The New York Herald Newspaper, December 18, 1868, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. detained probably two weeks longer in order to get @ new crew, the Peruvian Minister having discharged the former crew in obedience to a writ of habeas corpus from Judge Dureil, General Grant is to be in Cincinnatt to-day. He is returning to Washington from his Chicago trip. Peter Phillips was to have been hanged to-day in Richmond, Va., for wife murder, Judge Underwood had issued a writ of habeas corpus in his case, re- turnable on Febraary 15; but the Sheriff had deter- mined to disregard the writ and bang Phillips, The Gallows are already in course of erection, but Goy- ernor Wells has respited him until the time the writ is returnable. A prize fight between Bussy and McAlpine oc- curred near the Indiana and Mlinois State line yos- terday. McAlpine was down seventy-four times out of the seventy-five rounds, being so badly whipped that he had to be held up; but on the last round Bussy struck him a foul blow and lost the fight. An account of the prize fight in Iowa between Toohey and Bernard will be found on our triple sheet. Dennis Reen, who is charged with having guillo- tined Cronin at a factory in Charlestown, Mass., was up for examination in the Charlestown Court yester- day. He appeared to be very much excited during the trial, denying hia guilt with frightful expletives. Dixon, one of the witnesses, fainted while he was handling the cleaver with which the murder was committed, Mr. Menard, the colored Representative from Louisiana, received his certificate of election from Governor Warmoth yesterday. In the Hill murder case at Philadelphia yesterday the accused parties were both arraigned, but the Whole day was consumed in empanelling a jury. Three highwaymen robbed a clerk of the Pacific Railroad oMce at Omaha of $9,000 on Wednesday night. They put pistols to his nead while he was walking along the street, walked him out on the plains and’ robbed him. —— JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR Volume XXXII AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. PIKE'S OPERA HOUSE, corner of Eighth avenue and ghd street.—LRS BAVARDS—BARDE BLEUE. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Homery Dompry, wit New Features. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Ta® EMERALD RING. WALLACK'S THEATRE. Broadway and 18th street.— Carrain oF THz Warch—Woovcock's LITTLE Game. NI vty GARDEN, Broadway.—AFTER DagK; on, Lon- N1GUT. RY THEATRE, Bowery.—MIss FANNY HERRING AM, THE JRWEBS, £0. ‘M THEATRE, Fourteenth street and Sixth ave- VIEVE DE BRABANT, YORK THEATRE, Broadway.—Tar BURLEsguE 2 BLEUE. ‘i F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— N AND PYTHIAS—MIOHARL ERLE. ‘$ MUSEUM AND THEATRE, Thirtieth street and Afternoon and evening Performance. mmany Building, Mth 0. INSTRELS, 720 Broadway.—Ermio- ‘LESQUE.—BARBER BLU. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—Eru10- PLAN Ex: EatAINMENTS, SINGING, DANGING, dc. ylOXY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE 201 Bowery.—Couro OAL NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c. ORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street.—EQUESTRIAN MNASTIO ENTERTAINMENT. TRAL PARK GAR! MENADE CONCERT. —Taxo. THOMAS’ GRAND STRINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—Mz. Dr Cor- DoVA's HUMEBROUS, LRCTURE. ¢ BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—Mas. ScoTr-Sip- DONS IN MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, 40. HOOLE OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Hooury's The City. The National Manufacturers’ Association held a secret meeting at the Metropolitan Hotel on Wed- nesday, when resolutions and an address favoring the postponement of specie payment banking system, Mr. Jenckes’ Civil Service bill and other matters were adopted. the national In the “After Dark” litigation Judge Blatchford yesterday rendered a decision restraining Messrs, Palmer & Jarrett from representing the railroad Mixeren ‘A DUTOHMAN IN Jaran, 40. scene in their play. HOO! 3 (E. D.) OPERA HOUSE, Williamsburg. — In the Belmont branch of the Erie litigation yes- Hoo.zy’s MINSTRELS—TOE LANKYSUIRE Laws, 4c. terday a new aMdavit on the part of Belmont, to show that the suit was commenced in good faith, ‘was read. Mr. Vanderpoel and Mr. Rapello argued the case, after which it was adjourned till this morning. The Inman line steamship City of Paris, Captain Kennedy, will sal! from plier No. 45 North river at ten A. M. to-morrow (Saturday) for Queenstown and Liv- erpool. The mails for Europe will close at the Post Omice at twelve M. on the 19th inst. The National line steamship Pennsylvania, Captain ‘Hall, will leave pier No. 47 North river at . to-morrow (Satiirday) for ine oe abe * Queenstown to land passengers. The steamship Britannia, Captain Donaldson, of the Anchor line, will sall at twelve M. on Saturday from pier No, 20 North river for Glasgow, touching at Londonderry to land passengers, &c. The Merchants’ line steamship Crescent City, Cap- tain Weir, will be despatched at three P. M. to-mor- row (Saturday) from pier No. 12 North river for New Orleans direct. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— ROIENOR AND Ant. TRIPLE SHEET. ‘ew York, Friday, December 18, 1868. Europe. The cable telegrams are dated December 17. A despatch from Constantinople states that the Sultan’s ultimatum has been rejected by the Greek government. All Greeks have been ordered to leave ‘Turkey. A naval engagement 1s reported to have taken place between a Grecian war steamer and a ‘Turkish cruiser. The former vessel is now block- ‘aded in the harbor of Syra. Everything is tranquil in Spain. John Bright is announced as President of the Board of Trade and Mr. Layard has been appointea Commissioner of Public Works. ‘The London press criticizes very freely Mr. John- Son’s announcement that the Alabama negotiations are closed. The Paraguayan War. By Atlantic cable we have intelligence that General Caxias was about attacking Lopez in his stronghold at Villeta, Minister McMahon and the American squadron had passed up the Paraguay river. We have letters from Buenos Ayres to the 27th of October and Rio Janeiro to the 7th of November. An expedition to flank Lopez’ position at Villeta had found troops and fortifications to resist them. Caxias’ army was encamped in a swamp. Mr. Gould, the British Minister, had returned from Para- guay and is on his way to England with despatches. it is understood that Lopez would not surrender his Engiish prisoners. General Caxias denies that he ‘was engaged in stirring up insurrections against Lopez. The fleet, with Minister McMahon on board, had not yet arrived at Asuncion. Brazil. The Princess Imperial of Brazil is said to be aftlicted with a dreadful species of Asiatic leprosy. ‘Sue ia daily expected at Rio Janeiro from the springs of Minas Graes. A great drought is prevailing in Bahia. Rivers and ponds had dried up and a fainine was imminent. Buenos Ayres. President Sarmiento was commencing his ad- ministration in a way that satisfied all patriotic citi- venus. Congress adjourned on October uw. The threatened civil war in Corrientes had been arranged Peaceably. Cuba. ‘The leading Spanish journal in Havana claims that sore destitution prevails in the Eastern Department, owing to the ravages of the insurgents. The volun- teers demand to be led immediately against them, and declare that they are only common robbers. The steam transports from Spain have arrived with troops. The American Consulate at Cardenas, with the books and papers of the oMce, had been de- stroved by fire. Haytl. By the Cuba cable we have news from Port au Prince to the Sth inst. The capture of Miragoane is confirmed. The blockade at Gonaives is acknow- Jedged to be effective by the foreign representatives. ® Congress. In the Senate yesterday Mr. McCreery presented resolutions to amend the constitution 80 as to pro- tect the rights of minorities and to avoid bringing the election of President into the House of Represen- tatives. The resolutions were referred to the Judiciary Committee. The House bill re- lieving political disabilities from certain per- sons in Soutn Carolina was passed, Mr. Sumner’s resolution expressing sympathy with Spain occasioned some debate, and before a vote could be taken upon it the morning hour ex- pired and the resolution disapproving the Prest- dent's Snancial recommendation were taken up. After considerable debate the resolutions, as re- ported from the Finance Committee, were adopted by a vote of 42 to 6. After some further business the Senate adjourned. In the House the day was devoted to eulogiums upon the late Thaddeus Stevens. Mr. Dickey, his successor, made the first speech and was followed by Messrs. Orth, Broomall, Kelly, Ferpando Wood snd numerous others, Miscellaneous. In the Lower House of the Arkansas Legislature on Tuesday, Governor Clayton's proclamation, dectar- ing martial law in Conway county, was adopted. A message was received from the Governor stating that the militia in the southwest counties can be dispensed with, a8 arrangements have been made for federal troops to occupy that section of the State, A fight occurred on Tuesday at Augusta between citizens and militia, in which four of the latter were killed. General Upham, commanding the militia at Augusta, being besieged by @ party of citizens, had undermined the prison and threatened to blow it up i he was attacked. In the Alaska purchase investigation at Washing- ton yesterday Robert J. Walker was examined. He Said that he received $26,000 from the Russian Min- ister for popularizing the purchase of Alaska by his tongue and pen; of this he gave $5,000 to F. B. Stan- ton for services rendered, and at his suggestion the editor of the Washington Chronicle was offered $3,000, which he declined in favor of his brother. ‘The National Land Association have #old 30,000 acres of the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company's land to a colony of Swedes from Northern Illinois, and two hundred families will occupy the new pur- chase in the spring. The same company have sold to actual settiors, within ninety days, 60,000 acres of the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company's lands. It ts reported in Cincinnati that the Erie Railroad managers are trying to buy the Cincinnati, Hamil- ton and Dayton Railroad. The Peruvian iron-clads at New Orleans will be Of the United States army; Charles H, Tracey, of the United States navy; Colonel E.B. Alien, of Kansas, and Judge F.S. Laflin, of Saugerties, are at the Metropolitan Hotel. The steamship De Soto, Captain Eaton, will leave pier No, 36 North river at three P. M. to-morrow for New Orleans direct. The steamship Euterpe, Captain Gates, of C. H. Mallory & Co.'s line, will leave pier No. 20 East river on Saturday for Galveston, Texas. The Black Star line, steamship Montgomery, Cap- tain Lyon, will sail from pier No. 18 North river for Savannah, Ga., at three P. M. on Saturday. Prominent Arrivals in the City. Ex-Governor Wm. Dennison, of Ohio; E. P. Ross, of Auburn; James M. Scovel, of Camden, and ex- Mayor Daniel Saunders, Jr., of Lawrence, Mass., are at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Colonel H. Olmstead (Oregon) and A. A. Woodhull, Lieutenant Commander Surgeon Davis and Captain Ferris, of the United States navy, are at the St. Julien Hotel. Mr. Raascoff, Danish Minister of War, and Mr. A. Bille, of the Danish Legation, are at the Brevoort House. Colonel Pryor, of West Point, and Otis Tufts, of Boston, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Ex-Senator Stark, of Connecticut, is at the Hoff- man House. Prominent Departares. Governor R. E. Fenton, of Albany, arrived in this city on Wednesday evening and left for Albany yesterday morning. Senator Morton on the Resumption of Specie Payments. It was known that Senator Morton, of Indi- ana, intended to bring forward at an early day his bill for the resumption of specie pay- ments. On Wednesday he introduced it in the Senate with a carefully prepared and lengthy speech, and then had it referred to the Committee on Finance. of the ablest that have been delivered in the Senate on the subject of the currency and national finances since the war. The Senator contemplates by his bill to fix the time for resumption, and states that to be on the Ist of July, 1871. must be the starting point of any plan which proposes to bring about resumption without crash and disaster, and he thinks that two years and a half is long enough for the ac- complishment of that object. accumulate gold in the Treasury by stopping all sales of it by the Secretary, so as to enable the government at the time stated to redeem the greenback currency with specie. says there of years, over and above the sums required to pay the interest on the public debt, a hun- dred and seventy millions of specie, and that this will be sufficient to enable the govern- ment to redeem all the greenbacks in coin that would be presented for redemption; for he maintains that as soon as it should be known these notes are redeemable in specie, and therefore at par with it, a large amount would be kept in circulation, as being a more con- venient ourrency than gold. ever, extend the time for resumption six months longer—that is, to January, 1872—to the national banks, but compelling the banks to hold in their vaults the same amount of green- back reserves as now to redeem their notes, This, he holds, would make the process of resumption gradual and prevent a rush upon the Treasury or the banks, his plan for resuming specie payments. The speech is one He argues that fixing the time His plan is to He by stopping the sales of gold will be accumulated in the vaults the Treasury at the end of two He would, how- Such is, in brief, This is undoubtedly the most feasible plan of any yet submitted to Congress by the resumptionists. But the question arises here, is it practicable? Can we resume specie pay- ments within so short a time or within any stated time by legislative enactment without producing a crisis? If we look to the teach- ings of history—particuldrly to the history of England in the efforts made there to force specie payments from 1816, when peace was restored, to 1824—Wwe shall understand the difficulties and danger of forced resumption. It took England over eight years after war was ended to reach specie payments. and vet the NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, RL action of the government to that end produced terrible financial revulsions. Can we expect to force resumption within a shorter time by government action without disaster? Admit that we have vast and rapidly increasing resources, still we have not the capitalized wealth England had nor the means of con- trolling the specie of the world, To say the least, forced resumption in’ this country would be a dangerous experiment, and in all probability would cause general bankruptcy, & suspension of trade and universal suffering. But why force specie payments at all? Is not the country prosperous? Are not our farmers and people generally acquiring wealth faster than they ever did before? Are not all the material interests of the country being wonder- fully developed under the influence of an ample paper currency? The talk about trade and business being bad and the people suffering is a bugbear of the resumption theorists, and has no foundation in fact, as every mechanic, tradesman, farmer or the government revenue can show. Nor is there any danger in the future. We shall go on in the same prosper- ous career if Congress will let the currency alone. With the growth of the country and the yearly increasing demand for currency we shall gradually grow up to specie payments without a revulsion or shock to trade. Senator Morton, however, professes to be opposed to contraction, and pictures the evils of it, He reasons that there would be no con- traction under the operation of his bill, and that specie would take the place of greenbacks. That is all very nice in theory; but if the precious metals should be drained away from the country, as they are now, to pay the inte- rest on our securities abroad and the balance of trade against us, we should soon find our- selves with a contracted currency and business paralyzed. We should be at the mercy of the foreign bondholders and capitalists, and when- ever they chose to call upon us or the Bank of England to put on the screws the country would be convulsed from one end to the other. They could drain thirty or fifty millions of gold from us at any time, make money scarce and throw our business men into bankruptcy. First, then, can we safely accumulate gold enough in the Treasury to redeem the legal tenders without injuring trade and sending the premium up much higher than it is? We vada sth he loss it un emp oye sa ian Saat ties which might be applied to the reduc- tion of the interest-bearing debt. Sup- pose, however, that it could be accumu- lated, how long after being set free would it remain in the country under the de- mand abroad for the interest on our debt and the enormous balance of trade against us? Re- sumption of specie payments would not lessen the debt held abroad—would rather increase it—and would hardly reduce our extravagant importations when costing less. If we import 80 largely now, when the difference between currency and gold makes the price of articles so high, what should we do when the price would be greatly reduced? By forcing specie payments we shall, as said before, be at the mercy of foreigners. Then in a crisis there would be a demand for more paper circulation, and, the legal tenders being out of the way, more national bank currency would be author- ized. These monstrous monopolies, the bank- ing associations, which now make @ profit out of the public of fifteen per cent on their cap- ital, would thus be enabled to largely increase their profits on an extended national circula- tion. This, we apprehend, would be the re- sult of Senator Morton’s resumption bill. Under the present circumstances of the coun- try the legal tender currency is best, and it would be better still if we had but that uniform circulation. At all events, Congress should let the currency alone and not attempt to force specie payments. Let the laws of trade and the growth of the country regulate all that. Let well alone should be the motto of our public men. American Sentiment in Spain. A very remarkable feature in the popular in- surrections in Spain is the prevalence of good feeling towards the United States. It appears that in the midst of the tumult in Cadiz cries rang out in favor of America, showing the ten- dency of the public mind among the masses towards institutions similar to ours, Then we learn that the United States Consul in Cadiz did much to stop the bloodshed by mounting the barricade, wearing his consular uniform, and displaying the American flag between the insurgents and the government troops. The effect, we are told, was a stay of hostilities, thus making the Stars and Stripes act as a flag of truce. This is not the only instance in which the influence of the United States is em- phatically stamped upon the public sentiment of Europe. Mr. Motley, in his address to the Historical Society, which we published in full in the Heratp yesterday, dwells upon this fact very pointedly as having come within his European experience. It is not surprising that the Spanish popu- lace should echo the cry of ‘‘Free America,” because it was to our example in breaking the links which bound this country to England that the freedom of the Spanish American States is due. Following us, they also severed their connection with the mother country, and thus it is natural that every sentiment of free- dom in the Spanish race should be allied with America. Mr. Reverdy Johnson’s Explanation. Reverdy Johnson, according to the cable, “ascribes the attacks upon him in the Ameri- can newspapers and elsewhere to a secret dis- like for the preservation of peacetul relations between the two countries.” There are two or three points here worthy passing notice. Mr, Johnson is quite right in saying that there is a dislike here to the “preservation of peaceful relations between the two countries;” quite right in the implication that we would a little rather fight England than not; and we are glad that he has said this, for this is just what we want England to know. Now let him go on and tell the reason, and show his English hosts that this feeling grows from the national con- viction that England has treated us shabbily in the Alabama business, Then he will have ful- filled the object of his mission. But if the above is true, Mr, Johnson, of all men, should have been the last to say #0; for it isan acknow- ledgment that he has not properly represented us at all in his amiable palaver. Let this too amiable Minister of a disgusted people come home. 1868.—TRIPLE SHEET. The High Tari® and Treasury Rings. Our Washington despatches recently made some interesting disclosures concerning one of the Treasury ring’s auxiliary forces, and we give in another column the cir- cular and petition therein mentioned, which on their face seem to be in the interest of every needful reform, but really are designed to gather and husband up politi- cal influence and power to control Congress during President Grant's administration, or, in other words, to use the cloak of legitimate reform to cover up and defend the long stand- ing abuses and wrongs upon the taxpayers perpetrated by that clique of commission brokers known as the Treasury ring. The offi- cers of the great national reform and high tariff league or association ostensibly advo- cate in their circular a new tax bill, aiming to simplify and improve our internal revenue sys- tem, Mr. Jenckes’ Civil Service bill, a great reduction of the army and navy, a large reduc- tion of the clerical force in the departments at Washington, the transfer of the Indian Bureau from the Interior to the War Department, the abolition of the Indian treaty system, a new naturalization law, a reduction of the number of United States judicial districts, a law retiring superannuated and decrepit judges, the adop- tion of measures by Congress ‘‘to turn the balance of trade in our favor,” and last, but not least, “‘legislation that will encourage our home industry”—which means, interpreted by the constant utterances of their newspaper organs, a higher tariff. Though apparently advocating every really needful reform, in ad- dition to their {chronic demand for @ higher tariff, the omission of any mention of Trea- sury ring operations in this universal reform association circular is remarkably significant, and, when taken together with certain facts, clearly shows that the real animus of the asso- ciation managers is quite different from any- thing that appears on the face of their mani- festoes, excepting their demand for a higher tariff. In that they are unquestionably sincere, Though attacking every minor abuse, not one word have they to say in condemnation of the legalized atrocities of the Treasury ring, in comparison to which all other abuses sink into absolute insignificance. During the long four years just past our Secretary of the Treasury has been constantly engaged in secretly ma- nipujating our national debt of two thousand atti million dollars, together with the Ton{gnts of the national Treasury, to bull and bear alternately the entire industrial inte- rests of the nation, benefiting meanwhile only .® small clique of commission brokers, work- ing his great financial crushing machine as though the people were natural enemies enti- tled to no consideration whatever; at one time placing thirty or forty million dollars of bonds secretly upon the market to make money scarce, and at another purchasing secretly a similar or larger amount to make it plenty; secretly selling two hundred million dollars in gold and buying many times that amount of bonds in such a way that the business commu- nity could make no calculation for the future. For years past no business man has been able to see a week beforehand whether loss or gain would be the result of any transaction what- ever. No one but the Secretary of the Trea- sury and his little coterie of commission brokers has been able to penetrate the pro- found secrets of the department. The Erie Railroad and Wall street ring justly received universal execration on account of the great lock-wp or bear movement of last month ; but the Secretary of the Treasury has, by authority of Congress, for years past been en- gaged in precisely the same sort of business, and of such magnitude that the Erie operation sinks into absolute insignificance when com- pared with it. Where the Erie combination used ten million dollars to bull or bear the market Secretary McCulloch used five hun- dred million dollars on government account for the same purpose, he having been enabled to make secret sales and purchases of bonds alternately, through commission brokers, amounting to hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars. The loss to the business interests of the country—the needless loss—by these abrupt and frequent fluctuations of values has been greater by far than our entire national debt. This secrecy, taking every business enterprise of the country at a disad- vantage, is the great wrong of the system. One of its minor abuses is the payment by the Secretary of the Treasury of over seven million dollars commissions to ring brokers on these secret sales and purchases of gold and bonds, besides giving them an opportunity to make some twenty million dollars additional profit on the operation. If these favorite brokers must be pensioned to this extent from the taxpayers’ treasury it would be far better for Congress to appropriate say five million dollars per annum for the purpose, and then oblige the Secretary of the Treasury to return to the old method in vogue previous to the rebellion of advertising all loans, that the people may kaow what to depend upon, that some degree of steadiness and regularity in business affairs may again prevail. Previous to the rebellion no Secre- tary of the Treasury would have dared to bull and bear the market by alternate secret sales and purchases of bonds on government account through outside commission brokers as Secre- tary McCulloch has been doing ever since he has been in office. The Heratp has time and again called pub- lic attention to the fact that over twenty-seven millions of dollars of the people’s money had been deposited in a few favored national banks to remain without interest month after month; and to the fact that while those insti- tutions were enjoying a subsidy of three hun- dred millions of dollars from Congress a por- tion of them have been engaged in the great Wall street lock-up and other kindred opera- tions. Not one word have the great national re- form and high tariff association managers to offer in condemnation of these abuses. On the contrary, they are hand and glove with the Treasury ring brokers. Their lobby schemes are for the most part manipulated by the same agents, At a tariff ring’s convention one of their resolutions adopted declares ‘‘that the safe and beneficial action of the national bank- ing system has proved it superior to any other,” and “that it may be considered the crowning financial result of the great changes wrought by the war.” All the tariff ring organs support the Trea- anrv ring, Indeed, one of their editors claims, as a matter of pride, to be the author of the national banking system. In regard to the ring’s repeatedly expressed desire and deter- mination to have a higher tariff we apprehend the tax-burdened people will have something tosay. There is now assessed and collected on imported goods an ad valorem tax varying from fifty-two to three hundred and twelve per cent. Ifthe managers and lobbyists of the combined high tariff and Treasury rings think the people will stand higher taxes than these they will certainly find themselves mistaken. Newspaper Telographic Enterprise. There can be no better evidence of the effect which newspaper enterprise has had upon the progress of the telegraph system than the re- cent successful efforts of the Heratp to lay before the public, through the medium of spe- cial despatches, all the leading events trans- piring in Europe. From day to day every- ‘thing of importance occurring in the Old World is faithfully recorded in our columns each morning, diligently despatched by our European correspondents over the Atlantic cable. Thus we find in the columns of many leading provincial papers in one day half a dozen items of important foreign news credited to the ‘‘Special despatches of the New York Herat.” A “‘Huraxp special” from Madrid reports the surrender of the insurgents at Cadiz. Another “special” from Vienna tells of the ultimatum offered by Turkey to Greece ; another “‘special” from Havana gives the latest phase of the Cuban insurrection. We quote these from @ single column of a New York newspaper, all of which important items of news are frankly credited to the special cable despatches of the Heratp. And this is not the half of them. The telegraph, as at present conducted, is peculiar. In the first place it is in the hands of monopolies, which pile up the prices beyond the capacity of the general public to bear, whereas it ought to be a cheap medium for the communication of thought and intelligence be- tween the people. Its influence ig certainly to accelerate all the actions of life in the entire community. Again, it has been always the custom, wherever it is advantageous for one line to be run at cheap rates where there is opposition in the field, to put up the tariff on other branches in érder to make up the defi- ciency. In many of these cases, as with rail- road and steamboat lines also, running in opposition, one of the opposition lines is beaten out of the field, the prices go up and the public are the sufferers. Now, it is evident that as one of.the leading elements of civiliza- tion the use of the telegraph should be ex- tended as much as possible to all classes, and at arate within the reach of all. At present prices it is only at the command of capitalists, to whom it furnishes in many instances undue advantages at the expense of the general dealer, who cannot afford to command the tariff demanded by the telegraphic monopoly. Wherever government control of the tele- graph assimilates to the management of the postal system, or the money order system, it is quite as successful as these two plans of communication. Under the government the cost of building a line would be economized, because we know that all chartered companies are extravagant in their outlay, trusting to the public to repay them, and taking very good care that it does repay them. But the prices required to pay for the extrava- gance have to be drawn from the people, and hence, in a great measure, the uses of the tele- graph are confined to speculators, bankers, brokers and ambitious capitalists, instead of being a popular institution, as free and almost as cheap as the Post Office. The telegraph can only become thus avail- able by the government assuming control of it, as the British government has wisely done. To further this end the chambers of com- merce and the boards of trade throughout the country should move in the matter and pe- tition Congress to establish a telegraph depart- ment of the government on the same principle as the Post Office Department. Mr. Motley on Human Progress. The address delivered before the New York Historical Society on Wednesday evening last by the Hon. J. Lothrop Motley was, we dare say, the most comprehensive, brilliant, elo- quent, compact and instructive discourse on “human progress” that can be found in the records of any historical society in existence. His general argument that, through all the vicissitudes of the human family, even when most disastrous and depressing, the cause of human progress has never been arrested, though baffled and delayed, is a conclusive grouping of great historical facts and events, the landmarks of history, from the east to the west, which lead us from the dim twilight of tradition into the full blaze of the nineteenth century. From the same line of landmarks he shows as conclusively that the law of human progress is from petty independencies and incongruous confederations to great national- ities, and from the so-called divine rights of kings and oligarchies to the paramount rights of the people. Coming down to our own epoch, his estimate of the grand impulses in both hemispheres given to human progress from the triumph of the Union in our late civil war is that of an enthusiast who is also a historian and a philosopher, whose demonstra- tions take the place of prophecy. “Here,” says Mr. Motley, ‘‘are the chief events thus far recorded in human progress, as time, in its deliberate patience, was one day to prove—speech, the alphabet, Mount Sinai, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Nazareth, the’ wandering of the nations, the feudal sys- tem, Magna Charta, gunpowder, printing, the Reformation, the mariner's compass, America.” Next he takes up our gigantic struggle with privilege as embodied in our late Bouthern oligarchy, and says that ‘‘never in human history has there been such a battle for such @ stake,” and never such a victory for human progress. But here the learned historian, in branching off to ‘‘the fluid state of Europe,” omits the filling up of his Ameri- can picture. He fails to tell us that the great agencies resulting in the overthrow of our late Southern rebellion were, and the great land- marks of modern progress are, common achools, an independent press, the steam engine and the electric telegraph, Through these mighty instrumentalities not only has the harrier of slavery been removed, and not only have our Southern States been thrown open to freo labor and Northern develanment. brit the roo highways and byways of all the four conti- nents and the islands of the sea are made accessible to the over-populated nations of Europe, and to American enterprise, in filling up the waste places of the earth. Such a dis- ‘course, however, as this of Mr. Motley is one of those rare historical treats from which the listener or the reader rises with clearer views of the past and brighter hopes for the future of the whole family of mankind. Troubles in Tammany—The Success. Hannibal trampled down the world with an army that was kept together only by the dan- gers to which he exposed it, Naturally the least coherent of masses, recruited in all the countries through which the hero passed and from the indiscriminate enemies of Rome— Dangers of . peril, the presence of the enemy and the con- stant fire of battle kept it a fighting unit. From the time of Hannibal to the time of the free fighters that followed the Constable de Bourbon, and from their time to ours, it has always been the same—hbattle and danger kept together and gave victory to those who could overcome every foe, stand everything but tri- umph, and, in short, do all things under the sun save divide in peace the spoils of conquest. At the last the great fighters found no foe, and 80 always fell the victims of their own prowess. Alas! it is perhaps to be thus also in the history of that grand old fighting machine, Tammany Hall. Tammany in its earlier years was kept together by the peculiarities of its position and the necessities of combat; for it was always fighting great powers. It was so well kept together that it nearly always won. But the spoil was not so rich nor the danger so far removed that it should crumble away. So it kept on fighting and winning—fight- ing and winning—until battle against it became, as it were, a mere formality—the mere recording of a protest in opposition. Finally, it has reached the very pinnacle of power. Its will is law, and there is no effec- tive dissent. If a Mayor is to be made Tam- many points her finger and the man is known} Ifa Governor is to be made it is the same. What foolish Canute would venture to point a limit to this uprising wave of democratic power? There has been but one opportunity in these latter days for Tammany to find that opposition to her more imperious will that would keep her on good behavior and prevent her falling into the common fate of all great combative forces. This was when a vigorous democracy rallied to the lead of Miles O'Reilly, and the Big Judge. Miles had brains and daring, acute political perceptions and per- sonal magnetism, and supplied all these toward a new party, and the Big Judge gave breadth and body. But Miles died, and healthy opposition died with him; for breadth and body, though respectable things, dre feeble in fight. They are tempted by the fleshpots, too. And thus the proffer of a single nomina- tion finished the Big Judge. Tammany therefore stands, in the absence of any one to fight her, in imminent danger ot falling a prey to internecine war. There is « cabal and a dissent in her midst for the baubld of leadership. There were good leaders who fought together honestly in the greatstruggles ; but now they would all be Cwesars. Need wa wonder that men should be jealous of th growing power of their fellows? Even Alexander went through Persia there was @ man in his army who would have knocked! Alexander on the head or sent him home om farlough and taken charge df the fighting on! his own account. And if a man would ques-! tion the leadership of Alexander it is only @ little step further to question that of Peter Bismarck Sweeny or any other man. We say any other man, because Peter has somewhat loftily seemed to put leadership aside, thrust-| ing the crown away, like another Ceasar, when it was not offered in the proper manner; and therefore he may not come actively into the contest for the democratic Cmsarship that agitates the Halls and Tweeds and other of the less magnificent political intellects of the party, though it is at least certain that this agitation starts with the restiveness of these men under the implied domination of Peter, and it will not surprise us if this chief of his party is yet compelled to exclaim to the meta- phorical dagger that is driven under his fifth political rib, “‘#¢ tu, Billy ?” We have faith in Peter, however, and though his danger is a domestic danger, and, like the Turk’s danger, is from a brother near the throne, we are satisfied that he will be equal to the emergency, and we shall expect to see him silence his domestic enemies and overcome the cabal by the grand expedient of threatened Casars—the initiation of a foreign war. We do not know where the enemy is to be found, but that is Peter's business, not ours. The Era of Complimentary Dinners. Good dinners, a well filled stomach, wine in abundance—three things necessary to make small brains move to a purpose. We have dinners diplomatic and legal, dinners for would- be politicians, for art, science and literature; dinners for the Japanese, for dance houses, prize fighters, and, last and meanest, for Com- mon Councilmen, Of the diplomatic class we have that given to Reverdy Johnson. John Bull has caught Reverdy with his mouth open, and has poked him so full of dinners that Reverdy’s hide must shine like that of a well filled woodtick. But Reverdy cannot stand it any longer. He cries for mercy, apologizes for the dinners he has stolen under false pre- tences, and puts an end to them by declaring that he has never represented the American people in his management of the Alabama claims, A member of the bar retires from his wranglings, and, no matter if he is entitled to “Blair's Kentucky penknife,” he must eat ; for his friends, acting on the principle that ‘‘hand- some is that handsome does,” are determined to “do the handsome thing by him.” Then there are the literary dinners given to retiring members of the press, Greeley, for instance, when he drops his pen for a Cabinet pudding must take the consequences and pre- pare to be gorged. Dana, if he goes to Eng- land, must make ready to be stuffed like a Christmas turkey by the hungry fraternity whom he leaves behind him. An inventor gives something to the world, and his friends imme- diately load him up to the bursting point. An artist daubs a piece of canvas, and his admirers reward him with 9 dinner. O'Baldwin, the Irish Giant, and Wormald, his opponent, aro dinners by the lovers of tue cach swollen will!