Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, January 26, 1879, Page 4

4 THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: SUNDAY. JANUARY 26, 1879—SIXTEEN PAGES e " avenged their injured honor, The defense is memory extract the square rootof 3,004»40.}:@).. Thye Tribune, TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. TY MAIL—IN ADVANCE—POSTAGE Dany Edition. oze sexr. PuH of 2 vear, per mo . Eyncay Editfor: Literary Beturday Kdition, (RENe b 'WEEKLY EDITI One copy. per yea Club ot for Ciob of e Club of tweni tpeclmen cop! Uive Tos-Ofice address o foll, facindiog State snd County. Siemfitances may be made elther by draft, exprem. Fost-Gffice opder, or fu regletered letter. at our riske. TERMS TO CITT SUBSCRIBERS. Tafiy, delivercd, Sunday excepted, 25 cents per week. Litiy, delivered. Sundey ncluded, 30 cents Der week. Address THE TRIBGNE COMPANT, Corzer Madizon sad Dearborn-gis.. Chicago, THI. Orders tur the delivery of Tz TRIBCNE at Evanstan, Exzleviood, snd Ryde Par teft In the couating-room wlireceive prompastention. 'E BRANCH OFFICES. TRIBT Tr¥. CRICAGO TRIBTXE has established branch offices Tc3 fLerecelpt of subscriptions and advertisements &5 Teilows: NEW YORK—~Room 29 Tribune Bullding. F.T.Mo- AUDEN, Menager. PARIE, France—No. 16 Rue de 1a Grange-Bateliere. 3.MauiEr, Agent. LOXNDOY, Ecg.—Amerfcsn Exchange, 448 Strand. Er>Ty F. Giilig, Agent. SAN FRANCISCO. Cal—Palace Totel ‘WASHINGTOY, D. 1319 F street. SOCIETY MEETINGS. CORINTBIAX CHAPTER, NO. 69, R. A. Tcgular Convocation Monday evening. Jan. 27, st o'ciock: Work on the l’.d?‘x:fi M‘.flzfixa ‘;5 e e ons are cordiali NUEL RERE L P XEW COVENANT LODGE. XO, 25. L. O. G. T.— y r and soctabie 3t Temperance Hall, south- N TREe Nabasn av. 2nd Twenty-sccond-st. o Monday evening, 27Lh fnst., 8% o'clock. Admis- &ion, =5 cents. NATIONAL LUDGE, NO. 596, A. M- F &4 3 £tated Commmnication will be held at their hall on Tuesdny cvenlnz, Jan. 25. All members arc notified e D e e Car 6 S0, By orcer it k'R e BT Glepensaion o Y o0D. Secretars- » YETT! APTE] NO. 2, R. A. M.—Hall y'elock, 258, 7230 arelock, 0T U CREL Secretary. Jan. . D. A. CASHMAN LODGE, KO.65, F. & A M. — Repuiar Communication at iheir ball. coraer West }adison ana Kobey-sts., Tuesday evening, Jan. 8. 3 X ‘Virflors welcom Werk o 3L 2. DeRree A T CLASS. Secretary. SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1879, Tho Washington dispatches intimate with 2 considerable degres of certainty that Coxx- 1v6’s efforts to defeat the President’s desire in the matter of the Collectorship of New York City will temporarily succeed. On the rejection of Mererrr by the Scnate Anravn steps back into the office under the provis- jons of the Tenure-of-Office act, but his stay will expire in aboat five weeks, and then he must step down end ont. CoNELING can’t s2ve him, A Sub-Committee of the House Judiciary Committee, consisting of Kxorr and Cornee- “sox, Democrats, and Lapead, Republican, will leave Washington this evening for this city, to investigate the charges preferred .against Judge BropGerr. It isexpected that they will get to work on Wednesday. If Procror Exorr will devote as much atten- tion 1o this matter as he did to Duluth some eight years ago, he will doubtless present a report as equally readable, if not profound. The Post-Office Approprintion bill was dis- cussed in {ho House yesterday, Congressman "Baxen, cf Indiona, favoring the setting apart of a liberal sum for Loth the railway and general service. The Democrats were less jnclined than nsuzl to save at the spigot and let flow at the bung, and the prospects are that enough money will be appropriated for the carrying of the mails in 8 manner com- ‘mersurate with the needs of the people. Anotber of the secries of public meetings now beingheld in the towns along theline of the Hlinois & Michigan Canal took place . in Joliet yesterday, and was largely attended. All the speakers denounced the attempt ‘made by the rival railroads to demolish the great water highway between the lakes and the Mississippi, and resolutions were adopted asking for & return by the State of themoneys expended in building the Henry and Cop- peras Creek dams, memorislizing Congress to take control of the canal and enlarge it to the capacity required for the passage of ships and steamers, and urging the Legisla- ture to provide for a more economical man- agement by abolishing the Canal Commis- sioners. The recount of last 's vote on Sheriff, made nominally at the instence of ex-Sheriff Krax, has proceeded far emough to deter- fuine that the result will not materially “change that which was first announced. The {few voles gained by the recount are offset by nearly as many lost, and there is reason to believe that the original count was as fair and thorough as it ever iz in the hurry of an election night, and under the human tendency to err. It i probable that Mr. Kerx was misled by the more glaring mistakes in the count of the vote on the Court-House bonds ; but the po- sition which the bond proposition occupied on the tickets, and the confusion as to blanks, led up fo errors that were not so likely to occur in canvassing the vote on candidates, It is also likely that the Groenbackers urged the recount under the impression that their ticket had not been credited with all the votes which bad actually been cast for it. ‘This misapprehensionhad a ludicrous origin. When the Greenbackers were going sbout the city previously to the election, they as- certained that nearly everybody was in favor of more money (a sentiment common to most individuals at all times), and was ap- perently ready to vote the ticket that held the promise of more money for everybody. Thereupon the men who were running the Graenback ticket jumped at the conclusion that their ticket would sweep the town; the voters, however, concluded that the quick- est and surest way to get more money was 10 voie for sound money,—and hence these tenrs! Tke time has now come when it is desir- sble for properiy-owners, taxpayers, the business-men, and all the substantial, respon- sibla citizens of Chieago to cast about for a oroper candidate for Aayor and the right sort of men to represent them in the Com- mon Council. The city election is only about two months distant, and it is more imporiant in its bearings than ary genersl clection. Tko administration of the City Government during the past two' years has ‘been of an economical, business-like charac- ter, that has strengthened the credit of Chi- cago and relieved the corporation from much of the embarrassment that resulted from " previous extravagance and corraption. Every msn who pays a dollar in taxes, who ownsa foot of property, who hasa family to sup- port, who has a business at stake, or who depends upon his own labor for a living, is directly interested in the maintenance of this <ocnomical and conservative policy. Much of the credit of the improved condition in municipal affairs is due to the present Mayor, who hns been conscientious in the devotion of his time to the city’s interests, and who has managed his office with good intent and considerable ‘‘borse-sense.” Chicago will need to secure the services of much the same sort of man in order to maintsin the same kind of policy. A man of character and of good judgment, willing and able to give his time to the city affairs and personally inter- ested in an honest disbursement of moneys and the utmost limitation in taxes, who will ‘manage the affairs of the municipality much s be would manage his own business or & private trust, is the kind of Alayor most needed. The usual ward politics should ex- ert little influence in the selection, and. es- pecially on the part of the Republicans. The Republican party will find no di.‘ficnlly‘ in electing their candidate this coming spring, if they shall be governed by the single con- sideration we have suggested, for the man- agement of city affairs during the past two years and the promise of continuing the same policy implied in the selection of & sub- stantial, straightforward, commoun-sense can- didate will attract the votes of all classes identified with the city’s prosperity. THE LAKE-FRONT. The Commissioners of the Dlinois & Michigan Capal have presented themselves officially as claimants for that portion of 1and, commonly known as the * Lake-Front,” which lies between Madison street and Park row and esst of Michigan avenue. They set up a claim in behalf of the canal. The facts are few and may be briefly stated. In 1827 Congress donated to the State of Illi- nois various sections of public land to aid in the construction of fhe canal, and this land extended from LaSalle fo Lake Michigan. Included in this land was Fractional Sec. 15, ‘being that portion- of land estending sonth from Madison to Twelfth Strest, and lying east of State street, of which the greater part, located enst of Michigan avenue, was then submerged by the lake, These Com- missioners laid off all the canal land within what are now the limits of the city into building lots, with streets and alleys. That part east of Michigan avenue sand be- tween Mndison street and Park row was reserved as 8 public park. All the lots were sold, and those fronting east on Michi- gan avenue were sold under the contract that the land lying east of them to the leke was to be forever kept open. In considerationof this condition the lots fronting the park were held and sold at a higher price, the aim and expectation being that these lots fronting the park would produce more money for the canal thau if the whole land were sold without any park. This land sale took place in 1836, and the Commissioners closed up their business, and from that time to this the fact that the Lake-Front had been dedicated as a park has never been doubted, any more than that the land occupied as streets had been dedicated to the public. The city has beld and used this land as 2 park ever since the sale of the canal lands in 1836. The Canal Commissioners have obtained from the firm of Laweexce, CAMPBELL & LawRENCE alegal opinion as to the present status of the legal title to this property, and s to the power of the Legislature over the subject, and this opinion is to the following cffect: 1. That the Cansl Commissioners who acted for the State in laying off the land in- cluding this property never had any author- ity to dedicate any part of it for park pur- poses, end therefore none of the lJand was ever dedicated for any such purpose. 2. That there is no evidence that the Com- ‘missioners intended to dedicate the land as a street, and even if they had such an inten- tion the city did not accept it for that pur- pose, and the dedication failed. 3. The recital in the City Charter of 1863, that *The State of Tlinois, by its Canal Com- missioners, having declared that the public ground east of said lots [meaning enst of Michigan avenue] should forever remain open and vacant,” is a mere assumption; and the recitel of a sapposed dedication by the Canal Commissioners, which they had no power to make, cannot estop the State from asserting its own title for the use of the canal. 4. The act of April, 1869, granting to the city all the right, title, and interest of the State in this land, with authority to sell and apply the proceeds to park purposes, was a clear perversion of the trust upon which the State held this land; nevertheless, the grant vested the title in the city. 5. The act of 1873, repealing the Lake- Front act of 1869, did not revest in the State the title to the land in question. 6. The naked title to this land is therefore in the city under the act of 1869; but the land was given to the State for the purpose of building the canal, ““and no other,” and it could not rightfully grant the land for any other purpose ; and in cases of perversion of trust the beneficiaries may appeal to the Courts for protection. 7. That if the Legislature will by law su- thorize the Canal Commissioners fo bring suits for the purpose of establishing the trusts upon which the State received this land, the Courts will doubtlesshold that the city took the land with full notice of the uses and purposes of the original trust, and that the Canal Commissioners have the right to campel the appropriation of the property to the purpose of building the canal. Reduced to plain English, this opinion is, that the land in question belongs to the Canal Fund, and that the Commissioners are enti- tled to take possession of it, lay it off in lots, sell it, and apply the proceeds to the com- pletion of the canal,—that is, go back to the year 1836, and treat the land as an original donation from Congress. There are several things which, however, stand in the way of any immediate sale of this land by the Canal Commissioners. In the first place, it i3 not denied that there was dedication of thisland to the public; that this dedication was used by the Commission- ers to increase the cznal funds by obtaining more money for. the land abutting on this public park. Those who bought land on the west side of the avenue, under the condition that the land on the east should forever re- main open to the public, have had rights and equities running since 1836, which the State, the General Government, the Canal Commissioners, the City of Chicago, the property-owners along the avenue, and all persons, corporations, and others inter- ested, directly or remotely, have accepted, acquiesced in, and consented to for nearly fifty years, without an adverse claim or ques- tion. Something must be considered settled at some time, and it is rather late, at the end of fifty years, for the State of Ilinois to attempt by legislation to repudiate the official action of its Canal Commissioners; in which action the State has hitherto acquiesced, and which it has by various acts of legislation confirmed, approved, and ratified. The protense that the Commissionersin 1836 had no power to set aside a lot, or lots, of ground for any purpose, and that they could not, in order to sell the remainder of the land at & grenter price, set apart a por- tion for public purposes, if it had any force thirty or forty years ago, or af the time the 1and was sold, and sold under the condition that the park was forever to remain open to the public, can certainly have none at this late day, when public and private rights have become vested, and have been over and over egain afirmed by the State. , Wo believe thatitisarule of law that, where land is donated for a public purpose, and, subsequently, that use and purpose be abandoned, the land, if claimed at all, must revert to the original donor. If the land granted in 1827 for the canal has ever since 1636 been diverted from its original purpose, thenit would seem that the right of reversion is not to the State, nor to the Canal Commis- sioners, but to the United Slates, which alone is entitled to make a claim at this late day, after pearly fifty years’ undisturbed pos- session. Even admitting that in the remote future the Oaual Commissioners shall be authorized to sell lots in the Lake.Front at public auction, there will be some matters to be first adjusted. In the first place, the owners of sll the land on the west side of Michigan avenue, from Madison street to Park row, who bought this land under the condition of & park, will require to have their damages compensated. In the meantime the city has made extensive improvements in this Loke- Front. It has filled all that part of the park which was submerged with water. Ithas put in the park several millions of cubic yards of filling, which at the moderate cost of 50 cents per yard will call forseveral millions of dollars—perhaps more than half as many dollars as the whole property could possibly be sold for.” For thirty years the city has been mdking annual expenditures for improvements, When, therefore, Judge Grovke and his fellow- Commissioners shall have obtained a decree to sell the Lake-Front for the uses of the Canal Furd, they will find that, after they have settled all damages due to the private own- ersof property on Michigan avenue, and have compensated the city for its great improve- ments, it will be sbout an even thing whether the proceeds of the sale of the property leava a deficiency or a surplus. The whole schems to seize the Lake-Front and sell it to apply to the canal rests upon a legal and historical fabric so delicate and so wesk, s0 much exposed to the rough blasts of iruth and long established and accepted facts, that it is probable that it will drop with the publication of the legal opinion given to sustain it. The agitation of tho question, however intended, is calculated to seriously injure the progress of work on the canal and river improvement. The holding out of an idea that a great fortune —counted by miliions—has been discovered to belong to the canal may have theeffect of, or at least will be used as a reason for, making no further appropriation by the Leg- islature. The whole idea that the Lake- TFront belongs to the Canal Fund rests upon & point-blank denial of an act which for more than forty years has been stamped as a fact upon the history and laws of Illinois. For the Canal Commissioners to suggest this wild and visionary scheme, which at best is one of spoliation and repudiation, will not, we hope, result in an sbandonment of the canal by the Legislature in the matter of appropriations. DELAYS IN CRIMINAY TRIALS. ‘We published Friday last the announce- ment that sn application had been made before the Appellate Court of this district for asupersedeas in a criminal case, and that it had been granted, and that this opened up the question of the jurisdiction of that Court in criminal cases. The Appellate Court of this district hes affirmed its jurisdiction in this matter, though the Appellate Court in an- other district has decided the other way. The Constitution of the State, in authorizing the Legislature to establish thess Appellate Courts, to which such appeals and writs of error may be prosecuted from the,Circait aud other Courts, added, ** And from which appeals and writs of error shall lie to the Supreme Court in all criminal cases, and cases in which a franchise, or freehold, or the validity of & statute, is involved.” This secured the right of appeal to the Supreme Court in all the criminal andthe other classes of cases specified. The act creating the Appellate Courts followed the Constitution, and provided thet * Appeals and writs of error shall lie from the Circuitand other Courts directly to the Supreme Court in all criminal cases, and in cases involy- ing a fraochise,” eto. But the act passed at the sgme session, known as the Practice act, reads: *“ Appeals from Circuit Courts in all criminal cases shall be taken directly to the Supreme Court, in case the party sppealing or prosecuting such writ of error shall so elect, except in cases of chan- cery.” Under these two laws it is held that the right of direct appeal to the Supreme Court is entirely optional in criminal-cases, and that the criminal appealing may exhaust all his efforts and chances in the Appellate Courts before going to the Supreme Court. The public bave a deep interest in this question—far more than ordinarily attaches to a mero question of court jurisdiction. Tne peacs of society, the safety of life, person, and property, the maintenance of authority, are all dependent on the exccution of the laws provided for the puniskment of crime. The criminal classes flock largely to the great cities, but they operate very extensively in the smaller districts, robbing peaceful hamlets, firing towns and form-houses, and committing mur- der and other hardly less cruel and infamous crimes upon defenseless persons, frequently women and children. The value of any law for the punishment of crime must be found in the vigor of iis execution snd the cer- taicty that the guilty shall be punished. In the absence of law and courts, then com- munities for self-defense can organize and effectuslly protect themselves by summary proceedings; but, where the law and the courts exist and they both fail to punish crime, then the courts and the law actually serve to protect the eriminal classes from all punishment, and espose society to the nore- strained violence of murderers, burglars, and assassins. The law of this State gives to every person accused of crime the protection of an investigation by the Grand Jury, and a trial by a jury and the Court. The accused has practically the selection of the trial-jary, and, it may be said, also the right to select any one of eight or mne different Judges before whom he shall be tried. He has all the legal devices to postpone and continue his case ; and when, at last, all these things fail, the Court may in its ‘Qiscretion grant bim & new trial. Having, howcver, reac’bed the point of conviction and sentence, the law of Illinois grants him the right of sppeal to the Supreme Court; and it is only after pass- ing through all these tests that the State can demand the execation of the penalties of thy law for convicted guilt. - $ The great complaint has been that the “atrocity. machinery for the execntion of the ariminal Iaw is so locked up, clamped, obstructed, and arrested by the cunning devices of the lawyers who make the laws, that the prison- er who has money enongh to hire skillful attorneys can obtain such delsys and advan- tages that, in the end, he is almost certain 10 escape conviction, and, eventually, though his guilt be plain and notorious, he walks forth unwhipped of justice. Now comes the Appellate Court, which, by a trick in the Practice act, nterposes its jurisdiction between the Supreme and the Circuit Courts, giving the convicted criminal an additional chance to escape the punish- ment of the law. The defendant, after exhausting the law’s delay, after resori- 1ng to every practice, disreputable or other- Wise, to defeat a conviction, and forced to submit toa sentence, is to be now authorized to appeal to the Appellate Court. If that tribunal reverse the finding of the Circuit Court on any question,—and the material point of the guilt of the accused.is rarely ever questioned or examined on an appeal,— the case goes back to the Circuit Court, tobe tried de movo. 'Then ali the machinery of delay is again put in motion. The crime has been in the meantime overshadowed by fre- quent repetitions of it by others. The orig- inal witnesses have died, or have disap- peared, or their silence has been purchased. At the end of the second trial perhaps two years huvs_elapsad, and under such circum- "stances second conviction is only possible when the crime was of extraordinary Even then thers is a second ap- peal to the Appellate Court, and when that faila the prisoner has still his rxight' of final appeal to the Supreme Court. It is right to look at these things in the light of established facts. Nine-tenths of the appeals in criminal cases are taken to de- feat justice. There is rarely an appeal taken on the ground that the man has been convicted unjustly; the plea is that the Court befors whom he was tried committed error in some instruction or ruling in the case which of itself had not the remotest relation to the prisoner's actual guilt. It is & part of the criminal practice to *put up all kinds of jobs” on the Court, by submit- ting to him countless indefinite propositions of law, Lypothetical and philosophical,— some in the abstract and others in the con- crete,—and embracing all manner of ques- tions, covering the whole realm of sci- ence. Whichever way the Court may decide on all these questions, the decigon is assigned as an ““error,” and, armed with this volume of quirks and errors, ~—none of them involving the question of the guilt or innocence of the convict,—the connsel for the prisoner goes before the Ap- pellate Court and demands practically a judgment upon the Court bslow of having illegally convicted a prisoner. It is against this additfonal interference with the execution of the laws against erimo that the public have aright to protest. It practically permits an additional year of de- lay between conviction and the execution of the sentence. No criminal code can be en- forced where the convicted criminals have an indefinite time of appeal. When it is notorious that all appesls in criminal cases are for delay, or on frivolous, technieal, and unsubsiantial grounds, and when there is no well-founded suspicion that the person appealing is not in fact guilty of the crime of which he has been convicted, the policy of the law should be rather in expe- diting all proceedings after conviction, and in bringing appeals to the promptest possi- ble decision, than in extending the right of appeal to Courts which have no final decision in the case, and when such appeals afford only an opportunity for additional delay. As this jurisdiction of the Appellate Courts in criminal casesgrows out of the inconsistent provisions of two acts of the same Legislature pessed about the same time—and may have been accidental and unintentional—the rem- edy is with the Legislature, andisa plain one. All that has to be done is to make the Prac- tice act conform to the terms of the Appel- late Court act, and the people of the State may be spared the calamity of any additional legal delays in the execution of the criminal law »sgainst persons actuslly convicted of crime, THE OPERA SEASON. The opera season has closed, and Her Majesty’s troupe are off to-day, bag and bag- gnge, for St. Louis, to repeat their successes, end possibly their mistakes and jangles. From the musieal point of view, the season has been a memorable one, and is more than worthy to compare with the great season of 1859, which in reality first introduced Italian opera to Chicago, and of 1863, which in- augurated the Crosby Opera-House, While its individual artists, perhaps, are no finer than those of the two sossons named, the equipment of the troupe in the matters of chorus, orchestrn, and second people is much stronger, and thus in the main the representations bLave been more complete and satisfying. Asis siated in our musical review, the season has given us fourteen per- formances,—two each of ““Carmen,” “ Lucia,” and * Sonnambula,” and one each of “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Il Trovatore,” “Rigoletto,” “TFaust,” *The Magic Flute,” “I Puritani,” “The Huguenots,” and *Troviata,” OF these, * The Marringe of Figaro,” ‘‘The Magic Flute,” and ¢“The Huguenots "—the three most important operas given—have come near to being fail- ures, while two of the others have been well given, and four—* Lucia,” ** Sonnambala,” ““ Rigoletto,” and * I Puritani "—bhave never been equaled here, showing that the great -strongth of the company lies in the per- formarce of the Italian operas of the ortho- dox style. “Cnrmen” wns & specialty in which the company reached & remarkable degreo of perfection by the run which the opera had in London. With the exceptions we have noted, the musical success has been emphatic, and many of the individual per- sonations, s well as the complete pres- entations, will long be remembered by those who had the ploasure of hearing them. Apart from its musical features, the season bhas occupied the public attention in other ways. It commenced with the war of the dressing-rooms, which made the people laugh. Then came the exposure of shame- less speculation, which made people growl, and then followed the rapacious character of the management in selling tickets far be. yond the capacity of the house, thus depriv- ing people of their seats and exposing nearly every one to great personal discomfort. To such an extent was this practiced on Thurs- day evening, and so loud was tho complaint of the public, that the police anthorities yes- terday afternoon, when a similar annoyance was threatened, promptly solved the prob. lem by ¢jecting the overplus of people, to the sorrow of the box-office, which had to Teturn their money. The action of the police was timely and judicious, and it should be applied to every theatre in the city which sclls tickets beyond its capacity to accommodate people with seats. Itis to be presumed that the public censurs has been sufficiently severe to suggest to the managers of this theatre and of all the other halls and' theatres their plain dutyin the future. It is time that the ordinances bear- ing upon the conduct of our theatres, which have long been dead-letters, should be thor- ougaly and systematically enforced. The morz! of all thisis, that, when a man- sger has a star so brilliant or a company so strong that every one wants to see them, we should have a house sufficiently capacious and comfortable to accommodate them. Be- tween £350,000 and $60,000 have been ex- pended in admissions, and probably as much more for incidental expenses. Does it oc- cur to any one that this sum would suffice to erect an opern-house that d be amply capable of accommodating every one who wishes to hear opers, provided the money were not squandered in gewgaws and orna- ments ? The events of the past week have shown that we need such a house. The Crosby Opera-House was crowded over and over again, but there never was any, com- plaint from people of want of accommoda- tion. It is evident from the experi- ences of last week that we bhave mo house in the city capsble of ac- commodating the people who are attracted by a first-class operatic entertainment. As the same experiences have shown that people are willing to pay for such entertainments, and to pay very large prices, it is entirely within the limits of probability that an opera-house economically built and judi- ciously conducted would pay a profit on the investment. No doubt the opera is a luxury, and an expensive one, but it is one of those luxuries which seem tfo be inseparable from the social life aud fashions of great cities. Chicago is an exception to the other cities— made exceptional by the Great Fire—in not baving one. If we had had one all the annoyances; discomforts, and impositions of the past weck would have been avoided. For ordinary seasons we can get along very comfortably with the theatres; but thero are seasons like those of Nwssox, Lucca, and the present one when they are insufficient to accommodate every one comfortubly. THE CITY EXPENDITURES. The Finance Committee of the City Coun- cil have a serious public daty before them. The ordinance making the annual appro- priations for 1879 is to be prepared by them, and it will depend much on their earnestness and fidelity whether that ordinance will be a return to municipal waste and profligacy, or an adherence to the policy which has done so much to bring the city safely throngh the financial® distress which was so over- whelming in 1876. % The various departments have made their estimates for the present year, all demand- ing a large incrense in_ expenditure. ~There is a special demand for more persons under salary and for an advance in all salaries. Itis against this appeal that the Fingnce Com- mittee and the Council will have mainly to contend. The demand for office and that men holding public offices shall be paid 50 per cent more for their serv- ices then the same men or service can commsand in private business explains itself. The city three years sgo was in practical bankruptcy. The economical rule which has been ‘maintained since then—the dismissal of scores of officers whose services were found to be useless—and the great re- duction of expenditure have restored the oity’s credit, have fenewed public confidence, and are enabling the City Government to gradually retire the mountain of public debt, which was tainted with illegality, the result of profligacy. All thess demands for more officers and more ‘selaries are not in the in- terest of the public, but in the interest of men who want offices at liberal pay, and in the interest of men who expect to get alarge fee for having others appointed. It isnotex- travagant nor startling to assume or to assert that if 100 additional policemen be author- ized the persons appointed will each have to pay somebody from $30 to $75 for the ap- pointment. In the absence of any compen- sation for service as Alderman, this sum di- vided among tho dealers in offices will be welcomed. But this is not the purpose of City Governments. Taxation to pay salaries to useless officers is robbery. Let us hope that the City Council will have the courage and perseverance to maintain the policy of the last two years. Two years more will finally extricate the city from its worst troubles, and until that time let no useless appropriation be made, and no dollar use- lessly expended. — WIFE-MURDER AND “EMOTIONAL IN- SANITY.” The affidavit upon which the counsel for StEVENS, the wife-murderer, secured a post- ponement of thelatter’s trial revealed the line of the defense to be *emotional insanity,” and, indeed, during the discussion that fol- lowed the presentation of the affidavit, conn- - selused those very words in defining the proposed defense. This murder was. committed several months ago, and, at the time, zronsed an unusual amount of public indignation, which has natorally subsided under the rush of later events. The victim was scarcely moro than a child, and had been married to her destroyer only a shoit time. During their married life thers had been frequent quarrels andseparations, the responsibility for which is charged by the young wife's friends upon Stevess' ill-trentment and failure to sup- port her. Srtevens himself charges that Lis wife hsd ecriminal intimacy with several men, though the letters and evidenco produced on this point would only indicate culpable flirtation. At arl events, STEVENs, by his own admission, bad condoned the offenss he charged upon 'his wife; but she had left him ngain. In his recent affidavit he says that he fonnd her in a public park sitting with o man, whose face he slapped ; that he then told her he wonld see her lator ; that she colled him a “Iittle sneak”; and that, on account of ths various circumstances ralated, he *becamo crazed and was not responsible for what he did thereafter.” What he did was to shoot down this young girl-wife as she was walking home alone or in /,Lompany with another young womaa. It does not clearly appear from the affidavit whether his * emotional insanity ” and the consequent loss of moral responsi- bility was the result of the suspicions he had been harboring or of the epithet of ¢ little sneak.” The fact that he had been troubleq with suspicions for a long time, and that the shooting was done only upon being called a ““little sneak,” would indicate that it was the epithet which “crazed” him. We pre- sume, however, that this is not material where ¢‘ emotional insanity " actually sets in, “* Emotional insanity * was first employed 88 a successful defense against a charge of murder {o secure the acquittal of & man who killed the alleged seducer of his wife, It was the excuse which served for a jury’s approval of Stcxres’ killing of Kry. This set a Frece- dent which served to scquit several other men who took the law in their own hands and new, however, 'in this country as a justifica- tion for wife-killing. It is true that in France the criminal code expressly provides for the discharge of a husband who kills his wife for infidelity ; but it is necessary that the husband shall do the Kkilling when he finds the wife in the very act of adultery, and not upon mere suspicion before or after. The younger Duvaas excited a fierce con- troversy on this subject by o pamphlet he published nnder the title of * Tue-la!" in which a good many srguments were ad- vanced that would not meet with American approval; indeed, French gallantry is of avery different sort from that which characierizes the American consideration given to women; and, if the Americans are not so polite super- ficially, they are not so brutal in their actual treatment of the fair sex. But even the principle of the French code would not apply to the present case, for STEvexs did not dl_s- cover his wife in flagrante delicto ; there is 1o direct proof of her infidelity; there is evi- dence tending to show that their separation was owing more to him than to her; and he shot her down in the public street in the most cowardly and villainons fashion. To apply the doctrine of ** emotional insanity ” to STEvENs would be to go further than the French law-makers ever dreamt of in encour- aging wife-murder. This new application of ‘*emotional in- sanity” suggests that it is time for the Courts and the public to analyze the phrase and scrutinize the doctrine involved. It has’ alwnys beon understood that the term wasa mere make-shift to secure the legal sanction for the revenge of an injured husband against his wife's polluter. Any wider sig- nificance will open the way for the rejection of the whole doctrine of free will aund re- sponsibility to thelaws. The original mean- ing of the word * emotion” is & movement of the mind which preduces certain physical effects. The latest physiological theories abou} reflex action bring every occurrence under the general desigmation of emotion, There is a certain mental movement, par- teking of mors or less excitation, in even the most insignificant action. In & case of as- sault or murder there is almost invariably an exaggerated emotion. suggested by malice, revenge, cupidity, or the hundred base motives that lead to crimes of violence. The extent of the emo- tion only determines, then, the degree of * insanity,” which is simply tacked on to secure a legal immunity from the punish- ment which the law attaches to certain actions growing out of emotion. To follow out tho logical sequences of this theory as applied to criminal csses would be to estab- lish a universal releass from all moral re- spousibility and a sweeping negation of all principles of law and society. Thereisa certain class of latter-day theorists who act- ually advocate such a doctrine, and we may concluds that it is recognized as valid when Pere Stevess shall be able to secure an ac- quittal, under the circumstances attending bis crime, on the plea of ** emotional in- sonity.” It will then be an easy matter to reach immuupity from punishment through the irresponsibility of the emotions in the case of the highwayman who kills for the emotion of plunder, or the braute who com- mits murder at the emotion which follows closely upon an angry word. The counsel for. this wife-murderer is a very shrewd aud practical crimina! lawyer, ond we suspect that he relies as much upon the law’s delay and the public apathy as upon his plea of *emotional jnsanity.” A quick trisl was promised when the public was in 8 state of fierce resentment against the slayer of this young girl, and when a gocd many people would have joined in stringing him wup to a Iamp-post if they could have laid hands on him. But the case has dragged along for months, and, when it finally comes up, it is postponed on a very flimsy affidavit. Nobody can give a good guess when it will be tried ; but, if the plea of * emotional insanity” sball not be ac- cepted by a jury that believes in moral responsibility, then it will be taken to the Appellate Court, and perhaps reversed and remanded on some tech. mical point. A new trial and some more coguetting with the Appellate Court will be folowed, if necessary, by taking it up to the Supreme Court as another refuge for delay if not for safety from crim. inal lisbility. Tn the meantime public “‘ emotion " will die away into indifference, and the wife-murderer will eithar escape al- together or suffer the punishment dealt out toa poor devil who steals a rasher of bacon to save himself or-his family from starvation, A contemplation of this and similar cases from such a point of view is caleulated to superinduce an ¢‘emotional insanity” onthe partof the public which would not be very {favorable to Pire STEvENs if it had as free an opportunity for manifesting itself in ac. tion as his ** emotional insanity " had.. "This law’s delay, which so frequently results in g defeat of justice, is more of a menace to the sufety and well-being of society than any sentimental pleas which legal ingenuity can invent. The hest influences of the time should be exerted to avert both the delay and the sensational defenses against puvishment for crime. "The fact is uodenied that this man STEVENS severa] months ago shot down a defenseless ‘Woman, scarcely more than a child in years, in the public street, and he ought befora this to have suffered the penalty of the law, unless it be the purpose to desert the theory of moral responsibility and try to get along without law. —_— Juries in Ireland sometimes show strong sym- ‘pathy with erimiaals as well as Jjuries in thiscoun-~ try, especially in cases of rows and fights. In Tullawore a|fortnight 420 a verdict was re- taroed by nl'jury lmpaseled in a triat for stabbing, whith astopished the Court, The evi- dence for lh’ prosecution was that, after an altercation, the prisoner stabbed the prosecutos in the head and inflicted 2 wound two fnches long, which penetrated to the bone and put his life iu danger for some days. A suggestion for the prisoner [that the wound might bave been caused by a fall was refuted by the position and nature of the wound, and, irrespective of the direct swearing of the injured man, was entiroly unsuoported |by evideuce. The lawyer who de- fended him saw the case 30 clear that he exam. ined a witness to give the prisoner a £ood char- acter, in order that the verdict might be accom- panied by a recommendation to mercy. To the astonishment of every person jn court, a verdict of “Not guilty” was returned. ‘]“lle Judge said he coosidered the fioding calculated %o bring the law into utter contempt, and to make trial by jury a farce. He believed they delibor. ately disregarded their oaths, and through a Leeling of symrathy with crime acquittéd the ‘Pprisoner, knowing him to be guilty. —— Some wonderful exhibi i mental caleulations harin?z::e:tllvr::::ogn;: in London and noticed in the Spectator, a corre- :{&n:]eonrtc or'e ;h:rcka;{;scr& :rsns !nllenlian to the Siesevany 1 of Dr. WaLrsin eatecath century, recorded in his journal and attested by reputable witnesses, Dec. 22, 1668, in @ darks nigut, in bed, without pen, fak, paver, or anything cquivaleut, he didby That emotion may be. 60000,00000,02020,00€00.00900.00000, w§ he found to be 1,77235,05075,6307,20353. Feb, 13, 1670, a visitor desiring an exhibition of the i, skill, he propused to himsel in the dark, withoys help to his memory, a bumber in ff; i-three places: 2465135791012 1411131515182017192 1220435 23302325272031, of which he extracted the #quazg root In twenty-seven places: 151710301657 1452y 817152171 aporoximately, which numbers he gj) notcommit to papernatil the same isitor retyry. ed, when they were dictated from emory. The sums are, indeed, puzzling; but for real ingrj. cacy and unfathomableness they do oot comparp with the Forid’s prize-question: “Why js 5 door-nal called dead?” ——— THE BRAVURA STYLE OF MUSICAYL CRITI. CISHL, It was an interesting, if not profoundiy original, reflection of a Chicago preacher fasy Sabbath that the pleasures and amusements of one portion of socicty are not infrequently gg. tended by a correspouding degree of misery in- flicted on another class. We think we have met a fancy of this kind before; if we arc not mis- taken, comething of the same sort is intimateq in the verses of a number of poets, and in the pages of several obilosophic writers: but the idea Is none the less striking in maoy of the ap- plications to which the eloquent speager ong i, and would have been still more striking in some anplications to which he might have pot it, byt did not. He might have told us, for instance, if he coutd,—since it s to be presumed that he, like every other high-toned clereyman in the dity, had attended the Royal Upera during the Week, —by what peculiar application of the principle under discussion an event of such exalteqd hapoiness as the opera season has been to oge class of people should be to another class a pro- found and burdensome affliction. For weeks before the opening night, while Miss SAMaxTH) CLEMENTINB Was {n ap ccstasy of delightfy] anticipations of .the great event, Foung Mr. ApoLpaus PERIVINELE, who i3 a re porter or somcthing o the Daily Bugle-Blast, was in a condition of the heaviest melancholy. Not that ADOLPEUS has'no love of musicin bis soul. If hecannot be moved by a concord of sweet sounds, he thinks no man on the paper can. And he was zoing to the opera, of conrse; be had arranged to be present every mght of the season. But here was the secret of his grief—the source of all his woes: Hewasto report the opera for .his paper. ApoLPaps had reoorted musical eveots before. He had experienced the curses of printers end the wrath of proof-readers who labored to present bis musical reports in print; and his spirits hag not been soothed by accidentally overhearing gome musical people whom he had criticised referring to him as * the colossal ass who does the music criticism for the Bugie-Blust.” He had scarcely yet recovered from his terrifie wrestle with the English and most other modern Isnguages, on ihe occasion of the concerts of WiLnzewy, when be had succeeded In making his accounts of the performances a3 unintel- ligible as the name of the great fiddler is mn- pronounceable. He knew that as tie *Royal Opera’ was expeeted to be the bizgest musical evens ever known in Chicazo, s0 his accounts of 1t would be expected to overtop any feat of lead- pencil gymnastics ever before accomplished. A hivh-toned, fuil-dress, three-dollar *Royal Opera” must, of course, have a high-toned, g Royal ecriticism. No wonder, witn sach s ‘prospect, Aporrnus was dishearténed and de- jected, and with himt mourned! also the other writers assigned to similar duties on the varions publications. The printers and proof-readers who must strugele with the MS. reports joived in the lamentations; and thos—as we com- menced by remarkinr—whst was to one class of people an occasion of the kecnest joy, was to these unfortunates a cause of the bitterest arief. In view of the sad fate of these poor mortals, the reflection arises whether there is any vital necessity that newspaper criticisms of musical events should be the fearfully and wonderfally coustracted affaird that custom has made them. Those who write them evidently make the most heroic attempts to do the thing well, accordivg. 10 a certain model; but may it not be possible that the model is & faulty one? Apalyzedalit- tle, it Jooks as though the prevailing style of musical criticism were based upon a notion that not only must the writing be as brilliant as the music, but that there must be an anal be- tween the range of notes of a musical p&Mform- ance and the range of descriptive’ terms applied to it,—the writer sceking to force these terms along a gamut of language corresponding to the musical gamut of the siceer’s voice. ‘When the voice rises into the higher and more difficult notes, the reorter tries to climbto the same altitude; but his dull leaden pencil wil! not reach those sitvery nights. He attemvts to put ioto pring the “trills, roulades, staccatos, and sudden octave jumps” that he heard from GERSTER; but these do nos take readily to prose, and seem out of place in its slow and ponderous measures. He specially admires the “‘embroidery * with which HAuk adorns her sioging; and so he *‘emoroiders” his desecrip- tion after such a fashion as this: Tt is s soulful voice, surchargea with that Dotent but exquisite ift, indescribable, butalways felt, toat 18 like the life below the bloom of the flower. or tne secret springs that, unknown aad unconfessed, yot rale the heart. While in thé wonderfirl capacity of that beaati- ful upper register, which is of itself a cryatailine charm, she will astonieh with an airy flight of staccalo that will suddenly raiso_her voice a whole octave: she wiil dazzle and delight the listener with brilliant arpeggios, ana will embroider her in- tricate and long-sustained mnsical path as with s shower of pearls, AT the singers of any company have genuine, soulful voices, with true crystallive charms, that can embroider a path as with a shower of pearls, we are sure it must be those of H. R. M. Company. But our embroiderer of the English langunge can be specilic and techoical, too, ‘when occasion requires: Her voice i3 not unnsually wide in range, but atis clear and round in the timbro, flexiole, and agile. The mezzo vowce 1= round, the tones inalt brilliant, while in altissimo lies ber unly claim to the title phenomenal singer, should she wish to get the reputation, which is not likely. Her stac- cato notes in altissimo arc as perfect and beautiful asart and patural aoility can make them. Her respiratory metbod, especially when preparing for tours de force, is very praiseworthy, and not sec- ond to this 18 her interlizent phrasing and good enunciation. Her ilorituri passsges aro fnely sung, and her excention is faultless, and ber in- tonations are absolutely correct in the most diffi- calt bravura passages. Another critic saw the matter in s more sober light, and said: In the intricate and long finale'of the firatact er voice was overpowered when the septette was reached, where it shonld have topped ull others, ss its tempo is indepcudent of the others, and it gives cofor and form to the climaz. Somchow the male voices do not inspire the same degree of enthusiasm as those of the Iady sinzers. We read with regret that one of them Wwas not only *“100 weak to cope with the fne tensity required” by a particular part, but *‘scemed to be unable to cope with ao ordirary bravura passage.” If the singer had been as courageous as the writer, it is not likelv that he would have hesitated to *‘cope” with any mu- sical feat short of an imitation ot a calliope oF orchestrion. The reporter’s mastery of *bravurs passages " is complete, even if somewhat paio- ful. We mayadmire his eneray and daring, bat are not quite ready to accept his method, which inflicts such misery not only mpon himself but all who may read his work. In literary criti- cistn, it is not usually the writer who can employ the greatest number of technical expressions that passes for the one of most profundity. It is expected, rather, that the criticism will be clear and simple in proportion to the ability of the critic. It is not, we trust, too much to houe that musical criticism will some time be of this character, and that it will not ccase to be fash- fonable even when intelligible. Parvassian slang in literary criticism is now generally con- sidered an indication of valgarity; and the Bravura style of criticising music will, we trusty before long be allowed to take the sace rank. ——— Mr. BRoNSON HOWARD Las brought the New York Nationto bookvery sharpl, I¥ forits criticism upon his play, “The Banker’s Daughter.” The Nation bad said: **It it does not turn out, &b some remove, to have a French origin, we shall be yreatly surprised.” Mr. Howakp justly contends that the Nation has no right to indulze in surmises of this description, Either his play " B [ > T MmN N