The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-07 00:00:00

UNITED STATES DEBT.

The following is a statement of the Public Debt of th•
United States on the Ist of Dec., 1866;
Debt bearing Coin Interest.
Five per cent. Bonds $198,091,350.00
Six per cent bonds of
1867-68
Six per cont. bonds of
1881 283,740,000.00
Six per cent 5-20 Bonds 861,649,300.00
Navy Pension Fund 11,750,000.00
Total
Debt bearing Currency Interest.
Six per cent. Bonds 510,302,000.00
Three-year compound
interest notes
Three-year 7-30 notes 699,93;750.00
Total
$857,622,890.00
Matured debt not presented for payment 22,605,794.71
D bearing No
United States notesebt 5385,441,849.00 Interest.
Fractional Currency
Gold certificates of de-
posit
Total 433,698,598.93

Total Debt 52,684,995,875.44
Amount in Treasury
Coin
Currency
Total
Amount of debt, less cash in Treasury
on Dec. 1, 1866 52,549,631,238.22
The foregoing is a correct statement of the Public
Debt, as appears from the books and Treasurer's returns
in the department on the Ist of December, 1866.
Dunn M'CuLLocit, Secretary of the Treasury.
Public Debt, November Ist, 1866
Do. December do.

Decrease in month .
Do. since August 1, 1865 27,622,037

SPIRI r OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Within a month of the French Revolu-
tion of 1848 the agitation for a radical Reform of the
House of Commons on the basis of universal suffrage
took a form which was considered dangerous to the
public peace. Then,the supremacy
Ireland was unsettled,
traitors threatened of the Crown, and
made preparations for a popularrising. Their dele-
gates or chiefs repaired to Paris, and solicited the
aid of the new Governors ofcthe French nation. In
England Mr. FeargushnuO;
hadonnor and his associates
announced that thecome for enforcing on
a hostile Legislature the nights of the people. They
argued in the assembly
lwhich. they brought toge-
ther, and for which theyc aimed the name of a na-
tional Parliament, that thetHouse of Commons had
hitherto treated with contempt the
Constitutional
of the people, and that elle' eomrdli
resource of petition would be useless,y unless it were
shown in some unmistakable manner that the peti-
tioners were Tesolved that their' requests should be
granted. Reams of paper and thousands of signa-
tures would, according to these agitators, be useless
to convince the house that the petitioners were in
earnest, or, if in earnest, were strong enough to
make theirconvictions prevail, unless the signers and
those who agreed with them displayed their num-
bers by an imposing procession to the doors of Par-
liament. This notion took the fancy of the Chartists,
and it was soon proclaimed that the monster peti-
tion of the unenfranchised classes, consisting of we
know not how many hundredweights of paper,
would be taken to Westminster by an army of work-
ing men, and there received and presented to the
House of Commons by Feargus O'Connor himself.
The immense multitude was to assemble on Ken-
nington-common, to be harangued by the leaders
of the agitation, and then to march over Westmin-
ster-bridge to the seat of the Legislature. This
menace led to the demonstration of the 10th April
—A memorable political incident, which is still fresh
in the memory of all but our younger readers. The
Chartists did, indeed, meet on Kenington-common
in large numbers ; but, on the other hand, a far
more imposing force, numbering 150,000 preservers
of the peace, was ranged on the other side. For a
fortnight the London magistrates were engaged
all day swearing in special constables—men of all
classes and conditions, and of every variety of
political opinion, except the one opinion that it
is lawful to attempt to sway the deliberations of
the British Parliament by a demonstration of phy-
sical force. Every respectable man in this great
capital gave his support to the Government, which
determined that the Chartist army should not be
permitted to approach the spot where the House of
Commons assembles. Lord John Russell's Cabinet
communicated this resolve to the leaders of the agi-
tation, and military preparations were quietly but
efficiently made to enforce it. The Chartists were
told they should not pass the bridges, and that if
they attempted to do so they would have to take
the consequences. They were wise in time, and the
10th of April passed off quietly. But the event re-
mains as a constitutional precedent, and decides
that when Parliament has reason to believe that any
body of men desires to coerce its action, even under
the guise of the right of petition, it will call upon
Government to use all necessary powers in its de-
fence, and that Government will be supported by
the nation in giving protection. We trust the les-
son of that memorable day will never need to be
repeated. Since that time the evils that spring from
tumultuous gatherings have been sufficiently proved
in those continental countries which the Chartists
Of 1848 then looked upon with admiration. The
spirit and the achievements of the Parisians in the
cause of freedom were then held up as examples to
the more sluggish and submissive people of these
islands, and yet within a twelvemonth of the fall
of Louis Philippe a future Emperor was installed in
power by the vote of millions n ho dreaded or re-
sented the turbulence of the capital, and France was
virtually subjected to the government of the army,
a rule which it has never since shaken off. It is
needless to speak of the other States in whose capi-
tals popular movements were made after the fashion
of Paris. It is sufficient to say that to the excesses
of that time Germany has owed years of political
misfortune, which it' is only now beginning to sur-
mount. A generation of agitators seems, however,
to have arisen in this country which remembers not
these things. Disregarding the fact that the revo-
lutionary turbulence of the old Chartists andof their
Irish brethren, the followers of Smith O'Brien and
Mitchell, was among the chief causes of that Con-
servative reaction which set in then, and has pre-
vailed more or less ever since, the chiefs of the Re-
form League and the self-constituted leaders of the
working men seem disposed to revive the old mis-
givings and the old animosities by means of the old
follies. Even with proofs of their incapacity af-
forded by the recent Beau fort-house Demonstration
we were unwilling to believe that they meditated a
reproduction of Feargus O'Connor's sorry exploit.
But some notices just published show that on the
opening of Parliament we must prepare, if the Re-
form League is to hare its way, for just such
another unconstitutional and illegal proceeding as
was reproved by the loyalty of the metropolis nine-
teen years ago. Fror n a notice, issued by
the Reform League, we I Ind it has been resolved
that individuals in favour of the programme of the
League should be advised', to prepare separate peti-
tions to the House of Co. 7 nmons, and to deliver them
personally in Westmins'xr-hall upon the day after
the Demonstration, Ir. John Bright, Mr. John
Stuart Mill, Mr. Be' d;er A. Taylor, Mr. Thomas
Bayley Potter, and 04,13 er " advanced Liberal mem-
bers," being invited 'co receive them, at a fixed hour,
for presentation to tb e House of Commons. " The
petitioners, if as to merous as expected, would by
this means make a n effective and constitutional
Demonstration." From the programme it would
seem that at sew a o'clock, and consequently at a
time when the, Louse of Commons has ceased to

receive petitions, those people are to leave their
place of assembling, in parties of tens, under the
directions of a marshal, and to walk from the Strand
to Westminster-hall. On reaching the entrance
they are to form in files according to the number
of members who may be present to receive the
petitions, and then to march through the Hall to
the steps, where these gentlemen are to be in
waiting. They are to present their petitions, and
then Co proceed along the west side of the Hall
to the entrance, at which they are to pass out.
We believe such a gathering at the doors of the
Legislature and thronging all the ways to it to be
illegal. There can be no moral doubt that the pur-
pose of such Demonstrations is to intimidate the
House of Commons, and even if this were not the
case, the assembling of a great multitude is inevi-
tably a menace. We trust the Reform League will,
in the month which is yet to elapse before the meet-
ing of Parliament. see reason to abandon its pur-
pose ; if not, it will be for the House of Commons
to take such steps as may be necessary to maintain
its independence and dignity.

The Spectator observes that whether the negroes
in the United States are competent to be free or
not, so long as they are not free, the whites form a
privileged class necessarily powerful from their
wealth, necessarily hostile to American civilisation,
necessarily inconsistent with its natural develop-
ment. It would be essential to male tho negro
free, even if freedom were not his right, and the
North, enlightened by the danger arising from:this
reflex action of oppression; has at last perceived
that it is, that the " Cause" which they admit to
cover all whites covers the coloured man also.
Every objection to his freedom is an objection to
the freedom of every class in every State, except the
wise, and the good, and the strong—to the free-
dom, that is, of the majority in every nation. Mr.
Sumner, the most logical of all the American Radi-
cals, does not ask for any privileges for the negro,
but only for the abolition of privileges which tell
against him. In the district of Columbia white
men have voted simply in right of manhood and
residence ; and consequently in granting to negroes
the same concession Congress granted universal
suffrage; but that is accidental. They are perfectly
ready to accept a property qualification, provided
it is imposed alike upon all, and only object to an
educational franchise because they think it would
make it the interest of the white majority
to keep the coloured minority uneducated. It
is not in fact " the negro " for which they are fight-
ing, but liberty; the right which we English hold
almost sacred, the right of each man to do the very
most it is in him to do without obstacles artificially
raised by a caste-made law. Most abolitionists
would agree that if the grant of the suffrage could
be postponed for 30 years it would be much more
beneficial to the negroes, but it accidentally happens
that the suffrage in America is the only guarantee on
which the coloured men can rely. Therefore, and
only therefore, these " fanatics" of freedom, these
American Russells, art fighting for that, are grant-
ing that, will secure that, whatever the Constitu-
tional obstacles in the way.

The Daily News seeks to reassure those who con-
ceive that the American Constitution is in any
danger of being revolutionised. The assumption
made by Mr. Johnson, and repeated by his ad-
mirers here, that he represents the popular will
more completely than Congress, is most hostile to
the fundamental principles on which the Republic
rests. It was an attempt to introduce modern de-
mocratic Ca3sarism into the Federal system. Mr.
Johnson, by virtue of his election by the people,
sought to grasp some portion of legislative power.
Although in his mouth the argument was singularly
out of place, he claimed that he represented the
will of the people as a whole, while Congress only
represented the will of an aggregate of sections of
the people. Fortunately for the welfare of the
Republic the people did not feel that the absurdity
of this claim deprived it of its danger. They saw
that it would introduce a new principle into the in-
terpretation, and a new power into the balance of
the Constitution, and would confuse the functions
of the legislative and the executive departments of
the Government. But in repelling this dangerous
assumption they have not introduced any other
hostile principle. The President is the elected
executive of the nation, and he has been sternly
forbidden to encroach on the functions of the elected
Legislature, while that Legislature, equally with
the President, the representative of the popular
will, has been empowered to take the place and
The
the prerogatives the Constitution gives it.
rhe Constitution most distinctly subordinates the
President to the Congress, and Mr. Johnson's at-
tempt to reverse the constitutional order and
subordinate the Congress to the Presidency was but
thesion
s o
n culminationthe
parto of af othneg series
executive,
which
have
gres
tended, for years past, to a dangerous exaltation of
the Presidential office.

THE AMERICAN PRESS.
The bill which Mr. -Stevens has introduced into
the House of Representatives in relation to the re-
organisation of the Government of North Caro-
lina is to be taken only as the expression of his own
opinion of the proper means to be adopted in the
restoration of the Southern States. It is thoroughly
Radical, inasmuch as it proposes to cut up the
present Government by the roots, and totally
obliterate its authority. Mr. Stevens is progressive
and earnest, and, although an old man, he has more
energy about him than the majority of the younger
members of the House. When he takes hold of a
subject he rarely gives it up, and his perseverance
is such that he carries measures by the force of his
character. What will be the fate of his bill in
reference to North Carolina may not now be pre-
dicted. That he will press it with all the energy of
his character may be expected. This bill proceeds
upon the theory that the relations with the Govern-
ment, which were severed by North Carolina on
the 20th of May, 1861, have never been restored.
The Government set up by the President was
provisional, and needed the approval of Congress.
That approval has never been given. Consequently
all that followed was immaterial and of no avail.
The present State Government is not a legal one,
having been constituted under recommendation of
the Provisional Government, 'Which had no autho-
rity. It therefore exists upon sufferance, and may
be abolished whenever Congress chooses to exercise
its authority. Upon this theory all that follows is
plain enough. Mr. Stevens would deal with the
subject as he would have done in April, 1865, and
he treats the present condition of affairs as if it was
not different from what it was at that time. He
therefore proposes that things shall commence de
novo in the old North State; de novo-as to the
means of reconstruction, and very much de novo in
regard to the plan of setting the Government in
motion. He proposes' to enfranchise 'all classes
of the male population, without respect to colour.
All can vote for delegates to a sovereign convention.
In this election returned Rebels as well as Union
men can vote. But they can only vote for delegates
who can take oath that, ou the 4th of March, 1864,
and at all times thereafter, they were opposed to the
continuance of the Rebellion, and were _personally
willing to have complied with President Lincoln's
proclamation of December 8, 1863, which offered
amnesty to citizens of the States in rebellion, with
the exception of certain classes who would take the
oath of allegiance to the United States. Dele-
gates must be able to swear that they were
willing, a year before the collapse of the Re-
bellion, to return to their allegiance, or they are
not eligible. To the Convention thus formed is
to be granted authority to draft a Constitution
for the State of North Carolina. But the instru-
ment cannot become valid until submitted to Con-
gress and ratified by that body. These are the prin-
cipal features of Mr. Stevens's bill, and they are of
the greatest importance as indicative of a policy
which Congress may adopt, not only with North
Carolina, but other States. All this might have
been avoided by the adoption of the Constitutional
Amendments, but there are some people who,
sooner than get out of a difficulty by the right road,
would prefer a circuitous route, encumbered with
pitfalls, rocks, and tangled briers.—Philadelphia In-
quirer. _ _ _

In the district of Columbia the first experiment
of the abolition of slavery was made. It was sup-
posed to be an exceptional act when resolved upon,
and it was predicted that such a measure could not
be effected in any other part of the country, yet the
people since that time have beheld the grand expe-
riment of universal emancipation, and no man now
believes that it is not permanent. According to the
action of the United States Senate it is probable
that another great political experiment is to be
made in the same district. The bill granting suf-
frage to male citizens, without distinction of colour,
will go through the House without doubt. It will
be vetoed by the President, and passed over his veto,
and become a law. Will the measure thus resolved
upon be the pioneer of similar changes elsewhere?
It may be assumed to be doubtful now, but just
as doubtful was the total overthrow of slavery
when it was annulled in the District of Co-
lumbia. Look at this measure as we will, from the
point of expediency, we must admit that it is
thoroughly Democratic in the ancient sense of that
word, and not according to the present party per-
version. It may not be wise, it may prove harmful,
but it is just, if we admit that all men are created
equal. It is, we think, the forerunner of like
changes elsewhere, not only in the South, but at
the North also. Great reforms seldom stop with
single victories. They have the of progress
with them, and will go on despite every obstacle.
We now think that unrestricted negro suffrage is
strange, but the novelty will soon depart, and then,
without prejudice or passion, we will be able to

judge by actual experience whether the measure
was wise or harmful—Philadelphia Inquirer.
We continue to receive evidences of the imperilled
condition of the woollen manufacture. of our entire
country. In a letter from Franklin, Essex County,
New Jersey, dated Dec. 4, the writer says :—" I
am quite largely engaged in manufacturing woollen
goods in this State and in the State of New York,
and well know the condition of the woollen interest
of our country'this day. It is extremely precarious.
I tell you that unless Congress relieves us imme-
diately there will be untold suffering. Manufac-
turers will be ruined, and operatives have to beg for
bread. What we want is help—help now. Sixty
days from this time it may be too late to do us any
good. The Tariff Bill now pending should become
a law, and when it becomes a law I want to see its
provisions honestly enforced. We are now cheated
out of the little incidental protection the e2oisting
tariff should afford us, by fraudulent invoices and
under valuation. I only yesterday heard of a case
of heavy, fine Austrian cloths invoiced at $1 50c. a
yard, sold in New York by the importers at $6 a
yard ! The importations are really more than
double, yes, more than treble, what the Treasury
statements indicate." The Secretary of the Trea-
suvy confesses in his Annual Report that, on account
of" a systematic under valuation of foreign mer-
chandise imported into the United States," &e.,
"twenty per =it. at least should be added to the
imports, which would make the balance for the past
year against the United States nearly $100,000,000.
From the evidence we last week published this
then is the case :—The woollen manufacturers of
this country with aggregated capitals amounting to
ss9,ooo,ooo—giving employment to 80,000 male and
female operatives—sustaining with wages directly
and indirectly 400,000 persons—doubling and treb-
ling the value of agricultural land and of farm
products in circles of from 20 to 50 miles diameter
around each and all of them—furnishing freight to
railroads, canals, and steam vessels—giving infinite
business to machine shops, foundries, mechanics,
merchants, and agents this immense industrial
interest is in immediate danger of being destroyed
by foreign importations. Whether this destruction
of a most important element of national life shall be
permitted is a question which it should be deemed
a crime to raise. To permit it would be a wicked-
ness and a reckless madness that could only find a
parallel in the deliberate cutting of the dykes of
L Holland, and letting the sea whelm in, and sweep
away the culture and wealth which centuries of pro-
tected labour have slowly built up. The concurrent
statement of the American woollen manufacturers
is that their business must inevitably and speedily
perish if the House Tariff Bill, or a bill like it in
principle and equivalent to it in protection, is not
taken up by the Senate and made the law of the
land. The political reconstruction of the country
has consumed the time and occupied the passions of
Congress and the people for 18 months continu-
ously. .Will not Congress give 18 days to the sal-
vation of one of the country's most important ma-
terial interests.—New York Tribune.

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