The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 9, 1E69

together while rather and mother were " out to
field."

LANDLORDS.

There are landlords and landlords. Some are
tyrannical, and, like those in the South of Ireland,
have a discontented tenantry. But the kindly feel-
ing has not yet died out, and there are still men
owning land who have what is commonly called
" consideration." Witness Sir W. Capel Brooke,
Mr. W. P. llerrick, of Beau Manor Park, and Mr.
T. T. Paget, of Leicestershire. The two first named
have remitted 10 per cent., the last named 25 per
cent. of the tenants' rents throughout their various
estates, the drought of last summer having seriously
affected the crops.

TELEGRAPITIC MESSAGES.
It is very important that an authoritative answer
should be given at once to the question, Are tele-
grams private communications ? We presume that
no doubt was entertained on the matter until Mr.
Justice Keogh insisted upon the production in court
of certain telegrams which had passed during the
Dublin election. The local manager objected to pro-
duce them, and the judge said that he, of course,
did only what was right in objecting. Never-
theless, he overruled the objection, and
messages which the sender and the receiver
supposed to be as absolutely private as
letters sent through the post office, were read in
public. We see no essential difference between a
telegram and a letter. The fact that the first is
necessarily seen in transit by two other persons
besides the sender and the receiver, in no way alters
the secret nature of the message. This is proved by
the fact that telegraphic clerks are pledged to secrecy.
The ruling of the judge in the Dublin case seems to
us impossible to be sustained. If it is otherwise, it
will be necessary to provide for secrecy in the bill
transferring the telegraphs to the Government. It
will not be tolerated that Government should in a
prosecution be able to give in evidence with
which Government has no right to be acquainted.

endless loss of time and sacrifice of efficiency in communl•
eating with the central Government will be avoided, and
in addition it is likely that a great impetus will be given
to those public works and district improvements which
prosper only under local administration. In brief, it is
proposed to give India the most perfect form of govern-
ment known—local rule under the due control of the
central authority. This policy is quite in accordance with
the recommendations made some time ago by Mr. Bright,
but which were thought to be so premature that he de-
clined to take the post of Secretary of State for India.
The Bombay University is becoming more widely known
and prosperous. The report of the past year chews that
600 candidates presented themselves for matriculation,
whilst during the preceding twelve months the number
was very little over 400. But either the examinations are
verysevere or the candidates very ill prepared, for out of the
total of 600 only 250 passed, Of these 182 were Hindoos
And 47 Parsees.

(Itom the Anglo-American Times.)
WAsurNoToN, Jan. 22.
The Inauguration Ball about which there has been
so much fuss,:even occupying the time of the Legis-
lature, receives little encouragement from him in
whose honour it was mainly projected. The general
committee of management has received the follow-
ing letter from General Grant addressed to Mr.
Tullock :—" Understanding that the committee of
which you are secretary, met this evening for the
purpose of arranging for the Inauguration Ball, I
venture to drop you a line to say that if any choice
is left to me, I would be pleased to see it dispensed
with. Ido not wish to disarrange any plans made
by my friends in the matter of the ceremonies at-
tending the inauguration, but this matter will be
agreeable to me, if your committee would agree
that the ball is unnecessary." Bits of history are
constantly cropping up having reference to Grant,
some intended to detract, some to exemplify his
great qualities as a general, but all to satisfy the
craving of American curiosity regarding the idol
they have set up so high. The last is the produc-
tion of General Banks, and occurred in the year
1863, when that officer was investing Port Hudson
and Grant, Vicksburg. The ultimate success
of the operations at that time gave no sign.
Indeed the success was considered here so pro-
blematical that Grant stock fell, and for a time
he was anxiously discussed in the Cabinet, the re-
sult being that Banks was ordered to proceed to
Vicksburg and relieve Grant. This the volunteer
officer declined to do, answering that the investment
of Port Hudson was necessary to be carried to a
success, as in the hands of the enemy it would endan-
ger the Federal garrison in New Orleans. This did
not satisfy the authorities in Washington, who sent
a still more peremptory order for Banks to take over
Grant's command, which he treated as he did the
first, drawing on his head a severe censure. While
Banks and the Cabinet were thus squabbling, Grant
was vigorously pushing on the siege of Vicksburg,
which to the confusion of the Washington wise-
acres fell while they were in the midst of
this business. The correspondence was then an
ever awkward fact, but not a word of it had
been breathed to Grant. That portion of it, there-
fore, in the department whence it issued myste-
riously disappeared, but there are two ends to a
correspondence, and one end was in the pocket of
Banks, who treasured it up, and is now using it as
a means to secure a political end. It is said that
Grant was quite surprised when informed of what
bis dear friends at Washington intended for him.
The General is now at Baltimore, but he is ex-
pected here to morrow. He has been visiting the
Peabody Institute, where a concert was given him.
Mr. Sears, the agent, in the Session held yester-
day, asserts that education is rapidly advancing
throughout the South, fostered by Mr. Peabody's
gifts. One-third to one-half the funds are sup-
plied by the inhabitants, the balance coming
from the endowment, and thus spurred the num-
ber of school houses will indefinitely increase,
for the most cheering part is that in most of the
larger towns the fund will only be required to set
the machinery in motion, when the schools will be
self-supporting, and thus the benefits may be mul-
tiplied and spread abroad over the country. There
is to be a great reception at Barnum's hotel, where
the majority of those who welcome the General will
be those who opposed him in arms, or at least sym-
pathized with the rebellion. A new War Office is
to be built here, and the plans and estimates are
now before Congress. A military board—General
Meigs being president—approved that of John
Crump, of Philadelphia, for which the cost would
be, if Congress sanctions it, $1,500,000. Wilcox and
Porter, of Buffalo, came in for the second prize, and
Schulz and Shun of New York for the third. The
Secretary
also submitted to Congress General Har-
ney's report on the Sioux Indians of the Upper
Missouri, showing that he had expended $485,781
in excess of the sum placed at his disposal, relying
on the deficiencies being passed by Congress.
Sherman approves his course, and advises that
the opportunity be given to Harney of person-
ally explaining in Washsngton his plans and
justifying his outlay, Which it is asserted,
would greatly benefit the Sioux, and early
this year set them to work. The appropriations
for army expenditure are likely to be further cur-
tailed, and the committee are taking evidence about
consolidating the staff corps, examining for this
object Quartermaster-General Meigs, Commissary-
Gen. Eaton, and Paymaster-General Brice. Great
efforts are being made by Secretary Seward to get
the bill passed for completing the treaty with Denmark
for the purchase of St. Thomas. Gen. Raasloff argued
the justice of completing the purchase, but with
what result cannot be foretold, except that the
House is dead against such appropriations. Indeed
the Alaska affair has been fatal to schemes of this
nature, as people cannot fail to be disgusted when
men, bribed for the purpose, spout ultra-patriotism,
and stand convicted of having done so. The
charges made by Martin were inquired into by the
Alaska committee to-day, but he could give little
testimony, and completely failed to substantiate
any of his charges. He fixed, however, the clerk
in the State Department, from whom he received
them, who was immediately summoned, and will be
examined. To-day and to-morrow are given by the
Supreme Court to the ease involving the Legal-
Tender Act. The Court adjourned over from last
night until Monday to consult on this matter, and
commenced their consultation early to-day. Fears
are entertained that the dezision will be against the
Act, and there is no small trepidation among the
financiers of Congress on the subject. John Scott,
the Senator just elected from Pennsylvania, ap-
peared in the Chamber yesterday, and the mem-
bers of the new Congress are arriving in numbers
to secure quarters. The National Woman's Rights
Convention, assembled here, has adjourned, after
having appointed a committee to memorialize Con-
gress, in behalf of female suffrage, &c., and to pre-
pare an address to thepeople of the United States.

NEW YORK, Jan. 23.
Scarlatina, I regret to say, is raging around Sta-
pleton, Staten Island, at New Brighton, and Edge-
water, where the schools lave been closed ; and
typhus fever has been announced in East Thirteenth
Street, near First Avenue, four deaths having oc-
curred there within a few days. The danger of
peeple dosing themselves with chloroform has been
further illustrated by the death of Mrs. Oliver
Dyer, wife of the man wbo created the latest sen-
sation in the " Wickedest Man" papers. She died
in her house at Westchester, from the attempt to
assuage the pain of an attack of neuralgia by an
overdose of chloroform. This recalls the case of
poor Halpine, who fell a victim to a mistake in the
strength of the opiate sent to him. There has been
a heavy fall of snow, and some very severe wea-
ther, many vessels being detained, and the ferry
boats somewhat retarded by drift in the North
River. Still the weather continues mild, and ves-
sels have been able to get up the Hudson River,
as far•as West Point. The recent thaw has made
the ice unfit for cutting, just when ready, and a
short supply is predicted if a change does not
soon occur. The Rogers murder case continues
to be the sensation. All manner of rumours
are circulated. On the 20th a telegram from
Waterbury, Connecticut, announced the arrest of
an escaped convict from Sing Sing, Tom M‘Gibney.
Tom is the name on .the envelope. found in the
pocket torn from the assassin, and it is this clue by
which eventually people hope to effect. his arrest ; a
fac..simik of the superscription of the mysterious

envelope was posted up on all the dead walls, and
excited much attention ; but, it is feared, for the
present at least, that the ruffian has escaped.
Stephen Downs must have been a nice boy, for he
committed suicide because his mother refused to
mend his shirt, and Joseph Waggoner, a Ger-
man, blew his brains out because he bad
a quarrel with his wife. Angeline Shrayer
shot a man dead, named Patrick Crotty, in
Wisconsin, and Margaret Bowen shot Upton
Murray, and has been sent to Sing Sing for
three years, both ladies committing the crime for
reasons best known to themselves ; but the fre-
quency of these acts on the part of women is at-
tracting attention. The Fenton-Morgan fight over
the Senatorship has left behind it a very bad feel-
ing, and may lead to a split between the rural and
metropolitan Republicans of the Empire State. The
Commercial Advertiser continues its attack, and
there are some very bitter articles in the weekly
press, as you will see. Governor Fenton spent
Thursday and Friday at the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
where he was heartily congratulated by his nume-
rous friends. Governor Hoffman was also here
during the week with his staff. The Alabama
Convention is eagerly discussed in this city, and
naturally so, considering the interests involved.
To the nation at large feelings of indigna-
tion at the conduct of England, a desire of
an opportunity for retaliation, and such consider-
ations may exert some influence, but those whose
ships were destroyed, and who really suffered, pre-
fer the British gold they have a chance of getting
to the gratification of any such feelings. When a
telegram from Washington announced that the
chances were the Senate would not approve it, im-
mediate action was taken in New York by the
shipping ',interests, and a deputation was to be de-
spatched to Washington to lobby the Convention
through the Senate. In South-street the in-
terest at stake being large the anxiety is in pro-
portion, and it will not be the fault of the mer-
cantile community if the treaty fails. The House
Committee on election frauds in New York
have before them fifteen hundred pages of
manuscript testimony for consideration. The Com-
mittee expect to report finally next week. The
general opinion of members is that the report will
recommend some material alterations in the natu-
ralization laws. Emissaries front the insurgents at
Cuba have been endeavouring to obtain the recog-
nition of our Government. Colonels Augusten,
Castellanos, and Ricardo Pimentel, and Captains
Lorenzo Jirviener, Abelardo Trico, and Jose An-
tonio Cuitra arrived by the steamer Star and Stripes
in Philadelphia, and proceeded to New York. Sym-
pathisers with their cause will be welcomed at
rooms Nos. 15 and 18, Metropolitan Hotel.
Some Polish ladies and gentlemen assembled at No.
7, Delancey-street, to celebrate in a fitting manner
the anniversary of the Polish insurrection of 1863.
Mr. W. Kryzauowski presided, and delivered an
eloquent address, during which he was frequently
interrupted by bursts of applause. We have a
Crete recognition society here, and a newspaper
published in the Greek interest, besides hordes of
Fenians,
.so we have enough ou our hands in
the " Distressed Nationality" line, if it is pos-
sible to satisfy our naturalized citizens. The jury
in the Blaisdell-Eckel case has found a verdict o:

Guilty, which gives satisfaction to the public, who
feared a miscarriage of justice, and knew that such

a result would be but to strengthen the ring tha

sit on the shoulders of the nation like the Old Man
of the Mountains. The confession of Arnold, one

of the conspirators of the murder of Presiden

Lincoln, _is published. It substantially says that
the original design of the conspiracy was to

abduct the President, and exchange him for

all the rebel prisoners then in the hands o

the Government ; but that Booth changed this

plan on the eve of its execution, and that
Arnold had no share in the murder. It implicates

Surratt. Full details were given of the mad scheme
by which the President was to be seized, tied,

lowered to the stage, the lights being extinguished,
and when there he was to be carried off by these
madmen. If Dr. Mudd is not implicated, the state-

ment shows he was intimate with Booth.

The

Hon. William M. Evarts will preside at the banque
of the Yale Alumni, to be given at Delmonico's next

Friday.

ROME, Jan. 25, 1869.
Dear Sir,—The Roman season is nearing its
liveliest period; hotels and private lodgings are
full to overflowing. At this moment we are expe-
riencing the greatest degree of cold remembered for
half a century. My servant this morning told me
that a wine cart from Tivoli was found outside the
gate of St. John Lateran, where the horse had drawn
it without a guide, the driver having been frozen
to death on the box. Longfellow's presence is
another excitement. Tasso was crowned with
laurel on the Campidoglio ; Longfellow has been
receiving ovations .„from. pilgrims to Rome from
every nation. I should prefer this to the leaves on
the mad Tasso's brow. The sculptors solicit sittings
to perpetuate the poet in bronze or marble ; the
painters entreat him to allow them to transfer his
picturesque silvery locks and remarkably fine head
to canvas ; the photographers also beset him for his
likeness. A few days since an aeronaut endeavoured
to persuade him to take a place by his side in his ,
balloon, an offer, I believe, he gently declined.
Much feasting has taken place this season in the
capital of the Czesars. A recent entertainment was
given, somewhat in imitation of Lucullus, but some
of the ungrateful guests (one, I think, a retired
courier) complained that the peacock was tough,
the American oysters not over fresh, and the
parrots' tongues crimped in quantity. No
pearls were dissolved, but all acknowledge that
a great amount of gold was melted away to
create some of the dishes on an original plan.
The host departed the following day, leaving
all the consequent negociations to be looked
after by the professors of the medical art; this
art and that of the cook have benefited by the
rich travellers at present here. The American Club
is another novelty in Rome; it was born late in
autumn, but is already old in club life. It gives a
fancy ball next week, and a few days after the ladies
will hold in it a Fancy Fair for the benefit of the ,
poor in Rome. Apropos of this fair, this is a good
place to say a word in honour of the American and
English resident ladies here. The poverty of the
Roman poor could not be seen by our Saxon women
without evoking compassion. They have clubbed
their resources and accumulated a good supply of
articles for distribution. In the evening they meet
at each other's houses, and ply their needles, in-
spired with the hope that thereby there may soon
be fewer rags among the Roman mendicants. As to
critics, dear Mr. Editor, let me give friendly warn-
ing against a species of the race who are teazers
themselves of canvas and clay, and, above all
things, beware of them if they profess to be literary.
One of this genus once asked me if I had read
Horace in the original. I had not. " There," said
he, " you are done for." He wrote up Spikes as a
better landscape painter than I, because he under-
stood the classics in a feeble manner, and myself
he wrote down as Josiah Cuyp. I shall soon have
finished my large view of the volcanic glaciers of
the Ilimmalayah, taken from a balloon. I start
for Naples to-morrow to commence my grand pic-
ture of the interior of the crater of Vesuvius.
Science demands it, art will achieve another
triumph, and enterprise be honoured in the success
of my work. The commission as agreed will bring
me $1.0,000 in gold.

CUYP.

Gov. Chtflin, of Massachusetts, has promoted
Judge Pitman to the Superior Court, vice Judge Vose, de-
ceased. Ire is now practising in New Bedford, and derives
his title from having formerly presided over the police
court of that city. Ile is a strong temperance man, in-
deed he leads the prohibiting party of the State.

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for indigestion, biliousness, faintness,.and flatulency. In
debilitated constitutions and nervous habits these pills are
the best restoratives ; they correct all the unpleasant con-
sequences of torpidity of the liver ; they remove disten-
sion, and never fail to obviate all obstructions of the bowels
and to induce their regular action. In all abdominal ail-
ments Holloway's pills are the safest possible medicine ;
they at once give ease and comfort and naturally strengthen
the Ivholo series of organs concerned in the powers of di-
potion, and will 1e :quad useful in every household.

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
(FIRST NOTICE.)
My Adventures Afloat in the Sumter and Alabama.
By Admiral Raphael Semmes.
This book will furnish pleasant reading for the
British public about to pay the bill for the de-
predations so boastfully described. We must
bear testimony to the consideration of Admiral
Semmes for those to whom he has proved so costly
a caterer, and John Bull will perhaps treasure all
he gets from the gallant officer (this book) when
he learns what an expensive animal he has been
to him. IVhether these two square flat volumes
will prove a balm of Gilead under the cruel cir-
cumstances we do not predict, but if abuse of " the
Yankee," " the vile Puritan breed," can console,
the English reader will here have it to his heart's
content. The author is the Admirable Crichton
of the seas—he is the Bayard sans pear et sans re-
proche of the waters ; and it is interesting to gaze
upon the features which adorn the frontispiece
when one knows the amount of chivalry there em-
bodied. We are not, however, about to follow the
Admiral's lead, although nothing would be more
easy than to write in his sneering and abusive
strain. What strikes us most is the intense conceit
of the man ; a shield whie'l we have no
doubt has proved of inestimable value against
the.. darts of his enemies, while it is a good
conductor of the flattery of his friends. His
preface is dated "The Anchorage, near Mo-
bile, Dec., 1868," so we presume he has written
in America all this abuse of Americans, and he fur-
nishes us, just as the Irish demagogues do, with a
complete answer, in the impunity with which they
write and speak to the allegations made. There are
always two sides to a question, both of which, if
we want to understand the subject, it is necessary
to see. Such books, then, do good, as, not without
literary merit, they help to show the ruling party
in America, as well as the world, not only
what can be said against the North, but put forth
another view of the particular matter in dispute—
the Alabama claims. Nay more ; they teach Ame-
ricans the danger of accepting partizan statements
of foreign quarrels ; for what is to prevent other
aspiring nationalities from following in perverting
and misrepresenting the other side, as does Admiral
Semmes, who makes a war which freed four millions
of islaves appear to have been dictated by the vilest
motives. But the author has the best right to
tell the story of his own proceedings, because
he knows most about them ; and those who desire
to follow him in his cruises will do well to skip his
first brief historical retrospect, his second brief
historical retrospect, and all the other retrospects
and arguments which intervene and follow, proving,
if they prove anything, that Semmes can come out
in another character besides sea captain, that of a sea
lawyer. Yet, while he so readily takes up the role
of the pleader and the historian, he denies the power
of any but a sailor bred to arms to write the history
of the Alabama. Neither in feeling nor in profes-
sional knowledge could any other be competent,
though the Admirable Crichton himself is equal to
any occasion. It is not therefore surprising that
he declares all previous efforts " miserable failures,"
not excepting that of the London house of Saunders,
Ottley, and Co., to whom he lent his journal, ex-
pecting something better than the trashy produc-
tion of which no one could suppose him to have
written one line. In his preface he says, " The
people of America being sovereign, they are like
other sovereigns ; they like those best who fool them
most, by pandering to their vices, and flattering
their foibles. The author, not being a flatterer,
cannot expect to be much of a favourite at the
Court of the Demos." As might be expected in the
historical retrospects, &c., &c., we have all the
old stock arguments of the South, and all the in-
consistent resolutions of the North. It never seems
to strike these people unless indeed they desire
purposely to conceal the fact that resolutions
will change as the quarrel progresses, and in the
nature of things must so change. We all desire to
play the game—" Heads, I win ; tails, you lose ;"
while we strongly object to the little game being
played on ourselves. The resolutions taken by
Congress, and announced by President Lincoln
when the war commenced, were those of men who
desired to avert the enormous bloodshed which en-
sued and which some foresaw. But if the mild con-
ditions the one party offer be spurned by the other
the propositions are cancelled ; and it is absurd for
the defeated to revert to such resolutions as proof of
dishonestintentions and great inconsistency, who re-
jected them when passed with disdain and fought
the fight to the bitter end. Having lost, it would
doubtless be pleasant to go back to the early inten-
tions of many timorous Congressional leaders.
After describing the fitting out of the Sumter in the
early days of the war, the author thus alludes to
England's part in the blockade then instituted and
her recognition of the South as a belligerent :
" Indeed Great Britain could do nothing less
(than declare a strict neutrality of the unequal ope-
ration of which he complains elsewhere). In re-
cognizing the war which had broken out between
the sections as a war, and not as a mere insurrec-
tion, she had only followed the lead o
f Mr. Lincoln
himself. Efforts had been made, it is true, both by
Mr. Lincoln and his Secretary of State, to convince
the European Governments that the job which they
had on their hands was a small affair—a mere
family quarrel, of no great significance. But the
truth would not be suppressed, and when at last it
became necessary to declare the Confederate ports
in a state of blockade, and to send ships of war
thither, to enforce the declaration, the sly little
game they had been playing was all up with them.
A blockade was an act of war, which came under
the cognilance of the laws of nations. It concerned
neutrals as well as belligerents, and foreign nations
were bound to take notice of it. It followed that
there could not be a blockade without a war, and it
equally followed that there could not be a war with-
out at least two belligerent parties to it. It will
thus be seen that the declaration of neutrality of
Great Britain was a logical sequence of Mr. Lin-
coln's and Mr. Seward's own act. And yet with
sullen and singular inconsistency the Northern Go-
vernment has objected, from that day to this, to this
mere routine act of Great Britain. So much was
this considered as a matter of course at the time
that all the other Powers of the earth, of sufficient
dignity to act in the premises at all, followed the
example set them by Great Britain and issued
similar declarations, and the four years of bloody
war that followed justified the wisdom of their
acts."

Alluding to the escape of the Sumter, for which
' Captain Poor of the Brooklyn was blamed, the author
says : " He had only permitted his cupidity to draw
him away from his station. He had chased a prize
in his eagerness to clutch the prize-money a little
too far—that was all. But in this he sinned only
in common with his countrymen. The thirst of
gain, as well as the malignity of hate, seemed, from
the very first days of the war, to have seized upon
the majority of the Northern people. The army and
the navy, professions hitherto held honourable, did
not escape the contamination. They were soon
found, first plundering, then maliciously burning,
private houses. The spectacle of cotton-thieving
was more than once presented by the highest digni-
taries of the two services—the admiral quarrelling
with the general, as ignoble rogues are wont to
quarrel as to which rightly pertained the booty."
Thus he describes the first prize : " Resuming our
course, we now stood for the other sail, which, by
this time, there was no mistaking ; she being
plainly American, although she had not yet shown
her colours. A gun soon brought these to the peak ;
when, as 1 expected, the stars and stripes unfolded
themselves gracefully to the breeze. Here was our
first prize, and a most welcome sight it was. The
capture, I find, on looking over my notes, was re-
corded in a few lines, barren of all incident or re-
mark, except only that the doomed ship was from
the Black Republican State of Maine.' When I
had fired the gun as a command to the stranger to
heave to and show his colours, I had hauled down
the Englishand hoisted my own flag. The stars and
stripes seemed now to look abashed in the presence
of the new banner of the South, pretty much as a
burglar might be supposed to look when caught in
the act of breaking into a gentleman's house ; but