The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 7, I_6B.

FOREIGN NOTES;

A.IEECRICA.

The Democrats have secured one great advantage at the
present crisis. They have lost the Presidential election,
and their opponents have been strengthened in the
Senate, but in the House of Representatives the
Democratic party has materially gained. The Repub.
licans have lost the two-thirds majority by which
they were enabled to pass their measures over
President Johnson's veto, and nullify his opposition to the
Reconstruction policy. This is a most important success
on the part of the Democrats. Had Mr. Johnson remained
in power, the result would have been, very likely, an ulti-
mate renewal of the civil war. He would have vetoed
the measures of the Republicans, and their majority
would not now be sufficient to render his oppo-
sition unavailing. Under General Grant there can
be no danger of this kind. The Republicans have
still the majority, and they will be supported by the Pre-
sident. But their opponents will not be reduced to that
condition of political nullity which would have been the
result had the House of Representatives remained
unchanged ; and this is well, for the destruction of the
opposition can never be to the advantage of any nation
where party government prevails.
It is announced that three States—Texas, Mississippi,
and Virginia have not voted. These have not abstained
of their own choice ; they were not allowed to vote. Their
local legislatures have not ratified the amendment to the
constitution of the United States, establishing equality of
rights between all citizens whatever may be their race.
Having failed to comply with this sine qua non, they were
not permitted to take part in the election.

BANK OF FRANCE.

PARIS, Nov. 5.
The following is the return of the Bank of Franc;
for the week ending to-day, together with the cor-
responding figures of the previous account :

DEBTOR.
Oct. 29.
fr. c.
Capital of the Bank 182,500,000
Profits in addition to
capital (Art. 8, Law,
June 9, 1857) 7,044,776 02 7,044,776 02
Reserve of the Bank
and its branches
Reserve of landed pro-

Nov. 5.
fr. c.
182,500,000

22,105,750 14 22,105,750 14

perty 4,000,000 4,000,000
Notes in circulation 1,260,324,709 1,283,479,600
Banknotes to order and
receipts payable at
sight 33,400,569 27 33,895,448 18
Treasury account cur-
rent creditor 194,920,407 79 184,645,016 44
Current accounts, Paris 293,072,015 99 283,221,434 22
Do. branch banks 51,999,971 53,017,029
Dividends payable 081,372 939,177
Discounts and sundry
interests
Rediscounted the last
six months
Surplus of receipts not
distributed
Sundries

5,304,223 17 5,752,777 61

703,152 42

703,152 42

8,900,561 55 13,500,386 66

Total
CREDITOR.
Oet. 29. Nov. 5.
Cash in hand and in fr. c. fr.
Branch banks
Commercial bills over-
due
Commercial bills dis-

257,688 80

counted, not yet duo 211,985,509 11 242,953,281 47
Do. branch banks 212,55-1,093 226,259,883
Advances on deposit of
bullion
Do. branch banks 9,356,100 9,338,800
Do. on French Public _ _ _

Securities 12,037,200 12,519,800
Do. by branch banks 7,600,200 7,606,800
Do. on railway shares
and debentures
Do. branch banks - 28,502,100
Do. on Credit Foncier

Bonds

Do. branches
~885,900
Do. to the State (Con-
vention, June 10,

1857) 60,000,000 60,000,000
Government Stock ro-

serve 12,980,750 14 12,980,750 14
Do. disposable
Rentes Immobalisees

(Law, Juno 2, 1857) 1(0,000,000 100,000,000
Hotel and furniture of
the MAIlc and lauded
ope:ty branches 9,035,706 9,039,206 -
Expenses of manage-
ment 9,035 706 2,159,080 31
Sundries

Total
Certified by the Senator-Governor of the Bank
of France.

(Signed) ROULAND.

CORRESPO:VDEN TS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

George Prentice, well known as a political writer
and by his connection with the Louisville Journal,
has been victimised to supply spicy intelligence to
aspiring correspondents. He was selected because
his name was familiar, and the correspondent knew
that anything sensational about him would be quoted
everywhere, not only in America, but here. So it
duly appeared that George Prentice was poor and
old, a broken-down, incurable drunkard, dismissed
from the paper which had employed him, and aban-
doned by his friends. All sighed over the fate of
the clever but incorrigible George ; every American
newspaper told the same tale, and every correspon-
dent picked up and spread abroad the moral of the
literary break down. It appears, however, that the
story is due to a system of pure fabrication, which
ought not only to be condemned, but punished, as
impunity helps its growing dimensions in America.
The habit of inventing conversations with prominent
men is bad enough, and those who undertake
to lead in politics make up their minds for slander
and vituperation ; but the manufacture of letters
from them is even worse. The system we allude
to somewhat resembles Burke's, who took a live
subject and made him into a dead one when
the inducement from the dissecting room offered ;
so correspondents who have no news, and cannot
fabricate, pick up instead, the scandal floating
against a private but well-known person. Such
reporters, except at some focus of news, or where
grand events are occurring, are out of place, and-
even in such centres often become wearisome from
their verbose efforts to fill long columns with the
matter it is their business to supply. In England, as
regards Spain at least, we have had correspondence
enough to last for a long time. We would as soon
have to choose between "the poison and the dagger"
as between Gladstone's speeches and the Madrid
correspondents' letters. It is sad to see what the
I ondon dailies are reduced to, and we even hope
that the twaddle talked in Parliament may soon
come to the rescue. It is our belief that the right
hon. gentleman and the correspondents might have
said all they had to say in one column out of the
scores they have already filled ; and the value of
some of the letters may be guessed when the
writer supplying a leading London daily with in-
formation, does not know one word of Spanish,
though he is employed to gather news of what tran-
spires in Madrid. That his communications con-
tain errors may be imagined, and the best evidence
that they do, is to be found in the pages of the paper
to which we allude. Mistaking an agitation for the
freedom of worship for one in favour of free culti-
vation of the soil, he wrote a glowing account of the
movement to the editor, who commented fully on
the wise course taken by the Junta, and the benefits
the agricultural community were to derive. A gen-
tleman qualified to report as a correspondent the
progress of the Abyssinian expedition might feel
figuratively and literally that he was " abroad"
when thrown, in ignorance of the language, the
habits of people, and with little knowledge of their
history, into Madrid. What surprises those who
meet these writers is that they can so ably perform
the service required—that is, to fill a certain num-
ber of pages, disguising a real ignorance of the
subjects written about. The most helpless indivi-
dual we ever met was a Times correspondent in
Scinde. He knew nothing of the language,
the manners, and customs of the people, nor
was he, possessed of any powers whatever
of accommodating himself to the strange circu►n-
stances.. Had it not been for a well-known officer
of the Bombay Army who looked after him, he
might have been carried into Affghanistan and sold
as a slave, if—an improbable contingency—any
one had considered him worth buying. As it was,
he was trotted all over the country, and was picked
up utterly exhausted where he had been abandoned
by the natives, who thought him rather a vicious
fool. Every one marvelled what the 7 imes meant by
sending such a thing to report on a wild frontier,
and only knew, when the letters on the subject came
back in its columns. How the man got his infor-
mation remained the mystery, for he asked no
questions, and did nothing but grumble about his
servants and food, went nowhere—after his• invo-
luntary expedition into:the wilderness—and got out
of the country as rapidly as possible, which was
wise on his part, as it is, in truth, a vile place. He
must have dreamt it all, but if so it was a wonder-
ful vision, for it contained a full, true, and lucid
account of the frontier Provinces, extending from
the Punjaub to the sea. Men imagine a sort of walk-
ing encyclopmlia in a correspondent, and consider
him an imposition when he does not come up to this
description, but, more than anything, a correspon-
dent should be a ready writer, who sees what other
people see too, but do not note, and are surprised
at not noting, on reading the correspondent's letter.
It is in this that Russell excels, and no man can be
a picture-writer who has not such a qualification.
Correspondents of late years have become persons
of the greatest importance where revolutions or
campaigns are progressing, and there is a tenlency
to flatter on the part of the commanders and to
mislead, out of pure mischief, on the part of the
juniors. Indeed it is no easy task for the corre-
spondent justly to discriminate, between all which
comes before him. There is the officer panting for
distinction, who finds it not now, as formerly, at the
cannon's mouth, but behind the correspondent's
chair. There is the gruff commander, who surlily
crders " the fellow" out of camp, or the chief of the
department, who declines to give him information,
or perhaps refuses to supply him with the means of
,subsistence or of transport. These men- have,

however, almost dwindled out of sight, as they are
not in keeping with the spirit of the age ; nor are
they wise in their generation, being too much wedded
to the exploded idea, that glory is really to be found
at the cannon's mouth.