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

INDIA.

Lord Mayo has 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 land in England
were applied to India, the work would be easily
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
1311402te 4.9,ug_b_cog,uso we d_2ll. in Eng49id' is ai_i_entin4nt

whicti a budding tiovernor-tirenerat may indulge in on lint
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 ho poisoned twenty-seven persons.
Strange to say, most of his victims were Brahmins.
It is rumoured that a Afoniteur 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.

so the rupee and set up the sovereign in its stead. The
or money has become altogether too cumbersome as the
lard of value, and a change in a few years will be an

ate necessity. This is evidently another argument
'isposing of the question of international coinage.
;lose changes must be made they might as well be
final.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

(Prom 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 M'Culloch's Report we give in full, as 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 ou 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 attaics 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. He 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, whi.th his present Message
will not only undo, but open European eyes to
the reason 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 Bill 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 ]east a partial return to the fun-
damental 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 ba:ied. 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 rediscussion 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, toiling in the yoke to drag the car
of oligarchical extravagance.
"We now pride ourselves upon having given freedom
to four millions of the coloured race ; it will then b,3 our
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 taxgathorers. 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 thug'
sands of American citizens, due to the fact that 01
Republic is now likely to embrace the Northeo
continent of America, instead of being split into
rival nations, annihilating the grand hope of OP
kind, that the continent may be maintained as is
refuge from tyranny, freed from all the restrictions
which haveimpeded thepro,gressof Europe. Various
plans, says Mr. JOHNSON, have been proposed for
ii
the payment of the public debt, and it would :t
become the author of " My Policy" if he pass"
away without leaving one behind. We would like t°
have seen the face of him whose fortune was invest'
in United States Bonds on reading the Johnsoeisti
scheme. The PRESIDENT first shows how much Or
rather how little of what the bonds represent the
Government received, and he arrives at the 0911,i
elusion that the national banks at least had receive
an aggregate of 17 per cent., and in view of such
large profits he thinks they would not be averse t°
a settlement such as he proposes, Which would gic°
them a fair remuneration, while just to the t3s'
payers. Ile opens his little scheme of total repudive.
b
tion by remarking " our national credit should
sacredly observed," and then he proceeds to assert
that it would be

"Just and equitable that the six per cent. interest 10
paid by the Government should be applied to the redu;c: '
tion of the principal in semi-annual instalments, which -
16 years and eight months would liquidate the entiret
National Debt. Six per cent. in gold would at present
rates be equal to nine per cent. in currency, and equivtdan
tl the payment of the debt one and a half times in a fie"
;6
tion less than 17 years. This, in connection with all
other advantages derived from their investment, Ti°llld
afford to the puplic creditors a fair and liberal compoisliii
tion for the use of their capital, and with this they aIWIL
be satisfied. The lessons of the past admonish the /0",,A-
-that it is not well to be over-anxious in exacting' fr°,-
the borrower rigid compliance with the letter of the bend'
Having thus wiped out the debt by paying the
interest for sixteen years and eight months, he Pre'
ceeds to show what grand results would ellsee,
Ile believes the capital invested in these securitle"
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 Ole
a wonderful effect in reviving its wonted Pr();
sperity, infusing activity and vigour into tbi
paralyzed energies of the people. Mr. JoilSs°,o
errs in supposing be is the only debtor 1"
has predicted a wonderful revival if able t 0
shake himself clear of his liabilities, and a mere
direct means to accomplish this could only be u:;
wised by the man who exclaims, " Bother this '"ri
years and eight months' interest ! they havehiie
quite enough already—do not give them a fart
g
-ii
more." To argue with a man like Mr. JonliSn', ,8
vain, and Congress very properly replied by tl
almost unanimous resolution that repudiation inwe
forms was hateful to the American people. ,_l4
cannot understand why the Cable did not state t;
the PRESIDENT in his Message advocated an °P ig
and audacious repudiation. But perhaps it ea
better as it is, for timid holders might have beos
frightened until they learnt that ANDREW J 00554
only harms the interests he advocates, and ben%
those he attacks ; and if lie wanted to give the
kick to repudiation, he could not have better 8r;
plied it. It is not a little remarkable to finbat
PRESIDENT of the Great Republic asserting t
Republican principles could not survive underlie
burden of debt just half as heavy as that hnthe
lightly and buoyantly by effete Britain, while th•
lively little island moves on a very Democratic P 5.0 5t
He first invokes the national indignation ngaiocl
the bondholders as a monied oligarchy, foreign or,
native, sustained by the fruits of the people'd I°l°oo.
to whom the citizens will b3corne mere slaves, 3
lutely likening their condition to the negro 0 411
formerly held by the South. He then goes on dis,
a consistency peculiar to ANDREW JOHNSON t°,f,t.
cuss these same bondholders as of no account syßent
ever, not having a voice even in the reimbursontio
of their own loans. This he discusses as a goes
the
for himself and the Legislature to decide, as
lenders had petitioned the Government on 01110
the equity of which had to be considered. /log
could believe on reading his remarks that be ,he
discussing men who had accepted the tenders of 'p,
Government earnestly pressed on the citizens 0!o vg
ply funds in a great national crisis, the condilie
being then specified and sanctioned by law• so
further talks of bonds as the property °f
unchangeable class, instead of being ciretll3t-rl3
pledges of the United States through the we
Ml,
with enfitced conditions, though if true, for the tore
sons above given, there is no class to who3l 111,,eit
consideration would he due. One bond may have v;00
received from the Treasury and held in the 53,,
hands till now, but the mass are perpetually elle;
ing hands at a fluctu tting price fixed by the Se der
and buyers. When he discusses the original lend.
as having received a larger amount than his Woe
ment he appears blind to the real position• or
primary lender cook his chance of the auncess the
failure oflthe war, and reaped the gain, just 75,„3
lender to the Confederate Government took ble big
lost the entire capital. The former backecll3ea
judgment, ran, the risk, and reaped the fruits• lo
he sold, making way for Trust Funds for the Dl(' 0,
of widows and orphans, for the savings of Wurkyisop•
and the securities on which men rely for the they
port of themselves and their families when the
retire from business. The original holder writhe
speculative man who believed in the success of er,
United States ; the present holder is more the of
manent investor, who believes in the good faitor
the United States, but the latter buying an seer it
lished security paid a much higher price .14.0iiev,
than the former. Mr. JOHNSON'S argument
if it had force, which it has not, against the 0` re-
nal holder, is inapplicable to the mass of the
Pale
sent possessors. Indeed this portion of his geesses
is below contempt, and only worthy of the 8r
we give it as showing what a "cuss" the 111, 3ro
oil
We will perhaps continue our remarks hereafter
other portions of his Message.

Twenty-eight fishermen of Gloucester, 001
have been drowned this year. Seventy-five were do"
last year. !AOC'
gentleman received an unpaid letter con 3-006
ing :—"Sir, your letterof yesterday bears upon its ift,co tIO
stamp of falsehood." His answer was brief end tor!,
purpose:—" Sir, I only wish your letter of yesterday 00
upon its face a stamp of any kind." Apropos of this letter
not generally be known that wherever an unpaid 000
is sent simply to put another to annoyance and esPeo
Post-office will return the money. coo,
From this year's new Directory of San Frtall,hioll
it appears that the total population is 147,950, (,),`,,
only 138,950 are permanent, the remaining 9,OuThr,,,PA
transient boarders, soldiers, sailors, &c. There I,re'ff,'"
males over 21 years of age, to 30,000 females over lu:oreei
school census of July, 1868, counts the number 0411,tot:
under 15 at the extraordinary figure of 39,728. f-I,,`"„i/
number of houses in the city is 18,009, of which I°7" A
wood and 4,097 are brick.
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