The New York Herald Newspaper, November 12, 1868, Page 6

NeW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hera. -No. 317 AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. PIKE'S OPERA HOUSE, corner of Eighth avenue and 98d street.—La BELLE HELENR, FRENCH THEATRE, Fourteenth street and Sixth ave- nue.—-GENEVIEVE DB BRABAN OLYMPIC THEATRE, Bro: with NEW FEATURES. Broadway—Mus. F. W. Lan- Ee Hurry Doxrrr, BROADWAY THEATR' DER AB MARI ANTOINEDT) THEATRE, Broadway and 18th street.— 12E Lass. ARDEN, Broadway—Mus, D. P. BowEns as BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—PimaTES OF THE Sa- VANNAU-SNOW BIRD. MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— CLGARELTR, THE LITTLE LEOPARD OF FRANCE. BRYANTS'’ OPERA HOUSE, street —ExMi0r(aN MINSTRE! KELLY & LEON’S MINSTRELS, 720 Broadway.—ETmo- PIAN MINSTRELSY, BURLESQUE.—ORPHEE AUX ENFERS. Tammany Building, Mth &o. 685 Broadway.—ETulo- Se ENTE , DANOING, &. Pran ENTE TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE 201 Bowery.—Comio VOCALISM, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &¢. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway,—Tas Great ORI- GINAL LingasD AND VAUDEVILLE COMPANY. WOOD'S M M AND TIEATRE, Thirtieth street and Troadway.—Aficraoon and evening Performance. APOLLO HALL, Twenty-cighth street and Broadway.— JAMES TAYLOR AND ALF BURNETT. enth street.—EQUEST RIAN T. AT EUROPEAN CIRCUS, corner Broadway and sth JUESTRIAN AND GYMNASTIO PERFORMANOES. S10 17S AT rere) 284 street.—MR. DE CorDOva, OPERA MENINE V D.) OPERA HOUSE, Willlamsburg.— ELS—BULLEBSQUES—ARON AUTS, &C. USE, Brooklyn,—HOOLEY’s M, hursday, November 12, 1868. Fy ox AND Ant, TRIP New York, Cha Mews. Envepe. »ports are dated November 4, i Parliament was dissolved yesterday by the Queen's proclamation and the new House will mect on December 10, According to the Vienna Presse modifications are pro, d in the treaty of Paris respecting the sove- of Tarkey over the Danubian principalities, ational Military Commission has met in , under the presidency of the Russian of War. ‘al Pierrad has joined Seiior Escalante in pro- ublican cause in Madrid, ¥, Patten, wrecked in the Weser, will come atolal wreck. Captain Percy and cr of the crew were saved by the lfe- The ; Ove-twenties, 74; MHilinols Paris Bourse—Rentes, twenties, 787. Liver. ton dull and unchanged. Havre—Cotton, , 1206, to arrive. Liverpool—Spirits per cwt. Antwerp—letrolcum, turpeat standard white, “"Avabin. ed from London mention the de- the Imam of Muscat, in Arabia. The abvees will succeed in his place. Cnba, na letters are dated as late as the 7th ae Ugut near Baire the Spanish troops row 1 to » having 135 men killed and wounved, A cargo of arms and ammunition was Janivd for the Insurgents at Machoy Sortella. A small lot of Peabody rites had arrived at Havana on the 5t ish government, and had been taken throne chief of Our I inst, y¥ to the Hasterm De- partinen!, a reluforcemeat of Spanish troops going on the same vessel. The insurgents want no reforis, but demand independence of Spain and apn ‘ion with the United Sates. Puerto Principe, the principsl town in the east except San- s to join the revolt and it is expected that a risiog will soon take place nearer Havana, Li was weported in vana by the government ai ies that the rebels had agreed to lay down thetr on condition that all should be pardoned, but i not include Cespada and th» Captain Gencral w Arguie:a in the aumne ? . ns ve ‘rimes gays that a number of par- left that city for Cuba, and 3,000 biy leave within fifteen days, all ent parts of a Mlibustering expedi- ndependence or annexation of Cuda. ates governarent, it is said, has no rmation in regard to the filibustering toa ior The Unit ‘The West Indies. + mall advices from Hayti, Jamaica and the of late dates. The bombardment of rave Was comimenced without giving aunts to remove and without of the American and other * foreign property should be giish gunboat Dart and the re charged to watch that the panter, does no damage to be Lorme, Sainave's yeen removed, Jacmel ts coisiature of Jamaica was to be summoned iumediately. Str Peter Grant had returned from on, An attempt had been made to murder ley, the Haytien Consui, it was supposed by Haytien refugees. ‘The new Legislature of Barbados had met. | Snow had falien in great quantities. The Legislature of | St, Lucia convened on the 10th of October. Caytoin Hugg, Jr, of the bark Maggie V. Hugy, froin Rio Janerio via St. Thomas, October 25, reports that white at the latter port he experienced @ slight | shock of earthquake, Miscellaneorns, yesterday, 10,000 votes wore Woe er y ivhuw ti Aye cast, and the repubi candidate was elected by seventeen majority. Lord Moneck’s admini m in Canada is rae pidly approaching ~a end. ast meoting of his Privy Council will be held o Jay at Quebec. A Legislative deputation froni Ontario has gone to Quebec to present him wiih a farewell address. ‘Three hundred Indians leit Maxweil’s reuche, in Colorado, last week, to take pert in the war against the hostile tribes. A break in the Erie Canal, caused by the rising in the Mohawk river, has carried away one hundred feet of the towpath near Schenectady. It will re- quire four days to mend it. A convention of the influential men of Wisconsin, Towa, Missouri aud Minnesota met in Prairie du Chien, Iowa, yesterday, and took very earnest measures for the opening of water communication between the lakes and the Mississippi river by the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivera, The City. A sub-committee of the Congressional Committee on Retrenchment held a session in this city yester- day and examined District Attorney Courtney as to lis reasons for not pressing a trial of the Kentucky Bourbon Company and other whiskey cases. Mr. Courtney testified that the delay was caused by orders from Washington, ~ Madame Olympe Audouard,Countess de la Morllére, held her first ‘conference’ at the theatre of the Union League Club House last night before a fash- ionable and highly intelligent audience, and achieved great success. The subject of her reading was the Political li’e of Victor Hugo, and in the course of it she drew impressive pictures of the man, his charac- terand his influence during the eventful history of France. A meeting of the Workingwomen’s Association was held last night at No. 68 East Broadway, ar which Miss Susan B. Anthony presided. Several Sorosians were present, who, it was belleved, were anxious to get the control of the rising organization; but they were utterly defeated in their object by the true representatives of the workingwomen. The de- bate between the two factions was quite spicy and the Sorosis received several severe rebutts, but the meeting adjourned peacefully. Miss Susan B, An- thony was elected president, Miss Celia Burleigh and Miss Elizabeth Brown secretaries and Miss Fieid treasurer. Admiral Farragut will probably visit the Brooklyn Navy Yard at two o’clock to-day, when he will be received with all the honors due his rank. «An officer of the Inebriate Asylum on Ward's sland came to town on Tuesday afternoon, and be- fore he could return got beastly “tight” and was robbed. He made complaint at the Central office, and claimed to have been drugged. A Spaniard named Nareno, while imprisoned on a charge of insanity tn the Tombs, on Tuesday at- tempted to set fire to his cell. He was severely injured by burns and almost suffocated by the smoke. But little damage was done to the cell. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital. Mr. James B. Macregor, the Superintendent of Buildings, with a deputy and two inspectors, com- menced a tour of inspection yesterday among the theatres of the city. ‘The “After Dark” and “Under the Gaslight” Iitiga- tions promise to be very complicated. Jn addition to Angustin Daly’s ininnétions, J. E, McDonough, of the Bowery theatre, was served with au injunction yesterday by Harry Palmer restraining him from performing ‘After Dark’ at his theatre, Jarrett & Paimer claiming the sole right to perform it in the United States, . In the Court of Common Pleas, before Judge Brady, in the divorce case of Theodore Stuyvesant against Catharine Stuyvesant, the referee to whom the case had been referred for taking testimony reported to the Court in favor of the defendant on all the issnes submitted to him and which were the basts of the plaintia’s prosecution. The October term of the United States Circuit Court was opened yesterday, Judge Nelson presiding, The calendar was called over and the trial of causes fixed. The Rosenberg case is set down for Monday next, In the United States Commissioners’ Court, Peter Mitchel, a member of the Legislature, charged with uttering a fraudulent naturalization paper, was on examination discharged and the complaint dis- missed, The North German Lloyd’s steamship America, Captain Hargesheimer, will leave Hoboken at two ‘The War Department has issued an order empow- ering, in accordance with the Attorney General's | option, all judge advocates of courts martial or | courts of inquiry to issue processes to compel the | aitendance of witnesses in the same manner as they | are issued by local courts of criminal jurisdiction, ‘Those processes may be served if necessary on pi sons not in the military service by a military officer, ‘who shall have @ military force to assist him if re- | | women, in this proposed amendinent, will be The troops sent by General Granger to Tipton | county, Tenn., have returned 1o Memphis, and re. | port that although there are a large number of ne. | | races and colors, (excepting idiots, Innatics, quired. groes there no riotous proceedings have occurred. Generai Kilpatrick, through General E. W. Whit taker, of Hartford, Conn., replies to General For- rest’s denunciations by reiterating hisown. General Shackelford, of New Haven, to whom the reply is addressed, denies the truth of Kilpatrick's charges against orrest in the Fort Pillow affair, and urges Whittaker to address communications on the subject hereafter to Basil Duke or N. B. Forrest, ‘The President, it Is understood, olines to fit! vacancy left by the retirement of Drigadier G Hooker, aa ho boiieves a reduction in the ar P. M. today for Bremen via Southampton. The European mails will close at the Post Oilice at twelve M, The steamship Morro Castle, Captain R. Adams, will leave pier No. 4 North river at three o'clock P. M. to-day for Havana. The steamer Herman Livingston, Captain Cheese- man, will sail at three o’clock P. M. to-day from pier 96 North river for Savannah. The stock market was unsettled yesterday. Gov- ernment securities were dull, Gold closed at 134% a 134%. Prominent Arrivals in the City. Governor R. K. Scott and General J. W. Harrison, of Columbia, 8. C., and J. A. Sullivan, of the United States Coast Survey, are stopping at the Astor House, General Malcor and Captain Blazy, of the French army, are at the Westminster Hotel. Captain Luzern, of the English Army, and R. H. Pruyn, of Albany, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. General 8. B. Buckner, of Louisville, Ky,, is at the Maltby House. Judge M. Nolan, of Albany, and R. S. Crofton, of the United States Army, are at the Metropolitan Hotel. Senator G. F. Edmunds, of Vermont, and Con- greasman J. H. Ketcham, of Dutchess county, N. Y.; General Vogdes and Major Halsey, of the United States Army, are at the Coleman House. Judge Thayer, of Ohio; Captain Wilson, of the United States Army, and Surgeon Reed, of the United States Navy, are at the St. Charles Hotel. The Proposed Suifrage Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It is reported from Washington, and with an air of authority, that one of the first measures that-will be introduced on the reassembling of Congress in December will be a constitutional amendment providing for the regulation of sut- frage throughout the United States—that such a bill will go through without a doubt, and that, the Legislatures of two-thirds of the States (three-fourths are wanted) being republican, the amendment will be ratified and the ques- tion of suffrage settled forever. We are fur- ther informed that a prominent member of Con- gress has prepared such an amendment in the form of a bill, and that be will introduce it on the first day of the session. What form of suffrage is contemplated in this amendment we are left to conjecture. It is hinted that it will go beyond Greeley’s plan | of “universal amnesty and impartial suffrage,” but will probably be limited to ‘manhood suf- frege,” the plan of Wendell Phillips. After the decisive vote of the chivalric men of Kansas a year ago against womanhood suf- frage, notwithstanding the thorough stump- ing of the State by Miss Lucy Stone, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stan- ton, Sojourner Truth (black woman) and George Francis Train, itis safe to say that the left as they are, The amendment, we pre- sume, will confer the elective franchise upon all male citizens of the United States, of all | criminals, &c.), in all our political elections, | and will give to Congress the power to enforce it in all the States; for without this express provision the amendment in many States would doubtless prove to be a doad lott We had supposed, ho dinent k rT. » that in the fourteen there — tes — Foor) i. J Wir iy Ai batity No officially recognized by Oblef Justice Chase as part and parce! of the fedora! constitution, provides subst: that each State shall regulate the s.1 0 for itsalf, subject only to this condiiion—that ia proportion to the excli- sion of any race or class of ihe people from the ballot box the enumeration of such race or class in counting the peop'e for representation in Congress slall bo omitted. For example, there are seven hundred thousand people in bat South Corolina—four hundred thonsand blacks | On the | and three hundred thousand whites, basis of one hundred thousand souls for a rep- resentative in the lower house of Congress, South Carolina, counting whites and blacks, will be entitled to seven membera, and, inelud- | ing her two Senators, to nine votes in the Electoral College for President and Vice President. Under amendment fourteen, however, Iet us suppose that the State has adopted a new constitution, excluding the blacks from the polls, What then? She will lose four members of Congress and four votes in the Electoral College, which, in a tight fit, may elect the President and Vice President of the United States, For all practical purposes, therefore, looking to the protection of the blacks in this matter of suffrage, one would think the ‘‘constitution as it is” amply sufficient, especially as the power is expressly given to Congress to enforce this fourteenth amendment. But the leading radi- cals never did like this reservation to the States of a discretionary power over the sub- ject, and the object of this proposed new amendment is to get rid of that difficulty. Very well. Assuming that this universal suf- frage amendment under the authority of Con- gress can be put through, and will be, what will be the consequences? State rights, it may be said, will go by the board. We hold, however, that State rights, as understood and enforced by the old democratic party from the time of Jefferson to the administration of Bu- chanan, were blown sky high with the first bombshell thrown by the Southern confederacy into Fort Sumter. Moreover, the whole spirit of this age of steam, the telegraph, an inde- pendent press, and general enlightenment, and the general drift of political ideas and institu- tions in both hemispheres, is from the old rickety system of confederations of incongru- ous State establishments to the system of cen- tralization, or a strong central government, over homogeneous communities, in origin, language, laws or ideas, no matter how exten- sive the general area they may cover. But, again, in the late Presidential election results in the Southern States, under the uni- versal nogro suffrage condition of the recon- straction acts, we see that the black vote, with very little troubie, can be éohtvoliead by the whites—that the black laborer, in other words, can be readily gained over at the ballot box by his white employer. It is by no means certain, then, that in fixing their ultimatum of universal ‘‘manhood suffrage,” negroes, Indians and all, in the national constitution, the radi- cals would secure the Southern balance of power. We think it would be turned against them as early as 1872 in every Southern State from the social necessities which are bringing landlord and laborer into political accord. On the other hand, should this proposed amend- ment prove in practice a fallacy, productive only of Southern confusion and bloodshed, a new political revolution will speedily rectify the blunder. The natural position and the natural tendencies of the blacks in the samo community are subordination to the white race. Nor can legislation change these laws of nature. They are on the side of the Southern whites, and, rightly understood, the whites may turn to their political advantage this thing of univer- sal negro suffrage, though made for a time part of the supreme law of the land. The Latest from Spain. This morning we print a cable despatch from Madrid to the effect that the party in favor of arepublic is gaining ground. An important coalition has been formed by General Pierrard and Don Escalante, and it is resolved to push forward the republican cause. It will not be wonderful if this feeling in favor of a republic becomes general. It is already notorious that with the single exception of Serrano not one of the. prominent men con- nected. with the revolution went in for monarchy on any higher ground than that of expediency. Olozaga, the most illustrious of them all, and whose adhesion to the revolution saved the nation from anarchy, declared in favor of monarchy simply because he believed the nation was not ripe fora republic. It is undeniable, however, that the situation within the last ten days has materially changed. No one seems to care much about the Spanish crown. The princes of Europe despise it. If a real live prince is not to be had, and Spain is forced to fall back upon her own sons, it is difficult to see why a monarchy should be any longer preferred to a republic. Espartero the President would be quite as useful as Espartero the King. The humiliation felt by the nation at having had to seek in vain for a prince to rule over them can- not failto strengthen the republican cause. The great danger to be apprehended now is that the factions may break out, that the interests of the nation may be sacrificed to the interests of party, and that in another reign of anarchy the hopes of Spain may be blasted. Arctic Discovery. Dr. Hoyes will read a paper on this subject to-night before the American Geo- graphical and Statistical Society at the society's rooms in the Cooper Institute. This will be an occasion of some interest to all who follow the development of geographical science and take a pride in the contributions that American intellect and activity have already made and promise to make, Dr, Hayes is now an applicant for national assist - ance in a practical and direct way. He desires the government to place at his dis- posal one of the many vessels that it has now doing nothing more valuable to the world than rotting. Such assistance, while it would be without outlay or expense to the govern- ment, would be of great importance scfentifi- cally, European governmonts assist the de- velopment of science in all direc liberal hand, Hitherto ours has done thi frecly, rather from a want of pr the right quarter than from any + public mind of syapihy wit objects Thora is nlay npoa better of md Appe@araacs v4 ie this: | imbibed new ideas of government and of pros- | into the } pot + day d The Telegraph and the Government One of our morning contemporaries published yesterday 2 muddled article foreshadowing ‘‘a new telogravh question” which is to come be- fore Congress this winter in the shape of a proposition to incorporate ‘a so-called govern- ment telegraph company, having power to construct and operate lines on all the post roads and routes of the country, assisted by a contract with the government for transmitting messages.” From the tone of the article in question we are inclined to regard this as a new movement of the present objectionable | telegraph monopoly to shut of by legislation the opposition lines now in process of con- struction all over the country, and certain, be- fore long, to work a much needed and desira- ble reform in the business of tolegraphing in the United States. It evidently aims at enabling the Western Union Company, by making a contract with the governmont for trans- mitting messages, to obtain exclusive privileges on “all the post roads and routes of the country,” andis intended to counteraet the anticipated policy of uniting the telegraph and postal systems in this country as they are already united in Europe. The telegraph has become a necessity in gov- ernmental affairs, to the press, in commerce and in social life. Neither the government, the newspapers not individuals can now do without it, There is a demand everywhere for increased facilities and lower prices, and no franchises within the gift of a people should be so carefully guarded as those which relate to this great element of progress and devel- opment. Monopoly, with its accompaniments of limited facilities and high rates, is a greater evil to the country in this business than in any other. Such a proposition as that now put forward in the interest of the Western Union Company would intensify instead of remove the present evils. We need one of two things—either a thorough, wholesome competition or the control and operation of the telegraph lines by the govern- ment as a part and parcel of the postal system. The latter proposition is already finding favor here, as in Europe, and has many features to recommend it. In the hands of greedy specu- lators and rings private companies are rua for the advantage of individuals, and ‘not for the benefit of the public. The construction of the lines ig made to cost four and five times the actrial value; supplicsare purchased at a large percentage above,their legitimate price, and the operating expenses are run up to one hun- dred and fifty per cent more than they ought to be under a liberal management. The con- sequence is that the people who use the lineg are imposed upon by exorbitant rates and the stockholders receive put meagre divi- dends, if any, upon their investments. The Western Union Company has a nominal capi- tal of forty-one million dollars, The govern- ment could to-day build as many lines as the Western Union owns and leases to every point touched by that company for twelve million dollars, The new lines would be of better material and greater conductivity than any used by the Western Union, and the insulation and equipments would be all very superior to the old, used up stock of that company. The increased capacity of these new lines, their comparatively low cost and the economy with which they might be operated would enable the government to do the whole business of the country at one-fourth of the rates now ex- torted from the people by the Western Union monopoly wherever it has no competing lines to contend with. Decreased prices and increased facilities would not be the only benefits derived by the public from a government telegraph system. Secrecy and impartiality, which are now wanting, would be secured. In the hands of sworn government agents a telegraph message would be as sacred as a letter, and there would be no holding back despatches to favor speculators. The opera- tors would be subject to the same laws which are in force in the Post Office Department, and any dishonest use of information derived from messages would be made a State prison offence. Every city would contain a network of telegraph lines, and communication from end to end of a city's limits would be almost instantaneous. There is no doubt that the telegraph, which is yet in its infancy, is des- tined to work a wonderful revolution in politi- cal, commercial and social life, and its very magnitude demands that it shall be taken out of the hands of speculators and individual mo- nopolists and held in the strong grasp of the government, rent Progress of the Cuban Revolution. This morning we give details of the revolu- tion in Cuba. The revolutionists are so nu- merous and their cause is meeting with such success that they now claim for themselves bel- ligerent rights. We also have advices to the effect that the provisional government of Spain has conferred on Count Balmaseda the full power to pardon all the insurgents except the leaders, This is not the usual Spanish method of treating with colonial revolters, as witness the history of Spanish America. There is no doubt that the mother country recognizes that there is little hope of restoring Cuba to a quiet condition by force of atms, and is now trying to cajole her into submission to another long period of taxation and non-representa- tion. “Cuba ean no longer stand this mis- rule. Her interests now lie in the same direc- tion with the rest of the New World, ond there is not a question but the propitious mo- ment has arrived for her to cut loose from Europe and commence her march to that greatness for which she is destined by her aplendid position and her natural resources. There is unquestionably much sympathy for the movement now agitating the island, not only among all classes there, but here. Those who aid the movement in the United States claim that large amounts of money have been subscribed and that war material in abundance will be placed at the disposal of those who, sympathizing with unfortunate Cuba, take part from the mainland in her liberation from the Spanish yoke. The expatriation of the leading liberals of Cuba during the past fifteen-years is now hear- ing its natural fruit, They came to America, potity for theix native land, ited States tne) adn K teal mororn 3.--TRIF LS \ tiorof BAT st a 1 Watort va SilwuT. the existing fecling, ‘There is, however, broad principle upon which wo base our wish to see Cuba cut aloof from Spain, and that is the necessity of separating overy particle of this Western Continent from European domina- tion, whether it be upon the mainland or upon the adjacent islands, So long as Europe has the slightest foothold upon the Continent we are trammelled in our progress and liable to dis- agreeable European complications. The free- dom of Cuba, therefore, becomes a necessity to us, Offenbach and the Oyster House Critics. Now that the success of ‘“Genevitve de Brabant” at the Théaitre Frangais is assured and that a very large proportion of the nightly audiences consists of ladies, it will be in- teresting to review the course which the sapient Bohemians of this city have taken in regard to this latest extravagance of Ofienbach. On its first production those worthies, who went into ecstacies over the “Black Crook” and tried to discover moral precepts in the ‘‘White Fawn,” were suddenly seized with a virtrous indigna- tion, and, turning up the-whites of their eyes, ejaculated “Abomination!” They analyzed the plot and dialogue with a view to extract all the indecency they could imagine from it, and as a necessary consequence their reports were far more indecent than any opera or play could reasonably be. Entively ignoring the music, which is in many respects the best that Offenbach ever wrote, the talents of the artists and the unexampled mise en se*ne, those Don Quixotes of the quill dwelt on every equivocal expression or extravagant action to make de- ductions according to the bent of their own depraved minds. Of course they would never think of opening a crusade against ‘* Traviata,” “Rigoletto,” ‘Don Giovanni” or other works of the kind, the subjects of which are far more in- decent than any nonsense that Offenbach or his librettists could manufacture. Eveu in the opéra comique, which they speak so much about, the plot and dialogue wili not often bear analysis, When ‘‘Galathve” was pro- duced over two years ago all those ‘‘crities” spoke of the music in the highest terms, but said nothing about the diatoyas, in compari- son to which, ‘‘Genevitve” is a moral lecture. What is the cause, then, of this sudden assump- tion of Paritanical notions and this religious revival among seedy Bohemians and oyster house critics? Has Gran neglecied to supply them with spirituous stimulants or 9 sulli¢iogt quantity of bivalves on the half-3he, roast or fry, with the pepper thrown in? Or is the fact that, like General Grant, he has wisely abstained from making speeches sufficient to draw down upon his head the phiats of their in- dignation? Grau, unfortunately for them, has a disagreeable habit of depending on the public alone and consulting the wishes and wants of his true patrons in the amusement line. This is an unpardonable offence in the Bohemian point of view. But when he knows that his artists are sans reproche in both acting and singing ; that he has placed on the stage a genuine novelty in the most magnificent manner, and that night after night the boxes and dress circle of the Théatre Frangais are filled with the representative people of New York he can afford to treat those Bohemians with the sharpest kind of punishment— silence. There is one poculiarity about their remarks on ‘‘Genevidve,” and that is, they are afraid to attack the artists who are cast in the opera. Madame Rose Bell, Mile. Desclauzas, MM. Carrier, Beckers, Gabel and Bourgoin are beyond the reach of the puny darts of those knights of the quill. They know too well the result of their efforts against Ristori, and the well-deserved rebuke which the pub- lic administered to them in that instance. It is rather hard, but it must be sooner or later acquiesced in by them that there is at least one maneger in New York who depends on the public and his own earnest exertions for success, and not on the dictum of oyster house critics. Whiskey In the Courts. “‘Allowed to stand over”—perhaps for the term, perhaps forever. This is the last action on the Messmore Kentucky Bourbon case. If anybody wants to know why the case is ‘‘al- lowed to stand over” the only answer is that the defendants are not ready. If anybody wants to know when the defendants will be ready we can only say that they would be great fools to give themselves -any inconve- nience in the premises. It would be a bucolic simplicity on their part to be ready; for if a man is innocent till he is proved guilty, and is pretty sure to be proved guilty when tried, and need not be tried till he is ready, a decent respect for his relatives and his repatation ought to keep him in a condition of never-end- ing unreadiness. What is the reason that a whiskey case cannot be tried in our courts like any other case? What is the reason that a man who is charged with the crime of defraud- ing the revenue stands on a different level from men charged with other and not more heinous crimes? Does anybody wait the de- fendant’s pleasure when the crime is burglary? Certainly his taste, his convenience, his readi- ness are not considered with that delicate at- tention that marks the demeanor of all officials towards the whiskey men. What is the rea- son? We would hardly hint that the whiskey men handie more money ; but it is a point, this difference, that the President ought to look into. Inspection of Theatres. Mr. Macgregor, Superintendent of Buildings, began yesterday an inspection of the city thea- tres and other places of amusement. The special object of this inspection fs stated to be the enforcement of the law of 1867, which pro- vides that in all buildings ofa public character already erected or hereafter to be built in New York ‘‘all aisles and passage ways in said buildings devoted to purposes of amusement shall be kept free from camp stools, chairs, gofas and other obstractions during any per- formance, service, exhibition, lecture, ball or any public assemblage, under the penalty of fifty dollars for each and every violation.” Now thia provision is wise, and it bax been so frequoutly violated that a special inspection of | theatres and other places of amnsement had heooine absolutely tocoasary in of fo soente But the Sxperintendent of nincing beferchvnd hie inten~ an inapection, has rondored 2 alt juiceie it oe) ya | mavit from Inelligent people. State prisons after a simiiar been given to the keepers to set order for the occasion. It is like locking the stable door after the horse has been stolen. Moreover, it does not appear that the Superin- tendent has yet decided upon an inspection, still more imperatively essential in order to enforce the provisions of the laws of 1867, with reference to partition walls, facilities for speedy egress and ether requisite safeguardsin case of fire. Itis a fact ag unquestionable as it is terri- ble that the lives of thousands of our citizens are nightly imperiMed by the violation of the laws applicable to “buildings of a public character.” If the Superintendent will at once make an in- spection of all our theatres with a view toa rigid enforcement of these laws he will give better proofs of competency for his responsible position than any with which he has hitherto favored the public. Yenement Houses and the Metropolitan Health Board. The large and increasing number of tene- ment houses in New York, and the crowded population which inhabits them, have often led us to insist upon the indispensableness of en- * forcing the legal regulations intended to pre- vent these houses from becoming pest houses, both physically and morally. How formidable an evil the violation of those regulations actually is may be inferred from the startling fact that no. less than four hundred and five complaints made by the Metropolitan Board of Health were on Tuesday brought up before Judge Lane, in the Sixth District Civil Court. We are glad to learn that the Board is at pre- sent occupied in vigorous efforts to compel owners and lessees of tenement houses to keep them in clean habitable condition, to have the closets, vaults and yards properly drained, to put in transom windows for the ventilation of dark bedrooms and to erect voutilators on the roofs. All classes of citizens in every quarter of the city are equally interested in the strict enforcement of the legal regulations to which we have alluded. Tho whole cliy might be devastated and depopulated by # contlagration ora plague originating in a single tenement house. That the ndvantages possessed by New York, in its favorable geographical position at the head of a bay, and between two rivers, have been improved since the organization of the present sanitary system is manifest from the figure to which the death rate has been re- Auced. Last week there were but three hun- dred and thirty-six deaths in this city—the lightest death rate since this system was adopted. Surely all the appliances of science and wholesome legislation should be brought to the aid of nature in reducing the death raie to a still lower figure. Telegraphic Signals at Sea—‘iore Usurpns tions by the Western Union Telegraph. We have published an account of the col- lision between the steamships Marmion and General Meade as one vessel was leaving and the other entering this harbor a few nights since. The accident arose from the fact that the Marmien, which was coming in, hoisted a red light as a telegraph signal to the station at Sandy Hook, which the commander of the General Meade mistook for one of the usual regulation lights on shipboard, and so shaped his course, under the deception, as to run into the Marmion and cut her down to.the water's edge. This is @ moat extraordinary occurrence, and the wonder is that it has not before this been brought more prominently before the public. It should be known tothe commercial community as well as to the travelling public whether the West- ern Union Telegraph Company, after having monopolized nearly the entire land for its net- work of wires, can, in the plenitude of its powers and usurpations, grant codes of signals to be used by vessels at night which are so simi- lar to the lawful night nautical signals estab- lished by act of Congress as to create confusion and, as false lights usually do, cause disasters like that above referred to. We learn that the’ signal on the Marmion was exhibited by author- ity of or under an understanding with an agent of the Western Union Company, and hence the company should be held responsible for the amount of damages resulting from the colli- sion. Itis not likely the insurance compa- nies interested will allow the matter to pass without legal investigation, otherwise we might as well abandon all the systems of night signals established by government for steamers and sailing vessels and allow commanders to hoist such lights and of such colors as they may fancy and to place them about the rigging of their vessels as they may from time to time. think proper. The system established by law was intended as a precaution against accidents by night at sea, and unless it is rigorously ad- hered to we may prepare to receive soon the tidings of some dreadful catastrophe on the ocean, Our Lecturors=What Shall We po with Them? This is thé most lecturo-ridden nation om the face of the earth, we do verily believe. For the last twenty or thirty yoars we have been afflicted with all kinds of adventurers from abroad doling out to us either the rejected lucubrations of the Old World or hashed up stupidity represented to us as original compositions. People who could not command success ag lecturers or in any other capacity in Europe, and actors and actresses who failed uttsrly in the histrionic arthave come here to weary us at the lecturer's desk. It would almost seem that America has be- come the refugium peccatorum of this class of persons, not one-half of whom know any- thing of the aabjects they pretend to discourse about. A good lecture npon. a scientific subject, emanating from a scientiiic intellect, is of in- calculable value to the public. Art, illus- trated by an artistic mind, is always charming and instrnetive in the lecture room; but a good deal of the stuif which has heretefore been, and we fear is likely to be, poured out in a flood upon us during the winter is a thing not to be endured. We have had male lecturerd and female lecturers from all quarters of the world, There are women who lecture in French, some in German, and some in bad, vory bad English, but few who can claim any Some of those ladies have already scattered over tho South and Went, where they will probably fall into | sone more suiiable oecupation, such a3 dross- as | taakiug or talllinory, ant may becoma usefal acios and y nommhera of a rsigey. We do not seg any ad+