The New York Herald Newspaper, December 5, 1871, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All basiness or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York HeERatp, Ne. 339 AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. FIFTR AVENUE THEATRI Twenty-fourth street. — Tur New Drama oF DIvoEOr, J LINA EDWIN'S THEAT! MN Broadway. Bourre Le Poxr Das BoUrEes, penane NIBLO'S GARDEN, Huston streeta— BOWERY THEATRI n=l . brn—A TERRIULE Re Rover. Tae Haonten Cuaw- |, Broadway, between Prince ‘OuR Aumstoatt Cover. ~ WALLACK'S THEA’ te Rosman, ‘TRE, Broadway aad 13th etree! OLYMPIC THEATRE, RBroadway.—THs BauLet Pan- ‘TOMIME OY HUMPTY Dower. BOOTH’S THEATRE, 254 st., between 5th ant 6th avs, — Bam.sr, WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner 33h st.—Perform- ‘ences afternoon and evening. —Lirk IN TUB STREETS. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av. and 23d st— due TOE GUARDEMEN. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Couto Vocau- 1sMa NEGRO ACIB, 20. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st, and Broad- way.—NEGKO ACTS—BURLESQUE, BALLET, &c. MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— GoLp Dust. PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, Brooklyo.—Wtup AY. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— Nrako ECOENTRICITIRG, BURLESQUES, AO. Matinee. BRYANT’S NEW OPERA and 7th ava.--BRYANT'S MINS" USE, 28d st. between 6th LB. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 585 Broadway.— TUF SAN FRANCI8CO MINSTRELS. % ASSOCIATION HALL, £6th street and Third avenue.— Lrorug® uy PRorEsson Dosemus. Fourteenth street.—SORNES IN New York, Tuesday, Dece: CONTENTS OF TO-DAY!S HERALD. Paar 1—A dvertisements, 2— Advertisements. 3—Washington: Meeting of the Second Session of the Forty-second Congress; Interesting Pro- ‘ cocaine in Both Houses—The President's Message. 4—The President’s Message (Continued from Third Yaze)—The National Fimances: Annual Report of secretary Boutwell; Another Immense Alwount Of the Nauional Debt; A Reduction of 56,000,000 of Taxation Recommended. 5—Tie Nauonal Finances (Coutinued from Fourth Vage}—The Currency: Annual Report of Comp- troller Hulburd—The Postal Service: Annnal Report of Postmaster General Creswell—The Jnterior Departinent; Annual Keport of Secre- tary Delano. 6-Kuditorials: Leading article, “The President's Message—A Pract.cal state Paper in the Acts of the Administration Recited and tn the Legisiative Measures Kecummended”’—Amuse- ment Announcements. 7—Eduorial (Continucd from Sixth Page)—The Prince of Wales’ Castile, Englana—s) Germany and Frauce—Stormy Weather in ralia— Alexis im Phitadelphia—Misceda- 8 Telegraims—isusiuess Notices. Interior Departinent (Contunacd from Fifth J'age)—Tne Navy: Annual Report of Secretary loveson— Distric! torncy Morrls ou Sian- der—Sale of Old s— Marriages and Deaths, 9—Fivancial and Commercial Reports—Earopean Markets—Methodist Ministers’ Muddle—The ‘trouvies of a Doctor of Divinity—Crime in Wilnamsburg—Cut is Throat-Death from Yellow Fever—Advertisements, 3O—Municipal Affairs—Comptroiier Connolly's Case—Vediord’s Bembsheli—Procecdings ‘in the Courts--The Brooklyn Retorm Move- ment—Brooklyn Common Counct! — Kings County Supervisors—Shipoving Lntelligence— Aviverisemen:s. J1—Ad vertisements, 12—Adyertisements, &=1 Tne Reporrep Cauinet Cranazs all resolve themselves into the one fact that Attoraey General Akerman is to retire be- cause of a disagreement between him and the President on the subject of the Ku Klux. Tar Graxp Doe is repeating in Phila- delphia the festivities which he enjoyed in New York, although, of course, with that modified enjoyment natural to the less favora- ble abilities of the one city as compared to the other. He had a drive yesterday to Fair- mount Park, breakfasied at Belmont Mansion and attended a grand ball in the evening. Tak Prince or Wares’ ILtnxess,—The Trince of Wales passed a reatlesa night from Sunday evening to yesterday morning. He remained fevered and was still more uneasy at noon. The genvral symptoms were re- garded as favorable for bis recovery notwith- standing. The people were hopeful that His Royal Highness had already passed the crisis of the complaint, but the attending physicians had not announced the fact when the Hiratp report was forwarded. Tue Report oF THE CoMPrROLLER OF tik Currency suggests the practicability of a resumption of specie payments by the adoption of measures providing tor the re- demption ia coin of their notes by tue national banks, but excluding from such privilege the deposits. He instances New York, where the circulation of the bauks is only thirty-four million dollars, while the deposits are over two hundred million dollars. Gamepetra’s St. Quentin Spercu.—Gam- betta’s late speech at St. Quentin is more remarkable for length than for good sense, sound logic or disinterested patriotism. I's brevity, certainly, cannot be urged as an excuse for bis not baving sufficient space in which to unravel himself. M. Gambetta, like a distinguished American statesman, whore name it is not necessary to mention, is a man who is strongly addicted to » ‘‘my policy” principle, and uoless all other policies coincide with that they are erroneous, weak and in- efficient. Gambetta, we think, inclines very much to this idea, and bis St. Quaen‘in speech may be taken as an evidence of it. Bortier Sxcepep.—The champion of Essex is placed second on the Judiciary Committee of the House and first only on so ins'gnificant a commiitee as that for (he Revision of the Laws of the United States, This is supposed to be the revenge which the regular republicans choose to take upon him for his guerilla raid 9 the governorship in Massachusetts last fall, lt is about ag small a trick as they conld play, and it is also a very impolitic one. Batler isa valuable friend aod a terrible enemy. It would have been better for them had they for- given him bis sins and invited bim into broth- erly communion. As they have declared war, be sure be will make war with them, and when Builer chooses he can make it more uncom- fortable for his foes and at the same time attract more sympathy from his constituents than any other man ia the House. NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1871.-TRIPLE (SHEET. ; The Presidents Message—A Practical Siate Paper im the Acte ef the Administration Recked and ia the Legislative Measures Recommended. The President's Message is before our readers. It is an unpretending, practical matter-of-fact State paper, which challenges the general approbation of the country, both in respect to the acts of the sdministration during the eventful year that is drawing to a close and in the measures of legislation re- commended to Congress. Its distinguishing merit is that it is not encumbered with con- stitutional chop logic. Compared with the annual Messages of his “‘illustrious prede- cessors,” from General Jackson down to Mr. Johnson, the great Sou'wes- tern expounder of the constitution, this Message of General Grant is a model of brevity, though full of meat as anegg. Even a brief review of half the numerous important subjects in it touched upon would occupy a much larger space than the document itself, and so for the present our remarks upon it will be mainly addressed to a few of the lead- ing topics presented. First, then, upon oar foreign relations Gen- eral Grant, with an excusable pride, refers to the Treaty of Washington and the legislative Measures and appropriations necessary to carry its various provisions into effect. Mean- time, he has addressed a communication to the Governors of our Northern bor- der States, from New York to Wis- consin, suggesting the action needed on their part touching the reciprocal free navigation of the St. Lawrence and Lake Michigan, &c., provided for in said treaty. The ratifications of an important treaty of commerce have been exchanged with Italy. . Through a conference at Washington an armis- tice has been established between Spain and the South American allied republics. The President next speaks of the visit of the Rus- sian Grand Duke as a proof that the Czar de- sires to maintain the cordial relations of friend- ship that have existed so long between Russia and the United States. But—and this little word but is a great mischief maker—but, says our amiable President, ‘the inexcusable course of the Russian Minister at Washington rendered it necessary to ask his recall and to decline to receive that functionary as a diplomatic representative.” In short, it had become impossib!e to tolerate Mr. Catacazy any longer in his ministerial capacity, and so he has been withdrawn, and the “imperial legation has passed into the hands of a gentleman entirely unobjectionable,” as we are glad to know; and we are not inclined to be inquisitive as to what all this trouble with Mr. Catacazy was about. We like the suggestions of the Message touching our relations with Japan and China and our commercial interests in that quarter of the world, for they are up to the spirit of the aze; and we rather like, too, the frankness with which the affair in the Corea is stated and turned over to the discretion of Congress, We are, on the other hand, somewbat disappointed in the Message in refer- ence to Mexico. Those freebooters of the so-called ‘Free Zone” have given and are giving us much trouble, and General Grant, on tbis business and on the general anarchy in Mexico, has nothing stronger to say than this:—‘'I hope Mexico, by its own action, will soon relieve this gov- ernment of the difficulties experienced from these causes.” We had hoped, Mr. President, that you would electrify the country with an eloquent appeal in behalf of humanity, civili- zation, and our manifest destiny and manifest duty in Mexico. However, if we are not greatly mistaken you will soon have to come to this ultimatum as the only alternative for law and order in our chaotic sister republic. We guess that Garvey has not gone down to Nicaraugua, . for, as it appears, we have an extradition treaty with that country. We join in the congratulations of the Message touching the emancipation of the tlaves in Brazil; but we want a little more light than is given us on those mysterious complica- tions with Spain upon Coban affairs—those complications which, so far as we comprebend them, seem to us as involving an extraordi- nary American indulgence of Spanish inso- lence. And yet the President's representations concerning Cuban slavehojders claiming to be American citizens will, doubtless, bring ont in Congress some very curious revelations on this subject in the discussion of the constitutional legislation recommended, Passing from our foreign relatiovs to our domestic affairs, General Grant, first touching upon the desirable reduction of the national debt already achieved, thinks that we have thus brought our national finances to that satisfactory condition which will justify a considerable reduction of our national taxes. The information given by the Hrratp to the public on this subject some days ago is fully confirmed. Indeed our foreshadowings of the Message in every respect were very near the mark. On this home question of taxation General Grant recommends ‘a modification of both the tariff and internal tax laws,” and “that all taxes from internal sources be abol- ished, except those collected from spirituous, vinous and malt liquors, tobacco in its various forms, and from stamps.” In readjusting the tariff be recommends the policy of the ‘‘greatest good to the greatest number,” and if a heavier reduction is deemed advisable than the addi- tion of certain articles to the free list, he recommends ‘‘that it be made upon those articles which cao best bear it, without distarb- ing home production or reducing the wages of American labor.” That proposition is good for thirty or forty thousand majority in Pennsylvania for Gen- eral Grant; and it joins issue so fairly and squarely with the free traders that they will now be compelled to define their position in Congress and throughout the country. I: challenges the democrats and free-trade re- publicans to take the opposite ground of free trade, and it is the only issue upon which is offered them that complete antagonism which is the very life of a political party out of power against the party in possession of the government. The Message spikes the guns of Carl Schurz ou the question of general am- nesty and on civil service reform ; and the facts recited and referred to by the President con- ceruing the Ku Klux Klana, leave only o small margis for political eapital to General Blair on that question, The only undisputed field, therefore, left to the bolting republicans aod the democrats as a fasion varly is the question. Upon the Army, the Navy, the Interior and the Post Office Departments the representa- tions and recommendations of the Message are generally satisfactory; and the sugges- tions in connection with the Indian tribes, the postal service, custom houses, office-seekers, the public lands, &o., and in reference to liberal appropriations for the improvement of the city of Washington, our national capital, and for the immediate construction of needful public buildings in Chicago, will surely be carried out by Congress. Upon the Mormon question the Message is very explicit, for General Grant thug defines his Mormon policy :—“‘Neither polygamy nor any viola- tion of existing statutes will be permitted within the territory of the United States. It is not with the religion of the self-styled Saints that we are now desling, but with their practices. They will be protected in the worship of God according to the dictates of their conscience; but they will not be per- mitted to violate the laws under the'cloak of religion,” That's flat enough, But the Mes- sage suggests, nevertheless, an enabling act from Congress (an old idea of the Hepatp) whereby the Territorial government of Utah may legitimize and provide for the polygamous children of the Mormon Saints, notwithstanding the general divorcement of these patriarchs from their surplus wives. This Message will undoubtedly create terrible excitement at Salt Lake City and in all the other Mormon settlements; for it simply means the extirpation in Utah of Mormon polygamy, or its removal from the United States, as the fixed purpose of the national administration. To sum up this Message: as an exposition of the doings of the administration in the man- agement of all the vast concerns of the several departments of the government, on the land and the water, athome and abroad, during the year which is now closing, it is a good ex- hibit of a faithful execution of the laws, an honest disposition of the public money and a rigid punishment of public defaulters. In the next place, the Message in its recommenda- tions to Congress covers a budget of legisla- tive measures and reforms necessary or whole- some in their character. In a word, whether considered as embodying the views of a states- man ambitious only to promote the material prosperity and moral advancement of his country, or as a political campaign document from candidate for another Presidential term, this Message is well calculated to strengthen General Grant and to weaken his adversaries throughout the United States. The Reopeniug of the French Assembly. Yesterday the French Assembly was recon- vened and the sittings were resumed at Ver- sailles, The President's Message, the outlines of which we had in advance on Saturday last, and on which we commented at the time, was sent ia and read. It is a coincidence not nn- worthy of passing notice that the United States Congressand the National Assembly of the French republic should have resumed their sittings on the same day. The Message of President Grant and the Message of Presi- dent Thiers are both of them entitled to be spoken of as important political documents, and by statesmen the wide world over they will be read eagerly and with interest. President Grant, in a clear, simple, intelligent and satisfactory way, speaks the sentiments of the people of the United States. Would that we could say so much for the message of President Thiers, The republic of the United States, as is evidenced by all the official reports this morning, marches on in her tri- umphant career towards the achievement of grander viciories than she has ever yet won. On the opening day of the French National Assembly signs were not wanting that the so- called republic under the Presidency of M. Thiers is trembling in the balance. It is our opinion that the new French republic might have had brighter prospects before it if Presi- dent Thiers had pursued a wiser and a more decisive policy. It is difficult to-day to believe that the French republic can last over two monthe, No man can tell what President Thiers means. He bas found it impossible to restore the House of Orleans; he is not much in favor of the restoration of the Bonapartes; but he has done nothinz, and, se far as we kaow, he is doing nothing, to estab- lish the republic on a solid and durable basis, His do-nothing policy has been one long, con- tinuous blunder. The French people in the cities and in the rural districts wait to-day with less hope and confidence than they had on the day he was elected to the Presidential ebair. What is coming they cannot tell. What to. do they do not know. The entire nation is to a certain extent paralyzed. Paris is still a dishonored city. Its theatres and hotels and palaces are empty. Its boulevards are de- serted. Its citizens are idle, The indemnity money, it is true, has been faithfully paid to Germany; but the treatment to which the German soldiers who are still on French soil are subjected is such that the public sentiment of Germany is aroused, and Bismarck, who ad- mits the justice of the public complaint, is re- ported to be making arrangements for a fresh occupation of some of the northern provinces. In addition to all this President Thiers, by ordering or consenting to the recent executions, has made himself and his goveru- ment contemptable, if not cruel, in the eyes, not of Frenchmen only, but of reading and thinking meno all over the civilized world. The present prospective troubles of France are many. Our present and prospective troubles are few. It is not for us to blame France so much as pity her; and while we pity France we ought not to forget that we owe much to an all-wise Providence, who has given us a more goodly heritage in more pleasant places. The time must come when our government shall more and more be the model to Europe; but so far as we can judge from the fresh experiment which France is making Europe is not yet ripe for the enjoy- ment of the blessings of republican institu- tions, Tur Mempais Avalenche regards Frank Blair as a disturbing element in the demo- cratle party. There is not much of a dem- cratic party for anybody to be a great deal disturbed about, field of free trade, It is an inviting field and |The Assembling of full of promise; but will these outside poli- | Standing Committees—The President's An- ticians, casting about for a new departure, nual Message. have the courage to enter it? That is the The machine which sometimes goes by the | of the present incumbents, Congress—The House name of the “assembled wisdom of the nation” was again set in motion yesterday at Washing- ton, where it will keep running with occasional holiday intermissions for the next six or eight months. The organization of the House was completed by the appointment of its regular standing committees. The constitution of those committees is given in our regular report of the proceedings. Mr. Dawes, of Massa- chusetts, the oldest and most respected mem- ber of the House, stands at the head of the most important of them—that of Ways and Means—and will, therefore, continue to be regarded as the leader of the House. Mr. Dawes is a protectionist in policy, but not to so great and mischievous a degree as to resist any proper measure of reform in our tariff or internal revenue laws. The second and third members of the committee—May- nard, of Tennessee, and Kelley, of Penn- sylvania—will make up in their devotion to the principle of protection any lack of such devo- tion that may be found in the chairman. Fourth on the list is Mr. James Brooks, of New York, as fiery and ardent a champion of free trade as Kelley is of protection to coal and iron and other Pennsylvania interests. Bat the trouble is that Mr. Brooks is now where he can only preach free trade to China- men, Japanese or other Orientals, Then comes a Western man—Finkelnburg, of Missouri—who is willing enough to protect the iron and other industrial interests of that State, but who is do so ef- of the just as ready, if he cannot fectually, to join the ranks free traders, Burchard, of Illinois, and Roberts, of Utica, N. Y., are the next on the list, and go probably under the same category as Finkelnburg does, while the last two members of the committee—Kerr, of Indiana, and Beck, of Kentucky—are tho- roughly imbued with the principles of the free trade school and have the ability and energy to make their views and influence felt. It will be seen, therefore, that the Speaker has not laid himself open to any charge of par- tiality or unfairness in the constitution of this important committee, or, if any leaning to either side is observable, it is not to the side of the monopolists. The chairmanships of the other principal committees are allotted as follows :—That of Appropriations to Garfield, of Ohio; that of Banking and Currency to Hooper, of Massa- chusetts; that of the Pacific Railroad to Wheeler, of New York; that of Claims to Blair, of Michigan; Commerce to Shellabar- ger, of Ohio; Public Lands to Ketcham, of New York; Post Offices to Farns- worth, of _ Illiaois; Indian = Affairs to Shanks, of Indiana; Military Affairs to Coburn, of Indiana; Judiciary to Bingham, of Obio; Naval Affairs to Scofield, of Pennsylvania; Foreign Affairs to Banks, of Massachusetts; Railways and Canals to Packer, of Pennsylvania; Revision of the Laws to Butler, of Massachusetts, and the Select Committee on Insurrectionary States to Poland, of Vermont. It is not to be supposed that these appointments or the general consti- tution of the committees give complete satis- faction to members; but, on the whole, we think that they have been as fairly and impar- tially distributed as it was in the Speaker's power to disiribute them. The principal business of the day in both houses was the reception and reading of the President’s annual Message, the main feature and impress of which is the sentiment of peace and conciliation at home and abroad. Among the recommendations of the President which will meet with general approval are the revision and reduction of the tariff, the aboli- tion of all internal revenue taxes except those on spirits, malt liquors, tobacco and stamps, the absorption of the telegraph into the postal system, a return to specie payments and the encouragement of our steamship lines from San Francisco to China and to Australia, The Message discusses concisely these and a great many other points of public interest and im- portance, and does so in a vigorous, terse and pointed style, which does credit to its author. Among the miscellaneous matters introduced into either house were resolutions of inquiry into the President's reasons and justification for his suspension of the habeas corpus and the establishment of martial law in South Carolina, and bills to repeal the income tax, to grant bounty lands to the soldiers and sailors of the late war, to revive the navigation and commercial interests, and to provide for the resumption of specie payment. Each House remained in session for about two hours and a half, and thus got fairly started on the work of the long session. The Report of the Navy Department. Secretary Robeson in his report submitted yesterday to Congress states that the Navy of the United States now consists of one hundred aud seventy-nine vessels of all classes—sailing ships, steamers (sidewheel and screw), moni- tors, cruisers, despatch boats, hospital, store, receiving and practice ships, and tags and other amall vessels—carrying in all thirteen hundred and ninety guns. Out of fifty-two monitors only one is now in commission, the rest being eitber laid up at the various stations or still on the stocks unlaunched and uncompleted. Of these one bundred and seventy-nine vessels only foriy are on duty on our foreign etations ; ten, composing the North Atlantic squadron, stationed along our own Ailantic coast and in West Jndiaa waters; four, comprising the South Atlantic squadron, along the Caribbean Sea and the eastern coust of South America; nine, the Pacific fleet, which ranges all the way from Chile and Pera to San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands; nine, the Asiatic squadron, which has jurisdiction in Chinese and Japanese waters, including the neighborhood of the Corea, and eight, the European squad- dron, which upholds our merely ornamental dignity in the Mediterranean Sea and the Eng- lish Chanuel. Mr. Robeson suggests that a reduction be made in the personnel of the navy, the grade of Commodore to be dispensed with at once anid the grades of Admiral and Vice Admiral to be abandoned with the death or resignation He makes no sug- gestion whatever relative to increasing the force of war vessels on our various stations or increasing the number of enlisted men, It is stated that the law limiting the number of en- instances prevented much-needed war ships from getting to sea by reason of the fact that their working forces were depleted by sickness or absence without leave, and that the places of these useless ones could not be filled by new recruits without overrunning the Congressional limit. We do not know that we need more vessels, but we certainly need to have more of those now on the list in service. The recent call for aid from Havana showed us, just in time for a very suggestive comment upon Mr. Roheson’s report, that our navy is in a condi- tion where it is at least unavailable, and that ina great we are likely to be left entirely without that ald and comfort which the Presence of a few gallant men-of-war flying our flag and bristling with our guns alone can give. We have American citizens and Amert- can interests in every part of the earth, even if we have no American commerce, and one of our first duties to these, as well as to our own safety at home, is to have plenty of war ships, fully manned, in good condition and ready for instant and effective service. Repert of the Secretary ef the Treasary. Mr. Boutwell commences his report on the national finances with a flattering exhibit. The public debt had been reduced over ninety- four millions of dollars during the last fiscal year ending June 80, 1871, and over two hun- dred and seventy-seven millions since March, 1869. The annual interest on the debt has been reduced since the commencement of Gen- eral Grant's administration $16,741,436. The net receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871, were:— From eale of public tai 8 From miscellaneous. . 81,096, 7368 ‘Total (omitting fracttons) «$383, 323,004 This statement agrees with what we have said all along, to the effect that the receipts would amount to near four hundred millions, and that the revenue had been coming in to swell the amount more than that proportion- ately for the last five months, The expenditures for the fiscal year were :-— For civil and miscellaneous purposes For War Department. For Navy Department ¥or Indians. For pensions. .. For iuterest on public Total (fractions omitted)... $292,177,138 The true expenditure for the War Depart- meat was, however, $44,080,084, as the sum of $8,280,093 was the proceeds of sales of war materials and deducted from that amount. The expenditure for the fiscal year, therefore, was $300,457,281. This is stupendous and unnecessary. After deducting the interest on the debt the current expenses of the govern- ment amounted to $174,880,718, This is nearly three times the amount expended twelve years ago and previous to the war. The civil and miscellaneous expenditures— whatever the latter may mean—are about as much as the whole cost of the government be- fore the war, including that for the army, navy, Indians, pensions and everything else. This is shameful extravagance. Admitting that forty-four millions are necessary for the War Department, nineteen millions and a half for the navy, seven millions for the Indian service, and over thirty-four mil- lions for pensions, surely sixty-nine or seventy millions are not needed for the civil service and miscellaneous objects, We think, indeed, considerable retrenchment is necessary in the War Department and other departments in time of peace and for an economical admin- istration of the government; but certainly the sum for the civil service and miscellane- ous purposes is fearfully extravagant. The receipts for the first quarter of the present fiscal year were $107,198,374. The estimated receipts for the remaining three quarters are $258,000,000. ‘I'he total is $265,198,374. Now, looking at the enormous receipts for the last quarter and at Mr. Bout- well’s habit of greatly underestimating, we are inclined to think the revenue for the cur- rent fiscal year will amount to about as much as that of last year, or about four hundred millions. The estimated expenditures for the current fiscal year amount io $293,403,882. This ac- tually exceeds the expenditures last year. It seems impossible for the Secretary to bring down his ideas to economy. The expenses are at least fifty millions too large. Then, with even the low estimate—an estimate much too low—of the revenue for the remaining three- quarters of the year, Mr. Boutwell would have about seventy-two millions excess for the pay- ment of the debt. We have no doubt he will have a hundred millions, unless Congress should make a sweeping reduction of taxation in spite of the financial policy of the Secretary, The whole system, both of expenditures and revenue, is extravagant and demoralizing. A hundred millions of taxes could be taken off, as we have often said before, and then the government would have enough for all de- mands upon it, if economically administered, and have a good sum to spare to be applied to the liquidation of the debt. Mr. Bout- well says, iodeed, the time has come when taxation may be reduced, and he recommends Congress to take certain taxes off; but his plan is on such & sipall scale and the relief proposed so little that hardly any- body would feel the benefit. He is a small, peddling man in this, as in everything else. He has none of the grasp of a statesman or of a respectable financier, We publish in another part of the paper the Secre‘ary’s report, and our readers will see the old financial policy continued, with very slight and unimportant modifications. We sball take another occasion to discuss it more fully, and in connection with that Mr. Bout- well’s pet syndicate business, his currency notions and other matters pertaining to the administration of the Treasury Department. The Kepert ef the Department laterior. Secretary Delano's report refers in satisfac~ tory terms to the operations of the Indian policy of the government. The cash re- ceipte for the sale of public lands amounted to nearly three million dollars, being an excess in sales of over two millions and a half acres above those of the previous year, Although there is a surplus of over one hundred and eleven thousand dollars in the Patent Office above expenditures, an appropriation for the next fiscal year of over six hundred thousand dollars is asked, Is nut the Patent Office a paying concera? of the listed men to eight thousand has ia several | Neatly thirty-two millions and @ half have ——_—_- been disbursed by the Pension Bureau during the year. Three-fourths of the census tablo arein type. Professor Hayden's geolozical survey of the sources of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivera ig pronounced a success, Railway enterprises constitute the burden of several pages of the report. On the whole the report is a satlsfactory exhibit of the internal affairs of the republic, But there is one very important matter we would suggest to the Secretary: let him hurry up the pub- lication of the census reports, _—_—_———-_ The Postmaster General’s Report—Postal Telegraphs and Savings Banke. The report of the Postmaster General does not present a very gratifying exhibit of the financial affairs of the department. With an increased revenue for the past year we have also an increased expenditure nearly equal in amount, and a total deficit in the ordinary revenues of $4,350,000. This arises in a great measure from the opening of new routes and the increase in annual transportation, all of which are necessary in a young and rapidly growing republic, where new communities are constantly carrying life into the wilderness, aod where education ‘and its require- ments keep pace with the progress of the country and the prosperity of the people. The extension of mail facilities throughout even the most sparsely populated districts is an imperative duty imposed upon the national administration, and no mere question of dol- lars should be permitted to interfere for an instant with the bestowal of the benefits and blessings of a thoroughly efficient mail service upon those most deserving members of the community, the pioneers of civilization. The reor.anization of the Southern postal routes, thrown into such disorder by the war, has also continued to be a drain upon the resources of the department during the last year. The hope is expressed, both in the report and in the President's message, that the day is not far distant when the postal service may become self-supporting ; but this is a far less impor- tant consideration than its present improvement and extension. There is ro doubt ample room for reforms in our present system, and they should be undertaken in a broad spirit of intelligence and liberality without reference to cost, except in the exercise of a wise economy and the enforcement of honesty in all branches of the department. The readjustment of the rates of compensation for the transportation of mails on railroad routes is absolutely necessary to insure rapid transmission, and it is a dis- grace to the nation that we should depend upon foreign countries for the bulk of our ocean mailservice. These great points should no longer be evaded by Congress, and the Post Office Department should be brought up to the standard demanded by the splendid prospect opening before us as the centre of the commerce of the world. The Postmaster General recommends the immediate assumption of the telegraphic business of the country by bis department, and deprecates further delay in this great national undertaking as injurious to the public interests, He also advocates the adoption of the system of Post Office savings banks now in successfal operation in Great Britain. On both these points the suggestions of the Post- master General are endorsed by the President, who especially recommends to Congress a favorable consideration of the plan for uniting the telegraph and postal systems of the Unit:d States. Government telegraphs are no longer an experiment. Wherever they have been adopted in Europe they have rapidly become self-supporting, while in a majority of instances they have yielded a good surplus revenue. As the universal principle of the government system has been to invest all the net proceeds year after year in the extension of telegraphic accommodation and to decrease the rates to the lowest paying point, it is evident that as years pass on these institutions must become more and more pro- fitable with the completion of lines and the increase of population and of business. When the government sys'em was confined to a few of the smaller nations of the European Conti- nent the argument of the private telegraph corporations was that it might succeed in such countries, but would fail ona more extended scale. The great success of the English postal telegraph, however, destroys that plea, and it has been found that the larger the area covered by a population the more valua- ble to the people becomes the government system. A few facts alone are sufficient to show how greatly our own citizens would be bene- fited by the low and uniform rates prevailing in Europe. Messages of twenty words, exclu- sive of the address of the recipient, are sent all distances in Great Britain for twenty-four cents American money. Thus, from London to Inverness, a distance of six hundred miles, ® message is despatched at this low rate. In France the tariff is only twenty cents, American currency, for twenty words, in- cluding the address, and for this a message can be sent from Calais to Nice, a distance of seven hundred and eighty miles. In Belgium and Switzerland a message of twenty words costs only ten cents for all distances. The tariff from Calais to Madrid, seventeen hun- dred miles, on a twenty-word message, is but eighty cents, and the same number of words can be sent from the extreme limits of the Prussian territory to the borders of the Baltic for thirty-seven cents, American money. Those of our citizens who are in the habit of using the telegraph lines at home will be able to judge for themselves of the advantages of the government system over a private monopoly, 80 far as cheapness of rates is concerned. The lowness of tariff is not, however, tho only or the greatest public advantage of a postal telegraph, The goverament seeks to bring the wires into general use, and thus its object is to extend the facility for telegraph- ing into every part of the country, while a private company will only touch at such points as will yield a profit, The immediate effect of the assuwption of the business by the government in England was'an increase of thirty to forty po: cent in private telegraphing, mainly realized between the most distant pyints. In tho United States, where the distances betweon important commercial cities is so great, the postal system would be ‘much enhanced in value, The longer the time consumed in the transmission of a letter by mail the more valuable becomes cheap telegraphic communication, The ordinary telegram, dropved ta the Rost Officg, stamped, .