The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2, 1868.

yet taken place. One occurs to-day, another a
week hence, others, again, not till October ; but
as straws show which way the wind blows, so may
we learn from these minor contests the prevailing
temper and sentiments of the American people.
The Democrats, so we learn by the City of Boston
from New York on the 22d ult., have carried the
elections in the territory of Idaho, returning their
candidate as delegate to Congress. In the New
England States Mr. PENDLETON is busy canvassing
for Mr. SEYMOUR and General BLAIR,and has met in
some quarters with an enthusiastic reception.
:If the
New England States give in their adhesion to the
Democratic candidates they will have a good chance
of success. It will be a singular, though, under
present circumstances, not an improbable thing, if
the Northern electors should vote for the Demo-
crats, and the Southern electors for the Radicals.
The fact is that the common sense of the Northerners
sees that the real interests of the country are being
sacrificed by the Radicals, who have raised the
taxation to an enormous height by their lavish
and reckless expenditure at a time when the
finances were exhausted by a protracted and costly
war, and the greatest prudence and watchfulness
was needed. The Radicals of Congress voted large
bounties to the soldiers for the sake of securing
the military interest in favour of their party ; they
voted large sums for themselves on pretence of
travelling expenses; they kept up a costly system
of military rule in the South, and used every effort
to keep those great producing States impoverished
and desolate. The Protective interest, too,
is very strong in the present Congress,
and that has helped to keep back the
progress of trade and the development of com-
merce. The Reciprocity Treaty with Canada has
never been renewed, as it has been part of the
Radical programme to threaten war with Eng-
land. Then the perpetual quarrels between PRE-
SIDENT and Congress has kept up a state of public
feeling most undesirable and unprofitable. The
price of gold under the Radical auspices is evi-
dence sufficient that they have completely failed
to inspire that public confidence and security
without which no nation can flourish. If the De-
mocrats had been able to exercise a more decided
influence on political affairs, :and to oppose
the progress of the Radicals, the fall of the latter
might have been less speedy and less complete. As
it is, they have had every advantage. No one can
pretend that their views or policy have been inter-
fered with. Even the PRESIDENT himself has been
powerless to check them. They have had at least
two years to experiment on, and what is the result ?
It is no great wonder that the shrewd politicians of
New England begin to repent of their bargain, and
are inclined to try whether the altered side of poli-
tics cannot produce a more satisfactory state of
affairs ?

LATEST INTELL MENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, Sept. 1.
The National Company's steamship France
arrived out to-day.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Closing prices :—Gold, 145. Sterling exchange
on London, 109+. 5-20 United States Bonds,
1882, 113+ ; ditto, 1885, 111+ ; 10-40 Bonds,
105+ ex coupon. Illinois, 145 ; Erie, 464. Cot-
ton, middling upland, 301. Petroleum, standard
white, 311. Flour, extra state, $8 100. to $8 70c.
Corn, old mixed, $1 24c.

PIIILADELPHIA, Sept, 2, 1 a.m.

The Republicans have carried the election in
Vermont. Their majority is 27,000—a Republican
gain of 7,000.

An In(lian massacre is reported in Colorado.
Nine persons have been United States
troops are being sent to the western border. An
Indian war is impending.
The Canadians have appointed an agent to nego-
tiate a new Reciprocity Treaty.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS,

(FROM OIJR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) k
PARIS. TUESDAY, September I.

The question of Ministerial modifications is treated in
detail by several of the journals here. The Ministry of
State is to be suppressed, says one report, and M. Rouher
is to be made Minister of Finance and President of the
Council. M. Pinard, at present Minister of the Interior,
is to be replaced by M. Ernest Leroy, Prefect of Rouen.
This scheme takes no account of M. Magne, who would
be supplanted by M. Rouher in the Finance Department.
Another combination, published in the Figaro, gives the
portfolio of the Interior to M. Buffet, deputy ; the War
Ministry to General Trochu ; preserves M. Magne as
Finance Minister; and does not change the functions of
the statesman, M, Rouher.
The Gaulois solves the problem of the day—the visit of
the Count and Countess de Girgenti to Fontainebleau.
The solution of the Gaulois is not very novel—and, alas !
there are no means of determining whether it be the
correct solution but it bears the appearance of
probability. An alliance, offensive and defensive, between
France and Spain, is the key to the mystery. It was to
conclude this alliance that the Queen of Spain desired an
interview with the Emperor of the French—a request
which was not conceded. The Emperor probably wished
to avoid the public excitement which invariably follows
these royal interviews ; and it is just possible that the
visit of the Count and Countess de Girgenti was
planned as a substitute. According to the Gautois
the terms of a secret convention have been
settled, and the Count and Countess are come to
arrange the details. The stipulations were that Spain
should supply 40,000 men and a naval force for the defence
of the Pope in case of war between France and any other
European power. In return France was to protect Spain
from attacks both without and within. This is the diffi-
culty. The Emperor is willing to lend assistance to Spain
in case of a foreign attack, but hesitates to guarantee the
Unstable throne of Queen Isabella against revolution. The
Mexican affair is too terrible a warning to be readily for-
gotten. No foreign enemy is likely to strive for the barren
honour of conquering Spain, but the prospect of the
dynasty being overturned from within is imminent. The
Emperor may well recoil from the task of putting down
Spanish insurrections by French bayonets.
Another journal in the hands of the authorities ! The
Correctional Tribunal of Nantes has condemned one of the
contributors and the proprietor of the Esperance du Peuple
in fines of £io and £4O respectively.
The final acceptation by M. Dufaure of the Opposition
candidature in the Var department is considered to afford
a great chance of success to the Democrats. The election
of M. Grbvy in the Jura has revived the hopes of the
party, and the acquisition of so excellent a candidate as
M. Dufaure, who, if returned, would doubtless rank as
one of the best debaters of the Corps Legislatif, renders
them confident. The official journals, I see, speak
of the election in a very angry tone. The success of
M. Dufaure would produce an effect anything but agree-
able at the Tuileries.

M. de Montalembert is recovering, though somewhat
slowly, from the effects of his accident. M. Neaton has
not deemed it necessary to continue his attentions.
A poisoning case has just been decided in the Assize
Court of the Seine. The poisoner was found guilty, with
extenuating circumstances, and condemned to imprison.
ment for life. From the following brief details your
readers will be able to judge how far the plea of extenuat-
ing circumstances has become a legal fiction to prevent
the punishment of death. The poisoner, Ringard by
name, was married to his cousin, and had seven children.
He was a bad husband and a bad father. His cruelty
was incessant, and his infidelities numerous ; lie formed
an illicit connection with his niece, and persecuted his
sister-in-law with his assiduities. Five of his chil-
dren died—one at least, it is believed, from want of
proper treatment. His wife left him on one occasion,
but was induced to return, an indulgence which was duly
rewarded by frequent threats of poisoning, which were
ultimately put into execution by means of cyanide of
potassium. Madame Ringard and her son were both
poisoned ; but the child recovered, whilst the mother died.
The wretched poisoner when told that his wife was dying
manifested the utmost indifference, and would not even go
and see her. If these are extenuating circumstances, when
is a murderer wholly and unjustifiably guilty ?

The North-East Correspondence contradicts the report of
the intention of the Russian Government to propose a
European Congress, with the view of a general disarma-
ment. The Cabinet of Berlin questioned Prince Gortscha-
koff on the subject, thinking it possible that the Con-
ference which is to meet at St. Petersburg to
determine the use of explosive bullets in war-
fare might undertake still more important questions.
The reply of the Russian statesman was in the negative.
On the other hand, the evidence of constant diplomats-
communications het' ~,:z ranee Co.tscilakoff and Lord
Stanley, during the stay of the latter at Lucerne, is not to
be despised ; though it does not at all follow that this
interchange of despatches relates to a Congress.
The Baden journals consider the ircorporation of the
Grand Duchy with Prussia to be merely a question of
time. The Minister of War is a Prussian, and the mili-
tary system is so completely identical with that of Prussia
that the entrance of Baden into the Confederation of the
North could be effected without the slightest difficulty.
These facts and the speech of the Minister Beyer at the
" jubilee " banquet, to which we recently alluded, point
to further conclusions. They strengthen the presumption
that the terms of any military union amongst the States of
the South in which Baden may form part will in great
measure be dictated by Prussia.
The news from Japan contains some wild rumours
respecting the defeat of 20,000 men by 1,500, besides
other terrible battles, and an infinity of executions. In
the acceptation of these statements it will be well to
" reserve all rights." But it seems certain that the native
Christians have been very hardly treated under the rule
of the Mikado, and that two more battles have been
fought in which the partisans of the Tycoon have gained
the advantage over Satsouma, who rules in the name of
the Mikado. The Government of the latter has
been discredited by the persecutions against the native
Christians. Fearing final defeat, the party of Satsouma
has offered to refer all differences to the arbitration of
England, France, and the United States. It must not be
forgotten that the Tycoon takes no active part in these
struggles. According to all accounts he is content to do
the ruling, but leaves the fighting to his subordinates,
shutting himself up and awaiting the issue of affairs with
the most enviable equanimity.
An attorney, named Moreton, has been applying for a
license for a public-house. The Liverpool magistrates,
who heard the application, refused it. The application for
licenses at Liverpool causes no little excitement. A solicitor
charged the bench with " audacity," one of the magistrates
having voted without hearing a case. The solicitor
said, " man's sins should not always be visited upon him,
for if they were their worships'—and more especially one or
two he saw on the bench—would not escape condemna-
tion." The bench called him to order. They could not
have done much less. An able and powerful lawyer is
sometimes too much for the peace of mind of provincial
magistrates, but this sort of thing is rather undignified.

A matter:of some importance is broached in the Times
by " A Railway Director." He denounces in no measured
terms the practice of feeing guards and porters. It is
absurd to pay a man for doing what the passenger should
have done for nothing, and it is questionable morality to
pay a man for doing what he ought not to do at all. To
wink at smoking, bringing a cigar, and locking a door so
that no one may enter a carriage, may be small sins, but
they tend to give the servants thus tempted a disregard for
rules and laws. " I will not," says the correspondent,
"pretend to measure the exact extent to which the moral
sense of a man hourly in the receipt of bribes of any sort
must be blunted, nor the contempt for all rule and law
which must be engendered by the hourly breach of those
which he knows it is his special duty to obey, nor the con-
tinued deceit which he is obliged to keep up to avoid
detection. But what possible right has one to expect
that an uneducated porter should feel it his duty to dis-
criminate between the laws he is taught and paid by
passengers to disregard and those which he may break or
neglect for his own convenience or comfort? How much
may the accidents which arise from breach of duty
be attributable to selfish disregard of right and wrong on
the part of passengers ? "

The usual charitable appeals which, as a rule, commence
In November, have started early indeed this year. Ere
September has really commenced, and while yet the
wealthy are on their holidays, "Mary Stanley" writes to
the Times, suggesting that just now coals and provisions
are cheaper than they are late in the season. If, there-
fore, she had money now, she could lay up a
store for the poor about one-third of what it
would cost at Christmas. There is much of
reason in this appeal. But is it advisable that such
stores should exist ? Would they not tacitly sanction a
want of economy amongst the poor? A great deal of the
distress existing in the winter is caused by a want cf
economy and frugality when work is plentiful and food is
cheap. It is only the fable of the "Grasshopper and the
Ant " over again. What is really wanted is, that the
practice of living from hand to mouth should be dis-
couraged. If the suggestion of Miss Stanley were carried
out, would it not be rather encouraged ?

APPEAL DAY AT MILE-END. —A petty sessions for
the hearing of appeals against the parochial rates has been
held at Mile-end Old Town. About 6,000 summonses had
been issued, or an addition of about 5,000 on the number
served in 1867, previous to the abolition of the compound-
ing system. There were between 500 and 600 appeals, the
majority from persons occupying a humble position, and
tbo titkeikdkitreaß were hurowinz in the extreme.

DISQUAIF.I7.4p,,,CANDIDATES,
,
CA 'contemporary says ' The candidature of any
'o'4
• , who has bed convicted on a former occasion
of tampering with electoral virtue is in itself an
insult to a respectable constituency, and should
be at once resented by a refusal even to listen to
any proposals from such a quarter. It is not without
some astonishment that we find such men as Mr. John
Pender and Sir Edmund Lacon seeking to be returned to
Parliament, but we can only presume that it is in ignorance
or forgetfulness of their antecedents that the electors of
Linlithgowshire and North Norfolk afford them the
slightest countenance. It may be as well, therefore, to
recall some passages in the reports of the commissioners
appointed to inquire into the existence of corrupt practices
in the now disfranchised boroughs of Totnes and Great Yar-
mouth. If the Parliamentary Elections Act had become law
three years earlier, Mr. Pender would have been incapable
until 1874, not only of being elected to, or sitting in, the
House of Commons, but of being registered as
a voter, of being appointed or acting as a
justice of the peace, and of holding any judicial or muni•
cipal office whatever. The accident of time has saved
him from these just consequences of his conduct. But
though an Act of Parliament ought not to be retro-
spective, the action of a constituency may and
ought to be so. Bribery was as much an
offence against public policy and positive law before the
recent measure was passed as it is now ; and as decency
has not availed to prevent a man whose acts, if committed
since the 31st of July, 1868, would condemn him
to seven years' disfranchisement from offering him-
self as a candidate, we can only hope that decency
will prevent the electors of Linlithgowshire from returning
him as their member. Sir Edmund Lacon's position may
not be such an open outrage upon political morality as
Mr. Pender's, but we believe that such men as he are at
least equally responsible for the corruption by which they
have profited. If no candidates presented themselves to
notoriously corrupt constituencies but such as made no
secret of their readiness to bribe when required, it would
at least help to ticket these electoral plague spots more
unmistakably.