The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-06 00:00:00

DINGWALL AND SKYE.

The annual meeting of this company was held on
Tuesday at Inverness—Mr. Matheson, M.P., in the
chair.

i
The report stated that chiefly in consequence of
tan
state of the money-market during the last 12
months the works had not been commenced, and
the directors regretted to say that the difficulties in
arranging with
ertain landowners on the line, al-
luded to in the last
110,293 had been report, still existed. The sum of
received on capital account to the
31st August last, and
balance of £6,459. X. 3,834 expended, leaving a
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said there were certaintParliament before
'They deviations in the line
l
which would oblige them to go o
any work could be commenced. did not in-
tend to go to Parliament next session, but
November,
he hoped
they would be able to give notice
1867, for a supplementary Act in 1868, when they
would proceed with the works.
Mr. GREIG seconded the motion for the adoption
of the report, which was agreed to.
The retiring directors and auditor were re-elected,
and the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks
to the chairman.

ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN.
The traffic receipts on this company's line from
the Ist of January to the 15th of October amounted,
for passengers, to $1,029,909 ; for freight, to
$3,227,222 ; and for sundries to $143,967—total,
$4,401,098 ; and for the corresponding period last
year to $1,059,873, hbuwing an increase of $341,225.

MISCELLANEOUS AMERICAN NEWS.

WHAT CAME OF SMOKING A PIPE ON A KEG OF

POWDER.

From the Winona Republican.—Our townsman,
Mr. H. C. Train, had a narrow escape from a
frightful death on Wednesday. He started for
Rushford in the morning, in company with a Mr.
Hanson, a merchant of that place. The two gen-
tlemen were riding in a buggy drawn by one horse.
In the buggy there was a keg of powder weighing
twenty-five pounds, together with other small
packages of light goods. When they had got to a
place about two miles east of the " T" tavern, the
powder by some means exploded. The explosion
was, of course, terrific, and Mr. Hanson and his
companion were thrown some distance up and for-
ward. The horse, in addition to losing all the hair
on his tail, became considerably demoralised, and ran
at the top of his speed. The two men fell upon the
whiffletree, and Mr. Hanson, to clear himself from
the wreck, jumped over the wheel, falling into a
mudhole in a half-stupefied condition.

Mr. Train clung to the pieces and was carried
forward about a mile at a pretty rapid pace. On
coming to a stop he took an inventory of the con-
cern, and found that the buggy was completely
shattered—the bottom and seat entirely gone, an
the reach and axles bent nearly double, so that the
four wheels came almost together. Mr. Train him-
self had been stripped of his outer clothing, about
one-third of the hair on his head, and all his whiskers
burned off, and his eyebrows and lashes gone. Yet,
strange to say, he was not hurt in any other way,
and after extinguishing the fire in his remaining
clothing he started back to find his companion.
Upon meeting him he laughed heartily at the ridi-
culous figure which they presented, but Mr. Hanson
could not nee it in that light. The latter was badly
bruised, and one of his hands was severely burned,
but he had suffered no serious injury. The two
contrived to get into Rushford, thankful that a
worse fate had not overtaken them. Mr. Train
thinks that the powder was ignited by a spark from
Hanson's pipe, who was smoking at the time the ex-
plosion took place.

A WONDERFUL DREAM AND A NARROW ESCAPE

FROM DESTRUCTION.

From the Dayton Journal, Oct. 3: Mr. Robert-
son, Mail Agent on the A. and G. W. Road, be-
tween this city and Cleveland, related to us,
yesterday, the strange item about a farmer who
prevented a terrible disaster on the road near
Mansfield, Ohio, at the time of the recent great
freshet. We bad before seen a paragraph relating
to the singular affair. Mr. Robertson conversed
with the farmer, and here is the story, in short :
The farmer (a Pennsylvanian) went to bed during
the heavy and protracted storm on Monday night,
and dreaming that the fill across a chasm, some
hundred feet deep, had given way under a passenger
train, and let it down into the abyss, he sprang to
render assistance to the passengers, ran to the door,
and was hastening from the house when his wife
awakened him.

Ele related his dream, and went to bed again,
but slept little more during the night. The dream
made such a deep impression on his mind that he
hastened to the chasm the next morning early, to
see what condition it was in; but the road was ap-
parently all right, although the water was pouring
and surging through the large culvert beneath, as
though it would wash the earth away. ' On Tues-
day night the farmer could not rest for thinking
about his dream of the preceding night, and getting
up he procured his lantern, and hurried off to the
chasm. When he arrived there he found to his
terror that the huge fill had been washed out, leaving
nothing but the unsupported ties and track over the
chasm.

Hearing the train thundering towards destruction
the farmer clambered across the dreadful break,
and running down the road some distance he signalled
the approaching train to step. And so short was
the time that by the time the engineer was able to
hold up the engine was but a few feet off from the
chasm.

The train was large, and was filled with person
who had been to the great Uuion meeting at Mans-
field. What a narrow escape they all made from a
horrible death ?

COUNT BISMARCK'S THANKS FOR AMERICAN SYM-

PATIIY.

The following is Count Bismarck's letter to
Minister Wright, acknowledging the recbipt of some
twenty-five tons of ice, contributed by the Ame-
ricans at Hamburgh, for the Prussian hospitals at a

me when it-could not be obtained in Germany :

" Dear Sir,—From the inclosed letters you have
been good enough to communicate to me, I see the
contributors to that munificent donation of i?,e which
has been sent successively from Hamburgh for our
hospitals. include a considerable number of your
countrymen. The War Office has already conveyed
to the Committee the thanks of his Majesty's Go-
vernment for the patriotic feeling which prompted
the gift, and for the inestimable benefit conferred
upon our wounded soldiers. It becomes now my
pleasant duty to add the expression of my sentiments
of deep gratification of the active sympathy evinced
by citizens of the United States with our struggle,
which, undertaken for the defence of our homes,
will, under God's blessing, secure the condition to
Germany of national life, and to Europe of lasting
peace.

" Believe me, dear sir, yours very sincerely,
BISJIARCK.
" Hon. W. A. Wright, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States."

The extensively advertised gift concert, claiming
t
to be in heew interest of the Soldiers' and Sailors'
Orphans' Home, came off
on Thursday night, Oct.
11th, at New York. The theatre was crowded with
policy holders,
who were put off with a few songs,
cement that the drawings were post-
poned till the followi
and an announceme
was rig Monday. Considerable dis-
satisfactionmanifested, and at one time there
were strong indications ofaa row. It is said that
prizes willebestdilrlaluvnns.old, and that
tA,lgidivdelset
a large number of tickets
notice
eerk
consequently few •
suHproenm. e
Dc. loVur. of the United States
that at the ensuing De-
cember term the general causes
Court by writs of error or appeal,frombrought into this
and District Courts, for the several districts the Circuit
the States declared to be ' within
in rebellion by
pro-
clamation of the President of the United the
States,
dated August 16th, 1861, will be called and disposed
of under the rules, and in regular order, as they may
stand upon the docket.
The thousands of New Yorkers who intend to visit
Paris in May next and the succeeding months, to
share in the glories of art and society at the Great
Exposition, will naturally have an interest in know-
ing that their favourite pictorial will be represented
there, the proprietor, Mr. Frank Leslie, having just
received from President Johnson an appointment
as Commissioner to that Exposition, as a recogni-
tion of the newspaper element in America and of
Mr. Leslie's long labours in the cause of pictorial art.
It need scarcely be said (especially as Mr. Leslie is
by no means saying it) that, while it is hoped
the appointment will be held a satisfactory one
by all classes, the readers of Frank. Leslie's will be
among those most peculiarly the gainers, in the
wealth of discriminating illustration of the most
notable people and objects there, which the pre-
sence of the proprietor will insure being forwarded
to the pet publication he leaves behind him.
Advices from Japan, of September 4th, report the
arrival at Yokahama of General Van Valkenberg,
United States Minister to Japan, and Anson Bur-
lingame, Minister to China. Both Ministers were
on a visit to Yeddo. Mr. Burlingame was expected
I soon to leave for China.

Conversions of the Seven-thirty notes falling due
August, 1867, into Five-twenty bonds, continue to
be made at the Treasury Department, at the rate
of something less than $1,000,000 per week. There
are now outstanding about $270,000,000 of this
issue of Seven-thirties. These notes, owing to the
immense clerical labour involved in their examina-
tion, can be redeemed by the department at the rate
of $5,000,000 per week, if presented as rapidly as
they could be disposed of. Parties holding Seven-
thirty notes of the above issue will, therefore, do
well to forward them to the Treasury for conver-
sion into Five-twenties as soon as possible, as

hereafter, in case of the presentation of large
quantities near the period of the full maturity of
the notes, much delay will ensue before the bonds
in conversion can possibly be furnished by the de-
partment.

The ship Buena Vista, thirty-three days from
Kanagawa, Japan, to San Francisco, Oct. 9th, re-
ports teas firm at last quotations, silks high and
scarce. There were in port the United States ships
Hartford, Wyoming, and Wachusett. The Buena
Vista brings 50,000 pounds of tea for transhipment
to New York. A later account states that the
United States steamers Hartford, Wyoming, and
Wachusett sailed on the sth of September.
The steamer Golden Age sailed for Panama, from
San Francisco, Oct. 11th, carrying $942,000 in
treasure, of which $729,000 is for New York.
Not much news has brought by the City of
Boston, from New York. Mr. Secretary Stanton
was reported to have asked to be relieved of his
present post, and to be appointed United States
Minister at Madrid. Mr. Stanton, it is added, will
be succeeded in the Secretaryship of War, by Gene-
ral Sherman. The telegram says that " influential
persons" are pressing the Administration to make
a formal demand upon the British Government for
a settlement of the Alabama claims. The state-
ment is confirmed by the Washington correspondent
of the Times, who thinks that the Alabama business
will yet give some trouble, though nobody but
Fenians of the more violent sort, would dream of
going to war about it.
The President of the United States has appointed
Wickman Hoffman, of Louisiana to be Assistant
Secretary of Legation at Paris, and George F.
Kettell, of New York, to be Consul at Rhenish
Bavaria.

The President has recognised Charles Fauconnet
as Vice-Consul of France at Galveston, Texas ;
Alfred 0. C. Garcia, Consul for Costa Rica at
Boston, Mass. ; and Guido Fusho, Consul for the
Principality of Reup at Baltimore.
The Commonwealth gives a sketch, together with
a portrait; if Lieutenant-Colonel Lothian Dickson,
as one of the leaders of the people. Colonel Dick-
son has taken a prominent part in the recent Reform
movement, and is a vice-president of the League.
He entered the army in 1825, served in the field in
the Deccan and Southern Mahratta country, but is
better known for the part he took in the Carlist
war. He raised and commanded the 7th Regiment
of the British Auxiliary Legion. At the head of
this regiment, and under the command of General
Sir de Lacy Evans, he gained considerable distinc-
tion in the Spanish expedition, was honourably
mentioned, and decorated with an order of knight-
hood. Colonel Dickson is still better known for the
uncompromising manner in which he fought to the
bitter end a Minister of War, who, acting on the
suggestion of an Earl, had unjustly removed
him from the command of the Tower Hamlets
Militia. The tenacity with which the Colonel ad-
hered to his grievance showed a very determined
disposition. No partial success could satisfy him.
He went in for a complete victory, and only failed
because he pushed his claims too far, which was
scarcely prudent when opposed by such powerful
antagonists.

The Newspaper Press of America.

----

" Griffith Gaunt" seems likely to attain the sue-
cess not only of a clever novel, but of a notorious
one. The outcry that has been raised respect-
ing its imputed indelicacy and immorality, with
the indignant rejoinder recently put forth by
the author, who threatens to prosecute his malign-
ers in the courts of law, has created a sudden and
extensive demand for the book, to supply which we
have already two rival editions in the field. One
of these bears the imprint of Messrs. Ticknor and
Fields—an imprint which has become iu almost
every part of the world the best guaranty for high-
toned sterling literary excellence. This is the legi-
timate edition, for which the author receives a hand-
some remuneration. It is brought out in very nice
style, the paper, type, and all the belongings being
such as the daintest lady might enjoy. The other
edition, we regret to acknowledge, comes from New
York. We say regret, because knowing the terms
entered into by the author and his publishers,
Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, we are forced to be-

lieve this rival edition brought out in defiance of

the common principles of honesty and honour—in
short, that it has been gotten by an act so thievish
as to justly exclude the perpetrators from the society
of all high-minded men. Saying nothing of the
trespass on the just rights of Messrs. Ticknor and
Fields, we pronounce this trickish appropriation of
the fruits of the author's labour a piece of vulgar
greed and plunder which should be spurned from
sight by every one who cares for the honour of the
American name. We trust no one, for the sake of
the slight difference therb may be in the cost of these
rival editions, will give their preference to the wares
of this New York literary junk shop.—The
,Home
Journal.

THE "LEDGER" DESPATCH OF THURSDAY.

As a matter of newspaper record we insert, in
another column, the bogus despatch published in the
Ledger of Thursday, and the comments of the press
on the same. Its true history will no doubt be at
once ferreted out by the proprietors of that journal,
and given to the public. Some one wrote the des-
patch, and through some party it was caused to be
published. If it be true that it came through their
regular correspondent, nothing can be easier than
to trace it to its author or authors. The New York
evening papers of Thursday, and the New York
morning journals of yesterday, were very severe on
our contemporary, and directly charge it with stock
jobbing motives. We sincerely regret this. Al-
though the eminent bankers who own the majority
of the stock of the Ledger are large gold operators,
yet they are too well known in this community to
warrant this suspicion. The hoax was one which
might easily have been practised on any journal
placing such implicit confidence in its correspon-
dents as does the Ledger. We are also informed
that Mr. McKean, who has ably conducted the
journal since Mr. Swain retired, was temporarily
absent from the city on Wednesday, and the perpe-
trator of the hoax, aware of that fact, may have
seized the opportunity as one favourable to this
speculating dodge. We do not imagine that Mr.
McKean would have permitted it to be inserted in
the columns of the Ledger, or telegraphed, in the
name of that journal, to other cities had he been
present. Our contemporary must not be deterred
from its enterprise in its search after news, but
should hereafter exercise greater care in the selec-
tion of correspondents and in the scrutiny of their
despatches.—Philadelphia Inquirer.

THE " HONOUR" OF A PIRATE.

Raphael Semmes, the pirate of the Alabama, who
for his feats in robbing and burning defenceless
merchant vessels, and for being w
Commander Winslow, of the Kearse
al well
e,whipped
was
madeby
an " Admiral" by the Rebel Government, is get-
ting himself into somewhat of a trouble with the
people of Mobile. The latter, in order to show
months
ago,
,thjiusßdsgeae
rtheir e ar
tmr
ai rnastpi oo nr t
eodf the bravery,th
ce.
admiration and gratitude
to the hero, elected him, some 84emo.
to
hf
et h euPn
toebda t es
taotesr Cut,Gaonv
eerans ym
ea
nn
td, fwa
ht
iochffi
had aur t-
rested Semmes for the violation of his surrender at
the time when the Alabama was sunk, and which
had discharged him reluctantly, because he had got
his subsequent parole by a trick, was not willing
that this traitor should hold an office which an un-
pardoned rebel could not hold. A prohibition was
put upon his triumph, and he has not yet been
allowed to discharge the duties of the judgeship.
Meanwhile, there is trouble in Alabama ; there is
no Probate Court in Mobile. Men die, and admi-
nistrators cannot be appointed to administer their
estates. Executors cannot get letters testamen-
tary ; creditors cannot get the money owing them
from such estates, nor can the debts due to deceased
persons be collected. Orphans and widows are
suffering, and there is great trouble because there
is no Probate Court. Were Semmes anything else
but a selfish fellow, he would long since have re-
signed an office which he will not be allowed to
hold, and thus have relieved the community. But,
as might have been expected from one who has
such a record, his only thought is to " take care of