The New York Herald Newspaper, January 4, 1860, Page 8

a eee ee Naeem Ts eee WEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 1860.—TRIPLE SHERT. 6 NEW .YORK HERALD. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. OFFIOS Wi. W. CORNER OF NASSAU AND FULTON £TS, mail wilt be at the a6 subscripian advances, Monsy sent ker, onage aone'net'¢ Wednesday, of Great Brixatn, ul 5 the month ato cnds Volume EXV i. ie reeccccecececesse MGs 8 AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. be <A gad Broadway. —~Poxde—Tiant Rora Pasxce—-OOtLaW OF Carsroamia—! fox ano Com i RINTER GARDEN, Broadway, opposite Bond street.— ‘YY THEATRE, Bowery.—Diox, Ni THEA‘ S, ~) r TRE FRANCAIS, 685 Broadway.—Les Lioxxes AN MUSEUM. Broadway.—Afier- mow (Cur oT oerT ‘Thueves. r - lavas Won Fam Lavr—Foatr Tairvas, BRY ANTS MINSTRELS, Mechanics’ a — ‘Bvaianqves, Gomes, Dances, enNew Weiss Casa” BALOON, Broadway.—Gzo. Daxons, Boauesques, ror 1360. Ounterr’s Mix. @o.—Mas. Dar’s PALAOR GARDEN MUSIC ARTHUR N. , Ps ; BALL,~—Anm |APOLEON! POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, —~) if mo ENT ais, Brooklyn.—Drarros’s Par. Wew York, Wednesday, January 4, 1860, TRIPLE SHEET. MAILS FOR EUROPE. The New York Herald—Edition for Europe. ‘The Ounard mail steamsbip Asia, Captain Lott, will eave thie port today for Liverpool. The mails ‘will olove at 12 o’olock. Tae Evrorgan Eomoy of rue Henstn will be published ‘i ten o'clock in the morning. Single copics in wrappers * OI Conte. Subscriptions and advertisements for any edition of the New Yorx Hanae will be received at the following places ‘fm Europe:— ‘Loxnon. mee Low, Son & 00., 47 Lu Bil. eases. in a le 5 Tavmroo1. ‘1 } Starr & O0., No. O'Cbapel street, Rg 1 q avas.... Lansing, Baldwit € f0., 01 Fue Coruelle ‘Wasmveg..De Chapeauronge & Co. The contents Of the Evror yx Enron oF Tun HERALD ‘will Combine the news receives by mail and telegraph at ‘the office during the Previous week and up to the hour of Publication. SF AHS FOR THE PACIFIC. SE eS New Work Heraid—Cali fornia Edition. ‘Tho mall steamship Northern Lig “ht, Capt. Tinklopaugh, "il leave this port to-morrow afy rD00B, at two o’clock, pies Fa The for California and othe " partsof the Pacific {close at one o’clock to-morrow a; Yernoon. Wo New Yor Waery Huu, “slifornia edition 4 Malng the latest tntolligence frog ° all partsof the Af, witha large quantity of local a ‘%d miscellancous ttc, Will be published at eleven o’g, 2k in the morn- ting: © copies, im wrappers, ready for ma; ‘ling, six cents sats Will please send im their ordare = ' early as pos- to. The News. Both 1 wuses of Congress were engag, °4 yeater- yin dis susaing the slavery question, aa d the re- tions between the North and the Son th The *bates om these subjects were interesting, 98 will geen by our report. The House didnce ballot ra Speaker, as several democraticmember ‘swere yeent. Both houses of the Legislature susembi cd at even o'clock yesterday forenoon, and orga uized ith little delay. The foRowing is a list of tix © offi- ers of the Senate:— Cisnx—James Torwilliger, of Onondaga. ‘Sanorant-at-Anus—James C. Clark, of Warren. AgSETANT SERGEANT-AT-ARMB—Mr. Knapp, of Dutch ¢3¢, t, of Schoharie. caaean De memes ccc bcs Jathaniel Jobnson, of Her ki- ier ; Franco, of Ulster, and Casper ©. Walter, of Monri 2c, axrron—Joseph Garlinghouse. eae or fe aheeie e e Goodwin. ‘The following were elected officers of the House bly:— Srnreemn de Witt C. Littlejohn, of Oswego. Curnx—William Richardson, of Albany. Senquant-at-ARMS—E. A, Williams, of Onondaga Dooxxxurr—Joseph Ball, of Erie an the above mentioned officials are republi- vans. The annual Message of the Governor and the annual report of the Camptroller, showing the con- lition of the finances of the State, are printed in to- lay’s HigraLD. : The new city government for 1Sé0 was inaugu- ated on Monday. The Board of Aldermen selected Villiam J. Peck, of the Eleventh ward, for President: Yavid T, Valentine, Clerk, and Patrick Gallagher’ ~rgeant-at-Arms. The Board of Councilmen met at on Monday, and proceeded to ballot for Presi- >fter two unsuccessful ballots the Board ines meet on Thursday afternoon. Mr. eet "Sipived 9 votes, Mr. Jones 7,and Mr, fp 13 b necessary to a choice. Mayor Wood's Message Ww: presented to the Board of i aired Hsraxp, together with reports’ of the ings of the two Boards. ee) mail we have advices from San tance, Two Russian vessels of was had ar we from the Amoor river. It was supposed would proceed to Cronstadt via New York. 3 |” A Gre occurred at a double tenement house, No. 203 Division street, early yesterday morning, caused, a5 is supposed, by the bursting of a cam- phene lamp. names of the sufferers and other i So conflagration, and also accounts of several other fires in the city, are given in at oe meeting of the Board of Ten Governors yesterday, Governor B, F. Pinkney was clected President for the ensving year, and Governor Malo- ey Secretary, after several can Express Company, assembled on board the Galway steamship Prince Albert yesterday after- noon, to partake of a banquet given by her commander, Captain Prowse, formerly First Officer of the Great Eastern, previous to the departure of the Prince Albert for Galway. Alexander Hoiiazd, the agent of the line in New York, presided at the board, Toasts, including the press, wore offered, and healths, includiag that of “J. 0, Levor, the projector of the Irish line,” which was handsomely replied to by Captain Waters, ormerly of the Prince Albert, together with songs, joked, &c., combined to pass the time pleasantly till the Party separated. The Prince Albert has had her saloons altered at the oxponse of $100,000 since her last departure from New York. ‘The gencral business yesterday was light, owing to its belng #0 soon after New Year's day that commercis! af- (airs had scarcely had time to resume thelr regular chan- nels. Tho sales of cotton wore confined to a fow hundred bales, the market closing without quotable change in Prices. Flour was steady, and holders of most de- If Sherman is now elected, or any one else who endorsed Helper’s book, and Greeley and As- thon’s Northern treason shop, the agitation in the South will have more food, and will go on increasing, while the reactionary sentiment at the North will increase in speed and intensity till the abolitionized elements that now rule the black republican party have involved it fn ruin, Elect Sherman and prepare for the Reign of Terror. The Governor's Message—The Opening of the State Legtslature, ‘The Message of Governor Morgan to the Le- Gislature of this State, at its opening yesterday, will be found in our columns this morning. It is remarkable only for its length, and has not space, have already been for the most part pub- scriptions were Grmer, while sales were mo- | lished, and appear to be compiled from former derate, and without cbange of moment in re reports and from an article in Hunt's Merchants’ tations, Wheat was firm, but sales wero confined small lots of State red at $1 25, and of choloe Keutuoky ote “_ a bn pe ss white $1 55. Corn was firm, with ealey of new yellow | Months ago. Governor Morgan only says Jersey at 85¢.; round yollow at 060.,and new Southern | What everybody knows when he informs us that white at 0c. Pork was in moderate demand, vyth sales | the competition of the railroads with the canals of meas at 616 06.0 $16 12, and of prime et $11 62% @ | is continually increasing, and has so reduced $11 70. Sugars were frm, but sales were confined to & the country which have sent out agents, and made great preparations to meet their orders from theSouth for goods, that already find themselves in pecuniary embarrassment, from the fact that their agents, instead of sending home orders for goods, write the most doleful letters in re- gard to their business prospects, contents of others have been communicated to us. They all tell the same story. Newark car- tiages and harness, Lynn boots and shoes, form that would stimulate local and friendly industry. the North and the South are being gradually severed, under the growing influence of the terror that Northern agents of the aboli- tionized black republican party are busily fomenting a servile war in the South, and every Southern man feels that it is not slavery alone, but the lives of himself and his loved wife and children, that are involved. Tribvau> has lately published in its columns a letter o f Theodore Parker, containing five phi- losopaé.cal postulates of the doctrines an- nounced in the brutal and bloody speech of Senator Seward at Rochester, ineulcated by - Helper, practised by John Brown, and endorse g Asscrant Doonesrens—Bradford Buvis and C. L. | by Sher man and sixty-seven other black repr ,p. lican members of the last Congress. Here Parker's formula of the doctrines of Sew ard, Helper, Brown, Sherman & Co.:— the slaves to recover their liberty, ¢ terprize to do for them all whi , tney nave the right to do for themselves. ‘ Francisco to the 12th ult, but they contain little of | gona dy the freeman’ to help the slaves. few hundred bhds., at full prices, Coffee was ateady. Sales of 4,000 bags St. Dominge were made at 11 %c. Freight engagements were light, and rates steady. The Reign of Terror Approaching in the United States.<Will the Members of Congress Hasten its Coming? We are daily receiving information, from pub- lic and private sources, which shows that a Reign of Terror is approaching in this country Pregnant with the most disastrous results to both North and South. Travellers from the Northern sections of the Union are not only looked upon with suspicion in the Southern States, but in many sections of that region they are stopped in their travels, and obliged to give o satisfactory account of themselves and their business. If they have not some local acquaintance who can vouch for them, they are followed through all their in- goings and out-comings, and not unfraquently find themselves face to face with a Vigilanee Committee charged with the preservation of public order and the expurgation of the com- munity from Northern abolitionists. This is particularly the case with the travelling agents of Northern manufacturers and merchants: who, in consequence of the prevailing excite- ment, are looked upon with great suspicion. There are numerous concerns in this portion of We have seen some of these letters, and the Lowell and Manchester domestics, Connecti- cat notions, and, in fact, articles generally of Northern manufacture, are stored away, and not even offered for sale in the South, while agents who endeavor to push their disposal are looked upon with the greatest suspicion. In fact, with the exception ofa few large seaboard cities, it is worse than useless—it is positively dangerous—for a man to announce himeelf as the agent of a Northern concern. To such an extent is this feeling beginning to operate, that negotiations that were being carried on by Southerners for the purchase of property in the North are being suspended or abandoned. A gentleman assured us a few days since that he had received orders from a client in the South to stop the purchase of land in this vicinity, which he was about making for him, on the sole ground that the tone of Northern fecling was 80 hostile to the South he would stay at home and employ his surplus capital in some Thus, the commercial connections between And this, in fact, is what is involved. The : is lst. 4 man held against his will as a sie ve has a natured right to kill every one who seeks, to pre- vent hiss enjoyment of liberty. 2d. It may be « natural duty oF @ — stave to devel;pe tis natural right in a practise 4 manner, anh actually kill ol those who seek to prevent his enjoyment of liberty. Bd. The freeman hus « natured right to help nd in that en- Ath. It may be a natural QV Wy For the freeman Mant document is published } Co Jielp the slaves to the Enjoy" nent of their liberty, sera and asa ineans to that end of ity ing all such as oppose their . to aid them in kill- - natural freedom. f this duty is to be con- 3 power and opportunity Sth. The performance ¢ Such is the philo® ophical postula of the abo- Mtionized black rer _,ybhlican doctrines stated by one who has long heen one of the thinkers and leaders of that’ party; and they form an exact Owing to insufficient means of egress | exposition Of¥ /hat the present black republican | at its first meeting; but the Board of Council- from the premises, five persons perished by fire and candidate f0 Speaker of Congress, Mr. Sher- | men has not yet elected a President, but has man, put b's hand to and recommended to his fellow cl’ zens of the North as worthy both to be prear hed and to be practised. Noone can wonde’; that all Southern men should be op- pose’; to the representative man of such doc- tries. It remains for Northern men who rep- ‘pallots and two re- | Tesent commercial and manufacturing com- partments could go ahead on the Comptroller's the canal revenues that they fall far short of paying the interest of the debt with which they are chargeable. The surplus revenue for the last year is less than a million ($962,000), and the canal debt is nearly twenty-seven millions ($26,807,684). Governor Morgan is of opinion that the re- duction of the tolls on the canals has been far greater than was necessary to compete with railroads. The tolls. were reduced on two millions of non-competing freight as much as they were reduced on one million of competing freight, which is manifestly injudiclous and ought tobe changed. Itis estimated that by the reduction of the canal tolls the State has lost within the last two years over one million of dollars, In the two last years the canals have fallen short of producing the annual constitutional charges made upon them by the enormous sum of $3,746,824—nearly three millions and three quarters of dollars. Governor Morgan advises protection of the canals by imposing for a few years (till they are finished) a moderate toll per ton during the season of navigation upon all freight paesing over railroads competing with the canals. When the canals are complet- ed, the Governor thinks that the railroads ought to be relieved from the burthen, and that the business of the canals will be so increased by the completion of the works that they will yield a handsome revenue. He therefore advises their immediate comple- tion, which he calculates can be accom- plished in the couree of the present year. The cost is estimated at nearly two millions of dol- lars. It appears to us that the best thing which could be done with the canals isto sell them to help to pay off the debt contracted by their construction, and to raise the balance by direct taxation, and thus get rid of this source of cor- ruption and embarasament at one stroke. After adverting to the prisons, the Governor enters upon the topic of pardons, which he says he has found to be very embarrassing to him, as in most instances he cannot get at the real me- tits of the case, a8 no minutes of the testimony have been preserved. He advises that the pro- secuting officers should be required to file in the County Clerk’s office the minutes of evi- dence taken by them. But these officers do not take full notes of the evidence, and their min- utes would be of very little value. In England the judges are compelled to take notes of the whole testimony. This would be a vast im- provement on our present loose system. The pardoning power has been so sadly abused in this State that it would be wavisavle to take 1% out of the hands of the Governor and vest it, as in the State of New Jersey, in a Court of Pardons. The Message states that the public school system is increasing in value and efficiency. We wish this were true, but we fear it is not. There was vast need of improvement, but the kind of officers elected last fall leaves little room to hope for it. Sectarianism, too, has crept into the management of the schools, which has been unfortunately brought abont in a great measure by the conduct of the Board of Education in stretching their powers beyoad the law by enforcing the reading of the Bible in every school, which, in three wards of the c¥ty, has led to great confusion, and to. the greatest hardship to the teachers in keeping back their salaries. Such is the improvement boasted of by Mr. Morgan, and is like that of the police force, which he proves by showing that arrests have increased. Crime has also increased, and as the best part of the duty of the police is to prevent crime, it would seem that the progress of the system is backwards, like the motion of a crab. The Governor gives a remarkable example of the efficiency of the police in the case of the law “to provide for the care and instruction of idle and truant children.” He says it has become a dead letter because the police will not carry out its provisions, and he recom- mends the appointment of special officers to do it, just as if the police were overburthened with work. This is about as good as the recommendation to increase the General Super- intendent’s salary. The Governor concludes by taking a fling at the South, and commending that sectional anti- slavery agitation which now threatens the dis- ruption of the Union. He says it is the busi- ness of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories, Thus does he add fuel to the flame. On the whole, this Message is unworthy of a Governor of this great Empire State. Tse Boarp or Cocycmen.—One branch of the Common Council was promptly organized adjourned over till to-morrow for that purpose. Perhaps the best thing that could happen for the city would be the failure of this Board to organize at all for the year. The government of the city, such as it is, would go on just as well without their action. The different de- taken. yusiness came | munities, to determine whether they will per- } estimates of six millions and odd dollars, with- reper: po Boab geo ae in the | sist in the intention of placing such a man in | ont any additional appropriations from the be hes at pregent is 7,982, being an increage of | the chair of one branch of the national legisla- | Councilmen. The public would gladly trust 91 since last week, The number admitted was/ tore, and thus giving new wings to the ap- | them until next year for the sake of the econo- 1,251, and those who died, were discharged, or sent | proaching Reign of Terror in the South. We } my. But we fear there is no such good fortune clsewhere, numbered 1,160. can tell them that the reaction in public opinion | in store for us. The members of the Board ‘The January term of the Court of General 8e5| has already begun in the North, and even | may carry on the ight for afew nights; but the sions was opened yesterday, Judge Russell presid| +. os England, against these Robespierrean | spoils are in view, and the temptation is irre- ing. There was nothing done sare the eupenslin | teachings. It has been produced, not by | cistible. The recusants will be bought up at of the Grand Jury apd the delivery of # speeches in Congress, but by the private and } last; they will sell out their arm par- be by the City Judge. ts to } tizanship, and the Boara ‘A nowber of merchants sod other gentlemen, | confidential letters of thousands of agents to - o aig “hom were several Directors of the Ameris gheleading Northeramanniagturersand traders. " More's ' Carolina and the Lessen'tt T. The Late Case of Lynch Law im South Our black republican cotemporaries—the Jn- dependent, tne Tribune and the Evening Post— have been raising 4 lamentable hue and cry over the recent lynching of one James Power, at Columbia, South Carolina, Power is a na- tive of Ireland, a stone cutter, and, with a num- ber of other men of bis trade of different na- tionalities, was employed in the construction of the new State House at Columbia, when the pro-slavery Committee of Vigilance of said town got wind of some remarks of Power of an abolition character. The results were, an un- successful attempt of Power to escape, his cap- ture, the infliction of twenty-nine lashes upon his bare back, after which he was served with & coat of tar and feathers, and in this condition sent down by railroad to Charleston, where he was conducted to prison, and thence, after a confinement of sevemal days, shipped to New York. These, we believe, are the facts in the case; but, as served up in our abolition organs from the testimony of the sufferer, the only wonder fs that, from the various tortures, trials and mockeries to which he was subjected, he ea- caped with his life. From the very fact, how- ever, that immediately on his arrival here he was sufficiently recovered to visit our aforesaid abolitior .zewspaper offices, and report his sufferings, we may infer that Mr. Power has somewhat exaggerated them, or that the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the poet of the Post, and the philosopher of the Zribune, have given a very highly colored picture of the case in all its details. Admit- ting, however, for the sake of the argument, that they have not exaggerated the facts, but have given a truthful narrative, what does it prove? We are told that it is but another chapter of the enormities, the cruel and barbarous atroci- ties, which are the natural and inevitable fruits of the institution of slavery. In this view, and for this. purpose, this affair has been seized upon and appropriated by our abolition or- gans. Their gbject is to keep up the supply of combustibles to this Northern anti-slavery agi- tation; but, in the meantime, the fearful lesson conveyed to the North by all such violent man- ifestations of Southern public sentiment, is strangely overlooked. There was a Vigilance Committee in this case of James Power. There are many such committees of recent origin throughout the Southern States, and we might fill several columns of this paper with the late proceedings of such committees against North- ern mercantile agents, pedlars, travellers and strangers suspected as abolition emissaries. Southern slaveholders themselves, beyond the range of their personal acquaintances, have not escaped this universal surveillance. All these things, including the case of poor Power, admonish us of the North of the state of alarm and distrust, vigilance and terrible resolution of the people of the South, upon this vital question of slavery. These dreadful manifestations of Lynch law very plainly indi- cate a revolutionary state of the Southern pub- lic mind, which, if driven closer to the wall, will not shrink from the extremities of dis- union and civil war. Those fraternal bonds of harmony, conciliation, forbearance, good fellowship and mutual confidence between the - North and the South, upon which ,this Union was founded, and without which it cannot much longer exist, are virtually broken. So- cially, commercially and religiously, the union between.the North and South is, to a great ex- tent, already destroyed. The mischievous poli- tical agitation of slavery has done all this; and now, upon the yery brink ofa sectional rupture, decisive and disastrous to all concern- ed, as it must be, if it should come, we of the North are admonished to pause. The warning comes to us in 9 thousand shapes; and in e@ery: voice from the South, and stili:our abolition agitators are adding fuel to the fire. One of two things must inevitably follow— the complete defeat and dispersion of our anti- slavery Northern Holy Alliance in the ap- proaching Presidential election, or the_seces- sion of the Southern States from the Union, with a black republican elected to rule: over them. When vigilance committees through- out the South are superseding the regular authorities and forms of law upon this fear- ful issue of slavery, aad when’ an unguard- ed expression upon slavery by a stranger in a Southern community is sufficient to bring upon him the vengeance of Judge Lynch, it is fool- ish, it is criminal, to trifle any longe? with these Southern waverings of disunion. : Reform of the Finances of the State=Re- port of the Comptroller. In another page we publish the report of the Comptroller to the Legislature, which opened yesterday at Albany. Itisan able document, and presents sound and constitutional views in opposition to the financial legislation which has prevailed for many years. The Comptrol- ler shows that debts have been contracted by the Legislature in violation of the constitution, and the loan of $2,500,000 voted for by the people last fall is te pay a debt of this nature. Such has been the reckless and rascally con- duct of former Legislatures, that considerable portion of the public debt has been incurred by loaning the credit of the State to railroad companies, which failed to pay their liabilities, and thus saddled them on the State. The cause of all the financial embarrassments of the State is a departure from the principle of limiting the appropriations to the means ac- tually provided; and till there isa return to this principle, the State will never be free from embarrassment. As the floating debt accumu- lated in violation of the constitution has been ex- tinguished by the Loan law, passed by the popu- lar vote in the recent election, and as the gene- ral fund is now not only free from debt, but will have a surplus at the end of the fiscal year, this is a favorable time in which to turn a new leaf, and inaugurate a thorough finan- cial reform. There is no warrant in the con- stitution justifying appropriations beyond means provided, and a law ought to be passed strictly prohibiting it. In fact, the spirit of the constitution is against it, for it is an indi- rect mode of creating a debt, and that is ex- pressly forbidden; but in order@ remove all doubt on the subject a law ought to be enacted which would leave no loophole through which future legislation could squeeze unconstitn- tional appropriations. There {s another financial reform demanded by the Comptroller, and which deserves the at- tention of the Legislature. It is to separate the general fund, out of which the €xpenses of the government are paid, from the school, litera- ture and other specific funds of the State, which are pleded by the constitution for deg- Soba nite purposes, declared to be late.” By mixing the latter up with the general {vod they have” been misappropriated; by being app fo general objedts “which the ry fond yes Insufficient to meet. There ought {6 he separ? Sepoaita and separate accounts, and each fund apy <4 Oly to the objects for which it is created. A fa? ought to be passed to that effect. As the canals have failed to pay the amou.2! of revenue expected from them, and as they are never likely to pay any better than they do, the cost of their construction and the interest thereon must be paid by direct taxa- tion. There are two canal debts: the old debt and the new. No part of the canal revenues can be applied to the payment of the interest of the new debt till the old debt and the gene- ral fund debt ef eighteen fmillions of dollars are paid off, which would require a period of forty years, at the end of which, if the practice of borrowing money to pay the interest is con- tinued, the new debt will have swelled to more than one hundred millions of dollars. This sys- tem isso manifestly suicidal that it is really eatonishing how any sane man could advooate it. The true course is to impose a direct taxto pay the debt while it is comparatively small, and before it accumulates to such an enormous amount. This will save the credit of the State and guard against the advances of what the Comptroller very properly calls “ the most in- siduous and dangerous enemy of a free govern- ment.” Our New Municipal Government=The Mayor's Mosage. The Board of Aldermen for 1860 was orga- nized on Monday, and Mayor Wood immediate- ly sent in his first annual message. The main feature in this document is an argument to prove what we have repeatedly said, fhat the Mayor, under the present char- ter, is not in fact the Chief Executive of the city, but is, in Mr. Wood's ex- pressive language, merely a clerk, invested with no power over any of the public depart- ments, and having no authority outside fhe walls of his own immediate office. Therefore he contends that no responsibility whatever upon the Mayor for the good or bad government of the city. This is, unfortunately, true. Mayor Wood says :— ‘There is no generathead, There is no chief executive. separate and independent of tech olen, the Mayor tee! an nt o v {op 00.90 rvisory commre!, ‘Theae dopar constitute the whole administrative municipal famed of the He then goes on to define the duties of these several departments;.and shows- what the He- RALD hax often done before, that althongh these bodies have the-disbursement'of millions @ year, and the charge of public education, public health, the peaee of the metropolis, and the safety of its citizens, they are abselutely so many close-corporations, responsible to no one for their actions, and:under no control what- ever. ‘The wonder is that; under such a state of things, the city is governed at all; and, in sim- ple truth, it is only governed by accident, and in a vile fashion at that. Mayor Woeddeclines for the present to offer any detailed suggestions as to reform until the Legislature amends the charter #0 a to concentrate the chief executive power in his hands; then he promises to lay before the Common Council his plan for in- creasing the revenues and lessening the expen- ditures. Mayor Wood says :-— opinion the principal difficuities under-which we labor may be traced to the want of power in the Mayor. The Mayor,as Obief Exccutive, bas not the neo@ssary authority to enforce a prompt obedience to and execution aA Ere eed tis coca ae Vil duers will wagict him tn the sanrts, and ha mnst mé- ail Dot against ac coke comaete Scisting’ | in New Tork, eu? — be a corrective — rt and moro Farrant of lawn’ It is Bt gene facieenry tha ye tenet have a Chief te with nrg integrity, industry and nerve, but he must be vested with requisite, unques- tionable jurisdiction. With such a man, thus strengthen- ed and encouraged, reforms can be accomplished. Other- wise all attempis to this ead will be futile. A chief That is the whole case ina nutshell. magistrate who has.ao control over the police, the finances, the Board of Education, or the Board of Health, cannot be responsible for the peace, the morals, or the health of the metro- polis. We look, therefore, to the Legislature to remodel the charter so as to give usa real head executive to the government, and then we will hold kim rigidly responsible for the faithfal performance of his duties. Tur Porice Derarrwent.~The annual re- port of the Metropolitan Pelice Commissioners for 1859 presents some interesting statistice, which will give a good comprehensive idea of the State of that important department. ‘The total police force in New York and Brook- lyn is 2,170 men, and the cost of maintaining that number, together with the Commissioners’ sala- ties, amgunted to $1,426,730. The number of arrests were 84,326, of which 68,890 were made in New York, and the remainder in Brooklyn. The largest number arrested for any one crime was for intoxication, and it is somewhat singu- lar that out of thirty-six arrested as habitnal drunkards, twenty-six were women. Assaults for murder number fifty-eight. During the year lodgings were furnished to 93,284 per- sons; 1,393 stores found open were secured; lost children were cared for. fires extinguished, and 9,822 cases of violation of Corporation ordinances were reported. The aggregate value of all losses by rob- heries, &c., was $156,901, of which $99,333 was recovered. From last year-the losses were reduced 18 per cent. The report represents the Harbor police as a very efficient addition to the force. It consists of eighty men and eight boats, and the num- ber of arrests made was nearly a thousand. The Commissioners draw attention to the sys- tem of detaining witnesses in custody, which is a great grievance, as in many cases the wit- nesses are heavier sufferers than the criminals. ‘The house of detention is represented as wholly inadequate for the purpose. The increase in the number of arrests over 1857 was eight thousand, showing a larger increase than that of the population; but it by no means follows that the statistics of crime are in the same ratio. The report of the Property Clerk shows that 1,070 lots of goods have been received, their value varying from twenty-five cents to $3,000 each; and there have been delivered to claim- ants 684 lots, of the aggregate value of $31,330. This result may be considered rather satis- factory, for next to the due punishment of the offender the restoration of stolen property is desirable; but it would not appear quite a0 Gratifying, if the aggregate losses of property by burglary, as wade kuowa to the police, were published, We ought to have both sides. of the books to enable us to forma correct opiniog of the value of the presént police. eS Questions to be Discussed at the Eare- pean Congrese—Rights of Neutrals at Sea. According to the ndvices recetved by the Cang- 3s, the organization of tho Congress was nearly completed, and that body was expected to meet | about the middle of the present month, The Objections anticipated on the part of the French En'peror to the appointment of Count Cavour aa firat Plenipotentiary of Sardinia, seem to have been watved, for it is now settled that he is to attend the Consress in that capacity. Some trouble seemm to KAve beer occasioned by a claim of precedency set ip by the Pope for his fepresentative; but this isa matter of miner difficulty, and bas mo doubt by this time goon arranged. ~ ‘The assembling of the new Congress iy natu- rally looked forward to with absorbing inte- rest by all the Dationalities, As re- gards Central Italy, its conclusions may be said to be in a measure foregone; for with the preliminary concession of the principle that under no circumstances is foreign intervention . to be allowed, then there can be no doubt that the political independence of its people will be confirmed. Whether they are to be al- lowed te continue under the rule of ~ Sardinia, or are to be constituted iate @ separate State, the result will relieve them from all further control or indirect influence on the partof Austria. With the pledges whick they have obtained from both France and Eag- land, they have only to remain firm to their own determinations to prevent the restoration of the expelled dynasties, and consequently the recurrence of those dreaded evils. It has always been our opinion that the French Em- peror desired to throw on the Congress the re- sponsibility of absolving him from the regula- tiens of the treaty of Villafranca in this regard. Whilst be naturally desires to maintain a chs- racter for good faith, he can have no desire to force the inclinations of the Italian people. He must see, like the rest of the world, that by the reinstatement of these connections and creatures of Austria he would be perpetuating that continual intervention in their affairs which it was his object to put an end to by ther last war. 4 Although the Congress bas been convened” ostensibly for the seftlement of this and other questions connected with Htaly, the interest attaching to ita deliberations takes a muck: wider scope than that attaching to the affhirs of that country, The Itatian question is im fact but the pivot on which turns the revision: of all that was accomplished by the treaties of 1815, and mayhap, also, by those of 1856. The- very preliminaries under which this body’ meets, 90 far as France and Austria are con-- cerned, reverse and upset some of the most importemt arrangements effected by the Cen- gress of Vienna, whilst the demand which it is - understood that Russia is about to make, te have the position of the Christin: subjects of the Porte: taken into consideration, must, if conceded; modify, if not entirely alter, the principles laid down in the treaty of Paris. Then, again; there is the condition of Hungary, once more laboring in the throes of revolution, to be deliberated upon; for it is not likely that in the discussion of the dangers that threaten the peace of Europe the disquieting aspect of things in thatcountry will be lost-sight of. Itis probab!y the certainty that Francis Joseph feels that the Congress will formally urge upon him the necessity of making constitutional conces- sions to his Hungarian and Venetian subjects, . which Las suggested to him the motion of abdi- cation, in order that he may throw upon the- shoulders of others a task from which his stub~ born and arbitrary nature shrinks. The most interesting of the questions thas will be discussed by this body is, however, se far as. we are concerned, that-involving the Tights of neutrals at sea. There is no doubt that sn effort will be made to give effect to the declaration of the Congress of Paris in 1856 on this subject, and even to carry further the prin- ciples. laid down in it. Meetings have been lately held at Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin, at which it was resolved to urge upon the consi- deration of the Congress the justice of establish- ing the inviolability of private property on the high seas under every state of circumstanees. Now, whilst abstractedly we can have no ob- jection to a principle which guarantees the security of our commercial. marine, we cannot accept it unaccompanied by conditions that would compensate us forthe abandonment of such means of protection as we possess for oun. coasts. If the right of blockade is still to he left open, it is clear that we shall be unable.to come to any agreement with the European Por- ers on this question. Speech oF Hon. Wane Hawrros—A GREar Sovriens SLAVEHOLDER ON THE AFRICAN SLAVE Trape axp THE Unton.—We have before usa late speech of the Hon. Wade Hampton, in the Senate of South Carolina, on the African Slave Trade, the Constitution and the Union, which we hope soon to spread full length before our readers. For the present we have space only for a passing remark or two concerning it. ‘Wade Hampton, we believe, is the owner of a thousand slaves. It eannot, therefore, be ques- tioned that, as a slaveholder, he speaks as one having authority and a substantial interest at stake. His views in opposition to the revival of the African slaye trade, a8 2 Southern moye- ment, are, in this connection, of substantial in- terest, and will hardly fail to convince the reader that they are the views of Southern slaveholders with scarcely an exception. Senator Hammond, & year ago, took precisely the same ground as Senator Hampton, of the constitutional power of Congress to stop this African traffic, of the wisdom and sound policy of the laws to this end, and of the folly of agitating their uncon- stitutionality and injury to the South. Mr, Buchanan, in his late Message, has given us the same broad and statesmanlike views of the subject. They cover the true ground. The speech of Senator Hampton is also the speech of a statesman, and a Union loving states- man, on the main issue of the Union itself. But he has his fears of the future, from the evil con- sequences manifest on every side of the reck- less agitation of slavery by our vagabond poli- ticians, North and South. The solid men of the Sonth, like the solid men of the North, are true to the Constitution and the Union; but if the “irrepressible conflict” between free white labor and black slave labor is to be pushed into the slave States, even such conservative Union Southern men as Hammond and Hampton, of the “slave oligarchy,” will be compelled to side with their section, union or disunion,