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

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, Dec. 11.
Herr Anneke has been appointed Consul al

Shanghai.

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dec. 9.

The Greek Patriarchate has refused the Bul-
garian demand for a self-governed Bulgarian
Church as coutrary to ecclesiastical laws, unless
sanctioned by a special Orthodox Council, to be
convened for the discussion of that question.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S MESSAGE TO

CONGRESS.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9.—The following is a sum

!nary of the Presidential Message to Congress :
" Mr. Johnson again calls the attention of Congress
to the continued disorganisation of the country un-
der the various laws on the subject of recon-

struction, which, after three years' trial, have
failed, and proved pernicious in their results. He
adds :—"Three States are still denied representa-

tion in Congress, contrary to the explicit terms
of the constitution. The attempt to place the
white population of the South under the domi-
nation of negroes has impaired the kindly rela-
tions previously existing, and prevented the suc-
cessful co-operation of the two races in industrial
enterprises. Legislation producing such baneful
results should be abrogated. One hundred million
dollars are annually expended for a military force
which is principally used in enforcing these unne-
cessary and unconstitutional laws. Our commerce
has diminished and our industrial interests are lan-

Minister.

guishing, and only wise legiAation and retrench-
ment can remedy these evils. The financial
condition of the country clearly indicates the
necessity of withdrawing the paper money,
and of returning to specie payments at the
earliest possible moment. The total receipts
from] the customs, internal revenue, and other
sources for the fiscal year ending the 30th of

last June, were $405,000,000, thus reducing
the public debt by $28,000,000; but for the year
ending the Ist of November, 1868, the debt shows
an increase of $35,000,000. The estimated receipts
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, are
$341,000,000, and the estimated expenditure
$336,000,000, but the expenditure for the War
Department during the past three years has ex-
ceedediis
now there
deusetierdnatteo
48
bys,
01070 men of all arms,s,ooo,ooo.—The army
and the Secretary of the War Department be-
lieves a further reduction of the infantry prac-
ticable. The naval force is now reduced to
206 vessels, mounting 7,040 guns.-111r. John-
son cordially approves the policy of Congress
towards the Indians. With regard to foreign
countries he says :—" Our foreign relations are
generally satisfactory. No particular regulations
concerning the colonial trade and the fisheries can
be accomplished until Congress expresses its judg-
ment on the principles involved. Other questions,
however, are open for adjustment between the
United States and Great Britain. These relate to the
rights of naturalized citizens, the title to the Island
of San Juan, and the claims of citizen subjects of
both countries arising out of the late war. The
negotiations upon these subjects are pending, and
I am not without hope of being able to lay be-
fore the Senate during the present session protocols

calculated to bring to an end these justly excited
and long existing controversies.—The Paraguayan
difficulties are undergoing investigation. Minister
M'Mahon will be fully sustained by a naval
force in demanding explanations and redress from
the Paraguayan Government.— The Government
of the Sandwich Islands is continually dis-
turbed by apprehensions of unfriendly politi-
cal proceedings on the part of the United
States. The Reciprocity Treaty lately concluded
will restore canfidence until the people of those
islands, at no distant day, shall voluntarily apply
for admission to the Union.—Our relations with
Mexico are marked by an increasing degree of
mutual confidence.—Explanations and satisfaction
have been decaandep of the President of llayti for
the injuries sustained by American citizens.—The
policy adopted by the administration in maintain-
ing strict neutrality between the belligerents in
Japan has been frankly and fully sustained by the
enlightened concurrence of Great Britain, France,
and other countries.—President Johnson recom-
mends an amendment to the Constitution, which
would provide for the election of the President and
Senators by the people direct, and also the limita-
tion of the terms of office of: the Federal judges.—
The Message concludes with expressing a fervent
hope that Providence will inspire Congress with a
wisdom and reverence for the constitution, and
grant a speedy return of happiness and prosperity
to the whole country.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8. The report of Mr.
M'Culloch, Secretary of the Treasury, submit-
ted to Congress, announces that during the year
ending the Ist of November last the public
debt of the United States increased by thirty-
five million dollars. The receipts during the fiscal
year ending last June were through the Customs
164,000,000 dols., and through Inland BJVCIAUe
190,000,000 dols. Ile recommends Congress to
declare all Government bonds to be payable in
coin, and the resumption of specie payments to
took place on the Ist of January, 1871. lle more-
over recommends the reduction of the tariff, the
increase of the Excise dues, and the issue of Five
per Cent. Bonds for funding the public debt to the
amount of 500 million dollars, to mature at the
rate of 50 millions annually, and the remainder in
from ten to thirty years. Secretary M'Culloch
estimates the average civil expenses during the
uext ten years at 40 million dollars annually.

The total receipts of the theatres, concert-rooms,
and other places of public amusement in Paris, during No-
vamber, amounted to 1,783,151 f., being an increase oi
7,1221. on the previous month.

BANQUET AT FISHMONGERS' HALL.

A grand Court banquet was given on Thursday night
at Fishmongers' Hall, London Bridge. The guests in-

eluded the new Lord Chancellor, Mr. Lowe, the new
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Baron Martin, Dean

Stanley, Lord Houghton, Chief Justice Bovill ; Sir G.
Cartier, Bart., and the Hon. W. M`Dougall, from Canada;
Sir J. Thwaites, Admiral Stopford, Mr. Vanderbyl,
M.P., Mr. Fletcher, ALP., Mr. R. Wingfield Baker,
M.P., Mr. Hermon, M.P., Mr. Whitwell, M.P., Mr. W.
H. Smith, M.P., General Lawrence, Mr. W. B. Towse,

the Rev. Dr. Miller, and various civic dignitaries. In
the absence of Mr. George Moore, the Prime Warden,
the chair was taken by Mr. Kynasten, Warden. The
Hon. Reverdy Johnson had promised to be present, and

was expected up to the last moment, but did not arrive.

General Sir Patrick Lawrence replied for the army,
Admiral Stopford for the navy, and Major Whitwell,
M.P., for the volunteers. The toast of " The United

States of America" was given by the Chairman, who
regretted the absence of his Excellency the American

The CHAIRMAN next proposed "Her Majesty's Minis-

ters," the toast being r ceived with prolonged cheering.
He said : The voice of the people as just expressed by
the elections bad clearly pointed out who the head of the
Ministry should be, and he could not but congratulate
Mr. Gladstone and her Majesty's Ministers that the

Queen had interpreted the voice of the people as she
always had done. The Fishmongers' Company felt the
highest honour that a member of their own livery, and
the son and brother of old friends of the company, should
have attained the high position of Lord High Chancellor

of England.
Lord HATHERLEY replied. He said they had known
him for more than forty years as a member of their corn.
pany, and he hoped he had never swerved from the line
pursued by those members of his family who had preceded
him. Before thanking the company for the compliment
as it affected the political position in which her Majesty's
Government was placed, be would add one word to testify
his deep regret that this toast was not being responded
to by a gentleman whose distinguished talents as an
advocate, whose sound and wise eloquence in the House
of Commons, and whose integrity of character during a
long public career had clearly marked him out
for the office of Lord Chancellor, but who had been put
aside by his own act, and from the highest possible
motives. In that gentleman her Majesty's Ministers
would have found abler assistance and guidance than
through him (Lord Hatherley). Although making his
first address after being liberated from sixteen years of
silence which was imposed upon him when, inhabiting
what seemed to be a calmer sphere than that of politics,
he was able to tell his hearers that he had never abated
one jot of heart and hope in respect to matters which
recent events had justified. In the first year of his
occupation of a seat in the House of Commons, now
exactly twenty years ago, he spoke and voted for that
measure of household suffrage which last year became
the law of the land. He spoke and voted in favour of Mr.
Hume's motion, in company with eighty others. They
were then called " destructives," and he was once asked,
not by a Tory, but by a member of the Liberal party,
why he was such a Republican. Since he had
retired from public life he had seen that going forward
which, under the developed education of the country, had
produced the late gratifying results. In such a company
as this he would, however, abstain from party politics
and recollections. Going back into the quiet domain of
history, what had occurred since the setting in of Liberal
views—the time of Canning's Administration? We had
passed into a condition when the Test and Corporation
Acts were thought to be wild fictions of the past, into a
time when our Roman Catholic brethren had been
admitted to equal privileges with ourselves, and when at
this very moment a Roman Catholic occupied a kindred
position to his own in Ireland. We had seen the corn
laws and the navigation laws abolished, we had seen
slavery put down, we had carried the admission
of Jews into Parliament, church rates were gone ;
and last, though not least, we had seen carried that great
measure of the extension of the suffrage under which
the present Parliament had been elected. Were not all
men, whatever their party might be, now thankful that
these things had been accomplished ? And all this had
been brought about without the disasters which were
once foretold ? In repealing the corn laws nothing had
been destroyed but the bad feelings between classes ;
in removing the navigation laws they bad destroyed
not trade, but the fetters which bound it ; in admitting
the Jews to Parliament they had not destroyed religion,
but only those hard and fast lines which sepa-
rated one religious school from another. We had long
ago found out that there was nothing more fatal than to
put an Act of Parliament between men's hearts.
There had now been established a principle of gcvernment
which lie believed would never fail us in this country. It
was a principle of trust and hope, and we had banished
for ever those settled feelings of distrust and despair which
were afraid to confide in a certain body of our fellow
citizens, wlw now were admitted within the pale of the
constitution. We had thereby effected a really con-
stitutional reform. To speak of the future would of course
be to touch upon very delicate ground. The chairman had
said that the public voice had pronounced their confidence
in that man under whose guidance and leadership
we were now placed. He might, therefore, justly
say he felt it to be the highest possible honour to have the
post he had accepted in the Administration assigned to
him—to be restored, as it were, for a brief season to an
active participation in those measures of progress in which
we had now fairly and fully embarked. He assured his
hearers he had the greatest confidence in that trust which
had been reposed by the people of England in Mr. Glad-
stone as their leader, and he believed that trust would be
fully responded to—that he would advance, that his pro-
gress would rest on a basis of order, that it would be
guided by justice, that it would b.; strengthened and for-
warded in firm faith and hope ; and, above all, he believed
the end would be perfect success.
Baron MARTIN, who rose without being announced by
the toastmaster, said : Let me tell you an anecdote. I
had once the honour of being a member of the House of
Commons, and the Lord Chancellor held a situation there.
Upon a particular occasion there arose a debate upon the
Irish Church, and the Lord Chancellor expressed his views
pretty much in the same way that has been popular of
late. Mr. Bright did the same. I was present in the
gallery of the House, and a person of very high position in
the assembly said in my presence, " We shall live to see
the day when Mr. Wood will be Lord Chancellor and
Mr. Bright a Minister of the Crown." That has been
fulfilled, and I am proud to see it.
Lord HOUGHTON responded for the Lords, and Chief
Justice BOVILL for the Bench. He spoke in the highest
terms of Sir Roundell Palmer, and congratulated the pro-
fession upon the appointment of Lord Hatherley and the
Solicitor-General.
Mr. COLERIDGE (Solicitor-General) responded for the
Bar.

The CHANCELLOR of the Ex M-11*(117 B re'urne t' an' s
for the House of Com nuns. He said he bel‘
to a Government which had its first fault to commit. He
remarked: This Government has as yet perpetrated
no jobs ; it has shewn no furious party spirit ; it
has sustained no damaging defeats ; it has brought
in 110 abortive measures; it has imposed no un-
popular taxation ; it has got us into no foolish wars ;
it has presented no unseemly spectacles of violence
and differences among its members—it has done none of
those things which a Government ought to do, and this is
no small credit. But that credit is a little diminished by
the fact that it is not yet quite formed, and that it is only
a week old. Now, then, if I turn from the Government
to the House of Commons, I can say much the same
thing. Who can state any harm of the present House
of Commons? What evil bath it done? No one can
lay any bal measure or any foolish speech to its charge.
It has exhibited no forgetfulness of its duty to the Crown,
to the House of Lords, to its constituents, or to itself. I
cannot he!p believing that the present House of Commons
starts, as I am sure the Government starts, with the best
intentions of doing that which is for the benefit of the
nation. Some of these intentions, in accordance with the
usual course of events, may be realised. Many may become
futile ; some must be abortive ; but let us hope that in the
mixture of evil and good amid which we live we may, by
labour and diligence, be able to work out something for
your advantage. As to myself, I shall, of course, do
everything that you can possibly wish. You have only to
wait a little time, and in a few days or weeks you
will find, I have no doubt, an enormous surplus, a striking
reduction in taxation—in fact, a financial millennium,
which will, as a matter of course, go on increasing
from year to year, until, weary of the task of doing good,
I retire amid the blessings of you all, and the gratitude of
a contented people. For this consummation we are
sometimes obliged to wait, and it often arrives in a form
which is not very agreeable to the gentleman who happens
to fill the office which I have now the honour to hold.
I assure you I shall endeavour to do the best I can to
remove altogether from the country all the burdens of
taxation, so that she may enjoy the benefit of the best
institutions in the world without paying anything for the
advantage. I have no doubt we can procure fleets without
the expense of building, and without the incumbrance of
sailors to man them ; while we may have a perfect means
of defence without such a clumsy expedient as an army,
and devise some mode of settling legal differences
which will prevent men from ruining themselves
by having recourse to legal proceedings ; so that in
tl.e end we shall all—Whig and Tory— embrace each
other, and say, " Brother, brother, we are both in the
wrong, and we need not dispute about the matter." I
hope you do t think that I have coloured the picture
too highly ; and that you will excuse me if I have spoken
with some apparent levity on the subject. The honest
truth is, that when nothing has been done the only thing
that remains is to point out the possibilities of the case,
and perhaps it may be found that neither the new Govern.
ment nor the new may
will greatly exceed the task
which I have sketched for tl.eir performance.