The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-04 00:00:00

TUE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JULY 4, 1868.

;11: CONDITION OF THE
CLASSES 1N- EUROPE.

The question which presses most for solution
in our day is the physical condition of the
working-classes in Europe. From the statis-
tical returns of our own and other countries,
especially of Germany, France, and Belgium, it
appears beyond question that the average earn-
ings of the lower order of the labouring classes,
of field labourers, of workmen in manufacto-
ries, of unskilled artizans, and of shopkeepers
of tne poorer sort, are such as to be insuffi-
cient, in a very large per tentage of instances,
to do more than just to keep body and soul
together. The result of this state of semi-
starvation is that in bad times, resulting from
failure in the harvest or disturbance in trade,
large masses of working people are thrown
upon public or private charity, or sink into
permanent destitution. The normal result
of overwork and under pay in those trades
which are not exceptionally destructive, like
the knife-grinders of Sheffield, is to shorten
life in grown-up people, and to destroy the lives
of children in a degree which may be justly
described as suicidal. Without burdening our
pages with the statistical returns which lie in
abundance before us, we may yet be allowed
to lay before our readers the following re-
turns, published by Dr. Meyer, of Dresden, as
to the comparative duration of life in that city
among the upper classes and those engaged
in various trades or callings :-
100 DIED. Under 50 Over 50
years. . years.
Upper classes ...
••• ... 17 83
Day labourers ... •e• ••• 38 62
Tailors and shoemakers ... 47 53
Coachmen
••• ••• ••• 50 50
Bookbinders, weavers, printers,
and watchmakers ... ... 55 45
Carpenters ...
... 58 42
Painters and glaziers ... ... 66 31
Stone-cutters ... ••• ... 88 12
Dr. de Neufville, in a pamphlet published
in Frankfort in the year 1855, on the duration
of life and causes of death in twenty-two diffe-
rent professions and trades, arrives at the
following results :
Average duration of life in the city of Frankfort.
Years. Months.
Clergymen ••• ... 65 10
T?achers and schoohnasters ... 56 10
Tradesmen ••• ... 56 9
Bricklayers ••• ... 48 8
Shoemakers ... 47 3
Carpenters ... 46 4
Smiths ... 46 3
Tailors ... ... 45 4
Stone-cutters ... ••• ... 43 10
Compositors and type-founders 41 9
Lithographers and engravers ... 40 10
The above results as to the comparative
mortality between the labouring and the
affluent classes, in two of the richest and
most thriving cities of Germany, is alarming
enough, although by no means so appalling
as the relative condition of the same classes in
England and France. For instance, in "Chad-
wick's Report on an Inquiry into the Sani-
tary Condition of the Labouring Popoula-
tion," it appears that in Liverpool the average
duration of life of the higher classes is 35
years, and of ordinary trades people and of
skilled artizans 22 years, and of workmen
and day labourers, only 15 years ; and in
Manchester the relative proportions in the
above classes are 33, 20, and 17 years ; in
Leeds, 44, 27, and 19 years ; and in Bethnal-
green, 45, 26, and 16 years. In Paris nearly
the same results are found. Villerme, in his
Rapport sur les recherches statistiques sur la vine
de Paris, shows that the mortality is far greater
in the Bth, 9th, and 12th districts of Paris,
where the manufactories chiefly are, and where
the working classes live, than in the Ist, 2nd,
and 3rd districts inhabited by the richer
classes. The following is the relative progor-
lion of deaths in the year 1852 in the above
districts :—ln the 9th district, 1'35; Bth, 1.42 ;
12th, 143 ; Ist, 1.64; 3rd, 1.60 ; 2nd, 1-71.
The same writer, in his Tableau de l' elat
des ouvriers, says that almost one-half of the
children of weavers diedbefore they had
reached their first year, while one-half of
the children of master manufacturers reached
their thirtieth year. In the same way the
Report of the Manchester Factories' Inquiry
Commission reports that 57 per cent. of the
children of the working classes died before
their fifth year; but only 20 per cent,. of the
children of the higher classes. It is needless
to multiply such statistics. They may be ap-
plied in slightly varying degrees to the work-
ing classes of England, France, Germany, Bel-
gium, and Holland, and generally, though to
a much less extent to those of the other coun-
tries of Europe.
These returns as to the mortality of the
working classes represent an amount of physi-
cal suffering, and too often of moral debase-
ment, so appaling as to be a flagrant disgrace
to the civilization of the 19th century. Chris-
tianity at the present day has to grapple with
this evil as it had in the commencement of
its work of civilization to cope with slavery.
It found the vast mass of the human race,
under the highest rule of Pagan civilization,
held in an abominable and degrading slavery.
The Greeks, at the period of their highest cul-
ture, had not the remotest conception of the
position which the working classes have since
attained to under the ennobling influence of
Christianity. Manual labour of every descrip-
tion was looked upon as only fit for slaves ;
and a slave was regarded as a mere chattel,
the absolute property of free citizens. The
greatest and noblest of the Greek philosophers
held a slave to be essentially and irreparably
corrupt, and to possess no other motives for
his actions than fear and sensuality. They
taught that slaves was an institution founded
in the nature of things, and such as must en-
dure for ever. Even Plato advises that slavery
should be treated with severity, constantly,
chastised, and esteems it a mark of well edu-
cated men to treat their slaves with contempt.
Not only manual labour but every kind of
trade was regarded as degrading for a free
Greek. Even agriculture, which in the better
days of the Roman Republic was held in hon-
our, was eventually relegated to the care of
slaves. The proportion of slaves to free
citizens in the heathen world was enormous.
In Attica, according to the enumeration of De-
metrius ?halereus, there were 20,000 Greek
citizens and 400,000 slaves, not counting
female slaves ; in Sparta there were 36,000
citizens, and 364,000 slaves ; in Corinth there
were 460,000 ; and in .iggenia as many as
470,000 slaves. The cruelties which were
practised on slaves during the height of Pagan
civilization is too well known to need recapitu-
lation—cruelties which, if perpetrated now
even in a single instance, would cause a shud-
der throughout the world which Christianity
has redeemed—were of common occurrence
wherever the rule of the Roman Empire ex-
tended. Cruelty and lust went hand in hand,
and presented a picture which we forbear to
do more than allude to. Heathen society re-
vealed the depths into which man had been
precipitated. It was nature without grace,
intellect of the highest order without faith,
man without God---the Fall in its most extreme
consequences.
The working► classes, whom Christianity
has redeemed from bondage so degrading,
owe especial gratitude to the Church which
has stood between them and their task-
masters, and is at this day their safest
guarantee against the danger of lapsing back
into. Pagan ignorance, barbarism, and misery.
The materialism of the present day, with its
false doctrines of political economy, forbodes
but little good to the working classes—it too
much resembles in many striking points the
Paganism of the ancient world to be safe
for those so dependent still for their daily
bread on taskmasters, who value them only
as machines for the production of wealth, or
in times of a political or revolutionary crisis
as instruments to be used fur the attainment
of political power. But in times like ours,
when great social changes are impending;
when grievous wrongs, such as those which
the working classes are enduring, when labour
is unable to support life; when peoples have

to fly the soil which gave them birth ; when,
in the large manufacturing cities, the life of
the workmen is unjustly shortened by over-
prolonged and ill-requited toil ; when their
starved children are falling by thousands and
tens of thousands into premature graves ; when
one-third of the human race is painfully strug-
gling for bare existence ; when ignorance and
physical and moral disease are plunging the
vast masses, at least of our own countrymen,
into practical heathenism, it is time that the
voice of Christianity should proclaim now, as
it did of old to a dominant Paganism, that
" there is a natural and Divine law, anterior
and superior to all human and civil law, by
which every people has a right to live off the
fruits of the soil on which they are born, and
in which they are buried ;" that " this is a right
older and higher than any personal right ;"
and that the " civil law yields before the higher
jurisdiction of the Divine, as the positive
Divine law yields before the natural law of
God."

In advocating the redemption of the large
majority of the population of the heathen
States front an infamous slavery, what re-
proaches had not Christianity to bear ? It
was taunted as being the friend of the vile
and the enemy of civil society. In like man-
ner, modern materialism, with its false and
anti-Christian doctrines of political economy,
cries out " Communism," when it sees the
Catholic Church endeavouring once again to
rescue the working classes from the yoke of
sin and misery under which they are once more
relapsing, and hears it proclaim the ancient
truths which conferred on every man Christian
liberty and equality, gave him social and poli-
tical rights, and redeemed his body from
slavery, as it did his soul from sin.—Wesbnintser
Gazette.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

(From the Anglo American 2 imes.)
The Chinese Embassy have not as yet lost the
nterest of novelty, and they continue to furnish
pictures for Frank Leslie mil matter for reporters.
On the 17th June they were received by the Senate,
Messrs. Sumner, Hendricks, and Shermin ushering
them into the Chamber. Mr. Sumner, who ad-
dressed the President, said—" We present Mr. Bur-
lingame and his associates of the Chinese Embassy
to the Senate of the United States." Mc. Wade's
reply was equally brief. The visitors were con-
ducted to seats, but, business being suspended, they
rose and shook hands with the Senators severally.
The interview lasted some 20 minutes, and the
galleries were crowded. On the next day they ap-
peared at a review of the garrison. A platform had
been raised and decorated for the occasion, and
was occupied by the President and all his Ministers
as well as the Representatives of several nations,
Congressmen, and Army officers. If the rumour is
true, the Embassy will hand a protest to the
President for transmission to Congress against the
enactments in California regarding the Chinese,
and the treatment experienced by them in the
Pacific States.
The President's veto of the Arkansas bill takes
the ground generally anticipated. Mr. Johnson
considers that approval would signify an admission
of the constitutionality of the Reconstruction policy
of Congress, while his opinion remained unchanged.
The bill is based on an assumption which the President
holds to be a fiction, that Arkansas was out of the
Union. He denies the right of the Legislature to
impose upon the State perpetual adherence to the
provision of the New State Constitution regarding
Suffrage, and as the penalties for violations of the
bill are not defined serious future complications
may result. In this case Andrew Johnson not only
has a policy, but defined it. He urges Congress to
re-organize the small States in the Union, requiring
them to send representatives Congress may consider
to be eligible. Not content with showing the ille-
gality of the acts, as well as the stupi lity, he points
out what they ought to do, and he gives them the
result of what they have already done ; their legis-
lation so far, according to the President, having
proved ill-timed and unfortunate.
Iu spite of all his efforts, Mr. Schenck's Tax Bill
has been defeated, and re-committed. Mr. Shanks,
of Indiana, on the 15th June, moved that two short
bills be substituted, to deal only with tobacco and
distilled spirits. The 'notion Wit 3 opposed in an
able and earnest manner by the Chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means. He showed that
already the heaviest portion of the work had been
done—that the provisions still to be discussed were
comparatively unimportant—that the short bills
suggested would still more confound the confusion.
Mr. Butler replied—" We are here when we ought
to be in the midst of a campaign, in order to save
this country to the men who have fought for it for
the last sight years. And yet we are kept here,
doing what? We are kept here modifying taxes."
He was willing to take the responsibility, and so
was every one who voted with him of throwing the
bill out, and Mr. Shanks' motion was carried by 74
except the consideration of
to 63. A resolution, however, was agreed to that
no business shall be in order after the report of the
himself
tasnodA,f,lhemirsn.
orßfdoriliufel
tyenl(iledsnrg:s bills.toorawthoircyh
Tax Bill as directed,
such bill, unless it bheimrhtes:
As the Nation very propetrhlyemsaaywsa,ythfreomqulevstaisohn.s
rerycountry gain by releasing
them are suggested by Mr. Butler'sspeech, IVhatis the im-
portant business to
heWash-
ington, g
talluded,o
and
what is,
willo
and
over the plains of the
"Simplylle f oma tnh eeignoblextr
extra
supplyduty
oof f
through time valleys
North on the subject of General Grant's merits as
considered),
overboard.
a candidate, and the sanctity of the public debt ;"
and for this, one of the most important measures,
carefulltoy (preparedagis ro
tatlomnd,i
longsto
b e thrown ever sub-
mitted
Mr. Shanks declared that the whisky thieves had
used the wealth they had accumulated to manipu-
late the element that ought to protect the Govern-
ment; and Mr. Price observed—" We must do
something in reference to the tax on whisky and
tobacco, or go home condemned by every Repub-
lican and every Democrat between the Atlantic and
the Pacific." The whisky interest has been work-
ing earnestly at Washington against any reduction
which would destroy the system now so profitable
to them. It makes one angry to think that the
time of Congress should have been wasted by Butler
in the Woolley affair, and that he should thus im-
pudently tell the House that they ought not to pass
in seven days a Bill the Committee had spent five
months in preparing.
A resolution has been introduced into the House
of Representatives, couched in a hostile spirit to
England. The President is directed to demand an
acknowledgment as complete and ample as that
given for the arrest of Mason and Slidell from any
foreign country in which American citizens have
been imprisoned for words spoken in the United
States ; also where such citizens have been treated
as subjects of a foreign Power, and that the rights
claimed for such citizen should be insisted on for
those now imprisoned. If the Representatives
would adopt a more dignified and sensible tone it
would better become the Legislature of
,a great
people.
.Such foolish threats may secure the ap-
probation of Irish rowdies, bat will neither advance
the national interests, the cause of freedom and
naturalization, nor the character of the assembly..lt
is remarkable to see the contempt with which many
of the Representatives are spoken of by the leading
papers of the United States.
A Supplementary B:11 to the Currency Act
introduced on the 13th June by Senator Sherman,
of the Finance Committee, was passed on the 17th
June, by 25 to 14, after three days' discussion. The
object is to give more circulation to the West and
South by $20,000,000, withdrawing that amount
from the Eastern banks, who have more than their
fair share. In the original feral the bill of Senator
Sherman proposed to increase the currency by
$20,000,000. Thus it introduced the objectionable
principle of expansion, which was earnestly at-
tacked, and eventually defeated by the Senators,
who thought the step might be followed by others
which would have a most injurious effect on the
country. Some vainly urged the passage of a law
resuming specie payments in 1871, and the employ-
ment of the surplus Treasury gold in cancelling
bonds.

As usual with Congress after a shocking wa6te of

valuable time there follows a massacre of the inno-
cents, the poor fledglings who ought to be brought
out in vigorous legislation, but who are smothered
in the hurry and weariness of those who have been
running about on wrong scents. Among the Bills
likely to be thrown over for the present is that for
the monetary unification of France and the United
States. It can, however, afford to wait, not affect-
ing the Revenue and taxation. The Civil Service
Bill goes over till next Session ; the admission of
Colorado as a State with its present Constitution
will be postponed until Reconstruction is so far
complete as to insure beyond doubt the ratifica-
tion of the 14th Constitutional Amendment. The
Legislature has yet to be elected, and if Democra-
tic might reject the amendment, it woall still
further delay action.
The House of Representatives declines to carry
out the treaty between the Government and the
Osage Indians, unanimously refusing the necessary
appropriations. The objectionable part of the affair
is the surrender of a large portion of Kansas, against
which the House solemnly an 1 earnestly protests.
George W. Julian, Republican, of Indiana, spoke
bitterly as well of the commission as of. the treaty,
which he described as an act which makes the ordi-
nary inmates of gaols decent men in comparison
with commissioners, whom he did not hesitate to
term "a set of thieves." The President is accused
of the jobbery which is declared to be characteristic
of the Peace Commission, and very serious impu-
tations have been made against Andrew John-
son for the gross corruption which has sprung
up so rapidly under his administration. Talking
of this corruption, the Springfield Republican
furnishes a nut for the A'ew York World to
crack, which, to write down Grant, brings all his-
tory to prove the incapacity of soldiers for the work
of civil Government. Previous to the appointment
of the Marquis of Cornwallis as Governor-General
of India in 178 G, Bengal hal been a scene of riot
and plunder, insurrection and massacre, all descrip-
tions of excess being committed upon the inhabi-
tants by the English officials, who betrayed every
trust of their own Government. The state of India
was, up to that time, such, that were the opera-
tions of the whisky ring or the cotton speculations
of the Anierican generals 'extended through every
department of the service, the result could not
compare with the miserable condition of affairs till
then existing in India. Cornwallis returned in
1793, that is seven years after, leaving the Indian
Service more efficient and honourable than the
Home Government ever was, or has been since.
Abuse and corruption were relentlessly cut off ;
regular and systematic promotion substituted for
the loose and uncertain tenure of office which pro-
voked to fraud. This incorruptible and true-
hearted soldier wrought what appeared a miracle,
and the Republican expects Grant to do for tlie
United States what Cernwallis dil for India, if
Congress will only join him in his efforts to pass a
Civil Service law which will pat honest and efficient
officers into every department.
Senator Reverdy Johnson has accepted the nomi-
nation as Minister to Enelatel, and will start early
in July, accompanied by his son, Edward C.
Johnson, who will act as his private secre-
t try. Full instructions are being prepared for
him by Secretary Seward, covering all the ques-
tions at issue between Eeglaad and the United
States. It is said in America that they have been
drawn up in a shape which c lanot but make them
acceptable on this side. 11e will have full power
to adjust the Alabeme claims, and, as one of the
first constitutional lawyers of his country, Mr.
Johnson is well qualified to handle the subject of
naturalization, which will be ready to be submitted
to him by the Beitish Government on his arrival.
tweeting of the Rapt Commissioners for in-
quiring into the L tevs of Neturaliz ration and
Allegiance was held on the 23th of June,
at the Weetminister Palace H stet. Present—The
Earl of Clarealon, E.G., the Right Hoe. E. Card-
well, M.P., the Attorney-General, the Q teen's
Advocate, Sir Roun len Palmer, Q.C., M.P., W. E.
Forster, Esq., M P., Mentague Bernard, Esq.,
D.C.L., Charles S. A. AbleAt, Esq. (secretary).
No doubt the subject will be well digested by the
time the -Minister reaches the metropelis.
Susan B. Anthony was appoiatel a delegate
to the Democratic Convention, which today
assembles in New York, at a meeting of the
Committee of the &reel Rights Association.
The resolution was moved by Theodore Tilton,
and pledges these heretofore Radicals to the
support of the Democratic platform, provided
it inserts a Woman's Rights plank. The Chi_
cage Convention is :313e lof int only giving the
women the cold shoulder, bat falling from grace on
the question of Negro Saffrage ; and it is evident to
the advocates of Woman's Rights that the necessity
of the Conservatives being greater than those of the
Republicans, they may be willing to purchase sup-
port by more liberal concessions. If they could but
get the women of the nation to take any interest in
the question, and to throw the weight of their in-
fluence into the Democratic scale, the party might
name any candidates, and carry not only the Presi-
dential nominee, but the next House of Repre-
sentatives, and . the whole. Government of the
United States. Unfortunately for the Democrats,
MiSs Susan B. Anthony spea';s as yet but for a
very small portion of her countrywomen. The
following is the resolution :
" Wnereas. Itss Susan B. Anthony, through various
published wettings in The I?evolution, has given the world
to understand that the hope of the Woman's R.ghts c muse
rests more largely with the Democratic party than with
any other portion of the people ; therefore,
"Resolved, That Miss Anthony be requested to attend
the approaching National Democratic Convention in New
York, July 4, for the purpose of fulfilling this cheerful
hops by securing, in the Democratic platform, a recogni-
tion of woman's right to the elective franchise."
We regret to see that the bill has been defeated
in Congress by which shipbuilders designed to pro-
vide for a drawback equal in amount to the duties
upon materials imported for use in constructing
vessels. That once flourishing American manu-
facture seems destined to annihilation, and it is im-
possible for American builders weighted as they are
to compete with foreign yards. A case of interest
to shippers was decided in the Senate on the 18th
June. The barque Golden. Fleece was built in the
United States, but transferred during the war to
the English register, nominally for self-protection.
The owners, wishing to bring her back as an Ame-
rican vessel, introduced the bill, which was defeated
by 20 to 11, all the Senators of the shipbuilding
States voting against it. It would thus appear that
American shipbuilders will at least be protected,
not only against foreign-built vessels, but against
home-built ships transferred to foreign registers,
and those who buy such crafts ought to know that
they can never again sell them to Americans.
It is said that Judges Hoar and Foster intend to
leave the bench of the Supreme Court, and resume
practice at the bar. Efforts are being made for the
election of Judge Hoar as the next Governor of
Massachusetts. Some of the journals of the State
have set themselves vigorously to root out the cor-
ruption which to the horror of the New Englanders
is beginning to overrun their States. The Spring-
field Republican openly announces its intention to
take every risk in this task, and asks for information
from all acquainted with facts regarding the ope-
rations of the lobby at Boston to pass or defeat
measures in the Legislature., the names of the mem-
bers, the considerations given and received for
votes, and other " information calculated to expose
the corrupt and degrading habits introduced of late.
among the Representatives and Senators of our
General Court. All cemmueioations will be treated
confidentially, se far as their authors are concerned.
What is wanted are the facts concerning the inde-
cencies and corruptions of Avoa-pl ice and the
State-house, and the Republican will mom). 3 all
responsibility for their publication." It considers
that Judge Hear would effectually as Governor
root out the threatened evil.

A general meeting of t'le arehollers of the
North-German Lloyd took place at Bremen last
Tuesday, when it was unanimously resolved to con-
struct two new steatucrs to ply between Bremen and
Baltimore, and to make a fresh issue of shares to the
amount of 70,000 thalers. It was stated that the
reserve fund of the cornpany is more than sufficient
to cover this amount. The steamers are to be
finished and handed over to the company within ten
months, and are to run every fortnight between the

One of those extraordinary stories on which
novelists base their most sensational fictions to find
their conceptions out-done by facts lately occurred
among a party of " diggers" travelling over the
Rocky Mountains to the Sweetwater Mines. A
quarrel had occurred between two ; it was patched
up, but afterwards re-opened. The party on the
day of the disagreement wound up the mountains
along a narrow ledge of rock—a fearful precipice
beneath. Armstrong, a Nova Scotian, managed to
allow his comrades to pass till he got in front of
Hess, who was last, and with whom he had quar-
relled, when he took his place before him, checking
the pace till the others were well in advance, when
he stooped to tie his shoe, and Hess, unable to pass,
stopped near him. Armstrong, by a sudden move-
ment, seized the unsuspecting Hess and hurled him
into the abyss. A scraggy hemlock tree, growing
from the face of the rock, caught the man some
twenty or thirty feet down. The opportunity was,
therefore, open to save his life if the murderer re-
pented. But the heart that could thus brood, and
the hand that could thus execute, must have been
as bare and cold as his own native country, so the
fellow completed his work by hurling down stones
until the victim was shaken from his list support,
and disappeared into the yawning depths. From a
distance the act had been seen by one of the
party on the look-out for game. He told his
comrades on reaching the camp at night,
when Armstrong was seiz-ed, and could not
deny the murder with which he was • charged.
The question was earnestly debated by the party
whether he should• be taken with them to the set-
tlements to be tried by the civil authorities or
lynched on the spot. Fearing he might escape if
the former course was pursued, the majority de-
cided against the respite. An hour after midnight
Armstrong was taken to the top of a cliff half a
mile from the camp, and, with his hands and feet
bound, he was thrown into the chasm to furnish the
same meal to the wild animals of the Rocky Moun-

tains that he had himself supplied but a short dis'
ante away in the person he had murdered.
Governor Bullock, after eight years of contio.
nis service in one or another office at the Stet
idoese of Massachusetts, is about to retire. He has
eetoed five measures of the late Legislature; three
,f these were the. eby defeated, but two were passed
)ver the vetoes, and have become law. Those de.
'eated were intended to abolish the State constabe.
iary, and to incorporate the Boston Dental College.
new bill was afterwards passed for the latter ob.
Led, shorn of the features to which the Governor
-,ook exception. Of the two bills passed over his
;et°, one was to incorporate the East Boston bridge,
he other repealed the Act authorizing the Hart-
ord and New Haven Railroads to consolidate.
fudge E. Reck wood Hoar, of Concord, who is
Lbout to vacate his seat in the Supreme Court, will
perhaps allow himself to be nominated as the Ile'
publican candidate for the post.
The invitation of Senator Fessenden to a banquet
in Boston has called forth a strong rebuke from
iOlll3 of the friends of Mr. Sumner, who insist that
t is an endorsement of the Senator's vote against
impeachment, though this is expressly repudiated
by the hosts. They have distinctly said that the!
lesire to support an independent judge under a
series of bitter attacks, but few of them think as
sir. FesSenden does on the question of Impeach-
went. That gentleman had not as yet accepted
the invitation, and it was even reported, but with'
out foundation, that he had declined the honour.
The National Intelligencer says that Horace
Greeley's business in Washington was to engineer
the appointment to the Commissionership of Inter-
nal Revenue in the place of Mr. Rollins. His first
choice was General Butler, whose ability to collect.
is undeniable; his second fell on General M. N.
Wisewell. Mr. Greeley has returned to New York,
but not before he exerted himself to the utmost to
defeat the 20 per cent. increase in the Clerks' Salaries
Bill, for which he is blamed by the Democrats.
S. M. Clarke, chief of the bureau of printing in
the Treasury Department, has resigned his office.
['his is said to be caused by disclosures in the Re-
trenchment Committee. Mr. Clarke, to save him'
self from removal, threw up the office, "and the in .
vestigation has furnished ample evidence of the
necessity of reorganizing the bureau.
Ode of the subjects exciting interest at Wash- e
ington is the person likely to succeed Speaker
Colfax. Ile feels so secure of being elected Vic
President that he will not run for Congress. Both
the President and the Vice-President being the se-
lection from the West, in ease the Chicago nomi-
nation is successful, the new Speaker, if the House
be Republican, will be conceded to the East, and
the names of three gentlemen are prominently
tnentioned—Mr. Pomeroy, of . New York; Mr'
Dawes, of Massachusetts; and Mr. Blaine, of
Alaine, which of course hinges on their re-election.
in Massachusetts the preference is given to Mr.
Dawes, whose experience in Congress is greater than
that of the oth:rs, and whose reputation is more
national. He has generally presided when the House
was in Committee of the Whole, and bath is this •
and in the 'Net Congress has been highly thought
of for ability in debate, for personal integrity,
and for fairness in his Parlia:neatary capacity. For
these reasons it is cenjecturel that if Mr. Dawes
be returned to the next Clugre,se, he st ands the
best chance of being selected as its presiding officer.
Whisky, which cannot be manufactured &ity
paid under $2 40cts., is often sold in the New York .
market at $1 40cts, and these not in the secret
might wonder how this is accomplished. A else
just tried before Chief Justice Chase, at Richmond,
Virginia, in which four whisky conspirators were
convicted, revealed the fact that four distilleries
Lgreel to pay $30,000 per annum for the privilege
of shipping five-sixths of all the whisky they might •
listil, free of Government tax. That this paid the
distilleries, and enabled them to sell far under what
would otherwise have been the cost price, may be
gathered from the fact that the tax from which the
$30,000 purchased the exemption was $250,000.
The money was paid to the Internal Revenue officers
of the district, and it has been fully shown that
without the corruption of Government officials
frauds on this scale cannot be perpetrated. The
greatest culprit, who was collector of the Fourth
district, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment
and a fine of $lO,OOO ; the next, who was an assessor
and inspector, got two years' imprisonment with a
tine of $5,000 ; and the third, an inspector, was
let off with a year and a fine of $2,000, but the
Chief Justice spoke, when delivering the sentence/
in the strongest terms of condemnation. The con-
victions have struck the Virginians with amazement,
who attribute them to the fact that Chief Justice
Chase presided instead of Judge Underwood.
General Buchanan, influenced by the passage 01
the " Omnibus Reconstruction Bill" has ordered the
immediate convening of the Louisiana Legislature.
At the same time he has strengthened his course ber
publishing a telegram showing Grant's approval.
The General Commanding-in-Chief suggests a mo-
dification of the oath of office, merely requiring the
present loyalty of the elect, and their support of the
new constitution. The State officials had not been
installed up to the 15th of June, nothwithstand-
ing the proclamation of the Registration Board, .
but the passage of the " Omnibus" Bill has
settled that question. Ex-Mayor Heath hag
procured the issue of a writ of quo warrant() .
against Mayor Conway, who takes exception to the
right of the writ to issue, as he holds the office both
by military order and the election of the people.
The Legislature of Florida has ratified the 14th
Constitutional Amendment, and on the 17th June
elected A. S. Welsh, Republican, from Michigan, to
be United States Senator for the term expiring
March, 1869. The other Radical Senator has been
selected from Wisconsin for the same period, and
without the authority of the general. Harrison Read
was sworn into office as Governor on the 12th June,
and delivered his inaugural address, notwithstand-
ing the protest of the military authorities, who con-
sidered the proceedings irregular. Governor Hol-
den, of North Carolina, convened the Legislature
for July 1, when the State officers will be installed
on the removal of their political disabilities. Texas
proposes to adopt the Constitution of 1860, after
annulling all provisions at variance with the provi-
sions of the United States. The Convention has
appealed to Congress for power to raise and place
a military force under the commander of the dis-
.trict. The bill to divide the State has been post-
poned by Congress for a fortnight, by which it
will be passed over this Session. Mississippi will
begin the election on the new Constitution on the
29th June, but it is expected to outlast the sitting -
of Congress.

News from Athens, June 27, states—" The semi-
official papers assert that the insurrection in Crete is
stronger than ever, and that a Turkish division has re-
volted at Sphakia. The American torpedoes are success-
fully used by the insurgents."