The New York Herald Newspaper, December 28, 1870, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, NOON AND EVENING. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tum SPECTACLE OF Tux BLack CKRooK. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway ana Lith street.— up SeHOOL FOR SoaNDAL. . LINA EDWIN'S THEATRE, 1% Brosdway.—LitrLe JA0K BUKPPABD. ers GRAND OPERA HOUSB, corner of 8th av. and 234 st.— Lars Buraanns. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broad: War Wittie WINKIZ. Matinee i hind PANTOMIME OF WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner 80h st—Perform- ances every afterooon and evening, GLOBE THEATRE, 738 Brosdway.—Vantutx ENTER- TAINMENT, &C. Matineo at 234. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twonty-fourtb street.— BABATOGA. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.-NRw York Buno- LAus—-ROBMERS OF THE Hes TH, &O. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 284 at., between th and 6th Avs.— Rur Van Winkie. NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, @ Bowery.—GenMan Orrma—Wii iam TELL. STERINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street—M1es GLYN I MacuEra. : MRS, F. B. CONWAY'S PAMK THEATRE, Brookiya.— Wupnanvn. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—Le Prtit Favs. Se TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSK, 901 Bowery.—Va- Baeiy ENTERTAINMENT. Matinee at 2}. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Comto Vooau- iM, Neauo ACTS, &0.—JOLLY SANTA CLavs. Matinee. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, $86 Broadway.— Neauo MINSTERLSY, FARORS, BUBLRSQUES, £0. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSB, 234 at., between 6th and 7th aya—NeGRO MinsTaxLsy, EcoRNTRiorrine, £0. APOLLO HALL, corner 28th street and Broadway.— Da. ConRY's DIORAMA OF IRELAND, ACADEMY OF MUBIO, Fourteouth street—BILLIARD MATOU—RUDOLPH Ve. DYON. BROOKLYN OPERA HOUSE——Wexon, Huon & Ware's MINSTRELS. ~CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME, &0. NEW YORK CIROUS, Fourteenth street,-SoRNES IN TUE KiNG, ACROBAT, ho. Matinee at 2g. DR. KAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway.— BOLENOE AND ABT. HARLEM MUSIC RAL! KATHLERN MAVOURNEEN. NEW YORK MI'SEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— NOK AND ART. New York, Wednesday, Vecember 28, 1870. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S GERALD. PAGE. 1—Advertisements. 2—Advertisements. 3—Aadverusements. 4—Kditorials: Leading Article, “The Squabbles and Confusion among the Politicians—The Contest for the Next Presidency’’—Personal Intelll- _,, genee—Amusement Announcements, S—The War im France—Dupanionp: Interview of a HERALD Correspondent with the Bishop of Orleans—European and Domestic Telegraphic weve -a' Life on the Ocean Wave—Business otices, 6—News from Central and South America—Brook- lynites’ Burdens—Municipal Affairs—New York, Brooklyn and New Jersey Courts— The Morristown Fire Fiend Sent to Trenton— The Building Murder: Further Evidence in the West Thirty-fifth Street Horror—skating— Fo Braining with a Bottle—The Central dim ‘y—Financial and Commercial Reports—Probable Murder im Wesvchester—The Coal Question— “The Dishonest Shoemaker”—shocking Acci- deut—Marriages and Deaths—Advertisements. 8—Carnival of Fire—News irom Washingtoa—Ship ping intelligence—Advertisements, Bosron has a very heavy smuggling case In her courts. Six persons are indicted, and their joint operations are alleged to have mounted to three hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars. GeNrRAL SCHENOK bas not yet received his fnstructions relative to the Alabama claims, but they are being prepared at the State De- partment. It will be well to give him great latitude ; for his good sense and sound Ameri- anism can be fully trusted, The Forrner INvEsTiGavion of the Thirty- fifth stre+t disaster by a coroner’s jury shows that the building was improperly constructed, the walls not being thick enough for the height and the site of the building being too exposed to severe winds. Tue Lapor Rerormersin Concord, N. H., have nominated Lemuel P. Cooper for Gover- nor and a full Congressional ticket. They are not very likely to carry the State, but as they are composed in great part of republicans it is interesting to know that they endorse Sumner, Scharz and Trumbull as against Grant on the St. Domingo question. ) Tak Exvevarep Rawway on Greenwich street has been indicted by the Grand Jury for obstructing the streets wiih its iron posts. This will probably wind up for good the one- legged railway, which proposed to carry passengers from the Battery to Yonkers in thirty minutes, by gliding over a long line of unwieldy crutches—a sort of hop, skip and jump proces, which, at least in two instances, resulted jn jumping the track. Prince Henry or Louxempocre relies firmly on the justice of his ducal rights claim, the patriotism of his people and the truth and “loyalty of the signers of the Treaty of 1867” to shield him against Prassian aggression. The first named forces may be available, but if Bismarck continues to press on his Highness of Luxembourg should not rest too heavily on the latter, or he may find himself tripping on at an oarly day towards Berlin or London after the fashion of the American General Gadsden, when he crossed the Mexican border, on an- nouncing to the customs officials, “I have nothing in my trank but my treaty.” AN Exrraorpinary List of disastrous fires tn various parts of the country is presented in our news columns this morning. In Newburg extensive paper machinery works and two other buildings were destroyed, with a loss of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In Poughkeepsie three fires in twelve hours occurred, with a loss of over ninety thousand dollars, In Rochester a number of buildings were barned, with one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars loss. In Cornwall, Canada, a woollen manufactory was destroyed, loss three hundred thousand doliars; and other minor fires are reported in Haverhill, Mass., St. Thomas, Canada, Baltimore and other cities, amounting to an aggregate loss of nearly one hundred and ten thousand dollars. In addi- tion to these a fire occurred in Princess Bay, Staten Island, by which an old man was burned to death; another fatal casualty resulted from a fire in Bloomingdale, N. J., and at the oosac, Mass., tunnel two men fell victims to the devouring flames. Verily, it would seem ‘hat the fire fiend is taking his holiday in a maddening round of merriment, NEW YORK HERALD ‘Tac Squapvice und Confusion Among the Poll- tcilans—The Context for the Next Prost- dency. What has caused this great commotion All the country through? It is the ball # rolling on For Tippecanec and ‘Tyler too, For Tippecanoe and ape too; And with them we will beat little Van— Van, Van, Van is a used up man— And with them we will beat little Van. This was one of the most inspiring of tho whig campaign songs of the grand political carnival of 1840, and that grand cacaival was one of the most extraordinary political out- breaks of fun, music, barbecues, geoat gatherings of the masses and grotesque processions in the history of any people. It was a six months Carnival of Venice on grand scale all over the United States, a fer- mentiag revolution, winding up with a politi- cal whirlwind in the election, and a terri- ble rattling and crackling among the scattered dry bones of the democratic party. This was the culmination of ‘‘the great commotion” of 1840, We have ‘‘a great commotion” among the politicians now springing up. Its import and tendencies are but dimly defined as yet; that it portends an awful rattling among the political fossils and dry bones in 1872 we have not the shadow of a doubt, In the opening of the campaign of 1840 the disastrous financial revulsien of 1887 and the defalcations and general looseness of Van Buren's administration had settled the issuo against him. At this time, nearly two years in advance of the election, it may be too soon to pronounce upon the issues which will control it; but, from present indications, the republican party will be broken to pieces from the squabbles among its leaders; and the democratic party, wise from the lessons of twelve years of outside experience and defeats, will be fused with all the floating elements of the country into s powerful organization. It is also beginning to be apparent that the most efficient and popular democratic leaders are ready for any personal saorifices for the sake ofharmony. Take, for instance, the late pro- clamation of Mayor Hall in the New York Leader, to the effect that the democracy of the West need not entertain any misgivings as to the designs of Tammany; that Tammany is not wedded te Governor Ioffman; but that even now she can assure the West that New York bas no choice for the next Presidoncy, and cheerfully in this matter recognizes the claims of the great Western section of the Union. Is not this the read to success? This is surely the right spirit fora good fight. The man must be taken to serve the party, and not the party to serve the man. In this view the less that is known of the man the better he will run, as was the case with Polk in 1844 and Pierce in 1852. These men were fireproof in being comparatively unknown. The same may be said, aside from their mili- tary capital, of Jackson; Harrison, Taylor and Grant, and the same may be said of Lincoln. Henry Clay, as a statesman, had the grandest record of them all; but it gave his enemies such a field for attack that they kept bim and his friends all the time in hot water. Hence his defeats. Excepting a great soldier, a great man is not the man to rum for President in these latter days. John Quincy Adams was a great scholar and statesman of the old school; but he was beaten by Andrew Jack- son, whose schooling and statesmanship were hardly more brilliant than the record of Andy Johnson, and who was far inferior to Johnson asa speaker and writer. A man, therefore, from the Indiana Legislature or the St. Levis Common Council, or a shrewd fellow fresh from a flatboat, or a railsplitter, may serve the democracy better than the preteations Sey- mour or the polished Hoffman. Your rail- splitter runs better than your grand statesman because he is nearer to the people in position and sympathies. A shoemaker or factory hand, with reasonable qualifications, would beat Sumner for President, even in Massa- chusetts, though he would hardly be able to cope with Ben Batler. The field, then, from which to choose the democratic candidate fs large enough, and it is the true policy of the party to select as their man some one whose very obscurity will make him strong. But what will be the chance of such a man against General Grant? An up- hill work; but we are beginning to doubt whether Grant will be in or out of the field in 1872. Some of the most powerfal men of his party are moving heaven and earth to get him out, and it is possible that they may succeed. He has had enough of fighting, and he wants to rest and enjoy himself from his labors. Why not? Besides, in failing in the outset to bring the ablest politicians of his party around him, the politicians have so devilled him and demoralized his party that, as things grow worse, he may give it up in disgust as a bad job, and retire to his farm. Or, evenif he should run, histeading malcontents and Mar- plots may get up two or three scrub candidates against him, and so cut him out before the people oria the House. Greeley says it is too soon to talk of Grant yet for the succession. Probably before the end of another year Greeley may say it {s too late. Clearly he, too, has been disappointed in something, and is in the same boat with Fenton. But there is a much deeper and broader view to take of this political commotion. The men and things we have been discussing are the mere drift floating on the tide. We live in atime of revolutions, The very air seems to be charged with revolutionary elements. The moral world, like the physical world, is sub- ject to contagious epidemics and strange per- turbations. In revolutions and political con- vulsions nations act and react upon each other, Our revolution of 1776 produced the world- convulsing French revolution of 1789, and the recent developments of Italian unity and Ger- man unity are but the European outcroppings of American unity. But is not the reaction, mysterious and impalpable, but potential withal, the reaction from all these European revolutions and agitations coming back upon us? Do we not even feel that there is an ominous restlessness in the American mind and a desire for change—for something new and exciting at almost any hazard? Our late gigantic rebellion gave us at least the fullest employment and stimulus to all our faculties. This peace we have is getting monotonous and slow—too slow for this age of steam and tele- graphs. and accumulating mental forces. What then? General Grant must make a diversion, bold, startling and inviting to the popular imagination, or the popular mind will We want room and play for our idle ; | seek a vent in a political revolution, For eighteen years Louis Napoleon shrewdly pro- vided the excitements and sensations needed by the French people. But he humored them all the timo with that Rhine frontler till it brought him to his ruin. General Grant has been hamoring us on “manifest destiny” with St, Domingo, but it does not go down. We have tried to help him on that lovely island, but it wont do. He must give us something better. St. Domingo is a humbug. It was a South Sea bubble, but it has ex- ploded. Here igs the republican party, fonndered and breaking up ona sand bar. It must be got off or it will go to pieces, The prospect is in favor of its dissolution and dis- persion, and fn favor, too, of a political revolu- tion and another reconstruction of the Uvited States, beginning with the shortest method of settling the national debt. The country will not stand still, lake or break, it will ‘‘keep moving,” and tho administration must go ahead or be ran down. Tho War Situation. Our special despatch from Versailles of the 2#d instant shows that Paris yet retains some of her old brilliancy. The necessary business of the day is conducted as gayly as usual within her precincts, and cabs and ompibuses ply the streets, and the shop windows dis- play their tompting arrays just as if no enemy was without and ne hostile guns were pointed against her. The sortie of a few days ago was a gallant effort, but it was com- pletely repelled. The reported sinkiag of six English ships {nthe Seine by the Prus- sians, to obstruct navigation, is creating great excitement among all parties, the san- guine French, no doubt, looking aa confi- dently for English intervention as the rebels looked for it after the Trent affair. Mantouf- fol is atill in pursuit of General Faidberbe’s Army of the North; Mcsiéres, on the Bel- gian frontier, has beea invested by the Ger- mans, and the forces in Blois and Orleans continue their excesses. The Bishop of Orleans on the Franea- Prusstan War—Special Exposition to the Herald. Monsignor Dapanloup, Bishop of Orleans, France, delivers his opinion on the subject of the Franoo-Prussian war, its mode of con- duct by the Germans and the patriotism and power of resistance of the French, to the world through the columns of the Henan this morning. This celebrated divine accorded a special interview to our correspondent at the episcopal residence. He marked his compli- ment to American journalistic enterprise in a most remarkable and flattering manner, for he not only conversed freely with our writer on the subject of the great Continental crisis, but also invited a number of his clergy and more immediate neighbors to meet him at a break- fast fete which he gave in henor of our mis- sion, and subsequently delivered his state- ment in an easy, unrestrained manner. Our correspondent, dating at Orleans, reports both the interview and dialogue in the special cable telegram letter which appears in our columns. Monsignor Dupanloup is a shining light tn the Catholic world; a brilliant taper burning steadily on the grand altars of the Vatican and St. Peter's. His position in the Ecumeni- cal Council, his fiery orations and keen logical discussions to and in the midst of the assembled Fathers during the pregress of that eventful epoch in the history of the modern Papacy can never be forgotten by the outside world. He was recusant fer the moment, argued, asked fer information, ‘“‘tried all things,” as commanded in the Scrlptures, asked almost for the Vide Latus, which was vouchsafed to St. Thomas by the Great High Priest himself, was enlightened and van- quished, and finally signed the Pontifical attestation of the dogma of infalli- bility. We reported Monsignor Dupantoup at the mement both by telegrams through the cable and in detail in our special letters from the Holy City. His Grace of Orleans has not forgotten anything of this, for he at once recognized our correspondent the other day as heving made one of the Heratp corps which served us in Rome during the great hierarchal assemblage. His Grace of Orleans spoke freely in conse- quence, Asa Churchman, and from natural temperament and by his education and train- ing, he is opposed to the levelling theories of French radicalism, He does not believe that Gambetta can control a nation. He looks forward with evident awe to the probability of the inauguration of an era of communism in France, and shriaks back from a forecaste of the consequences, as he thiaks, of Danton and Robespierre and the first guillotine. The Bishop of Orleans seeks shelter in his mitred conservatism, and expresses very little faith in the Prussian soldier either as a demoerat, a liberator or a brother. Excesses O¥ Titg GERMAN Sotpigry.—The Prussian commanders are making a sad mis- take in permitting their troops to commit such exeesses as those reported to have taken place at Orleans, They will provoke bitter retalia- tion on the part of the French, and are entirely unworthy of civilized warfare. According to our correspondent the venerable Bishop Dupanloup, the diocesan of Orleans, a man as highly regarded as he is widely known throughout the world for his learning; a man of wisdom, Christian piety and patriotism, has been subjected to great indignities by the Prussian soldiery. The necessities of war cannot be urged in defence of this conduct. Desecration of the churches is unpardonable, and violent attacks upon priests while in the performance of their sacred duty in attending the dying are wanton violations of the rules of war and of humanity. We trust, for the honor of the German name, that these reports are exaggerated. Tne Coat DeaLers.—We publish a commu- nication in another part of the paper from a manufacturer who has a sad complaint to make against a large ceal company for not ful- filling a contract made, as the writer states, in good faith and with a fair understanding between the contracting parties. It would be a serious thing if manufacturing were to be stopped by the monopolists’ cry of ‘‘strikes at the mines ;” and yet this would seem immi- nent if the supply of coal can be cut off, as is alleged in this case. Toe people have a great deal to bear from the coal dealers, buat it seems that the worst may not have come yet, | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1870. The Bombardment to Begin on New : Year's Day. A special London despatch to the Henao transmitted yesterday morntag a very positive rumor that the bombardment of three of the Paris forts will begin on the Ist day of Janu- ary, These forts are on the south side of the city, Everything is gaid to be ready, the details being all arranged for the bombard- ment, which would have commenced sooner, it is added, but for the festival of Christmas, which the Germans always celebrate so reli- giously, Why should not New Year's Day, which the French, and particularly the Parisians, always celebrate as religiously as the Germans observe Christmas, serve as an equally good pretext for still further postpon- ing tae bombardment? If this were indefi- nitely postponed it is likely that ‘the world and the rest of mankind” would not complain. The spirit of peace which has prompted the Friends in Great Britain to organize the most liberal plans in aid of the women and children and other non-combatant victims of the war in France might thus have tlme to co-operate with the depression occasioned by disease and suffering in the ranks of the German invaders as well ag by their enormous losses, which have slready reached the number of three hundred thousand men, and tend to hasten the close of the Franco-Prussian war. Humane considerations, however, cannot at present be expected to prevail in the councils of either the besiegers or the besieged. The latter teem determined to resist with heroism to the hitter end, and military considerations alone will decide the former to bombard or not to bombard Paris. If the rumor brought by our special London despatch shall be verified shells will be thrown into different parts of Paris for the purpose of establishing the range of the German guns, and thenceforth the bom- bardment will continue incessantly antil the capitulation. In this case the Ist of January will probably open to the Parlgians anything the How Chrisunas Was Kept in city. That New Yorkers know hew to spend a merry Christmas was demonstrated most remarkubly during the two days im which they revelledin the enjoyment of this great Chris- tian festival of love and charity, of redemption and salvation. A Sunday of devout worship and domestic quiet Christmas Day proper was followed by w carnival on Monday, in which the joyous heart of the metropolis fairly unburdened itself, dedicating the day te friend- ship, frolic, and good will to all men. A notable feature of the festivities was that the violence and crime which so often mark the celebration ef our public holidays were ina great measure absent. We have heard of no serious cases of violation of law arising from the Chrisinas jollities, Bverything seems to have gane off harmeniously, as became the festival of the Prinec of Peace. But the most pleasing aspect of the celebra- tion was in the charitable instilutions where the limitless generosity of our citizens is always athome, Io the orphan asylums the father- leas children were rejoiced by the good gifts of those charitable persons whom God has ap- pointed their fathers—the ministers ef Him who assured us that whatsoever we do fer these little ones we do also for Him. The Newsboys’ Homes—those excel- lent institutions in Park place and Warren street—were made bright by rich contributions, which made the tables groan. The Five Points establishments, the Mission and the House of Industry, were similarly taken eare of, and the poor little waifs of the streets who find a home in these institutions were made to feel that, although an evil fate has rendered them estrays of society, they are not without friends or without a future of independent industry. Even in the prisons, where erring humanity, in so many shapes, lies cowering under « cloud, the inmates of the dismal cells were lifted wp into the sunshine of a better life by the boundless charity extended to them. Probably some of the most vile crimi- nals around that Christmas board—recalled by the event to the remembrance of the mysteri- ous birth of the Saviour and the sublime con- summation of the redemption—may have brightened up with the thought that as the penitent thiet foand salvation they, too, by penitence and good resolutions, might be saved to society, to become one day a com- ponent part of its most respectable elements, On the whole, the double Christmas of 1870 was well kept. Of course, it was but the pre- fatory part of the more jovial celebration of New Year, which follows hard upon. A Warniug from Richmond. It seems that the loss of some of the lives by the burning of the Spottswood Hotel was caused by the jam ef a crowd of panic-stricken people against doors that opemed iuwardly. It was in the same way that the seventy vic- tims of the burning theatre in Richmond, fifty- nine years ago, were held secure against all struggling till the doom of death could reach them. We should take a warning from this late disaster. Our theatres and hotels usually have their doors opening outwardly, or on swing- ing hinges, that they may open both ways, but a of them need more doors for egress. Some of our theatres have narrow winding stair- cases leading to the street doors, and nearly all of them, especially the most crowded, have camp chairs blecking up the passage ways. Plymouth church is especially faulty in this latter arrangement, although in the matter of egress it is an excellent model for all our churches and theatres. The Inspector of Buildings, who is charged with the rectifica- tion of such matters as these, does not seem likely to pluck out the evil very summarily, and the Thirty-fifth street disaster should teach our citizens that measures for the secu- rity of Ife from disaster by falling or burning buildings should be taken into their own hands, Managers and church trustees should remove all camp chairs from the aisles and have wide doorways for egress on all sides of their houses. the report of his conversion to the Romau Catholic faith.” Sucn are the words of a cable telegram from London. Mr, Gladstone is too much of a finished scholar to express it that way. He would not call it ‘‘conversion,” but “perversion.” Should Pope Pius the Ninth seek shelter in Malta he will soon ‘know how it is himeel” * Pisetab os OE coated UO Ment Conls Porforated—The Gront Alpine Tunnel a Success. The fires and by far the most difficult stadium in the completion of the enterprise that is to roll the southward travel and com- merce of Northern Europe through the very heart of the Alps has been accomplished. As despatches from Susa, in Italy, published un- der our special telegraphic head this morning will inform our readers, the last thin screen of rock that closed the orifice was perforated yesterday, amid the enthusiastic mutual con- gratulations of the engineers and workmen employed on both sides of the barrier, Thus has another obstacle in the way of progress and internatienal communication been removed, and thus, too, has the Christ- mas season of 1870—of this wonderful twelve- menth which we have already called ‘tho year of reconstruction”—been fitly celebrated among the wild Alpine passes and caverns. The world is already famillar enough with the Mont Cenis undertaking not to require from us in this place any minutely detailed description. The Hap sent a special cor- respondent to the locality in October, 1865, and about one month later published his com- plete statement, historical and topographical, of the whole affair, along with a chart of the neighborhood and the line of the proposed tua- nel, The sketch in question was at the time so exhaustive as to need few additions, ex- cepting in a simply technical point of view. This morning we have merely the outline of this stupendous achievement of science and persevering labor to regall and the public to felicitate upon it. Since the days when Hannibal cleft a pas- sage for his invading armies through the Alps by the use of chemical solvents roundly summed up by name in the one word vinegar, if we are to believe the somewhat mythical narratives of his time, the Alpine chain has been the chief stumbling block in the way of general European traffic. Once serving as a shield to weak Powers against aggression, it long since ceased to be so in the presence of steam and rifled artillery; for the one could turn its flanks with iron-clad men-of-war, and the other cowd hurl shot and shell into its recesses and far up on its rugged sides, Engineer after engineer had studied the problem of the Alps in successive ages, and the means of easy transit over them had been planned after a thonsand patterns, It was only in the time of the First Napoleon, whose reign was crowded with grand concep- tions, that the great passes of the St. Gothard, the St. Bernard and the Simplon were made the splendid highroads of travel that so long excited the admiration of Europe. But as ideas expanded, relations increased, new loco- wotive forces were developed and time began to be gauged by hours and minutes where it had previously been measured by weeks and days. Austria, anxiously concerned for the trade as well as for the military subjection of her Italian possessions, began to cast about for swifter and better access to Lombardy than her co-operation with the French had given her, and her schemes set the Sardinian government on the alert. A great struggle for Italian independenee was evidently prepar- ing, and inthe meanwhile Italian commerce yearned for new outlets. Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, agitated the subject of a tunnel through the Alps from his own into French territory as early as 1842, and, in the presence of the railways that were shooting forth in all directions, above and _ be- low the great mountains, the thought seemed less chimerieal than it had appeared ten years earlier. But it required the genius of Cavour to give it visible life, and only the improving fortunes of his country, aided by the ambition of Northern merchants and states- men (these terms are sometimes synony- mous) emboldened its projectors to go ac- tually to work with the enterprise. A com- mission of three thoroughly able engineers was entrusted with the preliminary studies, and, after long and minute examination, they selected Fourneaux, in the narrow valley of the river Arc, in Savoy, as the French termi- nus of the excavation, and Bardonnéche, in the Piedmontese valley of the Dora, as the Italian end. Between these two points, the one looking westward to the sweep of the river Iscre, in France, and the other turned east- ward to the Po, in Italy, the barrier of rock to be pierced was only about twelve kilometres, or, in closer terms, 12.220 metres—7.5932 Eng- lish miles—-taking the shortest possible line. This work began after the old-fashioned method of pick, spade, bar and basket in the spring of 1858, and it was not until June 12, 1861, that a perforating machine was set in play in the gallery at Bardonnéche, on the Italian side, and only on the 25th of January, 1863, that real excavation commenced on the Savoy side at Fourneanx. The intervening time had been spent in con- structing and improving machinery, collecting all sorts of supplies fer the heaviest work and training the men and animals employed. Were we to attempt a repeated detail here of all the scientific, fanciful and even super- natural bugbears conjured up to disconcert the enterprise at the time of its inception we should fill columns with the strange story. Suffice it to say that all the realms of nature and imagination alike were ransacked for terrible suggestions. Hidd«n torrents, sub- terranean fires, internal glaciers and ava- lanches, inflammable oils, explosive gases, solid metallic deposits, fathomless quicksands, the very mountains themselves caving in to bury them forever, were some of the appalling contingencies summoned before the mental gaze of the engineers and workmen, and s0 deeply were the latter impressed with these terrors that they, for a long time, would not enter the vault without attendant priests. But the hour had come; the Ogre of the Mountain was summoned to abdicate; steam thundered at his granite gateways; his reign, with all its fantastic horrors, was over; the work went om. ‘In 1862 the: French government, by regular convention, came to the relief of Italy, which had been bravely pushing forward alone, and agreed to pay one half the computed cost of the tunnel (sixty-five million francs), with yearly subsidies, shonld the Italian commission complete it in twenty-five years, The latter condition failing the French could cease further payment. However, should the work be finished in ten years from June 30, 1863, France was to pay thirty-five million one hun- dred sud seventy-five thousand francs for her. one half of it, ‘This tatter condition has boon triumphantly filled so far as the perforation is concerned, more than two and a half years in advance, and Italy has chief honor in the grand result; for through hor skill, energy and liberality it was inaugurated, and to her perseverance In the teeth of every species of discouragement is its completion mainly due. She too will reap the first immediate profits, for her breadstuffs, manufactures and miscel- laneous supplies arc needed in the regions to which the tunnel will give her direct entrance. * But all Europe, and through Europe the world atlarge, is to profit soon and immensely by this great work. The whole north of the Conti- nent is to have speedy and easy access to the south, direct lines of railroad will quickly place the ports of the German Ocean and the Baltic in swift eommunication with those of the Mediterranean and the Euxine; the new Oriental mail route via Brindisi will be in full operation ere 1871 shall have waned, and the heart beat, political and commercial, ‘) of our race, be freed and quickened by such degrees as shall presently reveal themaclves in advancing pulsations of light over the sav- age places of the Earth which have hitherto sat In darkness, We, then, welcome the com- pleted perforation of Mount Cenis to its splen- did place, aa a gigantic enterprise, beside the Suez Canal, the transcontinental Pacific rail- road, the sub-oceanic telegraph. Two nations, although pronouncing different dialeots, hail- ing each other with joy through the speaking trumpet of the mountains; the North and the South, and with them the remotest East and West, shaking hands at last between the eter- nal ridges of the Alps, and feeling a common thrill run from hemisphere to hemisphere— this is, indeed, a lesson, a spectacle, a gift, in the hallowed Christmas season, beyond all price to humanity—a practical guerdon of the peace and good will long promised from on high and to be worked out hy the sweat of labor, guided by patriotism and genius towards its final deliverance, Gambetta’s Night Ride. Our correspondent at Tours gave a vivid description in our columns yesterday of a famous night ride in which he accompanied Gambetta on an unaccomplished journey to Qrleans, But the ride, after all, was only famous for the failure of its purpose. Sheridan's ride is part of the annals of our war. It is sung in poetry and it is immortal- ized upon canvas. But Sheridan reached the end of his journey and turned the fortunes of a battle by his timely arrival on the field. Gambetta rushed after an ignis fatuus rumor from Tours towards Orleans; but, meeting with bad news and about twenty fierce ublana on the way, he took the back track and got to Tours again in a fever of blasphemy. Sheri- dan, moreover, rode a coal black steed (s0 poetry says, although it might have been a bay), while the French Minister rode an iron horse, whose motive power was coal. But to drop similes, this impetuous night ride of Gambetta and all the incidents surrounding it would seem to give a keener insight into the character of the republican Secretary of War. Judging from our correspondent’s description of him we should say that he is a restless little fellow, much given to fuss and sensation, gifted with fiery eyes and a tongue that hurls out fire and fury with every breath ; in fact, a counterpart of Zamiel, in the play, that scar- let creature of the lower world, whese eyes and mouth, shooting forth terrible flames, paralyze the juvenile portion of the audioace and make the ladies quake. We are afraid that Gambetta is not just the man for the situation after all. Ambition, ex- cited by his present elevation, but unfortu- nately uncontrolled by judgment or discretion, appears to have taken hold of him. His per- petual meddling with the generals and his as- sumption of military authority would ruin the fortunes of any campuigo. The destinies of a great nation struggling in the throes of dire misfortune and threatened with almost annihi- lation surely need the mastery of a greater and a calmer mind to guide them to a better end than the destinies of France now point to. Where ig that mind to be feundin Franco to- day? Echo answers, where ? Misister Moriry has written a letier of self-vindicatioa in regard to his course in England, The substance of it,is not yet known, but it is understood that he claims to have received no intimation of dissatisfaction on the part of the State Department until the telegram summarily dismissing him, which came to hand the day after the St. Demingo treaty was rejected by the Senate. Personal Intelligence. General James B. Fry, of the United States Army, is temporarily quartered at the Metropolitan Hotel. Mr. W. C. Smith, member of Congress from Ver- mont, is among the recent arrivals at the Brevoort House. Mr. John H. Flagg, Clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives, is stopping at tne Grand Central Hotel. General E. H. Baker, of Uhicago, has arrived at the St. Dents Hotel. General G. B. Williams, Deputy Commissioner of the Internal Revenue, 1s in the city on business con- nected with his department. He ts staying at the Everett: House. General James S. Negley, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, has apartments at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Judge Perry H. Smith, of Chicago, is rooming at the St, Nicholas Hotel. Mr. T, F. Purnell, State Senator from Texas, is at the Metropolitan Hotel. General S. B, Buckner, of Confederate renown, has left the Grand Central Hotel for his home in Ken- tucky. Miss Olive Logan alighted yeaterday at the Fifth Avenue ifotel. Colonel L. H. Dixon and Major Netl, of the United States Army, are temporarily at the Metropolitan Hotel. My. David Lyman, a prominent railroad man and a member of the Legislature of Connecticut, is Among tne latest arrivals at the Astor House. Commander B. P. Smith, of the Umited States Navy, is pow stationed at the Irving House. Mr. G. A. Grow, ex-Speaker of the House of Ro presentatives, has arrived at the Astor House, Mr. W. D. Murphy, of Albany, 18 at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Mr. J. H. Ramsey, President of the Susquehanna Railroad, is sojourning at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Mr. J. P. O'Neil, member of Congress from Penn- sylvania, as apartments at the Astor House. The foltowing 1s a list of passengers who satled tn steamship City of Cork, to Mailfax ana Liverpool, yesterday (December 27, 1870):—Sister Mary Corne- lia, Sister Mary B&nard, Miss Grace, Captain Graham and wife, Join H. Gibbon, Mr. W. C. Bates, Mr. Wilitain Fulke, Captain Dalrymple, J, J. Barber, Mrs. Forbey, Keuben A, Kroyd and son, D. Weir and wife, De Burgh Persse, Edward Hall, T. KF. Hawkinson. OP ait