The New York Herald Newspaper, December 30, 1870, Page 5

es & NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. varene XXXV. AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, LINA EDWIN'S THEATRE, 70 Broadway.—LittLe Ja0w SucrraRD—FRA DIAVOLO, GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of Sth av. and 23d st.— Les BRiganns. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—THe PANTOMIME OF Weer Witte Winkig. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner 80ch st.—Perform+ ances every afternoon and evening, GLOBE THEATRE, 728 Broadway.—VABIsTy ENTEB- TAINNENT, £0, es FIFTH AVENUE THSATRE, Twenty-fourtb street.— SARATOGA. BOWERY THEATRE, LEBKB. ( Bowery.—HAMLET—LAWYER'S BOOTH’S THEATRE, 234 si., ve:ween th and 6p avs.— Ruir Van WINKLE. NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, 45 Bowery.—GEnMaN APrEBA—RIGOLETIO, NIBLO'S: Seeee, Broadway.—Tas SrRoTacLs cr ‘THE BLACK CRoO: ' WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ana 13m streeL— Tax HE at Law. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PAK THEATRE, Brookign.— FERNANDE. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC.—Orna Bourrs— La Guanpg Docuessz. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 21 Bowery.—Va- . BIELTY ENTERTAINMENT. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Comto VooAL- 16M, NEGKO Acts, &C.—JOLLY SANTA CLAUS, BAN FRANCIRCO MINSTRGL HALT, 885 Brondway.— NeGno MINsTRELSY, Fanors, BuRLESQuES, & BRYANT’S NEW OPERA UOUSE, 33d st, between 6th and 7th ays,—NEGRO MiNSTRELSY, EOORNTRIOITING, £0. APOLLO HALL. corner 26th street and Broadway.— Du. Couny'’s DIORAMA OF IRELAND, BROOKLYN OPERA HOUSE——Weton, Aoanrs & WaIte’s MINSTRELS. ~CURIGTAS PANTOMINE, £0. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourtoeath strect.—SozNgs IN THE Ring, Acnowars, do. DR. KAHN’S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway,— SCIENCE AND Ant. NEW YORK M‘ BCIENCE AND UM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— " New York, Friday, “December 39, 1870. oF 7 -DAY'S 3 HERALD. Next Presidency—Ni and Montevideo—Ari Knickerbocker Gone— Advert ews from St. Domingo y Intellwence—Another ‘Marriages and Deaths— emnts. 8: Leading Article, “The New Era of ‘aphs and Newspapers’’—Personal Intel- igence—Ice Blockude in the Hudson—Amuse- ment Announcements, -General European News and Coast aud Harbor De- 2xplosion in Williams- Terride Boil: burg—Business Notices. G=Napoicon: “I Never Intend to Remount the Throne on the Strength ofa Military Pronun- ciamento”—Guizot: lils Great Pamphiet on uation in France—Excitement at Havre: ‘parture of Genera! Breand from the City— The Aimy of the Loire: Three-quarters of a Millon of Frenchmen in Arms—Dapger to France: Blighting Influence of Politicians in ‘Their Inéreference with the Army—The Spirit of the Frenen—The Butiding Murder: Close of # the Official Investigation—The Josephine Weiss Homicide—New York City News—Quick ‘Transit—shocking Affair in Brookiyn.. ‘Y—The |mpecunlosity of the Great Western Mutual Life Insurance Company—The Cuban Bond Robpery—p epartment of Docks—The United States Hydrographic Service—The Change of tf—New York and Brooklyn Courts—Board ‘Tieatrical Tribulations—Ma- Bongs—I inanctal many and the Fe- ster—Shippine 1 from Albany to Rhinebeck is Tue Tupson at last closed effectually by ice. A TERRIBLE Borer Exprosion occurred in Williamsburg last evening. Two men were instantly killed, another is missing and several were severely injured. Tne Demonstration in Cooper Institate last evening in favor of the French republic was very enthusiastic. Speeches were made by John Mitchel, Algernon Sullivan and a number of others. : fuRNING THE TABLES.—The chances of war are mighty uncenain. It was King William, we believe, who was going to bombard Paris, Well, it seems Paris has gone to bombarding him. Commissioner Parker, of the Indian Bureau, is charged by Mr. Welsh, of Phila- delphia, with various misappropriations of the funds in his charge. The matter will probably be investigated soon by Congress. Prestpent Grant denies any intention of interfering against Logan in the choice of a Senator from Mlinois, He has had rather bad luck heretofore in interfering, and the ¢hange of policy indicated is good for overybody, possibly, except Logan. Commopore VaNnpersitt and his counsel both being sick, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue has postponod the hearing of the argument relative to the payment of certain back taxes on the bonds of the New York Central Railroad. It appears that the sum of a million dollars is due the government in this connection, and we hope she may get it. Tre Commission oF ENGINEER OFFICERS of the army who have just returned from an inspection of the sea coast and harbor defences of the principal nations of Europe make a very interesting report of what they saw, and a very important one in view of the possi- bility of a general war. England and Ruasla, it seems, are far abead of the other nations in the use and adaptation of iron for harbor defences, and Russia especially has shown herself very progressive in the matter. , ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF Prm.—The eight shots fired at Prim on Tuesday night by a band of assassins—three of which shots struck the General—indicate that assassination is a feature of the policy adopted by his politi- cal opponents. The virulent, factious spirit which is thus revealed at Madrid is still stronger in the provinces. King Amadeus cannot felicitate himself on so bloody an inti- mation of the welcoms which, perhaps, awaits him in Spain. Toe Rev. Mr. Sanrxe’s Rervsat to preach the faneral sermon of George Holland is ona par with the Boston Fuiton’s invective against the dead actor Dickens. Holland was a good, honest man, a true, humble worker In his own lowly path, and he is not now to be judged by such as Sabine, With the Fultons and Frothinghams and Cooks and Sabines of the period it seems we have an uousually bad run of preachers these days. Shall we never have the good old fashioned lowly pastor ia actual Mile again? NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1870. The New Era ‘of Telegraphs aud News- papers. In another place in this day's Heratp will be found a thouzhtful little article which we reprint from the Hvening Mail of yesterday. The Mail, with its usual good sense, appre- ciates our enterprise. In {ts opening sentence the Mail speaks of ‘‘the Hurarp plenipoten- tiary who has been let loose on the Continent of Europe.” Plenipotentiary” is good, but it is not the right word. Our ambassadors are everywhere—near to all emperors, kinga, princes, generala, statesmen, diplomatiste— their name is legion, and they are all plenipo- tentiaries, In Europe alene, at the present moment, we have not one, but many plenipo- tentiaries. We maintain them at enormous cost; but as we owo and edit a great news- paper, as it is our vocation to give the people news, the growing necessity is to enlarge, not to diminish, the number of our special repre- sentatives, Evidently the editor of the Evening Mail, liko the rest-of mankind, finds every morning fresh cause for wonderment at the enterprise and success of the HERALD. We take to ourselves far less credit than the wondering public is disposed to give us. We know what an independent newspapermeans ; we are not ignorant of the wants of the Ameri- can people, and we think we understand the age in which wo live. ‘Knowing our position we strive to honor it. Our auccegs is our re- ward. The truth is we live in an age which is entirely new. All old things are passing away. The days of the old stage coach, the “tally ho!” or the yellow “independent” are no more. Life is no longer a sleep, a dream. It is a race—a feverous, ever-onward rush. We live years in days, days in minutes. The wayside inn, with all its delights, has passed away from the region of fact into the region of memory. Life has no longer its leisure moments. In the journcy there is no halting place; in the battle there is no truce, Steam and electricity have revolutionized society quite as much as they have changed the face of the globe, Under tho manipulation of science time and space have become very little things. In this late age of the world distance does not separate the sons of men; nature’s barriers—ocean and Alpine heights—do not hinder their progress. In nothing are the quickening and resistless impulses of modern times more strikingly re- vealed than in the independent newspaper. The people are hungry for news, They can- nét, they will not wait. Nor is this hunger for news limited to matters of local or national interest, Itis universal, The stirring events which are taking place around the walls of Paris to-day must be reported in to-morrow’s Herp with as much fulness and accuracy as the events which are now taking place in Washington or Philadelphia or Bostod, As the means of communication multiply this public craving for news increases, ~It doth not mock the meat it feeds on; it grows and thrives upon it. It isthe business of the great independent newspaper to meet this want, to appease this daily hunger which it cannot hope to satisfy. If we have been more successful than most of our contemporaries in the accom- plisiment of this task it is because we have a with erhaps mo: Af mo ce a ECU Bolg ‘am, and with ‘ogard for the considerations of a miscr- able and fruitless economy. We have already said that the age is pecu-. liarly new. Its scientific triumphs have a ver. special bearing upon journalism. The steam- | ship was an immense improvement on the old sailing vessel; the steam car was a big stride in advance of the old stage coach; but as a newspaper agent the telegraph leaves the steamship and the steam car a thousand miles bebind. It was a great day in the history of the United States, in the history of the world, when the first message tripped along the wires between Baltimore and Washington an- nouncing the doings of the Democratic Con- vention in the former city, It is not forgotten that a Herarp correspondent, standing in one of the windows of the north end of the ot less wing of the Capitol, proposed on that summer] day of 1844, amid the plaudits of assembled’ thousands, the first resolution recognizing the merits of this new agent of civilization. How mighty the leap since 1844! How the wires have worked! How they have multiplied! How they have told on trade, on politics, on journalism!+ We have never been blind either to the advantages or to the respon- sibilities resulting to the independent news- paper from this new lever of power. How we used it during our civil’ war—at a cost of not less than four hundred thousand dollars—is to the world generally matter of history, to us specially matter of pride. It is not necessary to refer to the use which we made of the tele- graphic wires during the Abyssinian war. In advance even of the British government we gave news to England while providing for the wants of the American people. Not to speak of our special efforts in peace times, we can refer with pride to the columns of this journal since the outbreak of this Franco-German war, Ata cost of scarcely less than one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars we have kept our readers posted in all the de- tails of this tremendous struggle. Our correspondents, in their eager search for information, have refused to know difficulties. From Woerth, from Weia- seabourg, from Gravelotte, from Strasbourg, from Metz they have hurried on the news. We have interviewed the fallen Emperor at Wilhelmshohe, and all the prominent men who, as generals, statesmen, diplomatists, ‘have taken part in the struggle. As in the columns of the New Yokk Hzratp is tobe found the best history of the American civil war, so in the same columns the future historian of this Franco-German conflict will find the most authentic and reliable materials for his bis- prospect is something alarming. But we rejoice in the prospect, and mean to turn it to account. It is our hope that within a very few years from to-day we shall have our pleni- potentiaries in every known centre of life and industry, and that the telegraphic columns of the Hxzratp will reflect Sydney and Mel/ bourne, Bombay and Teheran, as faithfully as they now reflect Rome, Constantinople, Versailles or Liverpool. It is very evident from all this that the age of small newspapers is rapidly drawing to o close. A journal to meet the wants will em- ploy enormous capital as well as marvellous enterprise. Tho result cannot but be that newspapers, properly 0 galled, will beeome fewer and fewer, and individually langer and more potent. Great journals like our own or the London Z%mes will be able to hold their place; but the owning of a great newspaper will henceforward imply large capital aud serious responsibility. It is not to be dented, however, that theso impending changes will have the effect of dispelling ignerance, of breaking down prejudice, of uniting the fami- lies of mankind in a closer brotherhood, of begetting unity of interest, of language, of religion; of creating a genuine cosmopolitan spirit, of making an end of horrid war, and that thus they will prove a blessing to humanity. Pantarchy, after all, is not an empty dream. In our day we have witnessed and taken partin many revolutions. We do not despair of yet witnessing the golden age, the realization of poetic dreamland, ‘‘the par- Mament of man, the federation of the world.” The War in France—The New Movement of the Crown Prince. The news from the seat of war is of rather startling importance this morning. It is said tbat the French guns on the new earthworks in front of Mont Valérien have rendered Ver- sailles untepable, but we will not place too much siressupon that until it is more fully verified. The important points of the situa- tion are comprised in the sudden northward movement of a heavy German force under command of the Crown Prince and the Duke of Saxony to reinforce Manteuffel in his operations against Havre and Faidherbe’s army, and the steady advance ef the French Army of the Rhdéne, reinforced probably and aided certainly by Bourbaki, up the valley of the Saéne to Dijon and Gray. The movement of the Crown Prince to the ald of Manteuffel can only be for the purpose of making short work of the Army of the North, in order to return ihe troops as soon as possible to the necessary work of guarding the long Une of railway now seriously threatened, or else 40 take Havre by a heavy attack upon it and secure the immense supplies stored there for the use of the army. If the Paris and Strasbourg Railroad is actually held by the French forces, these supplies will serve to maintain the investing army for a period long enough probably to admit of successful operations for the dislodgment of the enemy. If Faidherbe’s army, which has evidently offered an unexpectedly stubborn resistance, can be broken at once and completely, the German forces in the north can be whirled hr rail to the front of the advancing Frenchmen 11 an —=.+ ta rauid trang- fer of troops was a favorite movement of the old Napoleon, before railroads were in use, when he marched the troops on foot-from \ one part of a field to another; but in our war it was practised by Lee on at least one occa- sion, when Longstreet’s corps, after striking the enemy in Virginia, was transferred by rail to Chattanooga in time to reinforce the dispirited troops of Bragg in one of the battles about the famous East Tennessee stronghold. In the meantime the Army of the Rhéne has occupied Dijon and Gray, and the German forces are said to be rapidly retreating before, them. It is still a long distance from the line of the Strasbourg Railway, but the French army engaged in the expedition is probably far superior to General Von Werder’s command in numbers, and most jikely will soon be reinforced by Bourbaki and hi corps. They can, indeed, afford to move leisurely. General Faidherbe need only pur- sue the Fabian policy and avoid the decisive battle that the Germans are evidently anxious to bring on. The movement against King William’s communications is the best plan now open for the relief of Paris, since the failure of all direct attacks upon the line of investment. Lee’s movement into Maryland, although it threat- ened no indispensable line of communication between the Army of the Potomac and its base of supplies, compelled the withdrawal of that entire army from the front of Richmond merely by threatening its rear. Tho present movement is therefore more serious than that of Lee, for it threatens the frail thread upon which the life of King William’s army is sus- pended. The United States Hydrographic Service. Weare glad to see thatan effort is being made to establish a hydrographic department, upon ® permanent and efficient plan, whereby our navigators can be supplied with maps and charts of the ocean without being dependent, as they now are, upon foreign governments. It is well known that our sea captains have to rely upon the charts of the British government for their guidance. Until within the last five years we had no United States Hydrographic Office at all. The miserable appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars a year was wholly inadequate to the service required. A petition is about to be presented to Congress, signed by the representatives of several of our leading steamship lines and insurance com- panies, upon this subject. We print the document in another column, It sets forth very clearly the wants complained of, and tory. To-day, mainly through the telegraph, the means of communicating thonght and, of course, ~ of obtaining information are multiplying enormously. From every centre on this Continent . intelligence is hourly flashed to our office. Then ocean cables are rapidly on the increase. Not an item of this news can be lost. We havo now three Atlantic cables, In a few gears the three may have swelled to thirty. We shall soon be in telegraphic communication with all the West Indian islands. The day is not distant when Pacific cables shall make news from Shanghae and Pekin, from Calcutta and Madras, as important, if not a3 interesting, as news fom Berya or from London, The suggests the proper remedy, by establishing an efficient national hydrographic office, to which our mariners cin apply for the necessary books and charts reqnired for navigation. Tue Cusay, Vasquez, who killed Jose- phine Weiss, in October, 1869, was arraigned for trial yesterday, and it was shown plainly that he was insane. He had fallen from the tower of a church in Havana when only six years old, and has frequently attempted suicide since. The jury rendered a verdict accordingly, and the Recorder sent him at once to the Lunatic Asylum, where it would seem to be a matter of course all murderers 89 {ound should be seme A Glance at the Position of the Conterding Ferces in France. Winter, bleak, inhospitable and dread, nothing cheering, nothing consoling, but struggle, fight and conquer. This is the German prospect in France to-day. And onthe side of the French, what of that? Resistance, and then the attempt to secure that which France has so long sighed for in vain— political liberty. The prospects, though not altogether bright, are yet of such a character as to suggagt the belief that from out the desolation which now disfigures a portion of France, there may yet arise the genius which will save the nation. In one of the letters of our correspondents from Tours an instance is given of the spirit which ani- mates the men of France who are now en- rolling themselves under the banner of the republic. ‘It is no colder for me than it is for the Prussians,” said one of the recruits now hurrying to the field; and Jf this spirit pre- vails throughout France may we not anticipate a diversion of the current which has so long flowed in favor of the Germans? The surrender of the Emperor Napoleon and the fall of the empire found France paralyzed, as it were—downtrodden, almost helpless. No ray of light throughout the country im- parted hope to the people. The capital was even threatened, and terms humiliating in the extreme were being prepared by the conqueror for the ratification of the conquered. Yot how few weeks have slipped away and yet these terms have not been complied with—not even offered. Since Sedan the country has awoke, and now three-quarters of a million of Frenchmen wield the weapons of France. The struggle, however, is not for the restoration of the empire, but for the per- manent establishment of a republic. Not in ‘the whole history of the campaigns of the em- pire has there been any such proofs of valor, determination, and, we might almost say, dis- cipline, as have of late been shown by the re- publican armies. In some of the fights near Orleans the French did not know they were beaten, and would not know it, The sorties from Paris have given the French experience, ifit has not secured to them victory. General Trochu is a cool, calculating, stern soldier, one whose abilities the empire never appreciated, or, appreciating, would not acknowledge. His seeming inactivity at the present moment must not be construed into iadifference as to tho situation of affairs in Franee, That General Von Moltke justly estimates the ability of Trochu and carefully calculates the injury he can and may inflict we feel fully satisfied. There is not in France to-day a German army at any very considerable distance from the German army surrounding Paris; moro than that, there is not a position the Ger- mans now hold that they are not prepared to surrender, and that immediately, should occasion require their presence before the walls of the capital. Taking it for granted that the Red Prince was badly beaten, so long as his retreat was not cut offhe has the army around Paris to fall upon. It is the same with Manteuffel in the north, and neither are very far from this base of supplics. The German commander, thorough soldier as ho is, well knows the many dangers, daily increasing, which threaten the German armies in France; and pOssinly mW we WHOLE Ue eee 2 the ery “Let us have peace” would find a more responsive echo from the German breast to- day than it would from the French, The Propesed Monument to Farragut. The proposal to erect a monument to the illustrious sailor whose loss the nation lately mourned meets with universal and well- merited favor. It is earnestly to be hoped that tle greatest care may be exercised in selecting both the design and the site for such & monument, American artists should be invited to compete for the honor of supplying designs, among which competent judges may choose the one most worthy at once of the nation and of its great naval hero, The competition should be free from all undue influences that might expose the public to wasting their money on yet another of the monumental monstrosities which disfigure so many cities, both in Kurope and in America, Undue haste—the raw haste which true art rejects—should also be eschewed. Ample time ‘should be allowed for planning, dis- cussing and executing the work, so that when finished it may happily illustrate that old close relation between art and the national feeling, without which, as Palgrave truly asserts, the fine arts never flourish. What Palgrave has sald of England is but too applicable to this country— that ‘‘the course of our public monuments generally runs with an ominous smoothness, suggestive of a prearranged job, and issuing too frequently in a work as far from art as from nature.” As for the site for the pro- posed monument, what would bo more appro- priate than the Battery, again transformed into one of the most atiractive promenades in the city? Whatever form the monument shall assume, it might fitly stand on the Battery, where it would be daily saluted by the flags of all nations. Naporron Dermes His Position very explicitly in a letter which we publish this morning from Wilhelmshihe, He says, among other things, that “Iam the sole sovereign who governs next by the grace of God by the will of the people, and I shall never be unfaithful to tho origin of either ;” that ‘the whole people, which has four times approved of my election, must recall me by its deliberate votes, else I shall never return to France.” To make ‘assurance doubly sure” he says, “the army possesses no more right to place me on the throne than had the lawyers and loafers to push me from it.” ‘Lawyers and loafers” is good; as good as Bismarck’s ‘‘gentle- men of the pavement.” Indeed, the whole letter is good and Napoleonic. Read it. Tue Great WESTERN MoTuaL Lirz In- SURANCE ,CompaNy was declared insolvent yesterday, and a receiver was appointed. The trusting policy holders of the concern may thank their stars that they did not die with their policies on hand, for it appears that twenty-five per cent in addition to the entire capital of the company had been exhausted. It would plainly have been a ‘dead loss to die with such an insurance policy on hand. The Superintendent of Insurance deserves great credit for crushing in such a mere shell of a @epany, New Years at Washington—Sigus of a Gay Winter. On New Year's Washington has this advantage over New York, that whereas here the ladies stay at home all day they there join in thronging the official receptions at the White House and elsewhere in the forenoon and reserve the afternoon and evening for their own receptions. Their smilesand jewels and elegant dresses thus unite with the embroidery and gold lace of foreign ministers and of army and navy offi- cers in enlivening the official receptions, and the other guests enjoy the pleasure of meeting them twice on the same day. An English lady of rank who passed New Year's at Washington some fifteen years ago said:—‘‘I think there is something beautiful in one feature of the American celebration of New Year's Day. It is made an opportunity for the oblivion of neglects and for the forgiveness of social inju- ries.” Now, as then, it certainly offers such an opportunity, and there is nothing to hinder Senator Sumner from shaking hands with General Grant on that day in proof of his assertion that no personal antipathy prompted his recent rude onslaught on the St, Doming policy fayored by the Presideat, The same lady to whom allusion has been made describes an evening party which she attended, and which included all the notabilities of Washing- ton, as being much like a crowded assembly in London, except that she thought there was more amusement, because the Washington party consisted of a reunion of people who, though under the same government, reside thousands of miles apart. Now that the era of reconstruction has fairly commenced, the South, as well as the North, the East and the West—the whole country in fine, from the At- lantic to the Paciflc—is represented at a Wash- ington party, not to mention the representa- tives of almost every nation on the face of the Earth whom it may include. It is this kaleidoscope variety of national and cosmo- politan elements which makes. Washington society in winter peculiarly attractive. Moreover, the old reproach which foreign tourists used to fling at the dancing boys and giggling girls who, according to them, compose what passes for ‘‘fashion- able society” in certain American cities, can by no means be applied to Washington society, which receives its tone from men and women whose distinction is independent of the acci- dental advantages of youth, wealth and “fashion.” The very best circles of society throughout the Union are represented at the Washington parties, which offer alike to our citizens and to foreigners an agreeable and profitable study of American social life. According to our Washington correspondent there will be no lack of such parties this winter. Mrs. President Grant will receive every Tues- day afternoon, beginning with January 10. The President will give a series of State din- ners during the next two months. There will be threo levées at the Executive Mansion this season—one in January and two in February, Mrs, Secretary Boutwell will hold weekly afternoon receptions, and many other signs are visible that the winter will be very gay at Washington, The French Repw The meeting held last night at Cooper Insti- tute by the French residents of this city, to manuést their adhesion to tue republicau gove ernment established—as we hope—in France, was one that accorded with the sympathies of the vast majority of our people. While the French empire was unmistakably on the path of aggression the cause of German unity and freedom from foreign interference had the earnest approval of nine in every ten Ameri- cans; but the position has changed since the surrender ‘of the Emperor Napoleon at Sedan and the capitulation of his last grand army at Metz, The world now beholds a young re- public struggling for national existence and upheld by the devotion of armed citizens against the combined forces of a monarchical alliance, These sentiments were fully expressed last evening, in more than one language, by able and popular speakers, and their words were applauded to tho echo by an assemblage of three thousand persons, At the same time ferocious and vindictive words were discoun- tenanced, and the honest appeal made on be- half of our ancient ally, the true people of France, will ring throughout this country and across the seas, and cheer the hearts of the gallant men who to-day along the valleys of the Loire, in the recesses of the Vosges and under the walls of Paris defend their honor, their homes and their liberty. Demoustration, Roumanian IndcpendenceThe Eastern Ques. tion Excitement. By telegrams dated in London and Constan- tinople and forwarded through the Atlantic cable we have the important intelligence that the Roumanian government has thrown off its suzerain position toward Turkey and de- clared its independence. The inchoate rela- tions which the executive and people of the territory have hitherto occupied in legislative and administrative matters have been aban- doned. A new nation claims association with the great families of the world. Such, in fact, is the substance of our telegraph reports to-day. The Roumanians repudiate the Treafy of 1854, and claim both the ac- knowledgment and support of the European protecting Powers. As may be supposed, Turkey is deeply excited. Shall wo say that Constantinople is alarmed? The feeling which prevails in the Turkish capital is termed one of ‘‘profound sensation,” and very correctly, too. This sensation may effect the most serious consequences, We may have the Eastern question reproduced in a atill wider range than before. At all events the London Genference will not assemble ‘‘one moment ere its time” of absolute necessity. “Misrortones Come not single spies, but in battalions,” {s the apt quotation to use in reference to the unfortunate proprietor of the Globe theatre, in Boston, Mr, Arthur Cheney. Fechter and Wallack have just finished their damaging rumpus in the pet theatre of the Hub, smashing things generally, like two veri- table wild bulls in that Cheney shop, and now comes another distinguished foreigner, Mr. James Schonberg, who sues the unfortunate and unmanagerial Cheney for three thousand dollars for alleged breach of contract in the production of ‘‘ernande.” Really the school for art that was to regenorate the drama (in such an out of the way place as Boston, too) Gods tbe idea very dificult of reallaasion, M.,,Galzot and the French Republic. In other columns we this morning lay before our readers some extracts translated from the original text of a pamphlet from the pen of the eminent historian and statesman M. Guizot. The whole document, placed in our possession by the latest mail from France, fs one of the ablest that has ever emanated from the intellect of its eminent writer, and is the .more worthy of attention that it expresses the con- victions of a mind thoroughly conversant with the politics of Europe and trained in the highest walks of publio service through o long, laborious and distinguished career. It is addressed to the provisional republican goy- ernment of France, and sets forth the condi- tion of opinion, parties and affairs in that country with peculiar point and power. For this reason ft is exciting earnest comment throughout the Old World, and will have no small influence in shaping the views of honest and discriminating statesmen. To Americans it is* especially interesting, because it points to the example of Washing- jn and of our own republic in their hour of lal as a guiding light in favor of parlia- mentary forms resting on the people in one direction and on the judgment and patriotism of & wise Executive in the other, M. Guizot grows more and more hopeful as he develops his argument, and at the close becomes even enthusiastic in applauding the new spirit that is at last to restore the pres- tige, the national integrity and the civic happl- ness, as well as the political freedom and safety, of the land he loves. Charity Races Extraordinary—Zoss Twoed Against Sheriff OBrion. General John C. Smith, the physical giant of Sherman's staff, has said of the late General John A. Rawlins, the mental giant of Grant's staff, that Rawlins could “swear withont wick- edness.” In the charity race now going on in this city between Grand Commissioner Tweed and High Sheriff O'Brien the fulsome adula- tions ‘poured upon the head of Boss Tweed by the Tribune, Times, World, Sun, Star, Transcript, Suntight and other papers may well excite the inquiry, ‘Can the Boss listen to all this, and, like Rawlins, ‘swear without wickedness?’” These papers have been com- plimenting Tweed on his fifty thousand dollar gift, and seem to have lost sight altogether of the munificent donation of twenty thousand dollars’ worth of coal given each year for the past throe years, making sixty thousand dollars in all, or plus ton thousand on Tweed’s coatribution, by the modest Sheriff O’Brien, whose term of office is. about expiring. Why should not Sheriff O’Brien receive some testimonial for his benevolence? If the stipulations of the political race last fall had been properly understood every candidate and the friends of candidates would have been properly handi- capped with charity. Belmont would have been called upon; Vanderbilt might have done something; Bismarck Sweeny might have planked down something handsome ; Dick Con- nolly assuredly would; Judge Hilton might not have been called upoa; A. T. Stewart would probably not have been backward; Hugh Smith might have hetped along the ball; Tom Fields might have shied his castor into the ring: Chamberlain Bradley might have planked down handsomely—but, as it Is, the race has settled down to a contest between tho ambitious Commissioner Tweed and the modest Sheriff O’Brien, with ten thousand dollars ahead onthe three years’ stake in favor of O’Brien. Let Sheriff O’Brien have a testimo- nial. These charity races are very good tlings, They are calculated to stir up the bowels of compassion among those whose riches aro plethoric, and who require occasional bleeding in order to keep their bodies politicin a propar degree of health and vitallty. Again we say let Sheriff O’Brien have a testimonial. Moyer Tient iN Watt Srreaz.—When a pauvre diable picks a pocket or a lady acci- dentally takes a few cents’ worth of candy in a fancy store there is a terrible hue and cry, and the detectives make a glorious arrest. But down ia Wall street, where there is an organized conspiracy against the well-being of society, and where the law of usury has been openly and flagrantly violated every day for a couple of weeks, the detectives and the police are blind to the malefactiow. Yesterday borrow- erg paid at the rate of ninety-seven per’ cent per annum for the use of money, Fortunately this is the season when busines is dull, other- wise the inconvenience arising out of such a dangerous conspiracy to “‘lock up” money would be of the most serious character, Personal Intelligence. Major General Sir Trevor Chute, K. ©. B., the hero “of the first New Zealand war, and Lady Chute, ar- rived yesterday by way of Sau Francisco, and are now staying for afew days at the srevoort House. sir Trevor is the commander of the British forces and next in rank to the Governor General of Australia, He is now on his return to England, after an absence of twenty-two years, during which he has seen some hard fighting in the colonies, Mr. James P. Newcomb, Secretary of the State of Texas, 13 sojourning at the Metropolitan Hotel. Commodore Case, of tie- United States Navy, ts at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on a brief vistt. Mr. L. W. Shedd, the large railroad butlder of Mexico, 1s stopping at the Grand Central Hotel. Mr. Alexander H. Rice, ex-Mayor of Boston, cama. to the city yesterday, and put up at the Fifth Avenuc Hotel. Mr. W. L. Burt, Postmaster of Boston, is at the Astor House on a brief visit. ICE BLOCKADE OF THE HUDSON. Six Inches of Ico on the Hudson Above Rhinebeck—The Steamer Connecticut Sc- riousty Damaged. POUGHKEEPSIE, Dec. 29, 1870. Intense cold prevails here and the water in the Hudson is very low. ‘The river 1s effectually closea from Albany to Rhinebeck, a distance of sixty mules, with ice six inches thick. At Catskill the Knicker. bocker and Washington ice companies are prepar- ing to harvest the crop. The steamboat Connecticut, in endeavoring to force her way south past Germantown yesterday, sustained serious damage, her hull being injured, so that it was found necessary to run her on the flats on the west shore to prevent her from sinking. She is heavily laden with an assorted cargo, which gh be forwarded to New York by the ee River! Railroad. Gangs of men, with timbers and sheetg ee iron, have arrived from New York to repair her injuries. She 1s now surrounded by huge masses of ice, and will probably remain in ner Scans Posi tion until spring. The steamboat Norwich reached ‘here to-night from above, Her captain states ae in through Six inches of ice for three miles s of Rhinebeck. She 1s walting here to break the why through to Rondout for tho Rip Van Winkie, which vessel ia expected from New York hourly, ia he thermometer, to-nlzht, 18 ten dearead Qhova KY