The New York Herald Newspaper, February 22, 1872, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREBT. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROVR IETOR All business or news letter and telegraphic | Gespatches must be addressed New York Hzrav. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. ADVERTISEMENTS, to a limited number, will be in- serted in the WEEKLY HERALD and the European Edition. JOB PRINTING of every description, also Stereo- typing ana Engraving, neatly ana promptly exe- cuted.at the lowest rater. a casi AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING, RAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of 8th av. and oh GMAW OPEEA—DERFREISCHUTZ. Matinee at aa WOOD'S MUSKUM, Broadway, corner 30th at, — ances! mand evening DARLING. virgen WALLACK’S THEATRi - ana tenn iB, Broadway and 13th street. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Pri 4 Houston sin —BLacx broom. Maunecarlig BOWERY THEATRE, Bowe: ‘BUFFALO BILL, Matinee at 2— CROSSING -THE LINR— ILLER OF NEW JERSEY. ST. JAMES' THEATRE, Twonty-eighth st: (way.—MARBIAGE, Matinee at 2. , Ppa nt roe FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-f atrect.— Tux Naw Deaua oF Divosce person OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tuz BALLET PAN- TOMIME OF HUMPTY Dumpty, Matinee at 2 BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., corner Sixth av.— JULIUS CaBaR, Matinee atl. \ MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— @ux Duxe's Morro, Matinee, ‘han ROBINSON'S HALL, 18 East Sixteenth street.—FRENoH Womxpy—UN SEBVIO“ A BLANCHARD—Roou ET LUG, Ao. THEATRE COMIQUE, 614 Broadway.—Couro VooaL- 168M8, NEGRO ACTS, &c.—] BOE. Malinee at 23g. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth at. and Broad- way.—NEGRO ACTS—BURLESQUE, BALLET, 40. Matinee, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE. No. 201 Bowery. — Nexo EooRNTRICITING, BURLESQUES, &0. Matinee at 2. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 331 at. bet ween 6th end 7th ave.—BRYAnt’s MINSTRELS. Matinee at 2. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, near Third ave- MUe—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, Matince at 2. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 585 Broadway.— THE SAN FRANCIBCO MINSTERLS, = ecrtkd PAVILION, Ni rm a bap jo, 688 Broadway.—Tue Vienna Lavy Or- , NEW YORK OIRCI Fourteentn strest.—SoRm! m ‘3B Rivne, red 40. Matinee at 23. ” NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— |OR AND ART, | DR KAHN’S ANATOMI - \ EAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 45 Broadway. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Thursday, February 22, 1872. cio CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. "ioaa j= Advertisements, 2—Adverusements. ‘Washington: The French Arms Still Going of; Morton, Schurz and Conkling in a Picket War; The Resolution All But Forgotten in the Debate; The Diplomatic Appropriation; Russia Advanced to a First Class Mission; Consolidating the Whiskey Tax; the Inter- oceanic Canal Expedition; Naturalizing the Aborigines; Republican ‘Prospects in the Granite and Old North States—Riparian Con- troversy in Newburg—improving the Ohio River—The Next Peach Crop, 4—The Washington Treaty: The American Case Before the Parliament of Great Britain; What Kind of a Treaty is It? The Men of Both Countries Who Made It Criticised; A Bungling Business; An Irish Member's Review of the Whole Affair; Gladstone's “God Help Us!’ Could at One Time Have Lumped the Job, but That Time is Past: The Confederate Cotton Loan; Tone of the English Preas on the Sub- ct—Louis Napoleon—Drunkenness and h—Ohio State Board of Agriculture—Tne Longe Case S-The Devil on His High Horse: Wonderful Tales of French Diaboliam or Superstition; The Fighting imp of La Magdaleine; A Bewitched Farm House at Cabarac; Unbelievers Startled Into Conviction— Washington's Birthday: Im- Posing Displays in the City To-Day; de of the American Mechanics and American Protestant Association—Quarantine Quip- bies—The Legislative Committee Investiga- tion—The Pilot Commissioners: Important Meeting of the Board Yesterday—The Harbor Masters—Horse Notes—The Crews at Oxford and Cambridge—Pugilism—Pigeon Shoot- ing—The Juvenile Homicide—Tne Rhinebeck Tribune Troubie. @—Editorials : Leading Article, “The Anti-Grant Republicans, the Democratic Party and Their Projected Holy Alliance’—Amusement An- nouncements, 7—Nows irom sxngland, Ireland, France, Ger- many, Spain, mé and India—News trom Mexico—Utah State Convention—vharies Francis Adams: His Views on the Difficulty with Terman Teiegrams— Personal Intelligence—Business Notices, S—Smallpox: An Increase of Eleven Cases Durit he Past Week; Meeting of the Board of lealth—Brooklyn deaith and Mortality—P’ ceedings in the Courts—The Car-Hook Mur- der: Foster Sentenced To Be Han, on the 22d of March—The City Treasury, Clamorous Citv Creditors Again on the map eed ing of the Board of Aldermen—The Judiciary Committee—Drowning of a Well Known Sea Captetn—Pickpockets Arrested—A Mariner Charged with Abductlon—One of the Ware- house Rubbers. @—Brooklyn Reform: A Strange Admixture of Matters and Things in General—Pubilc Instruc- tion—The Duties on Tea and Coflee—Frost, the Reputed Burglar—Snooting in a Saloon—Fire m Gold Street—Internal Revenue: Special Taxes—Financial and Commercial Reports — Domestic Markets—Marriages and Deaths— Adverusemenis. 10—Africa: Sir Samuel Baker and the Egyptian Siave ‘Trade—The Jersey City Frauds—Free Love and Murder on Long Island—An Alleged New York Forger—The Steam Dummy Casualty—Music and the Drama—Shipping In- telligence—A advertisements, W1— Advertisements, AQ— Advertisements. Tue MonarontoaAL Restoration IpEA appears to prevail still more universally in the @rench Legislative Assembly daily. AvyotnerR STEP toward the vindication of the majesty of the law was exhibited yesterday in the Supreme Court in the sentence to death for the second time of the car-hook murderer, Foster. His counsel, however, will carry the case before the Court of Appeals, and make wnother effort to save their client from the con- ecquences of bis crime. Toe Campaign In New Hawmpsnire is fairly opened. That ancient apothecary, the Chairman of the Republican State Committee, jwho has doctored the New Hampshire repub- Jican party for s score of years, has pre- cribed for the present campaign a prescrip- tion that has been successful for every po- litioal year, with the exception of the last, since the era of President Pierce. The democrats are marshalled by a veritable relic of the Granite Hills of old Isaac Hill's time, and one of the shrewdest political mana- gers in New England. The fight is animated, with the chances decidedly in favor of the flemocrats, Governor Wegton, the present Aemocratic incumbent, will be re-elected by pbout two thousand majority, unless a tremen- Hous upheaval from Washington shall interfere fo provent lt, Senator Hehry Wilson has left t in the Senate and is now stumping the ligans, Election March 12, NEW YORK ‘The Anti-Grant Republicans, the Demo- cratic Party and Their Projected Holy Alliance. The dominating idea, the common desire and the one great object with the anti-Grant republicans and the democratic party may be stated in this simple question—How can Gen- eral Grant be defeated in the fast approaching Presidential election as a candidate for another term? After the State elections of last year, beginning with the defeat of English, in Con- necticut, and ending with the overwhelming overthrow of Tammany, in New York, leading democratic journals of the country, East and West, relinquished tkeir arithmetical explana- tions, and, frankly confessing that the democracy were in a hopeless mi- nority in the. popular vote of the Union, began to cast about for still another new departure, In this general consultation of the party doctors one proposed the disbanding of the old party and the crea- tion of a new party upon new principles, new men and withal s new name; others proposed only the temporary abandonment of the demo- cratic organization and the ‘‘passive policy”— the policy of permitting and encouraging the anti-Grant republicans to lead off with an in- dependent ticket and flexible platform which would command the support of the democracy in the common cause of the defeat of General Grant, The democratic ‘‘old liners,” how- ever, protesting against any such cowardly abandonments of the case and the cause of their party and its ‘time-honored principles,” insisted that its only course was to keep the field under its own flag, and for the war, against the party in power, whatever the con- sequences of the campaign of 1872, Now, it seems to be understood between the Missouri managers in behalf of the anti-Grant republicans and the democratic managers that the National Convention of the so-called liberal or reform republicans appointed by the Missourians to meet at Cincinnati on the 6th of May, shall proclaim such principles of free trade, amnesty, civil service reform and ad- hesion to negro equality and negro suffrage as will be as acceptable to democrats generally as to anti-Grant republicans. In the next place, it seems to be understood that this Cin- cinnati Convention is to nominate a ticket, President and Vice President, which will be acceptable to the democrats. Then the demo- cratic party in convention is to come forward, and, adopting this Cincinnati ticket and platform, the Holy Alliance,thus formed is to advance from all sides, to the annihilation of the “Little Corporal.” By a sort of common consent between the high contracting parties this {s evidently the plan of operations agreed upon, Now, if it were generally believed, or if there were visible reasons for the belief, that these anti-Grant republicans hold the balance of power, this Holy Alliance would be the very thing for the end desired. But, unfortu- nately, the democrats have no faith in these anti-Grant republicans as a balance of power, and these bolters from the administration have no faith in themselves as anew party, nor in each other as confederates. Their whole visi- ble strength is limited to four or five members of the national Senate and to some half dozen newspapers, each representing its little clique, and all suspicious of each other, As they have all, however, had their disappointments as office-seekers, they have all at least this common bond of unity against the military despot at Washington. Nor have they been wanting in industry in ‘their efforts to break the prestige of General Grant’s popularity and the public confidence in his administration, They have been at it for year and more in the Senate. Their war upon the St. Domingo annexation scheme, from the violence of their assaults upon General Grant, betrayed their grand ob- ject; but with the prompt abandonment of that scheme, on finding there was mischief in it, the President spiked all the guns of that formidable battery. Next Messrs. Sumner, Schurz and Fenton were seized with a virtu- ous fit in the matter of civil service reform; but they were completely flanked on that question by a message from the White House announcing the adoption of the reform sug- gested. Next Mr. Sumner, quoting Henry Clay and various other high aathorities in a. lengthy preamble, brought in a resolution affirming the saving wisdom of the ‘one-term principle ;” but this experiment against Gene- ral Grant was also a flash in the pan. The case was becoming desperate, when the happy thought, like an inspiration, came to Mr. Schurz of this New York Custom House investigation, But here, too, the developments of corruptions, blown to the world, are only those which have been handed down in the system established from one administration to another for forty years; and in immediately underfaking to correct the abuses disclosed General Grant silences this battery. What, then, could be done to cripple bim with the honest masses of the republican party? The last resort of impeach- ment bad been talked over and abandoned as utterly impracticable. ‘We have it,” ory Messrs, Sumner and Schurz, “‘in these sales of arms to the French during the Franco- German war.” And, with a preamble as solemn and portentous as a dozen articles of impeachment, Mr. Sum- ner brings in his resolution for an investigation, The debate progresses, and Mr. Schurz, as a republican, is given an op- portunity for another campaign speech against General Grant for democratic circulation, which is all he expected. If some of the administration Senators had not been equally vain of their powers to captivate the galleries they would have disappointed Mr. Schurz in this expectation. In the end, we suspect Mr. Schurz will fail in this movement to intro- duce anything like three hundred thousand German republicans to the. new Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall as colaborers in the great cause of reform. These four or five anti-Grant republican Senators, with their half-dozen anti-Grant re- publican journals, have, in short, exhausted their available stock of ammunition in the Sen- ate in this matter of the sales of arms to the French. We expect now that they will turn their attention to the approaching New Hamp- shire and Connecticut elections, and as, with the full party vote on each side, both those Statés are very closely contested, a few bolt- ing disciples of Mr. Sumner and of his fac- to democrats. If so, you may he tion may give both those States the HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22,. 1872.-TRIPLE SHEET, sure that democratic and anti-Grant republican journals will join in shouting hozannas in honor of the great popular revo- lution calling for the dropping of Grant by the republican party. But the trick will fail. The Philadelphia Convention will vot be frightened from Grant by such guerilla tactics as these. Nor will the Cincinnati Convention be materially strengthened by reinforcements of bolting republicans, with the retention of New Hampshire and the recovery of Con- necticut by the democrats, because these sore- heads, in many cases, will wait yet « little longer to profit by the chances of falling in with the winning side. To sum up the prospects of this projected Holy Alliance, we fear it will fail, because the efforts heretofore, from time to time, made to fuse incongruous opposition elements always have failed, and notably the efforts to fuse them against Jackson in 1832, and against Van Buren in 1836, and against Buchanan in 1856, and against Lincoln in 1860. The party of General Grant is like a regular army, well dis- ciplined, compact and strong, and with @ leader who has the confidence of his officers and men; the opposition ele- ments, including the are like a disorderly army of militia detachments, under different leaders, with dif- ferent purposes, here and there, and distrast- ful of each other, And so with the renomi- nation of General Grant we suspect that the actual republican reinforcements to the demo- cratic camp will be found as profitless as the recruits from Andy Johnson. The New Spanish Ministry and Difficulties of Amadeus. The young King of Spain has, to use the appropriate language of the telegram from Madrid, published in another part of this paper, ‘‘completed the task” of forming a new Ministry. Cabinet offices generally are easily enough filled ; but Amadeus has not found it to be so under his government. The anarchi- cal condition of Spain, in a political sense, the frequent changes in the government, the un- certainty of the future and the hostility of rival and powerful factions, render the posi- tion of Minister undesirable to many of the first men of Spain. Hence it was, no doubt, a task to reconstruct a harmonious Cabinet, and one that would have the confidence of the country. Having formed one, however, it re- mains to be seen if it will live longer than its predecessor, Cabinet making seems to have been the chief employment of Amadeus during the short period he has occupied the Spanish throne. Royalty has become a farce in Spain. The young King probably thinks so too, for there is a report that he has become so disgusted with the ungovernable disposition of the Spanish people as to contemplate abdi- cation, It is said that he has urged his father, Victor Emmanuel, to sanction the step, though the Italian monarch advises him to be patient and to hold on for the present. Spain, evi- dently, is stillin the agony of a deep-seated revolution, and will have to go through many trials, probably, before reaching the end of a good and stable government. Like France, perhaps, she may neither be prepared for a republic nor satisfied with any other form of government. ‘The Catacazy Case Again. Our correspondent in St. Petersburg, in a letter which we publish this morning, furnishes us with the latest phase the Catacazy case has assumed, The unpleasantness it engendered in this country and in Russia, it would seem, has not yet terminated. In St. Petersburg the American treatment of the Russian Ambassa- dor is regarded with considerable disfavor. The Russians feel sore over it, and the treat- ment which Prince Alexis received at Wash- ington tends to increase the irritation. And now there is another affair which will serve to add fuel to the flame of ill-feeling already existing. The Emperor, it will be remem- bered, asked as a favor that M. Catacazy be allowed to remain at his post in Washington until after the visit of the Grand Duke, The request was granted, but, as we are informed, in reply to the request made by the Russian Emperor, Secretary Fish, in telegraphing the answer to Minister Curtin at St, Petersburg, omitted all mention of the Emperor's name, Mr. Curtin, on receiving the message, per- ceived the omission, and before presenting it changed the wording so as to make it accept- able by putting in the Emperor's name. Some- how or other the omission of Mr. Fish and the subsequent alteration by Mr. Curtin were ascertained at the Imperial Court, and, as may be imagined, created an unpleasant feeling. It looks as if somebody had blundered, unin- tentionally it may be, but a blunder neverthe- less. The imperial dignity has been wounded, but we sincerely hope not to such an extent that the well known friendship of this country towards Russia will not entirely counter- balance. A Warsinae To THE LecisLaTuRE.—The bending of o straw will indicate the direction of the wind. At the Syracuse Charter election this week the democracy carried the city. Last November the republican majority on Secretary of State was over twenty-two hundred. Since then ex-Speaker Alvord has been made the Ring candidate of the Assembly, and the late Senate Clerk, James Terwilliger, has been soiled by contact with the State printing jobbery of Weed, Parsons &Co. The sudden change in the political standing of the City of Salt is but another indication of the resolve of the people to strike down corruption in whichever party it may show itself. Will the members of the State Legislature reflect upon this warning when tempted by the approaches of the Erie Rail- road lobby and other Albany operators ? A Lirrtz SoraP oF History.—Iif Vice President Colfax should be renominated and re-elected it will be the first time, with a single exception, that a Vice President has been his own — in the history of our government. he exception was that of Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, who served as Vice President under the two terms of President Monroe, one of which terms occurred in what {s historically known as the “erkof good feeling’—from 1821 to 1825. The instances in which @ Vice President hap stepped from that position to the Presidency are six, to wit:—John Adams, Thomas Jeffer- son, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore and Andrew Johnson—the three latter sneceeding to the Presidency on account of the demise of the regularly elected incum~ bents while holding office, democratic party, | Congress Yesterday—Senatorial Garrulous- aese—The French Arms Debate—The Mis- sion to Russia—The Tariff. The Senate continues to be the arena for & war of words, and garrulousness reigns there as the besetting sin of Senators, Sumner’s resolution of inquiry about the sale of arms to France should never have been offered, or, being offered, it sho uld have been adopted with- out discussion. Instead of that, however, it has already occupied nearly as much time as Sum- ner’s famous Supplementary Civil Rights bill ; and, outside of these two miserable proposi- tions, the Senate has attended to hardly any- thing else since it met in December. The de- bate, however, draws crowded galleries, and the vanity of the Senatorial athletes is thus gratified, Schurz, of Missouri, had all the honors on Tue sday; Morton, of Indiana, was the star performer yesterday. We do not care to criticise his performance in detail. He erraigned Schurz and Trumbull for infidelity to the republican party, and warned them that they would be absorbed into the demo- cratic party. The mountain would not go to Mohammed, but Mohammed would have to go to the mountain, so they, ‘the liberals,” would find themselves dissolved in the demo- cratic party, like flies in vinegar. As to the resolution itself, he said that its carcas lay exposed to the public gaze, exhaling the most unwholesome odors. Of course, he was not allowed to say all this without frequent inter- ruptions from Schurz and Trumbull, who claimed that in voting for amnesty, civil reform and the investigation of the New York Custom House frauds they were more in a line with the administration and the republi- can party than Morton was in opposing all these measures. Edmunds and Conkling ranged themselves alongside of Morton, forming what Tipton irreverently calls the “‘single-barrelled triumvirate,” while Sumner came to the ald of Schurz and Trumbull, Conkling twitted Sumner upon his pedantry, and Schurz upon his mock heroism; to which the latter retorted by asking pardon if he had ever encroached on Conkling’s exclusive privilege of strutting and boasting. When the day’s performance was over the Senate went into executive session, and then ad- journed over till to-morrow in honor of Wash- ington's Birthday. Before the rising of the curtain, however, a matter of much more interest to the people than the personal bickerings of Senators oc- curred, Mr. Sherman, from the Finance Committee, reported back the House bill of last session removing the duty on salt, with amendments covering all the matters of tariff reform which that committee is disposed to recommend. Itincludes the reduction of the duty on tea to ten cents a pound, on coffee to two cents, with various measures of reduc- tion on coal, salt, rice, hides and skins, laths, shingles, cottons, wools, silks, iron and steel, earthenware, iron and India rabber. The bill was made the special order for the 11th of March next. In the meantime there is little chance of action on the House bill passed last Monday repealing the duties on tea and coffee. The House went to work in a practical manner yesterday, and disposed of the busi- ness before it in good style. The Civil Service Reform bill was made a special order for four weeks hence; a resolution was adopted calling for information as to the criminal prosecution of the Mormons; a bill was passed for the remission of the tax on spirits consumed in the great Chicago fire. The Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation bill was put through the Committee of the Whole after a discussion ona proposition to place the mission to Russia in the rank of first olass missions. The motion was made by Mr. Banks, and was carried by an immense majority, the principal opposition to it coming from an Indiana democrat, Mr. Holman, who lavished denunciation against Russia as ‘‘a hoary-headed despotism.” The discussion involved the question of war with England and the probability of our finding a powerfal ally in Russia, The mission to Japan has also been advanced in the class of missions, and the Central American missions consoli- dated into one, to be located in Nicaragua. The bill and amendments will come before the House for final action to-morrow, to which day both Houses have adjourned. The Board of Audit, The Board of Audit meets at three o'clock this afternoon, and will probably order another batch of the back liabilities of the city to be paid. The work of examining the accounts, on which a large clerical force is daily engaged, is necessarily tedious, but is being pressed forward as vigorously as possi- ble. It is quite proper that no claims of doubtful honesty should be passed without strict scrutiny, while it is at the same time right that every just debt should be speedily paid. Some idea of the amount of labor devolving upon the Finance Department may be conceived from the fact that since Comp- troller Green entered office, in September last, over forty-one million dollars has been paid out by him on olty and county account. When to this duty is added the necessity of a thorough examination of every item on hundreds of heavy pay rolls for four or five months of last year, it can readily be understood that the work of paying off old debts must perforce be a slowone. Every honest, bona fide claimant, will understand these facts, and wait patiently until the time of payment arrives. Those ‘persons whose claims are of a doubtful character may resort to riotous and disorderly conduct, but they will not succeed in swerving the Board from the strict line of duty, At the same time it is to be hoped that not an instant’s unnecessary delay will be made in the settlement of all just accounts. Tue Jersey Crry Riva Come To Grizr.— The Jersey City Ring has come to grief. Judge Bedle’s Grand Jury has brought the alleged city frauds across the river toa prac- tical issue, after the fashion of Judge Bedford's Grand Jury in New York. Indictments have been found against all the parties charged with official misconduct, and yesterday three Police Commissioners, three Fire Commis- sioners and the Chief of Police were arrested and held to bail, some in six thousand and others in four thousand dollars. The Jersey officers are on the look-out for others, and before the end is reached majority of the city officials will find themselves at the bar of a criminal court. The war against fraud has been short, sharp and daciaivea aver jn Jeraars but then the Jerseymen fortunately had Grand Jury to manage their reform movement instead of a Committee of Seventy. The Reform and Efficiency of the Navy. We called attention very recently to the appeal of the International Geographical Con- gress which met last August at Antwerp for scientific explorations by all naval vessels. We suggested that, besides the knowledge of the sea thus to be obtained, there was in the Antwerp scheme the added advantage of im- proving and training the whole navy in marine and other sciences. A few months ago the subject of the preliminary education of naval officers was ably discussed before the Royal United Service Institution of England by many of the first minds of that country. The discussion turned upon a paper urging a larger scope of education for the juvenile ele- ment inthe English navy, and poioting out the great peril that stared it in the face from the incompetent and unskilled leadership to which its future fleets must be entrusted. The Uistinguished seaman, Captain Goodenough, who presented the paper, alluded specially to the gross ignorance of foreign languages re- vealed on the interchange of visits of the French and English fleets in 1865, to the thick darkness that hides from most naval minds the elements of history and physical geography, and to the ignorance of the simple laws of hydrostatics which obscures the loss of the ill-fated Captain from most naval officers. ‘‘Give to two officers of good repute,” said the speaker, “a simple piece of work to do, and see how entirely they are guided by a rule of thumb. Let us ask ourselves how many com- manders and lieutenants would know what was meant by Buys Ballot’s law, or how they would steer their ship so as to increase their atmospheric pressure when expecting a gale off the coast of Ireland?” The sad and dis- graceful ignorance in the English navy of such subjects as these (which concern the safe pavi- gation of a ship), and of many others, such as political geography, mechanics, maritime law, &c., he unsparingly exposed, and earn- estly demanded for the navy emancipation from the old and baseless phantoms of profes- sional prejudice and fossil dogmatism, But Captain Goodenough’s paper is not without suggestions of a profound and prac- tical bearing upon the future welfare of all navies, as well as upon that of the navy he 80 well pleads for. We certainly do not want @ navy of savans, much less @ navy com- posed of theorists of science ready to sink the national honor in some nice problem of natural history or bugology. The floating service is strictly for the defence of the country, and all its administration must be planned with a view to meet this prime purpose. In the dis- charge of this duty it ought to be considered that, other things being equal, an officer capable of navigating his ship or leading his squadron at a given season through the seas where they would be least baffled by head winds and would make the finest run, is greatly to be sought for, The question of the best route for a merchant ship between two ports is of the utmost consequence, and for a war ship, in time of war, it might be of incalculable im- portance to the nation, The immense fleet of William of Orange, destined for the invasion of England, and whose after exploits gave shape to British destiny till this day, came very near total loss by unconsciously leaving port before a fearful storm then impending. It is certainly scandalous ignorance for a pro- fessional navigator in our day to run his ship unawares into a cyclone; but there are few seamen who know enough of the law of storms to extricate themselves from the dangerous part ofa hurricane. In manceuvring a fleet in the near presence of an enemy a naval com- mander might, by a little science, get out of dangerous weather and inveigle his adversary into it, whereas, without such science, he might cripple his whole squadron in a gale a few hours before it would be put upon the severest trial of its mettle with a superior force. The old masters of naval warfare were accomplished meteorologists or mathemati- clans, but they were good enough sailors and philosophers always, when possible, to fight their ships with the elements of nature on their side. There are few more striking passages in naval history than those which relate the trying contests of Admiral Nelson, in 1805, with the French fieet under Villeneuve, and the masterly manner in which the subsequent hero of Trafalgar managed his squadron. The fiery Admiral wrote Lord Melville that his fleet had defied the sudden and violent hurricanes of the Mediterranean for twenty-one months without losing a mast or a yard, and bis journal is full of barometric and other observations, entered with his own hand. Ordinarily, ceteris paribus, the officer who is » master of the scientific part of his profession will have his men under better dis- cipline and command, and, in emergencies, will show his immense superiority over an empiric, It is by no means necessary to rear a corps of savans for the management of our ships, nor to multiply naval academies, in order to raise ap fine navigators and skilful commanders. This can be amply done by honoring and rewarding a soientific spirit of practical research on board ship in the way the Hzraxp suggested. It was said of the navy of Charles the Second of England that it contained gentle- men and seamen; but the gentlemen were not seamen and the seamen were not gentlemen. It may be said of some other navies that they contain good sailors and good scientists, but few men who unite both science and seaman- ship. The science, if we include in that term those qualifications ‘for the able strategy and conduct of fleets which distinguished Nelson and others, is, paradoxical as it may seem, more essential to a naval captain than sea- manship itself. Among the civilized nations of antiquity men who knew nothing of a ship, as Cimon, Lysander and Pompey, fought great naval battles with brilliant success. Raleigh and Blake were soldiers by profes- sion, and not seamen, when they first and suddenly rose to the highest eminence as naval commanders by humbling the pride of Holland and Spain on the ocean. The Heratp haa recently spoken of tho great necessity of increasing the numbers and material of the navy. This can be of no ser- vice to the nation unless, pari passu, with numerical increase there is also an improve- in the training and skill of ita officers, Now that the Parepa-Rosa English opera sea~ son has come to s close—and a most brilliant one it proved to be—the attention of the public is naturally turned towards the two seasons of Italian opera announced by Mile. Nilsson ard Mme. Parepa-Rosa. On the 4th of March the Swedish Nightingale commences her fare- well engagement at the Academy of Music, and ss she will positively leave this country in the spring there will be likely a great stir on the part of the musical public to hear her for the last time. She will appear in the réles of Marguerite, Lucia, Vieletta, Leonora and Mignon, into which her transcendent talents have infused new life, rejuvenating those dilapidated fossils in the most marvellous manner. M. Capoul also returns to bid New York adieu and to repeat his matchless love- making scenes which during the fall season carried the hearts of the fair occupants of the boxes by storm. It will be a matter of regret for the admirers of Mile. Nilsson that owing to the want of a competent baritone and the fear of the management to incur the heavy expenses consequent upon the production of ®@ new opera, the Swedish Nightingale will be unable to appear this season in her greatest r6le, Ophelia, in Thomas’ opera of ‘‘Hamlet.” In this 76/e she won her greatest triumphs in Paris and London, and reached the pinnacle of fame accorded to her by the unanimous verdict of the European public. After leaving America Mlle. Nilsson proceeds to London, where she will appear at Drury Lane Theatre, under the management of Her Majesty’s Opera. Her next engagement will be at the Royal Opera House in Madrid. It is to be hoped that her absence from America will be of short duration, as it will be a matter of extreme difficulty for the next impresario to fil) her place. The most important event of the’ season in Italian opera will be the appearance of Mme. Parepa-Rosa, Miss Adelaide Phillips, Wachtel and Santley together in April. There is no tenor living at present who can be placed on terms of equality with Wachtel, as far as voice is concerned, and certainly Santley stands alone as the finest baritone on the stage. The operas to be given during the April season will be very interesting, especially to a public tired of Verdi and Donizetti. In the répertoire we find the chefs dauore of Mozart, Meyerbeer and Rossini— ‘‘Don Juan,” ‘‘Les Huguenots” and “Guillaume Tell.” The Raoul of Wachtel and the Valentin of Mme. Rosa are imperson- ations of ‘sufficient magnitude to make the success of a season, and when we add to them the Don Giovanni and Tell of Santley, and the Azucena of Miss Phillips, that success becomes a certainty, The secondary parts will be filled by fresh young artists, the man- agement being resolved to dispense with those wrecks of the past that have afflicted the habitués of the Academy for so many years. The orchestra and chorus will number one hundred and twenty, and an attempt will be made to produce each opera with a mise en scéne worthy of it. The season will last four weeks. Nothing is definitely known at present about the fall season at the Academy. It is probable that the new management will eadeavor to secure Mlle. Pauline Lucca asthe chief attraction; but from what we have experienced this season we think it would be advisable for an impresa- rio to pay more attention to the ensemble of an operatic company than to the particular excel- lence of one of its members. One prima donna does not constitute » company any more than one swallow does a summer, and it is hard to be obliged to endure an hour of agony at the hands of merciless bawlers to enjoy a few moments happiness in listening to the glorious voice of a genuine artist, The example which Mr. Wallack bas set to dra- matic managers should not be lost on operatic impresarii, and a complete company is as easily attainable in one instance .as in the other. Wasnixeton’s BrrtHpaY—CErREMONIES To- Day.—The anniversary of the birthday of the ‘Father of His Country” occars to-day, and will be observed with unusual ceremonies. This is all right and proper. It is a day upon which all parties, all sects and nationalities . can unite to do honor to the memory of the purest patriot that ever lived and the founder of the free institutions we now enjoy. There will be military and civic processions and ora- torical displays to-day, with numerous balls in the evening. Let all citizens combine to com- memorate the name of one who was “first ia war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Revivat Amone Sournern DgMooRaTs.— The Louisville Ledger discovers that there has been a very great change in democratic prospects within the past sixty days. From being cloudy the skies are fast brightening, and the political horizon is brilliant with hues that herald coming victories. That being the case, the Ledger opposes the democracy sur- rendering to a fragment of the republican party, and insists that the liberals should come to the democrats if they are sincere in their desire to overthrow Grant, The same view is taken by the Mobile Register; but, for that matter, that journal has never taken any other. ‘Stand by your colors” has always been the cry of this steady democratic organ, with bow much sagacity and judgment time has shown. The Ledger still calls upon the Democratic National Executive Committee to show its hand; but that august body seems inclined to play the ‘‘possum” game, for the present, at least, Be that as it may, there are at this time evident signs of « revival among Southern democrats. Brisa Aristooratio Famiry Union,— The marriage of the Marquis of Bute to a daughter of Lord Edward Howard, of Derby. shire—which, it is said, has been arranged to take place at an early day—will unite three of the most noble, rich and powerful families in Great Britain—Howard, of Norfolk, Crichton. Bute and Sutherland—in close household alli. ance, and surround the happy pair with acircle of relatives moving in a sphere of society not less distinguished, perhaps, than their own. The church ceremonial will be imposing by its solemnity and grandeur, as will be understood from the facts which we append to our cable news telegram from London, The marriage may even herald the near approach of remark- able changes in the religio-political condition pf the United Kingdom,