The New York Herald Newspaper, January 1, 1870, Page 4

' NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York HERAxp. Volume XXXVecsssssesseee a = — AMUSEENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth st.—EVERY- BOY'S FRIEND. Matinee at +--No. 1 NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broacway.—Tur DrAMA oF Lirruz Ew'ty. lnged WOOD'S MUSEUM AND MENAGERIE, Broadway, cor ner ‘fhirtieth ot.—Matinee daily. Performance every evening. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.-La Tour DR NESLE— Nat FELL—COBULER AND SAILOR. Matinee at 2 WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 13th street,— Bcnuoon FOR SCANDAL. THE TAMMANY. Fourteenth strect.—Tur BURLESQUE OF Bab DickkY, Matinee at 2 GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner ot Hizhth avenue and ‘38d street. —LINGAED's BUSLKSQUE COMBINATION, BOOTH'S THRATRE, 28d:t., bo:ween Sth and 6th ava Goy MANNELINe. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broaaway.—UNpER THE Gas- LiGut. Matinee at 2. MRS, F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— ‘Tux Evves—Tux Sxxious Fairy. ONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Com1o ‘VOOALISM, NEGRO MINSTRELSY, £0. Matinee at 224. THEATRE COMIQUE, 614 Broadway.—Comio Vooar- ism, NEGRO Acrs, kc, “Matinee at 2)y. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Tammany Building, Mth at —BRYAN1'S MINSTRELS. GAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, 585 Broa !way.—ETHIO- Pian MINSTRELSY, Necro Acts, £0,—“Hasu.” WAVERLEY THEATRE, No. 120 Broadway.—ETu10- PIAN MINSTRELSY, NEGRO ACTS, 40. Matinee at 235. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street-—EQuxaTnran | AND GYMNASTIO PERFORMANCES, 40. Matinee at 23. HOOLEY’S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.Hooury's MINSTZELS—THE PETRIFIRD GIANT, £0. Matinee at 12)5. WILLIAMSBURG OPERA HOUSE, Wi'liamsburg.—La ‘TouR DE NesLe—Pappy MUEPuy, Ac. Matinee at 2 APOLLO HALL, corner 28th street and Broadway.—THE Canpirr Giant. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SCIENCE AND Ant. LADIES’ NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618% Broadway.—FEMALES ONLY IN ATTENDANCE. New York, Saturday, Janaary 1, 1870. CONTEXTS OF TO-DAY'S HERALD. PaGE. Advertisements, = Advertisements. 3—The Courts: Assignment of Judges of the Supreme Court for 1870—Criminal statistics— New York City News—Lively Prize Fight in Virginta—Examination of the Alleged Mur- derer of the Brooklyn Watchman—Arraign- ment of the Indicted Election Canvassers in Kings County—A Swindler Frustrated—The Russian Baths to be Investigated by the Board of Health—Marriages and Deaths. p @—Ecditorials: The Leading Article on the United States; the Old Year and the New, and the Ola and New Dispensauon—Washington: Family Quarrel Among the Louisiana Radicals; Tne New York Post Office Investigation Farce— Musical and Theatrical Notes. G—Telegraphic News from All Parts of the World: The French Cabinet Crisis; Another Mining Horror at Plymouth, Pa.—The vrivateering floax—The Manhattanese Feud—Hudson River Navigation—The New Year's Festival—Per- soual Intelligence—Blocdy Work with the Knife—Naval Intelligence—Business Notices. G—Europe: How the English Swallow American Canards—President Grant’s Message in Paris— The Deathbed Marriage: A New Jersey Lady and Mr. Greeley on the McFarland Case—A Little “Difficulty” m Georgia—Statistics of the Coroners’ Office Business for the Past Year—Asfairs on the West Coast of Africa. 9~Financial and Commercial Reports—Sales of Vessels—Probable Murder at Rondout, N. Y.— The Murder at Dresden, N. Y.—Statistics of Losses by Fire During the Year 1569, S—Munictpal Affairs: Last Meeting of the Old Board of Aldermen; the New City Govern- ment; the Interest on the Public Moneys— 7 jpeakership of the Assemb!y— Recent Filo Kobbery in Beekman Street—' tic aud Great Western Raiiwa ‘Tammany Primary Elections Last Nignt— shipping News— Advertisements. Presipenr GRANT is becomir walker in Washington. Now, if he would only make one or two old fogies in his Cabinet walk. famous as a Toe Posr Orrick IxvesticarisG Com- mirrex.—Read our Washington despatch in another part of this paper on this subject. It goes toshow that inall such jobs there are wheels within wheels, and that even an investi- gating committee may be a job. Toe Darien Canat Expepirion.—Our ‘Washington corvesjondent says that according to the statements of the authorities at the Navy Depariment the Darien Canal expedi- tion will certainly sail between the 15th and 20th of January to commence a survey of the canal. The funds for the work are enough for present needs and more can be appropriated ‘in time. ' An AuMost True SENsATION.—One of the sensational journals stated yesterday that the schooner Maria sailed from this port for Cuba with arms and munitions for the insurgents, and that Marshal Harlow inspected the ves- sel, knew her character and destination and consented to her sailing. Marshal Harlow now states that he did know of her destination nd character, and that she had no arms or munitions on board and did not sail for Cuba. Otherwise the report might have been almost true. Tae French TRANSATLANTIO CALLE Com- Pany feels hurt at the inference conveyed in President Grant's message to Congress to the effect that the imperial government has a right of examination of despatches transmitted from America by that route. The Director General states that the administration exercises no control over messages from any quarter, but merely looks to insure their being forwarded from Brest in the regular order of arrival and without “favoritism.” The line has no “political intention.” If this be so it is good. We cannot have too many cable lines, and managed ‘‘just so.” Hayri—Tue Enp or SatNave.—The news from the black republic is of the highest impor- tance. Port au Prince, Salnave’s capital, and the Algongnin, his man-of-war, have been cap- tured almost without resistance by the revolu- tionists, who had an advantage in a larger pumber of gunboats and the prestige of late victories, Salnave escaped and took refuge in fort on one of the high points overlooking the city. His end has evidently come; but whether his successor will keep the litile republic, which has become a near neighbor of ours by our recent, acquisition at Samana, in avy better order is a question of time. NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1870. ‘The United Stater—Tho Old Yenr and tho New, and the Old and Now Dispeusa- don, And ye shall hatlow the Mftieth year, and pro- claim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be @ jubilee unto you; od ye shall rewurn every man unio his possession, and ‘ye shall return every man unto bis family.— LEVITICUS, XXV., 10, This is one of the ordinances of Moses, the great lawgiver and leader of the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. But how aptly will the law recited apply to these United States and the year just ended. It may be said that 1869 was our year of jubilee—not the great Panjandrum jubilee at Boston, for we do not propose to consider it in that light. The year 1869 may be considered a year of jubilee in fairly establishing the new dispensa- tion of “liberty throughout all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof,” and civil and political equality to all citizens of the United States, of all races and colors, barring the women, and “excepting Indians not taxed.” The women's rights women, however, are bravely agitating their wrongs and demanding their rights, and General Grant’s Quaker commissioners are industriously preparing the Indians for univer- sal suffrage. The year that has just rolled away among the things of the past has certainly been a year of jubilee to the American people, in the abounding blessings and prosperity recited in the November Thanksgiving proclamation of our exulting President and in his late Decem- ber Message to Congress. And what a change with the first year of Grant from the last year of Johnson! In the last regular Message of Johnson so hopeless appeared our financial embarrassments that he boldly proposed the appropriation of the interest of the national debt to pay the principal as our only way of escape. In the first regular Message of Grant we see that order is brought out of chaos— that the debt is being rapidly paid off, and that, compared with our resources, it is but a bagatelle. Nay, more; we find a proposition for repudiation reduced to one vote, and that @ qualified vote, in Congress, and all the lead- ing democrats endorsing the doctrine of Grant—that the debt must and will be paid. Do not these things belong to the year of jubilee? Look, again, at the opening of the Pacific Railroad. Seven days only, and less, from New York to San Francisco—three thou- sand miles—-a journey in which the overland pioneers to California had to fight it out on that line all summer. Is this a small matter? And the reconstruction of Virginia, and Mis- sissippi and Texas, and the reconstruction of Georgia over again. Do not these measures show that the mew order of things is fixed and that the bewildered demo- cracy will have to go forward or clear the track? Yes. Furthermore, in the appoint- ment to office of American citizens of African descent, and of Indian descent, likewise, have we not a practical inauguration of the year of jubilee? James Buchanan, when our Minister at London, it is said, at a court reception, gave itas his opinion of the towering black Ambassador from Hayti that he would fetch at least fifteen hundred dollars under the ham- mer in New Orleans. General Grant, in receiving the African Ambassador from Hayti in the White House, congratulates him on the establishment ‘‘throughout all the land” of liberty and equality. Does not this, too, belong to the year of jubilee ? And then look at the Johnson treaty on those Alabama claims and at what has fol- lowed. With Sumner’s speech on that treaty and with its indignant rejection by the Senate we saw all England bristling for a fight and eager for the fray. But with the arrival at Liverpool of Grant’s Minister, Motley, the lion lies down like a lamb and the love of John Bull for Brother Jonathan is declared to be like the romantic attachment of David and Jonathan of old, ‘‘surpassing the love of women.” This, too, from the same | John Bull who “tried his level best” to stab Brother Jonathan under the fifth rib in our re- bellion of Absalom, that is, Jeff Davis. Was there ever such hostility changed into such affection as that of England for the American Union under General Grant? No. And yet, again, considering his packing up and packing off from Mexico is not the gracious regard of the Emperor Napoleon for Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, another evidence that the year 1869 may truly be recorded as the year of jubilee? We need not say much of our relations during the year with Brazil and Paraguay and Cuba and Spain, for they hardly belong toa jubilee. But Hayti is all right, and St. Do- mingo and Mexico and China and Japan, and the New Dominion is beginning to ripen at both ends and in the middle. Lastly, how- ever, the year 1869, in the November election of New York, opened wide the gates to the rejoicing demoéFacy for a regular democratic jubilee in 1870 upon a basis, in city jobs and general reforms, of five hundred millions of public plunder, Ab! ha! think of that. As old Field Marshal Blucher said, when looking down upon the wealth of London from the dome of St. Paul’s, so from a Tammany Hall lookout we may say to New York:— “Mein Got, vota city for to sack!” Verily, to the New York democracy “‘this shall be a year of jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every one into his own possession”—free lager, free Sundays and all, Yea, truly, the day approaches when it will no longer be necessary to fly from King Kennedy to the shades of Hoboken in order to devote the Sabbath to jovial King Gambrinus of the foaming mug. But if to the United States the year that is past may be called a year of jubilee, leaving out the Boston humbug, the year upon which we have entered promises even greater and more glorious things at home and abroad. At all events our greater constituencies near and afar off may rely ag heretofore upon a full exhibit, day by day, of passing events in both hemispheres in the columns of the Hrraxp. And so to our readers, with all the enjoyments of the festival, we conclude with the good old formula—‘‘A happy New Year and many re- turns of the day.” Europe and 1869. European affairs during the past year have been singularly interesting and not a little instructive. We have had already to talk of the ending of the Cuban difficulty, of the Suez Canal, of the Ecumenical Council, of the Irish Church, of French reforms, of the Alabama claims, of the deaths of great mep—such men, for example, as Earl Derby and others of the same or equal standing in almost all lands, and to-day we present the situation as it existed in England, Ireland, Germany, France, Russia and Turkey towards the latest days of De- cember. The year that is gone has been a big year for Europe and the world, On this Continent we can boast of much. But no one can deny that the Old World has made big and glorious strides toward the great future. Two things command attention—the Suez Canal and the Ecumenical Council. We do not despise French and English reforms; but we cannot refuse to admit that the Suez Canal and the great Catholic Council have been the events of the year. The Suez Canal is only a partial success and the Ecumenical Council promises to be a big failure. The canal is in harmony with the spirit of the age. It helps us on in our grand world efforts. The Council.is altogether a question of the doubtful future. This, however, must be said: the Old World marches on and success gives her hope. The hope is not the less all on the side of the peoples. More and more does Europe imitate America, and the universal impression is that the people are winning as against the privileged classes. So far as the last year is concerned the gain has been on the side of the people and in favor of general justice, A coup d'état after the fashion of that of 1848 is less possible than ever. The world must march on until we arrive at the time when the thinking sons of men shall be able to boast of a grand federation. The Latest Erle Outrage. On Wednesday night several men were arrested in the lower part of Broadway in the very act of committing what, in the simple light of common sense, appeared to the lookers on as ‘“‘flat burglary.” They were forcing the door of the office of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway Company. There were a dozen of them. Considering the hour, the number of persons and the violent character of their actions, the private watch- man on duty prudently appealed to the police, and the whole party was conducted to the nearest station, and subsequently to Police Headquarters. There the transaction soon appeared as one of the Erie Railway eccen- tricities—merely one of the little liberties which the present management of that organization seems privileged to take with the public peace and private property, and for which it always has ample legal warrant. Looking at the transaction through the legal gauze thus cast around it, he who had appeared as the leader of burglars #ood forth as a “receiver,” and whether such a receiver is any better than the receiver in the proverb remaias to be seen, They who had appeared as first burglar, second burglar, third burglar, and so on, up to the round dozen, suddenly became ‘‘Erie detectives,” and lest it should be thought by an obtuse guardian of the night that such a grand transformation of character from mid- night burglars to simple railroad officials was too startling for credence, behind these worthies came as vouchers for their honesty of purpose the voluble Fisk and a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Here was a scene to illustrate that inde- pendence of the trammels of form, that supe- riority to the irksomeness of routine and the established way of doing things that dis- tinguishes choice spirits of all times. These things were well illustrated in the act of the “detectives” aforesaid, who chose to appear as robbers when they were such excellent, honest men; but how much more in the Judge who, never fearing any accidents to his ermine, rushed with such noble haste to see justice done! Some men would have waited for the day- light—as if that could make any difference to Justice, with a bandage on her poor old eyes. Some men, careful of their character, fecling a necessity to seem honest as well as to bo honest, would have shielded themselves behind the law’s delay, and let the case take its own time, and the actions of the parties stand meanwhile on their merits as viewed by the police authorities. Nay, there are Judges, perhaps, so pitiful in spirit that they would have hesitated to go in the following of a litigant, lest it might give rise to some whisper or suspicion of partiality and undue leaning. Many judges, we say, would have stood on these trifles. But how happy ought we to be in the possession of a Judge superior to such prejudices—one whose regard to Jus- tice is such that he has no care in her cause for the purity of the ermine, and for his per- sonal character cares not a button ! But what was the origin of all this trouble? Erie, with an ambition to overstep State limits and to reach out to the great West, desired to extend her line by the length of the Atlantic and Great Western, which, running from Sala- manca, in this State, to Dayton, Ohio, consti- tutes or leads to a line of travel to every great Western city from Chicago to St. Louis and Cincinnati. Such an elongation of the Erie line would be a grand affair; but how was the Atlantic and Great Western road to be secured? It was too big to steal outright and with open force, and it lay inthree States. Three State govern- ments, and the Judges to boot, make too much of a team for one company to drive; so the transaction had to be covered up with some papers. Erie, therefore, leased the lina, afd agreed to pay rent; but when rent day came it did not pay, neither would it give up the property. If the Atlantic and Great Western men should endeavor by any active measures to enforce their rights they would only destroy their own property ; and in the meantime they were at liberty to take any expensive and tedions litigation they chose, while the men with whom they had bargained, standing intrenched in legal technicalities, were col- lecting and pocketing the income of their property. But the Erie men began to per- ceive that their tenure under a lease would not answer all purposes; so they. started their legal mill and ground out a receivership, having their man appointed by the Judge to take possession under the law. He was taking possession, more or less, on Wednesday night, and it looked so much like burglary as to de- ceive the police. And the sanction of our courts is given to such transactions! Our Judges are as much apart of the machinery used in the violation of law as the housebreaker’s jimmy. Is our society and the whole fabric of law, politics and morality rotten through and through that these things can happen, or are all the hitherto received ideas of right and justice mere idle, ridiculous, nonsensical Botions? Wedo not believe that the world has hitherto been all wrong in its notions on these old-fashioned topics, yet we are not willing to accept the alternative that our society has fallen into such rottenness that the lines of division between right and wrong are blurred and lost. Itis in the power of the Judge who appears in these transactions to assure the world that we have not yet abol- ished the principle of property in this State, and that all values are not up for that sort of general legal scramble in which the fellows with least claim or conscience and most impu- dence are sure to gain all. We call upon this Judge, in the name of the sacred trust he holds from the people, to retrace the termbly mis- taken steps he has lately made—steps that can by no possibility lead to an honorable or justly desirable goal. The Albany Lookout. ‘The happy family of democrats and republi- cans are now collecting in. Albany ready for the constitutional opening of the Legislature on Tuesday next, more like a museum happy family than the picture of the millennium, There are mice, cats, rabbits and snakes in the hotel cages, and but a few lambs and lions, To-day all the State officers recently elected are to be sworn in, and through New Year's Day and Sunday every politician's pop- gun will be aimed at the bull's eye of harmony. Governor Hoffman's message will reach the happy family about Tuesday afternoon. It will ba pitched at the high note of a baritone voice for economy. Inasmuch aa most of the claimants in the rural districts ave republicans, this pitch will harm them and generally benefit the democratic future. He will preach for lower taxes and the accommodation of canal rates, 80 as to compete with Commodore Van- derbilt and James Fisk in carrying freight cheap. He will give the State prisons a serious overhauling and point out some excellent reforms in criminal jurisprudence. He will wisely abstain from mixing himself up with the fifteenth amendment, and leave the legisla- tors to paddle their own canoes over the Con- gressional rapids. He will recommend a uniform voter enrolment law, that can permit of a man enrolling even on election day. He will demand, inthe name of Saint Gambrinus and the Teutonic ballot box, that the present Excise law be modified so as to satisfy the lovers of potations without raising the ire of the religious element. He will ask that in our city the Mayor shall become in fact as in name the Chief Executive, and be held responsible for everything and everybody, and of course get by statute the requisite authority. He will recommend that the State return to specie payment of the interest on its bonds, The Senate will make the political mistake of appointing as Clerk a New Yorker. Albany will get the Clerk of the Assembly. New York will probably receive the Speakership; and as New York already has the Governor, and the Erie Railway and the Central corporation, and in Bismarck Sweeny the Warwick of democracy, of course the rural districts must be contented with the chestnuts of pageships and sergeants-at-arms and other little roasting or snapping dishes. Brooklyn wants an origi- nal Jacobs for Speaker, but she will have to content herself with Henry C, Murphy, the Father of the Senate, as honorary President of the Senate whenever Lieutenant Governor Beach is washed away by an engagement. The office of Speaker requires practised qualities, and public history demonstrates that only a few men are fitted for its delicate duties, Whenever the right man for this right bower of parliamentary euchre has been found and proved his party usually hold on to him if they are prudent, Thus the republicans for many years gave Mr. Littlejohn a lease of the Speakership at Albany and Mr. Colfax at Washington. The democrats will not be likely to hunt after new material. This is all that the uncertain white man of Albany yet develops, but in all the foregoing particulars he has spoken oracularly, The Red River Rebellion. The New Dominion is not likely to have a very easy time in quieting the disturbance in the Red River country, and it is entitled to no friendly offices from us in the premises. We should especially not permit, for any reason or in any circum- stances, the use of the territory of the United States in the suppression of this disaffection. All these populations in the vast districts to the north and west of our Territories gravi- tate towards this Union. The people them- selves feel and acknowledge this, while the governments deny it, and our réle certainly should not be to favor such governments against such peoples. The appeal of British Columbia, crying for annexation, tells the feeling of every man to the north of us, While the colonies were the appanage of the British crown a sentiment of loyalty held the thoughts of the people and stilled the argument of interest; but if there is to be a change their allegiance shall go where their interest directs, and that is not Canada. Governor McDougall and Colonel Dennis, who have arrived at St. Cloud, Minn., rather scout the idea of annexation being a popular idea, They say that the priests oppose it and that the Indians would rise to a man and do dreadful things if it were attempted. The rebellion itself, they say, is a small matter, only a small portion of the people being engaged init, but they believe it has been instigated by the Hudson Bay Company and Governor McTavish himself, and through their connection alone assumes importance. He Fired Back. The Coroner's jury in the case of the watch- man murdered by a junk pirate have brought in a verdict against the ruffian, and we hope there will be no unnecessary delay in the suc- ceeding steps to the gallows. It is swift jus- tice that appalls the hearts of these wretches, Tell them they are to be hanged in a year and they laugh. There are so many chances turn- ing up ina year—so much may be done in that time. But tell them they shall be hanged in three days, and prove it by some examples, and punishment has some terror, not only for the individual, but for the. whole class, The scope of the common mind seldom reaches beyond to-day—never beyond next week— and the untrained intellect cannot comprehend with any sense of its reality what is to take place in an ill-defined future. There is no moral doubt of the guilt of the man Perry, and we presume his guilt can be made as clear legally as it ig morally, The positive declara- tion of the dying man as to bis identity is = great deal, and the remarkable corroboration from his own lips that he had that night “‘fired back” when shot at is even more. It is diff- cult to see how a defence can avoid the force of these points, The Year in Wall Street. The year 1869 will be memorable in financial history for its great gold and stock panics. It opened upon the formation of extensive cliques and speculative combinations in Wall street, whose doings have been the talk of both conti- nents, It witnessed a period of remarkable inflation in stocks, which, under the manipu- lation of these cliques, were driven to the acme of valuation. The tide steadily rose from January to September, on the 22d of which latter month came the turning point. Those who remember the stock panic of 1864 will be struck with the coincident features of both. In 1864 the Stock Exchange was calm and unruffed as a summer sky. Suddenly Fort Wayne, which had been forced up fifty or sixty per cent, came down with a crash. The whole market broke with it in a terrible panic, Last September the crash came as unexpectedly. On the 22d, just after New York Central had been called at the morning hoard, and while the president was passing to the next stock on the list, there was an outcry atthe rear of the room. Central had broken ; no one could tell. why. It rallied temporarily and then broke again, falling in a few days about sixty per cont. On Friday, the 24th, came the gold panic. The famous clique had “‘bulled” the price all the way to 165, when suddenly the Secretary of the Treasury ordered a sale of four millions of the govern- ment gold. The effect was magical. The price dropped instantly to 183. The disaster inflicted by these panics was widespread. At least half a dozen suicides have been one result. The failures among brokers, bankers and merchants have been innumerable. Who- ever was tainted with the gold speculation was burt, Since that time gold has - gradually fallen to 119}—a difference of 45} per cent between the highest and lowest points of the year. Fortunately the panic, like in 1864, was confined to Wall street. The crash of 1857 extended over the whole country and involved every interest, financial and commercial. Then the currency of the country was circum- scribed, and the attempted liquidation of paper produced general bankruptcy. Now our paper currency is expanded to eight hundred mil- lions—an abundance which has confined the more recent panics to speculative circles only. The experience of 1864 and 1869 shows that a recurrence of 1857 is impossible until the country grows up to the currency or until the currency is violently contracted. The Weather in Europe—Melancholy Remi- niscences of the Old Year. Cable telegrams from Europe to-day go to show that our friends in many parts of the Old World have not been favored with such fine weather as that which ushered in the New Year’s morning to ourselves. The despatches announce that the closing hours of 1869 were marked by the prevalence of fearful and disas- trously fatal gales and snow storms, A tre- mendous gale swept over the city of Limerick, Ireland, causing much damage to property and the loss of ten lives. The British coast expe- rienced a similar visitation. Many marine losses are reported. A bark bound from Montreal for Greenock was driven ashore on the coast of Ireland, the captain and seven of the crew being drowned. Severe weather prevailed at Hamburg, the Elbe was blocked with ice and navigation above the city suspended. The French and English mails failed to reach Madrid, Spain, during four days, as the roads in the country were completely impeded with snow. These advices will bring uneasiness to many a happy family circle in New York to-day, and many a bright eye will be dimmed and many a fond heart humbled, awaiting further advices from the countries referred to. We are sorry for all this, but must ever remember that in the chastisements of the Lord are mostly found His greatest and most tender mercy to man. Atmost ANoTHER Mininc Horror.—The breaker of the Nottingham mine, at Plymouth, Pa.—the scene of the Avondale calamity— caught fire on Thursday while fifty-five miners were below. No intimation was given them of their danger until the fire, by great exer- tions, was extinguished, When the miners came up and heard of the danger they had incurred an indignation meeting was held and they compelled the owner of the mines to take greater precau- tions and arrange greater facilities for escape before they would descend again. The owner did so grudgingly. Following so closely on the Avondale casualty and occurring in the immediate scene of that horror, this threatened disaster ought to offer an effective warning to the mine owners, and on their heads ought to fall the direct responsibility of their neglect or refusal to provide against such fatal accidents. But until the law reaches them they will go on as before, even in the face of a dozen such disasters. Toe Recorps or THE Past YEAR.—To sum up ina slight degree the work of the old year just gone we publish this morning a num- ber of statistical articles, including the records | of the Coroners’ Office and the criminal courts and a list of fires in the United States during the past twelve months, where the losses amounted to over twenty thou- sand dollars each. A recapitulation of the Coroners’ records shows that there were forty-two homicides in this city during the year. Two of them were matters of absorbing interest at the time—that of Charles M, Rogers, who was killed in broad daylight in front of bis own door, in January last, by some one who is still at large, and that of Albert D. Richardson. The records of the criminal courts show that there was but one conviction for murder in the first degree and three acquit- tals. The record of fires shows that the total losses for the year in the United States was over forty million dollars. Tre Soran is out with a violent despatch to the Viceroy of Egypt on the subject of his iron-clad war vessels. The Viceroy did not reply to the first note from Constantinople. It looks as if the water of the Bitter Lakes has been let into the Suez Canal too freely. The East is cloudy at New Year, despite its Christ- mas brilliaucy. a WASHINGTON. Family Quarrel Among the Louisi- ana Radicals, POPOL LOPE DOP DER Cty The Darien Ship Canal Expedition. The New York Post Office 'nves- tigation Farce. WASHINGTON, Dec, 31, 1.469. Quarrel Among Louisiana Republicans—E ight Over the New Orleans Custom House. Collector Casey, of New Orleans, who arrived bere last night, bad an interview with Secretary Boutwell and also with the President to-day rele tive to the affairs of his office. For some time pare the extreme radicals of New Orleans, under the lead. of ex-Governor Hahn, have been making a fight upon Casey with a view to his removal. There are no charges preferred agatnst him directly impeack- ing bis integrity as an officer or going to show thas he falls to coilect the revenue. The objection to him 1s purely of a personal and political nature. It seems there are cliques and rings in the repabil- can party of Loutsana as well as in other States ‘The most powerful of these has for ite leaders. among others, Governor Hahn. Habn wants another -man for Coilector in place of Casey, at least so Casey’s friends say, and he charges that Casey has been working against the interests of the repubhieam party in Louisana by appointing persons to office tn the Custom House who are not republicans, Casey says that all of the appointmenta complained of were made at the instance of prominent republicans, and he supposed that, coming so recommended, they’ must be all right. Until lately he has never heard their political statues called in question. In his interview with Secretary Boutwell he stated tnat ‘he believed a conspiracy existed to get him out, and that those who were engaged 1n it would not scrupie to employ any means they thought would accomplish their object. Casey contends that he is as good a repub> lican as Hahn, and promises if there are any demo- crate in the New Orleans Custom House to replace them with republicans; but fe does not intend to submit to the dictation of such men as Hahn in the management of his office. Casey, it is understood, ie sustained by Governor Kellogg, of Louisiana, and @ large proportion of the prominent republicans outside the Hahn faction. The Darien Expedition. The statement that the naval expedition charged, with making surveys for the Darien Ship Cana would not be able to depart until an appropriation had been made for it by Congress is pronounced un- true at the Navy Department, The vessels composing the expedition have been orderea to be ready for sea on the 16th of January, and will sali between tnat date and the 20th. There is a fund which can be drawn upon for all the present needs of the work, and if more is necessary Congress will be asked for it The Navy Department has made all necessary ar- rangements to insure success in the matter of making the surveys, and the entire supervision of the work being under tne charge of Admiral Davis, who has had experience on the Isthmus of Darien, there is hardly any probability of tajlare. ‘The Post Office Investigating Committee. The citizens of New York may get some clearer understanding of the cause of the presence of Farnesworth’s ‘Investigating Committee’ at the Astor House if they will remember that Uriah H. Painter 1s clerk of the committee, and that General Hulburd, of the St. Lawrence district, New York, is the superintendent of the present Post Ofies construction. Painter was arraigned a few months ago before a special committee of Congress, of which Hulburd was chairman, for attempting to influence the late Robert J. Walker and his asso- ciate counsel for the Russian government, Mr. Frederick P, Stanton. Mr. Hutburd had suMicient sense of duty to disobey Farnesworth, Roscoe Cockling and others who wished Painter “white. washed,” and hence he 1s pursued by a reinvestiga- tion committee, with the intent to drive him out of his present place. Your Washington correspondent will get meat in all this by “interviewing” General Mullet. Painter is the telegrapher for the New York Sun and Philadelphia Inquirer, and of course he refuses to give the points of the investigation to your reporters, He is an ignorant man and 1s kept upon the Sun by the Conklings, who fear him, and upon the Inquirer by the brothers George and William Hard- ing, not to write, but to do their lobbying, as they own railroad stock, &c., in Washington city. The above is one great object of this investigation. Another object is to strike somebody for money, God knows whom! Perhaps Mr. Mullett can tell. Be- tween these matters you will observe that your Post Office edifice 18 being mude the object of mutual Piracy between the corporation of New York and the Postal Committee of the United States House of Representatives, ‘Ihe treaty negotiated for a lower rate of postage with Europe was another act of the Farnsworth- Painter committee, with the intent to drive off and disgust the Cunard, Inman and other lines, and secure @ contract for other parties, Painter is the great mover. It 1s not Farnsworth’s committee; it is Patnter’s raid on the Post Office, And away up at the top round of the Postal Departmont sits respec- “ table cupidity winking at all this, while it preaches down the franking privilege. ‘The President as a Promenader. President Grant took a long walk through the town to-day, promenading along the avenue, F and Fourteenth streets, where he wss greeted by his numerous friends. Tho President has become famous as a walker lately. . Typographical Error in Printing the Presi- dent’s Message. As comment has heretofore been made on @ mis- print in President Grant’s annual message, which represented him as saying that “the United Staves 1s the first of all nations,” itis proper to state that in the manuscript, as furnished to the press, the proper word is “freest,” the entire sentence reading “The United States is the freest of all nations; so, too, its people sympathize with all people struggling for librety and self-government.” [The Message was published correctly in the HERALD.) The Winnipeg Insurrection. No proclamation has, as reported, been prepared at the Department of State declaring the neutrality of this government in the Winnipeg insurrection, nor is it known that any is contemplated. Up to noon to-day nothing whatever had occurred to sug- gest such a proceeding. Territorial Dispute Between England and Portugal. The governments of Portugal and Great Britain severally claim possession of the island of Bolama, on the western coast of Africa, und to certain portions of territory opposite to that island on the mainiand. The positions are valuable only in connection with facilities for carrying on the slave trade. Unable to settle the question of possession themselves, those governments have chosen the President of the United States as umpire. The time for filing their respective docuinents at the Department of Stute, expired to-day. MUSICAL AND THEATRICAL NOTES. New Year's Day is not, by any means, a great day at our theatres, Almost everybody who cares for amusement will, on this particular day, seek it else- where than within the four walla of a playhouse. ‘This is why it 13 that so few matinée performances are announced for this afternoon. At the Fitth Avenue theatre we are prormsed “Everybody's Friend;’’ at the Olympic, the drama of “Under the Gaslight;” at the Grand Opera House, Lingard, Dun- ing and “Pluto;’’ at the Museum, the gorgeous ning tyelia;” at Tammany, “Bad Dickey; at the Tbe Forty Thi 3? at the Circus, “Cim- Tony Pastor ra louse, drama and at the Comique varienes, at the Waverley, era ‘House, in Brook- Bower! dereli varieties; minstrelsy and at Hooiey’s Oj lyn, & dose of the same. he Onondaga gypsum gypsy will receive his triends, as usual, at Apollo Hall. For the evening good programmes have been arranged at all of the theatres, and it is more than rovable that each and every one of them will be Fargely patronized by such happy catlers as are no’ completely tired out aiter the trying fatigues of the day. sh if