The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-09 00:00:00

he was disturbed by a lady -to whom he listened 1]
attentively and differentially, though annoyed at
the interruption, and after hearing all she had to
say he fixed the following morning for an interview
between her and a person named to act for him,
when the lady withdrew, and the General, resum-
ing his cigar, said he thought her proposition a rea-
sonable and humane one. A week after, Mr. Knapp
met the lady, and was surprised to hear her de-
plore the habits of General Grant. He endea-
voured to correct the erroneous impression, but the
lady asserted that she had certain knowledge of
what she advanced. Then describing her inter-
view, she said he was engaged in a carouse with two
companions, when she came unexpectedly, that he
rose with difficulty, could not stand without stag-
gering, and supported himself with a chair. His
voice was thick, he spoke inccherently, and evi-
lently conscious that he was unfit for business, had
put her off till the next day. Mr. Knapp, who had
dined with him, and had been fully three hours face
to face, declared he had drank nothing stronger than
the unqualified mud of the Mississippi, and that he
had never seen a man more thoroughly sober and
clear-headed than Grant. when she entered. But he
failed to remove the impression, and Mr. Olmsted
supposes that she still asserts that all three were
drunk at the time.
A letter addressed to Mr. Johnson in 1865 by
the lion. Lewis D. Campbell has been published,
advising the removal of that most unpopular Minis-
ter both in and out of the army, Mr. Stanton.
This is not a bad document figuring by the side of
that addressed to Senator Cameron by the Penn-
sylvania Republicans, wherein they begged the
Senator to urge on Benjamin Wade, when he be-
comes President, the claims of Mr. Stanton for the
Treasury, from which they take it for granted Mr.
M'Culloch will be removed. It is bad taste
in the President to have published this letter,
no matter what the provocation ; and it is this un-
justifiable use of documents that come into his hands
' as a great State officer which has tended so much
to create the odium in which Andrew Johnson is
held.

Daniel Drew has succeeded in passing his bill
through the New York Legislature legalising the
acts of the director's with reference to the Erie
Railway, nullifying the judicial proceedings against
them, and protecting and supporting their interests
against the rival line. No director of the New
York Central, Hudson River, or Harlem Roads can
be a director of the Erie Road, so that " Uncle
Daniel" has completely beaten the '6 Commodore."
The bill was carried by more than the two-thirds
necessary to protect it from the chance even of
the Governor's veto, and Drew has made arrange-
ments to procure the adjournment of the Legisla-
ture when the bill is safe, that the members may
not be in the way of temptation. It is calculated
that he has spentin the little job nearly
Vanderbilt came too late into the field. The spe-
cial train, loaded with picked agents which he sent
to Albany, reached that city only in time to find
the work effectually settled ; but rumours announce
that the rival chiefs are in treaty henceforth to
work together, and if so the public may look out.
Some papers assert that Vanderbilt fought
the question to the last, freely using his -money,
and alleges that grave Senators " carried water
on both shoulders," which, we presume, means
that they took bribes from each side, " net-
ting a moderate fortune by their skill." One
Republican Senator supposed to be safe beyond
suspicion, and who had drawn largely from the old
Commodore, passed straight over to the enemy,
and was instrumental in checkmating Vanderbilt.
We now learn that the Erie war has assumed
a wholly new and unexpected phase. For some
time previous to the departure of the mail it
is said that Drew had come to au understand-
ing with Vanderbilt, and had arranged as trea-
surer to deliver over to Mr. Osgood, the receiver
appointed by a New York Court, sB,ooomo
of the new stock sold. It was also stated that the
real Simon Pure was the motive power of the Drew
side, then came to the front in the person of the
president, J. S. Eldridge, with the directors lately
in exile at Jersey City, Fisk, Gould, Devlin,
and others. The scheme being discovered, Drew
was ousted from the treasurership, and Jay Gould,
an expert Erie diplomatist, was put in his place.
The capitalists have combined to control the Toledo
and Wabash lima...siva, which will secure to the New
York Central the necessary western connections to
Chicago. The lawyers assert that the fight may
last for years and be an heirloom to their families.
In consequence of the Erie Railway disaster the
superintendent limits first-class passenger trains to
a speed not in excess of 25 miles per hour, and not
more than 12 for second-class or freight terms. No
deviation from the time-table will excuse breaking
this rule, and no fast: running will be allowed to
make up for lost time. These rates are considered
to be the fastest that can be run with 'safety,
though they barely equal one-half the speed of
trains in England.
An American contemporary says :---66Fenianism
is spreading in New Zealand, where of late the
heavy gales have been very destructive of human
life and of property." The two are somewhat ridi-
culously coupled in this paragraph, but if we had
to choose we would take our chance of the storms,
which at any rate clear the atmosphere and are fol-
lowed by calms. Fenianism has as much chance
of a footing in New Zealand as it has in the
Queen's Palace. The most loyal portions of the
Empire and those most devoted to the English con-
nection are Australia and New Zealand. Perhaps
distance lends enchantment to the view of the
mother country, but at any rate those who desire to
hear old England spoken of with an enthusiastic
affection should go to New Zealand. The colony
has lately been the scene of something like a shower.
It rained incessantly for thirty days, and then the
wooden houses were floating about like arks. The
builders thought they were providing against earth-
quakes, but they found they had made a happy
selection of material for an inundation.
It is fortunate that General Butler will be heard
no more during the Impeachment Trial, and there
are very few who care more to see him than to hear
him, as he is not fascinating from either point. Ile
and his family have proceeded to Mount Vernon ;
Williams, Thad. Stevens, and Bingham are the
Managers yet to speak ; and Groesbeck and Evarts,
of the President's counsel, and they will do so in the
following order. Williams will lead, on the part of
the prosecution, in a speech which, he says, will
not occupy more than two hours. Groesbeck will
reply. Thad. Stevens will then come up, and he
asserts that all he wants is one hour. Evarts will
follow, and Bingham will close.
The committee on the Pacific Railroad is about
to report a bill to Congress, authorizing a commis-
sion, composed of the Secretaries of War and of the
Interior, the Attorney-General, and two Presidents
of Railways, annually to regulate the rates of fares
and freights on the Pacific railroads when completed
through from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and when
the dividend exceeds 10 per cent. The Omaha line
is now constructed to a distance of 560 miles west-
ward, and is working on the other slope of the
Rocky Mountains, having crossed the range at a
height of 8,242 feet above the sea level, the greatest
elevation at which a locomotive ever snorted. The
stock of the company is daily growing in favour as
a permanent investment for capital, and is likely
soon to take one of the highest positions in the
world, as the stock in truth represents the greatest
of man's undertakings. An article in a magazine
compares it to the Bank of England or the East
India Company, but it is not in reality similar to
either, the first being a mere monetary corporation,
representing no industrial enterprise, and the last
a trading community that possessed itss.lf of and
lost the Empire of the Moguls; while the Union
Pacific Railway Company is the corporation through
whose means the grandest work of modern times
has been constructed. We are surprised that Eng-
lish capitalists have not directed more attention to
the stock, and the fact that an undertaking so costly
should still be confined to the United States, no
aid being asked for in Europe, is that which best
shows its worth.
Finance-mongering in New Zealand loans has
lately been active. A considerable sum has been
obtained on the London market by the agents for
the colony, and the holders of the provincial debts
have been invited W convert theta into the Como-