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

Oe 6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Volume XXXIII.......... AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. Granp DucuESs. FRENCH THEATRE,—T! way.—Hompry DoMPrr, OLYMPIC THEATRE, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tas Waitt Fawn. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Lith street.— ROSEDALE. 7 HOUSE, 28d street, corner of Eighth annuePsr OF rE PETTIOOATS—FAMILY JARS, im WERY THEATRE, Bowery.—MAZEPPA—THRER Past uaeor New York—HoOnwsT JOE. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Sam. NEW YORK THEATRE, opposite New York Hotel.— Lrout at Last. "1 RA HOUSE AND MUSEUM, Broad- dea article oneal TEN Nrgu7s iN a Baz Room, STEINWAY HALL.—GRanp ORaTORIO—ELIJAB. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth , street.—GrMmasrios, RQuesTRianisM, THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Boston Comiqus , BALLET AND PANTOMIME TROUPE. KELLY & LEON’S MINSTRELS, 720 Broadway.—Sonas, EooENTRIOITIES, &c.—GRaND DutTou “8."" SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—ETHIO- PlaN ENTERTAINMENTS, SINGING, DANOING, &c. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowory.—Comio Vooa.ism, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c, BUTLER'S AMERICAN THEATRE, 473 Broadway.— BALLET, FAROR, PANTOMIME, dc. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—RoBERTO IL DIAVOLO. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— THE THREE GUARDSMEN. HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—ErHi0riax MINGTRELSEY—BURLESQUE OF THE WILD Fawn. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SOIENOR AND ABT. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Thursday, March 19, 1868. THD Naws. CONGRESS. In the Senate yesterday the dill to regulate the presentation of bills to the President was called up, bet laid aside again to admit of the reading of a telegram from Generai Meade, which stated that the bill directing military commanders to fill offices with persons qualified to take the test oath would if passed be entirely impracticable in execution. The bill to exempt certain manufactures from tax was then taken up as a special order, and after a prolonged de- bate was passed tn Committee of the Whole and re- Ported to the Senate, Mr. Sherman giving notice that he would press it to a vote to-day. In the House Mr. Broomall moved to reconsider the vote referring to the Judiciary Committee a bill intro- duced by him in July to guarantee to the several States a republican form of government. It provides for negro su‘Trage in all the States, A lengthy debate ensued on the proposition, in the course of which Mr. Spalding, of Ohio, said that ‘the bill cut directly across the constitution, and its passage might be regarded as the deathknell of the party in the coming Presidential campaign. Mr. Broomali finally withdrew his motion. Mr. Farns- Worth introduced a new bill for the admission of Alabama, and gave notice that he would ask to have i passed to-day. THE LEGISLATURE. In the Senate yesterday a bill relative to the Hell Gate pilots was ordered to a third reading. Bills were reported for the extension of railroad tracks from Atlantic avenue to Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and for numerous other purposes of a private charac- ter. Bills were introduced to repeal the act for the registration of births, marriages and deaths, and amending the statutes relative to the custody of children. Bills were passed authorizing a railway in 125th and other streets in New York and for other purposes. In the Assembly a bill was passed for the better regulation of fremen in Brooklyn. Bilis were intro- duced in relation to the election of directors on the Harlem, Hudson River, New York Central and Erie railroad companies; in relation to the publication of legal notices’in New York city, and in relation to the consolidation of ratiroad companies. Bills were reported to complete the Wallabout im- provement; toamend the New York city charter in relation to paving certain streets; relative to frauds tn assessments for local improvements, and to pro- tect the rights of passengers on railroads. A resolu- tion directing the Committee on Ways and Means to | report @ bill to reduce the military expenses was adopted, EUROPE. ‘The news report by the Atlantic cable fe dated yes- terday evening, March 18, The Disraeli Cabinet adjourns the whole pian of Irish reform to the next Parliament, Lieutenant John D. Clarke, United States Navy, died at Civita Vecchia. Peace envoys from Chile and Peru are ex- pected in Madrid. Our special despatches from Hayti are dated February 22. Salnave and his army were defeated near Cape Haytien and put to flight. The French admiral had demanded payment of the arrears of the government to France. Conscriptions were active. Our special despatches from Ktnagston, Jamaica, are dated March 1. The American steamer Estrella had been condemned. Mr. Eyre is reported to have been offerea the Governorship of St. Kitts. Our special correspondence from Mazatlan, Mexico, gives the particulars of the arrest of General Placido Vega, and the quarrel between General Daralos and and Governor Martinez. It was probable that Vega would be declared Governor of the State, and that the affair would end in the secession of all the North- ‘western States and an appeal on their part to the United States. The proceedings in the Canadian Parliament yes- terday were of more than usual importance. Mr. McKenzie offered @ resolution, which was adopted, calling for the correspondence relative to the abduc- tion of Allen McDonal, by Uniied States officials, and inquiring tuto the truth of the statement that the British Minister at Washington had declined to accept the release of the prisoner on hearing the statement of his case from the United States authorities. Sir John A. McDonald replied that the report of the action of the British Minister was true. A bill amending the United States Extradition treaty, so as to provide for including Nova Scotia in its provisions, was ordered to a second reading. The suit of Belden ys. Cornelius Vanderbilt, George G. Barnard and others, a branch of the great Erie Railway litigation, came before Judge Gilbert yester- day, in the Kings county Supreme Cotirt, on the mo- tion to render the injunction perpetual. This ts the suit in which Judge Barnard is charged with con- spiring with Vanderbilt, Work and others to injure the interests of the Erie Railway Company. AMdavits of all the parties charged were read denying emphatically the charges made. The temporary in- Junction was vacated and the motion to continue de nied. The case of J. C. Bancroft Davis, one of the directors against whom an attachment had been issned, came before Judge Barnard at Supreme Court, Chambers, Mr. Davis stated that he had been absent at Albany before the investigating committee, but would obey the order of the court. The New Jersey refugees have commenced taking the offensive, and have reduced the fare to Buffalo on the Erie Rallway as the fret gun against the Central. The New Jersey republicans held their State Con- vention at Trenton yesterday and elected delegates ‘to the National Convention at Ohicago. Resolations were adopted favoring Grant for the first choice, but mentioning no one for Vice President. The Michigan Republicam State Convention also NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1868—-TRIPLE SHEET. held its session yesterday. Grant and Schuyler Col- fax, of Indiana, were recommended as the favorites of Michigan for President and Vice Prestdent. Sixteen ex-officers of the United States army, residing in Tennessee, have published # card in & Nashville pa} denying the tenor of General Thomas" offi despatches to General Grant in reference to existing organizations for the over- throw of the State government. The Cincinnati and Maysville steamboat Magnolia exploded her botlers twelve miles above Cincinnati yesterday, and out of one hundred passengers forty were killed, some of them being burned to death. A negro Alderman in New Orleans has brought suit against an educational convent, in $10,000, for refusing a member of his family admission to it as @ scholar. ‘The trial of Governor Baker, of Louisiana, who ts accused of perjury by a negro, was commenced in the United States Commissioner's Court at New Or- leans yesterday. The North German Lloyd's steamship Hermann, Captain Wenke, will sail from Hoboken to-day (Thureday) for Southampton and Bremen. The mails will close at the Post Office at twelve M. ‘The stock market opened weak, but closed strong .yesterday. Government securities were dull and heavy, but closed steady. Gold closed at 188%. The Age of Speculation, Financial and PoliticalThe Impeachment and Repudia- tion Movements. The ancient Romans had their iron age, their age of bronze and their golden age; and we, under the most wonderful modifications and additions, to be sure, have been and gre going through the same experience. Our golden age was ushered in with the acquisition of Califor- nia ; our iron age with the great railroad enter- prises with which the different sections and States of the Union have been bound together in bonds of iron; but the age which is now upon us is a conglomerate of gold, brass, iron, paper and speculation and stockjobbing, finan- cial and political. The financial speculations of these times extend from corner lots in Spuyten Duyvil to the great Erie Rail- road litigation, and the millions of stocks in- volved therein, with all their fluctuations from day to day—from the variations in gold and government securities and foreign exchanges to the latest bogus petroleum companies—from five-twenties and ten-forties, and State stocks and Southern cotton plantations, to the newest Wall street bubbles, great and small. The great overshadowing movement in all these purely financial speculations, however, is for something tangible and substantial in exchange for paper equivalents, which, though good to- day for anything, may be good for nothing to-morrow. But great, multitudinous and comprehen- sive as are the purely financial speculations and stock gambling operations which rule the hour in Wall street, they sink into utter insig- nificance compared with the stupendous politi- cal speculations and stockjobbing movements of the day. First, there is the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. This is a political specu- lation, involving the possession and’ distribu- tion of all the offices, spoils and plunder of the federal government, on a peace establishment of six hundred ‘millions of annual taxations, several hundred millions of whiskey, tobacco and other spoliations, and national bank per- quisites and pickings. Under Andrew John- son as President all these enormous resources of patronage and corruption are, to a great ex- tent, neutralized between him and Congress; but with “‘Old Ben Wade” in Johnson's place all these ‘‘movables” will be added to the radical electioneering stock in trade for the next Presidency and the next Congress. The impeachment of Andrew Johnson, therefore, from the offices and emoluments, jobs and con- tracts, spoils and plunder involved, though they are all a delusion and a snare, is without a precedent in its magnitude as a political speculation, looking only at the things we have enumerated. But it becomes incalculably larger, and defies all conjectures asa political adventure, when the political reconstruction and restoration and the political balance of power to be secured from the ten outside Southern States are taken into the general esti- mate. Here is the main question and the main pressure upon this radical Senate for the re- movalof Andrew Johnson. We may truly say, then, that upon this impeachment there are issues and consequences to the dominant party depending greater in their magnitude than those against which Charles the First of Eng- land or Louis the Sixteenth of France so vainly struggled. But stupendous in its length and breadth and | height and depth as is this political party enter- | prise of Johnson's impeachment, it is eclipsed by the overshadowing political stockjobbing Presidential movement of the great Western democracy under the banner of Pendleton, What is this Pendleton movement, then, when such are its imposing dimensions that it dwarfs the impeachment of Johnson? It is simply a movement to wipe out from the books of the Treasury our twenty-five hundred millions of national debt, with all its appendages of the internal revenue tax laws. Nor is it confined to the democracy in the West; for the republi- can party in that quarter are on the same tack. The government bonds are mainly held in the East, and the men of the West of both parties say, we will pay you off in greenbacks. As to the redemption of the greenbacks, Tease D. Bright, who has become a shining luminary of the Kentucky democracy, frankly says:—‘‘We propose to settle your little bills in paper, and let the paper take care of itself.” From Wheel- ing to Omaha the democracy have run up the banner of Pendleton, and the legend which it bears is, ‘‘Greenbacks for the bondholders and an issue of twenty-five hundred millions to pay ph | “apse with an instalment of five han millions.” The republicans also sey “Greenbacks; but let us pay them only when the bonds call for the money.” They beg the question which they dare not boldly meet. But does any one suppose that this load of national debt, with its burden of taxations, will be borne for ten years? No, The ways and means for a complete liquidation in the interval must be provided by the party in power or it will be displaced by the opposition, and if not in the elections for the Forty-first Congress it will be done for the Forty-second. The head centres of the Eastern democracy are resolved to head off Pendleton with his pro- gramme. They, too, ask for delay; but the issue between Belmont and Pendleton is so sharply drawn that the result may be even this year the breaking ground for a Western party, which will soon absorb both parties in the West against the East. Thus upon the great money question and all its accessories—banks, bonds, internal taxes and tariffe—this Western and to sigh for more worlds to conquer, and it has been the incentive of military despotism since the creation. Under oyr modern forms of government and In the advancing strength and intelligence of the people men no longer attempt to rule by the sword, but they find in money a weapon as sharp and more effective ; and having lost none of the old lust for power they seek to establish over their fellows the des- potism of dollars. The eyes of our modern Alexanders turn eagerly to the great railroads of the different nations as offering, through their magnitude and importance, a fine field for ambition. In Eng- land the railroad king, Hudson, sought to grasp all the roads in the country in his hands, and actually succeeded in obtaining control of a majority of the leading lines; but it was not Jong before there was a general revolt against his rule, and his downfall was as rapid and signal as his rise, In France the Rothschilds are in fact the monarohs of the rail. They hold them, {t is true, nominally under govern- ment ownership; but as the Rothschilds them- selves control the government their real power is little short of supreme. On this side of the Atlantic our republicanism has not sufficed to protect us against railroad autocracy, and we have our Omsars and Alexanders here, whose ambition is little inclined to stop short of absolute despotism. Some of them take broader views and attempt more magnificent conquests than others ; but the inciting passion is the same in all, from Stockton, the Czar of the little State of Jersey, up to Vanderbilt, the autocrat of the great State of New York. The concentration of railroad power or any other power in the hands of one individual is adverse to the spirit of our institutions and in conflict with our notions of public interest. While the people of the United States acknow- ledge the advantages derived from combinations of capital to carry out great undertakings, and while they will do all in their power to foster and encourage private enterprise, they have a natural repngnance to monopolies, which they regard with jealousy and suspicion. The railroad power has heretofore been the most aggressive of any in the country. For years the late Dean Richmond controlled the democratic party through the influence of the Central Railroad, which he ran as a tender to it. Elections in different districts were carried in accordance with the dictation of the Central road; along the line of the road, in most districts, its enmity was fatal to a candidate, and Legislatures elected in opposition to the road were bought up wholesale by the cor- poration year after year and used for its pur- poses. The great fight now going’ on between the Erie and Central roads has at fits foundation the desire to unite the two great trunk lines, from the West to the seaboard, under one management, so that the carrying trade may be monopolized by a single interest. The Erie road has for many years been struggling on with difficulty, mainly on account of the deter- mined opposition of the Central, whose enor- mous wealth has enabled it to embarrass its weaker rival in a variety of ways. The present great effort of the Erie is to secure the com- pletion of a six feet track from Akron, Ohio, where the broad gange now terminates, to Chicago; and the friendliness of the Western connecting lines has recently given to the undertaking a fair prospect of speedy success. The Central is interested in preventing its rival from running through to the West with a gauge that will largely increase ite tonnage capacity; but the shrewdness and intelligence of Vanderbilt enable him to understand that this great addition to the carrying facilities of the Erie road must eventually be secured despite opposition, and hence he yearns to add Erie to the conquests he has already made, and to reign supreme at once over Central, Hudson, Harlem and Erie—to say nothing of fature designs upon the principality of the Pennsylvania Central or the little Panhandle and Allentown duchies. The people care very little whether Vander- bilt or Drew may be at the head of the Erie direction; but they do not-wish to see all the trank lines in New York under a single man- agement. If Vanderbilt were not the owner of three other roads his immense power and capacity might be useful to the Erie road and beneficial to its stockbolders. But while he is the autocrat of Central, Hudson and Harlem, it is not desirable that AB should also seize upon Erie. In the contest that as arisen be- tween the two roads the courts seent $0 accom- plish little except to get into a muddle and fight among themselves. There should be power somewhere, however, to control these matters and to prevent the creation of 9 grand mo- nopoly in the hands of any one man. If the State Legislature has this power, let it exer- cise it. If not, let Congress interfere and take into the hands of the general government a controlling authority over all the roads in the country. Probably in the experience of recent events that would be the wisest policy that could be pursued. Tue Oprnine or Navioation.—Navigation is opening this year like the windows of heaven, and the result is that the whole country at the upper part of the Hudson river is made very wet. It seems that the ice gets gorged somewhere; but being gorged does not appear movoment in behalf of Pendleton may bring ; to put It out of the way or make It any scarcer. about » new sectional division of parties on the | The only effect that the goring of ice has is to | vention. What's in the wind? make the water rise at Albany. It takes a philosopher to see the connection apropos to the water rising at Albany ; however, it has not yet risen so high as to be within reach of the mem- bers of the Legislature, nor is there a proba- bility that it will wash any of them away. It will wash some of the streets of Albany, which will be good for the contractors. If somebody would gorge ice down here with the same result ft would be a happy arrangement for Whiting. It is sald that this opening of navigation will start business with a tremendous rush, because all the rivers open when the Hudson does; but if anybody believes that business waits for the ice he bas not looked at the advertising columns of the Hunacp. Mexican Filibusters t2 Havana — Santa Avea Pleuing Again. We have information from Havana from which it would appear that © somewhat for- midable nest of Mexican filibusters had been dis- covered there and unearthed, very much to the ingust of the faithful subjects of Queen Isa- bella, inasmuch as several Spanish officers lately ia the Mexican service were found to be implicated in the conspiracy. Their plan, it is reported, was connected with Santa Anna, Marques, Zuloaga and other Mexican exiles and refugees, and had for its objects a filibustering descent upon Vera Cras, and, on landing, ® revolutionary pronunciamionto in favor of Ortega, who some time ago claimed by the Mexican constitution that he and not Juarez was the President of Mexico, Some of the Spanish officers involved in this conspiracy, it is supposed, will be shot. Meantime, the government of Juares had been apprised of the plot of Santa Anna, Marques and Company to run in and get possession of Vera Cruz, and it was expected that Juares would despatch s commission to Havana to inquire into all the facta in the matter, and to urge upon the Captain General, Lersundi, a strict enforce- ment of neutrality as between Spain and the fighting factions of Mexico. Old Santa Anna is doubtless the head and front of this revolutionary enterprise. He has evidently resolved to wind up his career as master of Mexico or to perish in the attempt. He has money and he has his emissaries in Mexico and his active confederates in Havana, of whom the ablest and most desperate is Marques. Of all the enemies of Juares, too, this man, perhaps, is the most dangerous. While holding the city of Mexico for Maximilian, against the overwhelming forces of Dias, 8 price was set upon the head of “the atrocious traitor Marques,” because his capture, after the execution of Maximilian, was the special object of the liberals. But he managed not only to get out of the city, but safely out of the country. His little body guard of horse- men, whose lives depended upon their escape with him, were faithful; and with some dis- bursements of the money in his possession, drawn by forced contributions from the mer- chants and clergy of the capital, he got through without a fight and without a ecratch. Such a man, then, at large is to be feared by Juarez; but when plotting in conjunction with Santa Anna, the old ex-dictator must be looked after. We shall not, therefore, be surprised if soon we hear that Santa Anna has been politely roquested to evacuate the island of Cuba and establish his headquarters again in St Thomas or New York. In any event, considering the present distracted and utterly demoralized condition of the”Mexican States and people, it is not at all improbable that this veteran revolutionist, Santa Anna, may before the end of the summer be again on the soil of Mexico, and under the banner of ‘‘ God and Liberty ” heading for his old headquarters in the national capital, The normal condition of anarchy and revolutionary plots and fighting factions has been restored to Mexico with the republic, and will continue, at least until we shall have finished our own work of reconstruction and the important business of our approaching Presidential election. Probing Frauds and Corruption im the Treasury Department. The indomitable Logan seems determined not to be bluffed off in his purpose of probing the frauds, corruption and irregularities in the Treasury Department. He fs as earnest in this ashe isin his ultra-radical politics. In this matter he deserves commendation, though his radicalism of the thorough Jacobin order must be condemned. Such an ultra, determined man may be useful when on the right track. He has prepared a resolution, which he will introduce in the House of Representatives as soon as he can get an opportunity—that is, as soon a8 the whitewashing friends of Mr. McOul- loch in that body will allow him—of a sweeping charactor, calling for a thorough overhauling of . The following is similar purposes to same parties; if wo ote tas been Many, oe PS Also what tacos of into Mr. Clarke's note printing bureau, and into the duties, sslaries and perquisites of the five hundred beautiful young women, more or less, employed in that bureau and other, ments of the Treasury. We call upon to be made, What's 1x Tae Winp ?—The telegraph in- forms us that Secretary Seward, on his way from Auburn to Washington, was detained at Utica by the storm, Utica being the residence of Governor Seymour it fs a little singular that « storm should be made an excuse for two such old political stagers meeting and having « private chat about the Fourth of July Con- State a ‘republican form of government,” or, in plainer language, to force negro suffrage upon the loyal States, whether they desire it or not. The bill, it will be remembered, was introduced into the House of Representatives last year, and was brought up yesterday morn- ing by a motion to reconsider the vote which re- ferred it to the Judiciary Committee. Opposition from the democratic members was to be ex- pected, but it was scarcely to be supposed that, in the face of their policy towards the Southern States, radicals would be found in a position of antagonism to this fundamental principle of their party. And yet such was the case. Passing by the remarks made in support of the bill, and against it by the democrats, as being neither surprising nor unexpected, we will call attention to the position assumed by two of the most prominent representatives on the radical side of the House. Mr. Lawrence, of Pennsylvania, declared that ‘‘nine out of every ten republicans” in his district sustained the recent decision of Judge Agnéw, of his State, against the right of negroes to seats tm railroad cars provided for white persons. But his opposition was not so decided as that of Mr. Spalding, of Ohio, who—after Mr. Ste- vena had made a rather long speech in support of the measure, and had offered a substitute for the bill, providing that all males, regardless of color, shall ‘vote upon all national ques- tions"—came out in strong and emphatic language against it. Mr. Spalding declared that although he had voted in favor of univer- sal suffrage his State had, by forty thousand majority, refused to give the negro the vote, and #0 long ag the constitution of Ohio limited the elective franchise to the whites he would suffer his “right arm to drop. from its socket sooner than vote for any such bill as that now before the House.” The honorable gentleman declared that it ‘outs directly across the con- stitution of the United States,” and wound up by expressing his belief that the passage of the bill at this hour would be ‘‘the death knell of our hopes as a political party in the Presi- dential contest.” The motion to reconsider was finally withdrawn and the hill referred to the Judiciary Committee. Negre Suffrage—Opposition by Radical Congressmen. The proceedings in Congress on yesterday were made unusually interesting by the debate on Mr. Broomall’s bill to guarantee to each Disraeli on Ireland. The debate which took place in the House of Commons on Tuesday night on the present condition of Ireland furnished Mr. Disraeli with a fresh opportunity for the display of that pluck and daring which have, more, perhaps, than any other cause or causes, raised him to his present proud position. The wrongs of Ireland were set torth by the member for Gal- way. Mr. Gladstone enlarged on the gravity of the crisis and urged a thorough and imme- diate reform. The opportunity was one which Disraeli was not the man to lose. The crisis might be grave; but it was a crisis of seven hundred years’ standing, and had been strangely neglected by the ministry which had preceded that of Lord Derby, and of which Mr. Gladstone himself was a prominent mem- ber. The House must have been tickled and Gladstone must have winced when the Premier expressed the hope that ‘‘members were not alarmed by the speeches of men who when in power did nothing but make speeches.” What- ever was to be done for Ireland was not to be done rashly, in haste and under the influence ofa panic. Mr. Disraeli’s threat to appeal to the country, if pressed to an issue on the ques- tion, had the desired effect, and Mr. Maguire wisely withdrew his resolution. In the first tug of war since his accession to power the new Premier thus came off victorious. It would be a mistake, however, to imagine that Ireland has nothing to expect from the new Prime Minister. Nothing, in fact, would be further from the truth. As we said some days ago, Disraeli is thoroughly con- versant with the wants of Ireland, has deeper sympathy with the democracy all over the three kingdoms than has yet appeared, is more “‘detach of his own, from party keenness of insight and intellectual boldness are of any avail, he is not the man to fail in the “supernatural emergency,” as he calls it, in which be hae been called to act as the chief adviser of the Crown. The wants of Ireland, after all, are not so essentially different from the wants of Scotland and England. The prin- cipal grievance of Ireland is the existence in the midst of them of an Established Church which is not the Church of the people. The ” to yoo a word than any | approved such scandalous resistance to ecclesi- prominent man of his day in either House of | astical authority any more than he could have Parliament; and if breadth of imagination, | conceived of an ocean telegraph. Both the accounted nobler than the worshipped”—suoh a man is not ashamed of his lineage ; but it is a lineage inured to sorrow and worked into sympathy with suffering. Although, there- fore, Disraeli has with characteristic and praiseworthy boldness refused to allow him- self to be coerced into precipitate action om great and difficult questions in a truly critical emergency, we have yet to be taught to believe that he will fail the people in their hour of need. He has stamped his impress on one class of reforms. For greater reforms thas even these the democracy of the three king- doms may yet have cause to thank him. . Alabama—Mr. Stevens’ Withdrawal. Radicalism gives up Alabama. Mr. Stevens relinquishes his project to restore Alabama te the Union by bill, and professes to have been moved to his course by a ‘‘full examination of the returns.” Either, then, the act was drawa without knowledge of the facts inthe case it proposed to settle—either it was drawn tm ignorance and with extravagant precipitanoy, or the reason rendered by Mr. Stevens is not the one that really influences his action. We are inclined to believe that this pretended giving way to justice and reason, and abiding by the fhw as made, isa piece of humbuggery— a cover for the radicals to retire from the posl- tion they had taken in regard to Alabama and which they found dangerous. Restoration ef @ State to the Union is not their game, whether restored rightly or wrongly; for the moment the State is reatored they lose all power over it, They wish to hold on to that power some time longer yet, and thus they keep tho State out, though they have so stoutly argued of Inte that it ought to comein. The Presidential election is still too far in the future, The hundred thousand votes not cast in Alabama ay the seventy thousand cast show that any time for organization the State would go against radicalism on the Presidency. That is the reason why itis kept out; that is the reason why Mr. Stevens suddenly finds time te listen to reason, is inclined to do justice, thinks Congress ought to consider what the country expects. In spite of all that has been done, though radicalism has gone to such lengths as toalarm and disgust the whole country, its niggerism fails at last, and it cannot rely upom the military districts for a Presidential vote. It has thrown away the North and finds that it cannot safely lean upon the South. Truly, this is not a happy position for a great party. Ristori at Havana—Conflict Between the Bishop and the Captain General. Theatrical and operatic performances are subject at Havana to more direct control on the part of both the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities than anywhere else except at Rome. It appears by a special telegram which we published yesterday that the interference of the Bishop of Havana, who denounced and sought to prevent Madame Ristori’s represen- tation of one of her réles, was overruled by the counter commands of the Captain General. Im consequence of this the Bishop ordered the curates in all the districts through which Gen- eral Lersundi was to pass on his tour in the in- terior not to ring the church bells in his honor. Lersundi returned and telegraphed to Madrid, whence he received a reply instructing him te exact the customary tributes of respect. The directors of the administration are unanimous on the subject. The Bishop has been put under arrest in his own palace, but will probably be sent to Porto Rico to await orders from Madrid. General Lersundi detained the Cadiz mail steamer one day to take aboard two of the re- fractory curates. That the Captain General should have beea sustained by the Spanish government in his resistance to the Bishop's decrees is a remark- able sign of the times. It shows that ever Spain, the land of Philip II. and the Inquisi- tion, is at length accessible to the influences of the nineteenth contury. How much shocked Philip II. would have been to receive such a message as General Lersundi sent to Madrid, and how different would have been his reply! The bigoted monarch could not possibly have idea of the ocean telegraph and that of restraining and limiting ecclesiastical author- ity on the one hand, and enlarging the sphere of civil authority on the other, are essentially modern. The old days when a royal neck was but a papal footstool, and when an interdict by the Pope spread consternation throughout an empire have passed away. It is presumptuous enough for the Bishop of Havana to defy the Captain General, now that the great Bishop of Rome, the Pope himself, is indebted chiefly te the protection of the Emperor of the French for the temporal jurisdiction which he rotains over @ few square miles of territory. A Rogalar Know Nothing. The legislative committee of wischeads from Albany on “Commerce and Navigation,” who are taking their ease at the Metropolitan Hotel, and collecting testimony at the same time about the ferries between New York and Brooklyn, have had several witnesses be- fore them. Among them was George Law, who is ‘“‘interested” in three of the Brooklyn ferries, or, in other words, is the principal owner of the said ferries. His testimony is an admirable specimen of the, non mé ricordo style of evidence. He literally knew nothing about the management of the! ferries, As to the number of boats running, or the condition of the boats, or the means of saving the lives of passengers, and all the. other important facts connected with the fer-| ries, he declared himself totally ignorant. Some years ago ‘Live Oak George” was the! head and front of the Know Nothing party; be was their candidate for President. But, al- though George Law did not go to the White’ House, and that party was utterly demolished; by the good sense of the American people, it isi evident that one plank of the platform still remains, and the “live oak” is that plank.! He has evidently not entirely rid himself of his old proclivities, He knows nothing about his, own ferries except the dividends, so that thot committee have to seck elsewhere for tnforme-) tion as to the renson why the Williamsburg lines, running from Grand street, Bridge etreet, | Roosevelt street and South Seventh street are. complained of as having filthy boats, not fit for human beings to travel in, and withal so un- safe that life is not worth an hour's purchase to those who are compelled to journey by such