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

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. PIKE'S OPERA HOUSE, corner ot Fi Bid aireet.—LES BAVARDS—BagsE BLEUE, \o avesce and FRENCW THEATRE, Fourtoenth atreet and Sixth ave- Bue.—GENEVIEVE DZ BRaBanT. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Hourry Dori. wita New FEATURES, Matinee at 14. gnhonnrar THEATRE, Broadway.—Tor Emexarp ING. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and 13:u sireet.— Tus Lancasuine Lass, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Arre2 Dann; 07, LON- Don BY Nigut. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowory.—Arren Dank—Vot-av- Vent. NEW YORK THEATRE, Broadway.—Tur ComM@py OF As You liks In, MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brook!ya.— Niox oF tun Woops. i BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC.-LINGARD AND Vauprvitix Company. BRYANTS' OPERA OU @treot.—ETMIOPIAN Mins? h! fammany Batldiag, th ao. * KELLY & LEON'S MI 20 Broadway.—EvMio- FiAN MINGTRELSY, BURLES Cats, 85 Broadway,—ETuto- CTSCO_ MINSTER: 9g deed » DANGING, &e. PIAN ENTERTAINMENTS, SUNGIN & QL Rowerr.—Couta ASTOR'S OP! i . Matinee ai 2) NeGRo Mi wWOOMS MUSEUM AND THEATRE, ‘Thirtioth street and Broadway.—Afternoon and evoning Periurmance. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth strect.—Egursrntan Anp GyYMNASTIO ENTERTAINMENT. Matinee at 2). COOPER IN Govan, “Cox STEINWAY BKONGs OF SCOTLAND. » Astor place, Leorune by J. B. arteenta street.--KENNEDY'S CLINTON HALL ART GALLERIES, Astor place.—FRrer Exuiwirion oF PAINTINGS. Day and eveaing, HOOLEY'S OPERA HO! Brooktyn.—HoouRy's MUNGTRELG-—A DUTOUMAN IN JAPAN, 46. HOOLEY'S (E. D.) OPERA HO! Wilttamsburg.— Hoover's MINsTRELS—THE LANKY E Lass bc. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— GorRNCE AND Art. “. TRIPLE SHE New York, Wednesday, December 9, 1568. Europe. ‘The cable telegrams are dated December 8. The telegraphic arrangements throughout Europe, 4n accordance with the agreement made at the In- ternational Telegraph Convention recently held in ‘Vienna, will go into effect on the Ist of January next, Important changes have been made, and the tolls will be reduced about one-haif. A beavy gale prevailed throughout England dur- ‘ing Sunday night and Monday morning. Much in- Jury was caused. ' Mr. Disraell resigned the seais of office to the Queen yesterday. + The funeral of the late M. Berryer took piace yes- terday. Count Bismarck, says the Monifeur, has assured ,the Ambassadors of France, England and Russia of his confidence in the continuance of good feeling between tae European Powers. Colombia. Our Panama letter is dated November 30, The Chagrea and Obispo rivers swelled rapidly on the 25th and submerged the railroad track, making it Ampassable for several days, The national Supreme Court had ordered the release of Governor Gutierrez, of Cundmamarca, who was imprisoned for organ- izing a rebellion in his State against the national ‘government. The court decided that he was guilty ‘of no violation of the constitution in so doing, but ‘the judges, it 13 said, had to hide themselves to ‘escape being mobbed. The States are, however, i organizing their revolutionary forces. Pera. One Lima letter 1s dated November 14. Rumors of revolt in the South were prevalent, but President ‘Kaita had appointed Colonel Corejo, whom he de- Tested in the fight at Chiclayo, to be Prefect ‘or the province, and his popularity and good wense were considered guarantees of peace @nd order. The district is the same that wutered most by the earthquakes of August last, Mevolulionary agents were also busy at the North, Buita himself having lost his popularity in that dis- trict. Financial affuirs were in an unsatisfactory state, The country was quite exultant over the re- Jease of the Peruvian iron-cilads at New Orleans, and itis said the secret history of the negotiation Guntains some singular episodes. Chile. Arrangements have been made, it ts said, by which Uhiiveaa ports are again open to Spanish vea- sels, Bolivia. ‘The people in some quarters are in revolt at the treaty of limits with Brazil, A trouvie with Peru has arisen on account of the disinissal of a Bolivian Consul who had opened some mail bags in his care. Ihe Presitent of Bolivia, Melgarejo, asserts his de- termination to force Peru to restore to him his exe- quatur, The Bolivian Minister had withdrawn tn Bright at the demonstrations in opposition to the treaty. The director of a foreign company who opened a bank at La Paz had been competied to loan Meigarejo $100,000 through threats, Cuba. Our despatches from Havana contain additional War Department was argued at some length and then passed by a vote of 116 to 33, Mr. Robinson again moved the question of Fenian prisoners in Ireland, declaring that war ought to be declared Against Eugiand before dinner time, but no action ‘Was taken on it and the House adjourned. We publish claewhere this morning the reports of the heads of departments, as follows:— 1, Treasury, by Secretary Hugh McCullooh. 2 War, by Secretary J. M. Schofleld. Miscellaneous, . ‘Te Jozs of the ateamship Hibernia, Captain Man- Toe, was reported in yesterday’s HenaLy, She safled from this port November 14, and was out eleven daya when she was lost. She carried on the trip twenty-one cabin and intermediate and sixty- three steerage passengers, a liat of whom 1s given in another column this morning. The American ship Hellespont was lost at Pigeon Point, above San Francisco, On the 19th of Novem- per. We published a telegraphic account of the dis- aster atthe time, Eleven lives were lost, the cap- tain and first oficer being among the number, We publish to-day a full account of the shipwreck and a lat of the lost and saved. ‘The Washington correspondent of a Massachusetts paper intimates that at least $300,000 were paid to newspaper men and lobbyists for services in having the appropriation bill for the purchase of Alaska passed, and names among the papers thus rewarded at least four New York establishments, The Rus- Sians, It appears, footed these bills, The testimony in the trial of Deacon Andrews was concluded on Monday night, and yesterday the pris- as convicted of manslaughter aud sentenced us unprisonment. Tho City. General Grant was closeted with General McClellan atthe St. Nicholas Hotel for more than an hour yes- terday. Inthe evenmg he was entertained with a grand dinner and reception by the Union League Club, Mr, John Jay presided, General Grant being seated on his right, and Admiral Farragut on his left. In response to the toasts, the General and the Aamirai mace speeches of their customary brevity. Commodore Meade was brought before Judge Sutherland yesterday on a writ of habeas corpus di- rected to the Keeper of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, The Commodore recognized several old friends, the Judge among others, and‘conducted himself very rauionally during the examination that ensued. He occupied a seat next to the judge and part of ihe examination consisted of 2 conversation beiween the two, carried on in % low tone, during which Jndge Sutherland narrowly watched the Movements and expressions of the alleged insane Commodore. At the conclusion Judge Sutherland atgcharg s perfectly sane and responstble. n ti tes District Court, Judge Blatch- ford presiding, the trial of the case of the United States vs. a quantity of distilled spirits seized at the rectifying establisument of Watson & Crary, Christo- pher street, was resumed yesterday. A number of witnesses for the government were examined and the prosecution rested. Counsel for the defence addressed the jury, and at the close of his remarks the court adjourned till this morning at eleven A. M. In the Kentucky Bourbon Company case Mr. Courtney, United States District Attorney, yesterday at the opening of the court applied for an order that the clerk call the names of the defendants. On their names being called accordingly only one of the de- fendants appeared, whereupon the District Attorney applied for and was granted a bench warrant to compel the attendance of the parties in question. The coroner's jury in the case of Norman L, John- son rendered a verdict yesterday that he came to his death by a stab wound at the hands of his wife. She was committed. The Cunard steamship China, Captain Hockley, will sail to-day for Queenstown and Liverpool. The ‘mails will close at the Post Ofice at twelve M. The Merchants’ line steamship General Meade, Captain Sampson, will leave pier 12 North river at tive P. M. to-day for New Orleans direct, Prominent Arrivals in the City. Qovernor Burnside, of Rhode Island; Congressman FP. E. ‘Woodbridge, of Vermont, and B, Mitre y Vedice, Argentine Minister, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. G, W. Whitemore, of the United States Army; Sen- ator Cole, of California, and his brother, General Cole, of Syracuse; Henry Besano, of Italy; George McFarlane, of Glasgow, Scotland; D. A. Dangler, of Cleveland, Ohio; General Kilpatrick of New Jersey, and Charles B. Barlow, of the United States Navy, are at the Metropolitan Hotel. J. Boll, of Cologne on the Main, and Charles W. Trumbull, of Boston, are at the Brevoort House. ‘Theodore F. Randolph, Governor elect of New Jer- sey, is at the Clarendon Hotel. Colonel Black and Colonel James H. Carlton, of the United States Army, are at the Hoffman House, Dr. G. W. Lawerance, of Arkansas, is at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Captains Edward Saulsbury and George M. Guth- rie, of the United States Army, and Professor Thorpe, of Baltimore, are at the St. Charies Hotel, Judge Miller, of Pennsylvania, and Captain R. Gib- son, Of Yazoo, Miss., are at the Julien Hotel. The Prospect in Congress—Naturalization, Reconstruction and Negro Suffrage. From the opening proceedings of the present session of Congress it is apparent that it will be largely devoted to Southern reconstruction, the naturalization laws and negro suffrage. These three questions are of the highest im- portance to the party in power, and therefore challenge the first attention of the two houses. On the naturalization question we select from the varidus amendments proposed to the existing laws ihe instructions given to the com- mittee of revision of the House, on motion of Mr. Schenck. They are:—First, whether this naturalization business should not be restricted to courts of the United States and the higher courts of record; second, to provide for uni- | formity in such proceedings; third, to require the judge's signature to every declaration and @ccounts of the spirited fighting of lass week. Balmaseda admits having suffored heavy lors. He was on his way from Fuerto Principe to Nuevitas When the battles ensued. Colonel Lojo had aban- ‘aoned Las Tunas and arrived at Manati, These suovements indicate a withdrawal from the interior ‘on the part of the Spanish troops. ; The revolutionary force has met with several suc- ceases. Count Villamar is marching on Santi Hapirita and Guautanamo had been reduced. It is supposed Santiago will be soon attacked, The fag ‘alopted by the insurgents Is composed of the three ‘cotors red, white and blue, A blue band at the Ddottom runs the whole length of the fag from the wi atl and is half the fag's width, The upper half is divided between red and white, the former next the swat, in the centre of the red is a five angied white star. Tho loyalists ridicule the idea of having the siarof Cuba rise in @ red instead of o blue firma. oem. Havtt. Advices by mat! to the 23th ult. report no change Yn the situation, Diockades were maintained at St. Marc, Miragoanve, Aux Cayes and Jéromie. The ship Aerolite, of Boston,.was released on 1 t wiih snore troops, had eailed for Gouve wilt his corvette aud gunboat. Congress. In the Senate yesterday a bill was introduced to Abolish the franking privilege. A resoluti ’ “for information as to the diMeulty with Paraguay, ‘was adopted. A resolution to amend the rules, so that Indian treaties should hereafter be considered \#o open session, Was discussed sitgntly and laid over. Aesolution to extend the jurisdiction of the: Court ‘of Claims to Louisiana and Arkansas was laid on the table and ordered to be printed, The Senate afters vulrty-five mihutes’ session adjourned, he the House thé finfinished business Of July last taken af, Age byl regulating the duties on copper ores. The bill was to 61, Resdlations of the Oh Senators Corbett ding their resignations was 4 fe jeted to be returned to the Oregon Legis. as S¢hndaious, impertinent snd tmlecorous, A bei wo ttpaster the Bureau of Indian Afaira to the certificate; fourth, to require records to be kept; fifth (and this, with the record of the court, is the main point), to authorize letters of natu- ralization to be issued after four years’ resi- dence, but not to take effect till one year after date, On the motion of Mr. Wood, of New | York, to lay these instructions on the table the | House was divided, yeas 83, nays 125—n strict party vote, the republicans in the negative. From this may safely predict that some general bill of the character indicated will be passed at this session, The main points are the removal of this naturaliza- tion business to the United States courts and the stopping of the electioneering naturaliza- tion mills on the eve of our political elections by requiring the certificate of citizenship a year in advance and a record thereof, Some such bill, we understand, has been resolved | upon by the republicans in Congress, in con- sequence of certain alleged wholesale demo- cratic naturalization frands in the late Phila- \ delphia Ociober elections, and in our New we | York city November elections. Southern reconstruction ia in a very slipshod condition snd will require mnch patching. Georgia is cut of gear, Florida is in a muddle, Louisiana his been turned topay turvy, with the negroes at the bottom, which will never do; Arkanses is given over to rufianism, and even Tenuessee is a shocking example of law and order, These belong’to the reconstructed States, and two or three of them at least are to be reconstructed over again. Of course the unreconstructed States of Virginia, Mississippi and Texas will be put through the ordeal of the new constitutional amendment without much ceremony; but in this amendment itself the matter of negro suffrage, and the removal of this dificulty is now the main question. General Grant, aa we are informed from good authority, is in favor of a new constitu- tional amendment establishing universal man- hood suffrage as the supreme law of the land. The difficulty under amendment fourteen is that each State may regulate suffrage to suit itself on the universal plan, or by a color qualification, @ property qualification or an educational qualification, or all of these, subject only to a reduction in counting the people for representation in proportien to the restriction of the suffrage. Thus, if the blacks are excluded from the suffrage they are not to be counted for representation; and under this plan South Carolina, for example, would be cut out of more than half her delegation in the lower house of Congress and half her Presidential vote. But still it is feared that the whites of the Southern States, if left to soon contrive to take the suffrage from the negroes, and hence the desire of the radicals to make universal suffrage—negroes and all— mandatory upon all the States. General Grant proposes to settle the matter beyond dispute through an amendment of the consti- tution, but Mr. Senator Sumner proposes the shorter inethod of universal negro suffrage by act of Congress, holding that Congress, under “the constitution as it is,” has ample power over the subject. Whether the plan advocated by General Grant or the proposition of Senator Sumner shall prevail is the question for the two houses to settle. It is possible that the 4th of March may come round before a settlement is reached. Meantime, while these questions of natarali- zation, reconstruction and universal negro suffrage are before the two houses, we cannot expect any material measures of relief to the country in the matter of the national debt, the national currency, the national taxation bills and the enormous budget of frauds upon the revenue, from Kentucky whiskey to French brandy and from Havana cigars to the home made article. The Fortieth Congress is not up to the mark of retrenchment and reform. Its record is a budget of blunders, extrava- gances, profligacies and corruptions ; but the Forty-first Congress, which meets on the 4th of March, may perhaps be fruitful of better things, from the hints and recommendations of President Grant. We are compelled at last to turn to him as the hope of the country. There are no signs of relief from the present short session of the demoralized and expiring Fortieth Congress. Am I Not a Man and a Brother? It was in the shape of such an interrogation that Menard, the negro Congressman from Louisiana, presented himself last Monday in the House of Representatives at Washington. He had not yet received his credentials from the Governor of Louisiana. He was expect- ng, however, to receive them soon, when he will offer them to the House and test the sin- cerity of the radical majority which has clamored so loudly about the rights of the negro. Meanwhile this majority has betrayed the most chilling indifference to his individual claims. At first for a long, uncomfortable time, he was left severely alone upon one of the sofas in the rear of the hall, No member accosted him except Blackburn, of Louisiana. The poor fellow, annoyed at the social ostra- cism to which his radical colleagues from the Northern States most illogically condemned him, arose and sought in vain for an oppor- tunity to secure a desk. Everywhere the radicals turned up their noses as he approached, and at length he felt compelled to leave the floor of the House in disgust and to seek refuge in the gallery behind the great clock, where a hundred or more of his own race were congregated and kept him in countenance. Here he was manifestly more at home than below. But so soon as he shall have received his credéntials as a claimant for a seat in Con- gress he will give his radical colleagues a chance to extend to him the hand of fellow- ship or to contradict their own lying profes- sions of regard for his claims as man, brother and citizen. The Lows of the Hibernin—Cause of the Disaster. We publish this morning further particulars of the loss of the iron steamship Hibernia, bound from this port to Glasgow. It seems that the disaster occurred in consequence of the breaking of her shaft and stern pipe and springing a desperate leak during a heavy gale. This will put at rest the conjectures ss to the cause of the accident, but gt the same time may not be satisfactory to those whore business it is to make the Atlantic passage n tempestuous seasons, nor to those who awe compelled to suffer the loss of valuable freights and other property. The breaking of the sheft may possibly be attributable to causes beyond human skill to detect; it may constitute oie of those inexplicable mysteries of machinery which so perplex investigating commissions and steam machinery inspettors ; but at ay rate the matter should be rigorously invesi- gated by competent authorities, in order that the lives of the thousands who monthly criss between our own and European shores my notin future be jeopardized through simiar casualties, Report of the Secretary of Wer. We publish to-day the important portionsof Schoficld’s annual report. It appewrs that the army has been reduced in numbers since September from 48,081 men to 45,000. All volunteer officers except one have ben Toustered out of service. Seoretiry recommends that four regiments of the Vetean Reserve Corps shall also be mustered out, Te recommends further that the term of enlit- ment in the regular army shall be five yeas. General The With regard to the expenditures itis shoyn that the total for the fiseal year amounts to $68,743,094, to which isto be added nealy ten millions of old war debts paid during be year, The sum estimated for the expenses of the fiscal year ending June, 1870, is 682,388, A considerable decrease in he subsistence expenses of the Freedmm's Burean and Indian Bureau is reported, tiat of the former being reduced to $3,900,000 for the year, The progress of the Militry Aondemy at West Point is referred to vith some pride by the Secretary of War, particu- larly the improvement in sigtsl{fig by telo- graph, in which the cadets are diligently prac- there lies to the radicals @ serious difficulty in | tleed. There exo now on the rolls of tho themselvesunder amendment fourteen, will NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, DECNMBER 9, 1568.—TRIPLE SILENT. ‘ academy 225 cadets, whose proficiency is tes- | The Newspaper Press and the Telegraph. tified to by the Board of Visitors and the Inspector. The details of the report from the War Department will be read with great in- terest. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury. The annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury to Congress, which we publish in another part of the paper, is a very diffuse and wordy document, and is only remarkable for the persistency with which Mr. McCulloch ad- heres to his often repeated financial theories. ‘The Secretary is one of those men who never learn or forget anything. Even when yielding to the pressure of public opinion and the action of Congress against his cherished resumption and financial notions he cannot help protesting. Yes, even when he. finds his policy impracti- cable and is compelled to abandon it he sticks to and reiterates his dogmas. Thus we see he opens his report with a long disquisition on the bugbear which haunts him continually—an in- convertible and depreciated currency, as he calls the legaltenders. Hesays these ‘United States notes, although declared by law to be lawful money, are nevertheless a dishonored and disreputable currency.” He declares that “the fact that they are legal tender, possessing such attributes of money as the statute can give to them, adds nothing to their real value, but makes them all the more dishonorable to the government.” He argues that this currency is the source of all the evils of the country—revenue frauds, bur- densome taxation and everything else—of evils, in fact, which only exist in the imagina- tion of this profound finance Minister, In short, he calls it a fraudulent currency. Mr. McCulloch adheres to his idea that there should be a reduction of the currency to: force specie payments; but as Congress and the country have protested against contraction he wants to reach the object another way. The first step he recommends is'to legalize all con- tracts made for payment in coin, This is well enough. There can be no reasonable objection to making such contracts legal. In fact, people can make contracts now to be paid in so much gold, if they choose, and they are bind- ing. But the Secretary does not stop here; he proposes that after the Ist day of January, 1870—one year and a few days from this time— “United States notes shall cease to be a legal tender in payment of all private debts subse- quently contracted, and that after the 1st day of January, 1871, they shall cease to be a legal tender on any account or for any purpose what- ever, except government dues, for which they are now receivable.” So it is seen Mr. McCulloch has become a repudiator after all his declamation against the greenback advocates as repudiators; for if a declaration of the government that its own notes are not lawful money is not flat repudiation we do not know what is. Then this Secretary endeavors to shake the confidence of the people in the lawful money of the government and country by intimating that it is unconstitutional and has not yet been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. McCulloch never thought to ask himself what makes any- thing money but the law and stamp of the gov- ernment, whether the material be metal or paper. If the United States notes be a fraudu- Jent currency, as he asserts, what are the national bank notes, which are not even a legal tender and which are based upon the credit of the government? The truth is, Mr. McCulloch has but one contracted idea about the currency and sees nothing beyond. Great questions of national finance and currency are beyond his grasp. He is a small banker and sees only the interests of that monstrous monopoly, the national banking associations. The country is prosperous and being rapidly developed in all its great industries and mate- rial interests, yet this sapient Secretary says all the business is speculative and unsubstan- tial, and attributes that to our legal tender currency. The report shows a great reduction in inter- nal revenue, and Mr. McCulloch says it must be increased. He acknowledges that this fall- ing off is to be attributed in part to inefficient collection; but he is very flat, tame and evasive on this important topic. He has nothing to say about the inefficiency of himself, Commissioner Wells and the other chiefs of the departments who have let the government be swindled hundreds ‘of millions of dollars by the internal revenue thieves. Indeed, he praises Mr. Wells very highly, and no doubt that Com- missioner will praise the Secretary just as warmly. They are in the same boat and are both responsible. All the talk about being un- able to collect the tax on whiskey and other articles is bosh. The British government col- lects two dollars and a half tax on spirits, and other governments collect similar high taxes, and socould our government if the right men were in authority. There is no necessity for additional taxes to increase the internal reve- nue, There are far too many articles taxed now. A few articles of luxury, such as whis- key qnd tobacco, could be made to yield a large revenue, and that revenue could be col- lected by honest and capable men at the head of the department. The recommendation to fund the debt at a lower rate of interest isa good one, but Mr, McCulloch lays down no plan, and seems to think that everybody, both foreign and home bondholders, will rush to the Treasury to ex- change their six per cent bonds for five per cent ones, without any cost or loss to the gov- ernment, His notions on this are about as erade as on everything else. He has the ean- dor to tell us that the expenditures of the dif- ferent departments are increasing, while the revenue is falling off, With very few grains of salt such as this in the report the rest is a jumble of weak arguments in defence of Mr. McCulloch's views, policy and administration ofthe Treasury Department. Lowever, it is but just to say that the enormous burden of taxation, weight of debt and wretched condi- tion of the finances are to be attributed in part to Congreas—to a Congress the most corrupt, extravagant and incapable that ever cursed this or any other country. Let us hope that with the new administration of General Grant we may get # more capable Secretary of the Treasury and @ bettér Congress. Onraos Sxuppep.—The House yesterday anubbed the democratic Legislature of Oregon by returning to the officers of that body the resolutions denouncing the Senators from that State for having voted for the radical measures of last seagion, q The newspaper press some time since made @ contract with the Western Union Telo- graph Company for the transmission of news reports over the wires at certain rates less than the exorbitant price ex- torted from private individuals, but atill greatly higher than telegraphic charges ought to be under a properly conducted system. This reduction was more directly a benefit to the public than to the proprietors of the news- papers themselves, since it enabled the latter to give their readers the advantage of more ample and extended news reports. If full tolls had been demanded of the press the daily jour- nals would have evonomized in the quantity of their telegraphic reports and the people would have been the losers. At the contract rates the newspapers have been the most profitable customers the telegraph has had; yet the Western Union Company has thought fit to abruptly terminate its agreement with the press, and has given the following notice of its intention to the proprictors of the New York journals :— EXKOUTIVR OFricx, WESTERN UNION TRLEGRAPH COMPANY, New Yor, A it 18, 1865, ‘To Messrs. JaM™s Brooks and Erastus Brooks, propietors of the New York £epress; Puime, SToNns, HALH & HALLOCK, proprietors of the New York Journal of Commerce; JAMES G, BENNETT, proprietor of the New York HBRALD; MANTON MARBLE, Deopeeior ar the World; Mosxs 8, BEACH, proprietor of the New York Sun; HENRY J. Ray- MOND & Co., proprietors of the New York Times, and the TRIBUNE ASSOCIATION, proprietors of the New York Tribune, constituting together the asso- ciation known asthe New York Associated Press:— GENTLEMEN—You will please take notice that, in pursuance of the sixth section of the agreement tnade and entered into between you and the Amert- can Telegraph Company, bearing date December 25, 1465, the American Telegraph Company, party of the first part to said agreement, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, successor and assignee of the satd party of the first part, elect and desire to termi- nate said contract at the expiration of the present current year of the contmuance of said contract—to wit, on the 22d day of Deoember, 1868, By order. The American Telegraph Company, by KE. S. SANFORD, President, Attest—O. H. PanmeEr, Secretary. ‘The Western Union i ee Company, by WILLIAM ORTON, President. Attest—O, H. PaLmer, Secretary. The incentive of this action of the monpoliz- ing corporation that at present holds the elec- tric telegraph in its grasp is the determination, if possible, to control the press of the United States, It is to accomplish this object that the threat is made to terminate the existing con- tract and to increase the rates now charged for news reports to the enormons tolls demanded for private messages. The corporation, ac- customed to carry its points with a high hand, and successful heretofore in its efforts to crush out opposition, believes in its power thus to coerce and fetter the American press. A few months since there appeared to be some" foundation for this presumption. The HeraLp hadthen taken a firm stand against the at- tempted encroachments of an arrogant mo- nopoly upon the duties and business of the newspaper press. We had no quarrel with the managers of the Westera Union Company and designed to make no reflections upon their personal character or business integrity. But when we found a powerful monopoly seek- ing to control the collection of news as well as its transmission, and to bind up the propric- tors of public journals in a manner that de- prived them of that free management of their business which is the right of ‘every indi- vidual citizen, we assailed the system that was responsible for these encroachments and warned the press of their dangerous tendency. At that time some journals hesitated to pro- claim their own independence, apparently in dread of the supposed power of the monopoly, while others seemed ready to approve the arrogance of the telegraph company and anxious to place themselves under its supreme control and sup ervision. We have now, however, a very different state of affairs; The press is beginning to understand its own interests and to see that the attempt of a private corporation, hold- ing ® monopoly of so powerful an engine as the electric telegraph, to coerce and control the newspapers of the country is full of mischief and danger. ‘The journals all over the Union are coming out in denunciation of the present telegraphic system and demanding some such reform as has already been perfected in several European governments. The New York Times leads the van with a protest against the exorbitant rates extorted by the Western Union monopoly, the inequality of the tariffs, the large profits realized out of the privileged few who can afford to use the wires, and other notorious evils arising from the lack of competition or the want of a system regu- lated by the necessities and interests of the people. The Cincinnati Commercial, a lead- ing and enterprising Western journal, joins in the denunciation of the present system and in the demand for reform. The Philadelphia Press declares the question of telegraphic re- construction one of the most important in the country, and other influential newspapers place on record their protests against the extortion- ate rates, the undue profits, the arrogance and encroachments inseparable from « monster monopoly. Only one faint voice is heard in de- fence of the present telegraphic system, and that comes from a weak party organ at Harris- burg, which thinks that the telegraphic mo- nopoly is a public blessing and devoutly wishes that the government Post Office system could be abolished and the transmission of letters be left in like manner to private enter- prise. We have no doubt that this organ would be glad to see the whole government abolished and its business consigned to the hands of such patriotic rings as we now meet with in the whiskey trade, the Revenue De. partment and the Erie Railroad, But the lead- ing newspapers of the country are evidently aroused to the public necessity of a thorough reform in the telegraph system, and will make themselves heard despite the threats and coer- cion by which the Western Union Company has sought to stifle their voices, We may therefore, hope that Cougress will now take hold of the matter in earnest and that we shall speedily secure such a thorongh reconstruction of the telegraph systera as will insure to the press fair and liberal treatment and to the people low rates and increased facilities in the use of this now indispensable agent of business, commerce and social li Toe PostMasrer GuNERAL AND THE TeLts Grard.—The Postmaster General in his former annual reports has briefly recommended the absorption of the telegraph business of the country in the government Post Office Depart- ment. This yoar he states that he regards the quesfion of such growing importance as to claim a separate and extended report, which he will shortly place before the President and Congress. The Fevomnon in Cuba. Our advices from Cuba indicate that the insurrectionary movements thero have assumed ® serious character, and that the Spanish authorities have become alarmed at the result that may attend the conflict on which they have entered. - The exact character of the insurreo- tion has not yet beon made known to the world, from the absence of independent communica- tion with the insurgents; but the facts that have been exclusively published by the colo- nial government, when taken in thoir aggre- gate, manifestly contradict their continued assertion of success attending every movement of the Spanish troops. The course of events has been as follows:—On the 11th of October last a few persons made an un- important resistance to the authorities at Yara, a small village on the south side of the island, about six miles from the commer- clal port of Manzanillo. The insurgents, we are informed by official accounts, were promptly dispersed. Notwithstanding this assertion we were told afew days later that they had taken possession of the important inland town of Bayamo, where they estab- lished a government, with Sefior Ods- pedes, a wealthy lawyer and planter, at its head. Soon after this the official accounts represent them as marching both westward and eastward, and the Spanish columns as taking the field against them. A victory was officially announced as having been won by Colonel Quiros over the insurgents at Contra- maestre, a mountain pass between Bayamo and St. Jago de Cuba; but soon after this officer turns up back in St. Jago, from whence he started, and later advices inform us that he has been removed from his post and hia second in command arrested on a charge of cowardice, The result thus far of this series of victories is that the Spanish forces are shut up in St. Jago by the insurgents, who have cut off all supplies on the land side, Similar results, according to the Spanish official accounts, seem to have attended the Spanish troops operating against the bands that marched westward from ayamo. Colonel Lojio left Las Tunas, at the head of several hundred men to meet the advancing insur- gents, and after defeating them repeatedly he became invested in Las Tunas, and for several weeks the government in Havana had had no communication from him. We now learn that he has abandoned the town and marched to Manati, a port on the north coast. Colonel Ampudia, in command at Manzanillo, is powerless to operate against the neigh- boring city of Bayamo, the centre of the revolution, and according to recent accounts was on the defensive against insurgents in (he immediate vicinity of the town. Other banda, | penetrating the island westward, had out off the communications ot Puerto Principe with the coasts, and according to the latest advices have appeared in the vicinity of Santi Espritu. “The progress of these events had forced General Lersundi, the Captain General, to send Count Balmaseda, his second in com- mand, with all the disposable troops, to the centre of the island, and recent advices in- formed us that he had reached Puerto Prin- cipe with nine hundred men, relieving the gar- rison there, The important intelligence which we publish ina special telegram in another column shows that he has been obliged to abandon that important city and scek a refuge under the guns of the ships in the bay of Nuevitas. Colonel Lofio, with the garrison of Las Tunas, has reached Manati, a port in the immediate vicinity of Nuevitas, and the two bodies of troops willno doubt form a junction. These events leave the Spanish authorities in possession of no point in the interior of the eastern half of Cuba, and give to the insur gents, who have now earned the name of patri- ots, ample territory for organization and tho means for more extensive operations. No doubt can be entertained that the war of inde- pendence has been inaugurated, and in view of the proximity of Cuba to our coast, the importance of the commerce we hold with her, the large number of American citi- zens who have interests there and the compli- cations which may at any moment ensue, it behooves our government to keep a watchful eye upon the course of events and not to be caught unawares. ‘The frequent presence of a man-of-war in the several important ports of the island, to give aid and comfort to our Con- suls, will be the ounce of prevention that is worth more than the pound of cure in case either of the parties to the conflict should forget the rights of neutrals. Let us heat soon that some United States ships hava touched at St. Jago, Manzanillo, Trinidad and other ports which are surrounded by the ingur- rection. The Case of General Cole—Society, and Murder. The case of General Cole, before the court in Albany, charged with the murder of Mr, Hiscock, has resulted—as people probably sup- posed it would—in the acquittal of the accused. But the public generally were not prepared for the unnsual character of the verdict, Ifa man can be excused from guilt in the commission of a crime on the plea of insanity at one moment, while he is declared to be perfectly sane « mo~ ment before and a moment after the act, whi becomes of all the theories and learned argu ments abont moral insanity which have 60 often fretted away the time of. courts and juries and exhausted the legal and logicat soumen of our most distinguished criminal advocates? . The real fact in this onse is that thore is a. class of society which the law rarely reachos—a class over which the mgis of pro- tection is thrown because its members belong to some social, political or fashionable ‘‘ring.” For these people the law has no harsh word to say, no grievons penalty to inflict; but if some poor person—say an unfriended Trish- man or German—should steal a trifling ar- ticle or pick a pocket he is pounced upon, and the clutches of the law are not relinquished until the direst penalty known to the law if imposed, As General Colo was acquitted of the mur- der of Hiscock in Albany, 60, undoubtedly, will young Grant be acquitted of the murder of Pollard in Richmond. The same rule holds Law ‘good both North and South. A member of what is called good society—in other words, one who belongs to a social or political influens tial olique—may do as he pleases without any foar of the law. He may got into a quarrel