The New York Herald Newspaper, January 24, 1872, Page 6

—— NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, ——— AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. AIMRE’S OPERA BOUFFE, No. 7% Broadway.—Lzs ‘Batoanvs BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., corner Sixth av. — JULIUS CasAR GRAND OPERA HOUSK, corner of Sth av. and Sa st.— BUROPZAN HivroTueaTRioaL COMPANY. Matipee at 2. FIFTA AVENUES TILEATRE, Twaaty-fourth strest, — ‘Tue New Dana or Divonor. 'OOD'S MUSLUM, Broadway, Perl Wakectionaie pi bteeab 4 crm WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ant 13th street. — oun Gantu. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets,—BLaok Cuoox. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery—Tigen OF THR SEA— Zr; On, a Live's Deyorioy. 8T. JAMES' THEATRE, Twonty-cighth street and Broad- ‘way.—MONALDL OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broads ‘TOMIME oF Humpty Dumpty. M: ‘THR BAULET Pane eat 2, STADT THEA’ ™ 7 nol a J Aalnes TRE, Nos, 4§.and 47 Bowery.—THe Orzna MBA. F. B. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— OomRvIRe AND Fazoue. anne PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, Brooklyn.— BILLIARDS—Kouno Jarrim JENKING. THEATRE OOMIQUE, 1em6, NEGRO Av18, £0,— UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth at. and Broad- NEGRO. ACTS—BURLESQUR, BALLET, 40. Matinee. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— NzeRo EcoRNTRICUTIRS, BURLESQUES, £0. 14 Broadway.—Comio Vooan- ‘HITE CROOK. Matineo at 3}. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 234 a1., between Ob and ava.--BRYANT'S MINSTRELS. BAN FRANOIS00 MINSTREL HALL, 585 Broadway. tan San Paanoweo Mineresie, . ye teres eed NEW YORK OIACUS, arteenth siraet.—S0E tne RING, AcrosaTs, 20. latinee at 25g, DR. KAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSBUM, 745 Broadway. ~ BOIBNOR AND ART. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, — SOIMNOR AND AU He eee TRIPLE ‘SHEET. New York, Wedaesday, January 24, 1872. eesele Tacx, t= Advertisements, Advertisements. S—Washingion: clauizap Devate on the Amnesty iin the Senate: The Yellowstone Land of the Geysers; Commencing Legislative Work on the Appropriations; A Cabinet Wedding; Secretary Kobeson Married to Mra. Aulick— Mra, Wharton: the Curtain Fallen and the Case Closed; the Medical Testimony for the Defence Unmercitully Handled; An Urgent Appeal for Conviction; the Jury Not. Arrived at 8 Veraict—Wile Murder and Suicide in Manohester, N. H.—Latest from Albany—The Committce of Seventy. State Capital: A Quiet Day After the | Struggle; the Committee of ‘Seventy’s Charter; Legislating the Police Justices Out Of Office; the Columbia College Canvassed ta the Senate; Amending the City Chamoerlain’s BU; the General Sessions Grand Jury Bull Passed in the Senate—Erie Alarmed: Bill to Confer on the Attorney General Power to Seize on and Fxamine Books of Corpora- ttons—The Custom House Commitiee: Auother Day’s Examination of Custom House OMctals; More Complaints of Extor- ton—The Dangers of tne Peep: The Longest ‘Transatlanitc Steam Voyage on Record; the Steamer Thirty-two Days trom Glasgow to New York—Miscellaneous Telegrams—De La Salle Association. ¢ The Apportionment Bill Amended the Senate; Our Great Geyser Land; an Immense National Park on the Yetlowstone River; Continued Debate on the Amnesty Bil; the Public Lands for Public Schools; the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Ap: propriation Bill On Its Passage; Changes in the Mining Law—the Tovacco Tax—The Fisk Tragedy: ‘the London Press on the Assassina- tion—The Shaky Savipgs Banks—Gushing Ul Wells—Mexican Annexations—Russia In- Cee American Institutions. 6—Ediior : Leading Article, “The Syndicate— Mr. Boutwell’s Experiments with Finauces— a* Dangers We Have Escaped and How to * void a ioakinnon thee Sixth Papeete Lorials tinued from Six! e}—The a ot War Debt: Immediate J’ayment of Three Thousand Five Hundred Millions to Germany; tne Rothschilds and Other Bankers to Supply the Mone7—Cable be ra from England, France, spain and Eyypt— News from Altrica, Venezuela, Cuba, St. Domingo and Hayti—Tne War ‘in Mextco— tacazy’s Case: Text of the Note of Prince ano0 to Minister Curtin—The Japa- mbassy: Banquet in San Francisco; the | ture Policy of Japan Foreshadowed by Governor Ito—The Japs and the Telegraph: Greetings by Wire from the Japanese in san Francisco and Cordiai Replies from the Presi- dent, Secretary Fish, Professor Morse and Others—Miscellaneous Telegrams—Business ts s— gv Interesting Proceedings in the United States, New York aud Brooklyn Courts; the Estate of Madame Jume! Again in Court; the Wesvtieid Disaster—i ud; dle’s Charge: Ferreting Uut the Jersey Municipal Fraués—Ex-Oomptrolier Connolly—Another Charter: The Citizens’ Association on the Lookout—Melancholy Suicide—Brooklyn Af- fairs—Kings County Politics—seiker’s Mis- take—The Den Keepers at the Tom»s—B’Nat Birith—The aa Central Kailroad, 9—Botts and His Bride: The Mystery of the Mar- Tm Stili Unsolved; Botts to Be Hanged— A Bad Woman’s Work—Raliroad Accident— The Smal'pox: The Pestilenve Suit Raging— Obituaries— Fatal Fall from. a Wagon—The ‘arenton Bank Robbery—Grand Army of the Republic—Financial and Commercial Re- ports—Domestic ana European Markets—Mar- pear and Deaths—Advertisements, 10—Answering Advertisements: Anovier “Com- plete Letier- Writer” Caugnt; A Long Carcer of Criminal Correspondence Suddenly Stopped REW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, The Syadicaco—Mr, Boutwells Experimenta .with Finances—The Dangers We Have Esenped and How te Avold Thom. At last we know all about the famous Syndl- cate! Now let us see what we actually do know. For months we have been groping in the dark, the air misty with soandals and suspicious and unpleasant rumors. What we knew was that a great government had been compelled to open a money broker's shop on Lombard street, and beg all the world to buy its bonds. We have feared that a clearly printed law was inadequate to the process of funding the nation’s obligations. We have seen a hapless and gorely-troubled Secretary. in the meshes of his own timidity calling upon stock. brokers and money lenders to. rescue him, and with him an adminis- tration which rested ‘its hopes of popular endorsement upon its financial success, from what seemed to be inevitable failure. We have had the Treasury ignore the banking interests of the country and the mighty bank- ing houses of the Old World to give one bouse (then at the outset of a business experi- ment in London) an unusaal and offensive predominance. We have had what the echoes of the Treasury called ‘‘success;” but what our best information and judgment compelled us to regard asa failure. Nor do we see In the report of the Commit- tee of Ways and Means, nor ia the evidence of Mr. Boutwell, upon which that report ts based, any reasons for arriving at a different conclusion. Our latest experience with the masters of the Syndicate shows to what expe- dients they have been driven to reconcile pub- lic opinion with their operations. We saw what is a frequent occurrence in Wall street. When ap suxions curbatone broker either buys or eells “short” a hundred shares of a railway sigok he gtraightway seeks the news- papéré And asks them to pubils the World that the said railway is either about to fail or to declare a dividend, or to throw out some ingenious phrase calculated to make other people think so, and buy from him at a profit, Wheat we saw with the masters of the Syndicate was precisely this con- trivance. From London, from Philadelphia, from Washington, the telegraph wires were bidden to say, and the press reporters to con- firm the’saying, that Mr. Cooke had finally brought himself into alliance with the- great house of Rothschild, and that together they were about to buy $600,000,000 of the new bonds. Of course, Mr. Cooke's advertising agents did not really aay this in ao many words, but they said it in such a way as to produce this impregsion., But for the Hzratp the country would be under this belief and the merchants of the money market would stand expecting to see the two houses step up to the Treasury and take the loans. Mr. Cooke, in the confession which we extorted from him, admitted that what he wanted was to buy fifty or a hundred millions this year, and then, if we amended our laws so as to suit the exigen- cles of his foreign business, he might, the Rothschilds assenting; take the remainder at the close of another year. Always provided that he had as good a bargain as the present Syndicate gave him. We dwell upon this because it {san illus- tration of the whole Syndicate business. Bargain and dicker and trade, any expedient so the bonds were sold! All that the masters of the Syndicate wanted was commissions, and the more they could squeeze the Secre- tary the more profit to their business. And of all squéezable Secretaries commend us to Mr. Boutwell! Let us look at one instance. The law provided that the cost of negotiating the loan should not be more than one-half of one per cent. The meaning of this certainly was thatif the Secretary sold $100,000,000 he might expend $500,000 in commissions. If be sold $500,000,000 he might expend $2,500,000. Now, Mr. Boutwell contends that if he could negotiate $400,000,000 with- out paying anything for commissions he would be justified in“ spending the two and a half millions allowed by law for the whole sum in negotiating the other hundred millions, This is so absurd, so thoroughly at variance with the true meaning of the law, that it seems incredible. -And yet this power Mr. Boutwell claimed and exercised, and pro- poses to claim and exercise, unless Congress expressly interferes, Well, when a minister of the Treasury gets into this frame of mind, especially when he {s in the hands of a grasp- ing Syndicate yéarning for commissions, any- thing is possible. So we are not surprised when he admits that he permitted $130,000,000 of the public money t remain with the na- tional banks for three months without by the Detectives; Protecting the Herald’s An- nouncement Coiumns; Arrest of Alexander J. Howell—Miscellaoeous Telegrams—Ship- g Intelligence— advertisements, 1 1— Ruverusements. 12—Advertisemenis. Generar Biair’s CuBAN Procramme,—It is simply that of a resolution from Congress requesting the President to enter into nego- tiations for the purchase of the island, and for these very good reasons:—First, because Cuba is no longer of any use. to Spato ; second, because the island would be very valuable to us; third, because in our posses- sion it would be a good thing for Spain; fourth, because with its annexation African slavery would be abolished on the island; and, in the fifth place, because Cuba, under our fing, would be a great field in which our “golored gemmen” could be brought to their highest physical and intellectual development, the climate being the very thing for Sambo, These are strong reasons for the proposition, and wo hope that General Blair will push his resolution in the Senate, at Jeast until he has smoked out the doubtful Sumner on this question. Ratios on tHe Conogrt SaLoons.—Every mow and then some Caliph of the Police De- pertment imitates the example of a Caliph of Bogdad and makes a raid upon some Oriental any security, that they might enjoy the in- terest. Nor are we amazed when he calmly alleges that for three months he increased the public debt $130,000,000 or $185,000, 000, and shat in. sddition. 1p Paying. garb of one pér ent commissiod that iy aiéaat less than $600,000,000, he permitted the banks to received this three months’ {n- terest. Here were several specific violations of law. And what was the gain? Were the houses forming this Syndicate strong enough, or had fhey inherent capital to dictate terms to the Secrelary? Were is pee with whom he made this extraordinary impact imosy those great money kings of Europe who can make peace or war in their counting houses, On the contrary, the Syndicate was little more than a Syndioale of brokers. We say nothing against these gentlemens’ respectability, their solvency, their enterprise, their sincere dosire to meet every engagement. But were they the houses who could have taken this loan ‘end put it away in their vaults, and held it there for year, or even for a month, in the face of an uneasy money market, a war or judden financial panic? Mr. Boutwell knows very well that his Syndicate would have dis- solved in a day—had it been compelled to carry this new loan and hold it, It could only succeed so long as the public pur- saloon on Broadway, in which the syrens of beauty entrap the faddled genii from the country. The poor girls, after » night's in- carceration at the station house, are taken before a tender-hearted magistrate, and, with & reprimand, are told to go and sin no more. These raids amount to nothing. They are gotten up by police captains newly assigned to districts in which the saloons are located, in order to exhibit their. assiduity, and 60 far from relieving the premises of the taint of immorality, only serve as advertise. ments for the places for future country cug- tomers’ chased the bonds. It was a Syndicate of brokers. Its members received the bonds from the Secretary and banded them over to whoever called for them. So long as investors called there was success. The Syn- dicate took the commissions and the interest. Mr. Cooke’s house received great renown as the inspiration of a brilliant Anancial achieve- ment. There was no risk, no responsibility— simply @ profitable dicker on the part of shrewd brokers, who had taken the Secretary at an advantage and held him to it. Now, if thie Syndicate had been inherently strong; If the houges who. composed it bad ‘been among those mighty houses of the world whose own resources would have enabled them to have taken this loan and carted it in spite of the stormiest financial weather; if it had been a Syndicate of bankers like Roths- childs or Barings; or Hope, and not simply brokers anxious to found a great banking business, we could understand how the Secretary would have stretched the law to its utmost tension to have com- pleted the mnoegotiations. But he never really completed them. He was dealing with men who could only succeed by the ear- nestness of private investors and our own national banks. He was never for » moment safe. The least disturbance in. Europe, trouble with Spain or any one of twenty of the causes which unsettle the finances of nations, would have thrown his bonds back to him and he would have been on his kaeos before Congress to forgive him his comwis- sions. This, to our mind, is a far graver view than even the increase of the debt, or the deposit of $130,000,000 of the public money in national banks without security. And now that his good for- tune hassaved him from this danger, we must protest against any fuiure negotiations which may make danger inevitable. Mr. Boutwell cannot make these experiments with the credit of the United States. President Grant cannot afford to have his administration wrecked (as wrecked it would surely be) by making abso- lute bargains and paying great sums of money in advance to shrewd brokers, and giving ex- clusive privileges to a Syndicate who would not and could not hold the loan twenty-four hours in the event of a financial panic. If he has these advantages to bestow, let him throw them open to the world. We have a thousand bankera, or rather brokers, who can take his bonds aid sell theal “and pockos the commis. sions, provided in the event of fuilure they could throw them back to the Treasury. And, what is more, the right to these advan- tages belongs to every banker and broker as fnuch as to Mr. Cooke and the masters of the enterprising Syndicate. The ‘‘sucoaas” which these brokers met in disposing of their bonds enabled the Qom- mittee of Ways and Means, and perhaps in a sense justified it in endorsing the Secretary's action. So long as the Syndicate did its work, even at an extravagant cost to the Treaaury, it was prudent to accept the “‘aucoess,” and not be too severe with a Secretary who had taken such desperato chances. But we must admonish Mr. Bout- well, and, above all, the President, who is about to go to the country for its endorsement,. that they cannot take these extraordinary hazards. There is a way to’ fund the national debt without running the risk of national disaster; without breaking the law; without committing the public funds to the uncertain care of irresponsible banks; without increas- ing the debt and the interest on the debt; without submitting the Treasury to the mercy of well-meaning and respectable brokers who do well enough when the money market is easy, but who have not the inherent strength to keep extraordinary engagements, We are well out of. one danger; let the Secretary bo wise and incur no similar responsibility! We want stateamanship, not expedients, Genoral Resecrans on Mexican Affairs, General Rosecrans has thought it expe- dient and proper to define his position on Mexican affairs. He is opposed to any fili- bustering attempts to annex Mexico; he regréts the announcement of imaginary filibus- tering schemes, because they interrupt our business relations with the Mexican people; he deprecates the attempt to thrust our gov- ernment upon our neighbors regardless of their feelings, and says :—“‘I think the intelli- gence and conacience of our people decidedly in favor of a just and liberal policy of friend- ship towards Mexico as best for both coun- tries.” In short, General Rosecrans is in favor of the indefinite continuance, under the protection of the United States, of that mockery of a republic known as Mexico. We submit that we have done all that could in reason be asked to maintain the rights of Mexico before the world to self-government as an independent State for half a ceatury or so, and that the experiment is not only a shocking failure, but a scandal to republican institutions. We submit that half a century of never ending and still beginning revolutions, and of fizhting factions and elections by the bayonet, and bighway robbers and border ruffians and general anarchy, is a long term for the toleration of these public nuisances, and that they ought to be abated. We submit that the vast resources of wealth and trade possessed by that splendid country have been running to waste long enough, and that its industrial and producing clagsee bave long edough been the prey of revolutionary mountebanks and regular bandits, with their forced contributions, We submit that humanity, civillzation aod Christianity demand the active intervention of the United States and the annexation of Mexico; and that, as thie thing is ‘manifest destiny,” nothing is gained by these delays in action of any advantage to us or to the Mexicans or to the ld at large. In short, the reign of ousthronts | TOPS Ssbces Ta Weelts Tas fads Tolesrca by “Uncle Sam” long enough, and, without mincing matters, those robbers and cutthroats ougbt to be abolished. General Rosecrans begs the question in favor of his client, who has simply the claims to independence of a wild Indian—‘‘Only these and nothing more.” Tae Wouet in THE Wort, —The disgusted Daniel Vorhees bas declared in Congress that the existing Southern State governmonts ‘‘are the worst in the world, without any excep- tion ;” that they are worse than the govern- ment of Tammany or Dahomey or the Fiji Islands; that “there is nothing comparable to them anywhere else,” not even in Mexico or Abyssinia, and that ‘‘they are unparalleled in their iniquity, their infamy and their igno- rance.” And there is more truth than poetry in these denunciations, Bebold, for instance, what a mess of it greedy and reckless carpet- baggers and ignorant and credulous negro Solons have made of the finances of South Carolina and of brotherly love in New Or- leans! APRIOAN ‘‘SPARKLERS"—Diamonds of one thousand carats found at the Cape of Good Hope fields. Some few yeara since and the world received “sparklers” of another tinge from Asriaa. JANUARY 24, 1872.—TRIPLE SHEET. tiomment aud National Park Bills in the Seuate—Educational, Mining and Ap- Propriation Bills in the House. Tae principal business in the Senate yester- day was the debate on the Amnesty bill. It occupied most of the day’s session. Mr. Mor- ton, of Indiana, led off against it in a speech brimful of bitterness and animosity, but defl- client in logic and statesmanship. He charac- terized the measure as_one based upon sickly sentimentalism and spurious generosity, and declared that he would never vote for univer- sal amnesty; the most that he could bring himself to concede would be the bill passed last session by the House, and which ex- cepted from amnesty members of Con- gress and officers of the army and navy who had adhered to the rebellion and members of State conventions which had passed ordinanoes of secession. He no more belioved in the conciliation of the leaders of the rebellion by restoring them to all their ctvil and political rights than he believed in the conciliatton of rattlesnakes by a restora- tion of their extracted fangs. Such were the sentiments expressed by the Indiana Senator in regard to a measure, not only of peace and good policy, but actually of necessity, if it is ever desired to dee good order and good gov- erament restored in the Southera States, which have been a0 long robbed, plundered and out- raged by the carpet-bag officials who have been saddled upon them under the reconstruc- tion policy of Congress. The exclusion from public life of the most intelligent and influential men of the South, whom a bill of universal amnesty would rehabilitate, is one cause why the State Legis- latures and the highest official positions in the South are filled by corrupt, ignorant and ‘aseapeend pera. HS wae when the presence of such men in the Senate and House of Representatives gave to Congress 4 much higher tone than i fas had of Tate years; and we think that the character of our | Public service generally has lost rather than gained by their exclusion from it. Certainly that is the cage so far as their own States are Goucerned, No one good reason was asslgned by Mr. Morton, or can be assigned, why a com- plete, unconditional and universal smnesty law should not be passed immediately, How- ever politicians may differ on the subject, there ia no diversity of opinion about it among the people generally, who would have hailed the measure any time within the last five years as one of practical good sense, leading the way to a restoration of the old kindly feeling that existed between the sections before it was embittered by the poli- ticlans, and to @ new era of prosperity for those impoverished and plundered States, The Apportionment bill passed by the House previous to the recess was repwted back yos- terday from the Senate Judiciary Committee, with amendments reducing the number of Representatives from two hundred aad eighty- three, as provided in the bill, to two hundred and forty-three, the present number. This would reduce the New England delegation, as it at present exists, from twenty-seven to twenty- one. New York ,wofd lose three members, Pennsylvania two, Ohio two, Kentucky one, while Illinois, Missouri and Iowa would each gain two, and-New Jersey, Wisconsin, Califor- nla, Minnesota and Kansas would each gain one, There would be neither a loss nor a gain in any of the cotton States except Georgia, which would gain one, and Texas, which would gain two. The reason why the Southern States do not lose in the apportionment, as most of the didtr States do, is that their present apportionment is cal- culated on the old three-fifths slavery basis, while in the new one the whole population is counted. Should the Senate adopt this amend- ment it will meet with strong opposition in the House, particularly from States where the representation will be diminished. Indeed, we should not wonder if it were resented as a plece of gratuitous interference by the Senate in a matter which only concerns the other branch of Congress. Among the other bills reported in the Senate was one setting affart the magnificent valley at the head of the Yellowstone River as a National Park. Mr. Pomeroy, of Kansas, who reported it, described the great natural beauties and curiosities of the valley, which is forty by forty-four miles in extent, and which he desires to havo dedicated for that purpose at once, so as to prevent it falling into the hands of squatters or land specu- lators. It is a remarkable proposition, not only as coming from that source and with that avowed object, considering the enormous land grant jobs with which Mr, Pomeroy has been identified, but it is also remarkable in itself. We go for it, and hope to see it enacted into a law, and then perhaps we shall propose to cele- brate the great centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1876, not in the confined Quaker!y Qity of Philadeiphia, but in this grand, noble, magnificent Park of the Yellowstone Valley, a eS it The Chicago Relief bill was taken up in the Senate, but as Mr: Chandler proposed to amend it by extending its scope to the numer- ous D: id illages es! royed by the gee. ot nal hay in “‘Wlecousn and Michigan, and as that proposition would fead to a debate in which the same principle might be contended for in the case of every person whose house had been burned during the last year in any part of the United States, it was deemed advisable not to open up such a wide field of discussion, and so the Amnesty bill was taken up instead. Io the House a bill to promote the develop- ment of the mining resources of the United States by facilitating the acquisition of titles tomining lands was reported, discussed and passed- Another bill, to establish an edu- cational fund and to apply the proceeds of the public lands to the education of the people, was reported and laid aside. And then the general Civil Appropriation bill was taken up in Committee of the Whole and discussed aad considered until the hour of adjournment. Tae Latest Concersine Mr. Twerp.— They say he is waiting here in this city, in reference to his seat in the Senate, to see “‘what they are going to do about it” at Albany ; aod that, meantime, he takes “his three square meals a day, except when he rides out to the High Bridge, arid then he takes four.” Of course he is ia no hurry to go further up tha rivar, Congress Yesterday—The Amnesty, Appor- | Mr. Bergh and His Missiou-What He Should Dow Have we really been ¢ruel to Mr. Henry Bergh? Let us look at ita moment. We have no quarrel with him) or with any gentle- man who has a public work to do. On the contrary, we havea likitg for Mr. Bergh, a feeling of appreciation, not without respect. But if he will insist upon fighting wind- mills~ we must speak our mind, especially when he permits his ent to overmas- ter him, when there are no windmills in sight, even to the extent of invading people's houses and grounds and privale conveyances in search of them. The world is broad enough for Mr. Bergh and hia society. If the doing of his work, as laid down |in the law, would content him we should be satisfied. It is only when he brings ridicule upon his society, full of merit as it is, that we’ are called upon to interfere. Let us look the whole ground over seriously, and gee the follies and mistakes of which the people have justly complained. Henry Bergh is the President of the Society for the Preven- tion ef Cruelty to Animals. This society is the offspring of that kindly sentiment which the Scriptures express when they tell us that the merciful man is merciful to his beast. The humane gentlemen who founded it meant to correct a peculiar evil. They saw that In many cases brutal, ignorant servying-people inflicted pain upon the helpless animals en- trusted to their care, and in doing so not only did deeds in themselves cruel and worthy of punishment, but inflicted’ injury upon valu- able property and generated harsh, uncbristian feelings. Brutal deeds, even to the dumb ass, that will not mend its paces with beating, only encourage brutality and offences againat the public peace. So when benevolent men made it their cgre to prevent these acts—to enforce the just laws that provide fox their préven- tion—we felt that rae had asgilmed a task that wid ti nang dipootd thadklegs, ana therefore worthy of special honor. And when Mr. Bergh gave his time and money to the work, and seemed to be under a fine enthu- glagm jn its performance, we wished him well and ‘a ihn itt pralser But Mr. Bergh went far beyond this! A narrative of his exploils” Would be" 80 inte like a bastesize that it would be difficult to have it credited. A sensible man charged with this kindly mission would have known just what to do. He would have seen at the outset that a great law of our existence was that many animals must die that men may live. “He would have read in the sacred books that the Lord found nothing more ac- ceptable in His eyes than a burnt offering of lambs and kids, and that the whole Levitical dispensation was at variance with his fantastic theories, He would have avoided those refinements of solicitude about turtle and shellfish and game which have-brought so much censure upon him. He would have re- membered that birds are killed with shot, that buffalo and deer are slain with rifle balls, that oxen are felled with an axe, that swine are stabbed with knives, He would have known that, while all these means of death are cruel, death itself is a cruel, neces- sary thing, and not within his province, or the province of any one, to prevent. He could not but know that, following out the logio which brought him into a state of passion with tavern keepers for putting the doomed turtle on its back, to attract hungry, toothsome wayfarers with the announcement of its destiny in the way of soup, he should have prosecuted men for rifting a living oyster from its shell or plunging a lively clam into boiling water, or crashing the mites in an old English cheese, The pity shown to an oyster should certainly not be withheld from an innocent mite seeking sustenance from old Cheshire or Stilton, The absurdity of this position did not seem to impress the zealous Mr. Bergh. The humane powers given him by law he abused. He took grougd that clipping horses was cruel, although the evidence of experts is that it contributes to the enimal’s bealth. He interfered with private gentle- men’s servants for harnessing their horses in their own way. No cruelty was intended, none committed. Mr. Bergh had his theory and pursued it,. Then came his war upon pigeon shooting. The pigeon is pre-eminently for food. The bird is of really no domestic use except as an element of pie, Pigeons are raised and sold for the kitchen, Certain private geatlemen, fancying that there would be profit and pleasure in improving their skill as marksmen, formed clubs here and elsewhere. We have clubs of the e nature in France and England and Germany, protected by lawa of the severest tenure, The highest noblemen in these lands belong to them—men of honor, humanity and dis- cretion, They shot various kinds of birds—whatever happened to belong to the country. In America these clubs selegted the pigeon. Looked at practically, they simply purchaéed pigeoas, killed thent ang gaye fhem to the poor for food. The only quesuoa thst could arige By this sae “Was it any more cruel to kill a with @ gun than with a kolfe?” Bergh never an- noyed the butchers for dealing in pigeons, nor the cooks for cutting their heads off, but made & public demonstration against private gentle- men on their own grounds for shooting them. Public opinion simply said:—‘'This man may mean well enough, and he does a good work at times ; but be Is either a fool, who does not really know what he should do, or he is a vain, ambitious demagogue, seeking notoriety.” Perhaps this was an unjust.criticism ; but Mr. Bergh clearly invited it. That he has changed his mind he shows in the letter which we printed yesterday. As is seen, however, in a card which we publish this morning from Mr. Hallock, the secretary of the Blooming- grove Park Association, he does not properly construe the resolution passed by that associa- tion in reference to pigeon shooting. The business of gambling in sport, or of trap- shooting for money, has never been encouraged or practised by private gentlemen, especially in a club like that of Jerome Park. There will be gambling, we fear, in all things, 60 long as the instinct of gain and chance remains with our poor human nature. There is gambling in stocks, in real estate, in the barter of produce, in every phase of business. But because of this we have no right to say that all purchases of stocks or houses or cargoes of grain are unlawful. So with the svorts of osivate entlemen| What they dol simply to find recreation and fresh sir and ac- ceptable companionship in shooting pigeons, Just as they find it in fishing in the Adiron- dacks, shooting ducks on the Susquebaana, or roaming a day in the woods after quail aad rabbits, or careering over the prairie behind the buffalo herds, in the company of General Sheridan and the Grand Duke Alexis, These amusements are sinless and harm!ess. The abuse of them cannot be too severely con- demned. So long as Mr. Bergh made war upon their abuse we sustained him, and shall continue to sustain him. Onur only criticism ia that he has permitted his enthisiasm to carry away his judgment, and to bring ridicule upon himself and the soclety of excelleat people over which he presides, The Freach War Debt, Our. special despatch from Paris brings the higbly imporiant intelligence that the French government has been enabled to arrange for the immediate payment of the three and @ halt milliards indemnity remaining due to Ger- many. Messrs. Rothschild, the ever ready furnishers of funds to governments in distress, have leagued themselves with several lead- ing banking houses and undertaken to effect this stupendous financial opera- tion. In return for their disbursementa, the French government has farmed out to them the annual revenue accruing from the tobacco moaopoly for the period of thirty years, In the present state of affairs the opportunity of paying the war indemnity on terms not tes, gether rainous, and the consequent riddance of the hated conquerors, is a godsend to France ; for the ocoupation of ‘é6r territory waa not only @ grievous brraén and shame to her beopia, bak. loarog ot _geustant danger Ps Becount of the bitter feel-’ ing. ‘which ‘has already found vent in the assassination of German soldiers,” and was apt to result in ruthless retaliations by the dreaded conquerors. The Doings at the State Capital—A Lali After the Storm, oy There was a quiet day at the State capital’ yesterday, after the storm that agitated the Assembly on the previous evening. Tho charter congocted by the seventy wise modi- cine mad of the hea ora golailites was introduced by Mr. Moulton, of New York, the notable feature of the proceeding being the ohange of leadership implied by the trane- fer of this duty from the hands of Colonel Rush ©. Hawkins to those of Mr. Moulton, Colonel Hawkins has not been a success thus far as a practical legislator, and while his intentions are, no doubt, good— while, in fact, he may be a more honest reformer than many of those with whom he has brought himself into antagonism—he lacks every essential of a perliamentary leader. The. lawyera who are watching affairs in Albany in the interest of the Committee of Seventy have advised the transfer that has now been made, and henceforth the measures of the Seventy will be fathered and engineered by Mr. Moulton, in place of the deposed Colonel, But will this change of front be any practi= cal advantage to the patriotic gentlemen who have taken upon themselves the task of re- forming and remodelling our city government? The vote of $e Assembly on Monday even- ing shows prftty conclusively that a majority of the membtra of that House are opposed ta the interests represented by Messrs. Moulton and Hawkins, and that the Speaker himself isim a minority in the body over which he presides. There are unmistakable indications that the Senate is of a similar complexion, and hence we do not anticipate the success of any of the Seventy’s propositions. The charter they have tuid before the Legislature is openly pro- nounced by members to be a mass of impracti- cable absurdity, and their bill to insure greater accountability on the part of public officers has been anticipated by Judge Robertson, who bas already introduced such a measure in the Senate. We may therefore fairly conclude that, in spite of the deposition of Oolo- nel Hawkins, whose original selection aa their. leader in the Assembly was a blunder, the propositions of the committee fa regard to the new city government will be ignored, if not in the Committee of Cities, at least in the final action on the floor of the House. This being the case, and the city departments being now in the. hands of honest men, the bast thing the Seventy can do is to dissolve and leave the practical reconstruction of the government to the State Legisla- turé, We have already had enough of experimental legislation, and of irregalar, irresponsible meddling with the machinery of government. When fraud was to be detected and punished a volunteer com- mittee to investigate the charges made against public officers and to bring to bear upon them the weight of popular opinion was proper and beneficial. The people are no doubt indebted to the Committee of Seventy for much useful work 4 | ing Wearing Qf official corruption,’ alt sigh they failed sighaity, thecueh the fa. oe he ff {9 politicians, in bringing the tties to justice, Their mission is now completed, and there is no further use for their serviced, Their charter work ts before the Legislature, and nothing is left them but to retire gracefully and leave the government machinery to run in its legitimate channels, % An interesting discussion took place before the Judiciary Committee on the bill proposed by Attoroey General Barlow to repeal the law passed in 1870 by which the directors of a railroad were protected against a suspension | from their office ‘pending the trial of charges brought against them and until final jeadgment | should be rendered. With a judiciary io the service of the road this exemption from sus- pension insured @ director against any responsibility for his acts, as judg- ment in a uit brought against him’ might be easily postponed Heyond: the time of his term of office. There! ought to be no opposition to the repeal of thie? law, which is the one measure secured hy the’ Erie lobbyist through corrupt means; but + Attorney General Barlow complicates the* simple question of repeal by proposing ans unusual and arbitrary provision of law, by} which a judge shall be absolutely interdioted ; from changing the venue of such causes, To, this- extreme provision great opposition is made, and as the Exie “Ring” in the Legislature is eager to seize upon any aretenca tq defeat legislation in behalf. ——————e