The New York Herald Newspaper, February 16, 1872, Page 6

6 ‘NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRJETOR ee ———————— AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— ‘Tux New Deas or Divosen! ai +No. 47 OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tam BaLurr P. wommus oF Huurry Doarrr. wien i THEATRE, Twenty-third st, corner Sixth av. — BOOTI SJULIUE GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of Sb av. and 93a st— EUROPEAN MIFPOTHRATRIOAL COMPANY. Matince at 2. WOOD'S MUSKUM, Broadway, coi = fences afternoon and oma Dinas smectite ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Cesena dtae USIC, Fourteenth street.—ENGLISH WALLAOK’S THEATRE, Bi - Tan Vere 8, Broadway and 13th street. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, ats,—BLAoK Croox. between Prince and BOWERY THEAT! Bowery—Bi — gaetatiat ‘RE, ry—Box Derzorive—Ovur 8ST, JAMES’ THEATRE, Tw way.—MAREIAGE, B, Twenty-cighth street and Broad- MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S Tar Duke's Motto, THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway,— 16M8, NEGRO ee ‘&0—Di-vonoe ee UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st, - way.—NEGRO AOT#—BURLESQUE, BALLET, ‘aa aoe THIRTY-FOURTH STREET TH! » Bear Thir nue.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENES ger ‘das TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. _— NxGKo EooenrRrerTi46, BURLESQUES, ja Bere BROOKLYN THEATRE. — BRYANT’S NEW OPERA HOUSB, 364 st., and 7th ave,—BRYANT'S MINSTRELS, nabhslbecaeis: Bs! FRANCISCO MINS’ Hy, - HE SAN FRANCISCO MIN Pini oe eeduey- PAVILION, No, 688 Broadway.—Ti - pe roadway.—Tus ViENNA LaDy Ox- NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteentn TRE RING, ACROBATH, 20. eopen an ad NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, BormNor AND Axr. DR, KAHN'S ANA’ C. - giuivos ces tee \TOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Fridny, February 16, 1872. 618 Broadway.— CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD, Pace. 1— Advertisementa, ‘Advertisements. Washington: The French Arms Banging Right and Left in the Senate; ‘he Marquis de Chambrun on the Little Dificuity; The Wars Of the New Orleans Facuons; Custom House and “Generai Order” Reform; The Report of the Ku Klux Committee—Tne State Capital: ress of the New City Charter in the House—The Erie Classification Act. 4—Congress: The Arms Sold to France; Another vely Discussion in the Senate; The Naval Appropriation Bill Passed by the House; Slo- cum Again Aiter the Brooklyn Navy Yard— The Jersey City Frauds: The City Drifting to Pankruptoy and Ruw—Teaching the Young Idea: Closing of the New York Male and Fe- male Evening Schools—Foundered at Sea: The Loas of the Sveamer Wanda Within Thirty Miles of Sanuy Hook—A Steamer Sunk by ice—The Philadeiphia Collectorship—Emigra- tion ‘Meeting of the Dock Commission- ers—A Fearful Verdict: A Coroner’s Jury ar- raign the Police Commissioners of Long Island City for Murder—West Virginia Constitutional posrea pote Slight Republican Loss in Bing- nm, N. Y. S—The Alabama Claims; Tne British Case and the American Demands; Opinions of the English Press on the Obligations of England Unaer the Washington Treaty—Dr. Livingstone: The Search Expedition of the Royal Geographical Society; The Public Meeting in London to Raise. Funds; Colonel Grant, the African ‘Travelley, and the NEw York HERALD; Con- Wibutions Recetved—Prevaricating Panama: Redress for the Capture of the Montijo De- Manded by the American Miuister—The Kull- ing of Jolin Glass; Otticial Investigation Be- fore Coroner Keenan—The Manifesto of the Count de Chambord—Arrival of the New Steamer Republic—The Port Morris Murder— Alleged Thief and Receiver—The Pearl Street Public School Affray—Tne West Street Bur- ‘ary. o—ziioriais: Leading Article, ‘The Day of Small Things; The People Impatient; Give Us a Charter and Let There be an End of Erie’— Amusement Annouacements. YeEditoriais (Continued from Sixth Page)—Euro- an Cable Despatches: Interest from me, England and France—The War in Mexico—Tne Jamaica and Porto Rico Lable— Conflagrations—The Pacific Railroad Block- aue—Ancient Uhivalry Revived: Duel Between Speaker Carter and the Chief of Poltce of New Orleans—The Alabama Claims: French Opin- jon of the American Bill of Damages—Miscel- laneous Telegrams—Business Novices. §=-The National Fortifications: A Glauce at Our Sea-Coast Defences; Their Location and Pres- ent Condition—New York Railroads: Pro- posed Appointment of a Board of Commission- rs with Extraordinary Powers; Protection of the People Against Monopolies—Important Decision ip Bankruptcy—The Baxter Street Fire—The Cieska Arson Case—Cupid’s Pranks in Newark—Tombs Police Court—Election of Treasurer for Rhode Island—News irom Ja- maica. Q@—Stokes: How Grand Jurieg are Empanelled and Sworn; Deputy County Clerk Gumbieton and Deputy Commissioner of Grand Jurors Childs on the Stand; Another Day of Legal Technicalities and epearsent iia | of Siiks—Cauuon to Reckless Drivers—Finan- cial and Commercial Reports—Domestic Mar- kets—Marriages and Deaths, §O—Arrival of Mails and Passengers at San Francisco—The Wesleyan University—Yacht Building—Conflagrations—Miscellaueous Tele- grams—Shipping Intelligence—Advertise- ments. @i—The Courts: Interesting Proceedings in the New York and brooklyn Courts; The Jumel Estate; A Bankruptcy Suit; Alleged False Imprisonment; Action for Libel; Decisions: Business in the General Sessions—The Alex- ander Church Trouples—Our National Hu- milation—Beaten with a Club. 12—Advertisements. SENATOR PALMER ought to be reckoned as adverse to the Erie Ring and in favor of Sen- ator O'Brien’s bill. He will no doubt be found 60. Tue SroreTary or Wak, the other evening, gave the most brilliant reception of the stason at Washington. He is evidently preparing for peace. Jvupez Roperrsdy, Senator from the Ninth district, as a sound lawyer and an honest man, will vote in a straightforward manner for the repeal of the Classification act, , Tae “Amertoan Case” is unquestionably a bitter dose of medicine to our astonished friend, John Bull; but in rejecting this heal- fing prescription what will be his case? That is the question for him. Senator J. Woop has some unpleasant usiness on his hands at present. His course on the Erie Ring bills will be scrutinized all the more jealously. Tar Enciisu Vote By Bator passed its second reading in the House of Commons yesterday by a vote of 109 to 51, This looks well for the Gladstone government, It is really good for the democratic cause in Eu- rope, which is still better. Att Is CHaos iy Mexico.—According to the latest telegraphic news from the capital of that unfortunate country President Juarez is in the last agony of despair, and is reported to heave made a_ piteous appeal to President Grant for help Bgainst the overwhelming and still increasing numbers of the revolutionists, of whom thirty thousand are now said to be in the field, Un- der these circumstances President Grant can ae hesitate, Annexation to the United a 1s the panacea for all the evils that are preying on poor desolated Mexico, NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1872.-TRIPLE SHEET. The Day eof Small Things—The People Impatient—Give Us a Oharter and Let There Be an End of Erie. We seem to have fallen upon the day of small things. We have passed through a season of unusual anxiety and effort, and the people, having expressed their will, are waiting in patience for its enforcement. From our City Hall they expect a thorough revision of the municipal affairs, a purification of every department from the corruptions of the old Tammany rale. From Albany they hope for a charter that will be worthy of the nation’s metropolis. From Washington they demand an improvement of our revenue sys- tem, reduction of taxation, the re-establish- ment of our navy. Yet what has been done for us? Our Aldermen and Councilmen have spent most of their time in intriguing about the City Hall patronage. Our legis- lators at Albany have given six weeks to an investigation of poor Terwilliger for accept- ing his time-bonored dividend, and we are threatened with six weeks more of inquiry as to whether a thrifty clerk carried home a pocketful of postage stamps. In Washington we have had a protracted Investigation of Colonel Leet for making some money out of the general order business and not dividing all around, and we are threatened with a still more protracted investigation of some military people for selling guns and cartridges to the French government. So all around the horizon we have this comedy of Liliput. Small men in great con- cern about small things; politicians clattering, contriving, intriguing; Cheap-Jack newspapers clamoring over their circulation, their honesty, their influence, their contempt for one an- other, generally high in oath, and offending all decent wayfarers. Here, for instance, we have had the gravest problem of international relations that we have known since 1812— a problem that threatened war, and brought, with a paralysis of business, a decline of our bonds, an advance in gold—grave enough to be mentioned in a speech from the throne and discussed in Parliament. Yet Cheap-Jack newspapers have scarcely printed the news— preferring to give column after column on Murphy and Leet, Terwilliger and Hank Smith, while Cheap-Jack Senators stand up for hours and hours, indifferent to the nation’s peace and honor, and discuss the sale of a few old guns to the French. The country is revolting at this trifling, and plain, honest men are ask- ing, ‘Is it not time to do something, especi- ally when there is so much to be done? Can we not end this magpie gossip and fishwomen’s invective?” We can well admit a certain limit to the nonsense and vanity of our public men, but the time has come to end it. Gul- liver records in his travels that he came upon a community ina high state of political ex- citement. The trouble grew ont of an egg. One party contended, if we remember cor- rectly, that an egg should always be broken at its large end; the other that it should be broken at the small end. The community divided into two great parties, called the big- endians and the little-endians, and the partisan animosities almost led ‘to civil war. This is what we see in our own affairs. The big-endians and the little-endians are in terrible strife, and decent, fair men can do nothing. If these strifes were of any value in impressing public opinion we might tolerate them. But public opinion in these United States has its own mind, and sees whena mist is a mist and when there is really smoke and fire. The country knows that Mr. Alvord, with his wily tactics, means to de- feat the charter; that Mr. Greeley cares more to have the Fenton strikers engrossed upon some pay-roll than to secure a good charter ; that these Erie petitions are signed by Erie employés; that the war on Terwilliger and Murphy is meant to defeat Grant; and that ,if these hungry, clamoring politicians were in power they would be as bad and perhaps worse than those now in place. Public opinion knows quite well that the reason these Fenton men do not support the administration {s because the administration does not support them. It knows, furthermore, that the support of the Conkling men springs largely from an attach- ment to the pay-roll, Public opinion remem- bers that every administration is badgered by similar oppositions—that so long as a Pres- ident cannot appoint two hundred thousand politicians to fifty thousand places there will be one hundred and fifty thousand patriots in opposition. Political confidence is a plant of rapid growth. Jonah’s gourd, com- pared to it, was as slow in maturing as the American aloe. But political confidence— which might be better expressed as political mendicancy—has little weight with the people of the United States, The men who pay taxes and earn their own livelihood have a way of voting as they please and of enforcing their will, in the long run, even apon the big and little endians, and of giving us Presidents like Washington and Jefferson and Jackson and Lincoln and Grant. If_ this were a time for comedies we might laugh with the rest at the antics of these small men, But, alas! we suffer for wise legisla- tion. Here in New York we are like a ship without mast or rudder in mid-ocean. We have no charter, no sailing master, no crew. We are told that vile men sit upon the Bench; that Justice has become a leering wanton; that Vice sits under the ermine; yet nothing is done to make good these fearful charges. That justice which, as Richelieu says, is for all time a temple and all seasons summer, is slandered, and no one has championed her or punished those who have done her wrong. The American name has been injured abroad so irretrievably that we have lost more in money alone than we would gain by the payment of any English indemnity, solely by the existence of this monstrous Erie Ring. Its history {8 too familiar and too shameless to be repeated now. But no American has trodden a foreign shore without being compelled to blush at the crimes of Erie ; and yet it reigns unchallenged, unmolested—powerful to buy and sell, baild up and atrike down, The masters of Erie are still the masters of New York, and instead of a resolute, prompt assault upon the strongholds of this gigantic power, we hear of combinations by which Mr. Gould and his associates are to buy immunity by abandoning the democracy and supporting the republicans; and that there are republicans who look gleefully at the prospect of such an alliance. However true this mav be—and we accent it as true—na such an alliance will be permitted in New York. We have pulled Tammany down as effectually as when Samson drew down the pillars, and Erie stands a trembling, unsupported column, To condone all the infamies that have beem perpetrated in the name of Erie—the corruption of legislation, the subsidizing of the press, the pollution of the Bench, the violation of vested rights, the creation of mob rule and anarchy, the unblush- ing robbery of foreign stockholders and bond- holders, the absorption of this great and needed trunk line for private emolument by those who hold it in trust—will bring political damnation to any party that permits it. All these deeds must be investigated and punished. The record of Erie is such that the people will be justified in regarding every member of the Legislature who does not vote for its over- throw and the selection of ‘new men to man- age the road as a bought hireling of the road, bribed with its money, who has sold his soul after the manner of Judas Iscariot. With the downfall of Erie we must have a new charter. This cannot be longer delayed. The people passed upon this question at the last election, and they will not submit to thi Albany trifling. Mr. Alvord particularly wil not add to his reputation by standing in the way of wise legislation. We want a plain, simple, specific charter, based upon sound principles of law, that will live for a generation at least. We care nothing as to the distribu- tion of the patronage. The people will take care of that in time, and it will matter little who serves them provided they are served. Any- how, let us have an end of trifling, of all liliputian legislation, Let us have a char- ter, and let the scandal of Erie be removed, New York demands this, and unless this de- mand is regarded the men who fail to do so will have a political infamy that even our own queer history will not parallel. Sznator James H. Granam, of Delaware county, is said to be doubtful how he shall vote on the bill to repeal the Erie Classifica- tion act. The Erie lobby are looking out for doubtful men—and so are the people. A Wall Street Sensation—The Erie Ring Wall street has a new episode—not one of the Artemus Ward kind, but a good sensation in every way for the habitués of that locality. The subject is Hannibal and St. Joseph—not the Carthaginian and the Judwan, but the stock of a railroad running between two West- ern towns thus curiously, heathenishly and religiously designated and connected—a speculative “fancy” which has been the ‘‘deep damnation” of many a speculator the last year or two, and the real cause of the failure of the Bowling Green Savings, and, possibly, one or two others of the banks which col- lapsed a little while ago. Last Monday the man who bought of this stock believed he was buying @ portion of a capital of four mil- lions only, But on Tuesday the an- nouncement was made that the long- closed transfer books, which had been removed to this city from Boston after the last election had turned over the road to New York management, were open again, and that the common share capital was nine millions. No announcement had been made beforehand. The wishes of the stockholders had not been consulted in the slightest particular. There had not been the usual vote to ratify or reject an increase of capital stock. It is an Erie case all over again. Indeed, the parties in it are many of them the identi- cal brokers who bought and sold Erie shares for James Fisk, Jr., and the old Erie Ring. The records of the latest overissue were writ- ten in the same offices by the same clerks, and with, possibly, the same ink and pens, But this time the Stock Exchange has been too vigilant. The laws of that body now re- quire a thirty days’ preliminary notice of any intended issue of new stock, and also a full registration of the share capital with some “reputable” banker or trust company, apart from the transfer offices of the cor- poration. As soon as this attempt at an overissue of Hannibal and St. Joseph became known the Governors of the Stock Exchange put the law into force and ruled the new stock “‘not a good delivery”—a technical way of saying that it cannot be bought and sold at the board and cannot be marketed. So fades the glory of the Ring day by day. The bold spirit who was called to his last account the other day at the Grand Central would have managed this matter a great deal better. Indeed, it remains to be seen whether his survivors have not entrapped themselves in a difficulty which may turn to their utter pecuniary destruction, for in expectation of the éasy use of the new stock or overissues they sold nearly the entire capital stock to Wall street and are now bound to make good their contract in the old certificates. The Stock Exchange and the public seem to have the remnant of the Ring at their mercy this time for once. Sznator Harrower, of Steuben, may vote against the repeal of the Erie Classification act, but he may live to regret that he did not love the Erie Ring less and the people more, Tne Papal ConsisToRY AND MISSION Ursi £T Orsis.—Pope Pius IX. has called a Consistory of the Roman Catholic Church, to be held in the Vatican, for the nomination of bishops, on the 19th inst, It is probable that an appointment to the Archiepiscopal and Primatial' American See of Baltimore, will be submitted to the members of the Sacred Col- lege, with other matter of great import to the Christian world. unusual—number of scarlet hats at the dis- posal of the Pontiff, as will be seen by the historical facts which we append to our news telegram from Rome. Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Asia, Africa and Aus- tralasia will, it is said, receive hierarchical honor and missionary attention, and the ques- tion of public education be treated at much length in an Encyclical. Senator Norman M. ALLEN is from Catta- Taugus county, He is supposed to have inti- mate personal relations with the Erie Ring managers, but his constituents aze opposed to the Gould-Lane combination, Will he throw upon Governor Fenton’s representative and Governor Fenton's district the odium and sus- picion that will attach to a vote cast in favor of the Erie Ring against the rights of the stockholders, the interests of the people and the cause of justice? There are @ very large—an- The Judiciary Committee ana the Judges. Among the qualities inherent in the Anglo- Saxon character entitled to pre-eminence none is more marked than the universal desire for justice and fair play. The many readers of the Heratp are witnesses of the earnestaess with which the columns of this journal have supported all efforts for municipal reform, But while pressing steadily onward in the reformation of abuses and in the exposure of corruption, it is well to re- member that unusual courses of procedure establish precedents which may not only re- turn to plague the inventors, but tend also to weaken the foundations of ordinary and legal methods for the attainment of wished-for results, and in the place of settled principles leave only the shifting ways suggested by intemperate zeal and too often by partisan malice. It well becomes, therefore, a public journal, in times of popular excitement, to raise its voice, not solely in urging effort, but to temper action with a due regard for the laws. We are led to these remarks by the efforts of certainly one metropolitan newspaper to influence in a wrong direction the Judiciary Committee, whose session is to be held in this city to inquire as to the per- formance of trusts by persons now holding high judicial position. It is hardly necessary to remind our readers of the importance of the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, not dependent upon the person who may temporarily fill the place, but drawn to and surrounding it by the gravity of the functions and the innate dignity of the position itself. The mistake which would be made in following the counsels of the journal referred to by the Judiciary Committee is to make the investigation a secret proceeding, to be pursued with closed doors, and giving mo opportunity for publicity, and not permitting an appearance, either in person or by autho- rized representative, in behalf of the officials charged with high orimes and misdemeanors in office. This, in our opinion, would bea grave and fundamental error, inflicting wrong and Injustice upon those whose acts are to be criticised, endangering the future independ- ence of the judiciary, .so necessary to the due administration of the laws, and turning what was intended as a safeguard and pro- tection into a weapon which may hereafter be wielded with irresistible force against the | honest and the upright. The impeachment of a Judge of the Supreme Court is an event unknown in the history of our State; therefore most necessary, if the occasion has come for such an occurrence, that even in preliminary steps the proceeding should be marked by deliberate thoughtful- ness and careful regard for established pre- cedent. By the constitution of the State two modes of removal are prescribed :— First—Under article 6, section 1, authority is given to the Assembly to impeach all offi- cers, judicial and civil, by presentment of articles of impeachment to a High Court of Impeachment, composed of the President of the Senate, a major portion of the Senators and a major part of the Judges of the Court of Appeals. It also provides that no judicial officer shall exercise his office after articles of impeachment shall have been preferred against him until after he shall have been acquitted. Second—Under article 6, section 11, Judges of the Court of Appeals and of the Supreme Court may be removed by concurrent resolu- tion of both houses of the’ Legislature if two- thirds of all the members elected to each house concur therein, Butno removal shall be made by virtue of this section unless. the cause thereof be entered in the journal, nor unless the party complained of shall have been served with a copy of the charges against him and shall have an opportunity of being heard, Ultimate punishment under the sec- tions is as different as the method of proceed- ing. In the first the section provides that it shall not extend farther than to removal from office, or removal from office and disqualifica- tion to hold any office of honor, trust or pro- fit under the State, but the party impeached shall be liable to indictment “and punishment according to law. Inthe second simply the removal from office, By the section first indicated, however, a serious punishment is inflicted prior to trial and coaviction before the Court of Impeach- ment, as the exercise of judicial functions is prohibited immediately upon the presentment of the articles of impeachment to the Senate. It is nowhere therein enacted, as in the sec- tion secondly cited, that specific charges shall be furnished; so that if the Judiciary Com- mittee enact the réle of a grand inquest, giving no hearing to the accused, the severe judg- ment of suspension is passed upon ex parte testimony and, may be, prejudiced and unre- liable statement. This is foreign both to strict justice and enlightened equity, partaking too much of the Star Chamber and the Inquisition. Let us turn for a moment to the consigera- tion of precedent, both remote and proximate. William Blount, United States Senator from Tennessee, was expelled before trial, but sub- sequent to the order for impeachment, in 1799 ; Judge Chase, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was impeached in 1805, after a public investigation of the charges, lasting two months, by a committee of the House of Representatives; Judge Peck, in 1881, upon presentment by a like committee, similar investigation; also Judge Addison, of Pennsylvania, and Judge Hubbell, of Wiscon- sin, of which latter cases we have not the records at hand; Judge Busteed, of Ala- bama, after inquiry bya committee of the House, before whom the respondent appeared by counsel, cross-examining the witnesses and presenting evidence in his own behalf, In this State the ‘trial of George W. Smith, Judge of Oneida county, was founded upon the action of the Governor of the State, under the provisions of section eleven, only to be taken against other than Judges of the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court and Justices of the Peace, and Judges and Justices of in- ferior Courts not of record. The action of similar committees of the present Legis- lature seemingly settles the question, The Committee on Insurance, now inves- tigating charges against Superintendent Miller, a State official, sitting in this city, with open doors, the respondent represented ; the Committee of Ways and Means, upon charges against the Capitol Commissioners ; on Public Printing, as to Weed, Parsons & Co, ; the special committee of the Senate, upon charges against Terwilliger, its clerks Privileges and Elections, in the Killan-Frear case; Commerce and Navigation, as td” the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Under the constitution, therefore, as well as by precedent, we think the future course of the*Judiciary Committee is clearly marked. But, aside from either, upon the broad prin- ciples of right and justice, we feel bound to raises note of warning against secret in- quests and one-sided investigation. Indict- ment by a Grand Jury brings no punishment until after trial and conviction. In the case of Judges a portion of the penalty falls before either. So let the doors be thrown wide open ; let all be heard; permit, we say, the daily proceedings tobe laid before the people, in whose interests and by whose representatives the steps are taken, so that hereafter, when perhaps too late, nothing may be found to have been done or permitted belittling the judicial office, unjust to the respondents or derogatory to the dignity of the State. Sznator Gzorce Bowzn, of Genesee, is compelled to bear the unenviable reputation of having been a member of the Senate that passed the Erie Classification law. He now has an opportunity to atone for that act by voting for its repeal. It is hinted in Albany by the Erie lobby that no member of the last Senate dare vote for Senator O’Brien’s bill. The course of Senator Bowen will therefore be watched with peculiar interest, A Grand Political Scheme—The Plans of the Office-Seekers. It was scarcely to be expected that the recent political revolution would pass into history without an effort being made by partisans to use it as a means of advancing their own in- terests, The party organs have heretofore acknowledged the fact that the victory of last November was won by the citizens, without regard to political divisions; that in this city, at least, it was secured by the strength of the reform democracy, led by Senator O'Brien, and that its fruits belong to the people and not to the politicians. But the State Legisla- ture has an overwhelming republican majority, and there are indications that a strgng effort is to be made to induce it to use its power to subserve partisan ends in legislating for the future goverament of the city of New York. The bill to create a commercial district, com- prising the counties of New York, Kings, Queens, Westchester and Richmond, recently introduced into the Assembly by Mr, Twom- bly, is simply a magnificent scheme of party plunder. It seeks to place in the hands of a commission of nine members the control and patronage of Quarantine, Health Officer, Captain of the Port, Harbor Masters, Port Wardens, water police, the building, repair and management of docks, the regulation and collection of wharfage, and, in fact, of everything connected directly or indi- rectly with the commerce of the port. By the terms of the bill the Commissioners would be elected by the Legislature in the same manner as are Regents of the University; the Presi- dent would hold office for ten years, and his eight assoplates would be classified in terms of two, four, six and eight years, two to retire every second year. A majority of the board chosen by the present Legislature would thus hold control of this vast patronage for the next six years, unless the law should be sooner repealed. This magnificent scheme to seize upon the richest portion of the city spoils originates with theJpbby, and is urged upon members as @ purely party measure, ‘We have got the power,” is the plain, blunt argument of the old lobbyists who have it in hand, “and we shall be foolish if we do not use it to take care of our political friends and our political interests,” No attempt is made to advance the prospects of the bill by any vindication of its provisions, It is not pretended that it is demanded by or would promote the public inter- est. It is boldly advocated and justi- fied as a party measure, to. insure to one set of politicians, who are numerically powerless in the city, a liberal share of the public plunder while their friends have the power to bestow it upon them. Now, it is of very little consequence whether the Quaran- tine Commissioners, the Health Officer, the Port Wardens, Harbor Masters and the rest are members of one political party or the other, so long as they are honest and capable men, If tl legislative majority will give us sound laws and good officers to execute them the people of New York will not care what political interests will be advanced by the former or to which political party the latter may belong. But this scheme of an old rail- road lobby is a repetition cn an enlarged scale of the metropolitan commission system, which was instrumental in throwing the city government into confusion, breaking down direct responsibility and laying the ground- work for the corruption of our whole muni- cipal body. It is a partisan attempt to de- prive the citizens of the metropolis of the fruits of a victory won by their own efforts, and bestow them upon a clique of political office-seekers. It is a bold, undisguised be- trayal of the cause of reform, The members of the Senate’ and Assembly sent to Albany from this city were, with a few insignificant exceptions, elected upon the implied, if not directly expressed, pledge to give New York a sound, practical, effective municipal charter, without regard to the interests or the desires of politicians of either organization. In lending himself to this lobby effort to ignore the interests of the city and divide an enormous amount of plunder among political adven- turers Mr, Twombly has betrayed the constitu- ents who gave him a seat inthe Assembly and the reformers who advocated his election. The sooner he frees himself from the odium that must attach to such influences the better. The present bill, and all such schemes, should be thrown back in the faces of the lobbyists who hang upon the skirts of the Legislature, tainting the reputation even of honest men whoare weak enough to extend to them the slightest recognition. It is to be regretted that there does not seem to be intelligence enough in the State Legislature to frame @ sound, practical charter for the metropolis, with- out relying upon the impracticable contrivances of enthusiastic theorists or the dangerous pro- jects of expert partisans; but at least there should be sufficient honesty among the mem- bers to forbid the countenancing of a scheme professedly designed to hand over the most important interests of the city to political aharovers Congress Yosterday—Senatorial Amenitico= The Supply of Arms to France—Our Dilapidated Navy. Senator Brownlow, of Tennessee, made aa exhibition in the Senate yesterday which reflected little credit on either that body or himself. He undertook to reply to some remarks made by Mr. Beck, of Kentucky, in the House of Representatives some weeks:ago, in which he (Brownlow) was referred to, ia conjunction with others, as persons who have stepped from a career of outrage and plunder in the Southern States into the position of United States Senators. ‘The time was,” said Brownlow, in the speech, which was read for him from the Clerk’s desk, ‘‘that if Beck bad dared to apply such language to him he would have taken Beck's slave-driving whip from him and laid it over his back.” He went on to refer to Beck as one who had abandoned the occupation of an hostlee for that of a alavedriver, and as having. sunk so low as to be ‘unworthy of notice. Brownlow was notified by Vice President Colfax, before the reading of his speech was commenced, that the par- liamentary rule prohibited any allusion being made in one House of Congress to what had taken place in the other, and when the reading of the speech had reached this point the Vice President interrupted it as a transgression of the rule, But Blair, of Missouri, interfered, and asked that the reading be allowed to pro- ceed, remarking that as there was no prece- dent for a Senator acquiring his seat in the manner that Brownlow had acquired his, he could see no objection to allowing him to continue a strain of language that so well befitted him, And so the reading of Brown- low's diatribe was resumed and completed. But it will require a great deal more than per- sonal abuse or personal justification from such a source to convince the people that Mr. Beck was very far from the truth when he charged Brownlow with having made a pan- demonium of Tennessee, and when he repree sented him. and the other carpet-bag Gov- ernors of Southern States as having escaped the Penitentiary by getting into the Senate. After this episode the Senate resumed the discussion of Mr. Sumner’s resolution as to the sale of government arms to the French republic during the war with Germany, and the debate continued till the close of the ses- sion, the parties being divided into assailants and defenders of the administration. The House attended strictly to its legitimate business yesterday, and passed the Naval Appropriation bill, The various discussions in the House during the three days that the bill was under consideration have given official endorsement tothe worst representation heree tofore made as to the dilapidation and utter worthlessness of the American navy. A section was added to the bill yesterday pro- viding for the sale of useless ships and material. Mr. Fernando Wood desired to provide for a preliminary condemnation of the vessels by a board of naval officers; but that was opposed by the member who had charge of the bill (Mr. Hale, of Maine), and the interpretation which Mr. Wood gave to that opposition was that it arose from an ap- prehension that naval officers would condemn every vessel in the navy. Mr. Swann, of Maryland, a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, expressed the opinion that in case of this country getting intoa war it had not more than half a dozen reliable ves- sels in its navy, and that the danger of war at this time was very imminent. We hope that Mr. Swano is not absolutely correct in either of these opinions, The Secretary of the Navy himself has, however, recently given to the House Committee on Com- merce an equally unfavorable report of the condition of the navy. Hoe said that if we were to get into a war’ with Spain, for instance, and attempt to land an army of five thousand men in Cuba, the only point of attack, we have not a sufficient navy to guard the channel between Key West and the nearest landing place in Cuba, and that we would not be able to effect a landing through any aid to be given by the navy, although he would trust to manifest destiny to be able to do it. And now we want to know where the responsibility rests for the dilapi- dation of our navy and the disappearance of our commercial marine? The people will say, and be justified in saying, that the party who has had the control of the government for the last ten years is responsible for the present condition of our navy and our commerce; and the worst of it is that no remedy is being ap- plied or devised. SznaTor Wooprn made the Senate Com- mittee on Railroads. Let him now make amends by voting to repeal the Classification law. How Witt Senator Winstow vote on the Anti-Ring bill introduced by Senator O’Brien to repeal the Erie Classification law? His con- stituents and others will watch and mark. THe PRONUNCIAMENTO OF THE COUNT DE Cuamporp, which we publish on another page, is characteristic of ‘Henri.” The Count “sticks” to his ‘‘principle of monarchical hereditary descent,” without which he de- clares he is nothing. He calls God to wit. ness that the only one passion of his heart is the happiness of France, and his only one ambition is to perform his part in the work of her reconstruction, The document is simply @ protest against misrepresentation and an appeal to the French nation to seek security under him as a hereditary monarch. ptr ne AB SII Senators Waener AND D. P. Woop must give evidence of their honesty and independ- ence by voting against the Erie Ring. ——— Tae Exowish Press oN THE ALABAMA Oxame.—We print on another page this morn. ing a number of extracts from the English journals on the subject of the American case ‘and the Washington Treaty. Toe Lxaistative Printina SocaNpAL.— Now that Terwilliger has resigned the Clerk- ship of the Senate the Investigating Com- mittee can afford to concentrate its attention on the matter of the enormous frauds alleged to have been perpetrated by the printers who paid the retired Clerk a paltry percentage upon the work he put into their hands, The Committee will now have time, to inquire more closely into the ten thousand dollar bribe paid to Phelps, the lobbyist; to ascertain whether any percentage has been paid on the printing Ke