The New York Herald Newspaper, February 26, 1872, Page 6

hie at Meal *y I re NEW YUKK HERALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1872.—TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Herarp. Letters and packages should be properly wealed. Volume XXXVII. AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Pri a Bouston ste.—Tuk NAIAD QurEy Re sechiny: BOWERY THEATRE, Bor Burraco Bint. aes ST, JAMES’ THEATRE, Twonty-cichth street and Broad- way.—MABRIAGE. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— ane New Deawa or DivonoE” si OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—T . TomimE oF Hompry Domery, “ ied xi BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twent: a a - Pe me phic . y-third st., corner Sixth ay. WOOD'S MUSLUM, Broad ances afternoon and evening. UY er 30:b at, —Perfor n- Ska. WALLACK'S THEATR: ‘oadwi wy 8, Broadway ant 13th street. — MRS. F. B. CONWAY’: LY) ‘AY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE,— PARK THEATRE, Savep FROM KUIN, Opposite City Hall, Brooklyn. 514 Broadway.—Couto VooaL- XION. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st, and Broad: way.—NEGRKO ACTS—LURLESQUE, BALLET, &c. ica TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE. No. ‘aad AYGHO LCCENTRIGITIES, BUELESQUES 8G BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, and 7tu ave.—-BRVANT'S MINATRELS. 234 at, between bth THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, : Wue—VARIRTY ENTERTAINMENT. nee RAE a SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 885 Bi ~ THR SAN Fuancinco MinaTERLa. Ue a aay ASSOCIATION HALL, sth " Tae JuBILER Stxozns' Vooar Co nd Third avenue.— RT. ADELPHT HALL, corner of Fifty-second st. and Ser aveVOOAL AND INSTHUMENTAL CONCERT: nt Seventh PAVILION, No, 635 Proadway,—T ° t coureTra. ‘oudway ue VigNNA Lapy Or. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Four HB RING, AcuoKATS, £0, nth sreet.—SORNES IN NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANAT ‘, a - Pop tly ATOMY, 618 Broadway. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Monday, February 26, 1 CONTENTS OF TO-DAY?S HERALD, yar) 2a ~~ Advertisements, 2—Adverusements, The Erie Ring: The Confession of a Boliemian Spy; An Attempt to Uiackmall Erie; How Vice President Fisk Would Subsidize the Herald; Erie Tries to Own Public Opinion; Jay Gould, F. A. Lane and 0. P. H. Arcner Would Pass the Classification B11; Mr, Lane Becomes an Editorial Writer for tne Heraid—How Money Is Paid tor “Legal Services’’—The English Stockholders To Be Held Up to Pubtic Ridicuile—Erie Means vo Own the New York Press—Vaulting Ambi- tion Overleaps Iteif—The Bohemian Spy and blackmauer Telis lis Own Svory. 4—Religious: Sermons and Services inthe Cuurches of the City and Suburbs; The Piat- form of Unitarlanisin; Sermon by Dr. Free- man Clarke at the Church ot the Messiah; ‘The m; Dr. McGlynn on Faith, Hope i Farewell of the Rev. D. W. some ee, resale on of Riches Com. ented On from Piymoutn Pulpit, Dedicauion of a Methodist Churen. oe S—Retigious (Conunued from Fourth Page)—Art Matters—Musical Review—Politicat Move- ments and Views—Consider Perkins: News from Livingsione and Baker; ‘tragic End of the H&eRaLp Correspondent —All About Coal— Obituary—A Colored Bigamist—A Colored Burglar—A Diabolical Afar in Brooklyn— ‘Tombs Police Court. G-Eaworiais: Leading Article, “A New Chapter or Erie; A Bohemian Spy Gibpeted in the HERALD; Reform in Public Opinion’ —Amuse- ment Announcements, from Sixth Page)—The Ws from England, Scot- belgium and India—The ews irom Washington—Mis- ceilaneous Telegrams—Business Notices, R—Europe: The Alabama Excitement in Political Circles tn England; sition of the Partics: Archbishop Manning’s Pastoral on Edu- Gladstone and tie Fenians; New Departure of the Abbe Michaud in Pars; Spread of tmperialisin; Panic on the berlin Stock Exchange Over Alabama Claims—The Argentine Confedera- tion—AfMuirs in Craguay—The United Staves Supreme Court—Judge Koch anu the Orange Woman—A Uread My: Brooklyn Ajairs. Execution of Johu Important to ship- ‘eet Butchery— The pers—The Muloerry Suicide of Eilen siggins—Financial and Com- 4 New Chapter of Erice—A Bobemian Spy Gibboted in the Herald—Reform in Pub- fie Opinion, We print this morning an extraordinary story. The history of Erie has many fo- mantic—many villanous features, and the strange chapter elsewhere published will throw a flood of light upon the extraordinary methods by which great corporations strive to control public opinion, and the still siranger facility with which a newspaper press may become an instrument for evil in the hands of bold and ambitious men. A rovelation of this kind will do more to clear the atmosphere, and show the machinations of the desperate men who would make themselves masters of public opinion, of the Legislature and the press, than any contribution that could be made to the discussions of to-day. With the worthless Bobemian who makes this confession we have nothing to do, He represents his vile Bohemian class. A great journal like the Heraup is served by all classes of men—adventurers and gentlemen, spies and scholars, mountebanks and thinkers, There is a class, of which this man is an example, who thrive on infamy. As a corrupted and miasmatic atmosphere gene- rates vermin and typhoid and _ noxious vapors, 80 an atmosphere tainted with crime and bribery calls into life all maaoner of vagabonds and scoundrels, There might be a moral deduced from all this, When people wander from the straight paths of rectitude and honor, when men feel that there is a devious road to wealth and power; when distinction and profit can be gained by the processes which gave Rob Roy and Jack Sheppard notoriety and power; when it is possible for an influence like Erio to rise into power in a season and absorb the functions of tbe press and the Legislature, there is something wrong in public opinion. We see an example of what might be called moral epidemics in history. The Roman republic was founded by austere and virtuous men, ‘The time came when luxury took the place of probity and crime superseded law, and it was a blessing to mankind when the rude and warlike tribes of barbarous Europe overrun the empire, stamped it out of an infamous existence and established upon the ruins the noble nations of France and Germany. We saw a reaction from one of these epidemics, the rise of the Commonwealth in England, The reign of the corrupt Henry and the fool- ish Charles, with the absence of manly honor and patriotism, the development of an ambi- must throw off the influence of Erie as it threw off Tammany and slavery and the thieves of the Whiskey Ring. The general desire for investi- gation now seen in all circles and all loegisla- tive bodies shows that there is a moving of the waters. In this work the press must play mighty part. There is a plain way of settling the whole Erie question. When a bank or a business man loses the money of customers through the crimes of subordinates the loss is made good. In the interest of national honor New York, which has virtually guaranteed the integrity of the Erie direction by making laws for its government, should make good to the inno- cent shareholders the money which has been stolen by the rapacious masters of the Ring. New York is the centre of commerce and en- terprise, the seat of wealth, and to New York peculiarly we must look for the protection of the nation’s honor. If this Classification bill is not repealed we make ourselves partners in this Erie iniquity. The vulgar clamor about the ‘English stockholders” and “British interests in America” is only pander- ing to vulgar prejudice. Englishmen have rights in America as well as Americans. If they lend us money we must repay them. No one but a thief and a-coward would counsel any other course; and the mere suggestion that we should do otherwise—no matter from what quarter it comes—stamps the author as athief and a coward. To find such an argu- ment seriously adduced in an assem- bly of American gentlemen, with any hopo of its being considered, is an evidence of public demoralization that is too painful to be patiently contemplated. Therefore, again, we say that not to repeal this infamous Erie bill— and drive Mr. Gould and his colleagues out of the control of this vast and noble property—is to make our Legislature virtually a partner in the Erie crimes. Erie is a blot upon our national honor, and we are bound to remove it, and to unite in the work as a city, a State and a nation. We believe this will be done, for public opinion is always sure to be right in the end, No matter what infamies may reign, no mat- ter how strong they may become, in time the instinct of truth and loyalty and patriotism will triumph, In this time of revolution, for a revolution it is, we shall do our duty, as we do it to-day. We regard these men as public plunderers, who in a ruder age would bave been hanged on Tyburn tree. We invoke no such punishment, but we gibbot them in the pillory of public opinion for the execration of mercial Reports—Domestic aud Havana Mar- kets—Dry Goods Market—Marriages and Deaths—Advertiserents. 10—The Erie Ring (Conunued trom Third Page)— Shipping Incelligence—Ad vertisements, 31—City Government Prcceedings—Adveruse- ments. 12—Advertisements. F, A. Lays, the partser of Wilcox, the Bohemian, is counsellor of the Erie Rail- road, as well as one of the “ring” directors, and obtains large sums of money yearly in the shape of fees, Every dollar he thus squeezes out of the Erie treasury is unjustly takeo from the stockholders. Tne Briss Troops iN INDIA have triumphed over the warlike tribes, the Looshais and Ladboorahs. The native soldiers have delivered up their arms and the chiefs agree to pay tribute, This is the system of Englieh civilization in the East—war, death, conquest, cash tribute and new territory. A Cortovs View or tHe Heratp's Exter- Prist.—There is nothing so great that there is not a humorous view of it. Punch has lived for thirty years by caricaturing the statesmen of England and the rulers of Earope. In our own country the genius of an artist in the employment of the Harpers has found abundant opportunity for amusement in earicaturing the statesmen and rulers of America. The First Napoleon was much more afraid of Gilroy and the English caricaturists than of the English guns, Of course, the Hzraip comes in for its share from the bumorous people, and as an illus- tration of the witty things now and then said about the Hgratp and its enterprise we copy in another column a letter from the Commercial Advertiser, one of the best of our evening papers. ‘‘Eli Perkins” has a fine subject for his humor in the Hera.p. Govtp, Lane and some of their associate fobbyists, jobbers and directors bleed the Erie Railway tos large amount, through leasing the Northern Railway of New Jersey to that company at a rental of eight per cent on one million dollars, when they only paid half a million for the road and stock. They thus, as directors of Erie, pay themselves sixteen per cent for their money out of the treasury of the stockholders of Erie. A Great Revrvat or Rexicion is in Progress at Lawrence, Kansas, Five hundred persons in the meeting rose for prayers on Wednesday last, We hope this revival will We carried into Topeka, They want it there badly to head off thove outrageous rascalitics in legislative bribery aud corruption, tious Church, the establishment of a Star mankind. Chamber and the violation of the princi- ples of Magna Charta were followed by the severe reign of Cromwell, when a king went to the block and the ancient castles of noblemen were battered to the ground, and Ireland and Scotland were harried and smitten. We saw what France became under the Regency. Luxury, pomp, folly, prostitution, infamy, cowardice reigned in high places, and the armies of France were marched to defeat and shame at the bidding of a Pompadour. But France arose. The Revolution came like the lava which swept from Vesuvius, and out of the bloody and murky flames of this wonderful time, with their massacres and executions and upheaval of society, we see ever’ now—!umi- nous and beautifnl—the brave and virtuous forms of Roland and Vernigaud and Carnot. There came a nobler and purer public senti- ment—a France that became the arbiter of Europe, and but for the reckless ambition of the First Bonaparte might have retained the mastery until to-day. Is it possible that America is passing through he same ordeal; that we are at the end of a moral epidemic like what we see in history? We are afraid that the darkest pages of Roman, English or French history will not surpass what our own history has shown in the last ten years. What Cwsarism did for Roms, and Bourbonism for France, slavery has done for America, We saw a power grow up in the country which gradually became interwoven into our politics, our society and our religion. Public honor was debauched. Men and women were bonght and sold, and families torn asun- der for purposes of merchandise. The manners of the plantation were introduced into our legislative and official life. Then came the war as a great purifying influence—to be to America what the invasion of the Gauls proved to Rome, the rise of Cromwell to England, the outburst of the Revolution to France. But every war brings evils, After the Revolution came Bonaparte and imperialism. After Cromwell we had the Restoration and the Stuarts. So after our own war we had the Whiskey Ring and Tammany Hall and Erie. The history of these stupendous frauds will always form a dismal page in our records. The love of money and the unsettling of so- A Monument to General George H. Thomas. At a recent meeting of officers and ex- officers of the Union army at the Astor House, a committee of twelve was appointed to re- ceive subscriptions to the fund for a monu- ment to the late Major General Thomas, This committee embraces the following offi- cers:—Major Generals W. F. Smith, Jeff C, Davis, J. H. Wilson, J. M. Brannan, Alex- ander Shaler, Emerson Opdycke ; Brigadier General T. B. Van Buren; Qolonels Edward Haight, P. R. Stetson, C. Goddard and Samuel B. Lawrence, and Major H. W. Bright. The Society of the Army of the Cumberland, at Detroit, November, 1871, selected an officer for each State and Territory to superintend the collections for this monument. General Hooker was appointed for this State, and he has appointed Colonel S. B. Lawrence, 29 Mercer street, collector for the city and county of New York. General Rosecrans, of the Army of the Cumberland, says the monu- ment will be a colo:sal equestrian statue of the General in bronze, upon a suitable base, to he erected either in the grounds of the National Capitol at Washington or at West Point, or in our Central Park, as may here- after be determined. , «General J. L. Fullerton, the Treasurer of the society, says that ‘‘the men who followed our flag in battle are, asa general rule, as poor as they were patriotic ;” that “did they belong to the rich classes they would show their affection for the memory of Thomas in such a monument as the world never saw,” but that ‘‘as they may not be able alone to raise the funds” they expect our patriotic citizens to belp them in the good work. We need not tell these citizens who and what was General Thomas. In person, in accomplishments, in his old Roman integrity and in his heroic char- acter he stands, in our judgment, nearer to George Washington than any other man that ever lived, and as the great soldier, who, fighting many battles, never lost a battle, he stands almost alone in his glory. The monu- ment, therefore, proposed—a colossal eques- trian statue, in enduring bronze—is the proper one for this unflinching Southron soldier, who, like ‘“‘the faithful Abdiel,” was ‘faithful found among the faithless,” ang whose im- pressive example of loyalty to the Union was ciety generated the frauds upon the revenues, when even a great government threw up its hands and confessed that it was unable to en- force its laws—when Senators were bought and sold, as we saw in impeachmeni—when Legislatures were bought and sold, as we saw in Kansas and Pennsylvania. With this came the prodigious and fearful rise of Tammany, which ruled New York, sat in the chair of authority in Albany, and aimed to choose the Presidency of the United States. And, after all, came Erie! Public opinion overthrew the Whiskey Ring and gave us good government in the hands of Grant. Public opinion dethroned Tammany and overwhelmed the fearful infamies of the Ring. We now invoke public opinion to do the same work for Erie, The exposure in another column cannot be overlooked by the people. The history of Erie is not unfamiliar to the world. The blazing, brief and bloody career of the Prince of Erie has given it a romantic interest, but with this we have no concern now. The “Prince of Erie” waa only an exhalation of Erie. The great evil re- mains. The wantonness of the masters of Erie, their ambition and their recklessness, still lead them to aim at the coutrol of the Legislature. We do not know how far they have succeeded, but their desperate straits are plainly shown in the story we print this morning. Itisa satisfaction to feel that in this time of general convulsion the press re- mains free and untrammelled. We eee in this that the press is true to its mission as the repre- sentative of public opinion. United States, There is a latent virtue in every community, We saw it in France; we saw It in England ; we see it inthe Erie may live to-day and to- morrow, but it cannot live forever, America worth more to the great cause than his impor- tant victories in the field. Laxg AND oTuer Erie ring directors are interested in car contracts, oil contracts and every other sort of contract with their own Company. They pay themselves, as they pay bribes, with their own vouchers and checks upon the Erie treasury. Kansas 13 UNDER A Croup of bribery and corruption in the election of her United States Senators, 1867 and 1871, and the cloud has opened with a hail storm upon a number of distinguished parties. Committee say, in their report to the lower House of the State Legislature, that, regarding the Senatorial election of 1867, they find that much money was used by Pomeroy, Carney and The Investigating Perry Fuller; and the committee further say, in reference to their Senatorial election of last winter, that ‘‘the proof is positive that Cald- well stated that his election cost him over sixty thousand dollars, and that he paid of this over ten thousand to ex-Governor Car- ney.” Of course these awful disclosures have raised a fearful uproar in Topeka, and it will not be long before the accused Senators at Washington bear of it, in charges which they will be required to answer, What a bound- less field of corruption, here, there and every- where, in both the great political parties of the country has been laid bare since the un- earthing of the astounding frauds and robbe- ries of the Tammany “Ring!” In fact, we begin to think that about the only honest ad- ministration we have in all the length and breadth of the land is that that of General Grant; and yet the “‘sorebeads” are moving heaven and earth to supplant him in what bend call ord cause of “reform.” How they would rush into the fat things of the kitchen wi th his expulsion | a: Erie’s Last Grasp at Power—The Plain Daty of the Loegislature—The National Honor Must Be Defended by the Nation. The natural application of the story which absorbs so much of our space this morning is the lesson that national honor must now be rescued and defended, whatever the cost may be. We have no concern with the adventures of a greedy and needy Bohemian. The only way to deal with a man of that stamp is to imitate the example of the resolute British rulers in India, When the Sepoys rose in rebellion—burned towns, massacred garri- sons, laid plantations in waste, impaled children on their spears and rended innocent and delicate women limb from limb or consigned them to 4 fate compared to which death would have been a blessing, the leaders in crime were blown from the mouths of cannon. Mr. Wilcox and his class are the Sepoys of the press, and, figuratively speaking, we take him and those who were partners in his adven- tures, and blow them from the mouths of our guns. With men of his stamp there can be no punishment too severe. There still remains a higher duty, and this not alone for the Heratp. The public virtue which, as a journal, we strive to represent, must do its part. What do we see in Erie? Here is a railway built for the develop- ment of the commerce of New York, and binding it closely to the West. No nobler highway exists in the nation, and its early history is one of the proudest evi- dences of modern enterprise, The money which built the Erie Railway was contributed by the people of New York. There was a ne- cessity for the road. The Erie Canal, for which we are indebted to the genius of De Witt Clinton and the great men who in the early days presided over the destinies of the Empire State, was the first step we took in that path which has really made us an Em- pire State. With this we had the Central and the Erie and the Pennsylvania Central. The New York Central was for many years a political engine in the hands of Dean Rich- mond and the Albany Regency. Its revenues were diverted to the use of the old demo- cratic party, and its patronage used to build up candidates and conventions. The result was that the Central Railway was para- lyzed and kept in a prostrate condition, and those who owned its stock were atthe mercy of the Regency. In time the honest owners of the shares made it a busi- ness, and the road passed into the hands of men who used it to build up New York and earn a fair and necessary revenue. The same was seen in Pennsylvania. For years the Pennsylvania Central, which held the same relation to the Keystone State that the New York Central did to New York, was managed in the interest of politicians. A ring in Har- risburg, like the Albany Regency, controlled it, using it and abusing it for political ends, The tradition ia New Jersey has been for a genera- tion that the managers of the Camden and Amboy owned the State. The effect of this political management of railways has been seen in the debasement of politics which the history of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have shown. Legis- lation in these States has become a mockery and a byword, a synonym for corruption and crime. ‘If Tom Scott has no more busi- ness for us to do,” said a member of the Penn- sylvania Legislature in open session, ‘I move that this body do now adjourn.” Mr. Scott as the chief of the Pennsylvania corporation was at the mercy of the political vultures, and he had only one way of making them attend to his business, He controlled them by feeding them. Gradually public opinion has been destroying this influence. In Pennsylvania the great railroad has been taken from the control of the State, and is now managed for business purposes by keen business men. In New Jersey the Camden and Amboy has surrendered its monopoly and its _politi- cal aspirations and become what it wae always intended to be a branch of a great through line between New York and the West. In New York Mr. Vanderbilt has done for his roads what has been done in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The share- holders in these roads feel that their prop- erty is pradently managed—their dividends are honestly earned. When an Englishman buys their stock or their bonds he is sure of his dividend and his interest. No highway robbers sit in the boards of direction, and the franchises—the patronage and the income of the roads are not devoted to the purposes of building up and tearing down mere politicians. Commerce grows—business prospers—New York keeps her pace in the path of empire— and the nation feels that she can be proud of the bold and gifted men who preside over these highways of business and travel. How is it with Erie? As we have said, there is no nobler bighway than the Erie road. It was the natural successor to the Erie Canal. It was built by honest men, spending the money of our honest citizens. It was necessary to our through trade with the West, Englishmen and Germans—the alien and the citizen—invested in its shares and its bonds, Millions and millions of dollars were given to its managers by men who saw that it was a gigantic work, and should pay honest and liberal dividends; and the American people were proud of it as an evidence of the enter- prise and foresight and energy of the national character. But the hope of the founders of Erie—the high and honorable anticipations of the men who planned it as a new line of business and travel, have been cruelly dis- appointed. The history of Erie is simply a history of crimes and evil adventures. If it were properly written it would have the interest and the valye of the “Newgate Calendar.” Wicked men crept into its direc- tion and used it for their own gain. The rights of stockholders and bondholders were wantonly outraged. Its money was taken as money is taken from the vaults of a bank by midnight burglars. Lawyers were made rich ; the courts were bribed; theatres were built; troupes of opera singers and bailet girls were supported from its revenues ; Legislatures were bought; its shares were put up and down in Wall street by men who, if justice had been pure and vigilant, would have been in prison ; and, to crown all, the press has been muzzled and bribed, and public journalists have been paid to deceive the public. If the effect of these shameless and appalling crimes had only been felt in New York, or even in America. wa should not have com- plained as we now complain. But, unfortunately, the career of Erie has tarnished our good name abroad. The business men of Europe have said, “If Erie is possible in America then our money had better remain at howe. If thieves and scoundrels can take that rail- road and cheat its owners out of their money no road, no enterprise of any kind under American laws is secure. If the laws are trodden under foot by the masters of Erie they may be trodden under foot by any other corporation.” And we have made no reply to this; no reply was possible. We could only bow our heads in shame, and all the time American credit was sinking lower and lower, and hundreds of millions of good money which would gladly have sought our fresh, young, rich and inviting country for investment were locked up in the vaults ot Enrope or loaned at two and three per cent. The United States could well have afforded to pay the masters of Erie five hundred millions of dollars to have prevented this scandal, and it would not be hard to show that we have lobt, really lost, in the withdrawal of capital from these shores that yearned to come, andin the payment of unusual usury, a thousand mil- lions of dollars. There really can be no exaggeration of this calamity—for a calamity itis—and our just penalty for condoning a crime. Now, then, what must be done? We must rise up and trample upon this stu- pendous corruption. We must see that the great railway is honestly and prudently managed. We must repeal the laws which disgrace our statute books, and which were written there by a subsidized Legislature at the command of the masters of Erie. We must begin by the repeal of the Classification act. We must rebuke those who clamor for its retention by denouncing British owners of Erie shares as unworthy of protection, as thieves and cowards. Nor can we be too prompt and summary in this duty. We see by the revelations in the HEraLp this morning, as we have seen all along in the shameful history of Erie, that there is no scheme too desperate for the Erie Ring. Let the honest and unsubsidized press strike hands in this work and make a swift, merciless, decisive war. Let every Albany representative who dares to disobey the will of the people be regarded as a traitor to the na- tion’s honor and fame. Then we oan feel that the work of reform has been well done, and an American merchant can enter the money mar- kets and exchanges of the world without bow- ing his head in humiliation and shame. A Case for the Grand Jury of Opinion. Six months ago the State of New York was excited by the exposure of the gigantic frauds by which a knot of politicians in possession of our municipal government had managed to ac- cumulate enormous wealth at the expense of the citizens of the metropolis. As the leaders of the conspiracy happened to be members of the democratic party, their political organiza- tion suffered from their misdeeds, the republi- can journals making all the partisan capital in their power, as a matter of course, out of the disgraceful developments, The Democratic State Convention did all it could to remove the prejudice excited against the democracy, by repudiating the Tammany delegation and de- nouncing the misconduct of the New York “Ring ;” but the people of the State resolved to hold the whole party responsible for the action of the men who had for the past four or five years peen allowed to control its conventions, guide its legislation and shape its policy. They were confirmed in this determi- nation by the earnest pledges of reform made by the republicans, as well as by the exam- ple of honest democrats, who cast aside the trammels of party and the ties of association and aided in carrying out Charles O'’Conor’s advice, to reach the foundation of official cor- ruption by securing a thorough reformation of the State Legislature. At the close of the polls on the 6th of last November the mighty power of the ballot had accomplished a great revolution in the State, and the fact that the republicans had secured a three-fourths ma- jority in both Senate and Assembly was bailed as the most valuable fruit of the reform vic- tory. In the first flush of triumph the people were assured that the reign of corruption Consideration of the the Court of Public had come to an end in the State of New York; that the metropolis should no longer be left the prey of political adventurers, but should be en- dowed with a charter framed, without regard to party, for the single interest of the citizens ; that the Erie Ring, which had shared the notoriety and rivalled the corruption of the Tammany Ring, should be unsparingly de- stroyed; that the canal plunderers who had for years been engaged in robbing the State shouldbe brought to an account; that the few Tammany conspirators who had escaped de- struction should be summarily dealt with at Albany ; that Tweed should be expelled from the Senate and Tom Fields banished from the Assembly in the first week of the session. Before the Legislature convened it became evident that the lobby was more conversant than the people with the character of the men who were to fill the chambers of the State Capitol this year. A bolder combination has never been seen than that which awaited the gathering of the new members and un- dertook to force their chosen candi- date into the Speakership of the Assem- bly. Canal contractors, impregnated with corruption; Erie railroad officials and em- ployés notorious in the lobby operations of 1869 and subsequent years; needy adventur- ers who hang about the State capital every session picking up whatever jobs may offer ; professional lobbyists who make a trade of bribery and act as the agents between venal members and those who purchase their votes, filled the balls of the Albany hotels and boldly avowed their purpose to control the Assembly organization. They were unsuccessful, it is true. Speaker Smith secured the coveted position; but while he bimself stood aloof from bargaining and corruption, it was charged that undue means were resorted to by his supporters to bri bout the result; and the fact that shortly uiior the organization the majority of his own party was found in oppo- sition to him on the floor, fighting under the leadership of the defeated candidate, certainly gives color to the ramor. It is significant, too, that the lobby was not discouraged by its Sailure to cleot a Spegker. It had received a Caen nn EEE es possession of the field. The most notorious of its operators have been in attendance at Albany during the whole session up to the time of the temporary adjournment, and every night the rooms of many of the leading re- publican Senators and Assemblymen have been filled with outsiders whose occupation is = — and who can have no business wi legislators except of and criminal character, si . disg Eereiey The natural result of such a commence- ment of the session is before the people of the State. In the first republican legislative caucus held this year a prominent member of the Assembly, identified with the Conkling clique, charged upon Mr. Alvord and his sup- Porters a friendly association with the lobby. Stung by the taunt, the Fenton faction devoted - themselves to the exposure of official venality on the part of administration republicans, and ever since the organization of the Legislature the time that was pledged’ to reform has been frittered away in these dis- graceful party squabbles. Not a measure is introduced without bein subjected to the fac- tional test. A law to enable the city of New York to pay its public bonds and interest was ; only passed after having gone through the ore . deal of a faction fight. The Audit bill, de- q signed to relieve the sufferings of city laborera, | and employés who were kept out of the money honestly their due, became a bone of con- tention between Conklingites and Fentonites, The Clerk of. the Senate, identified with the former interest, has been proved guilty at least of official indiscretion, and has been driven to resign. One Senator has been ar- raigned for receiving bribes, and his case has been hanging on before an investigating com- mittee for weeks, Others are openly threat. ened with similar exposures,’ A leading ree publican printing firm, shown to have re- ceived hundreds of thousands of dollars every year from the State for all sorts of unneces- sary jobs, has been proved to have altered the figures of bills for legislative work in its own favor; to have paid ten thou- sand dollar bribes to lobbymen to carry through its claims in the Supply bill, and to have allowed liberal percentages to legislative clerks and employés of State departments for work done for the State. One-half the legis- lative term is over, and not a single reform measure has been yet secured. The only progress that has been made in the matter of a charter for New York city has been the discussion in the Assembly of the experi- mental hodge-podge prepared by the Com- mittee of Seventy, and which Mr. Alvord and his friends openly denounce as a piece of impracticable absurdity, which, if passed ‘at all by that body, will only be passed in the expectation that it will be defeated in the Senate or vetoed by the Governor. Not a single idea of a charter has proceeded from our law-makers, white many of them have been intriguing for power under the existing municipal departments, with the intention to leave the city in its present condition should their efforts prove successful. Meantime, there has been an evident and notorious evasion of every real reform. The recently denounced Canal Ring has been left untouched, or only fed with new appropriations, while its principal heads, one in the Senate and one in the Assembly, have been making combina- tions for mutual protection with all who have exposure to dread or schemes to prosecute. The Erie Ring and the Erie lobby have been laboring so successfully with Senators and Assemblymen that they now openly boast their ownership of both bodies. On the first day of the session Senator James O’Brien, faithful to his reform pledges, introduced a bill to repeal the Erie Classification act, which before election was denounced -by the republi- can party as a law of infamy, passed by bribery and corruption, and ever since, the Senate has resorted to a succession of tricks to delay action upon the measure and to escape the responsibility of a direct vote. Tweed has been left untouched—Fields has not been troubled, and common report declares that neither Senate nor Assembly dare to move against the indicted Tammany officials, lest their own venal practices should be ex- posed by the men who have used them as their hired tools. Is there any honest act to be set off against this fifty days’ record of bad faith, cowardice and corruption, laid up against a reform republican Legislature? A few investigating committees have been formed, and as some of the persons whose acts are to be inquired into are of an adverse political status, and are neither likely to bribe nor intimidate their investigators, it is possible that in a few instances a result favorable to justice may be reached. The impression prevails, how- ever, that many of the inquiries started by the Legislature are of the customary black- mail character, and if the feeling be unjust it is at least not unreasonable, in the light of the experience of the first half of the session. Up to the present time, then, the republican legis- lators, with a majority in both houses large enough to enable them to carry through every measure of reform to which they stand solemnly pledged before the people, have done no uct except in the interest, directly or uj indirectly, of a corrupt and infamous lobby. They are about to reassemble at the State Capitol, and it remaine to be seen whether they will venture any longer to set at defiance that Grand Jury of the Court of Public Opinion before which they must eventually pass in review. They have time enough left to redeem themselves if they desire to do so. Let them banish Tweed and Fields from their midst; let them expel any of their own politi- cal friends who may be proved guilty of venat practices; let them’ cut off from the business of public printing the men who have corrupted public officers and placed ten thousand dollar bribes at the disposal of lobbyists; let them close their doors against the notorious leeches of the lobby, cast the money of the Erie Ring back in their faces, and pass Senator O'’Brien’s bill to restore the rights of the Erie stockholders ; let them cease bargaining and trading with New York Aldermen and other officials, and enact a sound, practical charter, in the interests of the people alone; let them banish from the halla of legislation the indecent squabbles of faction; let them take hold of the canal cor- ruptionists with a strong hand—destroy the evil power of the Canal Commissioners—wipe out the old corrupt repair contracts and 4 rofuse all farther appropriations for the scans { ? i