The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 30, 1868.

7HE " PALL MALL GAZETTE" ON
AMERI CA.;

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The Pall Mull Gazette is taking a more than
ordinary interest in American affairs. It is seldom

that some of its " Occasional Notes" are not on
American matters. The " organ for gentlemen,"
and the Standard, the high Tory newspaper, give

more space to intelligence from the United States
than any of their London contemporaries ; judging
from this, we presume that the higher classes in
England are taking a more lively interest in Trans-
atlantic questions. But it does not follow that this
interest is a kindly one. Indeed, thin-skinned
Americans have often, as one of their papers said,
grown hot and cold with annoyance at what they

have seen about themselves in the Standard. What
would be said of an Australian who danced in

anger on hearing a laughing jackass ? The poor
bird but utters its natural cry, and although it
might scream at the Australian he must be very
sensitive and with au overwhelming idea of

the ridiculous in himself if he thinks these notes

have any effect beyond that given to them by his
own imagination. The Pall Mull Gazelle, however,

is no laughing jackass, but a paper that writes with
more than ordinary point, and it is worth while to give
instances of its mannerof treating American subjects.
In last Monday's issue the first allusion was a letter
from Mr. Moncure D. Conway, who wrote to cor-

rect an " Occasional Note" in a former number on

Mr. Wendell Phillips. The Pall Mall had taken

the first and the last sentences of a letter from

Mr. Phillips to the Anti-Slavery Standard, con-
necting them so as to pervert the writer's mean-
ing. " Between the two sentences," says Mr.
Conway, " thus quoted together there are four
others," and it is amusing to see how totally the
meaning of what Mr. Phillips said had been

changed. The way in which the man's words are
first distorted and then pounced upon to give point
to a hostile argument is seen in the Standard of
Tuesday, vrherein this perversion is used to prove how
shamefully Mr. Johnson is being treated :—" Mr.
Wendell Phillips, for instance, avows that the Pre-
sident must be deposed, guilty or not guilty, in
order that the Radical party may have the use of
the Presidential patronage and Executive power
during the coming elections." Now Mr. Phillips,
instead of saying this, was censuring with extreme
bitterness the motives of many Republican Sena-
tors. However, Americans are accustomed to this,
and are therefore better able to bear it. The next
item of American intelligence is in the " Occasional
Notes :"—" The impression among people of a cer-
tain class that the law permits a man to sell his wife
prevails also in certain parts of America. A man
in Buffalo, New York, Thomas Doyle, has publicly
advertised his wife as a prize to be raffled for.
Tickets have been printed, on which it is said :s—
-' This woman is a good housekeeper, and is willing
to stay with any one who may draw her. Tickets,
25 cents.' What action the authorities have taken
has not yet been reported." But this would not be
complete without giving some idea of what style of
woman the American husband has to sell. Therefore
the Pall Mall follows with an extract from the Tablet
complaining "bitterly of the behaviour of some of the
Protestant ladies present at the ceremonies of the Holy
Week in Rome. A rough and tumble struggle for
seats occurred in the Sistine Chapel between two
American females, whom the Tablet ungallantly
denounces as disgraceful scum, and the mother of
a Zouave who was amongst the noblest dead at
Mentana, the descendant of one of the most ancient
crusading families of Belgium. The American scum
got the best of the affray, the chamberlain on guard
looking coolly on the while, which leads time Tablet
to conclude that he was a friend of the culprits.
The English ladies present are said to have behaved
much more decorously than the Americans." The
stand made by American women for their rights is
further illustrated by the following " Note," which
shows at least that if they break heads at Rome, they
know how to heal them at home :—"Female physicians
and surgeons are becoming the fashion in the United
States. The Revolution, a New York journal, states
that in Philadelphia six women-doctors return to
the income tax revenues ranging from 2,000 to
10,000 dollars a year ; that in Orange, New .Jersey,
i a woman-surgeon returns her income at 15,000
I dollars ; and that there is in New York another
who returns hers at 20,000 dollars." Having dis-
posed of " the sex," the Pall Mall turns its atten-
tion to the diplomatic service, with which it thus
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only to accommodate Mr. Seward, as no one whom
the President might nominate as his successor would
be likely to receive the approval of the Senate. Mr.
Adams, it is understood, will not postpone his re-
turn
to America beyond the time he has already
fixed, and unless Mr. Wade supersedes Mr. John-
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lie
vacant for months. The American diplomatic ser-
vice has been in a state of great confusion ever since
Mr. Johnson has sat in the White House. The
11Iinister at Portugal, happening to write a le
Mr. Seward, in which he condemned the
proceed-
ings of Congress, at once had his salary stopped by
the offended Legislature, and has been kept with-
out any allowance whatever for more than two
years. The Minister at Vienna was said, most un-
justly, to have abused Mr. Seward, and as Mr.
himthis
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true to the Minister, and still refuses to acknow-
ledge any vacancy at Vienna. For Berlin a gen-
tleman was happily found who had contrived to
distribute his compliments between the White House
and the Capitol with so equal a hand that neither
power could refuse to reward his dexterity. After
Mr. Bigelow's retirement the choice of his successor
at Paris commended itself to universal approval,
but a public man so popular with all parties as
General Dix is not easily found in any country. It
is absurd to suppose that a Republican Congress
would send General M'Clellan to Great Britain ;
there is more probability that General Butler would
be their chosen man, especially in the event of the
President being deposed. The appointment has
been discussed in anticipation by one or two of the
American papers, and should it ever be made, our
Foreign Secretary for the time being will find abun-
dant employment prepared for him by the hero of
New Orleans." The Gazette then proceeds to give
the sequel to Mr. Glenn's accusation of bribery
against the members of the New York Legislature,
which it had introduced on the preceding Friday :
"As we anticipated, the Mr. Glenn who made the
disclosures of bribery in the New York Legislature
has not promoted his own comfort or profit by
turning against his colleagues. It appears that Mr.
Glenn is an old man, and after his statements were
made public he was (a New York paper tells us)
'so set upon, badgered, taunted, scolded, upbraided,
sneered at, and argued with, that he was completely
broken down, begged to be allowed to depart in
peace, and was finally let go in sheer pity by the
hornets be had unwittingly aroused." So ends the
" investigation." The " Occasional Notes" are closed
by the inquiry who is Sir Henry de Houghton? Sir
Henry has been held up ever since Mr. Seward
published the list of the Confederate Loan sub-
scribers palmed off upon and transmitted by Mr.
Bigelow from Paris to Washington. The other
public men enumerated denied having'had any in-
terest in the Loan except Sir Henry, whose silence
was taken in America as a proof of guilt, and the
American papers have consequently been busy with
him ever since, exhibiting him at intervals to the
people as their greatest enemy now living :—" It is
not without a due regard to the fitness of things
that they have singled out from a fictitious list a
person who has no existence, and so rendered the
imposition practised upon them even more ridicu-
lous than it was before." Is there no American
editor, asks the Pall-Mall, who has a Burke or a
Dod in his office ? and concludes by asserting that
" Mr. Seward has not often made such a bad bargain
as this, and it is understood that he hasrefrained from
buying Confederate ' paper' for a considerable
time past." Then comes this item of religious in-
telligence :—" Dr. Nathans, an eloquent German
Jewish Rabbi, i 8 exciting considerable attention in

America by his discourses. He spiritualizes the
idea of the Messiah, and does not expect his coming
in the flesh. The Jews do not consider him ortho-
dox, and he is not permitted to preach in the syna-
gogues." The matters relating to America are
closed with the following useful information :
"The price of wheat remains pretty nearly station-
ary, March closing with an average of 725. 10d. per
quarter, as compared with 60s. 11d. per quarter at
the end of March, 1867 ; 445. 11d. at the end of
March, 1866 ; and 38s. 11d. per quarter at
the end of March, 1865 ; wheat having thus
been gradually hardening for the last four
years. Those farmers who may still hold
a respectable quantity of wheat would probably do
well to clear out during the next month or two, as
there does not appear to be much chance of prices
going any higher, while it is not at all impossible
that they may t►ke a swoop downwards. For the
United States have come to the rescue, and while
they sent us a monthly average of only 349,001 cwt.
of wheat in 1867, the corresponding monthly aver-
age this year, so far as the returns have been made
up, has been 713,823 cwt. A delivery (to Great
Britain alone) of 713,823 cwt. of American wheat
can scarcely fail to have its effect upon the markets
of 1868 ; but even this quantity will probably be
surpassed in a few months should prices exceed 60s.
per quarter, for wo find that in 1862 the United
States sent to this country an average for the year
of 1,345,066 cwt. per month. Every year the pro-
ductibility of the United States in the matter of
cereals tends more and more towards its old level,
which will, doubtless, be soon surpassed, with the
march of American civilisation towards the western
seaboard; and when we have once entered upon the
enjoyment of the harvest of 1861, we shall proba-
bly enter also upon a period of cheap cereals. At
present it is a race between Russian, Hungarian,
and American surpluses, and Western European
(and especially French) deficits. This race will
continue for four months more. Meanwhile, every
day which passes over without an advance being
registered in prices, obviously increases not only the
probability of their remaining during the four
months at their present level, but also of their re-
ceding to some extent from it." This is pretty well
for one evening ; and as the Pall Mall is the most
advanced indication of the taste of the day among
the upper classes, Americans may perceive that their
doings, both at home and abroad, are becoming
fashionable topics of conversation.