The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-06 00:00:00

Miscellaneous American News.

General Dix has written a letter in support of the
Philadelphia Convention. He gives hand, heart,
_ _

and sword to the propositions, reasons, and objects
_ _ _

of the club. The Democrats of the six Congres-
sional districts of New York have elected their dele-
gates for the Convention. In the Fifth District
Judge Moncrieff, in the Sixth Washington Hunt

and Dr. Sayre, the port physician, are among the
elect. The Eighth sends James Brookes, and the
Ninth Fernando Wood. Governor Seward writes
to Senator Doolittle that he is surprised that any
one should ask whether he does or does not oppose
the cause of the Convention, and asks, " that the
citizen who objects to the Convention should pro-
pose a better plan of proceeding to effect the desired
end." No other plan is proposed or even thought
of. The Tribune says, when Messrs. Randall,
Dixon, and Co. issued the call for the National
Convention, they seemed to invite and expect that
said Convention should embody the sentiment and
express the predominant convictions of the Union
party, of that Union party which sternly resisted
and subdued the Rebellion, of that Union party
which nominated Lincoln and Johnson, and elected
them over M'Clellan and Pendleton. We said at
once, this call is a fraud. Its authors do not expect
or desire the attendance of delegates who shall
faithfully represent the Union party. They desire
and expect to carry off a mere salvage of this party,
composed mainly of office-holders, and unite it with
the Democratic M'Clellan party of 1864, thereby
securing to the latter the government of the country.
This statement was denounced and stigmatised ;

but a few days have sufficed to demonstrate its
truth. The Union party of 1861-5 refuses to at-
tend or countenance the Convention. Not ten out
of its 180 members of Congress countenance it,

while their advisers do so to a man. Thus the Con-
vention will be a gathering of those who resolved at
Chicago, in 1864, that the War of the Union had
been a failure, and nominated accordingly. Its
objects, its instincts, its oracles, will be the same
that they have been. Its success will be the down-

!all of all who triumphed with Lincoln and Grant.

Lieutenant-General Grant has been raised to the
rank of General. The following order, dated
Head-quarters of the Army, Washington, July Ist,
would argue that the General was not an advocate
of the President's policy ; but as the President is
commander-in-chief of the army, we cannot under-

stand how such an order could be issued without

his sanction :

(General Order, No. 44.)

District, Department, and Post-COmmanders in
States lately in rebellion are hereby directed to ar-
rest all persons who have been, or may hereafter be,
charged with commission of crimes ; and offences
against officers, agents, citizens, and inhabitants of
the United States, irrespective of colour, in cases
where the civil authorities had failed, neglected, or
are unable to arrest and bring such parties to trial,
and to detain them in military confinement until
such time as a proper judicial tribunal may be ready
and willing to try them. A strict enforcement of
this order is required.
(By command of Lieut.-General Grant,)
E. D. TOWNSEND, Assist. -Adj t. -General.
This is regarded as the most important paper which
has been printed for months. If not paralysed by
higher authority it will prove a terror to evil-doers
and a much-needed shield to the persecuted loyalists
of the South. It is equivalent, adds the Tribune,
to a fresh proclamation of martial law in the South,
where no other law operates to protect those who
have been faithful to the Union.
The news received by the French Government
from Mexico to the 29th of June is rather in-
teresting. At the moment of the departure of
the mail Marshal Bazaine was informed that the
Mexican brigade, commanded by General Oldera,
1,600 strong, having left Matamoras to escort a
convoy of merchandise to Monterey, had been sur-
prised and attacked by Escobedo with 4,000 men
on the 16th June at Berrendo. The convoy was
overpowered, and the Mexican troops, partly de-
stroyed, left 500 men in the hands of the enemy.
General Mejia had only 500 Mexican troops and
Urban militia to defend Matamoras. All was ready
for an energetic resistance, when the inhabitants,
alarmed at the insufficiency of the means of de-
' fence, determined to capitulate. No details had
arrived respecting the reduction of the place, but it
was known that General Mejia obtained for his
small garrison an honourable capitulation, and the
most favourable conditions for the population_ of
Matamoras. The General had landed with his

hoops at Vera Cruz. Michoacan was still infested
with guerillas. A detachment of the Auatrian legion
was attacked on the 12th of June at Tehuatlau by
400 disaffected in a strong position, but after a com-
bat of several hours they were dislodged with con-
siderable loss.
The Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company
are contracting for a number of barges to bo built at Cincin-
nati, and are also about to purchase several powerful tugs,
all of which are to be used in freighting business, it being
the design to ultimately do all the freighting business by
barges, leaving the largo steamers entirely for passenger
trade.

San Francisco has a new daily paper called the
Times.

Near Ellsworth, Maine, there are five houses stand-
ing side by side, occupied by five thrifty men, brothers,
who married five sisters.
A cook in Washington used calomel instead of
soda in making a batch of biscuits a few days ago, and the
partakers haven't got over the medication yet.
Professor Agassiz says that the strip of " high
lands which divide the waters flowing into the St. Law-
rence from those flowing into the Atlantic," is the oldest
land in the world. It was once a lonely sea beach,
washed by a universal ocean.
California exports an average of 13125 annually
'for each inhabitant of the State, and imports nearly as
much. England exports only $4O per person.
The fair of the New England and Vermont State
agricultural societies will be held on the grounds of the
Windham Park Association, at Brattleboro', Vt., Sept. 4,5,
6, and 7, 1866.
The burned district at Portland has been ac-
curately surveyed and found to cover an area of 327 acres,
so thoroughly burnt that scarcely 10 cords of charred wood
could be gathered from the ruins. Some 70 children have
been born in the tents on Munjoy Hill since the fire.
The Southern Telegraph Company propose a line
from Cincinnati to Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Vicks-
burg, Mobile, and New Orleans.
One grain of wheat in Missouri produced 75 stalks
averaging 29 grains each, or an aggregate of 2,175 grains.
Mr. Lindsley, the clergyman who whipped his
child to death, only three years old, because it would not
say its prayers, and who was released on $lO,OOO bail, im-
mediately
fearing
brother-in-law
being set at liberty went to the house of his
to stay, but was not allowed to do so, the
quarters
brother •
that his house would be torn down
voluntarily, but really to easuceda
by an excited mob ; and'
in
the
miserable man has again
taken up his
pgeaoslemamt
aArlybipounn;isthhmisenttinalet
Among other curious i
the hands of an infuriated
tthhea tfiraominan.hiswheeoi indignant
of public.
tb Portland
I,hladeeilthe building was
althoughlocked up in gaol
sfirleePtitthisrousagihd
burned over his head. He was discharged the next morn-
ing, having been " tried as by fire."
Among the losers by the fire in
Portland was

Akers, the sculptor. His studio in the City Hall was en-
tirely destroyed with all its contents, including not only
his finished and unfinished works, but letters from his
brother Paul, and many other memorials of friendship and
travel which can never be replaced.

General Webster, formerly Chief of Staff to Gen.
Sherman, has purchased an interest in a large iron manu-
facturing establishment in Alabama.

Senator James Lane died at Leavenworth, Kan-
sas, July 11.

Mr. Arthur Sketchley intends taking " Mrs.
Brown" to America. Mr. Sketchley's illustration of a vul-
gar old Englishwoman is so perfect that it will be proba-
bly thoroughly appreciated by intelligent Americans who
have read of Mrs. Gamp. That there is no such personage
in existence in the western hemisphere proves nothing—
we had never seen anything approximating to a " Yankeee
gal," and yet Mrs. Barney Williams had no need to com-
plain of her first reception or her ultimate success.
_ _

It is stated on apparently good authority that Mr.
Jefferson Davis has expressed displeasure at the tone and
many of the statements in the work recently published
professing to describe his prison life ; and that he has
authorised Captain Titlow, who superintended his "shack-
ling," to contradict several of the most melodramatic points
in the account of that event.

It is said that Mr. George Peabody intends pay-
ing for the erection of a fine building in connection with
Yale College for a geographical cabinet, with accommoda-
tion also for a chemical laboratory and a philosophical
lecture-room.

Great excitement exists in the Western States
concerning the charge brought against a German named
Classon of having deliberately spread trichinas amongst
his hogs in the State of lowa with the hope that a re-
ward would be offered by the authorities for every hog
so diseased.

The Judiciary Committee of the House of Repre-
sentatives, it is said, will soon make a report declaring that
they have found nothing implicating Mr. Jefferson Davis
with the assassination of Mr. Lincoln.

A company is distilling turpentine and oil from
the pine woods in Mississippi. From one cord are distilled
25 gallons spirits turpentine, 50 gallons oil, 100 gallons
pyroligneous acid, 5 gallons alcohol, 1i barrels pitch er
rosin, 1 barrel tar, 800 feet illuminating gas, superior to
that made of coal, and 50 bushels charcoal.
HEAT IN NEW YORK.—rhe New Ycrk Board
of Health report that in the last week of June the mean
temperature for the entire week, night and day, was
nearly 78 degrees. The thermometer reached 94. The
returns made by the Board showed 12 sudden deaths in
the city from sunstroke, and 12 from congestion of the
brain and effects of heat.