The New York Herald Newspaper, June 23, 1868, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HE ERALD BROADWAY AND ANN SUREET, JAMES GORPON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. AMUSEMENTS THM EVENING. NEW STADT THEATRE, 45 ‘and 47 Bowory.—Count oF Monte Cxisto—Lost So! FRENCH ‘THEATRE.—Mepxa—Man ie STUART. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tas Waits Fawn. .CK'S THEATRE, Broadway and 15th street.— Tor yy oF LIFE. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway. —A PLasa oF LionTNINa, pashioaaly BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—PARENTS AND GUAK- DIAN8—FRENCH SPY, £0. NEW YORK THEATRE, opposite New York Hotel.— Tux GRranv DocuEss. OLYMPIC THEATRE. Broadway.—Homery DoMPry BAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—ETHI0- PIAN ENTERTAINMENTS, SINGING, DANOING, Ac, KELLY & LEON'S MINSTRELS, Lid La —SoNes, BocenrmiorttEs, de.—La!—Brtt—L. BRYANTS’ OPERA HOU: SE, Tammany Building, 14th street. ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELSY, BOURNTRIOITIRG, €O. THRATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway, BALLET, FAROR, 40. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE 201 Bowery.—Comio VooaLism, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &e. CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, GARDEN CoNorRT. eventh avenue. POPULAR TERRACE GARDEN—Poro.a2 GaRrpEN Concent. MRS. F. B. CONW. THE FOLLIES OF A RK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— NEW YORK MUSEUD SOMRNOE AND AD New York, Tuesday, June 23, 1868. TRIPLE SHEET. THB waws. EUROPE. ‘The news report by the Atlantic cable is dated yes- terday, June 22, at midnight. A public meeting, presided over by the Lord Mayor of London, in support of the Gladstone Irish Church bill, was violently disturbed by tories, who packed the hall, and dissolved in a tumult verging to a mob. ‘The British Neutrality Laws Revision bill cannot be prepared during the present session of Parliament, The Irish Reform bill passed in committee of the House of Commons, The King of Belgium reviewed Farragut’s squadron at Ostend. A mutiny broke out on board the American ship Nereus at Antwerp, which was quelled only after a bloody fight, General Napier and Prince Alfred embarked at Alexandria for England. A new King has succeeded to the throne of Madagascar, Milan the Fourth is Proclaimed reigning Prince of Servia. By mail from Europe we have interesting details of our cable despatches to the 12th of June. CONGRESS. In the Senate yesterday Mr. Conness offered a resolution discharging the Foreign Relations Com- mittee from further consideration of the bill to pro- tect American citizens abroad. Mr. Sumner ob- jected. The bill tor the admission of Colorado was called up, but, after discussion, went over on the expiration of the morning hour. The Legislative Appropriation bill was taken up and an amendment striking out compensation for certain secretaries and clerks for the President was adopted. The bill ‘was then postponed and the Arkansas veto message ‘was taken up. After a short debate the bill was passed over the President's veto by a vote of 30 to 7—none of the famous “recreants’’ voting against it. In the House the Kentucky contested election case came up again, but was not disposed of. Numerous bills were introduced and referred under the usual Monday call of States. A resolution appropriating $1,000 for the collection in bound volumes of the pro- ceedings of cities, towns, &c., on the occasion of the soldiers’ graves decoration was agreed to. Resolu- tions tnatructing the Committee of Ways and Means to report a bill reorganizing and reducing the national debt to a uniform system and inquiring into the expediency of appropriating $50,000,000 to take up the government indebtedness payable in currency were agreed to, The vote rejecting the conference report on the bill removing political disabilities was reconsidered, and after an animated discussion the report was accepted by a two-thirds ‘vote of 98 to 44. The Kentucky election case was then resumed and the resolution declaring McKee elected was adopted. He then took the oath as Representa- tive from the Ninth Congressional district of Ken- tucky. The Special Tax bill was then taken up in Committee of the Whole. Mr. Schenck introduced the bill and gave a general summary of its provisions. Pending action on an amendment to reduce the whiskey tax from sixty to fifty cents the House ad- journed. THE CITY. The Board of Aldermen yesterday adopted resolu- tions to pave White street with wooden pavement, Maiden lane with Belgian pavement, and to give a stand of colors to the First brigade of cavalry. A petition asking for the speedy appropriation of $72,184 for damages awarded to a property holder on account of the Church street opening was referred to the Committee on Street Openings, and a resolu- tion which directs the granting of certain strips of land belonging to the city to the owner of adjoining property was referred to the Committee on Finance. In the Board of Councilmen the resolution author- izing the issue of $300,000 Park improvement stock ‘Was agreed to. Yesterday afternoon, at Bellevue Hospital, Coroner Keenan heard part of the testimony of the inquest on the bodies of the victims of the recent steam fire engine explosion in the Bowery, The examination will be continued to-morrow afternoon at the City Hospital, when the engineer of No. 9 will testify. ‘The operative vricklayers of the city yesterday at- tempted to inaugurate the eight hour system. The employers refuse to conform with the wishes of the men and a strike has ween the consequence. Work has been suspended on the buildings going up in the city. The master masons and bricklayers met yes- terday and agreed to stop all work until the journey- men agree to take the old price of tive dollars per day of ten hours, The corporators of the Central Underground Rail- way elected a board of directors on Wednesday, which will to-day elect a president and other officers, Arrangements will then be made for taking sub. scriptiuns to the capital stock of $10,000,000. Minister Burlingame and the five principal mem- bers of the Chinese Embassy arrived in this city yes- terday, and wili remain until Wednesday. A dinner will be given them by the Chamber of Commerce this evening. in the Supreme Court, Special Term, yesterday, Judge Daniels rendered a decision in the case of Knox ve, the Mayor, &c., awarding plaintiff judg- ment, directing the removal or abatement of the Loew bridge, corner of Broadway and Fulton street, within ninety days, and holding tn favor of the plain. U's right of uction for damages. The Fernando Wood lease litigation, brought by the city to set aside the leases made ander @ resolu- tion of the Common Council, in 1965, as null and void, came up for trial yesterday w the Supreme Court. Judge Barnard, ex-Mayor Gunther, ex-Coun- eilman Hayes, ex-Comptroiier Brennan and others were examined a8 witnesses. The case will be con- tinued to-day. Jane Collins sued Edward £. Richards in the Court of Common Pleas, yesterday, for the recovery of $10,000 damages for assault and battery. Case not yet concluded The Hamburg American Packet Company's steam- ship Allemannia, Captain Bardua, Will leave Hobo- ken at two P. M. to-day (Tuesday) for Southampton and Hamburg, The European mails will close at the Post Office at tweive M. ‘The steamship Colorado, Captain Cutting, of the Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Company's line, will loave vier 46 North river to-morrow (Wea. = NG AERA TORY y aontens at pen P. M. for Liverpool, calling ®t / The only way to check this frightful demoraliza- Queenstown to land passengers, ‘The Cunard steamship Australasian, Captain Mc- Mtcken, wil! leave Jersey City about nin> o'clock to- Morrow (Wednesday) morning for Queenstown and Liverpool, The steamship Mississippi, Captain Slocum, will sail for Rio Janeiro and intermediate ports, via St. Thomas, at three P, M, to-day (Tuesday), from plor 43 North river. ee tae The steamship Virgo, ‘Captain Deaken, will leave pler 16 East river at ten A. M. to-day for Havana, Sisal and Vera Crus. The steamship Leo, Captain Dearborn, will leave pier 16 East river at three P, M. to-morrow (Wod- nesday) for Savannah, Ga, The stock market waa strong yesterday. Govern- ment securities were active and buoyant, Gold closed at 14034. The market for beef cattie yesterday was depreased by the large offerings, amounting to 2,706 head, and prices were lower, fair to prime steers selling at 16c. a 17c., inferior to ordinary 1c. a 1530. and a few extra at 17i¢c. a 17ke, At these quotations the market closed weak, with several lots ansold. Milch cows—While inferior and common cows were in slow demand and heavy at $50. $66, fair to extra were in moderate demand and steady at $70a $110, Veal calves were passably active and steady at 12c. a 124¢c. for extra, llc. a 1134¢. for prime and 7c. a 10c. for common to good. Sheep were quiet, but rather more steady, at 7c. @ 8c. for extra, Tc. for prime, 5c, @ 63¢c. for common to good and 3c. a 4c. for inferior. Lambs were lower, selling at 9c. a Ic., according to quality. Swine were in fair demand, but with liberal offerings prices were lower at 9%c. a@ 9\¢. for prime, 9%c. a 93sc. for fair to good and 9c. & 9c. forcommon. The total receipts for the week were 6,243 beeves, 123 cows, 2,101 veal calves, 18,102 sheep and lambs and 15,755 swine. MISCELLANEOUS. ‘The case of John H. Surratt was called in the Crimi- nal Court at Washington yesterday, Judge Wylie pre- siding. The District Attorney presented the new in- dictment, charging him with conspiracy, and an- nounced the government ready to proceed. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Mr. Merrick, his coun- sel, tusisted that he should be tried on the first in- dictment for murder, as ordered by the court, but the District Attorney expressed himself not ready to proceed. The court then discharged Surratt on that indictment. A motion to proceed with the trial on the new indictment was made, and the case was con- Unued until Monday next. The prisoner waa then discharged on $20,000 bail. William M. Evarts has been nominated for Attor- ney Gereral by the President. The steamer Mary Powell ran into and sunk the schooner Matthew Vasisaron the Hudson, off Butter Hill, yesterday morning. A boy, the son of the cap- tain of the schooner, was drown ed. A lifeboat built on anew plan and intended to cross the Atlantic was upset on a trial tripon Lake Michigan, off Chicago, yesterday, and three of her passengers were drowned. Advices from the plains contain accounts of more Indian outrages. The Sioux are depredating near Fort Benton, and a band of Santees were whipped near Fort Barthold last month. Large bands of friendly Indians were encamped near Fort Rice awaiting the Peace Commissioners. Marshal Kane, formerly of Baltimore, publishes a card, in which he denies that any plot was ever on foot to assassinate President Lincoln on his trip through that city to be inaugurated, and savs that he (Kane) had made full arrangements to show him courtesy during his stay there. The trial of Whelan, accused of the murder of Darcy McGee, will take place September 2. A match game of base ball was played at Milwau- tion and to protect ‘the revenues of the govern- ment from fraud is to fix the responsibility in the President, where it properly belongs and where the constitution and the founders of the government placed it. At presedt no one is responsible, the Executive department of the government having been utterly disorganized by the partisan Vegialahion of and the consequéites are seen in umpafulleled frauds and in the loss of a hundred millions or more of revenue. The remedy is not in a reduction of the whiskey tax, but in'the proper restoration of the executive powers of the President, go as to make and hold-him respon- sible for the execution of the awe ‘The Church Militant in Engine’, The Church has been animated with a war- like apirit, in greater or less degree, at all periods of its history from the moment when St. Peter used his sword so rapidly and dex- terously in defence, as he considered, of its divine Head. The healing example of peace by which the pugnacity of the apostle was im- mediately rebuked was lost sight of at a very early date ; but his ready show of fighthas had imitatators—Pontifical, Episcopal and in lay zealots—to the present hour. The theologians assert, indeed, that to be triumphant in heaven the Church must be militant on earth—a dogma held most tenaciously by the Irish branch of the establishment during the past three cen- turies, and which, as appears by our cable tele- grams published to-day, its communicants and sympathizers are likely to cherish to the end. The Gladstone liberals of England called a meeting yesterday in London for the purpose of giving public expression to resolutions in support of the Irish Church Suspensory bill now pending before the House of Peers. The Lord Mayor of London presided. The Disraeli- Derby men, however, with a ‘sharp practice” which affords strong proof of the daily Ameri- canization of the political strategy of Britain, ‘aid pipe” actively and filled the hall with the most decided opponents of the requisitionists. The tories would not permit a resolution adverse to the Church to be put from the chair, the Lord Mayor was forced to retire, a general row, verging’ to a riot, ensued, and the mixed assemblage dissolved without any defined result. It is quite evident that England is being prepared for a most violently exciting election contest. The Irish nobles and clergymen who waited on Mr. Disraeli lately have likely indoc- trinated the Premier into the native plan of muscular support of religion; and if he could now have a couple of lessons from a few of the leading ballot box ‘“‘managers” of New York he would be very likely to win at the polls and be able to preserve the Church just as itis. Pro- fessors may go over to Downing street from Tammany Hall, if well paid, after the Presi- dential election in November—not before. kee yesterday between the Atlantic Club, of Brook- lyn, and Cream City Club, of Milwaukee, which re- sulted in a victory for the former by a score of sixty- seven to thirteen. Avother Shamefal Act of ongeenas One of the most disgracefully partisan acts of our present Congress was performed yesterday by the House of Representatives in the McKee-Young contested election case. Mr. Young had been refused admission to his seat on account of his having questioned the right of the government to coerce the rebellious States, or on account of somebody having said that he had so questioned. At the election in the Ninth Congressional district of Kentucky last year the vote stood—for Young, 9,042; for McKee, 7,563, thus giving the former a majority of 1,479 over his radical competitor. In addi- tion, an independent candidate received 862 democratic votes. In defiance of this decisive majority against him Mr. McKee contested the election on the ground that ex-rebels voted for Mr. Young, and the House has sustained and declared him elected. Now it so happens Demoralization ef the Government and the Whiskey Tax. The Committee of Ways and Means have hurried up their new bill regulating the whis- key and tobacco tax, and doubtless the great- est efforts will be made to push it through both houses immediately. The whiskey rings have triumphed thus far in making Mr. Schenck and his colleagues on the committee their tools, either consciously or unconsciously. Under the pretext that a tax of two dollars a gallon cannet be collected and that a tax of sixty cents can, and, therefore, that the revenue from this source will be greatly increased, the whiskey rings and distillers have succeeded in getting a bill reported to suit them, Such is the disgraceful and demoralized condition to which the government has been brought. Con- gress is beginning at the wrong end of the business, and it shows an utter incapacity to see what is for the interests of the country or what legislation is needed. Why has the government failed to collect the whiskey tax? Why hasa hundred millions of dollars a year, at the lowest estimate, been lost to the Treasury? Why have these stu- pendous frauds not been prevented? The Bri- that Congress itself, through the reconstruc- tion laws, has recognized the right of ex- rebels to vote. In this city there are, per- haps, not less than five thousand Southern men who vote regularly, and scattered throughout the Northern and Western States are thousands of others who do the same, and no one questions their right to the elective franchise. ‘/7hen we consider that the radi- cals in Congress have an overwhelming ma- jority—more than sufficient, in fact, to over- tish government collects nearly two dollars and a half a galion on spirits. Why, then, can- notour government collect two dollars? In England this tax is one of the greatest sources of revenue, and it ought to be here. Whiskey is not an article of necessity; it is entirely a luxury, and that ofan injurious and demoraliz- ing character. If people will manufacture and use it they ought to pay a hightax. No article is so capable of bearing such a tax, and there is none from which as much revenue could usefully and legitimately be drawn. Yet the humiliating and disgraceful confession is made that the tax cannot be collected! This amounts to an acknowledgment by Con- gress that we have no government—that the government is so demoralized as to be in- capable of executing the laws. This, unhap- pily, is too true. But reducing Se whiskey tax to sixty cents a gallon will not make the @overnment better nor make honest mon of thieves. The amount of plunder may be less, but the rogues will steal all the same as long as they have a chance. The government will be robbed if whiskey be sixty cents a gallon, or even less, just as it is now when the tax is two dollars, unless there be a thorough change in the administration of the laws, and if that change should be made two dollars can be collected just as well as sixty cents. Congress, as we have said, is beginning at the wrong end. The whole difficulty lies in the virtual abolishment of the Executive by the over- whelming radical majority in Congress, in the Tenure of Office law, in the clamorous and un- scrupulous demands of Congressmen for un- suitable appointments in the internal revenue service, in the partisan and reckless action of the Senate on appointments, and in dividing the powers that constitutionally belong to the President smong subordinate officers. Have we not seen the frauds of one great criminal, ride Presidential vetoes—the act of admitting to a seat a gentleman who was never elected becomes doubly shameful; for it has not even the plea of party necessity to gratify or ex- cuse it. Tne Case or Jonn H. Surratt.—This sec- ond elephant on the hands of the government came before the District of Columbia Court at Washington yesterday. As was generally sur- mised, after the recent finding of a second in- dictment against him, the charge of murder on which Surratt was tried and the jury failed to agree was dismissed by Judge Wylie. The prisoner was then held to bail in the sum of twenty thousand dollars to answer the indict- ment charging him with having entered into a treasonable conspiracy to abduct Mr. Lincoln. The trial will commence on Monday next, and at its close it is to be hoped that the jury will be able to find a verdict. Removine Disapiitizs or Ex-Resers.— The House of Representatives has passed, by the required two-thirds vote, the bill removing the political disabilities of some twelve hun- dred rebels. The democrats almost unani- mously voted against the measure because the names of two conservatives were struck from the list. It was alleged by a member, during the debate prior to the taking of the vote, that one of the parties named for Congressional clemency had recommended the assassination of President Lincoln and that the gentleman in question was from North Carolina. Mr. Broom- all, however, would not permit the name to be mentioned, Of course not. The person, who- ever he is, has joined the radical party, and by so doing has exhibited positive signs of repent- ance of any crime he may have committed or advised in bebalf of the rebellion. CHass Axxuow.—The | radicals | and the cop- Callicott, the friend and protégé of Greeley and Senstor Morgan, brought to light? Is not one of the Tiltons, of the Independent, with others of the same radical stamp con- nected with him, now under indictment for like crimes? Was not the nephew of that great radical chief in Virginia, John Minor Botts, with other raseals, lately sentenced for similar crimes by Chief Justice Chase? These, however, are but a few out of the number of internal revenue thieves who have been perheads are beginning to flatter themselves with the delusion that Chase as a Presidential can- didate, with the refusal of the Democratic Con- vention to take him up, will be dished. But this isa mistake. A movement is afoot to run the Chief Justice as the candidate of a new and independent constitutional democratic Union party, including a State ticket in New York and elsewhere, as wellas an electoral ticket; and such a movement will be apt to break up the calculations of the radicals and forced into office or kept there by the radicals, | smagh the Tammany machine. A pastienry~ Candidate for the Fourth of, July Convention, There are many men who take the greatest poasible interest in the Convention to be held, here on the Fourth, and are exceedingly anx- ious that the nominee of that Convention should be a soldier—a ‘hero of the great war. In op- posing Grant they say a soldier is necessary. A record of battles fought, difficulties over- come, terrible and trying gone through, is the most tangible and effective evidence of a man’s great qualities that can be put before the mass of voters, There is something in it. We only fear, however, its inequality. For what sort of show do these democratic candi- dates make with their records beside the record of Grant? They are nearly all men who proved impracticable for one reason or another and at one time or another, though withal good fighters, gallant and honorable gentlemen, who did noble service, for which the country must ever remember them with grateful thoughts. But what is McClellan beside Grant in our story? or what is Hancock? or what is Buell? It is not pleasant to have to name gentlemen who have served so well as these in terms that seem disparaging, yet it must be acknowledged that the achievements of men of this class pale altogether before those of the soldier who finally crushed the rebellion. But if the Democratic Convention must nominate a soldier—if it must have a name identified with the glories of the war—we will recommend a candidate for its favors. Let it nominate General Robert E. Lee. Let it boldly take at once the best of all its soldiers, making no palaver or apology. He is a better soldier than any of those they have thought upon and a greater man. He is one in whom the military genius of this nation finds its fullest development. Here the inequality will be in favor of the democrats; for this soldier, with a handful of men, whom he had moulded into an army, baffled our greater Northern armies for four years; and when opposed by Grant was only worn down by that stolid strategy of stupidity that accomplishes its objects by mere weight. With one quarter the men Grant had this soldier fought him magnificently across the territory of his native State, and fought his army down to a stump. There never was such an army or such a campaign, or such a general for illustrating the military genius and possibilities of our people; and this General is the best of all for a democratic candidate. It is certain that with half as many men as Grant had he would have beaten him from the field in Virginia, and he affords the best promise of any soldier for beating him again. Hayti, Dominica, Mexico and the Rest. The mixed races of Hayti, Dominica, Chile, Peru, Mexico and the rest of them arein a strange muss at the present moment. Both sections of the island of St. Domingo are in a state of internal revolution, and the one sec- tion may be said to be at war with the other. Asimilar state of things exists in Chile ond Peru. Mexico is, perhaps, the most chroni- cally diseased of all. The Mexican news of to-day differs from the Mexican news of any date during the last forty-five or fifty years chiefly in this, that Mexico is proved to be in a worse, more helpless and more hopeless state than it has ever been before. The mongrel races of the West India islands, of Central and South America, have, by a singular coincidence, each sunk to the abyss of misery and raised the wail of despair at the same moment. The coincidence is all the more remarkable that it occurs at a time when the doctrine of the equality of the races has reached a climax in this country. Interesting for many reasons, it has a special bearing on our present relations with Mexico. Minister Romero is here and wants two things—money and an acceptable American Minister. We have already ex- pressed our opinion in regard to the money. We will simply repeat that opinion and say that Mexico ought to get no money from us. She has no right to it. Besides, it is not money she needs so much as common sense. As to the Minister to Mexico our advice is equally simple and practical. We can do nothing till the Presidential election is over. So soon as that is over we have no objection that Mexico have a Minister sent from the United States. Phil Sheridan is the man we recommend. Only we wish Phil to be es- corted by a becoming retinue. We advise that he be accompanied by twenty-five thou- sand men. Ten thousand might do. It did before. But considering the improvement that Mexico has made in the military art in the in- terval, and considering what is due to one of our most distinguished generals, we recom- mend a retinue of twenty-five thousand men, with the ordinary following. ARKANSAS ADMITTRD TO Raveesentation.— By a vote of thirty to seven the Senate yesterday overruled the veto of the bill ad- mitting the State of Arkansas to representation. As it is now a law we presume that the del- egation will take their seats in both houses of Congress to-day. Both Senators and all the Representatives are radicals, and that such is the case is due entirely to the course pursued by the conservatives of Arkansas at the recent election. They declined to nominate candi- dates for State or Congressional offices, simply contenting themselves with voting against the ratification of the constitution. Hence, when it was ascertained that the instrument was rat- ified, they found the State almost entirely in the hands of the radicals, although they had carried two of the three Congressional dis- tricts and a sufficient number of legislative districts to have insured a decided conserva- tive majority in both branches of the State Legislature. That they are now represented in Congress by radicals alone is their own fault, and they will have to abide by the result of their mistaken policy ; not to say folly. Grant Gorse To THR Rocky Mountatys.— It is given out that Speaker Colfax, after the adjournment of this long session of Congress, say in August, will make a trip to Colorado, to see what prospeot there is from the mines around Pike's Peak to pay off the national bondholders in gold. General Grant mean- time, it appears, will make a short tour of mili- tary inspection West, perhaps to the Rocky Mountains, ostensibly to look after the Indians, but really, we suspect, to escape the pestering and impertinent politicians, When General Scott was a Presidential candidate he set out for Kentucky in search of a site at Blue Lick or thereabout fora military asylum ; but on his ‘vay he was entrapped into speech making. NIA ist ‘own rn a~ h “Self out Gat‘ and cold but made his athe funeral of’ the old whig party. Let Gen- oral Grant, in. departing on this projected ex- cursion, beware of ‘the Rocky Mountain cop- ee See Vere oar With the fifty. per--centum clause, or thirty- third section of the act, which is now the prin- cipal foature of It, in’ operation, the whole Pada and scalp vg him up tik commercial and business of the Sioa “aha est of soup.” country is again left without the or pro- tection of any efficient bankrupt law, and ‘The Marea New Amoeriean Academy, The newspapers have lately proclaimed an elaborate scheme for the foundation of a new American Academy, with a complete ma- chinery for sections of science, literature, art, moral philosophy, political economy and so forth, We find among the names of the respect- able gentlemen who have united in favoring this scheme only very few who are particularly distinguished in any of the above-mentioned “sections” of intellectual labor. And wo must confess that we are as much convinced as ever of the folly of attempting to establish in the United States another unsuccessful imitation of those European societies of which the French Academy, instituted in 1635 by Car- dinal Richelieu, is the acknowledged type. ‘The history of even that academy, as well as of the Italian, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the German, the Russian and Polish, the Scandinavian and the English academies, con- firms our opinion that all these imitations of the ancient Athenian and Alexandrian academies have been, to a greater or less degree, mutual admiration societies of but trifling influence in regulating the development of public opinion, and of almost no influence whatever in originating it. One of the most entertaining French books is the history of the forty-first arm chair in the French Academy— there are but forty to which French ambition can aspire—and this book contains the names of dozens of illustrious Frenchmen who were never entitled even to the epitaph which the witty Piron composed for himself :— Ci-git Piron, qui ne fut rien, Pas méme ‘Aondémiclen, All the arguments of Mr. Matthew Arnold in favor of the establishment in England of an institution akin to the French Academy, as what Richelieu intended it to be, “a haut jury—a jury the most choice and authoritative that could be found on all important literary matters before the public;” as what Arnold, echoing Sainte-Beuve, says it in fact became in the latter half of the eighteenth century, ‘‘a sov- ereign organ of opinion;” as representing, ac- cording to Rénan, ‘the authority of a recog- nized master in matters of tone and taste;” and as directly favorable, according to Arnold himeelf, to the improvement of the journeyman work of literature, and towards securing ‘‘an open and clear mind, a quick and flexible in- telligence,” fail to persuade us that either in England or in America such ‘‘a centre of good taste” is indispensable. Even Mr. Matthew we may, therefore, no discharge shall be granted to any debtor whose assets will not pay fifty per centum of the claims against his estate. Here proviso comes in—‘‘unless he (the debtor) obtains the assent in writing of a majority of his creditors who have proved their claims at or before the time of application for such discharge.” This is the deadlock clause of the whole act, or rather it is the whole act itself so far a8 any remedy to be derived from it by the debtor goes; for all proceedings in voluntary bankruptcy are by its operation simply impos- sible to the debtor who cannot pay the half of all his indebtedness, or who fails to receive the consent of the majority of his creditors, as'a condition precedent to his obtaining the benefit (?) of the act. The incongruity of such a clause as this in a bankrupt law has been already represented to Congress. But the opinions and recommendations of the district judges to whom its administration has been confided, the suggestions of eminent counsel and the apparent absurdity of the lame and impotent conclusion arrived at by the bun- glers at Washington, and which ought to have been patent even to them—all these have failed to call up the reconsideration of the law. The cause of this is easily assignable. Tho majority of Congress have been for the last four months in the labor throes of impeach- ment and had no time for healthy legislation. Hence the anomalous condition of the Bankrupt act, with all its costly and cumbersome ma- chinery clogged, disarranged and rendered utterly inoperative and useless as a relief for the very class of men for whom all proper bankrupt laws have ever been devised—the honest and industrious man of business and small trader whose ‘‘venture,” through unfore- seen circumstances, has turned out unprofitable Arnold's flippant remarks about “the Corin- thian style” for “‘a good editorial,” and about “this age of Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the New Yor Heracp,” whom he quotes, or mis- quotes, as having said ‘that the highest achievement of the human intellect is what he calls a good editorial,” does not convince us that an “academy” would necessarily substi- tute the Attic for either the Corinthian or the Asiatic style. Mr. Matthew Arnold bimself is driven, after all, to our own conclusion, on surveying the history of the literary influence of academies, that “so far as routine and authority tend to embarrass energy and inventive genius, academics may be said to be obstructive to energy and inventive genius, and to this ex- tent to the human spirits’ general advance;” he even says, speaking for the British people as we say, speaking for the American people, that ‘“‘an academy quite like the French or ruinous to himself and family. No active, energetic business man would ever dream of having recourse to the act while he could pay fifty cents on the dollar, and no sane creditor would drive a customer “to the wall” while he had such ample assets to enable him to continue his business and his. dealings and with the prospect of payment in full before him. Therefore for all practical purposes the act is a dead letter. But what is the result? The honest debtor struggling against a sudden tide of adversity, having no bankrupt court to appeal to, is again exposed to the oppression of a relentless creditor ; to actions, suits, judg- ments and sheriffs’ sales through the operation of the State courts. The ‘‘one year”, Bankrupt act has had, however, one good effect—it has proved the necessity that exists for it from the numbers that have taken the benefits of its pro- visions from March, 1867, to June, 1868. Let, therefore, the act, before the obnoxious thirty- third clause came into operation, be once more set in motion by the repeal of that clause and the introduction of a supplementary clause by which all voluntary petitions lodged with the clerk since the first of June be brought within the provisions of the law as it originally stood before that thirty-third section came into oper- ation. This isa simple remedy, and one that should be applied at once before the trade and business relations existing between the whole- Academy, a sovereign organ of the highest lit- erary opinion, a recognized authority in mat- ters of intellectual tone and taste, we shall hardly have, and perhaps we ought not to wish to have it.” The most serious work of the French Academy has been merely to record reluctantly the changes which time has wrought in the French language, and some- times to lend its tardy sanction to genius after its recognition by the nationand the world. From the days of Galileo and Tycho Brahe and Columbus to those of Gibbon’ and Franklin and Arago and Leverrier and Morse, what may be called the academical influence has vainly obstructed rather than encouraged indi- vidual energy and inventive genius. To these latter qualities, together with the prevailing spirit of the age, all the triumphs of science and art and literature have been due, and not to any inspirAtion of academies on the model of the Academia della Crusca in Italy, or of such a universal academical system as ob- tains to this day in the Chinese empire. Avorner Poor Pierog WantEep.—The old died-in-the-wool copperheads don’t want a na- tional, conservative, first class statesman for President, like Chase, and as they can't find a soldier to suit them they must be in search of another poor Pierce—some democratic obscu- rity against whom nothing can be said because nothing is known of him. A liberal reward in greenbacks will be paid for the discovery of an- other Polk or poor Pierce. Apply to Mayor Hoff- man or the Whiskeyskinski of Tammany Hall. ConaressionaL Leavgr.—Butler is the most proper man to succeed Thad Stevens as leader in the House, if Thad ever keeps the often repeated promise of the telegraph. But- ler has more malignity, bitterness, sarcasm, variety, wit, and left-handed wisdom even, than all the rest of Congress together, and will be just the fellow for Grant's right hand man— when Grant gets in. Tur Rapicars Friaatengyv.—The proposi- tion of making Chase the democratic and united opposition candidate against Grant as the radical nominee has badly frightened the radical organs. They hardly know what to make of it; but they have yet an abiding faith in democratic stupidity, and there is a prospect that this apparently incurable democratic stu- sale and retail dealer, and between creditor and debtor, have become entirely unsettled and dis- arranged. ‘The Presidents Vete. The President vetoed the Omnibus bill be- cause, he says, it is inconsistent with the consti- tutional provisions that leave the regulation ot suffrage tothe States. It is notsoatall. It admits the States upon their adopting the four- teenth amendment to the constitution, and if these States adopt that it becomes part of the organic law. Being such it will be supreme in the States on the subjects to which it refers, That amendment establishes anew, with direct declarative force, the old democratic principle that the States control suffrage. Thus the Omnibus bill gives the States power in the very matter in which the President alleges that it denies power ; for any provisions contrary to the amendment are null, and tnoonsistency that is only in words and can have no effect or force is the shadow at which the Executive strikes with narrow-minded persistency. Fancy the intellectual calibre of a President who re- fuses to assent to a good bill because it might be construed from his signature that he had changed his mind in regard to some other bill. This adherence to one poor little thought at the expense of everything else is the indication of small mind; it is the intellectual history of the monkey who smashed the pertinacious fly with the sledgehammer and quite forgot that he was using his master's head for an anvil. TinkeRwa THR Fixances.—In the House of Representatives yesterday a resolution wae offered setting forth that ‘‘the interests of the coutry require that the public debt should be reorganized and reduced to a simple and uni- form system,” and instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to report e bill at an carly day “providing for the funding of the public debt and the reduction of the rate of interest thereon.” A short debate. ensued, at the end of which the resolution was passed without a division. As @ motion to reconsider was laid upon the table the vote appears to be decisive, 80 far as the House 's concerned. pidity concerning democratic principles will yet once more carry the day. Tue Spurr Mevtum Tioxet.—A little pla- card is in circulation (vignette, a “big In- dian”) which proposes as the spirit medium ticket Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, for Prosi- dent, and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, for Vice President. Motto, ‘United we stand, divided we fall.” The spirit medium in this case is doubtless a member of the Loyal Leacne THe Doron Gap Ming Reapy FoR THE Mavron.—The Hon. Ben’ Butler, some day this week, weather permitting, is to make his report of the impeachment and whiskey bribery ring inveatization.