The New York Herald Newspaper, March 6, 1869, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY MARCH 6, 1869.-TRIPLE SHEET. The Foreign Policy of the New Administra-| The Gas Menopoliee—A Chayge Wanted. took place and the House adjourned until Tuesday. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. Miscellaneous. A serious warfare has been inaugurated be- tween the Erie and the New York North- ero Central railways. The trains of the lat ter have usually passed over the Erie track through Elmira, but yesterday the division superintendent of Erie, in accordance with orders, turned off the switches and spiked them so that the Northern Central trains could not pass over the Erie track. This has caused a sudden block of travel. Yesterday a trai irom Washington arrived and the passengers were compelied to transfer themselves to the Erie road and pay their fare over again beiore they continue their journey. ‘The last military order of President Grant is dated March 3, and provides for an economical reform in the method of disposing of condemned property. An order was issued yesterday by direction of the Pres.dent, and signed by command of the General of the Army, revoking the order for the retirement of Paymaster General Brice. It ig stated by a Boston newspaper that ex-Presi- dent Johnson, among his last acts, pardoned James D. Martin, the defaulting cashier of the National Hide and Leather Bank of Boston. A party of gentlemen who recently arrived from California by the Pacific Ratlroad give a startling account of their sufferings while spowed up, and of mistreatment at the hands of the railroad em- ployés. They were detained ten days at a station on the route, where they were compelled to pay exor- bitant prices for the necessaries of life, and on arriving at snow drifts were compelled to shovel the snow away. Finally some of them got out and walked ninety miles to Fort Laramie. The Legislatures of Michigan, Illinois and Wiscon- sin yesterday ratified the Fifteenth article of amend- ment. Four negroes were hanged at Princess Anne, Md., yesterday. All of them died quietly except one Bamed Wilson, who struggled horribly after he fell. He got the ropes off his hands and feet, and by cling- ing to the shroud of one of the others and to the rope by which he was hanging managed to reach the scaffold again. The jailer then went upon the plat- form, tightened the noose and pushed Wilson off, Jerking the rope tightly as the wretched man fell. This sufficed to end him. The government examiner reports that the whole capital stock ‘of $250,000 belonging to the Fourth National Bank of Philadelphia, which recently sus- pended, has disappeared, and aiso the cashier, whose delinquency originally caused the suspension. The depositors, he states, will secure all their money. The three police officers of Westfield, Mass., who shot the cigar maker, Bell, while he was trying to escape from them, were arrested yesterday and gave bonds to stand their trial in May. ‘The tce has again frozen up solidly in the Hudson and boatmen now prophesy a late opening of navi- gation. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Heratp. Velume XXXIV.. AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., between 6th and Th avs.-ROMEO AND JULIET. Matinee at 1. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tum Burtrsque Ex- TRAVAGANZA OF THE Forty THLEvES, Matinee at 2. WALLACK'S THEATRS, Broadway and ith sireet.— Mvuou Apo ABouT Noruina. BROUGHAM'S THEATRE, Twenty-fourth st.—JRNNY Linp—P0-ca-HON-TAS. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—HomPr® DOMPTY, with NEw Frarvnes. Matinee at 19. FRENCH THEATRE. “Fourteenth street and Sizth ave- Que.—FLEGR DE THE, £0. Matinee at 2. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—PHILHAR- MONIC CoNCRRT. Matinee at 1—Faust. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—BRian BOROIEME— JAOK's THE Lap—LuE LiGaNy AND His SN, Broadway.—Frenoa Srr— su. Matinee at 1). BROADWAY THEATRi Weer or Tu WI8H-TON- GERMAN STADT THEATRE, Nos. 45 and 47 Bowery.— VoRZIMMER SEINER EXORLLENZ, £0, WOOD'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE, Thirtieth street and Broadway.—Afternoon and evening Performance. THE TAMMANY, Fourteenth street.—Tas Horse Ma- RINKS, &0. Matinee at 2. WAVERLEY THEATRE, 720 Broadway.—E.izs Hout’s BURLESQUE ComPaNny. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— GUY MANNERING—THERESE. EATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Comic SEETCEES = LIVING Pre ad Matinee at 24. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—ErTaio- Pian ENTERTAINMENTS—SIEGR OF THE BLONDES. BRYANTS’ OPERA HOUSE, Tammany Building, 1th sireet.—ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELSY, £0. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Comio ‘Vocals, NEGRO MINSTEELSY, &c. Matinee at 2}. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street.—EQuesTRIaN AxD GIMMAsTIO ENTERTAINMENT. Matinee at 234. HOOLEY'’S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Hoor.er's ‘MiNeTRELS—THE TICKET TAKER, &C. Matinee at 234. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— GCIENGE AMD AET. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Saturday, March 6, 1869. The City. The Legislative committee investigating the gas monopoiies heid an evening session last night, at which the complaints of gas consumers were heard. Mr. Samuel N. Pike, late proprietor of Pike’s Opera House, testified that the less gas he burned the higher the bills ranged, and that in the summer he paid more for gas than when the house was open. As the gas became worse the bills increased. Seve- ral other witnesses testified to about the same ex- tent, and the committee adjourned till Monday, when they will sit in Brooklyn. Several other com- mittees were holding meetings in this city relative to sewerage, railroads and other matters. The Herman bounty case was adjourned yesterday until the 6th of April, on the representation of Mr. Shearman that Mrs. Herman would sell her house to pay up the sums due the bounty claimants. War- rants for the arrest of Herman have been issued, but his hiding piace is unknown. The Anchor Line steamship Caledonia, Captain McDonald, will leave pier 20 North river at twelve M. to-day for Glasgow, touching at Londonderry to land passengers. The steamship Ville de Paris, Captain Surmont, will sail at noon to-day from pier 50 North river for Brest and Havre. The mails for France will close at the Post office at eleven A. M, ¥ The steamer Bellona, Captain Pinkham, of tne London and New York steamship tine, will leave pier No. 3 North to-day river at ten o'clock A. M. for London direct. The stock market yesterday was dull, and at the ciose depressed and weak, in consequence of appre- hensions concerning Secretary Stewart's policy, which, it was reported, would be unfavorable to the present high prices of the stock market. Gold, upon the announcement of his election, ‘‘dropped” to 130%. Governments were strong and advanced, 62's selling at 1193, Personal Intelligence. Judge Stephen J. Field, of the United States Su- preme Court, and Judge B. R. Curtis, of Boston, are at the Brevoort House, Dr. W. Belt, of Paris, France; M. P. Bush, of Buffalo, and J. M. S. Wiliams, of Massachusetts, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Captain McCauley, of steamship Java; Captain McMicken, of steamship Australasian, and Colonel S. M. Johnston, of Washington, are at the New York Hotel. P. H. Harris, of New Haven; C. H. Seymour, of Wolcottriile, and J. Forgie, Jr., of Baltimore, are at the St. Julien Hotel. J. W. Cooper, of Alabama; T. J. McIntyre, of Ken- tucxy and John F. Allen, of Cincinnati, are at the Maltby House. Major Van Drew and Colonel Charles 0. Welsh, of the United States Army; R. McCormick, of Chicago, and Captain Cullamore, of Massachusetts, are at the St. Charles Hotel. General James McQuade, of Utica, and W. H.° Seward, Jr., of Aubarn, are at the St, Nicholas Hotel. Paymaster R. C. Spalding, of the United States Navy; General 0, M. Poe, of the United States Army; J. M. Whaling, of Milwaukee, and David Webster, of Philadelphia, are at the Hoffman House. W. H. Seward, of Auburn, N. Y.; Wiliam G. Fargo; Senator J. J. ‘$ and wife; Hamilton Easton, of Maryland; Captain Josiah Pratt, of England; Gen- eral A. P. Meylert and Mr. Asa Packer, of Pennsyl- Vania, are at the Astor House. MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS. The Datty Heratp will be sent to subscribers for one dollar a month. The postage being only thirty-five cents a quarter, country subscribers by this arrangement can receive the Heratp at the same price it is furnished in the city. Europe. The cable telegrams are dated March 5. The English and French press were loud in their praises over President Grant’s inaugural address. ‘They regard his views on the foreign policy as an indication of peace. The subject of an ocean penny Postage system was yesterday brought up in the English House of Commons. It was rumored yesterday in Paris that the Pope ‘was dead. The report was discredited, Sefior Sagosta announced yesterday in the Spanish Cortes that the amnesty proclamation to political offenders was delayed in consequence of the discov- ery of recent conspiracies, Paraguay. By Atlantic cable we learn that President Lopez has an army with him and is fortifying in the Mte- rior of the country. Caxias had resigned the com- mand of the allied armies on account of dissensions @mong the leaders, and the Brazilian General de Souza Correa had oeen appointed in his stead. Mexico. Advices from Mazatlan to the 10th ult. are received ‘Dy way of San Francisco. An American had been attacked by a local judge and two Mexican soldiers and seriously wounded, without any provocation whatever. All was quiet in Tepic, the capital of Jalisco. Heavy financial failures had occurred in Guadalajara. The intelligence from the interior was discouragt aiaiad Cuba, Advices from Sagua Ia Grande state that an insur- gent brigadier, named Araoz, had been captured and shot. The revolutionists in the neighborhood of Santiago have concentrated at Mayari. A fight had occurred between colored volunteers and colored insurgents, in which the latter lost seven- teen killed. The political prisoners, some of whom belong to the highest families in the island, have been ordered to the penal colony at Fernando Po. ‘The insurgents about Cienfuegos, Palmillos and Re- medios are rapidly gaining strength, and Cienfuegos ts completely blockaded, The Cabinet. The following is President Grant's Cabinet, as confirmed by the Senate in executive session yes terday:— Secretary of State—E. B. Washburne, of liinois. Secretary of the Treasury—Alexander T. Stewart, of New York. Secretary of the Navy—Adoiph C. Borie, of Penn- sylvania. Secretary of the Interior—Javob D. Cox, of Ohio. Postmaster Generai—John A. J. Cresswell, of Maryland. Attorney General—F. R. Hoar, of Massachusetts. ‘The name of General Schofleld as Secretary of War pro tem, was offered and confirmed, Lieutenant General Sherman was nominated and confirmed as General, Major General Phil H. Sheri- an as Lieutenant General, and Columbus Delano, of Ohio, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in place of Rollins. Sketohes of the new Cabinet oMcers will be found elsowhore in the Henan this morning. Congress. In the Senate yesterday Senator Brownlow, of ‘Tennessee, was sworn in, A comiittee was appointed to wait upon the President and inform him that the Senate was ready to reecive any communicationshe might make. Numerous bills and resoiutions were offered, but as the committees had not vet been ap- pointed they were laid an the table. Among them ‘was one to repeal the Tenure of Omice act and another to grant @ pension to Mrs. Lincoln. ‘The committee to wait upon the President returned and immediazely after General Rawlins and Major Leet The Pacific Railroad. This is a mild winter, and yet our famous Pacific Railroad is so blocked up with snow that in some parts trains cannot run, and by our telegrams from San Francisco “have not been running from Wasacht to the western terminus of the Union Pacific since February 12.” This is rather serious for our great railroad hopes, and is an indication that we can place but little dependence upon our through route to San Francisco during the winter season. There will be trade enough for three or four through lines. Press forward! If one line does not meet our expectations it will at least demonstrate that halt a dozen will pay. As the country is settled railroad lines even further north than the present one will find that the snow difficulty will be but a slight impediment to their working. The United States cannot stop in their west- ward march on account of snow storms. appeared and presented messages in writing. The ae: went into executive session and adjourned. ots cas tones i Minnesota, Maryland and Ken- tucky members objected to on Thursday were sworn in. A resolution Was offered to swear in Jobo Covode as the member from the Twenty-first Penn- sylvania district watle the contest for the seat was ‘While the discussion was taking place on this the news of the Cabinet appoint ‘mente arrived, and on motion of Mr. are. cess of ten perce was taken “that che mourners might commiserate each other.” On reassembling the question of the contested district was referred to the Committee on Elections. ‘The credentiais of members from Georgia end Louisiana were referred to the same committee. The election officers was then resumed and resulted choice of the same persons,that held the offices inst session. ‘The election of @ chaplain was ‘until Tuesday. The drawing for seats How to Get Over Bap Laws.—Grant's thought on the repeal of bad laws is worthy the most philosophical statesman of any age, and is the grandest piece of faith in the American people that any American ever gave utterance to:—‘‘I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effec- tive as their stringent execution.” Do not declaim against the law; do not fill page upon page with hair-splitting arguments, but put the law in force, and if it be tyrannical and oppressive and do harm, this people is intelli- gent enough to see that harm and oppression and honest and just enough to apply the remedy. Never was a man better in sympathy with the American people than the maa who uttered this. The New Cabinet. The Cabinet of President Grant, though promptly confirmed, will puzzle the politicians. With all their guesses and conjectures, cover- ing what was supposed to be the whole field of probabilities, not one of them, nor all of them together, hit the mark beyond one or two members. They were all on the wrong tack in assuming that, after the established practice, the Cabinet would be chosen from the most conspicuous lights and managers of the domi- nant party, such as Wilson, Stanton, Curtin and Old Ben Wade. This rule of selecting from the head politicians of the party was more strikingly illustrated in the original Cabinet of Abraham Lincoln than in any other, though the folly of such selections was sufficiently proved by poor Pierce and Buchanan. The harmonizing of the different personal cliques of the party has been the governing idea of this practice, and it was under this delusion that Lincoln committed his greatest mistake. He thought that by gathering his rivals in the Chicago Convention about him he would reconcile them to the situation and with each other; but from the beginning to the end, with their selfish intrigues against each other and against him, they were a constant source of trouble to their chief. Indeed, had not Lincoln been a marvel of amiability, patience and resignation he could not have endured such annoyances for one summer. President Grant has not followed this foolish and mischievous practice. He has not chosen to have a set of politicians around him, who might assume the right to chalk out his policy, as in the case of Pierce.; or set themselves up as his masters, as in the case of Buchanan; or who would be likely to raise'a hornet’s nest about his ears in their plots and counter plots for the succession, as in the case of Lincoln. On the contrary, we see in this new Cabinet that Grant has given the managing republican politicians a wide berth; that he has chosen his men for business and as his subordinates, and with not the remotest idea that they are to be his masters or his coequals in the administration. He has utterly ignored the Cabinet theory of McClure, and has selec- ted his men as his friends, his assistants and his secretaries, and each mainly in teference to the special duties of his depart- ment. Mr. Washburne thus becomes Secretary of State because of the intimate and confidential relations that have grown up between the President and his best friend since the be- ginning of the war. The two men thus thor- oughly understand each other. Grant knows the capacities of Washburne, and Washburne knows and is fully in accord with the views and purposes of Grant touching our foreign relations, On this subject they are both largely inspired with the progreasive and expan- sive ideas of the great West, and Washburne’s appointment means a positive, progressive and expansive foreign policy. But the health of Mr. Washburne is feeble and precarious. His appointment, then, may have been designed rather as a graceful recognition of a valued friend than as a fixed disposition of the State Department. It will suffice for the present that this appointment is of itself equivalent to the proclamation that the Illinois theory of our foreign relations is to supersede in prac- tice the temporizing diplomacy and wild, land purchases of Mr. Seward. Mr. A. T. Stewart for the Treasury as dis- tinctly proclaims the policy of President Grant in this department. The distribution of the spoils for party services is a matter evidently not thought of in this selection; for Mr. Stew- art has had no experience and knows very little of this peculiar business of the profes- sional politician. The object of Mr. Stewart's appointment is such an administration of the affairs of the Treasury as will bring order out of chaos, system out of confusion, and profits where losses have been the order of the day. Economy, retrenchment and a faithful collec- tion of the public revenue were the objects which suggested the name of Mr. Stewart for this important post, and New York is recog- nized as the proper locality from which to make this choice. General Schofield is retained for a time for certain special duties in the War Office, and in this recognition by President Grant we have a satisfactory assurance that Schofield’s admin- istration of this department has been good, and that he is especially qualified for changes and reforms requiring sound judgment and discretion. Mr. Adolph E. Borie, of Philadelphia, for the Navy Department, has been pronounced by McClure unsatisfactory as a party nomina- tion, in guessing that he might be the Penn- sylvania man upon whom President Grant had fixed his eye. Mr. Borie, it appears, is of an old and aristocratic Pennsylvania family, merchant in good standing and of immense wealth, and a citizen highly esteemed. Doubt- less President Grant has discovered in him those rage administrative qualities required for the Navy Department coming from the venerable Mr. Welles, and perhaps some particular in- fluences connected with the navy in Philadel- phia may have turned the scale in favor of Mr. Borie. It is certain that McClure’s advice in behalf of the Pennsylvania politicians has been treated as the idle wind. General Cox, ex-Governor of Ohio, ‘the new Secretary of the Interior, wears the laurels ac- quired in many battles of a good Union soldier, and he has, moreover, the reputation of an able and safe civilian. He belongs not to the fanatical radical school, however, of ‘Old Ben Wade,” and most likely by Wade will be coa- sidered as entirely too conservative for party purposes. He must be a favorite with Grant, because in the Johnson-Stanton imbroglio Sherman, in behalf of Grant, as a compromise, suggested this very man Cox for the War Office, Mr. Cresswell, of Maryland, Postmaster General, is a man of fine abilities and a first von Tepresentative of genuine Southern loy- alty. Mr. Hoar, of Massachusetts, Attorney General, it appears is a superior lawyer, and as the representative of the famous Mr. Hoar, who many years ago was sent down on a Profitless mission to South Carolina on bebalf of certain colored Massachusetts citizens sub- ject to imprisonment as stra: niggers, we think the appointment ought e satisfy Mas- sachusetts, But the moral of this Cabinet is that it is President Grant's Cabinet, and that he intends to be the master of his administration. Financial Views of the Inaugural Address. President Grant has devoted the largest portion of his brief and terse inaugural address to the financial situation of the coun- try. This shows that he regards the subject as most important and overshadowing all other subjects. He lays great stress upon the necessity of protecting the national honop by paying every dollar of the public debt and the interest as it becomes due according to contract. To do this he would give the public creditor the benefit of any doubt, even as to how certain securities should be paid, and em- phatically declares that every portion of, the debt should be paid in gold unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. This will have the effect, undoubtedly, of appre- ciating the market value of our five-twenty bonds both abroad and at home. He will not trust any one in public office who is a repudia- tor. He believes that by making this the policy of the government we shall be enabled ultimately to convert the debt into bonds bear- ing less interest than we now pay. To accomplish this object he deems it im- portant, however, that there should be a faith- ful collection of the revenue, a strict account- ability to the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practical retrench- ment in expenditures in every department of government, These are brave words; and we have no doubt our new President will use all his power to carry out the views expressed. But it will be necessary for Congress to confide in and aid him in the good work. The govern- ment has been defrauded in the collection of the revenue a hundred millions a year, and the expenditures in these times of peace are at least a hundred millions more than is neces- sary. It may be in his power to save all this by reorganizing, in the first place, the whole machinery of the Revenue Department and holding the heads of it responsible; and, in the second place, by cutting down the expgndi- tures of every branch of the executive govern- ment. There are a thousand ways in which he can do this—in the army, in the navy, in the civil service, and in checking the extrava- gant appropriations of Congress. It is evident he is opposed to further large appropriations for railroads, however valuable such works may /be, till the finances of the country be restored and we _ reach a specie basis; for he intimates that the gov- ernment should give its aid to these only when a dollar of obligation to pay shall be no more in value than the dollar of aid that may be afforded—that is, the government should not lend its credit in a depreciated currency and then have to pay in gold. On the subject of reaching specie payments President Grant takes a sensible and practical view. He desires to return to a specie basis, but only when it can be accomplished without material detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large. How the public debt is to be paid or specie payments resumed is not so important, he says, as that a plan should be adopted and acquiesced in. He admits that legislation on this subject may not be necessary now, nor even advisable, but will be when the civil law is more fully restored in all parts of the country and trade resumes its wonted channels. The first step, he maintains, is to see that our prostrate commerce be rebuilt and all industries encouraged as the basis of re- suming specie payments, restoring the finances and paying the debt. This is just what we have maintained all along. Specie payments will come gradually, and as insensibly as the dew falls, when the national finances shall be placed on a good foundation, retrench- ment and economy be practised, and as the industry and trade of the country be- come improved and developed. Those inex- haustible mines of precious metals in the mouatains of the far West, too, which Presi- dent Grant designates our “strong box,” will be unlocked and contribute to bring about at no distant day an abundant specie circula- tion. On the whole, President Grant takes a sensible, practical and conservative view of the financial situation and prospects of the country. All that remains to be done is the application of the policy he has Jaid down and the co-operation of Congress in carrying it out. ImporTANT FROM Paracuay.—Our despatch- es from Paraguay, by ‘Atlantic cable via Lis- bon, received last night, inform us that Presi- dent Lopez is still at the head of a considerable army and is fortifying himself in the interior of the country. Dissensions have arisen among the allied commanders, and two of them, the Marquis de Caxias and General Herval, have resigned. This intelligence gives a new phase to this protracted war; for it is well known that the allied successes here- tofore have been mainly effected by their united and harmonious action, It would not be surprising to hear before long that Presi- dent Lopez has again assumed the offensive and given the invaders a thrashing. Me. Stewart's Exioriity as A Memper or THE CaBinetT.—An old and obsolete statute of the United States, passed in 1789, which precludes an importer or trader from becoming an officer of the government under cer- tain circumstances, has been revived in order to prevent Mr. Stewart from taking the position of Secretary of the Trea- sury. There is not the slightest doubt that this statute has been regarded as a dead letter in hundreds of instances since our government was framed, and to galvanize it now is like restoring the revenue laws of three- quarters of a century past and gone. Presi- dent Grant wants Mr. Stewart as his Secretary of the Treasury, and all that Congress has to do is to repeal the law and reconfirm Mr. Stewart in the place. Sympatay IN Bertin.—No doubt the expres- sions from Berlin will astonish many readers who hear of Bismarck only in the telegrams and perhaps holdhimasa myth. But we believe that these expressions flow naturally from German thought, and we also believe that there is a more intelligent sympathy with this nation in Germany than in any other country of Europe. The great man of the new ora of Europe natu- rally holds out his hand to the great man of a new era in America. Tue INavouRAL oN Svrrrace.—Ratify the fifteenth amendment, give to all citizens pro- vided for in the fourteenth—Caucasian, ‘origi- nal American, Mongolian and African, whites, reds, yellows and blacks—equal rights in suffrage, ead let us have peace. | ton. President Grant has boldly laid down a rule of action in his inaugural with reference to our foreign policy, saying :—‘‘I would deal with nations as equitable law requires individuals to deal with each other.” * * * ‘I would respect the rights of all nations, de- manding equal respect for our own. If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us we may be compelled to follow their prece- dent.” This is clear, unvarnished language, readily understood. It will do more to effect @ cordial and immediate understanding with foreign Powers than all the Machiavelian states- manship of the past four years. It is a simple enunciation of our desire for strict justice ; and when we fail to obtain it, and there is no disposition on the part of the offender to grant it, then there is but a single resource left for us, and that is the law of retaliation, For instance, if England makes no, reparation for the Alabama outrages it is plain that. there is but one mode of settlement left to us, and that the taking of Canada as a just reprisal. The Minister who now so sadly misrepresents us must be immediately recalled and a firmer and more dignified exponent of the United States people be sent to the Court of St. James. If the President's words are the gleam of action then this will at once be done. There is a Spanish-Cuban question also on hand. The resolution lately passed in the House of Representatives with reference to it is the best Executive guide. President Grant will not satisfy the people of the United States unless he takes prompt measures to give at once the whole moral influence of our govern- ment to the liberal movement there. We do not want Cuba desolated because Spain can- not hold it; and we are ‘‘compelled to follow the precedent” set by Spain when she lent her indirect aid to the breaking up of our republi- canism. On the southwest we find a people who settle into chronic anarchy and block the pro- gress of at least one-third part of our territory. Mexico neither moves herself nor permits us to move. Our Executive should carefully sub- mit a general plan of national policy to Mexico which shall be in unison with our own. If the Mexicans refuse to listen to it their gov- ernment must disappear to give place to a military colonial government under the direc- tion of the United States, There is also a policy to be adopted with reference to South America. There are over thirty millions of people there consuming per capita over seven dollars’ worth of goods annually, and pro- ducing for exportation a still larger amount. There are two principleg of government strug- gling there for the mastery, the one monarchi- cal, supported powerfully by European in- fluence, and the other republican, unsupported and hitherto almost derided by the great re- public. In the next four years there is to be shaped an Asiatic policy, around which may cluster more of future greatness to our people than we at present dream of. This future must be formed with wisdom and with a breadth in pro- portion to its promise. Asia will soon be as closely linked to us as Europe, and it is un- wise to let it grow into prominence without legislative notice. The clear common sense language of the President, however, gives us every hope that we are now to have, not only with reference to Asia, but with all the world, a boldly defined national policy that will en- able foreign Powers to understand that which it has been impossible for them to learn here- tofore—what the United States proposes to- wards them and what is expected in return. The Faithful Collection of the Revenue. The inaugural of the President contains a repeated reference to the revenue collections which are worthy of note. To good faith in the payment of the public debt he says “should be added a faithful collection of!the revenue and strict accountability to the Trea- sury;” and, again, he assures us that he “will endeavor to collect all the revenues assessed,” and that he “‘will appoint to office only those who will carry out this design.” This is an open declaration of war against the whiskey rings, whether high or low, in which the Presi- dent will have the support of every honest citizen, of whatever party he may be. It has been authoritatively stated that the estimated losses to the revenue through the guilt or incapacity of the revenue officials have amounted to not less than one hundred millions of dollars yearly. The leeches who have sucked this blood from the veins of the body politic will make a strong fight to maintain their schemes of plunder, and the Senatorial shield under the terms of the Tenure of Office bill is relied upon as their main defence. Rapid justice upon the heads of the guilty is the best guarantee of honesty, while rdy delay is the hope and refuge of the criminal. It is in securing delay that the Senatorial refusal to repeal the Tenure of Office bill holds out aid and comfort to the rascal in office. Let that law be repealed that honesty may prevail. Tar Last Orrictat Act or Mr. Sewarp— An apology to the Senate from Reverdy John- son, Larr Ovr or tHe INAvGURAL.—President Grant, in the wide sweep of his inaugural ad- dress, found it impossible and unnecessary to go into details. Aware, perhaps, that many pious people had appointed prayer meetings in his behalf to be held at the very time when he should be exposed, as they feared, to the Devil's clutches at the inauguration ball, he abstained altogether from expatiating in his inaugural upon the questionable morality of “the light, fantastic toe.” He made no record of his impressions at witnessing in Niblo’s Garden the exhibition of Miss Lydia Thomp- son and her Forty Female Thieves. He said nothing about his opinions of the Black Crook, or of the cancan, or of the opéra bouffe. He wisely left out of his inaugural allusions to any of these ménu-plaisirs of the public, and relinquished all interference within this pro- vince to the emperors and kings of Europe and to the railway kings of Wall street, Grant's INAUGURAL AND Cabinet IN WALL Srregt.—Yesterday gold dropped to 130}—the lowest in two years—and bonds went up to 119}. Rather significant signs of the effect produced by the inauguration of the new régime at Washington. Abroad the excitemont was very great and American securities went up to 634 in London and to 864 in Frankfort, The committee of the Legislature appointed by resolution of Mr. P. Mitchell to look into the affairs of the gas companies is eliciting some very curious facts relative to the man- agement of these gigantic monopolies. The general tenor of the evidence shows that the, companies are realizing enormous profits and that the gas consumers have really no rights which the monopolies consider themselves bound to respect. Moreover, this testimony of the officials representing the companies is given with a brazen effrontery which is quite in keeping with the general disregard of all rights that the public are supposed to enjoy in their dealings with these concerns, which, the chairman of the committee has very pro- perly said, are not private establishments, but institutions owing their existence to statutory law and enjoying their privileges by the will of the people represented in thé Legislature, and, therefore, under the control of the State government. The witnesses examined so far on the part of the gas companies have not attempted to deny that their profits are exor- bitant, that they can afford to pay fifty per cent dividends on the stock, and that the value of a fifty dollar share in some of the compa- nies has gone up as high as a hundred and fourteen and two hundred dollars. The profits realized on the manufacture of gas are demonstrated by the evidence of the president of the Harlem Company that the gas costs only $1 80 per thousand feet, while the charge to the consumer is $3 50 per thousand feet. The president of the Manhattan Gas Company swears that there is no clause in the law under which his company transacts busi- ness to protect the consumer or to restrict the company from charging any price they may choose to fix upon the gas furnished. Com- plaints have been laid before the committee that the gas bills of consumers have been dis- proportionately increased from month to month without any rational cause, In one case it is sworn that a gas bill of between six- teen and seventeen dollars, which the con- sumer regarded as a fair charge, advanced next month to seventy-one dollars, and the fol- lowing month to one hundred and five dollars, while he was using the same number of burners in his private dwelling in each of these months. No explanation was offered by the company except that the meter was out of order, and that they were willing to make a compromise. Now, as to this question of the regularity of meters, an official of one of the companies swore that he found a hundred meters having the seal of the inspector upon them and guaranteed as perfect which did not register at all, The meter, therefore, cannot be regarded as a safeguard to the consumer, and yet it is the only test which the companies will acknowledge in measuring the quantity of gas supposed to be consumed. This investigation renders the fact apparent that the only way to secure the public a fair supply of gas at fair rates is to take the manu- facture of that article into the hands of the State or city government and revoke the char- ters of the gas companies altogether. In this way we would be furnished with good gas at one-half the present price. As the gas com- panies are now conducted their business is no better than a gigantic robbery, which outrivals the railroad monopolies and the ferries, and they are intolerable enough. We hope that when the committee now in session here has fortified itself with all the testimony it can procure it will report to the Legislature some plan whereby the manufacture of gas for the supply of the people and the Corporation lamps can be taken out of the hands of the present outrageous monopolies and transferred to some authority which can control it for the better protection of the public. Grauvs Style. The democrats dislike Grant's style, or want of style. They say his inaugural is without “that grave and sustained propriety of ex- pression which befits the chief magistrate of a nation;” that it wants ‘‘dignity” and ‘‘mascu- line eloquence,” &c. This is a pretty old quarrel. Every one will remember the rogue who, when driven from the last legitimate quibble of his defence, found fault with the grammar of the judge's sentence. Style is the better or worse use of the tropes that are cata- logued in the books of rhetoric, and it isa general rule that utterances particularly rich in style are poorin everything else, as any one may see in the articles of those who find most fault with Grant. Grant had something to say, and was little solicitous of anything but the direct definite expression of his thought. He declares himself in the words of the people, too conscious of his thought to fear that such words would belittle it. It is always otherwise with those whose utterances are to the taste of the rhetoricians; for they are justly fearful that without the ornaments of language they will not be worth listening to. No Msssace.—The President had no special message to send to Congress yesterday. He thought his inaugural covered the ground, and we think so too. Not at Tae JNaveuration Batt.—One solitary, big, burly negro, ‘‘said to be Bishop Simpson, of some African army bound for the happy land of Canaan,” is mentioned as having stood, on the day of President Grant's inaugu- ration, at the east door of the Senate chamber, But at the inauguration ball in the evening neither Sambo nor Dinah was present, The “colored element of the population” was con- vinced that it would lose nothing by refraining from obtrusively thrusting itself forward on that occasion. The enemies and the injudi- cious friends of Sambo and Dinah were thus alike disappointed. First Brast Unper THe New Caninet.— Just as General Rawlins brought into the Senate yesterday afternoon the message from President Grant conveying the intelll- gence of his Cabinet appointments a blast of rocks occurred near the Park, which threw out seginents of quartz in which traces of gold were discovered, Tae Nationat Strona Box.—Grant hae the right, because the real American idea of the national grandeur when he trusts himself to such a bold figure as that of calling the Bocky Mountains or other precious metal hold- {ng hills of the West the national safe and the Peoific Railroad the means of getting at its contents, OL eee ee em Ten eT cere OEM EO CENGRE ET RAM Te oe ISON ARMENIAN OTE, WMG etre TONY MERRY eM gaye ESS