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

A CAUSERIE NOT ALL ABOUT FASHION.

Of all the duties imposed on us by society there
is, perhaps, not one more importunate than that
called " morning visiting," which, contrary to all
logic, is not at all carried on in the morning hours,
but seems to have been instituted for no other pur-
pose than that of wasting the best portion of our
time in idle pursuit and useless babble.

I do not only call the habit of spending the hours
from two to five in gossip both idle and useless, but
I say it is pernicious, and that these quiet. drawing-
room receptions, as they are now carried on, are
made more baneful in their effects than the reading
of avowedly bad French novels. It is a notorious
fact that those ladies who are over-scrupulous in
going their morning rounds are groat mischief-
makers, newsmongers, and fearful talkers. They
have a natural penchant for discussion, and catch up
every rumour as they proceed from house to house,
which they spread and propagate as if it were gos-
pel truth. They are walking registers of all the
births, deaths, and marriages that have come within
their hearing since they " came out"—and, indeed,
no better expression can be applied to that process
by the help of which young
people have their egg-
shells after careful training under the tender wing
of a motherly governess.

When girlsv emerge from the obscurity of the
study into the splendour of a well-lighted ball-room
they run less risk of turning prematurely world-wise
than when they expand by degrees, after having
been initiated into the wiles of society by dint of
visiting with mamma at Mrs. Takemdown's, or at
Madame Hautenton's. These are the hotbeds of
feminine diplomacy in the arts of " innocent seduc-
tion," toilet, scandal, and egotism. But, may it be
objected, those who frequent society must follow its
laws. Girls must learn that all is not gold that
glitters, and also learn to distinguish right from
wrong ; better far that they should go through this
imitating process with their mothers, and in ladylike
company, than be left to pick up evil out of books
or from hearsay. I answer to this that the know-
ledge of right and wrong is called conscience, which
exists in every human breast without the assistance
of worldly wiseacres.

If a young lady were taught during these visits
to put in a good word for an absent party when
falsely accused, or encouraged to recall some ex-
tenuating quality wherewith to obliterate his defi-
ciencies ; or, again, were she simply to say
she preferred the practice of virtue to hear-
ing it praised with high-flown encomiums, I
should be reconciled to morning meetings, and
think they atoned for a good deal of evening ab-
surdity. As it is, whole hours are spent in dissect-
ing one's friends, or at least as much of them as is
apparently their own, and what is not is subject to
no less harsh criticism.

" 11Idlle. P.'s nose 1 what a net I" and then a pun
will escape from some one buried in the depths of
an arm-chair, who says, " Ladies, why complain of
her nez? In company such as yours is not every
one Lie„-no " Horrid pun But I have heard it,
and maintain that it is historical.

Then Mdlle. S.'s chignon is put on the Lapis—a
very disastrous position for a chignon—and Mdme.
T. will be accused of benoiton airs, and so on till
all the other letters of the alphabet have had a
tale affixed to them.
The following is a scrap of conversation collected
in a salon a la mode:—

" How do you like Agrippas r,
" Really," answered the party thus questioned,
" I—I—"

" Ah ! you think them heavy, perhaps ?"
"I beg your pardon. But are Agrippas a new
name for cakes, lobster salads, or anything that lies
on the chest?"

A burst of laughter.
" No, sir ; Agrippas are new barques worn on
the front of our dresses, and they arc made of jet
trelliswork, coloured velvet, or cross-cut bands of
satin ; they hang over the-in fact, below what
you call one's chest.

" I thought Agrippa was the mother of Nero,"
continued the gentleman, much puzzled.

" So she was, and we Mean to adopt 'the Roman
style."

Oh! mothers; oh! decadence, :thought a lis-
tener, as he moved his chair farther off, not much
edified by the communication he had heard im-
parted.

Renaissance and decadence are so united that it
is difficult to discern one from the other. The
Francis I. style is to be very fashionable at all the
bals masques. We are to have Diane de Poitiers in
all colours. Hebes's and belle Ilelenes will be no
less in favour, and the flowing style will be fur-
ther represented by Aspasia, Cleopatra, &c.
I greatly advise the four seasons. It is com-
posed of a grey satin underskirt, dotted over with
swan's-down, which figures snow in a grey cold
winter morn. The over tunic is autumn, and is
made of tulle, hardened with worked rich grapes
and vine leaves. The waistband is summer, a circle
of silver from which bang cordons of wheat-ears,
with a field-poppy, and clover here and there. The
body is spring ; that is, a trellis-work with daisies
pressing out between, If the colours are well
chosen, nothing can be younger, fresher, or more
maidenly.

Dr. Mary Walker has delivered another lecture,
which, like the first, was uproariously interrupted
by a few rude boys, several of whom were ousted
by the police. One was brought up at the police-
court yesterday, and bound over to keep the peace.
There was an additional charge against him of
assaulting the proprietor of the lecture-hall. The
magistrate spoke strongly of the rudeness of the
young men in thus treating a lady, which he attri-
buted to jealousy.
The postal treaty concluded between Spain and
Portugal establishes a unform rate for the whole
Peninsula,

Miscellaneous American News.

After the Reconstruction Bill had been tossed
backwards and forwards between the two Houses
of Congress, it appears, from the New York news
of Thursday that the provisions of the measure bad
been concurred in. Military governments are to be
established in the South, and all who were engaged
in the rebellion are excluded from office and from
voting. Any State may be completely restored
upon adopting the new Constitution, embracing the
Constitutional Amendment, under the operations of
a free suffrage.
Another frightful accident has occurred on the
Mississippi, in which 65 persons lost their lives by
the explosion of a steamer.

The Allemannia has arrived out.
Gold discoveries have been made at Hastings,
Lower Canada.
The new Chilian Loan has had a severe
fall, under the influence of rumours which
have very little foundation in truth. An
arrangement which had been made with the
Chilian banks for a loan to the Government in
August last, for which the banks received bonds
carrying a condition that they would be empowered
w change these bonds for others payable in sterling
iu London at a reduced interest. The option
was open till Ist of January last. It appears the
banks availed themselves of the exchange, and are
about to sell these bonds in the open market. On
learning that negotiations had been made with
some London firms, through whose means the
Chilian banks intended to dispose of these bonds,
Messrs. J. S. Morgan and Co. took steps to pro-
tect the subscribers to the loan they lately intro-
duced. A strong set appears to have been made
from the very beginning against the loan brought
out by that house, and every pretext has been
seized to depress it in the market. During Thursday
the Bonds fell to 3 dis., but afterwards rallied and
became firmer.

Mr. F. Seward has failed in obtaining the Bay
of Samana as a naval station in the West Indies
for the Government of the United States. He has
returned to Washington with the statement that
the Government of St. Domingo is so unsettled that
at present they could not make the transfer.

Mr. Stevens sustained a severe defeat in a division
on a question by which he intended to stop debate
on the Martial Law Bill. Many of the Republicans
voted with the Democrats, and the result wag a de-
feat to the extreme Radicals by a large majority.
Among a people gifted. with more than an ordinary
amount of common sense the result of pressing ex-
treme views will surely raise a powerful opposition,
and transfer to the other side many who favoured
moderate measures, but preferred no change to
extreme ones.

In spite of pamphlets, and all the machina-
tions of the " bears," the Atlantic and Great Wes-
tern Railway Debentures bad a strong rally on
Thursday from their extreme depression. It is
possible that some of the facts obtained by the
committee of investigation have oozed out. The
report will be issued at once, and a meeting of the
bondholders has been convened for the sth proximo
for its consideration. We will now have a true
Knowledge of this much-vexed question, and the
interests of the shareholders will cease to be influ-
enced by the contention of the two parties who
strive to uphold and who strive to pull down this
property.

It is said that Mr. Stevens is not happy in the
bills he introduces into Congress. When held up
to the light they are generally found to be full of
holes, but his bill to establish common schools in
the district of Columbia is believed to be a sound,
practical measure. The bill requires the establish-
ment of a sufficient number of schools in the district
for the education of every child between the ages of
6 and 16, the schools to be kept open for ten months
in the year, and one-third the expense to be paid by
the Government and two- thirds by the people.
The father who neglects to send his children to
school is to be punished by the loss of suffrage.
The bill also provides for instruction in the con-
, stitution of the United States—a feature that
might well be admitted in all public schools. The
bill provides for competent teachers, a superinten-
dent and a school board. In the preamble it is
stated that the capital of a great nation, though a
political necessity, is generally a social evil, and it
proposes to lessen such evil as far as possible by the
education of the young, which, " next to Chris-
tianity is the best foundation for virtue and safe-
guard of Republicanism."
The Supreme Court having set aside as unconsti-
tutional the oath intended to debar from practice
therein attorneys who took part in the late rebellion,
the House of Representatives has passed a bill pre-
scribing another way for excluding them. This bill
declares that it shall be a rule for every court of the
United States that no person shall be admitted to
act as counsellor or attorney therein who has been
guilty of treason, bribery, murder, or other felony,
or who has been engaged in any rebellion against the
Government of the United States, or who has given
aid, comfort, or encouragement to the enemies of
the United States, in armed hostility thereto. This
bill makes it the duty of the judge, or judges,
when a suggestion is made in open court that any
person acting as attorney or counsellor, or proposing
so to act, is barred by the above conditions, to in-
quire and ascertain the truth in the case, and to
exclude such persons if the charge is established.

Mr. Schenck has prevailed upon Congress to
adopt a resolution ordering the removal of the Naval
Academy from Maryland. Mr. Schenck urged as a
reason the disloyal social influences which the people
of that State brought to bear on the young cadets.
The academy was situated at Annapolis. As Mr.
Schenck had been provost-marshal at Baltimore, he
had had many opportunitieftf judging of the social
influences he described, but perhaps few fair oppor-
tunities, as the office to a proud and irritable people
was not a good passport into society.

Mr. Frederick Seward's mission to the West
Indies has, we believe, resulted in the establishment
of a naval station for the United States in the Bay
of Samanas. That gentleman having completed his
task has returned to Washington.

A correspondent of the Louisville Journal gives
some details of the annihilation of the party of the
18th United States infantry, near Fort Philip Kear-
ney, on the 21st Dec. last. It appears that the Indians
made an attack on the wood train, when Colonel
Carrington sent out a reinforcement to assist the
guard. The Indians, who numbered 50, retreated
before the party, who bad then mustered 81 officers
and men. The soldiers in pursuit entered a ravine
where 2,000 warriors were concealed. When the
troops had entered the narrow defile they found
themselves surrounded and attacked by the large
body of Indians. Desperate as was their position
the men maintained the fight with the greatest re-
resolution, and thrice repulsed the charge of the
savages. At last they were overwhelmed, falling
to a man. The scene was witnessed at a distance
by Dr. Hines, who states that the Indians em-
ployed a hundred of their number in carrying off
their dead and wounded as they fell. He estimates
the loss of the Indians at 400 killed and wounded.
Every soldier was scalped and the bodies horribly
mutilated.

The Springfield Republican of the 9th inst. thus
details the Reconstruction plans and counter-plans :
—The President and his friends have made a flank
movement upon the Constitutional intrenchments,
in the shape of a Congressionai amendment, agreed
upon by a meeting of Southern Governors at Wash-
ington, and proposed in the Senate by Mr. Dixon,
of Connecticut. It adopts the most important fea-
tures of the now pending amendment—that basing
representation on the classes allowed to vote, and
that securing the validity of the national debt and
the repudiation of rebel debts—and also forbids the
States to require a property qualification of over
$250, or education beyond ability to read and write,
as conditions of suffrage. The section of the other
amendment most objected to, the exclusion of
rebels from office, is omitted from this. Tice
President approves this scheme, which may be con-
sidered skilful hedging on his part. The Southern
Governors evidently hope to secure restoration by
it, and are making an effort to get it approved by
their Legislatures, and in connection with it, amend-
ments to the State constitutions establishing equal
suffrage, qualified by the educational or the pro-
perty test. The Reconstruction Committee, re_

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 or 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 proof 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 likethem 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 en 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 and the school-mar/its.
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 he
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. I,t is wanted to protect the
Eastern ice-cutkra 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," th-eTteneh- 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 F4icli a distinguished
recognition. • It is stated -the. President favours
Governor Andrew,- notetUtatid-ing his politics.
The:Vienna mission will probably be tendered to
GOneral- King, now at Rome. Cowan cannot be
confirmed."

The New fork Tribune says that " Mr. Mor-
rill's statistic's 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."