The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 14, 1867

franchise. They will have to moderate as well as
to agitate, and to exercise their judgment in many
ways. Allowing for a little occasional exaggeration
this speech may be regarded as a good illustration
of political feeling in many respects, and it is not
likely that those of the opposite side should willingly
see their triumphs snatched away from them through
bad management, and at first sight occasion a very
flattering reception to the places of their opponents.

It is very evident that under the Radical manage-
ment of affairs tho American finances are not pros-
pering. The telegraphic news from New York last
week informs us that at the end of September the
national debt of the States had increased 2,500,000
dollars as compared with the same period in
August. As a set off to this we find at a later date
that the Treasury Department have detected coun-
terfeit 7-30 bonds to the amount of 200,000 dollars,
so that public morality is not at a high rate.
The leading Democratic orators in Ohio have
been devoting a good deal of attention to
the financial question, and suggesting schemes
for getting rid of the present difficulty
respecting the Government Bonds. This is a
favourite subject just now with public speakers,
who has each his own scheme for paying the debt.
Some would pay it in greenbacks ; others would
have the present generation pay the interest upon
the Bonds, leaving the principal to be paid here-
after, when the population and wealth of the
United States shall have increased, and greenbacks
have approached more nearly to the value of gold.
We are some way from that solution of the problem
as yet, seeing that the closing price of gold on
Saturday was 1441. Senator MORTON, of Indiana,
who has been lately advocating the latter theory,
says, with some truth, that -what American finances
need at present are repose and stability.
The awkward position of the States Treasury has
not as yet taught the Americans circumspection in
their foreign policy. The Fenians have lately sent
delegates to Washington, who have prevailed upon
the Government to restore to the Brotherhood 150
tons of ammunition and other war material, cap-
tured during the Fenian raids the summer before last.
This material has since that time been in the custody
of the United States troops at Agdensburg. The
surrender of these stores to such open mischief-makers
as the Brotherhood affords a curious commentary
on the American doctrines of neutrality. They act
on the old adage of one man being allowed to steal
a horse while another may not look even over a
hedge ; since England may not allow an unarmed
vessel to leave her ports, while America may supply
England's open enemies with material which they
can only require to use against her. How would it
be if we were to demand from Washington indem-
nity for the expenses to which Fenianism has put
us ? We should certainly have quite as good a
ground for doing so as Brother JONATHAN has for
contending about the Alabama claims

There is no need to look very far for the expla-
nation of the President's conduct. The Irish vote
is a matter of great importance in the forthcoming
elections, and a refusal of the Fenian request
might have had serious consequences on American
politics. It is a great temptation to any statesman
to have the allegiance or the opposition of a large
body of voters depending on his word ; and here
we see the mischief of universal suffrage. Every
Irishman has a vote, no matter what his belongings,
and thus the noisiest professor of affection for
Ireland is certain to win. This bidding for votes
and influence has a most deteriorating effect on
American public men, and as it has grown to be a
recognised necessity, men of refinement and culture
witkdraw more and more from the turmoil of poli-
tical life.

The registration returns from the South are com-
ing in rapidly, and their results are very much
what were expected. The negro majority in ten
States is over 86,000 ; in some States, such as
Louisiana and South Carolina, they more than
double the whites. In North Carolina the whites
have a slender majority; but the returns in that
state arc as yet incomplete. Strengthened perhaps
by these figures, the leading Republicans are talking
more loudly than ever about the impeachment of
the PRESIDENT. Mr. JOHNSON appears to be
troubling himself very little about them, and is said
to have in contemplation the pardon of ALEXANDER
STEPHENS. He has lately issued a pardon for
STEPHEN MALLORY, the Confederate Secretary of
the Navy, who, like STEPHENS, was excepted under
the terms of the Amnesty Proclamation. The PRE-
SIDENT evidently retains the opinion he promulgated
long ago, that the Union has more to fear from
ultra-Republicans than from liberated Confederates.

The Abyssinian expedition is just now the most
exciting topic of the day, and suggestions are being
made from all quarters with reference to its manage-
ment. All are ready with hints or warnings, whether
founded on theory or on practice, and a stranger
might suppose it was the first time that England
had ventured on sending a hostile expedition into
an uncivilised country. The worst is no doubt
made of Abyssinia and its possible risks. There are
of course many drawbacks, the worst evil perhaps
being the uncertainty and want of definite
knowledge which makes every mill or milestone on
the road a phantom of terror. Our campaigns in
Affghanistan were far more formidable than the
expedition to Abyssinia is likely to prove, since we
know that so far from our having to face a brave
and united people the KING'S troops are disaffected
and demoralised. The regiments of Sikhs and
Ghoorkas, who are all excellent soldiers, :accuE-
tomed to hilly countries and exhausting climates,
will do good service, and, with the assistance
and under the direction of Englishmen, will
soon teach THEODORE a lesson not to be easily for-
gotten.

Among the many suggestions made, however,
some are well worthy of attention in high quarters,
and among these we must rank a letter from
General CusT, in which he insists onthe importance
of efficient reserves. " The timely formation of a
support, ready for action, should not," he says,
" be overlooked ;" and he adds that no mere system
of regimental depots will be sufficient. He reminds
that in former cases the victories won by the
valour of British troops were often of little ad-
vantage, owing to the lack of reserves. Marshal
SAXE, no mean authority in the art of war, lays
down an axiom that " no troops should ever attack
without having troops in support." We should
therefore, as General CUST advises, have an express
division of reserve, prepared in every respect to take
the field at the shortest notice. A little foresight
and provision at the outset is always advisable in
war as in other matters of moment, but they are
doubly necessary when the country before us is
comparatively untried, though there is little ques-
tion that its dangers are made the most of by
timorous and interested parties.

THE CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY.—The 60th
quarterly meeting of the shareholders of the Conservative
Land Society will bo hold at the offices, No. 33, Norfolk-
street, Strand, on Tuesday next, the 15th inst., at 2 p.m.
precisely—Viscount Ranelagh in the chair.
LORD HENRY LENNOX is still confined to his
house at the Admiralty by indisposition, the result of a
severe chill caught during the official inspection at Chat-
ham and Sheerness. It is hoped, however, that in a day
or two he will be sufficiently well to leave for the Islo of
Wight, where he has been recommended to proceed for
change of air.---"lrmy and Navy Gazette.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Sunday Evening.

There is no reliable news of importance to-day
from Italy, but, as usual, an abundance of contra-
dictory reports. In one sense the insurrection con-
tinues, but it has assumed the position of a guerilla
warfare, armed bands being collected in the moun-
tains and in the environs of some of the towns, but
the force is small, and the idea of marching upon
Rome is quite out of the question, for the present
at least. Some of the Paris papers, however, do
their best to raise the belief that the position of
affairs in Italy is one of great gravity and danger.
The insurgents are stated to b~ on the march from
the province of Viterbo towards the 'fiber, whilst
the column under the command of Menotti Gari-
baldi will endeavour to proceed in that direction for an
oppositepoint. On the 11th this column was encamped
in the valley of Teverone. One of the reports cir-
culated by the Italian papers is that Acquapendente
has again fallen into the hands of the insurgents.
The Government of the Holy See, it is said, is pre-
paring a document to be presented to the various
foreign Powers, in which it will refer to the at-
tempts under organisation against its authority,
aid appeal for assistance to suppress the revolt.
Letters from Pesth announce the intention of the
Hungarian Ministry to take an important step on
behalf of the Belgians and civil liberty. With this
view it intends to propose a project of law to the
Diet, conferring equal political rights upon citizens
of all religious persuasions. At present Jews in
Hungary labour under political and civil disabilities.

They will also be removed by the proposed law.
Such is the liberal spirit now prevalent in Hungary
that the Ministry will no doubt be well supported
in its proposed reforms.
A decree of King Victor Emmanuel has just been
issued, appointing General Cialdini to the post of
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to the Court of Austria.

—The King of Prussia, who intended to travel
from Weimar to Baden, made a short stay at Wies-
baden, in older to pay a visit to the Prince of Wales
and the King of Greece, who are now in the latter
city.

At this season of the year there are usually many
prognostics of a severe winter, but this autumn the
_ __ .

indications of it seem more abundant than usual.
A great deal of snow has fallen prematurely in the
department of Puy-de-Dome, and for the last week
there have been violent tempests in all parts of
France. In the environs of Rouen on Thursday

last there was a peculiarly violent hailstorm, which
was very destructive to flowers and vegetation.
Much snow has fallen in the Jura mountains. In
the environs of Franche Comte the wolves are more
numerous and more ferocious than has been known

for many years.
At Chapelle lluin, near Besancon, a young shep-
herd took a goat and a sheep to pasture. The
goat and the sheep were nearly devoured by the
wolves, and the dead shepherd was lying by their
remains.

In Paris to-clay the weather was dull, and the as-
pect of the horizon was indicative of rain and tem-
pest. It was, however, much warmer.
M. Henri Coroenne, an artist of Valenciennes, has
been engaged for two years with an historical pic-
ture, commemorating an important epoch in the
annals of that city. The Hotel de Ville is now
under restoration. That edifice recalls to recollec-
tion a famous episode of the siege of 1793, which
took place under its walls. The coalition army had
made their dispositions to destroy one of the prin-
cipal bulwarks of the north of France, and for-
midable artillery, including 500 cannon, was
collected. The town made hasty preparations
for defence, and opposite the Hotel de Ville
an altar was erected, where it was proposed to
receive the oath of the inhabitants. A clay was
appointed for the ceremony when the 30,000 be-
sieged citizens assembled. The oath administered
was this, " I mean never to consent to any capitu-
lation, and to bury myself under the ruins of the
city rather than abandon it to the enemies of the
country." All repeated with frantic enthusiasm the
words " I mean." With the suddenness of elec-

tricity every man fell upon his knees and cried,

" Long live France ! Conquer or die !" History
records the manner in which the natives of Valen-
ciennes kept their oath. It also repeats the words
used by the Duke of York on his entrance into the
city, " This place made us lose a campaign." This

is the scene which the picture of M. Henri
Coroenne is intended to illustrate. It is suffi-
ciently advanced to enable a judgment to be formed
that it will give a good idea of this striking episode
in the history of Valenciennes.
An interesting archseological discovery has
just been made while the workmen were
excavating the foundations of the little seminary
of Notre Dame at Minimes. A considerable
portion has been found of an ancient Roman
Rue du Lugdunum, paved with large tiles of granite.
From the direction of this ancient highway it
appears to have formed the principal route which
connected the Imperial Palace of Claude and Mar-
cus Aurelius with the Antiquailles and the Theatre
of the Minimes with the Porte de Trion.

By a special convention between Turkey and
Austria a direct telegraph wire will shortly place
Constantinople and Vienna in direct communica-
tion. Subsequently the communication will extend
from Vienna to Paris and from Paris to London.
The Hugues apparatus will be employed. The
Asiatic Ottoman wire will remain direct, as at pre-
sent, as far as Sac, in the Persian Gulf.
Castagnary, the editor and proprietor of the
Nain Jaune, has been condemned by the Correc-

tional Tribunal of Paris to pay a fine of 500 f. for
an article inserted in that paper alleged to be cal-
culated " to trouble the public peace, and to excite
the hatred and contempt of the citizens against each
other." M. Banc, the writer of the article, was
sentenced to be imprisoned for four months, and to
pay a fine of 500 f. M. Dubinsson, the printer of
the paper, is fined 300 f. The defendants are also
to pay the expenses of the proceedings.
A dramatic story of scandal is retailed by some
of the Paris papers, which, however, they assert is
founded in truth. A gamekeeper, who resided
years ago in the environs of Paris, and was formerly
a soldier, conceived a violent and guilty passion for
his own daughter, a beautiful and accomplished
girl of 23. Circumstances became known as the
result of this guilty passion, which excited so
much disgust in the neighbourhood where the
father and daughter lived that they both went
away in haste. Years rolled on, and it was only
the other day that a gentleman who was shoot-
ing in the vicinity Mery-Sur-Oise, where it is pro-
posed to erect the great Necropolis of the capital,
saw a kind of cave into which he was induced to
descend. To his great stupefaction he discoverel
two skeletons in the cave. Subsequent inquiries
by the authorities has proved that the skeletons are
those of the father and daughter in question. That
of the girl was identified by a dentist of Pontoise,
who years ago had furnished her with a false tooth.
The skeleton was recognised to bo that of the father
from various particulars which leave no doubt upon
the subject. _

Gieat preparations aro in progress at the Hotel
de Ville for the reception of the Emperor of Austria.
The remains of M. Achille Fould have arrived in
Paris from Tarbes, accompanied by his two sons
and the Prefect of the Hautes Pyrenees, and
deposited in a chapel in the Protestant church of
the Oratorio, in the Rue St. Honore. M. Fould
was a Protestant, and the funeral ceremony to-
morrow (Monday) will be in accordance with Pro-
testant usage. The remains were followed by a
large concourse of persons to the railway station at
Tarbes, and at the moment of departure an appro-
priate address was delivered by M. Lacaze, senator,
Vice-President of the Conseil-General of the

Ilantes Pyrenees. The Emperor will be repre-
sented at the ceremony to-morrow by Admiral
Jurien de la Graviere. Some of M. Fould's friends
waited to receive his remains at the Orleans Rail-
way Station in Paris, and accompanied them to
the Oratorio, where they were formally received by
the pastor, M. Itoguon.