The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-27 00:00:00

Til E SUN, LON DOY. TUESIJAY EV ENING AUGUST 27, 1.867.;1

Miscellaneous Foreign. News.

Secretary M'Culloch, on the 7th instant, pub-
lished a statement of the Public Debt of the United
States, as it appeared on his books on the Ist
August, 1867, of which the following is the abstract :
c.
Debt bearing gold interest ... 1,678,906,691 80
Debt bearing paper interest ... 574,964,855 0
Debt on which interest has ceased 15,636,815 87
Debt without interest ... 417,177,533 72
Total debt, August 1 2,686,685,896 39

papers are filled with stories of Indian outrages and
depredations.
In Louisiana 42,662 whites and 79,129 blacks
have registered, which gives the blacks the control

of that State. In Alabama the whole number re-

gistcred is 112,400, of whom 65,700 are blacks,
giving the majority also in that State to the
negroes. At Savannah, Georgia, the white voters
registered number 2,269, and the blacks 3,062.
Registration is to commence at once in South Caro-
lina, the post commanders acting as superintendents.

General Iloward, chief of the Freedmen's bureau,
has been named for the Presidency, and it is sup-

posed that he will have a strong negro backing.
Great complaints have been made in Tennessee that
negro labourers who voted the Republican ticket have
been dischargel by their Conservative employers.

An additional burden has thus been thrown on the

Freedmen's bureau to find eniployment for these

destitute labourers. Thaddeus Stevens has written

:o state that at the next se:siou of Congress he will

,ntroduce a bill to confiscate the property of

Southern employers who have dismissed freedmen
for voting for Republican candidates. Coolies have

been imported into the Southern States, three or
four cargoes having arrived from Havanna, and

been placed on plantations in Louisiana. The At-
torney-General is preparing instructions for the

United States District attorneys on this subject, the

nature of which are as yet unknown.

At West Point a board, composed of army
officers, has lately been sitting to consider General
Emory Upton's new system of infantry tactics. The
United States' troops, both regulars and volunteers,

have hitherto been drilled on Hardy and Casey's
system. General Upton's combines infantry and
cavalry tactics, giving greater facility and rapidity
to movement, with extreme simplicity. The
method which the West Point board is expected
to adopt makes of four men the unit upon which

company's movements are formed. The rear rank
are correspondingly numbered. Each group of
eight men moves and acts together as a separate
section. When on the march the column is in

fours, and the line is formed by wheeling the fours,
right or left. The old division into platoons and
sections is abandoned, and only those evolutions re-
tained whose value has been tested by actual service.

We confess that we do not understand the value of

the new system of tactics, from the few remarks we
have seen, basing movements on this unit of fours
rank and file. If the column be on the march in
their sections of fours, right in front, and line is
formed by wheeling the fours to the right, it follows
that the line and companies are inverted, as we are
informed that the fours arc told off from right to
left. How is this remedied ? How is the front in-

creased ? Some years ago the unit of British in

fantry was threes a radically bad system. For
simplicity there is no formation equal to fours,
formed as in the British army. After General Up-
ton's experience it is scarcely probable that he
woull propose other than a highly practical system,
and if he did a board of competent officers would
not approve it. It is calculated that a line of a
a single rank, armed with breechloaders, would be
more destructive in its fire than the double line
with muzzle-loaders, and the new system gives
great facilities for forming rank entire. The bat-
talion, brigade, and division drill and discipline are
said to be brief, concise, and intelligent. Many
improvements are also said to be introduced into
skirmish drill.