The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-18 00:00:00

Miscellaneous American News.

The following are from.the Nation :—The ru-
mours of the President's having determined to sub-
mit to the popular decision and govern his conduct
accordingly increase in number, if they do not gain
strength, as the meeting of Congress draws near.
They probably have some foundation. It is plea-
sant to learn from the correspondent of a Mobile
paper, who seems well informed, that Mr. Johnson
does not anticipate a "physical collision" with Con-
gress this winter, although he does not disguise his
apprehensions that an attempt will be made to im-
peach him. As regards the impeachment, we fear
a great deal of very valuable time will be spent in
discussing it in the House—the reorganisation of
the South and the regulation of the currency mean-
whilelying neglected. .Some tremendous speeches are
doubtless in preparation on the origin, rise, and
progress of impeachments, beginning at the first
recorded Olympiad, and coming down by way of
Ancient Egypt, Republican Rome, Moorish Spain,
and modern England to our own day and country.
We hope the public is ready.
One of the largest and most perfect mastodons
known, has been discovered at Cohoes, near Troy,
in the United States. It was found eighty-three
feet below the surface of the ground, and in so per-
fect a condition that it is believed that the skeleton
can be restored. The animal must have been at
least twenty feet in length and fifteen in height.
The tusks measure eight feet, and the jaw is four
feet nine inches in length from the mouth to the
cranium. The remains have been carefully col-
lected, and it is stated that Professor Agassiz will
draw up a report on them.
Three thousand mineral specimens have been
collected at San Francisco for the Paris Exposition
next year. The project of sending a section of the
big tree of California to the Paris Fair has been
nearly abandoned.
The longest message yet transmitted through the
Atlantic Cable was a despatch from the United
States Government, at Washington, to the Ameri-
can Minister at Paris, early last week. It consisted
of more than 4,000 words, occupied ten hours in
transmission, and was sent on an average at the
rate of seven words per minute. The cost was over
£2,000. If printed it would have occupied three
columns of a daily paper.
During the war, the Washington Steam Fire En-
gine Company removed in their ambulances 2,113
wounded soldiers. A . certificate of the committee
of the Citizens' Volunteer Hospital has been got up
in handsome style, and is to be presented to the
Company. It contains pictures of the hospital and
the Washington's ambulance. The whole is inclosed
in an elegant and massive gilt frame, elaborately
decorated. On the top is an eagle, and underneath
it a bust of Washington. On each side are torches
and axes, and at the bottom, a miniature steam fire
engine. The testimonial will no doubt be highly
prized by the members of the Washington Steam
Fire Company. It is now on exhibition at the
store of G. W. Pitcher, Chesnut-street, above
Eighth.
We hear that the several delegates from Canada,
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, appointed to
arrange the terms of union of those provinces in one
confederation, have organised themselves into a
conference. The conference is composed of the fol-
lowing gentlemen :—The Hon. Messrs. Macdonald,
Cartier, Galt, M'Dougall, Howland, and Langevin,
from Canada ; the Hon. Messrs. Tupper, Henry,
Ritchie, M'Cully, and Archibald, from Nova Scotia ;
and the Hon. Messrs. Mitchell, Wilmot, Tilly,
Fisher, and Johnson. They commenced their sit-
tings on Tuesday, the 4th inst. ; the Hon. John A.
Macdonald, of Canada, being chairman, and Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Hewitt Bernard, the secretary of
the conference, which sits daily at the Westminster
Palace Hotel.

On account of the despatch of great quantities of
war material and military stores in Canada, the Mi-
litary Store Staff at Quebec has been augmented by
Deputy-Assistant-Storekeeper Taylor, from Alder-
shot Camp. His Excellency the General Command-
ing in that colony, Sir John Michel, 1C.C.8., has
also thought it desirable to establish military store
depots at Toronto, London, and Hamilton, the for-
mer being placed under the charge of Assistant-

Superintendent Russell whose appointment to
Quebec, vice W. H. Tapp, has been cancelled—and
the latter under Assistant-Superintendent Miller,
from Dublin.

A recent letter from Springfield states that Pro-
fessor Wilbur, the geologist, has selected and
labelled a series of fossils and minerals from -the
duplicates belonging to the State Cabinet, to be ex-
hibited first at the coming State Fair, in Chicago,
and from thence to be forwarded to Paris, in care
of the llon. J. P. Reynolds, the accredited State
agent for the Paris Exposition. After the close of
the exhibition they will be exchanged for European
specimens, to be returned to the State Cabinet. The
collection will embrace about 600 species of mine-
rals and fossils, to which will be added, in Chicago,
such specimens of coals, building stones, potters'
clay, &c., as have been collected by the agent of the
State Agricultural Society, Mr. Minier, who has
been actively engaged in this work for the past two
months. Such an exhibition of the natural resources
of the State in this department will thus be made to
Europe as will, no doubt, have a beneficial influence
in drawing to our own State a fair share of the capi-
tal and enterprise that yearly
seeks a new and wider
field of labour on this continent.

The following is from the Pall-Mall Gazette :
" We noticed some weeks ago a statement of the
Economist that there was some fear of an interrup-
tion of the wine trade between Franc© and the
United States. It has since given some fresh parti-
culars by no means reassuring. The French Go-
vernment directed its Minister at Washington to
remonstrate with the American Cabinet, but M.

Montholon found his representations were without
avail. He was told that the seizures complained of

were in virtue of the law ; that the courts, not the
Government, must decide on the legal point ; and

that, as the Customs' officers had a pecuniary inte-

rest in the seizures, it would be difficult for the
Courts to annul them. The whole question seems

to turn on the zeal of the Customs' officers for the

profits of seizure, and this zeal is probably only
another feature of the extensive jobbery which has

been shown to prevail in New York. It is said that
a large import house in New York telegraphed to

France to countermand some orders it had

given, for fear of its goods being seized, and that the
Custom-house officers managed to intercept the

telegram. Either the merchants have been
cheating the Customs for some time past, or

the Customs have been cheating the merchants."
Our contemporary is probably not aware to what