The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-28 00:00:00

SURREY v. ENGLAND.

This important match will be commenced on Monday on
the Surrey ground, Kennington Oval. The following is
a list of the players :
SURREY.
Mr. E. Dowson Humphrey Poolay
Mr. F. P. Miller Jupp Stephenson
Omar Lockyer Sewell
Griffith Mortlake

ENGLAND.
Mr. V. E. Walker Mr. A. H. Rowley Bennett
Mr. E. M. Grace Wilsher Hearne
Mr. W. G. Grace Wootton Payne
Mr. J. Round James Lillywhite

Miscellaneous American News.

The financial year of the United States Govern-
ment closed on Saturday, the 30th. It is stated at
the Treasury Department that the total receipts for
the year will foot up to over $550,000,000, as fol-
lows :—From internal revenue; $315,000,000; from
customs, $170,000,000; from direct tax, $2,000,000 ;
from miscellaneous sources, $65,000,000 ; and from
public land sales, $600,000.
We are sorry to learn by the Cuba that the
breach between the President and Congress is widen-
ing. Mr. Dennison, the Postmaster-General, has
resigned ; and it is reported that Messrs. Stanton
and Harland will also resign on account of poli-
tical differences with the President. The Cabi-
net will support the National Union Convention
Club, which is to assemble at Philadelphia in the
middle of August ; and several of the Southern
States are electing delegates to represent them at the
meeting. General Grant was invited to take part,
but replied in a formal manner, regretting that he
was prevented by a previous engagement. A Radi-
cal convention, in opposition to this club, has been
called by several prominent Southerners to meet also
in Philadelphia in September ; it will be supported
by the members of Congress opposed to the Presi-
dent. The President has vetoed the Freedmen's
Bureau Bill, and both Chambers have passed the
bill over his veto. Attorney-General Speed has
resigned. The tax on cotton has been fixed at 3
cents per pound.

A writ of habeas corpus was lately served on
General Sickles by the district court of South Caro-
lina, to produce the bodies of four persons who were
convicted and sentenced to death by a court-martial.
The charge on which they were sentenced was the
killing a non-commissioned officer and two privates
of a military guard. General Sickles refused to
comply with the writ, and gave the following rea-
sons for the refusal :

Ist. The President's proclamation of September,
1863, suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus.

2cl. Parties of their own motion have laid before
the President, for his official action, the record of
all the proceedings in the case, and the whole matter,
including the disposition to be made of these parties,
is now before him.

3d. That he (General Sickles) therefore has no
power by which he can, in any manner, interfere
with the present disposition of the case without the
further orders of the President.

It is stated that the President's action has been
to direct General Sickles to answer the writ.
Mr. Banks, of Massachusetts, introduced a billiin
Congress, which has taken the Canadas, as well as
a
this country, by surprise. It was at first supposed that
s3relerr.etßpaanrksty
in
was acting
America, but no such in conjunction with some
party seems to have any existence. The bill esta-
blishes the conditions for the admission into the Union
of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada East and
Canada West, and for the organisation of territorial
Governments. The bill was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Foreign Affair's. The first
section provides that, whenever notice shall be de-
posited in the Department of State, that the Go-
vernments of Great Britain and of the Provinces have
accepted the propositions made in the second section,
the President of the United States shall publish by
proclamation that the States of Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Canada East and Canada West, and
the territories of Selkirk, Saskatchwan, and Colum-
bia, are constituted and admitted as States and ter-
ritories of the United States. Among the proposi-
tions are, that the United States will assume the
provincial debt at not 'exceeding five per cent in-
terest, as follows :—Canada West, $36,500,000 ;
Canada East, $29,000,000; Nova Scotia,$80,000,000;
New Brunswick, $7,000,000 ; Newfoundland,
$3,200,000 ; Prince Edward's Island, $2,000,000.
The President of the United States has signed a
bill for the revision and codification of the Federal
statutes. Such a reform is much needed. The acts
of Congress which are in force are so various, and
so many amendments and partial changes have
been made in them, without reference to what had
been previously ene cted, that it requires laborious
study to understand what the law exactly is upon
any subject of Federal concern. As these statutes
bind and control innumerable interests, common
justice requires that they should be divested of their
intricacies, and rendered plain and intelligible. The
work of codification should be entrusted to expe-
rienced hands, and it should be promptly executed,
so that, if possible, the whole subject may be con-
sidered and, definitely acted upon before the end of
the present Congress, in March next. It is neces-
sary every few years in every great State to per-
form the task here proposed. The tendency of law-
making is to complicate Acts by modifications, till
an Act, to revise an Act, which has been a revision
of another Act, becomes so cumbersome that the
only plan is to wipe out the whole, and reproduce
the original with the reforms considered necessary.
What is the case with a State as a whole is the case
with every department. Lord Clyde, when he as-
sumed command in India, in the middle of the
mutiny, made a clear sweep of the cumbrous system
of official reports, and simplified to an extraordinary
degree the quadruplicate excrescences. But such is
the tendency of these weeds to grow that the next
mander.
crisis will require a similar action in the next com-

We learn from the Philadelphia inquirer that
Mr. Clark (New Hampshire), from the Committee
on the Judiciary, reported a bill to regulate the
times and manner of holding elections for Senators
in Congress. It provides,—First, That the Legis-
lature of any State next preceding the expiration of
senatorial terms shall elect, on the second Tuesday
of its session, a successor of the retiring Senator.
The voting shall be viva voce, and the name of the
person receiving a majority of the votes cast in such
House shall be entered upon the journal of each
House, and a joint meeting of the Houses shall be
convened at twelve o'clock the following day, and
if the same person
is found to have received a majo-
rity he shall be declared elected ; but if the same
person shall not have received a majority of the
votes of both Houses, or if either House shall have
failed to take proceedings as required, the joint
assembly shall proceed to choose viva voce, and the
person receiving
a majority of votes, all the mem-
bers being present and voting, shall be declared
duly elected.
Second, That when a vacancy shall