The New York Herald Newspaper, February 16, 1861, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD. JAMES GORDO ENSKTT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, OFFICK N. W. CORNER OF FULTON AND NASS4U STS, TERMS, cash in advance. Monry sent by mati witt % at the risk of the sender, None but Bank hilla current in New York y HERALT», two conts LY HERALD, every pean , BT per enmumn, furday, Ul stm ene ‘every Wertneaday, eat Bethan, postaye; the Phe Continent, bah to A on the Lat, Luh and lat of each month, at wit i cathatatn AMUSEMENTS THIS RVRNING. | AGADEMY OF MUSIO, Fourteeo'n atreot.—teaniax Oru. | @4.—Matinee at One—Un Bauio im Mascuena. | — \ NIBLO'S GARDBN, Broadway.—Enauisu Orexs—Lixpa | or OuAMOUNL WINTER GARDEN, Mencuant oF Vewice—! Broadway, opposite Bond stroct.— Mauunp Rane. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery —A Nigar iw Wowver Woru, ‘WALLACE’S THEATRE, Brondway.—Crnrast Pann. LAURA KEENE'S THEATRE, No 6% Broaaway.— Bever bistexs. : NEW BOWERY THRATRE, Bowory,—Rac P PAnu-A Dat i Fanis—dace Serrrcas ee OF THEATRE FRANCAIS, No. 685 Broadway.—Lxs Faux Bons Homuxs, BARNUM'S AMERICAN and Evening—tus Lapy or wine, Ac. MUSEUM, Brondway.—Dny Ge. Teorer—Livine Curios BRYANTS' MINSTREL6, Mechanios’ Hall, 472 Broad } , Cr emaaeal Sones, Dasows, fo.—Acnnes 47 HOOLEY & CAMPBELL’S MINSTRELS, Nivlo's Saloon, Broadway.—Ermioriam Danoxs, Bukixsaves, £0.— Batvanxy Cativonntans. CANTERBURY MUSIC HALL 663 Sroadway.—Tiont Bors, Soxcs, Danoxs, Bunixsquas, £0. MELODEON, No. 639 Brosdway.—Soros, Dawons, Box Leagues, £0. TRIPLE SHEET New York, Saturday, February 16, 1962 The News. The committee of the Peace Congress at Wash- ington, yesterday agreed upon a plan of adjust- ment, substantially the same as that presented by Mr. Crittenden in the Senate The vote stood 12 tod. We continue our accounts of the progress of the President elect and party towards the White House. Mr. Lincoln made a speech at Pittsburg yesterday morning, which, as it was a carefully considered effort, demands more consideration than is nsnally bestowed upon ordinary oratorical displays, He spoke upon the crisis and the Tarif bill now before Congress. With regard to the crisis he advises everybody to keep cool, and predicts a peaceful settlement of all our troubles. Respecting the tariff, he confesses his unacquaint- ance with the subject, but is of the opinion that the subject should remain over for the next Con- gress toactupon. The l’residential party will ar- rive in this city on Tnesday next. Accounts from Montgomery, Alabama, received &t Washington, state that the Southern Gon- federacy have made arrangements by which they will have, on the Ist of March, fowrteen millions of dollars, and fifty regiments of troeps ready to take the field. We publish to-day an official copy of the ‘‘ Con- Stitution for the Provisional Governmems of the Confederate States of America.” As we have heretofore remarked, the instrument ‘follows in the main the original constitution of the country. ‘The first article relates to the powers of Congress, with reference to its own body and the confe: racy at large; the second to the duties of the Executive; the third to the judicial authority; the fourth to the duties of the citizens of the severa Btates; the fifth to future amendments of the con- stitution, and the sixth to the constitution and general goverument itself as the supreme luw of | the land. Governor Brown, of Georgia, has again address ed Governor Morgan, of this State, on the subject of the recent seizures of arms by the police of this city. The missive this time is not a telegraph- ic despatch, as on the former occasion, but a let- ter; and Governor Brown hopes that Governor Morgan will now find no excuse for not replying On account of the unoflicim character of the docu- ment, The letter is said to be very bitter in its tone. In Congress yesterday the Senate took up the Tariff bill. With regard to the warehousing sys- tem, Mr. Seward moved to amend the bill by al tering the tme for the payment of duties from ninety days, as provided in the bill, to three Ad ssion ensued; but without taking he Senate adjourned. The proceed- « House were unimportant The ammunition scized on last Wednesday by the Metropolitan police on board the si Huntsville, of the Cromwell line, was y: given up by Mr. Superintendent Kenr n dience to the demands of the Sheriff. Mr. Ke nedy was replevined by Mr. Cromwell, and, there- amship fore, only submitted under the compulsion of the | law. A conrt martial was organized at the Brooklyn Navy Yard yesterday for the purpose of ¢xamin- ing into the charge made against Commander Waike, United States Davy, for disobedience of orders; but as one of the members of the court was absent the examination was deferred until to-day. The steamship City of Baltimore, from Liver- poo! on the 30th and Queenstown on the Sist ult., arrived here last night. in specie, Her advices are two ¢ ter than those previously received. The political news is of no great importance, with the excep- tion of that contained in @ despatch from Naples of the 2th ult., te the effect that a flag of truce had been sent from Gacta to the attacking Sardinian ficet, and immediately there- after the firing on both sides was suspended. The American crivis continned to engage the a'tention | Another | of the English people and journals. circular had been addressed to va- rious courts of Burope by the ministers of Fran- cis TI., asserting that he was still determ: to hold ovt to the Jast. The London money mi the ket was more buoyant, but consols remained about &s last quoted. The Liverpool cotton and proda markets were dull, bat the breadstuff' market was Wore onimated, In London American railway se- curities were in active demand. The Bovaparte-Parterson suit was commenced before the Tribaval of the Seine, at Paris, on the 2th ult. The case was opened by M, Beryyer, the counsel of Madame Nonaparte, who, in the early portion of his remarks, referred in a most eloquent manuer to his client. We publish to-day the speeshes of the counsel on both sites as fully aa we possibly can—in fact more fully than any of the London papershave given them. Not hay ing received the Fiench report of the con cluding portion of M. Allon’s remarks, we! have been obliged to give it in a briefer form than we should othorwise have done, Considering phe interest of the pended to the above mentioned report we give a Paris letter to Le Nord, exhibiting the liberal policy which the Emperor and the Prince Napo- leon have shown in bringing the sult before a oommon tribunal, instead of befpre the Imperiaq) Oonseil de Famille. An Pnglish journal, how- ever, publishes the following offset to this gene. She brings over $90,900 , Ap: | NEW YORK TERALD, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, EE EEEEEIEEEEEEEEEn rosity:— The French Moniteur, which censnres the parties who have prematurely brought the , Bonaparte lawsuit betore the public, instead of waiting for the decision of the tribunals, boldly prejudges the case by stating that his Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon is the sole heir of his father.”” The case was adjourned to February 1, for the reply of the Public Minister. The departure of the North German Lloyd's steamer New York has been postponed froin to- day till Saturday, February 23. This ohange has been made necessary by her retarded arrival at this port. By the arrival of the overland express at Fort Kearny, on Thursday evening, we have news | from Sav Francisco to the 30th ult., and from Japan to the 29th of December. A summary of the news is given in another column. The proceedings of our State Legislature yes- terday were interesting. Much ground was gone over, and considerable business transacted. The Senate had before it the Kansas Relief bill from the Assembly,’ appropriating $50,000 for the des- titute people of that State, which, after consider- able discussion, was passed. The bill now only requires the Governor’s signature, whjch it will doubtless receive, to render the appropriation available for its object. The Senate, after a third reading of the bill to amend the divorce laws, took a vote thereon, and the bill was lost. In the Assembly the Senate bill appropriating $600,000 to arm and equip the militia came up on its third reading, was discussed at length, and finally tabled. The bill for the endorsement of national bonds by the State, to the amount of the deposits made with the State in 1837, as passed by the Se- nate, was also passed by the Assembly, the vote Deing 89 yeas to 3 nays... The Agricultural Col- lege appropriation of $90,000 was defeated, The Seventh Regiment Veteran Corps bill had progress reported. Considerable other business was gone through with, but much of it was only of a local character. Orders have been issued from headquarters for the parade, on the 22d, Washiogton’s birthday, of the entire First division of our State militia, com- prising all the regiments of this city. By order, also, five hundred guns will be fired here in honor of the day. In a private letter from Colville Depot, under date of the 23d of December, we have information from the American Northwestern Boundary Com- mission, which was appointed to settle, in connee- tiou with the English Commission, the dispute as to the Northwestern boundary line. It states that | the work is progressing as speedily as possible, | and that on the 25th of October the first stone of | the final monument of the Northwestern Boundary | Commission had been laid. The Chiet Commis- sioner had started for home, leaving Lieut. Parke to take charge of the road and to settle some little misunderstanding between the two Commissions as to some portion of the line. The promised evidence of Abson’s (the Jersey wife poisoner) innocence not being forthcoming, the sentence of death will be pronounced on Mon- day next, the day to which it was postponed in order to give time for the introduction of addition- al evidence, At the meeting of the Board of Police Commis- sioners held yesterday Sergeant Souder, of the Fourth precinct, tendered his resignation, Seve- ral sergeants were transferred and two rounds- men appointed. No other business of public inte- rest was transacted. The jury in the case of Lane, mate of the bark Anna, who was charged with the murder of one of the negroes, were locked up all Thursday night, but, being unable to agree, Judge Smalley dis- charged them yesterday morning. ‘The cotton market yesterday wore the same quict-ap- pearance as that exhibited pretty much through the week, while quotations were unchanged. The sales em- braced about 600 a 700 bales, closing on the basis of 11343. a 1154¢. per Ib, for middling uplands, Holders of shipping grades of Westorn and State flour were firmer, while sales were to a fair extent, at full prices for most descriptions, Wheat was alo more firmly held, and sales made to a fair extent, at rates given in another column, Corn was some firmer, while sales were fair, ineluding some purchases for ex- port, Pork was dull; sales of meas were made at $17, and prime at $13, Sugars were tolerably active, with | sales of 1,000 1,100 bhds.,at prices given in anothor place, Coffee was steady, with sales of 2,700 bags Rio dy auction and 1,500 do. to the trade, and 200 bags Ma racaibo, on terms given elsewhere. Freight engagements | were moderate, while rates were without change of moment. The Peace Conference—The Incoming Ad- ministration—Gleams of Light. ‘The clouds begin to break away again, and there are some hopeful gleams of light stream- ing up through the general darkness of our political horizon. The committee appointed by the Peace Con- ference at Washington have reported an agree- tment upon the Crittenden propositions substan- tially, the principal one of which is the con- stitutional reinstatement of the Missouri Com- promise line—all the Territories on the north side to be no-slavery, and all on the south side | to be pro-slavery. This proposition, as we | uaderstand it, is intended to apply to all future | acquisitions of territory north and south of said compromise line; but, to guard against precipi- tate Southern filibustering, it Is further pro- posed that future annexations of territory shall be only by treaty, requiring a ratifying vote of four-fifths of the Senate. For the other pro- | positions of the committee we refer the reader to our Washington despatches. Upon this main item, the Missouri Compromise line, guarded as it is proposed to be on the South- ‘ern side of expansion, we cannot conceive why there should be any difficulty in the mat- ter of an agreement on the Northern side of the question. These propositions of a sectional adjustment, emanating from the volunteer representatives in this conference with the border slave States, it is true, are without legal force or authority; but still it is believed they indicate the land- marks of an approaching Union saving com- promise. The defeat of the radical secession- | 118 in the late Virginia election; their over- whelming overthrow in the late Tennessee elec- tion ; the refusal of the Kentucky Legislature to call for an election on thie question of seces~ sion, and the infleaible objections of Governor | Hicks against calling an extra session of the | Leyislature of Maryland, because he suspected he democratic elements of said Legislature to | be inclined to a revolutionary conspiracy to | carry Maryland out of the Union, including the | city of Washington, ave encouraging Southern | facts in behalf of a compromise. From theze facts we are convinced that this Guthrie or Critten- | den plan of adjustment will be satisfactory to | ull the border slave States, including the two | otber great States classed with them, of North , Carolina and Tennessee. it next appears that Mr. Corwin, Chairman of the House Committee of Thirty-three, has been withholding his report frym the action of the Tose, in deferende to this Peage Confer. ence, and with every disposition, it fs said, to adopt their ogreement in lieu of his own more contracted plan of pacification, Meantime, the Cimrleston Merewry betrays ite misgivings of the drift of the provisional government of this new Southern confederacy, Jt is not a satis- factory secession government; it stultifies itself in ite repudiation of the African slave trade, and ip jts adoption of the obnoxiow, Northern | tariff of 1857; and it appears to be looking with too much trepidation to the border slave States, while they, in turn, are begging alms of the republican party of the North Nor is this view of the subject a mere thing of fancy. In this Southern provisional government there is a decided winking and blinking at a recon- struction of the Union. President Jefferson Davis is, in fact, & conservative man, and Vice President Stephens, to the last point of resist- ance, labored with all his great abilities to pre- vent the secession of Georgia, on the ground that her true course was to. exhaust all expe- dients for her rights within the Union betore resorting to the desperate last alternative of revolution. The Yanceys and the Rhetts in this inchoate Southern confederacy have been superseded by move moderate men and by wiser counsels. A provisional government, open to a treaty of reunion with the Northern States, ia the conse- quence; and its limitation to one year’s exist- ence indicates, no doubt, the margin wituia which it is expected a treaty of reunion will be made. Under this interpretation, let the gov- ernment at Washington forbear yet a little longer to bring the seceded States to any acts of warlike resistance, in the matter of those federal forts, arsenals, custom houses, &c., and let the incoming administration make its first business a treaty of reconciliation with the seceded States, and they wil be reclaimed. This border State compromise will not be adopted, nor will anything approaching these concessions command a two-thirds vote from the present Congress. But, if upon a test vote it shall be shown that a promising break bas been made into the republican camp, Mr. Lin- coln may soon complete the work; for his word will be the law, with all the spoils and honors of the government in his hands, Mr. Seward, his Premier, has the capacity, and has manifest- ed the disposition, to abundon the republican platform for the country. Let bim do 80; for in truth the mission of the republican party came toanend on the 6thof November. A great revolution bas followed, in which all pre- existing parties have been, or must be, swal- lowed up. The new administration cannot de- pend upon the republican party of 1860. The work of that party is done; and Mr. Lincoln must look to a new party upon a Union plat- form for the support of his administration. We think it very probable, too, that among the first acts, if not the very first administra- tive stroke of policy on the part of Mr. Lin- coln, will be the call of an extra session of the new Congress, of which a quorum of the House has already been elected; and that, when assembled, he will submit to the two houses some plan for a revision of the federal constitution in behalf of the Union. Hence, as it now appears that the border slave States will be encouraged to await the disclosure of the policy of the incoming administration, and as it is probable that Mr. Lincoln, under the advice of Mr. Seward, will move promptly, not to maintain the Chicago platform, but to re-establish the Union, our hopes are revived in behalf of the Union and of peace. Let the border slave States be promptly ap- peased, and they will reclaim the seceded States, and, perhaps, within the year allowed to their provisional independent government. The Southern confederacy is looking to the border slave States. They are looking to the conservative masses of the North, and these, in their turn, are looking for relief to the party coming into power on the 4th of March. The President elect is the last link in the chain. It all depends upon him. Let him promptly move for a Union compromise, and we predict that, even if it be to the full extent of the Crit- tenden propositions, it will be endorsed by a hundred thousand majority in the Empire State if submitted to a popular test. If Mr, Lincoln wonld have an all powerfal party at his back, North and South, let him strike out boldly for the Union and for peace. Let us hope that on er before his arrival at Washing- ton he will find the good cause too strong to be resisted or postponed. Frrontrct. Derarcations at Wasatvatox.— More than a year ago we called the attention of the public to certain well authenticated ru- mors and revealed facts then in our possession with reference to some very extensive defalow tions by officials under the present administra- tion. For doing this the Washington organ of the Cabinet, and the democratic press gene- rally, abused us very savagely, and peculation continued the same as ever. Now it appears that we were right, but that we altogether underrated the extent of the defaloations. In- vestigations show that from the Departments of War an@ Interior sowe six mitlions of dol- lars have been pilfered. From the highest authority we learn that very extensive defal- cations have hebped to impoverish the Trea- sury Department. The Post Office Department has been rotten for years and years, as may be ascertained by the developements at New York and New Orleans, Wholesale stealing, commenced, however, under poor Pierce, has been continued during the rule of the amiable Bucbanan, and the whole amount of which the government has been bled will not fall fur short of twenty millions of dollars—enough to carry on the government from now till the Ist of July These defalcations are living witnesses of the purity, integrity and splendid rectitude of that immense humbug—the democratic party— which certain sympathetic fossils are now cry- ing over. The republicans come into power with a most delightful prospect, while Floyd & Co. jingle their ill-gotten dollars and dety the lawa. Tne Sreecnes or On Ans.—We have never read such speeches as those made by Old Abe on his journey trom Springfield towards the White House since General Scott ran for Pre- sident; and then, indeed, we were regaled with some choice oratorical morsels. It is quite re- freshing to hear the ex-rail splitter and present journeyman Cabinet maker dolighting bis audi- ence with such choice and original expressions as “passional attraction,” and quaint allusions to “free love” and homeopathy, We expect to be very much amused when the angular fea- tures of the elect of his people make their ap- pearance in New York. What we want is a good Western anecdote, and we hope the natu- fal modesty of Mr. Buchanan’s successor will hot prevei* his giving ug the desired treat. orenentnemenecnstit Tun Anonrrion Wan an NATOR SBWARD.— We see that Greeley, Obuse, Garrison and others are beginning the war with Seward. As soon as the time for distributing the spoils comes we may expect to witness @ very enter- taining exhibition. Meanwhile we hope that the ropemakers will be busy making hemp. If Seward wants assistance let him say 60. MW Our Relationy with Japan=Tite &. and Fatare Effect of the Embas#y. The people of Japan are constitutiodely | apathetic, and, although curious, are by py means easily moved to wonder. The col manner in which they met the return of their Embassy to this country,.and the indifference they displayed conceruing the details of the Ambassadorial mission, and the hospitality shown to the Embassy in the United States, there- fore, afford us but little surprise. That we have done the Japanese good service in con- veying them to this counéry, and making them familiar with our institutions and inventions, we feel convinced; and that the bond of friend- ship between ourselves and the Japanese has been established on # more durable basis than before, we feel to be no less certain. We cannot complain of the Japanese reject- ing the services of the two naval officers who went out in the Niagara with the prospect of remaining in Japan to instruct the natives in the practice of gunnery, as the Japanese declared themselves very well able to teach themselves in that respect, We ought not to exporicnce a sense of disappointment because a number of Dahl- gren guns of Japanese manufacture were dis- covered in a shed at Kanagawa, thereby show- ing that the Japanese were in no particular need of those sent to them by our govern- ment. The fact that the Japanese were clever enough to construct such scientific weapons from the one or two presented to them by Commodore Perry shows that they are a very ingenious people, whose friendship is by no means to be despised. We believe that the fruits of the late Embassy will be reaped as lopg as the United States, or any of them, and Japan exist. The mere circumstance of our making them acquainted with the means of our naval and military strength, even if we knew the Japanese would become as cunning adepts in the art of war as any of the Western nations, is by no means inadvisable. Seoresy is only the defence of the weak. By all means let the Japanese become enlightened, and learn as much about us as possible. To know us well will be to disarm suspicion; and if they ever choose to fight us with our own weapons we may be assured that we shall be none the losers by it in the end. The somewhat disappointed tone in which some of the recent letters from Japan are writ- ten may be easily accounted for by the glow- ing expectations entertained by the writers of the immediate results of the Embasay’s return home. Let us remember that Rome was not built in a day, and that the good effects of the Embassy alluded to are not to be exhibited in a moment. The effect will be slow, but we think sure, in our favor. The men whom we féted and entertained so well cannot but remember us and our generous hospitality, and to some extent share“bur sym- patbies. Ours is the only country to which the present generation of the Japanese ever accre- dited an embassy, and their special acquaint- ance with us must be productive of many ad- vantages which can hardly be expected by any other nation. These people of the far Orient are practically strangers to every other land save ours and their own; and, naturally exclu- sive by disposition, the exception which has marked their intercourse with the United States conveys a rich store of promise. Theirs is a delightful land, and one abounding in almost unlimited resources. Already our merchants have established agencies on its shores, and but for the currency all would be doing well. This matter, however, will, in all reasonable probability, be settled within a short period in amanner satisfactory to both parties, as the Embassy devoted great attention to the results of the assay at the Philadelphia Mint, with a view to the udjustment of this vexed question. The reports of the Ambassadors have not yet had time to be acted upon; therefore any opi- nion pronounced adverse to a satisfactory set- tlement would be premature. The title of No-Kami enjoyed by the Ambassadors is of only a temporary nature, and entitles its possessors to far less consideration than those who inherit high rank. Thus we have seen how those who were grandees among the shaven heads at Washington and New York were nobodies comparatively at Jeddo,although the custom of inferiors kneeling and bending to superiors adopted throughout the empire leads us to form an exaggerated idea of their relative rank. The correspondence we have lately pub- lished, and the last instalment of which may be found in another column, affords us a large amount of interesting information re- specting the manners and customs of the Ja- panese at home, end makes us sanguine that increased commercial relations between their country and ours will be of the highest advan- tage to both nations, whatever may be the arca- na imperii in the realm of the Rising Sua. Terrie Tites AMone THE Buack Repcsii- CANS. —Just now we are in a sort of political deluge, by which the whole aspect of parties, their divisions and ideas, will be entirely changed. Already the democratic party has been swept entirely away. There is not so mach as a bone or a footprint of the old thing left. The whigs and Know Nothings are buried still deeper, and a few of the old politi- cians have saved themselves in the black republican ark. The passengers are, however, ® queer and incongruous set of fellows, and have already begun to quar- rel among themselves. On one side we have practical politicians, like Seward and Weed, who are in favor of peace and compromise; and on the other the radicals—blood and thunder, fire and insurrection abolitionists, headed by Sumner, Phillips, Greeley, Wade, Fessenden, Garrison & Oo. those two cliques is as wide apart as the poles, now, that, with this intestine war going on in its midst, the republican party is dead as Julius Cesar, and Webb may as well be making ar- rangements for a military funeral in the best atyle. Lixcoty’s Cantxet—Honest Old Abe has gone no further with his Cabinet making, and will not until he gets to Washington, when there will be a grand conclave of the leaders and an agreement upon some definite line of policy. Lincoln has two names on his slate— Seward and old Mr. Bates. Cameron is like Mabomet’s coffin—between heaven and earth; and large numbers of eager patriots are howl. ing over the delay, as they wish to be admitted to Abraham’s bosom at once, The fuss about the Cabinet reveals a very large fissure in the party, and will tend to weaken the new admin- istration in advance, The policy of | *86L—TRIPLE SHEET. We i,ave often to bear the scoffs and bitter ¢o™umenta, ‘es of aristocratic governments upon the disgrace, o,"Tadation and peculations which Gésastonally charay.“etize our own democratic form of gove: 9.14 in some instances we are compelled to admit .the partial justice of the comments, and to deplore the causes which give birth to them. Such is the case with the recent developements made at Waehixigton with regard to the robbery of the. Indian Trust bonds, and all the collateral circumstances at- tending it, which in all its features presents one of the worst forms of public plunder perhaps ever known under any government, certainly under our own, involving, as it appears to do, members of the administration high in trust and in the confidence of the Executive. It is true that no tmputation rests upon the Presi- dent of complicity in those frauds; but that three members of his Cabinet should have abandoned their posts and run away, some, if not each of them, being probably implicated in the disgraceful transactions—either directly by connivance, or indirectly through ignorance and imbecility—would seem to indioate his un- fitness for a discriminating selection of his con- atitutional advisers. But it happens, unfortunately for the country, that the official peculations and other disoredit- able violations of public morality, which from time to time are brought to light in various quarters, are not solely attzibutable to one particular party. Certain its that the dems- crats, having enjoyed a long lease of power, had larger opportunities of developing their rascality than the republicans; but we find that wherever the republicans have attained power they have made up by the magnitude of their peculations for the smaller area and the shorter period of time in which they had to operate. Take, for example, the actions of the republi- can majority in the Albany Legislature ; the combination of republicans and democrats in our own Commoén Council on every question involving the spoils; the conduct of the Wis- consin Legislature some time ago in a whole- sale fraud, and the defalcations of State Trea- surers in the godly New England States. There is a peculiar view of this question, however, and it is one which foreign writers and forelgn moralists never take, and that is that all these degrading and disgraceful transac- tions are the work of politicians who, with few exceptions, are mere adventurers—men without responsibility or position, who rise by their wits here and there, in small communities, until they obtain official station, which they convert to-their own ends, regardless of probity or the trust reposed in them—men, in fact, who take to politics as a trade, with the delibe rate purpese of plundering the public. Outside of this class there is not to be found in the civilized world a community more honera- ble and upright in all their commercial dealings than the American people. The American merchant stands second to none upon the com- mon Rialto of the Christian world in integrity, worth and fidelity to his engagements. But the politiciatfs are the tainted sheep of the flocks and it unfortunately happens that the politicians give the stamp and color in foreign minds to our government and our insti- tutions, and we have to bear the responsibility of their acts. In old countries like England the governing class comprises the highest and the wealthiest class in the realm. In other Euro- pean countries the same condition of things is true; in France perhaps less so than in the other continental States; but, as we have said, the governing class in this country is of an en- tirely different character. Yet even in England great public frauds have come to light of as disastrous a nature as any which this country has exhibited. There was the great railroad swindle of Hudson; the gigantic bank frauds of Sir John Dean Paul, and more recently of the Cashier of the Union Bank of London; the Sad. lier frauds, which involved thousands in utter ruin, and numerous others. It may be that here we find a greater difficulty in procuring the conviction and punishment of delinquents; but it must be admitted also that a vast amount of public turpitude in England is never pub- lished to the world, while in this country, owing to the activity ef the press and its correspon- dents, nothing of that kind escapes the public eye. Then, again, our people are so immersed in business, there are so many opportunities for acquiring wealth, so many temptations to spe- culation, there is so vast a country demanding all their energies for its developement and civilization, that they have not leisure to wateh or restrain unprincipled officials; and heace it occurs that while fewer frauds and peculations of s public nature escape general attention in the United States than perhaps in any other country, yet the checks upon official corruption are, from these causes, also fewer and less stringent. Thus, while we deplore the disgrace which such developements as those just. made at Washington impose upon our democratic form of government, we cannot fairly attribute it to the peculiar character of self-government alone, nor can we admit that we are, as a pedple, more unrighteous, or more wanting in a sense of public morality than others who live under aristocratic rule. Mr. Lixcoun on Masonrrres.—In one of his recent remarkable speeches the President elect bas stated that a majority of the people voted in favor of the Chicago platform. This is not the truth. A majority of the electoral votes endorse the Chieago resolutions, but they are in a minority of a million of voices in the nation. Mr. Lincoln must be more careful in his statements, or else keep quiet. He is not now stumping the benighted districts of Ii- nois, or defending the plunderer of a henroost ; i he is in a position where the utmost eare, pra- and they must havea fight. In any event the | atruggle will kill the new party, which will | give place to at least two others. We consider | dence and circumspection are absolutely re- quired. The President elect certainly should not endorse partisan tricks which involve a wilful deviation from the facts in the case. The figures have been printed over and over again, and no man who can read, or procure some friend to read for him, should be unin- formed as to the popular vote, which, as we have said, was against the Chicago platform. Work ror Tae Granp Jury.—Why does not the Grand Jury take up the subject of the re- cent depredationa by the police of this city upon the freight of steamers bound for the South? Such outrageous robberies have mever been surpassed since Rob Roy earned for him- self so much peculiar distinction. We have evi- dently » Rob Roy police. Every policeman thinks himself a youthful Rob Roy, with un- limited power to plunder wherever he pleases, This state of things had better be looked into, and the Grand Jury qught to take the putter in band, republican platform is an unjust sion of slave labor from the common territory. Now why, we ask, should nob the Southern States, with their beneficent inst tution, have an expansion into the Territories West and south of them? Every foot of the public territory has either been ceded by those States, or acquired by the party with which they have always been identified, while the anti-slavery party bas ever resisted the ag- quisition of the territory, in which they new clain} # monopoly, to the exclusion of Southern labor and enterprise. The first suecessful assault on elavery in Com- gress resulted in the Missouri Compromise im 1820, prohibiting involuntary servitude in the territories north of 36 deg. 30 min., but admit- ting Missouri as a slave State, though north of that line. This was an unconstitutional compro- mise, being a violation of the treaty with Franoe, which ceded the Louisiana territory on condie tion that the inhabitants should retain the pre vileges and rights which they then enjoyed (ine cluding slaveholding); for a treaty is made by the constitution the supreme law of the land. It was unconstitutional on the still broader ground of the right of Property ia slaves and the equality of the States, and it has been so pronounced by the Supreme Court im the Dred Scott decision. To make the Missouri compromise binding, it ought to have been aftopted as an amendment to the constitution; but the anti-slavery party were not then strong enough to accomplish so much. Now the same party are so strong that the friends of the Union cannot obtain from them the very compromise they then forced on the South. The Northern egeressors did not really regard the Missount Compromise as a binding finality, but pursued their agitation and their denunciations of sla~ very just asifit had never been made. The Missouri restriction was substantially repealed by the compromise measures of 1850, and more formally by the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854 The consequence of this repeal was that the powerless anti-slavery faction rapidly grew into the powerful republican party, “carrying the war into Africa,” and making it the funda- mental article-of their creed that neither north ofthe line 36 deg. 30 min., nor south of i could slavery have any legal existence in the Territories, nor would they ever admit another slave State into the Union. Upon this issue they have succeeded, by a combination of cir- cumstances, in electing their candidate for Pre- sident, by a minority of the popular vote, an event which has resulted in revolution and the breaking up of the confederacy. This alone, probably, would not have sufficed to produce such an effect, were it not for the overwhelming accession of power to the North- ern States, arising from the new apportion, ment of representation in Congress, to be founded on the census of 1860. The Southera States fear that the Northern power is now grown sufficiently strong and sufficiently un- scrupulous to introduce angamendment into the constitution abolishing slavery in every part of the United States. The loss of Con- gressional equilibrium, closely following the election of the anti-slavery candidate for Pre- sident, has confirmed thé South in its resola- tion to overthrow the present arrangement and obtain a satisfactory reconstruction, or erect a separate confederacy, to develop its own des- tiny, and hence the result accomplished im Montgomery on Saturday last. Tue Irattan Exections.—The fact that the elections in Northern Italy have gone generally in favor of the Cavour ministry may induce an impression that the policy of the latter in re- gard to Venice will prevail over the plans of the revolutionists. We do not see any well founded reasons for that belief. In the Two Sicilies it is probable that the opposition will have a strong vote; but whether it has or not it matters but little so far as the actual chances of a conflict are concerned. Garibaldi did not wait for the sanction of the Turin Cabinet or Parliament to his prejects for the invasion of Southern Italy. On the contrary, he acted, or appeared to act, in direct opposition to their views. This did not prevent Sardinia from availing berself of the fruits of his conquests; and it is to be presumed that whatever Count Cavour may think of the temerity and inop- portuneness of his threatened diversion against the Transylvanian dependencies of Austria as @ preliminary to his attack upon Venice, he will feel no more hesitation in profiting by its re- sults than he did in the case of Naples. To meet, however, this chance of a secret un- derstanding between the revolutionists and Count Cavour, Austria has taken the precau- tion of intimating to M. Thouvenel that she should consider as a casus belli with Piedmont an attack by Garibaldi on any point of the Aus- trian territory. As the ex-Dictator cannot be made amenable to Parliamentary control, the conservative character of the recent elections can have no effect in delaying the struggle. All Uie influence they can exercise is to shield the government of Victor Emanuel from the re- sponsibility of Garibaldi’s acts, vis-a-vis of the other cabinets, and to afford France that op- portunity for intervention for which she is making such energetic preparations. There ia one thing that admits of no doubt: even should Garibaldi be induced to pogtpone his threaten- ed movement, there will be an ontbreak in Hun- gary and the Danubian principabities this sprivg. The ball of revolution once set in mo- tion in that quarter, there will no longer be ang hesitation on the part of Italy to turn to ac- count the difficulties in which her old oppressor will be placed. Thus any hope of the continu- ance of peace acquired from the results of the recent elections must prove fallacious. Nothing but the cession of Venice can prevent a resort to arms, and this Austria haa declared her intention never to yield unless under compul+ sion. Tue Cnevauien “Ween ox Govarsuent Loaxs.—The Chevalier Webb has broken out ina new place. Latterly he has been a ter- rife fighting man, talking of nothing but guna and wounds, and blood and bombs, and those celebrated percussion lock and mahogany stock pistols. Yesterday, however, he changed hia tune, and gives us bis sentiments upon the si¥e- ject of government loans, The Chevalier is much exereised in hia mind by the attitu’.e of those bankers who declare that they wi not Joan the government any more money un ¢il some compromise measure has been offered ‘oy the re- publican party. The Chevalier sav, likewise, that the Heraup “boldly procl,ims that Mri Lincoln shall not have any money wherewith to enforce obedience to the jaws.” We have not made such aproclamatign, On the contrary Me