The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-22 00:00:00

Miscellaneous American News.

The Legislature of Virginia has met, and Governor
Pierpout is the first Governor of any unrepresented
State, to recommend the adoption of the Constitu-
tional Amendment, which he does fully and earnestly,
urging it as the only remaining means of recon-
struction, and predicting a dismal political future
for the South if it is persistently rejected. The
finances of Virginia are in good condition, the re-
ceipts of the year giving a balance of nearly a million
dollars over the expenditures, to be appropriated
to the payment of the State debt. The State
has been quiet, the laws well enforced, and difficulties
between the freedmen and whites few and unim-
portant. The Governor recommends just treatment
and education of the freedmen and the promotion
of the general industrial interests of the State. The
Richmond papers are generally pleased with the Pre-
sident's Message, as is natural, but the TVhig is not
quite satisfied that the President should recognise
the fragmentary Congress as legal, and should
refrain from threatening resistance to its usurpa-

ions.

Among the interesting items from the Pacific
coast we see that San Francisco has exchanged its
volunteer fire department for a paid one; the United
States steamer Vanderb e, that carried Queen
Emma home, has returned to San Francisco, bring-
ing E. M'Cook, United States Minister at Hawaii,
as a passenger, who returns on account of his wife's
health ; Colonel C. S. Bulkley, chief engineer of
the Russian American telegraphic expedition, ar-
rived at Victoria on Monday,
on his way to San Fran-
cisco
m u ; o
San Francisco continues to export large
ts
heat both to New York and Europe.
a oof w
The number of immigrants that arrived in New
York in November was 16,900 ; and at Baltimore
1,048.
Mr. Stanton, in
his report on the War Depart-
ment just delivered to Contreess,says Under
regular
now
the Act of July 28, 1866, t
comprises ten regiments, or 120 companies of
cavalry, 5 regiments, or GO companies of artillery,
and 45 regiments, or 450 companies of infantry ; of
which 2 cavalry and 6 infantry regiments are com-
posed of coloured men, and 4 infantry regiments of
men who were wounded iu the line of their duty. One
regiment of white cavalry had been fully recruited
on the 15th of September; the other regiment, as-
signed to the Pacific coast, is very nearly completed.
Forty-eight of the fifty-four companies required to
convert into regiments the single battalions of the
nine three-battalion regiments of the former orga-
nisation have been completed and sent to their
regiments. The four veteran regiments have been
assigned to districts where the men may be usefully
employed in guarding storehouses and cemeteries,
and on similar duties. The coloured regiments will
be recruited, as far as possible, from the coloured
volunteers still in service. The law authorises an
assignment of 100 privates to a company as a maxi-
mum, 50 being the minimum, and the maximum
strength of the army is thus placed at 75,382 rank
and file. The present strength of companies is fixed
at 64 privates for cavalry, artillery, and infantry,
and 122 privates for light batteries of artillery,
making an aggregate strength of 54,302. As soon
as the ranks shall be well filled it is designed to in-
crease the efficiency of the military force by raising
the standard of qualifications."
It appears from the annual report of the Ameri-
can Secretary of the Navy that the North Atlantic
squadron, under Rear-Admiral Palmer, has had
pleasant summer's cruisingat and around the fishing
grounds on the north-eastern coast, after having
taken a survey at the Antilles and other tropical
latitudes. The fishery question, which it was feared
might give rise to collisions on what has been claimed
as British maritime ground, caused Admiral Palmer
no anxiety whatever, for the S3eret Lry says, " The
liberal and conciliatory policy of the British Govern-
ment dissipated all apprehended difficulties."

lhe 13* (CM Advertiser of December 5 Bap

" Our readers already know how flattering is the
condition of our finances which Mr. M'Culloch has
to report. Even a man of cooler temperament than
the Secretary might be pardoned for a little effu-
sion of pride at the ample margin which the receipts
of the Treazury now leave for the disposition of the
Governener it, and at the surprising reduction of our
national debt, begun before we ourselves realised
that the debt had reached its height, and continued
at a rate which contradicts all prediction and sur-
passes all. hope. With his accounts in this pros-
perous condition, Mr. M'Culloch naturally gives his
chief attention to the question which is the subject
of so much debate—how specie payments can be
resumed 1 Although he has been known from the
first as a believer in an early return to hard money,
and as fully alive to the mischiefs of a depreciated
currency, Mr. M'Culloch, if we remember rightly,
has generally avoided using language of too posi-
tive tenour upon this subject. It is the more inte-
resting, therefore, to observe that he now declares
his opinion that specie payments may be resumed,
and ought to be resumed, as early as the Ist clay of
July, 1868;' while he hopes that by wise legislation
and a prosperous condition of our productive in-
dustry this most desirable event may be brought
about at a still earlier day.' ihe expedients by
which Mr. M'Culloch proposes to restore the cur-
rency to a sound condition in the next 18 months
are five in number. 1. He would compel all the
national banks to redeem their bills in United States
notes at the commercial centres, and if possible in
New York, in order to insure uniformity of credit
and a preparation for specie redemption. 2. He
would have the United States notes in circulation
withdrawn as rapidly as is found prudent, believing
that the reduction can be made at the rate of six
millions per month for this fiscal year and ten mil-
lions per month for the next, while he would not
permit the national bank circulation to be carried
above three hundred millions. 3. He would have
the internal revenue simplified and collected from as
few articles as possible, the tariff revised and har-
monised with the internal taxes, raw materials re-
lieved from burdens, and production in every way
encouraged. 4. He would issue a new series cf
bonds at five per cent., with principal and interest
payable in Europe, to be exchanged for the bonds
now held abroad, as a security less likely to be re-
turned in any temporary disturbance of the money
market. And 5. He urges the speedy rehabilita-
tion of the Southern States, iu the belief that until
then their productive powers will remain inactive,
and the finances of the nation miss one of their chief
supports.
The Nation remarks that the report of the Secre-
tary of War naturally yields the first place in point
of interest to that of the head of the Treasury De-
partment. Disbanding volunteers, of whom there
are left in service only 11,043 men, white and
coloured ; collecting, storing, or selling material of
war; recruiting the regular army, experimenting
with arms, planning harbour and river improve-
ments and defences, and carrying on the Freed-
men's Bureau, have been the main business
of the Department since May, 1865. Breech-load-
ing arms are in process of manufacture, and the
Secretary declares his belief that in the altered
Springfield rifle, with its metallic cartridge, we have
a better arm with better ammunition than the Prus-
sians have in their needle-gun. In regard to the
vexed question of the proportion which the number
of white people fed by the Department bore and
bears to the number of black people so depen dent,
we suppose the Secretary's word would be conclu-
sive if he were to speak with sufficient clearness.
Up to May 30, 1866, the number of black people
drawing rations seems to have been the greater ; on
that day, the number of whites on the lists of desti-
tute persons having gradu illy increased, black
paupers and white were equally numerous ; since
June 30, 1866, the two classes seem to have been
growing smaller and to have been diminishing
equally. The State, county, and pari.3h authorities,
the Secretary says, have, with very few exceptions,
failed to take on themselves the support of the poor,
and throughout the South the Government supports,
through the agency of the Freedmen's Bureau, over
20,000 people. Over 150,000 are in schools.
In Postmaster-General Randall's, lovers of the
curious will find more food than in any other of the
yearly reports. For instance, he informs us that
inure than eight thousand soldiers' discharges got
into the dead-letter office during the year ending
June 30th. The whole number of dead letters was
about four and a half millions. Foreign countries
sent to the United States in that year 4,543,630
letters, and we sent abroad, chiefly to Europe,
4,886,916. As was expected, now that the rebel-
lion is at an end and the mail has to be carried
South again, the cost of carrying it brings the re-
venues of the department down below the expendi-
tures, the deficit last year being $965,093, and the
estimated deficit of the current year being still
greater. The money-order system and the system
of free delivery in large towns will no doubt be con-
tinued in force as the Secretary recommends, for he
proves them to be not only pleasant to the public,
but on the, whole profitable to the Government.
General Grant, in a report to Mr. Stanton, the
Secretary of War of the United States, says :
" Passing from civil war of the magnitude of that
in which the United States has been engaged to
Government through the courts, it has been deemed
necessary to keep a military force in all the lately
rebellious States, to insure the execution of law and
to protect life and property against the acts of those
who, as yet, will acknowledge no law but force.
This class has proved to be much smaller than could
have been expected after such a conflict. It has,
however, been sufficiently formidable to justify the
course which has been pursued. On the whole, the
condition of the States that were in rebellion against
the Government may be regarded as good enough to
warrant the hope that but a short time will intervene
before the bulk of the troops now occupying them can
be sent to our growing territories, where they are
so much needed." On the same subject General
Sickles says: —" The mostsatisfactory progress seems
to have been made during the past year in, all that
concerns the welfare of these States. A year ago
civil authority did not exist. The duties of the exe-
cutive were in the hands of provisional function-
aries appointed by the President. These have been
replaced by Governors elected by the people. The
courts were all closed, and the administration of
justice depended altogether on military tribunals.
Now the courts are all open, and the jurisdiction of
military tribunals, except on the sea islands, is con-
fined to persons in the military service, in cases
arising under the Articles of War. The adminis-
tration of municipalities, towns, and counties de-
volved upon military officers. The police of Charles-
ton, Columbia, Raleigh, and Wilmington was ex-
clusively military. The taxes imposed, the streets
that were lighted, the licenses granted, and all the
regulations of commerce and trade, were subject to
military authority. Now the local magistrates and
officials chosen by the people, or appointed accord-
ing to law, are discharging 'their ordinary duties.
The police is almost exclusively municipal. All
taxes, assessments, and charges of every kind are
levied by civil authorities, and all restrictions upon
commerce, trade, and intercourse, other than those
imposed by the laws, have ceased."
From Pittsburgh we learn that one of the great
failures is the glass trade. Amid the prevailing
dullness, this business, almost alone, is exceedingly
active. In window glass the manufacturers of that

city are from one to t wo months behind their orders.

The cost of production shows no diminution. There
is not quite so much doing in flint-glass, though the

demand is good.
The Pittsburgh Mining Journal remarks that about
two-thirds of all the iron produced in Pennsylvania
is manufactured in the Lehigh valley, around Beth-

lchem, amounting in ..18G1 to 215,000 tons, and
likely to reach a similar amount in 18GG. The con-
sumption of coal for the purpose i 3 about 1,500

tons a-day. The stacks of furnaces are enormous
huge double cones—rising 50 to 75 feet high, taking

in the iron ore and the coal at the fiery gate on top,
by the hundred tons, and pouring out the liquid

metal at the bottom in Vesuvius streams.

The opinion of the unconditional Unionists in the
Southern States becomes more and more outspoken
in favour of petitioning Congress to regard their

States for the present as Territories, and by ena-
bling acts reorganise them as States on the basis of