The New York Herald Newspaper, February 6, 1870, Page 6

aE SEE Sno eee NEW YORK HERALD|™ ™""" BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, AMUSEMENTS TO-MORROW EVENING. FRENCH THEATRE, 14th st, and 6th av.—Genxvinve DE BRAUANT. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Brosaway.—Sznious Fauci — ‘Tua Spire ine. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth st.—Suar; ©, SUMMER SCENES aT LONG’ Buaxon. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.-Geaxp RONANTIO Poar or Tan Duxx's Morro, ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Lath etreot.—lrauran OPER a— MABANIELLO. WOOD'S MUSEUM AND MENAGERIE, Proadway, cor- ner Thirtieth st.—Mutinee daily. Performance every ereuing. BOWERY THEATRE, Kowery.—Bvck, Buck, Bow MANY HORNS; On, GOLD UP To 165, bc. THE TAMMANY, Fourteenth stree!.—Tuk SORLESQUE op Tae SrvEN. adway and 1512 street. WALLACK’ THEATRE, SCHOOL. GRAND OPERA HO! ¢ Eighth avenue and 98d st.--Tae PWELVE BOOTH'S THEATRE, 25d st. between Sch snd 6th ave,— Epwin Boor 48 HAMLET, MRS, ¥. B, CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn, — Tae Faimy Cr LER—THe CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTHY. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Couto VocaLism, NEGRO MINSTRELBY, £0. THRATRE COMIQUE, 81 Broadway.—Couto Vooal ism, Neoko Acts, de. BRYANI’S OPERA’ HOUSE, Tammany Builing, Mth S—BRYANI'S MINSTRELS. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, Plan MinsrRetsy, N&GRO ACTS, Bros 'way.—ET@1o “Hase.” KELLY & LEON'S MINSTRELS, 720 Broadway.—ETu10- PIAN MINSTRELSEY, NeGno Acts, ac NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteent! treet. EQUESTRIAN AND GYMNASTIO PERFORMANCES, 40. HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE, Brook)yn.-Hooury's MINSTEXLY—Tue THEATRIOAL AGRNOY, &0. APOLLO HALL, corner 28th street and Broadway.— Tug New Hiskanioon, New York, Sunday, February 6, 1870. T, OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. CORTES Pace. Advertisements. 2—Advertisements. B—New York Vity Newa—The Queens of Finance— ‘The Loss of the Yacht Meteor—A Detective Prevents a Burglary—Brooklyn City News— The Furman Street Murder—Taxation in Brooklyn — Departure of Prince Arthur for Boston—Fire in Maiden Lane—Paris Fashious—Washington News—Queer Medical Practice. 4—Europe: The Question of Commerce in France and Great Britain; Rochefort’s Condition and and Preparation for Trial—Meeting of the New Quarantine Commissioners—The Artal Fire- brand—Mormonism: Practical Operations of the New Schismatic Movement—Keligtous In- telligence—Marine Transfers—Ice Cutting on the Missouri River~Fish on @ Spree. 5—Proceedings in the New York and Brooklyn Courts Yesterday—The Ball Season—Financtal and Commercial Reports—The Western Union Telegraph Company—Art Notes—The Boyiston Bank Robbery, 6—Editoriais: Leading Article on the Nineteenth Century, the New Era of Progress—Amuse- ment Announcements. 7—Telegraphic News from All Parts of the World: Papal Uitramontanism and tne Lay Govern- ments; English Opinion of United States Finance ; British Telegraphs at Work Under the Government; Terrible Gale on the North Caroling Coast—The Twelve Temptations: Grand Reception of the Prince of Erie at the Grand Opera House—Business Noticos. S—The Turfmen's Congress—The Winter and the Poor—Marriages and Deaths—Advertisementa, 9—Advertisements. 10—The Dog Pit Mission: Holiness tu Kit Burne’ Shebang—Woman's Suffrage—The Jersey City Charter—News from the State Capital—Army and Navy Intellt- gence—Robbery at the National ‘Trust Company’s UMce—The Third Philharmonic Concert Last Night—Musical and Theatrical Notes—Music im Europe—vbituary—The Railroad Blockade in Jersey— Meeting of the German Democratic General Committee—Attempt to Shoot a Woman—The Great Diamond ttobbery—Arrest of a Promi- nent Politician—European Markete—Shipping Inteliigence—Advertisements. 11—Advertisements. 12—Advertisemen Peter tHe Great—Peter B. Sweeny; Peter the Little—Peter Mitchell. Let the less get included, as soon as possible, under the greater, according to logical rule. Tae Loss of THE Metgor.—In another column will be found the only particular ac- count yet given, we believe, of the disaster to the splendid yacht Meteor. Her loss, in the absence of any great violence of wind or sea, fs fully explained in the statement that she struck on 2 coral reef. GALE IN THE ATLANTIC.—Despatches from Wilmington, N. C., report the wrecking of four vessels off the coast by a terrible gale which prevailed along the coast on Friday night. The extent of the disasters by the storm cannot as yet be known, but, as it pre- wailed here alao, and probably along the en- 4ire length of the coast, we may soon receive dong lists of disasters. | Smoxe.—The cigar makers are uneasy. There is a probability that the duty on im- ported cigars will be reduced, and this, no doubt, would be a change that the vast ma- fority of men in the country would wel- ome; but the cigar makers protest against it. ‘The law suits them, and so never mind what the people want—only consider the cigar makers. This is the spirit of protection every- ‘where—oppressing the many for the benefit of the few. Nova Scoma Keers rr Ur.—Another evi- @ence of the disaffection of the Canadian prov- §nces comesfrom Nova Scotia, where a meet- ing was recently held, at which resolutions ‘were passed declaring confederation a failure, and favoring annexation to the United States. Thus we have Newfoundland, Winoipeg, Bri- tish Columbia, Nova Scotia and a strong party fin Canada proper opposing the confederation scheme. At this rate the New Dowinion will mever become an old Dominion. A ConoressioS$aL Grain Exevator.—But- Falo has a sensation in grain. It is said that a Congressman of that district obtained from the banks eighty or ninety thousand dollars on the gecurity of grain stored in his elevator, and $hat then he privately removed and sold the grain. This Is looked upon as a dishonest transaction out there, but we have no doubt the Congressman got the hint from the national ank system of finance, which does constantly ite jame thing in money that this man did in gan ww YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1870.—TRIPLE SHEET, Contary—The New Era of Progress. ; We live in an age which may well be called the age of miracles. The nineteenth century, as compared with all previous centuries, has been a century of miracles. The decade which bas just ended, as compared with all previous decades, has been a decade of miracles. We use the word miracle advisedly, for the tri- umphs of progress in these later years have been such that we cannot include them in the mere category of wonders, In the earlier years of the world’s history progress was slow, ‘and slow necessarily. Men vegetated rather than lived. In the days of Methuselah, and even later, life was easy; but 60 now Is the life of the cabbage and the cauliflower. Men had first to learn to use their hands; by and by the hands became skilful and made tools, and later they used the tools with skill and to some purpose. In proportion as science has come to the aid of man life has become intense, Men began to live years in days—hours in minutes, But though progress has been more or less steady, the ratio of speed has been slow until compara- tively recent times, Life at one time was but an easy, gentle walk; later it quickened into a march, to a double quick march, toa run; now we rush on, not only with all the force and rapidity of steam, but with the swiftness of the thunderbolt. Since the days of the peagreen Tally Ho and the* yellow Independent, only some thirty odd years ago, how we have rushed and leaped and bounded forward! There are some who see no real good in what we have been in the habit of calling modern progress. Such persons point to the failure of many grand social experiments; to the increasing poverty of the poor, espe~ cially in the older countries, and to the increasing riches of the rich; to the gradually decreasing influence of religion on all ranks and classes of the people; to the havoc which the love of individual liberty is working among all the most sacred relations of social life, and to the notorious increase of the most heinous crimes in our grandest and proudest centres of modern civilization, It is not to be denied that all these charges are too well founded. Science, the growth of knowledge among the people, the multiplica- tion of material agents subordinate to the use of man—these, while they have given mana greater power for good, have also given him a greater power for evil. That modern pro- gress is not an unmixed good we will at once admit; but it must be’ repeated nd repeated that the evil is not in the acience, not in the increased knowledge, not in any of the material agents. Whatever evil there is asso- ciated with modern progress is to be traced to its ancient source, the heart of man, It is not our opinion, however, that man is worse now than he was. On the contrary it is our conviction that in the aggregate, man, in the later years of the nineteenth century, whenever at least be has come under the influence of those distinctive forces which we associate with modern civilization, is a wiser, nobler, better animal than he ever was before, Nor have we yet given up hope that his improve- ment morally will yet keep better pace with the rapid strides of material progress. Whatever doubts may exist as to whether man has improved morally, there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who knows his- tory that life, as life, has been rendered greatly more enjoyable. All the earlier civilizations, all the civilizations not European, of which we have any knowledge, were marked by two dis- tinctive features. There were but two classes— the rulers and the ruled. The rulers were tyrants; the people were slaves. This was true of India and of Egypt; it was true also of Mexico and Peru. The result of the grind- ingtyranny under which the people suffered is painfully visible in the India of to-day. The colossal remains of Memphis and of Thebes have for more than three thousand years com- manded the admiration and wonder of man- kind; but not every one who lifts his eyes to the summit of the great pyramid, or who wan- ders wonderingly among the ruins of Karnak, reflects that those monumental glories are, after all, the records of a nation’s shame. In carrying @ single stone from Elephantine to Saie two thousand men were occupied for three years. The ancient Red Sea Canal cost the lives of one hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians. To build one of the Pyramids it required the labor of three hun- dred and sixty thousamd men for twenty years. We have mentioned Mexico and Peru, not becaugg those countries have any direct connection with the main stream of human progress, but because, similarly situated to India and Egypt, they developed a not dis- similar civilization. The taste in Mexico and Peru went out in the direction of huge struc- tures. In Peru, for example, the erection of the royal residence occupied during fifty years twenty thousand men, while o similar resi- dence in Mexico for a period proportionally long exhausted the time and strength of two hundred thousand, With such figures before us it is impossible to exaggerate the misery of the popu lations. From the dawn of civilization in Europe the condition of the people has gradually improved. We cannot too highly honor the Greeks and the Romans for the services they did to humanity. We owe much to them, aud we ought ever to be willing to acknowledge our debt, But there were slaves in Greece, and the privi- leges of a Roman citizen were but slowly and reluctantly extended to the masses of the people. It was not until Christianity had leavened Roman society and taught them that in the eyes of the Great Ruler all men were equal that the people began to feel that they had a place in the body politic. Even under Christianity, however, there wag atill a deep and wide gulf between the peasant and the feudal lord, and many of the grandest speci- mens of ecclesiastical architecture in Europe recall the memory of a state of things not much better than that which gave birth to the Pyramids and to the colossal vanities of Thebes. It was the printing press which gave the first vigorous impulse to modern progress. Greece had done much by ‘her literature; Rome had done more by her conquests and her laws; the Church had done more than either by creating a healthful moral sentiment, and by proclaiming alike to rich and poor, alike to the peasant and to the prince, that there wasa Power mightier than either, and that He was just and good and true; but jt was not until — books began to be multiplied that the mind of man was fully awakened. Yet how slow was the progress! The first great reeult of the printing press was the religious revolution of the sixteenth century ; the second was the political revolution ia England, which cost one King his head and drove another into exile; the third was the declaration of American independence; the fourth, and following in rapid succession, was the great French Revolution, which shook, not France only, but Europe and the whole world. To this same period, and following naturally from the same cause, belongs the invention of the steam engine. It is, however, to the last thirty years that we owe the most wondrous revolutions, How we have bounded for- ward! How the world has changed! Thirty years ago we were a two days’ journey from Washington and a three mouths’ voyage from the nearest British port. Now we can reach San Francisco in seven days and cross the Atlantic in a week. Look where we may we see the same signa of progress. In a few weeks London will be in direct telegraphic commu- nication with Bombay, Calcttta and Madras. In a few months more Melbourne and Sidney and the New Zealand ports will share the privi- lege. In all directions science is giving man the mastery of nature. The crooked places are being made straight, the rough places plain. We know no barrier. We dread no difficulty. The elements have become our obedient servants. What greater power is yet to be given us? To what unknown future are we tending? We have caught the winds and made them the carriers of. the globe. We have tamed the mighty ocean and made it the pathway of commerce. We have seized the flerce lightning and made it the swift messen- ger of thought. What gives additional value to these triumphs is that they have been won by and in the interest of the people. We build no more pyramids, because we know no slavery. One hundred years hence, what other changes will have taken place? That the world will be grander, and men nobler, happier and more united we cannot allow ourselves to doubt. We can see thrones crumbling to pieces and ‘national barriers everywhere disap- pearing. ‘‘ We can see,” to quote the words of the eloquent and philosophic De Maistre, “the human family rushing together towards some immense unity; but of the name and nature of that unity it is not yet safe to speak with authority.” The New Clty Charter—Restoration of the Boon of Self-Government, New York, long worthily dignified with the title of Empire City—an imperium in im- perio—will shortly have restored to it all the rights, privileges, prerogatives and dignities which properly appertain to it in the way of municipal government. After a dark inter- regnum of twenty-five years—an interregnum of usurpation, of misgovernment and of com- plete abnegation on the part of the dominant political party of the chartered and inherent rights of the citizens—we have once more dawning on us the promise of a return to the legitimate rule of the people. It is to be hoped that that promise will have its expected fulfilment, and that the municipal government will again be vested in the hands of the citi- zens, to be exercised by them through their chosen representatives. The proposed new charter now under consideration in the lower house of our State Legislature, and which may be very appropriately termed ‘‘our new Magna Charta,” will, when it shall have passed both branches of the Legislature and received the assent of the Executive—which it certainly will receive in due time—provides for all this, Responsible government in our city will no longer be a thing of the past. The reign of extravagance, fraud and irre- sponsibility which has so long prevailed will be brought to an end, and order and good government substituted in their stead. The experience of our. citizens for the past twenty-five years has been that of chartered privileges disregarded and ignored ; of contemned rights and of usurped power ; of partial and unjust legislation, looking solely to the aggrandisement of person and party at the expense of the general welfare. During all this period of anti-democratic misrule the ad- ministration of our city affairs has been that of utter incapacity, of fraud and spoliation that has no parallel in our history. It has been an era of political jobs, of corrupt party boards and incompetent and costly commis- sions, This is a truthful retrospect of the past quarter of a century, during which this great metropolis, under the rule of Guelph or Ghibbeline, whig or republican supremacy, has been deprived of its chartered rights and the citizens oppressed under a load of most unwarrantable and excessive taxation. The turning point has, however, been reached. The new charter will prove the great restorative to the body politic, so long prostrated under republican quack nostrums. The malignant opposition evinced to it by two republican sheets and the insidious and treach- erous attacks of a pseudo democratic city organ are the best assurances the people could have presented to them of its certain efficacy. Under the operations of this new charter un end will be put to the reign of violence, lawlessness and terror that has so long dominated in our midst. We shall have under the new régime provided by it an active, capable and efficient police, regenerated Health and Fire Departments and other municipal boards. The government of the city, like that of ancient Rome in the last days of the republic, will be in the hands of a triumvirate, holding power from and responsi- ble to the people for the proper discharge of their official duties. This body will be com- posed of the Mayor (the executive head) the Comptroller and Corporation Counsel—a simple, consistent and homogencous plan of municipal government. In this triumvirate we shall have represented the three most important departments of the city govern- ment—the Executive, the Financial and the Judicial—three co-ordinate branches emanat- ing from the people of the city, just as our national government in its co-ordinate branch is represented through the voice of the people of the whole country. Under this new order of things we shall need no Tarpeian rock outside our city limits to punish any malfeasance in office. The heads of each of these departments will be accountable to the people, and the people's ballote will ever be the qurest and simplest mode of expressing public discontent and dis- posing of false, moompetent or unworthy rulers, Responsibility is the best incentive to public probity, Heretofore there was no responsibility, and, of course, no dread of publio censure or condemnation. Public opinion, being powerless to reach the aggres- sor, had no effect, and was, consequently, utterly disregarded by the public delinquent, Apart, therefore, from all political or party feeling, hias or prejudice, and with but a sin- gle desire for the good government of our great and noble city, we bail the proposed new charter as a public boon to the citizens at large. We do not now speak of the bill in all its details, but merely as a measure restoring to the people their inherent and inalienable right of self-government through their own legally elected representatives, and of which they have been so long most unjustly deprived. Reference to and comment upon the various provisions of the bill must be the subject of another article; but hore we do say that the members of the Legislature from the city who originated and introduced the bill, must see to it that it shall be passed through both branches with all proper despatch. Again, the members of our city delegation, and the no less equally interested representatives from Kings county, owe it to themselves, to their own political future and to the great future of the Empire City and its flourishing sister over the water to see that the new Magna Charta of municipal govern- ment shall not be unnecessarily delayed in its passage through theirchamber. In conclusion, we congratulate our fellow citizens on the prospect of a speedy return to self-govern- ment to be secured to them through the oper- ation of the new city charter of 1870. The America’s Cup. The cup won by the yacht America is a national trophy—and something more. It has @ peculiar interest to the whole country as an evidence of the victory of the little craft which bore our colors in a contest that arrayed against her the best boats and the best sailors of the people who are our only rivals on the ocean. It is the sign of a fact that is signifi- cant in a national sense—-the fact that the American people tried, with equal oppor- tunity, have at least no superiors on the sea, In the race this cup memo- rizes a first class American yacht sailed against a fleet of yachts that represented the best nautical skill of England, and beat them, with distance to spare, Here was a simple trial of those qualities in the two people that have made them great maritime nations. In his origin the sailor is merely a man thrown upon the sea with a piece of tim- ber. He is driven to dare the element by some necessity in his circumstances. If he has not those qualities of head, hand and heart that fit him for the struggle with winds and waters, he remains a man on a piece of tim- ber as long as he lasts. He may get a second timber and a crosspiece, and may stumble on the contrivance of a rudimentary sail, or he may get his timber dug out on one side. This is as far os certain races ever get, though compelled to struggle with the sea for indefinite agea. On the con- trary, if the mao bas the sailor in his natuxe his timber gets a rudder, a mast, a keel, a bowsprit, and in time becomes a ship. Now, there are differences in the degrees of excel- lence to which the sailor races rise in this devel- opment of their craft. One has an eye for grace and trims his craft to please the sense of beauty, and the other, caring little for this, secures perhaps some equivalent advantage. The final question is as to who has the best average of good qualities, and this question between peoples is never to be determined save by such a practical teat as that in which the America beat the British fleet—a test which fully proved the qualities of the peoples who are the two great rivalg for the master, of the ocean. it is because it is significant $ the result of such a contest that the cup won by the America has @ national interest. But it promises to become also to the world at large a symbol of supremacy on the sea. British yachtmen, recognizing this character in it, chafe at the thought that such a symbol should so long remain here, and desire to make it subject to another test. Their theory ig that since we won the cup there have been such changes in the relative status of the nations, as shipbuilders and sailors, that this cup, so far as it is a sign Of superiority in these respects, is no longer justly ours; They claim that they profitably accepted the unplea- sant lesson of the America’s triumph, relin- quished the errors that they had held till then, and since that time have greatly improved their vessels in all the capabilities of good ships, while we, on the other hand, have remained stationary. It is, we believe, certain that this claim is in some measure just; but no evidence has yet been given of this by a victory over American yachts. We do not forget the Sappho; but the fact that she was crippled deprives her defeat of a fair value asa test of the points at issue. There has been a change in vessels relatively in some “important respects, For instance, in the time of the America the best point of the British yachts was to sail before the wind.- The America was best on the wind. Now our boats are better before the wind than they then were, and English yachts have improved in what was their bad point. We do not know that the change has been so great as to completely reverse the respective excellences, but the boats are at least nearer an average. The fact of such a change makes it probable that there may be others as yet less evident. It is only natural that Englishmen, aware of this change, should desire a new trial. If they should beat us the cup would go once more to their side; and thus in future the world may see this trophy changing hands—the sign for ages of the possession of the supremacy it symbolizes—becoming a sort of sailors’ Holy Grail; and as it was fabled in old times that the Holy Grail would be found wherever were the best virtues of a Christian knight, so this may indicate the whereabouts of the best qualities of a maritime people. We ought, then, to be sure that this trophy does not pass out of our hands except upon the certainty that some other people build better ships and man them with better sailors than ours. The only English yachtman who has made any proposition with rogard to this ou entertains an idea of a race that certaialy “Thas Dines the World Away” The science of seduction by dining t& of early date. Our first parents were tempted by an apple, and we are told that when Lucius Cornelius Lentulus (B. C. 50) desired to be installed as Flamen of Mars he gave ® sumptuous repast to L. J. Cesar, the augur, who was the Sweeny of that date, and tos number of politicians of the class ia our day of Norton and Genet. Macrobius has given us the bill of fare of the then Delmonico:—Sea urchins, raw oysters ad libitum, pelorides, spondyli, the fish tardus and asparagus (we presume Long Island). Next course :—Fat fowls, oyster patés, pelorides, black and white balani. It is needless to mention that on the following day Lentulus was installed as Flamen. Somewhat later Juvenal speaks of the seductive influence of the cuisine on the politicians of his time, and mentions that as last winter the blondes were brought to bear at some charming suppers qn several of our Albany Senators to effect some graceful coupe of legislation, so in his time the Venus Ebria, the great Roman blonde, was brought with similar intent to sup with Senators Who at deep midnight on fat oysters sups, And froths with ungdents her alercuan cups. te 1¥s, Nearer to our day, Napoleon, when time had brought to him the philosophic mind, uttered the maxim, ‘C'est le ventre gui gou~ verne le monde,” and Lord Melbourne, who had a long reign of power in England, said that there was but one dictum of Lord Eldon's he would acknowledge—‘‘If you wish to man- age men dine them well.” It has always, therefore, seemed strange to us that with the quickness of this country to catch great ideas, and while the science of murder, stealing and ballot stuffing have been carried to perfection as fine arts, that of stomach stuffing with grace and delicacy as an instrument of influence has been entirely neglected. Several of our Presidents in their hours of candor have absolutely acknowledged @ propensity for pork and beans, and of our great managing politicians on both sides neither Bismarck Sweeny nor Sheriff O'Brien ever flirt with the Falernian, and our Horace, unlike the Augustan one, sings to fountains, not to flasks, and carols only to the Croton. The first real effort to recognize dining as a seductive art was made by that refined and accomplished diplomat the Chevalier Wikoff. Some ten years since he brought together ata remarkable banquet a number of the rival political chiefs. But the political stomach was not then ripe for his graceful gastronomy, and men of the coarseness of the then governing classes: could not appreciate the grace and gayety of wit, the whim and charm of address, the light and polished satire which had soothed Louis Napoleon at Ham and captivated Pal- merstonat Broadlands. He could not lower his vision, and, accustomed to consort with cour- tiers, he forgot that he was dining clowns. He forgot also the maxim of his great master, Tal- leyrand—not to have too much zeal. He shared, alas! the fate of call great pioneers, His banquet was another Babel. Since this defeat dining as an art in politics has decayed. But time ever brings forth the beautiful. There has appeared within the past few months in the gastronomic firmament a star of strange and, as it would seem, settled brilliancy. Mr. Richard Schell, the great diner of our day, without the forbidden over zeal, possesses that quality which Mignet ascribes to Talley- rand himself—a grand calm. In dining he has the art of affecting to be dazzled, rather than, like Wikoff, dazzling himself, and smiles with counterfeited glee at every ancient jest. There is around him, too, a halo of beautiful and kindly simplicity which disarms doubt, and in his general aspect he rather resembles the rustic driver in Gainsboro’s lovely picture of ‘‘The Market Cart.” Yet beneath all this charming surface simplicity a subtle spirit dwells. He looks so bewitchingly simple; Yet mischlef's in every dimple. Of course in carrying out a pursuit like this, dogs not come to this requiremeut. He would restrict the struggle to boats of @ peculiar style, even without evidence of the superiority of that atyle. We are so far from assenting to this notion that we do not believe the cup should be subject to a match race, It should not be held on such terms that one boat may win or lose it. Of course the first necessity in such a case would be to know that the racing boat of either side was the best of all the yachts of her country. But how does any one know that she will? What guarantee is there of that? Will there be any test to determine that supremacy? And if there ig auch a test by arace or a series of races how can any one answer that the wind will be the same when this champion yacht finally races for the cup as it was when she raced to show her fitness to champion all the yachts of this country ? Is anything more certain than that one yacht is better than another on a different wind? But even if it could be sat- isfactorily shown that one yacht is so superior to all others in the United States as to be entrusted with the safety of a nationaltrophy, what then? To whata chance does it not expose the cup when eyen such a yacht sails for it! We may lose it by the break- ing of a rope. The cup should stand on no such chances, unless, indeed, the English boat can come with credentials covering all that this implies. Can Mr. Ashbury come as an accepted and acknowledged champion on behalf of every club in England? If so, perhaps another boat may be equally honored here. Otherwise an English yacht must beat all the American yachts, as the America beat the British fleet at Cowes. The race should be so liberal in its terms as to take in all American, English or other yachts that their owners may choose to- enter. On any other plan we may win without a fair victory, or lose without a fair defeat. Tuat ApveRtIseD CapeErsnir.—General Slocum has moved Congress to authorize an inquiry whether any member of that body ever offered to sell his influence in procuring ap- pointments to cadetships, and two or three members from Pennsylvania have spoken as if they had some knowledge of facts that would assist the inquiry. We suspect that investi- gation will amount to nothing. It will never be found that any member offered to sell his influence. The sale of such appointments is, however, @ feature in the vile brokerage of the lobby. There is, perhaps, a lobby man who knows that he can ‘‘pull” enough mem- bers to secure au appointment, and so he wants 8 candidate who will pay him handsomely for his trouble. If the House feels sensitive over the fact .that somebody sells what Congress gives away it must turn its attention to the lobby. An Apsurp STeamsuip Company.—We do not wonder that the men in Washington are suspicious of the names of the incorporators of the so-called Mediterranean aud Oriental Steamship Company. Those names include men more famous for dexterity in political dodges than for enterprise or sagacity as merchants ; but we believe they are the proper sort of incorporators for this impossible com- pany. It might not be altogether safe to ven- ture a declaration as to what the getters-up of this company are driving at; but it is pretty safe to say thatit is not legitimate commerce. ince we cannot support a trade in American teamers to any of the great ports of Europe, is it at all likely that we can support a line of steamers by trade with the small Mediterra- nean ports, whence we get only articles that cannot afford to pay steamer freights and are carried quite as well in sailing ships? Tae Orr SENATORIAL TEAM is composed of the two Nortons—one a rural and the other cockney. Before this team kicks itself out of harness let its constituents take out the bits from between their teeth as well as the bits out of their pockets. : es Mae LCRA _. | requiring the most delicate manipulation, 5 Re hetrpint ete) dt ‘ man, however brilliant his genius, uuld act The Staats Zeitung says of the proposed new city charter that “‘in regard to the Excise law perhaps a large part of our German popula- tion will feel disappointed ;” but that although the obnoxious Sunday clause is not stricken out entirely, ‘it has been so modified that’ its evasion is easily accomplished, and its strict enforcement made as difficult as possible—that is, in case a police placed under city control would at all think of strictly enforcing it.” But they won’t, and so our German contemporary has hit the root of the matter, and he thinks the new charter will do. alone, Robert Macaire could not perform his graceful exploits without @ Jacques Strop. And that same genius which has most shown itself in great commanders, in the selection of their assistant generals, has been shown by Schell. Mr. Schell’s lieutenant, Sam Ward, is in the highest sense an intellectual Lucullus. There is nothing delicate or divine in any part of the earth which can be eaten or drank with which heis not familiar. He can tell at a glance the pike of Lake Lucrinus from those of Medula, and the oysters of Ephesus from those of Iatriss, and can detect from the mere perfume the shades of age of a wine with as keen a nostril asthe shades of virtue of a politician. The report that he keeps in his cellar a cask of cob- webs to make up juvenile bottles for ‘‘first old” to play off on raw Western Senators is the baseless fabrication of some uninvited serf. He possesses, too, a most charming grace of invention. Ata recent dinner at Washington he conceived—a most playful conceit—a cutlet called the cotelette a la victime, in which two outside cutlets contributed their essenco to give succulence to the centre, The centre was supposed to typify Schell, the outsides Senators Spencer and Macdonald. And few things can be more charming than the exqui- site skill with which they play into each other's hands. If Dick seizes too carelesslya flask of the Falernian, Sam is by his side to whisper, with the keen face of awe and agony, as if he coarsely assailed the virtue of some virgin Senator—‘‘Softly; that is wood of the old cross—woodman, spare that tree.” At firet Schell confined his dining exploits to this city. Through a corps of stenographic agents the departure of a Senator or Congress- man for New York was instantly telegraphed to him, and when, saddened and weary, he arrived here he found there was a large, calm eye to greet him. A gay dinner, with artfully se- lected guests, at the Manhattan, made bright his coming. His departure was similarly sig- nalled to soapy Sam, and instead of having to roam through the dreary, cheerless corridors of a Washington hotel, he found at Welker’s a pleasant smile, a charming cotelette and a bottle of the wood of the old cross. The surest road to the heart is through the stomach, and it is in moments of softness like this the seductive art steals in. Anxious, however, like Alexander, for new worlds to conquer, Schell recently advanced on Wash- ington, not with the ponderous lance and sounding shield of Alexander, but with far More powerful weapons—a basket of terrapin Tae Firry Dottar PortogmMan.—It is a pretty plain story that is told in regard to the case of bribery in which a detective accepted fifty dollars to “squelch” a complaint: he had made against a person for passing counterfeit money, and we are glad to see that the facts are to be sifted. If the law is abused to pri- vate purposes by charges against the innocent, or if the guilty escape through the cupidity of the ministers of the law, society suffers equal injury, and every such case should be made an occasion of stringent investigation. Tue World, which is said to have a consti- tutional lawyer at.its elbow, finds fault with the framers of the new city charter for not abolishing the Board of Supervisors. Whether or not the Board of Supervisors ought to be abolished is open to question. But if it were to be abolished a provision in that behalf would be unconstitutional in that bill, as the Supervisors are constitutional officers, and represent the county, and form part of a State and county scheme absolutely indispensable Is the constitutional lawyer sick? MuRDERING THE PRINCE.—The silly story about a projected attempt to murder Prince Arthur as he left the house of Mr. Stoughton the other night was, of course, only a canard. This story commended itself to the fancy of the Bohemians as a beautiful sensation, and they could not resist the delight of writing it. Queer fellows, the Bohemians. Wno 1s THe ‘‘ Prominent Arrorney?”—It is reported, sensationally, that a large sum, in bonds, stolen from a country bank, was re- cently returned from the thieves to the owners by negotiation through a ‘‘prominent attor- ney” of this city, who has his office in Wall street. It was bad enongh when this sort of business was done by the ‘“‘lawyers” in Centre ‘| atreet, but if the Wall street lawyers are also becoming thus clearly affiliated with the _ thieves it is evidently much worse,