fhta af % Pwfe. trial of wirz. The taking of the testimony in this case still continues. The week has furnished a little episode in the affair consisting in the publishing of a letter from the prisoner to the editor of the New York News, in. which he addresses him as a known “friend of the down-trodden South,” and appeals to him for sympathy towards himself, “innocently about to be sacrificed.” He relates his ser vices and sufferings for the Confederate cause, repeats the exploded allegation that he was arrested in violation of a safe conduct, Says that he is helpless, his good name and life are in peril, but his conscience is clear. He asks from his Northern friends contributions of money to enable him to carry on a vigor ous defence. He further asserts that the sufferings of our prisoners were not inflicted by him—that they were unavoidable —that the rebel government could not give them more food, or better shelter, or more kindly treatment than it did. Our last brief account of the trial dosed with August 28, at the close of which day his counsel, Messrs. Baker and Schade, as then stated, again abandoned him. On the morn ing of the 29th they returned, and once more resumed the management of the defence. On that day, Dr. J. G. Kay was examined in re lation to the condition of the prison at An dersonville, and Dr. B. A. Vanderkieft con cerning the appearance of released prisoners on' reaching Annapolis. The testimony of both witnesses was confirmatory of the ac counts heretofore extensively published. Martin E. Hogan, an Andersonville prisoner, was also examined.. The following particu lars are a sufficient comment upon the letter of this man of a clear conscience, ‘ ‘ innocently about to be sacrificed. ’ ’ Hogan testified that the men were in a miserable condition, as bad as possibly could be; the men were so thick they could scarcely elbow their way; some lay in their own filth calling for water and crying for food, but no attention was paid to them; he also testified to other circumstances attending the prison, showing the miserable quality of the food and its injurious effects — such as half-baked corn bread, which was sour; the beef when it was furnished being of an inferior quality; men afflicted with scurvy would crawl upon the ground; the sight was horrible; very many were insuffi ciently clad, and, having no shelter, burrowed in the ground; as to hounds, he was brought back to prison through their agency-; he had seen Captain Wirz with hounds trying to strike the trail of an escaped prisoner; for atrempting to escape from prison about the Bth of October, 1864, after the most obscene abuse from Captain Wirz, be was fastened by the neck and feet, and remained there sixty eight hours; he heard Captain Wirz give orders that he should not have food, hut he did obtain food from paroled comrades who stole it for him; when the prisoners were being removed from Andersonville to Millen, the witness saw Captain Wirz take a man.by the collar because he could not walk faster ; the man was so worn by disease that he could not; throwing the man on his back, he stamped upon nim with his feet; he saw the man bleeding, and he died a short time after wards ; in the dissecting room he saw stu dents, in pursuit of knowledge, sawing open the pocriea. —trontnx-K-eyserf-anCtuci-pri- soner, was also examined, and, among other particulars, that in April, or May, 1864, sup plies were received from the North, and some mouldy cake or bread was thrown over the dead fine; one man reached beyond the line for a piece of this bread, when the guard shot him through the head; witness saw another man after he had been shot in the abdomen; he had seen men in the chain-gang with iron collars round their necks; some of them were thus punished for_ attempting to escape; he had seen men bucked by Captain Wirz’s or ders ; witness had seen General Winder at the prison, when a number of the prisoners rushed to see him, and Winder told them to stand back, and gave orders to the guard to fire on those who approached the gate nearer than fifteen feet. On the 30th some discussion was had re specting the prisoner’s having been kept handcuffed, when it appeared that it was done as a security against suicide, his own counsel having suggested that he meditated such an escape from his present position. It was, however, understood that the handcuffs could now be dispensed with. Several more witnesses were examined. Proof was given that under orders from General Winder, Wirz had full command of the prison. Poston Corbett, the soldier from whom the assassin Booth received his death wound, and who was at one time a prisoner at Andersonville, was again on the stand, One question asked him was—“ You say that, on one occasion, when you lay concealed, one of the hounds rubbed against your nose: why did he not bite you?” Characteristically he replied— “ The power that kept the lions from tearing Daniel in pieces, is the same in whom I trust.” In relation to the alleged inability of procuring food for the prisoners, James 4£aJL_Valkenburgh, a resident near Macon, trAil tbit more than an average. He tor the last two or three years, the supplies tor the army in Georgia were plentiful He had seen large piles of government flour in Macon. The latter place is sixty-five miles irom Andersonville. The court was not in session the 31st. . September 1. Six witnesses were exam med—a!l rebel soldiers or residents in the the bouth, and most of them having a per sonal knowledge of the condition of the pri sony.. The all admitted its»fiith, and one of the witnesses who had been a guard often times over the prisoners, said that the stench in the stockade always made him sick when he was on duty. Nobody had seen Wirz shoM anybody, although all knew of his haying sent dogs after prisoners escaping, prisoners were sometimes bitten by these dogs, “who Were neither large nor savage ” bemg. plantation dogs only. Wirz seemed dissatisfied, many times wishing himself and an the prisoners were together in a very un comfortable place. Judge Hall, of Georgia tha't B te^ n mileS f [ oin Andersonville? fafd that Winder once endeavored to enlarge the prison, but gave up the task because he could not procure sufficient timber and labor. This was Winder s information to the witness. Winder remarking ln addition, that he had impressed all the saw-nulls for the unsuccess ful attempt. Judge Hall had once been asked by Winder to rent two houses in Ole thorpe, for the Andersonville sick, but could not. Concerning this last assertion, the N. T. Times appropriately remarks:—“This is just what the present trial is to test. If Wirz merely obeyed his orders, and was holding his position, as he asserts, under duress, that tact will appear—and then those who gave him the orders for what he did can be held responsible. And if the rebel government was compelled to expose its own troops in the same way, and to feed them in the same way, and to kiu them in the same way, the fact can be proved before the tribunal at Whose bar Wirz is arraigned.” THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER T, 1865, miscellaneous. Moke Villi anous Frauds Unearthed. —The Press has the following account of a wholesale plunder of soldiers in Norfolk, by charging an enormous per centage on the Government paper in which they were paid. Colonel Binney, a paymaster, who had charge of the Norfolk District, took down with him eight millions in treasury checks, and ar ranged with the President of the National Bank of Norfolk, Virginia, one called a seces sionist, to give seven-thirty bonds and legal tender notes for these checks, and to divide the per centage allowed to those who put the bonds in circulation. Other paymasters, suspecting them, demanded a share of plun der. In one single month over one hundred thousand dollars was paid by the Norfolk Bank to different paymasters. Binney re ceived thirteen thousand dollars, and'Majors Palisifer and Howell, and others, an average of one thousand dollars each. The cashier has made a statement, and some of the guilty parties have confessed. These discoveries have been made within the past four days, under the direction of General L. G. Baker. When soldiers attempted to make purchases with these bonds, they were charged a dis count by merchants in league with the bank and paymasters. The aggregate gains of parties must have been enormous. What will be done with the bank officers and pay masters has not been decided. Death of Governor John Brough.— The State of Ohio has suffered a severe calamity by the death of its able, high-minded and honest Governor, John Brough. He died at Cleveland, on the 29th ultimo, after an illness, which had for some days been re garded as hopeless. He was a man of great moral worth. North Carolina. —A Raleigh letter of August 29 says: —Lieutent A. W. Hahn, on special duty of an important character in the Department of Virginia, has arrived here from a trip through the northeastern portion of this State, where there is no military force. He reports that three negroes were shot in Northampton the other day by the Home Guards, or County Police, for refusing to re turn to their masters after accepting of em ployment elsewhere; that the people refuse to recognize the freedom of the blacks, who are whipped and tortured in the most fiend ish manner for even expressing a desire to be free’, and that shooting and killing these creatures appears to be the order of the day. He also states that a Union man, in Hertford County, employed a colored girl for a family servant, without having first consulted her former master, who visited the Union man’s house with a loaded gun, with the view of killing him for this offence, as the wages were to be paid to the girl instead of the master. The Union man, who has been an officer in the Federal service, was obliged to fly for his life, for the rebel sympathizers took sides with the master. Spiritualism Legally Pronounced Sleight-of-hand. —The great question in Buffalo before the United States District Court, whether spiritualism, was sleight-of hand or supernatural manifestations, has been decided at last. The jury have unani mously come to a verdict that all the table tippings, conversations had with spirits’ through table legs, the reading blindfold of the contents of folded writings, all the tyings and untyings of mediums in boxes, the blow ing of trumpets, and the peregrinations in the dark of spiritual tamborifies and guitars, are merely tricks of jugglery and experiments of sleight-of-hand, and therefore the perfor mers of them must take out a license to prae Andrew made his recent visit "£o~Freetbwn, on a Sabbath, the clergyman who was con ducting the services, upon being told that the Governor would address the congrega tion, announced the fact as follows: — “ Brethren, I have to inform you that when the religious services are concluded, Governor Andrew will make an address. ’ ’ The lowa liquor dealers held a convention in Des Moines, August 23d, and declared theirs to be a legitimate business, represent ing a capital of $1,000,000, and entitled to protection under the State laws. They re gard the prohibitory law as “an act of usur- Etion and an infringement of the rights and erties of the people, inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution of the United States, and opposed to the best interests of the inhabitants of the State.” A PEW days since, near Prescott, _C. W., a cow attempted to butt a railway train off. the track, and succeeded. The locomotive and all the cars were thrown off, and some of them, with the engine, fell down the em bankment. There was plenty of beef after the collision, but not much Cow. FIBfANCIAIi. The Public Debt. —Secretary McCullough has made his monthly statement of the debt, August 31. The increase in the month was less than $500,000 ; the interest on the whole was diminished nearly $231,000. Nearly $45,500,000 in coin, and nearly $43,000,000 in currency, are held by the Treasury. As much as four and a Half millions of dollars internal revenue has been received in a single day. FOREIGN. Europe.—Liverpool dates are to August wlO.»jy.atters between Austria and Prussia rest, unless this term can be applied to the affairs of the Atlantic cable. It was not yet known whether the Great Eastern would be be at once despatched with strong ropes and grapnels to fish up the severed part. Con cerning the future of the enterprise, the Times says :—“ The experience of the expe dition is full of encouragement for the future ■ the only discouraging circumstance is the apparent inability of the electricians to dis cover serious faults in the cable before it is payed over the side of the ship. The delav for another year will not be thrown away if it enables them to devise better tests of excel- Jence of the cable before it is submerged. -Lnough, whether they do so or not, we must believe the possibility of an Atlantic Tele graph established, and look forward to the day as certain, even if distant, when England “ d „ A “ eril g will throb with one pulse of life. The Baily News is still more sanguine. It says that although the facts warrant dis appointment, they do not cause dismay, but on the contrary, point to ultimate success; and assuming that the three companies in terested can make the necessary arrangements at once, it is even now not impossible that attempts at telegraphic communication with America may be commenced before autumn ha spassed.” t w M I 6RA “ ON -T Tile rls .k Papers report it* I s n 0 abatement in the exodus, and that Cork is crowded with men, women and children, determined on a voyage across the Atlantic. A London paper says: “The emi gration movement has commenced in earnest “ al . and f lron districts of South Wales, l ’ i i n ° from the number that have already left, and are preparing to leave, there is every probability that thousands of Welsh colliers and iron-workers willlocate themselves on the other side of the Atlantic before the year is over. Nearly all that leave go out under the auspices of the American Emigrant bociety; who simply guarantee a free passage to JNew York, and then the emigrants must do the best they can for themselves.” A correspondent in the county of Kerry states that the emigration from Ireland this year is likely to exceed that of any past year since the famine; The persons leaving the country are all able bodied, and comfortably clad. Later. —Advices to the 23d are received. Concerning the arrangements resulting from the German conference, we have the follow ing particulars:—Prussia gets Lauenburg, paying Austria a pecuniary indemnity. Prus sia rules Schleswig and Austria. Holstein, until the future of the Dutchess is decided. Kiel harbor is to be occupied by Prussia, al though in Holstein, Prussia will propose to the Diet the construction of a German fleet. Alexandrian news is to the effect that the Suez canal floodgates have been opened, and a vessel laden with coal passed direct from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea on the 15th of August. The cholera is disappearing at Constanti nople, Gibraltar, Barcelona, and Valencia. The only English items noticable are that the Atlantic Telegraph Company has resolved to lay a new cable in June next, and pick up tbe old one afterward, also, that the late rebel agent and would-be ambassador in Lon don, Mason, writing to the Times, says that orders were immediately forwarded to stop the Shenandoah’s cruise, on the termination of the war. Hayti. —The news is again gloomy for the Government. Cape Haytien intelligence of August 22, says that the rebels had taken Fort St. Michel, on the opposite side of the harbor, by surprise at night, causing the tro.ops of President Geffrard to evacuate Petite Anse, and to stop the bombardment' of the town. The white inhabitants of the Cape were in a very unsafe position, being obliged to keep within doors, and being sub ject to constant threats by the mob, composed mostly of women armed with knives tied on the ends of bamboo poles. The rebels had enticed three of Geffrard’s officers from the American Consul’s house, and shot them in cold blood. It is added that the rebels are determined to hold out, and the Government forces are reduced to a small number by deaths and desertion. ITEMS. There are 11,851 Indians residing within the limits of the State of Michigan. The total number in the United States is estima ted at 314,622. Notwithstanding the fre quency of robberies and murders on the Texas frontier, the people of the interior are said to he getting along well enough, and in six counties haVe already publicly submitted to the Union. The condition of the freed men is satisfactory’ They are rapidly adapt ing themselves, we suppose, to their gw life. The debt of Canada is $78,000,000. By proclamation the President has removed the trade restrictions on artides heretofore ex-, cepted.——Mr. Hieskell, Speaker of the Ten nessee House of Representatives, has been in vited to resign, by a meeting of citizens .at Knoxville, for his opposition to the franchise bill. Advices from tbe Mexican border say that on the Rio Grande our Generals and those of Maximillian are hobnobbing together, and toasting each other in true convivial style. Our Generals are reported as expressing friendship for the empire.- The New Jersey Democrats have nominated for Governor, Gen. Runyon, of Essex County. A terrible railroad collision took, place on the Long Island Railroad, near Jamaica, L. I. on the 28th ult., by which several persons were killed, and others badly injured. The testimony, on the inquest, revealed abomina ble negligence of duty on the, part of both ~ c-A ed to Oneonfca, a distance ot eiguty-jtwo miles, on Tuesday of last week. Eifty~eigh.t miles more will complete the road to Bing hamton. Wm. Cornell Jewett, (“ Colora do Jewett,”) is again making himself ridicu lous. He publishes, through the N. Y. News, that on his return from Europe, Messrs. Raymond and Weed must give him the satisfaction due between gentlemen for mali cious insults, or, in his proposed Peace His tory of the Civil* War, be branded befoije posterity as national cowards. He does not howeyer say what he means by the term national coward. The Secretary of thd Treasury represents that department to be in an easy condition as to funds. —■—The M meraza route across the plains is reported impracticable by a party who attempted if, suffering great hardships and losing three If their number. The route ,to Montana frok Fort Laramie via Fort Cornier is pronounced good. Mr. Broad, one of the most skilfil divers in the United States, now employed ii the construction of the_railroad bridge oylr the Susquehanna at Jtlavre-de-Graoe, wis smothered to death in his diving dress.—4- In St. Pauls Minn, on the 26th ult. duriig the passage of a procession escorting Geh Grant through the city, a large balcony