The New York Herald Newspaper, December 29, 1867, Page 4

NEW YORK HERALD. BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore HERALD. Letters and packages should be prope-ly sealed. ‘ Rejected communications will no! be re- turned. Volume > = RELIGIOUS SBRVICSS TO-DAY, CHURCH OF THR REFORMATION,—Rev. Aanorr Baows. Morning and afters” CATHOLIC AposToLiC CHURCH.«Rey. Anpusws on “Tum Nestuss OF th Evening. CRURCH OF THB STRANGERS.—Rev. Da. Drews. Morning and ereoing. w. Ww. Domine ov Tam Logp," CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Twenty-eighth atreet,—Morn. ing apd Evening. DOPWORTH HALL.— Mayxauo. Morning and even! mircacisric Society. . Mus, | MASONIC HALL.—Tus Association or Srratrvatasts, Morning and evening. SEVENTEFNTH STRERT METHODIST CHURCH.— Rey. Wit, P, Conair, Morning aud evening. ST. PAUI’S CHURCH, Yorkville.—Rev. Wat, Dimown’ Morning and evening. ST. ANN’S FREE CHURCH.—Morning, afternoon and eveuing. ST. STEPSIEN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH.—Rey. Dr. Price.” Morning and evening. SOUTH DUTCH CHURCH.—Sabbaih School Anoiver- sary. Evening, THIRTY.FOURTH STREET RBFORMED CHURCH.— Rev. De. Srereer, Evening. UNIVERSITY, Washington square.—Bisuor Srow ox “Pause Prnorukts, anp Waat Tasy Tyaca.” Morning and evening. URCH OF THE ASCENSION.—Morning New York, § unday, December 29. 1867. ed ws. EUROPE. inotic cable is dated yester- THES NE ‘The news report by day oveniay, December Ths Fenians wore in extraordinary activity ai! over Great Britain and the country remained excited by hourly telegrams reporting their movements, Friday night a party of men, disguwed, stormed the govern- meat tower at Cork, Ireiand, routed the guard and car. ried away the arms and ammunetion, A Fenian cruiser is said to have been chased by the British war vescels of Cork. Aman has been arrested in London who, it 4s alleged, fired the fuse on the occasion of the Cierken- well explosion, The bili for the reorganization of the French army Passed the legislative body. The term of service xs ox- tended to nin rs, MM. Rouwher, Minister of State, alluded to tbe “armaments of the neighboring Powers” in support of the measure, The Spanish Cortes met in ‘| session. Queen Isabella announced her determination to support the Pope’s temporal power. The Austrian frigate Novara, with Maximilian’s remains on board, arrived at Cadiz, A Paris jourua! denounces the debt “repudiation”? of Italy. Consois closed at 923 y2 r money in London. iv@-twenties were at 72a in London and 76% 1n Frankfort, The Liverpool cotton market closea quict. uplands was at 7} penes at noon, Broadstuils and Provisions quiet and sieady. Produce dui! MISCELLANEOUS. General Grant issued an order yesterday, by direction of the President, relieving Major Generais F. OC. Ord and Jobn Pope of their respective commands in the Third and Fourth Military Districts. Ord wilt proce to California, where he will reiiewo Generat McDowell, who will in turn take command of the Fourth District, Pope will report vo headquarters at Washington with- out delay, General Me: assigned to the com, mand in hisstesd, General Wagor Swayne fe relieved from duty inthe Frecdmen’s Bureau in Alabamaand ordered to his regiment. Our special telegrams by tha Cuba cable embrace items of intelligence from Trinidad, Demerara, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbados. The Legislatures of Trintdad and Antigua were in session. Four hundred coelies bad arrived in Demerara. Lord Lyttleton had been given a warm welcome by the people of Jamaica. ‘ tidal wave and volcanic eruption in the era bad visited Grenada, destroying several houses, The term of Gov- | ernor Walker, of Barbados, had expired, ‘The Co: on to select aplan for (be new city Post Office have subzuitted a report to the architects who proffered pluns and specifications for the building. Fifteen of the piang are ao far accepiabie asx to Call for premiums, but none of them have beon agreed upon for the uew ouiiding. The prowiums thus awarded ageregate $14,000, It is determined by te Commission to perfect a design of their own ome of those thus obtained. Judge Richard Busteed, of the United Siates Court of Alabama, was shot in Mowe yesteriay by District | Attorney I. V. B, Martin, receiving two severe wounds, | neither of which is yet known to be mortal. Martin | was under indictment in Busteed’s court for alleged revenue frauds and extorttoa, and the difficulty grew aut of this fact, Busteed formeriy resided in New York city. Martin was arrested. >» The British wor vesge! Chanticiner lay alongside of the United States steamer Lackawauns, at Honolulu, re. Middiing cently, and ber band struck up " Dixie” and “Hounie Blue Flag,” revel war songs. They were effectually silenced, however, whea te Americans played “The Wearing of the Green.’ The Louisiana Convention yesterday adopied the second article of the constitation, which designates woe shall bo citizons of the State. A nagto was tied to Gad durned by amob iD | Jefferson county, Ga,, on Monday, for ae alteyed outrage | on a white gitl { A aplit yocurred sanong the Vaion Leagues in Ala. ama, each branch elainting that the other is too radient | or too o rraure, and born elaiming to ve theonly genuine the District of Arizona, aud it ie prodabia Genera! Crit. tendee wil! be pamod as his scoessor The Ontario, Canada, Parliament was opened on Friday, Jobn Stevenson was elected speaker, Buslness in Commercial circles was without improve. ment, though a fow ef tho lead.ng commodities wore quite freely dealt in. Boyers opernied very cautious! confining their purchases tp immediate necessities Cotton was io |, tmamly for export, and closed bighor at 1530 ug upiand, Coffee was unchanged. 00 "Cha remained dul! and changed, while wheat and cora were quite, and oats quiet and scarcely so rm, Pork, beef and lard were unchanged. Freights were @uil, white nave: sores, oils and petroleam were quiet, bu: firmly held a former prices. Tas War ov Races.—In tho South tho condi- tion of the relations between the rages becomes aggravated with every day that passes. In Virginia it appears to portend even more immediate trouble than in the Gulf States. Marder, arson and robbery are already of common occurrence, indicating, apparently, that the negroes in the country are following literally the Instructions of Hean- for account and 924 @ } e. General Strong has deea relieved of the command of | Tre Prepesition so Dir. Soward. some twenty years ago, in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, after being expelled by mob mons had reason to suppose that they were beyond the reach of the persecuting Gentiles for many generations. There they were, in 9 region only two years before made known to the world by the explorations of Fremont— beyond the great western timberless plains from the nearest white settlements of the East, and seven hundred miles over the Great Desert Basin and the lofty chain of the Sierra Nevada from the nearest white settlements of Califor- nia. With these extensive and apparently im- passable barriers separating them on each side from their remorseless enemies, surely, thought the Latter Day Saints, we can here build up our New Jerusalem and flourish for a thousand years. But they were mistaken. The silver mines discovered in Nevada to the west of them; and the golden discoveries in Idaho, north of them; in Montana and Colorado, east of them, and in Arizona, to the southward, have made within a few years the Happy Val- ley of the Mormons the common thoronghfare of migratory hordes of Gentiles from all points of the compass. Worse still; from the impulse which these rich and enveloping mines of gold and silver have given to the enterprise of the Pacific Railroad, the iron horse from the East now thunders along to the base of the Rocky Mountains, while from the Pacific he has already surmounted the lofty crest of the Sierra Nevada, and in the summer will ,be snorting in the sandy waste of the Great Basin. Two yeara hence his course will be free, from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and then, with four days as bis time from St. Louis to San Francisco, Salt Lake City, the city of the Mormon saints and their snintly institution of polygamy, will be overwhelmed by the swarm- ing Goths and Vandals, Meantime, Brigham Young seems to be blind to this approaching danger. He still preaches polygamy as the supreme law. - His temporal kingdom in Utah embraces perhaps seventy- five thousand souls, twenty-five thousand of them in Great Salt Lake City and suburbs, In a political view he is to us what the Holy Father of Rome is to the King and kingdom of Italy. He stands in our way and he must be removed. But how? That is the question. It is | morally certain that unless the government shall in season interpose and secure their peaceable removal, these Mor- mons will be exterminated in a bloody conflict with the Gentiles, We tolerate some queer sects of socialists and religionists in the midst of the Christian communities of our oldest States, but these sects are either too small to excite alifrm or too inoffensive to awaken the jealousy or wrath of their neighbors, Not so with the Mormons of Utah. They are impe- rium in impevio, a State within the State, in the most offensive antagonism to our established social laws, the basis of our political sysiem. The saints at the Great Salt Lake, with the Btotmens add Phoir Dasker—A Fate | neveriheless, . publishers mast bestir themselves, We can | ® What are we to do with the Mormons and | get up a3 good books here as anywhere else, if | topics, without meaning word of it’ There Mormod pologamy in Utah? What isto become | we only take the trouble to do it “for the glo- | is, in other words, at this day, none of of them if we do nothing? These are import | rious privilege of being independent.” We csn | simplicity of practical faith ent questions which cannot be safely over- | gupply the brains, and we should not fall in | merly prevailed, and which, in looked or disregarded. When they first settled, book making for want of the handicraft or the | the corner stone of the apostolic system. and the Rocky Mountains—a thousand miles American rise, ia America—Its Causes Fature. No subject for social, political and mpral dissection has more egregiously p' the surgeons of foreign criticism than the gereric American, who, with a mental and moral anatomy not materially different from thet of mankind in general, has engrafted therep)on a certain anomalous physiology, the prinople of which it would take some dozen volume: of “American Notes” to illustrate. In the religous instincts of the American has also been >ro- pounded another problem, concerning which foreign divinity doctors have talked a g:eat deal, shaken their heads warningly a great many times and prophesied many tines more, all to no purpose, so far as either talk or prophecy related to its analysis. The faci is, in religious, as in political and economical thought, we are {n theory a free people; snd it is just this freedom, working out for itelf new forms of manifestation, that might have been—had it been possible for those acca tomed to timeworn grooves of thought to comprehend thought freely creating for its:lf new grooves—to them the key of the riddle. Of the religious thought and the manifestation of the religious instinct in Europe but five phases have really been developed—viz., the dogmatic, which gave rise to early and rigid anatomies of creed; the Gothic, which ex- pended its vague aspiration, grand yet morbil, on cathedrals like those of Strasburg and Co- logne ; the artistic, which spent the force of its reveries upon Madonnas and “Judgments;” the phase of critical rationalism, which, having been outgrown in Germany, has been trans- planted into English soil by Bishop Colenso aod the authors of the “Essays and Reviews,” and Prebpble years since ; and the phase of transcendental rationalism (also German), which English theo- logians, failing to comprehend, have omitted to reproduce, To neither of these phases has the American feeling shown any emphatic leaning. We build Gothic cathedrals without having ourselves a vestige of Gothic feeling ; we buy old paint- ings, but have no sympathy with their weird and diseased allegories of heavenly things; we peruse the works of German rationalism, but they leave little impression; we wresile, at least most of us, to square our opinions upon the dicta of orthodoxy, and succeed but piti- fully in so squaring them. In short, we think and speculate ina way peculiarly Ameri- can—cannot help so thinking and so specu- lating—and it the divinity doctors of Enrope agree with us, it is well, and if not, litile it matters. It must be premised that we have now seve- ral religious centres. Formerly Bostonisms of all sorta, free, yet frigid, had only to be invented to infest the whole land like an epi- demic. Within the past ten years, however, New York has outgrown its Bostonism of thought and its reverence for the philosophical gathering of the Gentiles around them, if not removed by the government, will be by the mob, as they were from Ohio, and Nauvoo. We say removed, because this Mormon evil of polygamy cannot be abolished without a removal of the Mormon community. Their institution of polygamy bas become too deeply fixed to be otherwiso extirpated. Morvover, they have built up and accumulated valuable properties, the appropriation of which, when the opportunity comes to_reck- less adventurers, will be apt to afford us a living illustration of the fable of the wolf and the lamb. What, then, ought we to do? How is this violent solution of the Mormon difficulty to be avoided? There isa way as simple as the purchase of Alaska. We think that the true plan was broachel some six or seven years ago by | an enterprising seafaring mau named Captain | Perkins. His proposition was to buy out the Mormons in Utah, buy an isiand or nest of islands for them in the Pacific and remove thom there in government vessels. Strange, it seems to us, that while buying up ice- bergs and earthquakes from the Rus- sians and the Danes Mr. Seward has not bit upon this idea of buying out Brigham Young. But it is not yet too late to act upon it, and the Sandwich islands are just the thing. We have, too, a friend at court in the person of the amiable Queen Emma, and for a reasonable sum, no doubt, King Kamehameha would dis- pose of his soversignty to Uncle Sam. Buy him out, Mr. Seward, and turn tiose islands over to Brigham Young, and he will soon make them blossom like the rose with their tropical productions. But again, in the Alaska purchase we have acqwred a string of islands, big and little, some two thousand miles long. Perhaps some as among their native Exquimaux polygamy would be nothing new. And yet again, as Junrez is short of fands he may be induced to accept the Mormons as a colony for a fow millions, or even fora few thousands cash in Ihand. Atall events, as the republican party N stands pledged to “tho abolition of those twin | relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy,” the | duty devolves upon this republican Congress | of providing for a peaceable settlement of this j thing of Mormon polygamy before it is too. } bate, Holiday Books. of these would suit the Mormons, especially | expelled fancios of the “Hub.” Cambridge no longer Missouri | S0¥e™S either in policy, poetry or religion; and Americans at large are no Wenger io the orthodox habit of submitting thoir ideas to the Boston straight jacket—though the breaking loose from this influence, always aggressive, noisy and overbearing, has been too recent to have settled into repose after reaction; and at least ten years will be required to demonstrate to what American religious thought may amount, independent of Boston. One thing is quite obvious: there has been a nobler growth of the beautiful in our mani- festations of religious feeling since Boston re- ceived the “cold cut,” and quite certain it is that religion has taken a musical direction. In public worship New York now absolutely wreaks its religion on music. No amount of stay the prog:ess of this instinct, and no plead- ings on the part of elderly clergymen for aim- plicity of form have been of any avail. To- day an organist without an elaborate pro- gramme of solos, duets and quartets, would sit aa uneasily on his cushioned stool oi a Sunday morning as would the leader of a concert under similar circumstances on any evening of the week. It will be aiso impossible to ex- punge the exceas of music from religious wor- ship for the proseat. Presbyterians, doctri- natly orthodox, have fallen into it; Methodists exhort in musical notes and semibreves; Epis- copalians cantillate everything, even prayers and responsea; and Catholics, always grand and copious in this respect. are becoming more and more so, in consonance wilh the general spirit of religious: worship in the metropolis. The Baptisis, only, as a great body, have held aloof and kept to the letter of their original simplicity; and these will no doubt gradually sotien and mingle with the general pulp. It | is useless to fight against human nature, either spectal or general; and that tho religious in- stinct of the American human nature takes naturally to music, practical observation de- monatrates. The philosophy of all is found in this. Musto is especially the organ of a certain vague, boundless aspiration and enthusiasm, which must be wreaked upon something and which constitute really the essence of the religious instinct. Scientific culture and digging have, in some degree, unsettled the founda- tions of dogmatic theology; and that same We publish in another column to-day an account o! a ramble through our principal book stores in search of those much needed requisites of the presont season, holiday books. While there is no dearth of the material nor any limit to the price, tbe elegance and the real worth of much of it, thore is a remarkable defi- } a superior class, The enterprise of our pub- enthusiasm which formerly employed itself in miracles avd mysticism has been driyen to otber modes of expression. The haloes of mystery with which the Gothic feeling had en- veloped the naked dogmas of the Creed have been melted away by new and perhaps more rational modes of thought, and from century Jaw from Missouri and Illinois, these poor Mor- | The Present State of Religious Feels | practical morals will and about which a bruit was made some five or six4 pualo for its deal of talk upon “faith” and like theory, For the permanency of the moral system there need be no alarm. The great body same while human nature remains what it is. So also the religious instinct must manifest itaelf in some way, being, as it is, an integral part of human nature. In America the end of the transition is near, unless new and bold minds, imbued with the proper liberality of thought, shall stand up and stay the progress of the dissolution, The old and oft iterated demands will not be sufficient, and had better be abandoned. Men will not believe without reason, even though commanded and implored; and a theology based upon freedom of thought must and will succeed the theology of dog- matics, unless dogmatics be made rationally intelligible. The religious fature of America, therefore, will be that of the religious instinct manifested through the utmost freedom of form and thought, The American mind is inventive, original and pecullarly utilitarian. To the generic American form is nothing and essence is everything—shadow passes for shadow, and substance is held with a vicelike grasp, There can be no Voltaire-like confusion of religion with morals in our modes of thought, nor can we be compelled to think in grooves with queer kinks and windings because our ances- tors so thought; and that the time is not far distant when an epidemic for remodelling will seize the public miad is quite obvious. And out of this will blossom an age in which, old forms and effete systems having been rejected, the substantial instinct of religious worship will have built a new and freer system upon the groundwork of the Bible; for, as holding the profoundest types of religious experience, that book will probably forever constitute the groundwork of religious superstructure. In a century or two, therefore, we shall have been religiously reconstructed upon the basis of substance per se, freedom in form and unity of feeling. Thus reconstructed, our religion will be natural, national and of practical utility—a religion which, like a business suit, can be worn on all days of the week. Our Theatrical Orchestras. ‘ue orchestra is a department of vital import- ance in a theatre, but one which is very gene- rally neglected by the metropolitan managers, Not only does it occupy a prominent place in the opera, where, of course, it is all ‘essential, but in the drama it should receive the same attention as the cast, mounting and mise en’ scéne. In this particular our managers are far behind the European theatres. It is almost worth a journey to London to hear Costa’s magn ficent orchestra in the Royal Italian Opera or the accomplished bands over which Arditi and Manns wield their batons, Here a manager will sometimes bring out an opera, spectacle, drama or burlesque in a lavish man- ner, a8 far as the artistes and scenery are con- cerned ; but his last consideration is the orches- tra. An incompetent fiddler is often placed in the leader’s chair, and, aa a ‘natural conse- quence, the different instruments under his Puritanic declamation has been sufficient to | baton are in a state of perpetual anarchy, When a really efficient conductor is placed in charge, the manager tries to economiz> ex. penses by giving him insufficient funds to pro- cure a complete orchestra of reliable musicians. The groat deiect in mosi of our orchestras is in the want of proper balance for the s:ring, reed, brass and percussion instruments, so that’ the most essential part often becomes the weakest. Then we have the pernicions custom of allow- ing the regular members of the orchestra to go off (o a ball or a conceri for a fow dollars more on any night they please, leaving miserable substitutes in their place. There are many theatres in this city where one-third of the orchestra every night consists of substi- tutes, Another defect in this important ad- junct of a theatre is in the selections played during the entr’actes, If the play be “Hamlet,” “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Lear” or “Othello,” we aro sure to have a tripling polka, with mocking bird accompaniment, a negro medloy or a svt of quadrilles, none of which is certainly in keeping with the subject of the drama. Then we have heard a_ plaintive bailad, a funeral mareb, or other lugubrious pivce given as a cheerful setting to a comedy or burlesque. Lewders of orchesiras are also too much in the habit of inflicting upon the audience their own compositions, which are, as a geueral rule, the veriest trash that ever fiddler bowed or hornblower tooted. The managers also must needs step within the charmed circle of composers and place themselves beside Auber, Rossini, Gounod and Flotow, with the title “Esq.” attached to their names. Imagine the titles “Overture to Massanicllo, Auber,” and “The Swallow Tail Schottische, ——, Esq. manager,” placed side by side ona pro- gramme! Conceit and assurance can go no further. A thorough roférmation of our theatrical orchestras is eadly needed. In the concert hall we have the Philharmonic and ‘Thomas’ orchestras, which cannot be excelled in any city in Europe; but the orchestras of the thentres are a disgrace to music and | the drama, At one time it is an incompetent tyro who vainly endeavors, baton in hand, to educe order out of the chaos of sounds that rise on all sides of him and who scems to be in the same pleasant position in the conduc- tor’s chair that St Lawrence was on the gridiron. Again, we have a thorough, painstaking musician as leader, who vainly scowls at the reckleas “subs,” over whom control is out of the question, and who is con- stantly hampered into inefficiency by the parsimony and interference of the manager. The result is that the fiddles, clarionets, horns andeven the kettle drums are always on bad terms or seem to be anxious to outstrip each other in the race for the “double barred” to century & transition has been going on in the | goal. The remedy for this glaring defect in ciency observable in American publications of | religious world. Im America this transition ; our theatres is very simple. Let the manager has been rapid and approximates to its climax, | be very particular in his selection of a thor- lishers appears to have been seriously affected | wherefore the religions instinct has assumed the | oughly competent leader, who must devote all nieutt and bis fellow radiosls as to the’| by the profits which imported works offer, de- | mantle of music for want of mantle more tan- | his energies and skill to fulfil the duties of his application of torches. 1: ia an Inev flection that the people who suffer thus were e re- | spite the duty of twenty per cent on books of | gible. There is no question but that the ten- | position, and Jet him then grant all reasonable foreign manufacture. There aro only a few | dency of American thought is toward the re- demands in regard to sufficient quantity and the first to strike down the reign of jaw; yet | houses that presentmany books of their own | jection of the dogmatics which form the ana- with this must go the consideration that but | produetion of a superior order, and some that | tomy of the present system ; and there is no | priate music for each play that is produced, have nono at al! to show of that attractive | qnestion, furthermore, but that American bold- | adequate compensation for extra services and for radical madness society in this district would ere this have beon returned to {ts | quality which suits the holidayseason, Nearly | ness and want of regard for precedents natural state. Famine, murder, robbery are | all the really well gotten up Volumes bear aa | will carry, this tendency to ite logical dey] of out orchestras are constructed with the rife, and the savagery of politics is not yet sated. Now radical laws for recousirac- tion are still in hand, English imprint. We speak, of course, in general terms. It will be seon by the article toferred to that there are exceptions, but, duction within a couple of centuries. Practi- caily, the fashionable religion of New York is quality of instraments and performers, appro- comfortable quarters for the musicians. Many same views in regard to comfort as the Black front Of the curtain, What an edmirable thing is 8 good orchestra under eg experienced con- ductor! How the waves of sound rise and fall at the beck of his baton, now murmuring like the sephyr among the trees, then crashing forth like the voice of the burricane, enon breaking into fantastic bubbles of melody and again sweeping slong in billows of grendeur and making the ground shake in their lyrical wrath. It is truly a “colossal exponent of passion and emotion, of the art of wordless eloquence and celestial purity,” Let it not be neglected, then, by our managers, and tacked on at the end of the expense account ass sort of necessary evil which they must endure and pay for. But above all, let us have no “FEequires” on the programmes among the composers. Pealm Singing. A lively discussion is agitating certain Ameri- can churches as to the alleged impropriety of singing anything else than psalms. The anti- hymn party contend that the hymns which we had occasion to eulogise last week as expres- sive of almost every emotion of the pious soul are to be rejected as merely human composi- tions, They advocate the exclusive use in public worship of the inspired psalms of David. The practice of nearly all branches of the Scottish Church and, if we are not mistaken, of the English Church, in this respect, is cited ag an example for imitation in the United States. Some of our publishers might object to such an innovation, inasmuch as it would seriously interfere with one of the largest and most profitable branches of their trade. The sale of hymn books is almost equal to that of spelling books, There are also other objections which might be urged against the innovation. As the psalms could not easily be sung in the origi- nal Hebrew by our choirs and congregations, some English version of them would have to be adopted. The version the most likely to obtain preference at present would, perbaps, be that of Dr. Isaac Watts. But an ingenious writer in a recent periodical has exposed the fact that “ Watts’ Psalms” and the “Psalms of David” are very properly distinguished from each other by these different titles, because they are, in some points, unlike, and, in others, even contradictory, We cannot believe that. Dr. Watts intended to make his version of the psalms in any wise # deliberately dishonest perversion of them. And yet it can clearly be shown that his ignorance of later modes of in- terpretation and his firm conviction that the system of divinity which he bad been taught to believe was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, led him unwittingly to deflect the real meaning of some of the Psalm- ist’s expressions, In the Messianic psalms, theologically so called, for instance, Dr. Watts does not hesitate to apply to the Messiah lan- guage which cannot have referred to any other person than to David himself. The Doctor evidently imagined that when David uses the pronoun “I” he means sometimes bimself— as when he says, “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that [am not able to look up”—ond sometimes the Mossiah. And he felt at liberty to discriminate between David’s strictly personal references and such as he deemed prophetic. Nor is this all. He almost ventured to attribute to the Messiah, who prayed that his persecutors might be for- in the sixty-ninth Psalm, the ring and emphasis of old-fashioned Jewish malediction. King David was not only a sweet singer in Israel, but a master of the bitterest invective, and when enraged against his enemies he could pile on the agony in cursing them to an ua- equalled degree. It ts inconceivable that in this, at any rate, be could have been the proto- type of the Messiah. Dr. Watts himself, in hia hymns as well as his psalms, had to soften somewhat the terrible fury of certain Scrip- tural phrases, and some even of his softened paraphrases have had to be omitted alto- gether from American editions of his “Psalms and Hymns,” as confounding in too shocking and monstrous a manner “ the dialect, ideas, expectations and purposes of tbe Jewish nation with those of tho system that Jesus taught.” Perhaps it would be better for the churches to discuss rather the propriety of eliminating all these objectionable features of Watts’ pealms than that of singing them exclusively in public worship. Moreover, the question might be considered wheihor it is worse to sing bymns which, althongh uninapired, have consoled and thrilled millions of hearts, than to sing the equally uninspired parapbrases of David’s psalms. The versification of hymns and paraphrased psalms alike is of human in- vention, and so are all iustruments of music, ancient and modern, Those who object to hymns, then, on the ground that they are of buman iavention, would be led to the most absurd conclusions if they carried out their argument. The psaims of David are at onee so faithful to the Divine law and so true to the experiences of the godly in all ages, and they are so full of the inspiration of the highest poetry, that they have survived the regal power of the hand that penned them and will continue (o rule an ever widening emplre of hearts. But the great song writer of the He- brews would be the last to complain thata goodly host of other song writers have since arisen who share with him the admiration of the religious world. We cannot sec why both psalms and hymns sbould aot bo sung tn: the American churches. Effects of Radicallom Upow the Southern Religious Element. It is not alone the famishing condition of the Southern people physically that invokes the solicitude and deep commiseration of Chris- tians everywhere. Radicalism has alsa pro- duced a moral and religious famine all over the South that will require years of roalous missionary labor to overcome. The ignorant blacks are especially the victims of this moral desolation. Heretofore the Southern negroes were distinguished for their religious fervor, and having access to all the white clurches, besides their own, they generally availed them: selves of opportunities to supply their spirit- ual wants from the fountains of Divine grace. Now their own churches arc changed into places for holding brawling political gatherings ; their sanctuaries are given ap to corrupt partisan demagogues, and the teach- ings which bave led thetr souls to eternal sal- vation been corrupted into barangues which lead them only to bodily suffering and moral death. It is not alone the famine of the hearth Hole of Oaloutta was, and the poor fiddlers often’ that prostrates the South at this time; it is the already © vague thoism, which depesds upon | undergo a slow process of being steamed in famine of the heart, that ooienaat yeeraing for It is now, we think, no longer possible for the worst enemies of Great Britain which thie country contains, provided only they are nos in their own hearts cowards and assassins, to have a word of sympathy for that detestable and cutthroat organization called Fenianism. % The cable despatches which we publish to-day reveal the true character of that organization, and gentlemen occupying respectable posi- tions in New York and other of our cities are enabled at last to see to what horrible an@ barbarous uses their contributions have been applied. The doings of the Fenians are with- out parallel in history. In London the most alarming intelligence is hourly received from all parts of the United Kingdom. At Cork bands of men with their faces blackened and otherwise disfigured had captured the Mar- tello tower, dispersed the guard and carried away a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition. A Fenian cruiser was seen off the Irish coast, and moved off only when a war vessel made its appearance. In Dublin a most determined attempt was made to blow up the General Post Office by Greek fire. The attempt was happily frustrated and no great damage was done. At Faversham, about fifty miles from London, a large powder mill was blown up and utterly destroyed, ten persons being killed outright and a large number in- jured—cause unknown. It is also reported, as proof of the vigilance of the government, that the man who fired the fuse at Clerkenwell has been captured. If these incendiary and reckless proceedings are traceable to the Fenian organization, as they doubtless are, the cause of the Irish peo- ple must soon stink in the nostrils of every sensible man. If they are not traceable to the Fenian organization, the time is fully come. when Fenians on, this side of the Atlanti¢ should disavow their sympathy with such mean, cowardly and diabolical conduct, A fair stand-up fight has always some- thing to commend it; but the only effect of such doings as those which are daily reported by the cable will be te bring upon the Fenian, and through the Fenian upon the Irish name, the contempt and dotes- tation of all righi-thinking men. We can pro- tect ourselves against the attacks of an opom foe, but no skill can save us from the stroke of the assassin. It is no longer a British question; -it iy a question between civilization and bar- barism, England’s difficulty may be ours to- morrow. The Fashions. Oar Paris fashions correspondent says that gold and steel, satin trimmings and velvet leaves, are the accessories on everything in that gaycity. In Gotham it is almost impossible to distinguish what the material of a suit is from the extravagant amount of trimming bestowed on it. Tho Parisian belles now look like livery , as cloth costumes with nothing but gilt buttons are considered distingué By them. Boots and slippers are going up in the price and heels to an alarming extent, and the unhappy wearers are in danger of breaking their necks ‘or their husbands’ exchequers in attempting to keep in fashion. The wife of the Minister of the Interior wore ornaments from her native town at her reception, and displayed s yellow satin robe with black streaks and gold blonde on the occasion. Madame Rouher’s daughter at another féte wore a very charming dress, having an under petticoat of white alk with enigmatical figures in blue satin around the botiom of the skirt, and over it a blue tarletam trimmed with lace and loeped up with wild brier, the whole appearing like blue and white vapor. This cannot be intended for second mourning for her lately deceased father. At the Foreign Office the ladies in command wore taffeta robes at their reception. Fashions in Paris at present seem to go hand in hand with politics ; here, Heaven be praised, they are distinct and we might say incompatible with each other. What the result would be were the toilets of our belles made subservi- ent to politics, and become Ethiopian, planta- tion or otherwise, according to the complexion of parties, isa question too painful ‘or con- templation. In the American metropotis the bandsomest costumes are seen on the street, in the drawing room and in the carriage this winter. The cloaks are really beautiful in shape and trimming. Each velvet basque is encireled around the waist with a silk sash, the ends being tied in a coquettish bow be- hind. Velveteen suits are generally worn, and the daintiest Httle bats of indescribable ma- terials nestle amid the clustering curls or beneath the awful chignon of some bright eyed beauty. There are many original ideas developed by our modiates, who seem to have taken the hints suggested to them in the Henatp and consulted the tastes and refine- ment of their patronesses. Who knows but we may yet throw down the gauntlet of de- fiance to Paris aud contest with the world on the score of fashions, aa we have so far suc- cessfully competed in the matter of pianos, iron-clads, breech-loaders, sewing machines and others too numerous to mention? La Qrand Duchess=A Parting Shower of . Benbons. La Grand Duebess held her court “for the last time this season” at the cosey, clogant litle French theatre on Fourteenth street, on Friday night The occasion was improved by some of her Highness’ coum tiers {In a novel manner. Taking the license. of the holiday season, they showered upon the Duchess and her train tokens of their, regard more @ubstantial than the customary’ fragrant and tasteful bouquet. Having secured: a private box nearest the slage, they proceeded | to deliver their Santa Clausian testimonials at fitting periods of the performance. Thus, whem le sabre de son pire is presented to the Duchess | twisted up in 8 manner that speaks but little fa praise of the quality of the steel, s@ Suger ond @ tministure sword were pre sented from the box to Frits, in order he might be supplied with both aerticl In the famous bedchamber scene, when Frite is so snnoyingly tnterrupted by seronaders. ingtoad of being left toe zE bn