The New York Herald Newspaper, December 16, 1870, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, All business or news letter and telegraphic @espatches must be addressed New York HEravp. Volume AMUSEMENTS Tit THIS EVENING, BOWERY THEATRE, “Bowery.—-Nrek any Neox— BrRinG OF PEARLS. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 28d at., vetweon Sih and 6th avs,— Riv Van WINKLE. NIBLO'S GARDEN, “Proadway.—Tur SPEOTACLA oF Tux BLAoK CRoox. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ana 18th strect.— Cogurrres. LINA EDWIN'S THEATRE, 720 Broadway.—LirrLe Jack SuEPPAKD, GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of fib av. and 23d st.— Lx Briganns. ) THEATRE, Broadway.—TH® PANTOMIME OF p WINKIE, WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner 80th st.-—Perform- ances every afternoon and evening. ACADEMY OF MUSII CHNTENARY GRAND O} oath sreet.—BERTHOVEN DELIO. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth strect.— Man any Wire. GLOBE THEATRE, TAUNMENT, 40. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S Aut HaLiow Bye—L, 728 Broadway.—Variety ENTER ARK THEATRE. Brookiya.— RST FROM Ni YORK. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC. BY THE PHULUARMONIO SOOIETY, Guanp Concent TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 20) RIKTY ENTERTAINMENT. THEATRE COMIQUE, 16M, NEGKO Acts, &O. 1 Bowery. —Va- LL, 585 Broadway.— -ESQUES, £0. 23d at, between 6th Eovrntktorrins, &¢. APOLLO HALL. corner h street and Broadway.— Da. County's DIORAMA OF IRELAND, Brooklyn. —Nvino MIN OPERA HOU: A Wereou, Hocurs & Warre’s Mine SOMERVIL “RY, 82 Fifth avenne-—Day and Evening WONDERS OF TUE AROTIO REGIONS. NEW YORK Of SoENES IN Fourteenth strest. ‘THE RING, AcRowATS, do. DR. KAHN’S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway. SOMNCE AND ART, NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Brondway.— TRIP LE SHE LET. New York, Frida. . pecan 16, 1870. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. PaGE. — Advertisements, from Paris: Unexpected Successes 0 10'S Forces; Popular Feeling in France Against Gambetta; Prince Frederick Charles Retreating from Before Tours; Abandonment of the Ger- Advance on B General Manteusfel Towards 18; A French Corps urrender of Montmedy Luxembourg and East- leon: His Majesty in ke: Mysterious Queens ti Amiesty of Butler wl ol Political Di miatt Dun Building M Ground; Leading Article, “The German Em- au Unity and Aus ria's Efores for ~Amusement Annonucements. onitnued trom Sixth Page)—Per- 1 Public phic News » Mystery. r the Championship of 1 p— Biltiat * — Financla a and England — Balioon V Commercial Reports— dent in-Aid of Comm tion of Mormonism Appointments —Confir Sharity Fairs—Lectures Report—-The Hahnemann Hospitai—A ‘ire Department in Philadelpnia—Ship- ping Intelhgence—Advertisements. £1—A Desperate Char: The Champion Coun- wrfeiter of America—General News Items— New York and Philadelphia: Eaterprise in the Two Great Citles—A C ed Girl Sues a Gen- tleman of Color for BP h of Promise—A CaaEDOF Company in St. Louts—Advertise- me 19—Ailvertisementa Wuen Cox quotes Scripture in the House everybody laughs. It cannot be because Cox is such a funny fellow. It is, more probably, because most of the members have an indis- tinct idea that the Bible is a jest book. Wuetuer Tours be in the possession of the Germans or not it is certain that Chauzy’s army is in full retreat westward, probably to Angers. Blois has been occupied by the Prussians, whose position is such now that they can effectually prevent the severed wings of the Army of the North from forming ajunction. Itis true we have a statement from Bordeaux that the German forces re- cently menacing Tours are retreating towards Paris, but we doubt its iruth. More likely Prince Frederick Charles has turned his at- tention to the French corps under Bourbaki, which must now be somewhere in the vicinity | of Bourges. Tne AMNESTY QuESTION IN ConarEss.—It appears that there is a hitch in the proposi- tions of a universal amnesty in Congress, in consequence of the opposition of General Grant to the measure, It is given out that from his experience in Southern reconstruc- tion he does not think that the time has yet come for a universal amnesty to the parties actively concerned in the late rebellion; that there has been no spirit of reciprocity ex- hibited by them in this business aud no thanks for favors received, small or great, and so on. Nevertheless, we are strongly of the opinion that a universal amnesty, more than anything else, would now prove aremedy for the old sores of the “lost cause,” aod that with nothing existing to complain of the most rabid of Southern fire-eaters would soon cease to croak ai shoix past axievances. NEW YURK HERALD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1870.-TRIPLE SHEET. ‘The German Empire—German Unity and Austria’s Efforts for Pence. Special despatches from Berlin assert that on Tuesday last (the 13th inst.) the Parlia- mentary deputation of the ‘North German Confederate Bund was to set out from the Prussian capital to convey to King William, at his military headquarters in Versailles, the offer of the imperial crown that will, upon his brows, symbolize the succession to a dominion rivalling in extent and far excéeding in real population, wealth and social importance the realm of Otho and Charlemagne. At the same moment we hear the flat that decides the fate of the Graad Duchy of Luxembourg, and prepares the way for the absorption, gradual or sudden, as occasion may decide, of both Holland and Belgium into the vast military empire which already overshadows the centre and the west of Europe. This, should the sturdy old Hohenzollern accept the proffered dignity—and what reason is there to doubt that he will ?—is an event of the most imposing moment, surrounded by historical contrasts as romantic and dramatic as anything recorded in the illumined annals of Froissart and Monstrelet. The imperial sword and sceptre of Germany laid at the feet of a Teutonic prince in captured palace of Louis Quatorze, while Prussian eagles float in triumph over the spires of St. Denis and the towers of Notre Dame tremble to the echo of besieging ordnance. The world has not wit- nessed such a spectacle since the armies of Napoleon I. entered Rome and dictated law to the Pontiff in his council chamber at the Vatican. Well may the other Powers hastily endeavor to set their houses in order, and, meanwhile, struggle to avert any extension of the war. Thus it is that Austria still persistently en- deavors to bring about negotiations for peace between the German alliance and France; and in the light of the past and of the pre- sent, too, we say that Austria is wise. The Emperor Franz Joseph, comparatively young as he is in sovereignty and in diplomacy, bas ex- hibited foresight, prudence and moderation throughout his reign, He displayed all these qualities, so valuable aud se admirable in a prince, after the disastrous defeat of his arms by the French and Italian coali- tion at Solferino; after the overthrow of his best generals by the Prussians at Sadowa, and in the measures that he has since taken to harmonize the jarring States still subject to his sceptre within the pale of the empire. In this sagacious course he is sustained by the abilities of a Minister—the Baron Von Beust—who may justly be styled the Cavour of Austria. And now we see the same spirit prevailing. Outside of the immediate vortex of the Franco- Prussian war, yet near enough to feel the heat of its conflagrations and to hear the thund ers of its artillery, Austrian intellect detects dan- gers growing more and more gigaatic every hour while the struggle continues to push on toward that bitter extremity which bequeaths to an entire race and lineage legacies of undy- ing hate and eternal thirst fer vengeance. To enkindle such endless antagonism in the breast of but one individual, to invoke that Patient search and vigil long Of him who treasures up a wrong, from the weakest of mankind, is a most solemn and perilous enterprise; but when the task, really or apparently undertaken, is to trample on a nation of forty millions, warlike at all periods of its history and schooled for ages in adversity as well as in glory, wisdom, which looks to the future even more than at the present, halts midway. ‘‘Tread not upon a dwarf; he.may have a giant for a friend,” is an apothegm, of pith and meaning. France is not yet a dwarf, but a giantess surprised and overmasiered for the moment, because she had been bound down while she slept by the Liliputians of monarchical misrule. France has snffered for the sins of Europe; and, even were she entombed, the stone may yet be rolled away from the mouth of her sepulchre and she may arise again. The ashes of Charles Martel, of Philip Augustus, of Bayard, of Henry of Navarre, of the Grand Condé, of the First Napoleon, and of Lafayette repose jn the soil of France, and their spirit is stil] alive in her people. Those who think otherwise are making but hasty judgment of events not six months old. Quiet thinkers who, only that long ago, held their peace when jubilate was sounded over the plebiscitum and the* ‘crowning of the edi- fice” in France, were noticed only with the smile of self-satisfied disdain; yet, lo! whata change is there to-day—how are the mighty fallen! Providence will teach us, in spite ot all human conceits, that things shall be as He wills, and His reversals of judgment continu- ally laugh at our calculations and bumble our pride. In this world the man or the nation who builds safety upon the ruins of another is not noble, and never can be truly great. If German unity is to be set upon the shifting sands of conquest, imposed upon a people for- eign im language, faith and culture, we have every warrant in the lessons of history to be- lieve that it will vanish, in the first great up- heaval, as suddenly as it came. King Wil- liam may well say that he is astonished at the rapidity with which that union has sprung into being. He had expected that it would be accomplished some day, by slow but sure processes (as in America and Italy), but he had not hoped to see it in his lifetime. Ger- manic union, built upon the disunion and dis- ruption, along with the burning humiliation, of neighboring France! As well erect your citadel upon the lava crusts of Vesuvius, France has been overrun and nearly conquered again and again—by the Normans, the Alle- manni (of old), the Saracens, the English. Her armies have been scattered and slaughtered ; her strongholds taken ; her fields devastated ; her cities bombarded; her churches dese- crated; her people laid under tribute. The Holy Alliance of kings, led on or backed by renegades and capitulators to the enemy, have pags marched through the streets of her capi- ; yet a swift decade or two of years rolled ¥ jad where were they? Austria, out of her own former arrogance of victory and the sore lesson of its subsequent downfall, has gathered in this precious wis- dom. Italy and Hungary were prostrate at her feet but fifteen years ago. The one is now her safest ally ; the other upholds her crown, Austria, too, remembers Mexico crouching, for a day, under the sceptre of one of her impe- rial dukes, Monarchical Europe remembers the crisis when. with coalesced doets and armies invading our sister republic at Vera Cruz, she thought she saw the disruption and end of the United States, Austria, therefore, at this moment, and other European Powers which will presently appear in the foreground , still advise King William, even at this eleventh hour, to conquer France after the only method in which she ever will be conquered—viz., by rising to the height of magnanimity that will offer her true friendship and a lasting peace, United Germany, including the Austro-Ger- manic provinces, will not then have a new Poland of forty millions on the west to reach unseen hands across to the old, disrupted and partitioned Poland on the east. In this safer attitude the German empire will represent progress rather than reaction, and peace rather than war. France, cured of her follies and of her restless ambition, will be made a sincere ally, and not an implacable foe. Her great reverse will be the germ of her still greater future glory, and, receiving and imparting strength by their more intimate conjunction, two peoples already kindred in blood and tradition since the days when the Steur de lis was made the device of the princes who came up from the marshes of the Rhine and afterward established the Frankish dominion, may have reason to bless the hour when, injustice repelled and usurpation over- thrown, their mutual welfare became the charge of the Emperor William. The War Situation in France. The Prussians under Frederick Charles have bombarded and occupied Blois, and although the reports are conflicting they are evidently menacing Tours. One statement says they have occupied a suburb of that city and de- manded its surrender, but that Gambetta had ordered a defence to be made in order to se- cure the safe retirement of General Chauzy westward. The right wing of the German army at La Ferté is said tobe falling back on Versailles, and it may be Chauzy’s intention to follow closely in pursuit in order to strike the rear of King William’s investing line about Paris before the left wing at Tours can recover, General Chauzy is, at least, relieved of the incubus of having a capi- tal to cover, for Bordeaux is far enough southward to feel comparatively safe for the present against the encroachments of the enemy; and if Gambetta or the French people could get into the habit of evacuating the cities that are of no strategic importance instead of cooping an army inside to defend them, and, finally, capitulate with them, the burden of General Chauzy would be lightened even more. As it is, the reported withdrawal of the troops at La Ferté towards Versailles has a suspicious look, and it is to be hoped that the French general has his.scouts well out. The new levies from Brittany and the Northern provinces, under General Failherbe, have advanced as far south as Laon, and pro- pose to threaten the line of investment about St. Denis, where it is evidently weakest, and where so far it has not been protected by the formation of a secend line in the rear, such as General Von der Tann established on the first appearance of the Army of the Loire in the south. General Manteuffel is reported to have disappeared from the neighbor- hood of Havre, and is said to be moving south to reinforce Prince Frederick. The more probable supposition, however, is that he intends to strike Failherbe on the flank before he reaches Paris, He will have to move very rapidly to overtake him; but if Failherbe fails in his attack upon the investing line, and is thrown back from St. Denis, Manteuffel will make short work of him on the retreat. This appears to be the situation north and gouth of Paris at the latest reports. France is evidently still full of mate- rial for resistance. She has men and armies in profusion, and there is no complaint as to lack of arms. Indeed, her armies, such as they are, spring up like the dragon teeth which Cadmus sowed, all armed and equipped. When one is beaten another is ready to take its place. There is the old Gan, the old esprit, but there is not the old generalship, There seems to be no know- ledge among her generals of the enemy’s movements. There is a lack of spies and scouts, which should especially be plentiful. There is no unanimity of counsel, no apparent settled plan, no combination of generalship and statecraft; and as long as she lacks these the Germans, who possess all such requisites in an unprecedented degree, can lop off head after head as fast as the French hydra puts them forth. Tne Rumor 1N BorpEavx on Wednesday ot @ successful sortie from Paris was undoubtedly a canard. It could not bave taken place the same day, and if iteven had the news could not have reached Bordeaux in so short a time. Besides, we have a despatch from Caen re- porting the arrival at Honfleur on Wednesday of a balloon fiom Paris, and no mention is made of any sortie. In addition to all this, yesterday we published a telegram from King William to Queen Augusta, dated at Versailles on Tuesday, at which time there certainly could not have been any successful offensive movement made by the French. Altogether, the probability of the rumor proving correct is so small as to be unworthy of serious con- sideration. Mr. Lawrence, of Ohio, thinks a hundred first class funerals would have been the requi- site thing to secure peace after the war. It depends upon the kind of persons who might constitute the principal figures in the cellec- tion. If it had been composed of a judicious assortment of unrepentant rebels like Jubal Early and bitter-end radicals like Mr. Law- rence, for instance, the effect would doubtless have been quite pacifying. Sututvay, who killed O’Brien, has been. convicted and sentenced by Recorder Hackett to be hanged on the 20th of January. This case is the only one of the cluster of murders with which the courts have been regaled lately which presented the bare, unrelieved charac- teristic of a wanton and brutal killing, Some outcry has been made that Cooney and Jere Dunn are not to be hanged, but they killed their men evidently when it was a question of life or death, kill or be killed. We must re- member while inflicting stern justice upon criminals that even a murderer has rights, and that human life, especially such human life as that represented by David O’Day and Logan No. 2, can sometimes be as justifiably takeo by gue man as by @ whole community. Yosterday—Amuesty in Both Houses, The question of wiping out all political dis- abilities imposed on certain classes of men in the South, on account of their participation in the rebellion, occupied the attention of both houses of Congress yesterday. In the Senate, however, it was merely made the pretence for washing in public the soiled linen of the repub- lican politieians of Missouri. Senator Schurz occupied the entire sedsion in a review of the recent election in that State, taking the ground that the result was the triumph of President Grant’s great principle, “Let us have peace,” over the President's patronage. Gene- ral Schurz’s colleague (Mr. Drake), who was, the leader of the opposition and defeated fac- tion in the State, and who is so soon to transfer himself from the Senate chamber to the bench of the Court of Claims, has got the floor to- day in order to reply to Schurz and present the other side of the question. In the House, however, the proceedings were of a more practical nature. There they had something tohang upon besides personal rivalry and ambition. The bill reported by General Butler, professinggto be one of general pardon, amnesty and oblivion, but in reality a very partial and unsatisfactory affair, was up for discussion, and received a pretty severe handling from all sides of the House. The debate yesterday did not indicate that the Butler proposition had a single friend. Some of the most pronounced among the radicals opposed it as proffering too much grace to unre- pentant rebels; but the moderate men of the party, and all the democrats, declaim against the exceptions which the bill makes, and demand its amendment, in the shape of universal and unconditional amnesty. Mr. Sypher, of Louis- iana, declared that to be the platform on which the republican party of that State squarely placed itself; and Mr. Sargent, of California, himself a very pronounced repub- lican, gave half a dozen cogent reasons why he should support the proposition for universal amnesty. These were: Because the republi- can party was pledged to it, and should keep its pledge ; because the exclusion of ex-rebels from office was a badge of distinction, instead of disgrace, in the South; because such exclu- sion was bad policy en the part of the republi- can party; because the men under disabilities were not generally among the worst of the late rebels ; and because the people would bet- ter appreciate the purposes of the dem- ocratic party if it was allowed to bring forward as its exponents, as it natu- rally would, the leading rebels. Sunset Cox took the leading part in the light comedy portion of the debate, and afforded much amusement by the shafts which he let fly at General Butler and at Mr. Lawrence, of Ohio, who had expressed the opinion that a hundred respectable funerals ofexecuted rebels, coming immediately after the close of the war, would have been worth a hundred amnesty bills. The bill will come up again for discus- gion and action on Tuesday next. The indi- cations are that the original bill will be defeated by a large majority. But it is not so certain that the substitute offered by Farns- worth, for universal amnesty, will secure a two-thirds majority vote, as required to enact it into a law. We hope, however, that the good practical common sense which dis- tinguishes the American character will dis- play iiself in the House when the vote takes place, and that every remnant of political disability arising out of the rebellion will be expunged at once | and forever. Congress Cabinet Rumors. When there are no other sensations at Washington the good old Cheshire cheese of the Cabinet is a never-failing resort of the newspaper men, Within the last few days they have been working this old placer very industriously, and if they have not ‘‘struck a lode” they have at least found what the Califor- nia miners call ‘‘the color of the real stuff.” Thus it appears that if the Jersey Legis- lature will elect Secretary Robeson to the United States Senate the President will ap- point John W. Forney Secratary of the Navy in place of Mr. Robeson, or if Mr. Creswell will consent to go to St. Petersburg or Berlin he may go, in which case Mr. Forney will be made Postmaster General. Again, if Attor- ney General Akerman shall be elected to the Senate from Georgia, Senator Williams, of Oregon, will be made Attorney General. Last, though not least, these volunteer Cabinet makers have had the retirement of Secretary Boutwell from the Treasury positively fixed, although they appear to have abandoned Mr. Fish as a hopeless case. From all that we can learn upon this sub- ject, however, the President has had no infor- mation of any intention of Mr. Boutwell to retire from the Treasury, and has no notion of retiring him. In regard to a place for Penn- sylvania in the Cabinet, the subject has been under consideration, from time to time, and it is not improbable, “‘if things can be fixed har- moniously all round,” that Mr. Forney may come in. We think, too, that if his object is to add to his Cabinet an efficient party mana- ger, in the Post Office Department for in- stance, General Grant will find the right man in Forney. The time has come, too, for the President to call about him some of the most active and experienced politicians of his party, in order to ke ep the ‘‘machine” on the track. Napoleon on Throne Rights—The French People the Source of Legitimate Powcr. Napoleon the Third has just claimed, during an audience which he accorded specially to a HERALD correspondent at Wilhelmshéhe, as will be seen by our cable telegram to-day, that the French people four times ratified his acces- sion to supreme power in the State by popular vote, and that they must call him to retake it by a similar exercise of the citizen franchise. He will not return to Paris by military force. Apart from any consideration of the skilful manner in which the ballot was manipulated in France on each one of these several occasions, his Majesty forgot to mention that the French people have now ratified his deposition by a viva voce vote. In his endeavor to found a claim to the throne by divine right for the Bonapartes the ex-Umperor makes the im- portant admission that in the people, after all, isthe true source of legitimate power. He places himself on the horn of a dilemma at the same moment by reiterating his charges against the action of the Orleanist princes when serving in the Frencharmy. He alleges that the Duc D'Aumale apd his kinsmen in. trigued against his crown among the officers, and hence the default of loyalty of many of his commanders. The use of this argument revives the old question of dynastic right in a very cogent shape; for if Napoleon claims the right of restoration by virtue of a popular vote in France how often, and very often, has France heretofore approved of the Princes of Orleans, from the moment of the first founder of the family down to that of the dethronement of Louis Philippe—approved of their succes- sion by acclamation, by religious unction and by election also! .Where is the divine right? Who has it? Which party will enjoy the claim before the London Conference? When does @ royal dynasty commence? When and by wh at means is it ended ? Death on the Rall and by Explosion ia England—French Mauagement of Rail- ways. Fourteen persons have been killed and over twenty terribly wounded and mutilated by a railroad collision which occurred on the North Midland line, near Barnsley, England. A few days ago we chronicled by cable an- other fatal railroad accident from Great Bri- tain, and it is not avery lengthy period, in the history of such terrible calamities at least, since we announced the heart-rending tale of the scenes which occurred after the disaster to the Holyhead and London mail train, by which a great number of persons—including a peer of the realm and the countess, his wife— were killed by a collision and their bodies sub- sequently reduced to ashes amid the burning débris of the wrecked train. We have also news of a terrible fatality which has taken place by explosion in a cartridge factory in England. Recollecting and making due allow- ance for the sad fact that there appear to come periods of time when, even among our- selves, these horrible railroad tragedies suc- ceed each other with appalling rapidity, we cannot help thinking that there is something wrong in the disciplinary management system of our friend Mr. John Bull, and that it has been so of late years, Whatisit? Has his system of internal railroads become too com- plex? Has the iron network been so inter- laced all over the surface of his narrow insu- lar area that it has been made impossible to adjust “time” so that all the trains shall be ‘just there,” and intersect and “tap” the main trunk just at the proper and safe second of time? We incline slightly to this latter opinion. English speculators are likely to overdo the railway system in that country. A new railway in England does not, as with us, develop new interests in the coun- try. It does not vivify; it excites merely an unhealthy competition for gain in the shape of dividends and profits in the sales of shares. The local inspection is consequently becoming relaxed, We acknowledge that this inspection has been careful and vigilant to a degree in England ; but we fear that there are just n6w too many interests to be looked after, too many “‘irons in the fire,” for the security of the fingers of the people. Tn connection with this subject we may per- haps venture te remind the world that France bas managed some things of late years better than others, perhaps a little better than most other peeple. The exact and careful control of her railways under government supervision is one of these. The railway statistics of France for the year 1269 go to confirm this statement. Two passengers and four railway servants were killed and only one bundred and twelve passengers and sixty-one servants received injuries out of ninety millions who travelled on the French lines in the year—that is to say, one passenger for every forty-five millions was killed and one out of every eight hundred thou- sand injured. It is alleged that this pleasing result has been attained chiefly by the adop- tion in working of the system of ‘‘centre- vapeur” applied to the locomotives, by which the speed, in descending inclines, can effectu- ally be moderated, as well as by the exercise of a most strict supervision in the matter of the appointment of railway servants—of engi- neers particularly. However this may be, neither England nor America should be too proud to take a lesson from a great nation even in the moments of its apparent dissolu- tion. A French legacy of how to attain a healthy security of life and limb on the iron lines would do much to compensate humanity for French slaughters in war. B Tue Frenon Forors in the north of France appear to be making quite a vigorous campaign on a small scale. They have recaptured the fortresses of Ham and La Fert¢é and the town of St. Quentin, and at last accounts were marching on Laon. As admit- ted in the Prussian official reports, at Ham they captured several pieces of artillery and a force of Germans. It may be that their demonstrations have been the cause of Gen- eral Manteuffel’s retirement from the vicinity of Havre. Laon is not distant from the Ger- man line of communication with Metz, and its occupation would, perhaps, cause some incon- venience to the besiegers of Paris, if nothing more, z ExcrTeMENT IN Watt Srrezt—A CiaNnce For THE District ATTORNEY.—The ‘‘bulls” and ‘‘bears” had a terrific wrangle of it in Wall street yesterday, and the latter hugged their adversaries with tight money. In fact, the stringency which they produced has been seldom equalled. Borrowers at one time were compelled to pay one-half per cent for the use of money over night, which rate is equivalent to one hundred and eighty per cent per annum, or one hundred and seventy- three per cent more than the law allows. The stringency is, of course, purely artificial. Some time ago a number of prominent houses were indicted and punished for usury. The law was just as flagrantly violated yesterday, and the District Attorney has a fine field to again work up if he is disposed to exercise his authority. The artifigial derangement of the money market is,a conspiracy against business and a crime which should be promptly punished. Tue Woon Garurrina at DeuMoxtco’s.— The poets of the Post mildly insinuate that the Tribune philosopher wes guilty of a little strategy in turning the late wool gathering at Delmonico’s into a protective tariff dinner, Very good. Let the poets of the Post get up another wool gathering at Delmonico’s in order to rectify this obnoxious strategy of Greeley. The Delmonicos, we presume, are ready to feed both sides, till they setile the _gucation ‘The Government Statiouery Shope ~ There are very many important matters oon- nected with our postal service in reference to which the people need light, That light is sought for vainly In the debates of Congress and in the lengthy reports of the Postmaster General. We feel it to be our duty, therefore, to communicate some highly important facts derived from our own special investigations. The people are treated with speeches and arguments for and against the franking ‘‘privi- lege” ad nauseam, bat little or nothing is said in relation te the important fact that our mails are loaded down with tons upon tons of mer- chandise that should find its proper place on freight trains or in the express car. During the present year our mail routes have beem encumbered with four hundred and thirty-one tons eight hundred and ninety pounds of envelopes and stationery that should have been distributed through the natural channels of trade; and our postmasters have been forced to act as salesmen in the disposal of the entire mass—dealing it out by wholesale and retail, Postmaster General Creswell is apparently ambitious to undersell the regular trade ia envelopes and in certain other kinds of sta- tionery. He has sold during the year, acoord- ing to his report just published, 36,000,326 en- velopes, with his customers’ business cards or address gratuitously printed thereon; 45,027,250 plain envelopes, and 4,986,260 newspaper wrappers—in all 86,289,500. pieces of stationery that should have been pur~ chased from the regular dealers throughout the country, The weight of this enormous mass of sta- tionery could not have been less, according to the closest calculation, than four hundred and thirty-one tons eight hundred and ninety pounds, This whole business is an outrage upon every printer, papermaker, bookseller, stationer, druggist, envelope maker, grocer, notion dealer, country merchant and tax- payer in the United States, If the Post- master General may engage in the card print- ing and the envelope and newspaper wrapper trade, as he is now doing, he may take but a step further and supply his customers with all other kinds of stationery. He does not com- pute the interest on capital invested, the cost of transportation or the pay of salesmen, and, thus omitting all these items of cost, it would not be surprising should he be able to under- sell the trade. It would not, however, be difficult te show that the stationery sold by the Postmaster General really costs more in the end, all things considered, than that purchased of the trade generally, and that the whole business results in loss to the government and injury to private enterprise. The price paid the con- tractor last year by the Postmaster General was :— For small sized envelopes, per 1,000 -$4 50 Pastevoard boxes, extra.. 20 Wooden cases to hold boxes 62 Cost of transportation to 27,000 post offices, at ’ which they are delivered iree, average, per 1,0v0. 14 Total cost per 1,000, These enrelgnes are sold A ne DORE ber Loss, per 1,000, to governMent......+0+++++. $l 96 The fact is that the Postmaster General is selling stationery for less than cost, and that the difference falls oa the national Treasury. It will be seen from the above that the loss on a thousand envelopes is $1 96 when packed for distribution in wooden cases. When they were packed in small paper parcels or paste- board boxes for transportation over short dis- tances the loss to the government on each thousand envelopes for last year was $1 84, During the year 1869 the Postmaster Gen- eral sold 67,367,500 small envelopes at am average loss of $1 654 per thousand, or an aggregate difference to the Treasury estimated by those best informed at $111,324 ia a single year. This loss is exclusive of that sustained through favoritism in awarding contracis for station- ery to others than the lowest bidder. Of this abuse we have had more than one in- stance. There are those who urge that it is abso- lutely necessary for the government to con- tinue the manufacture and sale of envelopes and other stationery ; but the Postmaster Gen- eral in his last report unwittingly refutes thie assumption. During the present year 468,118,445 ad- hesive postage stamps have been issued, and 86,289,500 envelopes and newspaper wrappera have been sold. In round numbers, 400 enve- lopes have been purchased from the trade and prepaid by stamps for every 80 stamped en- velopes purchased from the ba sales. men at the post offices. Now is it worth while for the cciniiat to engage in the stationery business to the ex- tent of four hundred tons per year for the sake of accommodating one letter writer in five who might be served as well by the trade? : The manufacture and sale of stationery by the Post Office Department form a direct interference with the business of all the printers, stationers and envelope manufac- turers in the United States. They create a monopoly that is contrary to the principles of our government, and, if continued, will eventually ruin the business of thousands, amounting to many million dollars annually. Thus the practice becomes an unjust, unequal and oppressive tax upon many kinds of busi- ness. Formerly it was the custom of thousands of country merchants to lay in a stock of en- velopes when visiting New York to purchase goods. Ou the envelopes and other stationery each merchant would realize a small profit— from fifty to two’ hundred dollars annually, or enough to pay their expenses to New York. Now these dealers cannot compete with the Postmaster General, who, with the United States Treasury at his back, sells envelepes at leas than cost. This branch of their trade ia, therefore, to all intents and purposes, taxed. out of existence. In former years an important jobbing item was the printing of business cards, or the addresses of firms and individuals, upom the corners of envelopes. Since the Postmaster General has begun to cempete in this line and serves his customers by printing their cards free of charge this branch of the regular printers’ trade is rained—in effect taxed out of existence. We may also state that this government stationery business is a very good thing for the fortunate speculator who chances, by fair or foul means, to get a contract to furnish our government stationery shop with four “.