The New York Herald Newspaper, March 15, 1868, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, Volume XXXIII.... RELIGIOUS SERVICES TO-DAY. BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH.—Witttam EB. Looks. Oxpinavion. Evening. BLOOMINGDALE BAPTIST CHURCH, Forty-second street.—REV. W. POPE YEAMAN, Morning and evening. BETHANY MISSION, Eighty fourth street and Broad- way.—Rzv. Dk. Winters. Morning and afternoon, CENTRAL METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.—Rev. Gxo. 8. Hans, D. D, Evening. CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION.—Rev. Argorr Brown. Morning aud afternoon. CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Greenpoint.—MartYw SUMMER- BELL, ON “THE BLESSEDNEGS OF ALUSE.” Evening. CHURCH OF THE STRANGERS.—Rey. Da. DEEMs. jorning and evening. CANAL STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.—Rev. Davin MiTOURLI, ON “Cumist’s INJUNCTIONS TO SE- ‘ongoy.” Evening. CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION.—Rrv, Dr. FLaga. ‘Morning and afternoon, CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.—Tur Ament- Can CHURCH UNION. Evening. CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH.—Rrv. W. H. Corn. BERT, B. A. Evening. CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR.—Rev. J. M. PULLMAN. Morning and afternoon. CHAPEL OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, Rutger's College.— Morning—Rev. Tuowas K. Contan. Afteruoon—Rzv. BR. 8, HowLanv. CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION Fourteent! Bay. Di. MUWLENUERG. Evening, ot ourteent street, —— y DODWORTH HALL.—Srinitvauists. Morning and evening. Mg. ON. FRANK MASONIC HALL.—Srinituacists, MITE, Moraing and evening. NEW JERUSALEM HOUSE OF WORSHIP.—Rev. CHAUNCEY Gites. Morning . 8ST. ANDREW'S CHU! F —Rkv. J. O'HARA, ON “InR- LAND AND St. PaTRIC. ” Evening. 8T. ANN’S FREE CHURCH.—Morning, afternoon and evening. ST. THOMAS’ CHURCH.—Rev. J. B. C. BEAUBIEN. Morning and evening. ST. ANN'S CHURCH.—“Sranat Matra,” by the Choir. RTH STREET M. E. CHURCH.—Morning, ening. UPPER CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION.—Morang tand evening. UNIVERSITY.—BisHor SNow, oN “Tux TRUMP God Now BouNDING.” Afternodn. email IPLE SHEET. palo New York, Sunday, March 15, 1868. THE NUWs. EUROPE. By special telegram from Naples forwarded through the Atlantic cable we learn that Admiral Farragut ‘Was present at a grand review of Italian troops yes- terday and was loudly cheered by crowds of citizens, The news report by the cable is dated yesterday evening, March 14, The Grand Vizier of Turkey states officially that the war in Crete is atan end. The reverend Prince Lucien Bonaparte has been created a Cardinal. Ve- suvius is in still more flerce eruption. Some more Fenians have been discharged from custody in Ire- land. . Consols, 93 a 9335; five-twenties, 72 in London and 753¢ in Frankfort. Cotton buoyant and firmer, with middling uplands at 10544. Breadstuifs quiet and easier. Provisions and produce quiet and steady, + CONGRESS, The Senate was not in session yesterday. In the House the day was devoted entirely to gen- eral debate. The national finances, the powers of the government in making treatics, the impeachment and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court were the subjects discussed. On the latter subject quite a lively debate ensued, Mr. Boyer for the democrats, claiming that an important measure, limiting tn substance the jurisdiction of the court in the McCardle case, had been passed without an objec- tion on his side of the House because Mr. Schenck, in offering it us an amend- ment to another bill, had asked the House that it be passed as a matter of courtesy, without an explanation, alleging that there could be no possi- ble objection to it, On this representation, the democrats had permitted the amendment to pass without objection, which would certainly have been made if they had not been misled by the remarks of Mr. Schenck. In reply to this assertion, Mr. Schenck and his friends made an animated defence, and the House adjourned. MISCELLANEOUS. Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., was formally admon- ished for a violation of one of the canons of the Epis- copal Church by the Right Rev. Bishop Potter, at the Church of the Transfiguration, on Twenty-ninth street, yesterday. The dense crowd assembled acted im such an undignified manner that the presence of policemen was considered necessary to maintain order. Mr. Tyng entered on the arm of his father and received the admonition. On its con- clusion his father entered a written protest against the proceedings, and the crowd gathered around Mr. Tyng, Jr., some urging him to address them from the altar and others hissing loudly, The police Onally interfered and he witndrew. Major General Thomas, commanding in Tennessee, has telegraphed Gencral Grant that the ex-rebels of that State were organizing for the purpose of resisting the execution of State law. General Grant tele- graphed a reply directing General Thomas to take such measures as he may think proper, and call for all the troops be may want. The steamer Wisconsin, Captain Palmer, from Ha- ‘vana March 7, via Nassau 9th, arrived at this port last night. Her news is unimportant and the main points have been anticipated by the IisRALD’s special Cuba cable telegrams. In the United States Circuit Court yesterday the case of Hatch va. The Chica Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, Which was removed some time since from the State to the United States courts, ‘was argued on a motion to remit it back to the State courts. Decision reserved, The case of The People of the State of New York vs. Alexander 8. Diven, one of the directors of the Erie Ratilway Company, was argued before Judge Barnard yesterday. Diven was charged with contempt of court and violation of an injunction granted by Judge Barnard at the suit of Richard Schell, in having signed the certificates of $10,000,000 of new Erie stock issued on Monday last under cover of the injunction granted by Judge Gilbert on the complaint of William Belden. Judge Barnard dente! having, or ever having had, any in- terest in Erie or any other stock. George A, Osgood vas appointed receiver of the proceeds of the alleged tieval new issue of stock, to furnish security in . 1,000,000, Mr. Daniel Drew and the Executive Committee of the Erie Railroad still remain at Tay- NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 1868—-TRIPLE SHEET. ‘The Wonderful State Trials of Modern Times. State triale are among the great events of history. For the most part they have been intensely interesting in their details and tragic in their results. In the days of Greece and Rome there were State trials of some note, Aristides, the most honest man in Athens, was condemned to banishment by the vote of a hot-headed jury composed of the Athenian people, who had no more faith in public integrity than the New York Common Council; but he was found guilty of too much honesty by the exercise of an oyster-shell franchise—the curious fashion of those days, but just about as sensible as the system now in vogue in the South. Rome had its State trials in the cases of Verres and of Cataline, when the first forensic talent of the forum was employed. In later days we have had State trials, invested with all the tragic incidents that one would suppose should belong to causes of this kind, where death is sure to follow conviction. For example, there is she trial of Mary Stuart at the instance of Queen Elizabeth; and upon what indictment? That she possessed beauty and charms which Heaven had denied to the daughter, of Henry the Eighth, and that she had a prospective title to the throne of Eng- land. Mary was condemned upon no evidence which would hold her to bail before Judge Connolly or Judge Dowling ;-but she was executed nevertheless, and the last scenes of this cuuse céldbre were closed in a tragedy that many deprecate to this day and few are found to justify. Another prominent State trial followed many years after, the criminal in this case being the grand- son of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, Charles the First. This trial also had a tragic ending on the scaffold at Whitehall. Still later, in‘1789, when the storm of revolution swept over France, there were some memor- able State trials, and the crowned heads of the kingdom, (weak Louis Capet, and the beau- tiful Austrian Marie Antoinette), were brought to the guillotine—a tragedy that changed in a measure the future destinies of France and of Europe. But we are going to put all these State trials into the shade. Thad Stevens and Bingham and Logan and Ben Butler are going to do it. Aristides in his exile; Verres in his discomfiture; Cataline.in his agony, writhing under the scorching denunciation of Cicero; poor Mary Stuart in her weary imprisonment and miserable death ; Charles the Martyr confront- ing his judges in Westminster Hall; Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette surrendering the luxuries of Versailles to meet the vengeance of Robespierre, Marat and Danton—all these are as nothing to what we are now presenting to the world in the shape of our grand cause célibre. It is true that our State trial is not clothed in the robes of tragedy, but how beautiful it appears in its true character as a broad farce, as a piece of folly and exquisite ridicule! There is really nothing like it in history. We have, in fact, two State trials on hand. Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, is on trial now in Washington ; Jefferson Davis, late President of the Confederate States, is to be put on trialonthe 14th of April in Rich- mond, and no doubt Sefior Sans Culotte, the manager of the radical organ in this city, and a goodly host of rabid radicals will back him up in his travail, just as they bailed him out when the doors of Fortress Monroe were opened to him. Andrew Johnson, the President of the United States, is to be tried for changing a member of his Cabinet, or in reality for the crime of holding different opinions from the party that elected him and not furthering their plans of corruption and plunder, and also for signing certain docu- ments called vetoes. If we cannot reach the acme of high tragedy in our State trials, like those which we have cited in other countries, it is evident that we can touch the skirts of the broadest farce and find it enacted to perfection in Washington and Richmond. But this whole business only shows to what a height of folly the government has come. Hereis the ex- President of the confederacy, who left his seat inthe United States Senate to inaugurate a bloody war in which half a million of lives were sacrificed, bailed out by such leading radicals as Horace Greeley and Gerrit Smith, and now about to stand a mock trial—if, indeed, even the mockery is gone through with—while, on the other hand, Andrew Johnson, who fought from first to last in behalf of the re- public and “loyalty,” stands charged with the most outrageous crimes (in a radical point of view) known to human nature. Davis is charged with sinning against the country, but the President of the United States is charged with sinning against the party; and this, in the eyes of the radicals, is the worse crime. Our people are fond of fun as a general thing in the pursuit of amusement. They delight in burlesques and pantomimes, and fairly gloat over circus performances, the jokes of the clowns and negro minstrel conundrums and jolly farces. All these tastes are amply provided for by the two great State trials now on the tapis, the richest farcesof theday. Here is the programme:—The trial of President Johnson at Washington, and the trial of ex- President Davis at Richmond. These enter- tainments ure surely ‘‘ cheap at any price.” Prooress or SovTugRN ReconsTRvCTION.— The Virginia and Mississippi Reconstruction Conventions on Friday last were engaged on the franchise—making {it good and strong for the protection of the blacks in its exercise hereafter. In the South Carolina Convention an ordinance was passed invalidating all acts of the State Legislature since 1860, and pledg- to be perfectly acceptable to Congress, and then we shall see something pf the new South- ern dispensation. The Future of the United States. The internal troubles which have afflicted this country, particularly since the commence- ment of our great civil war, and which are not yet ended, have not unnaturally led some persons to doubt the stability and permanency of our institutions. Such views are not uncom- mon in monarchical Europe, The outbreak of the civil war was to be our ruin, When the civil war had been suppressed and the North stood forth triumphant the false prophets were silenced. The troubles which have since supervened in connection with reconstruction have revived the cry, and from many quarters the echo reaches us, ‘‘The Great Republic of the West is to share the fate of all the republics which have gone before it.” This cry, as we have said, is not unnatural, and we have our- selves to thank if the events which are daily transpiring lend it ample justification. Such sentiments, however, are the result of an en- tire misapprehension of the power which is vested in the American people, and of the ready and effective method by which that power can be exercised. Our institutions are safe because the people are masters of the ballot box and because they know how to use it, Of all certain things nothing is more certain than that in spite of blundering politicians the nation will emerge from all these difficulties mightier and more powerful than ever. These Washington squabbles are certainly a tem- porary inconvenience; but while they can do us no permanent injury they are certain to result in one lasting blessing. The people, if they have learned nothing else, will at least have learned to place a higher value on the powers secured to them by the constitution, and to be more judicious henceforward in the selection of their representatives. The trouble will soon be ended; the States of the South will resume their ancient privileges; industry in all parts of the Union will revert to its wonted channels; the soil of the South, long neglected, will respond to the labors of the husbandman and the kindly earth will yield her increase more plentifully than ever; trade will be revived in every department and the blessings of prosperity will be showered over the land. Then will begin the second great era of American history. It is impossible for the thoughful mind to dwell on that future without being irresistibly driven to the conclusion that it is tomark a new era, notin the United States alone, but, through the influence of the United States, a new era in the history of the world. It is clear as noonday to any one who will take pains to reflect, that with increasing prosperity we shall gradually and without force widen the area of our dominion. To be a Roman citizen was once deemed the highest privilege which a man could enioy. If wecan at all read the signs’ of the times the day is not far distant when to be an American citizen will be an object of ambition or of envy wherever in any part of the world humanity finds a resting place. Then we shall neither have rival dominions on the one border let Speaker Colfax take the chair, with the understanding that Mr. Wade will be chosen as the regular candidate for the Vice Presidency on the Grant ticket. A nice arrangement, but not calculated to give much strength to General Grant. . The Anonymous in Newspapers. The anonymous character of British journal- ism has long been one of its most essential and striking peculiarities. There are not one hun- dre d men in England, outside of the little cote- rie of the newspaper world itself, who can give you the name of the conductor of any one of the leading London journals, while a veil of even more impenetrable obscurity hangs over the individuality of the writers for these papers, | The Englishman who accepts the deliverances of the London Times, the Advertiser, the Stan- dard, the Telegraph or the Star as the utter- ances of an oracle gifted with infallible wisdom, has no means furnished him for ascertaining the paternity of the arguments, appeals or demonstrations which are addressed to his pas- sions, his prejudices or his reason. What he reads may have been written by a Prime Minis- ter, a member of Parliament, a professional hack writer, an obseure barrister or a disap- pointed man of letters, The reader knows nothing about it, and cares nothing. It is the newspaper that speaks to him with its voice of impersonal authority, and if he be a reader of the ordinary class and the newspaper in ques- tion be his accustomed one he accepts its deci- sions as final. An effort has recently been made in Eng- land to change all this—to lift the veil that covers the face of the prophet and to permit his worshippers to behold him, as well as to hear his voice. It is suggested that the sub- stitution of signed for anonymous leading articles in the newspapers would improve the education of the public mind as effected by the press. This ‘‘reform,” if it may be called one, has already been’ attempted in the magazines of England, as well as in those of the United States, with results beneficial at least to the magazines. This can be no precedent, how- ever, for the newspapers. Magazines are read chiefly for amusement, and people are attracted to them by an array of distinguished names. But men read newspaper leaders for help in shaping their course #n the every-day events of actual life. They have convictions on most practical subjects, but these convictions are often crude and undeveloped, and they look to their newspaper with the expectation of find- ing them there elaborated and worked out for them. The majority of men seek a newspaper whose sympathies’ seem most to accord with their own, and its influence over them consists not so much in teaching them any new truths asin developing for them their own previous convictions, There are men to whom their newspaper has become an every-day Bible ; and this relation is sustained, in most instances, in exact proportion to the extent to which it has been enabled to present to them a certain unity and immutability—attributes which are not easily preserved save by the covering of anonymity and impersonality. When it is affirmed that all this would be changed for the nor rival republics on the other; for from the Gulf to the Northern Sea and from the Atlantic tothe Pacific we shall be one united people. As a nation we shall not only be the greatest on the face of the earth by extent of territory, by population and by actual wealth, but we shall occupy the central and most favored por- tion of the globe. The star of empire, having moved westward for many centuries, shall at. last halt and shed its benignant rays over this great republic. Through our Western ports the enterprise and skill of our people will rush to develop the resources of Japan, China and India, and by the same channels the wealth of Asia will return to be poured into our lap. In like manner through our Eastern ports we shall deal with the industry and resources of Europe, aad the nations one and all on the other side of the Atlantic will find trade with the East facilitated by our intervention and aid. The Atlantic and the Pacific seas will, through the agency of steam and electricity, become grand American lakes. This state of things implies the tremendous growth and prosperity of two American cities. New York will wax mightier and mightier and mightier. Men now living may see its population quad- rupled, and all that New York will be on the Atlantic coast San Francisco will be on the Pacific. On Manhattan Island, on Long Island, on the Jersey coast, real estate will, as a natural consequence, attain a value unpre- cedented in the history of the world. We have unquestionably bright and prosperous times before us. Nor is it possible to contemplate this mag- nificent future without considering its effect on the civilization and Christianization of man- kind. It was the Roman road which, by facilitating intercourse between people and people, made the progress of the Gospel com- paratively easy and its victories secure. But the Roman highway was a feeble aid when compared with steam or electricity. Much, too, was due at that time to the general diffusion of a knowledge of the Greek tongue ; but potent as was that agent, it is not to be mentioned in comparison with the more universally diffused language of Shakspeare and of Milton. The Asiatic Continent, intersected by networks of railway and covered by networks of electric wire, will have no choice, but succumb to the superior strength of Western civilization, and Western civilization is an embodiment of Christian ideas. Is it too much to expect, to use the language of that good old book, that “nations shall be born in a day?” Let us hope that when that golden future shall have ing the faith and credit of the State in behalf of co-operations, In Georgia, the Convention having framed a constitution, the democrats lor's Hotel, Jersey City, where business will be trans- acted till the office be established at the Long Dock, Jersey City. Business in commercial circles yesterday was very quiet, though there was a fair degree of animation in some of the markets, Cotton was in fair demand, chiefly speculative, and closed firm at 26c. for middling uplands. Groceries were generally active, but at prices favoring the pur- chaser, On ‘Change flour was sparingly dealt in, and heavy. Wheat was very quiet and 2c. a 3c. lower, while corn and oats were a trifle better, with a moderate demand. Pork was more sought after, but prices were a trie lower. Beef ‘was in active demand at full prices, while lard was dull and scarcely so firm. Whiskey was dull and entirely nominal. Petroleum was quiet, but steady and firm. Naval stores were dull, unsettled and lower. The swine market was firmer, inferior to prime seliing at 84c,a10\c, Arrivals, 863 head, were organizing for practical work in the com- ing elections, involving the ratification, the choice of members of Congress, a Governor, State ticket and Legislature. In Louisiana and in Arkansas similar preparations are in progress. In Florida General Meade has had the question ofthe election on the constitution— that is, the time—submitted to him for his de- cision, while in Texas the Convention is not yet under headway. Meantime, Alabama, on the merits of her late election on the constitu- tion—an election which did not come up to the requirements of the law—is asking to be re- stored to Congress, and doubtless will be so restored. By the first of May, we presume, all this reconstruction work will be finished, and will all be sufficiently radical in its resulta arrived and the nations have been brought nearer each other—nearer in point of fact, nearer in interest, nearer in idea—Christian civilization shall be a wortbier and nobler embodiment of Christian truth than the world has witnessed for many centuries, In any case our future is bright with promise, and our mission great, though weighty with responsi- bility. “Otv Bex Wapr's” Postrion.—The latest explanation of ‘Old Ben Wade's” position is this:—That he will sit and act as a member of the Court of Impeachment to the close of the trial; that if a judgment can be carried against Andrew Johnson on the final vote without his assistance Mr. Wade will not vote at all, but that if his vote is necessary and will convict the accused this essential vote will be given ; and that then Mr. Wade will decline the office of President of the United States pro tem. aud better by the adoption of the French system of affixing to each newspaper leader the name of its real or pretended author, an assertion is made that should not be too hastily believed. In London, something more than a dozen years ago, a number of the most eminent and skilful writers of that capital resolved to estab- lish a daily newspaper that should rival, if it did not excel, any of the London journals then in existence. Charles Dickens was one of the projectors of this scheme; with him were asso- ciated men only second to him in genius. The moment appeared auspicious for the enterprise ; the public was prepared to welcome the new journal with cordiality ; the unwonted publicity given to the names of the writers upon it and their very high reputation as writers seemed to give assurance of its success. But seldom in the history of newspaper failures —that dismal record of blasted hopes and squandered for- tunes—is there to be found the record ofa more absurd and complete fiasco than was made of this enterprise that promised so fairly. It languished for a while, daily losing money for its proprietors and unable to win for itself any place of honor among its competi- tors. The paper was finally sold to a practical man; all its famous. literary contributors re- tired from it; it began a new career upon the anonymous system, and people read it without knowing who wrote it. It now stands among the leading journals of London, having won ite place by its own merits, and not by the adven- titious aid of distinguished names. It was common sense, and not genius, that finally made it a success. In our own country the impersonal and anonymous in journalism has of late years grown into favor with the providers and the consumers of newspapers. Our confrires ot the rural districts still parade at the head of their columns the name of an “editor,” to whom is awarded the credit or upon whom rests the blame for all the leading articles he prints. But even with them this parade of in- dividuality is more often a pretence than a reality. Their leaders are more often the pro- duction of some lawyer who has a plentiful lack of clients, or of the village politician or preacher, than of the hard worked and poorly paid gentleman whose most eloquent appeals are generally addressed to delin- quent subscribers and whose controversial powers are absorbed by his quarrel with his rival of the Hatanswit Gazette. How- ever, the conditions of publishing a newspaper in a village render it impossible that it should be ostensibly conducted on the anonymous prineiple. In small towns, where everybody knows every one else and is conversant with his neighbor's business, the ‘‘ editor” is as well known as the parson or the schoolmaster. But here in the metropolis the press is impersonal and anonymous, or is rapidly becoming so, There are abundant reasons for the belief that the influence of a newspaper, except under exceptional circumstances, .will be found to increase in proportion to the extent in which it ceases to pretend to express the opinions of any one man, however eminent he may be, and addresses itself to its readers with a voice which depends for its acceptance upon what it says rather than upon the name of him who says it. It is said that the practice of signing news- paper leaders with the names of their authors would secure a higher style of literary per- formance in journalism, But all the experi- ments that have been made in this direction lead to the directly opposite conclusion. The enterprising proprietor of the New York Ledger has from time to time induced many of the most gifted literary men of the country to enrich his columns with productions written above their own signa- tures. This has answered the expectations of Mr. Bonner so far as it was useful as an ad- vertisement for his journal; but were there ever, before or since, newspaper articles so wonderfully and hopelessly dreary, flat, stale and unprofitable as were the disquisitions that have appeared in the Ledger above the signa- tures of men who are looked upon as standing among the savans of the land? Moreover, there is such a thing as being too fine. There is nothing gained by planing and varnishing the under side of a barn floor. If the practice of signature should attract to the newspaper press the great minds of the country—the stu- pendous intellects, for instance, of our legis- lators or the polished genius of our divines—is it not possible that newspapers might come to be better written than there was any need for and made too good for daily food? This, per- haps, was what was the matter with the ar- ticles written for the Ledger by the presidents of all the colleges in the land. On the other hand, the practice of publicity might be found to have the very contrary effect and to drive the best writers out of the newspaper field. Many men who have a reputation gained by work more solid and enduring than that required for the production of news- paper leaders cannot do themselves jus- tice under the conditions of rapidity indispen- sable in journalistic labor, They are willing, perhaps, to write for newspapers under the shield of anonymity, but they would be reluc- tant to peril their reputation by avowing them- selves to bethe authors of productions so crude and unpolished as the leaders of a daily journal must often of necessity be. Either they would desert tho field altogether or they would fall into the practice of lending their signatures to other obscure and unknown writers, who would do the work for which the first received the credit, if not the pay. This is the case in France, where the public is constantly misled in a double manner—first, by paying attention to men rather than to reasons, and, secondly, by accepting as the utterances of men whom they know the deliverances of men whom they do not know. The English courts have recently decided that while newspaper writers, as private indi- viduals, have no more right to defiounce a pub- lic man or expose a public wrong or danger than any one else, still, in their capacity of critics, acting in behalf of the public, they should be protected in a greater latitude of remark. Last winter the Pall Mall Gazette editorially denounced a certain American physician, then in London, as a quack, and the injured doctor brought suit against the paper for the libel. Had the writer of the article complained ofmade the remarks which formed the basis of the action in conversation, or had published his denunciation of the doctor as his own private opinion over his own signature, he would have been liable to be compelled to pay for his indiscreet candor; but the judge before whom the case was tried decided that the pub- lic interest demanded that writers for the press, in their capacity of critics on behalf of the public, should be shielded in the expres- sion of their opinions and held harmless, if these opinions are honestly entertained and expressed without malice, notwithstanding they might turn outto be erroneous. The Fashions. As the balmy skies of spring and the jolly face of the god of day look down on our fair city and melt: the snow and mud heaps that have so long encumbered our principal thoroughfares, as well as our back alleys, the ladies begin to pay attention to the most be- coming and attractive novelties that Mistress Fashion has devised for the season. The spring opening day is fast approaching and the modistes are in session, pondering over the latest Paris extravagances, and selecting and adapting for their patronesses the most ap- propriate and stylish toilets that the spring demands. There will be, however, little in the way of novelty in the spring fashions. Bonnets will be, if possible, smaller than ever, and milliners lament in vain over the decline of their business. The bonnets at present in vogue are such that almost any lady can make them for her own wear, and, of course, this injures the millinery business to a considerable degree. Yet, sooner or later, there must be a revolution in the styles of bonnets. A tiny piece of velvet, a flower and a ribbon, can never satisfy the demands of the feminine head, and already mutterings of discontent are heard. Our lively and chatty correspondent in Paris sends us an interesting batch of fashionable news this week. The use of sackcloth and ashes during the Lenten season seems to be extremely limited, and the austere clergymen are quite horrified at the extravagant toilets which their fair penitents assume during this holy time. On Ash Wednesday the churches were crowded with ladies, and around the altar rails was a cirele of the new round vel- vet hats with bands of gold and steel in lace ruche onthe rim. As these dainty little hats wore worn on the eyebrows the penitential ashes were thrown either on the aigrettes of the hats or the pretty noses of the wearers. The Belle Poule hat has also been revived. It is derived from a celebrated vessel of war which reflected much glory on the navy of France, and consists of crimson rather au vaisseau, placed on a foundation of curled and powdered hair, with green gauze to,represent the raging billows. The sails are of white poult and the shrouds of pearl. Imagine a. lady on Broad- way with such an affair on her head and the Stars and Stripes—in a diminutive form, of course—floating over all. American ladies dis- tinguished themselves during carnival time in Paris by their beauty and rich toilets. In this city we are gradually emancipating our- selves from the tyranny of Parisian modistes. The day is not far distant when we shall send to Europe the latest fashions, as well as prime donne, pianos, monitors and sewing machines, Tre Strerts—Wnat SHatt Br Done with Tim ?—Worse and worse grows the condi- tion of the streets as the thaw advances, The snow heaps are being converted into dirty rivu- lets wholly impassable for ladies, and not quite fordable for the sterner and more hervily booted sex. Meantime, committees are sitting | and examiping witnesses to find out the reason why the streets are dirty, and the Citizens Association are chopping logic on the sama subject. Now, the fact is, that the streets are most abon dirty, and nobody is trying to clean them. Can nothing be done while all the talking is going on ? ‘The Real Condition of Ireland—Party Clamor Impeding Progress. Our cable telegram reports of the proceed- ings which have taken place in the British Parliament since the reconstruction of the Cabinet under Mr. Disraeli, indicate very plainly that the Irish party leaders in the House of Commons have seized the opportunity of the ministerial crisis to raise a grand political whilabaloo about the “grievances,” “wrongs,” “taxations,” “land tenure injustices,” “‘yiola- tions of the rights of conscience,” social ‘‘dis« tress,” ‘‘pauperism,” and other severe endu- rances which the people of the sister island suffer at the hands of the executive. The speakers recapitulate previous sorrows and tribulations, and appear to demand that the new Premier shall, even before the ink is dry on the royal commission of his appointment, commence to legislate in the way of reparation for the effects of a governmental system admin- istered according to local circumstances before he was born, the working of which, in the majority of instances, eventuated merely in an emigration which has elevated hundreds of the martyr exiles to the enjoyment of the most lucrative public offices in the United States, with the return of millions of pounds sterling to the parent land within the space of a few years. The science of party tactics has been studied deeply by public mer Treland, and is ever used with great rapidity and effect by her legislators on all new ministers of England in moments like the present for their own pecu- liar profit in the way of seizing a good share of the government patronage through the timely terrorem of “Irish difficulties.” Mr. Disraeli is officially and painfully cogni- zant of this Irish plan of warfare for the spoils ; but although warned by the Cabinet fate of the late Lord Melbourne and some few others of his predecessors who succumbed in face of it since 1829, we are sorry to observe in our de- spatches symptoms of his own inclination to yield, and forget, apparently, in the premedi- tated noise about the ‘‘wrongs” of Ireland, the important matter of the rights of the people of the United Kingdom. Earl Mayo and others, speaking for the gov- ernment, have already sketched out a pro- gramme of legislation for Ireland, including church and land reform plans, a Catholic university endowment promise, a general rail- road subsidy idea, a franchise reform bill, with some few hints on national education, which, if matured, developed and debated, would de- mand for their due consideration the exclusive attention of the present Parliament to its close, even if a general election should not take place until 1870, This is a great mistake, which, should Mr. Disraeli choose or be forced to per- severe in, will lead to a great public error—one which will prove fatal to his ministry and in- flict a measure of causeless injustice on the British people. We use the word causeless advisedly ; for there exists in reality no greater amount of public distress in Ireland at the present mo- ment than what prevails in Scotland and Eng- land—a perfect famine pressing on the poor of the east end of the city of London at a mo- ment when, as shown bya mail report pub- lished in the Herap on Friday morning, offi- cial Engliah returns relative to poor rates and pauperism, show that the number of paupers, excepting lunatics in asylums, and vagrants in receipt of relief in England and Wales, on the last day of the fourth week of December, 1867, was 980,421, the corresponding number for the year 1866 being 904,392—an increase of 76,902 paupers, or at the rate of 8.4 per cent, When we recollect that an Englishman almost prefers death to the poorhouse, we are forced to the conclusion that should Mr. Dis- raeli neglect the immediate consideration of the case even of this one million of his fellow subjects, in order to ride on in office on the im- practicabilities of Ireland, he will excite a very serious commotion, or, to say the least, raise a very unusual fuss, it may be a row, around her Majesty the Queen. This vast amount of English suffering, with the pinchings and pangs of classes just removed from pauperism, is borne in silence ; while the Premier must not forget that the Irish are an excitable, vociferous people, who, even in the hands of skilful politi- cians, constitute merely @ sectional force and a minority, a people who have frequently laughed and danced and gone to battle with empty stomachs and ‘‘cut up” very ugly subsequently on roast beef. A partial legislation by Mr. Disraeli just now will bring an incalculable amount of trouble on England without effecting the slight- est possible good for Ireland. The members of the Lrish opposition seek only for govern- ment patronage and offices. In this pursuit they are encouraged, sided, to some extent, by the reflex across the Atlantic of an Irish senti- ment from the United States, made up of fuss, war feathers and Fenianism, and manufac- tured to subserve exactly the same ends here. With us the Irish “leaders” manage to obtain a “vote,” manipulate {t, speechify about it, recite and sing of it until they sectionalize a good many of the Irish here, delude a atill larger number of the Irish in Ireland, and wheedle some few well meaning men into the belief that they can wield a very large power at the Ameri- can polls, Thus they tide over a Presiden- tial or municipal election to learn, even before the ballot boxes are carried away, that Mr. Richard O'Gorman, Mr. Dick O’Connolly, Mr. Miles O'Rielly, or some other great born Mac or engrafted O' has obtained an enormously lucrative public office, with nothing to do but plan to secure a richer one whenever the term of the present expires. As it is in New York so itis and has been in Ireland, and a in Ireland eo in New York. The late Mr. O'Connell constituted himself an able exponent of Irish “wrongs” from the year 1797 to the period of his death; yet at the time of his decease his sons, from the eldest to the young- est, with his sons-in-law, a host of nephews and the husbands of many of his nieces, filled offices under the English government, and the eevere stipendiary magisterial duties rendered incumbent by the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act are to-day discharged in Ireland, in very many instances, by the near relations of the Liberator, the ‘‘wrongs” alone remaining to V the people. The truth is, Ireland must bocome national, 4