The New York Herald Newspaper, March 28, 1870, Page 6

‘The &. Dominge Treaty—The President's Weat Indian Policy. The St. Domingo treaty still hangs in the Senate; but our Washington gorrespondence informs us that some additional facts and pa- pers have arrived, throwing more light upon the subject, and that there is a better prospect for the ratification of the treaty. The diffi- oulty in the way of ratification has been chiefly the opposition of Mr. Sumner, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. In this the Senator has been directly opposed to the wish and policy of the President, Though he assumes to be and has been recog- nized as a prominent leader of the party which elected General Grant, and which claims the ad- ministration as its own, be has become hostile to an important measure of that administration. Every Senator, it is true, has the right to fol- low the dictates of his own mind or con- science, and to act independently even against his party, but he should not do so from caprice or prejudice. But the opposition of Mr. Sum- ner to the St. Domingo treaty and to the West Indian policy of the President involved in it appears to be factious and is unreasonable. The truth is Mr. Sumner cannot or will not see the far-reaching policy of General Grant. In everything connected with our foreign affairs he assumes to bo an autocrat. He thinks that the President, the Senate and the public sentiment of the country should all give way to his notions. A superlative egotist, with a mind narrowed down to one idea or running in one channel, he cannot see any- thing but himself and his own contracted opinions. No living public man has done as much mischief as he to the country. None did so much to bring on our frightful civil war, with all its terrible consequences of blood- shed, ruin, political revolution and crushing debt. He who was the professed advocate of progress and liberal ideas now opposes the progressive development of the country, and is the supporter of European and monarchical despotism in America. His conceit in his’ grandiloquent, sophomorical speech on the Alabama claims has made him blind to every- thing else, and he is ready to sacrifice the interests of the republic for the political capi- tal he foolishly expects to make out of that. He is the veritable ‘“‘Old Man of the Sea” in our West Indian and foreign policy, as well as in the political affairs of the country. The contrast between him and General Grant is strongly marked. The President has no visionary ideas, no impracticable theories, no narrow-minded selfish policy. Not edu- cated in mere words or in making fine phrases, like Mr. Sumner, but in the mathematics, logic and hard facts of a military school and expe- rience, he looks at things in a practical point of view and their bearing upon the future. The remarkable feature of his mind is strong common sense, as has been shown throughout his public career; and this is really the first and highest quality of a statesman. He earnestly desires the ratification of the St. Domingo treaty, which Mr. Sumner opposes, because he sees in that the basis of a profound policy to absorb or exercise a controlling in- fluence over the West Indies. St. Domingo in itself would be a valuable possession from its rich and varied natural resources. The tropical productions of the island and the abundance of valuable minerals would stimu- late American enterprise and enlarge our commerce. But ina military and naval point of view, from the geographical position of the island and its splendid harbors, the United States would acquire a base for dominating the whole of the Antilles. With St. Domingo in our possession, Cuba, under any circum- stances, would not long remain a Spanish colony. There is reason to believe that the President takes this view of the matter and that his movement upon St. Domingo, to use 9 military simile, is 9 strategic one. It will be remem- bered that in that famous campaign which re- sulted in the fall of Richmond and the suppres- sion of the rebellion the most important move- ment was that which he directed General Sher- man to make through Georgia and the Caro- linas. This was far away from the objective point where he was operating himself, and to a superficial eye at the time might not.have ap- peared to have the important connection it had. But General Grant was really taking Richmond and breaking up the rebellion by this distant flank movement. He is pursuing the same policy, doubtless, with regard to Cuba and the West Indies generally by the flank movement on St. Domingo. The Cabinet may not comprehend the far-reaching views of NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRYETOR,. — Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Volume XXXV..... beeteeee tereeaeeerees ee NOs 87 AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Bighth eed se Tue TWELVE TEMPTATIONS. Garr NIBLO’S GARDEN, Bi i on cae roadway,—Tas Drama OF THE BOWERY THEATRE. Bowery.—Tux SRaPENT ON THB HBABTH—GYMNASTIO EXuROises—1uIeH EMIGRANT. BOOTH'S THEATRE, 234 st., between _ Bpwin Boorn as MaopRru, ”" ai a ll WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broad: _ 1 4 way and 13th street. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broaaway.—New VrEsion oF Bauier. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, lth street.—Ew os wit ENGLIsH OrERa- an AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth st.—FRou WOOD'S MUSEUM AND MENAGERIE, Broad 4 ner Phirtieth st—Matines daily. Pertorsaiice ovecy evening MRS. F. B. "8 PA pitts,F.B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brookiyn,— TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, (o0aLIBM, NEGRO Mrneraniey, ro panei OH THEATRE COMIQUE, 614 Broadway.—Co un Mucwe koe ee Beer OOMED. Wouare BRYANTS OPERA HO! sinBavanae Minsrazie Tammany Bullding, 14th SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRE! vir a = PIAN MINGTRELSY, NEGRO row Fda oh Browns KELLY & LEON’S MINSTRE! road) —! PIAM MINOTRULSEY, NEGRO ACHE BO ney BTHO- HOOLEY'S OPERA - . MINDTEELE-PuOW FRows Brooklya.—Hoouny's NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth streot.— AND GrMNasTiC PERFORMANOES, Pra pare APOLLO HALL, core: 15 Tan Naw Hiceasroon "Street and Broadway. NEW YORK MUSEU: SCIENOR AND ABT. MOF ANATOMY, 615 Broadway.— TRIP. New York, Monday, March 28, 1870. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. Pac. 1—Advertisements. 2—Advertisements, @—Reiigious: The Metropolitan Churches and the Equinoctial Storm; Disastrous Effect of the Elements on the Aristocratically Religiou: Sectarlanism in the Public Schools: and Int tolerance in the Houses of Worship. 4—Religious Services (continued from Third Page)—The Public School Question—Rules for Computation of fime in Making Payment to Government Employ¢s, S—The Tammany Feud: How the Country Demo- crats Feel on the Subject; A Senatortal Inter- view; The Andrew Jackson Club—Obituary— Decline of American Commerce—The Kearny Statue Fund—Art Notes—Personal Intelli- gence—Criticisms of New Books—The Missing Iron-clad Atlanta—The Army Bul—The Genea- logical and Biographical Society—An Unhappy Marriage—Boiled Champagne. @—Editorials: Leading Article on the St. Domingo ‘Treaty, the President’s West Indian Policy— Amusement Announcements. ‘7—Teiegraphic News from All Parts of the World: Prince Pierre Bonaparte Acqaltted of the Noir Homicide; Spanish Franchises for the Cubans—The Equinoctial Gale: Effects of the Terrible Storm in the City and Elsewhere— Another New Charter: The Tammany Chief- tain’s Programme of Reform—Barber-ous Proceedings—Arrival of the Monitor Terror at Fortress Monroe—Siup News—Business Notices, S—Europe: Prince Pierre Bonaparte Preparing for Trial; His Estimate of tne Opinion of the American Press; English Scandal in High and Low Life—Tbe Montpenster-Bourbon Duel: Prince Henri’s Letter of Insult and the Re- ply; the Challenge, Arrangements and Field of Vombat—items from Asla—Musical and Theatrical—St. Domingo: Anniversary of Dominican Independence; the Feeling for Annexation—Horse Notes—Finale of the Nicholis Divorce Case—A Rum Seizure—The Vigilants in Wyoming. —Indian Treatics: Vincent Colyer’s Friends Talk Fight—Real Estate Matters—Municipal Affairs in Orange, N. J.—Taking the Vell—Financtal and Commercial—An Indiana Sensation—Gourt Calendars—Marine Transfers—Miscegenation in Chicago—Marriages and Deaths—Advertise- menis. 10—The Oneida Calamity: Proceedings of the Naval Court at Yokohama; Captain Eyre Not Wholly to Blame, Even for Running Away— Washington: Mr. Sumner’s Speech on the St. Domingo Treaty—Fires—Advertisements, 11—Aavertisements. 12—Aavertisements. Morro ror THE TaMMANY Tries To-Niant. —This night Either makes me or undoes me quite. GENERAL Boreer states that there is no truth in the report that he is to replace Secre- tary Fish in the Cabinet, Who knew before | their silent and practical chief. We that he was fishing for it ? have no idea that the Secretary of State does, or that he would be Lives Fauuive 1s Preasant Pracns.— the suitable man to carry them out. He is a The commission appointing General Pleasonton to the place vacated by the absconding Col- lector Bailey—the ‘‘unfortunate Miss Bailey.” respectable man of the old conservative school, and is under the influence of Mr. Sumner and such like obstructive politicians. He could have no sympathy with the President's progressive ideas. If Congress should sustain the President in his policy, however, it would not be long, probably, before he would reor- ganize his Cabinet so as to have those around him who would carry out his broad and com- prehensive views. Mr. Sumner and some other Senators pre- tend to oppose any acquisitions of territory in the West Indies on the ground that we have enough already and that the negro and foreign populations there would not be desirable citi- zens. This turning round on the negroes by the Massachusetts Senator is acurious fact. It appears that he wants to have nothing to do with the negro only when he can ride him as a political hobby. Territorial acquisition has always been opposed by a narrow-minded class of politicians. It was so with the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizo- na, If the advice of this class of men had been heeded the United States would have been fenced in as a small second rate Power instead of being the magnificent country itis now. As to the negro or foreign populations of the countries we annex they amount to a drop in the bucket. We can both control them as we please and make them use- fal to themselves and national interests. We cannot arrest our destiny. The West Indies must come to us, Just now, when our com- merce and shipping interests are so depressed and we are anxiously looking for the means to revive them, the development of our power and trade in the West Indies would be of the great- est advantage. It is there we should look for the extension of our commerce, for the employ- Jurrrer Puuvivs deserves the thanks of the community for the thorough manner in which he cleansed the public streets yesterday. He was worth a dozen ruflle-shirted street commissioners. Tue TENNESSEE REOONSTRUOTIONISTS are apparently getting muddled. They now claim that Governor Senter, who is one of them, was illegally elected, and that the State authorities are unable or unwilling to protect the citizens from the Ku Klux. Tue Femare Jurors of Wyoming are bent on using their official position to aa good pur- pose as possible while it lasts. They have notified the shopkeepers of Cheyenne, except. 4ruggists, that they must close up on Sundays, under penalty of indictment. Tue Citizen thinks Joshua F. Bailey, the great absconded, has been murdered by emis- earies of the whiskey ring. As likely to have been drowned in a Malmsey butt. His repu- tation has been murdered, or he has commit- ted felo de se in that respect. He no doubt has only ‘‘Swartwouted,” and not been “Kilt.” Tue Srorm.—A terrific gale visited this vicinity yesterday, blowing down houses, chimneys, signs and awnings, and committing great depredations, A family in Forty-sixth street were crushed to death by the falling of their house, The tides rose to an unprecedented height and flooded the basements along the water front. Reports from Philadelphia and further South indicate that the gale prevailed all along the const, and we will hear the sequel of it in a few days, probably, im @ disastrous list of shipwrecks, Naw YORK HERALD, MONDAY, mont of our shipping and for adding to the va- riety and increase of our products. General Grant has taken a statesmantike view of the matter and has begun right, Let us. hope Congress will sustain him in his policy. Bands, Banners and Bad Temper—The Tammany Powwow. These were the prominent features of tho democratic serenades on Saturday night, It is hard to reconcile the language which the orators of the different factions indulged in except on the principle of the chameleon, that “both are right and both are wrong.” Their denunciations of: each other were something terrible to hear, The young democracy claimed that they were the people—the op- pressed people—and that thelr opponents were the tyrants. It was the conflict of the Horatii and Curatii over again. But the fatal decision fs not come yet. The six chieftains are still living, although the results of this evening's meeting at Tammany may decide who are the doomed Curatii. It is doubtful which was loudest and most brilliant, the bands and banners of the sere- naders or the oratory of the serenaded. The spirit manifested all round augured badly for the prospects of harmony anticipated at the powwow to-night. What kind of a Charter can we expect, founded upon such a temper as that which controlled the different politicians on the occasion referred to? It will be amore multi-colored patchwork than the silk stocking and rough and ready hybrid—that Cerberus whose three heads were chopped of last Tues- day—unless there should prevail in council the sagacity of Tweed and the wisdom of the silent chief, who, although absenting himself from a disreputable affray, cannot be wholly indifferent to the fate of the party he has so successfully directed for fifteen years or more. We are promised a Charter such as we out- line elsewhere at an early day, but the Legislature must hurry up in dealing with it. If it takes three or four weeks to caucus it in both houses, amend it in committees of conference, and squabble aboutit on the floor, as the lost charters did, there may not be time to make it a law this session. Should this misfortune occur the people will hold the democratic majority to a severe accountability tor leaving the city still under the rule of the obnoxious commissions for another year. The democratic members were elected for the purpose and with the distinct understanding that these commissions should be either abol- ished altogether or so remodelled as to strip them of their abuses. It is safe to say, then, that not one of these members who trifle with this issue for factious or for cor- rupt motives can expect ever to re- ceive the endorsement of his constituents again. We care nothing for the success of either faction, considered merely as a fac- tion, but we are deeply interested in the good of the people of this metropolis. We do not desire to see the city government in the hands of prize fighters, cockpit heroes, gamblers, and the men who would sbield repeaters and de- fend the fraudulent ballot. box. We would prefer not to see the county treasury in the bard-fisted grip of Jack Morrissey; nor the police force filled with such model officials as Jemmy O’Brien’s deputy sheriffs; nor the Street Department manipulated by the rough and tumble adherents of Mike Norton, This would not be progress and reform, which they promise us. It would be retrogression and abuse of the people's rights. Thus far, there- fore, our sympathies go with any party that can save our citizens and taxpayers from such an affliction as this kind of legislation would impose upon them. The present commissions have their faults, and the majority, according to the good old rule, have the right to exer- cise the power and enjoy the spoil with which the votes of their constituents have invested them; but those privileges must be used for the public good and no@for mere personal aggran- dizement. The question at issue now between the war- ring factions of the city democracy appears to be whether an inexperienced set of leaders, who are restlessly opposed to the present man- agement of the party, shall obtain all the power and all the spoils. It is true that the young democracy talk a good deal about ‘‘re- form” and their duties to the people. This may be a delusion, or it may be a fraud, With some of them it is probably a delusion, created by personal hostility and rancor; in others created by the self pride of youthful statesmen which permits them to see no good ontside of themselves, The men who urged on the call for the Tam- many gathering to-night are, we presume, pre~ pared to shape some plan for a Charter which will not prove a farce. That all parties con- cerned are prepared, too, to make reasonable concessions to each other we have some right to expect—to throw their tomahawks behind them, trample their feathers in the dust, wash off their war paint as Dan Bryant's burnt cork minstrels divest themselves of the smut on their faces, and, taking a good whiff all round of the calumet of peace, give the public rest from this long drawn out and senseless quar- rel. Should it reach another termination it will be no farce for the democratic party, but a dismal tragedy, whose closing scene will be at the fall election. The choice is in the hands of the leaders, Tne Rome (Ga.) Courier casts a political horoscope and cries out, ‘‘We can’t see ahead, and if we could we would bit it.” How for- tunate that that head is not likely to be a colored man’s this time. The negro’s skull is notorious for its thickness, and it can stand, as the experience of the past few years has proven, any amount of hitting or ‘“‘butting.” The head ahead now is woman’s—“‘beautiful woman’s”—which our gallant contemporary in Rome will no doubt have but little objectiou “hitting” in a friendly contest. An Eastern philosopher predicts that within eleven years a woman will be inaugurated President. Think of that, ye Rome ‘uns. TamMANy.—It has been a long while since Tammany enjoyed a real old-fashioned gather- ing of the braves, animated by the spirit that makes no compromises and prefers broken heads to humiliating peace. There are some signs in the sky that Tammany is to have a lovefeast of that sort to-night, and we hope the police will be on handin force, If the young democracy cannot carry things in one way it will try another, MARCH * Death, Tt would appear from the array'¢! germons delivered yesterday that the preacher's rare of topics has a very narrow Ilmit when he does not stray from his proper function as a moral teacher to catch the popular ear or play upon the sensation of the hour. Several of our city divines, it will be seen, gave their attention to that chronic irritation—the question of ‘‘the Bible in the schools’—a question that has two or three times stirred more or leas of a tumult in this latitude, but which the people just now refuse to be-excited over. They have perhaps wisely concluded that this is a subject that will settle itself if left alone better than the sectarians are likely to settle it. Indeed, it is in the highest degree probable that but for the sectarian assaults against the Bible on one side and the sectarian support on the other the common sense of the American people would long since have excluded that volume from any share in the education of children. Aside from this topic of popular character the preachers confined themselves in an un- usual degree to efforts to touch the moral sense of their hearers and to the strictly religious sphere of thought; and in this their discourses present singularly little intellectual variety. Two such different men as Henry Ward Beecher and the Rev. Mr. Paxton preached substantially the same sermon in pointing out how the trials of life are softened and made endurable by trust in divine assistance. Mr. Verren, of the French church Du Saint Esprit, in an admira~ ble discourse on the uncertainty of life, gave in better form and spirit the same instruction that was contained in the more gloomy ser- mon of Mr. Wyatt on “Death.” Itis, perhaps, in character with the views the Methodists take of life and of the future that they should appeal rather more to man’s fears than to his hopes in their sermons; and so we may stip- pose this Methodist preacher gave the very spirit of his denomination to his hearers when he urged them to be at all times ready for the change to a future state, for no better reason than that they could not know when they might be called upon, and, there- fore, might be surprised by death while still unready. The point of this sermon was hap- pily put with much brevity by an ancient Jew- ish rabbi, who said to his hearers, ‘‘Repent one day before thou diest.” This did not pre- sume to tell what all men know already; it gave no illustration of the fact that death comes suddenly; yet it forced that thought upon all and applied its lesson with irresistible effect. We cannot believe that it is intended as any part of the scheme of human life that our thoughts should always be turned toward the grave. There is such a thing as the practical salvation of the human race. Within histori- cal times man has been made evidently better by the physical improvements of his life; has been raised to an intellectual status at which le can comprehend somewhat of the great problems of his destiny and dimly conceive of the’ goodness of God. This has not been achieved by following the example of St. Simeon Stylites, nor by kneeling in a hermit’s cell before some ghastly reminder of what we must all come to at Iast. It has been accom- plished by men who worked bravely forward in cheerful spirit, and did with their might the labor that the uncomprehended purpose of God had put before them; and who doubts but this is in its effect 2 better religion than to be mumbling before a skull and crossbones ? Prince Pierre Bonnparte Acquitted. By special telegram from Tours, France, forwarded through the Atlantic cable yester- day, we have news of the acquittal of Prince Pierre Bonaparte of the charge of the homicide of Victor Noir. The case having been given in charge to the jury they retired, and, after a deliberation which occupied an hour, returned averdict of not guilty on every point of the issue of traverse given them in charge. The prosecuting officer of the crown addressed the jurymen, previous to their retirement, in an eloquent and pointed appeal for a verdict of guilty. The Prince was not dis- charged. The counsel for the partie civile made a demand for the sum of one hundred thousand francs damages. The payment being refused, he was retained in custody. Prince Pierre was excéedingly indignant at this treatment. Indeed we may say that he was imprudently so, for in giving expression to his feeling he appeared to challenge the Noir-Rochefort radical party to a renewal of hostilities by declaring that ‘the was not afraid of menaces made against his life.” By a special mail correspondence from Paris we have an interesting report of a second interview which the Princ accorded to our representative just previous to the trial. The occasion was of quite an affect- ing character, as the wife and children of the prisoner were present during a portion of the time. This special letter goes to show that Prince Bonaparte, while he entertained the most supreme contempt for the motives, action and even character of his assailants, was ner- vously sensitive in his estimate of the opinion which the American people wovld form . of his conduct and action when presented to them through the columns of the independent press, This feature of his character is peculiar. It marks him as a true Bonaparte. The iMlustrious soldier Napoleon the First, when at the very pinnacle of his fame and power, became ruffed in temper when he had occasion to speak of perfide Albion. He was equally soothed, however, when he heard of any sym- pathy being extended to his cause by the struggling patriots of revolutionary America. Americans to-day abhor murder, but they brook not deliberate and planned insult. So it was with Prince Pierre Bonaparte. Na- tional sympathetic characteristics strike deeper and bind cloger than do the mere interests of politics or diplomapy. The first are from the mind, invisible but eternal ; the second accord- ing to circumstances, temporary and transi- tory. Prince Pierre will be congratulated on his vindication of his name and honor, Too Latg.—A Sunday paper christens one of the new parties of the day the ‘Bowling Green party.” That’s cool. The name waa bestowed upon another faction ‘some time since, although we do not see that anybody has an especial ‘‘hank”-ering after it, Tne Boston Traveller thinks the Bailey matter in this city only an ‘Old Bailey” ques- tion after all. Religion in Various Phasce—The Foar of ‘The Nation’s DefonceeWeak Condition of 2%, 1S70.—TRIPLE SHEET. the Army and Navy. If the present Congress adjourns without making the necessary appropriations for the yenalr of the navy nearly a year will elapse pafore the subject will again como before it. In {he meantime matters 6f ie greatest importagee may arise requiring us to put forth all our strength. A year is a long time with the American people. Wonderful things are accomplished in the space of twelve calen- dar months, We don’t mind attempting to girdle the carth with a railroad in that time, and may try to take up some island by the roots and transplant it to our own coast. We can wait a year when some great national enter- prise is afloat, knowing that at the end of the time we shall see it perfected; but can we linger a year while our flag is being insulted, our people butchered by a savage and blood- thirsty race, and a neighboring people who are beseeching us for help are being decimated by acruel government, and give no aid? Had we a navy we should be in a position to demand what we now have to beg for. Does any one suppose for a moment that if Great Britain was in our position her docks and yards would be closed up just ata time when she most needed them, and her skilled artisans sent adrift to seek occupation elsewhere when they were actually required to put her navy in order? No government but that of the United States would pursue such a course. Our Congress leaves the republic to the care of Providence, who, it is said, takes care of babies, drunken sailors and the United States. Itis certain that our country gains nothing while Congress is in session, For months the members squabble over some trifling subject, while the best interests of the country are neg- lected and the two arms of national defence are left to go to decay. When there seems for a moment of time a prospect of placing the army and navy on a respectable footing, one old woman in a party gels apacry of “Economy,” and all the other old women go wild on the same subject. They may be seen book in hand-golng about the depart- ments, questioning and scolding secretaries and chiefs of bureaus until the latter shudder at the sight of thom. These economists de- mand a reduction of the appropriations to a figure that will carry the republican party through the elections, but will entirely defeat the original object in view. What do these legislators care about a navy to protect our citizens abroad or an army to shield our set- tlers from the scalping knife of the Indian? All they want is to have it thought that they are the ‘watch dogs of the Treasury,” and are ‘helping to save the people from the bur- den of taxes. If Congress would help build up a navy, foster our shipbuilding interests and induce our citizens to enter into the pursuits of com- merce, then it would be doing something to- wards developing our resources. Our citizens residing abroad could pursue their avocations with some comfort when they knew they were under the shelter of their country’s flag, and would have full confidence when they saw the Stars and Stripes floating over our iron-clad frigates that it meant protection in every re- spect. What influence can that flag carry with it when it flies at the peak of a small gunboat overshadowed by the immense iron-clads of foreign navies? What influence can half a dozen gunboats have on the Spaniards in Cuba when the Spanish fleet in those waters outaum- bers our whole navy ? While Congress is letting our navy go to the dogs for the want of proper appropriations and sweeping into the Treasury money actually appropriated for naval services, all the other nations of the earth are putting forth their energies to build up their war marine, which increases in a proper ratio to their commerce, Our navy consists actually of fifty good ships of war, The navies of other Powers are as follows :—England, 550 vessels; France, 400; Russia, 250; Spain, 150; Turkey, 110; Italy, 65; Prussia, 86, and Denmark, 38. Four years ago Prussia was not known as a naval Power, but now her workshops are in full blast building iron-clads and casting guns preparatory to absorbing Denmark, Sweden and Norway, should she need them at any future time. Prussia has a policy and a great future before her which she cannot carry out without anavy. To remedy a defect that has existed since she commenced her march to- wards the seaports of the Baltic, she has lost no time in buying or building vessels in every maritime country. The time is not far distart when the passage of the Cattegat may be effectively disputed by the Prussian navy, which is marching t) greatness, while ours is dwindling away to tugs and hybrid cor- vettes. Here is a mation with scarcely one good seaport and very little commerce rival- ling the United Statesas a naval Power, when we of all the people in the world should be showing our flag in all parts of the globe. Our interests are everywhere, our merchants have business in every corner of the earth and our missionaries have penetrated to the re- motest islands of the Pacific. Now and then they are eaten up by vages, without the sat- isfaction of knowing that an American man of war will come in the future to interfere with cannibal digestion, Yet what can an adminis- tration do without mesns? How can ships be constructed if the economists ia Congress (to whom a dollar, before an election, looks as big as a cart wheel) do not alter their ways? As a matter of information to the public, there will be kept an account of moneys that are uselessly thrown away on private schemes, on hypocritical sympathy for the darky, who should be made to work for his own living, and on lobby jobs that go to fill the pockets of the Lord knows who. A Lovp Catt is made by tho papers for the government to offer a reward for the ab- sconding Bailey. Has not the government lost enough in that direction already? Inortant CorReotTion.—A report having been circulated that Alexander H. Stephens had pronounced the first inaugurals of Jeffer- son and Lincoln the finest documents of the kind in our history, the Augusta Constitution “ig authorized to say that the statement is en- tirely erroneous.” The spirits of the great de- parted must be much disturbed at this. OprutHarMia (or affection of eye)—It is feared that this disease will break out in Tam- many to-night, The Churches Yosterday. Deeply obligated as mankind are to that flow of waters which, in obedience to the will of the Supreme Being, cooled and solidified the incandescent gases which floated in chaos, thereby creating the earth on which we live, “we hardly think that the rain storm of yesterday deserves our thanks for quench- ing a vast amount of fiery zeal for the strict observance of religious duties. When the Rey. John S. Willis, at the Hedding Methodist Episcopal church, gazed from the pulpit down upon his scanty congregation he must have felt the force of that passage in Samuel which formed the text of his dis- course, and which saith that ‘‘man looketh on the outward appearance.” Not man alone but woman also looked at the ‘‘outward appearance” yesterday and decided that it was unfavorable to attendance on divine worship; for, with few exceptions, the churches contained a larger number of unoccupied pews than for many previous inclement Sundays. Not thus, it is true, did the early Christians keep away from the house of God when it rained; but it is equally true that your noble Roman and learned Greek seem to have never been troubled by such ailments as colds and catarrhs, and, be- sides, were not forced to pay extravagant prices for broadcloth suits and silk walking dresses, with paniers, their costumes being simple if not neat. Certainly the weather yesterday, however beneficial in an agricultural point of view, was not calculated to produce a good crop of saved souls, Singularly enough, at all of the churches it was observed that but few ladies were present, although one might have imagined that the sterner sex, possessing the smaller religious sentiment, would have been in the minority. At the Church of the Messiah Rev. George H. Hepworth discoursed eloquently on a subject most attractive to the Protestant heart. He denounced Catholicism and the Pope and insisted that the Catholics were slaves. The reverend gentleman thought it was time for Americans to awake to the dangers that confronted them from the Catholics of America. On the sub- ject of the Bible in the public schools Rev. Mr. Stewart, at the Church of Our Lord ; Rev. Mr. Steel, at the Second Avenue Metho- dist Church, preached sermons denunciatory of the efforts making to abolish the reading of this book in those institutions. At Plymouth church the congregation was smaller than usual, and Brother Beecher was not quite so lively and spirited as he generally is. The sermon, however, was thought- ful and sensible. Dr. Chapin, at the Church of the Messiah, assured his hearers that God was the Father of sinners not lesa than of saints, while at St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal church Bishop Ames discoursed on the ethics of the Bible and the ethics of everyday life. In spite ot the weather a large: number of sinners assembled at the Church of the Holy Innocents, where the sermon and singing wero fine, but where, we sincerely regret to record it, the organ, being afflicted with the asthma, with difficulty contributed its quota’of wind. We need hardly say that at all the Catholic churches, save those at which the aristocracy worship, the attendance was large and the con- gregations pious. There are no storms severe enough to keep Pat and Bridget from mass. In like manner the less pretentious Protestant churches were well filled. We can therefore claim that in this city, Brooklyn and other places reported in the Heraxp this morning the cause of religion was, on the whole, faith- fully served. Onze Mort Cnarter.—In another column we give the outline of a Charter that is to be laid before the Legislature at an early day, and that it is thought possible the elements may combine on. We, however, do not see this possibility. One of the cardi- nal points in this new Charter is that the Board of Aldermen is to be elected on a general ticket. This is too good a point to pass the Legislature. This point was in the first Char- ter presented this session and was one of the main points against it in the eyes of ‘the boys.” The boys have not changed their minds on that point; for it is with thema matter of political life and death to keep the election of Aldermen in the wards. Is there any hope that the Tammany men can carry this in defiance of the boys? It must be remembered that here the republicans would be on the side of the boys, as they also are interested in preventing the democratic party from giving us a good government. Raw Marertan For THE UNiTen States Sznats.—The Boston Zraveller says there are five persons named for that United States Senatorship which. the Maine Legislature will have to dispose of next January, and ten for that which the Massachusetts Legislature will have to deal with at the same time. So far as the latter is concerned Sumner is supposed to have a lease upon his seat, in which he was confirmed and seated years ago by tMe unfor- tunate Brooks assault. And as for Henry Wilson, if he returns not to the Senate, whither shall he go—‘‘to where the wood. bine twineth ?” Tue Onziwa INVESTIGATION.—We publish elsewhere this morning a pretty full report o the proceedings of the naval court of inquiry at Yokohama in relation to the cause of the sinking of the Oneida. The decision of the court casts the main blame of the collision upon the officers of the Oneida themselves, and does not very severely condemn Captain Eyra for his inhumanity in running away from the wreck, Itis simply an attempted whitewash- ing of an infamous crime—a crime that will rest as a brand upon Captain Eyre till the day of his death, Tne SpEEonEes of Senators Sumner and Morton on the St. Domingo treaty, in execu- tive session, are to be given to the public. The treaty will probably be recommitted, The speeches are said to be exhaustive, and the treaty will be apt to gain friends by having them circulated. Tue GENTLEMANLY StregT COMMISSIONER who so adroitly removed the head of his re- doubtable deputy (Tweed) and that of the latter's henchman (Barber) continues as calm as if this were not the Lenten season. But the “Lenten” season, it is said, has usually lasted the whole year round in the Street Com- missioner’s Department,