The New York Herald Newspaper, March 8, 1868, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, MARCH 8 1868—TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New YorK grap. Letters and packages should %e properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- Volume scsi No. 68 RELIGIOUS SERVICES TO-DAY. aq BLOOMINGDALE BAPTIST CHURCH, Forty-second reet,—REV. W. POPE YEAMAN. Morning and evening. BUNYAN HALL.—Puuiio TEMPERANCE ‘Evening. CHURCH OF THE HOLY APOSTLES.—Rev. Dr. Dix ‘on “CouRcA Principies.” Evening. MEETING. CHAPEL OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, Rutger's College.— REY. THOMAS K. CONRAD. Morning and afternoon. CHURCH OF THE STRANGERS.—REv. Dr. DERMB. Morning and evening. CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION.—Rev. Avuorr Brown. Morning and afternoon. CHAPEL OF THE SHEPHERD'S FLOCK.—Apprresrs. Evening. CANAL STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.—Rev. DAVib MITOHELL. Morning and evening. CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION.—Dr. Face Morning and evening, CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH.—Rev. W. H. Curu- sent, B. A. Evening. CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR.—DR. E. G. Brooks. Morning and evening. COOPER INSTITUTE.—LxoTuRE ON THR HOLY LAND by Rey. Farure Wiison, 0.8, D. Evening. DODWORTH HALL.—Ronerr Date OWRN ON THE “spinrr Wontp INTIMATIONS.” Morning and evening. FRENCH CHURCH OF DU ST. ESPRIT.—Rrv. Dr. VERREN. Morning. FORTY-SECOND STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.— Rev. Dr. Scorr. Morning and evening. HARLEM UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.—Revy. Brooxs. Afternoon, MASONIC HALL.—SPrRiTuaLists. Wuirr. Evening. NEW JERUSALEM HOUSE OF WORSHIP.—Rev. CHAUNCEY GILES, Morning and evening. E. G. Me ON. FRANK SEVENTEENTH STREET METHODIST CHURCH.— Rev. W.P. Cour, Morning and evening. ST, ANN'S FREE CHURC! lorning and afternoon, and Rev. Dx, Ewen, in evening, in behalf of St. Luke's Home for Aged Women. ST. ANN'S CHURCH.—“Stapat MATER," by the Choir. TRINITY CHAPEL.—MusicaL SERVICE AND SERMON. wwening. TRIPLE ‘SHEET. ew York, Sunday, March 8 1868. rr) b= 4 B ™ 5B w 8. EUROPE. The news reported by the Atlantic cable is dated yesterday evening, March 7. By telegram we report the debate which took place in the British House of Commons on the subject of the Alabama claims, with the important points made by Lord Stanley, Mr. Gladstone and other members on the subject. The German-American naturalization treaty is before the Councli in Berlin. Fenians for trial in Ireland have been offered a pardon if they promised to leave the kingdom, which they refused. The new Press law is still under debate in the French Legisla- ture. The Disraeli Cabinet will introduce a bill to Parliament authorizing the purchase of all the tele- graphs in the kingdom by government. Consols 93's. Five-twenties 71% in London and 1549 in Frankfort. Cotton active and firm at an advance, middling “uplands closing at 94d. a 9%d. Breadstuffs more frm. Provisions active and firmer. Produce dull. CONGRESS. In the Senate yesterday the Pension Appropriation bill was called up and elicited considerable debate, but was finally passed. The Diplomatic and Consu- lar Appropriation bill was also taken up, and after some discussion on the clause paying Mr. Harvey, the Minister to Portugal, his salary, it was discovered that there was no quorum present. In the House the session was devoted entirely to general debate in Committee of the Whole. The finances, currency, tariff, revenue and the public debt were the principal subjects, and Messrs. Clark, Blaine, Broomall, Holman and Lynch were the prin- cipal speakers. THE LECISLATURE. ‘The Senate was not in session yesterday. Inthe Assembty bills to create a new ward in Brooklyn and relative to Courts of Special Sessions im New York were reported favorably. A bill was introduced to impose tolls on railroads running con- tiguous to State canals. The Assembly then ad- Journed to Monday. MISCELLANEOUS. President Johnson yesterday was served with a summons to appear before the High Court of Im- peachment in the Senate chamber. He told the Ser- geant-at-Armsa, who presented the writ, that he ‘would attend to the matter. Our Shanghae (China) correspondence is dated January 16. The Costa Rica had arrived, after being overdue for nearly two weeks on account of a stress of weather. Mr. Burlingame was in Shanghae, wailg ing for his suite. The Shanghae Fire Department had a gfand parade on the 13th ult., dressed in New York uniforms. The new portsin Japan had been opened without much ceremony, but the promise of trade in them was not flattering. An interesting article to be found elsewhere in our columns this morning gives a condensed history of the navy of the United States, ite present and its pro- bable future status. The total number of vessels at present is 230, with an aggregate of 140,746 tons bur- den and 1,915 guns. Some able suggestions are offered for future action relative to the permanence and adaptability of the navy, in consonance with the tm- provements that are being made every day. In discussing the disfranchising clause in the Vir- ginia Convention yesterday, Mr. Leggott, a conser- vative member, expressed his disgust for the propo- sition and contempt for “the whole establishment,” ‘whereupon he was expelled. Reconsideration of the vote on disfranchisement was proposed by a repub- liean, but colored members opposed it, on the ground that the proposition was the result of advice received by telegraph from Washington. In the North Carolina Convention the article on homesteads and finance was adopted. In the Louisiana Convention yesterday the new Constitution was signed, seven of the members re- fusing. A resolution was adopted for a cessation of per diem immediately, and an adjournment took Place till Monday, when registers will be elected. The Georgia Convention yesterday resolved itself into a State nominating body and nearly the whole of the white delegation refused to act. The President of the Convention and the chairman of the union league were among the dissenters, and the latter announced himeelf as a candidate for Governor. Private advices from Fort Laramie state that White Cloud and his band had come into the Fort, and that there were excellent prospects of making treaties with all the hostile tribes. * The Governor of California recently declined to ‘soFward a resoluton of the State Senate urging the United States Senate to impeachment on the ground that it would influence the High Qourt. The State Senate now try to circumvent him by directing it to be addressed to the Hoyse of Representatives. An avalanche occurred in Sierra county, Cal., on the 4th inst., burying seventeen men beneath the snow and destroying several buildings. Five of the men were killed. ‘The Board of Aldermen yesterday sent back to the committee on the Lanrens street extension the re- Port in favor of Laurens street, and directed the committee to report in favor of widening Thompson street. The Commissio: of Charities and Corrections yesterday opened the bids for mason and carpenter work on their proposed new building. They have sent a communication to the Commissioners of Emi- gration in regard to providing relief for the many In- digent emigrants now roaming around the city. An accident occurred on the Missouri Pacific Rail- road near Jefferson City on Friday night, and the engine was upset into the Missouri, killing the en- gineer and fireman, The Maine Legislature adjourned yesterday after @ session of sixty-two days. A heavy storm prevailed at Kansas City, Mo., yes- terday. A steeple and several chimneys were blown down. The city election in Nashville passed off quietiy yesterday. The radical ticket is probably elected. The stock market was strong and excited yester- day. Government securities were firm. Gold closed at 14034. Trade in commercial circles yesterday was light, though some commodities were quite freely dealt in. Prices were generally steady. Cotton was in good demand, mainly from speculators‘ and closed quite steady at 25c. for middling upland. Coffee was dul but steady. On ’Change flour was firm but quiet. Wheat ruled buoyant and firm, under a good demand from millers and shippers, while corn was active and 2c. a 3c. higher. Oats were a shade better. Pork was a trifle more active and rather firmer. For beef the demand was good at full prices. Lard was dull but steady. Freights though quiet ruled more steady. Petroleum was dull and nominal. Whiskey likewise dull and nominal. The live stock markets were quiet at about previous prices, com- mon to prime beef cattle selling at 143¢c. a 183¢c. to 19c., and swine at 9%c. a 1034c. The arrivals yester- day were 383 cattle and 1,600 swine. The Financial Question in Congress and Before the People. While Congress has been tinkering with all sorts of theories and crude schemes for regu- lating the national finances, the people have begun to move in a very significant manner with reference to this subject. A gigantic bondholding and national bank oligarchy, with its ramifications deep in Congress, has been actively at work to increase its own wealth and power and to fasten upon the country a stupendous debt. It has initiated funding schemes and schemes to force specie payments so as to increase the wealth of the bondhold- ers thirty to forty per cent and to increase the burdens of the people to the same extent. All the serious efforts of Congress to legislate on the subject of the national finances thus far have been in the interest of this oligarchy and under its influences, The joint resolution to stop contraction of the currency was forced upon Congress by an irresistible popular senti- ment and the imperative necessities of the Treasury and the country; but there has been no comprehensive measure introduced with any chance of being adopted for lessening the burden of the debt or for its liquidation within a reasonable time. Numerous propositions have been made, and some of them very good, by members of both parties for placing the finances and currency on a proper foundation; but this has been merely guerilla skirmishing. There is no accord, no general view and no plan of action in Congress. The question of the national finances is not a party one, and it is not likely that it can be made so at present. The repub- licans are as much divided as the democrats on it, and each party is afraid to touch it. The consequence is that we shall drift along with- out any settled system or relief till the people rise in their might and demand a plan of finance suited to the condition and institutions of the country. The conduct of our Congress- men thronghout their whole course since the war closed, now nearly three years, has been like that of the Pharisees whom the Saviour denounced, in laying heavy burdens upon the people, grievous to be borne, hut which they themselves would not move with one of their fingers. But the people have begun to move, as we have said, in a very significant manner. They feel the enormous burden of taxation three years after the war closed more than they did at first, and see no prospect of relief—six to seven hundred millions a year drawn from their industry in time of peace, when half that amount should be more than enough, with an overwhelming debt staring them in the face and threatening to be as perpetual and oppres- sive as the national debt of England. They see no promise of relief for the present and no hope in the future. The bondholding and national bank oligarchy, aided by Congress, seems determined to have, Shylock-like, the pound of flesh—the blood and sweat and toil of the American people for all time to come. But will they get it? Atalmost every political convention or great public meeting which has been held in the Western States, of both the republican and democratic parties, the pay- ment of the bulk of the debt in legal tenders has been boldly proclaimed as the proper policy. Both parties are committed to this policy, and there is no doubt that the people of that section everywhere approve of it. It will be the same in the South as soon as the Southern States are restored to their political rights in the Union ; for the interests of the people there will be, like those of the West, opposed to the exacting claims of the bondholding oli- garchy and the perpetuation of an enormous debt. But the Central States are moving in the same direction also, We have noticed lately several indications of this, but the latest and most remarkable indication is in the action of the Pennsylvania Demo- cratic State Convention on Wednesday last. That Convention asserts in its platform that the ‘‘five-twenty bonds and the legal tender notes are component parts of the same finance system, and until the government is able to redeem the legal tenders in coin the holders of those bonds should be required to receive legal tenders in payment.” And, again, ‘that the national debt should be paid as rapidly as is consistent with the terms of the laws upon which the several loans are based.” The fact is, there are but few of the people—of the mass of voters—outside of the bondholders and great capitalists of the North, who do not cordially endorse the sentiment of this Pennsylvania platform and the platform of both parties in the Western States, Nothing is more certain than that the industrious masses of this country will not bear an enormous and continued weight of taxation for the benefit of a moneyed oligarchy. That fearful word, repudiation, has not been uttered yet ; but if the bondholders push their exacting claims for specie payment and do not show a liberality in bearing a portion of the burdens of the nation, it may not be long before we hear repudiation boldly spoken of from one end of the country to the other. Newspaper Bohemians and How They Turn a Penny—Literary Thimble-Rigging as & Fine Art. The burning of Barnum's Museum last week was made the occasion of an unusual outbreak of journalistic, literary and artistic Bohemian- ism. Newspapers were peppered with peculiar paragraphs relative to this or that or the other matter, which had no foundation in fact, and were simply so many puffs to be used here- after as occasion may require. The fat woman, or, to speak more dignifiedly, Miss Anna Swan, was the loser of a larger valuation of diamor-ds than ever pertained to Prince Esterhazy's coat or the red house of the Duke of Brunswick- Lunenburg; Zuleima Agra, the languishing Teutonic Circassian, lost quite as heavily in gems of the first water, and, generally, the pub- lic was sought to be imbued with the impres- sion that the Museum was a sort of fairy palace, in which Circassians and Swans, with their diamonds, and stuffed horses, lions, tigers, monkeys and mermaids with seagreen hair, were accustomed to dwell together in millennial harmony. Gossip set on foot and circulated, hereafter to appear in printed bills along City Hall square, was retailed by Bohemian jour- nalists through their news columns—retailed, perhaps, for a consideration—and generally every avenue of authentic information was bolted and barred against those who might pos- sibly prove unmanageable; for Barnum reasoned very justly that the conflagration would be of no use to him whatsoever unless it could be turned to account for the production of something to be quoted in red letters hereafter. The Bohemians fell in with Barnum’s sug- gestion. They were hungry, had gone break- fastless for days, some of them, and were, con- sequently, quite ready to turn’ a penny—hon- estly if they could, to be sure, but otherwise than honestly if necessary; and, having no conscientious scruples, they were naturally de- lighted to be able to turn the penny needed so easily. They have a grand idea of journalism, these gentlemen, and hold that if news cannot be collected it ought to be manufactured. They are no Gradgrinds and have no regard for Mr. Gradgrind’s affinity for fact ; indeed, fancy suits them quite as well, and, being occasionally re- munerative, they take to it as naturally as a Tombs lawyer takes to the pocket of his client. Not satisfied on this occasion with grotesque atrocities of fancy which are remunerative, resort was had to the publication of rather gro- tesque “‘extras,” in which Bohemian newspaper men vied with Bohemian artists in the produc- tion ofa literary and artistic hodge-podge, which could not even be dignified by the term non- sense—a mass of silly, verbose whimsicalities which bore about the same relation to nonsense that maudlin and drivelling stupidity bears to humor or wit. This tissue of absurdities was, however, but the natural offspring of that which had been printed as news in the columns of the sensation dailies, The fat woman rescued by the frog was scarcely more absurd than the loss of diamonds which she never had, or the rescuing of real camelopards, which were only stuffed ones after all, and the stupid twaddle of the former is scarcely more stupid than the abominable falsehood of the latter. In fact, in the way of honesty the difference was in favor of the “‘extras,” which, though stupid as ‘‘Nick- Nax” ever was in any number, was, never- theless, understood by the public and accepted for what it was worth, while the reports of the sensation dailies were constructively labelled “News,” and put forth as transcripts of actual facts and happenings. That the public was not deceived thereby, therefore, is not due to any intention on the part of the Bohemians not to deceive, but to the fact that their dodges are too well understood to deceive anybody and too transparently perpetrated to pass even for inventive cleverness. The day of sensation journalism in New York has passed by, and sensations are ata discount. Time was when the Bohemians affected—led by one or two brilliant leaders—to control New York journal- ism, and really did control, to the sorrow of their finances, several dailies. In due season, however, these brigadiers of Bohemianism died and (it is supposed) were buried, though in proof of the burial there exists no competent evidence. This broke up the band of those literary vagabonds whose sole principle of ethics was to consider the public as an oyster to be opened for their especial eating; and in due season the time came when the oyster persistently refused to be opened, and the Bohemians, father and son, were in danger of starvation. Too lazy and unreliable for journalistic pur- poses, they had recourse to sensation writing ; and New York now teems with garish illus- trated covers enclosing their lucubrations of prurient verbiage. In due time, also, it was found that for sensation accounts of that which never happened the members of this ragged regiment were excellent additions to the staff of a third rate newspaper. Moreover, they were hungry; their services were inex- pensive if unreliable; and they would if needful supply themselves with pennies by outside operations of rather questionable hon- esty. In other words, they would turn a penny with a puff occasionally, and thus sup- port themselves while providing the paper with some sort of printable and sometimes exceed- ingly original copy. Their employers pro- ceeded upon the principle that inexpensive unreliability was better than expensfve talent, and, it may be added, still proceed upor the same principle, though it has been found to their great grief that the principle is a fallacy in journalism as well as in everything else. The fact is, the success of any newspaper is based upon three things—viz, enterprise in the collection and sifting of news, veracity, in the relation of its minutest details, and in- telligent and unpartisan comment upon public affairs and occurrences of incident and acci- dent. These are the underlying and stable principles of all journalistic success, and must be adhered to by all legitimate journalists, The illegitimacy of Bohemian journalism is, therefore, patent, and hardly needs to be com- mented upon. Some years ago they affected the religious dodge and started a great reli- daily, In due season, however, it was found that godliness, though a very excellent thing, was not a very great gain, and @ veering of the vane to the wind was the consequence. Sensation news took the place of godly accounts of anniversaries, and great was the relief of the Bohimians not to be compelled to carry their eye with the whites outward, after the manner of the over-pious. Having broken loose fron their spasm of godliness, they took to prize figits and executions as naturally as ever, and to ringing in puffs for a consideration with an wwidity that proved that in their godli- ness they had really forgotten nothing. We allude to these facts not because they are not patent, tut because their repetition may be of benefit t the public occasionally, and because abuses of the journalistic office like those which ocurred last week in connection with the Museum fire, ought not to be permitted to pass without exposure and just comment. Newspaper accounts, written for after-quota- tion, by way of turning a penny for a break- fast, ané to appear on printed bills along City Hall square, may be fact or may not; and, not to question veracity, it may be added that Bohemisn newspaper men seem to have a won- derful facility for seeing exactly what is not and failing to see what is. Their eyesight in regard to things actual, though every way en- terprising, is often equally unreliable. Impeachment—The Advantage to Mr. John- son. Before the recent revival of the impeach- ment project Mr. Johnson seemed likely to appear in the history of our Presidents as the most conspicuous failure. " He stood before the world as a man who had reached a great position only to prove himself unequal to its simplest requirements upon knowledge, judg- ment, temper and tact. He was fairly going to the worst place in that political limbo now peopled by Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan, with half the country disposed to believe him incompetent and the other half positively re- garding him as evil minded and treacherous. Any change from such a position in men’s thoughts must be for the better, and it is the first result of the movement of the radicals that they have come to Mr. Johnson’s relief and effected that change. Impeachment keeps him forever from the poor obscurity into which he was likely to fall, and immensely im- proves his record, whatever be the result before the Senate; for if he shall be found guilty nothing can change the impression in regard to his martyrdom—to his having been made the victim to the necessities of a party; while if he be acquitted his Presidential term will close with the eclat of a triumphant testimonial to his career in office, all the more valuable to him for coming from enemies. A Sunday Music in the Metropolis., Sunday is among Christians, and particu- larly in this country, a day set aside for the worship of God and for religious exercises, and on this day the most ardent business man disengages his mind from the cares and absorb- ing study of his profession or calling. Religion claims this day as her own, and few in this city will contradict her right. The question, then, is, how should Sunday be spent? First of all, every respectable member of society is supposed to belong to some church, and will go there to thank the great Creator for blessings received and to ask Him for fresh favors. This is an indisputable fact and may be received as such, The next question is, what is the best and most grateful means at the disposal of every one in this city to accom- plish this end? A few years ago we had nothing in New York to attract us from home on Sundays but a long-winded sermon, which was much better when read than heard. Now we have music. In our principal churches we hear the best compositions of European and American composers rendered by the proper materials, both in voices and instru- ments. In Catholic churches we fave the highest form of sacred music— the masses of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn and Cherubini. In Episcopalian churches we have these works in an English form, set off with the grandest ideas of American and English com- posers. The churches of other denominations, giving assent to the demands of the people in regard to church music, adopt the same music, although in a different form. The old Puri- tanic notions that music was profane and unsuited to the worship of God have nearly all died out, and now the choir is a necessary department of every church. In some of our leading churches the best voices in America may be heard, and the aim of each pastor or church committee is to secure a good organist. Still, much remains to be done. The churches are asa general rule well endowed and well supported, and as it is now evident that every congregation demands good music the pastors should not exercise undue parsimony in this respect. They are content with engaging one first class artist and surrounding him or her with very poor ones. Each church should have as good a choir as a concert manager will secure for his troupe. Music is the very highest external form of worship that the creature can pay to the Creator, and it is an insult to religion to allow any one in the choir who is not a true artist. Sunday concerts have been given at Stein- way Hall for a long time, and they are now regarded as a fixed institution. Harrison commenced them about two years ago at Irving Hall and brought them up toa high standard, but he has gone on the operatic stage and the manager of the hall now conducts them. Every Sunday night there may be found at these concerts a great many people whom nothing on the secular stage could tempt from their homes, and who go to these concerts as naturally as they go to church, These con- certs supply music of a first clase order to their patrons and give native talent a chance of being heard in public. Why do not the Pastors of our leading churches—nay, of avery church—endeavor to get up Sunday evening concerts of this kind? There is an unlimited supply of musical talent lying dor- mant in this city and it might be profitably tsed in churches as well as in Steinway Hall for the edification of the public and for the progress of music. It is no use for any deputed or authorized body of churchmen to attempt fo ignore music in the service of religion; for music is one of the highest expressions of our dependence on or praise to the Author of our being. Let all the churches, then, resound with the praises of the Most High as the celestial halls vibrate with the voices and heaven-strung lyres of the millions of archangels. We might cite hun- dreds of examples to prove what a resistless agent music is when brought into the service of God, but our natural instinets will convince everybody of the fact. “ Elective AMnity in Religion—Its Workings as 2 Cohesive Principle of Religious Societies, We publish in another column to-day an in- teresting survey and criticism, moral and sta- tistical, of the present state and tendencies of religious denominations in the United States, which is instructive not only as exhibiting the progress of religious thought and its tenden- cies in this country, but as illustrating the workings of that principle in the formation of religious societies which may be best termed elective affinity. The religions history of America has. demonstrated that the utmost freedom in religious thought is the correlative of the utmost culture of religious feeling among the people, and that the curdling. to- gether into congregations is most homogeneous and harmonious where the greatest freedom of affinity is exercised. The government of the United States may be, as foreign prelates are fond of terming it, a “‘government without a God” and somewhat less than Pagan ; but it is quite certain that, as a people, Americans have not only a greater breadth of religious culture than Europeans, but a greater depth as well. The government may be a “government with- out a God” (pretty godlessly administered), but the people are certainly deeper and more active in their religious emotions and convic- tions than any other people on the globe, with the possible exception of the Jewish race, his- torically remarkable for depth and supernatural- ism of religious life. One secret of this pervading intensity of religious culture on the part of the American people is found in the adaptation of the elec- tive affinity system to the wants of a free peo- ple. The man elects himself by natural affini- ties of thought and feeling a Methodist, or a Bap- tist, or an Episcopalian, or a Presbyterian, or an Unitarian; and thus the curdling of sooiety into denominations is natural and permanent, and not forced and unhomogeneous. The ten- dencies and religious life of these several de- nominations are of sufficient breadth to cover all shades of thought and feeling, and with one or two exceptions of sufficient liberality and scope to fuse all in one common sympathy of religious feeling; and the religionist being free to elect himself a member or adherent of whichsoever he will, more perfect har- mony among congregations is produced than can possibly inhere to the English or European system. In this respect, therefore—viz., in the practical utility of religious freedom—America has taught the Old World’ a Yesson which, though it may be slowly learned, will be learned and acted upon finally: it is that elective affinity is an in- herent necessity of the highest and most general culture of religious thought, and that the idea of a legal, national, State religion is inconsistent with breadth of religious culture— arelic of medieval Gothicism, for which the freer, bolder and more logical thought of the present century has no affinity. The sooner this lesson is learned the better will it be for the progress of religious culture in the Old World; and that England will soon practically adopt it there can be no doubt. Anything short of it, in fact, is even now inconsistent with the present political freedom of England ; and this inconsistency will be more and more sensibly felt as popular freedom progresses. State religion is eminently at variance with democracy and freedom of feeling, and must in the course of time yield to the inevitable conquest of popular progress. In the United States, at the present survey, the workings of the various denominational tendencies are very curious and instructive. Our Catholic population is mostly made up of foreigners; nor have Catholic ideas been pro- pagated with any success among native Ameri- cans. The influence, in fact, has been in an opposite direction; and the effect of native American freedom of thought has to a consid- erable degree compelled an abating of exclu- sively saving pretensions on the part of the Catholic clergy. Freedom of thought has, in fact, permeated the Catholic body of creed and observances and ritualism; and the day is probably not far distant when evangelical Catholics will be developed in large numbers, as even now has been developed a sort of evan- gelical (low) phase of Episcopacy. At present there seems to be a sort of natural affinity be- tween Episcopacy and aristocracy of feeling, which is owing, no doubt, partially to the digni- fied propriety of the Episcopal ritual and par- tially to the naturally dignified exclusiveness which forms an element of the Episcopal cul- ture. The greater part of the logical thinkers of the country, on the other hand, have thus far manifested a sort of affinity for the greater essential logicality of the Presbyterians—the difference between the Presbyterians and Epis- copalians being that, while the latter are his- torically logical, the former base their system logically upon the religious instincts and neglect the consideration of historical logic of development. This is a thoughtful, though an unhistorical position, and hence its ten- dency to attract those minds whose breadth and logicalness of intellectual culture are not to be fettered or frightened by historical prece- dents. There is, in fact, a logical essentiality about Presbyterianism for which the cultured American mind has @ natural affinity; and this consideration accounts for its success among the professional men in our large cities. Legal and scientific minds take to it naturally, as the statistics of its membership conclusively de- monstrate. Its tendency may, therefore, be set down as scientific and logical rather than as distinctly rationalistig. Rationalism, indeed, is the distinctive field of the Unitarians and Uni- vorsalists, in whose culture is reproduced with tolerable faithfulness the system of the German transcendentalists and critics of the last cen- tury, mingled with the later theories of Renan, Strauss and others; nor has distinctive ration- alism made any great progress in America be- yond tainting to some degree the Episcopal and Lutheran clergy. In the latter denomination, in fact, and oven among its clergy, three tendencies have manifested themselves—viz., a ritualistic tendency, a tendency to extreme and Methodistic pietism, and a third and all-leaven- ing tendency to rationalistic infidelity ; and the same remark is more limitedly true of the Episcopalians, laity and clergy as well. The day is not far distant, therefore, when, upon the natural principle of elective affinity, o segregation and seoundling of these two latter sects may be anticipated. In distinction from all other denominations the Methodists boast, and with some feason, of the adaptation of their system to the demo- cratic masses of humanity, though the adapta- tion is less referrible to their religious system than to their tendency to exalt feeling above reason. There is an imaginative element in religious enthusiasm which can never be resisted by the popular mind, and which appeals directly to the profoundest instincts of human nature, and forthe Methodistic freedom of manifestation and demonstrativeness in this respect the toiling masses of humanity have everywhere a natural affinity. The success of Methodism, therefore, is instructive as proving one fact—viz., that religious feeling cannot be vitiated by any method of culture of its natural tendency to faith in the supernatural, and that the supernatural element of the Bible is that which takes deepest root in the instincts of men. There is something essentially narrow- ing, therefore, in the matter of fact and scien- tific culture of the age—narrowing, we say, im respect to the broad heart instincts of humanity, which should be cultured and nurtured together in the developments of the ideal historical man. Legal acuteneas, logic, scientific culture and reason are only parts of the ideal man, and scarcely constitute the nobler part, being simply without moral culture and religious supernaturalism, but the visible body of which the latter constitute the soul; and the Methodists, in rooting their system too exclusively in the latter to the neglect of the former, have upreared a religious fabric which, though grand and bold, is somewhat wanting in logical timbers and framework. Their religious struc- ture, to speak artistically, lacks logical ana- tomy—is too essentially grounded in feeling to the exclusion of intellect and reason—a vague, vast pagoda of supernaturalism, incomplete though grand. The Baptists also proceed upon the same essential principles, though a certain aggressive narrowness relative to a single article of belief impairs their breadth of feeling and renders them less popular than their coworkers. + Upon the oft mooted question of religious, or, rather, denominational unity—for religious unity is one thing and denominational another— a word may be offered in this connection. Religious unity is an element of human nature ; for in the one instinct of faith human nature is the same, cultured or uncultured, and will forever remain what it is. The religious unity of human nature is, therefore, an obvious fact. As respects denominational unity, on the other hand, it is neither natural nor desir- able, being inconsistent with those principles of elective affinity upon which society curdles into bodies essentially one in essence but of diverse constitutions. The idea of denomina- tional unity, therefore, though seemingly broad and grand in its comprehensiveness, is essen- tially narrow, unnatural and belittling, because essentially at variance with elective freedom. Like several of Sir William Blackstone's legal aphorisms, it is apparently profound and really stupid. An Italian Operative Troupe in Broadway. The children of the sunny clime of Italy have afforded very great pleasure to the citizens of New York at different times since our first attempt to naturalize the Italian opera, but we question if any band of foreign artists ever executed a more noble work, or one more calculated to really delight and at the same time prove useful to the ladies and the public generally, than did a force of Italians, numbering from forty to fifty men, who appeared on Broadway about one o'clock Saturday morning and went to work with crowbar, pickaxe, spade and shovel in an endeavor to clear that great thoroughfare of the mounds of frozen mud and snow which have rendered it almost impassable for many weeks. The sight was novel and really curious. The men plied their vocation vigorously and with effect, under direction of an Italian ganger, who delivered his orders in tones dulcet indeed, yet not to be misunderstood, and wielded a good stout staff with much more vigor and in more appropriate time than have many of the marshals of the orchestral baton who bewildered the people in the Catacombs on Fourteenth street. Working with a will until about six o'clock in the forenoon the Italians made good progress in cleaning the street, so that Broadway looked much more attractive to the belles who came out in the afternoon to do a little shopping and enjoy the first gleam of the spring weather with which we have been favored. Such evi- dence of industrial progress affords good hope of Italy immediately falling into her proper place in the rank of nations, We trust the Italians will persevere in their work until Broadway is perfectly clean from the Battery to Blooming- dale, and that the Street Commissioner will see to it that they are paid liberally and with regu- larity. When the work is accomplished let them select a deputation—say a dozen of men ~ from their number and send them on a tour through the Italian cities—making a longer, stay in Rome and Naples—each having his crowbar sloped over his shoulder in- stead of a musket, his pickaxe slung in his belt instead of a bayonet, and his pocket full of greenbacks, Let them address themselves to the legions of their non- producing brethren and advise them to ‘come along” and do likewise, and we venture to assert that the great financial difficulty and commercial embarrassments of Victor Emanuel will be very speedily relieved in a manner which will afford delight both to the King him- self and to General Garibaldi—the emigration of a human deadweight, which must be fed, but cannot be put to work. The new comers may not be exactly suited to appear in ‘Robert le Diable” or other favorite operas, but if they acquire the habit of cleansing our streets and alleyways thoroughly, and if Superintendent Kennedy can teach them to do without the stiletto, they will abate many an exclamation uttered in invocation of le djable by our citizen travellers, fatigued, impeded, soiled and fre- quently broken-limbed as they are, owing to the present condition of the highways. The children of the Medici having come out in force to cleanse the streets suggests natu- rally the question, what has become of the other grand branch of the Latin race, the sons of Brian Boroihme? This vast nationality ap- pears to have concentrated all its energy in some difficulty with united Germany on Ward's Island, some dinner “‘rectifica- tion” or soup platter “boundary” subject, or perhaps a question as to the relative merits of whiskey and lager bier in producing intoxica- tion. For these gentlemen—Celt and Teuton— We recommend that they be at once discharged