The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-23 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

The war in Paraguay is becoming more and more
decided in favour of the allies. On the 2d May a
column of 6,000 Paraguayans, with 8 guns and
1,200 cavalry, made a desperate assault on General
Flores' command. At first the Paraguayans car-

ried all before them, routing two Brazilian and two
Monte Videan battalions of volunteers, but General
Ozorio came to the rescue with two fresh regi-
ments, who cut through a solid square of the enemy,
and drove them nearly a league from the field, at
the point of the bayonet. The Varaguayans lost
1,000 killed, besides wounded and prisoners, as
m ell as three guns, a quantity of small arms, and
their camp. General Ozorio's horse was killed
under him, and Flores lost two aides-de-camp and
two horses killed. Lopez is said to have retired to
a strong fort below Humaita, which the fleet was
preparing to attack.
On Saturday, the 30th inst., the Great Eastern
will sail from Sheerness for Valentia. The new
Atlantic cable has been finished, and 2,730 miles
will be shipped to complete both lines across the
Atlantic. The cable put on board for the first
trial was only 2,300 miles long. Of this latter cable
1,200 miles are now lying at the bottom of the
Atlantic and 1,100 miles remain on board the ship.
It is supposed she will reach Valentia, and commence
laying the cable early in July from the Irish coast,
to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. If she succeeds in
this, she will return to the spot where she left off
last year to pick up the cable then lost. Supposing
that she does this, the remains of the old cable will
be joined at the point where it was broken, and
finish as intended that now partly laid, when we will
have a double line to Newfoundland. The new con-
ductor is composed of seven copper wires, six round
one ; each wire separately imbedded in Chatterton's
compound, wrapped in layers of gutta percha half
an inch thick, and further protected by ten solid
iron wires, which are first bound with five strands
of Manila yarn and then laid spirally round the
" core." The iron wires are galvanized, and the new
cable is not tarred as was the old. We need hardly
add how heartily we wish success to an undertaking
so promising to our international trade. We hope
we are not wrong in prophesying that the month of
July, 1866, will see Mr. Cyrus W. Field alike
famous in having accomplished this international
link, and wealthy in 'the fruits of an enterprise noble
in the good to be achieved, and hopeful as a finan-
cial scheme. _ _

It is contemplated to build a new and costly Exe-
cutive Mansion on the high grounds east of the
Capitol, Washington, and turn the White house
into a fire-proof building for the state e
poaurse
t
ment. The White House was a fine mansion in its
day, but it is now a poor residence for so great an
official as the President. The Philadelphia inquirer
calls it an hotel into which people go whenever
they please, lounge round until they are tired,
and then depart with the intention of making
another visit at a convenient time. The Presi-
dents are cribbed, cabined, and confined in the
White House, and it would be for the public ad-
vantage to build a mansion suitable for the official
residence elsewhere. Such an edifice would require
three distinct classes of apartments. There should
be spacious and complete accommodation for the
President and his family, entirely separated from
those portions of the building
devoted to business,
with their own
doors of
shut off from other partsentrance and exit, and so
of the house that the most
impudent and indefatigable
lle intruder could never
come therein. There
be spacious and ex-
tensive saloons and apartments f
or public receptions
and levees, which could be shut out from all visitors
the desire of
b
except when they were to be urea byso b
the President. There
should al
office accommodation, with rooms fore secretaries
and attendants, and Cabinet Councils, and brae
ante-rooms for persons awaiting interviews. c' -
James Stephens addressed a meeting at the Na_
tional Hall, Philadelphia, on Thursday, 31st May
last. The collection was highly unsatisfactory, and
the proceedings still more unsatisfactory to the
Head Centre. The questions put were very unplea-
sant, and Stephens, who had invited the interro-
gatories, refused to reply, and declared that he was
insulted. One of the questions certainly was in-
sulting—" whether he (Stephens) was not in fact a
British spy employed to thwart the Irish move-
mevt ?" The result of the whole affair was a scan-
dalous scene of confusion, which showed to the
minds of many present there was much dissatisfac-
tion with St and in his mind much dissatis-

faction towards his persecutors. Fenian prospects
in Philadelphia are at present decidedly below par.
Some news of the progress of the Confederation
scheme in British America is contained in a telegram re-
ceived from the NeW Brunswick correspondent of the
Canadian News, dated Fredericton, June 7. In this de-
spatch it is stated that the results of the election in that
province so far show a return of twenty-six advocates for
Confederation against four who are opposed to it : and as
there are only eleven more members to elect, the union of
the provinces is fully secured. It is expected that the new
Porliament will contain thirty-five Unionists against six
anti-Unionists. Delegates from each of the provinces will
shortly arrive in this country to confer with the Imperial
Government as to the further action now to be taken in
the matter.
The largest locomotive ever made in New Eng-
land has just been finished in East Boston. It weighs
thirty tons, has ten wheels, and is expected to draw a
thousand tons of coal on the Lehigh Valley railroad in
Pennsylvania.
. _

A traveller stopped at an inn to breakfast, and
having drank a cup of what was given to him, the servant
asked :—" What will you take, sir—tea or coffee ?" " That
depends upon circumstances," was the reply. "If what
you gave me last was tea, I want coffee ; if it was coffee,
I want tea. I want change."
A crystalised mass of gold, weighing 201 ounces,
has recently engaged the attention of mineralogists in New
York, to which it was sent from El Dorado county, Cali-
fornia. The crystals, mostly imperfect, are strangely
grouped, and have some peculiarities which are worth
studying. The value is $4,000.
The commerce of the Mississippi river employs
910 steamers, with a .capacity of 272,144 tons, valued at
$24,566,600. St. Louis has 210 steamers, with a capacity
of 110,769 tons, vahied at $8,830,000. The next principal
port is Cincinnati, 151 steamers ; New Orleans, 81; Pitts-
turg, 78 steamers and 81 tugs ; Louisville, 66 ; Memphis,
60 ; Wheeling, 44 ; St. Paul, 39.
The body of, the late General Scott was wrapped
in a rich silk American flag which he had prized highly
during life, and in which ho had often confessed the wish
he might be buried.
Considerable consternation is prevailing amongst
the residents of Fifth Avenue, New York, on account of a
proposition now under discussion in the Common Council
to widen that most aristocratic of American streets by cut-
ting off the splendid porches on both sides.
In August, 1864, George S. Peck, of Providence,
made a bet of $l,OOO on the Presidential election, and put
the stakes in the hands of John N. Parkis. A few days
before tha election he repented, and forbade Parkis paying
the money to the winner. The money was paid, and
Peck has just recovered the amount in court from the
s takeholder.
Mrs. Catharine Rudder, wife of Rev. William
Rudder, Rector of St. Stephen's Church, died in New York
on Thursday morning, from the effects of a fall from the
window of a room in the house of her relative, Mr. Jacob
R. Nevine, No 7, West• Nineteenth-street, Philadelphia.