The New York Herald Newspaper, April 23, 1868, Page 8

e NEW YORK WERALD, THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1863.-QUADRUPLE SHEET. , bead NEW YORK HERALD the matronsof the institution, as a punishment for issued for the woman's arrest, In the Canadian Parliament yesterday a bill was "AY AND ANN STREET, BROADWAY AND Al reported recommending that a tonnage fee of $4 per JAMES GORDON BENNETT, | Canadian waters. ‘The Alien bill was amended s0 a8 to make one year’s residence suticient for naturaliza- tion purposes, The Canadian authorities report that they have discovered an important witness in the Darcy McGee murder ¢ase, the individual in question having seen the fatal shot fired, ‘The steamer Old Colony, of the Fall River line, ran ashore on Hart’s Island during the dense fog pre- vailing before daybreak yesterday morning. Her pas- sengers, 300 in number, were taken off by the steamer Stonington. The vessel is badly broken and very little hopes of saving her are entertained. During the same fog the steamer Electra ran into the Elm City, opposite Throgg’s Neck, Long Island souad, but by good fortune no serious damage resulted to either vessel. ‘The first trot of the season came off yesterday on the Union Course Long Island. The match was for $600, best three in five, for horses that never trotted better than 2:45, The black stallion Ben \, ood won the race, his best mile being in 2:56. A dealer on Beaver street on Monday mysteriously lost $33,000 in bonds. He has no clue whatever to the thief, although some of the bonds have already appeared on Wall street. The Erie Railway case occupied a protracted s¢s- sion of the Supreme Court yesterday, Judge Barnard presiding. The order of commitment of the witness Belden for contempt was discharged, he consenting to be put on the stand and answer the various ques- tions propounded to him yesterday. Several wit- nesses were examined, among them Judge Gilbert, of the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, who testified to the issuance by him of one ef the numerous injunc- tions in thecase. At five o’clock the court adjourned till eleven this morning. In the Court of General Sessions yesterday, before Recorder Hackett, John McDonald pleaded guilty to an attempt at grand larceny; sentenced to State Prison for two years and six months. Sigmund Haurerstein, convicted of obtaining money under false pretences, was sentenced to the State Prison for eighteen months, ,Charles Mansfield was sen- tenced to the Penitentiary for six months on convic- tion of stealing a coat. Charles Myers, convicted of grand larceny was remanded for sentence. The North German Lioyd’s steamship Weser, Cap- tain Wenke, will leave her pier at Hoboken at noon to-day (Thursday) for Southampton and Bremen. The mails for Europe will close at the Post Office at twelve M. ‘The One sidewheel steamship Herman Livingston, Captain Eaton, will leave pler 36 North river at three P. M. to-day for Savannah, Ga. PROPRIETOR. ++-No. 114 NEW YORK THEATRE, opposite New York Hotel.— ‘Panis AND HELEN. “OLYMPIC THEATRE, B: FRENCH THEATRE.—LA BELL® HELENE. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tae Wuitr Fawn. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and 13tb street.— HENRY DuNBAR ‘ogee THEATRE, Bowery.—NAnciss£—IRISHMAN’S OME. GERMAN STADT THEATRE, 45 and wery.—] GLOECKOHEN DES uneuiren” © om? 7 Bo she way.—Humpry DuMPry, BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Farry CrncLz— Iv AND OUT OF PLACE. ' NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street.—GyMNasTics, EQUBSTRIANISM, &c, Y THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Batier, Faxce, \ KELLY & LEON'S MINSTRELS, 790'Broadway.—SonGs, EocEntaivitirs, &0.—GRaND Dutou “8.” SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—ETHIO- TIAN ENTERTAUNMENTS, SINGING, DANCING, &c. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA Hi E, 201 Bowery.--Comio ‘Vooaism, NEGRO MINSTRELBY, &c. F,UROPEAN CIRCUS, Broad efan PERFORMANCE, LIVING nd S4th street.—EQuEs- IEALY, &C. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— Nios oF THE Woops. HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE. MINSTRELSEY—THE Ku KLUX Ki Brooklyn.—ETHIOPIAN LAN. HALL, 954 and 956 Broadway.—PANORAMA OF THE WAR. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SOIRNOE AND ART. QUADRUPLE SHEET. ‘New York, Thursday, April 23, 1868. THE NEWS. IMPEACHMENT. The High Court was opened as usual yesterday. ‘The order giving the Managers and counsel leave to file written argumtnts before the oral argument commences was amended so as to permit them to anake oral addresses If they prefer, and thus amended Was lost by a vote of 26 to 20, and an order permit ting as many of the counsel or Managers to speak as may desire to do so was agreed to. Mr. Curtis an- nounced that Mr. Stanbery would take no further part in the trial on account of illness. Mr. Boutwell then commenced his argument for the prosecution, reading from printed slips. At four ‘o'clock he yielded to a motion to adjourn, stating that he would occupy the court an hour and a half to-day, THE LEGISLATURE. In the Senate yesterday a bill authorizing the con- truction of piers from Thirteenth to Hammond ‘street, East river, was advanced toa third reading. ‘Bills were reported to provide floating baths in New ‘York, to provide a manual for the Common Council, regulating lights and fires on railroads and to re- jpuild Washington Market. Bills for a line of coaches in Central Park; for an additional Metropolitan Fire ‘Commissioner; to increase the pay of members of the Metropolitan Fire Department; and re- pealing the Niagara Frontier Police act jwere all reported adversely and the reports were jagreed to. The general canal bills were made the {special orders for to-day. The Arcade Underground Railway bill was taken from the table. and, pending discussion upon it, the Senate adjourned, » In the Assembly Mr. Sherman was allowed to re- tain his seat, contested by Mr. Smith. Bills were }passed fixing the compensation of coroners at $16 a ‘case, to suppress obscene literature, relative to emi- nts arriving in New York and to prevent cruelty ‘to children. EUROPE. , The news report by the cable is dated yesterday evening, April 22. The Fenians seized at Buckingham Palace are held sor examination, to be had after the fluid found with ‘them has been analyzed by the chemists, The jFenian murders trial was continued at the Old Bailey, London. The identification of the prisoners by omcials of Clerkenwell prison appeared complete, and the public interest in ‘the result was unabated. The Prince of Wales paid ‘nw visit of state to the Catholic College of Maynooth, lareland, Prince Humbert, of Italy, was married to ‘his cousin, the Princess Marguerite, in Turin, the ‘King of Prussia attending at the ceremony. Marshal ‘Narvaez, Prime Minister of Spain, lies dangerously ‘alin Madrid, Count Bismarck has withdrawn his Federal Debt bill from the North German Parliament. ‘Sir Morton Peto resigned his seat in Parliament. Consols, 93% a 93%. Five-twenties, 70', a 70% (ex dividend) in London and 75% in Frankfort. Paris Bourse steady. Cotton advanced: in Liverpool, with middling up- Yands at 12%4d., and higher in Havre. Breadstuffs wteady and quiet. Provisions and produce dull. By the steamship Scotia, at this port, we have our #pecial correspondence and mail reports from Europe, in detail of our cable despatches, to the 11th of April. The London journals continue to acknowledge the FRALD’s enterprise in anticipating the British government and press in the matter of special war news telegrams from Abyssinia, but “Bull Run’ Russell growls and endeavors to pervert the fact, for The reason that he is beaten in the most humiliating manner in the matter of news collection and trans- amnission, a department in which he assumed to have @ sort of specialty. MISCELLANEOUS. By the arrival of the steamship Arizona yesterday from Panama we have mail advices dated April 15. ‘The yellow fever had again appeared on the Isthmus, "The Costa Rica Railrond scheme had been revived under the auspices of a new company. Important ministerial changes are expected in Chile. The election excitement continued in Peru. Yellow Tever was spreading in Callao. Our correspondence from Hiogo, Japan, is dated February 29. Washington's birthday was appropri- ately observed by the Americans in the city and those connected with the fleet and consulate. We bh mail advices from La Guayra, Venezuela, to March The rebels were in entire possession of the provinces of Barcelona, Aragua, Bolivar and Carthobo, national resistance being mainly con- Mined to a paper blockade of the sea coast. eral Satillo, an old soldier of great influence in Barcelona, had, however, urged the people of that province to return to their allegiance, and a committee of citi- vens of Caracas had been appointed to offer terms to the insurgents on condition of a return to their al- legiance to the federal government. Other items of interest have been anticipated by our special de- spatches over the Gulf cable. No oficial returns have yet been made of the Louisiana election, It is under 1 that thirteen parishes give majorities against the constitution and six or eight for it. The result is considered very The Approaching Radical Presidential Car- nival, Under “Old Ben Wade.” The handwriting is on the wall, and Andrew Johnson, like Belshazzar, is to be displaced and his kingdom given over to the Medes and Persians. Radical astrologers at Washington read it from the stars that on many of the articles of Johnson’s indictment the republican Senators will vote solid that he is guilty, and that ‘‘the confidence in a verdict of conviction is evidently increasing in quarters that have heretefore considered it doubtful.” So it ap- pears that in the domestic circle of the White House they “are making their preliminary preparations for an exodus” (that is, they are packing up their movables), and that the mem- bers of the Cabinet, having warned their confi- dential subordinates of the impending event, are arranging their papers, in view of an im- mediate evacuation with the removal of their chief. Secretary Seward, it is given out, will return at once to the classic shades of ‘‘sweet Auburn ;” Secretary McCulloch will pitch his tent among the financiers of Wall street; the Secretary of the Interior, Browning, will open a claim agency, and Grandfather Welles, like an old ship withdrawn from active service, will tie up near the Washington Navy Yard. Sec- retary Stanton will doubtless send in his resig- nation to the incoming President on the plea that he is sadly in want of rest and recreation, and, with many thanks from ‘Old Ben” for his great and patriotic services in holding the War Office against the fearful conspiracy of Johnson and Thomas, we predict that the ex- hausted Stanton will be relieved. From this commanding point of obser- vation what a glorious prospect opens before President Wade! It extends as far beyond the reach of his radical telescope as did the shining Pacific to Balboa when first revealed to his enraptured gaze. The Cabinet, the foreign missions and consulates ; the Treasury, with its custom houses, lighthouses, internal revenue assessors, collectors and whiskey rings; the army, the navy, the territorial patronage, Indian agencies, commissions and what not, and the Post Office Department, with its twenty odd thousand postmasters, all placed at the disposal of President Wade, will be a tremendous power, backed by a radical Cabinet, a radical House of Representatives and a radical Senate. But all these things will be the mere incidentals to the great and far reaching power of the incoming Executive in the all important matter of reconstruction. Here the lengthand breadth and height and depth of the changes that may be made in our political system, and before the 4th of March next, are positively incalculable. First of all, however, President Wade, after the appointment of his Cabinet, will be required to meet the general demand of his friends for a new division of the spoils. Like vultures hovering over the camp of a great army these spoils patriots are already gathering in Wash- ington. A fortnight hence their assembled forces will be as numberless as the pilgrims of the Eastern caravans en route to the tomb of the Prophet. The expectants of this city, with its rich placers of the Custom House and Post re among the ‘‘wide awakes,” and their is Legion. Our loyal league and repub- lican club rooms are in a state of active com- bustion even now in the work of parcelling out the fat pickings held by Johnson's heretics on this island and its suffoundings. But it is supposed that with the appointment of his Cabinet and a reappointment of the Southern military commanders removed by President Johnson, beginning with Sheridan, the work of anew division of the ‘honors and emoluments” doubtful. In Georgia the contest is considered very | will be suspended by President Wade until after close, the conservatives being slightly ahead, In i Nati i X . , ago Nationa 5 7 Jonv North Carolina the situation is about the same, os vo < tia she Modest bia negroes in many instances having voted the con. | He 18 @ candidate for the Vice Presidential nomination with General Grant, and as in every appointment he may make as President servative ticket. In South Carolina the majority for the new constitution, so far as heard from, is thirty. three thousand. The clectton campaign is opening | ad interim he will make a balf dozen or more somewhat excitedly in Virginia. i intments, hi li i ‘A jury in the Cole-Hiscock murder case at Atvany | & sappointments, his policy will naturally be to was finally empaneled yesterday and the make as few appointments before the Conven- cooded, The opening speech for the prose made by District Attorney Smith. the prosecution was then comme: tion as possible, in order to keep his friends all hopefully about him at Chicago who examined the dead body of Hisc 1 It Is not by any means certain, however, Keeper who told the pistol. to Cole, and the polit. | tat Mr. Wade, even with the patronage of the man who made the arrest being examined. White House in his hands od fnferin, will be A boy named Rdward Ferguse able to secure the coveted place on the right the only son of a widow and an inmate of th hand of General Grant for the siecession Wetland street Brooklyn orphan asylum, wa Lamlin, of Maine; Wilson, of Massachusetts : lay autfering, it is al . of Connectiont; f gham ton, of New Goltax, of produced by th ing Of turning ofl of vitrio! Jurtio, of Pennayly being somewhat too precocious, A warrant has been | | Indiana, and others, have been entered for this position. The West having the President in | General Grant, the propriety and the general | usage heretofore in such cases of giving the | urged, and it is possible that in order to right the wrong done to Hamlin in 1864 he may be | the man. Otherwise the issue will be between Fenton and Curtin of the East against Wade and Colfax of the West. As a compromise be- tween Wade and Colfax it is possible that Fen- ton, Curtin or Stanton may get the nomination. In any event, after the Chicago Convention we may look out fora terrific slaughter of the inno- cents from Portland to San Francisco, without further loss of time. To guard against mis- takes the Tenure of Office law will be continued untouched; but with ‘Old Ben” as the dis penser we shall have nevertheless, as soon a8 Southern reconstruction will permit an adjourn- ment of the two houses till December. The carnival is coming, the first thing of the kind in the midst of a Presidential contest. What will be the effect of a division of the plunder while the fight is going on we cannot surmise, but if not managed very adroitly it will be disastrous to the dispensing party. It is believed, however, that in the whiskey rings alone the radicals under Wade will gain at least fifty millions of active electioneering capital. All contraband stills, especially if not worked by the faithful, will be righteously suppressed. Taxpayers will learn who are their friends, the manufacturers of the country, under their relief bill lately passed, will be duly grateful, and all the other business interests of the country, under bounteous summer showers of green- backs and national bank currency, will flourish like Jonah’s gourd. Under these appliances, and with the songs of General Grant’s glorious victories and of the decline and fall of Johnson, it is thought that the Presidential carnival of 1868 will eclipse in its fantastic processions and equipments and its monster mass meetings, with their negro minstrels, brass bands, canoes, tents, log cabins, spread eagles, wild animals and charming choruses of pretty girls in white, anything and everything of that memorable campaign of 1840 under the tri- umphant banner of Tippecanoe and Tyler too. Such are the anticipations of the radicals, jubilant over the impending expulsion of John- son from and exaltation of Wade in the White House. We only know, and have only to say in conclusion, that with Johnson’s removal a new leaf will be turned over in our political history, and that if we are to have a Presi- dential carnival of fictitious prosperity it will surely be followed by a terrible and sweeping revulsion. The Situation in Great Britain. Our special correspondence and mail reports from Great Britain, detailing the political and social condition existing ine the kingdom at the latest news date, reveal a sitnation made up of the most extraordinary contrasts of light and shade as regards the state ‘of religion, morals and material and political resources of the ruling classes and people. The extreme aristocrats, High Church old ladies, with very many of the retired million- naire traders, who made fortunes by the tor- ture of little children in the mills of Manches- ter previous to the passage of the Factory bill, throw up their hands in pious horror because Parliament attempts to reform the working of a sinecure Church in Ireland and hints at the inauguration, by legislative acts, of a system of religious voluntaryism in England. This class declares that the people will be rendered utterly godless unless everybody is forced to pay the clergy; yet we find that under the operation of their own peculiar system of sanc- tification the Lord Chamberlain to the Queen acknowledges to pay a great sum of money in hand toa foreign lady, with an annuity of six hundred pounds sterling during her life, for the injury of acknowledging her during many years as Lady Willoughby, his wife, and now summarily discarding her. Yet Lord Wil- loughby D’Eresby is the gentleman who regu- lates, controls and directs all the amenities and proprieties.of the Queen's Court and the theatres ; prescribing what style of breeches a United States Minister shall wear and forbid- ding or approving plays or public songs, just at will. Dublin Castle is by imperial fiction declared a royal palace and thousands of pounds ster- ling are being expended in f'ting the Prince of Wales in Ireland, yet we find by our special letter from Cork that the railroads of the South of Ireland are inadequate to convey the masses of emigrants crowding to Queenstown for embarkation to the United States in order to save themselves from poverty, perhaps star- vation, at home, and not caring in their hurry to get away if the Prince has the palace, so as they escape the poorhouse and prison and are thus enabled to earn a fair day's wages for a fair day's work in a free land, Amidst the reports of the feasting in the palace in Dublin comes news early of a Fenian attempt to fire Buckingham Palace in England, the Irish on either side of the channel contra- dicting themselves in the matter of loyalty in a truly Irish fashion. The British capitalists are troubled to find outlets for their unemployed cash, yet we find there are a million of paupers idling away | their wretched lives in workhouse Golgothas standing hard by their own palatial mansions; that the working classes in the mining and manufacturing districts are uneducated in alarming numbers and know nothing of any Church; that the miserable habitations of the laborers and artizans in the cities are crowded to such an extent that adults and children of both sexes and every degree of consanguinity are huddled into sleeping dens in batches as promigcuous and much more inwholesome than will be witnessed by Sir Charles Napier among the natives of Abys Every one is taxed to the utmost, directly or indirectly: the entire real estate of the islands is monopolized by a few thousand fumilies, and the representatives of the combined talent of these landlords have had to appeal to a learned Israelite to conduct their governmental affairs. The descendants of Abraham rejoice to find that amid about thirty-four vari Christian form of worship the Old Law and the crown of royalty remain alone unchanged and persistent, system, effect and the mul- | tiplication and maintenance of princesses. The conclusion is that Great Britain is just now ripe for another great peaceful atride in | vs of the } princes and | | Reform bill, and that the people must pioneer it by men from their own ranks. Disraeli and Gladstone have nearly reached their highest ‘bid for popularity and office. Who comes ton be imposed upon American vessels, fishing in | Vice President to the East will be vigorously | next? Who will be the first democratic pilot | for the British ship of State ? Dickens and His Dinner—The Gilorification of Jefferson Brick. Flattery is a currency in which every man has his price; but to properly apportion the price to the man, and to manwuvre the money into his wallet, never once awakening him to the suspicion that he is taking a bribe, is the finest of fine arts. How to please vanity and not offend pride, which would be offended if it thought you thought there was any such weakness as that very vanity you are trying to tickle—that is the delicate point, the ultimate problem; and all the charm of manner, the gloss and sparkle of polite life, depends upon success in this sort of play— upon the facile felicity of wit and word, the nicety of perception and accuracy of delivery with which a thought is impelled across a void to make a double carrom as it shoots away from the cushion of some pet prejudice. All this, of course, is wpere the real thought of man toward man is never permitted to appear; where astrict disguise is kept up; where every indi- vidual is for one reason or another standing on a conventional good behavior ; where there is an utter absence of sincerity. Indeed, that every one shall make believe he is ignorant in awkward facts he knows but too well, that he shall observe strict silence if he cannot speak anything but the truth, is the first condition of this good behavior; and the reason of this silence as to the truth is simple. It is the re- sult of a compromise. One man is exchanging polite phrases with another; he pretends admiration, though he feels contempt; he cannot give expression openly to such honesty as he has; and this is the result of a social necessity that forces him into contact with men he might avoid if he acted on his instincts and could always help himself. Such is the intellectual atmosphere in which occurs the promiscuous contact of men more or less public; such is inevitably the intellectual atmosphere of ceremonious gatherings; and such was especially and peculiarly the atmos- phere in which the Dickens dinner was eaten. Mr. Dickens does not like America nor Ameri- cans. No man of his class ever did, ever will or ever can. Sentimentalists prattle nonsense about an international cousinship, a common civilization, literature and language ; but every man in his senses knows that this is mere blather and sham. Englishmen are bred in prejudice against foreign countries deeper than even the Chinese prejudice of the same nature, and it is a prejudice from which education does not free them. This general sentiment has, as against us, been fostered by a press abused to the pur- pose. Mr. Dickens grew up in this sentiment, and in his early manhood it received bitterness from a sense of wounded vanity. He came to this country in the hope to secure the enact- ment of a certain law. He was discouraged by others who had failed in the same attempt, but he was sure that such a little and con- temptible body as an American Congress would not venture to deny any favor to such a great man as “‘Boz.” Congress did deny the favor, and Dickens felt this to be an indignity that he must resent, as any fishwoman would have re- sented it, by blackguardism and vituperation. He went home in this Cockney spirit and lent to Cockpey prejudice, purpose and venom all the force of his genius. He wrote about America and its people in pages that lay bare his real thoughts—pages that were honestly written, because he believed that socially he had done with us. What he wrote was in one sense true, but ina greater sense false. He pictured scenes and persons that existed here, as rascals and fools are every- where; but he put them before the world as fair representatives of our social life, and this they were not; and he put them forth not with the legitimate corrective purpose of satire, but as pandering to his countrymen’s hatred of us and in the will to make them hate us more deeply, as wounded vanity had taught him to do; and this bad motive was the worst of his offence. Neither was this dinner the result of a spon- taneous, irresistible ebullition of love for Mr. Dickens on the part of those who got it up. It was started in the first place by two or three small scribblers whose desperate ambition to secure literary fame has hitherto been ex- pressed in wearing long hair, slouched hats and Byron colors—in the cultivation of a generally eccentric exterior. Literary fame courted by such means comes slowly. These worthies, therefore, when Mr. Dickens visited us for the second time, invited him to dinner. He would come or he would refuse to come; and in either event they would pub- lish the correspondence; and this association of their own dear names with the name of this literary star of the first magnitude would set them up forever as ‘‘distinguished literary men.” They said to Mr. Dickens, ‘We are the press of New York city; come and dine with us. Hitherto our dinners have been strictly pri- vate, but in your case we will consent to make an exception, and it shall be published in all the papers—if you desire it.” Mr. Dickens said, “I don’t desire it, 1 will dine with you ; but pray don’t make an exception to your usual | privacy in my case.” So they dined and told all about it in the papers to show how Mr. Dickens honored the New York press. These philosophers and watercure fellows called themselves the representatives of the press of this city. No doubt a peanut might call itself the representative of the City Hall, There is | perfect freedom in that respect. But these fellows were no more legitimately what they ptetended than the three tailors in Tooley street were the people of England. They invited to | their dinner, it is true, just as they invited Dickens, men who really are a legitimate part of the press. | and was intended simply to glorify its origina- tors. They wanted to hang up a good account of themselves and put the name of Dickens over it to attract attention. | side, Dickens dined with men he did not kaow and did not like, and these men dined | with him to glorify themselves. From the very nature of the case all the L-will was | fitial, all the beartiness was pol (dnce. They made bel tool | that there was some mutial syanp allt /, 1x But the thing began in sham, | There was sincerily, therefore, on neither | | they did it so awkwardly that no one was de- ceived for a moment. Dickens felt that he was _ there because he had kicked these fellows and ' they liked it and wanted to be kicked again, | and the newspaper men stood for so many per- | sonations of Jefferson Brick—awkward, imper- | tinent, self-sufficient bores, Such was the | Dickens dinner. An especial feature of it was that Mr. Dickens tried to buy us out on the old score with some flattering phrases. He failed to appreciate our price, and his awkward attempt had no result but to call attention freshly to his offence. He has not hitherto mentioned here his volumes on this country, and he would have done better to have gone away keeping that silence. He had only made men feel that there is something worse than being abused by a Cockney, and that this is the humiliation of being the subject of his patroniz- ing laudation. He should not fancy that we do not rate at their true value the praises of a man who lauds the country from which he carries a fortune and lampoons without stint that which gave him only the remembrance of wounded self-esteem. Meeting of All the Talents and Graces. Delmonico’s has become historical and famous for dinners, suppers and eating and drinking reunions of various sorts and qualities, but there have been none so remarkable as the meeting and lunch there of the ‘‘Sorosis” on last Monday afternoon. Lest the reader un- learned in classical language should be startled by this peculiar and harsh sounding word, “Sorosis,” and should imagine it to be the name of some strange animal, like the gorilla or cynocephalus, and that the lunch referred to is only a figurative way of mentioning the feed- ing of such animals, we will explain at once that the word means sisterhood, or something like it, and that the lunch was simply a little repast or entertainment enjoyed by thirty or forty ladies of literary and artistic fame. ‘‘Sorosis,” then, is the name of a club, league or association of women distinguished in the world of literature, art, science, fashion and taste. The club or society has not been fully organized yet, and the meeting at Delmonico’s on Monday was held chiefly for the purpose of completing the organization; but as the discussion of this object among thirty or forty ladies necessarily became discursive, and as the eloquent fair ones could not be brought to the point, as we are informed, the business had to be deferred. All will readily admit that a four hours session, which was partly occupied in sipping lemon- ade and chocolate and in eating lobster salad, sponge cake, ice cream and sundry other things, was not long enough to accomplish such an important object. It will take, proba- bly, many such meetings to perform the work. In alittle circular, which is kept very private and only permitted to go into the hands of a few privileged persons, and which we saw by accident, the object of the association and names of the temporary officers are given. It is, as stated in the circular, ‘‘to promote agreeable and useful relations among women of literary and artistic tastes.” It professes to be “entirely independent of sectionalism or partisanship. It recognizes women of thought, taste, intelligence, culture and humanity every- where, and particularly when these qualities have found expression in outward life and work. It aims to establish a sort of free- masonry among women of similar pursuits, to render them helpful to each other, and to bridge over in some degree the barrier which custom and social etiquette place in the way of friendly intercourse. It affords an opportunity for the discussion, among women, of the new facts and principles which are constantly being involved, the results of which promise to exert a most important influence on the future of women and welfare of society.” This is the platform of principles and the object. Members are elected by ballot. The initiation fee is two dollars, and every lady is to bear her proportion of the expense incurred for lunches and other things. Meetings are to be held once a month, and the committee is always to order the lunch. Guests—that is, ladies only—may be invited. The present officers are:—President, Alice Cary; Vice President, Jennie C. Croly ; Corresponding Secretary, Kate Field ; and the committee—Phebe Cary, Ella Clymer, Celia M. Burleigh, Josephine Pollard, Lucy Gibbons, Ellen L. Demorest and Charlotte B. Wilbour, Recording Secretary and Treasurer. At the meeting on Monday there were pre- sent, besides the above named, Madame Le Vert, Mra. Elizabeth Oakes Smith and a num- ber of others known either in the literary or fashionable world. Madame Demorest led off in fashion, as was proper, and it is said her dress was superb. Indeed, we understand that the toilets of the ladies generally were elegant. No doubt the esthetics of dress will be well attended to and fully discussed at all the meet- ings, and this may lead to another American declaration of independence in the matter of fashion and against the tyranny of Paris. The ladies do not, however, confine themselves to the question of outside adornment or intel- lectual pabulum; for the lunch and inward comfort form an important part of the business. There was a lady M. D. present, but she did not appear to exercise the functions of her profession in regulating the diet. A little ‘advice in this matter would not have been amiss, considering the delicate fair ones mixed chocolate with lemonade and lobster sauce with ice cream, and a number of other things equally as incongruous. If it were delicate to think about such a matter at all we might imagine the disagreeable sensations expe- rienced after indulging in such a mixed lunch. It is quietly hinted, though not openly avowed, that this club is the beginning of a movement to offset the billiard room, club and other out- side indulgences of the men. Bachelors leave the unmarried ladies in loneliness and hus- bands their wives to go to clubs, leagues and other more questionable places, and why should not women associate for amusement? But after all we advise the ladies of the “*Sorosis,” among whom there is much talent, | grace and beauty, to do nothing in spite or by | the way of retaliation. If they confine them- selves to the cultivation of taste, literature | and their intellects, combined with social en- | joyment, they may do good and give a high | and refined but let them eschew mixad lunches of chocolate, lemonade, lobater salad, ice cream and other such incon rious materials at Delmonico’s, or they will go home with the nightmare and have to send tone to society ue path of citizen progress wader the new dood of the aout and auch pretty (rifles: but for the doctar in the morning, £ meen a The Latest from’ Japan. In our issue of yesterday we published a telegram which reached us via London, to the effect that the government of the Mikado, which, if it is not in absolute possession of, seems at least to have assumed the supreme power in the State, had promised to indemnify all foreigners for the losses they had shstained during the late disturbances. In the same issue we published a letter from our special correspondent at Yokohama, which helps us to understand what the telegram means, From the letter it appears that there had been some hard fighting between the forces of the Tycoon on the one hand and the forces of the Mikado, headed by Satsuma, on the other. During the struggle, which had not ended at the date of our correspondent’s letter, foreigners had sus- tained heavy losses, had been greatly incon- venienced and had refused to recognize the authority of those who pretended to be acting in the name of the Mikado. Whether th Tycoon, who, it was supposed, would be aided’ by the Northern princes, has been compelled to give up the fight we have not yet learned, The probability, therefore, is that the promised indemnification is a species of bait held out by Satsuma and the other chiefs of the Mikadg party to secure foreign recognition and sup port, The success of the Mikado party, we are told, implies the death of the Tycoon. This being the case, it may be taken for granted that he will maintain the struggle se long as a ray of hope remains. It is to us am argument in favor of the Tycoon that the foreign Ministers, our own included, had refused to recognize the authority of the Mikado. City Mortality—Tenement Houses. The health statistics of the city for the past week show that there were five hundred and nine deaths, a large proportion of the de- ceased—nearly thirty per cent—being children, many of whom died from scarlet fever—a fact which suggests that the utmost caution should be observed to prevent the spread of this con- tagious disease in neighborhoods where it pre- vails. But the most remarkable feature in the sanitary returns of last week is the mortality recorded in tenement houses. Out of the five hundred and nine deaths there appear to be one hundred and sixteen accredited to the public institutions, and to the tenement houses two hundred and fifty-nine, leaving only one hundred and thirty-four for the mortality of all other classes and localities. The inference, of course, is that the chief source of fatal dis- eases is to be found in the system of crowding these houses with human beings, the insuffl- ciency of ventilation and the want of means to preserve cleanliness. If something is not done to improve the condition of this class of dwell* ings tenement houses will become pest houses. The summer is now approaching, with all its prospective epidemics. The protracted winter and late spring have exposed the city to many dangers because of the difficulty to keep the narrow streets and byways clean; there- fore no time should be lost in hurrying up the work of removing the garbage from the back slums, where tenements are generally located, lest the hot weather should come upom us and generate pestilence from the acoumu- lated filth of the last six months. There is a solemn warning conveyed in the mortality statistics of the past week which cannot be safely disregarded. ApyssintaA.—In yesterday's Heratp we pub- lished a special cable despatch which gives us some days’ later news of the position and pros- pects of the British army in Abyssinia. On the 1st of April, the date of the despatch, General Napier, with the First brigade of his army, was at Abdicom, a point some ten miles from the banks of the Jidda river. The troops had received orders to concentrate at Sindlay, om the left bank of the Jidda—a point distant from Magdala some thirty miles, but only twenty miles from the river Bashilo, where Theodorus was said to occupy an entrenched position with the main body of his army. The prisoners, it had been ascertained, were all im . good health, and Mr. Rassam had had his chains struck off by royal order. The cains had begun to fall, and rapidity of movement had become more necessary thanever. Our next message is certain to be intoresting. nd Dolby, with the personal suite of the former and the proceeds of their tour through the United States, sailed yesterday in the steamship Russia for England. The departure of the great loa was as quiet and unostentatious as could well be managed, and was characterized to the last by that “unsurpassable respect for his privacy” which he so much commended upon the occasion of his recent speech. Mr. Dickens left the Westminster Hotet about half-past eleven A. M., accompanied by Mr. Dolby and Messrs, Jarrett and Palmer, and proceeded to the foot of Spring street, where he wenton board the tug Only Son, which had been placed at his service by Mr, Morgan, @ merchant of this city, himself a passenger per Rus- sia, Mr. Dickens here met Messrs. James T. Fields and James R. Osgood, of the firm of Ticknor & Fields, and Messrs. Wild and Page, his ticket agents, the former of whon he presented $100. Mr. Morgan likewise joined the party. A short trip brought the. tug alonside the Russia which had early in the morn- ing hauled from her dock at Jersey City and anchored about haif way" between the Battery and Staten Island in the very centre of our noble bay, thus affording the departing guest a rare opportunity to study in detail its magnificent scenery or take in in one comprehensive survey ita grand extent as the steamer rocked lazily upon tts scaroely rumMed bosom, glowing in the light of the first spring: sun, About one o'clock the Metropolitan Police boat came alongside with Superintendent John A. Ken- nedy and Thurlow Weed, when the party thus. augmented sat down toa lunch in the saloon. Toasts were drunk, farewell greetings and well wishes in- terchanged, but no formal speeches were made on either side. With the last boatload of paasengers came Mr. George W. Childs, the Philadelphia pab- lisher, and Mons, Du Chatilu, to take their leave of Mr. Dickens, The time permitted was short; 4oon the bell rang and the farewells commenced, Mr. Dickens and Mr. Fields embraced each other with great fervor, indeed the partings were all of that carnest kind which men fee! however much they laugh at the sentiment when the thought comes to the mind at such times, “Perhaps on earth | may never more behold with eyes of sense (his outward form and sembiance.”” When the tug had left the great ship and was turing her prow again toward the city, three hearty cheers aud a tiger were given for Mr. Dickens, three more for Mr. Dolly; and again as the distance rapidly Increased, three more for Mr Dickens—handkerchiefs fluttering and hats waving watt the wading was reached, Mr. Dickens takes with him numerous souvenirs from bis many per- sonal friends in this and other cities, and countioss floral offerings, among others of (he latier from the ladies of the Westminster Hotel, and a basket with the word “Farewell” in the centre, from Mr, Ohitda, The Rugaia left about halfpaat (wo o'o ook