The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-22 00:00:00

canad ian Assembly is taking into serious conside-
ration " means to check the lamentable emigration
from th e Province of Quebec to the United States."
A. tone of strong exaggeration both on the distress
and on the war feeling in America characterize
these letters.

Capt. Long 'publishes, in a California newspaper,
a full account of his discovery of the Polar Con-
tinent. He recommends that steamers be sent to
the coast along the shore, as the current sets out
from the 'land, leaving a wide belt of smooth water.
He states that he was within ten miles of the posi-
tion whence Wrangell discovered the open Polar
Sea.

The W.ashington correspondent of the Standard
has cooled down a little in his war news. Mr.
Johnson makes a cat's-paw of the correspondents
who hang about the White House for the circula-
tion of all sorts of false reports, but the gull
that has most completely gobbled up the bait
appears to be the correspondent of the Standard.
It is just possible that the correspondent may re-
ceive his inspiration from Fleet-street, or perhaps
he would not so ostentatiously parade his official
information. We admit his great ability, his
power of description, and the fullness of his de-
tail, but this is marred by the strength of his par-
tizanship and his desire to secure sensational
effects. Of course " President Johnson's Ulti-
matum on the Alabama claims," " Anticipated war
between Great Britain and the United States,"
are headings likely to attract readers, and we
would have no fault to find if the Standard
gathered up its coppers without widely disseminat-
ing untruth. The same barometer is open to us as
to Andrew Johnson, only his is a larger and more
sensitive instrument. He cannot go to war with
England unless the feeling of the nation favours the
intention. Now, what is the feeling ? The very
reverse of bellicose. The people are more than satis-
fied with their experience, having found the results
most unpalatable. We have in our hand a petition
to Congress circulating in thousands through the
States for the signature of citizens. It begins with
asserting that the burdens of taxation are becoming
too onerous to be borne. Spies and taxgathers in-
vade our homes and our workshops. When our nation
is in danger we cheerfully submit to all demands.
But we are now at peace with the whole world,
and desire the expenses of the Government to be
reduced to a strictly peace basis. We demand the
reduction of the army to 20,000 men. Our northern
forts can be taken care of by disabled soldiers ;
the laid-up ships by the maimed sailors. We need
no soldiers in the North ; we want the 50,000
able-bodied men now uselessly idling in the navy
and army to aid us in the development of the na-
tion's wealth ; the steam revenue cutters at sea and
on the lakes to be laid up, and their wasteful ex-
penses stopped. We want no large standing army
or navy to exhaust our substance during peace.
The English public will find that this represents
the true feelings of Americans.
An extraordinary impetus has been given to the
cultivation of wheat in California, by the high
prices in Europe and America. There are those
who estimate that one million of acres will this year
be sown, which would give, according to the average,
a yield of more than three and a half millions of
quarters. The Liverpool cotton market has been this
week greatly agitated, the sales having one day
reached 30,000 bales. The effect on the earnings
of the Atlantic cable has been extraordinary. the
average daily receipts have been £1,496, while,
from the Ist January to the 15th February, the
average was £1,265 per diem.
A fire broke out on Tuesday in the Custom-House
department of Charing-cross Railway Station, and
a very considerable amount of damage was done.
The roof was partially destroyed, and three men
were injured by the falling glass. The next after-
noon a terrific explosion of gas took place at the
office at the gate and injured two boys.
John Young Brown, elected for Kentucky, to
the House but not admitted, is to appear in Congress to
defend himself against the charge of disloyalty. His
opponent, Samuel E. Smith, has not been allowed the
seat, as he had not received a majority of votes.

Governor Swann, of Maryland, refuses to give a
certificate of election to the Senate to his successful rival,
W. T. Hamilton, asserting the violation of the law en-
titling the eastern shore of the State to a certain portion of
the time, awl the Legislature is investigating the ques-
Com.

George R. Lancaster has sold his fast-tritting
horse, Nevada, for 53,000 to J. R. Judkins and A. Savage,
of Waterville (Maine), who believes he will make the
fastest trotter in the State.

Joel Parker has tendered the resignation of his
Professorship in the Law School at Cambridge (Massa-
chusetts), which ho has held since 1817.

The Senate has confirmed Gideon H. Hollister,
of Connecticut, as Minister Resident and Consul- General
at Havana, William It. Kenney, of Kentucky, and Georgo
A. Maguire, of Missouri, C3mmissioners under the Act to
reimburse Indiana for money spent in the suppression of
the rebellion, and William H. Townsend as pension agent
at Providence, Rhode Island. Secretary McCulloch, at the
request of the Ways and Means Committee, has designated
David A. Wells and Dr. 0. F. Presby as Conferees and
Consulting Advisers on behalf of the Treasury Depart-
ment.

Ex-Minister Burlingame, of China, is now on his
road to Washington, by way of San Francisco, accom-
panied by two Chinese officials and two interpreters, and,
after a short stay in America, will go to Europe to exe-
cute his commission as Ambassador from China to all the
Troaty Powers. Mr. Burlingame had intended to resign
in the spring, and settle on a ranch in California, which he
had purchased several months ago, but the celestial flowery
kingdom has appropriated him for a while.

The Mississippi Republican Convention, in ad-
dition to the previous nomination of B. B. Eggleson for
governor, has nominated for lieut.-governor A. J. Jamie-
son, secretary of State R. J. Alcorn, treasurer D. U. Wil-
liam, auditor William J. Morgan, school commissioner C.
W. Clarke, attorney-general J. M. Morris. All the can-
didates are whites. T. M. Stringer, coloured, received
25 votes for auditor. The Convention is still in session.

General Kilpatrick is returning to America from
his mission to Chili, at the request of the Republicans of
New Jersey, who want to elect him their governor.

Lieutenant Speedy, late of the British army, has
joined the Abyssinian Field Force from Australia, at Sir
Stafford Northcote's request. He knows Abyssinia and
the language, having been a "pasha Fellaka" in Theodore's
army, from which he was fortunate enough to escape in
1861. It was then that the character of Theodore under-
went a change, and he took it into his head that God had
decreed that he should be the scourge of the nation ho had
failed to reform. Lieutenant Speedy, according to the
Times correspondent, however, did not get away from
Abyssinia in time to avoid grave risk of imprisonment,
only escaping, indeed, by threatening to cut down a
royal messenger sent to arrest him, and then going him-
self to tell the Sing that apparently " some mistake had
been made." Luckily, the imperial humour had changed,
and Theodore punished the luckless messenger, but let the
Englishman go free.
Colonel Dunn, of the 33d Regiment, who acci-
dentally shot himself in Abyssinia, was a Canadian, and
had inherited considerable property in the neighbourhood
of Toronto. Ho won the Victoria Cross in the memorable
Balaklava charge, where he was a captain in an Hussar
regiment. Shortly after be retired from the army, but on
the outbreak of the Indian mutiny he raised a regiment in
Canada, of which he obtained command. From the 100th
he exchanged into the 33d, and met his sad fate when
almost on the eve of coming in contact with the enemy.

Mr. Casserly, lately elected to Congress as Senator
for California in the room of Mr. John Couness, whose
seat he will occupy next year, was born in Ireland in 1822
When two years old his family emigrated and settled in
New York city. His father being a teacher of languages
aided in his education, and at the age of nineteen he was
enabled to assist his father in the preparation of "Jacob's
Greek Reader." In 1844 he was admitted to the practice
of law in the Supreme Court, and to support. himself dur-
ing the first three years he edited the Freeman's Journal,
so as to secure the friendship of Charles O'Connor, James
T. Brady, Horatio Seymour, John A. Dix, and Silas
Wright. Ho emigrated to California in 1850, and the fol-
lowing year edited the San Francisco Public Balance, was
elected State printer by the Legislature for two years, and
has since been success fully engaged in the practice of his
profession.
Sir Curtis M. Lampson, of London, recently
male a present of $7,000 to his native place, New Haven
Mills, for the erec ion of a school-house.
Even in the New England States, where religion
prevails, the people are not immaculate. In Vermont the
Supreme Court, in session at St. Albans, has granted 17
divorces and refused 24. There were in New Haven, Con-
necticut, in 1867, a total of 1,456 births, of which 777 were
males, 19 plurality, and 21 illegitimate. The total number
of marriages was 482, and the deaths 789.
Rhode Island has elected Walter S. Burges,
Associate Judge of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy
caused by Judge Shearman's death. A movement is afoot
in that State to increase the pay of Supreme Court J utes,
who now get $3,000 apiece, with an extra $l,OOO for the
Ohiei justice. •