The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-11 00:00:00

THE 'SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 11, IE6B.

FOREIGN NOTES.

AMERICA.

The New York Times says that thatiAlt Mr. Reverdy
Johnson is making favourable progress towards a settle-
ment of the Alabama claims, the arrangement yet entered
into is by no means final or satisfactory. " One thing is
certain: all propositions tending to the subs pission of any
vital point or principle to arbitration have been rejected
by Mr. Johnson under his general instruttrons." This
goes to confirm the statement that the Avterican Govern-
ment insists upon the whole matter in dispute being re-
ferred to the commission, and refuses to allow the primary
question to be settled by the King of Primate. The "favour-
able progress" spoken of by the Now york paper, then,
amounts to this : the American Government, having
received every concession from England, land having made
none in return, is waiting until the English Foreign
Office concede the last and most important point of all.
The Nation goes further than this. It says that England's
liability to pay the damages must be admitted beforehand,
and all the commission will do will be to assess the
amount.
The American Ambassador at Paraguay, Mr. Wash-
burn, has written a letter defending himself from the
charge of undue interference with the Parnuayan Govern-
ment. He denounces Lopez as the common enemy of
mankind, and declares Paraguay to be outside the pale of
civilised nations. Mr. Washburn may be in the right,
but the violence of his language is not in accordance with
the dignity of his position. In charging with arrant
cowardice the man who for six years has kept at bay the
whole force of nations immensely superior in resources to
Paraguay, he falls into an evident absurdity. The New York
.Nation disposes of Mr. Washburn very summarily. It says :
" Whether Mr. Washburn is an honest man, or has been
selling himself and his flag to the revolutionists ; whether
he was or was not engaged in one or more conspiracies
against the Dictator, he at least made a bad failure in
respect of that neutrality between Paraguay and her
enemies which it was a principal duty of his, as our
Minister, to maintain. Moreover, he has not succeeded,
since he became a voluminous public character, in per-
suading anybody that he is a man of sense, whatever his
character for integrity may be."

and son, both eminent lawyers, and both knighted on

attaining legal promotion. Fortunately, they have dif-

ferent second names, and the Solicitor-General will no
doubt be known as Sir John Duke, while his father is

known as Sir John Taylor. It is by no means through

any desire on the part of the younger knight that he will
attain to this dignity. The Times and one or two other
papers imagined that the post of Solicitor-General was s o
tempting that it could have been refused only through the
wish to get something better. The real truth was that Mr.
Coleridge has such an enormous practice that he hesitated

about taking upon himself other duties. There are
limits to human endurance, and the fate of his brilliant

predecessor in the Solicitor-Generalship and in the repre-
sentation of Exeter—Sir William Follett—might well make
him hesitate about overstepping those limits.

By this time Lord Mayo has arrived at the scene
of his labours. It is, however, by no means certain that
he will be allowed to enter upon them. It is still an open

question whether he will not be recalled, and the matter

will have to be decided by the new Cabinet. If this step
should be taken it will be so entirely because it is thought

necessary. There is too much reason to fear that India
is not in such a satisfactory state as could be wished, and
it is therefore the more important that the Government

should feel confidence in the Viceroy.

To-day is the last day for presenting election petitions,

and as frivolous petitions are now costly and dangerous

experiments, the total number of members petitioned
against is much smaller than on previous occasions. The
petitions had to be lodged in the Court of Common Pleas,
and in order to assist petitioners a lithographed
form was prepared for them, leaving blanks for
names. A thousand pounds has to be deposited
in each case as a guarantee for the expenses in

Districts. Elected.

the event of the petition not being proved. The three

judges appointed to try these cases will arrange them in
districts, and then go on circuit with all the usual cere-
monial observed when judges go to the assizes. They will

be accompanied by a portion of the Bar. Of course it is
impossible to say how long the trials will take, and
therefore to assign a date for any one case. Election

petitions being vno longer tried in the House of
Commons, and railway business having been reduced
to a minimum, there is now quite a stampede among par-
liamentary counsel. Several leading ones have found
their way into the House, and others are retiring from
parliamentary practice. This kind of practice, lucrative
though it was, was never highly esteemed by the Bar,
inasmuch as those engaged in it had to plead before

laymen, many of them very obtuse. Election work will,
of course, occupy a very different standing now that it

busy time of the year. The Rev. P. Barham Zineke has Districts. Elected.
added another to the numerous books of travel in America.
The Rev. A. C. Smith has added another to those on the
Nile. Mr. Frederick Whymper has a volume on Alaska,
the territory in America lately ceded by Russia to the
United States. Lord De Ros has published the " Young
Officers' Companion." The author of " Brothers-in-
Law" is already engaged on her second novel.
Messrs. Chambers announce, under the title of
" Extra-ordinary," a Christmas number of their journal ;
and London Society has come out with a profusely illus-
trated number for the same season. Mr. Hitchman, of the
Manchester Courier, will, I believe, have an article on
Rossini in the next number of Belgravia. Finally, Miss
Edwards, the novelist, has denied the authorship of the
" Girl of the Period," and kindred articles in the Saturday
Review, which had been freely attributed to her.
P.S.—As I write, the eighth Parliament of Queen Vic-
toria has been opened. There was a very full attendance
of members in the House of Commons. Mr. Denison was
proposed as Speaker by Sir George Grey, and the proposal
was seconded by Mr. Walpole. Mr. Disraeli was present,
but received no mark of recognition on entering the House.
The new Ministers were of course absent.

THE PRESENT CONGRESS AND THAT

ELECT.

Present Members.
MAINE.
1. John Lynch John Lynch
2. Samuel P. Morrill Sidney Perham
3. James G. Blaine James G. Blaine
4. John A. Peters John A. Peters
5. Eugene Hale Frederick A. Pike

1. John Taffo

Present Ifembers.
WISCONSIN.
1. Halbert E. Paine Halbert E. Paine
2. Benjamin F. Hopkins Benjamin F. Ilopkins
3. Amasa Cobb Amasa Cobb
4. *Charles A. Eldridge Charles A. Eldridga
5. Philetus Sawyer Philetus Sawyer
6. Cadwal. C. Washburne—Cadwallader C. Washburne

ILLINOIS.
At Large—John A. Logan John A. Logan
1. Norman B. Judd , Norman B. Judd
2. John F. Farnsworth John F. Farnsworth
3. Elihu B. Washburne Elihu B. Washburne
4. John B. Hawley Abner C. Harding
5. Eben C. Ingersoll Eben C. Ingersoll
6. Burton C. Cook Burton G. Cook
7. Jesse H. Moore Henry P. H. Broniwell
8. Shelby M. Cullom Shelby M. Cullom
9. *Thomas W. M'Neeley *Lewis W. Ross
10. *Albert G. Burr Albert G. Burr
11. *Samuel S. Marshall Samuel S. Marshall
12. John B. Hay Jehu Baker
13. Green B. Ratan Green B. Daum

3IISSOURI.
1. *Erastus Wells... William A. Pile
2. G. A. Finkleburg Carman A. Newcomb
3. *James R. M'Cormiek _James R. APCormick
4. Semprouius 11. Boyd Joseph J. Gravelly
5. Samuel S. Burdett Joseph W. MClurg
Vac. John H. Stove•
6. *James Shields Robert I'. Van Horn
7. John F. Asper Benjamin F. Loan
8. John F. Benjamin Johu F. Benjamin
9. *William F. Switzler George W. Anderson
KANSAS.
1. Sidney Clarke Sidney Clarke
NEBRASKA.
John Taffe
CALIFORNIA.
1. *Samuel B. Axtell Samuel B. Axtell
2. Aaron A. Sargent William Higby
3. Chancellor Hartson *James A. Johnson

NEVADA.
1. Thomas Fitch Dolos R. Ashley
OREGON.
1. *J. S. Smith Rufus Mallory
COLORADO TERRITORY.
1. Allen A. Bradford George M. Chilcott
* Democrats.

711 E SALARY OF 211 E PRESIDENT.

This theme, given by the New York Times, has
been taken up for discussion by the American press.
IVhat that paper urges is, that when given—which
was in Washington's time—the $25,000 had as
much purchasing power as four times that sum
now has, therefore, to put the President of to-day on
a level with the President of last century i❑ the
matter of pay, the amount should be quadrupled.
In the matter of work and responsibility his duties
are now four times as onerous, so that the growth
of the nation has been heaping on him extra work,
and the diminution in the value of money clipping
his pay, thus burning his candle at both ends. Some
oppose on the old grounds of Republican simplicity,
the sum paid being considered amply sufficient to
furnish the means for decent living. Others argue
that GRANT allowed himself to be put in nomination,
'knowing he was to get, if successful, $25,000 a
year ; therefore he cannot complain of the amount
nor propose an increase. It is true that the sum is
under £4,000 a year, but the salary of a Cabinet
Minister is not £1,250, and all these offices are
striven for by the best men in the country, although
no one for an instant supposes that these gentle-
men make anything beyond salary out of the offices;
therefore good men can be got for the power and
distinction independent of the pay, and if so, why
should the nation, overburdened with debt, pay
more ? In one place it is asserted that the argu-
ments which hold good for the President hold for
all officials, and therefore all would have to be
quadrupled ; in another, that this should have
been done before the election was determined, but
not after its being so proposed, showing a party,
not a national move, for there was no desire to in-
crease Mr. Johnson's salary, nor would there have
been had Mr. Seymour succeeded. Indeed, the
World urges that being made for a President-elect
it is a virtual though not a literal violation of the
Constitution. It is a pity if this be so that the
suggestion did not come before the election, for

S JACK.
LYTIEN.„
RING

John Rann (alias Sixteen-string Jack) acquired
a name about 1774, at which Hounslow postillions
trembled. This fellow had been coachman to Lord
Sandwich, who then lived at the south-east corner
of Bedford-row, and he acquired his singular name
by wearing breeches with eight strings at either
knee to record the number of his acquittals.
He was a handsome, impudent fellow, much
admired by his companions; and he is described
as swaggering at Bagnigge-wells in a scarlet
coat, deep-flapped tambour waistcoat, white
silk stockings, and laced hat. lie drank freely
there, lost, with extreme nonchalance, a hundred-
guinea diamond ring, and openly boasted that he
was a highwayman, and could replace the lost jewel
by one evening's work. He once showed himself
at Barnet races in a blue satin waistcoat trimmed
with silver, and was followed by an admiring
crowd. He even had the matchless impudence
to attend a Tyburn execution, and push his
way through a ring of constables, saying that be
was just the sort of man who ought to have 3
good place, as he himself might figure there
some day. Just before he was taken for robbing
Mr. Devall near the ninth milestone on the Houns-
low road, he had stopped Dr. Bell, the chaplain to
the Princess Amelia, and taken from him eighteen'
pence and au old watch. This fellow used to boast
that Sir John Fielding's people always used him very
genteelly ; consequently if they held up a finger
he would follow them as quiet as a lamb. When
brought before Sir John, Rann wore a bundle
of flowers as big as a broom in the breast of
his coat, and had his irons tied up taste-
fully with blue ribbons. At his trial he appeared
in a pea-green suit, a ruffled shirt, and a bat
bound round with silver strings. He gave 4
supper a few nights before his execution.
An intelligent observer, who saw the cart pass the
end of John-street with Rann in it, bound for
Tyburn, describes him in his pea-green coat, carry'
ing, as he sat by his coffin, with the chaplain read-
ing prayers to him, an enormous nosegay, pre-
sented, according to cu6tom, from the steps of St.
Sepulchre's Church. Nothing in life, however, s°
well became Sixteen-string Jack as the leaving it,
for he died penitently, not like desperate AbersbOt
who, on mounting the gibbet, so long eager for bini,
kicked his shoes off among the crowd, and leaped
savagely into another world.—Dickens's All the
Year Round."

The Cossack, 20, screw corvette, 1,296 tons, 25,°;
horse power, is ordered to be commissioned for t'
East India station, and will have a compliment °f
275 men.

--•
CONCENTRATED GLUTTONY.—There is one Prac'
tical hint which we may give to all who are beginning
the use of extract of meat, either for the sustenance of
t`e
valids, for which it is invaluable, or for ordinary donaes
purposes—that is, to remind them that, when properl/
prepared, every ounce of this extract contains all the Pie°
of about 2lbs. of lean rneat, and that it must be usod
cordingly. The whole of an ounce can easily be dissolve
.
in a cup or small basin of water, but to take such a b3sled
of soup as this would bo about as unreasonable 131,
as unwholesome as to make a heavy meal of beef ste3h
without any bread or vegetables, and the effect upon the
system and upon the palate would be very nearly tb
same. A few such meals would make one disgusted I'l a
the taste of beef, and cause the stomach to reject it; STI,
a few such basins of soup or beef-tea would prod
e
similar nauseating of the extract. We have heard 'sl3i
a lij
cases where people have tried extract of meat, and C°ll;e
"not keep it on their stomachs." Upon inquirf to
have always found that such persons have ncl°P,:jf
the logic of the quack in recommending his pills Thep
one box will cure you, what will a dozen do?
have heard that the extract is very nutritious, and 'at,
resolved to do their nutrition wholesale, and all at °"ca
—which is a very great mistake. It must be ronoubere_
that the consumption of a whole tablespoonful of good Pir
tract of meat at one meal is an act of refined and COne°
trated gluttony, which must inevitably be followed by :ea
sults corresponding to those of an effort of vulgar 9