The New York Herald Newspaper, March 2, 1872, Page 4

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Volume XXXVII..... sereee NO. GB AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON ‘AND EVENING, BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., corner Sixth av. — SULIUG CasAR, Matiuee at 1. . WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway. corner %0:h st. —Perform- ‘ances afternoon and evening,—OUT AT SEA. WALLACK'S THEATR! Broadway ani 13th street. — Vareean. Matinee NIBLO'’S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and ‘Houston ats.—Tuk NATAD QUEEN. Matinee at 2 BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery—Dick TuRrrin—Bor- FaLo BIL, ST. JAMES' THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broad- Way.—MARRIAGE. Matinee at 2. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— ‘Tur New DRana or Divoncr. Matinee at 134. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—THr BALLET Pan- ToMIME OF HUMPTY DuMpry. Matinee at 2. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—Concert OF THE PHILMARMONIO SOCIETY, MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— BE. DeMonto, Matinee. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Cowtc YoeaL- 1aM8, NEORO ACTS, &0.—IXION, Matinee at 23g. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth at. and Broad- ‘way.—NEGKO ACTS—BURLESQUR, BALLET, 0. Matinee. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery. — NxGRO ECcENTRIOITING, BURLESQUES, 40. Matinee. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 231 st., between 6th and 7thavs.—BRYANT'’s MINSTRELS. Matinee at 2. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, near Third ave- ‘Due.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL H. —— ‘THR SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, EL Rreedwar ASSOCIATION HA ‘86th street 4 Third _ Mivate oh aig Poretae Comceee ne Tat erence. PAVILION, No, 683 Broadway.—T! - iy jroadway.—THe Vienna Lavy Op- NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteentn siren. —SomwEs Ix “ene Ring, AcnoBATS, 20, Matinee at 234. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— (ENOE AND ABT. DR. KAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway. — (OR AND ABT. ITH SUPPLEMENT —— = = New York, Saturday, March 2, 1872. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. Pace. t= Advertisements, 2—Advertisements, S—“Bleeding Kansas: Bribery and Corruption; How United States Senators from Kansas are Elected; Senators Pomeroy and Catdwell Ar- Taigned; Official Report of the Investigating Committee of the Kansas Legisiature—Uolom- bla in Trouble—The Catholic Church in Balti- more—Display of Fashions at Stewart’s—A Determined Suicide—Marriages and Deaths— Advertisements. 4—Euitoria's: Leading Article, “The Japanese Embassy—Asia Drawing Nearer to America— Lessons the Two Nations May Teach One Another”—Amusement Announcements. S—Queen Victoria: Tne Assassination attempt inst Her Majesty's Life—News from England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and = Russia—The Cuban Insurrection— Alexis in Havana—Washington: America’s Reply to Granville Despatched—The Japanese Embassy—Weather Report—The Utah State Convention—Miscellaneous Telegrums—Busi- ness Notices. G—Congress: The French Arms Sales Committee; Sumner Too Sick to Serve; They Cannot Spare Schurz; A ne About Adjournment; Fillbustering on the Wisconsin Land Grabs in the House; Invitation to the Japanese Em- bassy—Sharp Practice: Alleged Attempt to Swindie a Banking Firm Out of $130,000— Doomsday for Jersey City—A Panic in a School—The Dog Fanciers—Racing Notes— Music and the Drama—Save the Little Ones: Lecture in Behalf of the New York Infant Asylum—New Hampshire: Opening of the State and Presidential Campaigns; inter- views with Prominent Politiclans—Tne Brooklyn Charter. '¥—Advertisements. S—Mayor Hall: Ovening Speech of the Prosecu- tion; Was the Mayor Guilty of Wiltul Neglect? | Review of the History of the New Court House—Stokes : Argument of Counsel for the Prisoner; The Case ‘lo Be Submitted To-Day— Proceedings in the Courts—Another Diamond Robbery—The Mulberry Street Butchery—The Harvor Master’s Investigaivion—The Banister nt; . tain Insurance Companies Got Into Bank- ruptcy. @—The lusurance Inquiry (Continued from Eighth Page)—Sneman in Rome: The General’s au- dience with the Pope—The Nursery and Childs’ Hospital—Excitement Among Silk Manuiac- turers—The Claim of Mr. Charles Weile Against Peru—Bond Robbery in Beach Street—The Erie Biuestone Ring—Mr. Dexter Hawkins Recorrected—Meeting of the Produce Exchange--The Newark Highwaymen—Tne Public Debt—The City Exchequer—Financial and Commercial Reports—Domestic Markets, 20—The State Capital: Brivery and Corruption Considered in the Legislature; Comptroller Green’s Memoria! and Its Facts and Figures; Breaches of Trust by OMicers of Banks, and Virtue and Morality at the Polis—Capital Ver- sus Labor—New Youk City News—European and Havana Markets—Shipping Intelligence— Advertisements. Tue Duties on Tea AND CoFrez.—An im- portant announcement was made in the Senate yesterday by Mr. Sherman, chairman of the Committee on Finance, and made on authority unanimously given by that committee. It was that if the House bill removing the duties on those articles were to pass the Senate at all ft would not go into operation before the Ist of July next. “Birepinc Kansas."—We publish this morning the official report of the Investigating Committee of the Kansas Legislature appointed to look into the charges of alleged corruption against United States Senators Pomeroy and Caldwell. It would seem that the blood of Kansas is almost inexhaustible—for after having been the inciting cause of terrible national trouble as a Territory, she now asa State has to be bled for the purpose of electing United States Senators, She well deserves the historic as well as the local political title of “bleeding Kansas.” Sovrnern Cat. Upon tne Norrnern Democracy.—We find in our Southern ex- changes a demand upon the Northern democ- racy to show their hands. They ask, What is the Democratic National Executive Committee doing? What are they waiting for, when the republicans are electing delegates to their Convention, and a prominent name is already announced as an anti-administration candidate for the Presidency? The Southern democracy NEW YURK HERALD, SATURDAY, MAROH 2, 1872.-WITH SUPPLEMENT, The Japaneses. Embassy—Asia Drawing Nearer to America—Lessons the Twe Nations May Teach One Anether. The arrival of the Japanese Embasay marks an important era in the history of the interesting country of Japan, and is not without its les- sons to America, We have been curiously observing our distinguished visitors in their enforced seclusion at Salt Lake City. The exact and docile Oriental mind must have had its own thoughts; for instance, about the way in which a great nation manages its Pacific Railway. They have seen a railway built with a princely subsidy cut in two by a winter snow storm, Since then they have seen a great city almost in ashes. If they had been blessed with a hearing of the three weeks’ de- bate of the Senatorial demagogues, and could have been instructed by Mr. Mori as to its tenor, and learned that these were American Senators who felt that political capital could properly be made at the expense of their country’s honor, they would have had an odd idea of American patriotism, The resources of our great country would not have been exhausted with these phenomena, We can show them our Court House, which cost ten dollars a brick; its carpets, worth a hundred dollars a yard; its walls, as expen- sive as if they had been done in porcelain. Above all, Field Marshal Lane may gallantly show them the Erie Opera House and the troupe of decorated ballet girls, and instruct them in railway management. It will not be our fault, either in New York or Washington, if the illustrious Orientals do not comprehend the whole scope of American civilization. Japan has long been a sealed nation. The spirit of exclusion which has per- vaded the East has never been so success- fully preserved as in Japan. When even as able and well-Informed an author as Swift wrote his famous narrative of ‘‘Gulliver'’s Trav- els” he gave his imaginary countries, where nature was supposed to run wild, a place near Japan, as the one country which seamen and adventurers never visited. The daring Englishry who conquered India and found lodgment on the Chinese coasts and occupied the Pacific islands; the thrifty and enterpris- ing Dutch, who, two centuries ago, disputed with the English the possession of the rich islands of the Orient; even the French, who have been striving for centuries to aggrandize themselves at the expense of the Asiatics, have always been repelled from the interior of Japan. It is six hundred years since Marco Polo and his Venctians made an effort to occupy the islands, and the result of their voyagings, as written in the extravagant rhetoric of the day, was to make Cipango the dream of navigators. The history of the Catholic Church is identified with an effort to civilize Japan, which forms a tragical chapter of religious enterprise, and the heroes of which have been canonized as martyrs. What Marco Polo and his successors could not do was achieved by Francis Xavier and his followers in obedience to the orders of the Jesuits. So well was this done that an Embassy of Japanese noblemen and scholars, mainly con- verts tothe religion of Christ, visited Pope Gregory and made spiritual submission to the Pontificate. If the teachings of Francis Xavier had controlled the relations between the Portuguese and Dutch traders and the Japanese, if the Gospel of charity and good will had been practised by Catholic mariners as well as preached by Catholic missionaries, Japan might havo remained open to our European civilization and as accessible as India and Egypt. But this was not to be, The Christian traders be- gan to deal with the Japanese as they hed dealt with Montezuma and Guatamozin and the Incas of Peru. But they were a far different people from the docile natives of Mexiso and South America. So in time they arose and drove the foreigner with his cross into the sea, putting thirty thousand Christians to death, the legends say, and sealing their coasts to the Christian world. Efforts have now and then been made to open Japan to the commerce of the West, but it was reserved for an American seaman in this nineteenth century to conclude a satisfactory treaty. We printed the narrative of the ne- gotiations yesterday. Since 1854, when Com- modore Perry signed the treaty with the Ja- panese on behalf of the United States, other nations have been gradually securing commer- cial treaties from the Mikado, The influence which Commodore Perry established at the outset by his candor and courtesy and perfect fairness has never been weakened. In this respect the country was also well served by Townsend Harris, our Minister. In time Japan sent an Embassy to America, and the profuse courtesy showered upon its members by our government and people made a pro- found and gratifying impression upon Japan. Since then American influence has preponderated. Our Pacific coast was washed by the seas that laved its shores. Japan began to regard America as in some sense a neighbor. Little streams of emigration began to drip into California and Oregon, following the great movement of the Chinese. America began to be known as a country of peace, opportunity and wealth, The sons of noblemen were sent here to learn our language and customs. Our commer- cial relations were drawn closer and closer. The statesmen of Japan saw that while their civilization in certain phases was firmer and more settled than ours, while it had progressed beyond the Saxon in many ingenious forms of art and industry, it lacked our completeness and growth, The desire to hear from the Democratic National | ‘@4ency of the Oriental mind was to cling to _ Committee. Victoria's THANKS TO Her SvBJECTS.~ Queen Victoria has addressed a letter to Mr. Gladstone in which she conveys to the British nation “‘her own personal very deep sense” of the reception which she met with from the people on the occasion of the thanksgiving fete, She repeats the assurance of ‘how much she was touched and gratified by the immense enthusiasm and affection of all, from the highest to the lowest,” and delares that she, with the members of her family, ‘‘will ever affectionately remember the Day of Thanke- giving.” This tribute to the loyalty of her people comes very gracefully from Victoria, and its general circulation among her subjects just now betokens the initiation of a new, pleasing and safe svstem of home policy on der part, traditions, to imitate and stand still, It re- mained fora Prince as far-seeing and brave .88 the present Mikado, who, from all that we can learn, is one of those extraordinary men sent by Providence to mould the destinies of a people, to see the necessity of adopting the progress and skill of the West and to throw down the barriers of caste, feudalism and religion which have retarded for centuries the growth of the Japanese Empire, The arrival of this Embassy is a step in this great Oriental move- ment, It is a solemn and inspiring sight to see thirty millions of people as intelli- gent and accomplished as the Japanese throw- ing down the walls which have isolated their country from the Christian nations since the time of Francis Xavier. It is the begin- ning of a movement the end and importance of which goes beyond our imagination, It seems probable that America must solve the Oriental problem, at least so far as China and Japan are concerned. But yesterday a Chinese Em- bassy, headed by Anson Burlingame, visited most of the European capitals, To-day a states- man of Japan comes to America with an Em- bassy representing the pride and intellect and ambition of the Mikado. The Orientals ask the friendly hands of America to lead them into the family of nations, At the same time, while we welcome these Mongolians and teach them all we know, we must not despise them as men from whom nothing can be learned. They are a learned and ingenious race, with deep, subtle philosophy in their laws and customs and sacred books, While they are tearing down the barriers that sepa- rate them from the world, we, with Chinese wisdom, are building a wall around our own country. Our protective tariff is a Chinese wall, and our policy of com- mercial restrictions and taxations much resembles the policy whéch expelled the followers of Xavier from Japan. A mind as acute and discerning as that of these Oriental statesmen will not fail to see this, and we shall be amused to know how Mr. Kelley or Mr. Boutwell will explain that while we honor Japan for opening its ports and receiv- ing our goods and products, we forbid an Eng- lishman to land a ton of iron or a Chinaman a box of tea without taxing him as heavily as though we were a conquering nation receiving tribute from our vassals. The Underground Railroad Job of Ninety Railroad Jobbers. Ashare in a reform committee appears to be almost as profitable as a share in the “ring” direction of the Erie Railroad. The Committee of Seventy have already supplied us with a goodly portion of our new office- holders, besides giving us a charter that is ex- pected to provide for others of that patriotic body. A Committee of Ninety now propose to build our city railroads for us and to pro- tect us against fraud by securing the valuable franchises, worth many millions of dollars, for themselves. These latter disinterested reformers are bent upon carrying out the scheme of an underground railroad slong the line of Broadway, and they affirm that all the Broadway property owners, except Mr. A. T. Stewart, have withdrawn their opposition to the undertaking. There is something refreshing in the cool impudence with which these patriots ask in the name of reform a privilege for which thousands of responsible men would gladly pay to the city a million dollars or more; but when they endeavor to advance the prospects of their nice little job by tricks, deceptions and misrepresentations, it is difficult to understand how the people have been benefited by the change from their late to their present rulers, The real prop- erty owners on Broadway are almost unani- mously opposed to the committee’s job—first, because they know it to be impracticable, and next, because they do not believe it to be un- dertaken in good faith, but as a money-making speculation, The cost of an underground railroad, supposing it could be constructed at all, would be so enormous as to deprive the people of the main benefit of rapid transit through the high rate of fare that would be needed in order to pay anything like a reason- able interest on the investment, In London, with its enormous popula#on and with no engineering difficulties to encounter in the construction of the road, the underground line is not a paying concern. In New York, where nearly every foot of the road would have to be made at an extraordinary outlay, in consequench of the nature of the ground, and where the travel would not be more than one-fourth of the London travel, every dollar invested in it would be hepelessly lost. If the work should ever be seriously undertaken, which is not probable, the great *hoyoughfare of the city would be torn up for years and its business destroyed, while in the end the undertaking would assuredly result in failure. The only practicable rapid transit scheme for New York is that of a viaduct rail- way running on each side of the city to Harlem bridge and Kingsbridge. The ob- ject of a railroad run by steam is more to accommodate persons living at com- paratively long distances from their places of business than for way travel. If we had an underground or viaduct road in operation to- day very few persons would use it for short distances, even if the stations were more fre- quent than would be likely. A viaduct road could be built at small expense as compared with an underground, and in one-tenth of the time. It would im- prove property on the two wings of the city, east and west, which has fallen thirty per cent ina few years, and bring it into demand for business purposes. For a viaduct road all the capital needed could be speedily secured, for the reason that it is no experi- ment but a mere calculation of cost and profit, There are no engineering difficulties in the way of its construction, and nothing is needed but the law to authorize it and the energy to carry out the work. So far as the Heratp property is con- cerned it would not be injured by an under- ground road, our excavations being thirty feet under ground. But, in common with other pro- perty owners on Broadway, we protest against an utterly impracticable scheme, which, in- stead of giving our citizens what they so much need—rapid transit from one end of the island to the other—would not only end in failure, but place an obstruction in the way of really practicable undertakings. As the property owners on Broadway have been mis- represented by the Committee of Ninety we call upon them to express their views in re- lation to the proposed scheme through the columns of the HERALD. the Orreans RoYALisM IN Franog.—The com- mittee of the French Legislative Assembly has reported in favor of the restoration of their property to the Orleans Princes. Prince de Joinville has been restored to his rank of ad- miral in the Freneh navy and Duc d’Aumale to his of general in the army. These acts are but of simple national justice to really patriotic and distinguished Frenchmen. Marshal Canrobert has arrived in Paris, France is, perhaps, moving toward the ac- complishment of a decided change of govern- ment, Canrobert is a dashing soldier, He can tell, if called on to do so, what “he —- rrr army fn the Crimea, and of the brilliancy of | He was made Minister to Spain, O04] mHe Hannibal aod St. Joseph Ratirend the fights at Magenta and Solferino. To the zouaves he can speak of Algeria, and to the nation generally of its paet glory and present strength. Canrobert could conduct a royal restoration, if France so willed it. Will he do 80? The Close of the Senate Doedbate—The Politicians Against the President—Victory with the People. We cannot permit the debate in the Senate to pass into history without adducing some considerations in reference to the tone of our politics so far as they affect the coming cam- paign, This whole discussion has been virtu- ally the chorus to the opening Presidential drama—the overture to the political opera that will charm or vex us during the summer. We have felt impatient with the discussion. It has had no redeeming quality except earnestness. The amount of meanness and spite and innuendo and selfishness it has shown in our public men cannot but make a painful impression upon the country; for, whether we be democrats or republicans, we certainly are Americans, proud of our country and our Senate, and it is no comfort to us to look back upon a debate which no American can read without sorrow. Mr. Senator Sumner is the greatest sufferer in this debate. Here is a man who has made himself known as pre-eminently the Senator. We believe it was Mr. Emerson who compli- mented him as one who had avoided the com- plaisances of politics. He has always pro- claimed himself the inhabitant of a higher and purer atmosphere than that of ordinary poli- tics—a stranger to the depravity of parties. Patronage, the caucus, invective, the fascina- tions of place and society and power were put aside. He was, as we have been taught to believe, too great a man to stoop, too proud a man to intrigue, too much of an American to contribute in any way to the misfortune of bis country, Above all men, he was supposed to be free from the emotions of anger or disap- pointment or ambition. He was the Senator, and, like Cato, he was the impersonation of cold justice. This was certainly an enviable fame, and it belonged to Mr. Sumner until he threw it away in this debate. This Senatorial god is seen to have legs of clay running almost into mire. Look for a moment at his recent course. Inspired with an angry feeling towards Gen- eral Grant, he introduces a resolution into the Senate asking that certain transactions in the sales of arms to the French government be investigated. So far all was well. He had simply to offer such a resolution to secure its passage ; for public opinion would have com- pelled every Senator to vote for it, and we should have had prompt investigation, But prompt investigation was not wanted ; for the Senator took the unusual step of reciting an elaborate preamble containing unsupported averments meant to affect the country. In addition to this he took a step more extraordinary in mak- ing an elaborate speech discussing these unsup- ported averments. And so came the debate ! Mr. Sumner took the country at an advantage, He proceeded to pronounce the accusation and the judgment at the sametime. He knew perfectly well that the effect of his course would be to cast an imputation upon the ad- ministration which no subsequent investiga- tion, no matter how clearly it might exonerate the government, could dispel. The rules of the Senate, the extreme latitude permitted to debate and the generous courtesy ex- tended to all Senators, regardless of party, gave Mr. Sumner the opportunity of doing this unstatesmanlike thing. He took advan- tage of his legislative immunity, and showed that no matter how lofty he may have been asa Senator he could permit his anger to make him the author of expedients worthy of the political conventions of Tammany Hall. It is no pleasure for us to pass this judg- went upon Mr. Sumner, for he has a noble name and a fame very dear to the nation. Would he have treated Mr. Lincoln in the same way? Would he have thrown into fhe Senate in Lincoln’s days a pre- amble filled with mischievous and dam- aging statements, unsupported by evi- dence, and, after holding it there for three weeks, until the public mind was saturated with the poison, ask to withdraw it? If he meant his preamble for a patriotic purpose why did he shrink from a vote of the Senate? If he felt that he had acted in all things as a Senator; asa fair-minded, impartial Senator ; meaning all things well, why did he confess that his preamble was a trick, an expedient, a political subterfuge, and that, having done its work, he would not ask a vote? Nor was the work which it did worthy of an American Senator. He meant to prove that an American administration had been disloyal to Germany ; that it had violated its neutrality obligations for a corrupt purpose; that the Executive had in some way known of the evil and wasa party to it, The time selected for this extraordinary pronunciamiento was when the Emperor of Germany was about to sit in arbitration upon the San Juan boundary, when we were about to appear before the Ge- neva tribunal with our case against England. Mr. Sumner knew well, no one in these States knew better, that the effect of his preamble of unsupported averments would be to grieve the German mind, inspire coldness in the Ger- man heart and give England a chance to assert our treatment of France as a plea in abatement of its treatment of the Southern confederacy. These several acts, constituting moral treason, Mr. Sumner did, and he did them to serve his personal grudge against President Grant. Of course he was aided by Mr. Schurz and Mr. Trumbull, These two Senators come to us as the apostles of a new dispensation. They preach reform, freedom from the vices of patronage, “liberal” republicanism. Others may delve in the fleshpots; they confine them- selves to cakes and ale. Mr. Schurz is a phenomenon jn our politics. A cabal of Cheap Jack correspondents and editors have called npon us toaccept this shifting German as a great man and a wonderful orator. We admit that he has been studying the English language for eighteen years and speaks it fluently; but there are professional couriers who carry Indies’ bandboxes over the Continent who speak more tongues than Mr. Schurz. No man has been more honored by the republican party than this Senator. He began to crave office about the time he got into his English grammar, and knows” of the coup d'état. of 1851, of the | be bas managed to keep well in office. failed to achieve any remembered repu- tation im Madrid. He was a general in the army, and came out of the ranks with no more fame than a thousand other generals, who quietly took off their swords and went into trade. He edited a newspaper and failed in that. In time he was thrown into the Senate, where he has only succeeded as an incessant, sharp, endless, quick- witted talker, who has not made speech which will last beyond the necessities of the democratic party in this campaign. We do not esteem our Senate as an astonishing body. Weregard it as a fine collection of mediocrities. We have no Senator who will compare with Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Bright or Mr. Lowe, and so far from Mr. Schurz being the marvel that his fol- lowers insist upon regarding him, he is inferior to Sumner, Thurman, Edmunds, Conkling, Morrill or Ferry, and is really about a match for Morton or Frank Blair. We mean that he is a match for Morton or Blair in intellectual resources, As an eager, frisky, perpetual talker, always obtruding upon the Senate with a speech or an interruption, he is only sur- passed by Garrett Davis. He can truly say with Tennyson, ‘Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever.” And as for Mr, Trumbull, we dismiss him as a politician who followed faithfully in the traces of the republican party until the incense bearers tempted him off with hopes of the Presidency. A politician who reforms at sixty and publishes himself as a “statesman” may excite our curiosity, but scarcely our enthusiasm, These are the demagogues and conspirators who have held the country at their mercy for three weeks, delaying public business, spending the people's money, and bringing the good name and good faith of the nation into disrepute, merely to defeat General Grant, Their allies are found in disappointed politicians like Greeley, who abandons a tariff man like Grant to aid in the nomination and election of a free-trader; or like Fenton, who has been squealing with nose high in air ever since he and his litter were turned out of the troughs of the Custom House; or like three or four pretentious newspapers in the East and West, who advertise their obstinacy for independence, and proclaim that no virtue remains in journalism but what they happily possess; that they alone are unterrified and unbought; that, thanks be to God, like the Pharisee of old, they are not as other journals are! We really do not know whether the feel- ing excited by this comedy of scandal and ambition is one of amusement or con- tempt. We are amused when we see these strollers from the republican party establish a side show, and advertise themselves as real, new patriots, with gorgeous costumes and machinery and decorations, and that their play is the only legitimate drama, while the per- formance at Philadelphia is sensational and unworthy. But we cannot refrain from our contempt when we see the Senate of the United States surrendered to the intrigues of politicians who have no grievance against Grant that does not arise from disappointed ambition. Behind these men there {s a public opinion which is as true to Grant as it was true to Jackson when Calhoun and Clay and Webster thundered at him in the Senate. The people stood by Jackson against the politicians, and he triumphed. The people are standing by Grant, and we are profoundly convinced that he will have a triumph as conspicuous and splendid as was awarded to the here of New Orleans. The Erie Bills in the Assembly—What Is the Railrond Committee Going to De About It? The Railroad Committee of the Assembly is holding secret meetings over the bills to repeal the Erie Classification act and to pro- vide for a fair election of directors, The com- mittee consists of Assemblymen White, Smyth, Whitbeck, Lewis, Burns, Green- haigh, G. W. S. Smith, A, Hill and Cham- bers. When the committees of the Assembly were appointed the Speaker was ap- plauded for his selections and for the firmness he displayed in excluding the names of suspected members from prominent positions. It is to be hoped that the Railroad Committee will not be the first to show that if Speaker Smith was honest in his selection of the committees he was deceived in his men, It is stated that Guuld and Eldridge were in Albany yesterday, and whether their arrival was generally known or kept secret their presence at the capital at this time will be regarded with suspicion, We hope to see the O'Brign bill reported by the Assembly Committee yithout alteration. If the Committee of thé Whole should think proper to insert a provislo requiring that ® director, to be eligible, shal! pe a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of New York, no objection will be made thereto by the friends of the bill. Such a provision will meet the pretended fear of the “Ring” petitioners that the management of the road may pass into the hands offoreigners, But the Classification act must be repealed and a fair election secured, or the people will hold the republican majority responsible for having betrayed the cause of reform and sold them- selves for money. It is very well known that the Legislature of the State of New York would not do the work of the Erie Ring un- less paid well for the work. The Assembly Railroad Committee will be held accountable for any unusual delay in reporting’ the repeal bill. All its members must be by this time conversant with the merits of the Erie controversy, having patiently sat for many days listening to the statements of coun- sel on the Attorney General’s bill and other measures relating to the road and its manage- ment. Now let them report the repeal bill at once and free themselves from any suspicion of having been contaminated by the men who have already rendered three or four State Legislatures a byword and reproach to the State, France AND AvstrIA have each offered an asylum to the Pope should His Holiness de- cide to quit Rome, So we are told by cable telegram. The American people anticipated both these great European Powers by proffer- ing a democratic shelter and citizen hospitality to the Pontiff, through the columns of the Heratp, at the very commencement of his troubles Stockjebbors=The Five Taaue. Tho sharp practice of the old stockjobbers of the Erie Ring in the matter of the Hannibal and St, Joseph five million over-issue has already been exposed in the Heratp. It will be remembered that a combination of New York operators, the same men who control the Erie Ring, obtained possession last fall of a majority of the stock of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and elected them- selyes directors, As soon as they obtained control they removed the offices and the books of the company to New York and commenced a system of sharp practice similar to that which has enabled them to plunder the stock- holders of the Erie road out of millions of dol- lars and to break down the credit and staim the reputation of the country in every foreign market. Before the new directors had beea four months in office they secretly raised the capital stock of the road more than one hundred per cent—from four millions, at which it originally stood, to nine millions—and. before any person outside their own “ring” knew anything of the matter endeavored to put the over-issue of five millions upon the market. The rascality of the proceeding was 80 apparent that the New York Stock Ex- change put in force the rule which requires thirty days’ notice of the intended issue of new stock, and for that space of time stopped the further operations of the unscrupulous jobbers. Under existing laws, however, there is ne power to prevent the consummation of this plot. In ten or twelve days, when the author- ity of the Stock Exchange will be exhausted, the five million new issue will be put on the market, It is the old Erie infamy over again. The directors, elected through s successful combination, although standing in the posi- tion of trustees for the stockholders and bound to act for their interest, set to work secretly to destroy or at least to se- riously decrease the value of their property by more than doubling the stock without their knowledge or consent. A stockholder holding one million of the original stock had one-fourth interest In the road. He will now have only one-ninth interest, and the value of his prop- erty is destroyed in that degree. Innocent purchasers of the stock for investment sup- posed they were buying into a road whose capital stock was four millions only, when the conspiring directors had in reality raised it to nine millions. The stockholders will have no control over the expenditure of the amount raised from the over-issue of five mil- lions. The directors who have resorted to this sharp practice will have the handling of the funds, and, as in Erie, under the same operators, out of twenty millions realized from an over-issue of sixty-one millions only five millions have been expended on the road, while the balance is unaccounted for, so in Hannibal and St, Joseph, the stockholders will be for- tunate if one million out of five, or an amount in that proportion, finds its way into the coffers of the company. These bold acts of unscrupulous men should receive the attention of Congress, and some restraint should at once be put upon them, Such rascalities, if suffered to be perpetrated much longer without the interference of the law, will break down the character and the credit of the nation. If it be possible for railroad directors, who are the trustees of the stockholders, to enter into conspiracies to de- fraud, rob and ruin them without restraint of law or fear of punishment, then all confi- dence in such securities will be destroyed and the iron arteries of commerce will cease to spread through the country. We need a com- prehensive general railroad law of the United States, under the provisions of which these fraudulent operations shall be no longer possible, The States themselves are power- less except over their own corporations. Con- gress should prohibit, by a general law, the increase of the stock of any railroad corpora- tion In the United States until the over-issue has been approved by, or first offered to, the original stockholders. No reform is more urgently needed for the protection of the most important interests of the whole country than one which shall place the entire railroad system under a law of the United States, so framed as to enforce stringently the responsi- bility of directors and to encourage invest- ment in the great undertakings necessary to develop the resources and increase the wealth and power of the nation. Million = Overe France and the War Indemnity. It is said that Prince Bismarck has informed the French government that Germany is ready to receive a large amount of the war indemnity at a discount of the amount of interest thereot if paid within a given time. The German gov- ernment seenis to be as desirotis for some rea- son to have the indemnity paid as France is to get rid of this incubus. The German Pre- miler sees, probably, the extraordinary efforts the Fretich government and people are making to raise the money, and deems it politic to make a show of generosity. Heavy as this indemnity burden presses upon France, tits patriotic French people at home and abroad are disposed to make any sacrifice to get rid of it, They are ready to part with their jew- elry and other surplus luxuries, and the indus- trious masses are prepared to subscribe ‘from their earnings to this object, Whatever faults the French have their patriotism never fails. Such a people can overcome the greatest diffi- culties, Such a nation, though suffering from the greatest disasters, cannot be crushed. If France could establish a good government— particularly if she could establish a republic ‘on the model of the United States—she would rise in the course of ten years from her hu- miliation and become a mighty Power again, The French have more recuperative energy and resources than any other people in Enrope. Worsr Tuan Ever Berorr—The fright. fully filthy condition of the city. The disclo- sures of the Board of Health upon the subject, street cars included, are really appalling. What are we todo? Mr. Brown seems to be a myth except on pay day, the Mayor ap- pears to be powerless, the Board of Health are limited in their jurisdiction and Mr. Comptroller Green has his hands full of other matters. We can’t help ourselves, and we therefore call upon our wise men at Albany to authorize somebody to clean the oity.