The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 3, 1860.

Monday last, that " James Stephens is reported to
have left the United States."

Proposals for an immense contract for furnishing
stationery for the Government is advertised by the
Commdssioners of Internal Revenue. The contract
will amount to about five millions of dollars, the
bids to be in by the 15th inst., and to be for supply-
ing stationery for the year ending June 30, 1867,
to:assessors and collectors throughout that part of
the United States lying east of the Rocky Moun-
tains, and embraces two hundred and forty collec-
tion districts.

The Treasury Department of the United States
has just issued a circular on the subject of the ton-
nage duty, which is imposed for the purpose of rais-
ing revenue, and is levied upon all vessels engaged
in foreign commerce without regard to their denomi-
nation as to structure or mode of propulsion. The
same may be said of those in the domestic trade,
unless especially excepted, and all are included
under the general term—vessel. It is to be col-
lected according to American admeasurcment, as
prescribed by law, on all excepting French vessels,
whose tonnage will be ascertained from the registers
The rates of tonnage duties remain as they stood
previous to the acts of July 14, 1862, only as they
were increased by that act and the amendment of
March 3, 1865. No new or additional duties
have been since imposed, excepting as a penalty
on undocumented tugs. The circular is full and
complete as to vessels subject to tonnage duties.
All boats, barges, and flats, not used for carry-
ing passengers, nor propelled by steam or sails,
which are floated or towed by tug boats or horses,
and used exclusively for carrying coal, oil, minerals,
and agricultural products to market, are brought
under the Internal Revenue tax, and are wholly
excepted from customs charges, even though they
enter the waters under Admiralty jurisdiction, so
long as they retain that exclusive character, and
only transport coal, oil, mineral products, and
agricultural products to market, and, if under
twenty-five tons burden, are vessels exempt from

all taxation. •
The Navy Department has received a despatch
from Captain J. R. Goldsborough, commanding the
United States steamer Shenandoah, announcing the
arrival of that vessel on the 18th of September at
Bombay, British India, whence it was proposed the
vessel would sail on the 10th ult. for Point de Galle.
Captain Goldsborough states that on the 35th of
September, while anchored off Muscat, he received
a visit from an officer of the Imaum, welcoming
him to the port and offering the usual civilities. A
salute of twenty-one guns was fired from the Shenan-
doah, and was promptly returned from the batteries
on each side of the harbour. The next day Capt.
Goldsborough, in company with several of his offi-
cers, visited the Imaum at his palace, and was hos-
pitably received. In the despatch the fact is referred
to that we have no Consul at Muscat, nor any Ame-
rican citizens residing there.
A highly important suit is now before the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania, involving several millions of

dollars, before Chief-Justice Woodward, Judges
Strong, Read, Thompson, and Agnew, sitting on
appeal of B. Funks, assigns, vs. Haldeman, and
others. The case has been fully argued, and ex-
cited much attention. The counsel for the ap-
pellants were Walter H. Lowrie, ex-Chief Justice
Thomas M. Marshall, F. Carroll Brewster, of Phila-
delphia, and R. Biddle Roberts. The counsel for
the appellees are F. F. Backus and Heydrick. The
decision of the writ will be looked for with great
interest, as the amount involved is immense. This
case interests vitally all stockholders in the Dalzell,
M'Elhenny, Consolidated Petroleum Company of
New York, Webster, Peoples', Fountain, Oceanic,
Northern Light, and twenty other companies.
The official investigation ordered by the Treasury
Department into the causes of the loss of the Even-
ing Star has been concluded, and the report sub-
mitted to the Secretary of the Treasury. The re-
port states :--" The principal cause of the disaster
was in the error of judgment on the part of the
captain, because, having strong premonitions of the
storm, he might have avoided the main force by
changing his course. From the first hour the settled
course of the storm was northward, and it is believed
had the ship been headed west early in the after-
noon of Tuesday the vessel might have been saved
by escaping the full fury of the tempest, and run-
ning to a moderate gale on the other side of the
Gulf Stream." The report further says :—"I
confess to a belief in the possibility of saving the
vessel, she being so staunch in the hull, had there
been a carpenter on board properly supplied with
stores, &c., for the ultimate cause of her going down
was shipping such immense quantities of water
through the breeches made in her upper works and
on the starboard side." It is impossible to lay too
much stress on the importance of the first clause.
Since the invaluable researches of Lieutenant Maury
the facts concerning the Laws of Storms have been
so well known, and the possibility of avoiding the
full force of cyclones by steering out of their course
so well understood, that the commanders of vessels
should be deeply impressed with the grave respon-
sibility they incur if they neglect the ascertained
barometrical warnings of a tempest, and unneces •
sarily endanger the lives of their passengers. The
present winter months are usually saddened by
melancholy losses at sea. Let at least all human
means be exerted to prevent the recurrence of such
'catastrophes.
Brigadier-General Ames, the distinguished captor
of Fort ,Fisher, was present at the Thanksgiving
Dinner at the Langham Hotel. In returning thanks
for the United States army he said it was a sol-
dier's business to act, not to talk. It was a singular
fact that, while he was acting on the celebrated
occasion when he achieved the crowning deed of his
distinguished services, his chief, General Butler,
was talking or writing to prove that that deed was
impossible of attainment.
The Nation says The month of October,
1866, will henceforward be memorable as the month
of Mr. Peabody's great endowments. One day we
hear of him in Danvers, Massachusetts, receiving the
thanks of the citizens of his native place for the
libraries he has there established. Not long previ-
ous we were told of his erecting a memorial church
in Georgetown, and establishing another library in
Thetford, Vermont, with both of which towns he
was connected by peculiar ties. Then the news-
papers informed us that he had given the sum of
$25,000 to that excellent and famous classical school
in Andover, Phillips' Academy. A few days later
he visits Cambridge and endows a new department
in the time-honoured university with $150,000.
He is next at New Haven, where he bestows upon
Yale College an equal sum for a museum of natural
history. Before the close of the month he is in
Baltimore witnessing the opening of the Peabody
Institute, and adding half a million of dollars to the
u of
;like amount which he had previously be-
sse tr
of
hd n
elvVoleendoeeub int whether the
land
hree
eaonrndasl so of
manyw
learningise
and generous gifts from a single source. We hope
such liberality will be known as American."
An American missionary, Mr. Jessup, writes from
Beiout in September :—" These persons will find
that once outside of Jaffa gardens the plain is fre-
quentoohtoetdfobrythtehme
ißn eidnoourien
s;e
nt
shees Holythan
oLnaen. d
Iwt i
sl
abne
insane undertaking. I have noticed advertisements
of the scheme in the papers from time to time, but
ort hmetpmhseny!,;
regarded .it as a hoax. We nowienyzhoeoca
rthaepeLrorß.diahnauvfeacmtarer are
South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, has just . Carew May
de-
clared a yearly dividend of 100 per cent. The State
comThineg
Bank of Louisiana has resumed business.
The efforts of Mr. Fox to dispose of the Mian-
tonomah by sale in Europe excite some merriment
in America among those who were opposed to his
expedition to Russia. It is suggested that after all
the praises his ironclad has received for crossing
the ocean he would find it somewhat embarrassing
to have it towed back by steamships as when it first
crossed the Atlantic. The Cincinnati Gazette, in,
an article beaded " Hawking our Monitors," de-
scribes Mr. Fox as " in the situation of a man late
at a fair with a pig, which he cannot take home,
and which nobody wants," and thinks the ship may
eventually bring something as scrap iron.
The income-tax payers are classified by the Com-
missioners of Internal Revenue in three -classes : --
First, those whos,e return is less than $l,OOO over