The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-29 00:00:00

INDIA.

Lord Mayo Las already got into some little trouble with
regard to Indian matters. He has been rather too enthu-
siastic on the great irrigation difficulty, and has given his
opinion that " if the same principle that guided the pro-
ceedings for the improvement of laud in England
were applied to India, the work would be easihy
accomplished." The Times of India replies that "this
statement must provoke a smile here, where every one
knows that the conditions of the two countries are totally
different. It reminds us of the Marquis of Tweeddale's
desire to drain the paddy fields, and to introduce heavy
English ploughs to furrow the soil, regardless of the
physique of; the ryots and their cattle. `This .or that
AtimitkAinkiNcgwe we clo it in England' is a sentiment

white a budding liovernor-general may indulge In on first
arrival in Calcutta, but which a few months' experience of
the country will effectually dissipate."
On account of " its being very dull at home in his
village," a mild Ilindoo named Ramadheen, 21 years of
age, betook himself to the amusement of poisoning. His
career in this occupation lasted about a year and a half,
during which period he poisoned twenty-seven persons.
Strange to say, most of his victims were Brahmins.
It is rumoured that a lifoniteur is to be established as
the official organ of the Indian Government.
The Times of India strongly urges the substitution of a
cold for a silver currency in India ; in other words, to de-
the rupee and set up the sovereign in its stead. The
fitver money has become altogether too cumbersome as the
~±.;l:dard of value, and a change in a few years will be an
ute necessity. This is evidently another argument
,lisposing of the question of international coinage.
• hese changes must be made they might as well be
final.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

President JOHNSON'S Message being little better
than rubbish, and having no political weight, would
still be produced by us had it not gone the rounds
of the English papers. We cannot afford space for
a document nearly all our readers have already seen,
of little material or historical importance. Secre-
tary MsCulloch's Report we give in full, es it much
more concerns the American people, reserving com-
ment for the next issue, as it requires time care-
fully to read and think over. The question sug-
gested by the PRESIDENT'S Message is if ANDREW
JOHNSON wrote it, who wrote the last ? And if
ANDREW JOHNSON wrote the last, who wrote this ?
forif both express his tone of mind they do so very
differently. The Message of 1867 was an able and
statesmanlike document; written with such force
of argument and such appropriate language as to
materially strengthen a bad cause by producing a
strong effect on th country. Perhaps then it is
not to be regretted, on the contrary, it may be a
subject for congratulation that the PRESIDENT'S
injudicious opinions are feebly backed by illogical ar-
guments, as nothing so imposed on Europe as the
masterly manner in which he upheld in previous
Messages his side of the question. He assumed the
shape in European imagination of a moderate, deep-
thinking, patriotic, Conservative statesman, devoting
himself to the defence of a Constitution the Magna
Charta of American liberties, against a usurping
Legislature. When we spoke of the " cussed-
ness" of his nature, doubtless many English
readers attributed what we said to a partisan ani-
mus. Yet the word truthfully expressed the PRE-
SIDENT'S tone of mind, if it can be applied to those
who conceive vicious or plainly erroneous opinions,
and pursue them the more doggedly because op-
posed by all good men. Such a disposition in pri-
vate life may be productive of much family misery ;
but, however good in other respects may be the
public man when one so constituted attars to
great power, he must become a curse to his
country, injuring it in proportion to his ability
in advocating his opinions, and to the respecta-
bility which marks his conduct in all other re-
lations of life. We are not sorry that Mr. JOHN-
SON, with his characteristic pig-headedness, has
insisted, against the advice of his friends, in writ-
ing his last Message as it stands. Had he de-
sired to defend Congress he could have produced
nothing more to the point. Henceforth when the
Fortieth Congress is called on to show cause for its
bitteriopposition it will produce this Message, and ask
How can you deal with a " cuss " like its author ?
Had ANDREW JOHNSON not committed himself to this
miserable production, he might have puzzled Euro-
pean philosophers, who would have regarded him
as one that narrowly missed becoming a great man
through some unfortunate moral obliquity or screw
loose in his composition. The, disposition which
made him in Tennessee, marred him in the White
House, leaving a heavy balance of evil after the
total good he has done in life has been subtracted
from all the bad. The reason is that, though he has
more of the necessary obstinacy or firmness, or what-
ever it may be termed, for great men, he has less of
the ability required for such men. lie is, in truth,
no better than a provincial politician, trained in a
bad school, who, through the exertions of able allies,
imposed on the outside world for a grasp of mind
he never possessed, which his present Message
will not only undo, but open European eyes to
the re ison of the opposition and annoyance he
has so long raised in the great body of the Ame-
rican people. From beginning to end the Mes-
sage is an attack on Congress. It commences
by asserting its legislation to be unjust and arbi-
trary. The Reconstruction Laws have substantially
failed and proved pernicious. The attempt is to
place the white population of the South under the
dominion of negroes, and has ended in animosity
and bloodshed, estranging the hitherto kindly re-
lations of the races. He had successfully carried
almost to a conclusion the work of restoration of the
South when Congress intervened, frustrating all,
and leaving, after three years' agitation and strife,
the object further from attainment than ever—such
baneful legislation should be abrogated. The
Tenure-of-Office 8111 is another fatally injurious
measure, due to party passion and sectional preju-
dice. The Act of March 2, 1867, interferes with
his Constitutional functions as Commander-in-
Chief, and denies some States the right to raise mili-
tia ; and, finally on this subject, he asserts the na-
tional desire for " at least a partial return to the fun-
d miental principles of the Government, and an indi-
cation that hereafter the Constitution is to be made
the nation's safe and unerring guide. These mea-
sures can be productive of no permanent benefit to the
country, and should not be permitted to stand as so
many monuments of the deficient wisdom which has
characterized our recent legislation." It must be
remembered that these words were addressed, not
to the Legislature only, but to the very individuals
who had strenuously supported the laws thus un-
sparingly censured. Four-fifths of the members of
each House must have felt the remarks personally di-
rected against themselves, and the wonder is that
they were borne so patiently. But if, in this
portion of his Message, ANDREW JOHNSON displayed
his lack of judgment and tact, in the next great
subject he handled—the Currency—occupying little
short of half the Message, he showed a want of finan-
cial knowledge and honesty. which would disgrace any
Tennessee stump politician. So ill-digested are his
opinions, so injurious is their expression to the na-
tional credit paralyzing the power it is his duty to
strengthen, so shamefully dishonest is their concep-
tion demonstrating his want of statesmanlike judg-
ment, that Americans must blush to know the charge
can with truth be brought against their institutions of
having elevated such a man to such a post. It is a
schoolboy thesis on the " Public Debt," displaying
a moral obliquity with a total want of ability to ap-
preciate the common laws which bind societies toge-
ther whereon nearly all the material transactions of
mankind are based. It never suggests itself to the
President that there are two parties to a contract
and two to a loan--the lender and the borrower
that the conditions are settled before the loan is
made, and that it is opposed to every consideration
of justice and expediency to permit the borrower,
after he has spent the lender's money, to bring up
the conditions of the loan for mdiscussion or settle-
ment. But he does not confine himself to this. He not
only brings up the conditions, but he excludes one
-side, the lenders, from any voice in the matter, allud-
ing to them as if they had no rights, that what
they were to receive was solely a question for the
borrower to decide. He sees on the one hand a
bloated money aristocracy; on the other, a down-
trodden people, Wing in the yoke to drag the car
of oligarchical extravagance.
g given freedom
rnachea;viint will then be our
to‘f‘oWurre mnoil‘lviopnrsidoef
the ourselves
colouredu p o
shame that forty millions of people, by their own tolera-
tion of usurpation and profligacy, have suffered them-
selves to become enslaved, and merely exchanged slave-
owners for new taskmasters in the shape of bondholders
and taxgatherers. Besides, permanent debts pertain to
monarchical Governments, and, tending to monopolies,
perpetuities, and class legislation, are totally irreconcilable
with free institutions. Introduced into our republican sys-
tem, they would gradually but surely sap its foundations,
eventually subvert our Governmental fabric, and erect
upon its ruins a moneyed aristocracy."

What imagination could have depicted a President
of the United States deliberately penning such a
passage in his annual Message about a class to
whose open-handed loans and energetic efforts to
supply the Government with the sinews of war, is,

next to the patriotic self-sacrifice of many thou-
sands of American citizens, due to the fact that the
Republic is now likely to embrace the Northern
continent of America, instead of being split into
rival nations, annihilating the grand hope of man-
kind, that the continent may be maintained as its
refuge from tyranny, freed from all the restrictions
which haveimpeded theprogress of Europe. Various
plans, says Mr. JonNsox, have been proposed for
the paymen!-, of the public debt, and it would ill
become the author of " My Policy" if he passed
away without leaving one behind. We would like to
have seen the face of him whose fortune was invested
in United States Bonds on reading the Johnsonian
scheme. The PRESIDENT first shows how much or
rather how little of what the bonds represent the
Government received, and he arrives at the con-
clusion that the national banks at least had received
an aggregate of 17 per cent., and in view of such
large profits he thinks they would not be averse to
a settlement such as he proposes, which would give
them a fair remuneration, while just to the tax-
payers. lie opens his little scheme of total repudia-
tion by remarking " our national credit should be
sacredly observed," and then he proceeds to assert
that it would be

"Just and equitable that the six per cent. interest now
paid by the Government should be applied to the reduc-
tion of the principal in semi-annual instalments, which in
16 years and eight months would liquidate the entire
National Debt. Six per cent. in gold would at present
rates be equal to nine per cent. in currency, and equivalent
t' the payment of the debt one and a half times in a frac-
tion less than 17 years. This, in connection with all the
other advantages derived from their investment, would
afford to the puplic creditors a fair and liberal compensa-
tion for the use of their capital, and with this they should
be satisfied. The lessons of the past admonish the lender
that it is not well to be over-anxious in exacting from
the borrower rigid compliance with the letter of the bond."
Having thus wiped out the debt by paying the
interest for sixteen years and eight months, he pro-
ceeds to show what grand results would ensue.
He believes the capital invested in these securities
to be so much money locked up that would thus be-
come released, and such a fertilizing inundation
as must then pour over the laud would have
a wonderful effect in reviving its wonted pro-
sperity, infusing activity and vigour into the
paralyzed energies of the people. Mr. JOHNSON
errs in supposing he is the only debtor who
has predicted a .wonderful revival if able to
shake himself clear of his liabilities, and a more
direct means to accomplish this could only be de:
vised by the man who exclaims, " Bother this lo
years and eight months' interest ! they have had
quite enough already—do not give them a farthing
more." To argue with a man like Mr. JOHNSON i 5
vain, and Congress very properly replied by the
almost unanimous resolution that repudiation in a'
forms was hateful to the American people. ''
cannot understand why the Cable did not state that
the PRESIDENT in his Message advocated an open
and audacious repudiation. But perhaps it is
better as it is, for timid holders might have been
frightened until they learnt that ANDREW JOHNS°I4
only harms the interests he advocates, and benefit:
those he attacks ; and if he wanted to give the 152
kick to repudiation, he could not have better ar
plied it. It is not a little remarkable to find 3
PRESIDENT of the Great Republic asserting that
Republican principles could not survive under n
burden of debt just half as heavy as that borne
lightly and buoyantly by effete Britain, while thhe
lively little island moves on a very Democratic path'
He first invokes the national indignation against
the bondholders as a monied oligarchy, foreign and
native, sustained by the fruits of the people's labour'
to whom the citizens will hmonie mere slaves, abse;
lutely likening their condition to the negro chatte
formerly held by the South. He then goes on with
a consistency peculiar to ANDREW JOHNSON to diSt:
CUSS these same bondholders as of no account vihn
ever, not having a voice even in the reimbursement
of their own loans. This he discusses as a question
for himself and the Legislature to decide, as if th
lenders had petitioned the Government on Clair so
the equity of which had to be considered. Os
could believe on reading his remarks that he Wa
discussing men who had accepted the tenders of the
Government earnestly pressed on the citizens to Or
ply funds in a great national crisis, the conditions
being then specified and sanctioned by law. lie
further talks of bonds as the property of ne
unchangeable class, instead of being circulating
pledges of the United States through the world
with enfaced conditions, though if true, for the rea;
sons above given, there is no class to whom morn
consideration would be due. One bond may have b3e 0
received from the Treasury and held in the sin/
hands till now, but the mass are perpetually chalig:e
ing hands at a fluctuating price fixed by the sell,,e`,l
and buyers. When he discusses the original 101,
as having received a larger amount than his illyrreshe
ment he appears blind to the real position. jor
primary lender took his chance of the success be
failure of:the war, and reaped the gain, just as t.,ci
lender to the Confederate Government took his
his
lost the entire capital. The former backed u
judgment, ran the risk, and reaped the fruits. Then
e/
he sold, making way for Trust Funds for the
of widows and orphans, for the savings of workEne
and the securities on which men rely for the stleP;
port of themselves and their families when tP
retire from business. The original holder was the
speculative man who believed in the success of the
United States ; the present holder is more the Per,
manent investor, who believes in the good faithof
the United States, but the latter buying an eat3it
lished security paid a much higher price Or
than the former. Mr. JOHNSON'S argument then;
if it had force, which it has not, against the orig',
nal holder, is inapplicable to the mass of the Pre
sent possessors. Indeed this portion of his Message
is below contempt, and only worthy of the °Pie.
we give it as showing what a " cuss" the roan
„0
We will perhaps continue our remarks hereafter
other portions of his Message.

Twenty-eight fishermen of Gloucester, Ad
have been drowned this year. Seventy-five were droA
nod
year. ne'
gentleman received an unpaid letter conole the
ing :—"Sir, your letter of yesterday bears upon its face the
stamp of falsehood." His answer was brief and tore
purpose:—" Sir, I only wish your letter of yesterdal,'na
upon its face a stamp of any kind." Apropos of this or
not generally be known that wherever an unpaid 't3„-the
is sent simply to put another to annoyance and expeas"
Post-office will return the money. se°
From this year's new Directory of San Fran e,l.-
0
it appears that the total population is 147,950, of
only 138,950 are permanent, the remaininc, 9,000 12V300
transient boarders, soldiers, sailors, &c. There are 5',1'110
males over 21 years of age, to 30,000 females over 18:0,130
school census of July, 1868, counts the number of cil","t,il
under 15 at the extraordinary figure of 39,728. The wore
number of houses in the city is 18,009, of which 13,912
wood and 4,097 are brick. „roc!
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~
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every nerve its proper duty.

Births. the
LEGH —On Christmas-day, at 38, Bolgrava-scigar'
wife of WJ. Legh, Esq., M.P., of a daughter. wife,
LoosfnhiaOrrnytteb2b7,thEisnqs,t.o,
fattwPiienlsd H s
.0.
Harrow, the
oset
MAciNDREw— o
On the 27th inst..s
at Westwool '-
Essex, the wife of Wm. Macandrew, Esq., of a sou'
Marriages.
BELCHER— BEARD —On the 26th hist , at the parish c%stile-
Kensington, the Rev. Henry Belcher, M.A., to
_
rine Emilie, second d .ughter of John Beard, kiscl'
THORN —PUDNER—On the 24th inst. at St. George'`, oar(
over-square, William Edmond Thorn, of 70, Orc)o.sh-ter
street, Grosvenor-square, to Jane, youngest d3up-
Richard Pudner, Devonshire.
Deaths. Of
ANNING —On the 27th inst., William Arming, Vsclq
Stockwell Villas, Clapham-road, aged 63.
BINDER—On the 27th inst, at 97, Park-street, Gros's': otli
square, Joseph Binder, Esq., aged 82; and
suddenly, Joseph. his eldest son, aged 46. f
GROVE —0 n the 22d inst., John Grove, Esq.). o„dis
Buckinghamshire, and 6, Henrietta-street, -1)9'1.`"-
square, aged 94. °cOfjt
HocKIN -At Heavitree, mar Exeter, Captain P''
8.N., aged 74. c,i,vllollll
HUMPHEHY—On the 27th inst., at 2, The Cedars, s-••• -
John Humphery, Esq., aged 43

London : Printed and Pablished by WIT.T.TAN 013,10
al
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at TRH SUN 01110;011
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, the V 2
iliddlesex.—Tuesday, December 29, 1808.

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