The New York Herald Newspaper, April 21, 1871, Page 6

NEW YORK HERAL Rae AND ANN STREET, e JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROP RI ETOR. bering sf Hews Igtter and telegraphic be addressed Naw Yorx Letters and packages should be properly ecaled, Rejécted communications will not be re- turned. Pe Le THE DAILY HERALD, pubtished every day in the peor, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. JOB PRINTING of every description, also Stereo- typing ana Engraving, neatly and promptly exe- cubed at the lowest rates. AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. NIBLO’S GARDEN, Broadway.—Tut SPECTACLE OF tus Live axp Deata OF Ricnaap Il. WALLACK’S THEATRE. Broadway ana 13th street.— Taz Lias—lits Last Leos. LINA EDWIN'’s THEATRE, 79 Broadway.—ComEpy or Prvcx. LAURA KEENE'S FOURTEENTH STREET THEATRE— Hunrep Down. G@RAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av. ana 234 st.— La Bacie HELENE. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—An Onsrot oF In- rRREsT—ON HAND. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 38d at., detween Sih anc 6th avs.— Tux Foors REvEneR. . FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— MARRIED FOR MONEY—PATTER Vs. CLATTER. GLOBK THEATRE, 738 Broadway.—VaRigTy ENTER- TAINMENT, AC.—PEARL OF TOKAY. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—THE DRaMa oF Horizon. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner Sith st.—Performe ances every afternoon and evening. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Foarteenth street,—PurLaan- MONIC SOCIETY REHEARSAL. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S PARK = nibs. FB. THEATRE, Brookiyn.. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 886 Broadway. — Satevma'’s Roya. JaPanesn TROUPE. BRYANT’S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 234 st, and 7th avs.—NEGRO Mineremuere a0 50 clara TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUS! 2 Va- Rixiy ENTERTAINMENT. Diag rete THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway. 18m8, NEGRO Penny sin Sara dh al NEWCOMB & ARLINGTON'S MINSTRELS, corner 28th ot. and Broadway.—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, 40. THE RINK, Third avenue and 684 st.—Howe's Creci Afternoon and evening. irra DR. KAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 765 Broadway.— SOLENCE AND ART, RIPLE SHEET. New York, Friday, April 21, 1871. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. PaGE. Advertisements, 2—Advertisements. 3-News from Washington: The Ku Klux Rill; Election in the District of Columbia—The State Capital: Final Passage of the Election Bill ; Proposed Impeachment of Judge Wood- rum; The Legislature to Adjourn To-day. 4—Congress: Democratic Fight Over the Ku Klux Bill; Butler’s Bombshell; Benjamin's Personal Explanation at Last; Adjournment of Both Houses Sine Die—St. Joseph’s Home—Sperm On Butter—Children’s Aid Society—The Re- ception to Senator Norton—The Hog Butch- ers— Marriages and Deaths. S—Proceedings in the Courts—The Erie War: The Books Not Yet Produced—The McCanil! Wil Case—The Toomey Homicide. G—Evditorials: Leading Article, “The Powers at Washington and Power of Tammany Hali— The Coming Con@ict and Its Dangers to the Couutry”—Amusement Announcements. 7—nditoriais (Contmued ‘from Sixth Page)— The Rouge Revolt: HERALD Special Reports from Paris and Versailies—Radicalism Ar- raigned: Address of Democratic Congressmen to the People of ihe United States—News from Turkey—Business Notices. S—Jumping at a Train—supposed Incendiary Fire at Jamaica—Financial and Commercial Re ports—Real Estate Matters—Advertisements. 9—Advertisements, 10—The State Capital (Continued from Third Page)—News from England—Shipping Intelli- gence—Advertisements. 11—Advertisements. 12—Adverusementa. SrronceR THAN Ever—The power of Tam- many. Tuk SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY com- pletely staggered the ‘“‘bulls” in the Gold Room yesterday by selling them four millions of coin. THE Saviors OF TamMaxy—Tom Fields and Orrie Winans. Tue Exgorion in the District of Columbia yesterday resulted in a victory for the repub- ‘cans. General Chipman was elected dele- Yate to Congress. An Empmre oF Cuarrries—The Empire State of New York. Werp, of the Albany Hvening Journal, had a lite bill for printing passed upon favorabiy in the Sthte Senate yesterday, Mr. Tweed graciously consenting to do justice, he said, even to the men who abuse him. Certainly Weed didn’t wheedle Tweed. Temprst IN TEAPoT—The row among the country republican press on the defection of Winana. Denny Burns, for a joke, proposes the impeachment of Judge Woodruff because the Judge, it is alleged, appointed a number of notorious republican roughs United States inspectors at the November election. Denny certainly cannot desire to make a precedent case of such an impeachment. It might seri- ously react against the shoulder-hitters and bruisers and repeaters, and possibly « judge or two of Tammany. Important EVENTS FoR THE REPUBLICAN Party—Congress has adjourned and Senator Wilson is going to Europe. | Mr, Wonans has issued bis letter of defence, and it will be found in another column of the Azeaiy. It is weak and unsatisfactory as a , defence, consisting, as it does, mainly of in- sinuations against other republican members, anda confession of inexcusable carelessness } or ignorance in reference to signing s the resolutions of the caucus. Senator 4 Fenton is vindicated, and the charge » of bribery is met with the terms slander + and lie, but his love for Erie is confessedly, to some extent, the influencing cause of his action. He has been employed by Erie s0 Jong and likes it eo well, and thinks the present managers are such fine gentlemen, that he thought he would vote with the demo- : crate, But he insists that he is a republican wee ees personally and goes back b his constituency sseuch. It now remains to be seen whether # bis constituency will ‘go back” on him or not, ze The Powers at Washington and the Power of Tammany Hall—Tho Coming Conflict and Ite Dangers to the Country. We live in the midst of revolutionary changes and surprises. The whole civilized world is seething and bubbling with the ele- ments of revolution—political, religious and social. We see this in the conflict at Rome between Italy and the Pope; in the signs of an impending conflict between the party of the King and the hostile factions of Spain, and we know that it is fermenting between the radical republicans and the Kaiser of Ger- many. We see it in the agitations between the people on the one side and the Church, the aristocracy and the State on the other, in England; we see it, in bold and lurid relief, in the bloody struggle going on between the French government at Versailles and the Com- mune of Paris; and we have it here in the gathering forces on each side for the coming conflict between the powers at Washington and the powers of Tammany Hall for the Presidential succession. “We, the people of the United States,” identified with the constitution as it is, have become somewhat proud, vain and egotistical in our fancied security. We are nursing the delusion that though all the world beyond the Atlantic and beyond the Pacific may be turned inside out and upside down, as by the throes of a general earthquake, we are safe against all dangers, without and within. But, looking at the political preparations for 1872 at Washington and at Albany ; at the effervescence among the politi- cians of the West on the money question in all its phases, and at the Ku Klux doings of vio- lence and terrorism in the South; looking at the unsettled and unsatisfied political cliques and factions throughout the country, and at the generally uneasy and apprehensive condi- tion of the public mind touching the wide- spread political corruptions of the day, is not this idea of our perfect security against a vio- lent revolutionary upheaval a delusion? In view of all these disturbing forces we are drawn to the impression that even the ‘‘Great Republic” is still an experiment, and that its sorest trials are still to come. We know not to-day what may come to the surface to-mor- row. What prophet or political astrologer, then, can predict the upshot and the conse- quences of our next Presidential contest? The shape which it is assuming is unques- tionably alarming. First of all, the “‘powers that be” at Washington, incloding the South- ern Ku Klux bill passed and approved yes- terday, are armed with authority in various acts of Congress to regulate our political elec- tions to an extent never dreamed of heretofore. The authority for these acts is broadly given in the constitution, but the experiment of ex- ercising these powers is still new. In the Ku Klux bill, for instance, the Southern States are recognized as in a semi-insurrectionary condition, and in suppressing Ku Klux outrages the President, in his discretion, may suspend the habeas corpus and employ the army and navy of the United States. We have great faith in the discretion of General Grant; bat we have very little faith in those agitating and peace-disturbing Southern car- pet-baggers and fire-eaters. They may pro- voke a collision which will rekindle all the unsubdued secession elements of the South, and thus create such scenes of excitement, disorder and confusion in the South and North as to revive the old contest in a new and more dangerous shape than that of the rebellion, in connection with the delicate questions of our taxes and the national debt. We are warned of the game of the Southern fire-eaters, who, with Jeff Davis, still believe in the final tri- umph of their “lost cause ;” that they expect the Northern democracy to fight their old battle over again in the political field, and we fear that the fire-eaters and carpet-baggers will raise the issue with General Grant in some startling collision on this Ku Klux bill. Our unsubdued Southern Confederacy men are not the men to atop at half-way measures in compassing their designs, and the carpet-baggers will not be slow to set them on. These Southern Ku Klux Klans, therefore, with the full discretignary powers of military law given to General Grant, will require extremely delicate handling. Otherwise a new and perilous agitation may be raised over the length and breadth of the land. Danger to the administration is also looming up in the West on the Ku Klux, amnesty and free trade questions; and in Senators Trumbull, Logan, Carl Schurz and otbers, and in Gratz Brown and his factions in Missouri, we have already the nucleus of a third party, or of a new reinforcement to the democracy. Nevertheless, so strong is the general confidence in General Grant and his adwinistration, that, in spite of all these revo- Jutionary signs and movements at home and abroad, gold is kept to the narrow margin between 110 and 111, and our national se- curities are still advancing in the London market, .But is this a solid foundation for General Grant and the republican party? Within the next twelve mouths we expect to be wiser upon this question than we are to-day. We have our misgivings of present indica- tions; first, because of the difficulties of the national administration suggested, and, sec- ondly, because of the stupendous and tempt- ing financial power for party purposes gained in the new departure at Albany of Tammany Hall, Through the party defection of a slippery republican (one of many) in our State Assem- bly Tammany has gained a financial power whereby she may control not only the Demo- cratic National Convention, to a great extent, but coming elections in every otherwise doubt- ful or closely contested State. In giving a million of money, more or less, from year to year to the benevolent institutions of our various Churches she has gained them or shut their mouths, while in her generous Jaws and indulgences concerning whiskey and all the dangerous classes, she has that side of the house en masse in New York, city and State. Her power over the State, from churches to corner groceries, is complete. Next, in her unlimited bills for raising and spending money, sach as the city tax levy, the Water bill, and others, she has a margin, if so inclined, of millions for Presidential purposes, and no man to call her to account. But in her affili- ations with Erie and the New York Central raflroads her capacities of ‘‘financial and ma- terial aid” to the democratic party of the nation are limited only to the voint at which the stocks of those roads will bear no more watering. Supposing that in the aggregate Tammany can bring fifty millions of money to bear upon our coming Presidential contest, and in the manipulation of leading politicians of both parties, how—in these times of politi- cal corruption and the ‘‘almighty dollar’—how is this power to be resisted ? Suppose, in the next place, we thus seeure a democratic President with the restoration to the party of its old Southern balance of power, and that the South, in compensation, upon the good old maxim that ‘Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” demands the repudia- tion of what Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, would call the Northern debt, how can this repudia- tion be avoided by a democratic Congress? And may not these things come to pass; for is it not a fact that even the Southern blacks— considering after the repudiation of the South- ern war debt and their Confederate scrip—do not like the idea of being taxed to pay the Union war debt? To their rude sense of jus- tice this is unfair, and they think that the Northern debt should also be wiped out. But, again, is it not a fact that Colonel John W. Forney, in 1856, through a fund of some two hundred thousand dollars, more or less, raised in this city for the pur- pose—by buying up certain Fillmore clubs and campaign presses in Pennsylvania in time for the October election of that year in that State— did defeat Fremont and save Buchanan, and secure his election in November? And if Forney did this thing in 1856 upon two hun- dred thousand dollars, where can we limit the power of Tammany, in these corrupt times, operating upon a joint stock cash basis of fifty millions? If she could and did with ease buy the other day one incorruptible Winans, may she not to-morrow buy a thousand? The present commanding position of Tam- many and New York city, however, in refer- ence to the State and the nation is fearfully suggestive of an ultimate conflict somewhat in its political aspects like that of this day between the Commune of Paris and the provinces of France, as represented in the government :! Versailles. This is the great danger to Tam- many—that she may become too big for her breeches ; may undertake too much as a politi- cal power, and thus combine the State and the country against her. Money isa mighty power, but great and popular ideas are more powerful than money. Upon the great idea that ‘‘God is God, and Mahomet is his prophet,” that founder of a new faith, without money, went forth to lay the foundations of a great empire. From time to time, from that day to this, history supplies us with numerous ex- amples of the resistless force of great ideas; -but not one of them is more impressive than the great idea—the extinction of slavery—upon which our republican party of this day came into power. Tammany, with all her money, must have some great and popular ideas to work upon, or she will be a failure. General Grant has, at least, one great popu- lar idea to stand upon—an honest administra- tion. ‘The tree is known by its fruit.” What fruit is to come from the flourishing Tammany tree we cannot tell. It will have to pass the test of a comparison with Grant's administra- tion; and upon this test the figures are so far in favor of Grant. But if the wiser heads of the Wigwam are permitted to rule she may, even within a year, make herself a name in New York which will give her strength from Con- necticut to California, Otherwise, upon the programme of spoils and plunder, bribery, cor- ruption, Southern mghts and repudiation, she may bring confusion upon the city, State and country; but she will herself be involved, and first of all, in the general wreck and ruin, ‘The Democratic Address. We publish this morning the address of the democratic Senators and Representatives in Congress to the people of the United States on the political situation, Those who expected that it would contain any reference to the last amendments to the constitution or to the re- construction question will be disappointed. Neither does it refer directly to negro suffrage, although its declaration that the democracy intend to protect and perpetuate the rights of the humblest citizen may be construed into a recognition of the colored man’s political standing, and an acquiescence in it The principal point made in the address is that wherein it arraigns the radicals for so legislating a3 to estatjish a centralized mili- tary government. On this point the address is vigorous and decisive, an® an appeal is made to the people to frustrate the designs of radicalism by restoring the States to local self-government and by limiting the powers of Congress and the President. The object and effect of the Ku Klux bill is explained at length, and ihe extraordinary powers granted therein to the President are characterized as not only unconstitutional but a: dangerous to the liberties of the country. On the subject of the tariffand the taxes the address charges the radicals with persistently and wilfully postponing reform on both, although the necessity for such reform is keenly felt by the overburdened masses. The financial policy of the government is assailed and the extravagance of the radical adminis- tration since the close of the war is shown in the fact that during the past five years the expenses for ordinary purposes have been nearly as great as the eatire expenses of the ‘gevernment for seventy years prior to the outbreak of the rebellion. The system of appointment to office is sharply criticised, the address declaring that fealty to the Pre sident is made the test of capacity. Violence in the South and other parts of the country is deprecated, and an appeal is made to the people to euppress disorder and to re- spect the rights of all, The charge that the democratic party sympathizes with vigleace is indignantly denounced. Such are the salient points of the address, which, on the whole, is more an arraignment of radicalism than a declaration of democratic policy. Excepting on the subject of radical designs on the form of our government it pro- poses no remedies for the evils which it refers to, and it may be that the signers of the address did not feel themselves authorized to proclaim a platform of principles and thus per- form s duty which, as » matter of right be- longs to the Democratic National Convention, Oranors are selling in New York at twenty-five cents per dozen. They cost more in Albany. Progress of the War Against tho Paris Commune. Our latest despatches from Paris and Ver- sailles are to the evening of the 19th. They tell the same story of the terrible fighting and slaughter that are going on outside of the city and of the destruction progressing within the walls. We have the truly melancholy infor- mation that the Arc de Triomphe, that monu- ment of art with world-wide fame, has been destroyed by the fire of Fort Mont Valcrien and other government batteries, The insur- gent forces have sustained terrible losses in the recent engagements at Asnitres and Neuilly, and many of their prominent officers have been killed or disabled. General Ducrot, with twenty thousand men of the old Imperial Guard, are on the move to the front, when they will take an active part in the operations going on. The men are reported eager for the fray. Marshal Canro- bert is at Versailles and soon will be in the field at the head of bis old command, which is en route from Germany. Within the city terror, death and destruction reign supreme. A shower of shells is falling in the Avenue des Ternes and over forty civilians have been killed in that important thoroughfare. The Communists are erecting barricades in the Rue Rivoli and in many other streets, and are making every preparation to defend all points on the advance of the government forces. The recent fighting has been of the most stab- born character, but numbers and discipline will prevail. The National Guards are be- coming disgusted at their want of success, and the main hope for peace is upon their giving up when they see their cause hopeless, with- out waiting for their leaders to surrender. The situation is growing more and more favorable to the government, and now that its forces are being so rapidly augmented we may expect more important and extended mili- tary operations at any moment. The advance of MacMahon’s army will be stubbornly re- sisted unless panic in the ranks of the reds aids in clearing the road for it, and we think this quite possible. Constant defeat and being pushed back within their inner line of defences will probably demoralize the army of the Commune to such a degree that they may throw down their arms rather than longer sub- mit to useless slaughter. Should this not be the case, however, we can see but little hope of saving Paris from serious injury. Much of it will be destroyed, for the besieging army is paying no respect to architecture or art. Its guns are aimed in a manner to do the most damage, and if the Tuile- ries or the Louvre has to be destroyed in order to defeat the rebels it will be done. The rain of shot and shell into Paris thus far is nothing to what it will be in a few days more if resistance continues. Every part of the city will be reached, and no point within it will be safe from the storm of projectiles that will be poured upon the heads of those who persist in making the city a great slaughter house. Much as we deprecate this war, op- posed as we are to anarchy and bloodshed, we would not have the government cease for one moment the operations it is now carrying on, Let it make Paris a heap of ruins if neces- sary, let its streets be made to run rivers of blood, let all within it perish, but let the gov- ernment maintain its authority and demon- strate its power. Let it crush completely every sign of opposition, no matter what the cost, and teach a lesson that Paris and all France will remember and profit by for centu- ries to come. It is satisfactory to observe that the turbu- lent spirit of the Communists remains within Paris—that it has not spread to other cities, This gives great hope for the future of France, and it is time that Frenchmen began to under- stand that the prosperity of their country does not depend upon the prosperity of its gay, brilliant and immoral capital. From what has occurred since the peace with Germany we almost believe that France would be far better off were Paris blotted out of existence, its buildings and monuments destroyed, and tbe ground upon which it stands ploughed up and sown with salt. Agricultural and manu- facturing France can well afford to let it go; they would in a short time be more prosper- ous without it; for all the wars, all the revolutions and all the massacres that have from time to time so crippled the country have, in a majority of cases, emanated from that great source of tumult and disorder, the city of Paris, None of the right-thinking people of the coun- try—those who desire and aid in its pros- perity—have taken a part in or countenance the revolution that is now shaking France to its centre. No, it is the adventurers, the roughs, the mob that find a home, an abiding place in Paris, that are the head and front of all the offending. They are ever ready to aid in any movement that looks to rapine, murder and pillage. They only require a few leaders of their own stripe to urge them on in order to make atrocities of all descriptions their amuse- ment and pastime. Itis such miscreants as these who are now acting with the Commune, who are the willing followers of Cluseret and his subordinates ; but they are of a class who, when they find themselves foiled and their hope of plunder gone, are the first to cry “sauve qui peut,” and seek safety in flight. Such will be their plan when Marshal MacMa- hon has them within his grip, and as this can- not much longer be delayed a cessation of hostilities and peace may come when we least expect them, and murder will then cease to be the sport of ‘isians. ‘Tax ScrpLy Brit was passed in the State Senate yesterday, with a quantity of amend- ments, which, being money jobs for little out of the way corporations, do not amend it at all, Tux “Butts” ann ‘‘Beans” in Wall street have renewed hostilities, and a terrific battle was fought between them yesterday, resulting in a triumph for the former. Seriously speak- ing, the activity on. the Stock Exchange is really one of the features of the times, and has seldom been paralleled even in the history of Wall street. In one stock the dealings yes- terday were to the extent in money value of nearly ten millions of dollars. Exp or Two Great Bovirs.—The adjourn- ment of Congress and the adjournment of the Legislature, Their ‘spiritual essence,” no doubt, will remain for some time around the two Capitols. _ tively. vy Adjournment of Congress—An Extra Ses- sion of tho Senate. The first session of the Forty-second Con- gress closed yesterday after completing the work to which it had limited itself—the pas- sage of the Ku Klux and Deficiency bills. Both these measures have been signed by the President and are now laws. The session just closed has done little good, except nega- The Ku Klux bill cannot be called either a wise or a necessary measure, until the experiment of general amnesty had been found incapable of securing the aims it contem- plates, and a deficency bill, in the very nature of things, is an evil. The greatest good to be traced to the session just expired is the nega- tive one of allowing the St. Domingo business to drop into oblivion. The startling invectives which Mr. Sumner and Mr. Schurz launched against the President and the frail tenure of existence by which the republican party now hangs are the startlingly significant effects of that really insignificant measure, and the manly disavowal of any desire to enforce his policy against that of the people, which the President made in his mes- sage transmitting the arcadian report of the St. Domingo Commissioners, is the brightest point in connection with it, The first session of the Forty-second Congress, therefore, not being responsible for the introduction of that measure, deserves great praise for having extinguished it. It builded better than it knew, perhaps, for the republican party may owe many years of new life to the sagacity of ita act. The segsion that had been productive of little good ended in a turmoil that is bound to be productive of excessive evil, Ben But- ler yesterday made his long-delayed per- sonal explanation, which turned eut to be personal toward Garrett Davis and General Farnsworth and explanatory of nothing. He drew down upon himself in con- sequence such invective from Farnsworth that even his thick hide winced and smarted. Then Mr. Beck, of Kentucky, as best friend for the absent Senator from that State, lashed Butler again, and in the midst of a scene in which indecorum, abuse and disorder were alone recognizable, the session was declared adjourned. The President has issued his proclamation calling the Senate together in extra session on the 10th of May next, in order, it is under- stood, to take action upon the proceedings of the Joint High Commission, a report of which will probably be ready for submission by that time. The Museum of Natural History. About the first of May the American Mu- seum of Natural History, which was incorpo- rated only two years ago, but which already possesses a Valuable and extensive collection, composed entirely of private contributions, will be opened to the public. ‘The second and third stories of the Arsenal building in Central Park have been devoted to this museum. Although the proper classifica- tion of the specimens received has not yet been made, there is such a general arrangement that the visitor may advance gradually from the study of the lowest forms of animal life to that of the higher. The entomological col- lection includes the North American insects contributed by the Baron Osten-Sacken, the Prussian Consul General in this city; a large number of foreign beetles, given by R. A. Witthaus, and ten thousand American and European butterflies and moths, respresenting three thousand species, presented by C. T. Robinson ; six thousand shells from the Spice Islands, comprising some of the rarest varie- ties, have been given by A. S. Bickmore, and . A. Haines, one of the trustees of the Museum, has presented four thousand shells from different parts of the world. Among the foreign contributions is a complete series of the minerals of the Island of Formosa, together with specimens of the various woods found there. There is also a fine assortment of Florida corals, The entire col- lection of Prince Maximilian, of Neuwied, who went to Brazil in 1815, and spent three years in scientific explorations, has been for- tunately obtained for the Museum, containing four thousand mounted specimens of South American birds, and two thousand fishes and reptiles, mounted and in alcohol. On the third floor the collection of North American birds, purchased from Dr. G. Elliott, and comprising three thousand specimens, is exhibited, together with selections from the collection of the celebrated Paris taxidermist, the late M. Verreaux, numbering two thousand eight hun- dred birds, two hundred and twenty mammals, and four hundred mounted skeletons of mam- mals, birds, reptiles and fishes, The group of animals mouated by M. Verreaux for the Paris Exposition, at which it won a gold medal as an exquisite specimen of the taxider- mist’s art, is also on exhibition. Among the ornithological specimens a great many North and South American humming birds and numerous eagles, pheasants and parrots are conspicuous. The value of the entire collection is estimated at one hundred thousand dollars. An act of the Legislature requires that the best specimens of natural history shall be selected from all duplicates belonging to the State and presented to the Museum. “It is now intended,” says the Hvening Post, which gave Wednesday evening a detailed ac- count of this museum, ‘‘to begin early next sutumn upon Manhattan square the erection of the permanent building for the Museum of Natural Histery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which the Department of Public Parks was recently authorized to construct, at an aggregate cost not exceeding $500,000 for each. The trustees of the Museum of Natural History design it to equal, if not surpass, any similar institution in the world,” The Post adds that when John Edward Gray, Superin- tendent of the Zoological Department of the British Museum was informed of the collections already secured by the American Museum of Natural History, he is said to have told one of its trustees, then in London, that more had been accomplished by it already than by the British Museum in the same department dur- ing the first fifteen years of its existence. This impartial testimony is highly encouraging as to the success of our new Museum of Natural History. If the movement initiated in favor of the introduction of the study of natural his- tory in our public schools is encouraged, as it ought to be, this museum will prove to be of inestimable value to the rising gonoration in New York. Explanations in Cougreas—DBou Butler’s Homb- shell. Ben Butler, after a weary vigil of several days, against which his mighty spirit cbhafed as might @ lion brought to bay, and bothered how to manage it, yesterday gota chance te sail in his second powder sbip, in the shape of ®@ personal explanation intended to blow up Fort Davis, Fort Farnsworth and all rebeldom besides. There was an immense explosion. It shook the foundations of the Kentucky Commonwealth and is supposed to have knocked the silver-topped Senator, the garru- lous, but game little Garrett, higher than the traditional kite of Ben Franklin. As for the King Lear of Illinois, the desolate patriarch of the Post Office Committee, the fiery Farnsworth, he ,atill lives in defiance of fate. Ben’s first patent powder boat wasa failure. It carried plenty of deto- nating and destroying material, enough, in fact, to blow a fair margin off the’ moon if it had been near enough, but it missed its mark and hurt nobody. Not so with this second venture. The fuse was in order, and the fury of the explosion has not been wasted on the desert air. It was all moonshine to suppose the same fertile intellect that tempted Blaine to precipitate himself in neautious debate upon the floor would have failed to pay off the latest aggreasion on the sun-dyed fame of the Essex statesman. Gar- rett Davis is not a man to be despised, even though his aggregate physical bulk might be passed through an ordinary pane of glass in a cottage window; but when Garrett fell foul of Ben Butler's extraordinary optics, and put on airs to the extent of exclaiming, “You d—d scoundrel! why do you look at me?” he ran counter to all preconceived notions concerning the independent exercise of mortal vision, for- getting even that pussy cat has had imme< morial license to look at the king. Why Ben looked ashe did at Garrett hag never been properly explained; but what Garrett saw in Ben’s looks is known only to the soul of the Senator from Kentucky. That he must have observed something ‘‘mortal never saw nor dreamed before” is tolerably certain; for sure it is no such out- burst of wrath, piled high and fierce, would have been provoked by any one stort of the Old Harry himself. Yet the worst result of that terrible vision was not the torrent of invective, strong and flery as it was, that issued from the lips of the Kentucky Senator when he first caught the cork-screw gaze of Butler boring into his very vitals. The thing haunted him in his waking and sleeping hours. He read the Hzratp in the meantime for solace and enlightenment, and there he found this greatest optical encounter of the age fully and graphically reported. He next offered a few words of explanation in the Senate based on the HERALD’s report, but though butler was no longer there he saw him in his mind’s eye, and saw the same vision glaring at him as before. Then it was that the irate Senator uttered an opinion concern- ing the owner of those marvellous optics that called up the personal explanation of yesterday, which we print in full to-day. It is a remarkable story, like most of the per- sonal explanations nowadays, and after dis- posing of one man it is stretched out to take in another ; so that what was ostensibly hurled at hapless Kentucky in the person of her Senator sent a splinter in the direction of the member from Illinois, which was designed ta knock him ‘‘outside the pale of civilized war- fare.” The explanation says, substantially, that, assuming Mr. Davis’ own description of the visual delusion and confusion in the Senate to ba true, the candid judgment of all just men would be that Ben was no blackguard and Garrett no gentleman, Personal expla- nations, like personal comparisons, are odious, What are intended for explanations are made vehicles of abuse and defamation, and few of late years have ever been offered without con- taining what calls for an explanation, from somebody else, and then the Original Jacobs feels bound “to explain his explanation.” The business has grown to be a bore of the largest magnitude. It interferes with legisla- tion and is eminently wearisome to all but the persons immediately interested. The method our public men in Congress have of tearing each other's characters to tat- ters and leaving wondering constituencies to marvel how they could ever have trusted such rascals to represent them is unique in its way. The disinterested public know but little of the elaborate and ingenious dodges to which one honorable member will resort to scrape together and pile up patiently all sorts of charges—as the busy bee collects and arranges the materials of her waxen cell—to square accounts with another honorable member of Congress, Since the days of Donnelly, of Minnesota, personal explanations, for tho most part, without losing anything of intrin- sic coarseness, have undergone a sort of elaborate and artistic preparation which no longer entitles them tothe name. Donnelly, in his fierce, coarse, cavalry onslaught on Wash- burne, made no preparation, but trusted to a certain wild genius for invective to demolish his victim, while he shocked and astounded the country. Nowadays a member pursues a different course of action, He has a deep and bitter grudge to satisfy, and gives nothing for the mere thunderbolts of denunciation. Ha addresses himself to the secret and silent dis~ covery of every atom of a doubtful and dia- reputable nature in the private and political career of his enemy. He employs detectives to scent out the frailties of the man he marke for destruction. His private haunts and habits are minutely noted down. One fact gleaned here, another there, and a network of nasty charges brought together in the end. ‘Nove sir, 1 have got you,” he will intimate, ‘“ know all the big and little jobs you have had your fingers in—that land grant to build a railroad from Buncombe Point to Bummer’a Ruo—that claim for wooden hams and mar~ ble dust flour supplied our gentle wards, the Indians—that little job of Mrs. Lobbylips for a pension she never had a right to get. Yes,, sir, and more, I have a bundle of your private letters and telegrams that would damn you to everlasting infamy if they were given to the public gaze. More, too, You know you have a wife; but Lhold in my possession the facts; yes, sir,, the witnesses, ay, tho waiters and bootblacks, of a certain hotel can prove that you, in propria ‘persona, passed yourself off as the, affinnoed of another. Now, sir. if you charce