The New York Herald Newspaper, April 28, 1871, Page 6

BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, =< ~ Volame XXXVI steeeeeseree NO 11S = AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. AINA EDWINS THEATRE, 120 Broadway.—ComEDY OF Pivox. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av. ana 23d 6t.— La BBLLe HELENE. BOWERY TREATRE, anp Dances. “FIFTH AVENOB THEATRE, Twenty-fourth strect.— ‘Tur Cetrio—A Tuowsanp a Year. GLOBE THEATRE, 728 Broadwav.—Vanierr ENTre- TAINMENT, £0.—PEARL OF TOKAY. ery. —SOUNIDER—NEW SONGS OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tat Drama oF Horizon. japaehet NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, No, 45 Bowery.— Lournanin. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 264 si., verwoen 5th and 6th ave.— A Wosrer’s Tacs. WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner 30h st.—Performs gnces every afternoon and evenlax, WALLACK'S THEATR! ‘Tas Lian—iue Nervous ‘oadway and 1th street.— ™ ay.—THS SPECTACLE OF paARD IL, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broa: ‘Tus Lirk anp DEATH OF OF MUSIC, ACADENY Sivarr. MRS. F. 8. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— TRE VOTO. Fourteenth street.—Mary INWAY HALL, Fourieenth street.-Gaanp Con- NEW YORK HERALD | t=>ru= STR! orar. BAN FRANCISCO MINSIREL HALL, $85 Broadway. — Batsuma’s Roya, Jaranusk Taoure, BRYANT'S NEW OPERA UOUSE, 834 st, between 6th and 7th ave.—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, £0. TONY PASTOR'S: OPERA HOUSE, 201 Bowery.—Va- RIELY ENTERTAINMENT. THEATRE COMIQUE, 614 Broadway.—Com1o VooaL- 18M8, NEGRO ACIS, 20. NEWCOMB & ARLINGTON’S MINSTRELS, corner 28th at. and Broadway.—NrGRo MINSTRELSY, 40, BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Montague street— GRAND ConcrRt. TRIPL E SHEET. New York, Friday, April 28, 1871. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY'S HERALD. saat Advertisements, 2—Advertisements. 3—News from Washington—Joe Coburn's Benefit— O’baldwin the Bruiser—American Museum of Natural History—Tue Coal Troubles—Amuse- ments—Telegraphic News Items—Miscella- neous Telegrams. 4@—Another Railroad Slaughter: Disastrous Colli- sion on the New Jersey Central Road at Cran- ford; Three Men Killed and Two Others Fatally Injured—The Ocean’s Track—International Boat Race—Memphis Races—Horse Notes— ‘The New Planet—ihe Cattle Plague in West- chester County—Attemptea Murder in the Twenty-secoxd Ward—Another Fearful Crime: A Lady Outraged by Two Rufflans—The Brook- lyn Panel Case—Chloroform as a Substitute for Whiskey—Wholesale Watch Robbery—The Courts—The McCahill Will Case—The Paterson Water Supply—New York City News—Aid for Helpless Infanis—A Sanguinary Sensation— New Jersey State Capital—Good St. Aqua— Burglars in‘Hoboken, S—The Financial Question: The Relations of Labor, Capital and Interest in the United States—American Interests Abroad—The Morse Statue—The Miueral Springs in the Park—Masenic—Financial and Commercial Reports—Real Fstate Matters. G—Editorials : Leading Article, ‘Important Deci- sion of the United States Supreme . Court— Federal anj State Powers Defined’'—Amuse- ment Announcements. ‘7—Ettitoriais (Continued from Sixth Page)—Per- sonal Intelligence—Literary Chit-Chat—Run- Bing Notes, Political and General—Doomed Paris: Heralé Special Reports from Paris and Versailles—Prince Bismarck to the Commune— Miscellaneous Telegraiuis—Business Notices, S—The Ku Klux Klan: Fresh Outrages by the Craft in North Carolina—Board of Educa- tion—brother Oliver's Bill—Tne Macomb’s Dam Bridge—Naval Orders—Marrlages and Deaths—Advertisements. 9—Advertisemenis, 10—France; A Visit to the War OMice of the Com- mune; ‘The Archbishop of Paris and M. Thiers— Fight : Inquest by Foner Whitehall—St. Alphonse Church— Shipping Intelligence—Advertisements. A1—Advertisements. 12—Advertisements. A Western Paper happily heads its column of varieties ‘‘Picalili.” In the column before us, however, we can’t find a lily to pick out of it. Tue ‘“Buiis” anp “Bears” have broken _} put into a fiercer contest than ever, and Wall | ,' street presents scenes of unusual animation, if not excitement. Tae GERMANS OF PHILADELPHIA propose, .. three days. In this way, at least, they are resolved to cut out New York. Very good; and let the lager beer abound. Ir 1s THovGaT that the Right Honorable ) Lord Chancellor of the Exchequer of England a. was rather unfair in desiring to impose a tax on matches while the fair hand of the beautiful ', Beatrice remains undisposed of. t 4 O’Batpwry, the Irish giant, has been re- leased from the Massachusetts State Prison, bing served his one year’s term of imprison- ~ ment. Massachusetis discipline has not im- ' proved his morals much, for Ye is already “laying” for bets on the Mac>-Goburn match, de believes in Mace. - Tue Troy Whig says our “State Legisla- ,, are is little better than a special council sitting apthe purpose of enacting laws for the local overnment of the city of New York.” So far 's that is concerned one party is as much to jame as the other. If the pickings and steal- gs to be obtained in the metropolis could be pt out of the minds of rural members of the Yogislature we might expect a little more puesty in legislation at Albany. ®A Conspiracy among a few claim agents, ‘-officers of the army and notaries public to pfraud the government and the heirs of de- soldiers by making out false claims for is and bounty, has just been discovered +g broken up by the detectives of the Trea- The villains who would rob soldiers’ of the pittance that government pays the lives of their dear ones are miserable indeed and deserve some punishment as severe as hanging. Jomut Hien Commission anp THE aLish ~PaRLtaMENT.—The British Parlia- is anxious to ascertain the exact nature extent of the international work which bers of the Joint High Commission socomplished in Washington, Premier does not consider the moment opportune for the affording of this in- The government rassured the of Commons last night that ‘‘no con- had yet been signed” between England United States, but at the same time to specify the points of difficulty the Commission had adjusted,” This on the part of the Executive must be to the Parliament, It may _ 20 8 oritical, if not dangerous, one for the “tev if versevered in : Decision of the United States Court—Feéeral and State Powers De@aod. There bas not been given, probably, a more important decision by the Supreme Court of the United States than that just delivered in the case of James Buffington, late Collector of Internal Revenue, plaintiff in error, vs. Joseph M, Day, one of the Judges of Probate in Massachusetts. The case in plain terms is this :—The United States Collector of Internal Revenue assessed Mr. Day, a judge of the State of Massachusetts, on his salary as judge of the State. The asseased tax amounted to sixty one dollars and fifty-one cents and in- terest. Judge Day paid the assessment under protest. The case first came up before the Cirenit Court upon an agreed statement of facts, upon which judg- ment was rendered for Day. The Supreme Court affirms the decision below and adds its authority to maintain the doctrine involved in the case. It was taken to the Supreme Court for re-examiuation. The question presented was, whether or not it was competent for Con- gress, under the constitution of the United States, to impose a tax upon the salary of a judicial officer of a State. But one judge dis- sented, Mr. Justice Bradley, from this decision, and it is worthy of remark that there is seldom such an approach to unanimity of opinion in important decisions of the Supreme Court when involving the constitutional or political power of the government, The argument of the Court is cogent and logical, and it would be hard to find in the judi- cial decisions of either the American or British courts one rendered in more terse, clear or better language. The opinion was delivered by Mr. Justice Nelson, whom we may well be proud of as acitizen of New York, and no doubt the credit of both the fine composition and able constitutional argument is mainly due to him. The decision opens with a reference to the restricted power of the States to lay tax upon the constitutional means employed by the government of the Union to execute its constitutional powers. Here the language of the Chief Justice, in the ease of McCulloch vs. Maryland, is quoted, that “"f the States may tax one instrument employed by the government in the execution of its powers they may tax any and every other instrument. They may tax the mail, they may tax the mint, they may tax patent rights, they may tax judicial process, they may tax all the means employed by the gov- ernment to an exzess which would defeat all the ends of government.” This, it is held, was not intended by the people or constitution. The Court then proceeds in this decision to show that the power of taxation by the States was not abridged by the grant of a similar power to the government of the Union; that it was retained by the States, and that the power is to be concurrently exercised by the two governments ; and, also, that there is no ex- press constitutional prohibition upon the States against taxing fhe means or instrumeatalities of the general government. But it was held, and, asthe Court says, properly held, to bo prohibited by necessary implication; otherwise the States might impose taxation to an extent that would impair, if not wholly de- feat, the operation of the federal authorities when acting in their appropriate spheres. The States, therefore, cannot tax, upon a proper construction of the constitution, the salary or emoluments of an officer of the United States government. It is then argued, by parity of reason, and as necessary to preserve the rights and functions of the government of the States, as well as those of the federal govern- ment, that the general government is pro- hibited from taxing the salary of the judicial officers of a State. The power to do so is not expressly granted to the United States, and, as the Court says, itis a familiar rule of con- struction of the coastitution that the sovereign powers vested in the State governments by their respective constitutions remain unal- tered and unimpaired, except so far as they are granted to the government of the United States. That the intention of the framers of the constitution in this respect might not be misunderstood this rule of interpretation is expressly declared in the tenth article of the amendments :—‘“‘The powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the States, | respectively, or to the people.” The general government and the States, although both exist within the same territorial limits, are weparate and distinct sovereignties, acting separately and independently of each other, within their respective spheres. The former, in its appropriate sphere, is supreme; but the States within the limits of their powers not granted, or, in the language of the amend- ments, ‘‘reserved,” are as independent of the general government as that government within its sphere is independent of the States. One of the instrumentalities or means of the State governments belonging to them, and ne- cessary for their ioternal affairs, over which the federal Union has no power, is the judicial department, and the appointment of officers to administer the laws, It is held that for the sake of self-preservation of the States and their rights, and to preserve unimpaired the functions of the State judiciary, the federal government has not the power or right to impose such a tax as the one in ques- tion, If the tax could be imposed in one in- stance, or to any extent, the judiciary of a State might be taxed out of existence, just as the State banks were on the introduction of the National Bank act. The power of the fede- ral authority once admitted in such a case, it would only depend upon the will of Congress to carry it to an unlimited extent. The beauty of our system of government is in its checks and balances, and in the limitation of power under the constitution of federal authority, which ‘has always a natural tendency to encroach upon the reserved rights of the States, While we utterly repudiate the extremdé State rights dogma of the old Southern secessionists and hold that supreme sove- reignty must rest in the national government ; yee, while we maintain that in times of such a great crisis as we passed through in the war to preserve the Union exceptional arbitrary war measures might be tolerated, we rejoice, and evory right thinking citizen must rejoice, ata return to the fundamental principles of the government which keep the State_and federal power moving in harmony within their respective spheres. It is more gratifying to know that the Supreme Court—that noble bulwark of our rights and libertiese—has taken such a stand against the encroachment of federal power at a time when both Congress and the administration are imitating the despotic governments of Europe and of a past age. Our rulers have become 80 accustomed to goveraing by the sword—to @ centralized despotism during and since the war—that they lose sight of the constitu- tion. The shoulder-strap rile of West Point still runs through the government. Coercion is the word, not amnesty, not con- ciliation, which the radical party and the administration dwell upon. Not only do they for party and political purposes hold the sword over the South and keep that section of our common country in disorder, but they invade the rights of the loyal States, and send with- out cause or reagon federal bayonets to con- trol the polls, In fact, the radicals never did understand the theory or principle of our gov- ernment, and the practice of arbitrary power during the war has so utterly demoralized them that improvement is hopeless. The decision of the Supreme Court comes very opportunely to check the despotic and cen- tralizing tendencies of the party in power, and we have no doubt it will be cordially approved by the mass of the American people. The War Against the Reds—Latest News from Paris and Versnilles. Our latest despatches from the seat of war are dated from Versailles yesterday and from Paris on the evening of the 27th. There is but little change in the situation to record. A heavy fire is maintained against Forts d’Issy and de Vavores, which reply in a very feeble manner. They will soon be reduced to silence, for many of their guns have been dismounted and serious injury has been inflicted upon the works, Some thousands of the government troops have executed important movements on the north of Paris, A force had attempted to cross the bridge thrown over the Seine to Clichy, but were frustrated by the promptness of the insurgents. It is stated from Paris that~ the refusal of the Germans to give up the forts they still holdis regarded with great satisfac- tion by the Commune. A formation of battalions of loyal National Guards at St. Denis is re- ported, and gendarmes are becoming numer- ous there. Several arrests. of Communists bave taken place at the outposts of Ver- sailles, Some fighting had been going on in the direction of Bas Meudon, the insurgents losing heavily. One of the gunboats in the service of the Commune had been. disabled and was kept afloat with much difficulty. The buttes of Montmartre are being heavily for- tified. It is acknowledged that the southern forts are badly damaged. Shells are still falling within the city, and a great many peo- ple are being killed and wounded. The Com- munists report several minor successes, but not much reliance can be placed upon their assertions, Dissensions are breaking out among the members of the Commune. The last stand of the insurgents will be made in the Rues Rivoli and de Castiglione, in the immediate vicinity of the Place Ven- déme. The government is unable to pay the first instalment of the indemnity long since due. A despatch from Berlin of yesterday's date says that Prince Bismarck has instructed General Fabrice to inform the Commune that in the event of any mishap to the Archbishop of Paris the Germans will probably iatorfore-ta the affairs of Paris in favor of the government. The above summary of news shows, we think, that if the surrender of the insurgents is much longer delayed the bombardment and assault will certainly be made, The thorough invest- ment of the city, the progress of the siege operations, the bombardment of the southern forts and portions of the city, all. continue with unabated vigor. The Communists are within the strong grasp of the government, which will only be tightened more and more until the insurrection is squeez2d into surren- der. The government will soon cease to prac- tice forbearance, and we may hear of the com- mencement of the great movement against Paris at any moment. Disracii and the British Lucifer Democracy. The British House of Commons was crowded with members during the session last night. The Cabinet ‘‘whips” were inexorable in the lobbies. Disraeli was to oppose the budget, and a Gladstone-Lowe circular called the sup- porters of the Minisiry to their places at an early hour. Tit Premier sought to cut the ground from the oppositionists by stating almost ‘immediately, that the proposi- tions to tax lucifer matches and to increase the duties. on legacles and pro- perty successions were withdrawn, so as to meet the views of the “outs,” An addition of two pence sterling on each twenty shillings would be added to the income tax asa substitute for the charges which had been objected to with such vehemence. This declaration contains in itself a grand conces- sion to the popular will. It was absolutely necessary. Disraeli had already observed the light of the British democracy, He has turned his eyes toward it during some years past, as did his ancestors toward the pillar of flame, and his earsas did Moses to the voice from the burning bush, He prepared—perhaps he proposed—to lead John Bull proper to free lucifers and popular glory. Hence the revenue concession of the Cabinct in favor of the masses. It remains to be seen which party will receive the sulphur plaudits and thanks of the multitude, Chancellor of the Exchequer Lowe or ex-Chancellor and ex- Premier Disraeli. Tae Late Commissioner oF THE REVENUE, David A. Wells, is out in avery exhaustive but very readable article on the financial question which is now occupying so many minds. Abating what there may be of covert hostility in the document to Mr, Boutwell, it affords neverthelesd a argument ne i ‘the policy which is actuating the Secretary of the freasury in the management of the national finances. Mr. Wells bears no overweening love to the administration which accepted his resignation as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, but he shows the mistakes of Mr. Boutwell in aiming too high, or too low, rather, in hie schenre to refund the debt, Tur Albany Argus talks of “tributes to the State Logislature.” As Daniel Webster might say, ‘Millions for the ring; not one cent for tribute.” Hence the Impecuniosity of the members of the late Assembly, as a general thing. wiaain’s not equated, * NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1871.-'TRIPLE SHEET. ; eeret. One of the peculiarities of the riot which now exercises an evil influence over France is that In the early days of the outbreak no actor appeared on the-stage as the leading character in the great tragedy whioh is still going on in the French capital. Men sach as Flou- rens, Rochefort, Vaillant, Assy, Blanqui, Duval and others we might name were con- spicuous. Daring in -their acts, bold in their speech and violent in their writings, they com- manded attention, secured followers and won disciples to the doctrines which they uttered. These qualifications, however, were not all that was necessary to complete an organiza- tion which had for its object the obliteration of any form of government in France which did not wholly side with their sentiments. The Communal sentiment, however was not of recent growth. The men who espoused it had for years cultivated it with zoal. The oppor- tunity in the distraction of France presented itself to put it into practice, and that oppor- tunity was not lost. Passing over the first days of the dissensions between Paris and Bordeanx and Vergailles, we find the Central Committee managing affairs in the capital In defiance of the government chosen by the people of the whole country. After a short reign this Central Committee gave way to the Commune, the members of which claim they have been legally elected by the citizens of Paris, though only a small minority of the voting population took part in the matter. The utter helplessness of tho citizens it will be seea against the rougha of Montmartre and Belleville afforded the leaders an opportunity to inaugurate a tyranny over Paris worse than ever exercised by the third Napoleon. Scarce a month has elapsed since these sham elections handed over the city to the tender mercies of these men, and yetin that short time we find that many of them who first figured in the movement are rapidly passing out of sight. Some have been killed, others have retired disgusted, while a large number have been thrown into prison or compelled to acknowledge as a superior a man who up to very recently has, to all appearances, been but a close observer anda warm partisan of the movement of the party of disorder. Recent events, bowever, prove that he was something more than this, and that his aims were more am- bitious than those of a mere subordinate for the cause of the Commune. His observations led him to regard the Communal government as a Power withoutahead. He measured the abili- ties of the men he was associated with and re- solved to seize power. By intrigue he got rid of some of them, more he forced to resign in disgust, whilo others, such as M. Assy and Goneral Bergeret, who were opposed to him, he had thrown into prison. His opponents out of the way, he now attempts to enforce by arbitrary means respect for his authority. With the army—such as it is—of Paris at his command he assumes the réle of the dictator. He possesses, too, in no small degree the faculty of organization, and lacks none of the daring necessary to the accom- plishment of a great undertaking. This is the aim of Cluseret and the position of the Commune of Paris at this day. Bold, unscrupulous, determined and able, Clus- eret will, we fear, play his part to the bitter end, even if it draws down upon the unlucky capital of France misery which has never yet been told of. Master of the situation, the game is in his own hands, and bad and wicked men with arms in their hands, eager for any daring decds, are at his beck aad obey his mandates, A reign of_terror exists throughout the capital. Punished by fire from without and persecuted by tyranny within, Paris plunges on to the ruin it is driven to by the evil-minded leaders of the Commune. The Coal Troubles and the Rallroads. The cool indifference which the coal carry- ing raitroad lines of Pennsylvania have ex- hibited all through tue coal troubles is a most exasperating evidence of their assured secu- rity and heartless tyranny. They have been alike unmoved by sympathy for suffering or fear of the law. They have openly violated the essential provisions of their charters, and presume to call upon the law to put down the strikers. They have raised their own charges for freightage nearly four dollars per ton, and yet condemn and persecute the miners for asking an increase of a few cents upon their wages. They have had no method in their madness, except methodical oppression; no consistency except consistent and continuous tyranny. The latest inetance of putting the miners to the torture is their complaceat refusal to hold any conference with , them. “If any proposition is to be made,” say they, “you may make it to our local agents.” Governor Geary needs to press his move- ment against these unruly powers, He must not allow the guo warranto which he had issued some weeks ago to be forgotten or to fall to the ground, although the courts seem to have combined to defeat his purpose. The law as rigidly enforced against these law-de- riding corporations as it has been enforced against the minera may yet suffice to blunt the power of what bids fair to be the greatest despotism infree America, The miners have made a good fight in the interest of more com- munities than their own, and against a stronger coalition than trades unions have yet encoun- tered. The courts, the railroads and their own poverty have been arrayed against them, with no allies upon their side but public sym- pathy, warm weather and the Governor. They deserve success, and their success will do much to overthrow our corporative tyrants. Tnovsies Baainsine IN Soutn CAROLINA. — Governor Scott, of South Carolina, has noti- fied the Sheriff of one of the counties in which Ku Klux outrages are most frequent that unless he suppresses them by civil pro- cess military forcé will be employed. The State militia will be first tried, and, as they are mostly negroes and the Ku Kluxes mostly whites, there is no doubt that a conflict will ensue and ‘poor Sambo” be obliged finally to go to the wall, But before this General Grant will probably issue a proclamation declaring certain scctions of the State under martial law, and employ United States troops to enforce order, An ugly black cloud appears to be looming up in the Southern horizon, Tux Boston Advertiser says ‘‘the Presi- dent and Vice President Colfax” celebrated a | certain event, That is pretty good for @olfax, but where yrag Grant? High Commission. After all, it appears, wo are to have & re- construction of the Cabinet. . Mr. Fish is post- tively to retire from the State Departmens about the Ist of Jane, He has mado all his arrangements to pack up and leave Wasbing- ton about the Ist of June, The house there in which he resides, and which belongs to Governor Morgan, has been leased to another party, possession to be given about the Ist of June, This, then, settles the question so far as Mr. Fish is concerned. In the early part of the last winter it was understood that on or about the 4th of March, with the assembling of the new Congress, there would be a reqpn- struction of the Cabinet, beginning with the Siate Department, from which Mr. Fish was anxious to retire, Then came the propositions between Queen Victorla and President Grant which led to the appointment of the Joint High Commission, including Mr. Fish, in his capacity as Secretary of State, as chief of the five American Commissioners, Hence his de- tention and the postponement of the contem- plated reorganization, We infer from his positive arrangements to retire on the 1st of June that it is morally certain that the labors of the High Commission will be wound up by that time in a treaty of peace, covering all the questions in contro- versy between England and the United States, From the President’s call of an extra session of the Senate on the 10th of May he evidently expects that by that date the forthcoming treaty will be ready for submission to the Senate. Against the reported settlement agreed upon in the matter of the Alabama claims it has been binted that Mr. Sumner will take strong ground, following up the gene- ral line of his argument in opposition to the Reverdy Johnson treaty. We think, however, that a treaty agreed upon by the five Ameri- can Commissioners—Vish, Schenck, Nelson, Hoar and Williams—will be acceptable to the Senate. ‘ Assuming, then, that with the retirement of Mr. Fish a treaty will have been ratified establishing a new entente cordiale between the United States and England, we may next assume that the Cabinet will be rec:nstructed particularly in view of the execution of the engagements involved in the treaty, and also in view of the claims of New York too high Cabinet position. In both views we think it not unlikely that ex-Senator Morgan will take the place of Mr. Fish, His appointment, from these considerations, would be eminently satisfactory to the State and country. In an- other respect it might prove a good thing. We refer to the reconciliation of the Fenton and Morgan-Conkling republican factions of New York, The election of Fenton over Morzan to the Senate, instead of creating harmony, widened the breach between them and their respective friends. Geaeral Grant has tried at last to rectify this feud by turning all the Fenton men out of the Custom House. But even this experiment has failed to produce harmony in the New York party camp. Put Mr. Morgan in the State Department and he will be compensated for the taking of his place in the Senate by Mr. Fenton, and there will be peace, for, with this arrangement, wo are sure that Senator Conkling will consent to share with Senator Fenton the Custom House spolls, We think tt probable that Mr. Morgan will take the place of Secretary Fish, and in the interval to June we hope to hear that two or three other Cabinet changes have been agreed upon by General Grant, in view of a new departure for 1872. Bismarck and the Restoration of the Benapartes. Prince Bismarck has yet another card to play. It is known that he viewed with dis- gust the idea of a French republic, and the present insurrection in Paris is not likely to give him an improved opinion of a republican form of government in France, which to him and his imperial master simply means in- stability, besides being dangerous to Germany and the other monarchies of Europe. Ever since the fall of Paris, or we might even go back to the disaster of Sedan, Bismarck has been known to lend a favorable ear to the Bonapartist plots for the restora- tion of Napoleon III, to the throne of France. In a recent conversation with a foreign diplo- matist at Berlin he was asked what he pro- posed to do in view of the present hurly-burly in France. “‘I have not yet decided anything,” replied the Chancellor, evasively; and when pressed further upon the point he added, “I have not thrown my Napoleon overboard (Je n'ai pas encore jeté mon Napotéon a la mer).” If this be true France may wake one fine morning to hear the announcement that the empire is restored, What means the presence of Marshals MacMahon and Canrobert, General Douai and others in the Army of Versailles— men who have been ever since the coup d'état the falthful servants of Napoleon, and whose destinies are bound up in the cause of the empire? What has a French army or tho returned Imperial Guard and the veterans of Gravelotte, with their martial thirst for glory and emoluments, to hope from the peaceful bourgeoisie republic of Thiers? Their occu- pation would be gone, indeed. The real master of the situation is not M. Thiers or the National Assembly, but the Army of Ver- Prince sailles, or, rather, Marshal MacMahon, its present head. And who knows but he might be even now paying the way to the restoration of the empire under Bismarck’s auspices ? Napoleon, with all his blunders, could rally more adherents and offer stronger guarantees for the payment of the war indemnity to the Germans than either the Bourbons or Orleanists, who, with the excep- tion of a small faction, have no hold upon the sympathies of the French people. We have seen that the Thiers government or the National Assembly was not popular enough to muster any support worth mentioning among the large class of order in Paris which could have easily crushed the revolt ere it grew to its present dimensions. Instead of that the ‘good citizens,” as Thiers calls them, were sunk in apathy or made but a feeble opposition to the rule of the rabble. Under these circumstances the above remark of Prince Bismarck acquires a great signifi- cance and the Thiers government may win a fingl victory over the revolt only to make way for the empire, Tne Present is at Harrisburg, Pa, Ho will reach Waehington this morning, The Finé Arte. Every now and then the interest in pictures revives, It is the same with li ture, When a flood tide of good books—or’ even bad books, if they be only flavored with & little sensation and delicately sprinkled. with’ vice—comes from the publishers’ presses the public mind wakens up at once to book read- ing. So also when a few meritorious collec« tions of pictures are put into the market the: thirat to possess afew of the gems becomes strong among people who have taste enough to appreciate and money enough to purchase them. The recent sale at the Somerville Art Gallery is a case in point. At two evenings’ sales a collection which realized certainly not less than sixty thousand dollars was disposed of by the auctioneer. We will not say that all these works were gems of the first water, nor that many of them did not bring prices in advance of their value; but, then, they came guaranteed by the good name of the con- signers, the two leading firms in the picture business in the city; and, again, they had been long enough on exhibition to enable con- © noisseurs to form a judgment as to their merit: It is a pity, however, that the two best pictures in the collection should have been carried off to Philadelphia—Rosa Bon- heur’s ‘Highland Sheep,” which sold for five thousand five hundred dollara, and an exquisite gem by Alfred Stevens, of Paris, which was sacrificed at two thousand five hundred dollars. They were both pur= chased by Philadelphia gentlemen, We only hope that their light will not be hid under a bushel when they get to the City of Brotherly Love, ‘ We cannot help being gratified at the evi- dence of growing interest in art furnished by the character of the attendance on the occa. sion referred to, It represented much of the cultivation as well as the wealth of the city, to say nothing of those who came from surround- ing cities and our suburban neighborhood. The bidding on the pictures was most liberal, sufficiently so, we think, to satisfy the artista’ and the owners. In proportion as the taste of. the people for all that is good and genuine inf art flourishes among us, just so should all thaé is poor and weak and trashy—in fact, every- thing in the shape of a picture which is a mere travesty upon art—be sedulously excluded, from the salesroom. The eye must be edu. cated to love art by the frequent presence of good models, just asthe ear is trained to a perception of splendid music by coming in contact with the highest class of art by the best composers. Our resident artists, having now got pretty, wetl done with their winter’s labors in the studios, are about packing up their traps for a journey toward the bosom of Nature, in some direction or another. Let us beseech them to bring us back something more original than the usual an= nual contribution which we have hitherto re- ceived as the result of thelr country excur- sions, It may-be said that a landscape igs combined of certain fixed forms—trees, rocks, rivers, waterfalls, bold foregrounds, dreamy mid-distances and pellucid vadishing points— and thus originality is not quite possible. But remember that a landscape does not pre- sent itself to the eyes of any two men alike, and that the atmoanhors whiten, wore than dull forms, creates and gives life to,a land. scape—is not the same any two days together. Therefore, we say, let us not have the pictures of a year ago reproduced under different names, the same in style, the same in thought and expression. Nature, as she roams aod frolics in the country, revels in variety, and smiles or frowns in fresh features every day. Let our artists, who must comprehend our meaning, then, bring back a little of this fine freshness, ,this originality of mature, to brighten their easels and give a new stimulus to the growing public taste for the fine arts. Fish or Flesh—A Canadian Conundrum. The intelligent’ authorities of Newfound- land have been agitated over the arrival at St. Johns of an American steamer gorged with seal taken in the Newfoundland Arc- tic regions during the last seal-chasing season. The authorities feared that these Americans would manufacture their oil and prepare their skins on Canadian soil, and then, with Yankee promptness, take their cargo to the United States, where it is to be admitted free of duty, As the Canadians have to pay twenty percent duty they are, natu- rally enough, agitated over being thus ‘“‘sold out at a ruinous sacrifice” by shrewder Yan- kees, and have been drumming up some reasonable grounds for seizing the cargo and stopping the traffic for all future time. The most reasonable ground they have yet found is the plea that seals are fish, and that consequently the American steamer is guilty of a violation of the fishery treaty of 1818. The authorities in Newfoundland have promptly rejected the theory thus advanced, however, and relieved the American steamer from any apprehension of trouble on that score. Some good people of the provinces still afford the theory encouragement, and its agitation is quite likely to end in its being submitted to the Joint High Commission for settlement, or else in a petition to that body for a removal of the heavy duty now imposed in our ports upon the seal products brought hither by Newfoundland ships. The immefide catch of seals made during the period of one month just past, which is now arriving in the harbors of Newfoundland— six hundred thousand seals, estimated as worth forty million dollars—fully illustrates what a wealthy placer the seal fisheries have proven to be, and Indicates how important it Is to have a satisfactory solution of all international, questions concerning them. The strongest point of the Canadian wiseacres is a petition for the removal of the duty. On that score they may fare very well, although Yankee business tact has not heretofore been charge- able with the folly of giving unnsual advan. tages to competitors in trade, or leading caps tal to start rival houses. The right answer to give to the Canadian conundrum, “Is a seal a fish?” is the evasive answer once given by the traditional Paddy, “Ig your grandmother a donkey?” The crude Darwinian theory which Pat stumbled upon in his reply is likely to strike quite near the mark in the case of the Dominion agitators, Their grandmothers probably approached as near the species donkey as the seal approaches the fish, Fish breathe by means of gills, swim by she aid of paudalfing god areoviparqus, Suck,