The New York Herald Newspaper, August 17, 1859, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. DFFWON N. W. CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSAU 818. eee = Volume XXIV.......::essessseseeses cess NOs B2T MIBLO'S GABDEN, Broadway.—8im0n's Miszirs—Be1e | oR LOVE. ‘or Mapxip—soLpiag Fr: BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—War Eacie—Maaic Taumrst—Pres's Prax. WALLAOK’S THEATRE, Broadway.—InxLanp 49 17 15— Las Boone. NATIONAL THEATRE, Ohatham street.—Mazerra—Ti- ‘MOUR THs TaBtaR, SUM'S AMMRICAN MUSEUM, Brosdway.—After- oon and Brening-ONFuAxs OF BWITEERLANDNO. LDING, 561 and 663 Nooes moana, 2G Saat EL, Mechanios’ Hall, 472 Broadway— Bee TAN rs: Aono, Daxors, 20—-SaWDUSE ACROBATS, ABDEN AND HALL, Fourteenth street,— ononne ax) Botuen DANSAXTB. _———————————— = New York, Wednesday, August 17, 1859. pedal a SR Pe es BAILS FOR EUROPE. The Kew York Herald—Kdition for Europe. ‘The Cunard mall steamship Persia, Captain Judkins, ‘will leave this port this morning, for Liverpool. ‘The European mails will close in this city at eight o’clook this morning. ‘The Karopoan edition of the Hxaatp will be publishoo as half past seyon o'clock in tho morning. Single copies, io wreppers, cx cents. ‘The mails by the Persia will be sorted on board ready for delivery oo her arrival in England! uoder the super- intendence of Mr %. Na: of the General Post office, London. Subscriptions and adycrtisements for any edition of the Bxw Yors Beast will bo received st the following placer in Enrope— ie Boson... .Bamp Low, Son & O., 47 Ludgate Hill, ‘lesion, Star? & Oo., 74 King Wiliam street Baldwin & Oo., 8 piace de in Bourse. Co., No. 9 Chapel stree!. siroet, Bast. », 21 Rue Corneille. aves... . Lanning, Baldwin & The contents of the Laropean edition of the Heratn wil pembine the nows received by mall and telegraph at the office during the previous week and up to the bour ef the publication. The News. The Croton water is pronounced all right by Dr. Chilton, the well known chemist, by the President ofthe Croton Aqueduct Board, and one of the assist ant engineers, who yesterday visited the dam and examined the water. We give our special report. the certificate of Dr. Chilton, and some letters from correspondents, elsewhere. The healthfulness or otherwise of Croton water as a beverage does not exempt from the payment of Croton water taxes. The total receipts for water taxes since the Ist of January have been $36 2, of which sum $550,077 was paid previous to the of the present month, when five per cent was added to unpaid dues. Thus far the receipts have been about ten per cent more than Iast year Fifteen per cent will be added to all dues remain ing unpaid on the Ist of November. Last : total receipts were $735,000. This year’ ceipts, it is believed, will reach nearly $900,000, Senor Lerdo, the Mexican Minister, reached Washington last evening, where he will remain a few days, and then proceed to Mexico. It is said that he has so far accomplished the object of his mission, that its entire success only depends on the approval of certain details by the Juarez govern- ment. Fearful losses of life and property are stated by advices from Pictou, N.S., to the 2d inst., to have occurred in that vicinity, by a terrific gale which swept over that region. The gale was particularly Bevere on the south side of Prince Edward Island, where the loss of fifty lives and a number of ves- Fels attest its fearful violence. Our correspondent at Magdalena, in a letter given clsewhere, furnishes us with the particulars of a battle in Sonora between the Opata and Yaqui Indians, under Tanere, and a body of libe rals, under Pesquiera. The Indians, who had been ravaging the country for several weeks and threatening the town of Magdalena, were entirely defeated and the district restored to temporary tranquillity. Our correspondent also gives us some additional information respecting the discovery of silver mines, and of the condition of local affairs in Arizona. The brig Marshal Ney, at this port, has brought advices from the west coast of Africa, dated at St. Paul de Loando on the 23d of June. Business was very dull. Palm oil very high and scarce. The overland Calif ornia mail, with advices to the 25th ult., arrived at Memphis yesterday. The news is meager and unimportant. A fire at Crescent City had destroyed about $30,000 worth of property. Ships Meteor and Young America, from this city, had arrived at San Francisco. The Richmond Grays, under the escort of a bat. talion of the National Guard, were received yes- terday afternoon in front of the City Hall, by Mayor Tiemann, and Mayor Mayo, of Richmond Va., and the Common Council, besides a host of invited guests and military men. The affair passed off with great éclat. In the evening the Common Council gave a banquet to the Mayor of Rich- mond and the Grays at the Metropolitan Hotel, which was partaken of by upwards of four hun- dred guests. Speeches were made by Messrs. Tiemann and Mayo, Captain Elliott of the Grays, Captain Dimmock and others. The proceedings terminated at midnight. The court martial on Major Osborn Cross held a Jong session yesterday, and finally arrived at a de- cision, the nature of which is kept for the present a a profound secret. It was rumored, however, that the decision was favorable to the Major, but nothing cer- tain can be known about the matter until all the pa- pers are transmitted to the War Department for supervision. The decision will thus be first aa” nounced through the authorities at Washington. Messrs. H. Meigs, Jr., H.T. Morgan and G. White- house, the committee appointed from the members of the Stock Exchange to investigate the charge against one of their members for non-delivery of stock sold by him to a street operator, as re ported in Tuesday's Herarp, had a meeting yesterday. Several witnesses were examined on both sides. The defence set up was an offset against the street operator, consisting of a balance alleged to be due for differences existing at the time of the failure of the latter a few months since. The committee will doubtless give their report to-day. Considerable interest is felt in the decision among stock operators, on account of the question of offsets in the manner claimed by the defence being a very important one in view of the frequent failures of stock brokers both in and ont of the board. ‘The Board of Ten Governors had a meeting yes- terday in the Rotunda. The usual fortnightly re- ‘{uisitions for the institutions were read and passed upon. Governor Oliver stated that the report of his remarks in the Zimes of yesterday morning Sfss chee ite nd that no other paper ered itself to n: playfal words in a like rant a was i communication was received of the Penitenti affidavits against a keeper vated 565s oe ae ing money from the wife of a prisoner under his charge upon the prisoner's order, by threatening him with coarse treatment in case of refusal and was read, The affidavits were from the prisonat and his wife, and complained of three aifter. ent cxtogtions of $10 each. The subject was referred to a committee for investign. NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1850. = = ~~ tion, The Committee on Workhouse reported in favor of permitting the women in that institu- tion to work for J, D. Philips and Co., for ten cents per day for one month, and twenty cents per day after that time, at cap making, for eighteen months. The report was adopted. “he number now in the institutions is 7,152, being an increase of 81 on the preceding week. A return to the writ of habeas cor us in the case of Dr. Ellis was made yesterday to the Supreme Court by the keeper of the city prison, who pro- duced the Doctor personally. After hearing the ar- guments of counsel, Judge Ingraham decided to hold the prisoner to bail on the Roberta and Hern- stein cases in the sum of $1,000, and remanded the Doctor to prison until the necessary sureties could be obtained. The other charges against him were dismissed. The charge in the Roberts case is for the alleged stealing of a diamond ring and a Peun- sylvania Coal Company bond, and tearing up cer- tam evidences of debt. The Hernstein charge is for alleged false pretences in the purchase of medi- cal instruments, for which he did not pay in fall. Complaints were made by the police yesterday against some thirty individuals for violations of the Sunday Liquor law. Most of the violations oc” curred in the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth avenues, or at least the police in those localities were the most diligent in noting down the offenders. The accused parties will be brought before a magistrate to-day and required to give bail to answer. Among the number implicated was a keeper of a lager beer saloon, whose arrest seems to indicate that a foray is about to be made on those places of Sun- day resort. The trot between Flora Temple and Princess, over the Eclipse Course yesterday afternoon, resulted in the success of the former. The distance trotted was two miles. The time of the first heat was 4:50}, six and a-half seconds quicker than the same nce had ever been trotted before. A graphic account of the race and attendant scenes will be found elsewhere. The mails by the Persia, which sails this morn- ng, will be sorted on board, ready for delivery on 1 in England, under the supervision of , of the General Post Office, London, and the facilities thus given te commercial opera- tions will, we are sure, be highly appreciated. The sales of cotton yesterday embraced about 1,100 alee, including a portion for export, The market tlosed neavy. Middiing uplands were quoted at 117%c, There wero letters received in town yesterday (rom the princt- val colton marts in middle and upper Georgia, extending rom Augusta to Columbus, and one from Montgomery, Alabama, complaining of a week’s heavy rain, and ex pressing appretensions that if it eontinued, ths zrowing cotton would seriously suffer from its effects Flour was egain heavy, aud about ten cents per barrel ower for most descriptions. The market, however, was more active at the decline. Wheat was lower and ursettied, Incladed in the sales were South. ro new white at $132 a $135, new red do, +t $1 20.0 6125, handsome new white Mishigan at $1 40, nd white Kentucky at $1 40a $145. Corn was io light upply, with sales of old Western mixed, in store, at 770. ork was heavy avd lower, with sales of mess at $13 623, « $13 15, and prime at $9 €0 8 $970. Sogars werestoady, with eales of about 700 hhus. and 220 do. moiado at rates civen ip apotber column. Coffee was steady; the chicf saie comprited 2,600 bags Maracaibo, for export, om pri vate terms, with a small ict (100 baga) Rio at 1110.0 1340. Frelgbis were steady. Among the engageaents were 700 bales of cotton io Liverpool at 7 824. 10 \4d., and 1,500 bdis. flour and SCO bbls. rosin at Is. 6d. Gen. How nd the Texas Election—The First Howl from the Southern Disuulontsts. The reported Union victory of Gen. Sam Houston in the late Texas clection is beginning to reach the ears of the politicians. The pun- gent little editorial commentary on the subject which we publish today from the Charleston Mercury betraya the temper in which the news is received by the Southern disunionista. It isa good card for Houston; and should the fall re- turns of this Texas election verify our latest re- ports, we may expect soon to hear the whole peck of our Southern fire-eaters in full choras after him. But as this hue and ery will attract the attention of the sober and conservative body of the people, North and South, we would not be surprised if Gen. Houston should become, before the meeting of Congress, the most conspicuous and the most popular Presidential candidate of the day. Our Charleston cotemporary, while confessing that the democratic regency of Texas were guilty of a foolish and fatal blunder in making the re- opening of the African slave trade the great question of their late election, laments the re- sult, as having “raised to power one of the greatest enemies to the South, and one of the most unmitigated demagognes within our borders—a Southern free soiler.’ This, how- ever, is a mere matter of opinion, in which the weight of the facts and the argument are on the other side. We know that our Southern ultras have never forgiven those Southera men, including Houston, who supported Mr. Clay’s great compromise: measures of 1850. We have not forgotten the Southern jou conveati and movements organized ia opposition to those measures after they had passed. But we also remember that in South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- bama and Mississippi, the secessionists in those Btate elections of 1851 were signally defeated by a fusion of the law and order and Union men of ail parties. Thus, throughout the South the course of General Houston on those compromise measures was fully endorsed by the people. What next? The Kansas-Nebraska bill, involving the repeal of the Missouri compromise. Granted that General Houston say nothing in that scheme but afirebrand of sectional agitation and discord, full of danger and disaster to the South, how far was he wrong? What has the South gained by that Presidential electioneering project of Northern politicians, or rather what has the South not lost? Where is Kansas? Where now is the once all-powerful Northern wing of the democratic party? Where the late majority in Congress? And to what cause are we indebted for this new and overshadowing anti-slavery party ofthe North? These questions need ne an- swers, It is enough to know that the conse- quences of that Kansas-Nebraska bill fully con- firm the sagacity and patriotism of General Houston as a Southern statesman in his opposi- tion to the measure. The simple truth is, that the South Carolina politicians have entertained a strong prejudice against General Houston from the moment that he preferred to part from Mr. Calhoun rather than abandon those old Union democratic ideas which marked the course of General Jackson. The first great mistake of Mr. Calhoun was that ridiculous quarrel with Old Hickory which re- eulted in giving Martin Van Buren the inside track for the succession; and the last mistake of the great Carolina statesman was involved in that erroneous conception of a purely Southern sectional party upon the “one idea” of slavery: It must be conceded that General Houston has never been a member of that ultra Southern fac- tion thus originatinz, but which at this day, in its foolish demands for a carte blanche to the fili- busters, a slave code for the Territories, and the revival of the African slave trade, has aban- doved the constitutional limits beyond which Mr. Calhoun never departed. But to all Union loving men, North and South—to all men whose first political desire is the restcra'ion of the peace and harmony of the Union—the record, the public services, acts and antecedents of General Houston will strongly recommend him. We do not know of any living Southern statesman 90 competent as he is to unite all the broken frag- ments of the democratic party. His nomination at Charleston woald put the party back again upon the old Jackson Union platform, and revive all the souvenirs of the old Jacksonian demo- cracy from Main- fo Texas, But if the democratic party do not choose to avail themselves of his personal popularity, he wi!l be the most available of all men for that third, or national Union party, which will un- doubtedly come forward in season to take a hand in the Presidential battle. As the candidate of such a party, Genera! Houston (ifnot elected by the people) would carry the eleation into Con- gress. Once there, the late Southern Con- greseional elections show that he would still hold the balance of power in the votes of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland and Texas, which will be against the democracy in the Honse, except in one or two of those cases neu- tralized by a tie vote. Thus General Houston has “ two strings to his bow.” He is the most eligible man for the de- mocracy—an old soldier, an old Jacksonian de- mocrat, and, the very thing that will be most available at Charleston, a conservative Union Southern man—good for the South and popular in the North. Secondly, if refused by the Charles- ton Convention, he will be the very man upon whom all those opposition elements representing the principles of Jackson, Clay, Webster, Crit- tenden, John Bell, Fillmore, Everett, Winthrop, Botts and Bates, could be most readily combined. Powerful parties heretofore have taken up and made great men out of small men; but that day of party power has gone by, and now every party is compelled to look to its candidate for strength and reinforcements. In this view Gen. Houston stands first in the front rank of available men, either for the democracy or a conservative oppo- sition party; and ifthe former pass him by, the latter may safely adopt him and elect him, if not by the people, then by the House of Representa- tiver, as the only acceptable compromise between the Northern republicans and the Southern demo- cracy. We shall not in the least degree be sur- prise@ if, within the next three months, the pre- tensions of Wise and Douglas are completely eclipsed by the popular name of General Sam Houston. Excitement About the Croton Water—The Visit Yesterday to Croton Dam. The unueval and disagreeable flavor that has been remarked in the Croton water for the last fortnight has created very great excitement and alarm throughout the community. All sorts of foolish and mischievous stories have been set afloat, and have gained more or less credence, by way of accounting for this unpleasant flavor— stories about the finding of the dead bodies af men and animals in the reservoir, and about the poisoning of the water by villanous liquor deal- ers in revenge for their being compelled to shut np shop on Sundays, Palpably absurd as these and other rumors are, they have each their believers, and consequently there is to-day almost as much aiurm and apprehension in thé public mind as there might be if an enemy’s fleet had come to anchor in the lower bay with an intention of bombarding the city. There is really no cause whatever for all this apprehension; and whea our citizens begin to realize the amount of mischief which this causeless excitement is calculated to produce, by driving nervous people out of the city, and deterring others from coming to it, they, will be ashamed of having aided in producing it. The water supplied through the Croton aqueduct is not co pure and tasteless as it usually is, but it has identically the same flavor as the water of most of the large inland lakes of the country, particularly of those whose banks are well wooded. The Croton Aqueduct Commissioners pro- | ceeded yesterday, with scientific men, to examine | and test the water. The result of that investi- gation will, whea published, allay the public alarm; but, awaiting the official statement, we publieh to-lay the report of the special reporter of the Hernan who accompanied them, and a letter from Dr. Chilton, the well known chemist, irem both of which it will be seen that the modi- fication which the flavor of the water has under- gone is of a natural and harmless character, being merely the ordinary effect of vegetable decompo- sition. In fact, we have in the mortality bills of the last two weeks the best proofthat the Croton | water, though it may be lcss pleasant to the taste, is no l<ss wholesome than it has heretofore been, ing August 13, 1859, was 661, being a decrease of thirty-four as compared with the correspond- ing week of 1858, although it was an increase of thirty-eix as compared with the week ending August 6, 1859, This increase over the previous week may be accounted for by the ordinary causes which go to swell the mortality bills of August—principally the consumption of unripe fruit of all kinds, which, though more destruc- tive to life than the most abominable liquors to be got at corner groceries, are exposed to cale everywhere, without any interference from our municipal authorities. If the Croton water in its present condition were detri- mental to the public health, the deaths of last week would certainly exceed in number those of the corresponding week in 1858, when there was no prevalent disease in the city. These statistics, we think, should allay all apprehension in the mind of the community in regard to the impurity of the Croton water. It is a mere temporary | change, produced, as is suggested, by the decom- position of vegetable matter along the margin and in the region of the source of supply. But while we would thus dissipate the alarm and excitement which prevail in connection with | this matter, we would at the same time urge upon the Croton Commissioners the necessity of | increased vigilance and care to guard againat the poseibility of danger in that direction. The pol- | lution or defilement of the Croton water would be , an evil as terrible asa visitation of the plague. In this, as in every other department of the city | government, there is altogether too little regard | paid to the public interests. The curse of poli- tics is felt here as everywhere else in our muni- cipal arrangements, and it is hard to see where the remedy lies. Under a thoroughly official ays- tem all chances of having our supply of ‘water cut off or diminished, or affected by impurities, | would be assiduously guarded against, and it is of the moet vital interest to the prosperity, as well as the health of the city, that all possible safe- guards, no matter at what expense, should be applied. Arimflar evil has made itself felt in Phila- delphia, and one of the papers there, inan article which we transfer to our columns to-day, ascribes it to the ¢xposed condition of the Schuylkill, The number of deaths for the week end- | We hope that the prevailing excitement in this city will not be without a good effect. If it should eventuate in having the most stringent regulations adopted and carried out to protect the Croton water from all contingencies, then we will have cause to be thankful for the unpleasant experience of the last fortnight. - Hard and Easy Times, and the Ups and Downs of Prices-How They are Made and Who Makes Thom. We publish in another column an interesting communication on the subject of our commercial traneactions. We coincide with the writer in some of his views, and we dissent from others ex- pressed in his letter. When Voltaire was a fugitive in Switzerland, he has told us that he found both amusement and profit in speculating on the Paris Bourse. This he was enabled to do to advantage by having a friend in the parlor of the Bank of France, who sent him from time to time advices of the policy the bank directors had determined to pursue for any given period. When the bank had resolved to expand for a time, Voltaire was a buyer on Change; when he was informed tha contraction was the order of the time in the bank parlor, he sent orders to his broker to sell, and he waited to buy again until the bank was again about to expand. By this simple rule, he tells us, he made large profits both in buying and selling. The action that governed the rise and fall of values in Voltaire’s time holds good now, and is just as certain in its operation in the United States as it was in France. The policy which a few leading banks determine to pursue for any particular season raises or lowers the value of stocks, real estate and personal property, according as it is a policy of expansion or contraction. Thus the banks of Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans rule a section of the country: These in their turn are governed by the course of the New York banks, this city being the great centre of the:commercial exchanges of the Union. Our banks in turn are governed by a few of the largest and leading institutions, and thus the current value of every man’s property depends upon thé™ course which a few plethoric capitalists may determine to pursue. Should any bank undertake to pursue an inde- pendent course, the pressure of the banking vice is at ence brought to bear upon it, by all the thousand means which bankers so well know how to use, and the poor little sheep that dis- turbs the stream of contraction or expansion is soon devoured by the horde of wolves above it. This state of things is one of the inherent evils of the great credit system, which is at once the sun and the shade to commerce and industry. It cannot be removed until our merchants be- come imbued with sounder principles in relation to banks and credits, and then a radical change in our financial system will have been brought about. We recognise the growth of this change in many things of daily occurrence around us. The great increase of cash trade in every branch of business; the disposition to curtail terms of credit, particularly when a want of public confi- dence arises; the growth of the spy system, which, “under the name of mercantile agencies, has its sharp watchers in every city, town and village of the lasd, counting how often the trader who buys on credit rides out with his sweetheart, or takes a drink at the public bar, or donsa new coat, and sets down a black, red or yellow mark against his name accordingly. Thirty years ago every merchant was the bond slave of the United States Bank, and constantly cried out that the country could never get along without it. To- day thousands of merchants deplore our present banking system, and long for its healthy reor- ganization. They have taken care to emancipate them- selves from its slavery; but yet they well know that in the bank parlor lies the power that raises or lowers the value of their pro- | perty, the currency of their obligations, and the results of their enterprises. If any one wishes to know whether he is to have a good bu- einess season or not; whether prices are to rule ; high or low; whether speculation is to be rife or quiet; whether every man is to feel easy under | his obligations, or a general uneasiness to pre- vail, let him follow the example of Voltaire, and | geta friend in the bank parlor. He need not puzzle bis brains with endless columns of figures, fictitious balances of trade between nations, or the ebb and flow of the tide of gold and silver. Let bim only find out what policy the bank direct- | ors determine to pursue, and the time when they will pursue it. When expansion is the order of the day, prices will go up, up, and when contrac- tion isthe rule he may be sure they will. go down, down. Then he can lounge at home in his easy chair, or come down to his office fora couple of hours a day, and buy and sell with the perfect confidence that he has discovered the true phi- losopher’s stone, and will become possessed at an early day of the fruits of the labors of those who have been so foolish as not to have a faiend in the parlor of the bank. Avrrrrrovs Accounts rrom Price's Peak.—A telegraphic despatch brings us mervellous ac- counts of the fresh discoveries tliat have been made in the Kansas gold mines. “That big nug- get” has again turned up to excite the cupidity and decide the wavering purpose of the unsettled, The parties who humbugged Horace Greeley must be the experienced miners who have disin- terred this auriferovs prodigy. We have such entire faith in them that we believe they can light upon any quantity of similar diseoveries that the exigencics of their employers call for. Theee tricks have been played so often that they are now nearly played out. Dupes are still to be made, it is true; but they are not 80 easily caught as formerly. The experience of the Cali- fornia and Australian gold mines has proved to people that, although gold may exist in boundless quantities, the labor of digging for it is not alwaysa paying operation. The average of the gains made by the miners in those regions has not been found, on close calculation, to ex- ceed the carnings of the mechanics employed in large cities or of the agricultural laborers work- ing on farms. To what purpose, then, tend the expensive outlay necessary for mining under- takings, the risks of the road and the hazards resulting from privation and exposure? For the | one who makes a fortunate hit a thousand encoun- | ter profitleesly all these chances, éb that the ven- | ture where people want to gamble had better be made on a race course or lottery, There, at Teast, they can lose their money without inflict- ing on themselves severe bodily suffering or in- curring the risk of being carried off by malarious disearcs, ‘These Kaneas mervels, like the exciting rumors circulated in regard to the Indian relios discovered in Central Ataerica, are} we belleve, merely a bait thrown out to entrap the greedy and unwary. | \ The Long Island Race of Yesterday—Want. ed, an Epsom Race Course for New York. ‘The sporting portion of our community had a gala day yesterday on Lovg Island. There were matches on both the Union and Eclipse courses, of which @ full and interesting account will be found elsewhere. On the Eollpse course the celebrated trotters Flora Temple and Prin- cess had another opportunity—the third this season—of exhibiting their relative merits, with the usual result—Flora Temple ahead. The per- formances of this beautiful animal on her last Tunning day, Tuesday week, had created quite an excitement in sporting circles; for, for _ the first time on record, the amazing speed of a mile in two minutes and twenty-two seconds was attained. This, and the assertion of her driver that she could, if pushed to it, have made the distance in two minutes and twenty seconds, created a very general desire to witness the race of yesterday, and consequently there was an unusually large attendance. The performances of yesterday, however, did not come up to those of the preceding day for any single mile, but the time in which the first two- mile heat was run by Flora was eight seconds ahead of anything that had been done before. In an article last week we made a comparison of American and English horses, and of the dis- tinctive features of turfsports in both countries. While we believe that this country produces horses which for speed and endurance combined can challenge not only England, but ihe world, it must be confessed that as yet our race-course system is not well calculated to encourage the sport. What would be thought in Eag- land of a race-course where the whele field did not comprise a hundred acres, and where the spectators had to pay from a dollar to ten dollars admission fee. The idea of such a thing could hardly be realized in England, and if an attempt were made to introduce such a plan there it would prove a miserable fa‘lure. And yet that is the system on which our Long Island race courses are conducted. The whole ground comprised in one of them would not afford room enough for the provision boothe of an English race course. The consequence is, that no matter how great the attraction may be in regard to the quality of our races, they car never bring together more than a few thousand spectators. We have seen an advertised match on the Eclipse course postponed to a future day because there were not thirty persons present, and that, too, when the weather was mos! charming. The fact is, that if our sporting men ever ex- pect to make the sport popular in this region, they must cut adrift from the miserable little en- closures which they designate race courses, but which are really only fit for exercise grounds. It must cease to be, as it now is, solely and wholly a money speculation. The proprietors of these enclosures get up matches, not for the sake of the sport, but for the sake of the dollars that they take in at the wickets; and in nine cases out of ten it is all nicely arranged before- hand which horee shall win, and the knowing ones make their books accordingly. The whole sys: tem is quite enough to destroy the popular taste for such sports; and, in fact, the general experi- ence is that the non-professional spectator who goes once, rarely, if ever, goes again. What we really want in the vicinity of New York, and what we are eurprised has not been provided before by some of our enterprising sportemen, is a large tract of ground where the tens of thousands of our industrial population may go, on one of our New York Derby days, to enjoy the fun and frolic and excitement of regular old-country races—where thoy can bring their wives and sweethearts for a day’s healthful sport, and where they will have nothing to pay except for their conveyance to and from the city. At the Epsom race course, on a Derby day, one-fifth of the population of Londop is on the field. If we would popularize the sport here we must follow the example of our English cousins in that respect; and then, instead of a few thousand pereons assembling to eee the sport, the whole motive power at the disposal of the railroad companies, and the steamboat pro- prietors and the livery stable keepers, would be insufficient to accommodate the crowds that would be flocking to the races. Will not some of the railroad or other corporations take the hint, if sporting men do not? The lands may be only hired for the occasion, and the rent for booths, and stalis, and stands, will well compen- sate the proprietor. Who will get up an Epsom course near New York? Now is the time. Tur New Mister to Centra, America — Mr. Buchanan has made his selection of a Minis. * ter to Central America, and he nas shown his sagacity in the choice he has made. Breaking through the vicious practice of selecting our diplomatic representatives from the vicious circle of ignorant atd local poli- ticiane, he has chosen a man for the place capa. ble of filling its duties, without regarding the hitherto recognized requisite of a list of antece- dents in doing the dirty work of party. Mr. Alexander Dimitry is a native of Louisiana, and bar in his veins the blood of Greece and the aboriginal American. His varied learning and extensive acquirements in language, public law and State policy brought bim many yeare since into intimate relations with the State Depart ment. He was the citer of antecedents aud au- thorilies in public law for Secretary Marcy, and his abilities as a writer have long been exercised behind the scenes upon our public documents. From hie long connection with the department, Mr. Dimitry possesses an intimate practical know- ledge of the policy of our government, and of the pnblic questions it isso frequently called upon to discuss. The questions involved in our Cen- tral American relations have been familiar to him almost from their inception, and. there will be no necessity to seek for a secretary as a dry nurse to the legation while he holds it. We are glad the government has made this choice, and we hope the example Mr. Buchanan has set in choosing diplomatic knowledge and ability, in- stead of party claims, for a foreign mission, will become the rule, and not the exception, as it has hitherto been. Naviearina tae Am—A few weeks since Mr. Wise ond Mr. La Mountain, two gen- tlemen who have devoted some attention to the study of acrostatics, and a jour- alist who was to act as historian to the expedition, started from St. Louis for the sea- board in a balloon coastructed specially for transatlantic navigation. They got.into certain favorable currents of the atmosphere, which they calculated would have carried them to their dea- tination bu’ for » tornado which unceremoni- ously towed them about and compelled them to make @ descent at Lake Ontezioa, Last week Mr. Wiec made enother exyerimental asccat, to explore these eame currents; bat it ended worse than the former one, and in greater er sae een dissppointment. All these plans for navigating the air with certaiaty are, we believe, destined to meet with a similar fate, The services of the aeronaut may occasionally be called iato requial- tion for military observations, as during the re- cent Italian campaign; but for purposes of cou- munication or locomotion they will never prove of any value. Balloon navigation, like the Northwest Passage, may serve as a problem to occupy scientific minds; but we are persuaded that for these purposes it must ever remain aa unrealizable theory. Conrmence Cassio iN Fear or Hanawa.— Poor Cassidy is in a dreadful state of mind; he fears we are going to hang him; he sees visions of a rope dangling from the gallows, like the bloody dagger which Macbeth saw in the air when he planned the murder of his guest Dunosa. Cassidy having plotted and attempted the political murder of his friend Wise, a guilty conscience a6- cuses him, and he- sees a halter suspended over his head, like the sword of Damocles— the fatal noose ready to encircle his neck and chuck him up as high as Haman, He is terribly alarmed, but he need not be afraid. Ifhe will only turn to some honest catf- ing, like that of a butcher’s boy, which he for- merly pursued, cutting up beef steaks, mutton chops and veal cutlets, and carrying thom around to the customers, we will let him off without strangulation or breaking his neck after the scientific fashion of Calcraft. We are hanging him every day in a moral and political Senge; and from fear of more of the rope, it is possible that, like Judas, who sold his master, he may go aud literally hang himself. But let him be re- aeeured. We will spare him if he only repente and reforms. Instead of acting the dirty part of an overgrown butcher's boy to the political butchers of New York, let him re- turn to the more honorable and respectable ve- cation which he exercised in his youth, aud we will do execution upon his masters far more wil- lingly than upon him. As to his complicity in the publication of Wise’s letter, Cassidy fairly gives the matter up. Instead of replying to the evidence we produced, he merely says there is no use in talking to am editor who is-so unreasonable that he would hang all the politicians. But he makes two state- ments which nobody denies. Firet, he says he Gid not publish Wise’s letter or send it to the newspapers to be published. Nobody ever ac- cused him of this, What we asserted, and still persist in asserting, is, that he gave copies of the letter to those who he well knew would give them to the agents of the newspapers for publi- cation. Let him deny this, which will be some- thing to the point. Secondly, he says that “ the Heap alone first published the letter.” We never denied this. The public knew it from the morning it appeared in our columns. But what has this to do with Cassidy’s first sending out copies of it and.circulating it privately? He did oot publish it in print, but he published it ia manuscript, because that kiad of publication best suited his purpose. To publish it in print best suited our purpose and the public interests, Our detective reporter obtained one of the copies which were circulating through Albany,and we gave it in full. It is the habit of the Heratp to give news without garbling it. On the same morning mutilated copy of the letter appeared in the columns of our New York contemporaries Where did they get it? Manifestly from the same source whence our agent procured a com- plete copy for us. It fs quite true, therefore, that the Henan was the first to publish the let- ter in full, and we published it from a copy which came from the original deposited by Don- nelly in the hands of Confidence Cassidy. Thurlow Weed eays we did what we unjusily accuse Cassidy of doing. Now our publication of the letter was a meritorious act—it involved no treachery, no breach of confidence, no injury to a friend (for Mr. Wise was not our friend), no detriment to our party (for we do not belong to any). It wasa matter of business with us, and at the same time a benefit to the public; and be- tides, we only published it when it was already virtually published. What was the fact in Cas- sidy’s case ? The letter, he admits, was entrusted to him by a brother democrat, under the seal of confidence ; it was evidently written in confi- dence by a leading democrat of Virginia; Cas- sidy pretends to be delighted at its contents, and promises to show it in confidence to other demo- crats to remove a false report as regards Wise, whose “friend” he claimed to be. Meantime Cassidy, innocent as a dove, gets copies written, and sets them afloat in such a way that he knew they wonld reach the hewepapers; and when the letter appears in the Heratp he sheds crocodile tears over the injary his friend Mr. Wise.had done himself and the democratic party by writing such a letter. There is honor even among thieves; but what honor is there among the politicians of the Albany Regency? One of our detectives is now at work on thia cage, and we expect before long to be able to lay the whole history of the treachery before the public. Meantime, if Cassidy wants to escape gibbetting at our hands, let him at once make a clean breast of this dirty business, and let him cease to be the journeyman butcher of the Albany Regency, and go back to the honest calling of cutting the throats of sheep and calves, instead of tl throats of men, behind thei®. backs. Tue Artanric Teueerare—Cuntosrrm™ s ov Irs Wonkina.—The copies of the four hu ndred meesages sent through the Atlantic cable, which we published yesterday, verbatim; as the y were sent and received, produced, we learn, quite a seneation in this city. They set at rest, for ever the question of’ the practicability of te legrapbic intercourse between the Old World am’ J the New. Many persons were incredulous 2a’ to any mes- sage whatever having been recoiw.d at cither side. But the testimony of the opq rators, under oath, showing that meseages were sent and re- ceived for the space of twenty-thre 2 days between Valentia and Newfoundland, lear es no longer “a peg to hang a doubt upon.” And if271 mes- sages containing 2,886 words were transmitted from Newfoundland to Valen/ia, and 129 mes- sages containing 1,474 wordy; were transmitted from Valentia to Newfound land, it is evident that «regular permanent telegraphic communi- cation can be established between Europe and America, and its acoompl/shment is only a ques- tion of time. Independently of the sworn testimony as to the accuracy of the messages we pub- liched yesterday, they bear internal evidence of their genuinenew, and present a curious pic- ture—a perfect doguerreotype of exactly whet has been done in ’.he groatest enterprise of the as° To the reador’ eye the cable thus tolls its owa story, and b¥Js him confidently believe that its tuccestor ¥ iI be Jaid with more complete ar- rangemer.ts, and, fiom the experience gained, with » certainty of success, The experiment