The New York Herald Newspaper, March 28, 1868, Page 7

6 BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, ~ AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. FRENCH THEATRE,—La BRLLE HELENE. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.-Humpty Dumpry. Matinee at 134. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tns Watt FAwN. ‘Matinee at L. . WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 15th street.— ROSEDALE, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Don JUAN—A TALE or A TaR. ri BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Jox. Matinee at 1}. NEW YORK THEATRE, opposite New York Hotel.— CAMILLE. Matinee at 2 BANVARD'S OPERA HOUSE AND MUSEUM, Broad- way and Thirtieth street.—Rir VAN WINKLE, dc. Matinee. NEW YORK CIRCU EQUESTRIANIGN, &c. Fourteenth strect.—GYMNASTIOS, jatines at 25. aa * STEINWAY HALL.—OLe Buu's GRAND ConcEnr. Matinee at 2. Evening at & ' PHEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—BALLRT, Faror, 40, Matinee at 2). KELLY & LEON'S MINSTRELS, 720 Broadway.—SoNnas, EoognTui0i114s, &c,—GRAND DuToH “8.” Matinee at 25g. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Brondway.—Eru10- TIAN ENTERTAINMENTS, SINGING, DANCING, &¢. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—-Comio VOCALI8M, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c.” Matinee at 234. BUTLER'S AMERICAN THEATRE, 472 Broadway.— BALLET, FAROE, PANTOMIME, 4c. Mutince at 2}. MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— DaMON AND Pyruias—TuE SCALY HUNTERS. HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUS! MINSTRELSEY—BURLESQUE Brooklyn.—ErHtorran HE WiLD FAWN. Matinee. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SCIRNOE AND ART. New York, Saturday, March 28, 1868. ET. CONGRESS. Inthe Senate yesterday Mr. Cattell discussed the supplementary bill providing for a national cur- rency, but on motion it was postponed, and the House Appropriation bill was taken up. Numerous amendments were azrced to, and the subject was postponed to admit of action on the report of the Conference Commiitee on the Manufacturers’ Tax Exemption bill, which was announced as agreed to by the House. The report went over and was ordered ww be printed, e In the House the veto message of the President on the Supreme Court bill was received from the Senate, Mr. Wilson immediately rose to demand the previous question on the passage of the bill, but was induced to permit Mr. Woodward, of the democratic side, to speak half an hour. Mr. Wilson then closed the de- bate, and, without further discussion, the bill passed over the veto by 112 votes to 34. The report of the Conference Committee on the Manufacturers’? Tax Exemption bill was agreed to, A resolution to post- pone all action except upon matters pertaining to impeachment during the trial was offered, but was alverwards withrawn, THE LEGISLATURE. In the Senate yesterday bills for the establishment of a nautical school, amending the Brooklyn Fire law and amending the New York Common School law by allowing $10 per head on the average attend- ance of pupils were ordered to a third read- ing. Numerous bills of a nature not of general interest were reported and passed. The bills granting State aid to the Southern Central, Buffalo and Washington, Dunkirk and Pittsburg and the Lake Ontario Shore railroads were reported ad- versely. The reports were disagreed to and the bills were referred to the Committee of the Whole. A motion to advance the bill amending the Excise law to the Committee of the Whole was lost by a vote of 14 to 14, the Lieutenant Governor casting a vote in the negative. In the Assembly bills regulating street processions; to regulate the leasing of stands in the public mar- kets; to provide tor a Board of Assistant Aldermen in place of Councilmen; to regniate the ferries to Brooklyn; and in relation to the storage of combus- tibles were introduced, The Rs ud Committee made a unanimous report against the bill legalizing the acts of the directors of the Erie Railway Com- pany, and the report was agreed to by a vote of 83 to 32, The Arcade Underground Railroad bill was, after discussion in committee of the whole, ordered to a third reading and passed by 101 yeas to 1 nay. EUROPE. Ry special cable telegrams from London, dated yesterday, we at the British army in Abys- sinda hes come hto the highlands of the country from Zoula, The sanitary report from the camp is favorable. The news report by the cable is dated yesterday evening, Admiral rarragut returned to Naples from Rome. The Alabama claims question the English House of Lords, Lord Stanley is to move that the Trish Church reform question be adjourned for the consideration of the new Par- Mament. Spain makes indemnity to England for ‘the seizure of the ship Queen Victoria, During a “strike” riot of Belgian coal miners the military fired into the crowd and killed and wounded a num- ver of people. The King of Italy is to operate against the brigands with the regular army. The Fenian Captain Deasy nas not been rearrested, as Teported from England. Two Fenians have been sentenced to imprisonment for life in Manchester, Specie continues to flow to Paris in very large amounts, MISCELLANEOUS. We have special telegrams by the Cuba cable from Mexico, Porto Rico and St. Domingo. Marocho, the representative of the Mexican Emperor in Rome in 1864, had been imprisoned in Mexico city for alleged complicity in the insurrectionary movements. The crew of the schooner Cotnam, which was lost at sea while bound for New York, had arrived at Mayaguez. St. Domingo city has been ruined by the siege. The Mabilities of Cabral are declared invalid. Refugees who took shelter in the consulates are prohibited from remaining in the republic. Despatches from Arkansas indicate that the con- stitution has been defeated by a decided majority, General Buchanan, commanding the Fifth Military District, has issued an additional election order in Louisiana directing that members of Congress and ‘State officers shall be voted for on the same tickets used in voting for or against the new constitution, and that returns shall be forwarded to the Command- Ang Gene! In the Canadian Parliament yesterday a bill was Noticed to make American silver a legal tender, A communication from the Duke of Buckingham to Lord Monck was presented, declaring that the sen- tences of Father McMahon and other Fenian con- viets at Kingston would not be mitigated, The Pacific Railroad is completed to within four miles of the highest sumuit on the entire route, ‘The argument in the case of Hatch against the Chi- cago, Rock Island and Pacific Ratlway Company was resumed yesterday in the United States District ‘court, and counsel charged the President and Secre- ary of the company with gain)ling in (he stock ana reach of trust. The Anchor Line steamship Colnmbia, Captain * wnaghan, will sail from pier 20 North river at twelve . to-day for Glasgow and Liverpool, touching at ondonderry to land passengers. The fast sailing steamship George Washington, Captain Gager, of H. B. Cromwell & Co.'s Line, will ls.ve pier No. 9 North river at three P. M. to-day for Tow Orleans direct, | The stock market was dull but pteady yesterday. C overnmeut securities were strong. Goid closed 40% cr was debated in | NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1868--TRIPLE SHEET. Impeachment is a “‘prosecution of the estab- lished law” before the highest court of the conntry. It is not a means to settle points of etiquette, or style, or opinion, or politics, but to inquire into the official conduct of persons holding places of trust, to find if they have committed crimes or even such smaller offences against the law as misdemeanors, Impeachment asserts the supremacy of the law—intends to fix the fact that no dignitary in the land shall ever be so high as to stand above the “known law,” but is rigorously and absolutely limited in its application to offences against that law. It is strictly limited thus to prevent it becoming an instrument of persecu- tion. How is it limited? By the phrase that makes it the punishment for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors ;” for these words must be taken “in their common law sense.” Impeachment must thus have a real foundation in something reprehensible as viewed from the standpoint taken by the law. Thus originating on a pre- sentment by the representatives of the people before a court in which the head of the na- tional judiciary sits to expound the law, the trial, though exalted in its elements and charac- ter, yet otherwise “differs not in essentials from criminal prosecutions before inferior courts.” Itisa trial in which the accusations are to charge such offences as the law gives the Court of Impeachment power over; in which the evi- dence as to matters of fact is to be presented and scrutinized ; in which the Judge is to lay down the law and a verdict is to be rendered. In every part it is an example of the ordinary machinery and methods of justice to which we are used, differing only in its supposed greater dignity. Such is impeachment as regarded in the original law on whose forms our own laws are framed, as it is contemplated in the plain words of the constitution, and as it must ap- pear by all possible implication, if implication were necessary. It is seen, then, that the court which now has before it the Chief Magis- trate of the country is composed of a jury of Senators, and is presided over by our highest legal functionary—an arrangement that assures an ample discrimination of the facts that may be alleged as offences, and also gives certainty that the case will be viewed with regard to the law; for it was not for nothing that the founders of our government provided that the Chief Justice should preside in sucha trial as this. Some have supposed that the Chief Justice was placed there that the Vice President might not form part of the court, be- cause of his possible interest in the President's removal ; but the Senate, by refusing to exclude Mr. Wade, clearly does not hold that doctrine. And the Senate is right; for the Chief Jus- tice was put there for another reason. He was put there as an impersonation of the law—put there purely with regard to his judicial func- tion—that one tried for offences against the law might be judged by the rules of the law. At the proper moment this will, of course, ap- pear ; for when the evidence is all in and advo- cates have argued the case on either side it will be the duty of the Chief Justice to charge the Senate as to the application of the law to what they have heard and are to determine. In that charge the law of impeachment will be laid down more elaborately and Incidly than ever hitherto. Then will be stated the real nature and purposes of such a process as well as its necessary foundation in an _ impeachable offence—in an act reprehensible, derogatory to the national welfare and done with evil pur- pose. Judging the accusations before the court by the rules of the “already known and established law,” the Chief Justice will neces- sarily and inevitably declare that the prose- cution has no case, that its charges are frivo- lous and empty for the most part, and that only one charge is made that can by any stretch of law be called “impeachable,” and that even in that the purpose necessary to make it an offence is not shown. Rightly the Senate would be bound by the law thus laid down; but no man can cerlainly say that it will. It may be that it will find the aceused guilty in despite of the assurance of the authorized functionary that there is no law for it ; that it may transcend its proper powers, as juries have done before this, and presume to judge both the law and the facts, Yet it is at least possible that there may be more than athird of the Senate not prepared to take so dangerous a responsibility, and in that event impeachment would fail, In either case, how- ever, in what position will the republican party find itself at the close of the trial? If the President be acquitted the very fact will be damning evidence against his accusers, and in Mr. Johnson's triumph the republicans must see their own ruin before the country, if the President be found guilty it will be in defi- ance of the law, in flagrant, notorions violation of the law, the very thing for which it pre tend@ to try him. Can any party do such a thing and live in the respect of the people? Regarded in any way impeachment is the deathbiow of the republican party. That party has committed itself to a flood from which it cannot come out alive, and goes for- ward like those animals that cut their throats with every stroke of the foot as they swim. For such a position it may thank its own in- discretion and heedlessness in giving up all principle, justice, right, and consenting to be led, or driven, rather, by the wildness of Baltimore, a pioneer ship of the new line of steamers between Baltimore and Bremen. The occasion was worthy of boing joyously cele- brated. It inaugurates, we may hope, a new era in the history of European emizration to the United States, For hundreds of miles along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and in fact everywhere throughout the fairest portions of Maryland, Virginia and the entire South, incaleulable resources of agricultural and min- eral wealth, of home happiness and public prosperity, are awaiting discovery and devel- opment by the multitudes of immigrants who may be expected to arrive at Baltimore as soon as the tide of foreign immigration shall fairly set in towards the South and the Southwest. The pioneer steamer Baltimore will lead the way in a movement which must result in happily re- constructing the Southern States, despite all the blundering and malevolent Congress, Southern Negro Reconstruction a Fuilure. The first case of Southern negro reconstruc- tion (that of Alabama) coming before Congress for a decision puzzles the two houses. They hardly know what to do with it. The consti- tution framed and the Legislature and members of Congress elected are satisfactory to the Re- construction Committee, while the little diffi- culty of an aggregate vote on the constitution less than the requirement of the law is con- sidered no impediment at all; and yet the ac- ceptance of Alabama is a matter which re- quires ‘‘a great deal of mighty nice considera- tion.” The trouble is here: Alabama, if restored to Congress and the State right to manage her own local affairs, though radical this year, may be revolutionized next year—con- stitution, negro supremacy, universal negro suf- rage and all. And so of Virginia, North Caro- Ina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisi- ana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. While under their present military governments and the direct supervision of Congress they can be managed; but once reinstated into full commu- nionas States they may become as intractable and offensive to radicalism as Maryland and Kentucky. Next in importance, therefore, to the restora- tion of these ten States as radical States be- comes the proposition, how can we keep them so? The radical leaders of the House have finally hit upon the expedient of another batch of fun- damental conditions in regard to suffrage, dis- franchisement, &c., by which these States are to be bound for the future and held subject to the judgment of Congress. But this is a shal- low device. Let us suppose, for instance, that all these ten disabled States are reconstructed and restored upon these fundamental con- ditions, and that next year the opposition party, sayin Alabama and Georgia, get control of the Legislature, call a new State Convention, get the majority therein, frame a new constitution reducing the negroes to a qualified suffrage, and so elect an anti-radical delegation to the next Congress, what then? Of course if the radicals, excluding these States, still hold the control of both houses, all these proceedings in disregard of the conditions of Congress, ap- plying to the future regulation of said States, will be upset. But suppose that in the next succeeding Congress the conservatives get a decisive working majority in both houses, and that they abolish this whole radical system of Southern reconstruction, will not that be the end of it? Most likely; and asthe laws of one Congress may be repealed by another, all these securities and conditions for the future with which the present Congress is endeavoring to bind the States concerned are liable to be over- thrown with the first change of the dominant party in Congress. This radical policy of Southern negro recon- struction, then, may be pronounced a failure. We find that even in Tennessee, where this system has been fixed inthe State constitution and government under Brownlow, the presence of the United States army is necessary to keep it on its legs. Of course a standing army will be necessary in all the other States under the same system, and the reign of these Southern standing armies will not much longer be tole- rated by the taxpayers of the North. Acts of Congress, as we have shown, will not avail to save this system, What, then, can the radi- cals do to save themselves and their Southern policy of reconstruction from a complete ship- wreck? They might save something by fall- ing back upon the constitutional amendment known as article fourteen and in proclaiming its ratification, But as that amendment leaves the question of suffrage to the several States, subject only to a loss of representation in pro- portion to the restriction of the franchise, it is too much in conflict with the compulsory uni- versal negro suffrage system to be adopted until the ten excluded States are made secure on a radical basis, at least for the coming Presi- dential election. It is enough, however, for the present that Southern negro reconstruction may be pronounced a miserable failure, Mayor Hofinan and His Promises. Before the last charter election the commu- nity were fed with golden promises by Mayor Hoffman as to the reduction in the expenses of the city government which he was going to bring about if re-elected. These promises were made in all quarters of the city, and es- pecially in those localities where the Mayor's portrait, mustache and all, adorned the walls of the barrooms; for it was in these regions that Mr. Hoffinan’s oratory bloomed like the fanatics, the intemperate frenzy of drivellers and demagognes, As republicanism hears its death sentence from the lips of the Chief Jus- tice and hears his vindication of the vitality of the constitution of the United States, it may well regre’ that, refusing to listen to the counsels of such a leader, it acted only from such stimulus as the rancorand the ravings of those who held that all must be done ‘‘outside the constitution.” more and Bremen. On Thursday Baltimore witnessed one of the finest and most jubilant displays which have ever enlivened the Monumental City. A grand civic and military processton, land National Guard, the police force, the Fire Department and various societies, in all about seven thousand men, headed by th Governor of Maryland, the Mayor and City Conneil and the other municipal officers of Baltimore, marched through the principal streets, and banners waved and martial music and the chin of church belis filled the air with merry clangor. made in honor of the officers of tha steamer composed of several regiments of the Mary- | This demonstration was | rose and sounded as sweetly as ‘the harp that once through Tara’s halls the soul of music shed.” He was re-elected, and how have his promises been fulfilled? By vetoing a few petty jobs of no importance at all, about which & great fuss was made, as though the city treasury was going to be vastly the gainer thereby. But the big jobs by which the pub- lic were and are mercilessly fleeced were ap- proved without a moment’s hesitation for the benefit of the ‘‘ring” over which the Mayor presides, It is boasted that Hoffman carries the Legislature in his pocket, and there is no doubt that the tax levy as adopted in that highly moral and conscientious body will be more burdensome upon the people than ever. In fact, a8 we now stand in regard to taxation and expenditure of the public funds, things are | worse than they have been before, And this is the man who aspires to he Governor of the | State, or Vice President, or, for the matter of that, President of the United States, or per- chance has the ambition to assume the mission of the Angel Gabriel, or some of the other high potentates of Heaven, We hope that the United States and the world at large will be saved from avy such infliction, legislation of | The Pacific Railroads in Congress. «i ‘The proceedings in Congress on Thursday on the proposition to regulate the freight and pas- senger tariff on the Pacific railroads show the hold these enormous monopolies have got on members. What could be more just and proper than for Congress to fix a maximum of charges for freight and passengers, so that the people may not be fleeced unmercifully by the Pacific Railroad companies? Considering that it is the government which furnishes all the means to construct these railrdads, we are astonished that any member of Congress should venture to oppose such a just and necessary measure. Yet it was voted down—that is, it was referred to the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, which is the same thing—by a vote of eighty-three to forty-nine. Washburne of Illinois and Washburn of Wisconsin were the members of the House who took a leading part in urging the resolution to regulate the- freight and passenger tariff and in denouncing the monopoly. The latter said the various Pacific railroad schemes would cost the government and people two hundred or two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and we believe he said the truth. Enormous grants of the best lands—enough to make large States—have been made to the companies. Besides these the government gives its bonds for all the money necessary to construct the roads. It is said, we are aware, that bonds are issued for only half the estimated cost of construction ; but the amount is fixed at six- teen thousand dollars a mile across the Plains, forty-eight thousand dollars a mile across the Rocky Mountains, thirty-two thousand dollars a mile for nine hundred miles across the great basin west of the Rocky Mountains, and forty- eight thousand dollars across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with the privilege of using all the timber, coal, iron and other materials on the public lands. There is no doubt that this amount furnished by the government will be sufficient to build the roads without the com- panies being called upon for a dollar. Then, in addition to this, there is an absolute gift of twenty-five thousand six hundred acres of land a mile in alternate sections. We know that the bonds of the government are issued as a loan, but who expects the companies will ever redeem them? The government is bound for the interest, and the companies will probably always have influence enough to keep the debt saddled upon the nation and the people through some hocus-pocus arrangement or other. We should like to know how many members of Congress are stockholders or are otherwise interested in this stupendous mine of wealth. The large vote against regulating the tariff of freight and fare is significant. The greater part or all, perhaps, were voting in their own interests, though there is a rule forbidding members to vote on matters in which they have a personal interest. This rule was read at the request of Mr. Holman, but no action was taken upon it. Members must have smiled at the simplicity of Mr. Holman for supposing the reading of the rule would have any effect when an overwhelming majority, probably, were per- sonally interested. For many years past these enormous railroad jobs und land grants have been growing frightfully, beginning with the Mlinois Central and other roads and culminating in thismost monstrous Pacific railroad mono- poly. Those members who got theif share in the former—and here we do not mean to intimate that the Washburnes had any—can afford now to ventilate the enormities of the latter. The truth is, Congress has become as corrupt as the New York Legislature, and that is saying agreat deal. There is a pecuniary or political job in every act of legislation, and the interests of the people are seldom thought of. This refusal to protect the public from the cupidity of a vast monopoly, and that, too, when the government builds the road with the people's money, is the most impudent and outrageous thing ever done by a representative body. Railroad companies are compelled sometimes tokeep the rates of fare and freight within reasonable limits on account of rival or com- peting lines, but the Pacific Railroad compa- nies will have no rivals and can charge what they please. The conduct of Congress in re- fusing to regulate the tariff of charges is dis- graceful in the extreme. Mexico and a Decent Respect for the Opin- ions of Mankind, Our late news from the Mexican republic shows that affairs in that unfortunate country are more terribly mixed than ever—involved, indeed, in difficulties the end of which cannot be foreseen unless the termination shall be found in a hopeless chaos. The time seems to be passed when we can save her or when she has any claim to salvation at our hands, The forcible hint to Mexico which we quoted a few days since from the London News 18 one that undoubtedly has the full sym- pathy of the mercantile and financial inte- rests of Great Britain—interests that inevi- tably shape the national policy and move the army and navy thereby. Originally the whole question between Mexico and the European Powers was one of money; but the Powers joined with France to enforce payment of claims, finding that France in- tended to abuse the expedition and turn it to an ambitious purpose of her own, drew out and left her to prosecute alone the events that led to the empire. The withdrawal of those Powers was a short-sighted policy. They had given countenance to the inception of the expe- dition, and they left France without restraint in a thing for which they were in part respon- sible, They should have remained and held her to the original purpose. Mexico pretends now to hold them as parties to the attempt against her sovereignty, though in withdrawing they gave an evidence that they were sincere in their original purpose, In pursuance of the view taken by his government Juarez, when by the grace of the American people he suc- ceeded in reaching his own capital, announced that all treaties between Mexico and European Powers had expired and lost what force they had ever had. It was not denied by this that the national treasury would pay its bonds, but simply that the obligation between the treasury and the bondholder had no longer an interna- tional character, Thus an English bondholder could no longer look upon his bond as guaran- teed by a treaty between England and Mexico; but he might present it privately at the trea- sury in the city of Mexico and get his money— if he could. “If he com” is the practical pofntin the ase, for he could not, If he could outlive the terrorlsw and savage ill-will to foreigners that the government has cultivated and developed, if he could escape the innumerable brigands that beset every path, if he could keep out of the national prisons and his grave long enough to get to the national treasury he would find that funds there were accessible only to the Power that presented bayonets, not paper. Hence it is seen that when Mexico declares the expiration of her treaties with European Powers ahe actually repudiates all debta owing to citizens of those Powers; for it is the very extravagance of absurdity to suppose that pay- ment can be secured except by force of arms. Consequently when @ great organ of the com- mercial community of England reminds this neighboring den of cutthroats and thieves that ‘war does not cancel debt,” and that, though there be no treaties and no ministers in the case, ‘‘we have other means of reminding na- tions of our existence when they forget what is due to themselves and to us,” it means that the necessity may yet arise for another European expedition to Vera Cruz. And if England proposes to go to Mexico with troops to enforce the payment of treaty claims what will the American people say? They will say, let her go. Never again will the clamor against a European invasion of the neighboring republic raise the voice of the American people in her behalf. Mexico abused too dreadfully the days of grace our protest gave before. We thought we were raising our voice against European monarchy in behalf of republican freedom. Mexico showed us that we only raised our voice against order and in behalf of barbarity, butchery and every form of degrada- tion and dishonor a people can put on. We will not be fooled that way twice, and whoever wishes to put his heel on the head of that serpent will find no hindrance here. The Jew Above the NormansA Panic Among the Peers of England. In the Heratp of yesterday we published the debate which took place in the House of Lords on the 13th instant in regard to the rate paying clause of the new Reform bill. In the same issue we published a cable despatch an- nouncing the fact that petitions to the House of Commons in opposition to Mr. Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish Church were being circulated and were recelving many signatures. We put these two things together because they both relate to one question, and that question is, whether the new Premier shall or shall not be trusted by the English Parliament and by the English people. The petitions against Mr. Gladstone's reso- lutions are to be considered from a threefold point of view:—First, as the expression of a stupidly anti-Catholic party; secondly, as the expression of fearon the part of the fat and full-fed members 6f the Church of England; and thirdly, as the expression of confidence in Mr. Disraeli as Premier of England. That the petitions in course of circulation are ex- plicable on the first two of these grounds most of our readers will at once admit. That they are explicable on the third ground may not be so apparent, but it is not the less true. There is no living English states- man so popular with the thinking young men of the country, especially with that class of young men who have been suc- cessful in emancipating themselves from antiquated prejudices, as Benjamin Disraeli. By that class of young men who are really the hope of the English nation the novels of Dis- raeli are devoured, his speeches are familiar to them as household words, and his numerous and pointed epigrammatical utterances are the selected exponents of their own thoughts. With that class in the community Disraeli is a real power—a sort of Carlyle in politics—and the power which in return they bring to his aid is not to be lightly esteemed. The debate in the House of Lords deserves our attention chiefly from the fact that it re- veals a species of panic among the peers that the most haughty and exclusive of their order should elect to be led by a daring and adven turous son of an outeast and homeless race, The Duke of Argyle made a clever speech; Earl Russell, for a septiagenarian, was sarcas- tic, biting, weighty, crishing beyond what it was reasonable to expect; but in both speeches jeclonsy and fear were painfully prominent, The Duke of Argyle vas indignant, and Earl Russel justified the indignation by proving that Mr. Disraeli was the most inconsistent of allliving statesmen; sut both the duke and the earl forgot that progress and consistency have but little, if anything, in common. If consistency be the only test of merit, the only satisfactory reason ‘o justify national conil- dence, what shall besaid in favor of Mr. Glad- stone, the elected standard bearer of the liberal party—a nan who began life by writing and publishing a couple of bulky volumes in defence of principles which, if pushed to their logical conclusions, would have revived the worst practices of the ‘worst days of the Spanish inquisition, and who is now the ackiowledged champion of the anti-State Church purty? Push consistency in Mr. Gladstone’s cise and he would at the present moment b+ the victim of his own principles. As, hwwever, we value liberal sentiment more thin dogmatism and esteem progress more higily than consistency, 80 wé have a word in fwor of both Gladstone and Disraeli, different ‘hough they be from their former selves. Is ‘here a man in the House of Commons or in theHouse of Lords, whose sen- timents are of any value to the community, who holds to-day the opinions which he held twenty-five or thirty years ago? The late outburé of temper in the House of Lords is to be expained only on the principle that the advent of Ilsraeli to power has created quite a panic amg the aristocracy. They will not have this Jew to reign over them. It fa not beyond theprovince of Disraeli, how- ever, to remind tlem that a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a desendant of Heaven's own nobility, the mos’ gifted race intellectually which the world 1a6 yet known, has no cause to be ashamed o@ himself beside men who, notwithstanding teir pride and lofty preten- sions, are at besibut the descendants of Nor- man freebooters md royal bastards. ‘Away with him! awaywith him!” is little likely to intimidate this labst Messiah sprung from the the loins of Abrham, imbued with the spirit of Moses, and inbriting no small share of the genius of David nd of Solomon. Tum Bem Rarroap War.—The bill to le- galize the issue of the ten million new stock by the directorsof the Erie Railway was re- ported adversely n the State Assembly yester- day, and the report was agreed to by a large’ majority, the vote being 83 to 32, Another bill of a similar import has been already intro~ duced in the Senate, so that the matter is not yet finally at rest at the State capital. If eventually defeated in New York, the present Erie directors will turn their attention to New Jersey, and will seek by the friendly legislation. of that State to retain possession of the.man- agement of the roads. The fight is not over, and the prospect is that it will last for many months, and that States as well as corpora- tions will be drawn into its vortex before it ia finally settled. : Diplomatic Breeches. : The people of the United States and the Queen of England have been brought to al point of variance on a subject of the most deli- cate and perplexing nature in consequence of the difficulty, almost impossibility, of recon~ ciling the careful republican legislation of Con< gress with the inflexible rules which control court etiquette at Buckingham Palace. Con- gress has forbidden, by special enactment, our! Ministers serving at the courts of Europe present themselves to royalty in any other’ garb than the full dress of an American citizen’ gentleman, while the kings, queens and em< perors will not receive the diplomatic ser vants of the Union, on ‘“‘court occ: sions,” unless they are habited in what’ is termed ‘‘court dress,” @ make-up which! in England includes a wig, a great shad-bel4 lied, gilt-lapelled vest and coat, knee-breeches,, buckled shoes anda sword. Queen Victoria,; emerging from her long-continued seclusion, the great joy of her subjects held a Drawing. Room at Buckingham Palace on the 12th in~ stant, the Prince of Wales having presided im the name of and by order of his mother over a like assemblage a few days previously. Mr.’ Charles Francis Adams, United States Minis~ ter at the Court of St. James, was peremp~ torily absent on both occasions, although he would no doubt have congratulated the royal lady on her restoration to the head of Englisk society in the most felicitous words of courtesy had she consented to listen to him in citizen! costume, or if Congress permitted him to shorten his pantaloons and lengthen and ex- pand and ornament his coat tail. & Mr. Adams, a gentleman of imposing pres ence and a faultless American inthe matters of attire and linen, was missed from the brilliant crowd, and the Lord High Chamberlain of Eng+ land explained his absence to the people dur- ing the evening in the columns of the Court Journal by stating ‘the United States Envoy} was absent from unavoidable circumstances.” The Lord Chamberlain is, by virtue of his office, a very pink of politeness, and the elegant words in which the nobleman who now holds that post informs our democracy and Secretary; Seward that Minister Adams would not put om court breeches prove very plainly that the dignity of the throne is not likely to be lowe at his hands, ‘Unavoidable circumstances" is a new name for breeches, and will no doubt be at once adopted by somo| enterprising Broadway tailor—if the Paris fashioners have not anticipated him—to describe the garment hitherto known 60 variably as “‘pantaloons,” ‘‘pants,” ‘‘trousers,’”” “anmentionables,” and so forth. This arrival, at a fixed nomenclature will be very agreeable to our great designers and cutters in writing, out their spring advertisements for ‘the HERALD, but does not by any means re~ lieve Minister Adams from the perplexing, condition in which he has been placed by hi loyal obedience of the law. Aware of the| coming difficulty, Mr. Adams sought to tem- porize, and in this lies his fault. He should have presented himself at Buckingham Palace| clothed as an American gentleman and ad- vanced until he was rejected ‘for cause” by} the Lord Chamberlain. The people would) then have comprehended the matter at once,! but through his gentle timidity he has only, more completely embarrassed himself and greatly bewildered the people who read the Court Journal with respect to the exact meaning of the “unavoidable circumstances.” What can Mr. Adams do previous to hig departure from London? He cannot discuss: the subject with the Queen without incurring, it may be, a charge of collusion with monarchy against Congress, nor can he well ‘take leave”, without referring to the ‘unavoidable circum- stances.” This explanation will require much nicety in the choice of words as well as their expression. If the ex-Minister assumed a little more confidence than what he appeared to possess on the Drawing Room days he might gently enlarge on the subject and thus render it international and interesting. We could re mind her Majesty that we have had a ‘“‘breeches question” at different eras in the history of both countries. George Washington wore breeches and coat and hat which would have passed Mr. Adams to court, and the like of which would even now be unexceptionable if the retiring diplomat would only join one of the companies of “Continentals” in this city and get elected as a commissioned officer, The most renowned of American soldiers— the only man who ever personally hauled down a British flag in battle and routed British troops with the bayonet—the late. Lieutenant General Scott, confessed himself at one time surprised with respect to his breeches; and a departed American states- man, whose memory is cherished by the de- mocracy of the United States—who dismissed the British Minister from Washington with all! the Queen’s officials in the country—was most! economically careful of his nether garment—a fact well known to the people of the State of New York. Jeff Davis abnegated breeches for & few moments, and just then fell, Queen Victoria herself pays some attention to the subject—with what ulterior object we cannot say—if the loyal journals of the Irish metro- polis are to be credited; tor within a few years past they have advertised tailor residing in one of the leading streets of Dublin as “‘ breeches maker by appointment to her Majesty.” Non-committal reminiscences of this. sort would render Mr, Adams’ leave-taking with Queen Victoria pleasant, and in the meantime the ‘breeches question” of the present hour might be permitted to remain over as the “point of honor” for the Alabama Claims Arbi- tration Court, or form, perhaps, the subject for a special cominission made up of three modern tailors of Tooley street and three American tailors—two from New York and one from Boston—to be chosen by President Johnson, if the radicals permit him. after the imveach- ment triad EEE