The New York Herald Newspaper, February 19, 1871, Page 6

6 - , NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1871.—TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK HERALD |™ “= ‘tera matorr aut oF BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hera. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. THE DAILY HERALD, pubtished every day in the pear. Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. THE WEEKLY HERALD, every Saturday, at Five CENTS per cop subscription price: One Copy Three Coptes. 5 Five Copies 8 Ten Copies. 7 JOB PRINTING of every description, aiso Stereo- typing ana Engraving, neatty and promptly exe- cuted at the lowest rates. AMUSEMENTS LINA EDWIN’s THEATR 720 Broadway.--HuNTED Down ; On, THE Two Li Many LEIGH. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av, ana 23d st— La Peniouore. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Tax Prniop. oadway.—THe RICHELIEU OF BOWERY THEATRE, Bowory.—-Pour; on, Wax Down SoUTH—MAN AND TigER. FIFTA AVENUE THEATRI BARATOGA. GLOBE THEATR' TALNMENT, &0.—GREEN Twenty-fourty street.— y.—-VARInTY ENTER. NEW YORK STADT TH Gaiiie. BOOTH’R THEATRE, 220 Rioue.ixv. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broad ‘ances every afternoon and e ATRE, 45 Bowery.—Die + between Sin ang 6th rner 0th st.—Performe FOURTEENTH STREET TH. Rroarnire. ACADEMY OF MUS VAaTORE. TRE (Theatre Francais)— teenth street.—IL TRo- NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tue Srroracue oF Tux BLack Croox. WALLACK’S THEATRI A Mogning CaLt—Woor ‘oadway ang 13th street,— 's LITTLE GAME. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S a THEATRE, Brooklya,— BakATOGA. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSZ, 201 Rowery.—Va- BiK1Y ENVERYAINMENT THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Co x10 VocaL- ius, NEGRO AC18, ac. FOOLEY'S OPERA HO KELLY & Leon's MiNerecis. rooklyn.—HOOLBY's AND APOLLO HALL. corner 28th street and Broadway.— Du Coxny's DioRaMa OF IRELAND. urteenth street. NEW YORK CIRCUS, ‘THE RING, ACROUATS, AO. -SORNES IN UNION LEAGUE HALL—Miss Guyxn's Snax: SPRARIAN READINGS. SOMERVILLE z ULERY, @ Fifth avenue.—Ex- HIBITION OF Wonas ¢ NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SOLENOE AND Aut. DE. KAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Brondway.— TRIPLE “SHEET, New York, Ganda February 19, 1s71. CONTENTS oF 10-DAYS HERALD. Pace. i—Advertisements. 2—Advertisemente. 3—Washingtou: Serious Iiness of Senator Sum- ner; the Last Levee of the Season; Proceed. ings in Congress—The Dominion of Canada: Pariamentary Debates on the Colonial Crisis— The Meeting of the Waters—Anarchy in Kan- £a8 —A Celesi{al Jubiiee—Burke's Speech—The —_ Reuef Fund—Miscellaneous Telegraph a-sndaies m: A Day With the Jewish Doctors; The Rabbi of Romance te Romance of Reality; Synagogue ices—Foreign Fash- Jons—The State Capi The Way Our Law Makers Dress and Act 4 for Homeless and Destitute Young Women—Crushed to Death. 5—Yachting in England: The Anticipated Aquatic Jubilee of Ts71—Base Ball Notes—Horse —Religious Inteliigence-- Phe Pope and ‘eoples: Polities and Society 1m Kome— T hip Neptune Case: The Leu Against Captain Peabody and His OMcers—Exhibition at St. Peter's Academy, Brookiyn—Another i .augh lin in Brooklya. Leading Articie, “The Lenten Sea- ustory and Observauces”—Amuse- ment jouncements. ‘T—Baltorials (Coudnued from Sixth Page)—The y French Government—Affairs in Paris— selably—General Reports from personal Intelligence—The Steamship —Views of the Past—Business No- S—Proceedings in_ the Courts—The Duties and Liabilities of Notaries Puolic—Wanted, a Husy band: A Novel Scene in the Tombs Police Court—The Dry Goods Market—Financial and Commercial Reports—The New Bridge—An- other Temperance Lecture—Ofticial Corrup- tion—Marriages and Deaths, 9—Advertisements. 410—The }emon of Bogus Divorce—Amusements— !gence—Advertisements, 12—Advertisemen: Jones, of Kentucky, democrat, in the House, wants to dig up the Arlington Ceme- tery again. If he succeeds it will only be to bury the democracy. Awrut Tix As—In her Legis- lature, which seems to Be dancing on the crust of a rumbling volcano, though we hope that without an explosion the volcano wili cool down. Tue Uprer Crust of hington colored society is in ferment over the approaching marriage of an ebon-hued physician witha lady of pure Cancasian blood, who holds a prominent posilion in the Freedman’s Bureau, Tuk Asiatio CroLeRa.—A correspondent calls our attention to an extract from a recent issue of the Heratp touching the ravages of the cholera in India at the present time, and suggests the propriety of timely precautions against its introduction here by ships from the East Indies. We throw out the hint to our health authorities and to the government at Washington. Surely when danger is threat- ened the closest vigilance is advisable con- cerning the movements of this terrible ‘Asiatic pestilence. Tar Govty Oxp Bririsu Lion is getting ‘more kicks thaa compliments in the British Parliament, They say in that body that Eng- Jand’s hesitancy has lost the respect of the belligerents in the Franco-German war, and that “‘the tight little island” may next be called upon to defend her national existence. Nor is there any telling what “those blarsted Proo- ehians” may next be after, inasmuch as they fiove hinted that they are disgusted, as we Avere some time ago, with what John Bull calls gutrality, In the course of this week occurs Ash Wed- nesday, a historic day in Christendom—a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, and which marks the commencement of the forty days of Lent. Inthe Roman Catholic Church and in the Protestant Episcopal Church much is mado of Ash Wednesday, and in the Greek Church, the Lutheran Church and others much impor- tance is attached to the forty days that follow. Lent is an ancient institution of the Christian Church, some dating it as far back as the days of the Apostles, The presumption is that the Lenten fast, althongh a very proper and be- coming thing in itself, is one of those institu- tions which took shape under the skilful man- agement of the Church leaders of the second and third centuries, For the first century and a half at least the QOhurch of Christ was, no doubt, a growing and aggressive power, but it was also more or less in a chaotic state, It wanted coherence and organization. It is possible that something like the Lenten fast was known to the Christians of the first century; but there is good reason to believe that the forty days grew out of forty hours, For forty hours the body of the Saviour of mankind lay in the tomb, and by the immediate followers of Jesus these forty hours were an- nually observed as a season of fastiug, hu- miliation and prayer. By and by—some think as early as the year 130—the forty hours had swelled into forty days; and the forty days’ retirement of Moses, of Elijah, both types of Christ, and the forty days’ temptation of the Saviour Himself when He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and there tempted of the Devil, were pointed to as the basis of the institution, The name Lent comes to us through the old Saxon lengten-tide, which originally signified the lengthening of the day, and was commonly used in the sense in which we use the word spring. Tho fast of forty days which annually occurred at this season gradually monopolized the name. The transference of the name and the contraction of the word require no farther explanation. Originally the Lenten season began on what is now known as the first Sun- day in Lent; but Pope Gregory, no doubt for the vary best of reasons, ordained that the fast should begin on the Wednesday preced- ing—a day which is now known all the world over as Ash Wednesday. Sprinkling with ashes in token of humiliation was an ancient Jewish custom—a custom not unfamiliar to the ancient Asiatics, Greeks and Romans, Sackcloth and ashes is a phrase familiar to every reader of Scripture. In pre-Refor- mation times it was customary for the priest on this day to take a quantity of ashes, bless them and then sprinkle them with holy water, The worshipper approaching in sackcloth, the priest took up some of the ashes on the ends of his fingers and made with them the mark of the cross on the worshipper’s forehead, saying “Memento homo, quia civis es, et in pulverem reverteris.” (Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and todust thou shalt return.) The ashes used were commonly made of the palms consecrated on Palm Sunday of the previous year. After the Reformation the use of ashes was discontinued as ‘‘a vain show” by the Anglican Church, although the day is still religiously observed; and to the great bulk of the Protestant world the day is now without meaning. In all the Catholic churches, however, the wide world over, the ancient practice is observed; and we have no doubt that while we write some of our priests are looking forward to Wednesday as one of those days which, but for a high sense of duty, they would rather avoid. For forty days from Ash Wednesday some six or seven milliohs of the inhabitants of the United States will, by a system of abstinence and by a course of conduct characterized by humiliation and prayer, testify to the power of Christian teaching and Christian authority. It is not to be denied that many members of the Catholic Chureh will on this, as on former occasions, take liberties which the Church does not sanction, however their own con- sciences may approve or condemn. It is as little to be denied, however, that among them and the Protestant Episcopalians alone will be seen, during this time-honored, if not divinely appointed season of fasting, anything which calls up the memory of the sainted examples of the past—anything which proves that reli- gion is a loving, constraining, governing power in the midst of us. As we have said already, fasts and festivals in connection with religion are of great antiquity. In themselves, whatever their origin, they cannot be said to be other than commendable. In this age, in which the growing tendency is to disregard the teachings of the Gospel, nothing which brings us back to a high standard of virtue ought to be despised. The season ef Lent is specially a season which has for its object the cultivation of self-denial, the development of the spirit of self-sacrifice; and if the Church has still the power of making the days of Lent helpful in the direction of moral and spiritual culture the Church is not yet dead. In spite of all our vaunted Curistianity—in spite of our temples, our cathedrals, our churehes, our meeting houses, our synagogues—our age is selfish, grasping, godless in the extreme. If this season of Lent has the effect of opening the eyes of some of our rich men te a sense of their duty to the poor, if it reveals themselves and brings them to repentance, and if through the powerful influence of the Catholic Church in this city it exercises a wholesome influence upon the Protestant community, wo shall be thankful. Meanwhile, as things go, we have not much faith, A great many, we fear, will cheat the Church, and not a few will act the part of the proud Pharisee, who fasted twice a week, gave tithes of all he possessed and was not as other men; but who was a bad man, and knew he was a bad man for all that. We look forward to a better time, when these fastings and festivals and other observances will be unnecessary. But we are not disposed to despise the day of small things, Woman Svurrracists Sxrppep.—The Mis- souri State Senate, not having the fear of scolding wives or strong-minded sisters be- fore their eyes, most ungallantly tell the wo- man suffragists they can't vote in that State, and if they don’t like that decision they had better appeal to the courts and learn what the law is on the subject. The West does not pre- sent a very favorable field for the would-be voters, and Illinois bas lot the subject alone very severely. Iowa is well satisfied to en- trust the ballot to the sterner sex, and now Missouri most maliciously tells the wemen to stay away from the polls and help themselves if they can, The New French Government. The National Assembly of France on Fri- day last conferred the executive power of the government on M. Thiers, This event was expected. From the present time, therefore, until the voice of the Freach nation de- clares the choice of government and elects an emperor, king or president France may be considered a republic, with Thiers as its chief executive officer. While reflecting on the present situation in France we cannot help thinking that, as was the case in Spain from the downfall and expulsion of Queen Isa- bella in the fall of 1868 until the selection of Amadeus, the Savoyard, near the close of 1870, so may it be, in some respects, with the French nation in 1871. France is getting more and more like Spain every day. Like Spain, she desires to be a republic, and French statesmen, akin to Spanish statesmen, will, we fear, hesitate to take a decided stand in favor of the permanent establishment of a republic. Prim had the game in his own hand at one time in Spain. A bold move, a determined act, a resolute stroke would, have secured the stake, but a vacillating course prevented the consummation of the act. While the world looked on and expected every day to hear of a grand coup d'état on the part of the man who more than any other was the means of hurling Isabella from her throne, he wavered in a course the prompt adoption of which might have made him one of the foremost men in Europe. The crown of Spain went begging. The men who would wear it coald not get it, and the men who could obtain it would not have it, The Duke of Montpensier, Don Carlos and the Prince of Asturias all were willing to assume the kingly robe and wear the crown of Ferdinand and Isabella, but none of them were destined for the honor they desired. No doubt some one else could have been found to assume the chair of a Spanish republic, but all alike were doomed to disappointment, and a foreign prince was at length chosen to sit on the throne of Spain. In France we find nearly a similar state of things existing at the present day. Napoleon longs for the imperial purple which the disasters to his armies forced him to lay aside. Scions of the houses of Orleans and Bourbon are also anx- ious te fill the throne once occupied by their forefathers, and it is not doubted for a moment that a man could be found willing in France to fill the chair of a French republic, Never before in the history of France have French statesmen or the French people been called upon to act in so delicate a matter as the one which now presents itself for adjust- ment. Rarely has a nation been called upon to decide on questions requiring more wisdom and forethought. France, suffering from a series of disastérs unparalleled, almost in the world’s history, will be called upon to select a government which must secure her peace without further humiliation, With the country occupied by an invader, the French army prisoners of war, the navy of France powerless, the capital of the nation at the mercy of the victor, the task is, indeed, one of difficult adjustment. One of the conditions on which peace can only be made with the conqueror will be the cession of the rich and beautiful tract of France known as Alsace and Lorraine. That the Ger- mans will insist on this there is scarcely a shadow of doubt, and that such dis- memberment will be deeply and keenly felt by the French people is a conviction equally strong. The speech of M. Keller in the National Assembly on Friday, while adjur- ing his colleagues to proclaim their inviolable attachment to Alsace and Lorraine, is one evi- dence of the depth of feeling pervading French minds on the subject. The attitude of the Parisian delegation, in threatening to withdraw in case the dismemberment of the nation’ would be agreed to by the Assembly, is another proof of the difficulties of the present situation, In the meeting of these difficulties M, Thiers will find himself called upon to exercise all the tact and skill which he is ac- credited to possess. The French people must be appeased and kept occupied. The final humiliation which will come in the yielding up of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine must be smoothed in some manner in which it will appear less painful than it really is. The people will then be called upon to elect a ruler, and on that elected ruler, chosen by the voice of the French nation, will fall the responsiblity of recon- structing France. With the absorption of Alsace and Lorraine by Germany that ruler will preside over a dismembered nation, for such, to a proud and sen- sitive people like the French, France must henceforth appear, and in the feeling which will thus be engendered will rest the dangers which may threaten the government. No matter what may be choice, be it empire or monarchy, or even republic, the signs portend the coming day of the peoples, when kingly rule will be dispensed with and universal suffrage supply its place. ry, Tue TeNNessze.—Nothing has yet been heard of this steamer, The government is satisfied that the one reported as being seen off the coast of Hayti was not her. We were satisfled on that point whem the despatch was received, and, like the government, we are also satisfied that the Tennessee will be heard from in due time, which is when the island of St. Domingo is heard from, and that will not be for a few days yet. Have patience, anxious ones, Your relatives and friends are safe, and enjoying a balmy tropical temperature, the fruits and other delicacies of a tropical climate; the eourtesies and attention of their sable tropical brethren; they are being shown all the good points of the island. Nothing dis- agreeable is permitted to come before their eyes, and the news of our being so much worried on their account will be the first un- pleasant incident of their excursion, Goop For Buncombe, ANynow—The pro- position in the United States Senate of Mr. Howard, of Michigan, to instruct the Jeint High Commission to negotiate the cession of British North America to the United States. From Mount St. Elias, the high white peak of Alaska, let the eagle scream. Secular Versus Religious Papers. The distinction covered by those two words “secular” and “religious,” as usually applied to the press, carries with it differences of mo- rality as well as of news, There is a vague idea in the minds of many good people that a religious paper should contain {ittle else than what may be found in some page or other of the Bible, and that a paper which gives the current news of the day from all parts of the world is necessarily and absolutely a secular paper, even though it may also contain as much and sometimes better and more real, genuine morality and religion than its religious contemporaries, though not in such heavy doses. The distinction is fast fading away, and the religious community in this city is thinking and talking about the best means of securing the co-operation of the secular press in the spread of Christian truth, and the con- secration of that press to the cause of religion. The last General Conference of the Methodist Church appointed certain of its agents in this city a committee, with discretionary power, to abolish this distinction altogether by publish- ing a daily religious paper whenever, in the interim of four years, in their judgment, the signs of the times should warrant the launch- ing of such an enterprise. This commiltee has not yet seen the favorable indications and has not made its venture. But, like a great many other problems in soctal, political and reli- gious life, the Hzraxp is rapidly solving this one for them, and by its frequent and exten- sive publication of religious news is demon- strating the fact, hitherto hardly believed or understood, that secular news is not more incompatible with religious news in a first class daily paper than the union of the highest type of Christian morals and thorough business tact is in a man. But why snould such distinctions as ‘‘secu- lar” and “religious” exist at all as regards the press? Why must the people turn to one class of papers for the current news of the world and to another class for the current news of the Church? Why seek the intellec- tual and wstheticalin one and the moral and religious in another? We can readily con- ceive of a time when, and of circumstances under which, in the early history of the religious press, such distinctions might arise, and might, indeed, be necessary; but in this advanced age we can hardly think of one good or sound reason why such distinctions should longer exist. For the past two or three years we have endeavcged to lay before our million readers in this land and in Europe, not the concentrated thoughts or opinions of one or two Christian ministers or laymen, done up to order in denominational or sectarian packages, as our religious contemporaries are wont to supply, but the cream and the honey, the strength and sweetness and variety of the American pulpit, gathered at great expense and furnished fresh for the morning meal. And in this regard the Heratp is largely super- seding the religious weeklies and our daily contemporaries, following our lead, are giving greater heed than ever to the demands of their religious readers. But we do more than this. Our columns have also presented, and still present, from time to time complete summaries of religious movements throughout the Old World and interesting statistics of clurches and religous bodies in our own land, and more than one of the religious papers of this city are indebted to the columns of the Heratp for their weekly digest of religious news. Nor do we stop here. In our editorial we review and com- ment upon the work of the Church in all its branches, freely and fearlessly, because we are not bound by the silken or iron bands of any sect or church; and our comments are often more pertinent and psephetic than are those of our clerical contemporaries. Not a ripple can rise to the surface of society or the Church anywhere witheut our notice. We glean our news, secular and religious, from the four quarters of the globe, and, having clothed it in beauty and imparted new life to it, we send it forth again on its mission day after day, fresh and varied, beautiful aud inte- resting. Where, then, so far as the HERALD’s influence extends, is there a necessity any longer for such a distinction as we have pointed out in this article? Solomon, the wise King of Isracl, once propounded a conundrum, which we may repeat, giving also its moral :—All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. But why not? Here is the wise man’s answer :—Unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again. Moral—The Heratp is the religious sea from whence the weekly streams are fed, and to which they return from time to time for fresh supplies. They therefore give the reli- gious public little that is new or original. Indeed, we are very much inclined to believe a remark made by an eminent divine recently in our hearing, that religious papers have been among the best agents of the devil in dividing and sowing discord in the Christian Church and in hindering the union of the several denominations now so ardently wished and prayed for by the purest and best minds every- where. If, therefore, we can in the least degree supersede the ‘‘religious” press by the “secular” we claim that we are doing some- thing toward the consummation of the visible as well as the spiritual unity of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Earth, and are hastening the eoming ef His kingdom, for which the world daily prays and waits, Marine InsvraNce.—The marine insurance companies of this city make a return of their business operations for the year 1870. The number of companies who joinin this return amounts to nine. The figures show a total of premiums paid to the extent of $13,871,537. The losses and expenses mount up to $7,203,333, while the gross assets show a total of nearly twenty-five millions. The nine companies put down their net profits for the year at $2,847,141. From this we infer that, despite the frequent disasters at sea which we have to record from day to day, the mariue insurance business is a paying affair. Tne New York PEopte are just as brave as the Parisiaos, if we may judge from Repzesen- tative Brooks’ speech on Friday in the House, The equanimity and coolness with which even the women and children of this metropolis be- held the troops and cannons and banners and things that were threatening to slaughter them on election day last November is truly marvel- lous, now that we come to look back upon it from a distance. North American Colonial Agitation—Neva Scotia’s Opposition to the High Commission. Queen Victoria's appointment of a High Commission to treat with the United States government on the subject matters which remain in dispute between the two countries has agitated the minds of her Majesty's sub- jects in North America vastly. Tho Nova Scotians are alarmed for their fishing interests. They have debated the subject in the provin- cial legislature ina very animated manner. By telegram report from Halifax we learn that the lawmakers of Nova Scotia have placed on the records of their Parliament a very forcible protest against any attempt at the trading away of their local interests by the Dominion of Canada men. They stand upon their integral colonial rights as they have been guaranteed by the Crown of England, and re- pudiate the idea of a government absorption and representative ebliteration at the hands of the Dominion people in Ottawa. The truth of the matter is that the operation of the very canvass of this Joint High Commission move- ment will tend te elucidate many international subjects as between England, be North American colonies and the United Siates, bringing into prominent notice—as our despatches to-day tend to show—the artisan and industrial depression which is produced in the cities of the great republic in consequence of our having the frontier border tapped laterally from Canada by the introduction into our markets of smuggled goods of British manufacture—produced at the rates of a pauperized labor in Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester—by which American capi- talists are really undersold in their own home market. This High Commission matter will become very interesting before the close of the sittings of the delegates in Washington. A Big Thaw. The chances yesterday for getting rid of the snow and slush which encumber the streets were glorious. The air was warm and of a melting mood. The rain fell in torrents all the forenoon, The gutters ran with water like mountain streams. The snow heaps became undermined and caved in gracefully to the flood which was rushing onward to the sewers and the rivers, In short, city inspectors and street cleaners and all the salaried and or- ganized bands whose duty it is supposed to be to keep the streets clean have been forestalled by the weather. But anfortunately the rain storm did not last long enough to complete its sanitary mission. Last night the air became crisp again. It was evident that King Frost was asserting his rights, and was disposed to protest against the too sudden close of winter. We are going to have pleaty more of frost and snow and nipping airs and stifling fogs on the rivers before we see the butterflies and hum- ming birds again. But we ought to be thank- ful for the blessings enjoyed by one day’s rain. Indeed, we ought to be very grateful to nature for giving a helping hand to our sleepy city authorities. If these gentlemen would only take the advice urged upon Mrs. Dombey and “make an effort” to assist nature we might have our streets clean before the Ist of March. Is It Vandalism? The bill known as Genet’s bill, now before the Legislature, for the opening of Lexington avenue, it is said proposes to take in some fonr blocks which have been purchased for the purpose of erect- ing thereon a building by the ‘Industrial Exhibition Company”—a palace of art and science and machinery on a moderate scale, somewhat like the long-lost Crystal Palace. We want institutions of this kind. We are behind all the leading cities of the wOMd in this matter of public institutions located in various quarters of the city, where resident citizens and the thousands of daily visitors from the country can go for instruction and amusement. Therefore we can hardly afford to lose the chance of obtaining a popular institution such as this which we are informed is to be erected in Lexington avenue. We presume that this highway can be opened with the perfect satisfaction of all the requirements of the occasion, without infringing upon pro- perty already purchased and set apart for purposes in which the whole community is interested. The Legislature should look up this job with very keen eyes before they pass the bill. Itis an old stager. It was trotted out upon the boards at Albany last year, and comes up again a little modified, but modified in the wrong direction. The Discipline of Lent. His Grace the Archbishop of New York has issued his pastoral instructions for the peni- tential observance of the holy season of Lent in the shape ef a circular, which is addressed to the Catholic congregations which have been committed to his care through the clergy. The disciplinary routine differs scarcely at all from that which has been enjoined by the American branch of the Roman Catholic Church during the past few years. The publication of the rules, however, denotes the hierarchical au- thority, while the obedience of the congrega- tions gives evidence of the universality of that powerful bond, the unity of faith, which links the Catholics of the world to the clergy and binds them to the altar in every clime. Wednesday next will be Ash Wednesday. On that morning will arise a grand fish question for the housewives of New York—how and where to get the fish, and how to cook them best when they are had? These will divert the active mind of the metropolis from the Joint High Commission and the British fishery subject to a very considerable extent. Our relations, both with the English and Canadians, may be much more friendly on Easter Sunday morning, notwithstanding the ominous fact—for dyspeptics particularly— that thousands of free Americans will have in the meantime ‘‘lived for forty days on ill dressed fishes,” and many, very many, others “dined in sin on a ragont’’ during the same period, On Honor.—The cadets at West Point are all on honor, and yet three of them who for- feited their honor by lying are to be returned to their positions unblamed, while the whole First Class, whose gall rose so at the breach of trust on the part of these three that they, as guardians of the peace for the Academy, punished them more severely than the letter of the law allowed, are to be court martialed again. Who is most deserving of punish- ment? Congress Yesterday—Rebukes to Represene tatives<The McGarrakan Claim—An An- mexation Project. Mr. Jones, the Kentucky Representative, who submitted a proposition in the House om Friday looking to the restoration to the Lee family of the property in which the National Cemetery at Arlington is embraced, seemed to be emulous of the universal condemnation which a like suggestion brought upon bis cof- league in the Senate about a month ago, He had the good fortune to escape the castiga- tion which Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, was prepared to administer to him at the time by the House passing to another subject; but he chad the pleasure yesterday of hearing from a republican member from Michigan, Mr. Stonghton, that the people would never suffer the bodies of the Union soldiers to be dug up by prowling hyenas or malignant traitors, and of hearing a democratic member from Indiana, Mr. Holman, repudiating the tdea of interfer- ing with any of the national cemeteries. It is just as well for Mr, Jones that his Con- gressional career is rapidly drawing to a close. The Army Appropriation bill being before the House yesterday, the member in charge of it, Mr. Dickey, of Pennsylvania, took occasion to reply to the tremendous outburst of Mr. Brooks, on the previous day, in reference to the interference of the military at the elections~ last fall, and to declare that there was more danger to the existence of our free institu- tions from the councils of the Tammany chiefs and braves than from the councils of the In- dians on the Plains, and that the army might be used against the one with as much pro- priety as against the other. This Pennsylva- nia Representative has evidently a just appre- ciation of New York politics, and perhaps was not very far astray in his estimate of their destructive tendencies and of the good policy of applying a little wholesome restraint to them. But Messrs. Jones and Brooks were not the only members who bad unpleasant things said to them yesterday, The other side of the House had also its share of castigation. Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, the leader of the House in his capacity of chairman of the Com- mittee on Appropriations, undertook to lecture his party on the subject of extravagances, asserting that, in spite of the efforts of himself and his committee to keep down appropriations, the aggregate amount voted this session would exceed by twelve millions the amount voted at last session, This assumption of superior virtue on the part of Mr. Dawes was not very much relished by his party friends, one of whom—Mr. Judd, of Illinois—administered a cutting rebuke to him, charging him with absenteeism and arrogance, and declaring that it was time that such habitual scolding on his part should cease, In this frame and temper of mind the House entered on the discussion of the McGarrahan claim, which continued all day, and was not closed at the hour of adjournment. The most remarkable thing about this famous case is that the members of the Judiciary Com- mittee, which have had the matter before them for the last two Congresses, have not been able, any two of them almost, to arrive at thesame conclusion. The weight of opin- ion, however, seems to tend in favor of the position which the HgRatp assumed some three months ago, that neither McGarrahan nor the New Idria Mining Company has a valid claim to the property in dispute, and that the true solution of the difficulty is for the govern- ment to oust all the claimants, to sell the property, either .in large or small parcels, at public sale, and to place the proceeds in the Treasury of the United States. A proposition to that effect is pending and will probably be adopted. The session of the Senate yesterday was spent principally in the consideration of the Legislative Appropriation bill, Some adverse reports were made from the Judiciary Com- mittee, among them one on petitions for woman suffrage, and for amending the consti- tution by a recognition of the Christian religion. A grand scheme of annexation was proposed in a resolution offered by Senator Howard, of Michigan, endorsing the wisdom and policy of submitting all questions in dispute between our own and the English governments te a joint international commis- sion, and suggesting to that body the question of annexing to the United States the whole of the British North American possessions, or at least that part of them lying to the west of Hudson Bay and the main channel connected with the Arctic Ocean and the outlet of Lake Superior. This is a bold proposition, and the Senate was fully justified in declining to pass upon itina hurry. It is a mere suggestion, however, which may or may not produce any result. Tug Pork, THE PEOPLES AND THE LAY Crowns.—We have a special letter from Rome, published in our columns to-day, which goes to show that the aged Pontiff, Pius the Ninth, defends what he considers tho right of his suc- cessors and of the Church in the present, sturdily and with a brave spirit amid many distracting and very immediately conflicting influences. His eminent and indefatigable Secretary of State, Antonelli, standing on the principle of legitimate right, has officially ex- pounded to contradictions of Italian royalism in the Holy City to the surrounding thrones. The two principles ef government remained in every day contradiction, the one of the other, as will be seen from our correspondence. In the meantime, however, ‘Young Italy” dis- ported itself pleasantly near the Vatican in the persons of Prince Humbert and his wife, the Princess Marguerite. A Sunday in the Churches France. The hint thrown out in the Heratp last Sun- day, we are glad to see, has fallen like good seed upon good ground. Mr. Charles H. Mar- shall, as chairman of our New York French Relief Committee, proposes that ‘a simulta- neous collection be taken up on the second Sunday in March, in all the churches of tho country, for the relief of starving France.” We second the motion; and we would submit an amendinent to the proposition, to wit:—An invitation from the committee to all the Jewish temples and synagogues in the country to take up a similar collection for the general relief of suffering France on the second Saturday in March (Saturday being the Jewish Sabbath). We say for the general relief of the poor for Poor | |