The New York Herald Newspaper, February 2, 1871, Page 6

/- 6 NEW YORK HERAL BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic Gespatches must be addressed New York Hea. Letters and packages should be properly Bealed. Rejected communications will not be re- — Welume XXXVI. —_— AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—TaB PANTOMIME OF Wee Wiis Wine. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—PasTon's DADGRTER— Bee Saw. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner 80th st.—Perform- ances every afternoon aud evening. GLOBE THEATRE, 723 Broadway.—VaRinty EnTrn- TAINMENT, £0.—LITTLE Bo PREP. NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, 45 Bowery.—Ein Jux Witt Be Si0n MACHEN, FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— Bawatoea. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 33d si. Rroagrrev. erween th and 6th avs,— NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tue SPROTACLE cF ‘THE BLACK CROOK. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 13th street.— Tux Pook GENTLEMAN. LINA EDWIN’S THEATRE, 720 Broadway.—Huntep Down; OR, THE TWo LIVES OF MaRY LxIGE. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th ay, ana 28d st.— Barvk BLEvE. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK ux Lorreny or Lire. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bi Ve ‘Biriy ENTERTAINMENT. bit THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Comic Vocat- \E5M, NEGRO ACTS, &0.—THE FikE FIEND. THEATRE, Brooklyn.— SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 585 Broadway.— Qeewo Minsreeisy, Fanoes, BURLESQUES, &c. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 334 st, between 6th {and 7th avs.—NeGno MinsrmEsy, EoorNTRIcitiEs, &¢. } b, APOLLO HALL. corner 28th street and Broadway.— ‘Du. CouRr's DiokaMA OF IRELAND, , {NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street. Scene Sruz RING, AcRouats, 20. gaa ag | HOOLEY'S OPERA HOU: ‘ooklyn.—HOOLEY's AND Petr & Leon's MINSTRELS. is ae | LYRIC H. Si —! * 5 horrane. ALL, Sixth avenue—Mns, MACREADY's Re. ' NEW YORK MUSE! OF ANAT( Y, mE \SormNcE anv Aut. UM ‘OMY, 618 Broadway.. DR. KAHN'S ANATOMIC, MI 5 - DR, KAUN'S AN, AL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Thursday, February 2, 1871. oe = = CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. (Pacr. * {—Advertisements. 2—Advertisements, 3—News from Washington: Report of the Attor- ney General—The Spanish Crown—News from St. Domingo—Austria Arming—The Trotting Congress—The Ku Klax in North Carolina. 4—Proceedings in Congress—The Public Debt Statement—The HRRaLD in Cincinnati—The Forger “Brockway"—News from the State Capitai—The Tayior Will Case—New Jersey Legisiature—A Wife Bought and Sold. 5—The Gallows: Execution of Join Hanlon, the Philadelphia Beast—College of the ay ol New York—Brutal Murder at Wheeling, W. Va.— News from Cuba—The Fenian Furor—Fisticuts on Fisher's Island: Prize Fight Between Ted Timony and Jack Conboy—New York City eal Estate Matters—Longevity—Gen- s Items. : Leading Article, “The Corraptions of the Lobby and the Spoils and Piunder— The Gathering Elements of a Fearful Revolu- tion”—Amusement Announcements. Y—Editorials (Continued from Sixth Page)—The North of France—Operations in the East—Aar- mistice—Revictualling Paris—The Peace Ques- tion—The Emperor of Germany—Germany and Sweden—The European Congress—News from Jamaica—Miscelianeous Telegrams— Business Noticés, S—Particulars of the Explosion of the Steamer W. R. Arthur on the Mississippi river—The War in France—Government Sales of War Material at Watervliet (N, Y.) Arseral—Proceedings in the Courts—The Stephen A. Douglas Cluy—The Jersey City Mystery—Fire in Pitt Street— Death of an Old Siave—A Just Jersey Veraict— The Camden Riots—New Jersey Druggists’ Conventioa—The Jersey Railroad War. S—North Carolina: A Kadical Railroad Lobbyist Indicted for Embezzling $7,000,000 o1 North Carolina Bonds—Journalistic Notes—Financial ana Commercial Reports—Marme Insurance: important Decision by Judge Blatchford—The Explosion in the Bay—free Fight Among Shakers—Marriages and Deaths. 10—Champion Cock Fight—The Tollers of Erie— Grant Campaign Club—Shipping News—Ad+ vertisements, 11—Holden's Impeachment: Opening Day of the Governor's Trial—The Terms of Office of Nota- ries—Advertisemeuts, 12—audvertisements. “Prayine Ovt’—Temperance radicalism in Maine. A Mover Ciry.—It is stated that the taxes in the city of Baltimore this year can be safely reduced twenty per cent, and the city find itself, with ordinary economy, with a surplus on band, and no catinthe meal. This is the ‘way to run a city government. Sr. Dominco aNp Barz.—We learn that Cabral is up in arms about the operations of Baez; that he has four armies in the field ready to act against him; that all the princi- pal cities are opposed to annexation. Should these reports prove trne the Commissioners may not be able to accomplish much. Over ALBANY LeGIsLaTors have finally re- membered to express a formal welcome to the Fenian exiles—a piece of courtesy which they have been unaccountably slow in extending. Why they should allow Coner-ss to get ahead of them in this respect is imexplicable unless it is because they feel too sure of the Fenian vote. REORGANIZATION OF THE CaBINET.—Presi- dent Grant has decided at last to make a com- plete reorganization of his Cabinet. He has yielded to the urgent advice of his friends in the matter, and will look to it in the selection of the new ministerial council that men are chosen who are of weight and influence among their own people. Our Washington corres- pondent intimates that the complete change will be made about the 4th of March. Tue Norra Carota IL ATURE has passed a bill to restore the act making arson and burglary capital offences. It is pretended that this is aimed as a blew at the Ku Klux Kians. Fiddlesticks! The magnitude of the penalty is an immunity to crime in communi- ties where such wretches as the Ku Kluxes are allowed to have full swing, or, rather, are not expected to be swung at all. Jonx Hanton, the murderer of little Mary Mobrmann, was hanged in Philadelphia yester- day. He died without making any confession and without denying his cuilt. In view of the fact that he was convicted on what was con- sidered doubtful evidence, being that of a fellow convict who received a pardon for giving the testimony, it is satisfactory to know that he did not protest his innocence, as nearly allithe victims of the gallews do. NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2. 1871-TRIPLE SHEET. ‘The Corruption: ef the Lebby and the Spoils and Plunder—The Gathering Ele- ments of a Fearful Revelution. The Chorpenning fraud, or, rather, the dis- covery of this fraud—a mere trifle of some four hundred and odd thousand dollars—is the latest sensation in Congress. The discovery is due to the vigilance of the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Mr. Dawes; and, but for his timely investiga- tion, the money, under the convenient provi- sions of a bill smuggled through in the noise and confusion of the last day of the last ses- sion, would doubtless have been drawn from the Treasury on an order from the Postmaster General. This same Chorpenning, on the same claim for mail services between Salt Lake City and Sacramento, as it appears, had, as far | back as 1857, drawn some two or three hun- dred thousand dollars extra compensation ; and, finding his claim a good placer, he had, through his irresistible lobby instruments, per- fected his arrangements for this larger haul, when the trick was detected and his game was | blocked. ment, was an active agent of Chorpenning in the work of securing the passage of his ‘‘little bill”—no doubt a very good stalking horse for the purpose. The two ugliest features thus presented in this case are the looseness of Con- gressional Jegislation on these jobs and claims, and the lobby services of ex-officers of the several departments in this disreputable busi- ness, But who cares? There are hazards in all ventures, and Chorpenning, in a case where he had nothing to lose and three or four hun- dred thousand dollars to gain, will doubtless take his misfortune as coolly as the profes- sional blackleg who has had a night of bad luck at faro. And, after all, the affair is only anine days wonder, and the startled lobby birds, hardly rising from the ground at the intrusion, are quietly settling: down again to their work. But to the old political cam- paigner this Chorpenning fraud is very sug- gestive. It recalls the extra mail transporta- tion allowances of “Extra Billy Smith” and others, the great New York Swartwout defal- cation and all those defalcations and extrava- gant claims and widespread federal corrup- tions of Jackson’s and Van Buren’s adminis- trations, and especially of the latter, which contributed so much to the popular whirlwind that swept Van Buren and the democratic party out of power in 1840. It recalls the no- torious Galphin claim and the wonderfully successful, but terribly fatal, Gardner claim of Fillmore’s administration. Gardner—a young man of fine presence, talents and education—had lived many years in Mexico, and had travelled much over that country as a surgeon dentist. He had thus become thoroughly conversant with the lan- guage, customs and manners of the country, and incidentally with its silver mining system in all its details. A year or two after our Mexican war he left Mexico and turned up in Washington, with a confederate—a skilful Mexicanized Yankee, of the same stamp as himself—named Mieres. Next we find them each presenting a claim before the Board of Commissioners, in Washington, appointed to settle all claims of American citizens in Mexico suffering from the war, in pursuance of the treaty of peace; and next we find that Gardner's claim of some four hundred and sixty odd thousand dollars for his losses in the suspension of his silver mine in San Luis Potosi, and the claim of Mieres for one hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars, which he thought would be enough, for the suspension of his quicksilver mine in Chihua- hua, are both allowed and paid in gold. Gardner then went on a pleasure tour to Europe, and Mieres went back to Mexico to be out of harm’s way. Next a broad hint was thrown out, through the Washington cor- respondence of the New York Hzratp, that this Gardner claim wasafraud. It reached Gardner in Paris. He was indignant. He wrote to the HERALD on the subject. He weuld come back and demand a trial. So many of our great men, as his agents, had shared the spoils with him that he felt sure, no doubt, they would make it all right. He did come back. He was brought to trial, and, while held in custody, a com- mission was sent to Mexico with him to examine his silver mine; but his mine could not be found in Mexico. It was in the Moon, as was also that of Mieres. The commission returned with this evidence and with Gardner to Washington. He was tried for the fraud, convicted and condemned to ten years’ im- prisonment. On his way out from the court room he slipped the contents of a small paper into his mouth, and in a few minutes he lay dead in a side room in the Court House. His powerful friends whe had shared in his spoils had failed him, and he had taken his case into his own hands, This scandalous and terrible affair threw a blight upon all concerned in or connected with it, including the administration, and it stands as a chapter of the history of that administra- tion. Pierce and Buchanan were swallowed up in the popular revolution going on, and in the fermenting Southern rebellion on slavery ; but they, too, are identified in the government with the jobs and frauds and spoliations of the lobby. The rebellion, in turning the whole country upside down, and in flooding the land with paper movey and monstrous contracts, and shoddy frauds of all sorts, and specula- tions, and schemes and claims, and robberies never dreamed of before, diffused the miasma of corruption so thickly over all the land that it will probably take us twenty years yet to recover from it under the best conditions of peace, retrenchment, honesty, hard work and reform. Under General Grant's administration much has been done in the way of reform. Indeed, looking back to the thirty, forty or fifty mil- lions of dollars a year of which, under John- son’s administration, the Treasury, with its inviting tax of two dollars a gallon, was de- frauded by the illicit whiskey rings alone, the abuses corrected and the reforms achieved by General Grant in the collection and disburse- ments of the Treasury are really wonderful. We have also had for a year or two so few cases of lobby frauds that Chorpenning stands out in bold relief. Bat, nevertheless, the very air is still so heavily charged with the deadly malaria of rapid money-making in the govern- ment and from the government and in any way It appears, too, that a Mr. Earl, for- | merly a high officer in the Post Office Depart- | or by anv trick. that we almost despair of the * republic, This great national debt, these heavy taxes, these national banks, these bonds and bondholders, these powerful and unscru- pulous railway corporations, these hordes of railway land jobbers and Indian-cheating con- spirators, these corrupt officials and law- makers and their lobby confederates in our national, State and city governments, and this general tendency of things to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, are all bearing the country onward to a great revolution. We are warned that after Louis XV. in France came the amiable Louis XVI., but that with him cime the deluge of the great French Revolution and its Reign of Terror. Do we apprehend anything of this sort in this great, free and prosperous country? No; but we do apprehend a-revolution of fearful consequences from the general demoralization on money and from all the signs and move- ments around us. General Grant will not improve his position by undertaking to control all the little ins and outs of his party, here, there and everywhere. He must leave this business more tan he does to the skilful poli- ticians of his party, and look well to it that skilful politicians are with him in his councils at Washington. He must see to it that these Chorpennings do not get into the Treasury, and that something is done to relieve the country of this dead weight of taxation and all its corrupting and demoralizing appen- dages ; for, otherwise, no man can undertake to answer for the consequences in 1872, The debt, banks, bonds, taxes, everything, may be swept away in a popular reaction as the shortest method for getting a clear field, a fresh start and fair play for the masses of the people. In this view of our situation, what is Chorpenning? A chip on the waves, showing the drift of the tide. Nothing more. But the general drift of the tide warns us of the break- ers ahead, and that General Grant and Con- gress are trifling meantime with the real dan- gers which menace the administration, the Treasury and the country. Gambetta, the Armistice a ing Elections. Gambetta, according to our latest despatches from France, is out in a glowing proclamation, the evident intention of which is to fire the French heart, The volatile Minister labors under the impression that the armistice is little better than a shrewd dodge by which the Prussians believe they can secure the dissolu- tion of the French armies. The armies for which M. Gambetta entertains such fears are in so powerless a condition that the result of farther opposition on their part is not feared in the least by the German leaders. Faid- herbe’s Army of the North can do nothing; Chanzy is in as bad a cendition with the Army of the Loire, and the Army of the East is so hopelessly situated that General Bourbaki, its commander-in- chief, attempted to commit suicide rather than await the result of a struggle with the force he set out to conquer. Are these the armies that Gambetta fears will be dissolved? In this proclamation we perceive the heated ardor of the euthusiast, coupled with the cant of the demagogue. This is not the time for such appeals. The elections are approaching, and the best interests of the nation require that cool, deliberate and intelligent action on the part of the leaders who at present, toa great extent, influence the course of France, be the adopted line of action. France is prostrate, and it is also evident that she is unable at present to rise from that pros- tration, Ot what avail, then, are the mad ravings of such men as Gambetta and those who influence the mobs of Paris, Lyons and Marseilles? The approaching elections will prove the sentiment of the Freach people. It will be for them to say whether the war be continued or peace secured. Already the names of some of the candidates for election have appeared. The Duke d’Aumale, Prince de Joinville, Thiers, Picard and others, from the ranks of the Orleanist and republican parties, have appeared in the field. No doubt the fallen Emperor wili also be represented in the National Assembly, as for some time back the agents of Napoleon have been secretly but actively engaged throughout the provinces. All eyes are turned to Bordeaux. For a time the noise of battle will be hushed and the deliberations in the forum supply their place. Let us hope that moderation will characterize the Council which will shortly assemble, the result of the deliberations of which may possi- bly affect the immediate destinies of the nation. the Approach- Austria ARMING FoR War.—Baron Von Beust’s speech to the members of the Austro- Hungarian Parliament, as it is reported to us by cable telegram from Pesth, goes to confirm our anticipations that Europe is in danger of another and general war conflagration. The Austrian Premier says as much, indeed, when he asseris that Austria must arm on land and at sea, as ‘“‘the danger of warlike complica- tions is not a phantom peril.” This states- man, usually so cantfous, almost throws down the gage of battle in the sentence, ‘The foreign Powers must learn that Ausiria is ready for defence.” Who will take up the gauntlet ef the Hapsburgs? At whom is it aimed? We may hear from Berlia in reply. Jamaica.—By special telegram from the Heratp correspondent at Kingston, Ja- maica, dated on the 3ist ult., we learn that should the Pacific Mail Company’s steamships continue to step at Kingston, on their voyages to and from Aspinwall, and the experiment prove successful, the subsidy of five thousand pounds per annum would be appropriated ; but it is one of the conditions of the subsidy that no negroes shall be refused as passengers. Truly the fifteenth amendment. is progressing. Tne “Jars” are in Washington. They visited the White House yesterday and had an interview with the President. They have come to this country to study our political system, but they could have learned all they needed without going to Washington it they had first made a visit to this city and studied Tammany. INFORMATI WantEp—About the “great thing” General Sickles, American Ambassador ; to Spain, has done to create so extensive a re- port in the cable despatches as was given the other day. Bao ls H, G. Davis, a democrat, has been elected by the West Virginia Legislature to suceced Mr. Willey in the United States Senate, It is plain that” , Our Local Foreign Press en the Situa- tion in France, It is quite curious to note the sentiments of the various journals published in this city in foreign languages on the capitulation of Paris and the armistice accompanying that event. These are the more remarkable that they by no means fulfil the expectation of casual and hasty observers, who either have not the time or do not take the trouble to keep themselves thoroughly informed with regard to the current of opinion, as it really is among the nationalities most directly concerned in the Franco-German war. The history of times past must have been greatly garbled to suit national or party prejudice, we are forced to infer, when we perceive how often the voice of vast masses struggling under our very gaze may be overborne by the persistent clamor of few who are not only nearer to our point of hearing, but are equally bold and noisy. In the spring of 1870 the world, or a large pro- portion of it, was made to believe by a par- tisan press beyond the ocean that all France was enthusiastic for the empire, while on the other hand Germany was greatly divided, and her southern kingdoms ready to resist the overweening pretensions of Prussia. In the summer it was discovered that the empire was the merest bubble, that its armies were deficient in everything but sheer obedi- ence to orders, and that Germany, instead of being weak and divided, was overwhelmingly strong and united. Now the same chorus represents that public opinionis all one way on this side of the Rhine and on that—here for peace, there for war—and vice versa. Yet during this whole time there have been contending views, but they could not be made visible and audible through the dust and out- ery of the foreground. As our despatches show, France is now net all for peace, any more than she was all for war in July last. Nor does the profound satisfaction reign uni- versally throughout the German States which might fairly have been anticipated. The French and German papers of New York con- vey very decided impressions of this diversity of feeling to any who may take the trouble to observe their course for a few days together. The French journals, indeed, have been singularly unanimous in denouncing the empire and sustaining the republic since the catastro- phe at Sedan; but through many articles, cor- respondenee and otherwise, the German papers, while sustaining the cause of Father- land, have let it appear that there was no slight apprehension secretly felt at home lest the tremendous military system built up by this war should be used against not only German, but Continental liberty, were France so crip- pled and Austria so overawed that the victor could feel at liberty to do what he pleased. A nation whose government is not in the hands of the people is exposed to danger by the overwhelming success even of its own standing armies. This is so common and everyday a lesson of history that it needs no special illustration. Hence the papers espe- cially inclined to German democracy are by no means enthusiastic st the capitulation, even while proud of the success of German arms. On the other hand, such organs of more general opinion, as the Staats Zeitumg and Journal, are elated, but not without reserve, because they see fresh peril in the south of France to spring up so soon as the heavy stores of arms, of which only a small part has yet been received, shall have equipped new hosts of desperate men. At the same time the terrible losses that Germany has endured, and which, as their letters and foreign clippings intimate, have only been half told by official statements, alarm these journals no little. We have some indication of the distress that must exist among the people at Berlin, Leipsic, Munich and else- where in Fatherland in the reaction which is so deeply felt in our commercial circles here that every expert is astonished at the dead ; failure of the armistice news to make any very marked impression. The French journals without hesitation and with one accord disclaim the idea of France succumbing under this defeat. The Cowrrier des Etats-Unis yesterday followed up a vehe- ment article of Tuesday last with another one more temperate in tone, but equally firm in meaning, in which it broadly declared that France will employ any truce that may now occur in recuperating and in reassuming the position of a first class and commanding Power which her geographical position, as well as her natural wealth, entitles her. The Mes- sager Hranco-Américain, representing more peculiarly French republican sentiment, ex- presses the same ideas still more radically, and adds that it is through the republic that France will recover her prestige and influence. “As citizens of a republic,” it says, ‘‘we shall have friends among ali the nations who aspire to liberty ; we shall have coadjutors in all the monarchbical fortified places of the Con- tinent.” * * * ‘Let us show ourselves to the world as arational and pregressive republic, and soon there will be no such divisions as France, Prussia, Austria, Italy and Spain. All these rival and hostile Powers will be replaced by the United States of Europe, to which the universal republic will rapidly suc- ceed.” There are thousands upon thousands here, as well as in every great centre of Europe, who believe in that doctrine, and who would follow it to battle with all the confidence and enthusiesm that the sacred banner of Constan- tine or of Joan of Are inspired in long by- gone days. This, too, isa hope that burns brightly, even if secretly, we may believe, in the bosom of many a gallant soldier now gazing from the German lines upon captured Paris and the cities of the Loire. Where popular sympathies are concerned “blood is thicker than water,” even between races mar- shalled against each other by their kings. All honor to William and his counsellors and pala- dins for the work that they have done to reunite and vindicate Fatherland; but now, in the face of an entire nation, humiliated at the very heart of its national existence, and amid the rising ground swell of ail Europe, there is no permanent safety for them but in the path of liberty, and that path leads right on- ward to the one great political change, which would be a guarantee of real reconciliation and enduring peace—a republic, embracing in its caressing and protecting arms all the States of Germany. Thus would the end crown the work, and the blood of the brave just com- bloom to gladden the gaze of mightler genera. tions living side by side in nobler and happier years as friends and brethren in arts and Jaws, and in that higher union, too, which extends beyond the scene of mortal life. Gambetta’s Littl Game. M. Gambetta’s proclamation, which we pub- lish this morning, is not at all favorable to peace. It was quite right and proper for him to advise the French people to continue their defensive preparations and for the raw troops to drill energetically during the period of the armistice. These are things which they ought to do, on the principle that in times of peace we should prepare for war. He goes further, however. The Prussians, he tells the French, hope to exact a shameful peace from the Na- tional Assembly. Now, the Prussian terms have been clearly and explicitly stated. Bis- marck has candidly told the French Ministers that Germany demands Alsace and Lorraine, a war indemnity, a colony and twenty war ships. Consequently, with the knowledge of these conditions before him, we must conclude that Gambetta regards their acceptance as dishonorable, for they are manifestly more onerous and humiliating than those which Favre indignantly rejected immediately after the expulsion of the Bonapartes from France. . But there is more behind Gambetta’s procla- mation than a patriotic determination to uphold the honor and dignity of his country at every hazard. It is evident that he is playing a bold game for the political exalta- tion of himself. He does not consider the chance of the National Assembly being any- thing else than republican. His implied con- fidence in this regard is » direct blow at the expectations and aspirations of the Bonaparte and Orleanist parties. It virtually informs them that there can be but one political party tolerated in France, and that is the republican. We doubt not that Gambetta will not be over scrupulous in exercising the immense powers which he possesses in preventing the return of members to the National Assembly from those departments occupied by the French who are inimical to the republic. And we may add that he will endeavor to have only such men elected as will elevate him to the Presidency. His ambition has long been known, and from his reiterated demands for explanations from Favre, and his implied condemnation of the armistice: it is clear that he is playing his cards so as to beat in advance his most for- midable competitors in the republican ranks by indulging in insinuations condemnatory of their patriotism. It certainly cannot be anything more than an insane ambition which is urging Gambetta on his present course. If he were animated by an unselfish devotion to his country he would recognize the hopelessness of the French cause. Humiliating as the German terms undoubtedly are, their final acceptance is something so inevitable that their rejection now willbe sheer madness. We have already seen how Gambetta regards them, and it is with the deepest regret that we have read in his proclamation no disposition to accept the situation. A renewal of the contest may elevate him tothe supreme rulership of the French people, but his term of power will be brief; for the Germans will resume their victorious campaigns in the provinces and the end will be disastrous for him, for France and for the cause of republicanism in Europe. The Streets and Our Uptown Travel. To say that the condition of the streets is frightful would be to use a very gentle ad- jective. which, if it continues fora few days longer, may wash away the snow. But, meantime, much can be done to clear the tracks. We must not wait upon Jupiter with a petition, but put our shoulders to the wheel, and do the work. If, for example, more attention were given to keeping the gutters free just now, and removing obstructions of various kinds to the passage of the snow water as it melts, it would be a great assistance to the thaw. Broadway was cleared off pretty well as soon as the snow ceased to fall, and it is thus rather passable at some points. But the other highways have not been so favored, and are, therefore, in an indescribable state of filth, confusion, clashing carts and blas- phemous drivers, whiie they are running meanwhile in rivulets of mud. All this sug- gests the pressing idea of our uptown travel. Difficult enough at all times to get up town with any convenience, it is next to impossible now. Still things can be made much better if people will only exert themselves at this moist time, and help nature along a little by keeping all the passages for the water to run off to the sewers as free as possible. ATTORNEY GENERAL’AKERMAN has presented the first of the annual reports from his office called for by the action of Congress last ses- sion. It presents several suggestions of some interest, but its statistics are lacking as yet, owing to the incompleteness of the State re- turns. It may be made in future to serve a very good purpose in keeping the lawmakers posted as to the increase or decrease of crime under the laws which they make. DESPATCHES FROM THE MrxinG Reaions in- timate that eperations will be generally re- sumed about the 15th instant. These operators always manage their strikes so that they con- tinue only so long as there is the greatest need of coal among the poor, and therein they de- scend from business shrewdness to mere bru- tality. Mr. Goopricn, in the Assembly yesterday, tried to reopen the Twombly-Carey case, but without effect. The Speaker stated that such action as Mr. Goodrich proposed would be a stultification of the action of the Assembly on Tuesday ; and it certainly would. Carey has his seat, and his friends should take care he is not ventilated too much. Dr. SUNDERLAND has been delivering lecture in Washington on Brigham Young. He says he believes Brigham to be the wick- edost man living. Wait till you get as many wives as Brother Brigham, Brother Sunder- land, and you will know “how it is yourself.” A Nover Inza—That the friends of Collec- tor Murphy got up the dodge of the Protestant clergymen’s petition to General Grant for his (Murphy's) removal on account of his ardor in regard to the reception of the Catholic Fenians. It is pretended that it was a good card in favor mingled on the soil of France fructify and { of Murphy's retention in office, We are now in the midst of a thaw | Congress ‘Yesterday—General Skirmishing im the House—The McGarraban Olaim— Woman Suffrage—The Georgia Senater- ship—Steamship Subsidies—The War in Europe. There was a lively time yesterday in the House of Representatives on the Senate bill to abolish the test oath, as applicable to persons who are not disqualified from holding office under the fourteenth constitutional amend- ment, The republicans in the House were divided into two parties—one following the banner of Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, against the bill—althoagh he had himself reported it from the Reconstruction Committee—and the other led by Farnsworth, of Illinois, who is ever to be found pitted against his Massachusetts adversary. The democrats, of course, were the allies of the last mentioned party, and by their aid the bill was passed by a vote of 118to 89. 1t now has to run the gauntlet of the White House, where it runs the risk of being vetoed. It is quite amusing to read in the report of the proceedings how leaders and chiefs in the republican ranks turned their lances upon each other. Platt, of Virginia, the secretary of the Republican General Committee, showed no mercy to his colleague, McKenzie, who had spoken some. time previously against general amnesty, and told him that it was on that platform alone that he got re-elected to Congress. Porter, of the same State, squared out against Platt, and then had a tilt with Sunset Cox, of New York, who, mindful of: the exploits of Pat Wood, sneeringly remarked that there was no belligerency in Porter and that he was not a fighting member. The dusky Representative of Georgia freemen beat the tom-tom of conflict and sounded the direful alarm of the Ku Klux Klan. Van Wyck, the valiant leader of the Tenth Legion, insinuated that Platt had not, ona certain occasion, displayed as much courage as his constituents, the negroes of Petersburg; and Piatt retorted that he had shown his courage on the battle fleld, which was more than the valiant Van had done. Then Farnsworth ridiculed the fears of the gaunt Tennessee members, Maynard and Arnell, and likened them to the ghost of Ham- let's father, crying, ‘‘Swear! swear!” Beck, of Kentucky, added to the consternation of Maynard by stigmatizing him as a common scold, and bringing up an extract from an ante-bellum speech of his, wherein he de- nounced the Massachusetts abolitionists, The closing skirmish of the day was between But- ler, of Massachusetts, and Jones, of Kentucky ; but the Speaker interposed, extinguished the debate and brought the House to a vote. Peace was restored and the bill was passed. After the excitement of this free fight had toned down a lot of bills were reported from the Judiciary Committee and passed. An adverse report on the claim of William McGarrahan to the New Idria Quicksilver Mines was made by Mr. Peters, of Maine, and a minority report in his favor by Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, the chairman of the committee. A minority report in support of the memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull for woman suffrage was made by Mr. Loughridge, of lowa, a member of the same committee ; and then the bill to amend the act of May 31, 1870, enforcing the rights of citizens of the United States to vote in the several States, was reported for action, and went over till to-day. The House conference committee on the bill to abolish the offices of admiral and vice admiral was announced by the Speaker as Messrs. Logan, of Illinois; Scofield, of Penn- sylvania, and Butler, of Massachusetts. Scofield is the only one of the three who can be regarded as friendly te Admiral Porter and the other high officers of the navy. The effort will probably be made in the committee to reduce the number of rear admirals. The Senate at last got through the tedious question of the Georgia Senatorship, as to one of the claimants, at least, and admitted to his seat Mr. Joshua Hill, who, at the outbreak of the rebellion, was a Union member from that State in the House of Representatives. The question as to who is to be Mr. Hill’s colleague is still open. The Senate also disposed of the Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation bill and the Military Academy Appropriation bill, and discussed for some time the question of steamship subsidies, which is to come up again to-day. The Senate also passed a concurrent resolution recommending a generous system of organized charity to relieve the sufferings caused by war in France and Germany, and referred to the Committee on Foreign Rela- tions a resolution declaring sympathy of the American people in the effort to establish a republican government in France. A Game Not Worra tar CanpiE.—We have already chronicled the fact of the failure of an attempt to impeach a certain judge in Florida, and we expect to do the same in re- gard to the farce now being enacted in the Senate of North Carolina in regard to the im- peachment of Governor Holden. . It is to be regretted that the proceedings against Gov- ernor Holden were ever instituted, particularly by the party that has just recovered political power in the State, and hus still good reason to respect the action of Congress in relation to the removal of disabilities still attached to cer- tain citizens of the State. The precedence of the case of President Johnson, and its lament- able fiasco, should have operated upon the minds of the movers in the action against Gov- ernor Holden, and inspired them with wisdom enough not to engage in any such folly. The whole game is not worth the candle, and it would be better for all parties that the case should be at once abandoned. Tok Woman’s SurrraGg QvrsTIon has, attained an eminence that makes it a great national problem at last. An effort will be made to have permission given Mrs. Victoria, Woodhull to deliver her speech on the subject before the House of Representatives next Monday, and Messrs. Butler and Loughridge,/ of the House Commitiee on the sutiaryd have presented a minority report om the st ject to @ongress actually upholding Mrs. Woodhull’s theory that women. are allowed/to vote under the common law of England, wad even by the provisions of the fourteenth amendment of our own constitution. And this is Ben Butler, too, the sage of Essex, who cannot under any interpretation be core. sidered an affiliator with the long-haired philosophers of the strong-minded feamale school. In fact, judging Butler by all bas past actions and by evervibing that ig knoyn of hia