AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 1195, 14 January 1870, Page 3

AMERICA.

Via Sydney we have news from the United States to the Sth November. FRAUDS ON THE TREASURY. It is ascertained on reliable authority that the President and Mrs Grant have ceased all social connection with Corbin, on account of his duplicity in connecting them with the New York gold speculations. Secretary Boutwell refuses to revoke his decison not to permit the Pacific Eailway bonds to be used as a basis for banking purposes. Commissioner Delano and Secretary Boutwell were in conference yesterday in reference to continued attacks on revenue oflicers in the South. The civil authorities will be ordered to protect oflicers in the discharge of their duties. It is ascertained that not more than one-third of the i revenue has been realised in Virginia and j North Carolina. At first the frauds were I confiued to smuggling, effected almost : wholly by counterfeit stamps. The military continue to patrol the State, and the combinations are daily being broken up. Another squad were arrested' at Eiehmond yesterday, including one Government Inspector. Over 7000 dollars of counterfeit G-overnment stamps were taken. Information has reached the Treasury Department that an organised attempt has been made among certain disappointed contractors and speculators who expected to fasten themselves upon the G-overnment in the matter of building the New York Post-office, to cause a failure of certain plans of the supervising architect, Mr' Mull ett, by bribing workmen to arrange the material so as to develop a weakness in the walls and other portions of the structure. The same class of operations had been discovered in other parts of the country in connection with public buildings under way, the design being to break down the present method of building by days' work, and restore tbe old system of contracts. MORMON DISTURBANCES. Colinne, Utah, Ist November. — J. H. Beadle, editor of the Utah Beporter, while attending Probate Court to-day, ' at Brigham City, was set upon by Mor- 1 mons and beaten nearly to death. The cause of the attack is Beadle's writings upon polygamy. The principal assailant is a son of the Probate Judge, who stood looking on at the attempted assassina- J tion. Trouble is apprehended to-morrow. St Louis, Ist November. — An Omaha despatch says that parties from Salt Lake report that several Mormon dignitaries connected with the Zion's Co-operative j Association have been publicly excom- j municated by the Mormon Church, causing considerable excitement among their friends. THE EDUCATION QUESTION. At a meeting of the Board of Education in Cincinnatti, 22 vote 3 were for excluding the Bible from the public schools; .10 of these. were republican, and 12 democratic. Three professed no religion, 10 were Catholic, 18 freethinkers, and 1 Jew. Of the 15 votes against excluding, 2 were republicans, 3 democrats, nominal religion ; 13 Protestants, 1 freethinker, and 1 Jew. The champion of the party for exclusion was Eev. Thomas H. Vickers; the Liberal champion for retaining the Bible was Eev. A. Mayo, Unitarian minister. Eesolutions were also passed forbidding religious exercises- and singing of sacred songs. Judge Stover, of the Superior Court, afterwards granted an injunction restraining the Board of Education from carrying into execution their resolution prohibiting the reading of the Bible and religious books and sacred music in the public schools. The ground on which the petitioner prayed for the injunction is that the framers of the Constitution, by declaring in that instrument that religion is essential to good government, denied the Board of Education the right to exclude all manner of religious instruction. REPORT ON PACIFIC RAILWAY. The special committee on the Pacific Eailroad submitted their report to Secretary Cox on Ist November, 1869. The investigations were of the most minute character, all the timbers in the bridges being measured, and the strain on all the iron rods in these structures estimated. The report on the condition of bridges over the whole line is of a very favorable character. A large proportion of both roads is well ballasted ; culverts are more numerous than is necessary ; cottonwood ties are being replaced by hard pine in many places. The equipments are abundant, and the water stations plenty. The Commissioners express the opinion that all the officers on both roads are working in good faith to bring the roads into the besl possible condition. The late management of the Union Pacific do not receive favorable notice, but the present management is said to be conducting its affairs in good faith. DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS IN NEW YORK. The latest returns indicate a Democratic majority in the State between 7000 and 10,000. The Senate stands 17 Democrats to 15 Eepublican3, the Democrats having apparently gained four and lost two dis- . tricts. The Assembly is very close. The fiepublicans are credited with a loss of 12 members and a gain of two. Several districts are still in doubt. Placing them as last year, the Assembly stands — Eepublicans, 66 ; Democrats, 62 ;'but this is liable to amendment. MISCELLANEOUS. The Secretary of the Treasury has made his usual monthly statement of the public debt of the United States, which shows the total on the Ist November to have been 2,461,001,300 dollars. This is a decrease during the past month of 7,360,000 dollars. The total decrease since March 1 has been 64,300,000 dollars. The value of the bonds bought by the Treasury, and their accrued interest, is 64,000,000 dollars.

Mr Boutwell, the Secretary of the Treasury, made a speech on the 9th October, at Philadelphia, in which he urged the people to support the adminis- j tration of General Grant, who fully deserved their confidence. Mr Boutwell deprecated any expansion of the currency, and declared that the national debt should be paid honestly and manfully in coin or its equivalent. Mr Jefferson Davis has arrived at Baltimore. The late Mr Peabody has given to the Peabody Institute at Baltimore (which he had already endowed with 1,000,000 dollars) the additional sum of 400,000 dollars, to be applied to the erection of a second buildiug for the use of the institute, and for . the benefit of the gallery of painting and sculpture to be connected with it; The President has appointed G-eneral William M. Belknap, of lowa, Secretary of war, vice G-eneral Sherman. Advices from New York mention that the State of Arkansas, which for almost a third of a century has laboured, like Mississippi, Plorida, and Michigan, under the stigma of virtual repudiation, is about to meet its obligations. The death is announced of ex-President Pierce on October 8. Franklin Pierce was the son of Benjamin Pierce, a New Hampshire farmer, who distinguished himself in the war of independence. The ex-president was born at Billsboro,' in New Hampshire, in November, 1804, and was, therefore, nearly 66 at the time of his death. Mr Pierce was made a Judge in 1863. Nathaniel Hawthorn and Professor Stowe were among Pierces early friends. On the 2nd and 3rd of October, a tremendous storm of wind and rain visited a large area of the United States. There were floods in all directions, from Washington to Philadelphia, Albany, and Syracuse ; landslips are also reported, and great damage done — bridges broken down, lines of railway wrecked and swamped at different points, and houses and workshops thrown down. The President of the United States had appointed November 18 for a day of national thanksgiving. The steamer Stonewall, bound from St. Louis for New Orleans, caught fire when near Cairo, on Wednesday night, the 27th October. Of the 258 persons on board only 38 are known to be saved. Her cargo, which consisted chiefly of hay, was piled on deck. The fire spread rapidly, and she was run on a shoal, but the depth of water prevented the people reaching land. The night was cold, the wind high, and a swift current was running. Pew of the sufferers were burnt, nearly all of them being drowned. Boats from the shore rescued the survivors. Some of those who are missing may have floated down the river, but their fate is unknown.