The New York Herald Newspaper, December 31, 1867, Page 4

4 BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Ail business or news letters snd telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore Terato. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will nei be re- turned. Volume XXXI AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, alll BANVARD’S OPERA HOUSE hyd BD MUSRUM, Broad- wey ead Thirtieth street —WILLor FIFTA AVENUE THLATRE, Nos. 2 and @ West, 2th street,—Ya Gmaxp (OxEN Bass. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.-A Mipsuxmen Niger's Dara. WALL (CK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 18th street. — Otivar fist. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Manrr Srvarr. FRENCH THEATRE, Fourteenth stree.—Lx Testie Mant be Cxsar Gizopot, £0. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Rivea Pinates—My Sanam Tras, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Buace Croox. NEW YORK THEATRE, opposite New York Hotcl— ‘Unpge tue Gasiicat, ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—Marrma, STEINWAY HALL.—Cuar.es Dickens’ Resbinas. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street,—Gramastics, bers cane, &c. Matinee at 234. “ THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway,—Waire, Corton & Suanrrey's MinstRe1s, * KELLY & LEON’S MINSTRELS, 720 Broad way.—Sonas, Dances, Eccuntaicirizs, Buunusques, dc. * SAN FRANCISCO MI PUAN ENTERTAINMENTS, SL 5% Broadway.—Eraro- (CING AND BURLRSQUES. » TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Comtc ‘Vocarisu, NeGxo MinstRELsY, &0. THEATRE, 472 Broadway. — BUNYAN 7 ALL, Brosdway and Fifteenth street.—Tuz Pucem. Mat HOOLEY’S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Erarortax Minsresisy. Satcaps asp Bueursaves. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— ‘Bcusce axo . Dessinker ‘BI. 1867. rE NEW 8. New York, Tuesd: EUROPE. ‘The news report by the Atlantic cable is dated yester- day evening, December 30. The London telegram says that the groat Powers aro moving towards a conference with Napoleon for the set- Uement of the italo-Roman quest: ond that ¢ istence of the Cabinet crisis in Italy is the only cance of cting the arrangements, A Paris journal ver, that the Emperor's conference plan hay . The Fenians in Cork, Ireland, plund- ) of a large quantity of arms avd ammuni- ch president of the Paris Exhibition has been name: of France. Consols dat 923 292!4 for money, in London. Five-twenties were at 723g in London and 7634 a 765; in Frankfort, The Liverpool cotton market closed firm, with mid- ling uplacds at 714 pence. Breadstuffs without marked ered a gun shoy tion, The Fr change. Prov lightly advanced, By the steamship Deutschland, at this port yesterday, wo havo% ve cresting mail report in detail of our cable dospatches to the 11th of Decomber THE CITY. ‘The Bored of Counciimon met yesterday, and con- curred wit the Aldermen in the adoption of an ordi. nance ew the Mayor to grant licenses to tavern keepers, w ‘ted for the purpose of testing the constitutionality of the Excise law. They also concurred ia the adoption of resolutions directing the Siate and City authorities to protect naturalized citizens abroad, The final ng of the Board of Edutation for the year 1867 was heid last evening at the hall of the Board and a largo amount of business transacted. The finan- cial statement for the year ending to-day shows a balance in favor of the Board of $55,410, The revenue oflicers made # raid ona distillery in erday, and were opposed ndled them, threo of the ally beaten, Reiotorcements arrived oweyer, and the still was destroyed. A delega of liquor dealers met a number of Senators and Assembiymen at the Astor House yestor. day, and conjointly bth ded upon the draft of a bill to be au lature, It provides for the issue of tiquor Licenses by the Mayor of the city and the estab! ent under bis supervision ofa Bureau of Excise | Judge Cierke, of the Suprome Court General Term, in the cass of the Pank of the Commonwoalth vs. Jaeper Van Veeck ¢! al., in which the bank a Is from a deci- sion in a lower court, decided yesterday that gold and silver are no longer lawful money of the country but merchantable commodities, and promissory notes made payable in gold must bo paid in gold or in currency of an equivalent value. The stock market was heavy yesterday. Government securities were firm. Gold closed at 153% a 133%. Bhsiness ia alinost every department of trad mercial circles was dull, but values were gene: changed. Cotton was in good export demand and ad- vanced \c. perld Coffee was dull and unchanged. On 'Change flour was quiet, but steady, Wheat remained duil and nominal, while corn was firmer for old and steady for now. Onts were steady. Pork was a trifle firmor. Beef was steady, and lard quiet and heavy. Freights were almost inactive, Naval stores were firmer, and petroleum, though quiet, was steady at former Prices. MISCELLANEOUS. In the Louisiana Convention yesterday several articles Of the constitution were adopted. They prohibit slav- ery, deciare the Hiverty of the pross and freedom of speech and the right of the peopio to assemble and petition government, Nashvitle has been visited by asnow storm several inches deep, which has embargoed all the stroct cars. A heavy snow storm prevailed at Yortross Monroe yesterday. Senator Morton, of Indiana, leetured im Washington yesterday on the issues of the hour, He eriticized some- what severely the action of General Hancock in recon- atracting the Fifth-Military District, Another steamship from China is overdue at San Francisco. The sale of the Boston steamers Ontario and Erie to New York partie reported. Cincinnal! whiskey dealers profess to have informa- tion that the tax will be reduced to fifty cents. All parts of Virginia except the Shenandoah VaNey Sro reported to be under a reign of terror owing to the ferocious intentions of the blacks, During the Christ. mas holidays troops were called for by a military officer in Halifax county, as thero wore indications of & disturbance. The Freedmen’s Bureau and military headquarters profess entire ignorance of any such state Of ature InreexationaL Literary Covrrestes—We give in another column a communication from Mr. L, Gaylord Clark, in answer to a statement quoted in our columns seme time since, to the effect that a letter from this gentleman had received, on a certain occasion, a not very complimentary greeting from the elegant author of “Pelham.” Mr, Clark gives satis factory evidence that the story could not have been true, and thus consigns it to the other jumber of limbo. It was doubtless an imagination of 9 Bohemian correspondent for MCQRBIFY Peper NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY. DECEMBER 31, 1867, Andrew Johnson avd the Game for the Presidential Succession. When John Tyler, of blessed memory, at the close of his eventful but happy reign in the ‘White House, went down with his “young wife and his cid umbrella,” his two boys and the family luggage, to the Washington landing, homeward bound, he found himself half an hour too late for the steamboat. “Fallen from his high estate,” reduced to the common level of Jones and Brown, ex-President Tyler stood on the dock. The captain could not wait for him, and so he was left behind. He had tried the game for the succession of an independent Tyler party ; he had even tried (1844) a little independent National Tyler Convention at Bal- timore ; but it was an amusing failure. It was absorbed by the regular democratic concern— “Polk, Dallas and the tariff of 1842”—and it died and made no sign. Yet, having come into the Presidency by accident, we may excuse Tyler for desiring to be elected in his own name and upon his own merits, instead of going down to history as the tail of another man’s kite, So natural was this desire under the circum- stances that when Millard Fillmore became our second accidental President he, like Tyler, was seized with it, and was foundered on the same sandbar. Fillmore, however, not only got up a third party, but actually (1856) went with it into the fight ; and, though too weak to do any- thing better, he was still strong enough to defeat Fremont, and thus to postpone for four years the great Southern rebellion. Whether the South or the country was the gainer or loser by this operation the reader may judge for himself. Our present business is with Andrew Johnson, the third of ‘our accidental Presidents, and his game for the Presidential succession. As matters now stand Mr. Johnson, in this game, bas some remarkable and powertul ad- vantages over both Tyler and Fillmore. They had nothing but their offices and contracts, the spoils and plunder—and these to a small amount—with which to build up a party. Johnson, on the contrary, has not only an enor- mously increased volume of patronage in his hands, but from the demoralization of the party iu power, and from the ravenous appetite of the party out of power, he can master both. With the inglorious collapse of the impeach- ment bubble he has already become the master of the radicals, and it is clear that he means to finish them with their scheme of Southern re- construction. His game is to keep the ten outside rebel States and their negro radical balance of power out of the Presidential fight. His scheme was to make these States, before breakfast, good and trusty Johnson States on a white basis; but the radicals of Congress spoiled his calculations. Casting him and his labors aside, they set up their own scheme to make those outside States good radical States on a negro basis; and now be has them on the hip. His recent reconstruction removals of Pope and Ord and Swayne, aftér finding that Congress is powerless to remedy the removals of Stanton, Sickles and Sheridan, distinctly go to show that Mr. Johnson intends to keep these outside States unreconstructed till after the Presidential election, What for? Simply to cut off their vote on a negro basis from the radical Presidential ticket. But what advantage will this be to Mr. Jobn- son beyond the possible election of the demo- craticcandidate? Assuming that the candidate will be General Hancock, in deference to Mr. Johnson’s wishes, what profit falls to Mr. John- son? No! much. But suppose that Goneral Hanecotk is only put forward as a stalking horse, and that Mr. Johnson walks behind him, looking out for the main chance, what then ? “Old Buck,” they say, in 1850 was satisfied in swamping Douglas at Charleston; Martin Van Baren, we know, got all that he wanted in defeating Cass in 1848; but is Mr. Johnson a man of that patiern? Does any one suppose that he has settled down into a mere cutter-out of coats and breeches, gratis, for the democratic party? No. Behind all these tricks of strategy stands Mr. Johnson as the candidate of Mr. Johnson. Nor is his case as blue as indigo, He has the whip hand over the radicals. He is lashing them into a state of in- deseribable confusion ; but this is not all. In his nomination of General Hancock for the democracy he has disgusted the old copper- head leaders, though they pretend to throw up their ha's for Hancock. Mr. Johnson is too old a bird to be caught by such chaff He knows that this old copperhead enthusiasm for Hancock is all gammon, and that, with the idea that Pendleton or Seymour, or even Jerry Black or Bobby Walker, can be elected, the old copperheads will give the goby to Hancock. Mr. Johnson, in disorganizing the republicans, let us suppose, will establish this idea. Suppose, then, that in advance of the democratic convention he gets up a Johnson convention under Mr. Raymond, and that John- son is thereby nominated on the Johnson Phila- delphia plattorm, and suppose that every fed- eral officeholder is tried by this shibboleth, what will the democratic conveation do? What can it do but second the motion of John Van Buren and Mr, Raymond in setting up Mr. Johnson? On the blessed consti‘ution, the glorious principles of our fathers, the rights of the States and the people and the dangers of our be- loved country there is nota democratic ex- horter that can hold a candle to Mr. Johnson. But they who suppose that the blessed consti- tution or anything of that sort is the main idea of Mr. Johnson or any other politician, are firing too high. If we set down all the move- ments of the republicans, of the democrats, of Congress and of Mr. Johnson as moves on the Presidential chessboard, we have their game. If we assume that Mr. Johnson is playing bis part for Johnson we shall be more than haif right; and in taking it for granted that when it comes to the pinch the democrats are as likely to fuse upon Johnson as upon any other man, we think that even General Hancock will not be wide of the mork. Mr. Johnson, who was thrown fiat upon his back in 1866, has been lifted right side up, and siands firmly upon his pins at the close of 1867. He is at last, in reality, master of the situation, and Andrew Johnson is his man for 1868. The Park Ponds<“‘The Poor Ye Have Always With You.’ ‘We have charity balls, at which the beaux and belles of the city enjoy themsclves on the MBbt fantastic toe all’ the more for the con- seiousness that they are dancing away some penniless wretch’s hunger and bconomizing for poorer humanity the very cash they squander. We have charity concerts and charity fairs “holds the empire of the Moguls firmly in her dresses itself in the garb of all our pleasures, why should it neglect our ice carnivals? Why should we not have daily and nightly skating festivals with a charitable purpose, and thus force the very Frost King to contribute toward relieving the misery he causes, We are sure that the generous masses of our people would readily consent to relinquish for this purpose one of the sheets of water in the Park. Thee isample room on the larger pond for all who go to skate, even on a holiday; and it is notin the nature of those who have the youth ¢nd spirits to make this vigorous sport a delight that they should begrudge. the poor the use of the other. We are confident that Mr. Green would be aupported by the sense of the whcle community if he would at once take the neccs- sary steps to devote one of the ponds to te realization of a charity fund. At any moderate charge of admission—say twenty-five cents—a pond would secure at least a thousand dolisrs aday. This sum would dribble unfelt through the loose pursestrings of those who have plen- ty—would add a purer, pleasanter zest to their enjoyment, while the wretchedness it would soothe and soften can hardly be told. By such means more could be collected to assist the needy than is realized in a season by all our ordinary charitable enterprises together. Shall we not have a pond set apart for this good purpose, Mr. Green? The Work Before Congress and How It Will Not be Done. Congress has a vast amount of work to do if it attends to the condition and wants of the country. There never was a time in our hi- tory when so much work of the highest im- portance lay before the national legislature. There is the restoration of the South (not the radical reconstruction of it, which is destrue- tion instead of restoration) to be brought about; there is the crushing weight of taxation to be removed from the shoulders of the-people ; there are financial reforms of the most sweep- ing character to be made in the Treasury and Revenue departments; a system of rigid economy is needed in every department of government; then, we want @ sound, stable and uniform currency, provision for pay- ing off as much of the national debt as possible, a repeal or an amendment of the law establishing the national banks, with measures to revive the drooping industry and the commercial and shipping interests of the country. The war and the want of ability in Congrest have brought us toa condition where ‘broad, sweeping and speedy reforms are demanded in every direction. To-morrow we commence the new year, and Congress has been in session a month within a day or two, yet nothing has been done except the sensible resolution to prevent any further contraction of the cur- rency passed by the House of Representatives. As to the bill reporied by the Fiaance Com- mittee of the Senate, for funding the debt and other purposes, it is a jumble of impracticable propositions which should be consigned back to the committee room and kep. there as a memento of the commiitee’s weakness. It is true Congress has dropped the humbug im- peachment farce, and the couniry may rejoice at this; but no thanks are due to that body for its failure to impeach the President Mr. Johnson floored his enemies by his sagacity, coolness and conservatism, and the people by an overwhelming vote have condemned Con- gress for its folly and vindictive spite. But what is Congress likely to do during the remainder of the session? Very little. It will be oceupied chiefly in making the next Presi- dent, or in trying to make one. In about four months the nominating national conventions of the different parties will meet. Previous to that time ,there will be State conventions, caucuses and all soris of gatherings in and out ot Washington for the same object. Congress- men will be greatly occupied with all these movements, and President-making will be the chief theme of discussion on the floors of both houses. Is has always been so in the sessions immediately preceding the conventions and | Presidential elections, even in ordinary times, and itis much more likely to be so this year, when the issues will be great and the coatest an exciting one. TXis Congress does not ap- pear to have the ability to legislate properly upon the imporiant matters before it; but if it | had the ability there would be a poor prospect of anything being done till the Presidential question is settled. We must wait patiently, therefore, till the politicians have had their conventions and the people have chosen a President. In the meantime our prospects are gloomy enough; for the atrocious Congres- sional negro supremacy policy in the South is fast destroying that part of the couniry and may bring on a war of races, while the whole North is suffering as well from the same radical rule. If we can bridgs over the time till the Presidential quostion is setiled without serious troubles and @ fearful revulsion we may con- sider ourselves fortunate. There is no hope of any good from the present Congress. We must look to the people for salvation. The Disturbed Condition of Europe. The annals of the year 1867, if not loud with the thunders of war, will at least reveal an amount of incertitude whose paralyzing effects have been felt in every branch of trade and commerce, and compared with which war would have been a positive reiici This state of uncertainty has been confined to no one nation or continent, It has been visible and its influence has been felt in each of the four quarters of the globe. Here in the United States we have had on our hands the recon- strucfion of the South; and the full admission of the late rebel States within the fold of the Union is involved in the difficulties and doubts of the future. To the north and to the west of us the New Dominion has been straggling out of chaos into something like order; but the struggle is not yet ended and order does not yet reign supreme. O/ Mexico and the various States of South America it would be hard for any one to predict the immediate future. In Asia, while Russia has been extending the line of her conquests, and while Great Britain grip, China and Japan are experiencing sensa- tions which are the natural result of a collision between the principles of barbarism and civilization. Asia, in fact, must yet be the seene of much bloodshed and civil strife before her peoples emancipate themselves from the barbaric and irresponsible rule under which for ages they have groaned. How stands it with Europe? It is safe at least to answer that uncertainty is the order of the day. War has almost miraculously been stavod off from month to month; but war clouds have hase \eemlog Rereatauly la We pelideal pe erence sky from January to December ; nor have they ever been more alarming than now. The fiery Fenian element is convulsing Great Britain. Not to particularize the disorders which afflict the differen: States and nations, the Roman and the Eastern questions have at last assumed such proportions that if an amicable 9, adjust- ment is not speedily effected they will. set Europe ablaze from one end to the other. Rus- sian statesmen, as appears from a telegram of yesterday, are seriously discussing the ques- tion whether the time has not come when they ought to avenge themselves for the losses sus- tained in the Crimea. It would be strange, indeed, if such a state of things did not tell disastrously on trade and commerce every- where. Business men and capitalists are at their wits’ end to know what to do. Millions upon millions of unemployed capital lie useless in the banks of Paris, of London and of Frank- fort. The result is that labor is scarce and the people starve. The one bright spot which appears on the horizon to relieve the general gloom is the prospect of a congress of all the Powers. A cable despatch which we print to-day intimates that the great Powers have asked the Emperor Napoleon to explain the basis of the confer ence by which he proposes to negotiate a settlement of the affairs of Italy. It is further stated that the difficulty experienced by Gene- ral Menabrea, the Italian Prime Minister, in reconstructing his Cabinet is the principal cause of delay in completing the arrangements preliminary to the congress. How much of this is true we know not. It will be well, however, for trade and commerce, well for Europe and the world, if that can be done without war which otherwise war must soon attempt to accomplish. Meantime, itis difficult to resist the conviction that, meet the congress when it may, it will have to consider other questions than that of Rome. The peace of Europe cannot be secured until both the Holy See and the Sublime Porte are placed in differ- ent relations to the rest of the world. The New Management of the New York Democracy. President Johnson is turning eut a brighter side every day. In fact, he is wiping off the incrustation from the true metal, so that we* are beginning to be favored with a sight of the genuine article at last, neatly and clearly burnished. Having obtained complete mastery in the South by grappling with the is- sues there, and dismissing the military agents of Congressional law, Generals Pope and others, and attempting to control—by mystification and embarrassment—the democratic party of the North by the nomination of General Hancock for the Presidency, he throws an apple of discord into the midst all the pasties, and almost reduces them to chaos. The leaders of the democracy in this county’ and city are utterly bafiled. There are two phases in the present condition of that party to be considered, There was a time when Dean Richmond con- trolled its destinies, and that, too, with the will and power ofa despot. Carrying the railroads in his pockets and the steamboats on his back, he could walk into any caucus. or con- vention and regulate the whole affair, cut and dry. But Dean Richmond has gone to receive the balance of the reward of his disinterested patriotism in another world which he did not obtain in this; and now we have a famous suc- cessor in the person of Vanderbilt, a kind of amphibious potentate, an admiral who rules both land and sea, anda railroad king who keeps the New York Central, the Hudson River, the Harlem, and the Lord only knows how many other roads, carefully stowed away in his vest pocket, and can despatch his dele- gates to ali parts of the State. There is another plase which should not be forgotten. Vanderbilt has a son-in- law, whose name is Horace F, Clarke. He is a smart politician, and wiihal as ambi- | tious as Mare Antony. He was a member of Congress, too, and therefore knows the ropes, He is Vanderbilt’s right hand maa; and the Admiral’s left bower anchor is P. Bismarck Sweeny. Now, with sucha valiant henchman as Clarke, aud such a valuable and conscien- tious appanage as Sweeny, and the two Schells to look after the scrip aad bonds and so forth in Wall street and keep them up to a | respectable figure, what cannot , Vandorbilt do? Thon there is another strong ally in August Belmont, who whanages the democratic newspapers all over the country, in which, in fact, he owns, or at least governs, abou half the interest. It is pretty well known that the democratic organ here belongs to him, and that he has so much control over the demo- cratic press ali through the country that as he whistles they must dance. Thus the New York democracy is taken admirable care of by Andrew Johnson and Land Admiral Vander- bilt, and between them its course in the next Presidential election may be regarded as set- tled. Opening of Pike’s Opera House. On Monday next this magnificent temple ot music will be thrown open to the public for the first time, and will resound with the voice of a truly great lyric artiste. Pike’s Opera House supplies a want long felt by all those who take an interest in the progreas of art in this country, and in it opera may find its permanent home. It is a popular opera house in the true sense of the word, for there are no stockholders’ reserved boxes or seais in it, and every place marked on the diagram is at the disposal of the public. The monopoly which stifled Italian opera at another establishment and made it distastetul to the public, who will not permit any infringement of their rights, does not exist in the new opera house. Its appearance is singularly attractive, and the auditorium, when lighted up, presents a brilliant coup d’qil, which, of course, will be increased to an un- limited extent when wealth and fashion crowd the boxes and seats. The entrances alone and the splendid dome which surmounts the audi- torinm are featares which render this house superior to any other of the kind in America. Nothing has been neglected to render every portion of the establishment both attractive and comfortable. The safety of the audience in case of danger has been consulted in the unusually large number of exit passages lead- ing from the auditorium. The inaugural seagon will be given by Max Strakosch’s Italian opera company, comprising the following artists:— Madame Anna La Grango, Miss Phillips, Miss McCulloch, Brignoli, Massimiliani, Orlandini, Randolfi, Susini, Coletti and Sarti. The names of La Grange and Brignoli rank high in the ‘realms of art, and in their late tour through the ee ee ee on ae chorus, orchestra and mise en acéne promise to be capable accessories of such artists. The opening opera will be J! Trovatore. It is a cheering indication of public spirit and pro- gress that the metropolis of America has at length an opera house worthy of it, and that the cause of artis entrusted to the hands of the people and not monopolized by a few greedy speculators. Fenianism and British Reform. The British ministry has had the sagacity to withdraw from a position it could only have taken in a panic impulse. It has reconsidered its purpose to declare England in such danger that the ordinary forces of law were unequal tothe security of life and property, and has determined that it will not by proclamation give the present disorders the magnitude and importance of revolution. Had the govern- ment declared martial law it would have com- mitted a blunder as great as that of its enemies; indeed, it would have relieved them from the imputation of having blundered ; for if a few outrages in the streets may compel power to stand as hastily on its defence as so many battles might have done; and as these outrages are cheaper than battles, they who manage them could argue from the admitted weakness of authority to the sufficiency and economy of the means they had taken to shake it, and justify their actions as national from their having produced a national effect. As it is, the government leaves these recent acts in the catalogue of common crimes—mere conspira- cies for arson and murder—and, supposing that these things are done by the Fenians, puts those men under the necessity of taking higher ground in their hostility before they can claim the honor of struggling in their country’s cause. We are far from well satisfied that the recent explosions were arranged by the Irish, though public opinion in England and the whole voice of the press jumped to that conclu- sion from the first. Outrages like these have been before this concocted in British govern- ment offices with the express view of fastening a stigma on a cause that it was feared might make its way with the people; and in the recent convictions of men in Ireland enough was seen of the character and conduct of the present officials to assure us that they are not above any course that promises to attain their end. It these things, however, are really part of the programme of the Fenian organization, they at least render it cerlain that that body will never again be heard of in any respectable way. If Feni nism has taken to these courses ithas committed suicide, it has thrown up all title to be a decent power, lost ali the moral capital it was making in the world as a great protest against misrule, and has abandoned the attitude that would have made it a tremen- dously effective adjunct to the voice of disaf- fection in other parts of Great Britain. In this latter attitude the Fenians, acting wisely, might have assisted in the accomplish- ment of great results. Government in Eng- land is now in reality just entering upon its struggle with the people. Popular disaffection has hardly taken the first steps in the career it is to make. Since the Retorm bill of 1832 a spirit has been active among the people that did not exist before, and it was the force of that spirit that imperceptibly drove the nation on and secured the last Reform bill of qualified household suffrage. Will the popular demand stop there? They who fancy that it may know but little of the people. England’s latest Re- form bil will simply plant discontent in the thoughts of every man who is below its terms, Thousands will be shut out by a shilling, and the satisfaction of those who are admitted to vote will be a mild political and social force by comparison with the stimulated ill-will and jealousy of those who, holding the same line in life, standing on the same level in intellect and otherwise, are excladed by a phrase in the law. Reformers themselves already see the’ tendency of this, and are quiet ; for they feel that they have started a power they can- not control. Here, then, would have been the sphere for the organized expression of the Irish ; and, heard co-ordinately, the combined voices of Irish and English would have shaken the social fadric of Britain in its utmost atom. Nothing short of revolution would have re- suled. Manhood suffrage would have come, and the law of entail, the State religion and other crumbling antiquities would have gone before this storm had been stilled. Such changes must inevitably come, but in the circumstances named they would have come sooner. But if the Fenians have given up their national character and taken to murder by mail and the blundering butchery of dropping fulminating masses in public places, they had better give that up also and take to the honest gallantry of foreign service, as their fathers did in other ages. Or, better still, let them follow the millions of their brothers who are hardily tilling the free acres of our own boundless domain, and who have kept up the purity of the Irish name in the ‘pursuits of peace and have added splendor to the records of their new home in the glories of war. General Howard and Destitation in the South. Some time ago General Howard suggested that the “mission” of the Freedmen’s Bureau had been almost fulfilled. He felt encouraged to hope that the necessity for such an extraor- dinary institution would soon cease. In this case, however, it appears that “the wish was father to the thought.” Reconstruction has been s#long delayed, floods and the army worm have been so deetructive, the fall in the price of cotton has proved so ruinous, and actual famine has created such widespread distress, particularly in the alluvial counties of Missis- sippi, that General Howard must now feel compelled to postpone the abolition of the Freedmen’s Bureau. He has already, in the exercise of the discretionary powers conferred upon him, had occasion to widen the original sphere of the Bureau’s influence. Although not expressly authorized by lawto make such a disposition of the Bureau funds, yet he ad- vanced a sum of eighty thousand dollars to certain South Carolina planters who had no money to begin operations for raising cotton last year. He took a lien on the crops for the ‘repayment of this sum. It was fully repaid as soon as the planters had sold theircrops. The practical advantages of this beneficent policy have induced General Howard, in view of Southern destitution, especially among the Mis- slssippi planters, who lost everything by the river inundations, to recommend a similarly Ifberal of the sarplus funds under his control, as head of the Freedmen’s Bureau, in order to moet oases of distress in the South, tite ot aE depots of provisions at points convenient te the districts in which the greatest want prevails. The advice of General Gillem, that some such sobeme for the immediate relief of sufferers in the South should be taken without delay, has been approved by both President Johnson and General Grant, Tho unexpended balance of over eight million dollars remaining in the ex- chequer of the Freedmen’s Bureau is a sum too large safely to be lek idle in these days of temptation. Corruption ghould have no chance to feed on it. General Howard’s proposal te use it as a Southern relief fond will meet with national approbation. Multiplicity of National Conventions in 1868 There is likely to be a full harvest of na- tional conventions during the year 1868, at the threshold of which we are now standing. Of course there will be the conventions of the two great political parties, the republican and the democratic. The former has already been called to meet in Chicago on the 20th of May next, and the Executive Committee of the lat- ter meet in Washington on the 22d of February to appoint the time and place for holding the National Convention. It is also proposed to hold a national convention of anti-war demo- crats, or those who suffered arbitrary impri- sonment in the North during the war upom charges of disloyalty. The'“Grand Army of the Republic” bold a national convention, or first annual meeting, in Philadelphia on the 15th of January for political purposes. There will also be held a soldiers’ and sailors’ na- tional convention for a similar object. The Southern papers are proposing a conservative national convention, to be held in Louisville on the 22d of February. The eight hour, or working men, will enter the national political arena under a distinctive banner, unless in the meantime the organization be swallowed up by one or the other of the great political par- ties. They will also probably have their na- tional convention. It does not appear likely that the Cooper Institute party that, nominated General Grant for President will hold a national convention, their labora being com- fined principaily to the issuing of circulars urging business men all over the country to work for Grant, Furvhermore, we will pro- bably have a woman’s rights national conven- tion, and, no doubt, a negro supremacy national convention, composed of the débris of the old abolition party. It would not be surprising if we should likewise have during the summer a national convention of political clergymen at some cool watering place. This would be a particularly refreshing assemblage duriag the hot weather. At this convention, after dis posing of the subject of the Presidency, the congregated diwines might settle the vexed questions about the holy opera, song worship, hymnology, psalmody, religious theatricals and similar lively matters, without touching upon intricate and abstruse church dogmas. Besides the above there wil! be held during the year a perfect swarm of State conyentio: both in the reconsiracted and unreconsiruc States, white and black; but the greatest and grandest of all these conventions will be the one held by the American people at the polla on the day of the Presidential election im November next, when radicalism in all its detested forms will be swept away, it is to be hoped, forever. Therefore we may expect the coming year to be one of the most interesting, 60 the discussion of political and social pale 3 ore concerned, that the country has witnessed since the organization of the government. Our Ciaims Against England. We published yesterday a full yet condensed history of the case of the United States against Great Britain in the matter of the claims arising out of the dopredations of the Alabama and other rebel cruisers. We offer it to Mr. Seward without charge for his ‘astraction. The case as we present it is concise and conclusive, and might save him a vasi deal of trouble and the government a great deal of wriling paper. As early as the 6th of May, 1861, Lord John Russell, who was Secretary for Foreign Affairs, announced to the House of Commons that, after having consulted with the law officers of the Crown, the government had come to the con- clusion that the Southern confederacy must be recognized as a belligerent. This announce- ment was made before any battle had been fought and more than two months before the battle of Bull Run. The unseemly and un- friendly haste of the British government to recognize the rebels as belligerents is plain enough. From the beginning it was clear that government was ready to do what was in ite power to break up a great and friendly repub- lic, No consideration of humanity called for such action at the time, Soon after the an- nouncement of Lord Russell that belligerent rights would be accorded to the rebels move- ments commenced in England for the fitting out of privateers. Though the British goverm- ment officially proclaimed its neutrality be- tween the United States and the rebels, it was in no way vigilant to prevent rebel cruisers from leaving its ports. On both moral ground and the ground of international law and comity, therefore, we have a good claim for the losses sustained from the Alabama and other cruisers that came out or received aid from England. By the statement we published yesterday it may be seen that our loss was eighty-three ships, four steamers, eighty-two barks, sixty-nine schooners, forty-five brigs and three other vessels—in all two hundred and eighty-four. The loss in these vessels and their cargoes amounts probably to eighty mil- lions. How much of that England is directly responsible for, as having been caused by those cruisers which left or were fitted out from her ports, we are not able to say, but no doubt a large portion of it. Of course this was not our only or the greatest lose, The destruction of our shipping trade and commerce, if that were admissible in the bill, would swell the amount toa mach larger sum. The least we can be satisfied with, then, is payment for the vessels and cargoes actually taken. We should take nothing less and insist upon an early settlement. —_—_____. BANQUET OF THE ST. NICHOLAS LODGE, ‘The annual dinner ofthe St, Nicholas Lodge was com~ momorated Inst night ot No. 764 Broadway. An um- usually large gathering of the members snd invited UGE coe neem ian mabe tae The following ia a Hist of the officers and in’ Master; R. B. Van Kierck Furlong, Jumor Warden; pa