The New York Herald Newspaper, September 9, 1868, Page 6

6. W YORK HERALD Sez Sean te lerertoan 04 01 prenent hanes ots BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, --No. 253 AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 18h strect.— LirrLe NELL AND THE MAROBIONESS, NIBLO's GARDEN, Broadway—FrEnon Comic Orena— Base Bueve. eore™ THEATRE, Bowery.—Timk anv Tipr—SNOW NEW YORK THEATRE, Broadway.—Lasr NiGurs oF Foun PLax. iin vluaeuiemamsde OLYMPIO THEATRE, Broadway.—Homrrr Dourt?, wita NEw FreTeas sis BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway—Euizaveru, QUEEN oF ENGLAND. GERMAN STADT THEATRE, 45 and 47 Bowery.—Le- mONT. PIKE'S MUSIO HALL, 254 street, corner of Bighth Bvanue.—MOEVoy's HIBERNICON. ‘ BRYANTS’ OPERA HOUSE, Tammany Building, Mth Bireet.—ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELSY, 40. 720 Broadway.—Erm0- N'S MINSTR! “teddies 0. BARBER BLU. TIAN MinsTRELsy, BORLESQU ‘ AN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 685 Broadway.—Ernio- PIAN ENTERTAINMENTS, SLNGING, DANCING, &. SE 201 Bowery.—Comro SY PASTOR'S OP! TONY PA! Matinee at 275. Vocarism, NEGa0 MIN THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Tar Great Oni- GINAL LinGakp AND VAUDEVILLE Company, Matinee, WOOD'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE, Thirtieth street and Broadway.—Aiteruoon and evening Performance. IRVING HALL.—GRanp Movine DiomaMA OF LiN- ©OLN's FUSERAL CEREMONIES. DOPWORTH HALL, 86 Broadway.—Tur CELEBRATED: BiaNor Buirz, Matince at 3. ) CENTRAL PARK GARD ‘TH0MAs’ POPULAR GARDEN venth avenue.—THRO. ERT. HOOLEY'’S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Noor.ry's MINSTEELS—MASSA-NIBLLO, O8 ‘THE BLACK FORKST. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SCIENCE AND Ant. New York, Wednesday, September 9, 1568. THB WSws. EUROPE. The news report by the Atlantic cable is dated yes- terday evening, September 8, | King William of Prussia is making a tour of mill- tary inspection of the troops of the North German Confederation, The Paris Bourse was excited by ‘8 war canard from Chalons. Mr. John A. Roe- ‘buck, Member of Parliament for Shefiield, England, was in direct opposition to Minister Johnson's idea, @s expressed at the cutlers’ feast. A boy murderer “was executed privately, the first, in Newgate, Lon- don. The London 7imes has an article on American wars with the native Indians. The heir to the throne of Beigium is fatally ill, The London cab- menare on a “strike.” The yacht Aline declined the challenge of the Sappho, { The Lancaster races commenced with unfavorable ‘weather. Consols 94, money. Five-twenties 72 in London, and 753 in Frankfort. . * Cotton dull, with middling uplands at 10%; pence. Breadstutts tending downward. Provisions without Marked change. Produce heavy. MISCELLANEOUS. ‘The trial of Whelan was coutinued in Ottawa yes- terday. The defence opened but proved nothing. Public feeling against the prisoner is intense and it is declared that if he Is acquitted he will be taken out by the people and hung. One of the witnesses, Buckley, a messenger in the House, testified that he ‘suspected another man of the deed, and it is be- Heved in Ottawa that Buckley himself will be ar- raigned, ' In the Board of Health yesterday the Sanitary Committee presented a report on the subject of the cattle disease. Dr. Harris reports that there were 599 deaths in this city last week und 203 in Brooklyn. The Board of Excise yesterday revoked five licenses Jor violations of the Liquor law. In one of the cases three citizens swore that the defendant had given them liquor without pay because they were his reia- Sions and on a visit, but a policeman swore that the Darkeeper took pay. The license was consequently revoked. Advices from the west coast of Mexico state that quiet had been restored in Guerroro, Colima and Sinaloa, and business had been very generally re- sumed. In Mazatlan, espectally, commercial mat- ters were becoming quite lively in consequence of the opposition steamers to San Francisco touching there. Canales, Vegas aud other worthies bad re- Volted in Tamaulipas. A famine is threatened in feveral of tue States by reason of the scarcity of pro- visions. : Mr. Samuel F. Pike positively denies the statement roade in evidence at the trial of the internal revenue officers before Commissioner Guttman on Monday that he gave Deputy Commissioner Harland a check for $10,000 or $100,000, He says itis not so, and he desires to state the fact under oath in the peuding trial. ‘The inquest in the case of alleged malpractice at No.6 Amity place was concluded yesterday. The evidence went to show that Susannah Lattin, the deceased, who died in childbirth, was trying to prac- tice upon the feelings of young Houghton, whom she led to believe that he was the father of her child. No abortion was attempted in the case. Dr. Grindle, ‘the proprietor of the establishment, gave his testi- mony, which consisted mainly in describing how affairs are conducted at private lying-in asylums. ‘The verdict rendered censures Dr. Grindle, suggests ‘that such establishments shall be under the super- Vision of the Board of Health and finds that de- Ceased came to her death tn childbirth, One of the directors of tue Union Pacific Railroad reports to the Secretary of the Interfor that some sections of the road are very imperfectly con- structed, although the government Commissioners, Messrs. Frank Blair, White and Buford, have ac+ cepted thei as finished in accordance with the law. On this report a decision of the Attorney General has been called for and given, that the usual bonds and patents on the completion of each section must be issued as usual to the company, as the report of the Commissioners is the only legal information which ought to govern in such cases, Boston thinks of sending female physicians to China, Fung and Teh both favor the project, as ac- cording to Chinese custom when an empress is sick the doctor is not admitted to her presence, but sits Outside the door and examines her pulse by holding 6 string attached to her body. A Boston female, it is supposed, would be readily admitted to her bed- Bide, Our Washington correspondent states that the question raised by the democrats in South Carolina as to whether any white citizens are really devarred from the right to vote by the Howard amendment has assumed great prominence tn that State and Proves to be of a knotty character. By cable telegrams from London we learn that the Maoris of New Zealand are again tn rebellion against England, and that German observers in Arabia were very successful in noting the great solar eclipse, A boy about five years old died in convulsions on Sunday, in this city, from drinking Bourbon whiskey. He had seen his father drink from the bottle during the day and was trying to imitate him. A grand ovation was extended to Mayor Motfman at Buffalo yesterday, on his appearance at the Erie county democratic ratification meeting. Mr. Hoff man delivered the opening speech of the State cam- paign, and a large procession of civic and military organizations paraded the streets. Secretary McCulloch had another conference yes- terday with Commissioner Rollins on the question of a compromise in the appointment of revenue omicials. Rollins, it is stated, demanded the re- moval of Solicitor Binckley, who is conducting the butt NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, Horatio Seymour and Governor Fenton are to be at the Saratoga Fair on Thursday, when the former will deliver the annual address. The Louisiana Legislature on Monday ousted o democratic member end gave his seat to a radical. Yesterday they ousted the radical and declared the ‘seat vacant. The Massachusetts State Republican Convention is to be held at Worcester to-day. It is conceded that William Claflin will be nominated for Governor, A woman was arrested on Monday night for disor- derly conduct and yesterday morning died in her cell, Her name was Adeline Peck, and, although reckless end dissolute, was very respectably con- nected and was the divorced wife of a wealthy mer- chant, The report of the Midnight Misston Society states that since May last, when the mission house was first opened for the reception of fallen women who chose to abandon their fearful calling, seventy-sevea have been admitted. Of these forty-six have aban- doned street life, fourteen of them having obtained respectable employment and seven having been re- stored to their friends, while twenty-vwo have fallou from grace. Two small boys, named Alonzo Lychner and Charles Swab, aged eight and ten years respectively, were engaged in a fight im Baltimore} on Monday, when the latter struck the former with a stone weigh- ing about two pounds and broke his neck. Swab has been committed to await the action of the Grand Jury. In Philadelphia on Sunday evening?a little girl, aged six years, was sent by her mother a few steps oir to show a stranger a certain street that he had inquired for. The little girl was not heard from until yesterday, when her body, outraged and muti- lated, was found in an adjacent pond, Several outrages on negroes are reported from Kentucky. A party of whites. while attacking the negroes in Versailles, were attacked in turn by the citizens, who organized and drove them away, Ex-President Franklin Pierce les dangerously ill in Concord, N. H. The Cunard steamship Java, Captain Lott, sails to-day for Queenstown and Liverpool. The mails will close at the Post Oflce at ten o'clock this morning. The steamship Alaska, Captain Gray, will sail from Pier No. 42 North river at twelve to-day for Call- fornia, via Aspinwall. The stea: ship Saragossa, Captain Crowell, of Leary’s line, will leave pier No. 14 East river, foot of Wall street, at three P, M. to-day, for Charleston. The stock market was irregular yesterday. Gov- ernment securities were dull throughout the day, and towards the close drooping. Gold closed at 44. Departure of the Chinese Embassy England. The Chinese Embassy sails this morning in the Java for England. It has finished its mission to the United States, and goes to ac- complish a like object, if possible, with the great Powers of Europe. It is the most extra- ordinary embassy ever sent from China or that ever came to the United States. It is the commencement of a new and important epoch in the history of civilization and progress of the world. The oldest empire, the history of which dates back thousands of years and to a time when all Europe was barbarian, and which contains more than a third of the popu- lation of the globe, comes for the first time to seek admission into the family of nations on the same footing of equality that the civi- lized countries of the West accord to each other, It is a marvellous event and pregnant with mighty results to the whole world, as well asto the Chinese themselves, One of the most remarkable features of this mission, too, is in the appointment of a for- eigner, a man of another race, as chief am- bassador by the proud and heretofore exclu- sive government of China. The fact that the imperial authorities at Pekin solicited Mr. Burlingame, an American citizen, to accept the high position of ambassador for China to the Western Powers shows that the former exclusive and isolated policy of the empire has been entirely abandoned, and that there is an earnest purpose to place China side by side with the Western nations in the way of pro- gress. From what we know of Mr. Burlin- game are satisfied he would not have accepted the had — this not been the case. He has said over and over egain that his mission means progress, and he is neither deceived himself nor deceiving others. But to make it conduce to progress, to encourage and stimu- late the present liberal tendencies of the Chi- nese government and people, to break down their long-nurtured exclusiveness and preju- dices, to inspire them with confidence, to intro- duce into the empire the improvements and civilization of the West, and, as a consequence, to open freer intercourse and a much larger trade, he saw that the old policy of force and coercion at the cannon’s mouth must be aban- doned, and that China must be treated by the Western Powers as those Powers treat each other—upon a principle of equality. That was the first step to be taken. Mr. Burlingame saw this soon after his arri- val in China as American Minister. The rep- resentatives of other Powers in China saw it as well, and among them that truly noble man the late Sir Frederick Bruce, the British Minis- ter at Pekin. Through his broad and liberal views and his friendship with Mr. Burlingame the new policy toward China, which led to this mission and the treaty just made with the United States, was inaugurated at Pekin and accepted by the British government as well as by other governments. It was known in diplo- matic circles and in official language as the co- operative policy. The action of Sir Frederick Bruce in the matter, as well as the official recognition of what he did by the British gov- ernment, can be found both in the archives of the Foreign Office at London and at Pekin. Mr. Burlingame, therefore, has not entered upon any other policy than that approved by Sir Frederick Bruce and his other col- leagues at Pekin and accepted by the British government. The treaty he has made with the United States is only giving form to and carrying out that co-operative policy. Yet we see that a portion of the British press is assailing Mr, Burlingame and the treaty. Some of the newspapers, however, are more enlightened and liberal, Still the London Standard, which has the reputation of being a ministerial ournal, expresses itself in rather a carping and unsatisfactory manner. It inti- mates that “Mr, Burlingame’s mission is in- tended chiefly to add glory and profit to the United States.” It says, ‘all other considera- tions are secondary to that. Mr. Burlingame, however, will explain hig errand to Lord Stan- ley, and it would be scarcely fair to condemn his mission utterly without hearing an authori. tative statement of its purposes and designs.” This does not show a friendly disposition to the mission, but it leaves the door open for explanation and future consideration. The for we mission SEPTEMBER 9, 1868.—TRIPLE SHEET. difficulty seems to lie not so much in the object of the mission itself as in the fact that an American is the ambassador and that the United States may reap the greatest advantages, This is mere jealousy, puc- rile and unworthy the preas and gov- ernment of a great nation like Eng- land. Mr, Burlingame is acting sincerely and faithfully as the representative of China and in the interests of civilization and pro- gress. He asks no exclusive advantages or privileges for his native country, He will offer the same treaty made with the United Siates to England, France, Russia and all the other Powers. All may be placed on the same foot- ing, and the race for trade with China, the in- troduction of material improvements or of po- litical influence, if that be desirable and prac- ticable, will be left to the swiftest and strongest. Who are complaining, then? Surely England ought not; for she has four or five times the amount of trade with China the United States has, besides other advantages, But the British will wait, they say, till Mr. Burlingame explains the purposes and designs of his mission. Well, he is just the man to satisfy the British if they are disposed to be satisfied at all, or with anything less than their old bulldog policy. He is a statesman of experience, not in the school of Eur diplomatic chicanery, but in the Amer school, which teaches directness of purpose and frankness. He has filled high positions in his own country; he is an educated and polished gentleman and is universally recog- nized as such here, and he knows how to con- duct the great interests with which he is en- trusted. Besides, with the treaty made here, he goes backed by the moral power of the United States. No minister was ever received in this country as he has been and no 1 was ever more popular, The Emba: honored by a reception on the floors of Congress, the treaty was ratified by a unanimous vote of the Senate, the press of all parties endorses the action of the government, the President heartily approves of the objects of the mission, and the people everywhere, irrespective of political parties, are in favor of the policy es- tablished toward the Chinese. It has become really the first question of the dey as re- gards foreign nations and affairs, If England and other European Powers should re- fuse to accept the treaty made with us, ora similar one, they will be the losers and we may be the = gainers. At all events, China {s now our friend and ally, and we cannot permit her integrity or inde- pendence to be threatened by a resort to the old force policy at the instigation of opium smugglers or trading adventurers. We shall watch the progress of the Burlingame mission in Europe with great interest, and hope it may be as successful there as it has been here. Revival of the Southern DemocracyA Daniel Coming Again to Judgment. In another part of this paper the reader will find some choice extracts from a book just pub- lished made up of the writings of the famous John M. Daniel as editor of the Richmond Examiner during the war of the Southern rebellion, Before the war Daniel was a con- stitutional Southern rights democrat of the school of Jeff Davis and Stephens, Mason and Slidell, Yancey and Toombs, Rhett and Hamp- ton, Wigfall and Wise—one of that domineering Southern oligarchy which ruled the old national democratic party and the policy of the govern- ment down to the collapse of the Charleston Convention, Through the war Dani a writer, was one of the most effective fire-eaters in diffusing throughout the South the idea of the superiority of the Southern chivalry over the ‘Yankee mudsills"—an idea which still exists from Virginia to Texas, notwithstand- ing the terrible lessons of the war establishing it as a ruinous Southern delusion. Daniel, we believe, died in Richmond shortly after its occupation hy a detachment of black ‘Boys in Blue,” and other ‘Lincoln hirelings,” and Lincoln himself. Some of Daniel’s admirers, however, resolved that his services in the “Jostcause” shall not be forgotten, have secured the embalming of his memory in the book before us; and here the question recurs, Why this book at this time? We suppose it is intended as a democratic campaign document to aid in the election of Seymour and Blair, Tho surviving Southern democratic leaders of the democratic epoch of poor Pierce and Buchanan are back again, and in the late Tammany Convention they were admitted to their old places among the masters of the ceremonies. Thus reinstated in the front seats of the temple, they have been giving us some heavy broadsides* of the real genuine old Southern democratic thunder so alarming to ‘Northern doughfaces” in times gone by. Moreover, as Brick Pomeroy and other Northern imitators of the Southern fire-eaters have found that this thing pays among the Southern democracy, the happy thought no doubt occurred to the compiler of this book that such a compilation from Daniel, a Jona fide Southern champion of Confederate State rights, would be the very thing for this campaign, in view of the restoration of its Southern leaders to the national democratic church, after the fashion of the prodigal son. The extracts, too, which we give from Daniel, it will be seen, though sharper and of finer metal, very much resemble the Northern copperhea? editorials of the present day. For example, Daniel describes the amiable and shrewd and sagacious Lincoln as “the delight- ful combination of the Western country lawyer and the Yankee barkeeper,” and his speeches on his way to Washington as ‘‘condensed lumps of imbecility, buffoonery and vulgar malignity.” Of the Yankee, says Daniel, “cowardice is carefully inouleated in the Yankee from his birth ;” that he “is born like other people, but becomes a coward and a knave from severe training and moral educa- tion;” that “we (of the South) are their su- periors,” &o,; that “the Yankee is a toady, because ho can no more refrain from boot- licking than a cat can keep its claws off a mouse.” Of the Yankee war debt he says it is plain that in no event will the South assist inits payment. Of Generals Butler, Pope, McClellan and iooker, Daniel's opinions have a strangely familiar Brick Pomeroy ring about them, from which it would appear that all our Northern Bricks have been readers of Daniel to some purpose, Daniel pronounces General Grant a humbug, whose only recommendation is success, and says that ‘the North admires sucess, the South morit;" and the same idea, no doubt, is applied by the democracy this day to Grant and Seymour, and Grant, we guess, as usual, will have the Northern advantage of success. We submit our extracts from Daniel to the reader as some of the curiosities of the campaign. We suppose the book can be had by application to any sachem of Tammany Hall, though we cannot perceive how such things are to help the cause of Seymour. ' Minister Jobnson’s Mission in England, Mr. Reverdy Johnson, who has been ac- credited by the United States government as American Minister to the Court of Great Britain, gives early premonitory evidence that he has formed a very exalted esti- mate of the character and duties of his mission, and that he is determined to elevate our European diplomacy to a standpoint and range hitherto unknown be- cause previously unattempted by our public servants abroad. Bursting the bonds of red tape routine and expanding beyond the fools- cap of departmental instructions, Minister Johnson, as we find by the cable reports of his speeches, addressed to the master ‘cutlers and the corporation of Sheffield, stands forth not metely as the personal exponent of the execu- tive policy of the government in Washington, but as an individual gencral ambassador, speaking in the name and on. behalf of the whole American people to tho great English nation. Obeying an impulse of fraternal inspiration, Minister Johnson, even before his presentation to Queen Victoria, and without knowing if he will he ofiicially acceptable to her Majesty, has got rid of the great court breeches and shad-bellied vest question which has presented such a con- stant source of international annoyance be- tween tho governments and proved so exceed- ingly perplexing by its delays and “unavoida- ble circumstances” to the late Mr. Buchanan and ex-Minister Adams. By a grand coup of the comprehensive Marylander, and with the use, perhaps, of a new pair of Sheffield shears, this knotty point has been resolved, and the Queen is informed politely, although not in words, that the court coat tails of American Ministers in London have been duly pruned, upward and inward, to the true democratic standard—a fact which must have been under- stood by the writer for a London journal when he recently declared that Mr. Johnson may, if he so please, appear at Buckingham Palace in a shooting jacket. Unencumbered by ‘‘old clo’” Minister John- son, although not yet fully fledged, soared off in the presence of the English cutlers to a consideration of questions of the blending of races, the power of absorption of Anglo-Sax- onism, emigrant ethnology, where and when the exiled European leaves his inherited “vices” and a grand Anglo-American alliance, so that he must have appeared to the hard- ware men as a great physical fusionist likely to weld the nations in a moment, and drive to court accompanied by his “‘two single gentlemen rolled into one,” a very agree- able visitor to British royalty. In all this matter President Johnson or Secretary Seward cannot complain, for our Minister speaking in Sheffield ignored Mr. Disraeli himself, with all his fine attributes of race, just as completely ashe did both of them. Our cable report, dated in London yesterday, indicates that Mr. Johnson also overlooked the presence of Mr. John Arthur Roebuck, M. P., the rather fos- silized Parliamentary representative of Shef- field, at the cutlers’ dinner, but that gentleman, in the spirit which has earned for him the appellation of ‘Tear ’em,” of the House of Commons, would not be ignored, but came out in language of ‘vehement disparagement” of our country, just at a moment when, as the London Zimes says, “it was the object of all present to cullivate a feeling of good will” towards us. After such an incident Mr. Johnson may “come down” to practical work. Soon afier his presentation to the Queen he will find that Downing street is a very matter of fact place. M. Genet,- who was sent over to represent the French republic in America, was an accomplished humanitarian theorist, and arrived in this country with his head stuffed with the most beneficent ideas of the universal identity of man. George Wash- ington, however, classed M. Genet, with the approbation of the American people, as a foreign humbug, and dismissed him. Minister Johnson rates as a very accomplished gentle- man, is an excellent good lawyer, is ready, logical and eloquent ina legislative debate, and an agreeable visitor at Saratoga, so that we have little doubt but that when he has the “wire edge” of his Sheffield diplomacy taken off, and becomes sharp as the Worshipful the Master Cutler himself, he will place the Amer- ican Alabama claims bill, neatly drafted and carefully footed, in the pocket of his extra court pantaloons, wait on Mr. Disracli in Downing street, present him with what the deceased English economist Joseph Hume termed the “tottle of whole” and demand payment. Should the Premier reply that Great Britain is not ready, cannot or will not pay, or talk of a “bill of set off,” Mr. Johnson should politely inform him that he is about to leave England at once and return to Washington. He will in that instance, of course, write a note of farewell to the Sheffield cutlers and corpora- tion, and report immediately to Mr. Seward, Tur Poptic Dest StaTeMENt.—The official September statement of the public debt of the United States, published in our columns yes- terday, compared with the exhibit made at the corresponding period of 1867, shows a very heavy increase in the financial burden of the nation, This increase, counting from the 1st of September of the past year, amounts to $42,830,948, and for the month from the Ist of August to the Ist of September of 1868 foots up & sum of $12,097,813—a ratio of aggregate in our liabilities well calculated to render the people cautious if not alarmed for the future, In the account the Treasury takes credit to the amount of $35,314,000 represented under the head of “Bonds issued to the Pacific Railroad Company,” as well as for a sum ot over seven millions of dollars in gold paid for the Alaska Territory purchase to Russia. The Pacific Rail- road undertaking is, toa very great oxtent, a national work, and the acquisition of Alaska adds greatly to tho extent and value of the national domain; yet, notwithstanding the claim of the official credits obtained in each case, it remains quite clear that the national debt has really been increased by the large volume specified within the year, The Peace Question ix Europe. Considerable excitement, we understand, has been created in diplomatic circles in Wash- ington by some recently received intelligence as tothe probable disturbance of peace rela- tions in Europe. The conviction of the ex- perlenced in these circles is to the effect that the present attitude of Franco is quite sufli- clent to justify the war panic which unques- tionably exists. Wherefore the attention now given tothe army; wherefore the vast, the almost unparalleled, armament; wherefore the recent loan and the vast sums collected in the Bank of France if peace and only peace is in- tended? Wherefore, again, it is asked, the persistent ellence of Prussia, if the govern- ment of King William is satisfed that the oft- reiterated peace assurances of France mean what they say? It is not—andit is difficult to see why it can bo—doubted that Napoleon has some unmistakably aggressive policy on hand. What that aggressive policy is ninety-nine out of every hundred who know anything of the present condition of Europe or anything of the Napoleonic mind or of the necessities of the Napoleonic position could at once and as we believe correctly guess. The truth, in fact, is patent to the world that the time has come when the present ruler of France, if he would be true to himself, true to the hereditary policy of his house and re- sponsive to the long cherished and general desire of the French people, must extend the territory of the empire to the banks of the Rhine. It has only been with reluctance that the cautious policy of the Emperor has been hitherto endured. To the bitterness engendered by the treaties of 1815 has been added the bitterness inseparable from the defeat at Biarritz and the more crushing defeat of Nicolsburg. It was Napoleon’s confident belief that the Rhine boundary would be secured for France without any sacrifice either of blood or treasure. The interview at Biarritz convinced him that the game was in his hands, Itis natural to conclude that in proportion to tho confidence of the expectation so would be the depth of the disappointment. Napoleon could do no better at the time than swallow his mor- tification and digest it at his leisure. Circum- stances, however, have changed in thie inter- val. Prussia is perhaps less formidable than she was then. France, on the contrary, has mightily increased her strength. The condi- tion of all the European Powers is such that perhaps not one of them could be relied upon to lend help to France’s rival. Russia is the only Power whose conduct in the premises would be doubtful; but the presumption is that if Napoleon asked no more than the Rhine frontier Russia would not interfere. France, it is true, stands alone ; but she stands alone as the most powerful unit among the nations of Europe. Spain and Portugal would do nothing even if they were willing. Italy is helpless, and so is Austria. The smaller Powers, such as Belgium and Holland, are not to be mentioned in the circumstances. Now, therefore, we say is Napoleon's opportunity, It is not our opinion that he will allow it to slip. He will, at least, ask from Prussia the Rhine provinces as compensation for Sadowa. If he gets them for the asking we shall of course have no war. If he gets them not for the asking there will, we may rest assured, be “a trial of strength. If Russia enters the field it is impossible to say how general and how destructive the conflagration may become, or to describe beforehand the new Europe which shall emerge from the ruins. Meanwhile the exigencies of the situation point to the humili- ation of Prussia or an early and terrific struggle. Prayer Meeting Movements. There is manifestly an active progress going on in the path of conversion for the lost sinners of this sinful metropolis. The heart of the wickedest man has been touched by the saving hand of the philanthropist, and at least one den of infamy has been converted into a house of prayer anda temple of unexampled piety. Why not all other such haunts of Satan be brought within the fold? The preachers and pious females who have wrought such a miracle in Water street have an unlimited field before them. There are thousands of sinners yet to be converted, .and surely the touch- stone applied to John Allen, or Evart Allen, or John Slocum, or whatever the name of this plastic individual may be, can be effectually applied also to others more or less steeped in iniquity. There are, for example, fully a thousand houses in this city where the once angelic purity of female virtue is degraded to the lowest stratum of vice, and in its altered nature is made a commodity,of public traffic. Even in these haunts of sin there are multi- tudes of souls that may yet be saved—brands that may besnatched from the burning. The gates of mercy are not closed upon them, although the hasty condemnation of human judgment may have consigned them to an irretrievable perdition. Here is an opportu- nity, a golden opportunity, for all our saints, pretentious or sincere, to put their faith to practical service. They have been wasting their time in the useless advocacy of politics, dragging the pulpit down to the level of the stump, talking religion from partisan and fanatical standpoints, in order to increase their congregations, and, mayhap—although it may be ungracious to say so—advance the price of pew rents and add a few hundred dollars to their salary. Now is the time for them to follow the example of John Allen by doing some real service in the redemption of souls. By preaching politics they have done nothing but muddle political issues and bewilder the people, because the preachers know not of what they discourse when they abandon the Gospel for the intricate ways of politics, When John Allen and Kit Burns opened their doors to the pious people they did much to point out the true path which preachers, parsons and philanthropists should follow. Let them pursue this path with earnest pur- pose into the gamblingesaloons and the houses of iniquitous repute, and the mission which they assume to fill may fructify into a thousand blessings for society. From Nova Scotta to New ZgALANp.— The Maori chiefs and aboriginal New Zealand- ers are again in rebellion against the authority of England, and the Queen's troops are being hurried from Wellington and their en- trenched stockades to the scene of a new “rising.” From Nova Scotia to the antipodes there seems to prevail a general feeling hostile to the idea of Raglish econfed- eration, or confederation with England. In- deed, it looks as if the current were setting in towards imperial dissolution. Some youthiul New Zealander may have heard of the destiny anticipated for one of his countrymen by Macauley and be preparing to accept it. General Dana as a Peace Maker, We see that our contemporary, ex-Aseistant Secretary of War Dana, has armed himself with the olive branch and has gone heartily into the business of negotiating peace everywhere and between everybody. During the war he had his armor on and waved the flaming sword of discord. Now he has shut the doors of the temple of Janus, proclaims peace and is busily engaged in negotiating treaties of amity among all the politicians. Does he envy Greeley the laurels won in his famous peace mission to Canada, when he endeavored to make a fraternal compromise with Jake Thomp- son, George Sanders, Beverly Tucker, Clement Clay ¢ a/.,and does he desire to enter {ntoa generous rivalry with the head pacificator of the Zribune? Dana evidently, however, wants to make his olive branch the precursor of the laurel, for he has established himself as the negotiator between all the politi- cal belligerents. Having labored hard for the nomination of Griswold for Governor, he is now pleading for the election of his opponent, Hoffman. No matter which candidate wins, Dana appears determined that there sh!l be peace between them and the parties they represent if his beneficent endeavors can accomplish it. With the same view he has taken in charge Brick Pomeroy and the oiler belligerent bricks of the democratic party, hoping to reduce their rather violent demon- strations of temper to the gentleness of a suck- ing dove. But while he goes in for peace amongst all parties he gives no promise of vic- tory to any. Montgomery Blair, and the whole Blair family, in fact, made a peaceful raid upon Richmond during the war with the expectation of soothing the rebel leaders, but, as we know, they were ingloriously unsuccessful. The Blairs ere now on the warpath; they are in for the Prosidential fight, while Dana gocs strongly tor peace ; and as long as the funds of Senators Morgan and Conkling last there is no doubt that Dana's negotiation office will be kept open. The Southern Fire-Eaters Drawing Of. We have published accounts of interviews with such representative Southerners as General Forrest, and given reports of speeches made by General Wade Hampton and others, explaining and toning down their ill-judged and bad-tempered remarks on their return home from the Tammany Convention. It is plain to be seen that these fire-eaters are drawing off. They have witnessed the folly of attempting to “‘fire the Southern heart,” which is dead asa flint at this time, without having the proper steel, and begin to realize that instead they have touched a hostile chord in Northern sentiment, which vibrates through- out the East and West. Now they wish to back out, draw off, deny their own words, ‘“‘bite up.” But itis too late. Théir retraction is of no consequence. They cannot remove the odium of those speeches. crats have won elephants in Wade Hampton, Forrest, Bob Toombs, Howell Cobb, Ben Hill and the rest of that sort of people, who are none the less unserviceable because they aro white. The North, East and West will settle the business of the Presidential election, and hat will be in favor of Grant by a majority that will serve as a lesson anda rebuke to those Southern Hotspurs who would ruin rather than they shall not rule. Loonie To THE Ruwe.—King William of Prussia has left Berlin attended by a brilliant and numerous staff of officers, for the purpose of inspecting the troops of the North German Confederation. He reached Dresden yester- day, where his superior military authority was acknowledged by the King of Saxony, who received and conducted him to the palace. The future Emperor of Germany is, it appears, becoming suspicious of the political surround- ings and cautious as to their probable issue, deeming it prudent to be prepared for any emergency which may ‘‘turn up.” Why he should be so is best known to himself and Count Bismarck. If King William receives the Paris journals regularly he will find their pages, as we do, filled with ‘peace asaur- ances.” It may be, however, that after read- ing the ‘“‘assurances” in French he interprets them in the German according to the lights of 1801 and 1805, and from that period to Water- loo, King William knows all about ‘peace assurances” from Paris, and appears to prefer the assurance of the needle gun. Mexico AND THE ENoiisn Press.—The Eng- lish press has again taken to giving us advico as to what we should do with Mexico, according to the English papers, for the inte- rest of Mexico that it be incorporated with the United States, This is no new story. We heard it from both the French and English when Mexico barbarously murdered Maxi- milian, We did not take the advice then. We do not intend to take the advice now. We know what is for. our own interest and also what is for the interest of Mexico without ad- vice from any such quarters, It is our inten- tion to take heed to Mexico. We will bring her into the Union when the time comes; but the time is not yet. Some say wo expect to seo Phil Sheridan repeating his Shenandoah valley march over the wide plains of Mexico. But there is no need for haste in this matter. Time enough. DEFECTIVE RAILROADS. To Tre Eprror oF tae HERALD:— Hearing so much of late of ratiroad accidents, and being an investigative person of the philosophic creed, I ventured to solve the true cause of our late disasters, ‘ For my fleld of operations I took one mile of the New Haven Railroad, and found it in a deplorable condition, I suppose I would have found the whole Toad in the same condition had I continued; but not being a salaried officer of the company I could not very Well afford to give itso much time and atten- tion. Tuere were quite a number of rails that were not fit to run a gravel train on, and yet five thousand Passengers are carried over them daily, A railroad com; that are paying a dividend to the full extent allowed pan charter and building handsome depots aud bridges for the purpose of using their surplus cash, to allow thetr road to be- come in such a state that perils the lives of thon- sands that daily pass over their road, is something that I should like explained to me by the manayers, T would also like to know, when @ superintendent, of a railroad takes @ vacation, if another is ap- jointed to act during his absence or the road left to jake care of itself until he returns? I think if tho superintendents of the diferent railroads throughout the State would ride over their respective roads on f slow train once a fortnight, the list of railroad ace. dents would jesse to tha same extent as they havea, heen Inoreastad. —__<_<_ EE The Southern demo- * It is, .