The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-30 00:00:00

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7

PARAGUAY.

The Buenos Ayres Standard, of Nov. 12, learns
on high authority that his Excellency General
M'Mahon will shortly leave for Paraguay. Ad-
miral Davis will accompany him. Most of the
American war-vessels, with the exception of the
Guerriere, will go up. There is little news from
the seat of war, and the public seem to have lost all
interest in the operations. Marshal Caxias has
been christened General Statu Quo, while it is ob-
served that the position Lopez occupies is more for-
midable than is supposed in Buenos Ayres. Humaita
is in ruins, there are three Brazilian regiments
there, all the hospitals of the army, and the com-
missariat department. The old battle-fields are
howling wildernesses, marked with a few wooden
crosses. On the opposite shore above Humaita
are the ruins of various fortifications, the scene of
severe contests. The Allies are at Las Palmas, two
leagues from Angostura, held by the Paraguayans.
The locality of the allied camp could not possibly
be worse. Between the belligerent camps there
are immense lagoons and a deep river, and passing
these are the enemy's fortifications; the first lino
com;ng, close to the river, and the second line on the
base of the mountains, which stretch off in the
horizon.

A brisk trade is going on, 270 merchant vessels
being in the river, and 3,000 shop tents on shore.
Cholera still exists, principally among the troops
(Brazilians) sent to the Chaco, under command of
Argollo ; there is not the mortality rumoured—
and in Palmas and Humaita scarcely a single case.
The general belief was that Caxias, who observes
great secresy, would attack the Paraguayan position
on a day already determined. Christmas Day is
the time given for the force to be in Ascuncion.
Lopez will fall back into the interior, where,
though short of cavalry, he will be able to continue
the war as the country
,protects him, and his sol-
diers have proved themselves as patient arreV
during as they are brave. The British, French,
and Italian gunboats are anchored at Palmas. A
commander of one dined at Lopez's camp the other
day. He was surprised to see the table so well
provided. Champagne Cliquot—Crown Port—
Chateau Iquem —Leoville, and in fact, all the best
wines, were drunk on the occasion, whilst on the
side-board was a goodly supply of Inde Coope's ale.
The rains have been unusually heavy, and the crops
in Paraguay good.
In the Standard's summary of the 11th it is said
" Marques Caxias, unwilling to expose his army to
a repulse, has despatched a very powerful force,
under the brave Osorio, to the Chaco, with a view
to outflank the position of Lopez, and gain Asun-
cion ; there is every probability that Osorio will
succeed in cutting a road through the forest, and
march his men up to a point facing Asuncion, when
they will be ferried across by steamers. The An-
gostura battery is the only one in the'river now held
by the enemy; it is very strong, and is said to have
20 guns mounted, 64-pounders each, but the Bra-
zilian ironclads have passed up and down with very
trifling, loss. As yet, however, the Allies have not
silenced it, although it holds all the mercantile ves-
sels bound to Asuncion in check. Well-informed
parties state that it is probable that the Allies will
be established in Asuncion about the end of De-
cember."

JURY TRlAL.—Governor Wells, of Virginia, has
recently pardoned a prisoner who was convicted by
the jury under the plan of arriving at a verdict by draw-
ing lots. Ballots were placed in a hat, and seven papers,
containing the word "guilty," having been drawn, the de-
fendant was convicted. The jury originally stood eight
for acquittal, two for conviction, and two for a compro-
mise verdict, and had been deliberating for two days when
the lottery method was adopted.
J. Marshall Hanna wrote the article for 11. Rives
Pollard which cost the latter his life. When a reporter
in Baltimore, Hanna accidentally shot M'Phail, for which
he narrowly escaped being lynched. Not long since, in
consequence of a quarrel with the manager of the Rich-
mond Theatm, he was involved in a street fight with
pistols; and now his pen has been 'the remote cause of
Pollard's death.

Judge Barker, of Buffalo, has decided that a
man's wife cannot b 3 his partner in business.
Walter Brown was to row a scull boat to Cin-
cinnati, 500 miles, in eight consecutive days from sunrise
to slnset, for a wager of $l,OOO.

The. Democrats of Winterset, lowa, recently as
a joke elected Toby Edwards, a respectable coloured man,
Justice of the Peace, but Edwards declined the honour for
the following reasons:—" My education is defective, and
although I will prob Ibly be able to read and write sooner
than the majority of the Democracy, still, as ignorance is
the only Democratic qualification for office, I possess I
cannot think it quite fair to give me the only place at your
disposal to the exclusion of so many members of the party
who possess that qualification to a greater extent than I
do myself. Again, the unfortunate colour of my skin will
prevent me from acquiring a Democratic nose, and thus
deprive me from all hope of a nomination."

Admiral Semmes has been recently lecturing in
Louisiana.

Henry Clapp, jun., has been appointed assistant
assessor of Internal Revenue for the Sixth District of New
York.

General Thomas L. Young, Recorder of Hamil-
ton connty, was nominated December 9 for supervisor of
the Southern district of Ohio. It is not supposed he will
accept, as his present office is worth at least 10,000 dollars
per annum, while a supervisor receives not more more
than 3,000 dollars, and is allowed no moieties. Secretary
M'Culloch has appointed Ira M. Harrison to be supervisor
for New Jersey.

The Board of Trade have ordered a telescope to
be prepared for presentation to Captain IL F. Block,
master of the Prussian brig Auguste, of Barth, in acknow-
ledgment of his kindness in receiving on board his vessel
and conveying to Ireland sixteen of the passengers and
crew of the screw steamer 'Melita, which was destroyed
by fire on herpassage from Boston, United States, to Liver-
pool.

General Wessells, commander at Fort D. A. Rus-
sell, has been struck with paralysis.
Miss Augusta Evans, the Southern authoress, has
married L. M. Wilson, President of the Mobile and Mont-
gomery Railroad.
The estate of the late Nathaniel Hawthorne, at
Concord, Mass., is offered for sale.—The fortune of the
late John L. Witnight, of Bordentown, is estimated at
$2,500,000. He left $5,000 to the Odd Fellows for charit-
able purposes, and the rest of his property goes to his
family. _ _ _

The Hon. John W. Forney, Philadelphia, is stay-
ing at the Brevoort House, New York. The Count de
Turenne, France, and M. Baltazzi, Secretary of the Tur-
kish Legation, are at the Albemarle Hotel. Gen. John. C.
Fremcnt, Gen. W. W. Averrell, United States Consul-
General at Montreal, Ben. Field, Albion, Col. W. F.
Shaffer, Washington, E. C. Bailey of the Boston Herald,
Col. H. S. M'Comb, Delaware, the Hon. Wm. D. Bishop,
New Haven, Oliver Ames, and Dexter H. Follett, Boston,
aro at the Fifth-avenue Hotel. The Hon. W. H. Barnum,
M. 0., Connecticut, and Geo. L. Dunlap, Chicago, are at
the St. Nicholas Hotel. Gen. J. H. Martindale, Rochester,
and Lewis N. Tappan, Boston, are at the Astor House.

It appears from the report of the Secretary of
War that Governor Haight, of California, wrote asking
for United States troops to "prevent riots on election day,"
The Governor of New York made the same request last
November, and excited a great deal of invidious comment
from the politicians in the Atlantic States.

In Washington it was rumoured that the Presi-
dent will appoint a successor to district Attorney Conde-
nay ; and E. Delafield Smith and Ethan Allen are favou-
rites among the crowd eager for the appointment.
Mr. M. S. Bright, a member of the New York
Gold Exchange, was one of the victims of the terrible
collision on the Ohio River. Mr. J. E. Van Steenburgh,
cashier of the Bank of Fishkill, New York, was fatally
injured, Dec. 3, when leaping from the car near Peckshill
station, on the Hudson River Railroad.
General De Trobriand, has written to Capt. Auhe,
a French officer, the author of some articles on the Ame-
rican war in the Revue Militaire , in the following strain
for attacking General Grant :—" It is evident that your
knowledge of American affairs is extremely limited.
Every article you have thus far published on that sub-
ject abounds in blunders. Beware of repeating your at-
tacks on the distinguished American generalissimo, or
you will be exposed thoroughly."

The Providence (R. I.) tax-payers whose estates
are va:ued at upwards of $5,000,000 are—John Carter
Brown, $1,802,000; Alexander Duncan, $1,221,309; Geo.
Hall, $1,696,000; Robert H. Ives, $1,400,000; American
Screw Company, $536,000; Tully D. Bowen, $515,000;
George L. Richmond's heirs, $500,000; Jonah Steers,
$540,800 ; Marshal Woods, $741,000 ; Charlotte R. God-
dard, $756,000; Thomas J. IEII, $577,000; Earl P.
Mason, $600,000; Edward Pearce, $531,000; and the Pro-
vidence Gas Company, $603,800.

J. G. A. Warren, late proprietor of the San
Francisco Wool and Stock Journal, is at present in Paris.
The object of his visit to Europe is to study the resources
offered in France by the silk,- wool, and wine districts or
provinces. He possesses a valuable collection of Califor-
nian plants, which he will place before the scientific hor-
tioulttual acciaties in that capital.