The New York Herald Newspaper, March 16, 1871, Page 8

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Volume XXXVI.. 7% AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. GLOBE THEATRE, 728 Broadway.—VaRiETY ENTER- TAINMENT, &0.—APTER THE Wan. BOOTH'S THKATRE, 334 st., vetwoen 6th ana 6th ave,— Muou AvO AuoUT NoTUING. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner 30th st.—Perform- ‘ances every afternoon and evening, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tue SPEOTACLE OF ‘THE BLack Croox. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ana 18th street.— Tae CLANDESTINE MARKIAGE, LINA EDWIN's THEATRE, 720 Broadway.—LinG SKETOUES—DAvY's LOVE. sitet pests GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av. ana 23d st.— Les GEORGIENNES, Matinee at 1. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tuz RicuRLieU OF ‘THE PERIOD. NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, 45 Bowery.—Riao- LETTO. BOWERY THEATRE, Wei Srext. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— SARATOGA. Bowery.—On Hanp—A Day STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—GRAND MUSICAL Boner. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn. — TuE CuILD STEALER, SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 585 Broatway.— NEGRO MINSTRELSY, Fanoes, BURLESQUES, &C. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Va- RIETY ENTERTAINNENT. zi THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Co Ins, NEGRO Acts, me Renter roan BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 33d at, bet and 7th avs.—NEGRO MINSTREL: eres = HOOLEY'S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—HooLRy’s KELLY & Leon's Mixowere’ ss — NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteenth street.—SczNES IN THE RING, AcROATS, DR. KAHN’S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway.— SCIENCE AND AxT, SHEET. arch 16, 1871 New York, Thursday, eae a CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. Pac. L—Advertisements, 2—Advertisements. 3—News from Washington—The New Hampshire Election—Elections in New Jersey—The Coal Miners’ Strike—Army and Naval Inteli- gence—Miscellaneous Telezraphic News—Im- portant irom Spain: Proposed sale of Cuba and Porto Rico to the United States—The Joint High Commisston—Anotner Stupid Drug Clerk. 4=Sumner’s Snarl: The Massachusett’s Lion in His Den; An Inter With the De- ed Statesman —Massachusetts Politics—The ri—James Watson's Trotters—St. Patrick’s Day—Substitutes for Stone—Hell Gate Hor- rors: Collision Between the Steamer Electra and the Schooner Lucy Hall; A Man Crushed to Death—The Vive Points Fight—Chureh and State—The Propagation of ‘lrout—The Insh Confederation. 5—Ku Klux Klan: Appalling Record of Murder and Crime; Origin and Present Aspect of the Chester Troubles—Proceedings in wie Courts— Seemg the Anditor—Board of Heaith—Arson Upon the High Seas : Sentence of Death Pro- nounced Upon a Ship Burner—A Springfield Mystery—Street Car Slaugliter—Carbolic Acid 4 Again, G—Eiditorials : Leading Article, “The New Hamp- shire Election—The Republicans, the bemo- cracy aud the Next Presidency”—Amusewent Announcements. '7—Eilitorials (Continued from Sixth Page)—The French Government—The Emperor William Napoleon—Paris—General Reports—Miscc!! neous Telegrams—Austrian —_ Nationalism Amusements—A Literary Banquet—Brick: New Jersey Legislature—The New York Ath- letic Club—Views of the Past—Business Notices. S—The Coal Miners’ Wrongs : the Operators—Gooa Sharp Practices by Templars of Massachu- setts—Real Estate Financial and Commercial Reports—Marriages ana Deaths— Advertisements. NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY. The New Hampshire Election—The Repub- licars, the Democracy and the Next Presidency, Hardly more delighiful to Caristopher Co- lumbus and his ships’ crews was the discovery of the first found tropical island of the New World than are the results of the New Hamp- shire election to the ecstatic democracy. This election to them reveals the boundless pros- pect of anew world in all the splendors of tropical luxuriance; it clears the way to Washington and opens the doors of the White House, of Congress and the Treasury Department to the enthu- siastic and hungry democrats, from Maine to Texas and from Coney Island to California. Since 1860 they have suffered a succession ot disastrous defeats only surpassed by the dis- asters of the French armies in the late war, from the Rhine to the Seine and the Loire ; the government bas been turned inside out, the institutions of the South have been turned upside down; a Southern pro-slavery confede- racy has been overthrown by a million of Union bayonets, slavery has been abolished, negro suffrage is established; a Mississippi “nigger” has been advanced to the seat of Jeff Davis in the Senate, and five ‘‘colored gem- men” this day are among the Representatives of the South in the national. House of Repre- ‘ " Settee ne» cn poset 3 Ree These are the astounding results of ten years of democratic exclusion from power and of ten years of radical suprema>y by the will of the people. The consequences are a revo- lution in the United States as radical as that which followed in France the first expulsion of the Bourbons. But this revolution has run its course, and in New Hampshire the rejoicing democratic journals assure us a reactionary revolution has set in, which means nothing less and nothing else than the resto- ration of the Bourbons and “ihe constitu- tion of our fathers.” But what does this mean? According to an extract from a Georgia journal—the Augusta Chronicle—lying before us, it means, with the election of a democratic President and Congress, a convention of the States to rectify the constitution and to ‘‘undo every result of the war ;” it means the recon- straction of the Supreme Court and the re- storation of State sovereignty, which includes the right of secession to the Southern States and their constitutional right to set up a South- ern confederacy, as expounded by Buchanan. This is a Southern democratic view of the restoration of their party to power. It means the restoration, excepting slavery, of ‘‘the Union as it was” under Buchanan, the last of the democratic line of Presidents. If, how- ever, the States are restored to that status they can each regulate their blacks to suit themselves, But what is the Northern de- mocratic programme with their restoration to power. They accept the constitution as amended, negro suffrage and all; but they look to the South, as of old, for the balance of power. Even in 1868, to secure this old Southern democratic balance of power, they adopted, on the motion of General Wade Hampton, as a plank in their Presidential platform, a resolution declaring the whole Southern reconstruction system ‘‘unconstitu- tional, revolutionary, null and void ;” and here is the danger to the Democratic Convention of 1872. The Southern demecracy will be apt to demand this resolution again, and, if so, how can it be denied them? Yet it is probable that the democrats, learning wisdom from experi- ence, will avoid this rock and gain the day upon 9—Advertisemen 10—Aflairs at the State Capital—Shipping Intelli- gence—Advertisements. 41—Advertisements. 4 2—Advertusements, PROPOSED UBA AND Porto Rico To THE Unirep Srates.—Diplomat c circles in Washington were intensely excited yesterday afternoon at the rumored re- ception at the State Department of a despatch from Minister Sickles con- taining a proposition by the Spanish government to sell to the United States the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. It appears that King Amadeus thinks his West India possessions are a source of weakness to his kingdom and is willing to dis- pose- of them for $100,000,000, the price formerly demanded for Cuba alone. The despatch was received at too late an hour for action to be taken upon it yesterday, but will, no doubt, be laid before the Cabinet meeting to-day. Fixkins, the express robber, has been sen- tenced at Albany to twenty years’ imprison- ment. He was the guilty party beyond a doubt, but the bungling manner in which the prosec tion brought him before Halpine for identification was enough to have entirely de- feated the ends of justice. Iv Seems Propane that the coal miners’ trike in Pennsylvania will extend to the bitu- minous region. This isthe coal which is used almost exclusively west and southwest of Pittsburg, and its transportation down the Ohio river in coal barges and to the Western towns on railroad trains is a very large branch of business. The same coal, under pressure of the present strike of the anthracite miners, isalso being more generally used in this vicin- ity, and the proposed movement of the bitu- minous miners will serve to limit the resources of the poor still further. Atsace aNp Lorrarne.—In our telegraphic columns to-day will be found a couple of despatches which give a little fresh interest to Alsace aod Lorraine. One despatch has it that Alsace and that portion of Lorraine whick, along with Alsace, has been annexed to Ger- many, may for a consideration be restored to France. The other despatch bas it that Gen- eral Von Goeben’s army is marching from the North of France to take up the position assigned to it in the new German provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. The two telegrams do not conflict, but they help us toward a con- clusion. Alsace and Lorraine—at least so | much of Lorraine as Germany has deemed it proper to take from France—were not demanded without good reason; and, depend upon it, they will not without good reasom be parted with, now that they have been obtained. Alsace and Lorraine were originally German. France holding them, the Rhine boundary was a source of trouble to both nationalities. The Rhine boundary question is effectually settled, and, depend upon it, the statesmen of Germany will not allow France to come near the Rhine anv more if they know how to help it side issues, when, if they choose, they can bring up the main question to some purpose. But what are the dangers of the repub- licans? They are numerous and threatening. They are the dangers of disaffected leaders, such as Sumner, Trumbull, Fenton, Schurz and others—the dangers of wrangling cliques and factiens over the spoils—the spc(ls of Tammany and the spoils of the Custom House— such cliques and factions as we have in this city, where even the philosopher Greeley finds it difficult to distinguiss between the party claims of the republican servants of Tammany and the straight-out adherents of General Grant. There is the danger of the intrigues of disaffected party leaders and free trade organs to supersede General Grant. How far these disaffected leaders are embittered against him may be inferred from the opinions which we publish to-day from Senator Sum- ner of General Grant as a statesman. Wen- dell Phillips, too, as a bolter, shows that he is with Sumner for leaving the’island of St. Domingo to the supremacy of ihe African race, and dead against General Grant. And here is the danger of further losses to the admin tration from those old radicals of one idea, negrophobia. Then there is the danger of the “revenue reformers,” or free trade republi- cans, and of the labor and temperance reform- ers; and, above all, there is the danger of these oppressive and superfluous internal and external Congressional taxes, which are steadily operating to reconcile the masses of the people to all the hazards of a short cut and a sharp remedy, and which are surely strengthening the democrats and weakening the republican party from day to day. Let General Grant, however, carry through his St. Domingo annexation scheme, with the confirmation of a feasible ship canal route across the Isthmus of Darien; and let him secure a satisfactory and comprehensive treaty touching our outstanding accounts against England from the Joint High Commission, and Sumner and the other mutineus party leaders will be disarmed and the rank and file will be drawn to something like har- mony around the administration, Cut off from our present burdens of taxa- tion, including the superfluous and offen- | sive income tax, a hundred, or seventy-five, or even fifty millions of dollars, and the republi- can party will immediately feel the relief from the general popular satisfaction with and ap- proval of the measure. Give us a new Cabi- net, Mr. President, by and with the advice avd consent of the leading men of your party of the two houses of Congress, and give us a Secretary of the Treasury who will abandon | Mr. Boutweli’s fallacy of taxing this genera- | tion over a hundred millions a year to pay off | the principal of the national debt, and this Sumner bagatelle will be forgotten. This New Hampshire election has gone by default upon a short vote, and from the effect of this Sumner imbroglio upon the old dyed- in-the-wool radicals of the State. This paltry side issue, in the absence of any greater direct \ issue, has upset New Hampshire, The State has gone by default, as Penvsylvania, Ohio and Indiana went in 1867, and the result in reference to the next Presidential election signifies little or nothing in view of the large reserved vote which did not come to the polls. It is the full vote of a State which de- cides its political complexion; and the republicans are always behind on a short popular vote. For instance, on a short vote they lost New York in 1867 by fifty thousand democratic majority, whereas, on a full vote (extra full for the democrats of this city), Seymour in 1868 had only ten thousand ma- jority. Again, Pennsylvania in 1867 gave nearly a thousand democratic majority on a short vote, while in 1868 she gave Grant ona full vote twenty thousand majority. From the time of Jackson down to this day such has been the working, in the absence of any great issues, of our intermediate State elections as compared with our Presidential elections. There is still, however, this meaning in a State election which has gone by an unex- pected default against the party in power—it means that some unexpected cause has been at work, Thus Sumner will explain this New Hampshire election ; but the election explains nothing more than Sumner, But with all these gther and Jarger questions than Sumner coming into the foreground he and hig sag vidual grievances will soon be cast in the shade. Meantime, as it becomes clearer to the repudlican rank and file that General Grant is their only man, it will become clearer to him that, from his inexperience in the devious ways of politics, he must hereafter be guided more than in the past by the old acknowledged lights and leaders of his party. A Probable Row in Paris To-Day. Contrary to the reports of the past few days, the insurgent National Guards of Montmartre have not surrendered to the French authori- ties. Mildly as the situation in Paris is described in our despatches published this morring, enough is said to show that there is a strong probability of a serious collision in the city to-day between the insurgents and the national forces. After a good deal of spur- ring on by the newspapers to the work of crushing the “insurrection” the French govern- ment have at length determined to enforce obedience to their requirements. This day, a telegram from Paris states, is the last allowed the insurgents to return to their duty, and consequently ‘‘a crisis” is certain. It is to be hoped that the miszuided National Guards of Montmartre will perceive the futility of resistance and, by a timely surren- der, avert bloodshed. But it must not be forgotten that the men who compose the insurgent battalions belong to the lowest or most reckless classes of Paris— men who apparently delight in the title of “heroes of the barricades,” and are not averse to a street fight with any regularly constituted Feench government, no matter how great the odds against them. While, therefore, hoping that it will be found unnecessary to have recourse to viglence, we shall feel no surprise if the cable brings information to-day of a bloody conflict in the narrow streets around the hill of Montmartre. If we can trust the reports previously published the insurrec- tionary element is better armed than at the time of the first Revolution, and is, there- fore, better prepared to resist the forces of the government. In view of a probable con- flict to-day it must be a matter of deep regret to the French authorities that the disarming of the National Guards was not made one of the conditions of the surrender of Paris. It would have effectually prevented even the possibility of the re-enactment of those horrible scenes of carnage which are to be found re- corded in the past history of the French capital. When Shall We Have Italian Opern? The Italian opera question has been dis- cussed to its fullest extent by the press, bui the feeling of expectancy and desire for its revival which is now at fever heat in this city demands a few additional words. That the musical taste and liberality of New York can- not be excelled in any other centre of art is universally conceded; but this taste and libe- rality can only be fully developed by Italian opera, which is the recognized head of lyric art. Attempts have been made in yain to pro- vide German, English and French substitutes ; they have all received e fair trial and have been found wanting. German music (we speak of the present day) is by no means palatable to true musical ears, as it takes a metaphysical view of every subject and carefully excludes dramatic feeling and the spirit of spontaneous melody which alone can touch the hearts of the people. English opera nowadays is a weak dilution of Italian and German, and the standard works of English and American com- posers are ignored by those who represent this branch of the lyric art. As for French opera, we have only the Jouffe kind, and the public have long since tired of that. Italian opera, then, is the sole musical entertainment that can fully satisfy the desires of the public. And now there is an eager desire for it which will, no doubt, succeed in bringing around its revival and removing the former obstacles in the way of its success. These obstacles, as we have repeatedly said, are principally con- fined to the narrow-minded policy of the stockholders of the only building in the city where Italian opera can be properly pre- sented—the Academy of Music. When these gentlemen consent to relinquish their deadhead privilege of occupying two hundred and fifty of the best seats in the house and agree to pay for them one of the greatest obstacles in the path of Italian opera will be removed. There is ne use ia attempt- ing to dodge the question. They must prac- tise this self-denial or consent to see Italian opera perpetually banished from their boards. Any impresario who proposes to give opera at the Academy without insisting upon this point deceives either himself or the public, for he cannot succeed. This point conceded, the stockholders, who represent many of the first circles in society, should next exert their social influence to make Italian opera a neces- sary appendage of fashion. It is a luxury and cannot depend on the general public alone for support. There is a great difference between a guinea a stall at Covent Garden and two dollars at the Irving Place Opera House. Yet the expenses at the former are much less than what they should be in this city. There a box at the Italian opera is in- dispensable for all who move in the charmed MARCH 16. 1871.-TRIPLE SHEET. circle of nobility and fashion; here it is a rich placer for those very people on whom it depends for assistance. Thera are rumors of a short season at the Academy after Lent ; but they are so confused and contradictory that no reliability can be placed on them. At all events the question is being agitated as earnestly and extensively as even the myriad prejects of quick transit in the city. We trust that the stockholders will yield to the pres- sure and to the dictates of common sense. Mr. Sumner on the Political Situation. We publish to-day an interesting interview which our correspondent had recently with Senator Sumner. That statesman expressed himself very freely on all the matters now so prominently before the country and with which he is so intimately connected. As to the alleged reason for his removal—personal unpleasantness between him and Secretary Fish—he says that he and the Secretary were always very cordial in their business relations, that they consulted very freely regarding any negotiations about which it was necessary for them to consult; but that he was the recipient of a personal indignity at the bands of the Secretary which made it impossible for them to remain upon a footing of sociality or personal friendship. Herein the Senator. congemns himself, It is_abgolutely necessary that the head of so important a comi- mittee as that of Foreign Relations should be upon the most intimate terms, personally and socially, with the chief Minister of State, and there is bound to come distrust and lack of confidence between them in important negotiations where this intimacy is lacking. As to the Senator’s opposition to St. Domingo, he says that he objects to the annexation of that island because he wants the West Indies as a free, independent negro republic, where the black race may work out its redemption untroubled and unretarded by admixture with or oppression from the whites, In this, too, we think the Senator is wrong. For seventy years the black race have exercised control in St. Domingo, and a very discouraging exhibit is shown to-day of their ability to develop the resources of one of the most beautiful and fertile coun- tries on the globe. Annexation would open up to it emigration from the colored people here—people who are vastly superior in edu- cation and experience to the Dominicans—and this infusion would do more to teach them self-government than they will ever learn otherwise in the semi-barbarous life they now lead. The Italian Nation to Complete Its Arma- ment. The Cabinet Ministers of his Majesty King Victor Emmanuel have asked the Italian Par- liament for an extraordinary money grant of two bundred millions of lire—forty milliens of dollars—for the purpose of *‘the completion of the armament of the nation,” and the Italian Senate has perfected a measure for the reor- ganization of the army. Such are the con- tents of our cable telegram from Florence, The intelligence denotes a very extraordinary, and apparently inepportune, movement on the part of the Italian government. Italy a unit; united Italy in Rome; Italy with the national “edifice crowned ;” but [taly about to arm just at the very moment when peace has been pro- claimed between France and Prussia, and when both humanity and the civilizations of the wortt have been sickened and out- raged by war! Arming the Italian navion! What does it mean? Does it mean anything beyond a sharp ministerial practice, calculated to draw forty millions of dollars from the pocket of an overtaxed people, who behold the very fields of Magenta and Solferino still untilled, and see the silk looms of Lombardy frequently idle and very generally noiseless for the want of industrial employment. The army absorbs a great many hands which would otherwise be idle in Italy, and it don’t require his Holiness the Pope to assure us of the malignity of that omnipresent personage who always ‘finds work for idle hands to do.” Italy may feel seriously alarmed, however, If North Germany is really looking eastward towards Austria, as it is indicated in our telegram from Vienna that she is, the successors of Cavour may feel themselves justified in their military precaution. Good to be prudent in season. Capital in The scene presented in the United States Circuit Court room yesterday, before Judge Woodruff and a crowded auditory, was one not often witnessed in the Federal Building. After the Court had sentenced a number of offenders to various terms of imprisonment for counterfeiting, stealing letters from the Post Office, inciting to mutiny on board ship and perjury, a man named Charles Perdue, who had been convicted of burning the ship Robert Edwardes at sea, a' out eight hundred miles from land, was called forward for judgment. The punishment for this crime is death. Judge Woodruff ad- dressed the prisoner in a feeling man- ner. A portion of the learned Judge's remarks may be very well regarded as a fine specimen of judicial eloquence and as a touch- ing appeal to Perdue to avail himself of the short time now left him upon Earth for the purpose of making his peace with God. Fortunately the malicious burning of ships at sea is an offence rarely known in this country ; and it is this that makes the case of Perdue remarkable, and also the fact that it is several years since there has been a capital conviction in the federal courts of this city. Friday, the 12th of May, has been named for Perdue’s execution; but as the jury who tried him recommended him to mercy efforts, no doubt, will be made to have his life spared. Sentence the Federal Courts. New Hampsniee axp WALL Stregt.—Gold went up a couple of points yesterday, which was thought by some to be a natural sequence of the New Hampshire election, with its pros- pective democratic revolution, which, among other things, will pay off the national debt in greenbacks. The old fogies in Wall street said, however, that it was all due to the gold shipments to Europe. Opinions of different people will vary. The Ere Crassirication Repeat Brut met its first repulse in the Assembly yester- day. Erie’s lobbymen, with golden argu- ments against it and moneybags full of stock and coupon reasons for its rejection, are busy Congress Yesterday~A Sensation House—Butler’s Ku Klux Bill Smothered and a Travelling Ku Klux Committeo Appointed. There was no business of any importance transacted in the Senate yesterday. Mr. An- thony's resolution to confine legislation to measures for the protection of loyalists in the South was taken up, but laid aside immedi- ately without action. In the House the Ku Klux bill created an immense sensation. General Butler gave notice of his intention to introduce his bill on the subject, which had been agreed upon in the joint caucus of republicans and asked that it be printed. Objections were immediately showered upon him from the democratic side of the House, Messrs, Beck and Brooks stat- ing that they would object to any business being done unless through the proper commit- tees, which have not yet been appointed. Afier some badinage about the New Hampshire election, Mr. Peters, finding that Mr. Butler's bill would not be received, offered a resolution for the appointment of a special committee of thirteen, to sit during the recess to investigate the reported outrages in the South and report in December next. This resolution passed by a vote of 126 to 64, a majority of bot: republicans and democrats voting for it, Immediately afterwards the Speaker announced the names of the commit- tee; General Butler, who had expressly declined to serve, and had voted against the resolution, being made chairman, and the House adjourned. eh oa General Butler during the evening issued a manifesto to his republican associates reiterat- ing his refusal 16 érve and giving his reasons therefor, The manifesto is rather a fierce document. It says that the resolution is the result of a compromise between the high tariff republicans and the democrats to secure an early adjournment; that the committee can- not result in any good, having no power to send for persons or papers, or to have its report acted upon before all the regular reports have been received in December, and that the evidence to be brought before it in its perambulations through the South will be all cut and dried by the rebel leaders in those sections, The redoubtable General says he is not afraid to go through the South, either on account of the rebels or the yellow fever, for he has met and overcome both; but the very fact of his going through unharmed would give the Southerners the chance of making political capital out of him, and that he won't submit to. The fact seems to be pretty much as Butler has stated in regard to the compromise of tariff republicans and democrats on this measure, in order to secure an early adjournment. It is known that the protectionists are very weak in the House just now, and that every day’s session knocks some of their precious high tariff duties on the head. Coal and salt have already suffered, tea and coffee are in a bad way, and pig iron is quite likely to go with the rest. These considerations, being home matters, are of more direct interest to these tariff members than the somewhat vague and uncertified reports of wild rough- riders murdering defenceless darkies in the South, and their first duty begins at home. But so long as the Senate is fixed on the tariff question and the House is without committees there is no certainty of decisive anti-protec- tion legislation, even if the session is continued and the Peters resolution is not absolutely so bad as the radical sentiments of General Butler would give us to understand. Speaker Blaine is the author of the resolution, and in getting it passed he taught Butler two or three new devices in parliamentary usage that the astute statesman of Essex had never learned before. But in its essence the resolution is fair enough. There will be some probability of learning the facts concerning these reported outrages in the South if the committee does its work. There are eight strong radicals and five democrats on the committee, and the radi- cals ought certainly not to be afraid of the in- vestigation if they believe to be true the reports they have already beard, and upon which they shaped Mr. Butler's Ku Klux bill. The New Darien Canal Route. The public is awaiting with great interest additional news—which may now be daily expected—from the Darien exploring and sur- veying party of Commander Selfridge. The news already received seems to indicate that the route which Commander Selfridge is san- guine will prove to be the most practica- ble for an interoceanic canal is the same, or nearly the same, as the one pointed out by Antoine de Gorgoza, in his interesting memoir, ‘‘Nouveau Trac¢é d'un Canal Inter- océanique et d’une Voie Ferrée 2 Travers le Territoire du Darien,” published at Paris in 1868. It will be remembered that early last year Mr. de Gorgoza, after a careful examina- tion of the maps and reports of the old Jesuit missionaries, which he found at Madrid and compared with the journal of the engineer sent by him to survey this particular route, brought the matter before certain prominent parties in Paris. As the plan of Mr. de Gor- goza was to attract the attention of all nations to his discovery, in order to secure neutrality for the proposed canal, an interna- tional meeting was held at the rooms of an American banker to consider the subject. A distinguished member of Congress, then on a visit to Europe, was called to the chair, and the preliminaries of a company were arranged. There were pre- sent at this meeting Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Spaniards and Americans. At a subsequent meeting a company was organized, with Paul S, Forbes as president and Charles B. Norton as secretary. Among the members of the company were Nathan Appleton, Dr. Thomas W. Evans, Elisha Riggs, Baron Emile d’Erlanger, Edouard Cahen d’Anvers, Alexandre Boyer and others. A capital of seven hundred and fifty thousand francs was subscribed for preliminary ex- penses and ten per cont of the money was paid up, and, we understand, still remains on deposit in Paris. The breaking out of the war in Europe and troubles in Colombia have thus far delayed action by this company, which bears the appropriate title of ‘‘Socicté Internationale du Canal du Darien,” but we are informed that it has never been legally dissolved. At any rate, it claims, with Mr. de Gorgoza, to’have heen the first in a field which now promises to open rich and bound., im the | Austro-German Usity=—The Imperial Relas tions to Prussia. The question of the future government of the German peoples who are subject to the rule of Austria subsequent to the conclusion of the war between Prussia and France, in the event ot Prussia emerging from the struggle victorious, presented ilself to the reasoning and calculating mind of the world at a very early moment in the history of that flerce con- flict. Would North Germany, consolidated by victory, and with her powerful Gallic an- tagonist at her feet, sound the bugle of Ten- tonic Panslavism and call all the children of Fatherland in Europe to the domestic hearth under one banner; or would she con- tinue to permit them to remain way- farers and sojourners under foreign scep- tres, and as strangers and ‘“‘aliess in blood” among the peoples eastward? This grand social problem, philosophic in its logic and of great import for the illustration of the exactitude of ethnological science, is about to be presented to the world for solution. It appears as if the imperial standard-bearer of North German Teatonism will undertake to prove himself a most watchful guardian of the interests of all the branches of the common pa- rent stock or flock. Austria perceives the fact. The Ministry of the Emperor Francis Joseph is already endeavoring to guard against its consequence. The Germans in Austria have just proposed to celebrate the conquest of peace by Prussia in a worthy manner. Count Hohenwart, President of the Austrian Minis- eae edi Ee Ale nh fe Be oN try, has forbidden the movemeat. He defends the decree of repression before the legisla- tive body by repeating Count Beust’s words of “hope that the increase of friend- ship toward North Germany would not affect the individuality of the Austro- Hungarian monarchy.” ‘This increase of friendship,” says Minister Hohenwart, ‘‘will render necessary a careful interpretation of the principle of nationalities,” as ‘‘Austria’s friendship toward North Germany would be of but little value if the Austrian government were unable to rule at home.” Precisely so. Words of wisdom; sentences expressive of a sentiment of patriotic anxiety—sentences spoken at a most critical moment in the his- tory not only of Europe, but of the world at large. Fully convinced of the serious import of the contents of the brief cable news tele- gram which conveys this important intelli- gence to the American people, we have taken pains to specially illustrate Count Hohen- wart’s Cabinet position, and to set forth his executive platform in the Hzratp to-day by enumerating the date and fact of his appoint- ment and recapitulating the first official expo- sitions which were made of the programme of the Ministry of which he is one of the most prominent members. Life Insurance Business for 1570. Our attention has been arrested by a valu. able chart just published in the old HeraLp> building, and by tables in various insurance journals, giving the amount of business which the leading life insurance companies in the city and country have transacied during the year 1870. It appears that in this city alone there is a total amount of risks of a thousand and forty-nine millions four hundred and fifty- two thousand dollars, while the grand total of risks in the different companies throughout the country is close on two thousand millions of dollars. Although the general state of trade has not for’ some time been so produc- tive as heretofore, we are surprised to find that policies amounting in the enormous aggregate to $310,610,548 have been issued by forty-one companies, adding over $90,195,545 to the amount in force on December 31, 1870, after the usual deduction of death end term claims and of surrendered and lapsed policies, It is of importance to see this continued large saving capacity of the community, ag life insurance companies, like savings banks, indicate the desire which prevails among our business men to provide for the future. Of companies that have issued over $15,000,000 during the year 1870 we find the five follow- ing:—Equitable, $40,295,799; Mutual Life, $38,458,217; New York Life, $27,141,994; Continental, $25,249,440; Knickerbocker, $15,141,739, A marked feature in this business at the present day is the large amount’ taken by some of our leadiag capitalists in New York and in other principal cities. These amounts will vary in many instances from $100,000 to $300,000, divided among such companies as we have named above. Our companies have not yet ventured upon such large risks on a single life as is the case in England, where from £15,000 to £20,000 policies are granted. The greatest amount issued in this country is as yet only $50,000, which we understand to be the limit of the Equitable. In Europe, however, large risks are preferred, as they are generally applied for by a class of persons among whom the chances of death are lessened by their habits of life and by the remedies in case of sickness which their ample means place within their reach. The average amount of the policies issued by our five leading companies, as shown by the latest official returns, is as follows :— Equitable, $4,004; New York, $2,785; Knickerbocker, $2,692; Mutual Life, $2,684; Continental, $2,099. The career of these five companies has been remarkable. Within a period of twenty-eight years they have out- stripped every similar institution in England in the extent of their business. The Equitable and Continental seem to have experienced the most rapid growth, the former in a brief space of eleven years ranking first in new business and second in the total amount of its transactions, and the latter within five years of its organization taking the fifth place on the record. The following figures show the total amount of policies in force December 31, 1870, in these several companies :—Mutual,, $242,018,753; Equitable, $143,970,984; New York, $111,353,358; Knickerbocker, $61,520,- 254; Continental, $54,524,130, The value of the published statements. to. which we refer can hardly be overrated at the present time, when some distrust has arisen, from the recent faiture of two life insurance companies, It ig only throngh such means that the public ean be satisfied of the inhe~ rent soundness of the aystem when properly administered, which it is evidently the inten- tyon that it shall be. It is noticeable that in ‘England attention has been drawn by the House of Commons to the excellent general in the temple, like the monev changers of old. . less vrospects for the commerce of the world, management of our Amerinan life inwurauce