The New York Herald Newspaper, November 27, 1869, Page 6

/ 1) NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Higratp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. No. 331 Volume XXXIV... AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Tur Prer o' Day— Dums Salon Box -A Goop Niunt's Rest. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 1h street.— Heney Dusnax. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Concert, Matinee Cusisr! FRENCH T' 08, LiguTs AND SHADOW: street. -PAILBARMONIO E LA Comanx, TRE. 14th st, and 6th av.—Lonnon; OF THK GREAT Crry. Matinee. th street.—Tae HANLON THE TAMMANY. Fourte Brornens, cc. Matinee at 2. GRAND OPERA HOUSK, corner ot Fighth avenue and 98d sireet.—TuE BOURMIAN Gint. Matinee at 2 BOOTH’S THEATRE, 28dst., between Sth ang Ath ave Tink any ye HOUR, Matinee at 2—Mauy WARNES, ATRE. Broagway.—Tug Lost Witi— Matinee at 2. OLYMPIC Tur Lorrény Ticket, RE.—A Nrw Way to Par FIFI AV “4 EVERYGODY'S FRIEND. V NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1869.-TRIPLE SHEET. burn them, and as they were already to the hands of the United states measures were taken to bring them before the coarts onthe original complaint of the Peruvian Minister, 80 lea? now Peru is alone e for their safe keeping. i a given to Judge Pierrepont yesterday by Mr, Sidney Webster, counsel for the Spanish gov- ernment, that he would move in the District Court next week to quash the writ of seizure against the Spanish gunboats and dismiss the libel. Sellor Lemus has avplied to Jadge Pterrepont to have the “colony, district, or people” of Cuba represented in the complaint, and has lad before him documents ‘on the subject. ‘Another suit has been commenced against the Erio Railway Company—this time by the Rogers Locomotive Works, of Paterson, which charges that exorbitant freightage has been demanded for trans- portation over the Erle Ratiway from Paterson to Jersey City, and transportation is sometimes refused altogether, unless it is through an express company to which the directors are especially partial. A coroner's jury took the ante-mortem statement of Albert D. Richardson at the Astor House yester- day. A verdict was rendered against McFarland, who was committed. The ball ta Richardson's stomach was extracted yesterday, and there {8 & probability of his recovery. John L. Barton, a Custom House broker, was ar- rested yesterday on the complaint of B, G. Jayne, an oficer of the Custom House, that he had at vartous times given bribes to the aggregate amount of $2,200 to Messrs. Carr, Townley and Van Winkle, ail of them weighers in the Custom House, for the purpose of procuring false returns of weights of coffee imported py Dymond & Lally, of No, 109 Water street, a firm for which Barton was agent. Commls- stoner Betts committed Barton yesterday in default of $7,000 bail, Several other warrants were issued yesterday, and it ts said to be the Intention of the authorities, after the prosecution for bribery, to OLD Dkr, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tug MiLitary DRAMA LY. Matineo at 3. padway, cor- ery evening. ™ AND jaune di nor Thirt MRS, F. B, CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Rrooklya.— Apres Dari. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOU! Vooa ism, NEGRO MINSTRELBY, &O OL Bowery.—Comto Matinee at 255. THEATRE COMIQUE, $14 Broadway.—Comto Vocat- asa, Ntoxo Acts, &c. Matinee at 24. BRYANTS'’ OPERA HOUSE, Tammany Bullding, Mth @.—bRYanis' MINSTRELS. BAN FRA MINSTRELS, 585 Brosdway.—Eturo- PIAN MinsTa . LSY¥, NEGRO AoTs, &c. street. - EQUESTRIAN NEW YORK CT’ Fourteen &c. Matinge at 235. AND GYMNASTIC PERFORMANCE! STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street—Matinee —Brnon's Pogm, “MANFRED.” HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Hoovry's MINSTRELS—NroRo EcceNTRIOITIRS—HuNTED Down, SOMERVILLE ART GALLERY, Fifth avenue and Mth street,—EXHIEITION OF NEW YORK MUSEUM 0} BOIKNOR AND ART. TOMY, G13 Broadway.— LADIES' NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, Broadway, FEMALES ONLY IN ATTRNDANUE, TRIPLE SHEBT. New York, Saturday, November 27, 1869. O85 THE NEWS. Europe. Cable telegrams are dated November 26, French troops were despatched to the department of Tarn to quell “disturbances.” Napoleon, it is said, proclaims that he “desires the widest and most absolute affirmation of liberty.’ The London Times, speaking of M. Rochefort, says France 1s not “ripe for gamin government.” The electoral meetings recommenced in Paris. The French legts- lative oppositiomsts are maturing a “platform.’ Russian oficials continue to persecute the Israelites, England appears disposed to do full justice to Ireland, upholding the Queen’s authority and laws in that country at the same time, Egypt. il of November 26, at this port, supplies som ting facts relative to the gravi- tation of the passenger travel from and to india and China by way of Suez, of the relations of the Sultan of Turkey to the Viceroy, of the present cost of living at Cairo and other subjects of imiport- ance. By steamsnip at this port we t respondence trom Europe, W details oF cable telegrams tot Si. Domingo. The commissioners who sailed some time ago in the Albany for St, Domingo are Generals Babcock and Ingalis. They go to further the pending negoti- ations for a tr of annexation, and also to observe the election which is to take place there on the an- nexation question. Senator Cole did not accompany thei. The Europea nave our special cor- 1 newspaper matl 16th of November. Miscellaneous. has been received at the State negotta by Minister Motley. The conservative republicans who withdrew trom the Convention in Richmond on Thursday held a ‘meeting yesterday and passed resolutions favoring a@ liberal policy which shail elevate the standard of . Bepublicanism in the other States. Mr. Magee, a democratic member of the Alabama Legisiature, wa: sterday expelled on the ground of having held ofice under the late Confederate government. His radical opponent, it iz understood, Will be admitted to his seat. The totai vote of California at the late election ‘Was 96,303, a falling off of 12,000 since the Presiden- tial election. The schooner G. W. Grant, from Philadelphia for Norfolk, Va., was driven ashore on Tuesday nignt and lost. The captain and two of the crew were drowned. Forepaugh’s menagerie building at Connersville, Ind., was fired by an incendiary on Wednesday night. The antinals were at once set free and a scene of the wildest excitement ensued. A flock or sheep within the enclosure was set upon by a licn and several of them were Kliled. The lion alse encountered a bull, who fought him bravely for some time, but was at length overpowered and killed, On Thuraday night Dr. Day, superintendent of the State Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton, was severely @tabbed in the arm and shoulder by 8. S. Hiakely, an Inmate of the institution. Blakely had been dia- charged from the asylum on account of lis desper- ate character, and attempted to murder Dr. Day because he recommended his (Blakely’s) discharge. ‘The schooner J. 5. Martin, of Milwaukee, has been lost on Lake Michigan, and the entire crew and oMcers, ten m number, drowned. Mra. Margaret Perry, a daughter of the late Gov- ernor Carlin, of Ulinois, has been arrested in Chi- cago on charge of murdering an illegitimate child of her daughter. On Sunday jast Brigham Young detailed 110 saints AS Inissionaries and sent them forth to preach their faith in the trans-Mississippi States, They arrived at Omaba rday and then dispersed, Some of them are des 1 for Chicago, Cincinnati, Phila delphia and the targer cities. Acolored motber of the Washington city police bas been appointed on the government detective force. Suit has been brought by the heirs of William Winchester, of itimore, against a number of residents of Memplits, Tenn., for the recovery of property vaiued at over a million of dollars. The ice has nearly closed the harbor of Quebec, Another Canadian judge 1s charged with mal- Gdministration of justice in the Saguenay district, ‘The City, It is not true that Sefor Roberts has demanded the Telease of the Spanish gunboats, or that he bas in- tructions to demand his passports, in case they are Bull held. The only foundation for the story is the foot that in an informal conversation with geo. retary Fish he said tic Spanish government was not entirely satisfied at the action of the United States in the matter, The cause of She recent seizure was the receipt of information bring civil action for the recovery of the duties. In regard to the contested Supervisorship, Cor- poration Counsel O'Gorman has rendered’ an opin- ton to the effect that Henry Smith’s position as Police Commissioner was vacated by his nomination for Supervisor, and, therefore, he was eligible to the latter office and the votes for him should be counted. A writ of mandamus to restrain the Board of Can- vassers from counting Smith’s votes and to compet them to count those for Foley and Roche and deter- mine who ts elected was obtained by Mr. Foley yes- terday from Mr. Juste Clarke, of the Supreme Court, Two roughs were arrested in a saloon at 120 Greene street on Thursday might for disorderly conduct, when one of them, named Sipp, drew a revolver and snapped it twice at the officer, but 1t failed to go off, and the officer knocked him down. The other prisoner then seized the revolver and ran down Greene street, pursued by @ citizen, at whom he snapped the pistol, but agaip without discharging it. Finally Maloney quarreiled with a negro woman in whose house he took refuge, and snot at her, the ball grazing her ear and the flash burned her eye- brows, Maloney then went to the station house to find his friend Sipp and they were both locked up. Yesterday Justice Dodge committed both of them, In the case of Charles Cohn, who was arrested by Superintendent Kennedy a few days ago on a tele- graphic despatch from Charleston, Judge Ingra- ham yesterday decided that there was no authority for arresting or detaining him, and so ordered his release. Tue stock market yesterday was irregular and feverish. Gold declined to 124)4, and then rallied to 124%, closing finally at 124%. Prominent Arrivals in the City. Judge T. W. Adams, of Tennessee; Colonel J, W. Barlow, of the United States Army; A. Van den Linden, of Mexico; P, N, Sanchez, of Guatemala; Colonel G. T. Magee, of Aibany, and Paul Isenberg, of Honoluiu, are at the St. Nicholas Hotel. General Joun McFarland, of Titusville, Pa.; Colo- nel J. M. Elwood, of Des Moines, lowa; Colonel I, Wrigley, of Titusville: General J. £. Curtis and Colonel W. C. Crosse, of Little Falls; Dr. H. G. Worthington, of Nebraska; John H. Selwyn, of Boston, Mass; General F. Strouse, of New York, and Captain J, H. Hale, of Boston, are at the Metro- politan Hotel. A. W. Boswortn, of New Orleans; Paul Cashman, of Albany, and Francis Fellows, of Hartford, are at the New York Hotel. Judge Peckham, of Albany; F. A. Wilson, W. R. ShemMeld and A. Greenless, of Vincinnati, and Heary Young, of Paris, are at the Everett liouse, Alonzo Marey, of Madrid, Spain; W. Bond, of New York, and R. C. Fox, of Washington, are at the Glenham Hotel, Professor Hutchins, of St, Louts, is at the St. Charles Hotel, Captain VY. Bouniakofsky, of the Russian Army, is at the Hoffman House, Ex-United States Consul Smith arrived yesterday from St. Domingo per steamship Tybee, having been relieved at that place by the new appointee, Mr. Perry. Prominent Departures, General James McQuade, for Albany; Smith Weed, for Plattsburg; Colonel Looney and Congressman 8. Hooper, for Washington. ‘The Navy Department yesterday ordered the tro: The Dominican Annexation ee Clad Mtantonomoh to New York. eral Granv’s American Policy. Senator Cole, of California; Judge O'Sulli- van and Mr, Hollister, of New York, directly concerned in the recent negotiations looking to the annexation of the republic of Dominica and the republic of Hayti—between which the fine island of St. Domingo, with its appen- dages, is divided—had a very gratifying con- ference with General Grant on the subject the other day. We say gratifying, because it has developed the fact that General Grant is heartily in favor of the proposed annexation, and because from this fact and his unmistaka- ble sympathy in behalf of Cuban indepen- dence, and from his desire to see the Darien Canal o thing accomplished under his admin- istration, we have the landmarks of a pro- jected American policy of the grandest pro- portions. We shall not in the least degree be surprised if before the expiration of six months the annexation of the magnificent island of St. Domingo, or Hayti, shall be an accomplished fact. The recent departure of General Bab- cock, accompanied by General Rufus Ingalls, on board the United States steamer Albany, from New York, bound for the island with, as we learn from Washington, instructions from President Grant regarding the course he shall pursue in the pending negotiations of our gov- ernment with President Baez, of the Dominican republic, assures us of the energetic prosecu- tion of the purpose and places quite within the bounds of moderation the apparently brief time named. Within the same period we look first for the independence of Cuba, and secondly for an application from the republic, dla Texaa, for admission into the Union, which will not be denied, Then will follow, as they ripen, the gathering under the “Stars and Stripes” of the whole chain of the West India islands, together with the republic of Mexico and the Central American States. And what then? In a few words, then the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea will be numbered among the great salt lakes of the United States, and all the isthmus passages between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans will be ours, which will give us the commercial and naval control o} the Darien Canal, though opened on the same’ tefms to all the nations of the earth, “This grand programme of annexation was the dream of the projectors of the late South- ern confederacy, as far back as the Nicaragua adventure of Walker and the Cuban filibuster- ing expedition of Lopez, The scheme was fat the Cubans in Now York were conspiring to! the ultimate fusion of the West India Islands, Mexico and Central America in the slavebold- ing confederation to be formed of our Southern States, and great were the expectations enter- tained of the enormous resources in cotton, sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, indigo, mahogany, gold, silver, &c., which would thus be secured and developed under slave labor, This gor- geous vision of a Southern slaveholding con- federacy collapsed with Jeff Davis; but now, under our new supremo law of universal lib- erty and equality, the whole field is open, and all these Southern islands’and States, rejoicing in the same law of equality in all colors, are anxious to come in and share with us the glorious future of the great republic. Under our old régime General Scott refused point blank to accept Mexico as a free gift, because of the constitutional difficulty of fusing those Mexican hybrids ona basis of equality with the white man in the ‘Union as it was.” Again, when James Buchanan was our Minis- ter to England he had his attention called at a court reception to the colored Ambassador from Hayti, a vigorous, stalwart fellow, shining in jewelled orders and gold lace, and our Minister, on being asked his opinion of said Ambassador, took a deliberate survey of the glittering African, and said, ‘I think that nigger would sell for not less than fifteen hun- dred dollars under the hammer in New Orleans.” Now, the President of the United States, in cordially receiving the negro Minis- ter from Hayti, is proud to speak of his official recognition of black men on the basis of equal rights. This, we say, among all the mixed commu- nities of the West Indies, Mexico and Central America, opens wide the door to annexation ; and so the whole mighty programme we have indicated may be easily fulfilled under the first term of General Grant's administration, Nor do we doubt that such is the grand scheme contemplated by General Grant in his encour- agement of these Dominican negotiations, and in the legal proceedings he has instituted in reference to those thirty Spanish gunboats. Since we have ceased to be held in the bonds of negro slavery all our anti-slavery and equality neighbors, not only south of us, but north of us, are attracted by the brilliant pros- pect before us, and are anxious to share in our power and prosperity. The Alabama claims will keep until we shall have fairly inaugurated, the great work of West India annexation. Nor will there be any difficulty in settling the Alabama business after a while, if, meantime, our government shall reject all these English Trojan horse projects of Canadian reciprocity. To sum up, in this ago of great events it is no idle dream to suppose that, with the Southern annexations suggested, the absorption of the British North American possessions may be among the splendid achieve- ments of General Grant's administration. Mr. Garficld on the Currency and Specie Payments, The chairman of the House Committee in Congress on Banking and Currency has been “interviewed” by our Washington correspond- ent relative to his views on the subject of returning to specie payments and the currency. The honorable gentleman appears brimful of this subject and is preparing to take an active part in the consideration of it in the approach- ing session of Congress. He does not think this matter properly belongs to the Committee of Ways and Means, which has heretofore ‘‘set itself up not only to provide ways and means for raising revenue, but to shape the financial policy of the country,” and it is his intention to make his committee the financial one of tho House in this respect. Mr. Garfield evidently is in earnest, and the country will be gratified to kaow that he entertains some broad and liberal views, which the Committee of Ways and Means has not shown, on the currency and national bank questions. Mr. Garfield is becoming emancipated from the on-to-specie-payment and currency thoories of some of his party organs and men in Con- gress, While he avows himself in favor of resuming specie payments and would set his face toward resumption, he does not believe “the way to resume is to resume,” and would not do anything that might “‘suddenly unsettle values and create great financial distress.” So far, then, he is on the right track. But he has not got far enough in his financial educa- tion, for he still clings to the old idea that a contraction of the currency i& necessary to bring about specie payments. THe has, conse- quently, a scheme for gradual contraction with a view to accomplish that object. But why contraction? There is not more currency in the country than it needs, and any con- traction must prove disastrous. If the volume of currency be left as it is the extraordinary growth of the country and the increase of population and business will operate the sane as contraction; for the increased demand for money asa circulating medium would mke it more and more scarce relatively. This is what we call growing up to specie payments healthfully and gradually, and what we hevo advocated all along. But Mr. Garfield makes a mistake in supposing specie payments de- pend altogether upon the volume of currency, Specie payments can only be resumed when the exchanges are not so much against urp— when the balance of exchange with fore'gn countries is more equalized, and when ‘he precious metals cannot be drained from us to meet the demands of foreigners. Here lies the difficulty, and we recommend Mr. Garfield to tura his attention to that rather than to tho mere abstract and impracticable theory of contraction. As regards the national bank circnlation and withdrawing that with a view of substituting legal tenders in its place, Mr. Garfleld is right, There is no reason why the government and people should not derive the profits from a national currency, which amount, on that por- tion which the national banks circulate, to about twenty-four millions of dollars a year, and there is every reason why this vast sum should not be given away to private corporations, partidularly when the people would have a uniform and better currency by substituting legal tenders for national bank notes. Let Mr. Garfleld mature some measure for effecting this ohange and press it upon Congress with all his ability, and he may feel assured of the approbation of the public, He will have uphill work ; for this national bank monopoly is a mighty power. Still itis a work worthy of a statesman, and he will find his reward in promoting the interests of the country and in the gratitude of the people, Poter B. Sweeny on the Fifteenth Amond- ment. Tn the expression of the frank, full and sug- gestive opinions of Peter B. Sweeny, published in yesterday's HgRrap, on the political situa- tion, plans and projects of the New York democratic managers, with their complete possession of the State, he said, among other things, referring to the new Legislature :—‘“‘I tHink that one of its first acts will be to repeal tho action of last winter (by the republican Legislature thereof) approving the fifteenth amendment.” We think so too, because with their first chance the democrats in New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and elsewhere repudiated either the fourteenth or the fifteenth amendment. But why should the New York democracy follow these examples? Because, as Mr. Sweeny facetiously says, “It (the fifteenth amendment) goes beyond the negro,” and “‘purposes to absorb the whole subject of suffrage, by which Congress will be enabled to disfranchise the whites while enlarging the area of negro domination.” But let us see what this amendment is, It is as follows :— ARTICLE -XV.—The it of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be dented or abridged by the United States or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. What does this mean? Negro suffrage in all the States, with power to Congress, republican or democratic, to enforce it in any State in which it may be by the State denied. There is no power involved to take the suffrage from white men on any pretence. In reference to negro suffrage Mr. Sweeny’s views are sound. The democrats of the North have nothing to fear from the negro vote, and the Southern democrats have adopted it and turned the négro to a good account. Why, then, should the coming New York democratic Legislature repudiate this fifteenth amendment? For the simple reason, we apprehend, that it is one of the reconstruction measures of the republican party and of Grant’s administration. But one would think the democrats had had enough of this reconstruction warfare. Do they intend to keep it up, after all their disasters on the issues held by the majority of the States and people to be settled by the war? If so the democratic party may expect to be defeated again and again till they are demolished as was the old federal party from its opposition to the war of 1812, General Grant within a month, if so disposed, can make good the rati- fication of the fifteenth amendment, If not 8o disposed, while in favor of the amendment, it is because, no doubt, he proposes to keep this whole question of reconstruction still open to accommodate the democratic party. But Mr. Sweeny evidently understands the situation, even in holding back, and if the other leaders of his party were as clear-headed they would soon be on the right platform, Spain—Continued Embarrassment, So far as can be seen from our very latest news no approach bas been made towards a final settlement of the troubles in Spain, Affairs become more complicated and more embarrassed as time advances, A king is stillin demand, The unionists still insist on Montpensier as their man. The progressists, with Prim at their head, will have none but the Duke of Genoa. The present government is a coalition government. As the two parties cannot agree on a candidate, and as an elec- tion would be certain to disrupt the govern- ment and give Spain over to anarchy, it is really difficult to say when the present ruinous stato of things is to be brought to a close. Meanwhile the delay is strengthening the repub- lican party all over the country, Prim aitill holds the army; but Prim is not the idol he wasa yearago. The prominent necessity of Spain now is a settled government, Suspense has ruined her finances and worried the life out of her people. Itis gratifying to see that the republican deputies, who have for some time been absenting themselves from the Cortes, have concluded to resume their seats, It isa wise and well-considered step. A little longer delay and Prim may find that the army has ceased to be submissive. If a king is not speedily chosen another outbreak may be regarded as certain; and it is already doubtful whether the electionof a king will give the country peace and contentment, It is the conviction of the republicans that a republic is the only haven of rest; and it is their belief that were it not for the army, the clergy and the government officials, Spain would be a republic to-morrow. At the present moment the situation is really devoid of interest. So it must remain until the revolution enters upon some new phase, The Virginian, Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Arrangements, it appears, have been per- fected in this city with prominent capitalists whereby the Virginia, Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad will be completed at once, Among the capitalists concerned are W. H. Aspinwall, A. A, Low, C. P. Huntington, Fisk & Hatch, and others. Tho object of this road is to bring & portion of the traffic of the great Northwest across West Virginia and Virginia into Nor- folk, and to tap en route the rich mines of coal and iron, salt springs and petroleum wells of the great Kanawha Valley. To complete the connection between Norfolk and Ohio some two hundred and fifty miles, more or less, of railway remains to be built; but as this fs through the Alleghany Mountain system of West Virginia it will be heavy work. After what has been done, however, on the Pacific Railroad, there is no reason why this line should not be completed by next fall. When completed, in the coal, iron, lumber, petroleum, salt, grain, &c., of West Virginia alone, it will rapidly build up the city of Nor- folk, with its splendid harbor, into a firat class seaport, in trade, in shipbuilding and in manufactures, As the Baltimore and Ohio road has been the making of Baltimore, so will this road be the making of Norfolk, only onamuch larger scale, in view of the enor- mons resources along the line, and the supe- rior advantages of Norfolk as a harbor—equal to the largest fleets of the largest ships, open and secure at all seasons and close to the sea, Charleston meantime {s actively moving for a direct line by way of Chattanooga with the Ohio at Cincinnati ; and this road, too, will pay handsomoly; but, in our judgment, there is no railway enterprise on foot so short in the length of line which promises the aubstantial and ever increasing profita of this direct line betwoen Norfolk and the Ohio river through West Virginia. And the capitalists concerned are correct in their idea that the sooner the road is finished the sooner they will begin to reap the bountiful harvest awaiting them. If Norfolk had had this road in operation ten years ago Virginia would have escaped the folly of secession, a division into two States and all the disasters and losses of the rebellion; for the binding influences of West- ern trade would have held her to the cause of the Union, or by main strength she would have been held, as Maryland was by the Balti- more and Ohio road. As a new bond for the Union, therefore, as well as a new fountain of trade, let this Norfolk line to the Ohio be pushed through. The Erte Imbroglio and the Remedy. People are getting tired of the Erie Railway imbroglio and all the intricate law proceedings that surround it and protract its existence. There are many people interested in the result of these apparently endless squabbles, and they of course are numbered among the stockhold- ers. Now, what is the remedy for all this trouble? Clearly it cannot be found in the law courts, for our judges are so facile in the issuing of injunctions, mandamuses, and so forth, that in this matter of railroad troubles our courts have become exemplars of the law's delay and the obstruction of justice. We can- not look for relief to the State Legislature, be- cause it operates now, as it ever did, in the interests of cliques and rings, and is really not to be expected to take any action upon a pub- lic question unless there is money enough to make it a matter of interest to the members, It is not so easy, however, to buy up Congress. There are thirty-seven States represented there, and, even if public virtue did not control its action in some measure, it would cost too much to buy up Congress. The profits would be so small that no railroad could afford to buy on these terms, Congress, therefore, is the proper body to take the management of our railroads in hand. There are many ways in which it could operate with great efficiency and render impossible forever such proceedings as the Erie road has been dealing in. Congress, for instance, might pass laws against the con- solidation of railroad companies for fraudulent purposes, and {t could fix a maximum price per mile of each road to regulate the amount of capital stock. This would put an end to the nefarious custom of ‘‘watering” stock now 8o freely resorted to in the interest of a few to the dire calamity of the many holders of stock, who suppose that they own so much pro- perty in the railroad when they really own not more than one-third of it. The proper remedy for these railroad frauds, junketings of railroad directors and the absurd conflict of authority which occurs every day in our courts lies with Congress. It can take hold of the whole question and settle it. We wopethat the assembled wisdom at Washington next month will take note of this fact and relieve us effectually from these wearisome railroad imbroglios. Our State Prisous—The Governor’s Suge gestion. It appears that our three State Prisons, at Sing Sing, Auburn and Clinton, are crowded with convicts beyond the capacity of these buildings to accommodate them with any regard to discipline, comfort or morality. The Prison Inspectors have been endeavoring to improve this state of things by transferring prisoners from one institution to another, but this does not seem to have any effect, because the increase of convicts throughout the State isin a greater ratio than the capacity of the prisons to hold them. The Committee on State Prisons in the last Legislature repre- sented these facts in their report, and recom- mended. some change in the prison system to meet the difficulty, Governor Hoffman, in a message which he sent to the Legislature at that time, suggested as a remedy for this evil that a new reformatory prison should be built. He did not favor making any additions to the present establishments, but that an entirely new structure should be erected at some loca- tion in the State and conducted on a principla designed to reform as well as to punish crimi- nals, It would appear that the time has come when the Governor's suggestion should be adopted. If the authority of law cannot suc- ceed in restraining crime, then it is evident that we must provide for the safe keeping of the criminals. As affairs stand now in the different State Prisons the provisions are wholly inadequate. We hope, then, that the Legislature, which is soon to assemble at Albany, will give early attention to this matter. Tae Suez CANAL—Freiants BY THE CAPE.— One of the most important effects of the opening of the Suez Canal is already being experienced in London by the fall of the rates of freight offered for vessels sailing to and from India and China via the Cape of Good Hope. Tho benefits arising from this fact are the moro important because they reflect upon the com- munity at large, by causing a reduction in the cost of many of the most current articles of daily consumption. On all merchandise drawn from such long distances the items of freight and insurance occupy @ prominent position, and the means by which they can be lessened tre benefits in which the general public par- ticipates. The effects already caused by the success of this colossal undertaking, in the trade between Enrope and the East, are but a foreshadowing of the results that will accrue to us and Europe generally when a canal across the Isthmus of Darien shall have been estab- lished, The government has already taken active steps In this matter by ordering surveys, and it is to be hoped that no timo will be lost in the commencement of a work so essentially necessary to our general interests, Ose Sevsiprg MAN IN THR CanINeT.—Mr. Garfield, the chairman of the House Congres- sional Committee on Banking and Currency, re- marked to our correspondent in Washington that he had ‘‘numerous conversations with a mem- her of the Cabinet,” whose name he was not at liberty to mentioh, on the subject of retiring national bank notes and substituting legal tenders for them, and that he found this Cabi- net officer was ‘‘strongly in favor of retiring the national bank circulation and substituting legal tender United States notes in its place.” There is, then, at loast, one sensible man in the Cabinet, who has # corroot idea on this brangh of the ourrenoy quegtion, and who seer the {mportance of giving the people and gov- ernment, and not private corporations, the vast profits of s national circulation. Some of our public men are becoming educated, evidently, on the subject of the currency, The Industrial Situation and “Strikes” in France. By telegram from Paris, through the Atlan- tle cable, we learn that French troops were despatched yesterday to the Department of Tarn, under orders ‘to quell disturbances there.” The town of Abby, to which the sol- diers marched directly, is the seat of the exten- sive cotton and woollen manufactures centred in the southwestern portion of the empire; 60 it is fair to presume that the ‘‘disturbances” have originated in some industrial combination or trade “‘atrike" undertaken with the view of obtaining an advance of wages, the shortening of the hours of labor, or a rearrangement of the existing relations between the employers and operatives, In every other producing country in the world except France all this is of such everyday occurrence that it is regarded as quite a natural, legitimate result of labor and speculative enterprise and easily settled between the parties inter- ested. In France it is quite different. There the government undertakes to look after every- thing, and to the government “‘strikes" are dangerous. Hence do we find the military employed immediately, and hence shall we hear, perhaps, as in the late instances of the coal miners and some other organized oppo- sition to their interference, that the military fired upon the people and that the ‘‘disturb- ances subsided.” ‘‘Disturbances,” as they are classed in France, which originate in a rightful, ifeven not exactly legal, demand for more bread for the workingmen’s families and are forced to “‘subside” in the smoke of military fire, are not quelled. The cause remains, and the feeling cankers towards gan- grene, A radical cure must then be had; but the cure may come from either side—from the people as well as from the Executive, The Charter Election and the Politicians, A great deal of the excitement over the coming charter election arises from the tri- umphant position in which the democratic party finds itself for the first time after the lapse of some seventeen years. A long inter- val this for a powerful party to be in the minority in the legislative halls of the State, controlling at the same time, as it did, large majorities in their own stronghold, the city. But the usual fate has at last overcome the dominant party, and the republicans, in the moment of false security, are now in their turn compelled to take a back seat, The Tammany Regency having carried the State in November last, and with the ex-grand high Sachem of the party in the executive chair and # majority in both chambers of the Logis- lature, it will go hard with themif they do not “better the example” set them by the ousted republicans in making the political change of base severely felt as soon as the ses- sion opens, Tho place-hunters of the party, swelled by the late victory into countless numbers, are already in full cry after the spoils. With many of the candidates for Justices and Alder- men and Assistant Aldermen their running after these offices is only a pretence to bring them into some notoriety—so much as will give them a fair excuse to go to Albany and renew their claims for the vacancios they anticipate will follow from a goneral decapitation of republican office-holders in the several departments of the city government, The astute chief of the Tammany Regency, Mr. Sweeny, is perfectly aware of this particular phase of the political excitement, but it gives him no uneasiness. His policy just now is masterly inactivity, leaving the fight going on between the contestants to develop the strongest mon for the offices to be filled. The chiefs of the, party are rather engaged in con- sulting together upon the policy they shall pursue when, clothed with their newly acquired power, they are assembled in the halls of the Legislature in Albany, than in paying “the slightest attention as to how the contest for peity offices wages hero in the city. The political horoscope from the Tammany standpoint is aglow with the signs of success to the party, not only as regards the control- ling power in the State, which is already assured, but of a most promising fleld for their operations in the coming Presidential contest. The whole policy of the Regéncy will be regulated by the course it may de- termine on in its efforts to attain the higher goal of its ambition—supremacy in the nationgl democratic councils preliminary to the opening of the campaign of 1872; aud to this end all minor questions of city and State politics will be subordinated. The new career upon which Tammany is now entering is pregnant with important events, politically and socially, which the future only can mature or develop, and on the result the Tammany Regeftcy and the democratic party must stand or fall. {RSH GENIUS, Lecture by Mr. William Parsons. Mr. William Parsons last night delivered a lecture atthe Brooklyn Athenwum, corper of Atlantic and Clinton streets, for the benefit of the House of the Good Shepherd, located in Henry strect, The worthy character of the charity for whose benent the lecture was given and the reputation of the lecturer combined to fill the hall with a highiy respectable audience, Mr. Parsons’ gubject was “Irish Genius, as represented by Curran, Grattan and O'Connell.” The lecturer was Introduced by Father Malone, of the Wiliams burg church of St. Peter and Paul. In opening his lecture, Mr. Parsons dwelt for a few minutes om generalities ana thon proceeded to sketch the career Of Join Philpot Curran from the time that he com- menced to study law in London. Tho greater por- tion of the speaker's remarks was taken up with the career of this gentleman, which was considered im An exhaustive manner unusual generally with leo. turers. His early efforts at the bar were spoken of, and ® eee ites Les f fetes | anecdotes recited. Aa. Curran oman od ractice was sketched in @ master! a tnd with @ iberaluy whlch was quite refreshing. ‘The condition of Iriah politics ag Curran found them was also spoken of and his position as @ politician pointed out and defined. The lecturer claimed that Wat the Lrish bard, Moore, was in the fleld of Irisn Curran in connection with the logal tra- ternity. Grattan and O'Connell next were consid. ered and their characters, career and actions dis- Qussed in the same liberal and careful manner. ‘The ontire looture was made very pleasant py the recital of personal incidents connected with the bi tory of these representatives of Irish genins, which wore received by the audience with flattering proois of appreciation. AN InntUMAN MOTHER. —At half-past eleven o'clook yesterday morning three boys, aged respectively rour, mx and eight years, sons of Daniel and Elisa- beth Coffey, Hay ig of a low grogmill in South Yonkers, Were found in the bouse of their parents by officers Clark and Squires insensibio the eifects of whiskey administered to gl thetr mother, Who was arresied and locked up 0 ata tion house. Restoratives wore appliod and the chil. Gren after a saort time Were again restored to con- aclouangens of the bench at the poetry,