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

.LO.NDO.N, SAIVRDAY EVhikTINO, NOVEMBER 7,
FOREIGN N

THE SUN,

MR JOHNSON ON THE NEGRO*

Arr. Johnson has once again been speaking. The
Freedman's Aid Union waited upon him with an address,
expressing the gratification of the society at the abolition
of slavery throughout the Union, and their hope that Mr.
Johnson's mission in this country might be in every sense
successful. His Excellency, in replying, said, slavery was
inconsistent with the happiness of people and nations. It
had no foundation in morality and less in Christianity.
A slave could hardly be said to be half a man.
If his body did not dwindle, his mind dwindled,
and his heart became ossified, and the same
influence, more or less, was brought to bear injuriously
upon the master. Of course there were exceptions to be
found in every country where there were classes of servitude
and of masters. He thought he was not mistaken in
saying that but for the invention of the cotton jenny
(an invention of a Northerner, they must remember),
which incalculably increased the wealth of the
South, and from its having afterwards become a
topic of political controversy, slavery would not
have been abolished with the occurrence of that dire
calamity through which they had just passed. But the
increase of the wealth of the South gave to the labour
of the slave a value which it did not before possess, and
the master at last thought that his real worth was in
the man he thought he had the right to control.
The masters in the South then did what most of them
thought they had a right to do—seceded from the
Union ; but for what purpose ? For the purpose
of perpetuating slavery, and establishing a government
which they wished to call free, which had foundation
on slavery, and which therefore was certain to fall to
destruction. It would be almost impossible for those
present to realise the sadness of the struggle ; reading the
accounts would give them but little knowledge of its actual
results. Let them travel through the South and see the
ravages of the war, the desolation of the homes, the
badges of mourning which were to be found in every house-
hold ; the refined woman obliged to resort to labour for
the purpose of supporting herself and her children; and
then, having done that, let them look at the graves,
the millions of graves which were to be found in
every Southern State. He thanked God that none were
to be found in any of the Northern States. He was a
Southerner, and lived in a State where the slave popula-
tion outnumbered at one time the whites, and where at
the beginning of the late war they numbered some
75,000, in addition to the free blacks, who were some
80,000. Their domestic and agricultural servants were all
slaves, and he had been brought into connection with hun-
dreds and thousands of them. He had defended over and
over again those who supposed themselves entitled
to freedom. From the experience he had had of them
he believed they were as capable of receiving education as
the whites, but, of course there were differences amongst
all classes of people. Every lawyer could not he a Mans-
field, nor every member of the House of Commons a
Wilberforce. He concluded as follows: " I know I can
assure you that during my residence amongst you—happy
from the first, getting happier every day, and never more
happy than now—l shall so conduct the duties of my
mission as to satisfy you that in heart, soul, and mind, I
feel upon the great subject which has interested you pre-
cisely as you do."

AMERIOA.

TES.

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 Howe 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 gull non, they were
not permitted to take part in the election.

BANK OF FRANCE.

1,)"... 68.

PARIS, Noy. O.

The following is the return of the Bank of France
for the week ending to-day, together with the cor-
responding figures of the previous account :

DEBTOR.

Oct. 29. Nov. 5.
fr. c. fr. c.
Capital of the Bank 182,500,000 182,500,000
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 22,105,750 14 22,105,750 14
Reserve of landed pro-

perty 4,000,000 4,000,000
Notes in circulation
Bank notes to order and
receipts payable at
sight. 33,400,569 27 33,895,418 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 payablo 981,372 939,177
Discounts and sundry
interests t • 5,304,223 17 5,752,777 61
Rediscounted the last

six months
Surplus of receipts not
distributed - -
Sundries

Total
CREDITOR.
Oct. 29. Nov. 5.
Cash in hand and in fr. c. fr.

Branch banks
Commercial bills over-
due
Commercial bills dis-

counted, not yet due 241,985,509 11 242,953,281 47
Do. branch banks 212,554,093 226,259,883
Advances on deposit of
bullion
Do. branch banks 9,353,100 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 - 36,209, 00
Do. branch banks - 28,502,100
Do. on Credit Foncier
Bonds
Do. branches
Do. to the State (Con-
vention, June 10,
1857) 60,000,000 60,000,000
Government Stock re-

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

- ......
(Law, June 2, 1857) 100,000,000 100,000,000
Rotel and furniture of
the 13:silk and landed
propel '6y branches 9,035,706 9,039,206 -
Expenses of manage-
ment 9,035,706 2,159,080 34
Sundries

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

(Signed) ROULAND.

CORI?ESPONDENTS.

(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. Ile 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, ate 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
London 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 be is employed to gather news of what tran-
s 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 circum-
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 lines 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 ten leucy
to flatter on the part of the commanders and to
mislead, out of pure mischief, on the p trt 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
orders " the fellow" out of camp, or the chief of the
department, who declines to give him information,
or perh tps 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 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.