The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-17 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, JAN. 16.

The Royal mail steamship Asia, Captain Lott,
arrived this morning with the New York mails of
the sth, and 407,189 dols. on freight. Among the
passengers are Lord and Lady Bury.
The America, hence, arrived at Halifax on the
2d, and the Fulton, from Southampton, at New
York on the ,4th.

Much uneasiness existed respecting the Bremen
steamship Weser, which, according to the New
York papers, sailed for that port on the 4th ult.
with 63 passengers. She was 31 days out.
Referring to the case of the slave yacht
Wanderer, the Washington correspondent of the
New York Courier and Enquirer says :
The allegation that the negroes of the Wan-
derer were imported to test the constitutionality of
the laws prohibiting the slave trade is entitled to
no credit, and is disproved by the mode in which
the Africans have been disposed of. It is true that
Mr. Lamar, a merchant of Savannah, some months
since notified the Secretary of the Treasury that he
would re-open the slave trade with foreign countries
despite the laws of the United States. if the design
of the persons engaged in the affair of the Wan-
derer had been.to contest the validity of the laws
referred to the introduction. of half-a-dozen Afri-
cans would have effected the purpose. In that
im
ported
openly, too, the negroes would have been
openly, and kept together in such custody that they
would have been amenable to the process of Fede-
ral law. Exactly the opposite course has been pur-
sued. The cargo was smuggled in to Georgia and
landed clandestinely upon an uninhabited island.
They were surreptitiously conveyed in small
parties into the interior, and hastily distributed
into districts remote from the place of disem-
barkation. The parties importing them have not
avowed themselves and cannot be found. They
foist upon the people of the South, through the
press, doubtful and hesitating apologies for their
conduct, but take the —utmost care to avoid
legal responsibility. The object of the adven-
ture was not to test the constitutionality of any
United States statute, but rather to sound the tem-
per of the South relative to this business. The
success of the experiment thus far has been such as
to drive the Government journal into the mournful
admission that Federal laws against the slave trade
cannot be enforced, and that in consequence, our
Republican institutions are a failure.' But, though
American institutions have failed, and some success
has attended an effort to revive the barbarism of the
16th century, we should not be so unnerved and
stupified by the cccurrence as to be unable to ex-
amine with calmness its probable results. If the
Federal authorities so far fail in the execution of
the laws as to permit cargoes of Africans, claimed
to be held as slaves, to be landed within the juris-
diction of any of the Southern States, it is evidert
that a grave question of law arises as to their con-
dition. Are they slaves or free African aliens, en-
titled to the protection of the Constitution and the
Union ? Suppose, for example, the 400 negroes
composing the Wanderer's cargo, had been openly,
though illegally, brought into Savannah and sold
to planters and others requiring their services,
could they have been taken from their private
owners by United States authority and sent back
to Africa ? Would it not be contended, with sone
plausibility, that the laws of Georgia had attached
to them and made slaves and property of them
without regard to their origin or the mode of their
introduction into the Stale ?"
The Governor of the State of New York in his
first annual message shows that the funded debt to
Sept. 30, 1858, is 30,913,258 dols. 77c. To defray
the interest on this amount, the surplus revenue of
the canal and 712,710 dols. 74c. will be required.
1,700,000 dols. have been drawn by the Canal Board
to the present time beyond the ability of the Trea-
sury to pay, making above four million dollars aue
by the State for the canals alone. A proposal is to
be submitted to deepen the whole of the chan-
nel of the Erie Canal to the depth of seven feet,
and leave the portion not yet completed at a
width of 45 feet. Another proposition will be
to secure six feet of water on the Erie, Oswego, and
Cayuga and Seneca Canals, and proceed with the
permanent work through Cayuga Marsh during the
coming winter. He regards the Erie Canal as in-
comparable with any other means of transportation
through the State, especially when steam shall be
successfully applied in its navigation. The receipts
on account of the general fund during the past year
exceeded the payments by £393,241 dols. 94c.
The railroad companies of the State possess a
capital of 74,289,488 dols. 98c., divided among 38
companies. Of this amount 68,198,758 dols. 15c.
have been paid in. 69,198,758 dols. 25c. is the
amount of their funded debts, and their floating
debts 4,548,806 dols. 69c., making an outlay in
their construction of 136,681,690 dols. 34c. Four-
teen companies alone declared dividends.
School expenditure amounts to 3,792,948 dols.

79c. ; 2,372,113 dols. 86c. being for teachers'
salaries, and the balance for libraries, apparatus,
school-houses, &c.

Foreign immigration is only 41 per cent. of what
it was last year.
The militia contain 367,613 officers and men-
-17,613 constituting the organized portion.
The number of victims of the catastrophe on the
Columbus and Macon railway was about 19 ; the
cars fell 30 feet, and into a stream.

Winter had set in at New York with heavy falls
of snow.

The advices from Utah received at Washington
are said to be of a very unsatisfactory nature. It
was probable the army would have to occupy Salt
Lake City.
According to the New York Times,—

" Lord Napier has complained of the address
published by Mr. Nugent just before leaving Vic-
.toria ; but, as the special agent's commission ex-
pired at the meeting of Congress, he could not well
be officially rebuked for his course."

The persons arrested on suspicion of being con-
cerned in landing slaves at Savannah had been
committed for trial. The Montgomery Daily Ad-
vertiser is informed that subpcenaes have been served
upon several planters in Georgia suspected of hav-
ing purchased portions of the cargo of Africans
lately introduced into that State, with a view to
employ them as witnesses in the legal proceedings
now pending in reference to that importation.
On a recent occasion Mr. Jefferson Davis coun-
selled the State of Mississippi to prepare for war.
The Vicksburg Whig gives the following inventory
of the arms belonging to the State :
" 4 flint lock muskets, all rusty, and no breeches
to at least 2 ; 1 cannon ; 7 bayonets, rusty, with no
points; a pile of belts and scabbards, but no swords;
50 cartridge boxes. We have now 5 major-generals,
10 brigadier-generals, and 60 colonels, 60 lieutenant-
colonels, 60 majors, and will soon have 600 captains,
1,200 lieutenants, 4,800 sergeants, and 4,800 corpo-
rals. We are happy to inform them, however, that
we have no privates, the Legislature having dis-
pensed with that useless portion of the army."
On the Morning of the 2d inst. the following
telegram was published in the New York papers :
"NEW ORLEANS, JAN. 1.
" A sloop arrived here from Ruatan reports that
the schooner Susan landed her passengers at Puerto
Cabello, Honduras, and that they forthwith pre-
pared to cross the country to Leon, Nicaragua.
The arms had been abstracted from the arsenal at
Leon, and are now in possession of-the Democrats
at Chinandega and Subtiaba, who are awaiting the
advent of the Americans to, declare against Marti-
nez. ("halves, a relative of CAen. Valle, was at Ock-
local, on the confines of Niagara. All Honduras
was ready, as were a large number of democrats in
Nicaragua, to unite with the Americans. Col. Natz-
mer had been sent forward by Col. Anderson in
order to complete the political arrangements with
the Leon ese."

A later telegram from the same place gave a very
different account of the result of the expedition.
"NEW ORLEANS, J.N. 1.
"The British war steamer Basilisk arrived in
Mobile-bay this morning from Belize, Honduras,
with 100 shipwrecked passengers of the schooner
Susan; who were taken aboard on the 26th ult. by
order of the Governor of Belize, and treated in a
gentlemanly manner by the British officers.
" The passengers have since arrived at Mobile.
On landing a procession was formed, and the Nica-
raguan Hag hoisted. Captain Maury was called out
and made a speech to the crowd. There is much
excitement. The correspondent of the Associated
Press sends the following :
" BELIZE, HONDURAS, DEC. 20.
" The schooner Susan was -wrecked on the Glo-
vers,:a coral reef, 60 miles from Belize, on the morn-
ing of the 16th. The passengers were saved, but
the vessel is a total loss. Captain Maury endea-
voured to charter another vessel to carry his pas-
sengers on. Governor Seymour tendered the British
steamer Basilisk to convey the passengers to any
southern port of the United States. An American
captain
circulated prejudicial reports,. but the
Governor chose to regard them as shipwrecked