The New York Herald Newspaper, December 21, 1868, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERAL BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. ’AMZS GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, ‘All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York HERALD. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. WALUACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and 1th street.— Woxpnk, 4 WOMAN KERPS A SEORRT. NIPLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—APTEr Dars ; 08, LON- DON BY NiaNt, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Miss FANNY HERRING IN FAST WoMEN OF MODERN Tris, dc. THEATRE. Fourteenth street and Sixth ave- IEVE DE BRABANT. YORK THEATRE, Broadway.—THE BURLESQUE Banos bLEUR, PIKH’S OPERA HO! 8d street.—CHANSON ot Eighth avenue and (0—LES BAV ARDS. OLYMPIC THEATRE, bi wirn NEw PRavcnrs. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Tae EMERALD RING. MRS, F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— ALA 5 adway.—Huaert DUMPTY. MU7SKUM AND THEATRE, Thirtieth street and Afternoon and evening Performance. OPERA AOUSE, Tammany Building, 14th OPLAN MINSTRELBY, &C. W'S MINSTRELS, 720 Broadway. SIRELGY, BURLESQUE.—BARLER BL SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—Eruto- PIAN ENTERTAINMENTS, SINGING, DANGING, de. TONY PASTOR'S HOUSE 201 Bowery.—Comr1c Vocaniss, NEGRO OPERA Xi LBY, &c. NEW YORK CIRCUS, urteenth street.—EQUESTEIAN AND GXMNASTIC ENTERTAINMENT. Matinee as 2. STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—Miss OLIVE Logan's Keavines. CENTRAL PARK GARDEN.—THEO. THomas’ GRAND PROMENADE CONCERT. HOOLEY’S OPERA HOCUS! MINGTRELS—"SANTA CLAUB,” HOOLE('S (K. D.) OPERA HOUSE, Wiillamsburg.— HOOLEY'S MINSTRELS—“SANTA CLAUS,” GIFS, £0. FE, Brooklyn.—HOOLEY's Girts, &. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SGIENOK AND ART. New York, Monday, December 21, 1868. £8 NEWS. Europe. ‘The cable telegrams are dated December 20. The latest coports from the East show a more peaccful tendency on the part of the Greek govern- ment. The Western Powers all sustain the ultima- tum of the Sultan, while Russia will seek to modify its concitions. The speech of Lord Stanicy on the ‘1sth uit., in which he referred to the Eastern ques- tion, 1s regarded as one of the secondary causes of the Eastern crisis. A widespread Caritst conspiracy 1s reported to exist throughout Spain. A riot broke out yesterday in the town of Toro, in the province of Zamora, but it was promptly suppressed. ‘The ex-Queen of Spain has been received by Napo- Jeon at the Tuileries, Peru, Our Lima letter is dated November 22. Balta and his first vice president, Zevallos, ad had a personal altercation in which Balta warned the latter that he Would shoot the first man he found in rebellion, Ze- valios being well kuown aS a conspirator against Balta’s administration, The supply of guano on the Chinciia Islands is decreasing iu a very apparent ratio. Only about two years’ supply still remains, The smallpox is raging severely in Lima and Callao, and the yellow fever has appeared in the districts desolated by the earthquakes, Shocks of earthquake are still felt in Arica and Arequipa. The wrecked Waieree was sold at public auction and bought in for the United States government. British Columbia. The Legislature was jurmaly opened at Victoria by Governor Seymour on the 17th inst. In his mes- sage be says the question of confederation with Cunada remains stauonary pending the settlement of the iluason’s Bay Company. Miscellaneous. c al Grant and. his staf and Secretary Scho- returned to Washingtoa from their Chi- was ‘There t bustle apparent at the State De- partment y notwithstanding its being the ‘i ‘ause of the unusual stir is sup- Sabbuin day, en the preparation of despatches Jobason, auspeeted by members of Congress that the firm of Laicd & Co, builders of the Alabama, arc trying obtain the proceeds of the sale of the Diochad uuer Wren, which they are supposed to have puili and which was captured during the war and sold. Commiss.aner jollins has concluded not to tender his resignation to take efect December 31, as the ‘y would then take place during a recess and the President would have the right to appoint some one to Oil itammediately. He will probably hold on until the end of the presen’ administration, it is siaved that the “Departmental Club” of govern- ment clerks at Washington has been very infuen- tial in raimg the clerical force of the departments discharged from government sount that Congress hesi- 4 Compensation Dill. employ. tates to pass th A man was dist ered in Zanesville, Ohio, recent- ly, who had been four days locked up tn @ freight car on tue Baltimore and Onio Railroad, His legs were frozen ana he was nearly starved. A clerk in the Register’s office of the Treasury Department has been missing for several weeks, and an investigation of his accounts discloses a deficit of housand doliars. © bodies of two more victims of the burning of the ste United States were discovered yesier- day. Onc of (hein Was so distigured What its sex re- mains unknown, is to be resumed in the § ngfield (Mass.) y on the ten hour system next mouth. ¢ appropriations made by the Fortieth Congress ON Were $160, 551,85, tof taxes collected in the ten Southern 8 in the year ending June 00, 186s, was aon The City. In the Forty-second street Presbyterian church yesterday Dr. Seott preached a sermon in answer to American Positivisin. The new Methodist Episcopal church in Perry street, near Greenwich, was dedi- cated, in the evening at Plymouth church the Kev. Henry Ward Beecher preached a sermon in severe denunciation of the corrupt judge. George Francis Train is to be tendered @ public reception at Cooper Institute by the Fenian Brovher- dood of this city on his arrival. With but few exceptions the markets were ex. tremely quiet on Saturday, Coffee was dull, bat un- changed in value, Cotton was in active demand trom all es of buyers, and prices advanced per Ib,, Closing strong at 263,¢. for middling upland, On "Change fiour was dull, but prices were generally steady. Wheat was irreguiar, spring being dull and beavy, while winter was dull, bat meady. Corn was siow of sale and heavy, while oats Were dal) and heavy, Pork was quiet and firmly held. eel was quiet but sieady in value, while lard was moderately active at about former NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1868. | Stoneman, of the United States Army, are at tho | Metropolitan Hotel. | 8. M, Johnson, of Washingion, ts at the New York | Hotel, W. M. Ramsay and Wm, Douglas, Jr., of Montreal, are at the Brevoort Hous Governor Bullock, of Ga.; R. 0. Rice, of Maine: ©. Chapin, of Massaciusetts; Hamlitoa Harris, of Albany, and Wm. McPherson, of St. Louis, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Edgar T. Wells, Chicf Clerk of the Navy Depart- ment at Washington; Captain Chas. T. Medary and Major Fuller, of the United States Army, are at the Hoffman House. . Judge Marshall, of Hiinois; Captain J. Stewart and Major Manning, of the United States Army, are at the St. Julien Hotel, Progress of the South, According to the report of the Internal Rev- enue Commissioner the ten Southern States paid into the national Treasury during the year end- ing June 30, 1868, the handsome sum of over thirty-two millions and three-quarters. ‘Lhis is a large increase over previous years since the war, and shows that the South is again on the high road to wealth and influence. One reason to be assigned for this improvement in the prosperity of the South is the cessation in the wild, silly and bombastic effusions of ber stump speakers and partisan journals, and the substitution in their place of sound talk and sensible reasoning in favor of encouraging im- migration from all parts of the world to the fair and favored sunny Southern land. For example, we have now before us a long and carefully prepared paper, issued upon the authority of the State Agricultural Society of Georgia, in regard to the establishment of a regular system of immigration to that State. It is proposed to organize a board of commis- sioners who shall constitute a bu- reau of immigration, with auxiliaries at prominent points in Europe, for tho encouragement of the immigration of indus- trious communities from the Old World to the New, and by a process that will place the cost of transportation to the immigrants at a nomi- nal figure. The Legislature of Georgia cannot do a better thing to enhance the interests of the State than to encourage this movement. The idea of the infusion of white European labor into the cultivation of the products of the South may be unpopular with those who think that the negro is the only proper toiler in the broad fields and plantations of that sec- tion. But, asthe South is now situated, the great difficulty is to obtain laborers at any price; and when the whites make their appear- ance to fill the vacuum caused by the change in the political condition of the negroes the latter as a class will be stimulated to resume their old employments, and thus afford to the South what it so much needs, a partial supply of practical and skilled labor. No European immigrant need be afraid of going to the South and remaining unemployed if he chooses to work. Werefer especially to the agricultural cless. The ficld for the employment of such labor in the South is next to inexhaustible; and as the agricultural resources of the coun- try are developed and agricultural communi- ties are formed, then come the mechanic, the manufacturer, the merchant, the artisan, the professional man; and the cheerful, busy, thrifty air the region now assumes bespeaks for it the presence of an industrious, intelligent and frugal population. But it is not in the improved character of the agricultural element alone that the South shows signs of progress. We flad that North- ern capital seeks investment in Southera rail- roads and lincs of steamers—that there is a hearty and generous competition among com- mercial men in prominent Southern ports to make theirs the particular point of departure for Southern products destined forthe North and Europe. The great cry is for ‘ through traffic” for the transportation of cotton direct from Memphis to New York. Mobile is becom- ing jealous of Charleston as a port of clearance. Savannah and Charleston always were jealous of each other, and in the pending contest for superiority it will be found that the city which shows the most liberality and good sense in the treatment of those who trafic with her merchants will win in the end. The great want of New Orleans for a long time, and a want that has retarded her commercial growth, has been a grain elevator. She now possesses one, the largest in the country, and we will find that a fair proportion of the contents of the granaries of the West will ere long find a natural outlet to the ocean by way of New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi. But the case as it stands at present is for the South to encourage, by all the means within its power, the development of its own bound- less resources, to invite immigration by offer- ing the most liberal terms possible to the European who, with his family, wishes to improve his fortunes and to establish a per- manent, comfortable and independent home for himself and his posterity. The reports of vio- lence in the South may tend to prevent the timid from seeking that part of the country for a per- manent settlement; but, besides these reports being greatly exaggerated, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of improved and unim- proved lands in the South where the farmer or planter is as safe in his person and his pro- perty is as secure as in the most settled farming districts of the North and West. Furthermore, the fire-eating disposition of the Southern leaders has vastly toned down, if it be not entirely extinct. We have just seen how two of the principal chiefs of the rebellion have gone into the business of insuring lives and pro- perty, and it is not likely they will very soon recur to their former occupation of destroying both. Hence let the European immigrant and every other immigrant who wishes to enjoy a life of comfort, contentment and independence con over the advantages afforded by our beau- tiful and inviting Southern lands, occupy and improve them, raise great crops of cotton and corn, which are better than pure gold, and thus augment the general wealth of the great American nation. Tne Sranist Revotvtion.—The latest re- port from Spain is that the Carlists are organizing for a coup d'état a8 soon as the revolutionary factions get entangled in a clashing of arms, which is expected as the next phase in the revolution, Hence, no doubt, one great reason with Napoleon for peace on the Eastern question. He wishes prices. Naval stores were moderately active and | first to have a settlement of the Spanish ques- tirm, Petroleum— Refined was tolerably active and | tion. lower, Closing steady, however, at s2c., while erude was dull but steady at 18)<c. tn bulk and gu%c. in varreis, Freights were quiet but steady, Prominent Arrivals io the City. Senator W. Sprague, of Rhode Island, and General Sensinie.—The telegraph rates thronghout Canada have been reduced over one-half. A dekpatch can now be sent from New York to Montreal for fifty cents. Tue Goverament and the Telegraph. The lobby organized at*Washington for the | purpose of defeating the proposed law to | the telegraph in the hands of the govern | and unite it with the Postal Department is | composed wholly of the officers, employds , and agents of the Western Union | pany, which at present enjoys a monopoly of the telegraph business over a great portion of the United Siates, In England the opposition to the goverament plan came from a si | source, The Board of Trade and Chambers | of Commerce, as commercial bodies, the great buik of merchants and traders who were most in the habit of using the telegraph, {he press and the people generally favored the govern- ment system, while the presidents, managers, | engineers, secretaries, treasurers, supply con- tractors and inside rings of the private com- panies were loud in its denunciation, The principal legitimate arguments of the oppo- sition are the same here as they were there— that the management of a telegraph business for the entire country would be so expensive that it would swamp the government and prove @ great burden on the people; that it is unde- sirable to put so great a power as the control | of the telegraph lines in the hands of the gov- ernment, which is always held by one or other of the political parties; that our government ought not to become a monopolist to the exclu- sion of private enterprise, and that it is uajust to those who have put their money, time and intellect in the perfection of telegraphing to take the business now out of their hands. It might be a sufficient answer to all these objections in a body that they have been en- countered before in other countries and that practical experience has shown -them to be wholly unsubstantial. But the additional argument is used by the monop oly’s lobby that inasmuch as in the United States we have a much larger territory to cover, as our lines and stations are more numerous and our dis- tances greater, the case of the English tele- graph cannot be accepted as a fair comparison with that of our own. There is, how- ever, no novelty in this objection. It is precisely the same as was taken by the English opposition, who argued, in reply to the successful experience of other countries, that in no essential particular was there any analogy between the telegraphing of England and that of Belgium, Switzerland and other Continental governments, for the reason that in Switzerland there were only about one-tenth as many telegraphic stations as those of a single company in Great Britain and that the Swiss had not as many thousand miles of wire as Great Britain had millions. Nevertheless, the government telegraph in England, now no longer an experiment, is certain to prove more remunerative, as well as more advantageous, to the people than that of any other European country. The same re- sults would follow the adoption of the govern- ment system in the United States. There are, indeed, obvious reasons why it should prove far more beneficial here than in Europe. In England the private companies were con- ducted on a more popular basis than are those of our own country and afforded far better facilities to the people. The British Parliament had taken the most jealous pre- cautions against the establishmeat of a mo- nopoly of the telegraph business, had pro- moted competition by friendly legislation and positively prohibited the federation of the sev- eral companies. The most effective argument of the opposition there was that Parliament had uniformly dealt with the telegraphic com- munication as a thing which, in the interest of the nation, would be best promoted by compe- tition, and had absolutely enacted laws to pre- vent the possibility of the companies uniting and establishing the monopoly which it was claimed the government desired to obtain un- der the new system. The tariffs were regu- lated and the dividends limited by law, and the interests of competing companies com- pelled them to afford good facilities to the public, both in rates and accommodation, in order to command business. In the construc- tion of lines, in insulation and in the adoption of improved processes or instruments the Eng- lish corporations were far more liberal and en- terprising than are our own. It followed as a consequence that the use of the telegraph was comparatively well exiended throughout Great Britain and that there was not believed to bea particularly wide ficld for the increase of busi- ness by means of reduced rates and improved facilities. In the United States a single com- pany has laid its grasp upon the tele- graphic business of the country and the monster monopoly already exists which is nothing better than a chartered lib- ertine, The interests of the people are dis- regarded; exorbitant rales are extorted to meet the demands of fictitious capital and ex- travagant management; the voice of the press is stifled ; insufficient facilities are afforded and the wires are notoriously used for purposes of private speculation to the injury of the public. Through the existence of these abuses the general use of our telegraph is limited to men of large capital, and the great engine of commerce, which should be a public blessing, becomes a public evil. The advantages of the government system would therefore be enhanced a hundred- fold in this country, where the great distances render telegraphic communication of far more necessity and value than in Europe, and where the superior enterprise, education and commercial habits of the masses of the people would insure a vast increase of the business under low tariffs and enlarged facili- ties. The objection urged by the lobby to the government plan on the ground of the expense of management is altogether fallacious. If existing lines were to be purchased at the ficticious amount of capital created by the re- peated watering of stock and the turning in of competing lines at fancy prices for the benefit of those who had formed themselves into rings and obtained control of the companies prior to the swallowing process, then the government telegraph might not pay; but the most the government would be bound to do, in jus- tice to the stockholders of the existing private monopoly, would be to take its stock at the average market price pre- vailing for the past year or two, which would be about thirty-three per cent. This would make the fictitious forty-one millions of | to report his discoveries in the whiskey frauds the Western Union watered stock cost between Com- | | the United States, touching every point | reached by the Western Union for ten or | twelve million dollars, and secure betier posts, better wires, better insulation, better equip- | ments and hence better facilities than the old | tines afford. At a fair cost of construction and with the working expenses properly econo- mized the telegraphic business of the country | would pay a handsome profit at one-fourth of , the present monopoly rates and justify the | extension of telegraphic facilities toevery por- tion of the country. The humbug about the danger of government | monopolies has long since beenexploded. The admirable Post Office system is a practical illustration of its folly. This plea of the oppo- sition lobby is about on a par with their pre- tence that the proposed acquisition of the telegraph by the government would be an act of injustice to those whose intellect and means have perfected our telegraphic system, The fact is that the telegraph monopoly is now held altogether in the hands of sharp speculators and adventurers, who have seized upon it by means of watered stock operations and jobbing consolidations, The men of thought and genius who founded telegraphy as a science have been treated by them with crucl injustice and are at the present moment wholly ex- cluded from the profits and emoluments of the business, Whiskey Frauds and the Internal Revenue Department. The report of the Committee on Retrench- ment gives a view of whiskey stealing to date, dealing almost altogether with the question of the President’s relation to the subject and the Binckley muddle. It sets out by accusing Mr. Johnson of framing apologies for official robbery by his declaration that the removal of the robbers was beyond his power, and charges him with shielding those whom he might pun- ish, and who, it is alleged, are the more reck- less in their villanies because confident of his protection. The committee charges Binck- ley with corrupt practices in offering his assist- ance in the investigation of fraud only to fool the members and delay and prevent their in- vestigation until it should be too late to make it effective, and with otherwise acting as a shield to accused parties. Binckley’s expenses amounted to twenty-five thousand dollars. The report regards Courtney as ‘‘a faithful public officer” and the movement for his re- moval as a ‘base conspiracy.” In short, all this portion of the report presents the doings of Binckley and Fitch as very rascally trans- actions and seems to regard the President as cognizant of the rascality. Enormous losses to the revenue are reported as occurring through fraudulent, false gaug- ing, a case being given in which a lot of whiskey gauged for taxation was put down one thousand gallons short of its real quantity. It is shown that the taxation ‘‘on estimated dapacity” of stills fails because distillers by pushing the processes can produce a third more than a fair estimate, and thus the rogue has, under the law, a clear advantage over the honest dealer. The provision of law to prevent fraud through rectifying houses is now evaded by substituting for these com- pounding houses, Two important points are touched, One is that under the tax of fifty cents more revenue is collected from whiskey than was collected under the tax of two dol- lars. Another is the effect of the fraud on honest officers, ‘The most wonderful feature in the examination,” says the report, ‘‘is the fear and dread with which revenue officers discharge their duty; and while they have a willingness to expose frauds they feel they are exposing themselves to the vengeance of the whiskey ring and the risk of removal by the power of the very men they expose. Humili- ating as is the confession, honest officers know that they incur the odium of the base without the compensating advantage of protection trom the head of the government.” The following is printed in the report as the opinion of Commissioner Rollins :— ‘The chief obstacle to the full collection of the reve- nue lies in the character of the local officers. It is in the power of (he assessor and collector, with such assistants as the law allows, to enforce the require- ments of the law. These officers should have the full confidence of a I a ablig ther serve, and possess alike integrity an ~ Their subordinates should be men of like character. Wherever a collection district is poorly omicered there will frauds abound and the service he dis- graced. Taxpayers in other districts, competin with those paying — a portion of their indebted- ness, are driven out of business or to the commiss'on of fraud. ‘The Commissioner should have more than seeming power. ‘This he once lad and exercised. He should have the control of nis subordinates and the support of hts supertor officers. If he is to have responsibility he should have powers and privileges. Wasnineton Rixas.—The following are some of the more important rings that are now manipulating Congress for special favors and for the enactment of laws for legalizing public plunder :— The Treasury ring. The whiskey ring. The steamship subsidy ring. The telegraph monopoly ring. The land grab ring. The protective tariff ring. The Indian agents’ ring. A Busy Sunpay IN THE State Depart- ment.—Yesterday, it appears, was a remark- ably busy day in the Stete Department, and it is supposed that it was all in reference to a new set of instructions for Reverdy Johnson on the Alabama claims. Mr. Seward has, then, at length discovered that something more than “the eyes of Delaware” have been upon him in this business, and that his good man Reverdy has been cutting it rather too fat, not only with Mr. Laird and Mr. Roebuck, but also with the outgoing tory government, and that in the matter of mutual concessions Mr. Johnson, in his abounding liberality, has been conceding too much. Mr. Seward is a won- derfal man in jumping Jim Crow. More Kvss Tan Featugrs.—The Bohe- mian writers and the Washington correspond- ents are making a great fuss over the fact that Caleb Cushing was recently seen leaving the Secretary of State’s office with a carpet bag in his hand, and all are anxious to know where he has gone. Nobody outside the two classes of individuals seems to care a Button what has become of Caleb. To us it appears to be one of those little tricks of Mr. Seward to get up a sensation. Whiskey Rives, Arrention.—Know ye not that the terrible Van Wyck is expected to the House of Representatives to-day. Let — Hell Gate—The Way to Conauercial Great- |The Now York Courts and the Bawd of meas. We yesterday published a very able résumé of what has thus far been done to clear a chan- nel at Hell Gate suitable for the passage of the largest vessels, No person at a casual glance can estimate the advantages which hang upon the successful accomplishment of this great work. The figures stated yesterday are worthy of the most careful consideration, for they enable us to get at mathematical re- sult:—“From the Ist of August to the Ist of December there have passed through Hell Gate no less than 19,408 vessels, of all classes. Of these there were 2,434 steamers, 8 ships, 22 barks, 435 brigs, 11,859 schooners and 4,649 sloops. An estimate believed to be rather under than above the actual figures fixes the value of this floating property at $736,926,000, ora daily average of $6,141,000, the ownership of which is divided among thousands of people from New York to Maine. But this is only the value of the vessels, with a combined tonnage of 5,466,900 tons; ora daily average of 45,557 tons. The roads over which the marine trade of six States passes daily in such a volume as this, are most cer- tainly of more than local importance. Fur- ther, the amount of freight transported by way of Hell Gate by steamers alone averages $9,000,000 per day, increased by about $1,000,000 more carried in sailing craft, thus giving a grand total in the value of freight and of the ships carrying it ot overs$16,000,000 daily exposed to the dangers of the rocks and reefs of this narrow passage. Moreover, from the register of the steamers and from other reliable sources it has been ascertained that the passenger traffic on the Suvund to and from New York averaged during the four months from August to December 7,212 persons daily, exclusive of the officers and crews of the vessels, which will increase the total daily average to about 12,000 persons.” This shows that there are daily sixteen millions of property passing this tortuous route. This amount pays an insurance in proportion to the danger of navi- gation. Decreasing the dangers, would not the amount saved on insurance alone more than pay the interest on the capital required for the removing of the obstacles which cause the greater part of those dangers ? The benefit to transatlantic commerce, the more rapid communication with Europe, its advantages to our defences against foreign aggression, its extension of the room required locally for our rapidly developing trade all point to this as something prominent in im- portance for legislative consideration. Turkey and GreecemThe War Prospect. According to our latest news the situation between Greece and Turkey is materially changed. The great Powers are moving in favor of peace. With the exception of the little encounter in the Bay of Syra there has been no actual collision. On the part of Turkey there seems to be a desire to avoid anything like rashness. Admiral Hobart Pacha was waiting orders in the Bay of Syra before taking farther action against the Erosis. Omar Pacha, too, had received instructions not to invade Grecian territory unless armed bands of Greeks pass the Thessalian frontier. On the part of the Athenians the war spirit seems to run high; but deputations from Nauplia, Corfu, Patras and Corinth protest against the war policy of the government as ruinous to Greece. The hope of the Athenians seems to be that the Greeks of Thessaly and Macedonia will rise against their Turkish masters. It is also announced that Russia and the other great Powers agree that both the Porte and Greece should delay action for five days in order that negotiations for a settlement of the questions may be attempted. Meanwhile we learn that the ambassadors of Turkey and Greece have not yet left their respective posts at Athens and Constantinople, and that a change of ministry has taken place in Athens. , This last news seems to indicate that Greece is yielding to outside pressure, and that war, after all, may be averted. The prospect of war was telling in financial centres. In all mbdneyed values there was, for a day or two, a general falling off. Our very latest advices, by the cable, however, look to the main- tenance of- peace. The Western Powers are inclined to support the “sick man” of Turkey, while Russia asks for some concessions to Greece, and in behalf of peace she will probably gain a point or two, for, all things considered, Russia, of all the great Powers, is best prepared for a continental war. IMMEDIATE RESUMPTION OF Specie Pay- MENTS.—We are for immediate resumption of specie payments by every financier or philoso- pher who believes that the time has come for immediate resumption, and accordingly call upon Greeley and all others who clamor for it to carry out their theory in practice. Let the Tribune employs demand their wages in coin immediately, and let all who want instant re- sumption pay gold for what they use or to those having any claims upon them. That is the way to bring about immediate specie pay- ments, and would test the honesty of the raving advocates of this theory. Too Many Irons iv tae Frre.—-Mr. Sew- ard’s unfinished real estate business embraces St. Thomas, the Dominican bay of Samana, Cuba, the annexation of the whole island of Hayti, the isthmus of Darien, and likewise, it is said, certain land and railway and express company enterprises in Mexico, a reciprocity treaty with the Sandwich Islands and an un- settled claim against the King of the Fejees, No wonder, with so many irons in the’fire, he should get a little off the track on the Alabama claims. GENERAL Grant's MovemENTs.—After the good time enjoyed by General Grant on his late visit tothe grand army reunion at Chi- cago he has returned to Washington, and we shall most probably next hear of him again in New York as the lion of some grand social re- union. He seems to enter fully into the spirit of the good old maxim that ‘‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” especialiy in view of the great work before him, Exonancr of Comptiments.—The ex- Queen of Spain has made a social call upon the Emperor and Empress of France. Her Spanish Majesty’s movements may become very interesting before long. At present she is waiting, like Micawber, for ‘‘something to Supervisors. The “new” County Court—House,-wh ich has been in course of erection for the past four years, and promises to be in course of completion for about four years longer, is & magnificent edifice, constructed at an outlay, of several millions of dollars and calculated to afford accommodation at some future day for the courts and the county officers. The work is and has been from its commencement under the control of that delectable “ving,” the Board of Supervisors, who hold in their hands the superintendence of the “job,” and make also the necessary appropriations from the People’s money, About a year since, by almost superhuman exertions for such portly bodies as themselves, they completed one or two of the chambers, so that they could be occupied temporarily by the Court of Appeals, and the next advancement in the work was made at the other end of the building, where several of the handsomest rooms in the structure were prepared for their own accommodation and fitted in the most elaborate and costly manner. Brussels car- pets, porcelain spittoons, finely gilt and deco- rated, and massive black walnut furniture meet the eye in every direction, and the chair- man’s rostrum resembles somewhat the throne of a sovereign, The sessions of the Board are held about twice a month, and it is there- fore manifest that commodious and ornate apartments should be devoted to these frequent and protracted meetings. The Supreme Court has lately had three rooms assigned to its use, and the Common Pleas and Superior Courts remain in the dingy, illy ventilated apartments they have occupied for years. The General and Special terms of the latter court are held in the garrets over the stables and engine rooms of Engine Company No. 1, Metropoli- tan Fire Department, and are notable chiefly for their general discomfort and bad arrange- ment. In summer the atmosphere in these rooms is insufferable. In winter it must be kept up toa boiling temperature to admit of comfort, and if any attempt be made to reduce that temperature the apartments become chilled from the lack of proper means of regu- lating ventilation. On Friday evening last Chief Justice Robert- son, of the Superior Court, died of pneumonia, said to have been superinduced by a severe cold contracted while attending to the business of his office in one of these rooms. Now, the Supervisors of this county, if such be true, are directly responsible for this calamity; for though they are a board of county officials, and the Superior Court has jurisdiction over “the city of New York,” it is the duty of the Supervisors to furnish the requisite accommo- dation for that branch ofthe judiciary. Section twenty-eight of the code says, “The Super- visors of the several counties shall provide the courts appointed to be held therein with room, attendants, fuel, lights and stationery suitable for the transaction of their business,” &c., and section fifty-one is in the following words :— “The provisions of section twenty-eight of this act shall apply to the Superior Court.” When corruption and traculent jobbery of the most outrageous character shall cease to be one of the characteristic traits of the Board ot Supervisors the people may expect that that now shameless body will execute the trusts reposed in them with economy and despatch for the public interest, instead of making bar- gains with cormorant contractors for their mutual pecuniary advantage. Then the public will have the accommodation the public service demands, and the lives of the honest servants of the people will not be placed in jeopardy through the remissness of official leeches." The Tariff and the Tariff Rings in Com gress. Among the imnumerable rings which beset Congress and overcrowd the lobby the tariff rings loom up most conspicuously. The interested parties in every interest in the country, whether it be iron, copper, books, soda ash, tin and the thousand other materials and compounds which enter into our manufac- fures or contribute to our general comfort, are always ready to introduce new tariff bills into Congress to suit the peculiar and pecuniary interests with which they are allied. Take the bill of Mr. Moorhead, of Pennsylvania, for ex- ample, ‘to increase the revenue from duties” and so forth, known as the ‘Short Tariff bill.” Of course everything which can benefit Penn- sylvania is advocated in this document. And why? The answer is plain. Mr. Moorhead is an aspiring candidate for the office of United States Senator from Pennsylvania, to fill the seat soon to be vacated by Senator Buckalew, and it is to tickle the ears of the Pennsylvania Legislature and bring the author prominently before the people of that Common- wealth that this new tariff bill was introduced by Mr. Moorhead. It is hardly necessary to say that the interests of the country at large form no part of the bill, and equally unnecersary to add that the local inte- resis of Pennsylvania are carefully attended to inits pages. Copies of the bill, we understand, have been liberally distributed throughout the State, through the direct influence of a high tariff organization in Philadelphia. The Treasury rings and the tariff rings seem to work together in harmony for the plunder of the people, who have to pay exorbitant prices for everything which they consume, levied upon them in the shape of taxes imposed upon the necessary articles of life. This bill of Mr. Moorhead is but another instance of this. It puts a tax upon materials used in the mann- facture of soap, glass, printing paper and other things indispensable to the masses, while it throws the shield of protection over the products which contribute to the material advantages of Pennsylvania manufacturers. Althongh it is not likely that Mr. Moorhead’s bill will pass, it is well to draw attention to the method by which Congress is attempted to bé manipulated by political and sectional rings on the question of the tariff. Srun Axorner Rixne.—There is a now ring in this city, with a branch office in Washington, which may be styled the stcam- ship ring, or the steamship subsidy ring, as the “subsidy” appears to be all that the operators are anxious about. It is made up of Bohemians, broken down steamship men, practical lobbyists, shyster lawyers and Mem- bers of Congress, who are now in a fair way thirteen and fourteen million dollars, But thé | Binckley fall back, for # greater detective than | turn up,” and we know not how soon some- | of swindling the goverament out of three mil- government could build new lines throughout ‘ Binckley is here. thing may turn up. lions of dollars, 6