The New York Herald Newspaper, March 7, 1872, Page 6

INEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. +No. 67 BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery—Burra.o BILt.—Tor Buinp MINE. ST, JAMES’ THEATRE, Swenty-eighth streot and Broad- way.—MARELAGE. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth atreet.— ‘Tur New Drama or Divoroz. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tur Bauer PaN- oMIME OF HUMPTY DUMPTY. BOOTH’S THEATEE, Twenty-third st., corner Sixth av. — JULIUS CasaR, WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and 13:h strost. — VETERAN. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and ‘Houston sts.—La BELLE SavaGE. Woon’s MUSEUM, mnces aftern roadway. corner 30th st.-Performe joon and evening. —LUNA. MRS, F. B. CONWAY'S BROUKLYN THEATRE.— ‘Maup's Peni. » THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Couio Vooau 3668, NEGRO ACIB, 40.—1XI0N, ) UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st. ant Broad- Wway—NEGEO ACTS—BURLESGUE, BALLET, £0. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery. — }Neano KooKNTRICITIZGE, BURLESQUES, £0, { BRYANT’S NEW OPERA Hous! + bet pnd 7th ave.—Brranr’s M me ee heereen \_ THIRTY-FOURTH STR! THEATRE, near Third ave- pue—VanieTy ENTERTAINMENT, SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, Broa — Ming San Francisco MINSTRELS. ni nen PAVILION, No. 688 Broadway TRA. —Tar Viewxa Lavy Ox- ROBINSON'S HALL, 18 Enst Sixteenth ati —| OMEDY—LE reg rey ENFANTS, Panay blunahan, STEINWAY H. Fourter _ a ALL, Fourteenth strect.-GRAND MATINER NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourteent CEN: RING, AcrouATS, ko. See Steric NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, — Ch AwD Ame U: MY, 618 Broadway. DR, KAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, 745 Broadway. — AND ART, RIPLE SHEET. New York, Thursday, March 2, 1872. . — a — CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S KERALD. ‘pace. I~ Advertisements, 2—Adveruisements. S—The Tichborne Trial: Sudden Termination of the Celebrated suit for Possession of the Pichvorne Title and Estate; ‘The Claimant Witadraws His Case and Attempis to Fly trom the Jurisdicuon of the Court; His Arrest Unger Judicial Warrant aud Committed to Newgate; History of the Pleadings and the Essential Points of the Testumony; Value of the Tichborne Estate and Creation of the | Baronetcy; British Popular Delusions in the Past and Present—Tne Japanese Embassy : Reception of the Japanese on tne Flour of the House of Represeutatives—The Virginia Veu- dette; Two Kichmond Kditors “Squaring” for a buel—Street Opening: he Immense Ex- | nse of Opening Our Streets, Avenues and ublic Parks—America’s Great Centennial— Miscelianeous Telegrams, @—Congress: The Lewisiative Appropriations in the Senate; A Railroad Tactician of the Brie Stamp; he Goat Island Grab; the kighc Hour Labor Question—The i ston’ House Inquiry: Examination of Ger Babcock—A Chapter of Mediwval History: Full Account of the Jap- anese Embassy to Pope Gregory X11. in the Sixteenth Century—The Union Pacilic Kail. road: Meeting of ‘Stockholders in Boston and Receipt of the Annual Keport—The Northern Pacific Ratiroad—Prrotection to Railway stock- holders—botler Expiosion in Hoboken—Duel- ling in Virginia—Tve Importers ana Grocers’ Board of ‘Trade. | S—Mayor iiall: Another Day of Legal Controversy— | Interesting Proceedings in the New York and | Brooklyn Courts—Raid on vanel Houses: | Down in the Deus of the Fourteenth Ward— Department of Public Instruction—The HEr- ALD’s flisvory of the Lowery Gang Cure for vancer—Tne Perry Homicide—Suicide by | Jumping from a Window, @—Esitorials: Leading article, “The Great Tich- borne Case; Is tne Claimant a Baronet or a butcher ’— amusement Announce: 8, ‘9—France: Coming Conflict Between tie Cavinet and Parliament, and a New Mmusteriai Crisis— England: Queen Victoria’s keward to Her | “Faithful Gillie,” John Brown—News trom | Italy, Spain and Caba— | The West india Cabie— ditional Rumors of the The Swamp Out: Death of Henry Berry Lowery—The Gale in ‘whe South and in the FE ‘he Cold Snap— Official Weather leport $s From Wasn- ington — Miscelianeous ‘rams — Anmuse- ments—Business Notices = S—Mr. Miller’s Martyrdom: Further Proceedings | Before the Insurance Committee—Perils of the | Deep: Freezing to Death in Mid-Ocean—State Of the Streets: Smailpox Suil Raging—Art Matiers—Mus:c and the Drama—Yachung— Aquatics—Pugilism—Pigeon Shooting—Prob ole Homicide in Jersey—A Bogus Resurrec- tion—Army of the Potcmac—army and Navy Intelugence—New York City News—Marriages | and Deaths. —Financia! and Commercial: Another Hot Battle in Pacific Matl; The Union Pacific Railroad Electton; The Erie Ring Desperate; Wabash Rolling Up the Earnings; Advance in Govern- ments—The Real Estate Market: (reat Revival of Activity ia Ali Directions; Large una Im- | egheoo Transactious in West Side Property; portant Sale To-Day—Reform Democracy: Ratification Meeting in the First Assembly District—Financial Statement of the city Chamberlain—‘‘a Put-Up Job”—Brooklyn Af- fairs—Fatal Iceboat Accident—Advertise- ments. 10—The State Capital: Senator 0’ Brien’s Erie Bull to be Favorably Reported; Debate on tue Charter of the Three Score and Ten; Thirty-two Thou- sand Germans ltise to plain; Hanging to be Legally Piayed Out; No More Drinks on Sunday; The Beach Pneumatic Tunnel Scheme | Adopted by the Jomt Committee; Failure of the Wiluatusburg Ferry Bul; Our Police Jus- tices and Cierks to be Summarily Dealt With—Obituary—Shipping Intelligence--Ad- veriisements. 41—Advertisements. 12—Advertisemenis, Queen Viotoria’s Rewaup to her ‘‘faith- fal gillie,” John Brown, for his prompt action in arresting O'Connor, the assailant of Her Majesty, goes far to contradict the asseriion that monarchs are just as ungrateful as are republics, See our London telegram to-day. We Learn teat Senator James Wooo has declared his intention to report Senator ‘O'Brien's Erie bill favorably from the Judiciary Committee and to support it in the Senate. ‘This act Senator James Wood owes alike to himself and his constituents, It will do more to save him from the evil consequence of im- pradent acts in the past than all the white- washing reports that could be written in a dozen years. a A Dorr War Tureatenep IN Littie Dewa- ware.—A “slight misunderstanding” exists between the three counties that constitute the tough little State of Delaware—where the | whipping post still exists, a monument to its advanced civilization—in regard to some local question of representation, There is danger of a “bloody civil war” ensuing, according to one of the Delaware papers, and it is feared that Uncle Sam’s troops may be obliged to interfere to suppress intestine commotion, as fin the case of the Dorr rebellion in ‘‘Little Rhody.” i Tus Brooxtyn Brince—Hurry Ir Up!— Although the Fulton ferryboats were but little interrupted in their regular trips during the recent ice blockade on the Long Island | Plantagenets, The Great Tichberno Casg—Is the Claim- ast a Barenet or a Butcher? The abrupt and extraordinary termination of the famous Tichborne case will not surprise our readers, as the despatcties received from the HERALD correspondent in London a day or two since, announcing that the jury had expressed themselves satisfied with the evi- dence so far as it had progressed and ready to declare a verdict, indicated that the claim- ant’s case had virtually broken down. Upon this declaration the Court adjourned until yes- terday morning to enable the Tichborne claim- ant and his counsel to agree upon a line of action, Their conclusion was announced yes- terday, the counsel for the claimant saying that their client had resolved to withdraw his claim. The Attorney General, who repre- sented the defendants, immediately made an application to the Court for an order to arrest the claimant upon the charge of perjury, and to hold him in bail in the sum of fifty thou- sand pounds. The order was granted, and the “‘baronet” and assumed heir to one of the oldest and proudest names in the English baronetcy was arrested yesterday and locked up in Newgate prison. So ends, for the present, one of the most extraordinary trials in the history of English jurisprudence. We give elsewhere a sum- mary of the case, the interest of which will transcend that of any romance. A young man, an heir to an ancient title and a great fortune, but of an idle, purposeless, vagrant nature, drifted into the army as young gentle- men of his stamp generally do, and served in Ireland and England for ashort time. Weary- ing of military discipline, and yielding to the gipsy instincts of his nature, and having had a quarrel or an estrangement with his father on the subject of money, he sold his commission and left England for Australia, When last heard from he had shipped on a brig in South ‘America bound for Mel- bourne. The brig went down at sea and all on board were supposed to have perished: The circumstances of the young barronet’s death came to England. An adver- tisement was published calling upon the world to divulge some tidings of the wanderer, whether he was dead ov living. No answer came, The baronetcy and the large estates passed to the next in kin. The mother of the wayward youth mourned for him with all the patience and hope of maternal love, and would not believe him dead. Long after the Courts had decided the case, and the new heir had come into possession, and the world had regarded her son as dead, she clung to the faith that he would come again. The father, who had married late in life, died in 1862 at an advanced age, while the mother survived until 1868. Upon the father’s death the baronetcy passed to his son, the younger brother of the wanderer, who died in 1866, leaving his tille and estates to an infant son, who was born. after his death and is now the heir presumptive. The Tichborne baronetcy, which the wild young officer threw away to find his destiny in the wilds of Australia, is one of the oldest and proudest in England. It is twenty-second in the order of precedence, and was created by James I., when he founded the title, Sir Roger was the eleventh in lineal descent; but long before the pedantic and grasping Stuart was led by his ambition and his wants to establish the order, the name of Tichborne was among the hoaored names of England. It goes back to the time of the Saxons, when De Itchenborne, as it was called in the old Norman French, was a famous family in the county of Hants. We find that Sir Roger de Tichburne was a knight of Henry IL; this Henry being only third in descent from the Conqueror, who reigned as King of England and Duke .of Normandy and Aquitaine, the first of the memorable in ecclesiasti- cal history as the antagonist of A’Beckett, at whose tomb he prayed while the edified monks inflicted a well-earned penance. This takes us back seven hundred years. We find another knight, Sir Jobn, as ‘‘a person of great eminence,” par- liament-man, sheriff and justice-itinerant in the reign of Edward II.—the same virtuous and sacred prince who was tumbled out of his throne aud cruelly put to death in Berkeley | Castle only five hundred and forty-five years ago. It was a De Tichburne, Benjamin by name, loyal and vigilant in the service of the good Queen Bess, whose zeal for the true suc- cession led him, as the world will gratefully remember, to proceed to Winchester as soon as Elizabeth went to rest with God, and without orders from those in authority, clearly seeing the inevitable with bis prudent English eyes, to proclaim James I. asKing. For which prompt and judicious service the gracious Scotchman made Benjamin a baronet, and thus he stands recorded as the first of his line. They were Cavaliers, these Tichbornes, and suffered for the cause, and were zealous in the apostolic Roman faith, the fifth of the line, Sir John Hemingild, becoming a Jesuit and dying in sanctity at Ghent one hundred and twenty years ago. It was in 1854 when the vagrant baronet was given up as having died at sea. Sud- denly, after twelve years had passed, news came that he had not been drowned, that he had been discovered in Australia, back in the sheep districts, leading a barbarous, nomadic life under the name of De Castro, He had, it was said, really escaped from the wreck of the vessel which was supposed to have engulfed him in the ocean. His life in Australia under his assumed name was nol, it was admitted, of a character to inspire his noble and gentle relatives with any enthusiasm towards him as the head of the house. He bore an ill name, He had married badly. He bad misunderstandings with the constituted authorities, even to the extent of stealing horses, Essentially vulgar, grovelling and coarse, he had given way to the gross promptings of his nature and had lived like a convict and a vagabond, His manners were those of a boor. He could scarcely read, and when he wrote it was in defiance of all NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, shore, yet the facf that nearly all the other | settled laws of grammar and spelling. His ferryboats were more or less delayed, some | ignorance amounted to a revelation. The for several hours on a trip, makes the necessity | Tichborne who had ran away from his regi- for the early completion of the bridge between | ment and his friends was a slender, bright, New York and Brooklyn now more than | vivacious young man, well versed in bis tac- who believed Boasuet to be one of the early fathers, and did not know whether John Bunyan was a bishop, a prize fighter or a horse jockey. Now comes the extraordinary part of the story. The assumed Sir Roger returned to England. Some of those who had known the wanderer regarded him as an impostor ; others who served in the carbineers, who had been in his personal service, who had made boots and clothing for him, who had ministered to his bodily wants and comforts, affirmed that be was the real Sir Roger. A husband and wife, related to the Baronet, were divided in their opinion, the husband regarding him as an impostor, the wife as the genuine heir. The immediate relatives of the Baronet, the young lady his cousin, whom he had sought in marriage, no longer young, but a matronly, well-ma- tured Mrs, Radcliffe—insisted that he was an impostor. But if the woman he loved dis- owned him, the woman who bore him took him to her arms as her long-lost son. Lady Tichborne, who would never believe that Sir Roger had been drowned, but who continued to seek him over the world and to pray for his coming, instantly accepted him as her son and remained with him until her death. He follow- ed her body to the grave as chief mourner. It was said that grief and yeafs of waiting had affected Lady Tichborne’s mind ; that she was incapable of judgment, and that she accepted this adventurer in the hunger of maternal love at a time when age and sorrow had dimmed her reason. In time public opinion was attracted to the singular claimant. His story was canvassed in all circles, And, as is so often the case, one class, the nobles and gentry, denounced him as an impostor, while the other classes felt that he was an op- pressed, outraged man, and that there was no justice in England unless Sir Roger could come to his own.’ The vagabond was poor, of course; but bis partisans furnished him with money. Bonds were executed to be paid out of the revenues of the Tichborne estates, when the law took its course, and these were purchased by his friends and those who believed his story and felt that English justice demanded his reinstatement in the baronetcy. So in time it came to trial. The leaders of the English Bar were arrayed against each other, the Attorney General, Sir John Coleridge, leading the case for the defence ; Mr. Ballantyne for the claim- ant. The trial has been going on, with a few intervals, since May. During the proceeding the claimant went upon the stand and told his own story. For several weeks he was cross- examined by the Attorney General in what cer- tainly was the most extaordinary examination known in any trial, All the resources of logal skill, handled by the leader of the English bar, were exhausted in this controversy, When this was concluded it was felt that while Sir John Coleridge might have shaken the case he had not destroyed it, If Tichborne was an im- postor he was certainly a most remarkable impostor, for he had: submitted to an ordeal that would have tried the most profound and accomplished intellect. He held to his story, and the trial went on until the defence pre- sented its case and advanced a part of the evidence. The result of the evidence has been to convince the jury that the claimant is an impostor, to throw him out of Court and to send him to Newgate as an alleged perjurer, awaiting bail in fifty thousand pounds. This is a sudden and dramatic close of the case, if itreally ends here. We do not see, how- ever, thatitistheend. The claimant was sus- tained by extraordinary evidence, and there is no doubt that there is a large party in England who regard him as the real Baronet, as a man deprived of his rights by an aristocracy which does not care to admit a butcher, a vagabond and a horse thief to share precedence with noblemen and baronets. But the common English mind has heard of the Marquis of Hastings and the Duke of Newcastle, and even of His Gracious Majesty George IV., and it sees in this stolid, ungainly, ignorant Tichborne quite as much nobility as in any of them. The severity of the Court’s ac- tion—his committal to Newgate under bail which makes his release impossible—will excite sym- pathy. Somehow there is an impression that the Court has been unfair towards him, and that in no event bas he had abundant and even-handed justice. What the details of the last few days’ proceedings will develop we do not know; but it would not surprise us to find the Newgate prisoner the cause of as much excitement as was known in the days of the Monmouth who was believed to have been the legitimate son of Charles II., and who, but for his own foolish, feeble vanity, might have risen by the credulity of the common people to the English throne, Reception of the Japanese Embassy by the House of Representatives, The attractive feature in the House of Representatives yesterday was the reception of the Japanese Embassy by the House of Representatives. As a state show it could not of course approach in point of splendor a similar demonstration in: one of the great European capitals; but the absence of display in the surroundings was amply compensated for by the simple dignity of the Speaker, the excellent bearing of Mr. Banks, of Massachu- setts, who, as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, had charge ofthe ceremonial, and by the presence of a multitude of fashion- able spectators, who filled all the galleries and then overflowed into the halls and pas- sages, and even crowded members out of standing place on the floor of the House. The solo recitative which Iwakura, the head of the Embassy, executed by way of response to the speech made by Mr. Blaine, must have been a rare performance, It was written in Japanese characters on a roll, which he un- folded as he progressed in the piece. It was not spoken; it was not sung; it was chanted or intoned, something after the style of the cathedral service, with an abrupt pause at the end of each sentenée, as if utterance had been suddenly stopped by a slight hiccdugh. We presume that that is the court fashion of pre- senting an address in Japan, as poetical and Oriental in its imagery as the manner was peculiar, but this our readers can judge by the translation of it, which we pub- lish, and which was read to the House by The matter was ever before apparent. We believe twenty | tics and especially skilled in French, having Ahousand Brooklynites would to-day exclaim | been educated in France, The Tichborne who “Hurry up that bridge!” who three or four | came back was unusually corpulent, could Mays ago would have been entirely indifferent | not comprehend the simplest order in military SR ssahicc drill, nox comerchend & Reniense ij Frenob. General Banks in a style of elocution that did it the fullest justice. This was followed by the introduction of the individual members of the House, and the show terminated by the interchange of farewell salutations, Al this book place before the usual pour of mectina. MARCH 7, 1872.—TRIPLE The Charter of the Committee of Seventy and the Department of Public Docks— The Duty of the State Senate, The charter of the Committee of Seventy, which passed the Assembly almost in its original shape—including cumulative voting, unwieldy mixed Commissions, divided au- thority, general irresponsibility, a complete blotting out of all our present reform officials and the chance of a new deal all around—is now before the Senate Committee for consid- eration, Arguments are being heard from those opposed to the charter and from those who advocate its enactment. The Committee of Seventy are preparing to revisit Albany in full lobby force, and to bring to bear upon Senators—as they brought to bear upon As- semblymen—the soothing influence of good wine, fine cigars and high respectability, in the hope that the upper House of the State Legislature may be induced to treat their favorite bantling as tenderly and considerately as it was treated in the lower House, At the same time an effort is being made to entice the republican Senators into a caucus upon the subject of charter reform, so that the committee’s work may be made a party ques- tion and driven through under the old iron rule of party discipline. It is difficult to say what effect these pleadings, coaxings and plottings may have upon the members of the Senate and of the committee that now holds the charter in charge. Modern legislation is an uncertain affair when none of those solid arguments most familiar to our representa- tives at Albany are to be used for or against a bill, Although it may be found impossible to bring the two factions of republicanism to- gether in caucus this session, it appears alto- gether likely that the opposition to the Seventy’s experiment may suffer judgment to go against them by default, while it is certain that our fellow citizens who have their pet scheme of legalized repeating at heart will use all their influence to force it successfully through its second trial. Under these circumstances it is not unlikely that the Senators may follow the example of the As- semblymen, and while unable to understand the intricate workings of the proposed scheme of municipal government, and disposed to turn up their legislative noses at the evident im- practicability of many of its provisions, may conclude to ‘‘let the thing go through.” We are not disposed to read our representa- tives at the State Capitol a homily on the re- sponsibilities and duties of legislators, for the reason that we have grave doubts of its effi- cacy upon the law-makers of the present day. It may suggest itself to some of the State Sen- ators that their oath requires them to be satis- fied of the justice, wisdom and propriety of a law before they vote for its enactment, and that it is neither fair, wise nor prudent to force upon a great city like New York an ex- periment, at the best of doubtful expediency, without consulting the wishes of her people. But we propose to bring a few practical and material points to Me attention of the Senate before that body acts finally on the new char- ter. The recent political revolution placed a republican Board of Aldermen in power in this city, the President of which is a stanch re- publican and a capable and honest officer. The committee's charter proposes to sweep away this Board, and under the doubtful experiment of cumulative voting risks the restoration to power of the democratic ring politicians in the law-making and money-rais- ing branch of the city government. Comp- troller Green, a man of immovable integrity, is at the head of the Finance Department; George Van Nort, a republican and an honest man, is at the head of the Department of Public Works, and Henry G. Stebbins, whose character is well known, presides over the Park Department. The charter of the Seventy risks the removal of all these desirable officers, and, in fact, renders their supersedure almost certain through the election of a democratic Mayor and Board of Aldermen. By far the worst feature of the new charter, however, is its proposed abolition of the present Department of Public Docks, and the tacking on of its important interests and duties to the tail of a political kite. Such a pro- vision stamps the charter at once as the work of narrow-minded visionaries who cannot grasp the subject with which they trifle, or of scheming politicians whose only object is to repeat the history of the Tammany Ring over again, with different actors on the scene, One of the few redeeming points in the old city government was the lifting up of the great work of dock improvement out of the mire of politics and the initiation of a system of management and extension under which the Port of New York would soon fulfil its destiny as the commercial centre of the world, The Tammany magnates were shrewd as well as selfish. Their ill-gotten wealth was in- vested in extensive land speculations all over the city, and they knew that a thorough development of the commercial resources of the port would enormously increase the value of their ventures, Let us secure honesty and efficiency in the construction, improve- ment and management of our docks, they argued, and the enhanced value of our prop- erty through the increase of the commerce of the port and its extension along the entire lengths of our river fronts, will put into our pockets millions more than we could hope to steal out of the Department. So the Dock Commission to-day consists of citizens of wealth and character, whose interests are identified with the progress and prosperity of the city, and whose labors are devoted to the honest and efficient discharge of their impor- tant duties, The neglected condition of the docks, wharves and piers when the present Commis- sion assumed the trust and government of this vast property was a matter of notoriety and of general complaint. No accommodation was afforded adequate to the wants of com- merce, and many of the large steamship com- panies were in consequence driven to New Jersey, at great inconvenience to their busi- ness, The immediate improvement of the water front and the establishment of perma- nent wharf accommodations for special com- mercial interests were the first subjects to which the Board directed their attention. Plans were invited and were furnished by some of the most competent men in the coun- try. With the approval of General McClel- lan, the Engineer in Chief of the department, it was resolved to protect the river front by a permenent river wall of masonry, carried out @ sufficient distance from the existing bulk. head line to make a river street of two han- dred and fifty feet in width on the North River and two hundred feet on the East River, to Thirty-first street. Convenient piers were to be constructed at such intervals as would afford the greatest accommodation to ship- ping. In the first year a large amount of use- ful work was completed; piers and bulkheads were rebuilt and repaired; corporation slips were dredged and obstructions removed from wharves, piers and bulkheads. A system of supervision was instituted under competent officers, the benefit of which soon became ap- parent in the generally improved condition of the docks all over the city. Cheap Jack jour- nala, seeking to sell their goods by the noise of their cries and the impudence of their as- sertions, assailed the department as extrava- gant and corrupt ; but it is well known that the expenditures were economically and hon- estly made and the work efficiently per- formed. All these realized and promised ad- vantages the charter of the Seyenty proposes to cast away, by abolishing a non-political and capable Board and placing the manage- ment and control of the docks in another de- partment of the city government which can- not be kept out of the hands of the politicians, The proposition is simply suicidal. It places & quarter of a century’s blockade on the prog- ress of the metropolis. We have only to develop speedily the great resources of our port to make New York the commercial centre of the world within the next twenty years. The great port of Liverpool has a superb system of enclosed wet docks, with entrance gates, which cost in the neighborhood of seventy-five million dollars in gold, including the Birkenhead docks. Yet these stupendous works give only twenty miles length of quay frontage, and for nearly one-third of the year vessels drawing more than eighteen feet of water cannot enter. The rise and fall of the tide in the Mersey is from eighteen to thirty- three feet. The river wall on the banks is but five miles in length, and the tide renders it impracticable to load and unload vessels advantageously abreast of ordinary quays and piers. Yet Liverpool has been hitherto the wonder of the commercial world. When we consider the superior natural advantages of New York we can imagine what our future must be under a wise and liberal administra- tion of our public affairs. Along the two great arms of the sea, stretched forth to hold us in a friendly embrace, we have nearly thirty miles of natural water front, capable of being made, at a comparatively moderate cost, an unbroken line of docks as secure against weather, fire and thieves as are the English enclosed docks, The rise and fall of the tide is but a little over four feet, insuring at all seasons of the year a sufficiency of water for veasels of the heaviest tonnage. A per- manent river wall and projecting piers from end to end of the island will neither diminish in an appreciable degree the amount of the tidal wave nor the scouring effect of the re- turning ebb. These are the advantages bestowed upon us by Nature, and it is for our legislators to say whether they shall be neglected or wisely developed. The commerce of the port is the life’s blood of the future of the metropolis and of the na- tion—a future wonderful to contemplate. It should no longer be suffered to languish, or given over as spoils to political adventurers, Let our governments, national and State, Sweep away the cobwebs that have been drawn over our progress, and that hold us as flies entangled in their meshes. Let us set our shipping interests free from their present fetters; let our iron men rise above the worn- out paralyzing folly of protection; let our shippers buy iron vessels wherever they can find the best market; obtain American regis- try without restriction, and bring back to us our lost commerce in American lines of ocean steamers running to every port in the world ; let us keep our vast dock interests in the trust of the men of wealth, character and intelligence who at present control them, and our bays and rivers, before many years shall have passed, will become forests of masts, bringing employment and wealth to a quad- rupléd population. As a commencement, let the State Senate, if it decide to pass the Seventy’'s charter, cut from it the Department of Docks, leaving that branch of the govern- ment in its present keeping, and protecting those important interests at least from the clutches of any new Tammany ‘‘ Ring”—whe- ther cheap Jack, German, Irish or native American, A Great Railroad Strike. A railroad conspiracy to compel the govern- ment to pay increased rates for mail trans- portation by means of an organized strike was brought to the attention of the Senate yester- day by Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. The prime mover in the conspiracy belongs to the universal Smith family, and once held an official position in the Post Office Department, but the chief actors and leaders in it are designated as Commodore Vanderbilt, Jay Gould and Thomas A. Scott, men who control all the great railroad lines of travel in the country. On the part of Scott, however,'a disclaimer of ail connection with the movement was made by Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, bastd simply on his estimate of Scott's good sense. We should prefer to hear directly from the rail- road triumvirate before we give credence to disclaimers by their friends, for we know that, within a week, Mr. Banks pledged his personal honor to a statement which he made in the House regarding this same Mr. Scott, and which was denied on his behalf by three or four Pennsylvania members, This projected railroad strike is like all other labor strikes— a game at which more than one ‘side can play, and we do not fear for the result, These cor- porations are strong, but the people are stronger, and might easily be provoked to ex- hibit their strength, to the overthrow of rail- road and other monopolies. Quick Busixess.—A case of homicide was tried in the Court of Sessions yesterday, in which the entire proceedings, including the testimony of witnesses, arguments of prose- cuting attorney and defendant’s counsel, charge of the Recorder and verdict of the jury (acquittal), occupied precisely two hours. If the basiness in our criminal courts gener- ally should be disposed of in this summary manner the public would cease to complain about the tardiness of justi’ in many clear aad positive cases, There is good reason to suspect that » new and desperate fraud is contemplated by the Erie Ring in view of the danger that threatens them. For some weeks past there has been an active demand for Erie bonds, which the condition of the company’s affairs does not appear to have warranted, These bonds have been passing quietly into the hands of the Ring, whose agents, secretly at work, have been the purchasers. A rumor is now borne on the air, floating down from Albany, that the Erie Railroad Company finds itself finan- cially bankrupt, and will not be able to pay the interest on its bonds soon falling due. Should the interest remain unpaid a certain number of days the mortgagees. take pos session of the road and all its property, and wipe out the stockholders, foreign, natural- ized and native born, The plot is a deep and & dangerous one. Gould and his associates purchase the mortgage bonds of the road. In their capacity of directors they then refuse to pay the interest on these bonds, and as ‘mortgages they step in and seize the road, wiping out the present stock and organ- izing a new company with a capital stock of say fifty millions, issued to themselves, The uninitiated, to measure the full rascality of the plot, must understand that the “Ring” are not bond fide holders of any of the old stock, care nothing for it or its fate, and find their enormous profits out of the dishonest handling of the vast revenues of the road. Now a law of the State of New York pro- vides that in cases where a road thus passes into the hands of the mortgagees the bond fide stockholders shall be entitled, within a given period, to reclaim and redeem their’ property upon payment of the amount agtually paid for the bonds, with the expenses and seven per cent interest to the date of reclamation. This law is generally known among lawyers as the Subrogation law. Its existence on the statute book interferes with the alleged plot of the Ring to obtain absolute possession of the Erie road. Two years ago an attempt was made to repeal it by a bill the real object of which was con- cealed under a general and blind title. It was defeated by Judge Folger, then a State Sena- tor, who discovered ‘‘the nigger in the fence.” Was it secretly repealed by the notorious Legislature of last year? Is a bill to repeal this Subrogation act now before either house of the State Legislature? These are questions to which we direct the immediate attention of the State Attorney General, of Senators O’Brien, Robertson, Murphy and Palmer, and of Speaker Smith, Colonel Hawkins, L. Brad- ford, Prince and others in the Assembly. Let us know whether this worst and most dan- gerous conspiracy really exists; and ifso, let immediate steps be taken to defeat it. Emperor William’s Rewards to the Cone querors of Paris. z His Majesty Emperor William of Germany has donated a right royal reward to the chief generals of the German army for services rendered during the war against the French— to the men who planned the strategy, to those who led the assaults and to those who held chief commands at the moment of the con- quest of Paris. Three millions four hundred thousand Prussian thalers have been ‘‘do- tated”—the proper term, it appears, for sovereign giftse—among them by the Crown. Prince Frederick Charles, Generals Man- teuffel, Moltke and Von Roon, with the soldier Duke of Bavaria, receive three hundred thou- sand thalers each, and so on by gradation to twelve other officers, who are to have each one hundred and fifty thousand thalers, This is certainly a very brilliant system of solid, substantial thanks, one which may enable President Thiers to comprehend, with re- spect to his indemnity payments, the modern verse saw of ‘‘That’s the way the money goes” with a feeling of humiliation and sadness, The German monarch is a practical materialist in his administration of army affairs. He does not believe in the poetic idea that “Great men have always scorned great reeompenses,” or appear to remember that ‘‘George Wash- ington had praise, and nought besides, except the all cloudless glory, which few men’s is, to free his country.” Tue .Erm Buis—A Betrrer Prospeor AT ALBANY.—The intelligence from the State capital is more encouraging to-day. The Senators and Assemblymen on the committees now holding the Erie bills in their hands are said to have become satisfied that their duty to the State requires the favorable report of the bill to repeal the Erie Classification act, and to provide for a fair election of directors by the stockholders. This is well. for the people and well for the legislators, They must know that any tampering with the ques- tion—any sly dodging in the service of the Ring—will be accepted as proof of their venality just as conclusive as though they should vote directly with the corruptionists against justice and reform. Now, to complete the good work, let every republican reformer vote as one man in favor of the O'Brien bill, and make a record for their party that will give them the State of New York as their own for years to come. Prussia AND Its PuBiic ScHoois.—Prince Bismarck is determined to preserve the educa- tional system of Prussia free from ex- traneous influences—religious, of political party, or the divisions of incorporated non- German nationalities. He will educate the nation as a whole, as may be seen by our news telegram from Berlin in the Herarp to-day. Personal Intelligence. Colonel Manuel Laza, of Mexico, is at the New York Hotel. General J. B. Carr, of Troy, is at the St, Nicholas Hotel. General E. Jardine, of New Jersey, ts stopping at the Everett House, Colonel 8. Piper, of Syracuse, is at the Sturtevant House. Judge R. D. Rice, of Maine, is sojourning at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. . Lieutenant E. S, Houston, of the United States Navy, has temporary quarters at the Hoffman House, Judges Alexander, of Cleveland, Ohlo, and Bo. lings, of Albany, are at Earle’s Hotel, J. M. McCullough, general manager of tho Pitts. burg and Fort Wayne Ratiroad, is domiolied at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Ex-Mayor William G. Fargo, 6f Buffalo, ts among yesterday's arrivals at the Astur House, W. T, Walters, of Baltimore, is sojourning at the Brovoort House.