The New York Herald Newspaper, April 4, 1869, Page 8

8 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Herap. Lae apie THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. Volume XXXIV RELIGIOUS SERVICES TO-DAY. BAPTIST MARINERS’ TEMPLE.—Rxv. J, L. Hopor, Morning and evening. BLEECKER STREET UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.— Ray. Day K. Lew. Bvening. CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR, Thirty-fifth street.—Rev. J. M. PULLMAN, Morning and evening. CHURCH OF THE STRANGERS, University, Washing- ton square.—RevY. Da. DEEMS, Morning and evening. CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION.—Rey. Ds. Fiac@. Morning and afternoon. CHURCH OF THE HEAVENLY REST-—ADDRESS BY Bisuor Coxe iN BEHALF OF THE ITALIAN COMMISSION. Eveuing. CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY.—Afternoon and evening. CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION.—REvV. ABBOTT Brown. Morning and afternoon, CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION.—SxxMox Berogk THE NEw YORK Braycu OF THE AMEBICAN Cuueos Union. Evening. CHRISTIAN CHURCH.—Euper J. G. MOLLINS. Morning and evening. COOPER INSTITUTE.—Frre Prracking BY Rev. SILAS FARMINOTON. Morning and evening. EVERET? ROOMS.—SrraituaLists. Mags. C, FANNIE ALLYN. Morning and evening. "FREE CHURCH OF THE HOLY LIGHT.—Rev. East- BUBN BENJAMIN. Morning and ovening. STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.— . Morning and evening. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Market and Henry streets.— Rey. Epwauy Horrrz, Morning and evening. ST. PETER'S CHURCH, West Twentieth street.—REv. Du. Gree. Evening. SPIRITUALISM, 229 Broadway.-Mn. J. B. CONKLIN. Evening. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET REFORMED CHURCH.— Rev. Isaac RiLeY. Morning and evening. UNIVERSITY, Washington square.—Bisuor Sxow. fternoon. WESTMINSTER CHURCH.—“ToTAU ARSTINENXOF TESTED BY SourpTURE.” REV. G. M. MCEORBON. Evening. QUADRUPLE SHEET. 1869. New York, meas April. 4, THE HERALD IN BROOKLYN. Notice to Carriers and Newsdealers. BROOKLYN Newsmen will in fature receive their papers at the E or THE New York Hexacp, No. 145 Fulton street, Brooklyn. ADVERTISEMENTS and Svsscrrptions and all CARRIERS AND NCH OFFICE NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 1869.—QUADRUPLE SHEET. @ppropriates $2,663,951, was considered i Committee of the Whole. In the debate that ensued it was stated that the hydrostatic presses heretofore used ta the Treasury printing office were to be abandoned, and the work is to be done on rollers tn some building outside of the Treasury Department; that there were 1,000 more emp!oyés in Washington than the law allowed, and that $2,000,000 of the appropriation was to supply an omission through oversight in the appropriation of last session for the collection of the internal revenue. The bill was finally reported to the House and passed. The Senate amendment to the resolution for @ dnal adjournment fixing Saturday, the 10th inst., as the day, was concurred in. A bill to provide for taking the ninth census was introduced, and tho House adjourned, The Legislature. Bills were reported in the State Legislature yester- day to amend the charter of the Brooklyn and Ja- maica Railroad; to abolish certain punishments in prisons; for the appointment of interpreters in the courts of New York and several others. A number of bills of minor importance were ordered to a third reading. The Senate adjourned until Monday evening. The Assembly was not in session. Miscellaneous. Mrs, Grant has announced her first reception at the White House for Tuesday afternoon, a similar one to be given every Tuesday succeeding. A delegation of Virginians had an interview with the President yesterday in relation to reconstruction in that State. The President said tnat he thought Congress ought to order an election on the constita- tion and permit the people to vote separately on each section. He promised to consult with his Cabi- neton the subject, and probably make a recom- mendation to Congress in the matter. General Stoneman has gone to Washington to sub- mit a report of his administration in Virginia, and, it is said, will make some startling revelations. General Webb has assumed command, and has ap- pointed military commissions wherever there are no civil officers. George S. Twitchell, Jr., who is confined in the Philadelphia prison under sentence of death on Thursday next for the murder of Mrs. Hill, his mother-in-law, has made a statement to his pastor and the prison superintendent to the effect that his wife killed the old lady, her mother, while quarrel- ing with her, and he assisted her to throw the body out of the window, for the purpose of averting suspl- cion that might endanger her own life. Mrs, Twitchell has suddenly left Philadelphia and her whereabouts 1s unknown; but she has been once adjudged not guilty of the deed. The statement of the condemned man ts said by the Philadelphia papers to be incon- sistent with the evidence adduced on the trial. The President sent in another long list of appoint- ments yesterday, including consuls, Territorial ofl- cers, revenue officers and postmasters, Among them are A. P. K, Safford, to be Governor of the Territory of Arizona; John A. Campbell, of Wyo- ming; Charles C. Crowe, of New Mexico; Alban Flanders, of Washington, and John A. Burbank, of Dacotah; and General A. J. Smith to be Postmaster of St. Louis. Jon F. Cleveland was nominated on Friday to be Assessor of the Thirty-second district instead of the Sixth district of New York, as erroneously reported by telegraph yesterday, L, L. Doty is named ag Assessor of the Sixth, The employés at the Washington Arsenal have been notzfied that they must work ten hours per day, or accept a reduction of twenty per cent on their wages for eight hours work. They have accepted the ten hours labor. Atthe Treasury, during the week ending yester- day, $574,780 in fractional currency was received and destroyed. The accident on the Tqartford and Springfield Rail- road on Friday last was not as severe as at first re- presented. But three passengers and one employe were severely injured, The casualty was caused by a brake shoe faliing upon the track. As a young lady, Miss Mary Monks, of Cold Spring, N. Y., was returning home from church on Friday letters for the New Yorx received as above. Heratp will be Europe. The cable telegrams are dated April 3. The contract for carrying the malls from Great Britain to the United States has been finally awarded to the Cunard line of steamships. The Java, which left Liverpool yesterday for New York, brings £32,000 in specie on American account. The subject of Mr. Hale’s (the American Minister to Spain) complicity in the alleged introduction of con- traband articles of war, under the cover of diplomatic privileges, was brought up in the Spanish Cortes on Friday aud isto ve made the subject of special in- quiry. A number of conspiracies against the Italian government haye been discovered in Naples Ancona, and the principal leaders have been ar- rested, The Prince of Wales and suite were yesterday received with great pomp by the Sultan of Turkey. Cuba, ‘The Matanzas volunteers have demanded the re- turn of a State prisoner who had been sent from that city to Havana, and Dulce, although not com- plying with their demand, had sent two gentlemen to Matanzas to mollify the volunteers if possibile. The British war vessel Heron had returned from Ragged Isiand with confirmatory accounts of the Spanish outrage in seizing the Mary Lowell. Several Mexican oificers who bad arrived from Jamaica had been ordered away. The Peruvian monitor is at Great Inagua. Colored troops are being raised by the Spaniards, Emilla C. De Villaurde, a daughter of Casanova, living in New York city, telegraphed to Wash- ington yesterday, stating that her father, who was recently arrested by the Spaniards and taken to Havana, is an American citizen, and asking that he be spared from death. The President im- mediately telegraphed to Admiral Hoff enjoining | on him to see that all American citizens are pro- tecte.d West Indies. Dr. Belanges has been banished from St. Thomas. He was not a fully naturalized American citizen, having only declared bis first intention. ‘The election for members of the Spanish Cortes has been suspended in Porto Rico until the cessation of the Cuban revolution. An American war steamer was reported coaling in the Bay of Samana, in St. Domingo, and great ex- citement was caused among the people in conse- quence. In Hagti three hundred Haytien dollars are now quoted as equivalent to one dollar gold. It was sup- posed that Gonaives would soon fall into the hands of the revolutionists. The war steamer Petion is biockading Aux Cayes. Congress. In the Senate, yesterday, Mr. Sumner introduced a bill to repeal the act to prevent the importation of certain persons into certain States, which he said was the last Jaw relative to slavery on the statute books. Objection was made to its immediate con- sideration, and it was laid on the table, A joint resolution relative to a clearer definition of the Eight Hour Labor law was adopted. The bill extending the time for the construction of @ railroad from St. Croix Lake to Bayfleld, on Lake Superior. was taken up and passed by a vote of 25 to 14, The bill to amend the supplementary tax law of July, 1868, was reported from the Finance Committee, with amendments striking out the section relating to tobacco and making other material changes. The adjournment question again came up, and au amend- ment to the House resolution changing the day for final adjournment to Saturday, the 10th tnatant, was agreed to and the resolution waa adopted. Mr, Spragne made a personal explanation in regard to his views of benefiting the poor by lending out the funds of the government, and the Senate soon after adjourned. The nomination of General Longstreet to be Sur- yeyor of the port of New Orleans was again hotly discussed in executive session, but was finally con firmed by a vote of 26 to 10. In the House the resolution rescinding the orders for the printing of Treasury accounts was agreed tu, The Miscellaneous Deficiency vill, wiich night, she was approached by a discarded lover, Charies Merrick, who presented a pistol at her head, but before he could carry out his murderous inten- tention his brother knocked the pistol aside and saved the young lady’s life. Merrick made good his escape. No overland mail has reached California since the 12th of March. Steptoe marsh, between Salt Lake and Elka, is impassable and the mails from the East and West are banked up on either side, awaiting carriage across, J. H. Bunce, independent candidate for Mayor of Louisville, Ky., was elected over the regular demo- cratic nominee yesterday. A vonded warehouse at Frankfort, Ky., containing 3,500 barrels of whiskey, was destroyed by fire on Friday last. Loss, $350,000. The City. The stock market yesterday was buoyant and strong with considerable excitement over an ad- vance in New York Central to 154%. Gold was steady, between 131 and 13144, closing finally at the latter figure. Business yesterday was very quiet in almost all departments of trade in commercial circles. Cotton was in good demaud and firmly held at 28%c. for middling upland. Rio coffee was freely sought after by the trade, and sold at 4c. a 4c. higher prices, On ‘Change flour was dull and prices were heavy and = irregular. Wheat—Spring was dull and nominal for common, but firm for choice, while winter was firm, with @ moderate demand. Corn was steady with a fair inquiry. Oats were active and rather higher. Pork was mod- erately dealt in, but at easier prices, while lard was dull and heavy, and beef steady, though quiet. Naval stores were steady at former prices. Petro- leum was dull and lower, crude (in bulk) closing at lsc. a 18\c. and refined at 32. a 32)yc. Freights remainea dull and heavy. Prominent Arrivals in the City. Congressman N. P. Banks, of Washington; Judge fi. R. Sloane, of Sandusky; C. G. Hammond, of Chi- cago, and Governor W. R. Marshall, of Minnesota, are at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Colonel Geo. O. Jones, of Albany; Commander Breese, of the United States Navy; Ezra Cornell, of ithica: Gardiner Colby, of Boston; N. A. Miles, of the United States Army, and W. Windom, of Minnesota, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Dr. B. ©, Franklin, of Providence; Nathaniel McKay, of Boston; Hudson C. Tanner, of Albany, and Manuel Lagrand, of Mexico, are at the Metro- politan Hotel. Dr. D. W. Stone, of the United States Army; Colonel J. M. Jackson, of Ohio, and Captain E, Sherwood, of Illinois, are at the St. Charles Hotel. W. H. Weems, of Atlanta; John H. Gardner. of Savannah, Ga.; C. J. Sargeant, of Brookline, Mase.; N. Stetson, of Massachusetts; F. H. Fawkes, of the British Army, Toronto, and L. R, Marshall, of Natches, Mias., are at the New York Hotel, Governor Randolph, of New Jersey, and Chaplain James J. Kane, of the United States Navy, are at the Breevort House. Lieutenant Henry Jackson, of the United States Navy, and Armand de Benghem, of Paris, France, are at the St. Denis Hotel. y Perkins and W. KR. Robeson, of Boston, are at the Westminster Hotel. Major Hill, of the United States Army; Professor Thorpe, of St. Lonta, and Captain Robert Fisher, of Buftalo, are at the St. Julien Hotel, Prominent Departures. General Raasioif and Joseph Price sailed yesterday in steamer Cuba; 8. M. Carpenter, H, B. Ryerson ana George W. Riggs left for Washington; E. Sherwood and E. D, Colvin for Philadelphia: ex-Congressman J. M. Marvin for Saratoga; D. McInnis and Thomas Swineyard for Hamitton, 0. W.; 8. M. Weed for Con- necticut; Colonel Norton for Albany; George Darling for Boston; Judge Hill and H. W. Hebard for In- dianapolis; A. A. Slocum for Binghamton; Profes- sor H. G. Eastman for Poughkeepsie; W. Shiels for Galveston; J. D. Carmegyo for Delaware; Colonel W. A. Ryan for Texas; Governor Michael Hahn for Louisiana and J. V. Baker for Albany. A Sovrienn paper says there has been made for General Grant a box of cigars which light up of their own accord with indignation, whenever the Tenure of Office law is men- tioned, and recognize the work it has to do. clamoring to us in the stress of revolution for the recognition of her independence; St. Do- Our Expansion Gouthward. The question of our expansion southward is Pressing upon us in various shapes, with greater or lesser urgency, according to the quarter from which the pressure comes, and it is time the government should shape its policy Cuba is mingo has a formal proposition for peaceful admission to the Union, and one of the party generals and leaders in Hayti openly avows his correspondence with the Secretary of State at Washington with a view to annexation and protection. Since the abolition of slavery in our Southern States the question of a political union with the great republic has made wonder- ful progress in the islands of the American Mediterranean. Communities which before that event were in a state of semi-hostility to us now look to our government as their only hope for security, peace and prosperity. Our late war has taught us a lesson in this connection which we should do well to heed. The islands of Bermuda, Bahama, St. Do- mingo and Cuba form a powerful line of picket posts along our Atlantic coast and the outlet of the Mississippi valley. rebellion they were held by Powers hostile to us, and were converted into ports of refuge for blockade runners. which these carried into the South very mate- rially lengthened the struggle and involved the nation in au expenditure of fully three thousand millions of dollars—more than would have been requisite to put down the rebellion if these maritime picket posts along our shore had been in our possession. Havana was the base upon which the French occupation of Mexico turned, and that move- ment was a part of the general scheme of the Western Powers of Europe to assist the break- ing up of the American Union. not been in possession of these islands their efforts would have been the futile aims of vain desire. found it necessary to cross the Atlantic in- stead of the narrow strip of water between these islands and the main shore there would not have been one where we found a hufldred to annoy us. During the The war supplies More than that, Had they If the blockade runners had In the event of a foreign war these maritime picket posts would become of equal if not of greater importance to us. compelled either to take possession of them, without time to consolidate our power there, orto see them bristling with forts to defend hostile fleets, which at any moment might choose their point of attack on our line of shore. of contemplating the policy of arming against them, or providing against the contingencies of the future by following the natural impulse of our southward expansion. We should be We are, therefore, under the necessity As a point of national policy and of natural connection we should hold possession of all of these West India islands. more imperatively during the late war than ever before or since, and for this very reason it becomes our government and the states- men who lead in Congress to take advantage of every circumstance which presents itself favorably to the policy of our southward expan- sion. St. Domingo should be cultivated, and if that republic seeks admission by treaty or other peaceful act, by all means let it be accorded to her. which is, for the overthrow of slavery there, and a political revolution for a change from a tyrannical to a free government, merits our warmest sympathies and support. therefore, to see the early passage of the Banks resolution authorizing the President to recognize the republican government of Cuba whenever in his opinion it is fit so to do. This was felt The friendly feeling now developed in The struggle now going on in Cuba, in fact, a social revolution We hope, These two steps, which are now urged upon us by every consideration of policy and in- terest, once taken, the path for the accom- plishment of the rest of our natural south- ward expansion will be clear and facile. Should England refuse an honorable adjust- ment of the Alabama and other Bermuda and the Bahamas would be the first points we might be compelled to look after. We could not permit her to hold picket posts on our frontier, and without the friendly ports of her ally, Spain, to flee to we could establish safety along our whole coast. take all these things into consideration now, and determine its line of policy in support of our southward expansion. in the West Indies coincide alike at this time to favor us, and our first duty as a people is to take care of our own household. nding claims Congress should Events and feelings Gexerat Grant Nor Arraww or THE Niccers.—It appears that two American citizens of African descent have been nomi- nated by General Grant as justices of the peace for the District of Columbia; that B. F. Joubert, nominated as internal revenue as- sessor for the First district of Louisiana, belongs to the colored aristocracy of New Orleans, and that C. M. Wiider, nominated as postmaster for Columbia, 8. C., is also a “colored gemmen.” the part of General Grant indicate a decisive policy in behalf of the equal rights of the black citizen with the white man in the matter of the offices, and it is a movement which draws the line sharp and clear between his administration and the democratic party, and brings even the conservative republicans of the anti-nigger equality school to face the music. of Louisiana (black man undiluted), was on These nominations on Moreover, Lieutenant Governor Dunn, Friday last accorded a confidential interview at the White House, which proves that Gen- eral Grant is not afraid of the niggers and has taken his stand by them as the keynote of his administration on the negro question, Tus Herout or Orricta Coouxess—To banish a man to Alaska as collector, and after a few months’ service appoint some one in his place, leaving him out in the bitterest kind of cold, with liberty to pay his own expenses home to New York—a short j arwey of only a fow thousand miles! An Honest German's Orision or Juper Surmertann’s Stay OF Prooaxpinas—“Nix for stay.” Tat Batt.—Camgron wants Longstreet to understand that we do not forget the war, and Greeley assails Cameron for what he says of Longstreet. In this Greeley is merely de- fonding himself for bailing JeT Davis, A Sea Maro’s Nest. The laughing philosopher of the Sun and the poets of the Post are in a terrible humor. They lay about them aa if their pens were Andrea Ferraras, They want to annihilate more particularly all such boats as yachts and all ugh superfluous people as yachtmen. Or- dinarily your comical fellows and your chaps who count syllables on their fingers for cram- bo-jingle are pleasant persons enough, but it is always a painful spectacle to see them indig- nant, because they are always indignant in the wrong place. Indignation being @ valuable article, we hate to see it wasted, and to see men who ought to have the credit for virtuous wrath merely laughed at for ridiculous blun- ders, No one can at present look upon the funny fellows of the Sun and the sentimental boys of the Post with any feelings but those of sorrowful sympathy. They have come out to smash all to finders a proposition for a law on the subject of yachting. What most disgusts them is that any one should desire to make yachts free of tonnage dues when such dues have to be paid by the schooners Polly Ann, Sarah Jane, and the Three Tall Sisters, sailing from the Connecticut river. The Post is dreadfully ‘‘sarcastical” that ‘luxury should be free” and ‘hard labor pay.” Now it would have saved these honest fellows their fine frenzy if they could only have known that all this has been law for some years, How incon- veniently old laws turn up nowadays. Here, in one day, a terrible statute comes to light to prevent the United States having the fittest man in the country for Secretary of the Trea- sury, and in another day another statute saves the yachtmen from the fury of the jokers and rhymers. Here again we see there is too much law in the land for anybody's comfort. We commend to the attention of these fellows the following statute, approved August 7, 1848 :-— i SKCTION 1. Be tt enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the ‘Treasury is hereby authorized to cause yachts used and employed exclusively as pleasure vessels, and designed as models of naval architecture, and now entitled to be enrolled as American vessels, to be licensed on terms which will authorize thei to pro- ceed from port to port of the United States without entering or clearing at the Custom House. Such li- cense shall be in such form as the Secretary of the ‘Treasury may prescribe. Provided, such ves- sel so enrolled and licensed — shall not be allowed to transport merchandise or carry passengers for pay; and provided, further, that the owner of any such vessel, before taking out such license, shall give a bond, in such form and for such amount as the Secretary of the Treasury shall pre- scribe, conditional that the said vessel shall not en- gage in any unlawful trade nor tn any way violate the revenue laws of the United States, and shall comply with the laws tn all other Les erie Sec. 2. And be it further enacted that all such vessels shall, in all respects, except as above, be subject to the laws of the United States and shail be liable to seizure and forfeiture for any violation of the provisions of this act. Sgc. 3. And be it further enacted, that all such licensed yachts shall use a signal of the form, size and colors prescribed by the retary of the Navy, and the owners thereof shall at all times permit the naval architects in the employ of the United States to examine and copy the models of said yachts. Now, apropos to this dreadful bugbear about making the boats of rich men free while those of poor men pay, we fancy we may safely ‘say thata man who can afford the luxury of a yacht will hardly care to have a law made to free him from the trifle of tonnage dues, In fora pound, he may not object to a penny. Perhaps yachtmen themselves, indeed, would be the last to object, though the government laida tax on them that quintupled all such dues, and yet, maybe, the tax on thirty or forty yachts in the whole United States would hardly pay for its own collection. The bill before Congress is for amendments to the above act. Why does it rehearse points already enacted? Only to make the govern- ment safer against possible abuse of these points, Butits principal purpose is quite dif- ferent. By the above statutes yachts are free “from port to port of the United States,” and now that ocean yachting is in high favor with our clubs, it is desired to have equal facility in clearing for foreign ports. Another point in the amendment is one to which we believe no true American can make opposition. It is to extend to foretgn yachts visiting this country that same comity, courtesy and civility that is extended to our yachts by the governments of foreign countries. Spain and Monarchy. The revolution which has been in progress for some months in Spain, and which on ac- count of its comparative bloodlessness has called forth not a little admiration, does not appear after all to have eccomplished much. Isabella and her favorite have been got rid of, and the clerical party has been humbled ; but that, if it be good, is about all the good which has been accomplished. Montpensier may prove himself a wiser and better ruler than Isabella; the tyranny of the army may be more beneficial to Spain than the tyranny of the Church; but we must wait to see. We were not without hope, for a time, that the impulse of the first vigorous effort would have carried Spain forward into the freer regions of republicanism; but the result has been somewhat disappointing. The first spurt over, Spain does not appear to have much of & purpose or to know well what she wants. The future government of the country, as de- termined by the new constitution, is to bea hereditary monarchy. Spain is thus to be left very much as the revolution found her—politi- cally and religiously—scarcely better than before and financially more crippled than ever. The hour of Spain’s final deliverance is, as yet, we fear, far off. Many who go to the White Pine region in pursuit of wealth are fortunate if they can get a white pine coffin on their final departure. Toe Fasmtons.—The letter of our Paris fashions correspondent which we publish to- day is more interesting and important for our fair readers than any diplomatic document that we could lay before them. It would be superfluous to do more than refer them to it as a full and authoritative fashions pronuncia- miento for 1869. Tue Spracue Fresnet.—The Boston Ad- vertiser, following in the wake of the Albany Ewening Journal, facetiously taboos Senator Sprague as a leader of the republican party, and the Providence (R. [.) Journal, estab- lished by the President pro tempore of the United States Senate (Senator Anthony, the coadjutor of Senator Sprague), yesterday fur- nished some marginal references of a similar character. The Sprague freshet is rising and the ice has broken away. no rupture between President Grant and the Senate. This indicates that one has been imminent. Romo and the Ecumenical Council. A letter which we published in the Hezatp of yesterday gives a very interesting descrip- tion of the present condition of the Holy City and of the preparations already commenced for the Grand General Council to be held in December. Our correspondent gives a very interesting numerical statement regarding the present condition of the episcopal and archi- episcopal chairs, It shows how truly flour- ishing is the Roman Church. It is a proud boast for that Church, or for any Church, to be able to make, that it has titularly nine hundred and eighty-one prelates, Of course there are many vacancies; but out of nine hundred and eighty-one prelates, and others who are entitled to seats, it is only natural to assume that a very large and a very highly respecta- ble body of churchmen will on the 9th of December gather under the dome of St. Peter's. The eighteen hundredth anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Peter, celebrated in the sum- mer of 1867, was a magnificent and brilliant affair, as all the readers of the HerRatp re- member; but the Ecumenical Council promises us a spectacle such as the world can only see once in many centuries. The spectacle of 1867 only helps us to form an idea of what St. Peter's, the most gorgeous religious tem- ple the world has perhaps ever known, will be in December, 1869. The Holy City will be the centre of universal attraction. Europe and America will send not only their prelates, but their thousands of sight-seekers and plea- sure lovers. Rome will be crowded as perhaps Rome was never crowded before. The old city has been the scene of many a magnificent show, has seen many a gorgeous holiday; but it may well be doubted whether the grandest triumph of the greatest of the Cwsars at all approached in bulk, splendor and attractiveness this forthcoming Roman Council. Unless the assembled prelates com- mit themselves to some absurd decisions which will shock the common sense of man- kind it will be the greatest religious triumph of the last four centuries. The Catholic Church ought to gain by it. It can only lose by folly and mismanagement. The Twitchell Murder Appeal. George S. Twitchell, convicted in Philadel- phia of the murder of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Hill, and who awaited execution on Thursday next, the 8th inst., has, according to what is rapidly becoming a routine custom with per- sons under sentence for capital offences in this country, through his counsel taken time by the forelock, and is already before the United States Supreme Court in Washington on a writ of error—elaborate, full of quibble and fine drawn in its points as legal inge- nuity and technicality could make it. The convict endeavors to array the provisions of the constitution of the United States against the ruling of the Judiciary of the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania, asserting that the law of that State is merely an ‘‘experiment” copied from England, but contrary to the common law of the United States—a very cool proposition, certainly, coming from a man convicted by a jury of his fellow citizens of the crime of the murder of a near relation, and one which any man similarly situated in Newgate, London, would use against the law of Englond iteclf if ho thought by so doing he would have the slight- est chance of escaping from the hands of Calcraft’s successor. Not trusting en- tirely to law and his appeal, Twitchell has called in the aid of religion. The Rev. Mr. Bringhurst publishes a ‘“‘statement” made by Twitchell to the effect that on the night of the death of Mrs, Hill his wife roused him from sleep and told him that she had ‘‘killed her mother in a quarrel,” and that they both went to the room in which she lay dead and to- gether threw her body out of the window. Mrs. Twitchell has, it is said, left Philadel- phia, so that it is quite probable that, what between law, religion, divinity and romance, George S, Twitchell will not be hanged on Thursday, but merely be made famous through the “law’s delays,” as have been many noto- rious convicts in New York since the time of the celebrated Carnell case to that of Real to-day. Canour criminal law be administered without ‘fear, favor or affection ?” ‘Tnx Richmond Jnguirer says the govern- ment of Virginia is in a bad fix. Wells, Walker and their respective allies have had things in a tangle with Stoneman, and now we have gota Webb. We hope it will not be a “tangled Webb.” ComBination vs. CoMBINATION.—As the season approaches in which the building trades are likely to have increased activity the mut- terings of the strikers are heard. Strikers of course only appeal to their desperate means of raising wages when their services are most in demand, and it is a sign of the times that the employers in all the building trades are this year agreeing among themselves on a combination in advance. Combination on one side is as good as combination on the other. Tue Manchester (N. H.) Union deprecates the way in which that country is threatened to be depopulated, and says ‘‘people are going to the South in droves,” like other cattle. Navy Rank.—All the talk about the rank of surgeons, paymasters and engineers in the navy is inconsequential babble. Porter's bill is right, If this bill is wrong, tyrannical and abusive, it will drive good men out of these posts; and, so far as good surgeons are in- cluded, the other officers will certainly be the sufferers. But the advantages of the bill are sufficient to justify the experiment. Let us try it, and see if it drives good men out. If it does, those now in its favor will be ready enough for its repeal, Tue Edgefield (S. 0.) Advertiser don’t want any more African negroes imported into that State, nor coolies nor Chinese. ‘Give us,” it says, ‘English, Irish, Scotch, German, French, in fact any Europeans, but none other if we can possibly avoid it, either from Africa or Asia. We have enough of the inferior type already, God knows.” A Virorxta exchange says ‘“‘there is one thing about the native Virginian which we don't like.” In the next column it says ‘few communities are so poorly off that they cannot boast of at least one constitutional liar!” Tho Native Virginian is the name of « news- paper. Thomas’ Symphony Solrees. Amid the deluge of musical trash which opéra bouffe and burlesque brought to our shores it is & source of pleasure and gratification to the true musician to find that the divine art has found powerful protectors in the Philharmonio Society and Theodore Thomas, and that the works of the great masters receive from them all the homage and attention due to such ennobling inspirations, Mr. Thomas has labored long and faithfully in the cause of good music, and has successfully combated obstacles which would appear to others insur- mountable. He has organized an orchestra which is only equalled in this country by the Philharmonic Society and which cannot be surpassed in Europe. On every programme of his symphony soirées may be found novel- ties, some of which are brought out here before they are heard in Europe. Even the wild vagaries of Liszt and Wagner, which few conductors in France, Germany or England will attempt, are tamed into harmony by Thomas’ orchestra. One distinguishing trait in the career of this musician is that under no circumstances has he ever descended to intro- duce trash on his programmes, although every effort has been made to induce him to do so. We are happy to find that his symphoay soirées and Sunday concerts at Steinway Hall this season have been so far remarkably successful, Humbug Auction Sales. The mock auctions of Chatham street can- not boast of a larger element of humbug than certain auction saies of furniture, books and pictures in more fashionable thoroughfares, An auction sale at a private dwelling often affords a chance of getting rid not only of the furniture belonging to the family, but of a mass of rubbish that has been long accumulating dust in half a dozen stores. A bibliophile who attends the sale by auction of the library of some noted collector not unfrequently loses time and patience while the auctioneer secures the opportunity of smuggling in and selling a lot of trash from several book stores. A still more grievous abuse of the very honorable occupation of an auctioneer is occasionally to. be seen at the sale of the small collection of some amateur. The collection may comprise, like most private collections in this country, a few really valuable works of art, together with a greater proportion of inferior works. But transferred to the auction rooms it is mi- raculously magnified. Its five choice pieces and its ten or a dozen passable or inferior ones are multiplied until they number a total of two or three hundred, including all the unsalable “masterpieces” and “originals” manufactured to order by some window-shade painter or foreign copyist, and that have been knocking about for years in different salesrooms. A big and flaming catalogue is of course prepared, and although no connoisseur is taken in by this old trick not a few of those poor shoddy- ites, or railway contractors, or stock gamblers, who have waked up some bright morning and found themselves millionnaires, are sufficiently innocent of knowledge and taste to be taken in egregiously by it, to their own cost, and what is worse, to the detriment of meritorious American artists and of true art. Ex-Presipent Jomnson’s REsuRRECTION.— Ex-President Johnson arrived in Knoxville, Tenn., from his home at Greenville, yesterday, in ‘a state of convalescence from his recent illness. He enjoyed a very complimentary reception from an assemblage of his friends numbering over five thousand persons. He entered on a vindication of his official life, to the completion of which he will devote the remainder of his days—if his days have any remainder—for, as Mr. Johnson remarks, his obituary having been published at length, he thought he should be regarded as one ‘‘risen from the dead,” and he “thought one risen from the dead should be believed.” A very sen- sible remark, which proves that Mr. Johnson has not forgotten his knowledge of physiology or his Scripture lessons. He again begs of the people to ‘stand by the constitution.” An amiable editor in Atlanta, Ga., refera to the Treasurer of the State as ‘‘wilfully, know- ingly and maliciously” publishing a ‘‘slander and falsehood,” and denounces him as a “slanderer and calumniator.” The Treasurer will probably respond in an “‘angery” strain, PrestpENT GRANT AND THE CuBANS.—The Spaniards in Cuba are, it appears, stepping rapidly beyond the recognized bounds of healthy executive action. They have laid hands on an American citizen and placed his life in jeopardy. M. Casenovia, a citizen of the United States, visiting Cuba lately, was seized and placed in prison. His daughter, a lady residing in New York, has had the case submitted to President Grant through a friend, and the President, with his usual promptness, telegraphed orders to Admiral Hoff, in com- mand of our naval forces at Havana, to “protect all American citizens.” The Span- iards will know what this means, particularly when coming from President Grant. A Crear Heap ts A Crear Firtp,—The Clearfield (Pa.) Republican says the New York Heratp is, “without doubt, the great- est newspaper in the world.” Tue Unktnpest Cur or Ati.—It is given out that C. M. Wilder, nominated by General Grant as postmaster at Columbia, S. C., is a negro. If this be so it is the boldest step that has yet been taken at Washington in deflance of the Southern prejudices of caste and color, and a step, too, the consequences of which to the administration in alienating or conciliating the South Carolina whites will soon appear, It may prove to be a wise experiment ; but we apprehend that a black man for postmaster of Columbia, S. C., if appointed, will, by the whites of that locality, be regarded as the “unkindest cut of all.” election of Connecticut for Governor, Legis- lature and Members of Congress comes off to-morrow, and from the decided stand taken by the administration on negro suffrage and the equal rights of negroes to hold office it is supposed that the democrats will make a vigorous fight to recover the ground they lost in the Presidential November election. At all events, if they fail in this Connecticut fight, as they most probably will, they are gone, and the sooner they hold a national convention for a new departure the better it will be for them.