The New York Herald Newspaper, May 3, 1871, Page 6

> erence se: SE ee NT . NEW YORK HERALD |™ Prsttenat pimty of me nemecrat BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hexatp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Volume XXXVI... -+-No, 123 AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOOH AND EVENING, GLOBE THEATRE, 728 Broadway.—VARIRTY ENTER. TADOUENT, £0.—PEARL OF Tokay. Matinee at 234. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Brosdway.—Tot DtaMa OF Howizon. Matinee at 2. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 23d 4 Wovten's Tacs. ‘OOD'S MUSEUM Broadway, corner Sith st.—Perform- ‘ences every afternoon and evening. between 5th and 6th avs,— WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ana 18th street.— Tux Lian—ANERIOANS IN Panis. * NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadwsy.—A NEw Way To Pay OLD Deets. LINA EDWIN'S THEATRE, 720 Broadway.—Cow! oF PLUCK. Matinee. 6g ak ae GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av. ana 23d st.— Lg Perit Faust. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Or¥Ba—TBAVIATA. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Wno Sreaks Finst— Sounrpse. NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, re — L'AFRIOCAINE, ssh as seed FIFTH AVENUB THEATRE, Twonty-t — Tux CRiTIc—A THOUSAND a YEAR. selma Fourteenth street.—ITALIAN aoe F. B. CONWAY'S PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn.— BAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALHL, 585 Rroaiway,— Satscma's ROYAL JaraNusE TEOUPE. Matinee at 2. BRYANT’S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 23d at., between 6th and 7th avs.—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, 21 Bi eo Vae RIELY ENTERTAINMENT. Matinee at 2)¢. ‘kite THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway,—Couro V. 188, NEGRO ACTS, &c. Matinee at 234, ae NEWCOMB & ARLINGTON’S MINSTRELS, ‘St and Proadway.—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c, \ canines DR. KAHN'S ANATOMICAL NUSE) - SOreNncE anv ant, va pase & TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Weducaday, May 3, i a CONTENTS OF TO-DAYS HERALD. Pack. Rot pea Oe Re Advertisements, Q—Advertisements, 3-News from Washingion—Outrages in North Carolina: Three Men Murder a Negro, His Wife and Four Children in Their Own Home— Amusements—No Navigatioa: The Great Breach in the Erie Canal—Personal Intelli- gence Movements of Prominent Persons in he Country—Foreign Personal Gossip—News re from Cuba and Central America—The Weather. 4—The Putnam Homucide: Omcial Investigation . by the Coroner; Foster Fully Identified as the Murderer; What the People Say—What's in a Name ?—Proceedings in tne Courts—Almost a Fatal Mistake—A Bold Thier. S—Financial and Commerciat Reports—The Eng- lish Erie Stockholders’ War—Real Estate Mat- ters—Advertisements, 6—Editoriais: Leading Article, “The Presidential DiMeulty of the Deivocrats Solyed—General feae the Man”—Amusement Announce- ‘Y—Edivorial (Continued from Sixth Page)—Paris: Fort @Issy Sti Held by the Communist Forces; The Government Troops Repulsed— Versailies: Sortie from Paris by Way o! Choisy le Roi; The Latest News--The Bonapartes— Miscellaneous Telegrams. 6—Brookiya City News—Marriages and Deaths— Advertisemenis, 9—Advertisements, . 2 10—The Coal Troubles: The Miners’ Ultimatum; Oniy Fair Living Rates Demanded—The Tay- 1871. Jor Will Case Agsxin—Teacher Gallagher’s Trial—The Department of Parks—Shipping Intalligence—A dvertisements, 11—Ad vertisements. 42—Advertiseme: Ove Cnorce ror THE PresipENcy in 1872 ‘General W. T. Sherman, Nort Muon Iuprovep—The chances for re- publican harmony in- this city. Clearly, be- tween the wrangling republican factions Tam- many holds the balance of power, and they can do nothing. ‘Tre NeGrogs IN ARKANSAS are threatening to fight for their right to hold office. Governor Clayton recently snubbed them in some of his appointments, and they won't allow the white appointees to hold their positions in any com- fort. They have a way of giving them two days to get out of the county. Negroes as they are, they won't let the wool be pulled over their eyes. Tae Coat Mixers on Srrice are beginning fo feel the keen edge of hunger. Some two vhousand have gone to work, but only, as they allege, to keep the furnaces from blowing but. Coal mining would be pretty nearly stopped for good if the furnaces were blown out, and the miners do not believe in killing the goose that lays their golden eggs, although she does not lay them often enough to sult them. Harn, it is now officially stated, does not want to interfere seriously between the United States and St. Domingo, but wishes the United States would guarantee the bound- ary line between the two countries, Hayti need not try to revive our unbappy St. Domingo troubles.. We do no! want to have anything to do with her or her boundary line. The Presidential campaign is opening now, and we have something else to attend to, Is Gengrat Sazrman Up For THE Prest- DENCY ?—He is certainly out against General Grant on the Ku Klux question and on the St Domingo question, and we think if the demo- crats are possessed of common sense they will understand that this means business. German Peace CeLeprations,—Not being troubled with our New York May movings, the Germans made o merry day of the first of May at Pittsburg, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; Do- troit, Mich.; Louisville, Ky., and Madison, Wie., and last, though not least, in London, England. But they are preparing in the city of Brotherly Love to take them all down, from New York to London, with their peace jubilee and their three days of Philadelphia lager; and we guess they will do it—on the lager, Bey Botier been heaping coals of fire apon Brick Pomeroy’s head. As Ben bimself alloges, Mrs. Pomeroy recently engaged him as her counsel in a suit for divorce from her hasband, and the mere souad of Butler's name ‘was enough to make “ Brick” compromise the case by the payment of twenty thousand dollars doWh ahd the proinisé of a ySarly 6am of six hundred dollars, Butler now facetiously claims that he repays all Brick’s abuse by showing him bow to provide for his familv. Solved—General Sherman the Man. “T PROBABLY HAVE AS GOOD MEANS OF INFORMA- TION AS MOST PERSONS IN REGARD TO WHAT 18 CALLED THE Ku Kix, AND AM PERFECTLY SATIS- FIED THAT THE THING 18 QREATLY OVER-ESTI- MATED; AND IF THE Ku KL0x BILLS WERE KEPT out or CONGRESS AND THE ARMY KEPT AT THEIR LEGITIMATE DUTIES, THERE ARE ENOUGH GOOD AND TRUE MEN IN ALL SOUTHERN SraTEs TO PUT DOWN Att Ku Kiox oR OTHER BANDS OF MARAUDERS.”’ The remarks we quote were delivered by General Sherman in a short impromptu address recently at New Orleans. The American Union Club, composed mostly of radical office- holders, captured the General on his way to Texas for a reception, and urged him, against his will, to make a speech. These gentlemen expected, doubtless, to hear something flat- tering to them, the radical party and the administration. But General Sherman is a fearless, honest and outspoken man. He is no flatterer, time-server or partisan. Though a brilliant and fluent speaker, this little speech was almost as short as General Grant is in the habit of delivering. But how full of meaning! How significant! What a reproof to the radical party and administration for their pretended Ku Klux legislation and coercive policy! The passage we have placed at the head of this article is only an extract from the remarks General Sherman made, brief as they were. Referring to the growth and destiny of the country, he said :—‘“‘But in order to gain this much desired end, and to main- tain ourselves as a free and independent republic, we have got to show more charity to each other.” He believed, he added, ‘‘that if the question, and all matters as to the settlementof the differences between the North and Soath were left to the armies it would be settled at once, and everything would become quiet and orderly. I 80 believed,” he went on to say, ‘and before signing the agreement with General Joc John- ston I called together all the other generals under my command, and without a dissenting voice they agreed with me. I believed they (the Confederates) surrendered in good faith and would have lived up to the very letter of the agreement; and, in my opinion, if there had been no reconstruction acts of Congress and the armies been left to settle all questions of ditference between the different sections of the country the people would at once have become quiet and peaceable.” Then follows the passage quoted above, and who does not believe that General Sherman has as good means of information as most persons in regard to what is called Ku Klux? What unprejudiced citizen will not agree with bim when he says he is perfectly satisfied this thing is greatly over-estimated, and if the Ku Klux bills were kept out of Congress and the army kept at their legitimate duties there are enough good and true men in all the Sonthern States to put down all the Ku Klux or other bands of marauders ? On this spontaneous and patriotic speech we nominate General Sherman for next President. It is better than all the platforms of party con- ventions. It shows a large heart and broad and liberal views. Peace and harmony are what the country want, and General Sherman’s mind is imbued with that fact. Kindness, or charity combined with firmness, on the part of government, would heal all our sectional difi- culties. General Sherman possesses these qualities in an eminent degree, and if he were President there is no doubt that the troubles perpetuated from the war by radical misrule would soon be ended. No one need be re- minded of the inexorable firmness he exhibited during the struggle to preserve the Union, and, in fact, on all occasions when the rights of the government and the law wero in ques- tion. A more conservative and patriotic man could not be found, or one that would more faithfully execute the laws. He would be a terror to evil-doers at all times. Yet ho was the first to hold out the olive branch of peace to the erring. He wanted, in the large charity of his nature, to bury the past in oblivion, and he atill wants that. He believes this is not only gener- ous, but the best policy. The American people think so too, when their minds are divested of party politics, influences and mis- representations. He says emphatically that in his opinion there was no need of reconstruc- tion acts of Congress or coercive Ku Kiux legislation. On this platform the people everywhere should make a spontaneous move- ment to nominate General Sherman for the Presidency without waiting for the action of any party convention. The people of the South- ern States particularly ought to take the initi- ative; for, terrible as he was in war, they have no better friend in peace. The democrats, if they be wise, will take him up at once as the strongest and most available man they can find. No military chief has such a brilliant war record, except General Grant, if, indeed, it be secoud to any. On thescore of military glory Sherman could make a close race with Grant, Then it is generally conceded that asa culli- vated and intellectual man he is superior to General Grant. Without being a partisan poli- tician, General Sherman has always and consistently favored those broad and liberal views of national policy which the democrats favor. Not even his friendship for General Grant, or the exalted position he holds in the goverament under a radical administration, has changed his politi- cal creed or affiliations. He is a man of great mental and personal vigor, is of ripe age and not too old, and would make a most efficient head of the government. Possibly General Sherman might not like to run against General Grant, and he might consider that his high position as General of the Army for life, with a salary almost equal to that of the President, is enough to satisfy the finbition of any one, He may think this preferable to a short term. of office in the Presidential chair, with all the trouble, labor and anxiety attached to it, In truth, the change could add nothing to his means, for he {snot a man to accept gifts in such an office, and it would be a loss to him pecuniarily, Nor would it exalt him much above his present position. Still, to be Presi- dent of this mighty republic is a great honor, and to a patriot like General Sherman it is one neither to be sought nor rejected. Let the people, then, move in the matter, and this distinguished tan may be the successor of General Grant in 1873, on A ot The history of the country for a long time vast shows that a Presideatial dvnasty—as we | may call the perpetuation of power in the hands of one man for two terms of office—is hardly possible, except in such an exceptional case as that of Mr. Lincoln. One term of office has become the rule. The vast and varied interests of the republic, the labor and difficulties of the Presidential office, the rivalry of prominent public men for the position and the difficulty of maintaining party cohesion and discipline—all make it highly improbable that a President can be re-elected in these times. In the early days of the republic, when the country and population were much smaller, parties perpetuated .their power longer, and a re-election to the Presidency was common. Washington's rule was a sort of dynasty of the highly conservative and semi-aristocratic British school. After Wash- ington had ruled eight years the same policy was continued under John Adams four years longer, After that a more democratic party— or, as it was called then, the republican party—took the reigns of power. This dynasty—the Virginia dynasty—began with Jefferson and lasted under him, Madison and Monroe for twenty-four years, all of these Prosidents from Virginia serving two terms. The four years term of John Quincy Adams was th first break upon this kind of dynastic rule. Succeeding that was the Jackson dynasty, the new democratic power, which ran through eight years of Jack- son’s office and four of Van Buren's, Here ended the two-term Presidents and the dynas- tic rule of the outgoing executive appointing ils successors. No President afler that was re-elected except Mr. Lincoln, and he, prob- ably, only because the country was in the midst of a terrible civil war. Yot almost every one has aspired to and worked for a re-election. General Grant's following the course of his predecessors, but every effort he makes with a view to secure his re-eleption seems to fail. The St. Domingo annexation scheme, out of which he expected to make popularity, has utterly failed. The Ku Klux coercive policy, which was intended to put the political power in the South under the control of the administration, and to operate upon the preju- dices of the North, is likely to prove as disastrous as the St. Domingo affair. Even the negotiations under the Joint High Com- mission to settle our difficulties with England begin to be unpopular.and to look like a fiasco. The financial policy of tW¥e administration and its party, for which so much is claimed, is repudiated by the mass of the people. In every respect General Grant’s administration is declining in popular esteem, while the oppo- sition is daily gaining strength. We conclude, therefore, that by the time the Presidential election takes place General Grant’s chance of re-election will be much diminished, and that the democrats, with General Sherman for their candidate, will have a good prospéct of regaining power. Let the democrats, then, take the tide at the flood and resolve at once to make General Sherman their candidate, Progress of the Work of Reducing Paris. The announcement from Versailles that Mar- shal MacMahon has sent twenty-five thousand men to Choisy lo Roi to resist an expected sortie from Paris in that direction indicates a des- perate movement on the part of the insurgents. A mere temporary success could not benefit them or relieve Forts Issy, Vanvres and Mont- rouge from the fearful storm of shot and sheli the government batteries are pouring into them. The forts named are situated on’ the southwest and southerao side of Paris, and Choisy le Roi lies opposite the southeast side of the city. To relieve the forts by way of the latter place it would be necessary for the insurgents to pierce the right centre of the Versailles army and drive it back upon the centre—a feat which the nature of the ground and the strength of the government troops render exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. On the other hand, the insurgent columns mak- ing the sortie would run imminent risk of being cut offfrom Paris. It is clear, how- ever, that the Communists must make a great effort to beat their opponents or the forts will shortly be battered to pieces and Paris will become practically defenceless. We do not place credence in the report that Fort Issy is completely surrounded, for the reason that the distance between that stronghold and Fort Vanvres is too small to admit of hostile troops holding positions between the two. Nevertheless, it appears certain that MacMahon’e forces have got between that fort and Paris, destroying all communication between them, excepting by way of Vanvres, and as the bombardment to which this latter fort is subjected must soon destroy its powers of active resistance we expect ina few days to hear of the fall of Issy. MacMahon’s plan of reducing Paris seems comprehensive, and is far bolder than that adopted by the Germans during the recent siege. Von Molike permitted famine to do the work; but MacMahon evidently aims to conquer the city by hard fighting. The per- sistent efforts he is making to capture Fort Issy show that he designs using the guns of that fort to destroy the Communist works on the western side of Paris. The guns of Issy would sweep everything on that side as far up as the Buttes Montmartre, and render completely untenable the positions held by the insurgents at Neuilly, the Porte Maillot and the Porte des Ternes, and in the Champs Elys¢es, Hence the efforts to take it, and the determination of the Com- munists to hold it to the last extremity. Issy is, in flae, the key to Paris. When it fulls the city must surrender; for though there may be fighting in the streets it will not aid the insurgents in the slightest degree, One of our Paris despatches reports an ex- pected attack on Neuilly, but we doubt if one will be made. A general engagement is far more likely,to take place south of Paris, brought on by the efforts of the Communists to break through the investing lines, At pre- sent, however, if the government forces even could get possession of Neuilly and advance to Porte Maillot, they would effect “nothing decisive unless they were able to sweep the insurgent positions within the enceinte from the south, But be that as it may, all the indications point to an early Collapse of the insurrection, Whether or not he borrowed the guns from the Germans, MacMahon's artil- lery has been fearfully effective, and has done more damage io a few days to the three forts bombarded than the Germans did to the same fo rta during their entire period of the invest- ment of Paris, f Delsarte on the “Stump.” — We are somewhat prone to think too highly of antiquity, particularly in the matter of stump oratory, If the ancient Roman ad- dressed the plebs, we figure to ourselyes a man of atately gesture and irreproachable latinity, who by no means could be guilty of such an idiom as “you know how it is your- self.” When C. M. Corlolanus, Esq., took the stump for the consulship no one would dream of putting into his mouth a homely anecdote, beginning with ‘‘that reminds me of a story.” Are we to suppose that there were no Old Abes in those days? Shakspeare, indeed, helps us on the matter, showing that these things did exist, for he makes Caius soliloquize, while waiting for the ‘' b’hoys”:—‘‘Since the wisdom of thelr choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise the insinuating nod, and be off to them most counterfeltly.” Boa- dicea is pictured to us in « foreground of soythe-wheeled chariots, with a host of shaggy Britons in the background. Does history mean to inform us that she made no such re- mark as ‘Ho! the roast beef of Hold Hing- land?” and that her thin-clad army replied in no such soul-inspiring chorus as :— Um loikes a drop 0’ good beer, um does; Um’s fond of a drop 0’ geod beer; . And darn their eyes if ever they tries To rob a poor man of his beer | This last would refer to the Romans, All this is premised with the view of calling at- tention toa foreign danger which threatens one of our great American institutions—‘‘the stump”’—as it at present exists. Delsarte is the danger ; let stump rhetoricians everywhere look to it, The people of America, like those of Rome in its great but still its growing days, are very susceptible to the sstheticism of foreign nations. Rome, in its hardy, struggling youth, was semi-barbarian or three-quarter polished, just as it pleased. So in the first few decades of our nationality were we as a people. Now, however, the Old World commences to shame us with a sense of our backwardness in many things, and hence our readi- ness to seize greedily on everything from abroad that savors of the beautiful. The great system of dramatic expression per- fected by M. Delsarte is the latest msthetic novelty that threatens us. A young gentle- man, a disciple of Delsarte, has given a lec- ture or two in America, and straightway the subterranean rumblings of an esthetic earth- quake give warning of whatistocome. As the public are aware, the new system aims at bringing the gestures and movements of ora- toric mankind to the exactitude of a science. When we consider the hundreds of thousands of able-bodied citizens whom this earthquake will overturn the mind shrinks back appalled. We have our rights and should protect them. In the oratorical line these are to say what we please, how we please. When, therefore, an innovating foreigner comes in to hamper us with sumptuary laws of eloquence, the American eagle well may shriek and the ghost of General Jackson swear ‘‘By tho Eternal !” Asense of utter scorn for this granulator of grins and formulator of frowns will burst between here and sundown from the free homes of at least one million stump ora- tors on the heads of one million flour barrels, from the halls of thirty-seven State Legisla- tures, will roll from the bar of justice to the bar of the liquor store, will reverberate in thunder from the very walls of the Capitol, and fiad at least one echo in the White House itself. Delsarte, we are in- formed, studied all the sciences bearing on his subject. This is a mistake; for did he have the faintest idea that his system would ever reach as far as America, he should have added one more to the ologies he mastered, That isthe science of hitting straight from the shoulder, which we may call fistiology. This defect will at once ‘‘strike” every true stump orator in the land. He has applied his science to the stage and to the pulpit. How, without a study of fistiology, can he think of applying it to the ‘stump ?” A Frenchman has very vague ideas of le bove, it istrue, and thus far Delsarte must be ex- cused, Yet, if we must improve our method of public speaking, there is an alternative left. Mace and Coburn are about to fight for the fistic championship; let the winner be called in to adapt the system of Delsarte to the American constitution. In the happiness which this would bring to forty miilions of freemen we can let our fancy stray awhile into the. future when the ‘‘esthetic gymnastics” of the two great professors of pugilism and polished uiterance have imparted their science and art to the Stars and Stripes. There will be difficulties in the way, buta growing love of the beautiful will remove them. It will, indeed, be hard to induce the old turnip philosopher to keep his boots inside his pants and the ‘‘serpent exercise” of the arms will necessarily lose much of their grace in the sleeves of his white coat. He will then proba- bly let us hear “‘what I know about dramatic expression,” and give, as illustration, his great speech, ‘You lie, you villain! you lie!” with all the Homeric dignity of that other ancient bore, Nestor. Ben Butler will be a hard case to manage, particularly in the training of those odd eyes of his, while it will take him a long time to give at will a glance of ‘love border- ing on adoration” upon Davis, from Kentucky. We can picture the Jem Irving of the future blackening the eyes of a future Weed with the same grace and ease with which some Winans will metaphorically put his thumb upoa his nose at a sixty-five thousand dollar bribery accusation. The time may even come when General Grant will be able to speak more than @ dozen lines consecutively without a cigar between his fingers, and George Francis Train may study the repression of gesture, which last Delsarte defines as the ellipsis of utterance, No ellipsis in his case now. marked improvement in this regard will be noted in our colored brethren, who may then be expected to make speeches without tickling the lobes of their ears with the corners of their mouths, and may listen to the ‘Star Spangled Banner” without their erratic legs and feet wan- dering unconscidusly into the mazes of a plan- tation breakdown. The howling sisterhood, too, ‘will evidence its benign influence, nnd Susan Anthony may yet hurl her- vigorous denunciations of male bipeds with the graco and majesty of Medea. This will bein the very remote future, If there is one thing to be feared it is the play which this new art will give to the lout- ish MacSycophants among us. When thav NEW YURK HEKALD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1871.-TRIPLE SHEET. have learned to smile and flatter with their faces, arms and legs, it will need all the pene- tration of Argus to know the individual to whom our great men will say, in their finest manuer (observation and scorn, vide Delsarte), “Young fellow, that’s too thin,” Truly, the prospect of the American people becoming a nation of Greek statues in grace and silver tongues in speech is a gratifying one, and we wish it soon may come. But it will bring regrets along with it over the vigorous institution which {t will have sup- ‘planted. We look upon the historic picture of “Lo! the poor Indian,” with the shadow of a sorrow whose fount we cannot determine; what shall it be when Greeley’s eccentric pants are orthodox ?—when Butler can look ‘a. man straight in the face ?—when Neil Bryant and Hughey Dougherty are fossils of the outrageous oratory of a past age ?—when Jem Irving's biceps are at rest ?—when, in fine, the “stump” in all its glory shall have become a model of cultivated grace a la Delsarte? The Legal Tender Act Devlsion of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of the United States upon two cases have decided (Mr. Justice Clifford on Monday last delivering the opinion of the Court) that the Legal Tender act of Congress of 1862 is con- stitutional, and therefore part of ‘“ the supreme law of the land”—first, as to con- tracts made before its passage, and, second, as to contracts made since its passage. Upon these questions the Judges in the affirmative are Davis, Swayne, Miller, Strong and Brad- ley; and those in the negative are the Chief Justice (Chase), Clifford, Nelson and Field, and these four, Mr. Justice Clifford says, hold that the Legal Tender act is ‘‘ repugnant to the constitution and void,” in regard both to con- tracts made before and since its passage. The country, however, in all its financial and business affairs, will be satisfied that the constitutionality of the Legal Tender act is affirmed in regard to all contracts unsettled, whether made before or since the passage of the act. .Under the Supreme Court as consti- tuted in 1869 it decided, Chief Justice Chase delivering the opinion, that the act is void in reference to contracts made before its passage, and we now see that had the question at that time been before the Court in reference to contracts made since its passage the act would have been declared unlawful and void, and that in so escaping a decision in 1869 upon this important question the country escaped a financial panic and revulsion. How Mr. Chase, the author of the Legal Tender act as Secretary of the Treasury, whereby the government was enabled to fight through suc- cessfully the war for the Union—how he, as Chief Justice, has discovered that there is no authority in the constitution for this act, so essential to the life of the nation against the late Southermrebellion, we cannot understand. It has been said that in becoming a candidate. for the Presidential nomination of the Tam- many Convention of 1868 Mr. Chase so far-be- came a democrat that he wished to prove that he had ceased to be a republican, and cer- tainly upon this theory as well as upon any other we mezy account for the condemnation by Mr. Chase as Chief Justice of the financial war policy of Mr. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. At all events the country will be satisfied with the overruling of the Chief Jus- tice by the Supreme Court through the two new Judges—Bradley and Strong—appointed in 1870 by President Grant, Contested Wills—Aa Important Decision. Surrogate Hutchings yesterday delivered an opinion on the application of counsel engaged in the celebrated Taylor will case for allowances for services and costs, which is very important to the public as well as to members of the bar. The principles of law on which the opinion is based are succinctly stated. After a careful review of the evi- dence adduced on the trial the Surrogate is unable to discover that there were such reasonable grounds of opposition to the will of James B. Taylor as to warrant bim in order- ing the payment of the charges of contestant’s counsel out of the estate. He will, however, grant the counsel for the executors such com- pensation as Mrs. Taylor may deem sufficient. This decision will probably stop any contem- plated appeal in the case, for it would be a losing game on the part of Mrs. Howland to pursue it further. It may also have the good effect of checking ‘‘ the growing tendency to liti- gate the admissibility of wills to probate,” which the Surrogate deplores, When it is understood that counsel fees and costs cannot be taken from the estates of rich men deceased there will be - less disposition on the part of disappointed relatives to rush into expensive law. This thing of contesting wills, as well as seats in Conzress, has been taken in hand, A bill was introduced during the last session of the Forty-first Congress, lately deceased, that contestants must pay their own expenses, and they can no longer enjoy a good old time in Washington whenever they desire to saddle old Uncle Sam with their board and mileage bills, The same principle applics in contested will cases, and we are glad that it has been stated aut horitatively and with clearness not to be mistaken, Ir THE Nexr PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN must be fought on the war questions the only man who can lead the democracy to victory is General William T, Sherman, Tue Cmtcaco Granp Jury, like every- thing else in Chicago, is peculiar. Recently it tried a murder case and acquitted the de- fendant. As he was charged with killing the husband of his sister for ill treating her all the husbands of Chicago are excited and all tho Rewspapers are denouncing this arbitrary rem Sarpy eh ett pis eee lm Tug Pottceman who clubbed the boy John Murphy to death was sentenced in thé General Sessions yesterday to two years at hard labor in the Stgte Prison, Some lesson to our policemen has been very much needed, and we hardly think so light 9 sentence ‘will prove very salutary. They need lessons also on various subjects besides clubbing—on neat- ness, politeness to citizens and on attention to duty, Ba <rileenh Tar Demoonatio Canpipate for the Prest- dency who could successfully contest the office against any issues which the radicals may bring forward is Gegeral W. T, Sher» man Re eine ay Tho Opera—Its Requirements aud its Ine fluence. The sbort season of Italian Opera opened very auspiciously on Monday evening, at the Academy of Music. From the fashionable throng that attended and the interest mant- fested we think we may predict that Signor Albites’ effort to supply the long-desired luxury will prove a success, especially as the season is to be a short one. This is all very well so far as it goes, but what a great city like New York needs is the opera established on a firm and permanent basis. Our cultivated classes can be satisfied with nothing less, Every effort, therefore, looking to this end will command our encouragement and sup- port. The arrangement that has boon effected with the directors of the Academy of Music for the fall is a step in the right direction, but itis not enough. The terms of this arrange- ment, as we explained last Saturday, are that the managers shall have the Academy rent free for ten weeks and defray only ono-half of the expenses of scenery and appointments, the other half to be borne by tho directors in con- sideration of retaining their old privilege of free and choice seats. We say this is not enough, though we are bound to give credit to the directors for concedinz. even this much, with a view to giving somo encouragement to the impresarii. Every- thing that contributes to human happiness involves trouble and expense. This, how- ever, is not the difficult point. If people would only agree thata certain thing would tend to render them happy half the work of securing it would already be accomplished. But, unhappily, there is nothing so useful or 60 good but that it will experience opposition on the ground that it is neither one nor the other. Literature, art and science have in turn been opposed as more dangerous than usefal. Everybody is familar with the speech which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of Jack Cade when that personage orders the head of Lord Say to be struck off:—‘‘Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas before our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to bo used. * * It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun anda verb,” &. The great dramatist had good reason for this. Is it any wonder, then, that the opera should be opposed, or merely tolerated? Ac- - cordingly it has been opposed in every coun- try, not excepting Italy ;.ithas required the persistent efforts of the greatest minds to se- cure ita foothold even in the most enlightened nations; and, be it remembered, that nowhera has it been permanently established without the fostering aid of the government. Now let us see what class of men have taken most pains to cultivate the musical taste of the public by means of the opera, Those who examine the facts will find that they are pre- cisely the same class that have proved the most munificent patrons of literature and the arts, For the last twenty years of his life the great Cardinal Mazarin left no means untried to render the opera popular in France, Time after time he secured the best Italian com- panies, had the magnificent halls of the Louvre decorated for their representations, and had free tickets issued to thousands, but the Parisians rewarded him only with jeers and epigrams. A man of a different calibre would have been not only discouraged but fright. ened. Mazarin perfectly understood that the opera exercises an educational Influence of a high order—that it does not merely please the mind and exhilarate the spirits, but elevates and refines the sentiments—and with this faith in its power death alone could prevent him from contributing in every possible way to dispel the prejudices entertained against it by the narrow-minded and thoughtless. Although he did not live to see his efforts crowned with success, he took pride in saying that the seed he had sown was already pro- ducing its fruits. How true this was is now well known; for the Cardinal was but a few years dead when Louis XIV. founded l’Aca- démie Royale de Musique, appointed the Abbé Perrin, both a poet and musician, its director, and granted a large subsidy for its support. The letters patent granted to the composer Lulli, who succeeded the Abbé, are still extant, and are highly interesting as showing the impértant ‘powers and privileges” which he was’to exercise and enjuy forever (ferme et stable A.toujours). Seven years after the granting of this patent, while in the meantime the most enlightened and wealthy of the nobility zealously :co-operated with the King, the opera might be said to have been naturalized in Paris, And it was by similar men and means that the opera was introduced into Spain and Portugal, as well as into all the German States. It is a curious fact that if we inquire what two men have been most instrumental in natu- ralizing the opora in Germany we shall find that they weré the most illustrious friends of literature and literary men—namely, Frederick the Great, and the scarcely less renowned Duie of Saxe Weim>r, the patron of Goethe, Schiller, Wieland and Herder. Another re- markable fact is that while in the Qatholic countries it was the cardinals ang archbishops who introduced the opera, it was the most un+ compromising enemies of the Catholic C argh, who were most Insrumental Jy jatrodscing it {fa the Protestant countries, Be it remembered that neithor Mazarin nor any other cardinal did more to prepare the public mind to appreciate the influence of good music on the noblest faculties of the soul than the great reformer, Luther. Let any who doubt this turn to bis ‘Table Talk,” in almost every chapter of which they will fiad the cul- tivation of music recommended in the most bhéergetlo, Janguage. “Music,” he Bays, “4 one of the fairest and best gifts of God.” “It ia,” he adds, ‘one of the best of thearts.” But Luther comes still nearer to our point than this; he shows what is the duty of men of wealth, who have any pretensions to be regarded as philanthropists or even enlightencd members of society. ‘‘Some of our nobility,” he says, “think that they have done some great thing when they give three thousand gulden yearly towards music, and yet they will throw away, without a scruple, perhaps thirty thousand on follies.” i Does this apply to our New York “nobility ?” How thany of them give even the three thou- a yearly? As for throwing away thirty thonsand fa follies, that. indeed, avulles forel-