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

6 | NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, rdhaneribanamarinnehiee) JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Heratp. Volume XXXVI. jo. 355 AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—FaTR—BRoTHER BILL amp Broture BEN. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tur Batter Pan- TOMINE OF HUMPTY DUMPTY. BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., corner Sixth av.— HAMLET. ‘WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Sith st.—Perform- ances afternoon and evening.—1LOXET OF LEAVE MAN. FIFTH AVENUE THEATR' Tr fourth street. — Tur NEw Dawa OF Divouos. spats net HALL, Fourteenth street.--NiL880x Con- LINA EDWIN's THEATRE, No. 136 Broadway.—OPERa BourrE—Baguk Bueve. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and 13th street.— Joun Gaxtu. NIBLO'’S GARDEN, Broadway, betwoen Prince and Houston streets.—BL.Ack CRooK, MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— ROMANOE OF 4 Poon YOUNG MAN. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street—PRoFEsson MAYER ON MAGNETIOM. COOPER INSTITUTE—Da. Cor " Le LTON'S LECTURE ON THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—t oe ete oy roadway.—Comio Vooale UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st. and Broad- way.—NEGRO ACTS—BURLESQUE, BALLRT, £0. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— NxoRo EcENTRICITIEG, BURLESQUES, 40. BRYANT’S NEW UPERA HOUS! andiihavs--Duvanra Mexerance, "2 oh between 6th SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HAL! Bi — Tax SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, ssa iins NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteentn strecet.—ScENES IN THE RING, ACROBATS, £0. acaxors GREAT bOUTHERN CIRCUS, 728 Broadway.— N TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Thursday, December 21, 1871. OF TO-DAY’S HERALD, co! Pace. 1-- Advertisements, 2—Advertsements. 3—Washington: The Senate and Southern Am- nesiy; Liveiy Sketeh of the House Debate on the Labor Question; A Fashionable Washing- ton Wedding; The Cuban Daughters See the Great Father—The Wharton ‘Trial: Re-exam- ination of Dr. Wilhams; General Ketchum’s huimed a Weck Ago—Tne Grand Duke Alex Miscellaneous Telezrams, 4—Congr fhe General Amnesty Bill in the Benate; A Sandstone, Nepotism and St. Do- mingo Inquiry Cailed For; Cost of the Mixed Commission ‘and Geneva Conterence; The Labor Commission Bill d by the House— Around the City Hai ne Mayor's Con- templated Resignation; Peter Bb. Sweeny Pf Heard From; Connolly and Tweed—The Lewis Sureet Pandemontum—Uorrible Death in Hovoken—Political Morality in Jersey—rhe Shortest. Day—Another Homiciue, ions: Santa Claus and the Ficklo What Our Belles May Expect; How ble Young Man May Please fis Swevctheari—The New York foundling Asy- jum—A Wail from Mormon Land—The Mur- dered Convict; Prison Lie at Sing Sing; Trial rd Morgan for the Murder of a Fellow Bold Ben Butler—the Beiden Will Case—New York City News—Brooklyn Af- {alrs—Wool Growers’ Conveution—Incendiar- ism in Jersey—Union League Reception—A House broken Up—Reminiscences of the Revolution—suicide by Drowning, Leading article, “The suez Canal i:ngiand’s Opportunity” —Amuse- ment Announcements. Y—Editorials (Continuea trom Sixth Page)—Spain: Premier Malcampo's Resigtation aud a Min- isterial Crisis—The Prince oi Wales’ Health— France: The Communist Trials and Work and Record of the Courts—The Geneva Von American Intervention and = Anticipated—Personal Intellt- gence—Miscellaneous = Telegrams—Views ~ of the Past—Basiness Notic S—The Curse of the Prison: id of the Trial of the Assassins of Gusta’ audey; More of the Barbarities of the Commune—A Bank In- spector Arrested—-The Broken Banks—Tnial of Miver, the Alleged Coanterfeiter—Annual Meeting of the Howard Missiou—The Croton Board ete py of Broadway—The Fire Department- Shail We Have a Navy or Not?—The Presidency in 1872—Running Notes, Political and General—The Cotton Crop in a Tart of the South—The Methodist Tract So- ciety. 9—State of the Streets: Alarming Accumulation of Filth; Meeting of the Koard of Health—Pri- mary School No. 16—Mceting of the Commis- sioners of Public Instruciton—News from Egypt—Art in Asia Items from Atia—Death of a Prominent Kings County Lawyer—Finan- cial and Commercial Reports—Domestic and European Markets—Virginia Finances—Mar- rlages and Deaths, tO—Foley’s Meeting: Rapid Transit and Reforma- tion—Ammusements—Onituary—South — Caro- lina—Afiairs Along the Hudson—Telegraphio News ftems—Shipping 1utetligence—Aaver- tisements. 41—Proceedings in the Courts—Affairs in the Ar- geptine Confederation, Uruguay and Vene- zuela—The Saving unk Question: Proposed Introduction of Pr anks; Advantages to the Working Ciasses—Crime in the Crescent City—The Telegraph in Japan—Advertise- ments. 12— Adverusement: Gorp 108}.—Gold is still on the downward grade, Yesterday the price declined to 108}. Henxmer, N. Y., is to have a new Court House. Look out for pickings and stealings, Wantrp—A list of the crises through which Mexico has passed within the last quarter of acentury. Apply at the State Department, Wasbington. Oart Souvrz has warned General Grant that ‘‘the American people are on the point of demanding an honest government.” We hope so, That will be a point which might well ‘point a moral and adorn a tale,” MoCreery succeeds Garret Davis in the United States Senate from Kentucky. What will become of Garret? Let him have an op- portunity of indulging in his favorite condl- ment, ‘‘Attic salt.” Tox New Caniner or Ontanio.—The members of the old Ministry having placed their resignation in the hands of the Lieu- tenant Governor, be has lost no time in seek- Ing for a new Cabinet. So far the appoint- ments of President of the Council and Premier, Provincial Secretary, Commissioner of Agri- culture, Immigration and Public Works and Attorney General have been made. Accord- ing to our despatches the other portfolios have not been taken up. Mexico is getting to be a nuisance which demands immediate abatement at the hands of our government. Our special despatch from Matamoros gives an altogether gloomy account of affairs in that hotbed of anarchy and revolution. The people of Matamoros, Mexico, as well as those of the neighbor- ing town of Brownsville, on the American side, are earnestly wishing and confidently ooking for American Intervention for the benefit of humanity and civilization, To attain this end the Congressional Representa- tives of Texas are to be memorialized by the citizens of Brownsville. When Mexicans as well as Americans discnss the desirability of interference by the United States surely our government cannot longer hesitate in doing what bas now become its evident duty. NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1871.—TRIPLE SHEET. The Sues Canat for Sale—England’s Opportunity. Since the collapse of the French empire it has been known that the Suez Canal has been in the market, The canal across the isthmus was really a French and mainly an imperial enterprise. M. de Lesseps was the visible in- carnation of the movement; but the world was not ignorant that, through the Empress Enugénie, M. Ferdinand de Lesseps was to all intents and purposes a member of the impe- rial family, Less has been said about the canal in commercial quarters than ordinary business minds were naturally entitled to expect, It is now a reasonably long time since Sedan and the déchéance, and M. de Lesseps is entitled to some praise for holding on to and maintaining the value of his prop- erty. Inallthe future the Suez Canal, as we know it, must continue to be spoken of as one of the greatest undertakings and greatest triumphs of an enlightened and enterprising age; and the Suez Canal will be lastingly ard honorably associated with the name of Ferdinand de Lesseps. It is a coincidence not altogether undeserving of notice that on the same day we are ap- prised through the Atlantic cable that two of the Princes of the House of Orleans have taken their seats in the National Assembly, and that M. de Lesseps, having failed to induce the Sul- tan and the Khedive to take the canal off his hands, is now applying to other governments to effect a sale. We are not disposed to make too much of the coincidence. It may be a mere accident and nothing more. At the eame time it is noteworthy and suggestive. It consists with general belief that the Suez Canal is considered in England a really valu- able property. The objections urged against it by Lord Palmerston and the politicians of his school were based on political, not on com- mercial grounds. The success of the canal was never a sorrow in England. It was rather a cause of joy, because, while its con- struction had cost British merchants little, it promised to be to them a fruitful source of wealth, It was impossible, however, for the British government or for any combination of British capitalists to make the canal their own so long as the French empire lasted or so long as the chances for the restoration of the Bona- partes were, to appearance, immediate and certain. Delay in disposing of the canal has, we believe, mainly resulted from a conviction thatthe empire might yet be restored, and that in that case what the empire had begun and fostered the empire might delight to cling to and call its own and leave as a legacy to France. But in a gigantic undertaking like that of the Suez Canal, the expenses of which must, for years to come, be equal to the re- ceipts, delay cannot beyond a certain point be protracted. Although, therefore, we cannot say that the cause of the adherents of the empire in and out of France is yet desperate, or that a crisis has been produced by the ap- pearance of the Princes of the House ot Or- leans in the National Assembly, it is impossible for us to overlook the fact that the Suez Canal is in the market. The canal is in Turkish territory; it ison the soil of Egypt; but the Sultan will not buy, the Khedive will not buy ; and so the famous Suez Canal, which for so many years has filled the mind of the world, is in quest of a purchaser. Who sbould buy? This question in the judgment of all thinking ‘men answers itself. The Suez Canal to-day is valuable, immedi- ately and really valuable, only to Great Britain. That it should be so and not other- wise the British goverament knew from the outset. As we have said already, the caniion of that government in its policy towards the canal enterprise resulted from political and not from mercantile reasons, Mercantile reasons, however, are now stronger than they once were. British shippers have found out that they really can reach India by the Suez Canal—nay, that in six weeks they can do as much actual business with Bombay and Calcutta as formerly they could do in six months, The old line around the Cape is therefore being abandoned. Elegant steamers, big and strong enough to fight throngh the Bay of Biscay and to weather the waters of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, are gradually taking the place of the great old hulking East Indiamen which were wont to make the outward aad homeward voyage in twelve or fourteen months. We know of one British company, which was wont to boast of an outgoing and an incoming East Indiaman every month which is now, taking full advantage of the Suez Canal, doing its best to have an outgoing and an incoming East Indiaman every week. To tell the whole truth it must be added that the best and most trusted captains of the old line are being selected for the new. This, we think, is proof sufficient that the canal pleases the merchants, If anything else were required we might add that in November, 1869, of twelve steamships which passed through the canal seven were British, and that in Novem- ber, 1870, of forty-two ships which had passed through the canal thirty were British. In addition to all this it must be remembered that Great Britain has, for nearly a century, been sighing for the complete and unqualified pos- session of Egypt, as the only possible means of permanently securing ber hold of her grand East Indian empire. All the new trans-conti- nental railroads projected by English engi- neers and encouraged by English capitalists, and their name is Legion, have India for their ultimate object; but the pet idea to which the British government and people cling is that which makes Egypt their own, and forthe sim- ple reason that while it makes her land connec- tion easy it leaves ber in full possession of the dominion of the Southern and Eastern seas. The present situation of affairs gives Eng- land ber opportunity, The Suez Canal is in the market, and she can buy it, It cannot be said that Great Britain has pushed her own cause, but it is not to be denied that her opportunity has come. It was said some time since by Mr. Disraeli, in some respects the most far-seeing ~ etatesman of Great Britain in these anxious and thoughtful days, that the British empire had ceased to be European and had become Asiatic, All the world felt that the author of ‘'Oo- nyngsby” was right, and that he had given the British people and government a hint which, if they were wise, they might profit by, The opportunity has come, If Mr. Gladstone is not equal to the occasion, Mr. Disraeli may find it convenient to force a crisis, out of which the ancient tory gentleman. who has ! always gone heartily in for the British em- pire abroad, may come forth triumphant. The opportunity is in every respect favorable. We can think of no nation which would object to the purchase. The war cloud, which for time rested over the north of Europe and threatened to disturb the relations between Germany and Austria on the one hand and Russia on the other, has evaporated. In the political horizon to the northeast of Europe the sky is clear; and as it is for the present the only point of the compass which Great Britain requires to observe with any anxiety, the present administration will disappoint the empire and ruin its own hopes if it is not found equal to the emergency. It is not to be imagined that the Suez Canal can fall into the hands of either Russia or Germany. With the Suez Canal in the hands of Great Britain, and with the Panama Canal in our hands, the future of the world is in Anglo-Saxon hands. This is what ehould be. If England fails we shall be disappointed. The Massing ef Troops at Paris—A Siguif- cant Movement. The discontent and uneasiness manifested in Paris at the present time is not confined to any class of its inhabitants. President Thiers evi- dently feels uneasy and anxious. Large bodies of troops are stationed in and around the viciaity of Paris. Though the people have no arms in their possession, still the govern- ment is manifestly apprehensive of something which may give cause for disturbances. There are at present close on one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers in and surrounding the city. According to one of our Paris correspondents extraordinary military measures are taken for some purpose as yet undefined. On the night of November 8 the approaches to the camp at the Park of St. Cloud were strongly guarded ; outpost pickets were stationed at the bridges, and guards and sentinels doubled at all points. What is the meaning of all these military de- monstrations? Does President Thiers fear a rising of the people? Such a calamity in the present condition of affairs would have a most disastrous effect on the country, and tend, we fear, to paralyze, if not overthrow, the repub- lic. Marshal MacMahon is Mm command of all the forces now surrounding Paris, and the old hero, true soldier as he is to his country, is nevertheless a strong imperialist at heart. When we consider the present disturbed con- dition of the political atmosphere, the anxiety pervading all classes, the discontent of the working people, the effect of neglected work- shops and silent machinery, the intrigues of parties and the massing of the military around the city, a feeling of apprehension arises for the future, and it is difficult, indeed, to think what even a day may brinz forth, Tne WoEREABOUTS OF Peter B, SWEENY.— It is customary, under the new reform dispen- sation, to brand every person who has been unfortunate enough to have been connected with the Tammany city government, and who happens to leave New York on business or pleasure, as a fugitive thief. The political re- formers, indeed, appear to have so much to occupy them in indiscriminate abuse of all their political opponents that they could do nothing to prevent the escape of the real rogues. Ex-Park Commissioner Peter B. Sweeny, who has been reported to have fled from the city, telegraphs us from St. Catha- rine’s, Canada West, stating that he is staying there for a few weeks, that when he left New York there was no imputation against him, and that he is ready to answer at any time to any charges that may be made against his official integrity. Tne Soort-Bowen Ficat at Cotumeta, S. C., is to be waged to the bitter end. Since the consideration of the report of the investi- gating committee Governor Scott has been hunting up his friends, and bas succeeded in creating a counter sensation through the agency of the colored member of the House of Representatives from Georgetown, who yesterday introduced ‘‘some spicy correspond- ence” to show that Bowen himself had been the “‘daysman” between the financial agent in New York and the prosecution which the Gov- ernor recently inaugurated against him. It is also stated that the Governor has secured a majority of sympathizers, who consider that the statements in reference to the over-issue of State bonds have been greatly exaggerated, and that the movement against Scott is nothing more nor less than a malicious persecution, Tue Lrmerat Repverrcans or Missourt.— The St. Louis Republican—organ of the “passive democracy”—publishes the address of the Liberal Republican State Committee, signed, also, by five of the State officers— including Governor Gratz Brown—three of the State Senators and twenty-one members of the House and by other citizens of promi- nence. A State Convention is called, and active preparations are to be made to carry out the policy of the liberals inaugurated last year. We refer to extracts from the address given in another column, It is the first movement in the direction of the Presidential campaign of 1872 yet developed, and hence possesses gene- ral interest and importance. Tae Beavtiru, SNow aND ACOUMULATED Tog on the roads and in the canals and rivers are great drawbacks to travel and trade. Ac- cording to our telegraphic reports from all parts of the country yesterday, published elsewhere, several rivers have been entirely closed by ice, trains were long overdue In con- sequence of the snow, and it was generally be- lieved to be the coldest day of the present season, Tug Cumr or tHE Rerormers—Who is he? Who but the famous ©, ©. Bowen, charged with bigamy, and convicted In Wash- ington of bigamy and sentenced therefor, and pardoned by the President, Ho has since turned up the chief of the reformers in the South Carolina Legislature, and is moving heaven and earth for the impeachment of Governor Soott, Wonders will never cease, Gtap To Hear It—That our venerable statesman, W. H. Seward, is not suffering from ill health, as reported, but that yesterday, when an inquiring friend at Auburn called at bis house, the answer was that “Mr. Seward, sir, is out on a sleigh ride.” We wish him ‘‘a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.” A Harp Prosizm—The strike of the stone cutters at Westerly, Rhode Island, yester- day, and how to settle the verpiexities be- tween capital and labor, Congress Yesterday—Tire Amnesty Bill in the Senate and the International Bill fu the House. The Senate spent the greater part of yoster- day's session in debating a bill which should be passed without a moment's discussion, and which all the Senators who spoke seem in favor of. We allude tothe bill of general amnesty, passed by the House at the last ses- sion, and ever since awaiting the action of the Senate. There appears to be such unanimity of opinion in the Senate in regard to the pro- priety and policy of passing the bill that it looks simply absurd to take up time in dis- cussing it. But, then, the Senate has an in- curable tendency to talk; and, besides that, Senator Sumner wants to tack onas an amend- ment his Civil Rights supplementary bill; and Senator Morton wants to make it absolutely certain that the effect of the bill will not be to give validity to the prior election of persons now ineligible to hold office, the object being to shut out Zebulon Vance, of North Carolina, froma a seat in the Senate. It has been agreed, however, that the torrent of talk shall be dammed up at four o'clock to-day, and that then the Senate will proceed to vote on the bill and pending amendments. There appears to be no end to the subjects that the Senate is disposed to throw open to the investigation of the Select Committee on Retrenchment, Senator Sumner trotted .ont again yesterday his own pet grievance in re- gard to the St. Domingo job, and no objection was made to its being inquired into to his heart’s content. Garret Davis, of Kentucky, proposed, in a resolution rivalling in verbosity one of his own speeches, to set that committee at work inves- tigating all the stale charges and insinuations against President Grant in regard to his inter- est in Seneca stone quarries and contracts, his nepotism, his acceptance of gifts and bestowal of offices upon the givers, his absenteeism, and that of heads of departments, for pur- poses of pleasure and politics, and his other derelictions of duty. Mr. Morton, who ap- pears to be the President’s chief spokesman and champion in the Senate, avowed his will- ingness and anxiety to have the investigation go on and all such slanders silenced ; but Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, who fills the same réle in a secondary sense, interposed an objec- tion, which threw over the resolution for the day. A resolution was adopted, authorizing a sub- committee of the Committee on Investigation and Retrenchment to sit in this city and take testimony here; and an important bill was reported from the Commitiee on Finance to reorganize the customs service, and to reg- ulate the disposition of fines, penalties and forfeitures. Its provisions, which will doubt- less prove very interesting in the region of the Custom Honse, will be found in our regular report of the proceedings. The House devsted all its session yesterday to discussion and action on Mr, Hoar’s bill for the appoin‘ment of a commission on the sub- ject of the wages aod hours of labor, and the division of profits between labor and capital in the United States. The debate was opened by Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, formerly a member of the republican party, but now co-operating with the democrats, He favored the general idea of the proposed investigation, only that be wanted it conducted by a joint committee of the two houses, which would embrace rep- resentatives of all sections and of all inter- ests, isstead of by a commission appointed by the President, which, he supposed, would be selected from purely partisan or other in- appropriate consideratioas, Indeed, he went so far as to figure out the personne! of the Commission, and he presented a ludicrous picture of it, with Borle, late of the Navy De- partment, at its head; Tom Murphy, late of the New York Custom House, at its tail, and a Harvard or Yale philosopher sandwiched between them, who would give his attention to the vermin—the bugs and the lizards that might get mixed up in the question. Mr. Biggs, the Representative of Little Delaware, continued in the same line of argument, and seems to have contributed largely to the amusement of the House, if not to the elucidation of the subject, by some sly and humorous hits at Massachusetts men and manners. His picture of the Commission showed the White House besieged by three or four hundred broken-winded republican politicians, beseeching _the President for the appointment. The rhe- torical Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, brought his grand powers of declamation into the dis- cussion, and supported the idea of the inves- tigation, no matter how made, in order to show to the downtrodden sons of labor in foreign climes the great attractions held out to them by the free institutions and unbounded resources of the United States, The debate was closed by Mr. Hoar in an able and dig- nified presentation of the question in its various aspects. He rather demolished Mr. Campbell's proposition, by showing that that would necessarily result in referring the matter to mere politicians, for all Senators and members of Congress belonged to that category, while the original measure would admit of persons being se- lected who belonged to no party organization, but who would represent the industrial in- terests of the country. He declared that the President would not dare to let himself be gov- erned, in the selection of the commissioners, by partisan or unworthy considerations; and he replied to Mr. Bizgs’ criticism of Massa- chusetts by a taunt directed against the pillory and whipping-post of Delaware, which insti- tutions Mr. Biggs described as the glory of that little Commonwealth. Finally the debate came toa close and the House to a vote on the bill and pending amendments, Several of the latter were voted down aud several adopted, including one offered by Mr. Killinger, of Pennsylvania, limiting the term of the commis- sion to one year instead of two, and requiring at least one of the commissioners to be prac- tically identified with the laboring interests of the country, The bill, which is given in full in our report, was passed by a very large ma- jority, only thirty-six members voting against it, all of whom, except three, were democrats, ‘The bill has now to go to the Senate, where it will probably undergo a prolonged debate, and where It may have the effect of again setting Senators by the ears in the manner in which they have been distinguishing themselves for the last week or more. The only other matters of interest that came up in the House yesterday were a resolu- tion, offered by Mr. Upson, of Ohio, that postmasters, instead of being appointed by the President, shall be elected by the people, which was referred to the Committee on the Reorganization of the Civil Service, and one offered by Mr. Roberts, of this city, reprobat- ing the recent inhuman execution of the eight students in Havana, which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The session of the House to-day is to be de- voted exclusively to the reading and filing away for publication in the Globe of reams of manuscript, purporting to be speeches of hon- orable members. There probably will not be a dozen members in the House to derive in- struction from this gush of eloquent essays ; but, then, will it not all be preserved in the great mausoleum of the Congressional Globe and Appendix? A Cabiuet Crisis in Spain—Admiral Mal- campo Oat of Office. The Spanish Premier, Admiral Malcampo, placed the resignation of his Cabinet in the King’s hands yesterday. Amadeus and the people of Madrid are experiencing the sensa- tion of a ministerial crisis in consequence. The young monarch has, no doubt, become ac- customed to this state of feeling, owing to the frequency of its recurrence since the moment of his accession, and its having served every now and then as a political caustic when ap- plied to the old, torpid and sloughing sore of the ulcer of party in Madrid. The task of forming a new ministry rested with Sefior Sa- gasta when our news telegram was forwarded. Sefior Zorilla had also a chance of being entrusted with the work of this official manipu- lation. The outside statesmen, experienced and in embryo, did not appear very anxious to rush for office, for we are assured that Sagasta had offered four portfolios to Zorilla and his followers, who refused them. The crisis continued last evening. In view of the fact that the: latest or ‘‘newest” ‘‘depart- ure” in Spanish politics may have an import- ant bearing on the governmental relations of the United States towards Spain in her trans- marine possessions, we have appended to our cable despatch from Madrid @ special history of Malcampo’s Ministry and its first formation, a report of his exposition of his policy and a notice of the spirit of his rivals, accompanied by a slight reference to his attitude towards Cuba, The Spanish crisis may terminate in the recall of Malcampo to power. Twenty Mitton Dortars Morg.—The Secretary of the Treasury gives notice that in ninety days hence, or on and after March 20, 1872, he will redeem twenty million dol- lars more of the five-twenties of 1862. Progress at this rate will soon do away with any need for Congressional interference to help specie payments, for before the many bills now cogitating are engrossed their ob- ject may have been achieved. At least one thing is evident, hat Congress ought to let the whole matter of specie payments alone, or the convalescent patient may undergo a relapse. The people are paying in the money at the rate of a hundred millions a year in excess of ne- cessities, and Mr. Boutwell, seeing a sufficient provision for the future, is beginning at last to utilize the enormous balances lying idle in the Treasury. Tne Croton Boarp CrerKks.—The clerks in the Croton Aqueduct Department complain that they have received no pay since last August. It is certainly hard to keep them out of the money due for their services, especially when Christmas and New Year are so near athand. What will they do for their turkeys and pud- dings, their Christmas trees and New Year's calls, and how will the children’s stockings get filled, unless Comptroller Green comes to the rescue? The city will have to pay the money due to its bona fide employ¢s sooner or later, and why not do it at once? Let the Comptroller prove the Santa Claus of these poor clerks and make their Christmas a happy one. A GrEaT SENSATION IN TENNESSEE and Arkansas was yesterday occasioned by the confirmation of a report that a mob of excited negroes had taken possession of Lake City, Chico county, Arkansas, after having lynched three men who were confined there charged with murdering the colored lawyer Wynne, After shooting these men they put to flight many respectable citizens, who left the place for safety, not knowing but that the colored mob might inaugurate a Commune of their own pro tem., and despatch whoever else happened to be opposed to their mode of pro- cedure, WasnineTon Market is now in all its Christmas glory; but if there is a more dis- gracefully dilapidated mass of old shanties than this grouped together for a market in any other city in the whole world we have yet to hear of it. City reformers, how long is this thing still to last? ‘‘How long, O Lord, how long?” A Sorry Curistmas, we are afraid, this will be to ‘‘the boys” accustomed to draw their Christmas boxes from the abounding supplies of ‘the Ring.” But so goes the world :— Its smiles of joy, its tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful how— ‘There's nothing true but Heaven, Ir 18 Staten in a Southern paper that the ladies of New York will entertain their guests on New Year’s day with tea instead of wine, New York dames have long been noted for their fondness for tea, to say nothing of their ability to tease. How To Dimisish Crimz—The thorough investigation into a series of deep-seated of- fences by Judge Gunning 8. Bedford in Gen- eral Sessions, and Assistant District Attorney Sullivan in Oyer and Terminer, this week, under a new departure, Tue Corton Crop.—A letter from a cor- respondent in one of the best cotton growing regions in South Carolina states that the cot- ton crop, having been housed, ginned and packed, is found tobe less than one-half the yield of last year. AvotHER FLANK Movement on Car. Scnurz.—At ‘Fighting Joe Hooker's” battle of the Wilderness, Stonewall Jackson, by an unexpected flank movement, made short work of the advanced covering column of General Carl Schurz; but the unexpected flank move- ment just made on him by General Grant, in the matter of civil service reform, is quite as decisive, The Plans of the Political Reformers Why Honest Men Are Denounced. Those citizens who, like Charles O’Conor, Samnel J, Tilden, Andrew H.Green, Henry G. Stebbins and others, led the recent crusade © against ofMfcial corruption at the sacrifice of political associations and personal friendships, with the single, honest determination to secure a thorough reformation of the city govern- ment, must find it curious and instructive to compare the articles now published in the New York Custom House organ with those that ap- peared in the columns of the same journal be- fore election. When the votes of the people had yet tobe cast on the question of uphold- ing or uprooting the Tammany administration, and while the little game of Conkling and Murphy had yet to be played, the democratic reformers who stood up unselfishly for honest government against their owa party were lauded to the echo by their noisy republican ally. No praise could be too lofty to lavish on those sturdy soldiers who were to bear the brunt of the batile, and through whose fidelity alone could victory be achieved. But, now that the election is over and has resulted in the return of a two-third majority of the partisans of the Custom House to the State Legislature, the question of reform takes a very different aspect. It is suddenly found that, after all, the whole democratic party is undeserving of trust, and that the reform professions of such confirmed democrats as O'Oonor, Tilden, Stebbins and their associates cannot be accepted as genu- ine. It is true that Charles O’Conor has been and is the terror of the corruptionists and the untiring enemy of official rascality; but the Custom House organ assures us that he pre- fers the success of his party to any reforma- tion of the city government, Everybody knows that to the efforts of Henry G. Steb- bins, as Chairman of the Committee of Sev- enty, and to the shrewdness and diligence of Samuel J, Tilden in unearthing the famous dividend transactions at the Broadway Bank, the people are indebted for the practical de- velopments of the whole gigantic system of municipal fraud; yet the Custom House organ snubs both these gentlemen, and declares that they must not be permitted to have anything to say on the subject of remodelling the city government, Indeed, the whole Committee of Seventy is politely requested to stand aside, in order that the full glory of the reform vic- tory may shine upon the blatant champion of shoddy contracts and general orders. <A tem- porary exception is made in the case of An- drew If. Green, who is generously told that he will be allowed a probationary term before. being branded as a thief or an impostor; but as Mr. Green holds the purse strings that may or may not open to hitherto rejected claims against the city treasury, this special indul- gence is rendily explained. It will not be long, however, before the Compiroller will be found in the way of a certain class of “‘reform- ers,” and we sball then find him subjected to thé same classical abuse that is now lavished on Judge Bedford, Charles O’Conor agd Messrs. Tilden and Stebbins. The people of New York will not be kept long in ignorance of the meaning of these political assaults upon the most prominent men in the great reform movement. .The explanation will come just as soon as the State Legislature convenes, It will then be found that our promised municipal reformation is to be sacrificed to partisan objects. Instead of such a government as the people have demanded we shall have a return to the irre- sponsible and loose system of commissions, to which we may justly attribute the greater part of our official corruptions. The lobby is already at work preparing the members elect for the partisan work that is before them, Such citizens as Charles O’Conor, Tilden and Stebbins, who are familiar with the wishes and wants of the people of New York, must be pushed aside in order that their sug gestions may not interfere with the programme prepared for the majority, Every department of the city government and every city official, honest or dishonest, must be subjected to abuse in order to excuse a general, sweeping seizure of the spoils by the hungry politicians. There are unmistakable indications that the present State Legislature will rival its pre- decessors in the magnitude and boldness of its jobs, and we may expect to see such a carni- val of corruption at Albany this winter, under the “reformed” houses as will throw the good old times of Thurlow Weed and the more re- cent rule of the Tammany Ring into the shade. This is the meaning of the present attitude of the Custom House organ towards the honest reformers, and it is well to prepare the people at once for a batch of the most outrageous joba at the Slate capital this winter that have ever emanated from that hotbed of corruption, be ginning with a rotten system of partisan com- missions for our city government and ending with the revival of Jake Sharp's famous scheme of a surface Broadway railroad. Tnx Same Orv Srory.—From the report of the Board of Health, just out, we have the pleasing information that the majority of the streets in the city have not been cleaned at all within the last month, and that in some of them where the sweepers have shown them. selves they have not disturbed one-tenth part of the loose dirt. What can we do? Hav- ing exhausted all other sources of relief, we can only appeal to Judge Bedford’s Grand Jury. Crosep.—The Signal Service Bureau an- nounces that, navigation having closed on the great lakes, the display of cautionary signals at the lake ports will be suspended during the winter. The Hudson River, our State canals and the great lakes being all shut up, their enormous traffic goes to the competing rail. roads till the first general spring thaw. Moral: we want more railroads between New York city and the great lakes. A Goop Beeinninea ror A Russtan Wine TER—Not the coming of the Grand Duke, but the fierce cold and heavy snows of this rough December, The weather last week, for instance, in Vermont, was the coldost they have had there for thirty-two years; and while over the Great Plains the temperature has gone down to thirty degrees below zero, the snows onthe Plains and in the Rocky Mountains have been the heaviest knowa by the oldest settlers so early in the season, Even here, in New York, where our wintry climate is softened by the air from the surrounding waters of the sea, ‘our average temperature all through thie