The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-12 00:00:00

thereto, in which he alludes to other subjects men-
tioned therein, he does not deny the allegation that
he has been paid $1,700, but maintains a discreet
silence on that point. What is the natural in-
ference from his failure to deny this damning
charge? Is it not clear that he could not deny it
because the charge is true ? There appears to be,
then, ample proof on the face of the proceedings
that Mr. Waterbury did not bring this action for
himself, but has been induced to bring it in the
interest of the old companies.
The effect of the action has been to stir up the
stockholders in the Merchants' Union Company to
new exertions, and that effect has teen made appa-
rent by the satisfactory manner in which the call
for additional payments en the stock has been
responded to. Another effect has been to throw
the sympathies of the public entirely on the side of
the new company, and thus to render its success
almost certain. Public meetings have been held at
various points throughout the country, at which the
cause of the Merchants' Union Company has been
warmly advocated, and the course of the old com-
panies denounced. Whatever, therefore, may be
the immediate termination of the contest, one thing
is certain—that the fierce opposition of the old
monopolies to any competition will make competi-
tion certain ; and should the Merchants' Union
Company be forced into liquidation to-morrow, a
new company would soon be formed to occupy the
field and to prevent the old companies from reaping
that golden harvest which they expect to reap when
they are again a gigantic monopoly.

Miscellaneous Foreign News•

The close cf the session was marked by some
snarling in the Senate and some confusion in the House.
In the Senate Messrs. Chandler and Fessenden had a
regular " sot-to "in the old-fashioned style, in which
"scorn" was flung to and fro with great vigour. The
amount of this commodity which is consumed in
Congress in the course of a single session during the
"spicy" personal debates would astonish the public if it
could be sot down in figures. Mr. Fessenden, be-
sides being very conservative in temperament, is
rather tart in manner, but has a sharp, clear, busi-
noss mind, and marches straight to the point with
precision. The small amount of sympathy existing between
such a man, and Radicals like Messrs. Sumner and
Chandler can bo readily imagined, and Mr. Sumner, in
particular, has undergone several severe maulings at his
bands, many of them entirely unprovoked, and all borne
with great patience and good temper. When Mr.
Chandler and Mr. Fessenden attempt to work together,
however, the scene very much resembles the efforts of an
Austrian drill-sergeant to put a bashi-bazouk through the
manual of arms. With Mr. Chandler's peculiar style of
warfare, and his particular " ideas," most people are
familiar, and few, therefore, will be surprised to learn that
when he is not extravagant ho is abusive, and that in this
last bout with Mr. Fessenden he was both.-I'he Nation.
" How, for instance," asked our London cor-
respondent last week, " will you deal with Mormonism ?"
Mr. Bowles has answered, "Run the Pacific Railroad
through Salt Lake City." That expedient will be tried
presently; but the Mormonism of Brigham Young is at
this moment exposed to greater dangers from within
greater, even, than if the Government were to forbid the
importation of Scandinavians into the country. The
anti-polygamous branch of Mormondom which was re-
united in 1860 by Joseph Smith, jun., and has now its
seat at Plano, Illinois, the State which bloodily expelled
the original founder and his followers, is making
proselytes not only in Europe, but even in Utah.
Tho "Josephites" denounee the " Brighamites," and
if the martyr's son wore not afraid of turning
martyr himself, he would undoubtedly contest the
primacy of the faithful in the Salt Lake tabernacle.
Within the immediate sphere of Brigham Young's despotic
authority little has as yet been accomplished ; but outside
the City of the Saints the Illinois emissaries are preaching
with some success, and do good service in meeting and
turning back the fresh accessions to the Utah colony.
About a month ago Brigham, we quote from The Vidette,
an eye-witness, "boldly and openly announced that
Amasa Lyman, Orson Hyde, and Orson Pratt had apos-
tatised and were cut off from the Church." These
three men were then, or had been, members of the
Quorum of Twelve—the Apostolic body that ranks
second in the Mormon hierarchy—and Lyman was
actually their president. Pratt is returning from a
missionary tour in England, and the other two are in
Southern Utah beyond Brigham's reach. They aro ac-
counted among the ablest and most intelligent members
of the Church, which they have aided powerfully to sus-
tain_ We do not, rather that they were really heretics,
but it is possible they could not brook Brigham's intention
to make the Presidency hereditary in his own lino, and
nothing would be more natural, in order to divest them-
selves of the appearance of selfish motives, than to take up
the complaint of usurpation preferred by the Josephites
against Brigham, in behalf of their present leader, the
lawful and ordained heir of the martyr. no-- r- '•
. reporten, and, the issue of the
struggle deserves to be watched by the tra,ns•Atlantic
pupils of Mr. Hepworth Dixon.
THE EMPRESS CHARLOTTE.—Quoting from a
Trieste letter the Memorial .Diplornatique says that the
physicians were unanimous in recommending the Queen
of the Belgians to spare her sister-in -law from any great
excitement on the occasion of their first meeting after a
long separation. At the sight of her Majesty the Empress
appeared more surprised than moved. Her peculiar saga-
city caused her instinctively to comprehend that some
great event had occurred when she who had been so long
kept in complete isolation was allowed once more to
embrace a beloved relative, but fearing, doubtless,
to learn too speedily the irreparable loss she had
sustained, she made no inquiry at the first inter-
view for information concerning the Emperor Maxi-
milian. She rather appeared to study the countenance
of the Queen, in order to detect some ground for hope or
alarm. The Queen was attired in half mourning only,
with the object of occasioning as little excitement as pos-
sible on the mind of the august sufferer. But the latter
the next morning perceived from the window of the apart-
ment that the Queen's attendants were in deep mourning,
and immediately understood the extent of her misfortune,
without, however, exhibiting her deep emotion further
than by a melancholy which was the more affecting that
it was not expressed in ,-.-ords. It could not be doubted
that the Empress no longer entertained any illusion as to
the fate of her husband, although no ono had ventured to
reveal it to her. Her calm resignation was a sufficient
proof of her knowledge of the sad event.
MEXICO.—The Republic of Mexico, after the
loss of some of its finest provinces, comprises an area of
750,000 square miles—more than treble the area of France.
Tho population exceeds 8,000,000, made up in unequal pro-
portions, difficult to fix, of Creole, or whites of Spanish
descent, the dominant class ; Indians, or indigenous
Mexicans ; and mongrels, half-breeds, or mixed races. The
Indians computed at two-thirds of the whole, a subject and
submissive race, count for little or nothing in the political
scale; although they now and then sent forth a successful
competitor for power. Juarez and Almonto are Indians.
The prominent feature in the social and political system is
the Church—the Roman Catholic Church, with (till very
recently) more wealth, more influence, and more corruption
than in any other quarter of the world at any period.
Spanish bigotry, combining with Indian superstition, has
hero produced results which stagger credulity. Prior to
1861 more than half the productive land of the country
was held in mortmain by the religious corporations Or the
clergy ; their property being roughly estimated at
$300,000,000, and their revenue at $20,000,000
(£4,000,000 sterling), double the revenue of the state.
In the city of Mexico alone, they possessed 2,000 houses,
which they were in the habit of letting; and there
is hardly a *Own which is not half made up of
churches, convents, or ecclesiastical buildings of some
sort. Schools aro singularly scarce, the Mexican priesthood
having an instinctive dread of education ; and they have
boon remarkably successful in preserving their flocks from
the mischievous taint of knowledge. Indeed many of the
working clergy are little superior in this respect to the
Indians, who are permitted by their spiritual guides to
confound the most revolting practices of their traditional
superstitions with Christianity.—Fraser's Magazine.
Some two months since a gunner of the Royal
Artillery, stationed at Woolwich garrison, made a circum-
stantial confession of a murder committed by him at Now
York about four years ago. The man was kept a prisoner
at the barracks until last week, when an announcement was
received from the Secretary of State that no further pro-
' eeeding would bo taken against him, as after making in-
quiries the representative of the American Government in
this country declined to prosewite. The self-accused
murderer has therefore been set at liberty, and has returned
to his duty in the regiment.
S!LVER MINING IN TILE UNITED ST RTES.—It may
not unlikely prove to bo the case that our silver field.; will
[rove to be richer than our gold fields. True, silver mines
are far more inexhaustible than gold mines. The veins do
not run out. Those of Konigsbur,g, Norway, whose ore is
seldom more than an inch wide, have been followed to the
depth of 1,800 feet, and aro now worked at a large profit.
The mines of Freyburg, Saxony, have been worked for
700 years, and are now 2,880 feet deep. They have yielded
over a thousand millions of dollars. The celebrated mines
of Potosi have yielded more than sixteen thousand millions
of dollars, and their richest parts are untouched. Accord-
ing to Humboldt the silver mines of Mexico produced in
two hundred years after their discovery twenty-five
hundred and seventy millions of dollars. Of these
mines the San Dumas yielded in twenty-five years
as many millions of dollars ; the annual dividend
of the Pavillion has been six times as great ; the Tem-
perate has yielded in seven months $5,000,000 ; and
the San Avasco in three years $51,000,000. Our own
mines, thouoelt in their infancy, c')li'l'avo faVottrably with