The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-16 00:00:00

Tflq, SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 16, 1868.

FOREIGN NOTES,
TURKEY AND GREECH.

The information of the Etendard enables it to preserve
the hope of seeing matters set right between Turkey and
Greece before the 17th. There is, as we have already
mentioned, much reason to believe that the Greek Cabinet
is disinclined to yield ; but the six Powers have not
wavered in their determination to prevent a war. Why
Greece should wish to fight it is impossible to divine,
except on the supposition that, next to a victory, a sound
beating is the most respectable mode of establishing
national dignity. The Grecian army is very
small. In June 1566 it numbered only 380
officers and 8,077 men, to which was to be added a
body of 10,000 gendarmerie, to be under the orders of the
Minister of War, and to be employed for military and
civil purposes. The army has since been reorganised, but
not increased. The Greeks could not, therefore, put
more than 10,000 meu in line at any one point, and there
is not the slightest reason for believing that the efficiency
of this force is such as to counterbalance the superior
numbers of the Turks. A telegram from Copenhagen
states that both the King of Denmark and the Prince of
Wales have urged King George to satisfy the just demands
of Turkey, and thus ward off the danger which might
otherwise menace his dynasty. _ .

Later intelligence shews that the danger of an outbreak,
instead of diminishing, becomes more formidable. The
ambassadors of both nations have been recalled, and the
Greek populace, with whom the prospect of a war is very
popular, is indulging in enthusiastic demonstrations. The
situation looks so warlike that little short of main force
will be required to restrain the two neighbouring States.

riddled with shot. Immediately the assassin was ar-
rested,who proved to be Grant,brother of the libelled
lady. A strong feeling existed in Richmond against
Pollard, who was a bully all feared. In his pocket
were found three revolvers, and that he would use
them on the slightest provocation he had often
proved. Once he entered the hall wherein the Vir-
ginian delegates sat, and fired several shots at a
member, who had run down his paper, the Southern
Opinion. While he never hesitaten to traduce, he
made others suffer who took the same course to-
wards himself, and had been engaged in half a
score of such shooting affairs. Several persons in
Richmond openly advocated the necessity of killing
him, and Grant, when being conveyed to gaol,
was cheered as he passed through the streets, and
was soon released upon bail of $lO,OOO. The
Coroner's inquest showed the feeling in Richmond,
as the verdict was that the deceased died from the
effect of a gunshot wound at the hands of some
person unknown. On Thursday E. A. Pol-
lard arrived at Richmond, and published a card,
wherein he alluded to the cheering of Grant, who
was not even placed in a cell, but occupied the pri-
vate office of the chief of the police, where crowds
waited on him to tender congratulations, and he ani-
madverted on the coroner's verdict, adding—" Let
these things stand to the shame of their perpetra-
tors, and write their own commentary on the chi-
valry of Richmond. They shame not me, they shame
not the dead. My heart is sufficient to hold him.
No man can insult my tears. I came to claim but
one thing—justice." After denouncing the cowar-
dice of the deed, the card concludes—" Let justice
be done ; let all true people reconsider. lam far
from defending the article which has been referred
to in my brother's paper. I deeply regret, but my
brother did not write it. The murderer never in-
quired for the real author. He never asked any
word of explanation—he never applied to have the
article corrected—he took not one single measure
which the brave man, no matter how much wronged,
always takes before he comes to the last recourse
of blood. He went without one alternative
to that recourse, and he went where no one,
but the coward treads, on the path of the assassin."
I may here mention that the Southern Opinion will
will not again be published, and that Mr. E. A.
Pollard has come down upon the Secretary of War,
as General Schofield had refused to let him examine
the archives of the Confederate Government now
in the keeping of the War Department. He styles
this despotism, and asserts that no writer should be
" debarred from a bureau having the same relation
to the public as a Government library or museum,
simply and solely on the ground that he was a
Southerner, or that he intended to write on the
Southern side of an historical question." The Go-
vernment of the United States would, in giving Mr.
Pollard his fling, furnish its bitter and declared
enemy with weapons of attack. Mr. Pollard,
with whom, under the circumstances of his
brother's death, I sympathize, may write in
reason what he pleases against the State,
but it is no more reasonable to expect the State
to furnish him with material than to aid him with
money and to undertake to purchase and distribute
his work when published. We have had a magni-
ficient fall of meteors. Professor Newton of
Yale has arrived at the conclusion that a comet
travelling at the rate of 2,000,000 miles a day has
whisked its tail over the globe, and made us see
stars which fully accounts for the meteoric showers.
The filibustering expeditions threatened against
Cuba are less active. The Spanish Minister, anxious
on the subject, has been pressing it on the atten-
tion of the Government, and Secretary Seward as-
sures him that no such expedition will be permitted
to leave the country. The organization for the
annexation of the island has, however, extended to
Chicago, where bonds of the Provisional Govern-
ment have been printed, dated Havannab, Nov. 3,
1868, professing to be signed by the Governor
and Secretary of State, payable a year after the
admission of the State of Cuba into the Union by
Congress, and to bear interest from date at 12 per
cent. What they sell for I do not know, but I
think they would be a hazardous speculation for a
large investment, though I would prefer them to
111 the bonds of the Irish Republic. I suppose your
readers have heard enough of the Erie R iilway
' war. Here we have heard of little else. The
' speculative muddle which no " feller could under-
, stand, except the scene shifters, is now followed by
a legal muddle which no one can understand except
the lawyers who make it. The object of the
directors is, of course, to tie the subject up in a
tangle, but affairs have lately gone against the
Gould party. Judge Sutherland, of the State
Supreme Court, has set aside the order of
Judge Barnard, directing all proceedings to be
stayed. Mr. Davies has been appointed receiver,
the Judge requiring him to execute a bond
for $1,000,000 before awarding him the post.
on Wednesday he
panied by two lawyers,
Iprromc eeedd e dN't' iot ht h
et
oh
ffii s e
,oaredceorm
and demanded admission. The guard seeing Mr.
Eaton, who had formerly acted as counsel for the
directors, and unaware that he now acted for their
adversaries, admitted the party, and it was not
known that the enemy were in the citadel till they
reached the private room of the directors, where
they were consulting with their law advisers. The
company's offices have been guarded like a fortress,
with gates, bolts, and armed men, so the consterna-
tion may be imagined on the enemy's entrance into
the sanctum sanctorum. At first the directors were
polite, but afterwards rude, and the counsel inter-
fered to keep the peace; but Judge Davies, the new
receiver, served a notice on each director of his ap-
poirtment, with a demand for the funds, books,
and papers. The public are awaiting further de-
velopments, the Drew party remaining in posses-
sion, while the Gould party seek to be armed with
other weapons from their own judges. Next Tuesday
a mayor, corporation, council, and minor charter offi-
cers will be elected, and the newspapers seem to ho-
nestly urge the people to select the man of highest
character independent of his political opinions.
The running is between Col. Fred. A. Conkling and
A. Oakey Hale, between whom there is little dif-
ference politically. I incline to think that Mr.
Hale is the strongest candidate, and will be suc-
cessful, although having once been a Republican,
and having gone over to the enemy during the civil
war, he is disliked by that party. Mr. D. B. Eaton
has been placed by the Republicans in nomination
for the Corporation Council, and he will run against
Mr. Richard O'Gorman, but I think with no great
hopes of success. The Cole-Hiscock murder trial
has been progressing for some days, but the court
ruled yesterday rather unfavourably to the accused,
though public sympathy runs strongly in his favour,
and long od is are offered that he will get off. Your
readers will remember that he walked up to within
a few feet of Iliscock, who was leaning against a
pillar in a hotel, and shot him dead.
Chief Justice Chase proceeded to Richmond
from Washington, and on Wednesday opened the
Court, dispensing with the Test Oath for Grand
Jurors, a discretionary power given by Congress.
No special occasion, he says, now demands it, and
its requirements sometimes hinder the cause of
justice, by exclnding those best qualified to dis-
charge the duties of jurors. He addressed a few
weighty and earnest words to the Jury on their
duty to make vigilant search for frauds on the
revenue. " Spare nobody," said the Chief Jus-
tice; "least of all those in the highest and most re-
sponsible
given general satisfaction throughout the country.

John Slidell, it is said, will endeavour to regain
his confiscated property in New Orleans by au appeal to
the cDurts there.

her Majesty has been pleased to approve of M.
Dorenee Atwater as Consul at Seychelles for the United
States of Atuerica.

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ANDREW JOHNSON'S LAST MESSAGE.

Whatever may be the character recorded of
ANDREW JOHNSON when he retires into the obscu-
rity wherein the lives of so many ex-Presidents
have closed, those who read the history of his term
will at least give him credit for consistency. His
last Message to Congress reproduces the subject of
Reconstruction, as if beginning the battle he had
already fought and lost. The persistency, as
well as the aggravating way in which this is
done, recalls the story of the miller whose wife
had so exasperated him by contradiction that he
threw her into his dam, where she sunk, with hand
raised, two figures representing the scissors, the
bone of dispute, which she had maintained to this
desperate extremity as the instrument used. Mr.
JOHNSON is sinking out of public sight like the
miller's wife, crying " Scissors !" in the face of the
expiring Congress ; but now this obstinacy and
want of pliability cannot work much further mis-
chief, for little importance is attached to what he
thinks or says. But the incensed Senate will not
even hear his Message read, and we regret to see
the quarrel so bitterly renewed, and such a course
adopted by so dignified a body. The " way of putting
things" is well illustrated if the summary accurately
abridges the Message. " The attempt to place the
white population of the South under the domination
of negroes has impaired the kindly relations pre-
viously existing." We always understood that the
attempt was to take the negroes from under the
domination of the white population, and the world
held to some such delusion. The kindly relations
were those that exist between an owner and his
horse who makes it go with whip and spur, while
feeling bound to house and feed it. The legisla-
tion of Congress is simply intended to turn the
African chattel into an independent man, and it
cannot be helped if the first effect is " to impair the
kindly relations and prevent co-operation in indus-
trial enterprises." Even granting what Mr. JOHN-
SON alleges, that Congressional legislation has pro-
duced these baneful results, we deny his conclusion
that "it should be abrogated." He was strongly
urged to confine his remarks to existing issues, and
not to bring forward sensational " novelties" to stir
up the flagging strife between the Executive and
the Legislature; but the President desired to fur-
nish a last historical Message, and to plan for the
incoming Government the course he considers essen-
tial for the wellbeing of the country. For these
reasons he determined, in opposition to his advisers,
to declare Reconstruction abortive, and to urge a
return to the plan of 1865, devised by the LINCOLN
Government, and sanctioned by his own. He also
resolved to condemn the Tenure-of-Office Act, and
recommend the restoration to the Executive of the
appointment and removal power, which, we believe,
will be acted on for the benefit of the President
Elect, but not for him. He was also advised to
confine himself to a recommendation of economy,
and afterwards to discuss financial affairs iu a sepa-
' rate message, but being bent on producing a great
document he decided on discussing the issue now
denouncing the frauds upon the revenue, and call-
ing for a strict account, which Congress has removed
from him the ability to obtain. From the telegram
it is clear he has taken, as he intended, strong
ground on the financial question, and with his usual
boldness he advocates Secretary M'CuLLoca's plan
to withdraw greenbacks and substitute coin as soon
as possible. He represents commerce as having
diminished, and manufactures as languishing, the
only remedy being wise legislation and retrench-
ment ; and he alludes to the startling fact that the
War Department has exceeded the estimates during
the past three years by $175,000,000. It is asserted
in Washington that the Treasury has been post-
poning the heavy claims against it to ba able to
report faiyourably, and that these have been accumu-
lating for upwards of two months ; but we feel cer-
tain that Mr. JOHNSON would not aid in such a scheme,
for his object is to show how mistaken is the financial
policy of Congress, and the Message unfairly inclines
towards the " dismal prospect" rather than to the
bright one. Still Mr. JOHNSON cannot ignore the
fact that the army is reduced, as we a fort-
night ago announced, to 48,000 men and the
naval force to 200 vessels, mounting 7,040
guns. Ile btlieves a further reduction of infan-
try practicable, asserting that if Congress would
abrogate its Reconstruction laws soldiers would cease
to be required in the South. It is, however, impos-
sib:e for a Finance Minister to estimate precisely
what will be the results of the corning year. He
may rightly calculate the Customs and the Inland
Revenue as well as the ordinary expenditure, but
some little but costly war throws out his figures,
and then those who look only to the end say he was
all wrong, exclaiming that the boasted anticipated
surplus had proved a deficit. At this moment the
United States are involved, perhaps, in two expen-
sive wars ; the one against the North American In-
dians and the other against the South American
Indians ; for unless LOPEZ tenders an explanation,
with satisfactory apologies, and reparation for his
conduct towards the Minister and other American
citizens at Asuncion, he will put himself into a
" tight place ;" but we cannot believe, unless he
has really gone mad, that he will court this de-
truction, though he may desire to bring another foe
into the field to whom he could surrender with less
bitterness of feeling than to the Brazilians. The
Message touches on the Paraguayan difficulty,
showing that LOPEZ will be compelled to explain his
conduct. To England the most important part
relates to the questions now open for adjust-
ment between the countries ; and the spirit of the
Message contradicts the absurd opinions expressed
by some London newspapers that the Ala-
bama question had assumed a new and alarming
aspect. The tone of the American press, which the
English acknowledge fully and fairly to represent
American opinion, is far from being hostile to Eng-
land, and although, as might reasonably be ex-
pected, such delicate negotiations touching on seve-
ral points long in dispute could not flow smoothly
to a conclusion, yet the interruptions are far from
a nature to cause uneasiness. At Washington the
English concessions are considered virtually to em-
brace the point in dispute. The question for
America is simply one of honour, although many
erroneously suppose that it is a money question,
which, being decided against England, would trans-
fer a large sum from the British exchequer into the
Washington Treasury. Nationally, by the settle-
ment of the claims in dispute both countries will
lose heavily, though individuals will gain, and
many, too, who have no right to gain; for the risks
and liabilities were estimated and charged by in-
surance offices, by brokers, shipowners, and mer-
chants, in the carriage and in the sale of foreign
goods, which safely reached port. The depredations
of the Alabama and other privateers were fully dis-
counted, and have already been paid by the Ameri-
can public ; and if the British public are also to
pay, some persons will greatly gain. On the
other hand, if English claimants succeed in making
good their cases, a heavy account will bare to
be paid by America to British subjects. It
is even asserted at Washington that a bill of
$45,000,000 has been prepared by the British Go-
vernment for the consideration of the joint Com-
mission, for damage alleged to have been sustained
by British subjects residing daring the war in
Southern States. The public of both countries may
be very sure that they will be the victims, and,
were it not for the national questions involved, it
would be well if all the correspondence on the sub-
ject were packed up with Mr. LAIRD in a box, and
dropped to the bottom of the Atlantic half-way
between Liverpool and New York. On the whole,
the Message must be one of great interest, and
would perhaps have given general satisfaction,
more especially that portion exposing and denounc-
ing frauds, had the PRESIDENT taken the advice of
his friends, and kept his anti-Reconstruction ideas
to himself. Without doubt the document is ably
written, for few State papers have expressed opi-
nions with greater force and beauty of language
than the Annual Messages of ANDREW JOHNSON.--
Aogle-American Times.

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