The New York Herald Newspaper, February 16, 1871, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN § AJAMES GORDON B PROPRIETOR. All business or news lelfer and tdegraphio despatches must be addressed New York Tgravp. Letters and packages should be properly realed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. ‘TRERT. NETT, Velume XX AMUSEMENTS THIS FOURTEENTH STRBET Til Kio Lrau NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broad! THS BLacKk Caoox. ‘RE (Theatre Feancais)— -—Tar SPROTACLE oF WALLAOR'S THEATRE, Broadway and 1th etreet— Hour--Bive Dervis. LINA EPWIN'S THMAPRE, 720 Broadway.—Hontep Downy; Gx, Tux Tyo Many Letau. GRAND OPERA HOU jet of Sth ay. auc 22d Bh— Guanv Ovpuatic CaRNiVAL. OLYMPIC THEATR' dway.—Tur PANTOMIME OF RicwEuiry or tux ! BOWERY THEATRE, Bowe SovuTH—Man any Tra FIFTH AVENUE TH SaRaToGa. GLOBE THEATRE, 723, Broad TAINMENT, £0.-G2EEN BANNER, -Poxr; on, Way Down TRE, Twenty-fourth strect.— y.—Vaniety Exter- NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, 45 Bowery.—VaLenir— Eine Tasse TUE. BOOTH'S THEATRE, 234 at., between Sib ang 6th ave.— RICHELIDC. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner G0ch st.—Perform- ences every aileruoon aud evening. MRS. FB. CON\STAW'S PARK TUEATRS, Brooklyn.— Mvou Apo AbOuT 4 Meuouant oF VENIOR, &. ASSOCIATION HALL, 23 Concert. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 21 Boweny.—Va- RIELY ENTERTAINMENT. < and 4th ave.—Gaanp THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Comro VocaL- 18M, NEGKO Avis, &o. SAN FRANCISCO MI Li, 68 Broa tway.— NeGuo Minsrencex, Fa x RSQUES, £o. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA WOUSE, 23d st., between €ta and 7th avs.—Neauo Missraecsy, Ecorntarcities, £C. HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Hoo.er’: KELLY & Leos's Mixerenns, oO Y™—HOOLET'S Aup APOLLO HAT. corner 28th atreet and Broadway.— Dx. Cogzy's Viowaua or IRELAND. \BNEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenta strect.—Sozyes 1x ) THE RING, Ackozats, £0. NEW YORK MCSEUM OF ANATOMY, 613 Broadway.— SCIENOR AND AnT. DR. RAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway.— SCIENOE AND ART. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Thareday, Fobewary 16, 187%. CONTENTS OF TO-DAYS HERALD. PAGE. i—Advertisementa, 2—Advertisemente. S—News from Washington—Bergen Tuane!—The South Caroliua Outrage—The State Capital : Proceedings in the Legialature—Popular Edu- cation—St, Francis Xavier Coliege—Anoiner Liquid Gas Exploston. a poten, © Proceedings In Congress—Almost * Another Holocaust: A Collision at Spuyten Duyvil Yesterday Morning—Tne New Ham- burg Disaster—Broadway Widening—Obita- ary—Wood and Tar—Alleged Incendiarism— Dominion of Canada: Opening of the Domin- ton Parliament; Address by tbe Goyernor, Lord Lisgar—New Jersey Legislature—Laying in a ftock—News from Brazil, H—The Loss of the Saginaw: Reason of the Visit of the Saginaw to Ocean Isiand; The Wreck and the Party on Shore; Their Life on the Corai Reet and Their Rescue—The Sappho's Prizes—Board of Healti—Royalty in Rome: ‘The Arrival of Prince Humbert and Princess Marguerite; How They Were Welcomed by the Popuiace; A Second Kising of the Tiber— The al Miners’ Strike—New York City vile gad tm South Caroliaa—Singular Fatality. G—Eaitoriais: Leading Article, “Tne French Na- tonal Assembiy—The House of Orleans and the — de Paris"—Amusement Announce- men W—Ediitorial (Continued from Sixth Pagey—Per- sonal Intelligence—The French National As- sembly—The German Headquarters—Sur- render of Belfort—The Situation in Paris—The Peace Question—General Reports—The Jotut High Commussion— Misceilaneous Telegraphic News—Views of the j'ast—Business Notices, S—Proceedings in the (ourts—Forgers Convicted— Mail Rovoing—The Taylor Will Case—Thieves. and Recetvers—tie Great Fi Jr., and the Union Pacific Railroad Company Case—The Europa Smaggitnz Case Again—Suicides—Tne Trish Exiles. P—Drugs and Druggists: What the Dispensers Think of the Irviug Bill—Naval Afairs—Mrs. O'Donovan Rossa’s Readings-Oue of the Brooklyn Homucides—Real Ertave Matters— Death from Eating French Candy—Financial and Commerciat Keports—The Cotton Move- ment—Marriag 8 aud Deaths—Advertisements, AQ—European Mail Deta: ‘The Story of the Capitulation of 7 Von Beust’s Austrian Policy—The Sts ing Murder—Woman Suffrage in Je leteorological Record— Telegraphic News-—Amusements—Sbipping Inteliiwence—Advertisemeuts, 1d—Advertiszemaits. A2—Advertisemeni Frank Brare still sticks to bis Brodhead letter, and there’s where “‘his head isn’t level.” In His Conrinvep Orrosition to General Grant's administration Senator Sumner bids fair to come out at the Doolittle end of the born. “QutLivep Irs Usurvtngss”—The West Point Academy, according to the opizion of a member of Congress. What do the people think? Column of ‘‘Veices of the People” open. Tue Birt Orverixe A New Coxmisston to fisgees the valuation of property required to be taken to widen Broadway under the old act has been passed in our State Senate. Now let’ us see what they will do with it in the Houase. Senator Brau is another enfunt terrible, Like McCreery on the Arlington graveyard discussion, he mafie his democratic brethren equirm in their seats by bis epecch in the Senate yesterday. He thrust tue whole pack of them back two years, and placed them squarely on the platform of his Brodhead let- ter. Tos Tennessce.—‘‘No news is good news.” Nothing has been heard as yet of the United States steamer Tennessee, but any hour may now bring us the information of her arrival at some port of St. Domingo. We again assert that she is all right, and no one interested in those on board should have the least anxiety wegarding their safety. Tre Brooxtry Navy Yarp.—It is given dnt that Congress, in reference to the Brook- lyn Navy Yard, will adopt the plan of an army and navy commission from the President to inquire into the expediency of the removal of said Navy Yard, and also whether it is edvisable or not to abolish it entirely or trans- for it to some other place ; and, if to some other place, what place, and what the transfer will cost, All things considered, this, perhaps, is (ie best course to pursue on the subject, though we think it would be just as well to let woll Kaough alone, - 7-2 eae RRRS T SE gE ag NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBKUARY 16, 1871-TRIPLE SHEMT. only be falling back upon her own history | A Watery Waraing—The- Tiber ta Oppo- Tho French National Assembly—The Hease of Ortenns and the Count Do Paris. To-day France presents a fresh spectacle for world-wide observation and study. Ne part of the world looks gn more attentively or questions more acutely than the Untted States of America, Since the days of our struggle for independence we have looked with kindly eyes toward France. We re- joiced in tho glorious popular outburst of 1789, The fall of the Baatile was the death- blow of tyranny. The signing of the new constitution by Louis XVI. was a triumph for democracy which the young republic of the West could not help regarding as an endorse- ment of its own great struggle and victory by the most thoughtful of the nations of Europe. All eur hopes were blasted, The re- public disgraced itself, To the republic succeed- ed the empire; but the empire proved the enemy, not the friend, of liberty. The years 1814, 1815, 1830, 1843 and 1870 have in. this country and among this people created doubts and inspired hopes; but doubts have so uni- formly triumphed that it is not unfair to say that this people has ceased to have any faith in France. This day while we write she is no longer the hope of Europe. What is worse, she is either the object of pity or the object of contempt. Republicans as we are, we have to confess it with sorrow that we can no longer look to France as the possible regene- rator of Europe. She had a glorious first op- portunity. That first was lost or flung away. The opportunity has been again and again repeated, but always with the same result, How can we longer hope or trust? We are now face to face with new facts. After a defeat which has no parallel in his- tory France has been, by the magnanimity of the conqueror, permitted to pronounce on her own destiny. She has had, perhaps, the fair- est chance of speaking out the thoughts that are within her that she ever had in her whole history, and she has oace again, and most emphatically, spoken in a manner which is disappointing to all those who love republican institutions. The results of the recent elections are clearly, as all our readers must now be fully convinced, in favor of monarchy. It is not yet time to say what is the exact complexion of the Assembly, but if it be true that the house of Orleans has practically polled four hundred votes as against one hundred and fifty for the republic, fifty for the old Bourbons or Legitimists, and twenty for the Bonapartes, we hare no choice but say France is not yet ripe and ready for citizen sovereignty. Look at the National Assembly to-day from what point of view we ay, we can come to no other conclusion than this—that France has heartily, and with not a little emphasis, condemned the empire and the Bonapartes, condemned the republic and the imfidels and the communists, con- demned divine right and the old Bour- bons, and gone in, if not for Philip Egalit¢, at least for the principies represented by his son, the citizen King. No more empire, no more republic, but the con- stitution of 1830 anda citizen King—that is the result of the elections which have just been finished in France, and which are repre- sented in the National Assembly of to-day. Why is it so? Why are our republican hopes once more blasted? Why is this fresh French opportunity lost to France and the world? The answer to these questions is not far to seek. Under the bright sunshine of the empire France induiged in proud memories, wae happy aud gay, despised all shadow and dreamed of no sorrow, What had the empire not done? It had made France the central, the pivotal Power of Europe. For twenty years the word of France, spoken by the Emperor, was a word of authority which no nation on the face of the earth could afford to despise. Did not the empire humble Russia? Did not the empire give Italy unity? Did not the empire compel Prussia to halt at Sadowa? Was not the empire the bulwark of the Pa- pecy? Was it not tho hope of all struggling nationalities? Was it not, as it once had been, a match for the world in arms? Was not Paris, adorned by the empire, the eye of the civilized world, even as Corinth was once said to be the eye of Greece? This was the feeling of the French people when, in July: last year, Napoleon took the field amid the acclamations of his people, and, showman-like, l¢G@ his helpless boy to his ‘first baptism of fire.” With Sedan and all the preceding and succeeding events, who can blame the French people for discarding the Bonapartes and for despising the empire? Since Sedan the so- called republic, headed by men who dared not appeal to the French people, because they knew that French Catholics could not and would not trust infidels, and that French pro- prietors could not and would not trust commun- ists, has had its chance; bat the failure of the so- called republic has been more complete, more disastrous, and, if possible, more ignominious than thatofthe empire. If France was hum- bled by the surrender of Sedan, France is squelched by the surrender and occupation of Paris. It is not for us to say whether France has been just or unjust to the empire, just or unjust to the republic, We must accept facts, The facts are represented in the Natienal As- sembly, and the National Assembly is just as little imperialist or republican as it is legiti- mist, If the stars have any meaning, the star which France and the rest of the civilized world see rising eut of this six months’ dark- ness shines benignantly on the House of Or- leans. We have not much to say in praise of the House of Orleans, With its elder brother it played very much as Jacob played with Esau. It bought its rights by a moss of pottage. Esau was the fool, and, history and human nature being true to themselves, the modern as the ancient Esau must remain out in the cold and far away from the re- gion of blessings. This only can be said in favor of the House of Orleans—ft has con- ceded to France the right to elect its chief, Louis Philippe was King of the French, not of France ; King, not by divine right, but by the choice ofthe Fsench people, and, of course, afterwards by the grace of God. The restora- tion of the House of Orleans means not the abnegation of the principles of 1789 or the recognition of the divine right of the legiti- mista, but a compromise which aveids two ex- tremes, both of which have brought unteld sorrow upon the French nation and people. In restoring the House of Orleans France will and repeating what she attempted in 1830, and endeavoring to do what England effectu- ally accomplished in 1688, when William and Mary jointly accepted the sovereign authority with all its sorrows and with all its bonors. During their long exite it is only fair to say that the various members of the Orleans family have conducted themselves with be- coming digaity. The-world has had no ocea- sion to laugh at tiem. In Eugland, where they have found a home, they have proved good landlords, good cltizens, and, so far as they have courted it, have won public esteem. Tho bead of tho House of Orleans is tho Count de Paris, a young man _ not much known to the world, but whose history fs and onght to be more or loss dear to France. While yet a boy bis father was accidentally killed in the atreets of Paris. When tho revolution of 1818 broke out—a revolution which drove his family into exile—it was he who was borne by his heroic mother to the Legislative Chambers and pre- sented as the heir of France, The cry, “Too late, too late,” stifled the mother’s hopes and exiled the dynasty, The herpic mother is since dead. Tho Count, now thirty-three years of age, has for wife a daughter of his uncle, the now well known Duke of Montpensier; is the father of two chil- dren and lives happily and quietly at Twickenham, near London, In _ his numerous uncles and cousins he has no lack of friends and advisers, The Duke d’Aumale, his uncle, ison all hands admitted to be a man of first class talent, devoted to France and to the head of his house, With the restoration of the House of Orleans in the person of the Count de Paris we may look with sonfidence to the re-establishment of the entenfe cordiale between England and France, and in conse- quence to a reign of peace. Of course he will come inte power amid the sorrow and humiliation of his peopfe. But if France knows how to comport herself in her new situa- tion, even if she should lose Alsace and part of Lorraine, the restoration of her citizen kings may prove a blessing far beyond anything she has known in connection with either republic orempire. We wish well for France and well for hor possible new sovereign. Anarchy in South Carolina. Public and private advices from South Caro- lina furnish unmistakable evidence of the preva- lence of a state of affairs there absolutely alarm- ing. Recent murders and other outrages have just culminated, as we announced by telegraph yesterday, in the violent deaths of a number of negroes who were {in prison charged with the perpetration of crimes, and who, it was feared, would go unwhipped of justice unless the citizens themselves inflicted summary pun- ishment upon them, It seeme that a formida- ble band of several hundred disguised horse- men were the actors in the horrid scene. We publish a letter to-day from a Southern gentle- man of experience and observation, ‘an exten- sive planter, and one not likely to put an exaggerated coloring upon the condition of affairs, from which it will be seen that the governmental situation there is lamentable in the extreme. C.nnot Congress do something to restore tranquillity in those districts which now seem to have been surrendered to anarchy and mob violence ? In accordance with our suggestion as to Congressional action in regard to the state of anarchy in South Carolina we give a synopsis of a bill said to have been prepared by General Butler and presented to Congress oa the 14th inst. It provides for the punish- ment of those engaged in what aro called Ku Klux outrages, but makes no provision for the punishment of those who inspire those out- rages. All darkies down South are not pat- terns of virtue and morality. The worst fiends in human shape are to be found among the liberated negroes. Toe PRESIDENT ON THE TEsT OATH.—Presi- dent Grant yesterday gave his reasons to Con- gress for permitting the bill providing fora ‘qualified test oath to certain ex-rebels to become a law without his signature, He would have signed the bill had it provided for the repeal of the ‘‘test oath” required of per- sons elected or appointed to office; but as this bill relieved ex-rebels, while it still holds loyal soldiers to the oath, he could not approve it, He recommends to Congress that while relieving certain classes of men of an oath which they cannot take loyal men should also be relieved, to whom the oath has no application, Thus it will be seen that the strong, practical common sense of General Grant in this business is better than the blan- dering legislation of Congress, and it is to be hoped that the two Houses will act upon the hint he bas given them, Taz Rivers aND THE STREETS.—Wayfarerd by the water highways from this city to Brooklyn and Jersey have been relieved for the last two days from the delays and obstruc- tions caused by the floating ice. The rivers are now clear; bat this may be but a tempo- rary relief. There is 4 vast mass of ice on the Hudson and up the Sound which has yet to break its barriers and come down, with every prospect of another gorge at the ferries, admonishing us once more that the bridge is the only safe and proper mode of communica- tion between New York and Brooklyn, Mean- time the streets, with the exception of Broad- way and the Bowery, are in amiserable plight. Great banks of snow, cemented by accumu- lated ashes and filth of all kinds, line all the narrow streets. How this disgusting accumu- lation is to be got rid of is a probleni, Surely the authorities have some power in the matter. The Commissioners of Public Works, having absorbed into their body the duties and emolu- ments of the Street Department, ought te see that the streets are kept in good con- dition just at this time, especially when the softness of the weather affords an opportunity for assisting nature In the removal of the snow embankments which block up all the side streets, Senator Sumner seized the opportunity yesterday, in a resolution concerning the missing United States war steamer Tennessee, to administer another back-handed blow to the administration on the St. Domingo annexation scheme. In his hostility te the President this implacable Sumner is overdoing it, as, by and by, he will be apt to discover. He will be good for nothing, at all events, until this St, Domingo question is settled, —————— sition to “Accomptiched Facts.” Wo have been assured by an Baglish poet that “there is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the fleod, leads on to fortune,” Horace, the Roman poet, who lived almost at the very dawn ef the coming day of Christianity, and who may have been inspired to pen his pungeat satires against the vices and follies of Roman seclety by the warmth ef the first soin- tillations of the Saving Light which was then approaching in the East, has left ou recerd the almost unalterable maxim that nobody is abso- lutely contented with his lot in life: —‘\Nemo contentus vivat ills sorte seu ratio dederit,” &e. Against these teudencies of erring humanity man bas had waraings, many, serious and re- markablo. The Christian dispensation warns him of the present sim, aod melancholy fature cons: quences, of an indulgence of the passion of personal ambition, He is told, almost in the very words ef Holy Writ, not to be in haste to ride on the flood tide which leads to worldly fame or fortune; he is commanded absolutely by the same autherity not to seck to create such a flood, The Bible exhorts him to coa- tentment with his lot ia life, to peace, patience and forbearance, The pagesof the Holy Book are filled with warnings against sin and ad- monitions against preooncerted violence, The rale prevails to-day. By spectal cable telegrams from Rome we have already ro- ported in the Hevaxp the circumstance of the extraordinary riparian protest which was made by old Father Tiber against the sover- eigu advent of King Victor Emmanuel to Rome, The river overflowed its baka, the city was inundated to a very consideratte and most disastrous extent in consequence, and his Majesty found barely a dry spot on whieh to rest his foot, It may be said, indeed, that be did not rest; for, after having donated some material aid to bis new subjects, the King re- tired to Florence, leaving the Romans to tara for consolation and support to the ancient cen- tre of the Vatican, and permittiag the Tiber to roll on adit bas from the first and since “a thousand ages have passed away.” Next came the visit of the King’s son, Prince Humbert. Again is the Tiber angry. By a special mail correapondence from the Holy City we learn that at the moment of this second royal Italian entry to Rome the water of the river Tiber was so high that the boats in the port of Ripetta were ona level with the street, and the municipal authorities deemed it necessary to issue a warning notice, addressed to the inhabitants of the lower dis- tricts of the city, A despatch arrived from Monte San Giovanni announcing a flood, and another from Orte reported that the river had risen six feet at that point. The aspect of af- fairs was very threatening in the Hoty City for some time after the youthful scien of the. House of Savoy made his outry. The river Tiber, in its eternal roll, appeared to the alarmed, perhaps somewhat superstitious, citizens of the capital to send forth in swelt- ing sigh the same air of anthem which was chanted for Ireland on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales—afterwards George the Fourth—to the Green Isle, in the words :— walitore ody tevin aed fom te waves, en receive him, as such an advent becomes, ‘With a legion of cooks and an army of slaves, Our special advices from Rome on the sub- ject of the overflow of the Tiber are, to say the least, extraordinary. They denote, as it were, the coincidences of nature against the materialisms of the hour—a feeling which ap- pears to have also animated some of our fair American countrywomen in Rome during the moments when the lay royalism was about to knock at the portals of St. Peter's, Fisk and the Union Pacific Railroad Come pany. The ever-litigating and otherwise most com- bative Fisk, Jr., has met with another defeat, the most serious he has yet encountered, as there is no rallying or chance of reviving therefrom, A decision of Judge Nelson's ren- dered yesterday, and which will be found in extenso in another column, has not only re- pulsed Fisk’s assaults upon and deprived him of all his great expectations from an unlimited sway of the funds and finances of the Union Pacific Railroad Company and “‘Orddit Mo- bilier of America,” but has declared all his former high-handed attempts previously taken to that end atterly illegal and unjustifi- able. A great sensation was created some two years ago by the forcible breaking into the offices of the company referred to, the blowing up of their safe and the carrying away therefrom all the books, bonds and other valuable papers, by virtue of an order of Judge Barnard, of the Supreme Court. The order of forcible seizure was granted at the suit of Fisk against the company. The latter, com- prising all its members, moved for a removal ef tho euit instituted against them by Fisk from the Supreme Court to the United States Circuit Court of this district, The motion was granted, Then came the grand strategic move of Fisk to withdraw the suit from the United States Circuit back to his favorite battle field, the Supreme Court of the State. The battle was waged with great skill on both sides, but the result was left undecided in consequence of the protracted illness of Judge Nelson, Taat result, however, is no longer doubtful, as Judge Nelson has decided against Fisk. What- ever further action he may take willbe on ground with which he is not familiar and where his usual strategy will not avail him, The decision is 9 most importaat one and will well repay perusal. A Caazy Inprvipvat offered an Assembly- man twenty dollars yesterday, on the floor of House, to get his little bill through, and was very correctly put out by the Speaker, Did he suppose that our wise legislators, men chosen chiefly fer their great discretion, their shrewd judgment, their strict integrity and their untarnished honor, would sell their inde- pendence, their freedom of action—nay, even their honor, that grandest adornment of God's noblest work—for twenty dollars? Not much. We doubt if fifty could do it. Nova Sootta Waxixa Up.—In the Nova Scotia Assembly yesterday Mr. Hill urged upon the Governor General the impertance of seeing to it that the rights of Neva Scotia in her fisheries are not ceded away to the Yankees by the joiat High Commission soon to meet at Washingten, A deputation of patriotic Bluenoses in Washington will probably be the next thing in order, eet The Spuyten Duyvil Accidents - Another accident, similar in many ré« Spects to the accident at New Ham- burg, occurred yesterday on the Hudson River Railroad at Spuyten Duyvil creek. ‘The Montreal train was waiting on the draw- bridge for a freight train to switch off, and walted thus fer more than an hour, standing during all the timo with its entire length across the wooden drawbridge. The Yonkers train from Now York, was due at this bridge only a few minutes later than the exproes train, but no signals whatever were displayed at the rear, and, naturally endugh, it plunged along the track, turned the curve just three hundred yards below the bridge, at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour, and deshed into the rear passenger car of the exprése, The half of the car was torn to pieces, the passengers, wakened rudely from thelr sleep, were togsed from one end of the car to the other, and frightened out of their wits a8 the black locomotive with its dazzling Drum- mond heatllight suddenly appeared in their midst, like a dreadful cyclops, No serious injyries to any one are reported, strangely and providentially onough. One or two passengers were scratched by their tum- We, and the engine driver and fireman, who jumped from their engino, were somewhat hurt by thelr fall and the ensuing cold bath ; but no other secious wounds were re- ceived. As soon as the engine driver saw the train ahead he shut off steam and the fireman applied the patent brakes, and thea both wok the leap Into the frozen river, The traia was alowed so much that when it strack it merely had force enough to demolish part of the rear ¢ar and to poke its nose into the presence of the Meepers on the other twain, There was the most unjustifiabie negligence and carelessness ¢hown on the part of the em- ploy of the road, especially in view of so recent a disaster at New Hamburg, in falling, whea thie Montreal exprees was detained at the bridge over an hour and the Yonkers train was known to be dug to display tho usual red danger light in the rear, Another investiga- tion is needed at once, The safety of life and lim caanot be mocked at in this way. The Grockiyn Navy Yard. General Siceum's bill to remove the Brook- lyn Navy Yard is still under discussion in the House, having the misfortune to receive more ventilation than is good or usual for such pal- pable jobs. It haa, indeed, been under con- sideration for two or three sessions, and if the required bonus has not already been carved out it will possoly remain under consideration uatil it is. General Slocum proposes to seli the gard for a eum largor, as he bas intimated, than is necessary to build another one, oither at New London or up the Hudson, But the statement was made in the debate on Thurs- day, and not deated, that in the deed convey- ing a large portion of the yard to the govern- ment there was a clause providing that in case of it ever ceasing to pe used for the purpose of amavy yard the property should revert to the Mayor, Aldeemen and Commondity ef New York, Thus it will be seen that if the condi- tions of the origina! deed of cif are to be car- ried out in good faith, the extensive site, upon the commerclal use of which General Slocum bases great expectations for Brooklyn in tho future, will dot remain Brooklyn property, ex- cept a navy yard remains upon it. The repre- sentative from Brooklyn, therefore, misinter- prets Brooklyn interests tn his proposal to re- move the Navy Yard to some other locality, Outside of these considerations, however, the yard is needed where it is, The dry dock itself is of such vaiue that ten years could not suffice to build as good a one elsewhere, and the cost of it alone is estimated at four million dollars, The great commercial city of the Union requires a national navy yard in its immediate victnity, accessible at all seasogs of the year to the largest national men-of-war, and at the same time securety remote from any actual danger of capture by even the most determined foreign foe io time of war, The proposition of Mr. Ketcham for the appoint- ment of a commission by the President te inquire into the whole subject is likely to prick the bubble of this job, which, no doubt, rests more with those who want the Navy Yard at their own particular site than with those who only care to have Brooklyn rid of it, The advocates of New London and other places seem suspiciously anxious to accept this elephant, which Brooklyn is supposed to be disgusted with, and therein, no doubt, les the whole animus of the job, ToE INVESTIGATION into the charges against the Children’s Aid Society is still going on at Albany. So far there appears to have been nothing worse than a little scarcity in the mat- ter of rations now and then, growing out of the economy of the matron rather than aay malicious cruelty toward the children, The charity itself is such an excellent one that it cannot be wholly condemned on any such tes- timony as bas been given against ii so far, Tax Disorvers at West Powt AcapEMY.— The iavestigation of the Congressional com- mittee has brought to light many details which go to prove that affairs are managed very loosely and sometimes very cruelly at the West Point Military Academy. In fact, the incidents of the past few months are sufficient to show that discipline, which should be the most stringent part of the machinery of any educational institution, is exceedingly lax at West Point. We trust that, whatever the com- mittee may discover upon this point, they will recommend such rigid rules as will insure the graid cssentials of a military educatiou—dis- cipline and subordination, Toe Lire Insvraxce Courasies aro to have even another condition imposed upoa them by the Legislature to hedge about the security’ of policy holders, Our Daniels at Albany hate come to tho conclusion, no doubt, that, as Tife insurance is a game where the policy holder mst die to win, he is enti- tled to hold a pretty sure hand before he bets. Senenaeaniae FivanciaL Fravps DéwNn Sovtit.—The Montgomery (Ala.) Mfail demands a thorough and complete investigation in regard to the alleged ‘indebtedness of the State. The Sa- vannah Repudlican calls for a similar investi- gation in relation to the financial concerns of Georgia. While willing to pay every cont of honest indebtedness they protest against pay- ing the claims of swindlers and frauds, This is righty Congress Yesterday—Natioual Politico—Teat Oaths. Botn houses of Congress were engaged yes- terday in the iscussion of national politics. i In the Senate the tre Champloas were Sena- tor Morton, of Indivni, and Sonaigs Blalr, of Missourl. Morton opo.ted the fight by a stasa- ing altack upon the Legislature of his own State for undertaking to paste joint resolution withdrawing its assent, heretofore given, to the ratification of the fifteenth constitutional amendment. In his opinion this recent action of the Indiana Legislature was a mere harm- less nullity, aud deserving of no consideration except for its political significance in indt- cating the spirlt which anlmates the demo- cratic party, That party he accused of an unwillingness to accept any of the results of the war, to recognize the recon~ struction policy of Congress or to regard tho fourteenth or fifteenth amendment of the con- stitution as of binding effect; but, on the con- trary, he represented it as determined to nullify them all if it had only had the power to do so. Blair took up the gauntiet and de- fended the position. of the democratic party, retorting upon Morton that in the bold, out- gpoken, contemptuous manner in which he had alluded to the system of representative government, as embedied in the Legislature of his owa State, he had fitly represented the ad- ministration of President Grant. Strangely enough, the House of Ropresenta- tives was at the same time arraigning the administration for the use it made of the mili- tary power in the last fall elections, and a domocratic Representative from Senator Mor- ton’s own State—Mr. Voorhees—was throwing out vague hints of the dangers to be appre- hended from grim, saturnine, silent men, high in power, and was drawing a parallel between the occupant of the White House at Washington and his supposed prototype, the Emperor of the French, who had reached the imperial throne over the prostrate liberties of his country. The debate in each House was more than usually interesting and significant, as bearing upon and intended to influence the action of parties in preparing for the next Presidential election, the two Senatorial athletes being themselves prominent in the list of available candidates, while on the democratic side of the House Voorhees, Eldridge and Kerr have alco been spoken of in the same connection, The subject on which the House debate was carried on was a bill introduced by Mr. Churchill, of Oswego, in this State, and ree ported back from the Judiciary Committee by Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, for the purpose of throwing additional securities around the bal- lot box, and still further protecting the right of all citizens te vote, under the fifteenth amend- ment, hy means of the authority of the federal government, The argument against it was that the bill was an unconstitutional inter- ference with the rights of the States, and was 4 gratuitous aesomption of power by Congress, as there was no inclination in any of the States to prevent any ciligens from voting, Tho friends of the bill defended its constitution- ality and found a necessity for it in the expe- rience which we bave had in tho elections in this city, largely controlled and influenced, as they have been, by rufflanly gangs of repeat- ers, The bill wae passed hy a party vote. The bill which was passed by both housos and sont to the Prosident some time since, re- lieving from the obligation to take the test oath all who could not consclentiously take it, and Imposing it on those who can, became a law yesterday through the operation of tho constitution, the President having neither signed nor vetoed it within the ten days’ re- striction. He sent a message to Congress yesterday poiating out the absurdity of this paradoxical measure, which, he said, dis- oviminated against the upholder of the gov- ernment and in favor of the general who com- manded hosts for the overthrow of that gov- ernment, He could not affix his name to such 4 law, but preferred to let it become operative without his sanction, recommending, however, the abolition of all test oaths, The President, in this sensible message, siands upon the ground which the Heratp has always occu- pied. Both houses wero in session last night, tho Senate being engaged in the consideration of Ganmaror Rervrss to His Isvann from the war in France, He has done the best he could do for the French republic, and Le goes back to Lis liltie island with the thanks of tho Governmeat of the National Dofence; but still be goes back defeated and disappoiated, His notorious hostility to the Pope and the clergy of the Catholic Church, in connection his cordial reception by Gambetta, has this character, #0 open to fraad and perjury as it is, should receive the encouragement of #0 astute a representative a¢ Mr. Fields, The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee, of which Mr. Fields is chairman. It will pro- bably be there squelobed, and thus the tax- payers of the city and State saved another ugnecessary aod grevious burden, Awrct Toces Por tas Coxerrrenon.—it