The New York Herald Newspaper, March 26, 1869, Page 6

NEW YOUR HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR Allbusiness or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York HERALD. Volume XXXIV........++ seecereeeeseenses NOs 85 AMUSEMENTS bob Sl EVENING. [BLO'S GARDEN, Broad Seca shen BusLesque Ex- waavacante or THB FoRTY T THIEVES. omaiaces THEATRE, Broadway and 18th street. THEATRE, y-fourth st.—PERF EO “mogauaes, AuouT a uincnaw® OF VEMIOR. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway—Humrry Dumpty, with New Featuses. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—THE SEvEN DWARFS; OB, HARLEQUIN AND vie WORLD OF WONDERS. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway.—Miss KaTR BRIG- OLDS As CAMILLE. — BOOTH'S bie yi 28d st., between Sth and 6th avs.— Romero anp JULIE: — GERMAN STADT THEATRE, Nos. 45 and 47 Bowery.— ‘Mx. Foemeiod Haask IN NABCISSE. WOOD'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE, Thirtieth street and Broadway.—Afternoon and evening Performan WAVERLEY THEATRE, 730 Broadway.—Evize HoLt’s BURLESQUE ComPany. THEATRE COMIQ"’E, 514 Broadway.—CoMic SKETOBE and Livine Lsanpeagapadicinnoal THE TAMMANY, Fourteenth enth strect—TaE Horse Ma- NEB, &C. Py F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broadway.—ETHI0- PIAN ENTERTAUNMENTS—SIEGE OF THE BLONDES. BRYANTS’ OPERA H) SE, Tammany Building, Mth atreet.—E1HI0PIAN MiNSTRELBY, £0. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 21 Bowery.—Comio VoOOALisu, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street.—EQuasTaian AND GYMNASTIO ENTERTAINMENT. STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street—Tux DAVENPORT BRotuErs. HOOLEY’S OPERA HOUSE, _Brooklyn.—HOOLeY’s MinsTRELs—Tox HAUNTED WiG MAKER, &c. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, €18 Broadway. GOIENOE AND ART. A TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Friday, March 26, 1869. MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS, The Dairy Hera.p 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. THE NEWS. Europe. The cable telegrams are dated March 25. ‘The Hudson Bay Company has beer advised to ac- cept the proposition of the English Colonial Secre- tary and cede their territorial rights in British North America for £300,000. The steamship companies now employed to carry the mails between this country and Great Britain have declined to modify ‘the terms of their late contract. The Conscription taw passed by the Spanish Cortes on the 23d inst. prescribes that no more men shall be raised by conscription than are actually required to fill the ranks of the army to their standard strength. Twelve years is to be the Senatorial term under the new coastitution. Miramon, the Carlist leader in Andalusia, has been captured. The Pope has issued an invitation to foreign sove- reigns to send repregentatives to the General Coun- Gil of the Church of Rome. Cuba. It is known in Navana that several American ex- Pedilions have !anded on the Cuban sbores within a few days. Many evidences of disloyalty are reported among the oficers and troops. Four companies of volunteers, in the fleld for active service, have gone over to the insurgents, and a delegation at Havana have charved Patino, the Governor of Trini- dad; Mondaos, Covernor of Villa Clara, and Colonel Menduina, commanding the forces near Remedios, With open complicity with the revolutionists, The refugee Cubans in Nassau are very loud in their demonstrations against Spanish rule, and the Spanish Consul here is much alarmed. One of the Peruvian monitors, whtie touching at Port Marango, ‘Was visited by the insurgent generals. Mr. Paul B. Du Chailiu gives elsewhere in the HERALD this morning a description of Fernando Po, the penal colony to which the political prisoners in Cuba are being transported. Mexico. We have mall advices from Vera Cruz to the 14th inst. Gutierrez, the kidnapper, who nas been ar- Tested, denounces General Cauto as his principal, and claims to have kidnapped certain persons on Cauto’s order. It is rumored that Cauto had been tried and execuied. The papers state that President Juarez has rec y received $83,000 from the Treasury without authority, Colonel Mayer, who is in prison for aiding Negrete, was during our clvil War lieutenant colonel of a colored regiment under General Weitzel. Hayti. Accompanying the recent report of Admiral Hoff on afairs in Hayti was a statement of persons living within the lines of the rebel forces under Domingue relative to barbarities practised upon prisoners. There were 109 of these prisoners shot, ten of whom were women and one a child, Their manner of executing them was most revolting. Congress. Yn the Senate yesterda” William T. Hamilton, Sen- ator from Maryland, appeared and took the oaths. Mr. Sprague submitted @ preamble to the bill intro- G@uced by bim a days ago to provide for loaning the public money. Mr. Sherman’s bill supplemen- tary to the act to provide a national currency, se- cured by a pledge of Unived States bonds, was taken up. It was discussed at some length, but without action upon it. The Senate, after a short executive session, adjourned. In the House, Mr. Butler introduced a bill to re- Gtore a republican government to the State of Geor- gia under its new constitution, which was referred to the Committee on Peconstruction. It authorizes the Governor to reassemble the old Legisiature, the members of which must take the test oath, and de- clares the expulsion of ‘The bill providing a pro’ sissippi was then taken up, and Mr. Wood madea long speech in opposition to it. The bill was then laid aside and the Senate amendments to the bill repealing the Tenure of Ofice act was taken up. Messrs, Butler and Logan strongly opposed the amendments, both averring that it was an ex- pression of want of confidence tn President Grant, and stating that although he tries to rest contented ‘with the bill as tt fa, for the sake of peace in the Party, it is not what he desires, Mr. Logan offered an amendment that ali civil offices, except judges, filled before the 41a of March, 1969, shall become vacant by the 20th of June. This amendment and the amendment o/ the Senate were then referred to the Judiciary Committee by @ vote of 95 to 79, and the House adjourned. Tho Leginiature. In the Senate yosterday bills were introduced to May out an avenue from Prospect Park to Fort Hamilton, and fur »n widitionai almshouse in Brook- lyn. Bills incorporating the Passenger Transit Com- pany; prohibiting the use of steam in the Second avenue; to confer c:tizeuship on Indians desiring it; fncreasing the penalty for the procurement of abor- tions and relative to opening pubiio streets in New Work were reporied. Another veto message rela- NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY MARCH 26, 1869.—TRIPLE SHEET. ty: to special legislation was received from the Governor, In the Assembly the consideration of the Supply bill was indefinitely postponed. The bill facilitating the construction of the New York and Albany Rail- road was ordered toa third reading. The report of the Quarantine Commissioners on the erection of @ hospital on the West Bank was referred to the Com- mittee on Navigation, with power to report by bill, Mr. Mitchell, from the Gas Investigating Committee, gave notice that he would report a bill to-day tor the regulation of the New York gas companies. Bills establishing a court having jurisdiction over idle and truant children and for an underground railroad on the west side of New York were passed. Miscellaneous. Despatches were received yesterday stating that ex-President Johnson was seriously iil at his resi- dence in Greenville, Tenn. Later last evening a despatch from a member of the family was received stating that he was much better. The Cuban agents paid an unofficial visit to the Secretary of State yesterday at his residence. No credentials were presented, Among tne nominations sent into the Senate yes- terday were Edward B, Plumb as Consul General at Havana and Alonzo B. Cornell as Surveyor of the Port of New York. The government of Prince Edward Island has been officially informed by the imperial government that it cannot enter into negotiations with the ‘United States with a view to reciprocity without co-operation of the other British American pro- vinces, Parshall & Schawzlin, private bankers, of Buffalo, failed Wednesday evening. Their liabilities are $40,000, while they show only $4,000 assets. A young Bostonian, named Pine, on Wednesday shot and fatally wounded a Miss Howard, and then shot himself dead. Cause, unrequited love, The City. A mass meeting to express sympathy with the Cuban insurgents was held in Steinway Hall last evening. Speeches were made by Mayor Hall, Henry Ward Beecher, Paul B. Du Chaillu and others. Strong resolutions were adopted. In the Board of Health yesteraay the case of the fever ship was taken up and a resolution was adopted directing inquiry as to the number of sick persons ‘on the ship James Foster, Jr.; who is re- sponsible for their being landed, and who aided them to land without the permission of the Board. The Commissioners of Emigration continued their investigation in regard to the fever ship yesterday. Additional testimony was taken, and the inquiry Was postponed until Monday. Some of the quarrymen on strike assembled in Fifty-seventh street yesterday and warned the men employed there to cease working. No disturbance took place, Yesterday was “opening day,” and the devotees of fashion were on Broadway in force. Wiliam Walton, indicted for dealing in counter- feit fractional currency, and who has been in jail awaiting tria! for the last two months, was yester- day, on representations of the United States District Attorney, discharged on his own recognizance. In the United States Commissioners’ Court A. Lichienheim, who had been under examination for some time past on @ charge of defrauding the gov- ernment of over $1,000 on false cigar stamps, was discharged, the Commissioner holding that the testi- mony did not sustain the charge. Jacob Freund, charged with frauds in stamping and selling cigars in fraud of the revenue tax, was also discharged, the evidence against him being insufficient to hold him for trial. In the Court of General Sessions yesterday, Judge Bedford presiding, Charles A. Allen pleaded guilty to an attempt at larceny, and was sentenced to the Penitentiary for one year. William Strate, convicted of attempting to steal a horse, was sent to the Peni- tentiary for one year. The Inman line steamship City of Paris, Captain Kennedy, will leave pier 45 North river at one P. M. to-morrow (Saturday) for Liverpool via Queenstown. The European mails will close at the Post Office at twelve M. on the 27th inst. The steamship Helvetia, Captain Thompson, of the National line, will sail from pier 47 North river at three P.M. on Saturday, 27th inst., for Liverpool, calling at Queenstown to land passengers. The Anchor line steamship Columbia, Captain Car- raghan, will leave pier 20 North river at twelve M., to-morrow (Saturday) for Glasgow, touching at Lon- donderry. The Merchants’ line steamship General Grant, Captain Quick, will sail from pier No. 12 North river atthree P.M. on Saturday, 27th inst., for New Or- leans direct. The stock market yesterday was generally firm. New York Central was very irregular. Gold was unusually dull, finally closing at 1313. Prominent Arrivals in the City. Baron Schlozer, Minister of the North German Union, Berlin, and E. H. King, of Montreal, are at the Brevoort House. Lieutenant Huggins, of the United States Army, is at the St, Denis Hotel. Major W. B. Richards, of Virginia, is at the New York Hotel. Gerritt H. Smith, of New York; J. S. Cunningham, of the United States Navy, and Colonel C. W. C. Mo- Coy, of Baltimore, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. General W. T. Tibbitts, of Troy, is at the Hoffman House. General Geo, J. Stannard, of Vermont; Professor Samuel Gardner, of Washington, and Colonel H. W. Friedley, of the United States Army, are at the Me- tropolitan Hotel. Captain R. Tulley, of the United States Army, is at the St. Charles Hotel, Judge Kattell, of Binghamton, and Judge Brown- ing, of New Jersey, are at the Astor House. Dr. Andrew Layrance, of Buffalo, Captain R. Halsey, of the United States Army, and E. R. Men- dum, of Baltimore, are at the St. Julien Hotel. Mr. J. W. Fabens, Commissioner to the Domini- can government, arrived yesterday from St. Domingo city, with important despatches. Prominent Departures. Lieutenant Governor Gardiner and Colonel Sibiey left yesterday for Burlington, Vt.; Judge R. R. Sioane, Dr. Demscomf and’E. Giddings, for Washing- ton; J. W. Pierce, for Boston; Lieutenant Com- mander Woodroe, for Philadelphia; W. 8. Church, for Albany; J. S. Ranney, for Canada; Lieutenant Commander Kellogg, tor Ohio; H. D. Chapin, for Boston; Thomas Cornell, for Albany; J. C. Smethurst, for Philadelphia, and Mr. J. W. Favens, for Washington. AMERICAN Sympatuy with THE CuBANS.— A very crowded meeting was held in Steinway Hall last evening, with the view of expressing the sympathy of the citizens of New York with the Cuban people in their struggle for independence. Mayor Hall presided. The assemblage was addressed in eloquent terms by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher; strong resolutions were passed urging on the Cabinet in Washington the propriety of according bel- ligerent rights to the Cubans, and of other- wise aiding the movement of the people of the island, How Tey Hanpie THE Mongy.—As the Board of Education and its doings are now up for popular review it would be apropos to have the full history of that celebrated forged check for seventeen thousand dollars, and we are glad to see by the reports that the whole story is promised in an investigation soon to take place. As it is claimed on one hand that the falsity of the check is ridiculously palpa- ble, and on the other that the paper is genuine, the details will doubtless be piquant. SPaNisit “Victories ‘us Cupa.—If the Spaniards wish their accounts of victories in Cuba to be believed they must kill a few more of their own side than they sc- knowledge. One man killed and one wounded in @ fight of three hours where two hundred insurgents are finished off is not enough to cover the bill. The Outrage of the Senate Upou the Ex- ecutive Power, The amendment to the Tenure of Office act which has, through the Committee on the Judi- ciary, been presented to the action of Congress, can only be classed as an insult to our form of government. The Senate by passing it yields no point in its usurpation of power. The old act may be called an executive guillotine, and the amendment is the knif@ which, raised scarcely out of sight, only awaits the touch of the executioners in the Senate to strike off the Presidential head which they have forced under it. Section two of the proposed amendment gives the President the right to suspend any officer during. recess of the Senate, and this body may, if it think proper, restore. said officer to his position, no matter how much he may impede executive action in its proper sphere. Suppose, for instance, that President Grant, in accordance with his inaugural, which the country so heartily endorsed, found that any member of his Cabinet failed in his duty and hampered the just and rigid application of the laws—the Senate, despite the removal of that officer by the Executive, could retain him in power and thus virtually block the wheels of govern- ment. We should then see o Cabinet officer more powerful than the President who appoints him and to whom the laws make him responsible for the fulfilment of his duties, How, in this case, can the people of the United States hold the President responsible for the branch of the government entrusted to him by the constitution ? e whole amendment is, in the language of jel O'Connell, when de- nouncing a celebrated comproinise measure before the English Parliament, ‘‘a situ de- lusion and a snare.” It is evident that the radical republicad leaders are blind to the fact that the people elected President Grant because they be- lieved him fitted to fill the post of Executive officer in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the United States. If the Senate refuses to surrender the usurped powers it now holds it will be a virtual an- nouncement to the nation that the constitution of the United States is a humbug and a farce. In fact, the action of Congress for some time past has proven this, and now the Senate chooses to endorse the decision through the amendment to the Tenure of Office act. This absorption of executive authority by a@ body which is not held responsible for its use is already producing a com- plete demoralization in the ranks of the republican party, and evidences of this are very observable in the discussions of the Senate for the past two weeks. Failure of its leaders to have a just respect for the desires of the people who have placed them in power threatens to make political changes which advance to a point but little short of actual revolution, And what has the Senate done with all this usurped power? The South has not advanced an inch in the last two years, notwithstanding all the experimental legisla- tion. Does the Senate understand that the North is paying the bills for these experi- ments? Bad legislation for one section re- flects very severely upon the other, and the people of the North are very little disposed to be bled simply to support legal quibblings and technicalities. Give the whole country more legislation for its material prosperity, and we shall advance. Since the rebellion we have had nothing but political measures, and these have been urged forward with a party animosity which has completely ignored the existence of our material interests. The Tenure of Office act, throwing into the hands of the Senate the control of the whole army of public servants, has, linked with their legislative functions, given them a greater power than has ever before been possessed by any legislative body in the civilized world. The United States Senate to-day handle the wealth and honors of the whole nation, and the ex- tent to which they have used their vast power has only been limited by the yielding pressure which up to this time has been opposed to them by the people. That pressure is, how- ever, no longer yielding. The country is sick to disgust with a body which is forgetful of all national prosperity and only alive to personal ambition and party rule. The House of Representatives are nearer to the people than the Senate. They feel the pulsations of the national heart quicker. They should, therefore, reject the amendment offered by the Senate and boldly aid the Executive we have elected. Mr. Butler, clear-headed and sagacious, stands by the people, and the tele- graph informs us that he will only be con- tented with the restoration to General Grant of all the authority of the executive office. If, however, the House fail in its duty, let the President veto the amendment and make issue immediately with the Senate for the restora- tion of the executive power. The people will support him in this contest; for, despite the ring influence, despite the desire of the few to curtail the many in contravention of oir gov- ernmental system, despite the power to which the Senate clings, the President can defeat them; for they cannot afford in such a con- test to wreck the republican party by clinging to stolen property. PorutaR Ricuts aND PoputaR Sove- rEIGNTY.—Our Spanish friends are rather illogical in the courses they are pursuing in different localities. In Spain the whole nation is roused on the question of revolution, and the recent election of the Cortes for the purpose of forming a new government is a complete acceptance of the doctrine of popular sovereignty. In Cuba the denial of the same right to the Cubans is a contradiction and ® denial of the right of popular sovereignty. Logically viewed, the fact appears that when the Spaniards overthrew the throne the Powers of government returned to the peo- ple, and Cubans and Spaniards each hold the right to reconstruct their political scheme as to each shall seem best. ‘THe New © CoxsnirutIon oF ‘Taxas.—The Austin (Texas) State Gazette of the 12th inst., although opposed to several of the provisions in the proposed new constitution of Texas, advises the conservative people of the State to vote for it, adding :—‘‘We don’t defend the constitution—we are not responsible for it, neither are the real people of Texas. We are for taking it because we can do no better and because we may be placed in a worse condi- tion by rejecting it.” Sensible. Encouragement of American Maritime In- terests. The prompt action in the House of Repre- sentatives on the resolution of Mr. Lynch to create a select committee of nine to inquire into and report upon American maritime in- terests shows that this important subject is likely to receive at last some consideration. The committee is to inquire into the causes of the great reduction of American tonnage engaged in the foreign carrying trade and the great depression in the navigation interests of the country; also to report what measures are necessary to increase our ocean tonnage, revive maritime interests and to regain for our country the relative position which it once held among nations as a maritime Power. There will be little difficulty in ascertaining the cause of the decline of our tonnage; the war and the Alabama and her fellow corsairs explain that. But the question is how are we to get back to the position we held before the war. No country is more favorably situated than ours for erecting and maintaining a vast mercantile marine, Our immense seaboard, numerous harbors, the seafaring character of a large portion of the American people, our skill in shipbuilding and our vast forests of fine timber and exhaustless mines of fron, all contributed to make this country, a few yoars ago, first in maritime importance, and will do so again under proper laws and encouragement. Everything possible should be done to en- courage shipbuilding; but until we are in a situation to compete with foreign builders the government should permit our citizens to reg- ister veasels byilt by and purchased of foreign- ers. If Americans can build or purchase vessels abroad cheaper than at home let them do so, and let their property become American and under the American flag and protection, If we gangot compete at present with foreign shipbuilders {et us do, then, the next best thing—get our ships elsewhere; and, at all events and under any clrcumiiadons, let us restore our lost maritime position among the nations. We hope the committee will take this broad and liberal view of the subject and report accordingly. Serious Progress of the Cuban Revolution. By telegram from Havana, dated yesterday, we learn that the Cuban revolution is in most serious progress as against the Spanish au- thority, and, in consequence of recent suc- cesses, that the insurgents are likely to obtain the aid of some of the leading men of the island, official and non-official. A commission from Trinidad reported to the Captain General that Sefior Patino, Governor of that place, was “actively disloyal;” that he marched troops to places where there was no enemy, and that they believed he had ‘sold himself” to the insurgents. Similar complaints had been lodged against other prominent officials, and a general distrust of executive good faith appeared to prevail. The commander of the forces in the field near Remedios was charged with open complicity with the insurrection. Four companies of mobilized volunteers had gone over to the enemy, and General Letona’s advance had been defeated near Cienfuegos. Expeditionary forces from the. United States, well supplied with arms, are said to have landed on the shores and joined the rebel armies at different points. It appears as if the move- ment were the ‘‘beginning of the end” of Spanish authority in Cuba. Spars—A Kine Ap IxTeriw.—A com- mittee properly enough appointed has given in its report to the Spanish Cortes on @ new constitution. Some of the recom- mendations are good enough, but all the good recommendations are old. One recommenda- tion at least is old—that a king, or queen, or emperor or empress should have a trial of eighteen years. Eighteen years is a pretty good term for the incumbent, but it might prove very inconvenient for the people. Louis Napoleon did not require so long a period to make himself Emperor of the French. A shorter period might prove a weaker man than Louis Napoleon a bore or something worse. It does not appear from any present mani- festations that the Latin races are improving in the art of self-government. A king for eighteen years is a king only ad interim, but the interim is unconscionably long. Specie Payment RestorEep.—The driver of a Third avenue car swore the other day that a policeman paid his fare of six cents in small silver, and that he, the said driver, heard the said silver jingle. Tue Beauties or Loyarry. —The applica- tion of oaths so largely made in the South by the government, and the disfranchisement of all refusing to do the stringent swearing, re- ceives a very odd illustration in Missouri. Frank Blair, Jr., lately candidate for Vice President, is disfranchised in his own State because of his activity as a Union soldier early in the war. The oath requires the voter to swear, among other things, that he has never taken up arms against the State. Early in the war Missouri was in the hands of the rebels, and her Governor organized as State troops a secession force. Blair helped to capture that force, and therefore cannot take the oath. A Suprosep Trar.—Tho English and Eu- ropean journals generally show that on the other side of the Atlantic our doings in refe- rence to Cuba are being closely watched. It is the general expectation that we are about to fall into a trap; in otter words, that Cuba, un- consciously to us, is about to settle the Ala- bama and all similar questions. Our English and European friends make a big mistake. They forget that America is not Europe—that Cuba is not Spain or Greece or Poland or Ire- land, We have some faith yet in the Monroe doctrine. America for the Americans, When they catch us napping they will have a perfect right to say 80. To rue Pacirio via Vickssura.—The Vicks- burg Herald, commenting upon the statement that the Pacific Railroad was snowed up and remained #o for a number of days because the employés were too lazy to shovel their way out, remarks:—‘‘Why will not Congress, which has been so lavish in its expenditures of national capital for the building of this road, do something towards constructing a Southern line from Vicksburg to the Pacific, where these annoying obstacles would be obviated?” General Grant once laid siege to Vicksburg with a successtul issue; now let Vicksburg lay siege to bim for the attainment of the above obiect. Street Obstructions. During the past two years we have repeat- edly called attention to the nuisances arising from the encumbrance of the sidewalks and roadways of our public thoroughfares by build- ers and others in the execution of private con- tracts, These evils were especially noticeable in Fifth, Madison, Lexington and others of the fashionable avenues and streets of the city, and the result of our exposures of them is that the nuisances have been to a great extent abated on some of the streets. We called the attention of the public officers whose duty it is to protect the rights of the people in the mat- ter, and when they at last moved in the en- forcement of the law they found their authority ample and the law full and comprehensive, This clearly proves that the evils are to a great extent the result of inefficiency and dilatori- ness on the part of the Street Commissioner, and he has not yet finished the work he began under our suggestion, At the present time a dozen obstructions of the most dangerous char- acter are to be found on Fifth avenue, north of Fortieth street, one of them in particular being the unprotected opening of a sewer cut. In another column will be found a report of the principal encroachments and nuisances on the avenue by builders and contractors, which shows that from Fortieth street to Fifty-third street there is, on an average, one obstruction to every block of houseg. Planks, mortar, lime, bricks and huge masses of stone lie in huge piles or heaps, in many cases incom- moding traffic to such an extent that two vehicles abreast cannot pass these locations. It is well known, of course, that there is always a certain class of people in the com- munity who are averse to doing anything except such matters as they are compelled by circumstances to perform, and we suppose that the contractors in the instances above referred to belong to that class. Many well paid public officials are afflicted with a similar indisposi- tion to shoulder their responsibilities and do their duty, and among these may be ranked our Street Commissioner. The majority of the people, however, have enacted laws and adopted ordinances for the regulation of this class of persons, and expect these laws enforced. Why, then, after a public reproach has been laid bare, is it that many who are culpable having conformed to the requirements of these laws a few persistent and barefaced contractors and property owners are per- mitted to follow the same offensive course that was prohibited as to others? If two or three contractors have a right to encumber a public street, all contractors have the like privilege, and if all contractors have such authority, then it is clear that the.com- munity who live upon and most frequent those thoroughfares have no rights which the con- tractors are bound to respect. A few days since, acting under a rare im- pulse of zeal, the Street Commissioner marshalled a brigade of men, paraded up Broadway, and seized and removed half a dozen flag poles, on the ground that they were “obstructions.” But that spasm of virtue subsided after such an arduous day’s duty, and meantime the great, highways of the metropolis are allowed to remain in a condition of barricade, to the great inconvenience of the public and to the jeopardy of life and limb, Prine Up tHe Agoyy.—Victor Hugo's well known cumulative style of working up a certain effect by the progressive addition of epithets went far in “Les Misérables,” but goes further in the forthcoming novel, if we may judge from an extract given out wherein matter is called an ‘unfathomable amalgation of immeasurable energies wherein one some- times recognizes an imperceptible amount of horrifying intention.” It isnot easy generally to recognize the “imperceptible,” but perhaps this is better than describing a storm as ‘‘a fall from an epileptic fit into the infinite.” Hugo has here reached so far for the sublime as to lose his balance. . Like Mrs. Lirriper, he has gone on and gone over. An Important Quvgstion.—The Police Commissioners request their legal advisers to say whether the commission is entitled to re- cover from Captain Young that sixteen thou- sand dollars that under the police rules ought to go into the Police Life Insurance Fund. In case the commission is not so entitled to recover, the next question will be whether policemen who have previously and no doubt unwillingly paid their rewards into that fund are not en- titled to a return of the money, THE Possti.irtes or Commixation, —If all the railroads, banks, telegraph companies and other large monopolies of the country acted together for some common purpose they would thus combine a capital at least equal to the whole national debt, and in addition to the control of such an immense money force could control directly from half a million to a million votes. What could resist sucha ‘balance of power?” What arrangement or division of parties could there ever be in the United States where such a combination could not always and absolutely determine victory in favor of the party it decided to act with? Could not such a power, in forming the alliance that parties would be so eager to make, dictate the party policy? Is not our republic, then, at the point where it inevitably falls into the hands of a financial oligarchy ? Toe New Assistant SkoRETARY OF State.—Bancroft Davis, appointed by Gene- ral Grant to this position, receives favorable opinions from all sorts of people. Even the Albany Argus, copperhead democratic organ, throws in word in his favor. With such unanimity in regard to the entorcement of our national policy there need be no doubt about the vindication of American rights, not only about the Alabama claims, but about republican liberty on the American Continent, especially in Mexico and upon the island of Cuba. Carry Ovt Tue Rute.—The Toledo Blade— & very sharp paper latterly—says there is lawful reason why Mr. Clapp, the propri- etor of a Buffalo paper, should not be ap- pointed public printer. A law is revived like that of 1789, which was exhumed to meet the exigency of Mr. Stewart's nomination for Secretary of the Treasury by General Grant, to the effect that such an officer shall not have an interest of any kind in public business con- nected with his department. Mr. Stewart's case may prove a precedent for a decision in regard to that of Clavo. Genator Sprague and His Presidential Pro- gramme for 1872, Senator Sprague, the independent Rhode Island millionnaire, made on Wednesday inst another speech on the Tenure of Office law, which only a man who has no favors to ask and no frowns to fear could afford to make in the Senate. Looking at this speech simply as an argument against the law in question, it is @ rambling rigmarole, without head, body or tail, system or purpose; but if we assume that Mr. Sprague’s candidate for the Presi- dency in 1872 is his worthy father-in-law, Chief Justice Chase, this otherwise incoherent discourse becomes as clear and luminous as the Egyptian hieroglyphics under the interpre- tation of the Rosetta stone. 7 Mr. Sprague in this remarkable speech opens fire upon thd body of lawyers who rule the Senate as not a fit body of men to exercise control over the President’s removals and ap- pointments; in other words, the Senator is getting tired of the republican oligarchy of the Senate. He next trains his battery upon the galleries for their idiotic laughter at serious things and their ‘frivolous, thoughtless and senseless disposition.” He will repeat his warning, however, that ‘the affairs of the country are being mismanaged and ruined by the class of men I have spoken of,” meaning the lawyers. They could not hold a candle to Gladstone or Disraeli in affairs of State. He next argues that the republican party has failed to restore peace to the South and has failed generally to secure the rights and liber- ties of the citizen in this boasted land of free- dom. Moreover, immigration from Europe is falling off because the farmers in the West can no longer make both ends meet, and immi- grants cannot find remunerative emp loyment. The lawyers, bankers and capitalists, in short, are running the government and country to destruction; nor can it be denied that in this there is more truth than poetry. But, touching the general demoralization of American society, Mr. Sprague’s opinion is positively startling. He says, and from ob- servations abroad and at home, he says, and emphatically too, that ‘‘there is less virtue and morality in American society to-day than in any other civilized society on the face of the earth.” What mother can trust her son abroad? ‘What husband can close his door?” ‘The country,” he believes, ‘‘is on the brink of a precipice, and unless the people can be roused from their apathy all is lost.” And now we come to the pith of the matter. Mr. Sprague had aided in the election of General Grant, because he believed General Grant was not and could not be contaminated by the politicians ; but when he (Mr. Sprague) “shad read the passage in the inaugural on the sacredness of the public debt he had gone away disheartened and sorrowful, because it had shown him that the canker that possessed the American body politic had got possession of the President also, But still he was not without hope.” What does this mean? It means, and this whole speech on the lawyers, banks, capital- ists, finance, industry, immigration, American political and social demoralization, politicians and the canker of the national debt means that Senator Sprague is preparing for a aplit in the republican party, is ready to bolt, and that Chief Justice Chase is his candidate for the succession against even General Grant himself, And why not? Had Horatio Sey- mour played the fair game would not Mr. Chase have been the democratic candidate in the late campaign? Is it not apparent, too, that as things are now going he will of all men be the man for all the odds and ends of the opposition to the administration candidate in 1872? Let the politician disposed to chuckle over this extraordinary speech of Senator Sprague read it by this light, and he will find it wonderfully consistent and to the purpose. The Bohemians at Dinner. Sometimes at the theatres we are called upon to observe as a special ‘‘wonder” that “@ woman keeps a secret.” Perhaps that is @ wonder, unless, of course, the secret chance to be some peculiar bit of the dear creature's personal history ; then it is not so rare a thing for her to keep it, perhaps. But that old won- der having served a long time, the comedians of city journalism have paraded a new one that seems to us less startling. They call upon us to be astonished that the women of their acquaintance can dine, can pay for their own dinners and can make the occasion agreea- ble with entertaining chatter. We never doubted the appetite of even literary ladies, and certainly no one can question the ability and readiness of the sex to pay when he re- flects that fully two-thirds of the money spent in this extravagant town is put in motion from hand to hand solely to decorate the persons and gratify the vanities of women. Neither have we ever had any misgivings as to that cheapest defence of her rights, woman’s tongue—a defence, indeed, so cheap that she is never economical with it. Man has recog- nized the wealth of woman in all the moods and tenses from the time that Socrates was so patient with his spouse. What, then, was the wonder? Only the Bohemians themselves, as we can see it. There they sat, thirty or forty dreary creatures, and ‘‘munched, and munched, and munched,” like the rump-fed runnion of the play, and never an idea shot forth from any one of the number. Safer in their dulness than St. Anthony in his virtue, they sat and fed, and woman was charming and brilliant in vain. How could so many men so prose and drool in the very face of all that temptation of feminine wit and beauty and that provoking play of piquant ‘fancy ? Here is the true wonder. Tue Rooszvert Hosrrrat.—Mr. James H. Roosevelt left a very large property in the hands of trustees for the purpose of founding hospital in this city. Some of the provisions of the will making it possil‘e that it was not valid, and that if the executor applied any por- tion of the funds to building a hospital he might be liable in his own fortune to the claim- ants who should come in in case the will was not sustained, the points in question were brought up fictitiously for judicial revision, and the will is pronounced a good one, The court decides that the bequest did not lapse because of being left to an institution not in existence at the time of the testator’s death, bat that property can bo left in trust for an institution to be founded as well as in trust for @ child to be born.