The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, '1 UESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 24, 1868.

SCENE IN A CHURCH.

During the morning service on Sunday, at St. Martin's,
Ludgate, shortly after the minister, Dr. White (lately
appointed to the living, and who that morning read him-
self in), had entered the desk to read the Articles, a young
man, who had taken his seat in one of the pews, got up
to make his way out. He turned towards the reading-
desk, but as the vestry door is beyond, and was opposite
him, it may be that he mistook it for the entrance. The
beadle prevented his going that way, and the man,
after calling out loudly eome words about the Son of God,
heaven and hell, and declaring that no man should take
him, made an attempt to cut his own throat with a large
Spanish knife. Whilst being taken out of the church he
inflicted on himself another wound about two inches from
the heart, driving the knife in right up to the handle. The
wound is of such a serious nature that no hopes are enter-
tained of his recovery. No money was upon him, but a
paper shewed that he held a situation as cook in a vessel.
He states that he comes from Germany, and that his only
relative is a mother, in South Carolina, his father having
been killed in the wars. He refused to assign his motive
for such a desperate act.
•

,rHE CIVILITIES OF OFFICERS.

-0- ---

It is a favourite fallacy with a small proportion of the
population that the presence of a regiment of soldiers
in a town has a "civilising" influence. At least the
officers are supposed to be gentlemen and to know how to
conduct themselves towards others. But a tale which
comes from Canada tends altogether to destroy that sup-
position. We there find a " coxy " captain behaving like
an untutored rough ; and the other officers of the regiment
taking his aide very vehemently. It is but right, how-
ever, to preface the tale by observing that we have only
one side of it, the side of the aggrieved. It
appears that at a ball given in Quebec, a gentle.
man named Le Mesurier observed that an officer
of the 53rd, Captain Elmhirst, continually jostled
him during the evening. He was willing to believe this
accidental until he heard the captain say "Now for a
charge," and immediately afterwards found himself
thrown, along with the lady with whom he was dancing,
against the grate. He afterwards learnt that the captain
"had boasted of his splendid victory, and said that he in-
tended to teach the young Canadian manners." He called
on Captain Elmhirst for an explanation. The captain
admitted that he had boasted of the incident
in the ball-room as an intentional insult. After
one or two efforts to induce the captain to apologise, M.
Le Mesurier broke his cane over that officer's shoulders.
He was at once called to account by half the mess for
having insulted the regiment by caning one of its officers,
and ordered to publish apologies, with the alternative of
" a trip across the border." Mr. Le Mesurier refuses either
to apologise or to fight, not having been taught manners
up to either point. Meanwhile the officer is left to bring
out the talents of other Canadians in that direction,

FOREIGN NOTES.
AMERICA.

tvenerat Grants first order is characteristic:- He has
directed the destruction of all letters from office-seekers.
This task is so weighty that it appears a general is required
to act as chief-executioner. One day's letters sufficed
almost to bury this functionary-in waste paper. The Presi-
dent Elect evidently intends to send for subordinates when
he wants them.

Massachusetts has returned to its Legislature a strong
majority in favour of a prohibitoxy liquor law. The Senate
stands 24 to 16 on this question.
General Grant made a speech at Galena which fills no
less than eighteen lines of print, and must have occupied
at least two minutes in delivery. A torchlight procession
of thousands of citizens, bands of music, and a great
display of fireworks brought from the taciturn statesman
the announcement that he was obliged to the citizens of
Galena for these marks of their kindness, and that he took
the opportunity of bidding them good-bye. All attempts
to elicit from the new President the slightest clue to his
policy or intentions are unavailing.

The New York Tribune wishes it to be understood that
it :is not Mr. Revcrdy Johnson's admiration of England
that has caused such dissatisfaction in America.
Other Americans admire England as well as Mr. Johnson.
It is because he has disgraced the country which he repre-
sents, by going out of his way to do honour to such men as
Mr. Laird, Mr. Roebuck, and Lord Wharncliffe, that the
feeling against him is so strong.

711 E INMAN ARMY.

The Indian army grew with the Presidencies, and
the Presidencies spread from small factories on the
coast till they virtually swallowed up the whole
Peninsula from the Khyber Pass to Cape Comorin.
The factories being three—Calcutta, Madras, and
Bombay, the armies became three ; and as the
factories were the property of a company, the ex-
traordinary spectacle was presented of a body of
English merchants ruling the Empire of the Mo-
guls. The history of British India is one of those
singular phases which could only occur to the An-
glo-Saxon race or the Dutch—an imperiwn in int-
perio, which created anomalies and contradictions
impossible with any other people. The Hon. East
India Company was annihilated by the Mutiny,
and the army has ever since been in a transition
state. in the time of " John Company" that mar-
vel and myth to the native mind, the three armies
(for that of each Presidency was distinct), were
modelled after the pattern of her Majesty's force.
The Sepoys were turned into marching regiments,
with red coats, white trowsers, and ammunition
boots. They were formed into companies, and
numbered off into regiments, with their colonel,
major, captains, and subalterns, precisely as Eng-
lish regiments. The cavalry with regulation sad-
dles, but dressed in grey, became Lancers or Hus-
sars; and thus the British giving way to their inve-
terate habit of forming everything on their own
model spoiled fine irregular troops, and turned hand-
some men into scarecrows. The Bengal army be-
came a vast machine after British conquest had
rolled up to Peshawur, some 1,800 miles from the
fort at Calcutta. It was recruited mainly in Oude,
tnd in Rohilcund from the highest caste; to whom
even the shadow of the colonel falling on their food
was a degradation, and they would not have
touched the plate from which a Christian ate. The
spectacle was here presented of the ruling race
coming into contact with the subjecu race on terms
so strange. When an officer passed, sentinels pre-
sented arms, guards turned out, men sprang to at-
tention, and everywhere he was saluted ; yet these
men held him to be a " defiled" being, a pig-eating,
worse still! a cow-eating, wine-drinking, impure
creature. When her Majesty's troops came to act in
conjunction with the native regiments the English
pride of race forcibly displayed itself. The Sepoy
regiment was treated with the most supercilious
contempt—a contempt deeply felt and bitterly re-
sented by the English Indian officer. Perhaps in this
fact, as much as in any other, is to be found the cause
of the mutiny. It became a habit with the Bengal
officer to assert the superiority of his men, till even-
tually it became the creed of the Company's armies,
although it was rudely shaken when the Sepoy was
brought into contact with the old Khalsa troops
of Itunjeet Singh, and recoiled in dismay from the
trained infantry and well-served guns of perhaps
the bravest army ever created from Asiatic material.
Young officers imbibed something of this contempt
on hearing the story of the demoralization after
Ferozeshah, when a Governor-General had to mass
the British regiments for the final attack, when the
destinies of India were perhaps decided by the
treachery to his people of a Seikh chieftain ;
after Chillianwallah, when night Closed on an
Anglo-Indian army in inextricable confusion, and
some of its best brigades in flight. But this only
made the old Bengal officer adhere the more tena-
ciously to his doctrine ; and it was so generally
asserted that the Empire had been won by the
Sepoy, despatches so teemed with his praises, that
it need cause little surprise that he believed himself
to be the master, and acted in accordance with the
notion. Of course discipline suffered, and to such
an extent that the Bengal Sepoy created the greatest
alarm in the mind of the rulers, who found they
possessed an instrument of which they could not get
rid, and which might be most readily used against
themselves. Whether the Sepoy army did or did
not win India for the British, one thing is certain,
that it finished off its own creator. in John Cora-,
pany, and at the same time happily relieved society
it
tf
wasitse ailfs
'd to
provingthat it was in truth the poor thing
be by her Majesty's regiments, and
which was so indignantly denied by its own officers.
The system of promotion was strictly by seniority,
but the regiments being used as mere depots from
which to supply the numberless officers required by
the country independent of the Civil Service, the
best were generally withdrawn, and their career
ceased to be that of a soldier. Most of the regi-
mental officers were constructing roads, surveying
districts, assessing and collecting taxes, meting out
justice as cantonment magistrates, laying down
the law at protected courts, controlling wild tribes
on the frontiers, or, commanding as wild tribes
gathered in their native array, and designated
Irregulars in the Indian Army. These latter were
the genuine Indian troops ; and admirable soldiers
they have often proved themselves when led by a
dashing young
Englishman who thoroughly under-
stood their character and language. It was in
handling such levies that Sir Herbert Edwardes
rose to renown ; with whom Nicholson and Hod-
son died ; and others, whose names are familiar as
" household words" in India, are associated. Gene-
rally these troops are cavalry, but when they are
infantry they assume too much the former type, al-
though the old dress disappeared, at least in Bengal
with the Sepoy mutiny. The army of Bombay,
with a few isolated outbreaks, remained faithful,
watching events, in a shaky and dangerous state ;
while the Madrassie, who had little sympathy with
his northern brethren, continued staunch. These
two armies, then, on the whole, arc intact ; but a
great change has been wrought in the mode in
which they are officered. Nearly all on the Army
List in each Presidency have been formed into a
Staff Corps, from which the Government appoint to
every vacant office ; and the number to each regi-
ment is now not a fourth of that formerly borne on
the list. The promotion is by length of service—
rising from grade to grade after stated periods.
Twenty-one years' service in India entitles to a re-
tirement on a fixed pension, which is increased on
a lengthened term. Furlough to Europe is allowed
for twenty months on liberal regulations ; and the
pay of every grade is the highest known to
armies. It is difficult to ascertain the strength in
their transition state of any of the Indian Armies,
but mere especially that of Bengal, which is mainly
affected by the revolt. The regular line is now
composed of 19 regiments of native cavalry, 45 of
native infantry, 5 Goorkha regiments, and other
local organizations. Indeed, the strength of some
of these form in themselves a small army, such as
the Punjaub Frontier force, consisting of artillery
and engineers, 5 regiments of cavalry, 4 of Seikh
infantry, 6 of Punjaub infantry, and a very fine
regiment in itself composed of cavalry and infantry
called a guide corps. On a much smaller scale is
the Central India force, and these, in a more or less
regular organization, are scattered over the country,
the tendency being to create them, which the Go-
vernment has to resist. There are now 8 cavalry
and 52 native infantry regiments in Madras, and
3 cavalry and 31 native infantry, in Bombay, in-

dependent of irregular corps. These are the purely
native troops, the European being now wholly
comprised in the regular British army, of which we
estimate in round numbers nearly half to be
in India. A Commander-in-Chief sways in
each Presidency, and although the officer at
the head of the Bengal Army is termed the
Commander-in-Chief in India, he has, in truth,
little or no power beyond the limits of Bengal.
In the days of the Company, her Majesty's regiments
regarded themselves as a separate caste, as sojourn-
ers in an uncouth land, and they tried to make
up by contempt of their brethren in the Indian
army—the mere servants of a mercantile company
—for their exclusion from the good things which
fell so lavishly to the share of what they called the
" Black" officers. The mutiny, however, turned
these " black officers" into Queen's soldiers ; but
while demolishing that distinction it opened Indian
appointments to the officer of the British regiment.
All the white troops, of whom the Company had
nine regiments, together with a strong force of
horse and foot artillery, were transferred bodily to
the Queen's army--the engineers and artillery
being amalgamated into the corresponding corps in
England. Although the artillery of the Indian
army may not have assumed so fine an appearance
as in the British army, in war and for actual ser-
vice, if anywhere equaled it was certainly not ex-
celled. Indeed the departments in India which qualify
an army for field service werekept in a working order,
which enabled the Government at any moment to
put its hand on an effective force. The old term
for all the cantonments was " Camp ;" and the
force was so constituted that at a day's notice its
dwellings of barracks and bazaars changed to can-
vass, and five miles of road would be lumbered up
with long strings of camels and other baggage
animals. A portion of every officer's pay was
termed " tentage ;" and it was the business of an
Inspecting-General to ascertain not only that the
regiment was complete in its appointments for the
field, but that every officer was also thus equipped.
But it is the fashion to give undue credit to Indian
officials for this. The very nature of the tenure on
which the country is held is this readiness for the
field, and when the force is in movement its power
is immense, for while it passes through a land ruled
by its Government, all the resources of the soil are
at the disposal of the commanders, who are un-
shackled by considerations which must hamper the
movement of troops in Europe and America ; but,
taking this into consideration, enough remains to
justify the assertion that no army in the world is
equally prepared for immediate action as that of
of India, nor need we add. better prepared.- A nglo-
American Times.

NATURALIZATION ..FRAUDS.

There was once, and still may be, an institution
known in London as the "Judge and Jury," a
coal-hole where immorality was redeemed, as far as
immorality can be—by wit. Those who had seen
the Judge with his cigar in his mouth and a glass
of brandy and water beside him might be reminded
of the scene during the issue of certificates of natu-
ralization in New York to fraudulent applicants.
It is stated that such frauds were perpetrated on a
grand scale in Philadelphia, but that they passed
all bounds in New York. The Nation, on these
frauds, writes, that not one of some 15,000 voters
who claimed to be naturalized citizens, thcugh they
had not completed their five years' residence, had
ever been near the court-room ; and that 5,000 to
7,000 were non-existent. Describing a judge who
passed these, that paper says—" He invited a friend
who happened to be in his court-room to sit by him
while he played a little joke. Then he left of call-
ing the names from the list before him, and pro-
ceeded to call off a long string of purely imaginary
names invented by himself on the spur of the mo-
ment : John Smith, James Snooks, John Jones,
Thomas Noakes, and the like. For every name a
man instantly answered, and took a certificate !
Finally, seeing a person on the other side of
the room scratching his head, the judge called
out George Scratchem !" Here !' responded a
voice. Take that man outside to scratch,' said
his honour to the usher ; end resumed the more
regular manufacture of voters. Yet there is not a
single Democratic lawyer of any weight in this city
who dares to come out and run for a certain one of
our judgeships against this audacious ruffian, who
might as well as not be defeated had any of his
nominal party asiociates the nerve to face him and
his backers. It is notorious that even among the
nominating leaders, whom he purchases with ser-
vices such as we have been speaking of and with
money, he has not one friend and many enemies.
At least 10,000 certificates of naturalization have
been issued for the use of repeaters,' and scattered
through the State. The total number of certifi-
cates fraudulently obtained, in this and other cities,
is at least 25,000 to 30,000." The Tribune the
day after the election wrote—" With an honest
vote, New York would give not less than forty
thousand majority for Grant and Griswold. In
this city their supporters largely exceed a third of
the legal vote, while they are a decided majority of
the native-born electors. We are overwhelmed here
through the issue and use of reams of fraudulent
Naturalization Certificates and the nefarious syste-
matic operations of 'repeaters,' organized and paid to
register in many districts and vote from poll to poll.

If it shall prove that our State officers are thus
cheated out of the returns, we demand a contest,
and a determined effort to unmask and punish the
villainies whereby this result has been effected.
We urge that a meeting be held, a committee ap-
pointed, and the collection of evidence commenced
forthwith." We congratulate New Yorkers upon
what their Irish friends have done for them. In-
deed it must be gratifying in the highest degree to
long-descended American families that the Pats,
with some of the Bog of Allan still sticking to them,
can out-vote them, legislating for their property and
good behaviour. They may learn once and for all
that the more Irish New York becomes, the less
they will like it ; and they had better now make
their stand against a tide of corruption of which
they are the victims, and which they cannot check
by truckling. The first thing to teach the Irish is
that if they desire American citizenship, and to
exercise its rights, they must become American
citizens, and not foreign conspirators. They must
regard the United States as their country, not as a
field on which to plot—first, against the natives for
plunder, and next, against the British for revenge.
Not only, however, did the judges know how to
add to the list of voters, but they also knew how
to subtract from it, as the following instance will
show : " Mr. William Newman, one of the Tri-
bune's employes, who had registered in the Ninth
District of the Sixth Ward, went to the polls,
and was told that he could not vote under any cir-
cumstances, as somebody had already voted is his
name. He desired to be sworn, but the officers de-
clined to accept his vote under oath." So tremendous
have been the alleged frauds, so openly have they
been displayed, that the much suffering community
of New York city have at length been moved to
action. _The courts have taken cognizance of the
matter, and the District Attorney, Mr. Courtney,
has preferred bills of indictment, which the grand
jury have found, so all the cases will go up for
trial ; among them that of a judge. Unfortu-
nately, prosecutions in this form assume the guise
of political persecution. The cases are, in truth,
conspiracies against the sovereignty of the people,
and as such, in America, should be regarded as
highly treasonable. But instead of this, whatever
party prosecutes is said to be in conspiracy against
the people. The returns s!low how successful the
Democrats have been in the city of New York in
swelling up a majority which has swamped the
genuine American opinion of the State, as there
was no overcoming the 60,000 for Seymour and the
70,000 for Hoffman, who himself, aided by his
proclamations, &c., in his own election using his
office as Mayor to forward his candidature for the
Governorship. A trustworthy paper writes : " False
names in thousands were put on the registration
lists, and on the strength of them repeaters went
from precinct to precinct, voting early and often.
In Brooklyn, in defiance of law, the officials whose
duty it was to count the vote deliberately an-
nounced their intention of performing their func-
tions in secret with closed doors. This was in
order to make the majority as large as might

tbe needed. Such a proceeding, of course,
makes the perpetrators of it liable to punish-
ment on conviction, but unfortunately it does not
vitiate the poll—and conviction these gentry do not
greatly fear. In order that it might be learned just
how large a majority it was that would probably
be needed, the notorious Supervisor Tweed and his
associates sent out a day or two before the election
to every county in the State a circular to this effect :
The recipient was to make arrangements with a
shrewd and reliable Democrat in each city and in
most of the towns, whose business it should be to
transmit in the early part of the evening an ap-
proximate estimate of the relative vote of
the two parties. " There was, of course, an object
to be gained." The object was, of course, that the
Hoffman ring might in turn tell their henchmen in
this county and Kings how many ballots to a ld to
the number really cast, fraudulently or honeitly.
The desperate lengths to which 'Tammany went ar3
perhaps more strikingly show❑ by the harmonious
proclamations of Mayor Kalbffeisch and Motyor
Hoffuan—whom we are asked to believe only un-
fortunate in his associates, though the plain truth
is that the most of them arc as unfortunate in him
as he is in them--both of which incite to lawless-
ness and murder. Luckily some of these ribsoals,
and some big fish as well as some little ones, are
under arrest; and unless honest citizens, with pro-
verbial American good nature, let them go, they
will stock the penitentiary, it is to be hoped."
There are, however, some indications that nei-
ther in Philadelphia nor in New York will the
result be patiently submitted to. In the latter city
the Union League have appointed a committee to
investigate the alleged frauds, and steps will be
taken to contest Mr. Hoffman's election. Among
the persons arrested for naturalization frauds is
Probate Judge Mizner, Ottawa county, Ohio.

TEXAS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
It is but fair to Texas, which we have not hesi-
tated to denounce for the political assassinations we
call murders, to show that the country is all that
its advocates claim it to be as a field for emigration.
Indeed, its advantages are sufficiently great, if
slowly, at least surely, to weigh down the prejudice
caused by the lawlessness on which we have
commented. The Houston limes, in writing of
its resources, observes that, " Cotton is and al-
ways will be produced successfully in Texas, and
it will always bear a moderately good price. Corn
is raised abundantly, and when distilling becomes
general, as it will, it will be very profitable. The
hide trade is now beginning to rival the cotton
crop, and we believe that from this time forth it
will be worth as much to Texas as the cotton trade.
The bide trade in Texas is destined to become a
source of great wealth.. The wool trade, we appre-
hend, is about half the value of the cotton trade,
and will almost equal it after a while: The tallow
trade, too, is also growing into importance, and
will soon become a source of immense revenue.
The wine trade of Texas is increasing every year,
and will ultimately become one of the largest and
most prosperous industries in the State. When the
railroads are extended a little further into the in-
terior the flour trade will soon become one of the
largest and most profitable in the State. The beef
and cattle trade is already very large and prosper-
ous, and as soon as packing establishments are
erected at all needful points the trade will become
a leading one in the State. The castor bean and
and the California clover are both attracting at-
tention, and will be sources of much profit. In a
few years the present small but general and pro-
fitable business of raising sorghum and making
molasses and sugar from it will become a pro-
fitable industry for Texas. Hay-making, from
clover, from millet, from Hungarian grass, from
crab grass, from pea vines, and from many other
materials, will become general and profitable
in this State. Manufactories of cotton, wool,
leather, horns and bones, and many other things,
into articles of use and commerce, have already
commenced in the State, and will continue to spread
and prosper. Potatoes, ground peas, cabbages,
onions, garlic, and similar things, which enter so
largely into the industry and prosperity of other
countries, are now being largely produced in Texas,
and will soon be generally and abundantly pro-
duced for home consumption and commerce. The
raising of horses and mules was injured as a busi-
ness by the war, but is now recovering, and with
the improvement in stock now going on Texas win
EOOll become the equal of Kentucky in this noble
industry. The way to bring ten millions of people
here to produce all the wealth with which the soil
of Texas teems is to extend each one of the rail-
roads one hundred miles a year. The Pacific
Ledger tells the following story :—" Twenty-three
years ago a colony of German emigrants settled at
New Braunfels, at the junction of the Guadaloupe
and Comal Rivers, in Texas. At this point, where
the great road from Austin and San Antonio passes
through the centre of Comal county, have the in-
dustrious settlers pursued their unpretending la-
bours, until they can now boast of a flourishing city
and county seat containing 4,000 inhabitants. Co
mal county lies upon the south side of a range of
mountains running from the north-east to the south
west, and embraces 900 square miles of fertile land
in a high state of cultivation. The principal staples
are cotton and corn, the latter averaging 30 bushels
to the acre. The climate is healthy, and cattle,
horses, sheep, and goats in large numbers fatten
upon the prairies. The town of New Braunfels is ra-
pidly improving, and new houses are constantly
springing up on everyside. It possesses 30 drygoods
stores, three flouring mills, three saw-mills, two
manufactories, the one for cotton the other for
woollen cloth, a sash factory, and workshops for
every trade. The south-west is supplied with every
description of wheel carriages and waggons from
this place. From 4,000 to 5,000 saddle-trees are
made here annually, and the country around is sup-
plied with barrels for beef packing, molasses, &c.
It is also an extraordinary cotton mart for the sur-
rounding region, exporting to Mexico annually
several thousand bales. New Braunfels has pecu-
liar advantages over all other Southern cities in her
immense water power. The Comal, which is only
three miles long, has on one-half this distance a fall
or momentum of 2,000 horse power, and never
overflows its banks. In New Braunfels there are
very few coloured people, out of 800 registered
voters only about eighty being coloured. Good
mechanics work for $2 50c. per day, and common
labourers for $1 50c. The city and county are well
supplied with schools. The New Braunfels Aca-
demy is a building of hard stone, 160 feet in length,
and embraces five departments, under five compe-
tent teachers—two German, two English, and a
translater. This school averages about 300 pupils,
all studying the English as well as the German
language, so that the children of German emigrants
have abundant opportunities of here becoming ac-
quainted with the English language. About a
dozen American families have permanently settled
here. There are four churches--one Catholic, two
Lutheran, and one Methodist. The service in all
is held in German. The building material, such as
hard and soft stone, brick (burnt and unburnt),
and cedar and cypress, are abundant, but pine lum-
ber is hauled from 50 to 60 miles, and costs from
five to six cents per foot ; burnt brick, ten dollars
per thousand.