The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-03 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

;From the Anglo-American Times.)
CALIFORNIA.—In the address to the Agricultural
Society at Stockton on the 19th of September last, by the
Hon. L. E. Pratt, the orator portrayed the beauties of
the Golden State in the following terms :—" Here nature,
in saturnalian mood, seems to have cast her fetters off,
and in the delirium of some wild joy scattered her trea-
sures with the lavish hand of a drunken profligate. How
strange the medley of elements which surround and bless
you! How wonderful the blending of the soils, climates,
and productions of every zone! Within the range of
vision glisten ths eternal snows, flourish the magnolia
and the palm, and ripen the olive and the date ! The
almond bloesome and the orange tree exhales its frag-
rance within the shadow of the sturdy oak and stately
pine, and the limo and apple, the lemon and vine, in-
tertwine their limbs and drop their golden fruit on the
same rood of soil which yearly yields its dual harvest of
wheat or corn ! Look up at the beautiful sky which
spreads its deep azure over you in such unclouded splen-
dour—drink health and strength from the invigorating
air around, and bask in the most genial climate of the
world! Behold your fertile plains, boundless in extent
and rich with the very lees of fatness—your lakes and
streams swarming with the finny tribes—your herds and
flocks fattened on the spontaneous products of your soil !
Surely this is Nature's masterpiece—the land rmerved for
the last and noblest empire of all time! Here not only
shall commerce pour her treasures into your lap, but the
tourist of every land and disciples of all learning shall
come, and pause to impart their rich stores of thought
and knowledge! Here wealth shall come in search of
health or pleasure, here religion shall revive and prosper
with unwonted splendour—schools and colleges shall be
multiplied and richly endowed—here the arts shall cluster
and science flourish. Here poetry and eloquence shall find-
their home—political economy and the science of govern-
ment attain perfection, anti the Augustine age shall be
surpassed in the grandeur of its intellect and philosophy.
Behold, then, in California the modern hely, and with-
in its borders down by the. Golden Gate and hero where
we are assembled, the Roma and Venice of the new world.
Happy, happy, indeed, ought we to be that we have been
permitted to live in an age so rich in historic incident, and
on the verge of a future stored with hope and promise.
Happy above all others ought you to be, farmers of Cali-
fornia, who, already owners of the soil, are practically in-
sured some share in that golden future I"

Mayor Hoffman has been mistaken by the Leaven-
worth Times for C. Hoffman, the owner of the model lodg-
ing-house in New York, in which a large number of people
were lately roasted alive. The mayor had some hard
things said of him under this impression.

Rear-Admiral Hatcher has been authorised by
Congress to receive a decoration from the King of the
Sand% ich Islands.

The Senate, in Executive Session, confirmed the
following nominations:—J. Guy Foreman, postmaster at
Erie, Pennsylvania; Thomas N. Lee, postmaster at Han-
ook, Michigan ; Davis K. Noyes, postmaster at Baraboo,
Wisconsin ; George W. Tabler, postmaster at Martinsburg,
West Virginia; Oscar Minor, collector of Customs for the
district of Texas, iu the place of Kent, deceased ; and
Johu C. Cartwright, United States attorney for the dis-
trict of Ort-gon. The Senate rejected the following nomi-
nations:—Edmund Cooper for assistant Secretary of the
Treasury ; James Robbins, postmaster at Penn Yan, Penn-
sylvania ; Samuel D. Evans, collector of internal revenu.)
4th district of Texas ; William J. Clark, surveyor of cus-
toms for the port of Saybrook,.Connecticut ; Alexander K.
Lowry, register of the land office at Marysville, California. ;
William C. Houser, postmaster at Mechanicsburg, Penn-
sylvania ; Daniel Minimal), postmaster at Milton, Ponn-
Sylvania ; William D. Foutz, ussossor of internal revenue
2d district of Indiana.

Dr. A. G. Mackay, collector of the port of
Charleston, has been presented with a masonic testimonial
by the Grand Lodgo of Poru, South America.

General Longs treet, on passing through Tennessee,

narrowly escaped arrest. He was at Knoxville on the
2d January, when the attempt was made, on an indictment
found in 1863 ; tut an informality in tho warrant enabled
.the General to escape.

The Hon. Anson Burlingame is to be accom-
panied on his mission from China to Europa, by two man-
darins of high rank, and a staff of twenty-four Chinese.
M'L. Brown is appointed secretary, and Mr. Des-
champs interpreter.

A maisiVe silver pitcher and goblets were pre-
sented to General John G. Foster, superintendent of the
Harbour Improvement Works of Boston, by his assistants
and operatives, on Christmas-day.
General Gilmore, after a visit to his relatives in
Ohio, is to make a Southern tour below Hampton Roads, to
increase and improve the fortifications in the South.
Colonel Hoe, the lightning press inventor, is said
to be fitting up a press to print on both sides of a sheet
at the same time, and to be contemplatieg the invention of
one to run by electricity.

Fitz-Greene Halleck, about a month before he
died, prepared his poems, with a final revision, to be issued
in one volume, by Messrs. 'Ticknor and Fields. The notes
are said to be very elaborate, and full of interesting mate-
rial. It is understood that the volume will bo prefaced
with some introductory matter, biographical and critical,
irom the pen of the poot'S friend, William Callen Bryant.
Mrs. Jessie Fremont has presented a petition to
the Senate for the restoration of property in San Fran-
cisco taken by the United States military authorites.
A Bill has been reported in the Senate to remove-
the poiitical disability from Governor R. N. Patton, of
Alabama.

The contest between Mr. Birch and Mr. Van Horn
in the House of Representatives for a seat for Missouri, was
vigorously carried on in the House on the Bth Jan. Mr.
Birch spoke for an hour, when the Speaker's hammer fell.
Mr. Farnsworth, of Illinois, objected to an extension of
time. Mr. Van Horn yielded one half his time to Mr.
Birch, who resumed, and was ready for half any other
man's time, but Mr. Van Horne was content with permis-
sion to print the speech he was to hav9 spoken. But Mr.
Birch's loquacity was eclipsed by ?dr. Simons, who de-
sired to appropriate the seat for the First District of Ken-
tucky, ousting Mr. Trimble, the favourite applicant. Mr.
Simons spoke for two hours, and travelled so much out
of the record that Mr. Kerr, of Indiana, asked him if ho
intended to present this case as it appeared on the record,
or whether he intended to travel out of it. The Hon. L.
S. Trimble to whom the oath was administered declined
to address the House, as he was content with the report
of the committee.

General M'Clernand, of Illinois, and Colonel J.
M'Clood Murphy, of New York, are spoken of for the
nomination as United States Minister to Mexico.

James H. Leverich, second teller of the National
City Bank of New York, 52, Wall-street, has disappeared
with $400,000. The absconder is a nephew of C. H.
Leverieb, President of the Bank of Nezo York Banking
Association, 48, Wall-street.

The Washington correspondent, writing on the
16th Jan., says :—Secretary Stanton sent his first docu-
ment, since his suspension, to Congress this afternoon.
There is no longer any talk of the President refusing to
recognise him as Secretary of War. He will simply avoid
him so far as he can, sending all his orders through Gene-
ral Grant. The most ridiculous stories were sent off yes-
terday to respectable New York journals, and they sent
up gold 2 per cent., though the rumours sent were false.
General Grant was at the capitol this afternoon apparently
in good spirits. The President's friends are not so fierce
in their denunciations of him to-day.
Major Perry Fuller is the probable successor of
Commissioner Rollins, who, it is thought, will htve to re-
sign his office in the Internal Revenue.

General Thomas 111. Ruger and Captain C. F.
Rockwell, both West Pointers, have been succeeded as
Governor and Treasurer of Georgia, in the room of Go-
vernor Jenkins, and Treasurer Jones removed by General
Meade.

Bryan Bradbury has been nominated Collector of
Customs, at Portland (Maine.)
The resignation of Patent Commissioner Theaker
has been refused by the President.

The counsel for John H. Surratt have been noti-
fied by the law officers of the Government to prepare for
the trial of their client.

Mr. Bennehoff has been robbed of $lOO,OOO in
bonds and currency by burglar; who burst into his
house at night.

Vice-President Thomas C. Durant, of the Union
Pacific Railroad, has arrived in Europa.
Allen M'Lane, president of the Pacific Mail
Steam Ship Company, and Congressman Bidwell are on
their way to New York from California.

Gen. Pope, lately in command of the third mili-
tary district, has been ord-3red to the command of the de-
partment of tlie Lakes with Detroit as his head-quarters,
and Gen. Gregg, formerly in command of the district of
Arizona, has transferred his head-quarters to Fort
Churchill, Nevada.

The Springfield Republican of the 18th Jan.
says:—" The most interesting topic at the State-house
and in Boston the past week is the action of the council
on the nomination of Judge Thomas for Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court. A vote was due on it, last Saturday,
when Judge Thomas would probably have been confirmed '
by 5 to 4, but the case was postponed till this week, and
now a rejection is considered certain by one majority. A
very bitter opposition has been made to the nomination
among Republicans, and especially by the friends of Judge
Hoar, who think he should have the place. But it is by
no means certain that he will be advanced to the first place
if Thomas is rejected. Some other member of the Court is
quite as likely to be promoted.—The Ohio Legislature has
elected Allen S. Thurman, the democrat whom Governor
Hayes defeated last fall, to the United States Senate, and
the Maryland Legislature has tried three days without
electing anybody. Governor Swann's chances were at
first the best, bat his last votes were his smallest, and be
has fallen behind W. F. Hamilton, Deplocrat, who has
been elected. Vallandigham and Reverdy Johnson find
their constituency in a hopeless minority.—The Pennsyl-
vania House of Representatives, after a dead lock of three
or four days, organized with Col. Elisha W. Davis, of
Philadelphia, for speaker ; the Minnesota Senate has A. B.
Webber, of Steele county, for secretary, and the House of
J. L. Farmer, of Fillmore, for Speaker.—The Ohio Legis-
lature has withdrawn the State's consent to the proposed
fourteenth Article of the Constitution, and New Jersey,
where democracy rules, is expected to follow suit."

In Cuba, General Lesundi is trying to stop the
brigandage by summary measures, and Santa Anna is
hustling troops off to Yucatan, with hopes of getting mixed
into the rebellion.

Robert Johnson, son and private secretary of the
President, was placed in the lunatic asylum of this district,
Jan. 16, to cure him if possible of periodical drunkenness,
which iu his case amounts to insanity.
Governor Fletcher, on January 15th, took pos-
session of the Iron Mountain Railroad, in the name of tho
State, for non-compliance with the terms of sale to Thomas
Allen and associates.

---
The President sent the following nominations to
the Senate, on the 14th January :—John D. Hopkins, col-
lector of customs at Frenchman's Bay, Maine, in place of
William B. Peters, removed; Bion Bradbury, collector of
customs at Portland and Falmouth, Maine, in place of
Israel Washburn, junior, whose commission expires on
January 19th.

Allen G. Sherman, Democrat, has been elected
United States Senator from Ohio, to succeed Benjamin F.
Wade, Republican, whose term expires March 4, 1869.
Dr. Sears, who is now travelling in the South as
agent of the Peabody Southern Educational Fund, reports
favourably. The money is to bo employed in assisting
existing institutions, not in establishing new ones. The
trustees of the fund agree that wherever any corporation
shall appropriate $4,000 to establish free schools they will
appropriate $l,OOO.

The Minister from St. Domingo has been well
received by many members of Congress at Washington.
He is urging the purchase of Sumana., and an effort will
be made to substitute it for St. Thomas.