The New York Herald Newspaper, May 23, 1869, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HE 2RALD BROADWAY ‘AND ANN (STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Letters a packages should be properly "RELIGION! SERVICES TO-DAY. CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR.—Rev. J. M. Putcman. Morning snd evening. COOPER INSTITUTE.-Fazs PRracuine. ‘and evening. CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION.—Bisuor BrveLi. Morning and evening. EVERETT ROOMS.—Srizrrvatiers.-Mus. BuiGuam. Morning aud evening. FREE CHURCH OF THE HOLY LIGHT.—Rev. Bast BURN BRSJAMIN, Morning and evening. FORTY-SECOND STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. — Ruv. Da. W. A. Soort. Morning and evening. Morning JOHN STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.— Rey. W. P. Couurr, Morning and evening. MURRAY HILL BAPTIST CHURCH. why A. Comey. Morning and evening. Rev. Da. Sip- YTERIAN CHURCH.—Cree MADISON SQUARE PRE BVANGELIZATION. Evenin, ST. STEPHEN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Morntog— Rev: De Parcr. Evening—Rev. W. A. MoVickER. 87, LUKE'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.— Morning—Rxv. De. MOCLINTOVK. Lvening—Rxy. 8. 8, Posrzs. SPERITUAL MANIFESTATIONS, Yiall cornar of Eighth avenue and Sixteenth sireet. ST. LUKE'S M. F. CHURCU.-Morning—RKrv. Joan MOCLINTOOK. Evening—KEV. 8. 8. Foscrt. ARNEVERSINY, Washington square —misaor Sxow. TRIPLE “SHEE y Be ‘York, Sunday, a 23, 1869. “THE. HERALD IN BROOKLYN. Netice to Carriers and Newsdealers. BrooxityN Carriggs anp Nxwsen will in future receive their papers at the Brancn Orrice or Tae New York HeRaup, No. 145 Fulton street, Brooklyn. ADVERTISEMENTS letters New received as above. Tus and Svsscrrrrions and all for the York Uera.o will be NEeEws. ‘Enrepe. ‘The cable telegrams are dated May 22. The London Times, Spectator and Pall Mall Gazette of yesterday again criticise Senator Sumner’s speech on the Alabama claims, A large meeting was held in Belfast, Ireland, on yesterday, to protest against disestabiixhment of the trish Church. The republican press of Madrid are of opinion thas a federal repudlic wiil be the eventual form of government in Spain. Queen Isabella proposed to abdicate in favor of the Prince of Asturias. ‘The Colonial Minister has resigned. Baron Von Gerolt, Prusstan Minister to Washing- ton, armyed m Berlin yesterday. ‘The Danes are irritated because the United States did not purchase the Island of St. Thomas. China and Japan. the steamer China at San Francisco « Kong April 19 and Yokahowa April ‘The Mikado of Japan had géne to Jeddo, where a general congress of the princes of the empire was Advices by ordered to mble. Several leadiog daimios had surrend their territoriés and sovereign rights. Kodadi was stil in rebellion, and the Mikado’s fleet was expected to attack it. The Amer Minister in China had been making acour th he south, A terribl slut Was pre- vatling im eighbornood ol Velocipedes were vumevous in Shanghae. Cuba, ‘he authorities have reduced ¢) tonnage dues on American vessels in accordance with our recent reduction iu favor of Spanish tonuage. Mexico. A despatch from San Francisco states that the revolution in aloa, Mexico, is ended. The insur- gents were defeated in the mountains and dispersed, losing aul their arms and munitions of war. Another uprising under General Placido Vega was, however, expected to take place. Miscellaneous. It ta stated that the public debt statement at the eud of the month will show @ Gecrease of $7,000,000, About 100 banks have been acting as depositaries of the public moneys. Only $1: are on deposit in New York and Brooklyn, while th ‘easury holds a million and a half of securities, the k of Com- merce having just withdrawn another balf milion of them. In regard to the Texas electton l’resident Grant stated yesterduy that the time would not be decided until after the election in Virginia, but that he should direct General Keymolds to go ou with the registration. Captain George Brown, who commanded the ram Stonewall on her trip to Japan, bas returned, and reported yesterday to the Navy Department. ‘The Commercial Convention at Mempnis bas ad- pourned sine die. A Jewish couple in Washington were aivorcea ac- cording to the rites of the Jewish Church oa Tours ahoes and a few Cheyennes have come into Cawp Supply, near Fort De Kunasas, to re- ceive provisions, @ detatenment of the ‘Tenth cavalry is on the way to place thom on their reser- vations. ‘The liabitities of the Koyal Canadian Bank of To- fonio are sated to be $1,970,401, aud the assets $5,800,454. The bills are selling at eighty and ninety cents ou the dollar, and the directors aa sure the depositors and nowholders that they are tn no danger of loss. Edwin Belcher, @ colored Assessor of Internal Revenue 11 Georgia, Who wrote to Charles Sumner and two radical newspapers an account of the marder of certain radicals by the rebel citizens, publishes a card In a Georgia pa he has reason to believe he was murdered men are alive. ying that itaken, aw the The City. The proceedings in the Presbyterian Asscntolies yesterday were of unusual interest. The reunion of the two Churches was again discussed as well as other sul,jects of peculiar interest, incluaing politics im the pulpit and the Grand Army of the Republic. A full report of the proceedings will be found else where In the HERALD this morning. Three of the persons charged with complicity in the murder of City Marshal Lippmann were admitted to bail by Coroner Schirmer yesterday, but a fourth, Yheodore Puddin, was held, ax be is believed to know the al aurderer ang to have asaisted in secreting him. Coroner Fiynn beld an investigation on the body of Charies Gallagher, the man whe was found drowned off Riker’s Island about ten days ago with s rope around his pody. The wife of deceased iden- NEW YORK HERALD, anestion, and on the third peat all ‘the horses were declared distanced. The beis were off aud the stake drawn amid considerable grumbling. Thomas Leonard, a boy of seventeen, commitied Suicide in Brooklya yesterday by hanging himself to ‘@ beam tn the cellar of an unoccupied house. The stock market yesterday was comparatively quiet, Quotations were irregular, but generally lower at the close Gold was more steady, im the vicinity of 141% . Prominent Arrivals in tho City. General Clinton B. Fiske, of St, Louis, and Rufus J. King, of Dayton, Ohio, are at the St. Nicholas Hotel, Judge McTes, of Louisiana, ana 8. B. French, of Virginia, are at the New York Hotel. Lieutenant G, A, Converse, of the United States Navy, and Dr. J. Adama, of Boston, are at the West- minster Hotel. General P. D, Roddey, of Alabama, and J. C. MeGrory, of Nashville, Tenn., are at tbe Maltoy House, Lieutenant Commander M. Leiand, of Pennsyl- vania; Colonel E, Geddings, of Washington Terri- tory, and Judge L. G, Deforest, of Clevelaud? are at the St, Charles Hotel. Colonel E. J. Maxwell, of West Poin’; Genera! H. Welsh, of Binghamton, N. Y.; F, W. Wright, of Geneva; Colonet M. Weils, of Niagara Falls; Albert Snell, of Nevada; W. Prescott Smith, of Baltimore, and John R. Tyre, of London, Englana, are al toe Metropolitan Hotel, Mr. Thornton, of Washington, ts at the Clarendon Hotel. General Manin, of Albany; R. H. Morey, of Rich- mond; C. Wolf, of Valparaiso; Colonel G. Knapp, ot St. Louis; D. C. Littlejohn, of Buifalo; Colonel Thos. Ewing and Colonel Williamson, of England, are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, A. M, Clapp, of Washington; James Dwyer, of ‘Texas; J, H. McBride, of New Orleans; W. H. Moas, of Japan, and D. D. Howell, of St. Augustine, are at the Hoifman House. Key. i, Burlingham, of St. Louis; Senator Nix and James ‘Terwilliger, of Eliira, are at the Astor House. Mr. A. W. Halliwell and five other members of the Philadelphia Board of Education are at the Hofman House. John Worth, United States Conaul at the Sandwich Islands, arrived yesterday morutng direct from Honoiulu via Pacific Ratiroad, Prominént Departures. Senator F, W. Osborn, Rev. Dr. Osborn, Senator Zach. Chandler and family, Rey. Dr. Hill and wife, of British Columbia; Lord Mountecashel, of Dublin; General Don Francisco Selles, of Cuba; Rev. Dr. Giliette and wife, of New York; Mr. George Otis, of Wells, Fargo & Co., and family, Mr. McGregor J. Mitcheson and wife, of Philadelphia, satled yester- day in the steamship City of Brooklyn for Liver- Pool. A. D. Schierenbeck and family sailed in the steamer New York for Bremen. General George H. Thomas, of the United States Army, is at the Brevoort House and will lave for California to-morrow per the overland route. Professor Henry Smith and Captain W. J. Mitchell sailed yesterday im the steamship India for Glasgow. Rev. A. T, Porter satled yesterday for Cuanieston in the steamship Magnoiia. Major Pritchard, of the United States Army, left yesterday for Washington; Captain Connor, for San Francisco; Colonel J. Halliday, for Connecticut; Mayor Beach, ior Troy; BR. A. Buck, for Buifalo; W. H. Rawle, for Puiladelphia, and Washington Lee, for Boston. The iasveuntiel “issn eaceal Reunion. New York after all is not an irreligious city. We welcome our friends, We are disposed to be agreeable. This does not fully state the case. We mean to be, and we are, civil, hos- pitable and kind. Tho month of May has always brought to us crowds of strangers, The strangers as a general rule have been more or less religious. They have come in a religious name and under a religious connec- tion. We have never been indifferent to the cause of progress; and as we have always thought that the cause of progress had to do with religion we have ever been attentive to the latest development of the religious princi- ple. In New York the great religious develop-_ ment of the hour has a close and intimate con- nection with Presbyterianism. The fact is saggestive. When we remorber that we have here representatives of all the nationalities who took part in the great retor- mation struggle we do not wonder that the United States of America should, within her borders, see revived all the questions and feel the force of all the troubles which for many years antedate the Reformation. We have in this country a visible development of the reli- gious principle which no nation of the past ever knew and which no nation of the past ever dreamed was possible. We have Catho- lies by the million, of the purest type, men and women, philosophers and others, who are willing to pin their faith to the doctrine that the fisherman of Galilee, Peter by name, was the first occupant of the See of Rome. We have Protestants by the million who call this nonsense, who are prepared even to go further and call it a swindle and a fib, We have another class who are also to be counted by the million and who will not have it that they sre either Catholics or Protestants, but who have a lingering liking to the name of Christian. We have yet another class, too numerous and too thoughtful to be overlooked, a class which is religious and yet not Christian, # class which is highly respectable, which goes in for all the nobler outcomes of what is called modern progress, but which insists that reason and fajth must go hand in hand. In no coun- try in the world is there so large a develop- ment of the religious principle as there now is in the United States of America, and it is but just to conclude that in no country in the world has the religious principle so fair a chance of an honest outcome as it has in this country. Here we have the mother church, Here, too, we have all the sectarians, from the Protestant Episcopalians represented by Dr. Dix, rector of Trinity, who is evidentlygsorry that he has lost all his chances of being a car- dinal and a Pope maker, down to Brigham Young, who is resolved, in spite of Jesus Christ and in spite of St. Peter, to be a second and a grander Mohammed. Now York city is the moderna Jerusalem. This is the month duriig which the tribes come up. To-day the tribe which is most powerfully represented is not the tribe of Judah, or the tribe of Levi, or the tribe of Mohammed, or the tribe of Cran- mer. [tis rather the tribe of Luther, of Oalvin, of John Knox. The Presbyterians are here to-day in full blast, We bid them welcome, and we wish them all success. tified the body and stated that sie snspected certain parties of having murdered him. The jury, however, were unable to find any evidence of violence and fendered a verdict of drowning. In the United Staves District Vourt yesterday, the charge against Mr. Otto Schlosmer for not having sufficiently oblitcrated internat revenue stamps used by him on his wine casks, Was dismissed, and his stores, Which wore in the custody of (he government officers, were turned over to him. ‘The new Commissioners of the Paid Fire Depart- ment of Brooklyn held a meeting and organized yesterday by the election of Mr, Massey as president, A trot took place at Fashion Course yesterday tween four horses for @ stake of $100 each. ‘The track was heavy and good tune was out of the We have been glad to notice that during the course of the past week some progress hag been made in a direction which commands the sympathy of the American people and of the world, and which from all quarters compels the wish, “God speed you.” We must be allowed, however, to say that, much as wo commend the union spirit, and mnch as we are willing to honor the two Presbyterian Asem- blies for the course they have entered upon and for the conduct they have exhibited, we doubt whether union on a large scale is com- | patiblo with Presbyterian pringiplos. Divisive We need to feol its force, willing that we should feel it. is very much the difficulty of the heathen. We want to sce our spiritual teachers agreed. tions; we must trust so far, becomes impossible when all those who ought to know are at variance, can agrea to unite it will be a hopeful sign. jealousy and hostility. deliberate offort of the Bank of England to force our national securities from the London market would be conclusive on the point. Tho Bank of England is the representative of the British government, SUNDAY, uv MAY 23, 1869.—TRIPLE SHEET. courses pgnIETY been connected with Presby- terianism ao long that many honest and en- lightened minds have come to the conclusion that the manifestation of the spirit of union is 8 sign of weakness rather than a sign of strength. Protestantism, in fact, has pre- served {ts honor so much by means of the episcopacy that men of Christian leanings have almost everywhere come to the conclusion that ® central bishop is a central necessity, and that away from episcopacy Christian unity is an impossibility. Within the Protestant domain we point to the Church of North Germany, to the Church of England and te the most prosperous of all the churches of the United States, the Methodist Episcopal. Beyond the limits of the Protestant Church we point to the grand example of the Church of Rome. In matters spiritual it does seem as if s central and visibly embodied power were a cardinal necessity. Union, however, among the protesting churches is not the less desirable for anything that wo have said. If Christianity is ever to be a force among men, a controlling power among the so-called heathen, it must be be- cause of the unity of front which it presonts. Here we want to know what Christianity is. We are not un- Our difficulty We have not time to examine all these ques- Trust, however, If the Presbyterians We shall took for a union which shall include not only all shades of Presbyterianism, but the Dutch Church, the Episcopal Church and even the Catholic Church. Then, but not till then, shall we have Christian unity. then surely will come the millennium. If not before, England and Our National Securities. Americans need no new proofs of English If they did, the recent In one sense it is the government. The popular investment in United States five-tweuties has been growing, year by year. Great Britain at the present time probably holds one-fourth of our national debt. The fact is a very unpleasant one to the aristocrats, who have had the bill for the damages done by the Alabama again placed before them by the speech of Senator Sumner. If the people of England hold our securities how can they be induced to support a war against us? They not only like what they have, but they want more of our aecurities, The consols of an ancient and decrepit system of government are poor securities in compar- ison with the promises-to-pay of a fresh, en- terprising people, who mean to discharge every dollar of their debt, have already commenced to do so, and are impatient that they cannot do so right away. Yet, with all this jealousy and dislike of us, there are papers in our midst which take sides against us and with our English opponents in the mattor of the Alabama claims, the Reverdy Johnsons of the American press. They are Fortunately, they aro not leaders or exponents of public opinion, or tho situation mijjht be misunderstood. asa war with England, because it would, they say, ruin our commerce and bankrupt us. Let us look at the facts. employment to millions of operatives in’ Eng- land and France. these people to rebellion. A foreign war, by closing our ports, would delight the great party of protectionists, would be running night and day, and new ones would spring up on the banks of our Southern rivers, to produce the materials for our armies. Our Western States coul d feed the whole world forever. import more than we export. States is the patron of the manufactures of Europe, the present year we have bought sixty millions more of Europe than we sold to her, therefore, which would close our ports—her- metically seal them, even—would be an actual saving to the country of nearly two hundred millions of dollars in the year. A brief caleu- lation will show that a war with England would They deprecate such a thing The United States gives A war with us would drive While it lasted our mills But the 4 alient point is this: —We The United During the expired four months of A war, soon pay off the national debt. SLAvGHTER ON THE RAtt.—Three men have been killed and a number of others seriously wounded by an accident which occurred on the Mount Holly and Burlington Raiiroad, New Jersey, last Friday. In this instance the cause of slaughter was an explosion of the engine—a melancholy variety from that which prodftced the Long Island disaster and other recent catastrophes of @ like nature. The train was loaded with marl only, and hence the loss of life was limited, although the scene of local ruin is very extensive. terrific explosion was the only warning which the victims had of their approaching fate, as well as the signal by which the residents in the neighborhood were informed that death was at their doors, The engine is described as worn out and rusty and neglected by the engineer on the trip. The noise of the These matters will be fully investigated during the Coroner's inquest, which will open to-morrow. This railroad slaughter occurred last Friday, but was re- ported to New York only last night. The directors did not court publicity. That's plain fact. Tun Divtomacy of tHe SuLtan,—The Prince and Princess of Wales have been re- ceived with a lavish display of Oriental hos- pitality and magnificence by the Sultan of Turkey. The entertainment of his royal visitors eclipses in its gorgeous Eastern em- bellishments even the Arabian stories of the eplendors of the Culiphs of Bagdad and Damascus, But the Sultan knows what he ig about. He was vory handsomely received some two years ago at Windsor by the Queen of England, and was still more handsomely served by the Koglish with the French in the Crimean war, He was then in a bad way, and but for England and France would have been moved ont of Constantinople to make room for the Russian Bear, The Su tan remembers all this, and, with an eye to the windward in his hospitalities to his royal English visitors, he shrowdly calculates that the time may come egain when his friends on the Thames may be neoded in tho Bosphorus, China and Japan. By steamship at San Francisoo and thence by overland telograph wo havo interesting advices from the far East dated at Hong Kong, China, the 19th and Yokohama, Japan, the 30th of April. In the matters of commercial interest and personal intercourse between these coun-" tries and the United States and anticipatory of the ultimate trade and traffic of the Pacific Railroad, we may set out with the fact that tho vessel landed 1,810 passengers and a large and valuable cargo in California. China was afflicted with long continued drought, treasury robbers and unfavorable weather generally, ‘Trade was exceedingly dull at Shanghae, and the dnhabitents had commenced to amuse themselves with veloci- pede exercise, Japan remained unsettled, but the cause of a uniform and stable execu- tive rule was improving under the Mikado, many of the daimios lately in rebellion having returned to their allegiance or given a friendly aristocratio support to his cause. The city of Hakodadi remained, however, in the possession of his enemies, and the imperial fleet was being organized for an assault—a movement which disturbed trade in- juriously. Jeddo was not yet opened to foreign commerce, native jealousy inducing an adherence to the system of native exclu- siveism, Business in the markets was conse- quently limited, politics injuring trade, as in many other countries just at present. The far Hast evidently requires a little ‘‘stirring up,” in some shape or other, from the Groat West. Gengrar’ Grant's PRoouaMATION ON THK Ereut Hour Law.—tIn this proclamation, up- setting the construction of the law as applied by the Navy Department, General Grant sim- ply enforces the letter and the spirit of the act of Congress, making eight hours a day's work to workmen in the government service, with- out any reduction of the wages paid before for a day of ten hours, The laboring classes of the country will be gratified with this decision of the President. It is a Napoleonic idea. Now, then, if General Grant will only ‘‘assume the responsibility” of a proclamation or two on some of the great international questions of the day, in the line of the public sentiment of the country, his popularity in the Cabinet will soon eclipse his glory in the field. And why not, when he has everything to gain by prompt and decisive action, and everything to lose by waiting for a more convenient season ? Mors or It—The London press on the Ala- bama claims, again. Sir Francis Head on the Canadian rebellion of 1837, again. Irish- men debating the Church question, again. There were two hundred thousand of the sons of Erin assembled on this, the latest, occa- sion. If they all spoke at one time—which is very likely—the Church is either triumphant as the deposit of faith or completely capped as a modern Tower of Babel—which ? Onze More Reiation to THE Front.— There appears to have been some mistake about the appointment of the new Minister to Guatemala. It was said that the appointee was a colored man, like the Minister to Hayti; but we are assured by reliable information from Washington that the Minister accredited to Guatemala is a white man, and, more than this, that he is a relation of the President—one more of the family who is prepared cheerfully to obey the order, ‘‘another relative to the front.” KENTUCKY Mogens Rounv.——Kentucky at last is beginning to open her eyes to the im portant fact that the nigger has some rights which white men are bound to respect, that Judge Taney’ , Dred Scott decision has lost its force since the abolition of slavery, and that something must be done to meet the new order ofthings. The Louisville Courier thinks that negroes ought to be allowed to testify in the courts, that “‘negro testimony is right in prin- ciple,” and that “‘it is demanded by common sense ;” and the Courier speaks from the out- croppings of the controlling public opinion. Kentucky never did understand the war; for she got into it on both sides, and when she got out of it she seemed to consider State sove- reignty estublished under Jeff Davis. But, find- ing that the thirteenth and fourteenth amend- ménta of the constitution are accepted by the United States Courts in the State, Kentucky is beginning to come round. WA A Temvgst 1x A Tgarot,—Copevhagen is deeply ‘“‘trritated” because the American Senate would not authorize our people to pur- chase the island of St. Thomas. Why should they be angry? The bargain was broken by earthquakes, which unsettled the foundations of the estate so that our topographers were unable to describe the exact location of the property. Mr. Seward isthe only man who can trace it, and he is not in Washington at present. Spanisu Pourrics, —The democratic journals of Madrid say that Spain will have a republi- can form of government ‘‘sooner or later.” Persons at this distance imagined the country was ruled by the people already. Queen Isabella offers to abdicate the throne in favor of her son, Itwas generally supposed that her throne had been taken from her long ago. Spanish history is becoming muddled. Genera ButLer’s Reuspr FoR GEORGIA. It is said that General Butler has recommended to the President, as a cure for the murders of Union men in that disorderly State, a system of military terrorism that will make whole communities responsible for the assassinations in their midst, and thus cause the murderers to be brought to punishment. ‘This is the policy of border rofianism, We think that General Grant will be able, without much difficulty, to discover some better plan for the restoration of law and order in Goorgia, and we had supposed that Georgia was recon+ structed. Awpy Joanson’s Lars Prosrgotine Torr. It appears that Andy Johnson, after having made @ political prospecting tour of Ten- nesses, has returned home with the idea that he was out of the State too long; that in his absence everything was turned upside down, and that he is inclined to abandon the Hercu- lean task of setting things right side up. He ought to take out a new policy, or show what he can do in a new field in the cultivation of corn and rye, those favorite staples of Haat Tennesse. a eee ‘The Ship News Question—The Henkh | Tus Commitice of Wave and Monans im the Officer and the Daty of Governor Hofman. When a ymblic officer notoriously violates a Public trust or converts it into a vehicle for his own personal aggrandizement, to the detri- mont of the interests of the community, it is the bounden duty of the appointing power to remove the man from the place forthwith and put a more worthy person in it, That the Present Health Officer of this port has com- promised his reputation as a faithful public servant there is abundant evidence to prove. ‘Itis notorious that he has permitted smug- gling to be carried on through the boats of his department; that he has subjected vessels and cargoes from foreign ports to unnecessary and vexatious delays, thereby inflicting a perma~- nent injury upon the commerce of this city ; that he has made the apprehensions of yellow fever a pretence or. cloak to cover up some ulterior and selfish designs; that he has his own fleet of tugboats and lighters, to which masters of vessels are compelled to pay tribute every time they come into this harbor; that he so manages the office as to realize from it an Income of two hundred thousand dollars per annum, instead of the respectable salary to which he is entitled; that the tyranny and extortions of his subordinates are themes of complaint upon the tongue of every ship- mercbant in the port as well as every shipping master who sails into it. These things, we say, are notorious, and yet -our merchants and shipmasters, as well ss the multitudes of passengers who are constantly arriving here, are obliged to submit to them or suffer an aug- mentation of the evils they labor under through either the malice, the indifference or the incompetency of the Health Officer and his subordinates, The public are aware that this same Health Officer has thrown obstacles in the way of an important Heratp enterprise for the purpose of collecting ship news in this harbor by the aid of steam yachts—an enter- prise in which every merchant in the city is interested, and one which meets tho heartiest commendations from all whose business lies in the line of ships and shipping. The facilities afforded by this means to the consignees of vessels coming in, in the way of notifying their shipmasters at what dcck or particular point they arc to haul up, are of acknowledged value; and as our ship news agents are instructed to furnish to consignees and others information of the arrival of their ships free of any charge whatever, and to con- vey packages or information from owners to masters on the same terms, we unfortunately come in conflict with a fee which the Health Officer exacts from consignees on giving simi- lar information. Moreover, we do not wish our business interests marred or endangered by the impertinent interference of anybody, and much less do we wish so important a department as the ship news, in which nearly every class in this community has more or less concern, managed by any person over whom we can exercise no control. We propose to collect the ship news of this port in our own way for our own columns for the benefit of our readers. We do not wish to be classified with those parsimonious contemporaries who, rather than incur a trifling additional expense, submit to the dictum of this self-installed Cer- berus of New York harbor, and take such scraps of ship news as he, in his ignorance of such matters, may dole out to them, or which his subordinates may have a pecuniary interest ia either giving or withholding. > We have already expended a heavy amount of money in collecting ship news in this harbor. We are now expending regularly every weck a large sum, and we mean to expend still more, hav- ing already a new steam yacht of much larger dimensions than those we now employ in pro- cess of construction, in order to maintain the high character the Herauo has all along, from the date of its existence to the present hour, enjoyed for the fulness, accuracy and earliness of its shipping reports. We do not intend to be thwarted in this purpose so long as we main- tain the lead in metropolitan journalism. We want no Health Officer for our ship news reporter. Let him stick to his pills and his lotions, his drugs and his chemicals, his powders and his potions, and bis apothecary shop generally; but he can be no ship news officer of our’s with our consent. If other papers choose to accept his filterings as regular ship news reports, let them, in their poverty, do so. The Heratp can afford to take another and a nobler course, thanks to the liberality of our fellow citizens. It can afford to be inde- pendent as well as to establish a system for the collection of ship news of its own. It does not by any means desire to be exclusive in this matter. On the contrary, the H«ratp has offered to furnish all the other New York papers with its own ship news reports upon the payment of simply a prv rata of the ex- pense incurred in collecting it. This, it must be acknowledged, is just and fair, and wipes out any charge of an attempt to monopolize the business that may be raised. It is annoying, therefore, to have obstacles thrown in the way of an enterprise so important to our merchants and shipmasters as those that the pre- sent Health Officer, from selfish and sordid motives, is now attempting to cast before it. If that officer were one in whom the merchants and community generally had confidence, or who had earned a high place in public estima. tion for his fidelity, honesty, capability and self-abnegation in the discharge of his duties, we might have less cause for complaint. But as the reverse is notoriously the case wo have no other course to pursue but the one we have marked out, namely—to go right straight ahead, neither halting nor turning to the right nor to the left in attaining the object in view, and that is to continue to supply the merchants and shipmasters of New York with shipping reports which will be superior to those of any other journal published in this city.’ Mean- while we learn that a petition will bo presented to Governor Hoffman, signed by # large num- ber of onr most influential merchants, urging the removal of the present Health Officer and giving therefor ample and sufficieut reasons, A Waste or Foon ror Guxrownrr—In New Orleans, by the Spaniards and Cubans there, in quarrelling and fighting duels over the Cuban question, Such heroic fellows ought to be able to find out some way to get into Cuba, where they could fight to some purpose. Custom House. For some days past the Committee of Ways and Means of Congress (louse of Representatives) have been looking into the modus operandi of the business of the New York Custom House, and it is their purpose to overhaul it thoroughly in all its various depart- ments, with a view to “economy, retrenoh- ment and reform.” Some others of the prin- cipal custom houses are in like manner to be overhauled. Prima facie this is a good idea ; for surely from a careful examination of the machinery of the custom houses our lawmak~- ers at Washington will better understand than they have understood how to regulate all this complex machinery 80 as to prevent frauds and leakages in the revenue. Judging, how~- ever, by our Albany investigating committees, from time to time sent down to this olty, and even by some sent up from Washington, wo are not very sanguine of any great things in the way of retrenchment and reform from Mr. Schenck’s committee. We trast, howevor, that it will amount to something better than the expenses of the Albany committee (including wines, liquors, cigars, the ‘Forty Thieves,” the opéra bouffe, &c.), and will give some equive- lent for the printing expenses of ono of thoas long reports which, after being printed and circulated, are bundled off, without reading, to the grocer, Ina word, itis to bo hoped that Mr. Schenck’s committee are acting with a view to business, for practical reforms, and not, as usual with these committees, for a voluminous report of rubbish, The Right Policy. The copperhead press of the North are in- dustriously working to persuade the people of the unreconstructed States of Virginia, Missis- sippi and Texas to reject the State constitu- tions awaiting their action, so as to prevent in each case # State organization and Legislature, whereby, under the terms of Congress, the fifteenth amendment (equal suffrage regardless of color) must be adopted. The design of the Northern copperhead organs is to defeat this amendment in order to keep out the Northern negro vote, of which they are afraid, and so they are urging upon the Southern States di- rectly concerned the policy of keeping them- selves out in the cold to accommodate the Northern copperhead politicians. But we are glad to see that the Southern conservatives ia the unreconstructed States are acting for them- selves—that, as the Richmond Whig puts it, they ‘‘are not all democratic partisans of the Bourbon stripe, stone blind to all the changes . that have been brought by a sweeping revolu- tion and doggedly bent upon sacrificing South- ern material interests to unreasoning spite,” but that the Southern people, struggling for life and a prosperous future, are in no mood for “entangling party alliances.” Of such en- cumbrances they have had enough, and hence- forward they will, in consulting their own interests, take their own course. This is sound sense, and upon this platform, even under the fifteenth amendment, the white man’s party of the South will soon become the black man’s party. Go ahead. The Fashions. That the sway of fashion now extends over every class in society and out of it, is mani- fest from our Paris correspondent’s last letter, which includes minute descriptions of tho lovely Trianon toilet of Mile. Nilsson at her farewell concert; of theyagonizingly ruched black and white robe of Mme. de Metternich at the Sunday races in the Bois, making the Austrian ambassadress look like a bundle of dirty curtains, half black and half white; of the short and frilled toilet, with casaques and pannier bows behind, worn at the same races respectively by ex-Queen Isabella in red, covered with black lace and diamond jewelry ; the Duchesse d’Assuna in brown, the Marquise - de Canisy in blue and white, the Comtesse de Janze in black and silver and the wife of Mar- shal Canrobert in gray and red; of the bright light salmon toilet covered with lace, in which the most striking of the demi-monde queens, Mile. Marcowitch, in a coupé lined with sky blue, was conspicuous ; of the elegant costume of strawberries-and-cream shade worn at the races by the bouguetitre Isabelle, and finally, of the last dinner toilet of the Empress Eugénie—a lovely moonlit gray train over a white satin, with narcissus and diamonds sbining in her plaited coils of hair—and of the white and pink toilet of the Duchesse de Mouchy. Our anonymous “imperialists” have not yos erected a palace of the Tuileries anywhere in New York, and we have, therefore, to de- scribe no such dinner toilets as those of the Empress Eugénie and the Duchesse de Mouchy, although several of our own “‘queens of soci- ety” might well afford to wear them. Nor have we yet any Sunday races, at which ladies and Marcowitches and bouquetiéres can rival each other in elegant and extravagant toilets. But notwithstanding the rains and chilling winds which have thus far provokingly delayed the advent of real spring weather and the accompanying full display of spring fash- ions, we may expect, before Juno, days sunshiny enough to make Broadway, Fifth avenue and the Park flutter as gayly as the Bois de Boulogne, at the races, with white muslin, mauve, gauze, crape and lilac shades. Yesterday afternoon was so bright that many carriage and promenade costumes of the latest Paris style were exhibited in the Park and on the splendid avenues that lead to it, Truth compels us to add, however, that our ladies have not‘all escaped that confusion of ideas which used formerly to be still more prevalent than now, and by which alone we oan account for the fact that gorgeous “oarriage costumes” and “costumes for home,” dinner toilets, opera cloaks, and even ball dresses, “morning walking costumes” and ‘‘afternoon costumes” may all be sometimes seen at the same hour on a fair day, indiscriminately, “walking down Broadway.” But this wilful defiance of European rales has, at least, the advantage of enlivening and diversifying the aspect of our streets, It affords, moreover, to the wives and sisters and daughters of the country clergy attracted to the city aani- versaries an opportunity of witnessing a more brilliant series of living pictures ot Vanity Fair than any fushion plates represent. Our country cousins mustalso admire New York on wheels ; for vehicles at once so light and strong and beautiful are not to be seon in any other city in the world, An American writer hie said that “‘wo aro dandica in our carriages as