The New York Herald Newspaper, March 9, 1872, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. The Rapid Transit Schemes—The Under. ground Lobbyists and Their Desigus—The Advantages of Viaduct Roads. Of the many impudent schemes concocted by the Albany lobby this session the New York Underground Railroad job is probably the most audacious. The men who are de- manding a franchise fora railroad which they know to be utterly impracticable, and have no intention of ever attempting to construct, are as well recognized in this city for their pre- tentious boasts of capital and influence as for their incapacity to carry out any undertaking involving a large outlay and requiring public confidence, even if there were a prospect of its successful completion. If it were possible to tunnel Broadway from the Battery to Spuy- ten Duyvil Creek; if there were no engineer- ing difficulties in the way which would take millions of capital and years of labor to re- move; ifthe cost of suchan undertaking would not be so vast as to deprive the citizens of the first requisite of popular quick transit—low rates of fare—the people would select very different agents to undertake the work from those who are now clamoring and lobbying at Albany for a law of incorporation. But it is well known to every practical man that a tunnel railroad under Broadway, similar to the London road, can never be constructed, and that the attempt would be dangerous to life, destructive of property, a hindrance of the real work of rapid transit, and a ruinous failure in the end. Not a building would be safe after the excavation of the street, and the loss by damage to property would go far towards completing a viaduct road from the Battery to Harlem bridge. The business of the city would be seriously injured by the upheaving of its main artery, and, after years of trouble, annoyance, danger and injury, the money sunk in the wild scheme would be thrown away and rapid transit would be farther off than ever. This is of course arguing on the supposition that the men who are modestly demanding the valuable franchise would actually prosecute the work should they be authorized by law to do so. But the fact is, they have no thought of wasting their valuable time on so visionary ascheme, They are practical men as well as patriots, and while advocating reform they keep a sharp lookout for their balances at the bank. The franchise would be of little value to them if it should not, under some shrewdly drawn provision, authorize a surface Broadway railroad. This isthe kernel in their under- ground nut. The golden visions that once floated before the eyes of the persistent Jacob Sharpe now trouble the dreams of his suc- cessors in the lobby, and they hanger for the millions said to be contained in a line of horse cars running up and down our principal thoroughfare. This is what is meant by the Broadway underground scheme— enn anand ~ JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed NEw YorK Heraxp. Volume XXXVI eeceseescsseee = === AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tie BALLET PAN ToMIME OF Humpry Dumpry. Matinee at 2. seeeeeress NO. 6D BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third at,, corner Sixth av. — JULIUS Ca&5aR. Matinee at 1. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ani 13th streot. — Tax VeTERan. Matinee at 134. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and ‘Houston ste.—LA BELLE SAVAGE. Matinee at 2. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—] OPxna—Matinee at Lig—Favsr. tinned WOOD'S MUSLUM, Broadway, corner 30th st. —Perform: ances afternoon and evening.—LUNA. ST, JAMES' THEATRE, Twenty-cight! , way. MABBIAGE. Matinee at 2) rest a4 Broad BOWERY THEATR! Bowery—1 —ToE BLIND MINE. Matinee as 2 disuse aseal FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty- — TUN NEW DRaua Or DIvouon” Mallage at 1% eth MRS, F., B. CONWA’ Lucretia BorGia. Matin BRQownra THEATRE.— PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, JOAN OF ARC. THEATRE COMIQUE, 18m8, NEGHO AC18, Brooklyn.— 14 Broadway.—Cowre VooaL- ION. Matinee at 234. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st. and Broxd- Way.—NEGRO ACTS—BURLESQUE, BALLET, &0. Matinee TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE. No. 201 Bowery. — NIGRO LOCENTRICIIIES, BUKLESQUES, &0. Matinee. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 231 4t.. bet and Wthave—BuYANT's MINSTRELS: Matinee at's THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, . nue,—VAnIRTY ENTERTAINME aah worsen SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HaL ao TRE SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, tain PIRAUN PAVILION, No, 688 Broadway.— N - ‘cone jroadway.—Tus VigENNA Lavy On- NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourtsentn strent.—SoRNRS IN THE RING, AcROUATS, £0. Matinee at 23. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATO)} bok SCIENCE AND Art. TOMY, 618 Broadway.. DR. KAHN’S ANATOMICAL M' - fish Sartell g USEUM, 745 Broadway. TRIPLE ‘SHEET, New York, Saturday, March 9, 1872. — CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD, Pacs. 1—Advertisements. 2— Advertisements, S—The State Capital: Southmayd’s Bill Reported in the House; The senate Erie Classification Repeal Bill the Speciat Order for Wednesday Next; Arguments For and Againss tne Seventy’s Charter; Fixing the Salaries of Sur- rogates and Supervisors; George Law’s Ferries—Washington: The Trumbull Amend- ment About senators’ ree. A Mexican Protectorate Resolution at the Wrong Side of the House; Deficit in the Fiseal Estimates; —! The French Brunderoasa wanes ‘ates; | nothing more and nothing less—and it 4—The Swamp Angels: What the Report of the | is for the property owners along Ku Klux Cominitiee Says About the Lowery Outlaws; A County of Cowards and Accom- plices; The Terror of the Whites; Tae Sym. pathy of the Mulattoes; An Outlaw Demigod; The Foes of tne Gaug Being “Run Out” or Killed; A State Impotent to Capture Five Men; Will the Federal Government Do tt?— The Shooting Afray Over a Game of Cards— Brooklyn’s Bond Bother: That Litue Dimiculty in the Ex-Comptroller’s Office—Is He a Pro- curer f- e Boy Thiel—Crushed to Death, G-Mayor Hail: The Battery of “Objections” Re- gumes Hostilities, but 1s Eventually Silenced by the Court; The “Garvey” Battery Opens Fire; The Great Plasterer Tells All He Knows About the Court House Frauds; Ihe Mayor's Position Still Intact—“What About Garvey ?”’ Expressions of Opinion from ‘Those ho Know and from Those Who Don’t Know; The Effect of What He Said in Court Yesterday Upon Prominent Politicians; Interviews with Garvey’s Brother-in-Law and Friend; What “the Boss’ Thinks of the Conduct of Mayor Hall’s vefence—‘'ue imsurance Inquiry—Pay- ments oy the Uomptroller—Tne Erie Biue Stone Ring. G—Editorials: Leading Article, “The Rapid Tran- sit Schemes—The Underground Lobbyists and thetr Designs—The Advantages of Viaduct Roads”—Amusement Announcements. 7—The War in Mexico—Mexican Banditti in Texas—Alexis Among the )ons—Cable Tele- the route and the people generally, who for so many years resisted the desecration of their favorite avenue by tramways when horse rail- roads were a popular meaus of transit, to make up their minds whether they will permit it now when horse cars are literally ‘a stench in the nostrils,” and when come different mode of conveyance is demanded by the necessities of the city. That viaduct railroads furnish the cheapest, best and only practicable mode of rapid tran- sit in New York is evident to all who are not interested in some other scheme out of which they hope to make money without reference to the interests of the city. There are no en- gineering difficulties in the way of such under- takings; their expense can be calculated to a certainty, so that it is known before their commencement what they will cost and rams from France, Germany, Russia, Spain, ii invest- italy, Portugal, land, Ireland and ‘Arica whether "they murat Pay! id bee Rey. Dr. Huston: The Clergyman Whom Scan- | ments; the time they will take in dal Compeiled to Leave Baitimore—Ine Pe- troieum Conspiracy in the Onl Regions—Busi- ness Notices. 8—Congress: Presentation of Statues of Jonathan Trumbull and Roger Sherman by Connecticut; Lyman ‘Trumbull after Conkling’s Patronage Resolution; A Deficit of Ten Million Dollars from Congressional Generosity; A Mexican Protectorate—The Apollo Hall Democracy— The German Reform Movement—Events in Cuba; The Landing of the Grand Duke alexis at Havana—Free Love Detined—Music and the Drama—‘Smash-Up” on a Mat! Train—TheVan Steenburg Sensation—The Missouri Railroad Mania—A City Editor on His Muscle—Singular puicide in Paterson—Obsequies of the Late Father Brady—The Assault on Detective Lam- brecht—Shooring at Burgiars, 9—Financial and Commercial: Money Active at Seven Per Cent; a Duller Movement in Stocks: Erie and Pacific Mail the Features of the Mat- ket; Advance in South Carolina Bonds; Pros- pecitve “Corner” in Virginia Consols and fcrip—Domestic Markets—Fires—New York City News—A Corpse Partially Consumed by a Dog—A Shooting Affray—Pigeon Shooung— Marriages and Deaths. 10—New Hampsiire: brilliant Prospects and Si guine Hopes in the Political Fleld—The Sy cate: Uncle Sam's Sub-Treasury in the City of London—Kacing Notes—Reform in West- chester County—Miscellaneous Telegrams— construction can be exactly ascertained and the work can be done just as rapidly as the money to pay for itis supplied. Instead of damaging property—as an underground railroad must do under the best of circum- stances, and as it bas done in London—via- duct railroads in New York would open up and improve all the localities through which they would pass. A viaduct on the east side, from the Battery to Harlem, would cleanse the infected district of the old Five Points and cover that valuable ground with business houses. A similar work on the west side would in:rease the value of the now depressed property all along the North River. Two such roads—one on the east side to Harlem bridge and the other on the west side to Spuyten Duy- vil Creek—would accommodate all the wants of the city, and, by adding millions to the European and Havana Markets—Shipping In- | assessable value of its real estate, would telligence—Advertisemenis, 41-The “Courts: Interesting Proceedings in the | materially decrease the general rate of United States, New York and Brooklyn a. Courts—The ellevue Hospital Suicide— taxation. Above ail, they would sel Amel can Bibi poole the een oe Mar-| mand the confidence of capitalists if i—Kuglish and Coutinenta! cing— foreign Rac i Noten Advertisements. 2 a placed in the hands of honest men, §9—advertisements, and could be built without any unneces- Tne CnaMBer OF COMMERCE ON THE Taniry.—We have not much faith in Congress organizing a good tariff system, but if that body should be so disposed we commend the resolution submitted to the New York Cham- ber of Commerce on Thursday as a basis for a new tarifflaw. After recommending that a proper and simple classification should be made of articles that should be always duti- able, or free of duty, according to the exi- genoles of the government, it is urged that the dutiable articles ought to be reduced to the smallest number possible. There are some other good points made in the resolutions, but these are the principal and most important ones, We have urged all along just such a reform of our tariff system—that is, a revenue to be raised from a few articles, and the whole machinery of management to be simplified. sary delay. Tae New York Railroad Company in the first year of its existence succeeded in securing nearly two million dollars of bona fide subscriptions, notwithstanding the prejudices that were raised against the incorporators. Let practical, earnest, responsible men be now placed in the management of such an under- taking, and the necessary capital will be speedily forthcoming. We need rapid transit in New York. It is the great necessity of the population at this time. The poorer classes are huddled together in unhealthy localities, in crowded tenements, and are victimized by the land- lords even then. Men of family, with only moderate means, are either compelled to pay exorbitant rents and to submit to an outra- geous system of swindling, or are driven so far from their places of business to find a dwelling within the limit of their resources, that home and family become to them mere names. Demoralization follows the buddling together of persons of both sexes in common apartments. Dissipation is the natural result of discomfort at home as well as of enforced absence from home. Labor that would be A Pra For THe PLovex.—Some objec- tions have been made to Governor Hoffman's snggestion that the statues of Clinton and Fulton should fill the New York niches at the National Capitol. It bas been urged that “Clinton’s ditch” is not of much account . titute of population and offering cheap and comfortable homes to our people, Will our legislators rise equal to the occasion, and, driving away all the scheming lobby- ists who are hounding at their heels, give us a plain, practical law authorizing the construction of two great viaduct roads by honest, competent men, one on the east side and one on the west side of the city? They can safely disregard the arguments, pleas and claims of every lobby supplicant who is begging a franchise at their hands, if they honestly desire to benefit the city of New York. - Give us a clear law, with such citizens as our present Dock Commis- sioners to carry it out, and such aman as General McClellan to superintend the work, and we shall speedily have two great viaduct roads running the whole length of the island, and built in the interests of the people and not of individuals. Congress Yesterduxy—An Unfavorable Finan- clal Exhibit—Proposed Mexican Inter- vention—More Bouaty Bills. Mr. Dawes, chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, presented yesterday to the House and the country a rather unfavorable exhibit of the financial situation, the net result of his figuring being that, with the proposed abolition of the duties on tea and coffee, salt and coal, the income tax and other reductions of revenue, and with the estimated expendi- tures undiminished, the government next year will have to bea borrower to the amount of ten million dollars in order to make up the deficit in the budget. He did not indi- cate any line of policy which he was prepared to recommend, except that of keeping down the appropriations. Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, the leading protectionist in the House, challenged the cor- rectness of Mr.’ Dawes’ figures and estimates, and gave it as his opinion that the revenues of the government would increase rather than diminish ; that for the current fiscal year they would reach the sum of four hundred millions of dollars, and that there would be a surplus in these days, except, perhaps, 80 far as regards the large accounts rolled up yearly by the canal contractors against the State, and that Falton was a Pennsylvanian by birth. Well, let the Governor fall back upon the farmers and propose to fill one niche witha figure of Jethro Wood, the inventor of the cast iron plough. He was born, lived and died in the State of New York, andthe good ploughing of the land has been of as great benefit to American agriculture as ‘has the ploughing of (he water to American commercey endurable under other circumstances becomes overburdening and harmful when to the daily toil is added a hard, wearisome journey of three or four hours’ duration, and a clerk or a laboring man who now lives as high as Six- tieth street and goes home to his dinner must spend fovr hours of his day in a dirty, crowded, unwholesome horse car. It is as necessary for the public morals 98 for the general convenience and comfort that some means sbould be afforded of reaching by steam those parts of the city now almost des- to the credit of the government of from seventy to ninety millions. Mr. Eldridge, of Wisconsin, applied to Mr. Dawes the un- gracious epithet of ‘the Artful Dodger,” be- cause he had not answered directly the ques- tion whether a reduction of duty on iron would not so largely increase the revenue from that source as to offset the duties from tea and coffee, and confessed to some sorey ness from the criticisms of the press on the votes of the democratic members who had supported the bill abolishing those duties, the movement being regarded as one in the interest of the high tariff men. Dawes did, however, respond finally to Eldridge’s question by expressing the belief that the reduction or abolition of the duty on iron would not perceptibly increase the direct importation of that article. An important movement was attempted in the House yesterday, looking to an interven- tion in Mexican affairs, with the contingency, not remote, of establishing a protectorate over that unfortunate country, and eventually annexing it to the American Union. The resolution which Mr. Brooks, of this city, asked leave to offer on that subject proposed the appointment of a joint committee of the House and Senate to ~ devise the best means of putting an end to the never-ending state of civil war in the neighboring republic. It was defeated by a single objection—that of Mr. Coughlan, of California, who was not prepared for the establishment of a protectorate ; but it so com- mended itself to the sentiment of the House that it can easily be carried by a two-thirds majority on Monday, whea it can be offered under a suspension of the rules. Another Bounty bill was passed by the House yesterday, applying to soldiers who enlisted and were mustered into service prior to the 6th of August, 1861, and who did not receive the government bounty of one hundred dollars. It was stated that this bill would only bleed the Treasury to the extent of one and a half million dollars; but it seems there is another proposition pending for the further equalization of bounties that will take one hundred and fifty millions out of the Treasury. All these bills are mere schemes of plunder, got up by thieving lobby agents and urged and supported by Congress- men who care more for securing votes for themselves than they do for guarding the in- terests of the people at large. We hope the Senate will squelch all these raids made in the professed interest of the soldiers, but for the real aggrandizement of the lobby ring. The Senate devoted itself yesterday prin- cipally to the General Civil Appropriation bill, after having accepted the statues of two of Connecticut's great men of the past—Jonathan Trumbull and Roger Sherman—to be placed in the American Pantheon, the old hall of the House of Representatives. Both houses have adjourned till Monday, O'Connor “Enthusiastic,” not Mad. A commission of English medical men, with a show of profundity worthy of the great San- grado in ‘‘Gil Blas,” has pronounced the youth O'Connor, who made the lunatic demonstra- tion upon Queen Victoria last week, of sound mind, adding that he is, however, an enthu- siastic Fenian, This distinction is creditable to their sense of exactness, but it will trouble the casual observer to perceive the difference, He did not load his pistol, because he only wished to frighten Her Majesty. The desire to spare the Queen’s life lest Albert Edward should succeed her on the throne is of that peculiar order which the Marchioness of Donegal met, when her = Irish tenants toasted ‘her ladyship, and may she live a thousand years.” O'Connor wishes her to be the last monarch, and evidently does not believe in the sick man of Sandringham. Jt the English government and their medical advisers cannot see stark, staring madness in the rambling incoherencies of this ‘“‘enthusias- tic,” theatrical boy, it is because they believe that there is more of that madness extant which does not want another monarch in England, The boy's grandfather, Feargus O'Connor, was “enthusiastic” on the same point some thirty years ago, and became mad in earnest before he died. The proceeding to the extremes of a trial for treason with this boy will not help the spirit of loyalty nor root the monarchy more deeply in the soil; both are surely strong enough to afford sending O'Connor to Bediam, where he belongs, NEW YORK HERATD, SATURDAY, MARUH 9, 1872—TRIPLE The Erie Bills in the Senate and Ase sembly=The Responsibilities of Mem- bers. The two houses of the State Legislature appear to have resolved to set to work in earnest on the Erie Railroad bills, which have been made special orders for Wednesday morn- tng in the Senate and for Thursday morning in the Assembly. The reports from Albany inform us that the efforts of the lobby to influence members of both houses in favor of the Ring are bold and unceasing, and it is anticipated that the Capital will be flooded with the agents and friends of the doomed directors next week. We do not believe that this impudent and undisguised attempt to bribe and corrupt the present Legislature as the notoriously venal Legislatures of 1869 and 1871 were bribed and corrupted, will succeed. Since those years the terrible exposure of the Tammany frauds and the fate of the unfaithful public officers who were implicated in them, stand forth as a warning to the: legislators whose fingers are itching for the money of the Erie Ring. They may go the way of their predecessors if they will, it istrue; but in the road now stands a signpost with a fettered hand pointing in the direction of Sing Sing. They have seen how a mighty combination can be broken to pieces, despite its influence and wealth, and how readily, when the exposure comes, the fellow conspirator turns into the informer and the accuser, Let them sell themselves to the Erie lobby to-day, and a quarrel among thieves—an accidental change of the power and patronage of the Ring from one set of hands to another—may explode the whole secret history of fraud and criminality, and involve all the creatures and tools of the prin- cipal actors in a common ruin, The progress of the bills will be carefully watched, and the action of each individual legislator will be thoroughly scrutinized. Senators and Assemblymen may rest assured that determined and persevering men are on their track, and that the most secret and the most cunning agents of the Erie Ring are under a strict surveillance. They may have faith in this or that lobbyist’s discretion, and may believe from the experience of the past that they may trust to bis familiarity with perjury to shield them from punishment in case of an inquiry; but they must remember that if called to account for venality now it will not be before a Legislative committee, but before a Grand Jury and at a criminal bar. The members who will vote with the Erie Ring from other than motives directly corrupt can be counted on the fingers of a man’s hand. ‘They are known; and every Senator and Assemblyman who votes with them for a money considera- tion will be known, too, and called to a strict account. The efforts that will be made in the secret Interest of the Ring, to cripple the provisions of the bills and to leave a loop- hole open for the escape of the doomed directors, will be easily detected and exposed. The members who may originate or support such tricks will be regarded by the people as the paid agents of the Erie Ring. There is no room for any mid- dle ground on this question. The republican reform Legislature was elected on the distinct pledge that the Erie corruptionists should meet the fate that had already overtaken the Tammany corruptionists, and the Legislature might as safely undertake to reinstate Tweed at the head of the Department of Public Works as to retain Gould and his associates in the Erie direction by means of insufficient legislation. The republican members at Albany should vote as one man in favor of a bill plain in its provisions and satisfactory to those who are resolved upon meting out full justice to the Erie Ring. Let them fail to do this and their party will suffer the conse- quences, At all events no recusant shall es- cape under cover of a mask if the Black List of the Hgrap can present him in his true colors to the eyes of the people of the State, Germany and Rome—Prince Bismarck’s Church Policy. The Count Von Arnim, we learn by cable despatch, has taken his departure from Ber- lin and is on his way to Rome, charged, it is said, with special instructions relative to the Emperor William’s diplomacy towards Italian affairs, It is not said whether the mission is ecclesiastical or political, Whether the Count has gone on a special mission to the Pope or to the King of Italy we are left to guess. It is only a few days since Prince Charles of Prussia, on his way to Egypt, stated publicly that if France should interfere with the Italian kingdom in the interest of the Pope Germany should raise her voice, and, if that were not enough, would most certainly draw the sword. It is not impossible that on this subject the Count may have something to say officially to Victor Emmanuel. It is notorious also that the German government, under the vigorous control and direction of Prince Bismarck, is pursuing a most decided policy towards the Catholic Church—a policy in the last degree distasteful to the Papal authorities at Rome. In the Prussian dominions proper and, as far as is possible, throughout the Ger- man empire, it is the determination of Bis- marck and his master that the authority of Rome, while it will be respected, will not be allowed to overrule the civil power. In plain terms, Bismarck has said that the Emperor intends for the future to take care of his Catholic subjects, and as the first result of this rigorous and, as we think, harsh policy, the Polish language is no longer to be taught in the Polish schools, The Poles amid all change have remained, like the Irish, true to the Catholic Church, It is more than possible that the Count Von Arnim may have some- thing to say to Cardinal Antonelli on this sub- ject. Inafew days we are likely to know what is the real character of the German Ambassador's mission to Rome. {t will not be wonderful if it should prove to be one of the most important missions in modern times, Race and religion bid fair to give us another European war. Tue Aupany Times—democratic reform— speaks of the ‘audacious way” in which the labor reformers thrust themselves foremost into the Presidential field, and entered a ticket ‘‘so strong that it is hard to better it and impossi- ble to ignore it,” 1n this dilemma we suppose the 7'imes is willing to recommend its demo- cratic reform friends to aecept a ticket that is “hard to better.” deserve as much Judges, and to withhold it from them would be simply an act of injustice. the Board of Supervisors was not a favor, but a right, and should be cheerfully confirmed by the Legislature. generally regarded as a failure. rumors are afloat prejudicial to its manage- ment, and, although the State Commissioners appear to have whitewashed it ina recent report, the impression prevails that the whole concern is a nuisance and should be abolished. Whether this view of the case be just or unjust, it is certain that the work is not such a one as the city needs to satisfy its wants, and can never be made to answer the purposes of a viaduct road. The property holders, who have some SHEET, Progress of tac War in Mexico. From our special correspondent at Matamo- ros we give our readers this morning 8 very interesting budget of reports touching the movements of the fighting factions and the changing fortunes of the civil war in our sister republic. A.week ago there appeared to be hardly the ghost of a chance for the govern- ment of Juarez. The revolutionists had cap- tured all the strongholds in the northern States of the republic, except Matamoros, on the Rio Grande, and San Luis Potosi, more than half way on the road from the northern fron- tier to the city of Mexico; and while they were Preparing at Camargo for a descent on Mata- moros they had invested San Luis with a force of ten thousand men and were sanguine of an early capitulation, which would enable them to move with an overwhelming force upon the national capital. They expected a decisive battle at San Luis Potosi, and they were confident of success. ‘Presto, change!” Now it appears the rebels have retired from San Luis Potosl toward Zacatecas and that General Rocha, with thirteen thousand men, is pursuing them; that they have been defeated in other places, and have evacuated the city of Aguas Calientes; that their generals are quarrelling with each other, and that their commands are separated. Best of all for Juarez, if true, he has two millions of money in his treasury; and worst of all for the rebels, they have nothing, and, in a country nearly shorn of its supplies, are living from hand to mouth, The Court of General Sessions for New York—A Proper Reform. Abill is before the State Legislature pro- viding that the Recorder or City Judge of New York may in his Qscretion direct a double session of the Court of General Ses- sions to be held whenever the accumulation and the pressure of criminal business shall demand it, and legalizing and confirming a resolution of the Board of Supervisors in 1869, which placed the salary of those judicial offi- cers on a par with the Judges of the Supreme, Superior and Common Pleas Courts. Inde- pendent of the signal service recently ren- dered to the city by the Court of General Ses- sions, it is well known that the duties of that Court are as arduous and as important as those of any other Court in the city, and are, moreover, diligently and ably performed. Both Recorder Hackett and Judge Bedford have distinguished themselves for their inde- pendence, fearlessness and impartiality on the bench, and have done _ their work acceptably to the community. They salary as the other The action of The power to order a double session of the Court is demanded by the increase of the population and, as a consequence, of the crimi- nal business. quently so erowded that it becomes impossible for the two Courts of General Sessions and Oyer and Terminer to clear the prisons of the city. val interest of justice as of the accused parties, The calendars are now fre- Speedy trial is demanded as much in and can be insured by a double session of a real working Court. Itis not probable that any opposition will be made to the bill now at Albany, but we direct the attention of the members of the Legislature to its provisions in order that it may not be pushed aside in the pressure of the business of the session. is a just and proper measure and should It become a law. The Elevated Railroad Extension—Assem- blyman Twombly’s Bill. Assemblyman Twombly has recently intro- duced a bill to authorize the Greenwich Street Elevated Railway to extend its track north of One Hundredth street, and westerly of Kighth avenue to the Harlem River and Spuyten DuyvilCreek. Other powers, vaguely defined, are conferred upon the corporation, and a rumor prevails that either under cover of some provision already in the bill, or to be intro- duced at the proper time, it is designed to empower the company to lay a surface road for the running of steam cars all through the city on the west side, after the fashion of the tracks that have already given to one of our thoroughfares the not very pleasantly sounding title of Death avenue. it will be well to watch the progress of Mr. Twombly’s bill, and to. inquire whether the interests of the city demand that it shall become a law. However this may be, The Greenwich Street Elevated Railway is All sorts of title to consideration, are unanimously op- posed to the unseemly experiment, and would be even more hostile to the gridiron cat that is supposed to be hidden in the Twombly meal. Then there is a report that the Penn- sylvania Railroad interests have a finger in the elevated pie, and that the bill to grant farther powers and privileges to this corpora- tion is, in fact, one of the links in a mighty railroad ring, about to be rivetted on the neck of New York and other States. It is scarcely necessary, however, for the legis- lators at Albany to inquire so deeply into the intrigues and plottings of this one-legged cor- poration. Itis enough that the experiment does not mect the expectations, the wisbes or. the necessities of the people, and that they want no such burlesques upon rapid transit. If the Legislature be disposed to study the desires and the interests of the citizens of New York it’ will close its ears against all scientific claptrap and experimental humbug and give us a solid, practical, viaduct road or roads for the use of the people. That is what the metropolis requires, and all other propo- sitions are either visionary schemes or direct frauds, Sania iN THR Riont Drirgotiox—The Grand Jury, in overhauling tho keepers of sailors’ boarding houses for robbing poor Jack, The Weather Burean an¢ the National Steamboatmen’s Conventiou—Popular De- . mand for Extension of the . Signal Service. We copy’ elsewhere from the Nauticat Gacette resolutions of the late National Steam- boatmen’s Convention regarding the Weather Bureau. The Convention, representing more than two-thirds of the entire steam tonnage of the United States, express their ‘unqualified appreciation of the value and usefulness of the weather and water reports, as well as the ‘probabilities,’ as furnished by the Chief Signal Officer daily to the press and the various ex- change and news rooms throughout the country,” and urge on Congress the main- tenance and support of the Signal Service by all appropriations necessary. On the 23d ult. the Heraxp, anticipating the great danger from the melting of the heavy snows of the West, warned New Orleans and the cities of the Mississippi Valley of the now imminent inun- dations which must result, and the Chief Signal Officer, on the strength of the warning, immediately issued orders to all observers at stations on the western rivers to, make special reports by telegraph of any sudden or unusual change in their waters, to enable him to forewarn the steamboatmen of disastrous ice movements and floods, Our readers have already learned by telegrams of the giving way of the ice in the Upper Missouri, proving that the Heraxp’s forethought and the Chief Signal Officer’s orders have been well timed, and may be the means of saving hundreds of lives and millions of dollars’ worth of property. The threatened floods in the Northwest, unless carefully watched, may be- come as disastrous as the great autumnal firea of the Northwest. The Upper Missouri, drain- ing Western Dakota, Montana and Idaho, courses along the Southern edge of that great, mild and semi-tropical belt created and swept by the eterhal southwesterly warm and vapor- laden winds from the North Pacific, and the impulse there given to ice floods will be fear- fully augmented between Fort Benton, St. Louis and Cairo, if the Platte and similar streams become simultaneously swollen, 80 that the western and northwestern cities are as seriously endangered as those of the ex- treme South. We cannot, however, advert to this sub. ject without at the same time pointing out the profound importance of the new feature in the national system which now combines its water reports with the weather reports, which have already reflected so much credit and popu- larity on the War Department and the govern- ment, The widespread usefulness of this sci- entific bureau, in charge of General Myer, is constantly receiving new proofs in the frequent demands of the people of all sections for its immediate extension in new offshoots to every part of the country, and for the wider dissemi- nation of the meteorologic information it has gathered in, This information is greedily sought after by agriculturists, planters and phy- sicians, as well as by all trading and nautical men east and west; and the Meteorological Office from which it emanates, in an incredibly short space of time, has, by its exactness and promptness, become almost as much of an institution as the telegraph or the Post Office. We notice with great regret, however, that the Chief Signal Officer, in the correspondence published to-day between the Steamboatmen’s Convention, the Secretary of War and him- self, expresses great anxiety lest this year’s appropriation for the. Signal Service entirely fails to meet the wishes and wants of the steam interests and others. The amount ap- propriated to the whole service is less than one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars, and to enable him to give satisfaction to the demands of the people he estimates that this sum should be increased to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Such an estimate is moderate indeed, and, considering the immense value of the storm signals alone, would be a mere trifle. Congress annually appropriates just three times this amount to the Coast Sur- vey, and we see no reason why it should not extend every possible facility to the Weather Bureau, which is the most popular and benefi- cent branch of the government. Young as it is, it has already been proe nounced by the old weather offices of Europe their superior. If only furnished with means to advance its network of stations to the West Indies and the far Northwest of the United States, and to meet the popular demand for the service it renders, it will doubtless redound still more to the honor of the country and the government. Such an institution must shed an Augustan splendor over any age or any administration that fosters it. Personal Intelligence. Colonel Jerome N. Bonaparte, of Baltimore, is a the New York Hotel. J. M. G. Parker, ex-Postmaster of New Orleans, is at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Colonel H. F. McComb, of Delaware, is stopping at the Clarendon Hotel. dudge Joseph A. Johnson, of Kentucky, 18 & SO jJourner at the Grand Central Hotel. Chaplain James J. Kane, Uniced States Navy, of Brooklyn, yesierday opened the United States Senate with prayer. This ts the first time in the history of the government that a naval chaplain has officiated in the Senate. WEATHER REPORT. nen 4 ée War Piedra OFFIce OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL Wasminaton, D. C., March 9—1 A. M. Synopsis for the Past Twenty-four Hours. ‘The pressure has continued to recover itself over New England, with northerly to westerly winds and clear weatner very generaily. It has continued diminishing from Mississippi eastward over the South Atlantic and Middle States, The area of snow has extendod eastward over the Middle States, and that of rain over Virginia, the South Atiantic and Guif States. Rising barometer has extended eastward over the Upper Mississippt Valley and Western Tennessee, with Clearing weather, north. westerly winds and falling temperature, The area of low barunieter 13 central over Nortoern Lodiana, Probabilities, The area of snow Will extend castward over the New England Staves during to-night ana on Satur. day morning. The barometer will continue falling from the lower lakes to Fiurida and eastward to the Atlantic. The very low barometer wili continue moving northe.stwardly over Southern Michigan and into Canada, The wind wiil veer to easteny over the New England States to-night, and to the southerly on Saturday they will veer co me creasing southeasterly and southerly over the mid- die States to-night; rising barometer, falling temp@ rature and northwesterly winds will extend during the night to Lake Michigan, Southern Ohio and probably South Carolina, and on Saturday over Michigan, Lake Erie and Virginia, Dangerous winds are not anticipated for the Atiantic and Guit . coasts to-night, but increasing to brisk easterly to southerly winds are probabie for the Middie and Rast Avian coasts on Saiurdaye