The New York Herald Newspaper, February 19, 1868, Page 6

EEE EEE EEE EEEEEEEEEIEEI OOOO 5 NEW YORK HERALD. BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT. FROPRIETOR. Atl business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed Nuw York Heratp. Letiers and packages should be properly sealed, Rejected communications will not be re- turned. THE DAILY HERALD, pudtished every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $14, '3 Puls EVANING, AGADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—-Un Baito AN Mascukna, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadwa; .—Lirtix Baxsroor. NIBLO'S GARD: Tae Ware Fawn, WALLACIOS THEATH Pavnine, Browway and Lith street.— BROADWAY THEATI COATS FAMILY JARS. adway. Per ov 1x Perris perann Aw Tr Was—In 4 Lim Our, Sraeers oF M, Broad Tyres NEW YORK © Eaqvesenianisu, &¢ THEATRE COMIQUE DATION LOCA AND MIN! reel, —Graxastios, 244 o'clock, Comme KELLY & LEON'S MIN 3. 7 dw Dances, Ecowntuicrrts, &e.—Graxp Doren “s.? SAN FRANCISCE rian ENTeirainaey SIRELS, 54 Broul way GING, DANCING AND BU TONY PASTOR: OFERA HOUSE. 20t Bowers.—Comie Vocatisu, NecKo MixsimEisy, Ac. Matinee at 2!;. RUTLER'S AMERICAN THEATRE, 472 Broadway.— Bauer, Farce, PaNroinn, ae, BUNYAN HALL, Broadway und Fifteenth street—Tar Pueeim, Matinee at 2, DODWORTH HALL.—Onive Locax. MRS, F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn,— Tux Mountain Beit. HOOLEY'S OPFRA HOUIS, Brookiyn,—Ermorias Minerauisy, BALLADS AND BuRLusgues. NEW YORK MUSEUM UF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— ScwNcr aNy Axr. TRIP New York, Wednesday, Feb: THE NAWa!. EUEOFE. The news report by the Atlantic cable is dated at mid- wight, January 19, Russia is to nold the deposed German princes to strict account for their lofaity to the new confoderation, and the payment of their stipend will be suspended in case Of any exhibition of a contrary politcal feeling, Itis Proposed that German emigrant ships shall be eiricily inspected by officiais at the ports of embarkation. A violent legislative debat ued on the government ad- Vertising clause of the new French press law, the (abinet Plan being barcly susta.ned, Foreign newspapers will not be admitted free to Frauce as proposed vy the oppo. sition. Earl Derby » health iaimproved. The continued suspension of the habeas corpus in Irclond bas been voted. Napoleon has accredited a new Minister to Japan. A French journal states that the British advance in Abyssinia has come to a halt and that General Napier is calling for reiaforcemenis, The British Cabinet has hud no official explacauun of the coutinued presence of the Egyptian troops with General Napier’s army, Cousuls 025 a 92% 1m London, Five-twenties 71K in London and 757 in Frankfort Yaris Bourso steady, with rentes firm, Cotton higher and active, with middling uplands at | 9)4d. Breadstutts slightly advanced. Provisions dull. | Produce without marked cuango. CONG Ess, | In the Senate yesterday the joint resolution reducing | the expenses 0: (he War Department ia New York city | wos passed. The bili for tue reduction of the army was | also passed, A bi! Was introduced to amend the postal | laws Tue discuss on on tue adwiksion of Mr. Thomas was coniimued, and, wituout voting, the Senate ad. | journed. In the House, a bili authorizing the Secretary of the ‘Treasury to revoke the appoiutment of a receiver for tho Williamsburg (N.Y ) Farmers’ and Citizens’ Bank, and restore the bavk to its owners op certaln assurances, wat passed. A joiat resolaion appropriating $50,000 for the relief of destitute citizens imprisoned abroad was passed. vivors of the war of 1812, afer considerable debate, . Tho Legwative, Executive and Judicial Appropriation bill was dircuseai in Committee of the Whole and reporied, bur noi vowed upon 18k oy. ‘Tho Board of Aldermon met yesterday afternoon and received communications from the residents of Fifth and Seventh avonues protesting against too laying of Nicolson pa’ ‘nt in those avenues; from the Mayor, vetoing the layiag 0! that pavement” in Niath, Great Joves, Marke Jed and Frankia stress and Excha place, and from tho Street Commissioner transmitting bus quarteriy report for 'he lust quarier of 1867 and the essosament lis: for various up-town iuprovementa; adopted resolutious cailiug upon the New York mem. bers ot Congress io bastea the construction of she new Post Office; dipoeed of @ large amount of rouline ness, and adjourned to Tuareday, The Assonbly committee charged with an investiga. | toa of the affairs of the Fire Department in this city took considerable testimony in the matter yesterday, and adjourned until this morning. Ab injunction was issuod yesterday by the Supreme Court, on the aifidavit of Frank Work, one of the Direc. tors of the Erie Ratiray Company, againat Daniel Drew, the railway company and its Board of Directors enjoin. ing the directors from paying the principal or interest on $3,480,000 advanced them by Mr. Drew in considera: | tion of 65,000 suares of sick, at a depreciated value, ander ® covenant which, the complaint alleges, was fraudulent The complainant furiner asks that Mr, Drew be required to deliver the stares, or the par value thereof, at $100 per share, |nto the hands of the com- pany again, These shares are vapposed to have beon obtained by Mr, Drew through the co-operation of the other directors in order to fill certain “wlort sale” con- tracta, The cass, if the complaint be true, develops one of the most comprehensive jobs in stock ever kuown on Wall sireet, A republican ratification meeting, endorsing the nom \nation of Grant and Fenton for Prosident and Vice Pres. ident, was held last evening, at Cooper Institute, by the Union Aepublicam Prostdential Campaign Club, Ad- dresses wore made by Lyman Tremain, Stewart J. Woodford and Major ilaggerty. The trial of Rev. SH. Tyng, Jr, was concluded by the summing up of counsel yesterday, The court will render their decision, subject to (he approval or disap- proval of tne bishop, atsome future time ina public eburch and in the presence of at least Ubreo clergymen. J. F. Laveila, a conaucior on tue seventh Avenue Taijroad, was stabbed by «vine person unknown on Mon- day might while attending to his the coraer of Church and Road: afterwords. ‘The ausasein was & passenger on the car, who, refusing to pay his fare, was ejected and tmmedi ately returned and gave the fatal blow, Tu the confu Bi excapod, ‘The cashier of Ezra Goodrich & Co., importers, fix ‘The bill giving pensions to ceriain sur- | ties on his ear, at ‘ " ‘ : a | probable contingencies, and, without a vigor- NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1868.-TRIPLE SHEET. The examinatfon Of witnesses for the defence in the | the present negro government of Hayti we see | thess points on the 10th of March, and Con- | Pacific to Chicago, the International to Halifax, case of the people against Richard Casey, on trial in the Court of Oyerand Terminer, was closed yesterday, The summing op of counsel will commence this ning. MISCELLANEOUS. Our special correspondence from Shanghae is dated on the 11th of December. The Cabinet of China, iu- fluenced largely by the advice of the Dowager Empress, Speaking in the name of the present Emperor, her son, who is only ten years old, decided in making tho Present complete change in the national policy Tegording foreigners, It was decided at the same council to tender the post of Plenipotentiary, with unlimited power of treaty action, to Mr. Burlin- game, which was done, to bis great surprise, After due deliberation he accepted the post, and has set out from Pekin for San Francisco and Washington to commence his labors. Mr, Burlin- game is attended by a numerous suite, made up of men of learning and rank, and may be engaged on his mis- sion during the next two years, His journey from Pe- kin to Tientsin was interrupted by threatening demon- Strations on the part of native bandits, a class of men who havo always infested the districts of China torn by cvvil war, It is reported thi army of two thousand Indiane from idaho and Montana have taken the war path again, In the Reconstraction Committee of the House yes- terday t'e bill for the admission of Alabama was con- sidered, Mr, Stevens expressing himself as dissatisfied with it, end favoring delay in acting upon it until all the facis are ascertained. In the State Constitutional Co: vention yesterday the article On the Secretary of Stato, &c,, was reported com- plete from the Revision Committee, The article on the Legislature was amended by striking out the clause | @uthorizing tho sale of street railroad franchises at pub- | hie auction. and the article on militia wax amended by restricting te number of the National Guard in time of | peace to thirty thousand, In the South Carohna Convention yesterday a telegram was received from Senator Wilson, saving that Congress | will not loan tho State $1,000,000 to buy lands for the poor, ‘The Louisiana Convention, having completed their constitution, have discovered that a preamble is wanting aud have commenced operations to form one, ‘The Fiorida Convention has reorganized, the two factions being harmonized by the mediations of General Meade, The majority now hold their own, and it is Probable the whole constitution will be readoptsd. Tue official returns of the Alabama Convention are in the hands of General Meade, who has refused to furnish them for publication, It is estimated, however, that the Vote for ratification 18 about 72,000, 12,000 leas than half the registration, An escaped convict, who was overtaken by the officers at Monroeville, Ohio, recently shot and killed one of the constablo’s assistants aud severely wounded the constable timeelf, This very desperate criminal is only twenty-four years old, A locomotive engine at Lowoll, Mase, exploded yesterday, killing the engineer and a master mechanic of the railroad and seriously injuring three other persons, Thomas.C, McCreery, of Daviess county, a democrat of clean record, was elected United States Senator by the Kentucky Legislature yesterday, in the place of James Guthric, resigned Accharter election in Syracuse yesterday resulted in a republican victory by increased majorities. The ice gorge near St. Louls has broken up and the river is now clear. Navigation southward will probably be soon resumed, Tho Present C ‘ess and Its Revelutionary Tendencies—Where Is the Romedy t It is a remarkable fact that, while our gov- ernment is doing nothing to widen the sphere ot its influence among foreign nations, we should find from China and Japan, on the eastern side of Asia, trom the snows of Russia to the vine- yards of Italy, in Europe, from the new Do- mnion on our Northern border, from the islands of the Gulf of Mexico, and from all the Spanish American States, governments or peo- ples, or both, actively cultivating more inti- mate relations with the United States. These movements are due tothe moral pressure of our popular institutions, our material pros- perity, our commercial activity, our inter- national spirit of liberality as a people, and to the powertul agencies of steam, electricity and the newspaper press In bringing the most widely separated. nations into immediate rapport. It is still remarkable, however, that not only have we these recognitions of the commanding development of the United States without effort or action from our government, but while the government is absorbed in the experiment of a revolutionary reconstruction full of the clashing elements of political con- fusion and dissolution. The most enlightened rulers and statesmen of the Old World, however, have but a cloudy perception of our internal political situation, | and of the dangers involved in this exper:ment | of suddenly advancing four millions of the Afri- can race, relieved but yesterday from the ignor- ance, darkness and disabililies of Southern slavery, to the diznity of civil and political | equality with the white race. The experiment of | this sort made by che first French republic in St | Domingo, with all its bloody and horrible con- | sequences, and the more cautious exporiment of Eagland in her West India islands, furnish no encouraging lights to guide us through this perilous enterprise of wivancing at a bound tue African race in our Southern States from | absolute subjection, social, civil and politi- | cal, to the poiitical government of their late | | white masters. History furnishes no adequate | precedent for such an experiment ; but such precedents as we have warn us of a disastrous | | tailure. In 1860 the population of the Southern States, which plunged headlong into the pro- | slavery rybellion of 1861, and of the so-called | Sou'hern confederacy was, in round numbers, eight million seven bundred thousand—the whites numbering five million one hundred thousand, and the blacks three million six hundred thousand. We do not count the two races in Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri. Under the Reconstruction laws of Congres, with their rebel disfranchisements aad test oaths operating against the whites and | with universal suffrage in favor of the blacks, we bave seen enough to show that all these ‘ rebel States still excluded from Congress will | be reconstructed on the basis of negro supre- macy, and that they will be ruled by the negro vote as in the restored State of Tennessee. | Alabama will, doubtless, be shortly restored upon the principles of her new constitution, and success in her case will certainly stimulate all the sitting radical eonventions of the | other States concerned to cut short their de- bates, flaish their work and join Alabama in Congress. Then we shall have eleven States | with fifty-eight members in one branch of Con- gress and twenty two in the other as the repre- sentatives of universal negro suffrage, holding the balance of power in the Senate against all ous effort from the North against them, holding the balance of power in the next House. The balance of power in the general govern- . | ment, wielded before the rebellion by three that the condition of the negro in a civilized community is subjection to a superior race, and that otherwise he is a barbarian, or speedily relapses into burbarism. Political equality and miscegenation of all races have been thoroughly tried in Mexico, and the result is Mexican anarchy. Nor can a negro political balance of power in the United States, as a distinct political element, be permitted to exist. It is such @ monstrous anomaly in our political system, so feartully in conflict with that predominant American idea of the rightful supremacy of the white race, that it cannot be tolerated. What then? We say let this expe- riment South be tried, and let it be submitted to the judgment of the North; but let the North be Prepared to meet the question. The first political result of the restoration of these Southern States may possibly be the shelving of Generai Grant and the nomination of Mr. Chase, because, we dare say, although Tennessee has declared for Grant, that every delegate to Chicago from these other ten radically reconstructed States will be for Chase. The negroes of the South may thus wield a balance of power in the Convention fatal to the aspirations of General Grant. In any event, we have had enough of thesy cosily mockerics and mummeries of Southern recon- struction. Let the outside rebel States, as recons.ructed by their negro governed radical conventions, be brought in, so that the people of the North may see what they are and where they are. Ii their corner stone of negro supremacy, together with all the corruptions, spoliations, extravagances, taxations (six hun- dred miliions a year federal taxes alone), banks and tariffs of this radical party in power ‘can pass unscathed the fire of the popular struggle for the next Congress, the people must be content to take the consequences. There is, however, an inviting door of deliverance from these revolutionary radicals, and it opens upon the popular branch of the next Congress. The New Hawmpshire Klection and the Economy of Political Campaign! The political combat in New Hampshire is growing hot and heavy--hotter and heavier every day. The contending forces have been marshalled, and it is presumed that at the present writing they are about equal in strength, pertinacity and determ ‘nation to win. Not since the days of old-Isaac Hill have the granite hills been disturbed by the ‘umult of necticut responds on the 6th of April follow- ing. Listen to New Hampshire! The Management of the Telegraph—The Success of Competing Lines. The publication of the semi-annual report of the English telegraph companies has revived the discussion of the proposition of the British government to tuke possession of the several | lines and to work them under tbe Post Office Department as 4 portion of the postal system. The companies complain that the announce- ment of the government of the intention to in- troduce a Dill authorizing tho Postmaster General to purchase all the telegraphs in the United Kingdom by agreement has not been followed by a preliminary deposit of the bill, as is the custom, leaving them as yet unin- formed of the manner in which the government intends to proveed. The arguntent in fuvor of the proposed policy has created a favorable impression upon the public mind. Its main features are, first, that the telegraphic ope- rators employed by the Post Office Depart- ment would be government officials, and that the same stringont rules tuat apply to the mail service would be enforced in the case of the telegraph, thus rendering the inviolability of messages secure; and, secondly, that the rales would be placed as low as the absolnie payment of the expenses of working the lines would warrant, since there would no longer be any necessity of securing large profiis to pay heavy dividends, or to raise tho value of a market- able stock, The people would thus insure secrecy and despatch for their messages, and derive the bonefit of a rate of tariff low enough to enable them to mike a general use of the telegraph 1n all matters of sufficient importance to warrant the additionai expense between that moans of communication and the more tardy mails, . There are a great many features about this English proposition that commend themselves to our own people. Indeed, under the mis- management to which the telegraph busi- ness has deen subjected in the United States, and in view of the* attempt to create an overshadowing monopoly that, by swallowing up every competing line, might practise all sorts of abuses with im- punity, it becomes doubly necessary that some restriction should be placed upon the telegraph here, either by takiug its whole con- trol into the hands of the government or by the gathering of the clans as they ure at this time. And what is all this stir about? What is “all this steer, kimmor?” Precisely this: A Presidential election is approaching in the United States, in relation to which this present State election in New Hampshire possesses all the power and magnetism of an initial rivet to the keel of a mighty ship. As that rivet is driven home and clinched so will the keel stand, so will the great ship be steered, either straightforward and safely, or awry, with o crooked and “hogged” hull, Therefore the po- litical master shipbuilders and master shipcar- penters, the political caulkers and riggers ant joiners, who have been hammering sway at the hulk of the old ship of State for three or four years past, ure now at work upon the skeleton on the stocks in New Hampshire, all endeavoring to reconstruct it upon some par- tisan plan of their own. It is, however, ® mere political job from beginning to end. Many among the swarms of stump speakers who siartle the owls in the frosty mountain forests of New Hampsbire nightly show the purity and disin- terestedness of their patriotism by accepting compensation at 80 much per specch, with all expenses paid during the campaign. They hire themselves out upon some principle of political economy known to those acquainted with the intricacies of New England political wire-working, their employers taking the chances for recompense in a future dip into some golden bowl of treasury pap. There are others, however, who do not so dispose of them- selves, These are not political scavengers and paupers, bankrupt in purse and reputation, willing to talk upon either side for a stipulated per diem or per stump speech. They aim higher. Nothing but cabinet seats, amassador - ships, special missioas, chiet collectorships and the like horizon their political expectations. For instance, there are General Daniel E Sickles and General John Cochrane on the re- puolican side, and Senfator Doolittle ant Sen- ator Hendricks on the democratic, The mo- tives of these gentlemen in entering zealously into this New Hampshire campaign are of course high and pure. Another democratic champion is Monigomery Blair, who | never uttered a political sentence that was marred by personal or sordid considerations. Never—never. It is sufficient avouchment for his honesty of purpose to know that he is a son of “Old Blair.” Richard Vaux, Henry Clay Dean, Chauncey C. Burr and Parson Lovejoy, of Cambridge (brother of the “martyr Love- joy,” who was hanged many years ago at Alton, lilinois, by a mob for being an abolitionist, which the surviving broth r is not), garnish the dish of democratic orators. This de- lectable dish is carved and served up gratuitously as per order and necessity by chief cook Colonel John H. George, ot blessed and “godlike” memory. Seriously, there do not appear to be so many abject hirelings and paid spouters among the repub- licans in the present canvass in New Hamp- shire as there are democratic. This is not | usually the ease. The inference, therefore, is | that tie democrats have not only put their shoulders to the wheel, but their bands into heir pockets, and launched forth liberally to carry the Stale, Whether the funds be in- vested in naturalizing néw voters or in the far leas remunerative way of paying unpopular | speakers, the money goes forth and is circu- lated. It should be remembered by every one who looks into this pioneer State election of the | Presidential year that as it gous so will its in- | fluence he felt in the elections which follow. The question, therefore, is not confined to local | matters. It is not whether Mr. Sinclair or Colonel Harriman be elected Governor of New | Hampshire for the ensuing political year. It | is absolutely whether the people of the nation | shall continue to be overwhelmed by op- pressive taxation; whether 2 change in the financial policy of the government is not de- manded ; whether the couniry shall perish In encouraging the construction of independent lines, so as to insure reliability, secrecy, de- spatch and reasonable charges by the force of competition. There are many who believe now that it would be beneficial to the public if the general government should own a line of its own in connection with the Post Office, at least along the main postal routes, even if individual enterprise should be left free to build connecting lines and lines for neys and commercial purposes, The government line, as they argue, would serve to kcep down rates for messages to a fair standard, and avert in future the evils of monopoly. But probably the best method of reforming the telegraph business here, and the mode most acceptable to our people, is the encourage- ment of competing lines soas to break down an offensive monopoly. The incompetency, blunders, arrogance and general mismanage- ment of the Western Union Company under its present board of directors or their execu- tive committee have in part worked their own correction by giving an impe‘us to the several opposition lines now in operation or projected, which cannot fail before long to secure compe- tion to every important point in the United States, Indeed, the Western Union is no longer a monopoiy. The opposing routes already in existence are doing a profitable business and rapidly gaining public confideace and favor, while others in process of construc- tion or avout to be commenced have fair pros- pects before them, and cannot fail, if pro- perly managed, of securing complete success. The tollowing are the competing lines in opposition to the Western Union monopoly, now in operation and doing a prosperous and rapidly increasing business :-- Names of Companies, Franklin Telegraph Company .. Pacite and Atianuc Company Atlantic and Pacific Company Interoational Compacy.... Bankers and Brokers’ Company Northern Company. Southern Company. New Xprk City Company Miles of Route, = 770 ‘Total miles of competing rout Of these lines the Franklin extends from New York to Boston by two routes, and from New York to Washington direct, forming a grand trunk line for the other opposition lines, all of which connect with it in unbroken routes to New York. The Pacific and Atlantic runs trom Philadel- phia and Baltimore through Harrisburg and Pittsburg, Pa., and Wheeling, Va., to Cincin- nati, Obio, connecting with the Franklin at Philadelphia and Baltimore and forming a fiue through line trom Cincinnati to New York. The Atlantic and Pacific has a good live from this city, through Albany and Syracuse, to Oswego, and through Rochester, Buffalo, Erie, &c., to Cleveland, Ohio. In New York it connects with the Franklin for Eastern and Southern business. The International goes from Boston, through Massachusetts and New Hampshire, to Bangor, Me., on the coast, and to Angusta, Me., in the interior. At Boston it connects for Now York business with the Franklin. The Bankers’ and Brokera’ rans a line to Washington direct through Philadelphia and Baltimore. The Northern extends from Boston, where it connects with the Franklin trunk line, through Concord, Lowell, Nashua and Manchester to Bristol, N. H. The Souther goes from Cincinnati to Louiftilie, and with the Pacific and Atlantic forms a direct route from Louisville to this city. The New York City line ‘has some fifteen wiles of wire running through the city, and has ut present twenty-seven stations in avail- able localities, including the general Post Office, the gold room, the Produce Exchange, &c., and transmits messages from point to point all over New York and receives business ut all its stations for the opposition lines, with all of which it connects. This line enables the Franklin and the Atlantic and Pacific to change place, is reported to have disappeared with (rom | hundred and fifly thousand while stareaolders, $100,000 to $300,000 worth of bis employers’ money in | is to he turned over to their Inte slaves, loss bis bands, than four millions of blacks. Moen inay preach In the Unitod States Circuit Court yesterday, before | thy equality of all races under the Declaration order that the negro may thrive in all bis | deliver their New York messages in any part fragrance ; whether, in short, we shall have a plain, honeet, economical and faithful admin- istration of the government for the next four 2 v1 nted on a nee aus wiavias ‘ered pear perk etctrt of Independence and the Divine law; but from ge an luspector of Revenue, Seuvence deferred, years, or one that is corrupt, revolutionary of the city withont delay. These liaes will all be extended in the spring, or as soon as the work can be com- menaced, The Pacific and Atlantic will at once N.8., the Northern to Montreal, and the South- ern, through Memphis and Nashville, to New Orleans direct, In addition to these existing and working lines others are projected and bave a fair prospect of success, Tho National Telegrapt Company is a comprehensive schem2 0 con- struct general opposition lines all over the Union, It is organized under the National Telegraph law of 1866, the stock is subscribed by business men all over. the country, from Maine to California, and iis design is to have its entire capital of ten million dollars sub- scribed by responsible parties before any work is commenced. ‘This capital will enable the company to construct better and more lines than are now owned by the Western Union, whose inflated bubble capital is forty-one ml- lions, The Northwestern Telegraph Company is to extend trom Milwaukee to StePaul, Min- nesota, and will connect with the Atlantic and Pacific, and the Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company will build a line from Si. Paul to New Orleans, All these projects, if properly carried out, will be assured successes, as are all the com- peting routes now in operation. ‘Lhe latter are doing a profitable business, and doing it well, and they have reduced the exorbitant charges of the Wes:era Union monopoly to all the po:nts they reach over sixty per cent. They are entitled to tho public confidence and support from their own intrinsic meriis and their efficient manner of doing business, but especially because they are helping to break down an overbearing monopoly that has too long been suffered to impose upon the public. A New System of Finance and Currency for the United States. We give elsewhere an excellent letter on our national finances from Mr. Silas M. Stilwell (Jonathan Oldbuck), setting forth fully the ex- pediency and advantage of funding the national debt in currency bonds. In this pro- position Mr. Stilwell grapples with that which is now the really formidable point in our national affairs ; the point whose satistactory adjustment will secure the country aguinst all political troubles, whose danger is more im minent to the country’s welfare than any other, and which, if not wisely guarded against, must precipitate general ruin. It is the burden of financial distress that carries governments down. Itis the oppression of the tax gatherer, felt at every man’s fireside, and the bad financial systems which palsy private enterprise, that wear away the patriotic spirit of a people and thereby destroy nations. And this is our present tendency. Government pays an excessive in- terest and so demoralizos capital. Mr. Stilwell does not state the government interest erro- neously when he puts it at ten per cent. This, which we might almost cail a financial bounty, of course withdraws money from all those in- vestments in which, by Siate laws, interest is fixed at a lower figure, and also draws it from manufacturing or other enterprises more or less precarious, but which give employment to the people. Thus the sream of the country’s capital stagnates in a lazy lagoon of three thousand million dollars of debt. Exorbitant interest draws it t ither, cripples the business of the country to that exient, and then from this crippled industry that exorbitant interest must be paid. Such industry as goes on in the nation must not only pay earnings on the money invested in it, but must also pay to the bondholder as much as it pays to its own capi- tal. The government bondholder has a lien on every trade, and he receives as much money from every article sold on Broadway, without risking a cent, as the merchant makes who sells the article. He is lord of the ascendant in our financial system, and if we were to go on in our present course the bondholding in- terest would, within the experience of m:n now alive, own every dollar in the country, every house and every acre of land, and the people would be the bondholders’ slaves, just as the people of England are to-day the slaves of the moneyed aristocracy there. From this situation the danger to the country is that it seems to commend repudiation to the people, and points the way tor demagogues to carry the nation to dishonor. How shall we escape that danger on the one hand and remedy thee evils on the other? Mr, Stilwell’s proposition is to tand the whole debt in bonds bearing interest at 3.65 per cent. On one hundred doilars the interest would be three dollars and sixty-five cen's, or one cent per day, which would make its computation easy to the people. He would exempt these bonds trom taxation and make them a legal tender, retiring thus the present currency. In favor of such a loan there is all to be said that was ever said in favor of our present loans, and infinitely more. Its striking point is that it presents a practical solution for all our currency difficulties at the same time that it provides tor the debt. It reduces the interest on the debt, but doos not put it too low. It leaves it at such 9 point that an invest- ment in United States bonds of this character will be better than in the bonds of any Euro- pean government, supposing the credit to be equally good; and we must not put ours down by assuming that it is lower. In thus pro- viding for the debt the bonds are themselves also a self-regulating currency, with just sufficient elasticity to accommodate itself’ to the retjuirements it is to meet, There can be no inflated currency, no super- fluous money, since all not passing from hand to hand in the needs of trate is not lying idle, but is actually invested at good interest in whatever hands it may lie. The money market cannot be embarrassingly tight, as the inieress is not bigh enough to tempt to hoarding. The first urgent demand for money will call out every dollar in the hope of bettor earnings by adventure than the interest. Though not tempiing to hoard, yet money will be better in these bonds than in bank credits without interest’ Moreover, such bonds will not be likely to go abroad and entail the drain of paying interest in foreign countries, In short, this is the best propo- sition in regard to the national finances that has yet been made, That part of Mr, Stilwell’s letter which details the relation of his plan to specie payments is especially worth attention. It points to the fact that our present suspen- sion bad originally no relation to credit, and has none now to the redundancy of paper money ; and (his iuvolves the more important facts that as trade revives and business assumes iis normal activity—which it would cortainly soon do under this proposed system—we could return to specie payments easily and without the building of the pyramida of Egypt down to | and destructive. New Hampshire speaks qu | be completed to St. Louis, the Atlantig and | danger, and that If we returned now with a (eee eee \ recognition of the price of the metal in our de" mand for it we might at a not overdistunt day see the government paper at par. Real Estate om the West Side—Incrense ta Property and the Reasons for It. The daily record of real estaie movements exhibits on the part of investors an increasing tendency to become property holders on the west side, especially above Fifty-ninth street, and the consequence has been a heaping up, upon the principle of geometrical ratio, of real estate values along this tract. Nor is the movement merely speculative, but based upon logical deductions trom the most obvious prin- ciples. It is an acknowledged fact already that Manbatian Island is within the next ten: years likely to prove too limited in area for the immense commerce of which it is to be the centre. Even within the past five years the needs of business haye forced fashion out of Union square, which in one year more will not have a single private residence within hailing distance. The next five years will wi'ness @ similar metamorphosis of Fifth avenue and perhaps of Madison square, at present @ fashionable centre. Commerce and trade can pay higher rents and build grander palaces than private persons can afford, and, heuce, in any competitive bidding for space commerce and trade are sure to expel merely private occupants, The bend of Broadway being to the west of the Park, high rents and first class retail stores will naturally follow its line, rendering the western tract between Fifty- ninth and One Hundredth streets the great mart of the retail trade indry goods, and that more speedily than is generally supposed. Even now it is reckoned not exactly stylish to shop below Ninth street; and within a very short time Union square will have becom: the great dry goods centre of the city—the bulb, so to speak, of the leading retail thoroughfare of New York, which will extend thence to the upper end of the Park. It needs no CiJipus, therefore, to guess the value which space will have acquired upon this (now rocky) tract, and that so soon that the metamorphosis will seem to him who looks back to have been almost Arabian Nights-like. By this time pri- vate residences will have been almost expelled from Fifth avenue below Thirtieth street, and business will hive made heavy raids upon Ma.ison square for purposes of retail tvade, The opening of the exterior street along the Hudson provides for the develop- ment of wiolesale trade northward; and we may therefore conclude that, with these facili- ties, the value of the tract bounded on the north by 110th street, on the east by the Park, on the south by Fifty-ninth street and on the west by the river will have been tripled in ten years—deatined, as it is, to become the great dry goods mart of the me.ropolis. In its pilgrimage northward, having been expelled from Fitth avenue and Madison square, fashion will not to any great extent seek residence below the uppsr end of the Park, but will pass over and beyond to the tract above. Here are to be erected its palaces and villas, and here is to be the aristocratic social centre of the Continent—a position which has long been held by Fifth avenue and Madison avenue. Radiating trom centres like Fort Washington, this transformation w to be more speedily effected than is generally sup- posed; for precedent is of liltle validity in determining the rapidness of the growth of New York city, and to calculate it adequately reference must be had to principles of develop- ment which have in the progress of European cities never ‘been adequately illustrated. A few years—a dozen at most—will have wrought wonders on the upper part of the island, while the rivalries of wealth and tashion for most eligible villa sites will have doubled and tripled and quadrupled, perhaps, the value of every available foot of land north of 110b street. Meantime, speculators will have amassed fortunes out of these rivalries and the needs of business for more room, and will have retired, while the problem among the humbler classes, “ Where shall we sleep?” will, with high ren's and economy of space, have become a question for humane consi Jeration. The Nati onal Democratic Convention. A strong delegation of the democratic lead- ers in this State his been selected to go to Washington to endeavor to persuade the Na- tional Exzcu‘ive Commitiee to select New York city as the place for holding the next National Democratic Convention. Their ob- ject, it is understood, will meet with opposition trom Western democrats, who affect to tear the influence of New York roughs upon the de- liberations of the Convention. What folly! A Western rough is the equal of any New York rough that can be trotted out, and when they come to the scratch, and especially the gouge, the odds are in favor of the Western champion always. Therefore let not a fear of our roughs op:rate upon the bold Western de- mocracy in the selection of a place for hold- ing the National Convention. New York city is the natural headquarters of the nation, com- mercially, intellectually, numerically, religi- ously, radically and domocratically. It can show a bigger democratic majority tian any other deinocratic cily in the Union— in fact, than all other democratic cities com- bined. Therefore, make way tor the Empire City of the Empire State as a place for holding the Democratic (or any other) National Con- vention. The Operatic War-Latest News. After many weeks of masterly inactivity, Tike McClellan on the Potoutac, Pike makes a grand demonstration on the Eighth avenue. He tried some of the old managers for a short time, and at length resolved to put his opera house and the resuscitation of Italian opera (which bas had a bard time of it lately) into the hands of s new man, one in whom the public can have contidence. This rara avis is Lafayette Harrison, who has already won many signal victories in concert and oratorio, For two years past Harrison has managed Stein- way and Irving,Halls in the mbst admirable manner, and now he essays a still more arduous task. It remains to be seen whether his operations in a new field will miect with the same success. He opens on Monday next at Pike’s Opera House with the opera of “Norm:,” Madame Parepa-Rosa being the prima donna on the occasion. He will have Mareizek’s old opera company to support this great artist, and he, in connection with the diplomatic Pike, is already arranging to briog over some of the first artists from Burope, Between Pike's and the Academy there will be now the greatest contest ever witnessed in music in thig city, On one sile