The New York Herald Newspaper, February 10, 1872, Page 6

i] NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, Volume XX XVII te eeeeeeeee sseeeNo. 41 AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING, WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 18th street. — Joun Gartu. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and uston streets.—BLACK CROOK. Matinee at 2. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery—Tor Forsakes—W1LL Hatey Matinee at 2, 8T, JAMES' THEATRE, Twenty-eighth . WAN MOMALDE Metineg Re ee Brae STADT THEATRE, Nos, 45 and 47 Bowery.—Tue TEM- PLAR AND THE JEWESS, FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, ‘Twenty-fourth streot.— Tux Naw Dxawa OF Divouce’ Matinee at 134 OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broad ‘TONIME OF HUMPTY Dower’ ray.—THE BALLET PAaNe Matinee at 2. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., corner Sizth av JULIUG CabAR. Ratinee at 1. GLOBE THEATRE, 724 and 730 Broadway.—PEDESTIN; on, Curr THE RELIAULE. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av, and %3a st— Evxorran HIPPOTHRATEICAL COMPANY, Matinee at 2, ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Opgxa—Tak WATER Ca WOOD'S MUSKUM, Broadway, cornor 35th st.—Perform: ‘ances afternoon and evening.—ON' HAND. MRS, F. B. CONWAY'S BROUKLYN THEATRE.— MAN ANv Wirr. ‘ourteenth street.—ENGLISH K, Matinee. PARK THEATRE, opposite City Fall, Dakine Dick, THE BROOKLYN DErgcTivE Broadway.—Comto Veoat- VOROED, Matinee at 2, Brooklyn.— THEATRE COMIQU! 18M6, NEGRO Ac 1B, UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth at. and Broad- Way.—NEGRO AOTS—BURLESQUE, BALLET, 40. Matinee. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, Third tue.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, Matines at 2. iid TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery. Nxouo EccentRio111K6, BURLESQUES, £0. Matinee. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 234 at. bet ‘nd 7th ave.—BRYAN1'S MINSTRELS. Matinee pian SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HAL! —— ‘THE SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELA, tabbed nici PAVILION, No. 688 Brosdway.—THE a ourprea. Matinee at 24.7” aren STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street. —. _— Gann Concent. Reena een eee ASSOCIATION HALL, 86th Miainenstiuinane foreman of Tire arvana. NEW YORK CIRCU: ‘HE RIn@, AcROuATe Fourteentn street.—SOENES IN Matinee, NEW YORK MUSEUM OF AN, SoisNox anp Ant. ATOMY, 618 Broadway.— DR, KAHN'S ANATOMICAL A gall aly MUSEUM, 745 Broadway. — New York, Saturday, February 10, 1872. “ CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’s HERALD, Pace. 1— Advertisements, 2—Adverusements, 3-Our Savings Banks: What the State Legisia- ture Proposes To Do About Them; Yext of the Geveral Act tor Their Regulation and Con- duct; Stringent Provisions as to Liability of Trustees aud the Investments Made by the Banks; How Frauds Are To Be Pre- Yented and Depositors Protected Against Loss; The Bill the Poor Man’s Friend and the Honest Rich Mau’s Safety—Tne War in Mextco—European Cabie Telegrams—The Mikado’s Representatives: ‘The Japanese ie” Camp Douglas—News from Wash- 4—The state Capital: More Charters for the Me- fropolis: Re.ormers of all Sorts from New York and Brooklyn; A Very Comprehensive Commission for the Port of New York: A Railroad for Fifth Avenue; The Senatorial Committee on Corruplion—Coaugress: Acri- montous Amnesty Debate 10 the Senate; The Supplementary Civii Rights Adopted’ and Amnesty ‘Thereby Killed; The Ku Kiux and ‘ne Carpet-Baggers—A Cotton Ring: A Scheme Represeating Sixty Million Dollars, Six Mil- Mons to Begin With—Bergh’s Raid on the Har- Jem Cow Sheds—Locomotive Explosion— Music and the vrama. S—Canadian Independence—A Rumored Secret Treaty of Separation Between Great Britain and Canada—Forestalling War with the United States—The Pominion, in Case of ‘Trouble, To Be Declared Free from Britisn Authority—Abo- lion of the Council of Peers—New Political ;| Departures and Reform in All Public Depart- ments—The Popular Paroxysm: Opinions of the pete tue ANprebended Rupture with Engiand—The Fenians Again: A Proclama- ion from the “Irish Confederation "—Art Notes—A Postal Grievance—The Aggrieved Gas Consumers—Broohlyn Ailairs—The Strang- ers’ Hospital—Neominations for Mayor of Bing- hamion. G=—Euditorials: Leading Article, “England and France and. the ‘Southern Confederacy; Our Setvement with France and Our Setuiement As Agreed Upon with Eng!and’—Amusement Anuouncements, 'y—Editorials (Continved from Sixth Page)—Thne Washington Treaty: A Stifed Denate in the Senate on Engiand’s Attiude; Silence Dignifed and Golden; Secretary Fish’s Diplomatic Reply to Lari ranville; History of the Rise of the Rum- pus; Our Course Before the Geneva Arbitra- tors Plain and Unqnestionabie; British Pro- fession of Fidelity to tne treaty; Tory Aristo- cratic Support of Gladstone's Position; American Feeling tn Liverpool; Commissioner Adams and the United States Jurists im Mo- tion; War Risks on American Vesseis in the East; American Securities on the rrankfort Bourse—Tne War ww Mexico: A Battle Fought and Won by tf Revoluuonists; Total Rout of Juarez’s lroops; Zacatecas Captured Business Novices, Committee: Further Reve- All About the Frauds in Adjournment ot the Inves- tigation to Wasuington—The Methodist Book Goncern—Miller’s Insurance Kecord—Arrest of a Daring ihief—The Stuyvesant Bank De- : How a Shrewd rhioad of Burglars gnd Their ooty—ine Former fusband of Josephine Manstield Interviewed—Judge Bed- fora’s Grand Jury—around the City Hall— More Reiorm Needet—Poittical Movements and Views—Pacific Mail Investgation: Racy Revelations of Stock-Jovbing Operations—An Ungrateful son. @=—The National Bank Ring: Secret Meetings of the House Banking and Currency Coimmittee— A Burgiar Caught in the Act—The New York Provident Society—Jersey’s “Lear” Case—A Pauper’s Awlul Fate—Financial and Commer- cial Reporis—Cattie Market—Domestic Mar- kets—Matriages and Deaths. 40—European Mail Detatis—The College of the City of New York—Miscellaneous Telegrams— Shipping Intelligence—Adverusements, gi—The Courts: Interesting Proceedings in the United States Supreme, New York City and Brooklyn Courts; The Jumel Estate Case; A Cusiom House Vase; Verdict Against the Gov- ernment; Action on a Note; Decisions—Snoot- ing in a Ball Room—Burglars at Work—Oflicial ings of the Boards of Aidermen and Assistant Aldermen—Advertisements, 19- Advertisements, Tae AMERIOAN Minister TO Ressia, Mr. Cartin, enjoyed a very pleasing reception on board the United States ship Shenandoah fn the port of Nice, as will be seen by our cable telegram from Paris to-day. Tux Dominion or Canapa—Rvmorzep Taraty oF INDEPENDENCE.—A Boston paper gives currency to a rumor that a treaty has been secretly concluded between England and the Dominion of Canada by which the inde- of the latter issecured. This would be very convenient for England in case of war with this country, but we hardly think the British government is disposed to inaugurate the dismemberment of the empire by cutting adrift any of its foreign colonies aud depend- encies, A Heap correspondent bad an in- terview with the Minister of Public Works, and also with the Quebec Premier, last night, but they both denied there was any truth in the statement, and stated that no euch nego- tiations had been carried on between Great Britain and the Dominion, In case, however, the ramor sbould prove true, and Canada is really to become an independent Power, its annexation to this country from that moment qill become merely a question of time, anda gery short time at that. NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1872.-TRIPLE SHEET. —~sland and France and the “Southern Confederacy”—Our Settlement with France and Our Settlement as Agreed Upon with England, It is not surprising that the ‘American case” on the Alabama claims, as submitted to the Geneva Court of Arbitration, has awakened 8 profound excitement and great indignation in England touching the inferential and conse- quential damages involved. It is not surpris- ing, because Englishmen had generally ac- cepted the Treaty of Washington as embrac- ing the abandonment of all indirect claims in the premises on the part of the United States ; and because the acts, the facts, the dates and specifications, with the argument thereon, sub- mitted in our case, are fearfully strong, not only in behalf of consequential damages, but in support of the American opinion that Eng- land’s neutrality in our late rebellion, from the beginning to the end, was but a thin dis- guise covering an active alliance with Jeff Davis, In the course of the argument of the Amer- ican case, after regiting-the several treaties between the two countries from 1814 to 1854, and the numerous concessions made on the part of the United States from time to time in behalf of peace and relations of close friendship with England, it is said that, when threatened with our Southern rebel- lion, the United States had “a right to feel confident that in any contro- versy which might grow out of the unhappy existence of African slavery in certain of the Southern States the British government would not exercise its sovereign powers questionably or unquestionably in favor of the supporters of slavery.” Down to the month of May, 1861, this was the almost universal opinion through- out our loyal States. It was an opinion natu- rally resulting from the activity with which English abolitionists and the British govero- ment had supported for twenty-five or thirty years the abolition agitation in this country. After all the services in this cause of the noto- rious Thompson and other English emissaries ; after all the books of English travellers on American barbarisms, including the horrible atrocities of American slavery, from Mrs. Trollope down to Charles Dickens, and after the deification in England of William Lloyd Garrison and the astonished authoress of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” our Northern people to the last moment scouted the idea that between the United States and a rebellious Southern confederacy, founded on ‘‘the corner stone of negro slavery,” England would take the side of slavery. But she did, and with an indecent haste and with a shameless audacity, in Lord John Russell’s proclamation of belligerent rights, which we could not at first understand, because at first we could not believe it to be true. We were soon convinced, however, that, not only were the sympathies and the moral support of the British government and | the British aristocracy pledged to the so-called Confederate States, but that Lords Palmer- ston and Russell were only waiting for a con- venient pretext to become an active armed ally of Jeff Davis. It was made clear, from Russell's belligerent proclamation, that Eng- land’s active philanthropy in reference to American slavery had had for its object, not the emancipation of our Southern slaves, but the dissolution of the great American repuniic and the overthrow of its popular institutions, so dangerous to the ‘‘divine rights of kings” and feudal aristocracies. The sectional division of this Union on slavery to the issue of war, for which England had been working for a quarter of a century and more, had come at last, and, with the organization of the Southern Confederacy at Montgomery, Alabama, and before a gun had been fired to break the peace between the North and South, England took the position that this Union was dissolved ; that the Southern Con- federacy was a fixed fact, and that a con- venient pretext would soon enable her to settle the question. The entente cordiale cemented between Lord Palmerston and Louis Napoleon in the war of the Crimea enabled the former, without difficulty, to unite France with Eng- land in this matter of belligerent rights. Nor was Napoleon behind hand in his confidence in our Southern Confederacy; and he, too, had his grand designs in gathering his share of the rich fruits that would be offered to Eng- land and France from the dissolution of the great American Union. To England, with the success of our gigantic rebellion, would fall the monopoly, on her own terms, of our South- ern cotton trade; and between the Northern and the Southern Confederacy she could hold both subject to her good will and pleasure. Above all, with the collapse of this republic the crown and the aristocracy of England would be established as on a rock for, perhaps, cen- turies to come. Louis Napoleon, with an eye to the ultimate restoration to France of the outlets of the Mississippi and the command of its great traffic, and to the appropriation of California, saw that his way was conveniently open through Mexico. He took military pos- session of that country—our hands being tied; he established his Austrian instrument, the accomplished Maximilian, over it, on the French system, as Emperor, “by the will of the Mexican people,” and he awaited the issue of our civil war for the further de- velopment of his plans. But General Grant spoiled all his calculations, and so Mr. Secre- tary Seward at length obcained a hearing in the Tuileries, and Napoleon, taking the hint, wisely withdrew from Mexico, but cruelly left poor Maximilian to the tender mercies of Juarez, That was the settlement with France of our outstanding balances against her growing out of our terrible struggle of life or death with our insurgent States. England’s belligerent rights and perfidious neutrality in the very first year of the war were brought out in their true colors, Waiting only and watching for a pre- text to join hands with Jeff Davis, the vigilant Palmerston and Russell, in November, 1861, found it, and joyfully seized it, in the Trent affair. A British steamer, the Trent, with James M. Mason, of Virginia, and Jobn Slidell on board, the one as Minister of the Confede- rate States to England, and the other as Min- ister from said States to France, and each accompanied by his Secretary, had left Ber- muda en route for England. Not far from Bermuda the Trent was overhauled by the United States war steamer San Jacinto, Cap- tain Wilkes, and by him the four men indi- cated were taken off and carried to Fortress decide the extent to which our claims are valid or inadmissible. terpreter of the treaty between the two parties. this tribunal, in failing to secure the abate- ments demanded in our case, without losing all she has gained in her apology. She vitiates her apology by breaking the agreement of which it is a part, and she leaves us to the alternative of settling with her as we settled with Louis Napoleon. German government on the question of public education in a speech which he addressed to the members of the Prussian Diet yesterday. The Premier was considerably excited, par- ticularly with denominational religious instruction. He said, according to our cable telegram, that the Emperor’s government ‘“‘was disposed to pro- pitiate the Roman Catholics, but its patience was exhausted.” that ‘‘it will be the policy of Prussia here- after to Germanize the Polish schools as France had Gallicized those of Alsace and Lorraine.” The Premier Prince was evidently angered, degree, when he permitted his opponents in the Legislature to force him to reveal him- self towards Poland, and to exhibit the bitter feeling which has been engendered in his mind by the sight of the returned descendants of tho first German inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine, after their education by the foreign conqueror. that Panslavic Teutonism is not indestruct- ible, and they came very near to success. Monroe. The act was heartily applauded by the people of our loyal States and they were ready to meet the consequences. Mr, Seward, however, saw that it was a blunder and volun- teered at once the needful explanation to Eng- land. But before he could communicate with London Her Majesty’s governmeat had sent a peremptory demand for the release of Mason and Slidell, backed by the iron-clad Warrior and other warlike preparations, and in making up its answer our government was limited to seven days—only seven days’ grace. Here was a deliberate attempt to thrust the issue of war upon us; for in every respect this British demand was purposely framed not to invite an apology, but to provoke a fight. It was like spitting in the face of a defenceless man, while denouncing him as a thief. But President Lincoln had resolved to be content with” one war at the time,” and to bear with any affront from England or France until he had settled with Davis. The apology de- manded was accordingly made within the seven days’ grace allowed, and, failing in their game, Her Majesty's Cabinet and aristo- cracy, and Davis and all his Confederates were’ grievously disappointed. But this solution of that Trent affair in the hearts of millions of Americans was laid by as a rod in pickle for -the day of atonement, and it is properly in, and could not with a becoming respect for the truth of history be left out of the ‘“‘Ameri- can case” before the Geneva arbitrators. be sure, England’s apology in the Treaty of Washington covers sins; To a multitude of but it does not embrace this Trent affair, nor the consequential damages from the boldness which it gave to British blockade runners and to Mr. Laird & Co. in the building of rebel piratical cruisers. The British speculators, political and financial, in blockade runners, rebel ships-of-war and Con- federate cotton loans came out with their money and supplies of all kinds to the enemy, without stint, after the Trent affair, because, from our unexpected apology, they were satisfied that ‘England could not kick the Yankees into a fight,” and that ‘‘the South- erners would whip them.” Accepting, however, England’s apology as covering all the indignities and moral offences against us of which she was guilty in connec- tion with our late rebellion, our case as laid before the Geneva arbitrators is still fair as a bill of damages in dollars and cents. It is not for Mr. Gladstone but for the Court to The Court is the in- Nor can England withdraw from Prince Bismarck on Public Education. Prince Bismarck defined the position of the reference to the point of He added, in conclusion, and that to a very considerable The French endeavored to prove They must now pay for their ethnological ex- periment, and that ata very dear rate, accord- ing to the avengement principle of Bismarck’s interpretation of the maxim, Fas est et ab hoste doceri, Poland will suffer also, and the Papal interests in the Prussian provinces of the ancient kingdom be subjected to the influence of the lew talionis of Bismarck. the Law Regulating Banks. The Banking Committee of the State Legis- lature has agreed upon a bill to regulate sav- ings banks, the provisions of which will be found in full in the Heranp to-day. The Reform in Savings proposed new law seeks to make more stringent provisions in regard to the loaning of deposits by a savings bank, and throws other safeguards around the depositors’ money which recent experience has shown to be greatly needed. The truslees are held to greater responsibility than at present, and the means of reaching dishonest managers are rendered more speedy and certain. Some re- form is required in this direction, for nothing ig more unjust, cruel and impolitic than asys- tem which renders the hard earned money of the poor an easy prey to dishonor- able men, A commonwealth has no higher or more beneficial duty to perform than to en- courage the laboring classes in the habit of saving while health and vigor are on their side, Every failure of a savings bank, every exposure of fraud in such an institution, does more mischief by means of its dis- heartening effect upon its victims than through the immediate loss it may entail apon tbem, If the bill upon scrutiny promises to make the deposits in these banks mbre secure than at present it should be passed without a dissentient voice, Marsa, Bazatne’s “treachery to the French republic’ has been made patent to the committee of the Legislative Assembly which is investigating the subject of the surrender of fortresses to the Prussians during the late war. So says the Paris Patrice. The Marshal is really unfortonate. He fought against the popular idea in Algeria, fought against republican institutions in Mexico, and now he is accused of having betrayed the national interests as a soldier and a French- man. Can it be possible? Does military life ever induce such personal demoralizations? We can scarcely believe it, nregtie The System of State Taxation—The Re- | Congress Yesterday—The Amnesty Bill De-| Naval Economy—The Abolition of the \ port of the Committre of Revision. The report of the Commissioners appointed by the Governor to revise the laws for assess- ment and collection of taxes in the State, have submitted their report, which has been laid before the Legislature. It is an exhaustive document, of much interest to the people, but its extreme length has prevented its publica- tion in the Herazp. It has long been ad- mitted that our tax system is very defective, and that a radical change in existing laws is desirable, both to effect a more equal and perfect assessment of real estate and to remove the serious objections that exist in regard to the taxation of personal property. The Committee have evidently performed their labor with diligence and intelligence, and if all their suggestions do not receive popular approval, they have at least succeeded in mak- ing more clear and distinct the defects in our present laws, and in affording the Legislature many useful practical suggestions for their amendment, Every taxpayer is interested in securing an equal and full assessment of real estate for the purpose of taxation. It is a fallacy for any owner of property to suppose that he is saving money if he has succeeded, by favorit- ism or sharp practice, in securing an under- valuation, The defective system that enables him to do this gives his neighbors an equal opportunity to evade a genuine assess- ment, If the whole real estate in New York, in the cities and in the country, were assessed at its actual value, the percentage of taxation would be less than it is, even in cases where property is greatly undervalued, The Commissioners seek to strike at this fundamental evil of unequal and insufficient valuation by proposing in the new code of tax laws submitted with their report such stringent provisions as will, in their he- lief, serve to secure the enforcement of the role that all real estate shall be assessed throughout the State at its real market value. New York city, which bears a large share of the burden of general taxation, suffers the greatest injustice under the present system, -because property here is assessed much nearer to its ‘market value than is property in other parts of the State. From 1861 to 1870 the increased valuation of the State reached for- ty-seven anda half per cent, but nearly all this was realized inthe cities of New York and Brooklyn, Excluding the two counties of New York and Kings, the increase would only have been eight anda half per cent; yet the increase of population in the other parts of the State was almost as great asin these two counties during the same period. The lowest point of valuation is found in some farm lands, and in some instances it is down to fourteen per cent of the actual market value of the property. over the State for assessment is but forty per cent of the actual value. The average valuation all That a reform is needed in this direction must be evident to all, and, as we have said, every taxpayer would be benefited by a full and uniform valuation,,as the average per centage duced. The new laws proposed by the com- mittee might, and probably would, secure that desirable object ; would be thereby greatly re- atall events they are deserving of attentive consideration, coming from able men, who have carefully examined the subject and are earnest in the work they have undertaken, In regard to the efforts to tax personal property, under existing laws, the committee speak out boldly and distinctly. The attempt has been farcical and disgraceful, and the evidence of its failure, they declare, is most conclusive, A strong array of facts and elaborate reasoning support this proposi- tion, and the Commissioners arrive at the conclusion that the present system of per- sonal taxation is a violation of the principles of constitutional government. Without fol- lowing them through their argument, we may say that the existing taxation of personal pro- perty is universally known to bea farce. The system is unequal, unjust and inefficient as well as arbitrary and inquisitorial, and the people would be glad to see it abolished altogether rather than continue in its present shape. Still, personal property should bear its just share of the public burdens, and the propositions of the Commissioners are that all moneyed cor- porations of every kind shall be taxed in ac- cordance with the present laws, and that every occupier of a dwelling or building shall pay a tax upon three times the actual rental value of his premises in lieu of any taxation of personal property, as at present existing, The Commissioners argue to show that this is a fair estimate of a man’s personal wealth, and assert that wherever high rentals prevail—in great business or fashionable localities—the largest amount of per- sonal property is represented, We can see many objections that may be made to this novel proposition, especially in a crowded city where the rental of moderate- sized houses and stores in respectable but not first class locations are likely to be unduly high as compared with more valuable property ; but the subject is so important as to deserve more careful and thorough consideration than we can now bestow uponit. The report is an interesting and valuable document, and will, no doubt, be carefully studied by the Legislu- ture and by the taxpayers generally, The French Assembly and Contractors. The French Legislative Assembly has become exceedingly suspicious of the morality and honesty of the war contract system as it is observed under the government. The mem- bers are to ask information from Washington on the subject of a recent inquiry into the conduct of ‘‘American officials who were sus- pected of participating in the purchase of arms for the French government during the war.” The news telegram is not very clear as to what the French committee is just exactly seeking after. Does France, as a grand mili- tary and war-making nation, imagine that all military contractors are scrupulously honest ? If go she has forgotten the lessons and experi- ences of the great Bonaparte, who, when he came to levy the national taxes—under the famous Code Napoleon—and, glancing along the columns of the, returns containing the names and occupations of those liable, found the definition of profession to be ‘‘contractor for the army,” wrote the simple but decisive words, “‘Let him disgorge freely to the State.” The French Assembly is puzzling ttself about a variety of matters—some of them trifes in the end, the Army feated—The Proposed Revocation of tho Alabama Treaty. Grade of Commodore. The economical epidemic afflicting our Na- The Senate bas at last come toa final issue | tional Legislature seems manifested with on the Amnesty bill, and the bill is dead. It was killed by Sumner’s supplementary Civil Rights bill, which was tacked on to it as an amendment, by the casting vote of Vice President Colfax. Many of the most promi- nent republican Senators voted against Sum- ner’s amendment, including Carpenter, of Wisconsin; Ferry, of Connecticut ; Logan and Trumbull, of Illinois; Morrill, of Maine; Robertson and Sawyer, of South Carolina; Schurz, of Missouri, and Scott, of Pennsyl- vania. It was a tie vote—28 to 28—and the amendment was,: therefore, defeated had not Mr, Colfax exercised his prerogative to give the casting vote, and given it for the amendment, while confessing plainly enough that he did not approve of it. Neither do we think that the people will approve of it, or of his course in thus aiding in the as- sassination of amnesty—not only aiding in it, but dealing the fatal blow at it with his own hand. It was not a party measure, and there was, therefore, the less excuse for Mr. Colfax’s action. After that the fate of the bill was sealed. If there had not been votes enough in the Senate to kill it, it could never have got through the House with the negro equality amendment tacked on to it; but it did not even get through the Senate. Enough republicans voted with the democrats to pre- vent the bill getting the requisite two-thirds majority. The vote stood 33 to 19 less than two-thirds in the affirmative, and the bill was rejected, There is now one way left for Congress to get rid of this difficult question and to remove the irritation which must result in the South over the defeat of this measure. We appeal from Mr. Sumner, in the Senate, to Mr. Dawes, in the House—from Massachusetts drunk to Massachusetts sober. Let Mr. Dawes, the leader of the House, introduce next Monday, and have passed, under a sus- pension of the rules, a short, simple bill of universal and unconditional amnesty, and have it again sent to the Senate. That body will be, at that time, we are sure, so ashamed of its subserviency to Sumner and his crotchets that it will consent to come to a square vote on such a bill, backed, as it will be, by the influence of the administration. The President is not responsible for the continuance of political disabilities in the South, and is too much of a soldier and statesman not to appreciate thoroughly the danger at such atime of keeping alive dis- content among the leading men of the South. He knows that what Ireland is to England, as a source of apprehension and danger in case of war, the Southern States are to this gov- ernment, only in a still greater degree on account of the military character of the people ofthe South. If England dare not go to war with us from the danger she would expose herself to from Ireland, still less dare we to go to war with England, knowing how easily she could fan the discontent of the South into a new rebellion, which, with the aid of England, might defy all our power to subdue. This consideration does not seem to have entered into the minds of the Senators who most bitterly opposed amnesty, and who yet, with reckless inconsis- tency, uttered words of bravado in the Senate on account of England’s proposed revocation of the Alabama Treaty; for that subject was up again in the Senate yesterday and evoked a discussion which, in spite of all professions of a desire to keep it within the bounds of re- spect and moderation, frequently trenched upon the limits of international courtesy and was calculated to embitter rather than to mollify the ill feeling to which the episode has given rise in both countries, There were no questions of a public charac- ter before the House yesterday. By,the rules of that body Fridays are assigned to bills of a private character, and such only occupied its attention yesterday. One of these was of considerable general interest, being a propo- sition to compensate the ancient College of William and Mary, in Virginia, for the de- struction of its property during the war by the act of some drunken and insubordinate strag- glers from the United States Army. No result was arrived at when the House adjourned. The Senate will not be in session to-day and the House will only be in session for buncombe debate. Mr. Boutwell on Reviving American Ship. ping. Mr, Boutwell has been giving his views on the subject of reviving American shipbuilding and the maritime interests of the country be- fore the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives, He proposes to restore our commercial marine by @ gi; scheme of bounties. He has always been a bounty man, and after this he should be called the great bounty Secretary. The plan he rec- ommends would involve the payment of fifty millions of dollars at least out of the Treasury for bounties to shipbuilders. For one class of vessels only—ocean steamships—he proposes to pay ten dollars per ton a year for five years, on an aggregate of five hundred thousand tons, which would amount to twenty-five mil- lions of dollars, Then there is proposed a bounty of eight dollars a ton on sailing ves- sels not less than four hundred tons burden and six dollars a ton on vessels of not less than one hundred tons burden for either the foreign or coast trade, besides indi- rect bounties to fishing vessels, Fifty mil- lions would be the lowest amount, probably, thus taken from the pockets of the taxpayers. But that would not be the only evil of such a measure. The doors would be opened by this precedent to all sorts of bounties and jobs, by which the mass of the people would be taxed for the benefit of special interests. Away with such bad policy and dangerous precedent. The proper way to increase our tonnage and to revive our maritime and commercial inter- ests is to let American capitalists buy ships in the cheapest and best markets and to na- tionalize the ships so purchased. Taz LyNnonsura Virginian regards the liberal republican movement as one of the most hopeful auguries of the times, and adds that it suggests the only basis upon which all the opponents of radical rule can be brought together and co-operate with harmony. This fs possumiam from an unexpected quarters Peculiar virulence in regard to the interests of the navy. Appropriations for expenditure here are reduced to the lowest limit consist- ent with the mere existence of the service, and our Congressmen are upon this subject apparently emulous of the experiment which proposed to demonstrate that, under a judi- cious system of diet, an animal might be edu- cated to subsist upon a single straw per day. Pursuant to this laudable purpose of na- tional thrift, it is now proposed to abolish the grade of Commodore in the navy, to effect a small saving in the yearly appropriation for Navy pay and rations, The scheme will not find much favor in naval circles, and itis questionable if the public, when it understands, will approve a measure which, under a pitiful pretence of economy, may inflict serious in- jury upon the efficiency of an important organ- ization. Though—as the Secretary of the Navy states—it may be there are no duties performed by the grade of Commodore which cannot be as well performed by other grades; and though it may be that if any grade must be abolished, that of Commodore can be best spared without materially affecting the effi- ciency of the service; it is, nevertheless, the fact that in 1862 the grades of Rear Admiral and Commodore were established to remedy a recognized deficiency, and by this means round the official ‘‘personnel” of the navy into adequate completion. That either military or naval power, to be efficient, should be wielded by a single indi- vidual head, is indisputable; it isa military necessity. And the distribution of power and responsibility from the head, through succes- sively subordinated grades of members to the extremities, becomes a natural and inevitable consequence. Military men agree in the plan of construction of a grand army. A general- in-chief, major generals commanding army corps and divisions, brigadier generals con- ducting brigades, colonels in charge of regi- ments and battalions. Though these grades may be sometimes unoccupied, and the duties of either performed by subordinates, it is none the less true that when this is so there is an imperfection; a link of the chain is wanting, and the army lacks by this much the first ele- ment of efficiency—a complete organization. The same reasoning applies to the navy, in which the grade of Commodore is equivalent to that of Brigadier in the army and equally essential. Even were the grade of Commodore superfluous, it is always injudicious to alter established systems, whose va- rious constituents have become harmo- niously adjusted, and where the change may seriously affect individual interests and aspirations. Next to patriotism and devotion to the service and the flag the leading idea with most naval officers is promotion as re- ward for efficient and faithful performance of duty. The future of many subordinate offi- cers, their domestic establishment and hope of a home, hinge upon the anticipation of ad- vancement in rank, bringing with it the pay enabling them to support a family. When it is considered that the abolition of the grade of commodore necessitates the suspension, for eight years, of all promotion, it becomes evi- dent that this measure of economy bears hard upon those to whom the question is practi- cally one of “bread and butter,” and cer- tainly cannot be approved by those liberal minded citizens who recognize the propriety of stimulating activity, energy and efficiency by the inducement of a coveted reward. It has been observed that in 1862 the grade of commodore was created to remedy a defi- ciency. The number of captains and com- manders was then expreasly reduced that the aggregate number of officers in the senior grades might not be increased. There were then sixty-eight captains and ninety-seven commanders, There are now fifty captains and ninety commanders. If the grade of commodore is abolished the fifty cap- tains are manifestly too few for their present duties, and to fill all the other positions now filled by commodores, and it would then seem necessary, with the extinc- tion of the grade of commodore, to re-estab- lish the number of captains and commanders as existing before the war. If, of the number in the grade of commodore (twenty-five), eighteen be added to the present number of captains and seven to that of commanders, the numbers in these two grades will be exactly re-established—viz., sixty-eight captains and ninety-seven commanders—and thus .the change may be effected without stopping pro- motion, which does a positive injustice to offi- cers who have served faithfully from thirty to thirty-five years. But this will not effect what Congress dee sires—économy in naval expenditure—as the increase by addition to these subordinate grades on the one hand will about equal the retrenchment accomplished by reduction on the other. Since, therefore, this proposed economy cannot be attained without inflicting hardship and injustice; and siuce, but for economy, there seems no motive for change in the present completed organization, it may be well for our legislators to direct their attention to other branches of naval expense where reformation is seriously demanded, and where @ much more creditable economy can be ju- diciously devised, A Reat Barre has at last been fought and won by the revolutionists in Mexico. Accord- ing to our special despatch from Matamoros, the government troops, three thousand strong, commanded by General Neri, were completely routed and scattered by a revolutionary force of about the same number under General Donato Guerra, As the result of the battle the important city of Zacatecas, the capital of the State, was captured by the revolutionists. Emieration From Liverroot IN 1871.— The emigration from Liverpool to the United States during the past year has been consider- ably in excess of that of 1870. The figures, taken from the official statistics recently pub- lished in England, show this to be the case. One pecaliarity, however, is noticeable. While the number of emigrants from the Con. tinent has augmented there has been a falling off of Irish and Scotch emigrants, This may be accounted for by the fact of the incrensed facilities offered to emigrants from ports in the North and South of Ireland, as well as from Glasgow. The number of vessels from thesa \