The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON THURSOAY E ENJNG, JANUARY 9, I,f

*

th ey concur or not, there is one thing certain: they
-cannot reinstate the offending Secretary, and Gen.
GRANT, once installed at the War office, will not
be easily dislodged.
The House of Representatives, we learn, has
passed a resolution authorising the sale of fifty-four
surplus ironclads. This does not look as if, in spite
of their declamations, they contemplated war—and
in fact the country is in no condition for it. To whom
these ironclads are to be sold is not stated, but it is
very likely that Russia is to be the purchaser.
Fifty-four is a large number of vessels to dispose
of, though the Americans can soon build as many
as they require. Still, if we remember the account
which an Admiral high in the sere ice gave of the
difficulties against which the Federal Government
had to contend at the opening of the war, we
shall feel some surprise that Congress should sanc-
tion such a measure. Possibly it is done. with a
view of enriching the national coffers.

The French Army Bill has met with a better
fate than some supposed possible for it, but it is
fortunate that it should have done so for several
reasons. In the first place, anything that looked
like weakness or insecurity on the part of the Go-
vernment jnst now is to be deprecated, and this bill
tends to interpose a check upon the encroachments
of Prussia. No doubt the Berlin Cabinet would
have rejoiced to hear of the defeat of this
attempt, and recognised in the fact an
additional pledge of their security and suc-
cess. Another cause for satisfaction is the
passing of this measure, as at tne present time
especially it would be a great pity if the supe-
riority of France was decreased in any way, and
an idea became prevalent, even if it were an erro-
neous one, that her prestige was diminishing, and
her glory was departing. It is now seen that
the year which has just completed its course was
not a lively one for our Continental neighbours,
their star was not in the ascendant, and one thing
after another seemed to damp their hopes and
disappoint their expectations. Hence, it must
be a relief to the mind of the nation to know that
something decisive has been_ done to put matters in
the right lice, and set the military position of
France in a more sure and firm foundation. The
Government of the EMPEROR deserve just credit for
the zeal and ingenuity which they have displayed in
the matter, and it is to be hoped that the result
will justify their expectations. It by no means
follows that war will ensue because people
are prepared for it, and perhaps the news
that France is about to concentrate her
forces, and to invest herself with renewed
power from more fully developing her vast re-
sources, may in itself be the herald of peace. The
news that the French EMPEROR is to have an army
of 1,100,000 men will do more to stop undue pre-
tensions, to check unfair claims, and to put down
arrogant assumption than a hundred conferences
and great diplomatic displays of skill. It will be
a language all can understand, whether they like it
it or not, and though some of its provisions may
seem bard to our notions, it cannot be denied that
the bill contains much that is good for the present
and the future.

There is, it would seem, very good reason to hope
that England has not lost one of her most enter-
prising v
have
grounds
rdo
u n d distinguishedsforbelieving,
sons
hasp rbe L
n i\sr
eINenGSiTnONthEe,
vicinity of Lake Tanganyika. Mr. REUTER yester-
day received a telegram from Alexandria, dated
Jan. 7th, reporting a message from Zanzibar bear-
ing so late a date as December Ist. " Intelligence
from .Keelwa," so runs the message, " states that Dr.
I.tviNosToNE, or a person resembling him, was seen
travelling towards the west of Lake Tanganyika."
The date at which this traveller was seen is not
given, but the news from Zanzibar comes nine
days later than the intelligence already published
by the Government, so that Dr. LIVINGSTONE
must have been seen on the west of the lake,
which, it must be remembered, is 300 miles long.
It is clear that the person referred to must have
been a European traveller; and, therefore, as no
other would have been likely to penetrate so far,
there is every reason to hope that the tale of
the Johanna men was altogether false.
Should we be fortunate enough to welcome the ad-
venturous explorer once more among us, it will not
have been by any means the first occasion in which
the explorer of a distant and dangerous locality has
been given up for lost. The enterprise is in any
shape one of great peril, but, at the same film-, Dr.
I.IVINGSTONE has courage, resource, experience, and
presence of mind to assist him ; and these, we may
trust, have, under PROVIDENCE, stood him iu good
stead when his worthless attendants and servitors
have failed him.

BOW, OLD FORD, AND BROMLEY COAL

RELIEF FUND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR, —May I solicit the valuable aiJ of The Sun
on behalf of a fund which I believe has rendered
good service among the destitute in this eastern
section of the metropolis. Reference to your ad-
vertising columns will show that by the liberal en-
couragement given to the committee last winter
they were enabled to make nearly 6,000 gifts of
coal to the destitute poor of the district, and the
testimony of the medical officers affords ample proof
of a timely supply of fuel having been the means
of relieving a large amount of human suffering, if
not of saving life.

Another committee has been formed with a view
of assisting those who, from their very unfortunate
position; are unible to help themselves. Many
cases of sad distress are hourly arising. The coin-
tnittee.have nrtde,soo gifts without soliciting extra-
neout aid, and now requiring help to meet the great
destitution which still prevails, I hereby venture to
seek your assistance by allowing me to appeal
through the columns of The Sun to the benevolent
to assist in this good work.

I shall be glad to receive and acknowledge any
subscriptions that may be forwarded me for this
purpose.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,*

AUSTIN CHAMBERS, Treasurer.

MISS BURDETT COUTTS AND HER TMANTS.—Miss
Burdett Cuutts has been at great trouble and expense in
getting her tenants in Columbia-square, Bethnal-green,
put upon the electoral register as voters for the new
borough of Hackney. Still further to add to their fulness
of knowledge respecting the relationship existing between
"owners" and " occupiers" of houses and tenements under
the Now Reform Act, she has had printed and distributed
among her tenantry an extract from an important circular
addressed by the Poor-law Board to the overseers of
parishes. The tenantry, sensible of the importance of the
communication which they had received from their land-
lady, held a meeting on December 17, at which a resolution
was unanimously adopted, expressing the opinion that
Miss Burdett Coutts deserved the grateful.thanks of her
tenantry for having sided them in obtaining this benefits
of citizenship, and for having voluntarily defrayed all the
expenses attendant upon their being put upon the electoral
roll.

FATAL ACCIDENT TO A MEDICAL 'GENTLEMAN.
—Dr. Swift, of Eecleshall, near Stafford, met with a shock-
ing accident on Monday evening, which proved fa-tal to
him on the spot. He was returning home after dusk on
horseback along a bridle-road, when, on coming to a
hurdle which bad been placed across the way during the
day to prevent some sheep straying, his horse stumbled
and threw him to the ground, dislocating his neck. The
unfortunate gentleman lay there dead some time before the
accident was discovered,

THE STIRCHLEY MURDER.—Yesterday the inquest
respecting the death of Barnard Zusman, the Birmingham
jeweller's traveller, who was found murdered at Stirchley,
in Shropshire, was resumed, and, as it was thought ad-
visable in the interest of justice, an open verdict of wilful
murder against some person or persons unknown was re-
turned,

LATEST INTELL (GENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

By a telegram despatched from Suez yesterday,
January 8, at 2 p.m., our (Times) Special Corre-
spondent with the Expedition reports from
Senafe

" The natives are very friendly towards us, and
supplies are arrriving.
" The troops are healthy.
" Letters have been received from the captives
at Ala,gdaia, dated November 11, stating that they
were then all well.

" The King of Shoa and Waagshum Gobazye
are reported to be near Magdala.
" Theodore is still in au embarrassed position."
(Per Malta and Alexandria Telegraph.)

ALEXANDRIA, Jan. 8.
The establishment of a line of telegraph between
Kossar and A.nnesley Bay is completed.
ADEN, Dec. 29.

Advices received here from Massowah state that
the Egyptians appear determined to sent a mission
to King Theodore, notwithstanding the remon-
strances of the British.

AUSTRALIA.

MELBOURNE, Nov. 27 (via Trieste.)

His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh,
who arrived here on the 231 inst., has met with a
most enthusiastic reception. The entire city was
decorated, and upon the entrance of the Royal
procession the road was strewn with flowers.
Eleven thousand children sang the National
Anthem.

The following gold ships have sailed for Eng-
land :—The Kosciusko, with 40,5000 z. ; the Whit-
mera, with 12,6250 z. ; the Yorkshire, with 6,0000 z. ;
the Sarah Grice, with 3,6250 z. ; the J. AL Joshua,
with 5,375 oz. ; the Australia, with 20,1250 z. ; the
Lightning, with 16,5750 z. ; and the Star of Peace,
with 10,7500 z.

ADELAIDE, Nov. 28.

One thousand colonists were presented to his
Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh at the
levee held in this city.
The red rust has appeared in the growing wheat
crops. A short harvest and much damage are anti-
cipated.

AMERICA.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8.
The Secretary of the Treasury has issued his

usual monthly statement of the public debt and the
cash in the Treasury of the United States. The
total amount of debt on the Ist instant was
$2,642,000,000, against $2,639,000,000 on the Ist
of December last, showing an increase of $3,000,000.
The cash in the Treasury at the same date was
$134,000,000, against $138,000,000 at the corre-
sponding period last month, showing a decrease of
$4,000,000.
The Senate has passed a bill exempting from tax
the United States' cotton crop in 1868, and abolish-
ing the duty on the importation of foreign cotton
grown during the year ending April, 1869.
The Military Committee of the Senate has pre-
sented a report recommending that the Senate
should not concur in the removal of Mr. Stanton
from the Secretaryship of War. The House of
Representatives has passed a resolution authorising
the sale of 54 surplus naval ironclads.

NEW YORK, Jan. 8.

The steamers leaving to-day for Europe take out
$1,500,000 in specie. The Manhattan arrived out
yesterday, and the Moravian to -day.
(201(31E1:C1AL INTELLIGENCE.—GoId, 1361. Stet--
ling exchange on London, 1091. Five-Twenty
United States' Bonds, 1882, 1081 ; ditto, 1885,
1061. Illinois shares, 1331 ; Erie shares, 75
Cotton—middling upland, 160. Petroleum—stan-
dard white, 25c. Corn—old mixed, $1 43c.

TIIE PONTIFICAL ARMY.
RO3IE, Jan. 7.

Two hundred fresh recruits for the Antelego
Legion arrived here to-day, thus raising its strength
to 1,835 men, The Papal Zouaves number above
5,000.

THE LATE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN.
Corru, Jan. 8.

The Austrian war frigate Novara, with the re-
mains of the late Emperor Maximilian on board,

arrived off this island yesterday,

ITALY.

FLORENCE, Jan. 8 (Evening.)

The Minister of War has isEued orders to send
to their homes on the 15th January all the soldiers
of the class of 1841 called out shortly after the
accession of General Menabrea to office.

The Committee on the Budget met to-day. It
was resolved that the discussion on the Budget
should be placed first on the order of the day upon
the re assembling of Parliament.

FRANCE.
BOURSE, JAN. 8, Three o'clock.—The market
closed as follows :

4-1 per Cent. ...... 99 75
End of month... --
3 per Cent ......... 68 821
End of month... 68 771
Credit Mobilier ... 162 50
End of month... 162 50
Credit Foucier ...1350
End of m0nth...1356 25
RAILWAY

Bank Shares 3275
ItNl'an Loan
End of month.— 44 67i
Mexican Loan _. 17
Do. Bonds
Spanish Threes
Rome Debt 3l 50
Deferred —
s. Account
Orleans ... 866/
N orthern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern-- 5524
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 346/
North of Spain
Saragossa
Roman

SPAIN AND THE ROMAN QUESTION.

MADRID, Jan. 3.

Upon the draft of tha address in reply to the
Queen's speech being brought into the Chamber of
Deputies yesterday, Senor Gonzalez Bravo, the
Minister of the Interior, made a speech, of which
the most striking portions are here given :
" Something very serious, very important, is incon-
testably taking place in the worle of the civilised
society of Europe in general. Extreme rumours
and great reticence proceed from great causes ;
they cannot be explained by
petty reasons. Wher-
ever great contests, great disagreements, great
lasting discussions occur, they must indubitably be
produced by great causes ; and when silence
reigns in places where people might speak, where
the right so to do is not refused—where
liberty and talent are not fettered—the fact is ow-
ing to some great superior cause which weighs upon
all. What is that cause ? It has been alleged
to be that expressed in her Majesty's speech, as
well as in the draft brought in by the committee.
• • • . Now, I have no desire to evoke a debate
which nobody else has entered upon, and it is no.
for me to seek by my language to corroborate the
eloquent words you have heard from the most
auBust person in the realm. A previous speaker
(Senor Nocedal) has said here is a question which
dominates all others, which rises up like
towers above humble buildings, and in face of
which all other topics, if they do not en-
tirely disappear, at any rate become dwarfed,
and that is the truth. It is true from the point
of view of all men and of all sects, even the

most diverse and most furiously bent upon attack-
ing the great legitimacy whose existence is the ob-
ject of this most important question. Why are all
voices raised? Why are so many objurgations
heard ? Why do so many criticisms and clamours
recommence ? Why do rumours of revolution break
out against that Power? Because it is the key of
this great question of modern times. Why do we
see grouped around that rampart all alarmed con-
sciences—all men who do not wish to walk in dark-
ness—all who, without being blind to the natural
progress of humanity, do not desire to advance
without light, guide, or compass, without ideas,
without that quid intimunt in default of which man
lives like an animal, and is unworthy of being
considered an intelligent being ? Because in de-
bating this question that of all authority is de-
bated ; and do you know in what the question of
authority consists? it is the work of humanity
inspired by God, without which humanity is dissi-
pated, like dust carried away by the violence of a
hurricane. . • . . Gentlemen, it is the practice

outside this country, when speaking of Spain, to
allude to her with a kind of disdain. I do not know
what society or what cabal of authors has seized
upon the Spanish name, occupying itself with vilify-
ing Spain and depicting the commonest things in
our country in such a manner that no one can re-
cognise them. A kind of conspiracy has been en-
tered into to place us in the rear of all good
things, and always at the head of those that are
bad. It is essential ,that those who vilify and ca-
lumniate us in other places should know that one
thing indubitably does exist in Spain, viz , a sacred
spirit that has reunited us in a great danger. This
spirit, happily, is not dead. It may be reflected,
consecrated anew, and represented in the vote you
are about to give. When Europe shall see that the
deputies of the Spanish people, when a question like
this comes uppermost, show themselves united, and
arise, to use the expression of Napoleon 1., like one
man of honour, it may be that people will ask them-
selves whether truth or falsehood is daily written
concerning Spain ; then, it may also be, people
will reflect and rectify their opinions."
It has already been telegraphed that the draft of
the address was carried by 161 votes to 3.