The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-13 00:00:00

THE LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 13, 1868.

ROMAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Roman Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette.)

ROME, July 4.

The booming cannon of St. Angelo and an
almost tropical brilliance of sunshine ushered
in the feast of SS. Peter and Paul. Always a
great feast here, its celebration seems to be
invested with additional lustre and interest
by last year's special solemnity. This year also
its importance was enhanced by the promul-
gation of the Bull announcing the assembly
of the General Council. An erroneous im-
pression had got abroad that it would be
pronounced by the Holy Father himself at
the High Mass, and many who went expect-
ing some unusual and striking ceremonial were
doomed to disappointment. It was all gone
through before the Pope entered the church.
Mgr. Colombo (a descendant, by-the-by, of the
family of Christopher Columbus), Apostolic
protonotary, read it from a sort of estrade or
pulpit erected for the purpose to the left of
the great entrance-door of S. Peter's. He was
attended by a body of prelates, and the reading
was preceded by a flourish of trumpets, the
people standing round with uncovered heads.
Two copies of the Bull 'were then affixed to
the door, and the prelates proceeded to per-
form the same ceremony at S. John Lateran.
Two copies of the Bull were likewise affixed,
while trumpets sounded, to the doors of the
Cancelleria, and as well, I believe, but without
ceremony, to the doors of the other basilicas.
And thus the long-talked-of work is so far
accomplished, and the Bull, " lEterni Patris,"
convokes for the Bth of December, 1869, the
first (Ecumenical Council that has ever held
its session at S. Peter's.

The Bull itself will have reached you in the
course of the week, and you will have observed
that it does not call any temporal princes to
the Assembly. Secular governments are only
mentioned in it in expressing a hope that they
will put no obstruction in the way of the jour-
ney of the bishops to Rome ; " seeing that," to
quote its language, " the Catholic religion is
the most sure foundation of civil society ;" a
truth too often lost sight of by the sovereigns
of the world; but it is because they have lost
sight of it that Pins IX. leaves them out of
the account so to speak. It is their boast to
have broken the ancient link which bound
the Church to the State, to have secularized
the State and to have shut up the Church in
her sanctuaries, and it is now her turn to say
—" You have sent me into the sacristy; to
use your own expression, you cannot complian.
I hold my assembly there and callxyou not, as
I was wont to call your predecessors, to take
part in my deliberations.'
By fixing a date so far forward as the Bth of
December, next year, ample time is allowed for
the bishops to arrange conveniently for the ad-
ministration of their dioceses during their ab-
sence, and for the Commissions which are pre-
paring the minutes of the Council, and whose
labours have not been interrupted by the heat
of a Roman July to complete their work.
The possible complications which might in-
terfere with the progress of the component
members no less than with their free delibera-
tions are, of course, not to be lost sight of ;
but we have one good ground at least for
thinking that the Italian Government has pro-
fited by the lesson of Mentana, and is not
anxious just yet, at all events, again to mea-
sure its strength against that of the defenders
of the Holy See. I have authentic information
that enrolments of Garibaldians are going on
along the frontier, that bounties of fifty to
eighty francs are being offered to induce idle
lads to enlist, and it is not the denial in the
official Florence papers that would lead one
to believe in the absence of governmental
countenance to their movements. The events
of last autumn, not to say every act of the
present reign, have taught us that no statement
from that quarter is worth the paper on which
it is printed. The guarantee to which I allude,
is this—that in spite of all its late blustering
and protesting, the Florence Government has
at last consented to liquidate its liabilities to-
wards the Papal debt, taking advantage, how-
ever, of the permission to do so by instalments.
The first instalment of three millions is expected
here within the next few days. As there is no
reason to believe this due to any return to a
higher moral principle, it must, of course, be
ascribed to a sense of impotence and conse-
quent amenability to the representations of
France. This view leads to the conclusion
that there is neither means nor strength to
back up another invasion of Papal territory,
and if enlistments of mercenaries for the pur-
pose are not interfered with, it is partly be-
cause the Government is too weak to interfere,
and partly because it would rather see turbu-
lent revolutionary tendencies dashing them-
selves to pieces against the rock of St. Peter
than directing their efforts against its own
more shifting foundations. Moreover, week by
week the proportions of the Papal army con-
tinue to gather strength. In spite of the
relaxation of open efforts, the sprit which is
abroad in America refuses to be chilled, and
when General Carrol-Tavis returns in the
autumn, not many short of the thousand of
the original estimate will follow him. The
Poitiers Committee has just forwarded fifty
mules for the service of the Artillery, which
are well calculated for use in this country ;
and. among the latest recruits for the Zouaves
is Don Alfonso, a young nephew of the late
Don Carlos of Spain, a son of Don Juan de
Borbon. He enters as a simple private, though
he has a Spanish General in attendance on
him.

While on the subject of this gallant corps,
I cannot forbear a passing allusion to an ab-
surd report of disunion among its chiefs, to
which certain writers have been busy in giving
circulation. The avidity with which any
breath of suspicion of the defectibility even of
any of its members is gulped down, is a satis-
factory, and I might perhaps be allowed to
say amusing, testimony to the exceptional har-
mony and good conduct generally prevailing
among them. They are men after all, and
liable consequently to feelings of jealousy and
self-esteem ; to misunderstand each other's
expressions ; to miscalculate ; to act with im-
petuosity or imprudence, or to yield to any of
the similar little follies which perpetually ex-
ercise a disturbing influence over the best
ordered and most polished coteries ; and yet
it has never happened that the keenest glances
of adverse journalism has as yet alighted on a
blot.

Many Zouaves are absent on leave ; permis-
sions are the more readily accorded that last
autumn proved that the bugle-call was so
eagerly listened for by them ; that no one
missed its note ; and the dearest interests of
home were powerless to delay, for a single day,
one on whose ears it had a claim, from flying
to answer its appeal. Among those who have
sought the invigorating influence of a higher
latitude during the summer has been Lieut.-
Colonel de Charette. This simple circumstance
has been tortured into a story, on which has
been founded an account implying something
like the break-up of the administrative force.
The brave French Baron is represented as
having been ignominiously dismissed under
circumstances which made it particularly diffi-
cult to fill up his place; that the complication
placed other officers in so difficult a position
that many resignations, including some of
the bravest, might be expected, and the prestige
thus lust would destroy the character of the
regiment.

It was a prettily-arranged plot of romance,
but fortunately it is a romance from beginning
to end. That difference of opinion as to the
arrangement of details have existed between
the Lieutenant-Colonel and the Colonel and
pro-Minister, is no secret; that they have,
notwithstanding, pulled well together, is an
evidence that both talent and forbearance exist
among them. At the present moment, so far
from Colonel de Charette having quitted the
service, I am assured that both in France and
in England, where his private connections take
him, he is entrusted with work for the army
by the pro-Minster; and should the Garibal-
dian hordes be ill-advised enough to attempt

another raid, they and their writers-up will
probably find to their cost that none will be
quicker to the front than he.
The Pope sang the High Mass at St. Peter's
on Monday, and assisted pontifically at that
on the commemoration of St. Paul, next day
at S. Paolo fuor' le mura. He assisted also
at the first Vespers of the Feast on Sunday
evening, and blessed the palliums. The double
illumination of St. Peter's took place the same
night, with its usual gorgeous effect.
The morning of St. Peter's day, which had
opened so bright, gave way to a dull and
lowering afternoon, and presently the rain
came down heavily. At four o'clock the ten
guns sounded, which was the signal to the city
that the Girandola is prevented by the weather ;
and the next day was also so showery, that
though the appointed three guns gave notice
that it would take place, the majority disbe-
lievedthe report, and the concourse round St.
Peter, in ltiontorio, where it was displayed, was
not so great as it would otherwise have been.
The exhibition was very much damaged by
the rain, causing a special disappointment in
regard to the chief tableau, which the talented
architect Vespiniani had been induced to de-
sign. He had chosen the 15th and 16th
Cantos of the Gerusalemme liberata for his
theme, and had had the happy and novel idea
of introducing the copious floods of water,
supplied by the acqua Paola, on the neighbour-
ing height.
Another event of this week has been the
Pope's visit to the Camp on Thursday. This
was of course an occasion full of interest for
all Rome, and the neighbouring villages, and
one -calculated to rouse the enthusiasm of the
men to the uttermost, and great was the taste
and skill they had exercised in giving a festal
appearance to their martial abode, to do honour
to their exalted visitor. Triumphal arches of
evergreens and garlands- of bright flowers
spanned the way, which was made gay with
trophies of arms and festoons of flags and
improvised gardens ; and the poor fellows were
duly gratified with the smilinc, approval of the
Holy Father, as he subsequently passed through
their lines, on the efforts with which they had
toiled in the burning sun over -their scanty ap-
pliances.
The spot chosen for the camp is a high-
level plain, thought by some to be the crater
of an extinct volcano, situated amid the loftiest
peaks of the Alban Hills. The highest of these
is Monte Cave, and it is so rugged that its peak
but just affords room for the Passionist con-
vent and church, built there by Cardinal York,
of our own Royal House of Stewart, when
he was Bishop of Frascati. It covers the site
of the temple erected by Tarquin the Proud
in his desire to conciliate the Latin peoples
to Jupiter Latialis, as the guardian of Latium,
which it overlooks;—the spot where Juno stood
to watch the last general conflict between the
Trojans and the Latins. The magnificent
prospect on sea and land from this summit,
and the unaffected hospitality of the Passionist
fathers, have tempted many to climb its steep
ascent, which the bold pavement of Alexander
VII. has done much to facilitate. All who
have performed the pilgrimage have marked
the singular basin' to which I have alluded,
and which has hitherto been useful chiefly in
affording a storehouse for the snow with which
Rome is so abundantly supplied in summer, in
place of ice. It is popularly called the Campi
di Annibale, because certain writers assigned
it for the place of that General's encampment
when he stood threatening Rome, but there is
no very great reason to believe this, and some
have even thought it to have served as the
quarters of the Roman army on the look out
for him, and in special guard of the temple
of Jupiter Latialis.
The place is well adapted for the purpose it
is now made to serve, its temperature being
perhaps healthier than that of any part of the
State at this season, and the very difficulties of
approach affording those lessons in readiness
of resource which are so important to soldiers.
The Pope went with his usual retinue to the
Station at 6.15 a.m., and travelled by special
train (the ordinary train giving it a quarter of
an hour's start) in the handsome and beauti-
fully-appointed carriage built for his use. The
precincts of the Station, as also those of Ciam-
pino and Frascati, and the engine of the Pon-
tifical train, were profusely decorated with
flowers and draperies, and white and
yellow
flags. Only a select few were of course admitted
on to the platform until the special train had
started. Besides the prelates and members of
the Direction of the Railway Company in
special attendance on the Pope, I noticed
Princess Lancellotti and Prince Massimo.
Arrived at Frascati, General Kanzler and
carriages other officers were drawn up on the platform
to
e previously sent on
recosnvey the Pontifical
were
greet
attendancehparty to Rocca de Papa ; here a number of
little girls dressed in white, with wreaths on
their heads, came out to scatter flowers ; and
him, and ar
over the little stage of steep, rugged road
between the town and the camp, he was car-
ried in a chair by bearers. This part of the
way had the effect of a sort of triumph, for
crowds gathered round cheering. General
Zappi, who has the command of the camp, met
him at its entrance, and conducted him to the
tent where an altar had been prepared ; while
the band struck up, and the troops, several
thousand in number, infantry, artillery and
cavalry, drawn up in due order around, paid
military honours, and the people drowned the
music and the trumpets in a tumult of applause.
The Mass proceeded in due decorum and
silence, broken only by the pealing of the can-
non, and by the loud word of command, and
the clanking of arms as the soldiers bent the
knee at the elevation. But just then the rain,
which had been threatening all the morning,
suddenly came down in torrents, giving an
appropriate image of the storms which often
burst on the soldiers life in the midst of the
profoundest apparent peace, and demand that
he should be ever ready for action in the midst
of his gladdest and most pleasing occupations.
The wind raged round the tent as if seeking to
annihilate it in its fury, and again and again
extinguished the candles, so that they had at
last to be replaced by camp lanterns of the
most primitive device, and one attendant pre-
late had to hold the book, and another to pro-
tect the sacred vessels from being overturned
by the blast. Both the Pope and the troops
preserved throughout an imperturbable com-
posure, and the divine sacrifice was com-
pleted with as much devotion as when offered
up at the very shrine of the Apostles, amid the
repose of the noblest dome in Christendom.
After the Mass the Pope had coffee in an
officer's tent., with General Kanzler in attend-
ance, and then, finding that the various corps
had in the meantime been ranged round the
entrance, he went out and stood in the door
of the tent, and gave them his Apostolic Bene-
diction. His voice resounded through the
recesses of the classic valley loud, and calm,
and clear, above the hum of the multitude and
the surging of the wind, the roll of the drums
and the grumbling of the thunder ; and the
sturdiest soldier was bowed with irrepressible
emotion. Subsequently he drove through the
camp slowly in an open carriage, stopping every
now and then to take better notice of any par-
ticular incident. In returning to the village
he elected to go on foot instead of being carried
down. It is a narrow bit of road, tolerably
steep, and very muddy and slippery from the
late rains, so that he was forced occasionally
to lean on General Kanzler's arm, and even on
the guns of the soldiers drawn up on either
side. Once, when there was a very bad
piece, I heard him exclaim, playfully, "Questa,
non la faccianw davvero !" (we shall never
be able to get through this) ; and at another
" Sona bravo militare ?" (I do not make such
a bad soldier, do I ?) At Rocca di Papa he
assisted at Benediction, given by Mgr. Nardi,
and in the Sacristy, the clergy and many of
the people were admitted, al bacio del sacro
piede. He walked away down the street, which
was draped and festooned, and spanned by a
triumphal arch, and then drove to Grotta-
ferrata, which he reached about 12. Here he
stayed till 4 o'clock, and dined in the Convent

of Basilian Monks. By she returned to Fras-
cati, and went into the church and knelt
through the Benediction service. Afterwards,
he walked across the piazza to the Seminary,
and soon after appeared in the loggia, gaily
decorated with hangings, to the delight of the
assembled crowd ; the rain had passed away,
and the sun shining so powerfully again, that
one of the attendants had to hold up his red
hat to shade him from it ; the church clock
chimed out the hour just as the people were
looking up impatiently for his blessing, he
waved his hand as though to point the cause
of the delay, and then pronounced the solemn
formula, at the close of which a burst of cheer-
ing broke from the assembled crowd. Captain
D'Arcy's company (the first of the third
battalion of Zouaves) formed a guard of hon-
our. The town band had played their best at
intervals during the Pope's brief stay, and he
sent a hundred cigars to be distributed among
them. An elegant collation was prepared for
him by the Company in the station at Frascati,
and the special train left at quarter to seven.
As it passed through the tunnel it was illumi-
nated with a sudden play of electric light.
It was raining again when he got back to
Rome, but the route of the cort6ge to the
Vatican, was lined by the usual eager crowd.

THE CHINESE EMBASSY.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The approach of the Chinese mission to England
is exciting attention, and no small amount of sus-
picion, being headed as it is by an American. It
has been rumoured that the Mandarins, accompany-
ing Mr. BURLINGAME, are of little account in their
own country, and that the Government intends
through them to play a double game. A writer
to the Times takes exception to a sentence as re-
ported in Mr. BURLINGAME'S speech, in reference
to " a tyrannical policy, which would involve not
only China, but would involve you in bloody wars
with each other." According to the writer the
English are therein charged with enforcing a policy
of that order, and he replies that no grosser cari-
cature of the real facts could have been uttered. He
fears Mr. BURLINGAME'S seductive influence on
Lord STANLEY, and recommends the appointment
of a board to act as a buffer, but such persons are
always to be found to suggest doubts, and to thwart
the accomplishment of the most desirable ends. The
main doubt is, however, that the mission is designed
to postpone the settlement of an inconvenient
question about to be raised by the expiration
of the present treaties in force. As the
mission will soon be in London, we leave Mr.
BURLINGAME to make his own explanations. On
Saturday, the 20th June, the members of the
Chinese Embassy visited General Grant, INhen they
met the Ministers of England, France, Russia, and
Prussia. Mr. Roversly Johnson, the American
Minister to St. James's, was also there, Speaker Col-
fax and a number of the highest military officers, and
afterwards the A:n'iassadors, were the guests of
Chief Justice Chase. They then left Washington for
New York, and a grand dinner had been given to
them at Deltnonico's, where Mr. Burlingame male
the speech which has attracted s much atten-
tion in England. M tyor Hoffmann, Governor
Fenton, and many of the most distinguished New
Yorkers were present. The Ministers of the
great Powers were invited, but those of France and
England declined on the plea that they were unable
to absent themselves from their duties at Washing-
ton. One of the many rumours which have obtained
currency as to the object of the mission in Europe, is
that they desire to secure co-operation for the open-
ing of a ship canal through the Isthmus of Darien,
to which China is willing to contribute $15,000,000.
The despatch of such a mission shows an a lvanc2 in
knowledge at Peking, which is difficult for Euro-
peans and Americans unacquainte I with the co tn-
try, to realize, and to more than any other man this
change is due to His Excellency Anson Barlingame.
He laboure I ling for this effect, in con) auction
withthe British Minister at Peking,the late Sir Frede-
rick Bruce. Mr. Burlingame uses the very argutn en t
that must have been forcibly present in the mind of
Brigham Young when he took the contract to grade
a section of the Union Pacific line. He urged upon
the Celestial Government th it China mast came
into relations with the civilization pressing all around
her. She could no more fend it off than the
mons could, S 3 the Brother of the Mo m took a
course not unlike that of the Prophet, and adv weed
to meet it. The question was not whether it was
for the benefit of the Celestials to be brought into
such corn nanion, for it caul I no rn -re be averte 1
than could the incoming tide of the ocean. Indee I
it is a question, and one of molt serious import to
China, whether the Tartar ruler has not already
delayed too long. The fairest provinces of the
empire have been desolated by rebels ; his capital
has been captured by a foreign foe, and the inhabi-
tants of Peking have beheld the flames of the
palaces of their monarch lighting up the range of
hills, at whose base spread the wide gardens of the
Yuen-Ming-Yuen. With a strange infatuation the
father of the present Emperor courted the fate
which overtook him. The wisest of his Ministers
counselled peace with the advancing barbarians,
who had broken through and captured his defences
at Takoo. The simple-minded sovereign proposed
" a hunting-tour," which his counsellors, assembled
in multitudes, pronounced to be a flight from his
capital, and after long argument the term was
changed into " taking the field." " But," ex-
claimed the counsellors, " your Majesty's subjects
are not fools'; the enemy are to the South, and your
Majesty proposes to go North, leaving the capital
between you and the enemy instead of your Ma-
jesty between that enemy and the capital." These
barbarians, the counsellors declare], to be tame
savages, compared with those of olden times, and
the poor things were even depeadent on their
Chinese assistants, who might be bribed and de-
tached from them. They dwelt on the fact that
they were a mere handful, and if the worst came to
the worst, the desire of the barbarians' could be con-
ceded, who only wanted to trade. The E nperor, in
a panic and under an infatuation, fled to Jehol. It is
comparatively easy to go there, said the advisers,
but who will guarantee that you will ever get back ?
They predicted that he would never return alive,
nor did he return except to be buried, his death
following a few months after his flight. When the
British and French were rummaging the Summer
Palace, a package of documents, lately written, was
discovered and translated. It contained petitions
sent to his Majesty by the different boards, toge-
ther with a few from retired Ministers and self-
constituted advisers. The intention of the Empe-
ror to abandon the position being announced under
the plea of the hunting party, the Mandarins as-
sembled to discuss the nutcer ia their different
offices, and these curious papers were the result.
The President of the Board of Civil Officea and his
twenty-three colleagues—a small number compared
with the signatures coming from other offices—used
this language :

" They admire the awe-inspiring demeanour
and the stragetic ability thus displayed, but the
common people are extremely slow of compre-
hension ; they easily suspect, and with difficulty
appreciate; and they will say that the barbarians
are to the south-eastward of the capital. The
change of plan from a hunting tour to taking the
field in person should induce your Majesty to re-
main at Tung-chow for the support of Sanko-lin-sin.
The taking up a post to the northward of the capi-
tal would be a desertion from the seat of war, and
accordingly what in name was campaigning was in
reality a hunting tour. The people's mind would
be perturbed, an I the spirit of the troops would fail.
If defence and holding out in words are to mean
flight and dispersion in fact, your Ministers will
not urge your Majesty that the temples of your
ancestors, and the altars of the tutelary gods will
be abandoned—i.e., that the Empire will be lost.
'These three ques,ions present themselves.—First,
What if your Ahjesty should find yourself in a place
without any retreat ? Second, What if your Ma-
jesty's departure should lead to commotion in the
capital ? Third, What if elsewhere your Majesty
should be in the midst of m )re serious dangers?
Your Majesty is well familiar with the maxim,
that a prince i 3 bound to sacrifice himself for his
country."

The blow to the prestige of the monarch has
been damaging if not fatal, awl it was shortly after
the death of the late Emperor that Mr. Burlingame
appeared on the soene. The last news from
China is that the rebels had inflicted a defeat on
the Imperialists and threatened to march on Peking.

If any step could save the empire and re-establish
the supremacy of the ruling family, it is that which
has been so strongly and successfully urg,.(l by Mr.
Burlingame. Exclusion is a Tartar, not a Chinese,
policy. Naturally the Celestials are fond of trade,
willing to work hard for gain, and keen at barter,
though lying and unscrupulous traders. Supposing
that Mr. Burlingame makes his counsels felt by the
Imperial Government, and that that Government
retains the power of carrying into execution its re-
solves, the effect cannot fail to be prodigious. A
third of the human race acknowledge the Emperor's
sway, and to bring such a section into cordial com-
munication with the rest to work together for the
development of the earth is to accomplish a
revolution. In England, notwitlis' anding the
mistrust, the Ambassadors will be well received,
and every project calculated to promote trade will
be forwarded to the utmost, and they will
be favourably impressed where they meet with
consideration and hospitality. In their mind's
eye they must campare the stagnation and
decay left by the thousands of years of civiliza-
tion in the mighty empire of which they are citi-
zens, with the wealth, the luxury, and conveniences
on both sides of the Atlantic. They will learn the
value of work, of good government, and of well-
directed education. They already know the force
with which the mighty countries of Christendom
can strike when necessary, and they will be com-
pelled to acknowledge in the council chambers of
the empire, through the official forms which only
have weight in that land of red tape, that the fierce
barbarians of their imagination are a mere myth,
and that the wisest policy is to follow Mr. Burlin-
game's counsel, and work in unison with the great
nations of the West.

MISCELLANEOUS NEIVS.

(From the Anglo American, 2 intes.)

Frank Leslie gives an amusing account of the
collapse of the Athenaeum Club in New York. The
projectors describe the feature of the Athenaeum to
be /Esthetic, and yet convivial, so irreproachable in
character that Christian mothers and wives would
be glad to know their sons and husbands were
within its influence, and at starting reverend men
offered prayers at weekly meetings, while the neigh-
bouring rooms were dedicated to pastimes and club
practices, without which members could not be got.
One does not deserve credit, says Frank, for great
foresight in predicting that a false pretence and a
hypocritical sham such as that could not survive
many years. The Club was started about nine
years ago on this principle to combine what our
illustrated contemporary describes good morals,
respectability, &e., with the petty vices and follies
of men of leisure and fashion, and although
it considers the discreditable collapse to be another
evidence that clubs are not indigenous to the Ameri-
can soil, yet it feels sure that such a hybrid insti-
tution would have failed anywhere. In London
Frank says clubs are the refuge and asylum of men
who through misfortune have no attractive homes,
and wanting sweethearts and wives, rightly enough
seek diversion and pleasure in indulgences which
may be practised with immunity in a club-house
among faithful friends. We wonder what the in-
dulgences alluded to are ? Better iced wines and
better cooked entrees, with a smoking-room and plenty
of newspapers, periodicals, and books are the only
indulgences we have seen iu London clubs. As regards
" immunity" it consists in being pulled up by the
committee, if feet are put on chairs, if servants are
rudely spoken to, if the smell of tobacco is detected
in any other place than that set apart for smoking,
or if a stranger, supposed to be the friend of a
member, is seen irregularly on the premises. In-
deed a man has been struck off a club list for wear-
ing slippers ; another for lending money at a high
rate of interest. This is all we know of the " im-
munity" for members of London clubs. We have
sometimes thought, says Frank, that the majority
of New York club members looked vastly like
jilted men, but we can assure Frank that the beauty
of a club is that one can sometimes escape from
one's wife, and she can then be relieved from the
society of a cross husband.

Those in England who saw Bierstadt's picture of
the Domes of the Yo Semite have some knowledge of
that wonderful valley. It was conveyed by the
General Government to the State of California, to
be reserved for ever as a -pleasure ground for the
people. The Californian Legislature however granted
large tracts to two squatters, and the bill was vetoed
by the Governor. The Legislature passed the bill
over the veto, and it was referrei to Congress. A
petition against any concession of the land to indi-
viduals is now being circulated for signature, and
the Valley is in the hands of a commission charged
with the duty of laying it oat for public use. Bier-
stadt's picture has made it so well known in the
Eastern States that the job is not likely to be suc-
cessful, and it is thought that Congress will sup-
port the Governor's veto. _ _

At one time rumours confidently asserted that
Butler and Grant had been reconciled through the
mediation of Mr. George Wilkes. The correspon-
dent of the Boston Adeertiser gave a long account
of the negotiations, but the latest statement is. that
Butler is not satisfied with the advances General
Grant has been persuaded to make. Considering
that Mr. George Wilkes, if report be true, is a very
heavy loser by the result of Impeachment, which he
naturally regarded from the sporting point of view,
he was acting, while smarting from this, the part
of the Good Samaritan in soothing the wounded
feeling of that " old Democrat," as Senator Fowler
calls B. F. Butler. A passage of arms had
occurred between Mr. Fowler and Butler, the
former having, in a speech in Tennessee, whilst
reflecting on the conduct of his brethren, Messrs.
Wade and Sumner alleged that the whole House of
Representatives was under the lead of those good
old Democrats, Butler and Logan. This remark
the Tribune declared " to be in wretched taste,"
which the Nation thus comments on. " A man
might be a very good fellow, and be disapproved of
by Chesterfield ;" but when the Tribune says his
language is in " wretched taste," women and child-
ren, and even decent men, ought to avoid his so-
ciety. Mr. Butler has retorted by showing that
Senator Fowler, in 1866, travelled 500 miles to see
him at his home in Lowell, " to urge him vehemently
not to cease his efforts till Andrew Johnson was
impeached."

Senators APDonald and Rice, from Arkansas,
were sworn in on Tuesday, June 23, and Repre-
sentatives Bolles, Root, and Hind the next day.
The Representatives advanced to the bar of the
House and took the oaths of office. Mr. James
Brooks, of New York, presented a protest against
their admission, signed by the 45 Democratic Re-
presentatives, to which the House refused to listen.
The tone of this paper may be imagined from the
following extract :—" Some of the now so-called
bayonet Constitutions from the South propose ab-
surd and cruel tests—absurd as in Arkansas, where
is interwoven in the organic law a mere party test
between the Radical reconstructionists and the De-
mocratic Conservatives, such as would exclude from
voting, if living there, the thousands, the tens of
thousands, the hundreds of thousands of Democrats
in the free States (Article 8, section 4) ; and cruel
as in Alabama, where no white man can vote who
will not forswear his own race and colour, and per-
jure himself by swearing, in defiance of the law of
God, that the negro is equal, and for ever to be his
equal, at the ballot box, in the jury box, with the
cartouche box, in the school, in the college, in the
house and home, and by the fireside—in short, in
every way, everywhere.

The Se- flat?. Committee on Foreign Affairs has
deci led to report unfavourably upon the House
Bill, instructing the Pre,ident to 3311 I vessels of
war to th; Gulf of S. Lawrence for the protection
of Am!rican fishermen. The Legislative, Appro-
priation B:11 was discussed in the Chan-o)er on the
23.1 and 24th June, and Mr. Sumner, after a
sharp passage with Mr. Conkling, who had called
him " the full orb of the State Departmcn)," se-
cured William limiter in his appointment of Se-
cond Assistant Secretary of State. A sun of
$20,009 was appropriated for the bureau of educa-
cation, which had been struck out by. the Home
who fancied the industrious head of the department.
D. Barnard was not working efficiently. The
Eight Hours Bill, as framed by the Representa-
tives, was,_ passed in the Senate by a vote of 26