The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-22 00:00:00

Miscellaneous Foreign News.

On the 10th ult. the Peace Commissioners met
the representatives of the Brule, Cheyenne, and
Ogallalla Indians. The scene was dramatic,
the Indians being painted, each commissioner
being placed between two chiefs, the whole
meeting smoking in silence the Calamut
of Peace. " Swift-Bear," a Brule chief,
opened tha conference. Commissioner Taylor next
spoke, then Big-Moutb, Cold-Face, Cut-Nose,
Crazy-Lodge, Pawnee-Killer, Whistler, Standing-
Elk, Spotted-Tail, Turkey .Foot, Man-that-Walks-
Under - the - Ground, and Maxi - Afraid -of - his-
Horses. The great speech was delivered by the
gigantic savage Big - Mouth. The conference
ended in no definite result, except the presents
carried off by the Red Indians. The Peace Com-
missioners then proceeded to Fort Lamed,
where 1,400 of the tribes await them. In
the meantime the war proceeds, and an affair has
occurred between a troop of cavalry and a band
of Snake Indians in Oregon, in which the savages
were defeated, twenty-six being killed and fifteen
captured. Black-Hawks, chief of the Utes in Utah,
acting on the express wish of his tribe, has pledged
himself to stop hostilities. General Shuman re-
fused to abandon the Smoky Hill and Powder
River roads, the principal demand of the Indians,
and he offered to convey a party to the Eastern
States to enable them to judge of and to report to
their brethren what they were fighting against.
At the same time be threatened, if hostilities were
not abandoned, to let loose the soldiers as thick
as buffaloes to sweep the whole country.
Senator Thayer, of Nebraska, at a Republican
meeting at Cincinnati, on the 21st ult., made a sen-
sational statement, which has excited general atten-
tion throughout the Union. He said :—" I declare
upon my responsibility as a Senator of the United
States that to-day Andrew Johnson meditates and
designs forcible resistance to the authority of Con-
gress. I make this statement deliberately, having
received it from unquestioned and unquestionable
authority." This statement was supplemented by
Senator Howard, of Michigan, who, in a letter to
the Detroit Tribune, expressed his belief in the
President's intention to use the militia of Mary-
land and other border States to carry out his
nefarious designs. The militia of Maryland
consists of about 10,000 men, of whom 4,600 are
in Baltimore. The State authorities reduced their
demand on the Government to artillery alone,
making no call for muskets, converting all into the
one supply of field-pieces. At the same time they
ordered new Springfield muskets for the infantry
soldiers, which, with equipment, cost $23 per man.
It is estimated that the force will require an ex-
penditure in this way of $500,000. General
Grant has, however, refused the artillery. Both
officers and men are said to be returned Confede-
rate soldiers, and to be clad in the grey uni-
form. The activity of Maryland, in thus
(with its dilapidated finances) expending so large
a sum has excited general suspicion, and gives rise
to these rumours. The Democrats not only deny
their truth, but declare that the coming rebellion
was to be found in the opposite direction. The
grand army of the Republic since the Pitts-
burgh Convention has assumed large proportions,
and not only have the negroes been steadily
and rapidly enrolling, but the militia of the
Northern States have been so officered that it might
be employed by the Radicals. These reports
neutralise each other, and probably contain an
equal amount of truth.
A second report is about to bo issued on the
Pacific Mines, which will contain copious descrip-
tions of the agricultural and mineral resources of
Utah, Montana, Idaho, Washington Territory,
Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. For
many months a body of scientific men have been
engaged in compiling it, and it will embrace the
information obtained by the following gentlemen :
Dr. A. Blatchley, on Utah, Montana, and Idaho ;
Mr. W. S. Keyes, on the Argento and adjacent dis-
tricts of Montana ; Mr. W. Lair Hill, on Oregon ;
Mr. Ainsworth, President of the Oregon Steam Na-
vigation Company, on the river Columbia and its
tributaries ; Mr. Edward Evans on Washington
Territory ; Mr. John S. Hittell, on the Mining
Districts of California ; Mr. R. 11. Stretch, Dr.
Henry de Groot, and Myron Angel, on the State
of Nevada ; Governor M'Cormick, on Arizona ;
Mr. Henry C. Bennett, on the Miscellaneous Re-
sources of the Pacific Coast. The Commissioner,
J. Ross Browne has himself visited Sinaloa and
Lower California, the principal districts of Upper
California, Oregon, Washington Territory, and
British Columbia, collecting valuable information.
An interesting Report on the Geology and Mine-
ralogy of Lower California, by Professor IV. M.
Gabb, will be embodied, as well as a paper, by Pro-
fessor Whitney, on South-Western Nevada and the
Pahranagat Region, where he is now engaged.
Mr. J. Ross Browne left San Francisco for Wash-
ington early this month to present his report in
person.

Europe will soon be fully informed on the closing
events of Maximilian's career. His counsel, the
American advocate, Mr. Frederick Hall, is writing
a history of Maximilian in Mexico and Prince Salm
Salm an account of the siege of Queretaro. We
are promised, besides, the correspondence with
Napoleon 111. and Marshal Bazaine. Lopez has
published a defence, asserting that his enemies
have endeavoured to divert attention from their
delinquencies by fastening treachery on him. He
says that the Emperor was captured at some distance
from the town at the head of his troops, among whom
were 430 cavalry men, drawn up in line of battle.
Diaz is becoming the popular candidate for the
Presidency of Mexico, nearly all the newspapers
denouncing Juarez. The Constitutional expresses
itself with a freedom that at least speaks well for
the liberty of the press :—" The apostle of
progress, ; the administrator of law, the crea-
ture of the Constitution—this Juarez—pro-
poses to set up his will, to rend the flag he has
clutched," &c.; " he has seized the axe of revolution,"
&c. Juarez has turned to the Church party for
support. The Northern States were still in insur-
rection, and a telegram has announced the capture
of Monterey by the insurgents. Senor Romero,
the Mexican Minister at Washington, had been
entertained at a public banquet by the citizens of
New York previous to his return, when letters
were read from Seward, Grant, and Thaddeus
Stevens, expressing to him their sympathy with the
Mexican Republic. Mr. Otterburgh, the American
Minister at Mexico, bad left, and the charge of the
Legation had devolved on Consul Cripps.

Frank Leslie says:—" In Salt Lake City they
have a theatre which is said to be conducted upon new
principles, and to have attained a success no less surprising
than the growth of that city itself. It is a part of the
Mormon faith to make use of the theatre as an educational
instrument as well as a simple moans of enjoyment. Who
knows but that from the remote West wo may yet, by a
sort of reflex influence, obtain the theatrical school, which
will be as distinctly American as the Opera &intro is
French."

-Ml! es tells us :—" George Sands realised about
$BO,OOO on her plays.—Sardou, the author of Fainille
13enoiton,' has received from it nearly $30,000. —Paul
Fevel, the author of La Bossu,' known hero as the
Duke's Motto,' made by it s24,ooo.—Ponsard $12,000 in
advance for his last piece. But the above are the prophets
of dramatic literature.

" The Worrell Sisters have played in Brooklyn
to full and fashionable houses at the Academy. These young
ladies are now in Boston rehearsing for their advent before
the Bostonians on Monday evening next. _ _

" Major-General Tecumseh Sherman visited the
circus at Omaha, and being recognised by the clown, who
was one of the celebrated Sherman Bummers,' was
enthusiastically seized uud introduced to the iufant pro-
digy, La Bello Equestrienne and the pig-faced lady. Such
are the pleasures of fame."
There has been iu the Dostoa Advertiser A very

neat tilt between a correspondent, signing himself " G. 11.
G.," and Mr. Boutwoll, the former assailing and the latter
defending the claim of Congress to take from tho Presi-
dent the duty of directly executing the laws. Mr. Bout-
well's reply is very telling, except on ono point, which he
altogether overlooks, and in which " G. 11. G." makes the
most effective hit; and that iF, if the President may not
(as Mr. Boutwell shows) decide on the constitutionality of
an act of Congress, and the making of a case for the
Supreme Court be forbidden, military government being
substituted for civil, how is the constitutionality of a law
to be tested ? If it cannot be tested at all, what is the
value of the Constitution except as advice to Congress ?
There is probably no difficulty in the reconstruction pro-
cess Ns hich troubles so many people as this one, and there
is only ono way of meeting it., as we have more than once
pointed out in these columns—but it is one to which the
Radical leaders, for reasons of policy, are - reluctant to re-
sort—and that is by frankly avowing that the crisis is so
tremendous that the majority has taken upon itself to do
whatever the occasion plainly calls for, constitutional or
unconstitutional.—The Nation.

NEGRO CAPACI7Y.

-~-

It is a marvellous fact that the capacity of the
negro race should in the present day be as hotly
disputed as the qualities of a gorilla. The negro
has inhabited Africa from time immemorial. For
centuries the race has been associated with Euro-
peans—in some places free, but more generally as
slaves. In the Northern States negroes are born, grow
up, and die among their white fellow-citizens. In
the Southern States the association has been much
more intimate, for not only have they been among
them, but of them, living in their houses, administer-
ing to their wants, cultivating their fields, and in-
deed exciting that keen interest that always attaches
to property. In the Mauritius English planters have
been associated with the African from one side of the
Continent, and in the West Indies with the African
from the other side. The Anglo-Saxon has known
them in slavery and in freedom--under the English,
under the French, under the American, and under
their own rule. English travellers have penetrated
into all parts of Africa, and published voluminous
accounts descriptive of the people. Yet but lately
a fierce controversy was carried on in the columns of
the English press with reference to negro capacity,
when those who ought to be best informed agreed
to differ. Southerners positively assert that
Northerners know nothing of the negro character,
that all their acts have been based on misconcep-
tions, which some day they will bitterly regret, for
that they have led, and will hereafter lead, to fearful
results. The Northerner maintains that prejudice
and self-interested motives unfit the Southerner to
form a dispassionate estimate, that a missionary who
has lived and laboured among the blacks is a much
better qualified judge, and that they differ widely
in their opinions on this subject from the Southern
planter. Dr. SANFORD B. HUNT wrote an essay for
the United States Sanitary Commission, which has
just been re-published in a quarterly, on the negro
as a soldier. When Dr. ITurr gathered his facts
the war was raging. When the employment of
negro troops was first proposed, a bucket-load of
doubts was dashed on the proposition. Had the
negro the physique to endure hardship ? had ho the
necessary courage in action ? could he master the
details of drill and be handled when the knowledge
was required on the battle-field ? could he be con-
trolled when fairly aroused by bloodshed and in an
enemy's country ? Dr. HUNT answers these ques-
tions satisfactorily in the negro's favour, and by
reference to facts. The coloured man has a natural
aptitude for drill. Notwithstanding the formation
of his foot, which it was held would make him a bad
walker, experience proves that he marches as
well as any other soldier. He cannot stand
against the white in enduring fatigue, but he can
endure hunger for a much longer period. Ile
forages well and feeds largely, but shows no pecu-
liar tendency to diseases of the alimentary tract.
He bears injuries and recovers from them as well as
the white soldier. Gangrene is of rare occurrence ;
pneumonia, pleuro-pneumonia, and measles are
more frequent and fatal among negroes than among
whites, and the black is found by experience to be
as liable as the white to bilious, typhoid, and malarial
fevers. Nostalgia is unknown, and Dr. IIuNT sums
up by mentioning only two disqualifications which
a lengthened trial has disclosed, viz., a greater lia-
bility to pulmonary and exanthematous diseases and
lack of education. So far the negro has shown an
inferiority, but this inferiority is nothing approach-
ing the degree anticipated. The true point of
interest, however, does not lie in the negro's mili-
tary capacity, but in the qualities he developes in
his changed position in the South. The New York
Nation of Oct. 3 says :—" The negroes are disap-
pointing friends and enemies. They are every day
coming into possession of land in all the Gulf
States; they are working steadily and faithfully ;
the Bureau banks are bursting with their
savings ; they are filling all the official posi-
tions in which they have been placed with
modesty and efficiency; they are rapidly acquir-
ing education and political insight, and it is safe to
say that half the land of the South is passing under
the sheriff's hammer, and will soon be in possession
of new men, on whom the traditions of the olden
time have no hold, and whose labours will soon
bring the South into the rank of civilised, modernised
communities, and get rid of the question which for
thirty years has cursed American politics. We may
then look for a period of great prosperity, and of
revived attention to the study and practice of social
science."

But is the Nation a sound authority on this sub-
ject? We believe that no journal in America is
more honestly edited. It has the best means of
procuring information on such points, and that in-
formation, whether for or against its own theories,
will be truthfully given. Tho experience of the
English in the West Indies is not encouraging, nor
is the history of negro rule in St. Domingo. No
negro nation has yet taken a place in the world as a
civilised people ; everywhere they have been the
servant or the slave ; not alone to men of the Cau-
casian race, but to all with whom they have mixed.
The Jew—hated, oppressed, despised—has lived
through long centuries, rising everywhere superior
to such treatment, and never sinking to servitude,
but always proudly asserting his superiority to the
Gentile. Here, then, we have the contrast be-
tween the innate superiority and the innate degra-
dation. But, on the other hand, the settlement of
Liberia appears to have been a success, and the
decay of the West Indies preceded emancipation,
arising perhaps from causes wholly independent of
that measure. Nor, physically, is the mental power
far inferior to that of the people who, above all
others, boast of their "brain." The negro brain,
supposing the intellectual capacity can be measured
by cubic contents, shows that the average white
man has an advantage over the negro of
2.74 ounces, or about 5/ per cent., though the
experiments have neither been complete nor ex-
haustive. Few nations have developed a capa-
city for self-government, and the negro failures
have certainly not equalled those of the Spaniard.
The question is one of momentous interest to
America. If the negro works, saves, studies, can
be trusted in official and commercial positions, and
above all concedes--for he will find out the truth
of the saying that concession is the essence of
politics—then we may indeed hope that not only
will a great danger be averted, but, in general
emancipation, a great good has been achieved. No
more interesting problem has ever been offered to
the world, nor one whose effects ar3 likely to be
more generally felt. A million of men, emancipated
slaves, have simultaneously had their shackles
struck off and their votes recorded. Without a
period of transition they have passed from the
most degrading slavery to a freedom seldom allowed
to mankind. Broadly the question means
either a war of races or the resuscitation of the
South. if the. negro takes his place as a hard-
working citizen, without pushing his pretensions
beyond the bounds of prudence, a splendid career will
re-open for the Southern States, the agricultural
mart of the world. Cotton will again erect its
throne with no false idol seated thereon styling
itself King. Corn, tobacco, rice, and sugar will
again pour in abundance from Southern ports over
Europe and the North. This is the one picture,
while the other is too horrible to contemplate. The
symptoms then which show the negro to be truly
represented by the Nation will be universally hailed
with satisfaction, as the dawn—after a period of
dreadful trial--of a brighter day on the sunny South,
which may yet realise Lundy 's Dream.--Ang/o-
, American Times.

SAN FRANCISCO.

The most rising city in the world is San Fran-
cisco. It is a marvel, outstripping in its progress
and in its future the wildest dreams of an enthu-
siast. At this moment Sau Francisco is the Queen
of the Pacific. Yet San Francisco of to-day is but
a poor village compared to what the San Francisco
of the few years hence is likely to be. It is almost
impossible to name a production that is not forth-
coming, or that cannot be raised on the Pacific
slopes of the Rocky Mountains. This city is the
centre not only of a vast agricultural district, of a
mining territory compared with which all others ou
earth sink into insignificance, but it also holds a

position which dominates the greatest of oceans. It
is the store-house of precious metals ; from its barns
every port receives grain ; it is the centre to which
the commerce of Asia and all the Pacific islands,
great and small, including Australia, will radiate ; it
is the station where hereafter every ono must halt who
travels between the far East and West. The grape,
of which there arc 300 varieties, grow in such pro-
fusion and excellence that California cannot fail to
become the greatest wine-country of the world.
Already its hock and muscatel, its white wine and
port, its Angelica and brandy, are sold throughout
the States. More than three and a half million
sacks of wheat, valued at $6,750,000, have been
shipped from San Francisco since January. Two
millions of sheep are spread over the pastures, im-
proving and increasing at a rate which promises ere
long to place California at the head of pastoral dis-
tricts. Whether it be grain or tobacco, sugar or
fruit, we find the same overflowing abundance, and
these wonderful gifts are in the hands of the most
enterprising of people. Two hundred flour mills
are in operation ; scores of foundries are turning
out machinery, not for domestic use only, but
for export to all surrounding countries. Sugar, cord-
age, chemicals, powder, woollens, cottons, tweeds,
even paper, are there manufactured. Every day
produces a new invention. The ingenuity of the
American is here most fully brought into play.
Labour is expensive, and labour-saving machinery
is the peculiar product of the Yankee brain.
Isolated from the greatest and most civilised por-
tions of the earth, by barriers hitherto considered
almost impenetrable, California has accomplished
these results, at once erecting herself into an agri-
cultural and manufacturing country. When,
then, these barriers have been penetrated by
the Pacific Railroad, the obstacles subdued,
and the link established which is to connect
San Francisco with the civilised nations of the
earth, what is to be the future of this wonderful
city ? Whether from Hong Kong or from New
Zealand, from Borneo or Japan, the traveller to
Europe will then have to strike for San Francisco.
These places will become so many outlying depen-
dencies having their centre at this port. San
Francisco will be the gate through which
the Pacific will communicate with the At-
lantic. That all the countries of the North
Pacific should find their most direct route through
San Francisco is sufficiently intelligible, but all may
not be aware that from Sydney or from Wellington
the distance to San Francisco is shorter than to
Panama. From Wellington the run is 5,861
nautical miles, or 700 less than to Panama; there-
fore the Panama line of steamers will see their in-
terest, when the Pacific Railway is finished, in
making San Francisco their eastern terminus in-
stead of Panama, thus reducing the time between
the ports from 27 days to 25. The navigation
is equally easy ; Tahite lying exactly in the course
2,200 miles from New Zealand. A writer in a New
Zealand paper, who had just made the voyage via
Panama, strongly advocates this change. lie gives
the time as follows :

Wellington to San Francisco 25 days.
San Francisco to New York 5 If
New York to London
making a total of 42 days for the mail, and for pas-
sengers the option of passing as quickly or as lei-
surely as it suits them through a most varied and
interesting country in the latitude which marks the
finest weather on the globe. If the distance be
shorter from New Zealand—the most southern of
inhabited lands of the Pacific—those of the north,
approaching, as they do, the latitude of San Fran-
cisco, must be shorter still. Hence San Francisco
becomes not only the best shipping port, but the
most direct. The Central Pacific Railroad, par-
tially open as it is, gives proof of what its earnings
will become when completed. For last month its
receipts were $200,400, and the net profit $161,638
in gold, not greenbacks. The energy with
which the huge difficulties of the line are overcome
is characteristic of the Californians. It has been
pushed on with amazing vigour, for the people are
aware that their own industry, coupled with the
extraordinary advantages of their country, cannot
produce their full results until this work is accom-
plished.— Anglo-American Times.

00UNTRY MARKETS.

COLCIIESTER—OcT. 19.

This market was moderately supplied with wheat to-
day, and the business done was at is to 2s per qr under last
week's prices. Barley was in fait supply, and prices 10
dearer. Beans and peas wore unaltered.
Wheat, white 74s 80s Beans, 425
red 70s 74s Middle and small-.44s 988
Barley 4os 49s Peas, white 38s 425
Oats -s , grey .......365 920