The St. Petersburg correspondent of the Independance Beige, a well-informed
but credulous paper, says President Grant has offered the Czar the alliance of America in the effort to cancel the Treaty of 1856, and has promised to send the American Navy to assist the Russian Fleet in forcing the Dardanelles. The story is clearly apocryphal, as America does not interfere in European quarrels, and does not want war with England, Mr. Fish having, in a public speech, repudiated General Butler's well-meant attempt to get up one. Any attempt to seize Canada, he said, would mean immediate war; and as for the formation of the Dominion, England had always behaved with the greatest justice. American affairs are so oddly managed that it is quite possible the Secretary of State does not want Butler in the Cabinet, while the President does ; but in any case, General Grant is not going, without prepa- ration, to send the small squadron he has afloat to fight the British Fleet. The Continental Press seems to have an idea that because America and England have a lawsuit for damages on hand all American officials are malicious maniacs.
