The New York Herald Newspaper, August 25, 1859, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, EDITOR 4ND PROPRIETOR. OFFICE N. W. CORNES OF FULTON AND NASSAU BPS. TERMS, cash in advance. Money sent by maid will be at the riaborthe vender.” Postage eiampe nt rect pnd ls Cile DAILY HERALD 100 conta 1 BT per annem THE WEEKLY HERALD, every Saturday, leit ve ts bor sopy oF $3 per av nun: the Buropeas: Edition évery Wedeal s¥ it ei carte per copy, $b ver annum to any part of reat Britain, Br $8 0 ary part of the Continent, both to include poaiage; the nia Kalttion on the 8th and BMA of each month at eux cente oF BL BO per anrum PTuk PAMILY HERALD on Wednesday, at four cents per , oF $2 per annum, VOLUNTARY. CORRESPONDENCE, containina imporiant herve, soticited from any quarter of the world; if uscd will be Uberally paid’ for “OUR FORMIGH UORMBSTONDENTS ANE PAMTICULARLY MEQUESTED TO BEAL (gi LETTERS AND PACK- (AORS SENT US. NO NOTICE taken of anonymous correspondence, We dono abi vetgrn rejected communi "ADVERTISEMENTS renowed every day; adeertisemente ¢n- sorted in the WaaatY Heraty, Fauicy Hanal, and in the Galyornia E Editions. JON PRINTING executed with neatness, cheapness and de- ‘wpatch. Volume XXIV,,.......:+08 seeereeeer esse NOs B35 — AMUSEMENYS THIS SVENING. FIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—EvoLuriows ON THB Ticut hors—Paiaa Dowxs—Bianoo, BOWERY THEATER. Bowery.—Epira Pexcivat—Irat- 1aN BeicaNys—Vararian Boccansen, WALLACE’s THRATES, Broadway.—GEnALvire, NATIONAL THRASH, Unatham strent.—Fiowass or ‘tax Forest—8tacs Sta00k TarLor—Buita Amp BROWN. BARNUWS AMERICAN MUSEU, | s-vsdway.— After. noor—Swiss Cortack—Four Loves Bvening—MULErKER OF ToLxpo~Foux Lovens. WOOD'S MINSTREL SULLDLING, 661 and 565 Broadway— Rruiorus Gongs, Daxoxs, 40—10e Dankivs Towsontat SQuaseies, BRYANT’S MINSTRELS, Mechanics’ Ball, 472 Broadwer— gerisearas, Sonos, Dances, 40.1 ain't Gor Tins 50 ARR, PatAOB GARDEN AND HALL, Fourleenth streei,— Goncess. New York, Thursday, August 25, 1859 ——————— OO The News. The New Jersey Democratic State Convention met at Trenton yesterday, and was the most nume rously attended and the most boisterous that has ever been held in the kingdom of Camden and Amboy. The Lecompton and anti-Lecompton dele- gations from Sussex county kept the Convention in a ferment in regard to their admittance, and peace was attained only when both withdrew. E. V. R- Wright was selected as candidate for Governor on the sixth ballot, and a platform endorsing the ad- ministration was adopted. We give a fall and graphic report of the proceedings in to-day’s paper. A fire broke out in New Bedford about noon yesterday, which consumed twenty buildings, a large quantity of oil, and the ship John & Edward, involving & loss of between two and three hundred thousand dolJars worth of property. The authori- ties were compelled to blow up several buildings with gunpowder in order to check the conflagra. tion. The names of the principal sufferers are given in a despatch from New Bedford, which may be found elsewhere. ‘The long tooked for chemical analysis of the Croton water by Dr. Chilton lias not as yet been made public, although yesterday was the time ap- pointed for its appearance. Probably the Doctor has gotin a fog about the matter, or perhaps the animacul are so minute that he is unable to agree on their species or genus; and then again the urgency of the Croton Water Board to, learn the true condition of the water might have unnerved the Doctor, and made him confuse his tests. All these things might happen, but, whether they have or not, one thing is certain, that the citizens generally are pretty well satisfied that the great hue and cry about the impurity of the Croton water is whoily unnecessary. It is quite true that there is a pecu liarity in the taste of the water; but it is not of such a character as to warrant any hasty conclusions as to its healthfulness. The best chemists in the Union are now applying their utmost skill to solve the problem as to the true cause of the unnatural condition of the Croton water, and ina few day- the mystery will be cleared up. We publish in to-day’s paper an interesting nar- rative of the 232d and 233d wrial voyages of Mr. Wise, the well known air navigator. These last as- cents’of Mr. Wise were made from Lafayette, In- diana, on the 16th and 17th of the present month, and were not, as has been generally supposed, at- tempted trans-continental trips, but simply brief flights for the purpose of solving certain problems regarding the atmosphere and elucidating matters of importance connected with erostation. What measure of success attended the observations and experiments ofthe bold wronaut may be gathered from the narrative to which we have referred our readers. A letter from our correspondent at San Francis- co, which may be found in another column, con- tains details of news from that city to the 29th ult., including the market reports to that date, and also intelligence from Oregon and the Fraser river re- gion. Our correspondent at Bridgetown, Barbadoes, writing on the 4th inst., says:—The best, and almost the only news I have to forward is, that the island has been favored with splendid rains for the past six days—heavy, soaking showers, with hot suns—the very thing to give vigor to the young cane crop, of which we have most cheering ac- counts from every part of the island. According to what is said, next year will make up for the short- ness of the crop just reaped. A good Angust is a certain sign of a good crop. A fair quantity of vegetables has been planted—potatoes, yams, eddoes and corn. The latter is just blooming and looks particularly fine. Potatoes are now com- ing into market, and sell for $1 per cwt., or one eent per pound. The last sugar crop has tnrned out better than was expected; it : ly 40,000 hogsheads. Up to date the shipine been 37,397 hhds., 2,550 tierces and ls, sugar; 10,295 puncheons, 352 hhds., 509 bbls. mo. of customs for last quarter ending June 30 was £15,942, being the largest revenne collected for Many yeurs. The markets are glutted with Ameri- can produce. At the meeting of the Health Commissioners yes. terday, the arrivals of a number of vessels from sickly ports at Quarantine were reported, and they were all ordered to be detained periods varying from five to nine days each. At the meeting of the Emigration Commissioners yesterday, a report was received from the com- mittee to whom was referred the communication from the Commissioners of Quarantine relative to “the management and control of the floating hospi- tal, in favor of paying the expenses of that estab” lishment, but leaving the management in the hands of the Quarantine Commissioners. The report was accepted and the Secretary directed to inform the Quarantine Commisssioners that they consider that the public welfare requires them to retain the management of the floating hospital, and that the Commission will pay the current expenses, not including the captain and men employed to take care of the ship. A resolution was also adopted appointing a commit- tee to confer with the Health Commissioners on the subject of paying the expenses of a steamer for running to the lower bay. A committee reported against payMg for the missing arms sent for and used, belonging to the New Haven Arms Company, uring the Staten Island riots, and the report was adopted. The number of emigrants arrived during the week was 2,708—making the number for the year, so far, 51,440. The balance of the commuta- tion fund is now $16,775 88. The Empire City Club regatta, which was to have taken place yesterday, from Conrad's (Yorkville) Park, was postponed until to-morrow, at one o'clock P.M., on account of the unfavorable state of the weather. In the cattle market during the past week there prevailed a more active demand Jor firat class beet cattle, and prices for this description advanced half a cent per pound. There wasa falling off in the receipts of nearly 700 hea! Prices ranged from 7c, a 10}c. 8 11c, Cows and calves were dull at $20 a $50a$65 per head. Veal calves were plenty and dull at 3c. @ 6}c., according to quality. Sheep and lambs continued in abundant supply and were dull of sale, except for prime, which sold readily at $5 50 a $6 per head; other kinds at $2 a $5. Swine were scarce and higher. Sales at 54c. aGe. The receipts were:—3,052 head beef cattle, 155 cows and calves, 855 veal calves, 15,720 sheep and lambs, and 1,434 swine. The sales of cotton yesterday embraced from 1,000 to 1,200 bales, the market closing quietly at the quotations given in another column, and which indicate no change in prices, Flour was again firmer, with » good demand, end closed in some cases at an advance of about 5c. a 100. per bbl. Good to choiee lota of new wheat were more firmly held, which checked sales, and transactions were light at prices given in another place, Corn was un- changed, whilo sales were fair, including old West- ern mixed in stove at 80c,; new do., afloat, at 82c.; yellow do, at 85c., and unsound yellow do. at 83s. Pork gave way to aheavy feeling, and closed at lower rates, while aeles were pretty freely made at $14 75 a $16 lor new mess, and at $10 30 a $10 60 for prime. Beef was steady and lard firm, The sales of suger embraced 1,100 81,200 bhds., at prices given in another piace. Coffee was firmly held, but sales were limited. Freight enguge- ments were moderate, while rates were steady. Among the ergegements were 1,900 bales of cotton to Liverpool ‘at 7-32d. tor compressed, and 344. for uncompressed, 900 bbls, rosin at 2s , and 200 bbls pork at 1s. 9d. The Recent Elections Sustatning the Na- Uonal Policy of the Administration—A Warning to the Malcontents. The recent political developements in the Southwestern and Southern States show that the fireeaters and ultras have strangely mis- taken the tone and temper of the times, and have been completely overthrown in their party combinations and elections. ‘ As there is no great party division at the South, like that between the democrats and black republicans in the North, the issue was made to lie more particularly between the con- servative policy of the administration and the wild schemes of the ultra and fire-eating poli ticians. Not satisfied with the sagacious end safe policy of Mr. Buchanan, a set of disap- pointed office-seekers sought to create new party issues, and to have a new deal of the political cards, They have played into the hands of the Northern black republicans, and raised the cry of nigger and the squatter sovereign, Had Sew- ard and Thurlow Weed themselves planned the late political campaign at the South, they could not have luid it out more to the advantage of their own schemes than did the Southern ultras. The crazy effort to re-open the slave trade, like the attempt to make the semi- republican Illinois squatter sovereignty doctrine palatable to the conservative South, merely to create a ground of opposition to the course of Mr. Buchanan’s administration, has been a mise- rable failure, as it well deserved to be. The elections have told the tale, and proved the soundness of the popular heart. In Kentucky the malcontents favored the opposition to the ad- tinistration democracy, and Mr. Guthrie and Linn Boyd demanded that Mr. Breckinridge should de- clare himself either as a candidate for the Presi dency or the Senate, and not hold the position he had taken, that he was a candidate for no post, but would go wherever the people sent him. The ‘consequence was that the so-called demo- crats lost four members of Congress. In North Carolina a similar result overwhelmed the ultra- ists, aud enabled them to lose two members of Congress there. In Tennessee the nationality of the Congressional representation is sustained, and tbe same power holds good in Alabama and exw, The malcontents have been defeated in all three of these States, and national men have been returned to the national council. These resulis have carried dismay into their ranks, and a small potato delegation, headed by the recently discharged Minister to Mexico, has come on to Washington to confer with the malcontents there. In Louisiana a like result aitended the echemes of Mr. Soulé and his con- federates in the anti-administration Odd Fellows’ Halil meeting in New Orleans. At the State Convention at Baton Rouge the party at once discarded them, and came out plumply in sup- port of Mr. Buchanan’s policy. The ultimate result of this popular upheaving will be to give the administration a strong sup- port in the next Congress. The opposition mem- bers from the South will not support either the Northern black republicans or the Southern fireeaters, They will give a frank but inde- pendent support to the national policy of the President, and thus perfect the organization of a great national party on his platform. The fac- tious members of the last Congress have received a lesson in these results that will do them great good. They will be_ensbled to see that the people are not to be led away with will-o-the-wisp doctrines in national affairs, and that they do not believe that avy man is good and great because he is a disap- pointed office-seeker. We epsil not be surprised to eee a similar re- enlt occur ia our Northern State elections. If the denn ors'ic politicians will lay aside all their foolish ~sutoles for office, and their wavering support ot one folly to-day and another to-mor- row, and take their stand upon the sagacious policy of the administration, they can carry New York and half the other Northern States. But if they still continue to perform the part of dema- gogues, they mast accept their fate and consent to dwindle dowo and flicker out as Walker, Douglas and Wise have done. Like these they will have no other resource left than to come in at last and support the national policy which Mr. Buchanan has maintained, and which will command the allegiance of the next Congress, whether the malcontents support itor not. This is what the recent developements in the popular mind prove. Tue Heravy Tewrerance Movement—Cro TON FOUNTAINS IN THE Srreers.—Stupid re- formers made fools of themselves for years, and brought legislation into disgrace, in their efforts to suppress intemperance by penal enactments. It waa for the Hreratpto point out the only feasible and sensible plan of diminiehing the consump- tion of intoxicating drinks—a plan never dream- ed of in the philosophy of temperance agitators, That wae, to put up Croton fountains at short intervals throughout the streets, where thirsty persons—mep, women and children— might quench their thirst and avoid the temptations o! barrooms or restaurants. Bad as our City Fathers are, they ea” the yood genre of this pro Position, aud. as @ (iret iocialment, ordered the trection of twentj-five of our fountains. Of these, tweuty-two have becu already set up; and although they are of # clarosy, and by no means ornamental construction, we are content. In a year or two we hope to see the style improved upon, and the tieuty-five grow inte two hun- Gred and fifty. The next thing we want is pub- Jie baths, where the great unwashed may experi- ment on the truth of the Apostolic dictum that “cleanliness is ekin to Godliness,” ‘The Reign otf Rowdytam. ‘The bad notoriety of Baltimore and Philadel- phia for rowdyism and disorder has not yet died away, The rowdies of those cities are deter- mined to eustain their reputation. The execu- tion at Baltimore of three of their number, five ‘months ago, appears to have been already forgot ten by the surviving demons in that city, not- withstanding the warnings uttered by those unbeppy mea as they stood upon the threshold of eternity. A few Gage ago a gang of them took possession of a steamboat, on an excursion trip, assailing indiscriminately every white man on board, putting out the lights, and robbing all the passengers, and committing an atrocious outrage on a negro woman fh the presence of her husband, whom they stabbed. On the very heels of this intelligence, we learned yester- day by telegraph that another band of rufflans from Phiiacelpbia created a disturbance with the Franklin Rifle Company, from that city, who were on @ target excursion at Tacony. About twenty persone were stabbed and otherwise wounded. Today we publish further particu- lars of the riot. It does not appear that the military had either bayonets or ball cartridge with them, on which, no doubt, the rowdies presumed, being themeelves well armed with knives, daggers and other deadly weapons. The military ought never to place themselves in the power of a mob of that kind. They ought to have had their bayonets, if not ball cartridge. If they had charged on these fellows with fixed bayonets, “they would have very quickly taken to their hecls, If some fifty or a hundred of them had been killed on the spot a great gain would have been accomplished for society. So perti. nacious were the scoundrels, that on the ar- rival of the military in Philadelphia they recom- menced the riot, aud but for the interference of the police the results might have been serious. ‘This is one of the very few occasions on which tbe police have been ever known to prevent any crime. What is the cause of this rowdyism assuming 80 bold and so defiant an attitude, domineering over law and order, and keeping respectable and virtuous citizens in continual fear? We answer that politics, party politics, and the corrupt prac- tices connected with them, are the fruitful source of the anarchy which is a foul disgrace to our free institutions and a cause of prejudice against democracy throughout the civilized world. The political wirepullers and managers of elections have for many years subsidized a class of men who have cheated the State prison and the gal- lows of their due, to do their dirty work, and to commit every sort of violence. This villany has been connived at by the leading men of each of the successful parties in turn, on the prin- ciple that the end justifies the meaus, And al- most every attempt to bring the ruffiana to jus- tice has been frustrated. Thusimpunity for row- dyism at elections has gradually grown up amdéng us; and so formidable has it become that decent citizens are afraid to go to the primary elections, where only those candidates who play into the hands of the criminals have any chance of suc- cess. But the evil does not stop here. The rowdies, finding that they possessed im- munity for violence at elections, have “bettered the instruction” of their masters, and made general rowdyism au institution of the country, supplanting and superseding the autho- rity of the laws, and diving us back to barbar- ism. The politicians who have obtained office tbrough ‘the instrumentality of the rowdies are under obligations to protect them against the operation of the law. If they sit on the bench of justice they throw the shield of their own ig- norant or corrupt interpretation of the statute over the culprit, or, if they cannot do that, they administer the mildest punishment it is in their power to inflict. Ifthe rascal is sent to the penitentiary or to State prison the politicians will soon get him out.’ If one of these bullies is indicted for murder, he enjoys the joke, and looks on the trial asa good farce. He is certain that rowdyism is so well organized, and is so identi- fied with the political parties, that he can never suffer the penalty of his crime. Either by hocus- pecus the jury do not agree, or a new trial is ob- toined on a frivolous point of law—in some way or other justice is robbed of its sacrifice. It is true that sometimes the rowdies here are caught when they fall into the hands of Judge Ruseell, or some judge like him; and sometimes iu Baltimore they dangle from the gallows, as they did last March. But the general impunity they obtain is sufficient encouragement for too many of them to persevere in their crimes and to hope for eacape from the consequences that fol- low in every well regulated society. The result of this system, on the whole, will be that the rowdies will virtually rule the country. And to such an alarm- ing extent has this anomaly already grown that the peaceable and orderly portion of the citizens are beginning to consider whether the community would not fare better—whether there would not be more security for property, and life and limb—under a government like that of France or Russia, than under the best and freest government ever devised by the wisdom of man, The place to strike a mortal blow at rowdyism is the primary elections, and every good citizen ought to lay this to heart and act accordiagly. If that ie not done, it seems to us that there is no other alternative than Vigi- lance Committees. There is as much need of an organization of that kind in Baltimore and other cities as there ever was in San Francisco. In the latter city, owing to the rapid influx of popu- lation, taking with it the dregs of society from all the States, rowdyiem became so rampant and 80 rapidly reached its climax that the outraged people would not stand it any longer. A large number of the rascals have thus been driven back to the large cities whence they came—a consider- able proportion of them to New York—where, in conjunction with birds of the same feather, they control the elections, as they did ia California Considering the apathy of our citizens as regards the primary elections, and considering the con- solidated strength of the rowdy element, there appears to be no other solution for the growing difficulty than the last resort, to a Vigilance Committee. Tue Warterive Piacns—We publish this morning another batch of wateriag place com- munications—some of them from spois ous of the beaten track of summer tourista, aad conse- quently presenting freeh features of interest. A letter from the Isle of Shoals—one of the group of the New Hampshire Hebridea—will well re- Pay the perusal of those who love to explore the natural beauties and curiosities of our coast scenery, aud who like to pass their summer NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1859. tricta, free from Albany influences. It will be months beyond the reach of fashionable idlera and town habite, To the women who vie with each other in extravagance of dress at such places as Newport aud Saratoga, we would recommend the example of the spirited little Jady who, in costume appropriate to the locality and ita pursulta, enjoys its healthful sports with e zest which imparts an increased value to them in the eyes of every one, We believe the time is at band when people of wealth and leisure will be glad to exchange the Inanity and frivolity of fashionable routine at a watering place for the inepiriting and invigorating life described by our New Hampshire correspondent. The tide is already turning that way, if we may judge from the immense numbers of persons who have been latterly taking the distant mountain and water routes in search of those natural attractions and occupations which can alone bring refreshment to the overtaxed mind and strength to the weakened physical energies, The Albany Regency and the Donnelly Let~ ter—Confidence Cassidy in Agony. The knot of second rate trading and treacher- ous politicians at Albany are beginning to howl terribly over the exposition of their schemes given in the columns of the New Yorx Haran, ‘These chaps are utterly discomfited at the posi- tion of affairs brought about by their breach of confidence in allowing the letter of Gov. Wise to Donnelly to come to light. They, by their own showing, intended to circulate it secretly, in manuscript, among their own set, and for their own purposes. We are very well acquainted with both, and they will find out that and more before the matter is finished. They have just read the prologue to the play, which will in- crease in interest as it goes forward. As Hamlet saye— It is a knavish piece of work” through- out. We can’t say how much we are pained at being obliged to place Cassidy & Co. in the un- favorable light where they now stand; but we have a duty to perform to the public, and how" ever much we may regret the stern necessity, yet we must accept it. We are not at all eur- prised that Confidence Cassidy should weep and wail; that there should be much lamentation and gnashing of teeth in the secret councils of the Albany Regency; that that agreeable, polished, and, we may say, Chesterfieldian sheet, the Allas-Argus, should so far forget itself as to call us naughty names—to revile us, in fact, in no measured terms. People who are detected in crime always attempt to shield their own sins by abusing the law which they have offended, the magistrate before whom they are tried, the jury by which they have been cofvicted, and the Judge who sends them to the gallows or the prison. So with our elegant cotemperary up the river. Lately, be charges us with attempting to impute the publication of the Wise-Donnelly letter to him, and goes on with more about our “character- istic strategy.” which is rather rich considering the source trom which it emanates. It is plain that our sanguioary philosopher at Albany isnot in his right mind. Too much political intriguing hath made bim mad. Let him behold how plain a tale shall put him down, We have never de- nied the printing of the Wise-Donnelly letter. We printed it first. It isa way wehave. What we have stated is simply this:—1et. That the let- ter was entrusted confidentially to Confidence, Caseidy. 2d. That copies of it were taken in manuscript and distributed all over Albany and other places for the enlightenment of the faithful. 3d. That aid distribution of a letter like that referred to is to all intents and purposes a pub-* lication of it. The politicians read it, and we gave it to the public, which had a right to it. This is the true state of the casein law and in fact. Ouragentin Albany heard of the letter, as did almost every one else who was fa- miliar with the circumstances that called the politicians to the capital, He found copies of the letter floating about Albany, and, altogether unknown to us, bought one for twenty dollars. It was as plain a commercial transaction as buy- ing a ballad for a penny ia the Park. The let- ter was already patent. It had been read by many people—at least fifty—and shown to a hundred others. After using it, our amiable cotemporary, or some of his friends for him, sold it for twenty dollars. The striking parallel between this conduct on the part of Confidence Cassidy & Co. and that of Judas Iscariot, who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, will suggest itself to the most ordinary mind. It would be curious to know how the twenty pieces were divided, and how much of the money Cas- sidy received. Many good people will regret that the parallel is not perfect in its issue, so far as the denouement is concerned. And Cassidy himself howls as if he already felt the very disa- greeable contact of a rope with his precious neck. Let him not be impatient; each shall have his turn. “The cat,” saith the immortal bard “will mew; the dog will have his day.” Probably Cassidy will be no exception to the laiter phrase of the distich, He already has advanced very well in the mewing state, and will goon be ready to be “roped in” by the Sheriff. He is a good deal oxercised in his miad, this Cassidy, about our affairs, A large part of his impression is occupied with the Heratp. He comes down upon us in a way that reminds one of our quadrilateral cotemporary who became eo terribly entangled in the elbows of the Mincio, though the Albany Regency cannot be said to have been “formed by the natural sym- pathy of youth.” We are lastly charged with abandoning Fernando Wood as we did George Law. Both men are, according to the Albany philosopher, dead. That is a slight mistake. George Law had not sufficient stuff to make anything of, and could not be galvanized bv. any battery, however trong. But Mf Fernando Wood is » horse of another color. He is not dead, neither does he sleep. The Albany Regency will find this out im good time. Mr. Fernando Wood will be after them with the ardor of a regiment o Zouaves, As for the main question, the root of the whole trouble at Albany, it is very simple, Cassidy & Co. disseminated copies of the Wise-Donnelly letter in order to help their scheme to pick out from a State Convention their own tools to send to the National Convention at Charleston. To effect this end, to sell the votes of the democratic party of this State at Charleston, they sold Gov- ernor Wise for twenty pieces of silver. No doubt they would sell themselves, or any of their instruments, for a proportionate price. We have ventilated the whole matter. We have exposed this scheme to puck the delegation in Convention, rather than to choose its membera by popular vote in the districts, and now we have put it out of the power of the Regency to traffic in the in- flaence of this State at Charleston, And if they should eend their delegation, selected in their way, there will be still another set of delegates hoeen, a8 they should be, in Congressional dis- for the National Convention to decide between the bona fide representatives of the party chosen by popular vote and the tools of a half score or 80 of broken down politicians at Albany. Our amiable friends of the Regency may howl as much ag they will over this prospect; but there it is, Tae Arrroacuine Municipal Exections—De- mocracy Drsropep.—In a letter which we pub- lisbed yesterday from our Albany correspondent, some important disclosures were made with re- spect to the atrociously corrupt programme of oar New York city politicians for the coming municipal elections, and the depredations they are preparing to make upon candidates for office. Place: are fairly put up, it seems, to the highest bidcer, and nominating conventions knock down the Mayoralty, the Corporation Counselship, Senatorehips, seats in the Boards of Aldermen and Councilmen, to whoever will pay the most, without the slightest reference to qualifications, honesty, or that experievce which the position sought after requires. We are sinking down, then, to the very lowest depths of degradation, and the experiment of a free government will have proved to be a total failure if such a state of things is to continue. Tuere are, probably, several thousand persons in this city who subsist wholly upon the plun- der which they obtain from State, Congressional, legislative and municipal cand{dates for office. Just so soon as itis understood that an indi- vidual is in the field, he is approached by these cormorants, who are not at all mealy-movthed, but bolt out at once the important question:— “If we will support you, what will you pay?” A citizen who shonld reply that be was an old resident, that his reputation was unstained and irreproachable, that his cuergy and capacity were universally conceded, would be laughed to scorn. Such requisites are the very last which the wire- pullers of our conventions consider of the slightest importance. A manager in Tammany Hal), the Pewter Mug, Mozart Hail, or other kindred dens, would be hooted as unfit company for his fellows who should dissociate the idea of money from political services to be rendered. One of these days we intend to analyze bio graphically the lists of General Committees of all parties, which now hold in their hands the strings of conventions virtually invested with the choice of our future municipal rulers, The respectable portion of the community will be startled at the terrible developements which truth will compel us to make. Meanwhile, it is not too much to say that graduates frem Black- well’s Island and from Sing Sing, pot-house pro- prietors of the lowest and most degraded de- scription, keepers and owners of the vilest dens of prostitution, shouldcr-hitters and strikers— the history of wheee hideous exploits is to be found in police chronicles of gougings, maimings, and other execrable brutalities—openr thieves and burglars, are numbered among those who are conspicuous at every period of nomiuations and elections, and secure large sums from candidates, varying in amount according to the nature of the office in question, from a few hundreds up to from twenty to thirty thousand dollars. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars are calculated to bave been divided up last year alone among these vagabonds of all parties. Candidates for place, when over sanguine of success, have not unfrequently been utterly impoverished by their rascally, greedy support- ers during the course of an excited canvass. It would not be difficult to give the names of de- feated aspirants for Congressional station and for the Mayoralty who have been pecuniarily bank- rupted by the wire-pulling fraternities under the exhaustless plea of “neceseary expenses.” And there are political leaders in New York, some of them occupying high offices themselves, who for a long series of years have derived means for living in low profligacy and extravagance from the systematic practice of black-mailing every one whom they could persuade that their assist- ance was indispensable in order to be elected. The favorite “game” of our municipal nomi- nating scoundrels is to be found among wealthy merchants, who naturally aspire, at the close of a successful mercantile career, to the chief magistracy of their native city. Men of this class are approached, bled to get their names before the public, bled again to keep them awhile there; and after their initiatory blood- lettings they are either dropped altogether, or elee the knife is put into their veins in good earnest as the time for nominating and electing draws on. Lists of ambitious mercantile princes are regularly kept, whom the plunderers tax according to their means and liberality. Every man upon it is robbed; but the very highest bid- der of allis eventually chosen, while the re- mainder are betrayed. It is in this way that so large a class of floating vagabond population is enabled to exist here; and the question may well be put—What are we coming to, if this evil can- not be remedied? Ovr Srare Canars—Atarwina Diwtxvtion or Busixess—We publich elsewhere a table showing the quantity of produce delivered at tide water by our canals during the present year. From this it will be seen that the business, instead of increasing, has decreased to such an extent as to threaten the ruin of our canal system in a financial point of view. For instance, the receipts of flour from the opening of the canals in 1859 up to the third week in Angust figure up 203,400 barrels, against 955,900 barrels for the corresponding period of 1858; of wheat, 707,900 bushels, against 5,061,300; of corn, 1,522,300 bushels, against 2,863,800; and of bar- ley, 150,300 bushels, against 392,100, Reducing the wheat to flour, the deficiency in the receipts of 1859, a8 compared with 1858, would be 1,623,200 barrels, The disparities for the third week in August are still more striking. The re- ceipts of flour were but 5,900 barrels, against 71,000 in 1858; of wheat, 28,300 bushels, against 134,700; of corn, 72,300, againat 310,000; and of barley, not @ bushel at all, against 8,900 bushels in 1858, ‘These figures are perfectly convincing that, unless some effectual remedy be adopted, our canals will become an oppressive burden on the people, and will have to go the way of the Penn- sylvania public works, which cost the State nearly forty millions of dollars, and were sold for seven and ahalf. This diminution of canal business may be partly attributed to the ruinous competition among the railroads, which caused the freights to be brought down below the actual cost of transportation, and thus attracted the business from the canals to the railroads. ‘The roads also discriminate in favor of produce from other States. But the real and permanent evil is, that the canals are managed by the poli- ticians for their own eelfish ends, and the poli- ticians are managed by the Central Railroad. While this state of things lasts—and we see no- Prospect of ending it~the maintenance of the canals will be a constant and increasing burden to the people, and perhaps the wisest thing would be, instead of voting a new loan to the canals, as the people are asked to do at the next election in November, to vote for their being sold, rented or given away. So long, however, as they remain State works, and are maneged at the expeuse of the State, the competition of the railroads should be re stricted, by compelling them to pay tolls to the State equal to the tolls paid on the canals, To be gure, the people would have to pay the piper after all in the additional cost of products brought into market by the railroads, as this toll would be added on to the freight. Still it is hard to see what other way there is of making our canals self-supporting, unless, indeed, the taking them out of the hands of the politicians, and renting them tos company of capitalists, might effect some such desirable change. This is a question of very great importance to the people of this State, and we see that a State Convention in regard to it is called to meet at Rochester on the 1st of September next, A “QuaprmaTeraL” Account oF AN INTER- view Between Ww. H.Sewarp AND THE Britis QueeN.—Our quadrilateral contemporary of thia city contains in its London correspondence a curious paragraph, evidently resulting from the same addling of the brains which “formed elbows in the Mincio by the sympathies of youth.” The writer has not yet recovered from the panic which seized him after the battle of Solferino. The sight of the Austrian huesar still disturbs his imagination by day and by night, even after he has escaped from the Continent and reached the “tight little island,” where certainly the enemy’s horse cannot further pursue him. From the distant outskirts of the battlefield he never stopped tiil he found himself in Paris, after flying all the way over plains and Alps, as if like Gilpin, he rode a race. “He stopped not for brake, and he stayed not for stone.” With hat off, his hair dishevelled and streaming in the wind, with wild, excited mien, be dashed through the villages at full speed. The people, seeing no one in pursuit, concluded he was # lunatic escaped from an asylum. Even in Paris he did not deem himeelf safe. He lost no time in getting to Eng- land, where he placed himself under the wing of William HH. Seward. Whether it was the cannonade of Solferioo, or the panic after the battle, or both combiaed, that affected his brain, certain it is he has had a bad head ever since, and it is very doubtful if it will ever grow better. His story of an interview of Seward with Victoria is an evidence of this. He says:— ie asked by the Queen what he thought of what he bad een of public life in England, Mr. Seward roplied, “Madam, I have come to Europe to study deepotiam;” to which her Majesty rather pointedly replied, “I hope you have found nothing of that kind to study bere.” Who could have written that but the panic- stricken individual who made such a mess of the Mincio? It is very well known by every well informed person that the Queen of England never talks politics; and so obsequious and smooth-tongued a politician a3 Sew- ard would be about the last man in the world to make so rude and offensive an observation to the first lady in England, if, indeed» he ever conversed with her at all. Besides, the reply eet down for him is net an answer to the Quecn’s supposed question. She asks whut he had seen, and he does not answer ber as to this, but is made to eay what he had come todo. Seward is too acute a man, and: has a better kuow- ledge of good manners than to neglect the forms and etiquette of the society in which he moves, He knew very well that to address the Queen as “madam” was to slight ber rank asa sovereign, and he would undoubtedly have said “your Majesty.” And then the absirdity of bis telling the Queen that he had come te study des- potism in her dominions, for that is the amount of his reply; and she is represented as if feeling that the observation was levelled at her throne, The paragraph, in every point of view, is eo ab- surd that there isno accounting for it but on the rupposition which we have suggested, that the writer who, under the influence of terror, gave that matchless account of the Mincio, is still laboring under the same mental hallucina- tion, and must therefore be excused. It is not his fault, but his misfortune. Hon. Jonun Mryor Borrs ror tue Presi- pENCy.—Our readers are entitled to the infor- mation that on Monday evening lest the Ash- landers’ Association of Brooklyn unanimously passed a resolution in favor of the Hon. Johan Minor Botte, of Virginia, for the next Presiden- cy, and that on Tuesday evening a committee, appointed in pursuance of this resolution, wait ed upon Mr. Botts at the Astor House, when Mr. John C. Jacobs, of the committee, delivered & highly complimentary address to Mr. Botts upon the business in hand. Among other things Mr. Jacoba said that these Ashlanders repre- sented all ehades of the opposition, old line whigs, republicans, democrate and Americans, and plumply asked Mr. Botts, “Will you bear the banner of a united opposition?” And was not Mr. Botts dumbfounded, taken all aback, and completely bewildered by this overwhelming proposition? Not a bit of it, He war cool asa cucumber, In fact, from the snug fit between the speech of Mr. Jacoba and the re- ply of Mr. Botts, it is evident that the whole affair had been regularly cut and dried, and studied over like a play. Mr. Botts, of course, was grateful; would, of couree, stick to the Union, sink or swim; was aware of the immense reeponsibilities of the Presidential office, bat was not afraid of them; and yet, if elected, he would endeavor to wear his honors with ‘be- coming humility,” and try to do his duty to his country, and his whole country. His speech was a neat speech, and the occa- sion and the proceedings of the evening may hereafter be remembered. We think that in any event the chances of Mr. Botts serving the conser- vative opposition elements of the country are de- cidedly better than the chances of Governor Wise for the Charleston nomination. Gov. Wise, ever since 1856, has affected to look down witha con- tempt'upon the political aspirations of Mr. Botta; but now the boot is on the other leg, for Botta is certainly in a condition to look down with com- miseration upon the Governor. Gentlemen of the conservative opposition school, make room for the man who slept under the same blanket with Captain Tyler, and got up resolved to “head him or die.” Tue Revosricans—Fustoy on xo Fuston.—The New York Tribune sagaciously cyphers it out that without a fusion with the “ American” ele- ments the republican party cannot carry Pgan- sylvania or New Jersey in 1860; and that, as without these States they cannot carry the elec- tion, it will be necessary to come to a fusion to avoid a defeat like that of 1856, But the Repub- lican National Committee, Thurlow Weed, and a Jarge wajority or tho republican organs, are op-