The New York Herald Newspaper, August 26, 1868, Page 6

6 EW YORK HERALD PROADWAY AND ANN STREET. N JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York HERALD. Volume XX XU AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENLN i. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and I3tb street. Fine Fiy. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway. Fou! Pay. NIBLO'S GARDEN.—Banae Biever. NEW YORK THEATRE, Broadway.—Fout PLav. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Huwiry Domrry. BRYANTS’ OPERA HOUS street. —ErHiOv(AN MINSTREL many Building, Mth TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE 201 Bower VooaLism, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, dc, Nati 514 Broadway. — &c. Matinee at) THEATRE COMIQ' ORNTRIOITITs, Come V CENTRAL ?”. GARDEN, Seventh avenue.-PoruLaR GARDEN Concrs PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— N MINSTRELSY, &¢. BROOKLYN ATHENAUM, corner of Atlantic and Clin- ton sts,—A Dow COURTSHIP —RINGING THE CHANGES. [OUSR, | Brooklyn.—HooLey's ve, ILL Trovarore, HOOLEY'S OPERA MINSTRELS—Orrna Bo NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 613 Broadway.— SOIENCE AND Aut. New York, Wednesday, August 26, 1868. THD NaAWS. EUROPE. The news report by the Atiantic cable is dated yes- terday, August 25. The English yacht Cambria won the international race, the rican yacht Sappho being last. o will go to India as Governor General. ers, after the gale on the English coast, were still reported. German politics pro- gressing towards reunion of Fatherland, North and South. Consols 9414, money. Five-twenties 7144 in Lon- don and 74%, in Frankfort. Paris Bourse strong. Cotton firm, with middling uplands at 104d. Breadstut!s firm. Provisions quiet. By steamship, at this port, we have special European correspondence in additional detail of our cable telegrams to the 14th of August. MISCELLANEOUS. Our Vera Croz letter is dated August 13. General Alatorre, who had been defeated in the Puebla Sierra, was retreating towards Vera Cruz, where he was daily expected. Governor Hernandez had re- turned from Tampico, Romero had arrived at the capital with his wife and mother-in-law and re- sumed his position of Minister of Finance. It was thought probabie that he would succeed De Tejada as Prime Miuister and Minister of Foreign Relations. General Ramon Tabera, who was second in command to Marquez during the siege, has been imprisoned in the convent of Santa Teresa. Later mail advices from Hayti state that Salnave was forcing a loan of $200,000 from the merchants of Port au Prince. Most ofthe merchants are English- men and refused to pay their quota, but after a few hours’ imprisonment agreed to his demands. The iy adopted between them will soon be given to the public, The Narragansett races commenced yesterday. One of the races was a handicap, for which Stone- wall Jackson, Climax and two other horses were en- tered, Climax won the race, two miles, In 3:38%{ by half a dozen lengths over Stonewall Jackson, al- though his rein broke and his rider was compelled to ride him bending far over his neck. A resolution was introduced in the Loulsiana Senate yesterday appointing a committee to investi- gate charges of corruption against Governor War- Moth and certain members of the Legistature, It was tabled, An old clergyman of seventy, and his daughter, of twenty- both highly educated and accom- plished, have been discovered living as hermits about thirty rmailes from Chicago. They have lived thus in most outrageous filth and with no diet but corn bread for twelve years, Colonel George Hancock, of Jefferson county, Ky., is said to be in possession of an original letter of General Washington, dated March, 1787, In it he declines to attend a political convention in Phila- | delphia in the following May because he had previ- ously Ceclined to attend a meeting of the Cincinnati at the same tine and place, Patrick Morrissey, a young man, was before Judge Kelly on Monday for abusing his mother and sister. While his mother was testifying against him he attacked her with an open claspknife, inflicting a slight wound upon her head. He was then commit- ted to prison. A woman was arrested asa vagrant in Brooklyn yesterday who had two little girls with her, hey denied that she was their mother, and the affatr is supposed to be a case of kidnapping. A street bing affray occurred on Atlantic stre on Monday night, in which Thomas Cunningham, a young man, was bed by a Ger- man named Baudendistel. The wounded man died yesterday, and’ Baudendistel was arrested and con- fessed that he stabbed the deceased, but in self- defence, which statement has, so far, been gene- rally corroborated by those who saw the occurrence, A boat race came gif at Sing Sing yesterday be- tween Joliuiny McKiel and Jared Raymond for $200 aside, over a course of about two and three-qaarter miles. MeKiel won by over three lengihs in 21 min- utes and #0 seconds. Dr. Harris’ mortality report states that there were 732 deaths in New York last week and 311 in Brook- lyn. Mrs. Victor, convicted in Cleveland, Ohio, for the rime of poisoning, and sentenced to be executed on the 29th inst., has been respited until November 20, The Cunard steamship China, Captain Hockley, Will sail from the wharf, Jersey Ci at one o'clock to-day for Queenstown and Liv The mails will close at the Post Office at twelve M. The A(lantic Mail Steamship Company’s steamer Missouri, Captain Palmer, will sail for Havana at three o'clock to-morrow (Thursday), leaving pier No. 4 North river, The steamship General Barnes, Captain Norton, will be dispatched from pier 36 North river at three o’clock this afternoon for Savannah, The steamship Saragossa, Ca; in Crowell, of Leary’s line, will leave pier 14 East river, foot of Wall street, this afiernoon, at three o'clock, for Charleston. The stock market was dull but variable yesterday, Government securities opened weak but closed very strong ata marked advance. Gold closed firm at 144jg @ 14436. New Revolution—The Telegraph», the Ruilrords and the Banks, We publish in to-day’s Herap a very curi- ous attack upon “monopoly in journalism,” which appeared in last week's Spirit of the Times, a paper that possesses the now rare merit of sometimes starting an original idea, While its writer evidently has a vivid concep- tion of the new revolution whose approach is foreseen by thinking and intelligent men in The money, it is reported, is wanted to replace his losses by the canture of the Sylvain. Several respectable persons had been shot while prisoners in his hands, General Laroche had been arrested for an atiezed de- ficit in his contract for the repairing of the Galatea. The merchants of Port au Prince were required to reopen their stores on penalty of being considered enemies of the government. ‘The Captain General of Cuba has directed that no passengers shall be allowed to land on the island henceforth unless provided with passports vis‘? by @ Spanish Consul, The fi her's oflcers engaged in the Broadway theatre shovting affray were examined before Jus- tice Shandley at Jefferson Market yesterday and re- manded, after some evidence, until the condition of the wounded men ts definitely ascertained. Sheri O'Brien's counsel appeared in court soon after and demanded their immediate release on bail or an im- mediate hearing, stating thatthe Sherif? held him- self the sole responsible person in the affair, as the omicers were merely executing a process under his orders, Judge Shandley, however, declined to change his order, The wounded persons are said to be im- proving. Our Louisiana correspondent states that the rival political parties are fully alive to the necessity of commanding the negro vote. The democratic land- holders coerce the colored vote by refusing to employ @ny but democratic labovers; but the negrocs, alive to the emergency, are advised by the republicans to coerce the owner's vote at election time, when the cane is ripe for cutting, by deserting them in a body unless they vote the republican ticket with them. Major General Meade, commanding the Depart- ment of the South, recently Issued a general order dissolving the military commission which convened in Atlanta, Ga., June 29, 1868, for the trial of the alleged murderers of George W. Ashburn. Direc- tions were issued July 24 for the release of the prisoners on bond to answer any demands of the civil or military authorities, and consequently no farther order regarding their disposition is neces- sary. This course was adopted in view of the mmediate admission of the State of Georgia and the consequent cessation of military authority. Colonel William Brown, of Nicholasville, Ky., made a speech ata Grant meeting in Frankfort on the 20th, In which he gave an extraordinary expost- tion of the secret history of Seymour's nomination, Colonel Brown is a personal friend of Mr. Chase, and was hard at work in his interesta ag the New York Convention. According to his story a large portion of the delegates had figured out a programme for the nomination of Mr. Chase, and Mr. Seymour strongly favored it; but the reactionary democrats of the Vallandigham and Hampton sctool executed the manouvre of nominating hitn before the others were ready. Iu the event of his election he will be | the tool of revolutionary spirits Hké Blair, Hampton and Forrest, and will be assassinated if he ands between them and thelr policy. Colonel Brown as- sumes to know that Chief Justice Chase expects to | eral Grant as President next March, was held at the Young Men's De O- this country and in Europe, he mistakes the agencies that are at work to accomplish it, and fails to comprehend the real danger. He imagines that he discovers in the combination of newspapers known as the New York Asso- ciated Press the autocratic power that threat- ens to Overthrow the freedom of journalism and to lay an iron grasp upon the politicians, the Congress, the national Executive and the local governments of the States. At the same time he has a vague notion that the telegraph is in some way connected with the evil, and repeats a suggestion formerly made in the col- umns of the same paper that no telegraph lines should hereafter be chartered by the government without guaranteeing the distri- bution of a certain amount of public news among the journals of the country. i The error underlying this singular and sug- gestive article is to be found in its designation of the Associated Press as a ‘‘monopoly.” The New York Associated Press has about it none of the characteristics of a monopoly; it is a combination of papers with diverse and often antagonistic interests, designed as well to pro- tect the press against the tyranny and imposi- tions of the telegraph as to insure the economi- cal and speedy transmission of the news over the wires. In the city of New York, where a large number of daily journals are published, it isa necessity, since it would be impracti- cable to transmit to each newspaper a separate report of commercial, political and general news day after day from all parts of the coun- try. Besides, the New York Associated Press sells its reports to any paper that desires to purchase them, and hence it would be in con- flict with its interests to limit the number of its customers, The real monopoly which threatens the independence of the press of the United States is the telegraph. A single com- pany bas managed to secure control of nearly all the lines in operation thronghout the coun- try; for, although there is here and there some opposition, itis as yet in an inchoate state, and the competing wires reach only a comparatively few points. Knowing the im- portance of the telegraphic reports to the daily journals, the managers of the telegraph mo- nopoly have directed their efforts towards the collection as well as the transmission of news, in the hope of being able through th!s agency to lay their grasp upon the press and to dic- tate to public journalists such terms as the cratic Club us on Broadway and Twenty-second atreet lust e at nh A. J. Rogers, Brick Pomeroy and Richard O'Gorman mule speeches, | ‘The mysterious “C, L.7 met again with ed doors | at Masonic Mall last n Will Frank Spinola re- veal the meaning of those mysterious letters 8. M. Clark “of the ry Department, during a controversy | with Secretary McCulloch some days since, tendered his resignation. Unexpectedly to Mi. Clark, his resignation was accepted and an appotatment made to All the vacancy, (tis runtered in Washington that @ collector of & Southern » » Was recently removed by the President, | tobe a detauiter to the govern | ment to t ft of $200,000, We publish (his inorning an interesting account of the present siate ofour mercantile shipping busi- hess, Notwithstanding the severe blow dealt to American commerce by the civil war, our exports and imports have largely increased hough they come and go almost wholly in foreign bottoms, Our | coasting trade is, however, exclusively inour own hands, and our trade with tue West Indies, South America, China and Japan te conducted largely by American steamers. General Rosecrans has about concladed hie con- ferences with the Southern chiefs and witi return to Washington on Priaay. He was received quile cor @ialiy by his forme: Opponents, and the programme tof the Printing Burean | degree res supposed interests ‘of the company may re- quire ; and it is only in so far as it is under the influence or power of the tele graph that the Associated Press is in any ictive in its policy. But for the determined opposition of some of the more in- | dependent journals the telegraph monopotists | would at the present moment hold absolutely in their grasp the news reports of the whole | American press, and by the unfair use of.com- mercial cence would enjoy a most damaging and unjust advantage over the public, This is, however, but a aingle feature of the new revolution that at present threatens the civilized world. Society is everywhere under- going a marked and radical change. In Europe the depths have been stirred, and the public mind is in a state of suspense anxiously awaiting the next developments. In the United States we have undergone a great civil war, and the people feel that another crisis is | approaching, The thoughtless and unheeding have imagined that we were on the ove of a great military or Congressional despotism; but the powers that now threaten to overshadow the old revolutions. A moneyed oligarchy, springing from the combined monopolies of those great engines of power and wealth, the railroads, the telegraphs and the banks, is the tyrant whose rule the people and the press of America have now to fear, Already we haye seen that England’s statesmen recognize the danger and are preparing to meet it by taking first the telegraph lines and next the railroads into the hands of the government, 8 France has already done. In the United States the combined capital of these three great engines is enormous, and the progress towards their concentration into a trinity of dangerous and overshadowing monopolies is startling. Together they would rule the press and the politicians and wield supreme power over the national government and the indi- vidual States. The legislation of Congress would be shaped by their dictation; the Execu- | tive authorily would be exercised under their would be controlled by them. It is against such a revolution and such an autocratic rule danger and the government forced into such a defensive policy as the forethought of the statesmen of the Old World has already dic- tated. Rowdyism in Our Theatres. The scenes at the Broadway theatre on Monday night are startling evidence that row- dyism has unfortunately associated itself with our theatres. In a case of this kind, where there is a manifest conflict of authority, we do not desire to pass judgment upon the actions of the parties concerned. It is to be hoped that the testimony, when fully elicited before the proper authorities, will settle the measure of guilt that belongs to those who, whether in obedience to or in defiance of law, committed violence in a place of amusement which might have been fatal to hundreds of innocent per- sons, and which has already resulted in serious damage to at least two persons who could have had no interest whatever in the cause of the disturbance. We have already published the in- cidents of this unhappy affair as they occurred at the time. Whether the parties acting as Sheriff's officers under the order of Judge Bar- nard for the arrest of Mr. Harkins could have obeyed that order by making the arrest at a more fitting time than during a per- formance at « crowded theatre, or whether there was such a_ resistante offered on the stage to the order of the court as to render the use of firearms necessary on that occasion are matters which must be brought to light in the legitimate way. The quarrel originated about the right of property in a play, about which there seems to be some doubt as to whether any of the parties con- cerned had any property at all; but however that may be, it is certain that Judge Barnard, upon affidavits presented to him, did isswe an order for the arrest of the actor who was iden- tified with the leading- part in the play, and, so far, the Sheriff had the right to cause his arrest. The question as to the legality of the police arresting the Sheriff's deputies in the performance of what they may claim to be their duty is one for the Police Commissioners to have determined before the courts when the issue comes there. The audience, no doubt, if they had known the circumstances which were transpiring behind the curtain, would have been grateful to the police for their part in the matter. The police officers being sum- moned to quell an apparent riot, where deadly weapons were being indiscriminately used, did nothing more, of course, than was their duty. They were not bound to know whether the persons assaulting the attachés of the theatre were officers of the law or not. Indeed, it the country are not such as spread a reign of terror over France and England in the days of supervision; the policy of the several States | that the people are called upon to raise the | standard of opposition, and it will be well if | the press can be aroused to a sense of the real | NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1868—TRIPLE SHEET. in view of our community of interests in future relations with China and Japan, as well as the hospitalities which are always proffered to American citizens who visit Russia, the Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch will doubtless be heartily welcomed by the Amerjcan people. His visit will tend to strengthen the bonds that already unite the Russian empire and the great republic. General Grant and the Democracy—The Lessous of Past Elections, The democracy, in fighting the unparalleled assumptions of power, extravagances, corrup- tions and grinding taxations of the present radical Congress, have sufficient material for a vigorous and effective campaign against the republican party and its Presidential ticket of Grant and Colfax. Very few of the demo- cratic leaders, orators or organs, however, have the sagacity or the prudence to seize the advantages which are offered them in the usur- pations and crimes and plunders of the radicals, while avoiding the dangers of attempting to | disparage the public services and blacken the character of General Grant. But no political party can safely ignore or disregard the lessons | of past elections in reference to the merits of principles or candidates. For instance, in the campaign of 1828,, be- tween Jackson and Adams—a campaign which marked a new organization of parties—the Adams party unwisely adopted the policy of | a general hue and cry against Jackson, as a | man whose personal record and character would make his election a lasting disgrace to the country. Thus he was presented in the | administration newspapers, in pamphlets and handbills, including coffin handbills, and on the stump, as one of the most infamous char- acters that ever existed. As a soldier he was denounced as a tyrant and a butcher, and also as an impostor, for his victories, it was contended, were due to other men. As a_ civilian his qualifications were below mediocrity. He was an igno- ramus, who could not write a single sentence correctly, and who knew but little more of affairs of state than an untamed Choctaw. As a citizen his character was that of a Southern backswoods ruffian, ever seeking occasion for the exercise of pistol or bowie knife, and dan- gerous to friends and enemies. He was, moreover, represented as a duellist guilty of deliberate murder, a shameless adulterer and a rowdy hero of crossroad taverns, horse- races and political barbecues. supporters of Adams could be believed, a more scandalous and detestable nomination could not have been made for the Presidency than that of Andrew Jackson. Yet he was elected by a very decisive popular and electoral majority over Adams, the model of all the virtues, because the people thought it proper to rebuke this scandalous partisan abuse of a deserving patriot; and thus the very means employed to defeat Jackson insured his tri- umphant election. Such was the lesson given to the adverse party in the election of 1828. The same does not appear that anybody did know while the mélie lasted. It is one of the evils of our municipal system that Sheriff's deputies are not so much repre- sentatives of law as of lawlessness. They are for the most part politicians of a very rough order, who obtain their position as a reward for services rendered the successful candidate for Sheriff ina very questionable way during the election, They are selected usually from aclass of men from whom mildness and dis- cretion in the performance of their duty is hardly to be expected. However, the lament- able event which has sent two unfortunates to the hospital and disgraced the stage of the Broadway theatre may, perhaps, be traced to the spirit of rowdyism which has crept into our theatres generally. It is not long ago since one manager shot another dead in the street, and the perpetrator was set at large by @ po- lice justice because the prosecuter refused to press the charge. The affair was compromised, forsooth!—a compromise of blood in the in- terest of the theatrical profession, but at the sacrifice of the rights of society! We owe a good deal of this demoralization to the pre- valence of the iow drama and indecent sensa- tional spectacles. When managers can in- | dulge in street fights and assaults behind the scenes and go unwhipped of justice what can be expected for the morality of the theatres? The poison unfortunately permeates all so- ciely, as may be seen by the dreary column of crimes committed in (he metropolis within the past two months which we published yesterday. A Ressinn Graud Duke About to Visit America, The cable telegram has announced that the Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch, the third son of the Czar Alexander the Second, sailed from Algeria on Saturday last for the United States. The Grand Duke Alexis is about eighteen years of age. He is colonel of a regi- | ment of Russian infantry, and also holds a commission in the imperial naval division of Finland. His delicate health has supplied a | motive for undertaking extensive travels. He | has recently visited the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, antl he now crosses the Atlantic in pursuance of project to which the Heravp alluded many months sineo, The visit of the youthful Grand Duke will be a fresh sensation for fashionable society after all their watering placo excitements of the summer. In view of the cordial alliance between Russia and extended to our government by the government of the Czar during our late civil war, and re- | newed by the revont purchase of Alaska, and popular spirit of fair play against partisan persecution contributed to the increase of the vote for Jackson in 1832, although the bank question was the controlling issue in that can- vass. Passing over the intervening elections for the present, in turning to that of 1852 we have a lesson of a character totally different from that of 1828. General Scott, the first soldier of his day, the hero of Chippewa, Lundy’s Lane, in the war of 1812, and of Vera Cruz and all the bloody battles around the city of Mexico in the war of 1846-7, asa Presidential candidate was overwhelmingly beaten in 1852 by a New Hampshire county court lawyer and local politician. And how? Because, while Greeley and his abolition faction of the whig party could do nothing better than “*spit upon the platform” of Scott, which was the same as that of Pierce, the democrats fought their battle squarely upon the great compromise measures of peace on the slavery question embraced in that platform and won the day. Scandalous personal abuse and libels on the character of General Scott were gen- erally avoided, and his personal cause and claims were damaged only by his own impru- dent speeches and letters, drawbacks which are not likely to damage General Grant. Here, then, are two very important lessons for our democratic politicians—in the first election of Jackson in 1828 and in the defeat of Scott in 1852. In the one case against a meritorious soldier we see that personal calum- nies and abuse only served to enlarge his claims in the estimation of the people; in the other case we see that against the highest mili- tary claims great public measures of necessity and sound policy will prevail, if no general at- tempt is made to reduce the military candi- date to the level of a ruffian, a butcher, a pretender, an ignoramus ora drunkard, Com- mon sense, one would think, ought to have prevailed with the democrats in persuading them to fight this fight not against General Grant, but against the measures and principles of his party, in view of the election of 1852; but they seem determined upon a repetition of the foolish course of personal abuse against Jackson which swamped the party of Adams in 1828, Exe Assistant PomecroyTheir Controversy Abe’s Son. The controversy between ex-Assistant Sec- retary Dana and Brick Pomeroy about Old Abe's soul has thus far failed to elicit any reliable evidence in this strange and peculiar case, The public are favored neither by the ex-Assistant Secretary on the one hand, nor by Brick on the other, with anything but a re- petition of their respective positive assump- tions. One contesjant stoutly asserts his be- Secretary Dann and About Brick ola dent went straight to heaven, the other that it went siraight to hell, But, the public cares nothing about what either of the contestants believes unless good reasons are afforded for | the belief. What do they know about it? ‘That is the question, But we shall await pa- | tently a little longer for the evidence on either | side. Perhaps both Brick and the ex- Assistant | Secretary are consulting Planchette or some other spiritual medium on the subject. Pro- bably they cannot hope otherwise to got at the | evidence. T. Tilton cannot help them, for in the United States, based upon the sympathy | | another ‘Fallen Oak,” as he calls Old Thad, | his funeral discourse in the Independent on | he does not venture to be at all explicit in | stating which way the oak fell. ‘As the trae In short, if the” lief that the soul of the late lamented Presi- | eee falleth so it lies” is a familiar misquotation which Tilton may have had in mind; but he discreetly leaves in doubt such questions as the one which Dana aud Brick Pomeroy boldly undertake to solve. They have not, however, solved it yet. They must ask the spirits to solve it for them. Senator Sherman’s Speech on the Fie uances=The Five-Twenty Muddle. Mr. Sherman, one of the foremost leaders of the republican party, one of the ablest men in the Senate and chairman of the Committee on Finance, has thrown a bombshell into the camp of the radicals on the greenback and five- twenty question. Ina late speech in Ohio he said that upon full consideration he had come to the conclusion that the five-twenty bonds are legally payable in legal tenders. He said @ great deal more about the finances that was mere claptrap and bandying of words with Hendricks and other political opponents rela- tive to the expenditures of the government ; but there was nothing in the speech of a comprehensive character—only naked asser- tions, eontradictions of opposing statements and an effort to muddle and confuse the whole subject. However, on the five-twenty ques- tion he tonched the radical organs of the North and East to the quick. He has called poor Greeley out again to defend the bondhold- ing interest from the assault of another leader of his own party. Greeley tried the whip on Ben Builer, Thad Stevens and other lead- ing radicals to bring them back to his financial abstractions, without succeeding, and now Senator Sherman kicks out of the traces. What a herculean and hopeless work he has undertaken! As to Mr. Sherman, the truth is that when he got home to the West he found all the people there, republicans as well as democrats, of the same opinion on the ques- tion of paying the five-twenties in legal ten- ders, and he was compelled to go with them. Public sentiment is divided on this matter to a great extent by the Alleghany mountains. The bonds are held mostly in the East and North, and here there is a clamor for gold payments, , while the West wants them paid in green- backs. But really the question is not a practical one. There is no issue now, and never may be; it belongs to the future. The politicians and our public men on both sides do not un- derstand the subject of national finances, or this particular phase of it, and they have en- tered upon a useless discussion. Pendleton, Sherman, Butler, the late Thad Stevens, Greeley and all the rest on both sides have been pursuing an abstraction, a will-o’-the-wisp, and have got into an inextricable muddle. The five-twenties are not going to be paid now, and in all probability not for some time to come. In the course of a few years we may reach specie payments. Indeed, there is no reason why we should not, if the expen- ditures of the government be reduced, a sys- tem of currency be established and the country be restored to harmony and prosperity. These bonds have twenty years to run, and surely this great and rich country can come to a specie basis long before the expiration of that period. But at all events there is not practically any issue of this sort before the country, and, as we said, may never be. General Frank Blair seemed to understand this when he declared that reconstruction and the questions growing out of it were paramount to all others at the present time and in the present political campaign. However, there are other matters of vital importance which come home directly to the people. The enor- mous burden of taxation and the frightful ex- travagance of Congress and the departments furnish abundant materials for discussion if the public speakers and press knew how tc use them. These are not abstractions or theories ; they are hard facts. They touch every pocket and weigh heavily upon every poor man’s labor. Congress made a pretence of reducing taxation last session, and the radical orators are endea- voring to make some political capital out of that; but the truth is hardly any one feels the benefit except a few manufacturers for whose advantage the taxes were removed. The taxes which the laboring classes feel most, as those on tea, sugar, coffee and other articles of neces- sary and general consumption, remain as bur- densome as ever, while some even have been increased. This and such like subjects should be themes of discussion, and not abstractions about the future payment of the five-twenty bonds. The public men of this country, unfortu- nately, are ignorant of the snbject of national finance. Three years ago we commenced to educate them and the people under the new and peculiar financial situation of the repub- lic. We published a history of the financial affairs and difficulties of England after the long and exhausting wars of that country with France, as well as a history of our own finan- cial condition after the war of 1812 and at other periods. We have continued ever since to show that in this matter we must be gov- erned by the laws of nature and trade, and not by abstract dogmas or theories. Still there is much to learn. Our public men are yet lamentably ignorant. National finances and the regulation and payment of national debts should be managed upon commercial principles—upon a principle of compromise and accominodation—looking to the mutual benefit of all concerned. The interest of the taxpayers and country at large should be studied as well as that of the bondholders, just as fair-dealing and considerate creditors and debtors in commercial life arrange their affairs in the best and most equitable manner, accord- ing to circumstances. ago. William the Third carried the commer- cial ideas of Holland with him to Great Britain and laid the foundation of the British financial system which gave England her moneyed | power, wealth and vast commerce. We might study with profit the commercial principles upon which her surprising and durable finan- | cial structure was founded, adapting at the same time such changes or modifications to our own situation as the peculiar circum- stances of this country and the times require. Let us, in brief, ignore mere abstract dogmas or theories in financial matters and follow the laws of nature and trade, Then, with economy in the government and reduction of taxation to the lowest point, we need not trouble our- selves about how the five-twenties shall be paid; for we shall gradually and healthfally come to specie payments, and the five-twenty anestion will be settled. England did this long | Improvements in Journalism—Tho Rouad Table and the Nation. We give elsewhere some articles extracted from the ound Table and the Nution, weekly journals of this city, in which some of the issues of the campaign are discussed in a tone and style not common with the political press. .Readers must rejoice | with us to find that the example of the daily partisan press has not demoralized all political writers, and that while the conduct of these papers is such as to suggest a misgiv- ing in regard to the freedom of the press—such as almost to force the conviction that there isa point at which other resiraint than that of pub- | lie opinion is necessary—there is also coming up, side by side with that diseased and prema- turely rotten literary growth, a press of another character, in which topics of great public interest are discussed with a view to getting at the truth, and in which the writers indicate the spirit of scholars, philosophers and gentlemen. Apparently we may reason- ably hope that it is to be in the history of the press—that great instrument for good or for evil—as it is in much else of human etfort, that the development of a good tendency will at least keep pace with the bad, and eventually | give virtue a fair field against vice, in which case the result cannot be doubtful. In the articles we quote there are ideas. This is not common, at least in the press that is political of set purpose. The great staples of the party press are round abuse, party cant, objurgation, and statistics in which the figures are so manipulated as to give any result for which the situation, as viewed from a partisan standpoint, seems to call, On the strength of the old delusion that figures never lie it is assumed that tabular arithmetical statements have great effect; and there is one journal that regularly plays on this notion and can prove any- * thing it’wants from any given numbers, Atten- tion will by and by be called more urgently to one of the questions examined in the arti- cles we quote—that, namely, of the validity of the Legal Tender act. In the possibility that the Supreme Court may pronounce that act unconstitutional lies the germ of a tremendous financial revolution for the American people— lies, indeed, their whole financial future. Men willdo better to weigh that topic than waste thought on the ribald inquiry whether Mr. Seymour is ‘“‘a liar.” Another thought perti- nent to the time is that the men who are to decide this Presidential contest have not yet determined how they will vote. This is no doubt true, and may stimulate the legitimate exertions of party drummers and leaders. It may even be generally true that the men who decide never make up their minds till they go to the polls; but the fact has an almost special application now. There are, say, five million votes to be cast; two millions are republican, two millions are democratic. Douglas and Breckinridge together received a vote a little in excess of two millions in 1860 and Lincoln about the same excess in 1864. There is, then, an odd million, and this million will, perhaps, incline neither way until the very day it polls its vote; but it is made up of intelligent citi- zens—men who care for no party, acting on their own judgment with one or the other as they deem best for the country. Before these men the fight is yet to be won, and these men want reasons. Here is something for partisan writers to reflect upon. In contrasting these favorable specimens of the weekly press with daily party journals we make no general distinction in favor of weekly sheets. Indeed, part of the weekly press is, beyond all comparison, indecent; but we do a duty towards society and assist, we hope, in the cultivation of good literary taste in direct- ing attention to two papers that are what they ought to be. “Bull Run” Russell for Parlinment, Mr. William H. Russell, familiarly known in both hemispheres as ‘Bull Run” Russell, has presented himself as a candidate for the repre- sentation of Chelsea, England, in the new British Parliament. In his address to the electors he announces himself as a political adherent of the Disraeli conservative party, a firm supporter of the existing order of affairs in Charch and State and ready to do constitu- tional battle against Popish ‘‘aggression” and the assaults of the fierce democracy. It is highly probable that Mr. Russell will be elected, and that before next Christmas day his proper address will be ‘William H. Rus- sell, Esq., LL. D. and M. P.,” with “B, R.” added by his correspondents and friends in America. We are glad of Mr. Russell's pros- pects of success. He has always been a great favorite of ours, particularly as he has served the American people considerably already, and may do so again. Mr. Russell will make a very useful member of the House of Commons, and if, as his fellow countrymen iu Ireland express it, he is only as ‘good with the tongue as he is ready with the pen,” few men within the walls of St. Stephen's will force him to take his seat by mere power of oratory. Then he has been out in the East, in the West, and ‘‘al round” everywhere, possesses a very practical experience, is cosmopolitan in his ideas, and will be, consequently, in happy accord with Mr. Disraeli on subjects Israclitish and Gentile, It is to be hoped that the electors of Chelsea will cast a heavy vote for Doctor Russell. To the veteran ‘‘salts” in the ‘‘great hospital up | there, you know,” he can spin “yarns” of any | length or bearing, and should they ever expe- | rience fatigne at his recital of the deeds of | Nelson, Duncan, Howe, Jervis and the others on the ‘ocean wave,” the learned legislator can diversify the entertainment by reciting passages from his owa experiences at Bull Run, how rapidly he “tacked” about, and, allegorically, of course, how he rushed with “all sail set” into port at Washington from the bloody field. In conclusion, he may occasion- ally read the interesting letter which he re ceived from the late President Lincoln in ac- knowledgment of his great account of the Bull Run fight—an attestation of bis ability, accuracy and fleetness of limb which will no doubt prove quite interesting to the British heroes. Mr. Russell has an excellent chance in his run for Parliament, and if he can only do as well in the electoral race as he did in his flight from Bull Run he will distance his opponents easily; for bis time from the famous American battle ground eclipsed anything on record, with the exception, perhaps, of that which has been made hy Bouner's Dexter on one or two occas | sow