The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-25 00:00:00

proached with having done nothing at this session,
has offered a hastily and crudely prepared bill to
establish military governments in the South, partly
superseding the present State governments and
partly not. It is supposed that this is only prelimi-
nary to a bill for reconstructing the State govern-
ments. What is to be the effect of these new moves
on the political chess-board, events will soon show,
but the Southern and Presidential movement is
encouraging, as showing unmistakable progress to-
wards the true solution, which all must soon see to
be equal suffrage, and nothing else.
The Committee on Ways and Means has agreed to
abolish the tax on newspaper advertisements. The
taxes on a large number of articles will be consi-
derably reduced in the Amendatory Tax Bill, which
will soon be reported.

The bill introduced into the Senate for a Govern-
ment telegraph between Washington and New
York is similar to that introduced in the House at
the previous session. It appropriates $50,000 for
the purpose, and fixes the price of telegraphing at
13 cents for twenty or less words, and half a cent
for each word over twenty.
The National Academy of Design, in a memorial
to Congress, asking protection on oil paintings by a
duty of £2O each on those imported into the country,
has given an instance of the absurdity to which the
principles of protection can be carried. This peti-
tion has been signed by 73 artists, and has met
with almost unmixed ridicule at the hands of the
American press. The difficulty is, where to draw
the line. The higher class of American artists scout
the idea of this protection. Many of them are at-
taining to the highest rank, and it is not improbable
that the American school will soon take the fore-
most place in the world.
A detective of the Treasury Department lately
visited 23 customs officers on the Canada border,
and succeeded in making an arrangement with 22
of them for smuggling goods into the United States.
But one, out of the 23, was found incorruptible.
Such is the result of the excessive duties, leading to
fraud, smuggling, and deception. These practices
in the end will lead men to distrust each other and
establish a system of espionage, raising a body of
informers that are hateful to a free people. Already
in many European ports the Government of the
United States is compelled to keep on foot a num-
ber of spies, through whose instrumentality they
obtain information as to the wines and spirits
shipped for American ports under false entries.
Although the proceedings of the Government may
cause much annoyance and uneasiness to traders
they cannot defeat the ingenuity of smugglers, and
no better protof of this could be given, than the ex-
perience of the Treasury detective.
We extract the following from the Week of the
Nation of the 7th inst. Of course it is under-
stood that the Nation is the New York Nation:—
" General Grant is said to have called a meeting of
army officers to consult together upon the necessity
of maintaining garrisons in the Southern States.
General Grant, it is understood, would like them to
be withdrawn. Mr. Williams, of Oregon, offers a
bill providing that each State which has been in
rebellion shall constitute a military district, in
charge of a major-general or brigadier-general,
whose duty it shall be, in brief, to exercise an
authority paramount to that of all courts in the
State. The bill further provides that United
States courts may issue writs of habeas corpus in
behalf of prisoners in military custody in the South
only when some commissioned officer on duty in the
district where the prisoner is held shall endorse upon
the petition a statement certifying that he believes
the imprisonment wrongful. To us it seems that
the question which of these two plans shall be
adopted is answered when an answer is given to
this question : Shall the United States protect from
tyrannical abuse, from the most galling and open
injustice, those citizens of the South who were and
are loyal, and who alone are loyal, or shall it give
them over helpless into the hands of people like this
man, for instance, who writes in the Richmond
Times, the most popular newspaper in Virginia ?
It is one expression of opinion out of a mil-
lion similar, or only different in being
worse. Texas is the subject of eulogy :
" There the negroes have not been demoralised by
the Freedmen's Bureaus aucl the school-nzarms.
The climate, too, of this magnificent State, although
salubrious in the extreme, has been found unhealthy
to the few straggling Yankee letter-writers and
meddling negrophilists who have ventured there in
quest of mischief. They have, in many instances,
when they have stirred up ill-feeling between the
races, been mysteriously devoured by wolves and
bears, or scalped by the Comanches. The settlers
in Texas have not been able to prevent them." The
passage of the bill would, of course, be in effect a
declaration of the opinion of Congress that the
state of war is not ended, and for that, as well as
the other reason, we are free to say we should be
1 glad to see the bill pass.
The Springfield Republican considers the coolest
thing out in the protective line is the petition for a
duty on imported ice. It is wanted to protect the
Eastern ice-cutters against blue-nosed competition
in the Southern markets. We consider that the
artists' protection petition is, if not a cooler thing,
at least a more absurd one. The Republican adds
the protection the Bostonians most need is a prohi-
bitory tariff on the east wind, and we hope they
may get it.
The Tribune correspondent speculates as fol-
lows :—" In the event of the rejection of General
Dix's nomination, the French mission will be in all

probability solicited for Senator Foster. Governor
Andrew, of Boston, is spoken of as a still more
available and competent candidate, his great ser-
vices during the war calling for such a distinguished
recognition. It is stated the President favours
Governor Andrew, not withstanding his politics.
The Vienna mission will probably be tendered to
General King, now at Rome. Cowan cannot be
confirmed."
The New fork Tribune says that " Mr. Mor-
rill's statistics showed that the total amount of
paper currency now in use, including legal ten-
ders, national bank notes, compound interest
notes, &C., is $963,290,551, or nearly one thou-
sand millions. In 1862 the total of paper
currency was but $184,000,000. Can it be con-
tended that business requires such an enormous
increase ? The very depreciation of the currency
is an answer; its excess diminishes its value, and prices
rise as the value sinks. Mr. Morrill shows that the
increased production of gold and silver is tending
to the steady depreciation of specie itself, while the
coinage of the United States in comparison with
Europeon standards, is debased. How, then, does
our paper money stand when the standard itself is
degraded ? A Chinese nation may fix arbitrary
standards, but the Americans, a commercial people,
cannot prosper with a currency which is terribly
discounted in every market, and even refused in
our own gold States on the Pacific."

'" COMMERCIAL.-
•

Money continues easy in New York, though the rate in
the West is becoming stringent. Call loans here can be
obtained on Government collaterals at 6 per cent. down to
5 per cent., but 7is asked on other security. Tho best
business paper is discounted at 7to 8 per cent. Although
gold has fluctuated a little, yet it has been on' the rise.
The closing price was 1371. Last Saturday $418,000 were
exported to Europe. Tho main feature is the growing
strength of the Five-Twenties, and both the issues, 1862
and 1865, are very strong.

The Treasury department reports the following statistics
for last week :—Fractional currency printed $156,108, de-
stroyed $320,100, disbursed $173,193; national currency
issued $119,240, making $298,749,501 in circulation; dis-
bursed for the war department $2,160,023, for the navy
$333,229, for the interior $179,291. The disbursements
for these departments in January were, respectively,
$8,579,012, $3,781,027, and $1,251,699. The revenue re-
ceipts last week were $5,828,587, making the total since
July 1, $186,958,599. The present receipts fall largely
below the estimates.

The exports from Now York (exclusive of specie) for
the week and year were $2,881,102 against $5,917,007, and
$18,789,651 against $23,322,613.
The year 1866 has been a disastrous year to fire insur-
ance companies. If losses continue as heavy a further in-
crease in the rates will be necessary, if the companies
aro to sustain themselves. At Chicago the rates
have been doubled within the last few months. Many
New York companies are endeavouring to reduce their
capital—some aro winding up—and all aro under a black
cloud. Dry goods are looking better, and the future is
more hopeful. Business has increased, and the spring
trade promise
W di. Stocks closed active. American
r gold touched )).7111 tit.“( at_l37i, TJAited States Fiyo-