The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-06 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The correspondent of the Constitutionnel says that the
adhesion of Prim to the Montpensier candidature is no
longer matter of doubt. • Another scarcely less im-
portant accession has been gained in the person
of Rivero, leader of the Democrats, and President
of the Cortes. This influential politician has, like Prim,
joined the Montpensier party, because he can perceive no
other resource for the country, and thus all the
sections of the majority—Progressists, Unionists, and
Democrats—are united. The semi-official Paris journal
would not be likely to announce the probable
success of an Orleanist unless there were good
reasons for the belief. The same journal states
that the Duke of Montpensier, if made King, will renounce
all pretensions to a civil list, and support his state upon
his own income until the Spanish Budget shews an
equilibrium. This is a patriotic determination, especially
as his income is likely to be called into requisition for many
a year to come.

Several representatives of the higher clergy were elected
to the Cortes, and form part of the small Absolutist
party. These ecclesiastics have written to Rome
for instructions as to the line of policy they
ought to pursue. The Pope has informed them
that they can take part in the deliberations of the
Assembly, but only on religious questions, and that they
are to obstain rigorously from joining in any discussion
relating to politics only. This is an exceedingly satis-
factory and moderate response, but it would be more con-
venient if the party had lay representatives who could
express its opinions on all topics.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
It is very strange to see how Reuter and the Times'
correspondent invariably differ in the simple figures
pulslished by the Secretary of the Treasury, showing
the monthly statement of the public debt of the
. United States. That for the Ist March is thus
1 announced byßeuter :—" The total debt amounts to
$2,661,000,000 against $2,662,250,000 on the Ist
ult., being a decrease of $1,250,000. The cash in
the Treasury amounted to $115,500,000 namely,
$98,500,000 in coin, and $17,000,000 in currency,
against $106,250,000 last month, being an increase
of $9,250,000." The Philadelphia correspondent
makes the decrease in the debt $1,500,000, and the
receipts in excess of expenditure $11,000,000. This
revenue statement is very satisfactory.
Last month we pointed out the cause of the de-
crease in the United States Treasury, and the in-
crease in the debt, to correct the impression which
the correspondent of the Times endeavoured to
convey. His nabit of putting these figures in a light
to damage the credit of the nation has been the more
persistently exposed by us that we were alone in these
efforts. For months and months we have given our
readers the opportunity of testing the value of the
predictions of that dweller in the city of " Brotherly
Love," but it affords us some gratification to see a
powerful advocate range alongside. An excellent
letter, signed " Five-Twenty," asking—" Are there
two Congresses in America ?" appeared last Thurs-
day in the Daily News. Let any one read that,
written, as it evidently is, by one who thoroughly
understands his subject, and they will see a
forcible expose of the man in Philadelphia. The
fact is that his predictions, his careful surveys and
minute analysis, have been so wholly belied by the
results, that public attention is now directed to a
subject we have so long discussed, and the holders
of United States Securities, particularly those who
were alarmed into selling, are beginning now to
learn what they owe the Times.
Mr. Johnson issued a valedictory address on re-
tiring from office, defending his administration, and
stating that the motives by which he has been
actuated during his term of office have been those
of honesty and sincerity. That they have, few
surdas/Ens' JARGON.
doubt, for Andrew Johnson has not been con-
There has been another Viceregal Court at Dublin I demned for lack of either; but for pugnacity, obsti-
,
and the Dublin papers again contain some columns
navy, and want of judgment, amounting, in a man
of small type, in which the ladies' dresses are de- so placed, almost to a crime. Whatever might be
, g
scribed. The language used seems to be a cross the true value of the policy he advocated findin
between English, French, and Italian. For instance, that it was impracticable, he ought to have dropped
take the following, and then say if it is not worse or modified it getting as much of his own way as
even than heraldry :—Train of white poult de soiel I he could, and not sacrificing all because he could not
trimmed with bouillones of tulle illusion, nceuds of •
satin ribbon, and rouleaux of same; cor- get all.
sage to correspond trimmed with Marie An- President Johnson has nominated General Smith
toinette berthe, with a handsome fall of fringe as Consul-General to Cuba. The selection is not
and blonde, and fastened at back with a considered a good one, as lie is said to have severely
handsome camargo sash to correspond ; petticoat of attacked Grant's character as a General. Consi-
rich white glace under a jupon of tulle plissed, and trimmed with rouleaux of satin en tablier,ress, and 'tiring the position of Cuba, and the troubles aris-
agraffed with nceuds of satin ribbon. Headdress,
lug from the harsh treatment of American citizens
court plume and lappets, placed on a band of velour the person appointed ought to have the in-coming
gist, en bias.
President's confidence. The revolt has grown into
very serious dimensions, as the insurgents have cap-
tured and fortified towns, and a proclamation has
been issued by the Captain-General, closing ports
east of the Bay of Cadiz Lighthouse, and other
parts of the coast, except where Custom-houses are
provided. One hundred and thirty-seven Cuban
refugees arrived at Key West on one day. So
numerous are they in New Orleans that the Spanish
Consul has asked the Governor to protect Spaniards
from their assaults. Senior Mauricio Roberts,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
of Spain to the United States, who arrived at
Havannah on the 19th Feb., from Cadiz, was to
leave for Washington in the next steamer.
Ex-President Johnson and his family were to
, vacate the White House on the 3d March, and to
leave Washington two days after. One paper as-
serts that he has accepted the offer of a free passage
to Europe of a steamship line embarking after a
brief visit to settle his affairs in Tennessee. The
same paper says that no steamship lire will risk the
unpopularity of offering him a free passage back to
America. The Hon. Da Witt Clinton Sentor, be-
, came Governor of Tennessee on the 25th February
when Governor Browniow resigned. After the ex-
piry of the term Andrew Johnsen is most likely to
be his successor, for it is now certain he intends to
run for the post, backed by a party in all proba-
bility too strong for the Loyal Leagee to defeat.
His views on the public debt and the martyrdom
he has endured for the South will make him popular
in Tennessee, and the Governorship is but a step to
the Senate, at which he aims.
The Fortieth Congress adjourned on the 4th
March sine die, and the new Congress then assem-
bled. Mr. James Blaine, of Maine, who had been
nominated by the Republican Caucus, was then
elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in
succession to Vice-President Colfax, now President
of the Senate. It has been long evident Mr. Blaine
would be the successful candidate, although he had
some powerful Republican competitors. Latterly,
when Mr. Colfax temporarily vacated the chair,
Mr. Blaine always took it.
The first case touching the Constitutionality of
the Legal-Tender Act has been decided in the
United States Supreme Court in a way curiously to
affect the future payment of the Five-Twenty and
other Bonds, if a question about their payment ever
reaches the Supreme Court. The Oregon Legisla-
ture enacted that the State taxes should be paid in
coin, and the collector refused greenbacks. In this
he was upheld bythe Courts of Oregon, and the citi-
zens, interpreting the United States 1 lay to bear them
out, appealed to its Supreme Court. The Federal
Justices ruled that the Act making greenbacks
legal tender for all debts, public or private, with
certain specified exceptions, did not make greenbacks
a legal payment for what was not a debt. This involved
the questionwhethertaxes levied by a State are debts,
which was decided in the negative, as the grounds
differ of an obligation to support the Government
expenditure and a sum due for value received, a
difference recognized very distinctly by the laws,

CHURCH PLURALITIES.
Attention is again called by " A Cambridge M.A.
and a Lincolnshire Rector" to the case of pluralities
held by the Dean of Lincoln. Dr. Jeremie is dean
of Lincoln, rector of Somersham, and Regius Pro-
fessor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge.
For the deanery he gets 22,000 a year, for the
rectory 81,770, and for the professorship 840; for which
modest sum the following work is expected, according
to the laws of the Church and the University—eight
months at Lincoln, nine months at Somersham,
four months at Cambridge the work of
twenty-one months to be got into twelve.
And yet the very rev. doctor holds on to all three
posts, working Somersham by curates, and, if all
tales are true, doing the other work but indifferently.
" A Cambridge M.A." says : "I have heard (though
I don't vouch for its truth) a report that the Dean
justifies his retention of the Professorship by the
plea that there would be a • difficulty in supplying
his place, and that Cambridge could not provide
one fit to succeed him. Unhappy university ! (ex-
claims the correspondent), wherein this Elijah of
her divinity schools has been labouring for eighteen
years, without having trained an Elisha worthy to
take up his mantle—a Jeremiah without an Ezekiel.
If this be true, it is a more damaging estimate of the
value of the Professor's work than his worst enemy
could wish to form."

FOREIGN NOTES.
THE UNITED STATES.

Mr. Andrew Johnson will not retire from public life.
The accounts from Tennessee are all positive as to his
intention to " run " for the governorship of his native
State, and the Nation believes that he will be successful.
He has the advantage of not being mixed up in the recent
State quarrels, whilst his view on the public debt will be
very popular in Tennessee. Many of his friends. however,
desire that he should return to the Senate.