The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-30 00:00:00

THE P.RESIDEN7 v. CONGRESS.

A cock plucked of its feathers is a very sorry
spectacle, and a President of the United States
stripped of his power is not unlike it. Of all dig-
nitaries he is that one who can least bear the loss of
power. If a President of the United States has no
control over public affairs, he becomes a man placed
on a platform as a target for mud-throwers, and
quickly assumes the appearance of the white-washed-
and dirt-covered monument in Leicester-square,
with a wooden leg and a crossing-sweeper's broom. The
United States has refused to surround its Executive
Chief with the paraphernalia of rank and dignity,
feeling assured that, however simple and unassum-
jug in appearance, the world would respect the man
and bow low before the representative of the
mightiest nation on earth. Power made up for all
that in old European countries gives prestige. it
mattered not how humble was the origin of a Pre-
sident. Without title, without wealth, without
fame, or a single deed associated with his name, a
, .
ptain ANDREW JOHNSON. during his tenure of office,
became the equal of a NAPOLEOX or a NICHOLAS.
But all this is undergoing a rapid change. A Presi-
dent of the United States will soon be a mere pup-
pet, holding an office which no gentleman would
condescend to accept. Last Tuesday the House of
Representatives passed a bill by 123 against 45
votes, declaring that there are no valid civil govern-
ments in the late rebellious States, and transferring
all powers of appointment and removal under
the Reconstruction Act from President JoHN-
SON to General GRANT, as Commander-in-
Chief of the Army. ANDREW JOHNSON once
took credit for not giving way to the temptation of
proclaiming himself a CAESAR. Perhaps he now re-
grets his moderation, but at any rate he is not likely
again to have the chance. He once undertook to be
a MOSES, and to act for the children of HAM the
part performed by that great leader for the children
of Israel. That chance, too, is gone. But it may
be hoped that in the next great historical character
ANDREW JOHNSON selects he will be more success-
ful. Attaining to the Presidency of the United
States, is a marvellous performance, considering the
circumstances, but he owed his elevation to the
bullet of the assassin. If Congress can pass and
enforce any Act it likes, Mr. JOHNSON'S course in
provoking a quarrel, and maintaining it to a point
of such desperation, is little short of madness. It
will not be easy to check Congress now that it is fairly
on the road of usurpation, and the history of the
world has established the fact that such au assembly,
unless effectully controlled, has invariably succeeded
in centring all power in itself. Republics have
always been wrecked on this rock, for such bodies
will be found as ambitious, more unscrupulous, and
more corrupt than individuals. They may act less
promptly, but they act more surely, for they are
unmoved by sickness, and little changed by death.
The history of the English Howie of Commcnari is a

record of usurpation, till it finally resolved, that it
was the only power in the realm. Its course
is most instructive. Either by fcrce or the gradual
establishment of custom or precedent it absorbed to
itself the rights of the Crown. Working in the
other direction it slowly narrowed the suffrage, till
the circle became confined almost to the families
and friends of the members, and men walked about
with half a dozen boroughs in their pocket. Under
the plea of representing the people it succeeded
against the Crown, while it effectually barred the
people from any voice in the elections. It was not
till the nation rose against their so-called Repre-
sentatives, and insisted on Reform under a threat of
civil war, that the power was wrenched from the
hands of the usurping landed proprietors. Congress,
unless closely watched, will follow suit. If Mr.
JOHNSON be stripped of power while in the Presi-
dential chair, all future Presidents will wear their
insignia on the sufferance of Congress. The Secre-
tztries are said to be but the PRESIDENT'S clerks ;
but thenceforth that PRESIDENT will only be a head
clerk himself. Congress will centralize the Govern.
meat at Washington, and in effect be the Govern-
ment issuing orders to a body of Executive officers.
How. far this is in accordance with the Constitution
may be judged from a glance at that document,
which distinctly invests the powers of the executive
in the PRESIDENT. The first clause of the second sec-
tion makes the PRESIDENT Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and of the Navy, yet the Bill passed last
Tuesday by the House seems to ignore this Consti-
tutional authority, taking from the PRESIDENT the
power of interfering in the South, and handing it over
to General GRANT, whom the Act styles Comman-
der in-Chief. A President, on taking office, swears.
to defend the Constitution of the United States.
Mr. JOHNSON has taken that oath, and he honestly
believes that that Constitution is being destroyed
by Congress. But what is he to do? lie stated in
his Message, on the opening of Congress, that if he
considered the necessity required it he would take
the high responsibility of saving the life of the na-
tion at all hazards. If this meant anything, it sig-
nified his intention of defending the Executive
power centred in him by the force of arms, if other
means failing. What.power does the PRESIDENT
possess of carrying into effect this threat? He has
proved himself to be obstinate in adhering to his in-
tentions and opinions, and courageous in enforcing
them. The telegraph has put us in possession of
the three bald facts—the reinstatement of Secretary
STANTON—the passage by the House of a measure
requiring a majority of two-thirds of the Judges of
the Supreme Court to render an act of Congress
unconstitutional ; and this bill on which we now
comment. How far has congress as yet gone in the
direction indicated by the PRESIDENT towards the
point at which he would resist by force ? The time
is at hand when ANDREW JOHNSON must make good
his threat or present the miserable spectacle of the
plucked cock.- -Anglo-American Times.

A COOL BAND OF BRIGANDS.—A band of 20
men, well armed and. mounted on horseback, a
few nights since entered the village of Fuentelsaz, not
very far from Madrid, and attacked the house of Don Mar-
cos Martin, one of tho richest landed proprietors of the
locality. They sacked the premises from top to bottom,
and killed the owner's son-in-law, who happened to be
sleeping there, and who made some resistance. Tb e
repeated shots fired by the assailants roused the whole
village, but no one rendered any assistance, as who
the state of siege had been declared all the weapons
were taken away. The robbers retired quietly with
their booty, but eleven of them were the next day
arrested.

PROPERTIES OF THE METAL ALU3IINIUM.—.AI the
last meeting of the New York Lyceum of Natural History,
Professor Henry Wurtz, well known as the discoverer of
the peculiar value of sodium amalgam for amalgamating
gold ores, read a very interesting paper on some newly
discovered properties of the metal aluminium, an abstract
of which we find in the American Journal of Mining
as follows :—" The author's numerous experiments
upon metals with sodium amalgam have revealed
to him new and surprising propers of aluminium, the
most abundant metal (as he says upon.the earth; and
promising to be the most valuable. These ne-,v phenomena
once discovered, may, however, be readily reproduced
without the aid of sodium, and they were exhibited to the
Lyceum by Professor Wurtz, repeatedly and in various
forms. He first pointed out the wonderfully exceptional
nature of aluminium, never found native, and so hard to
detach from oxygen ; yet, when detached, manifesting uo
more disposition to recombine therewith than gold. His
new discoveries solve this paradox perfectly. He first
proved that the surfaca of the metal is passive to quick-
silver, as he has before shown in native gold, iron, &c.,
but that, wholly contrary to common belief, the internal
pa: is of a piece of aluminium absorbpure quicksilver with
avidity ; so that a piece of rolled sheet is thus quickly split
into component lamina). Tha internal surfaces thus en-
filmed with quicksilver, he thou proved to possess most
surprising new properties. On exposure to air they at
once take fire spontaneousl3 , and burn with evolur
tion of heat ; a coating of hydrate of alumina), as
a bulky, feathery, or filamentary mass, being formed
with a growth so rapid as to be visible to the
eye, and under the lens wonderful to beheld.
To condense the discoveries of Professor Wurtz we give
his new theory of aluminium, slightly altering the phrase-
ology for the sake of brevity. 1. Normal aluminium is in
the electro-nogative or passive state, corresponding to
"passive iron," for example. 2. Quicksilver induces an
abnormal, active, or electro-positive state, precisely corres-
ponding to normal sodium and potassium. His experi-
ments have shown, as he has maintained in a previous
paper, that no amalgam of aluminium is formed ;
and this newly discovered absorption of quicksilver
beneath the outer crust of the metal he believes to be per-
fectly analogous to the phenomenon of Professor Joseph
Henry's celebrated lead syphon experiment, in which a
solid amalgamated lead syphon conducted quicksilver in-
definitely through its internal pores from an upper to a
lower vessel. Prof. Wurtz's deductions from his own theory
are of high interest and importance. For instance, he holds
the idea that we may confidently hope, as one of the re-
sults of investigations in this now field, to obtain a
permanently passive form of iron ; a discovery which, if
ever made, will be surpassed in practical value by few
others; and he asks, why we should not now regard as
possible the discovery of sodium and potassium in their
passive forms, corresponding to ordinary aluminium—in
which case these metals could be handled with impunity,
and become articles of general commerce. Mr. Wurtz an-
nounces that his paper will probably appear in full in the
next number of the American Journal of Science.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—Henceforth no one will doubt the valuable
properties of Du Barry's health-restoring Revalenta Arabica
Invalids' and Infants' Food, since to the thousands of blessings
it has already received from Invalids whose position had been
deemed hopeless, we may now add that of his Holiness the Popo.
whose health has been perfectly restored by it after thirty years
of unsuccessful medical treatment. We quote from the "Gazette
du Midi," July 25th :—" Rome, July 21, 1866.—" The health of
the Holy Father is excellent, especially since, abandoning all
other remedies, he has confined himself entirely to Du Barry's
Revalenta Arabiea Food, of which he consumes a plateful
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effect on his health, and his Holiness cannot praise this
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more than 68,000 cures:—Cure No. 58,216, of the Marchioness
de Brehan, of seven years' liver complaint, wasting away,
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Beware of the many unsavoury and more than sloppy imitations
to which, without authority Baron Liebig's name is most auda-
ciously attached

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