charge of decorating the soldiers'
graves had named either Saturday or Monday.
Colonel I)upont's battery were to fire a salute at
Arlington, and a battalion of marines, 200 strong,
together with their band, were to he conveyed there
at the expense of the Government. The Beethoven,
Saengerbund, and the Anion Quartette Clubs were
to sing. There are three cemeteries within reach
of Washington, for at Alexandria 5,000 soldiers are
burital, and the coloured soldiers lie in a cemetery
by themselves, where the ceremony of decorating
their graves was to be conducted by the coloured
men of Washington. The President had accepted
the invitation to be present at the ceremony at
Arlington, to take place on Saturday, May 29.

The New England Woman Suffrage Convention
met at Boston on the evening of May 26, and passed
the following resolution :—" That the Executive
Committee of the New England Woman's Suffrage
Association be authorized to correspond with the
fiends oft he cause throughout the country, and to
take such steps as they may deem best for the orga-
nization of a National Woman's Suffrage Associa-
tion during the coming year, in which all parts of
the country shall be fully and fairly represented.'
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe real an essay on the social
and political condition of w)tnen ; Lucy Stone and

Mrs. Livermore spoke, es did also IViMaui Lloyd
Garrison and Whitney Griswold, Chairman of•the
Joint Special Committee of the Massachusetts Le-
gislature, which has elaborately reported in favour
of female suffrage. That committee assert women
to excel men as judges of character, doing so by
instinct, lut we confess to a prejudice (perhaps an
unreasonable one) against being judged in such a
way. The committee contend that women gene-
rally form a truer opinion than men as to the effect
of public measures. Next evening the New England
Anti-Slavery Society met and declared, as well
they might, the progress of the nation on this sub-
ject to be satisfactory. Now that they have secured
political privileges for the negroes, they have turned
their attention to the still more difficult subject of
their social equality with the whites. The Ameri-
can Tract Society also met the same day. The
Treasurer's report gave the total expenses of last
yeir at $136,401 66 ; received from the sales of
books and tracts, $57,498 75 ; periodicals, $34,142
53 ; total receipts, $131,947 68. The financial
condition of the society gives a balance of $160,936
85 in its favonr.
A telegram from Washington on Tues,lay says :
"At the municipal election, which took place here yes-
terday, the Republicans succeeded in electing the collector,
surveyor, and registrar. The latter and seven members
of the city council are negroes. The Radical negro's
mobbed a Democratic negro, and attacked the police who
were protecting him. The police used their revolvers,
and dispersed the negroes, killing one and wounding many.
President Grant, in response to an application of a dele-
gation of the' Georgia Republicans, has ordered the re-
moval of the negro postmaster at Macon, who was repre-
sented as obnoxious to the entire white population."
From the. Washington Territory the success of the
Republican Congressional candidate, Mr. Garfield,
is announced.
Mr. Russell Jones, whose name was submitted to
the Senate, strongly recommended by the President
as Minister to Belgium, where there was no va-
cancy as General Sanford's transfer to Spain had
not been sanctioned, has now been appointed on
the resignation of the latter gentleman. Mr. Charles
Andrews goes to Stockholm as United States Mi-
nister. Samuel li. M. Byser has been appointed
Consul at Zurich. There is a rumour that the po-
liticians are plotting to make vacancies in the mis-
sions to Berlin and Florence, with the sole object
of giving these posts to their friends. They will
find it difficult, hoWever, to get rid of the distin-
guished incumbents, although the attempt will be
made when Congress reassembles.
The commercial Convention at Memphis has
been followed by another meeting at New Orleans,
of 400 delegates representing the Southern and
Western States. What they require is a redistri-
bution of the currency, the interest on the National
Debt reduced, direct foreign trade with Southern
ports, Government aid for repairing the levees,
and repeal of the usury laws. They desire the con
structiou of a Southern railway to the Pacific,
urging the advantage the climate gives in enablinc,
such a road to be kept open all the winter, which is
not the case with that via Omaha. The majority
favour the Pacific line, a direct route from Cairo
to Mazatlan ; the minority the Memphis El Paso
Grand Trunk route. The establishment of direct
communication to Europe will, it is hosed, be fol-
lowed by immigration.
General Sickles has received and accepted his
commis: ion as Minister to Spain. lle was to leave
about the middle of June so as to retch Madrid on
the lstJuly, when Mr. Ilale's term expires. Dr. Mary
Walker has demanded the appointment of Secretary
of the Legation to Spain. Secretary Fish asked her
when she called to claim the appointment, if she
could talk Spanish. Spanish, retorted Mary, this
is not a question of languages ; it is a question of
the rights of women ! The Secretary then advised
her to see General Sickles, who fnight have some-
thing to say on the selection of his Secretary, and