The New York Herald Newspaper, March 13, 1872, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR: eagren Volume XXXVIL..+¢04 +0 AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Twenty-third st., coraer Sixth av, — Tortus CasaR WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broaiway ani 13th street. — iB VETERAN. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houstou ste.—LA BELLE SAVAGE. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, cornor J0th st, —Perform- ances afternoon and evening, ST. JAMES' THEATRE, Twenty-eighth stroat and Broa4- way.—MABRIAGE, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery—Bourraro Biit—Cato, THE WHITE SLAVE. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Oprra—La Traviata. Fourteenth strect.—ITALIAN FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— Tn¥ NEw DRaua oF Drvoxce. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tur BaULET PAN TOMIME OF HUMPTY Dumpty. Matinee at 3. LINA EDWIN'S THEATRE, 720 Broadway.—Wircnes or New York. Matinee, ” STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—Matinee at 23¢ GRanp Concert. MRS, F. FEENANDE. THEATRE COMIQUE, 614 Broadway.—Couro VooaL- 18M, NEGRO ACIB, AC, Matinee at 335. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth at. and Broad- way.—NEGRO ACTS—BUBLESQUE, BALLET, 40. Matinee, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery. — NEG@RO ECOENTRICITIEG, BURLESQUES, &0, BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSB, 284 at., betwoen 6th and 7tbave.—BRYANT’s MINSTRELS. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, near Third ave- nue—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL HALL, 585 Broadway. ‘1mR SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, PAVILION, No, 688 Broadway.—Tau Vienna LADY OR- GUESTRA, B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE. NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourtsent srom.—soRNme DF HE Ring, AcROBATS, 40. Matinee at 235. \_ NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, - SOIRNOM AND ABT. Gt Dreehnags TRIPLE SHEET, = New York, Wednesday, March 13, 1872. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. bef may — Advertisements, ‘ 2—Advertisements, S—Reconstructed Erie: Finale of the Farce at the Grand Opera House; Jay Gould Resigned to His Fate; Opening Session of tue New Board; Effect of the News on Wail Street; Erie tn the Legisiature—The Law of Slander and Livel— Au Important Ratiroad Sult—The Virginia Tobacco Trade—The Committee of Seven ty— Collision in the Sound—Tne Union Pacific Railroad, 4@—Congress: The Senate Toying with the Appro- priations; Tne Yerba Buena Grab Recom- mitted by the House; The Post Ofice Appro- priauions—The Custom House Inguiry—Our Shipping Interests: Interesting port to Congress by Secretary Robeson—Art Sales— English Racing Notes—The Comptroller's Pay- ments, 6—Rev. Dr. Huston: Interview with Him in Balti. more; He Denies the Cuarges of Seduction and Immorality; Revs. Rogers ana Munsey on the Young Lady’s Affidavits; The Rev. Gen- tleman Fears a Bloody Contest with the Girl's Uncle; A Conversation with the Young Lady—Saved from the Gallows: The Six- teenth Street ‘tragedy—Proceedings in the New York and Brookiyn Courts—Foster: Another Stay of Proceedings—Suicide in Third Avenue—Alleged Embezzlement by a Clerk—The Suicide of Harriet Martin—Suicide by pening a Brooklyn. @—Editoriais: Leading Article, “The New Hamp- shire Election—General Grant Endorsed—The Democracy Invited to Join the Cincinnati Convention’’—Amusement Annountements. '7—Cabie relegrams from Frahce, Germany, Spain, Bogiand, Turkey, Switzerland, india and Cnba—New Hampshire: The Election Yester- day; ASplendia Grant Victory; The State Re- ublican All Over—News from Washington— jusiness Notices, S—Financia! and Commercial: Tne Newest Chap- ter in Erie; Pacitic Mail Scenting the Sudsidy; Canton and Panama Rampant; A Tighter Squeeze in Money and a Relaxation; Advance im the Rates for Sterliag—Domestic Markets— Bianco's Blood: Examination of the Prisoner Vogt at the Tombs Yesterday; Extraordinary Developments Expected—Out on a Lark—The New Custom House urders—The Temperance Question—Fire in West Thirty-third Street— Shafer Convicted of Murder. @—The Real Estate Market: Continued Activity and Important Sales; Harlem Investments; Determining Values; Particulars of Yester- @ay’s Transaciions—A Woman Burned to Deat lages apd Deatns—Advertse- ments. ‘20=Tne State Capital: Speculations on the Fate of the Seventy’s Charter; Debate on the General Appropriation Bill; ‘The Cost of the Prosecu- tion of the Tammany Ring Thieves—The Weather Report—Kuropean Markete—Miscel- laneous Telegrams—Shipping Intelligence— Advertisements, 1—Advertisements, @—Advertisements, . Tae Spanish Torone Uxpen AMADEUS remains shaky and insecure, if we are to ‘e@ttach credit to rumors which prevail in the eapital of Italy on the subject of a probable ‘successor to the elected scion of the House of ‘Bavoy in Madrid. , A Ratroap Corporation Mutorep.—The Grand Jury of the Superior Court for Suffolk county, Massachusetts, has returned an indict- ment against the Eastern Railroad for causing the death of a passenger, one of the victims of ‘the Revere disaster. Tne FrEnon Luaistative ASSEMBLY was again agitated and excited deeply by the ut- terance of personalities during the debate in the session yesterday. The demoralization of the Parliament is becoming continuous, almost chronic, in France, It will become dangerous to the constitution if it is not arrested speedily and effectually, ANoTHER CmaNce For FosTer.—Judge Barrett, of the Supreme Court, yesterday Granted the motion for a stay of proceedings in the case of William Foster, convicted of ‘the murder of Avery D, Putnam. The fanda- mental reason for granting the stay, as will be ween by the opinion published in another ‘column, is that there is reasonable ground for ‘oubting the correetness of the decision of the Bupreme Court, General Term, affirming the ponviction of murder in the first degree in the Court of Oyer and Terminer. The General Term resentenced him to be hung on the 294 lost, He has now twice temporarily escaped the gallows. The final adjudication remains with the Court of Appeals, before which tribunal of ultimate resort the case Is at once Yo be carried. Tae Viraixia Topacco IntErgsts.—Some time since we called attention to the fact that thousands of colored tobacco operatives in Virginia and the adjoining States bad been rendered almost destitute by the great delay on the part of the Committee of Ways and Means at Washington in fixing » uniform rate for the tobacco tax. Yesterday a mass meet- Ing was held at Richmond, and resolutions were passed urging the necessity of prompt potion in the matter, and hinting that what might be play to the gentlemen on the commit- tee was death, in the pecuniary sense, to the Operators, While they are grateful to the hand that shields them from the viclance of their fellow men, they memorialize the Execu- Hive and pray that sll due influence be em- ployed to bronk the resent deadlock, | NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1872—TRIPLE SHEET, ne New Hampshire Election—General | began. His popularity was sufficient to carry Grant Democracy Invited te Join the Cincinnati Convention. New Hampshire, which last March was lost, in Van Buren as tis immediate successor, but in his State pet bank system “Old Hickory” left a legacy to Van Buren which brought was yesterday recovered by the republicans. | about ee te tornado of 1840, and which Fe tate. fog a bale mater the fing of Generel Grant and upon the platform of his administration, and the result is the endorse- ment of the President and hig policy for another term. Considering the close division of the State between the two great parties, the disturbing temperance and labor reform factions, and particularly the assistance given to the democrats by Messrs. Sumner, Trumbull, Schurz and other anti-Grant republican Senators in their speeches on the abuses and corruptions of the administra- tion, and by some half dozen bolting or dis- affected republican journals East and West, a democratic success in New Hampshire would not have been surprising. Down to the actual returns of the elections the issue was doubtful, not so much because the democrats held the advantages of the State government, nor be- cause the labor and temperance reformers were to be dreaded, but because the republi- ean followers of Gratz Brown, Trumbull; Schurz and Greeley were the unknown ele- ment in the contest. The general result, how- ever, shows that Gratz Brown has no republi- can followers in New Hampshire; that Grant holds bis own there against all the outside and inside opposition forces, and that the demo- cratic party has gained no recruits from the republican camp. As the first skirmish or reconnoissance of the Presidential campaign, therefore, this re- publican success in New Hampshire, under the circumstances, assumes the proportions of a great and decisive victory for Gene- ral Grant. It confirms the general impres- sion and removes the last shadow of a doubt as to the action of the Philadelphia Republi- can Convention; it discloses the weakness of the ‘‘soreheads” as a disturbing force, and it exhibits what Kossuth would call the ‘‘solidarity” of the republican party. On the other hand, it mast convince the demo- cratic managers that if they fight the battle of 1872 under their old party organization they can look for nothing better than a crushing defeat. What, then, can they do? They have the inviting alternative offered them of the Missouri passive policy, the policy of sinking the democratic party in a free and easy fusion with all the anti-Grant elements of the coun- try, beginning with the Cincianati Liberal Re- publican Convention. We presume that this policy will now be adopted; that the Cincinnati Convention will be guided by the democratic leaders in the nomination of its ticket and in the construc- tion of its broad and flexible platform; that this ticket and platform, with or without the call of a Democratic Convention, will be com- mended to and adopted by the democrats, and that their party will not appear in the Presi- dential fight. Its members will be rallied as volunteers under the liberal republican banner, and thus the issues of the war will be completely done away with, with the disap- pearance of the party opposing the war and the issues of.the war, from Fort Sumter to the fifteenth amendment, And that such a liberal republican ticket, for instance, as Judge Da- vis and Horace Greeley, appealing to liberal republicans, democrats, white men and black men, temperance men and labor reformers, tariff men and free traders, would poll a tre- mendous vote can hardly be doubted, Our political parties are ina transition state; the democratic party is passing now from the grub to the butterfly, and the republican party, after the re-election of General Grant, will surely undergo the processes of decay and re- construction in the squabbles of its leaders for the succession. The democratic party, having run ite course, is now going the way of the federal party, the old republican party and the whig party—the way to dissolution and a new creation, It was a fortunate thing for our popular institutions that with the adoption of the original constitution of the United States the conservative Washington and the national ideas of Hamilton inaugurated the practical experiment of the new government, Other- wise French sympathies and the radical republican dogmas of the French revolu- tion of 1789 might have made our **more perfect union” a house of cards to be blown down and blown away by the first puff of wind, As it was, the State rights doctrines introduced into the official interpretations of the constitution by Jefferson cost us, sixty years later, the terrible adjustment of the bloodiest civil war in the history of any peo- ple. It is probable, however, that the federal party would have lived many years beyond its actual term of existence but for the war and its opposition to the war with England in 1812, This war, in reviving all the patriotic feelings and souvenirs of 1776, made the federal party, in the popular estimation, an enemy of the republic and an ally of Eng- land. Hence from 1812 the rapid decline of this party—rapid for those days of sleepy sailing ships and drowsy pony expresses of five miles an hour—to its disappearance from the political field in 1820, in the second elec- tion of Monroe, Next, in 1824, the opposition party having disappeared, and the people having become “all republicans and all federalists,” the old republican party itself was dissolved in the Presidential contest between Jackson, Adams, Crawford and Clay. This was a contest upon the personal merits of the several candidates, aptly described as a scrub race. The election was carried to the House of Representativés, and the House, in electing Adams over Jackson, who had the largest popular and electoral vote, made Jackson the winning can- didate on the succession. John Randolph de- nounced the election of Adams as “a bargain and sale between the blackleg and the Puri- tan,” the alleged blackleg being Henry Clay, made by Adams Secretary of State. Colonel Dick Jobnson, of Kentucky, declared that from the injustice to Jackson involved in ‘ie House's election of Adams ‘‘his administra. tion should be put out, even if as pure as the angels of light.” This idea and the battle of New Orleans in 1815 and the general popular feeling from that war still fresh and strong against England carried Jackson triumph- antly into the White House in the election of 1828, and thus he became the founder of the democratic party. the Say ka Ue, might ave en death of the democratic party but for the defec- tion “of President Jobn Tyler a whig. From that day, on Teas and Oregon and on Henry Clay’s slavery compromises, the democracy revived and flourished, till, With the election of Pierce, they seemed to be good for twenty years more of power. But the Southern oligarchy, with the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854, in making the democratic an aggressive pro-slavery party, carried it into the Southern rebellion, from which it emerged only to be carried through a newW course of lessons on the constitution from the thirteenth to the fifteenth amendment, Now, in accepting these amendments the democracy stand in the position of the old. federal party in 1820, and of the old whig party in 1852, completely used up, and with nothing left of the party policy to fight for. Why, then, should not the de- mooracy take the new departure of the liberal republican party? What else can they do, with any hope of success for the present or the future? We shall doubtless soon have now some decisive movements in this direction, movements which will make the Cincinnati Convention of 1872 a landmark of the organi- zation of a new and powerful political party. And such, as we interpret it, will be among the great results of this little but important New Hampshire election. in Congress on the Mexican Question, Although the motion of Mr. Brooks, in the House of Representatives, to suspend the rules for the introduction of the resolution on the condition of Mexico, with a view to estab- lishing a protectorate over that country, was rejected, there was a large vote in favor of it, The yeas were seventy-two and the nays ninety. We take it for granted that all who voted to suspend the rules approved of the resolution to appoint a joint committee ‘“‘to devise the wisest and best policy to be pur- sued in relation to Mexico and for the estab- lishment of law and order on our border.” We may fairly presume, too, that in a full House and on the merits of the resolution, after a discussion of the subject, a larger number of votes would be given for a protectorate or annexation. There being a majority of only eighteen against the motion, it is evident the impression is growing stronger in Congress that the United States will have to put an end to the chronic anarchy in Mexico. Then, had the resolution come from the republican side it would, no doubt, have received more votes, and, probably, a large majority. The repub- licans would hardly be willing to let the dem- ocrats be the successful movers in a great question like this, The acquisition of Mexico is inevitable sooner or later, and the party that first moves in this and makes it a part of its policy will reap the benefit of popular favor. There are probably a large number of republican Congressmen who would vote for a Mexican protectorate or annexation, if introduced by their own party, and particu- larly if favored by the admininistration, who hold back from the movement as it comes from the democratic side. But why do nw the re- publicans make this a party measure? Why does not the administration secure the politi- cal capital it affords? The government will be forced before long to interpose to prevent a border warfare and to protect our citizens and their property in Texas from Mexican robbers and anarchists. Mexico is powerless to sup- press the evil and preserve order. In no way could General Grant make his administration 80 popular as by taking possession of Mexico, either under a protectorate or by annexation. He could by a bold policy of this character add a territory to the United States that would prove as valuable to us and our commerce as India has been to England. It would give an extraordinary impulse to American enterprise and trade, would vastly increase our products both in variety and quantity, particularly in the precious metals, and would tend greatly to harmonize the people of different sections and parties through one common, patriotic, grand, ambitious and national object. The President would show wisdom by adopting this policy to reunite the American people, to gratify their ambition and to open a new and vast field of enterprise to the country. The Vote ANoTHER Raitkoap HumBua.—The enter- prising city railroad lobbyists are still busy at the State capital. Yesterday the Three Tier job, another worn-out lobby hack, was trotted out and reported favorably in the Senate. This stupid scheme, out of which the projectors hope to make money by agreeing not to build the road and not by building it, has been before the Legislature begging for votes—like Niobe, all tears—for the last eight ses- sions. It has always been defeated, and will be again. Indeed, it is to be hoped that all the railroad jobs—underground, ele- vated and three tier—now before the Legisla- ture may knock their brains out agalost each other. It is to be regretted, however, that there is not honesty and intelligence enough at Albany to reject all these impracticable, impossible, jobbing schemes and to pass a bill that would insure the speedy construction of two viaduct roads, one on the east and one on the west side of the city, and thus give to New York what is so much needed—cheap and rapid transit from the Battery to Spuyten Duyvil Creek. Tae RicuMonp Postmistress.—The head of the Richmond Post Office, Miss Van Lew, does not seem to be able to organize the sterner portion of humanity so as to insure despatch and efficiency in the department over which she presides. Yesterday the Virginia merchants did not receive their letters, and, as a matter of course, they wanted to know why. Miss Lew had to explain. The fact was she had endeavored to induce the chief clerk to undertake more work than he could well perform, and on his refusal to obey orders his mistress discharged him, There- upon bis fellow clerks and the carriers held an indignation meeting, deprecating female rule, and were positively sufficiently ungrateful to their fair taskmistress to tell her that if she did not reinstate the chief clerk she might Jacksoh was the Rudolph of this House of | have al! the busiaoss herself, They struck Hapsburg, and with iis sptiremont its decay | for a principle, The Custom House Scandals and the Gen- eral Order Business—True Reform Will Come When We Reform the System. The reform in the general order business which Collector Arth ir r announoed on Monday wiit givé keneral satisfaction to the commu- nity, Ad WS iuderstand the order of the Collector, it takes the business from the one firm (Leet and Stocking) to which it had been entrusted by Collector Grinnell and Collector Murphy, and divides it among a number of warehouses managed by merchants in good standing. The chango will, we trust, satisfy the people, as it is quite sure to satisfy the country. We are not sanguine enough to believe that this rearrangement of the general order ser- vice will really accomplish the reforms neces- sary toa proper management of the Custom House, The truth is, this whole business has been more of a scandal than a grievance. Disappointed politicians and revenue jobbers and adventurers who have lived for years upon the revenue service have made “general order” the pretext for an attack upon the ad- ministration, The grievance with them was not that the government and the merchants were robbed, but that they had no share of the plunder, The character of many of the witnesses who testified so vigorously before the committee of the Senate was not of the most inspiring nature, They were many of them admitted jobbers. They had lived out of the revenue. Cartage con- tracts, labor contracts, general order busi- ness, every variety of Custom House profit, had been at their disposal for years. The whole revenue machinery of the port had been devoted to their personal profit and the sus- tenance of the particular party they happened toserve. So long as Collector Smythe and his friends were in power—so long as the friends of one of the Senators were in the en- joyment of the public plunder under Collector Grinnell—we heard none of the clamor which has filled the air for several months. So far as Leet and Stocking were concerned, they were in, while nearly everybody elso who had been in was out. One of the oddest phases of politics is that the greatest jobbers, when they have no employment, are the most turbu- lent reformers, Two-thirds of our liberal reform republicans, for instance, beginning with Carl Schurz and Lyman Trumbull, have been jobbing and holding office all their lives ; and in Pennsylvania we have a reform party headed by such a man as Colonel Mc- Clure, whose political life, as shown by the HzRatp correspondence from Phila- delphia, has been a series of jobs, and who, as a Senator in the State Senate, simply registered the decrees of the Pennsylvania Railway. So when the trouble about the gen- eral order business began, it was well under- stood to be a war upon two men who were in luck, and not upon the system by which they benefited. For this reason, while we commend Collector Arthur for a proper deference to that Public opinion which always antagonizes a monopoly, we have no enthusiastic belief that his change will bring with it a Custom House millennium, So far as the administration is concerned the verdiot of the country will be, in the old Scotch fashion, ‘‘Not proven.” There is no evidence to connect General Grant with the monopoly given to Leet and Stocking. There is no evidence to show that his two secretaries were in any way partners in their business, The@vorst inference that can be drawn, so far as General Porter and General Babcock are concerned, is, that they saw a fellow staff offi- cer and companion enjoying a good thing, and that, so far as their influence was concerned, it might as well go to one who had been with them in camp and field as to Bixby or Mud- gett, or some of those who had been all their lives in Custom House business. The letter which General Grant gave to Colonel Leet was not only a proper letter, but considering that Colonel Leet had served with him for so many years, as an acceptable officer, a refusal to have given it would have been surprising. Here was @ man who saw his military family about to separate. He was entering upon the highest reward the nation could bestow, and was naturally anxious that those who con- tributed to his fame, no matter how humbly, should have their way through the world made as easy as possible. We see nothing in General Grant’s letter that does not do honor to his kind nature. As to the complaints made by merchants, let us remember that “merchants” will always complain so long as duties are collected, and if the President of the United States were to charge himself with the adjudication of every question that comes to him from our merchants he would have em- ployment enough for twenty years, In deal- ing with the President we are bound to use the widest liberality. He cannot be summoned hither and thither and compelled to execute the duties of his office in the corridors of a hotel. Nor should we wonder when we are told that the nature of the general order busi- ness was unknown to him. We should be surprised if there were one hundred people outside of those who are directly connected with the business who could now give a clear explanation of what it means, even after the hundreds of columns deluged upon them by the party press, If there was any evil in the Leet and Stocking contract it rested with the Collector of the Port. We only see the hand of the President in the work of reformation. and we should not be surprised to hear ina few months as much complaint of General Arthur and his new arrangement as we have heard of Leet and Stocking. As we have said, the evil is not altogether in the men but in the system, and we do not choose to be allured out of the path of true Custom House reform by taking sides in the angry and selfish brawl of politicians, tries were overlooked and stifled. England grew into greatness in spite of the govern- ment. Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Bradford, Liverpool, Glasgow, cM $9 many protests Against the Protective policy of Bag- land. So we might gall Nsw Tork a protest against the various protective theorles ¢f statesmen, who see nothing but Pennsylvania and New England in the legislation of the day. In the adjustment of such a tariff, with ita ramifications into every branch of business, a machinery becomes ne- cessary, so cumbersome, complex and minute, or imperfect and unfair, that any shape it assumes becomes an oppression. And when this machinery is handed over to the management of parties and entrusted to needy political adventurers who only hold office to serve @ party necessity, there must.be corrup- tion. There is corruption which arises from ignorance, corruption inspired by political in- trigues, corruption springing from the avarice of that class of men who deal in the misfor- tunes and mistakes of government, We make a tariff which cannot be collected. We have 8 Custom House planned on the regulations adopted by Hamilton in the administration of Washington. We have regulations which be- long to another time and were meant for the era of sailing ships and schooners—for the commerce of four millions of people who knew nothing of steamships or railway cars. How can we expect any administration to col- lect the customs and do justice to the mer- chants? The customs are not collected, the merchants do not obtain justice, there is con- fusion, complaint, bitterness, There are gen- eral order troubles, cartage scandals, com- plaints about the labor contracts. The public service is injured and the public morals wounded, What we want is a reform in our revenue system that will go to the foundation. Let our tariff be shorn of two-thirds of its dutia- ble articles. We can follow the example of England, which profits by an experience as deplorable and seandalous as any seen in the United States. Let us have an end of the vexatious duties, of irritating imposts which are always avoided, and which, if collected, would be of no advantage to the revenue, We can collect money enough to pay our debt from a half dozen articles, and the necessity of a tariff for this purpose must be admitted by all good citizens. Protection has no place in our system, ~ Let us collect the customs, and leave protection to protect itself. We have made protection a Chinese wall, which in this case keeps out nothing but the revenues, We suffer more and more from this exclusive, nar- row, illiberal, antiquated policy. We cannot remedy it by unseating Leet and Stocking, or removing Mr. Murphy, or changing a few in- spectors, The best collector in the world would not give satisfaction in our Custom House, and the tradition has grown into our politics that whoever accepts the Collectorship enters a political sepulchre. Over its gloomy granite doors might be written the legend that Dante saw over the gates of hell :—‘‘Who enters here leaves hope behind.” What we want, therefore, is not a committee of demagogues and partisans sitting in the Fifth Avenue Hotel surrounded by a crowd of political followers, badgering Mudgett, teasing Hillyer, listening to the confidential communicatiéns of Lindsay, or torturing the money-welcoming Leet—a committee caring for nothing but to make political capital for the campaign; but a com- mittee of honest, prudent Senators, consulting with merchants, eager to find out the best plan for collecting the customs, In thirty days such a committee would do incalculable good. It would give us a reform that would save the country and save the revetiue. All other “in- vestigations,” as they call them, so far as the Custom House is concerned, are scandalous and petty, meant to serve party ends, injurious to the public morals, and an expense to the public treasury, ‘‘full of sound and fury, signi- fying nothing.” Paris a Poiyt of Princely Rendezvous, A congregation of princes and princesses in the capital of France is not by any means an event of unusual occurrence, as the civiliza- tions of the world are well aware. Its repo- tition just at present is remarkable, notwith- standing; but merely so from its infrequency of late, and @ consideration of the circum- stances under which it has been renewed. We reported in the Hgratp yesterday the fact that the Prince of Wales was present in the hall of the French parliamentary Assem- bly on Monday during the progress of the violent scene of legislative excitement and tumult of which we were told by cable telegram, and that His Royal High- ness remained to the close of the proceedings, The heir apparent to the British throne was delayed in the French oapital yesterday, and will leave the city to-day bude for Cosihes I fs * the Princess He is accompanied by Alexandra of Wales, a lady well calculated to restore by her presence all modern French- men to a proper appreciation of a sense of that high-toned chivalry which is hereditary to and inseparable from their name and race, In this the Princess may perhaps be accepted asa missionary in the cause of international social reform—a grand and noble work, in the discharge of which, it is said, she has already had considerable experience at the other side of the Straits of Dover. The royal- ism of Great Britain was not solitary in its sovereignty. Its representatives were joined by a brilliant circle of kindred company. The Prince and Princess of Wales lunched with the Prince and Princess de Joinville, the Duo d’Aumale, the Count and Countess of Paris and the Duke de Nemours. The mem- bers of the party were, no doubt, personally So long as there are custom houses mer- | happy. It may be that they were so ina chants will complain, Merchants do not take | dynastic point of view also, This is not kindly to duties in any shape, and they cer- | by any means certain, however. The assem- tainly have no desire to pay out their money unless when necessary. The best tariff in the world is clumsy and unpleasant, and the his- tory of tariff legislation is the history of suc- cessive outrages upon commerce and manufac- tures, England went through her protective era, and the judgment of one of the wisest of English writers is, that but for the success that attended smuggling the commerce of England would have been ruined. The coun- try squires and lords of the treasury, In the olden times, made tariffs to sult their fancy, without regard to the genuine wants of the kingdom. One jnterost was negtented at thalof te part aad blage presented an imperialist aggregation near a centre of royal renown and of the most kingly lustre. The members of the party could not be at a loss for subjects of con- genial conversation if they took up the history of France at any one moment of Its progress during the past five hundred years, from the time of Kiog Charles V. and Louis de Valois, Duke of Orleans, in 1872, to the present. President Thiers, attended by his staff, visited the company, and thus in his own proper per- son presented a remarkable point for distinct and memorable contrast, The sovereignty the executive cule ari. expense of others, Corn was made dear to | temof the present were face to face in almost please the landowners. The national indus- | all the stages of gradation which the plan of man’s authority over his fellow has assumed during six centuries, The Downfall of the Erie Ring—The ~—t of the Legislature and of the WN Board of Directors, metia! Mt en __ The destrecttou of thé Once powerful Erle Ring was completed yesterday by the resignge tion of Jay Gould as President of the road, and the new Board of Directors, with General John A. Dix at its head, is now in peaceable possession of the property of the corporation, and exercising uncontested authority over ita affairs. It is reported that Gould made attempts during the early part of the day to obtain an injunction against the Dix party, restraining them from doing any official act as directors and ordering bis own re-establishment in authority, and did not decide upon an unconditional surrender until he found himself deserted by the courts, However this may be, his retirement from office was as disgraceful as his conduct im office, During the night a gang of ruffians had remained inside and outside the Grand Opera House, evidently ready for any lawless act they might have been required to per- form, and were only relieved from duty by Gould’s personal order after it became evident that violence could not be successfully, resorted to against the new directors. When finally the word of command was given these last adherents of the Erie Ring were informed by their leader, ina brief but emphatic ad- dress, that the “fig” was ‘‘up,” and then the desperadoes marched off to divide the money they had earned by their attendance. Some anxiety is now expressed as to the results that are to follow this revolution in the Erie Railroad direction. Is the propose® legislation to be stopped? Are foreigners to take supreme control of the road? Is the Atlantic and Great Western concern to be bolstered up at the expense of the Erie stock- holders, in order that foreign capitalists who were victimized by the former speculation may recover back the money they have lost? These questions are eagerly asked, and the apprehensions expressed in some quar- ters no doubt take their origin from the manner in which the overthrow of the Ring was secured. There is a natural dispo- sition to suspect the motives of the men’ but recgntly moat closely associated with Gould io his unscrupulous administration, and who were the leaders of the rebellion against him. But the character of the new Board is a sufficie: guarantee against any action adverse to the rights of the stockholders and the interests of the people. The directors have already re= called the power previously given to the President to issue new stock, and declared in favor of the bill to repeal the Olassification act and ta provide for an election by the stock- holders of the road. The victory over cor- ruption may not be complete while Gould and those who are known to have been his instru- ments in the recent management rethain inside the company’s offices; but it is certain that while General Dix is President of the road, and while McClellan, Lansing, Barlow, Tra- vers, Day and Diven sit at the directors’ table, no jobs will be possible and the affairs of the road will be managed with honesty and fidelity. The recent events should not prevent the immediate passage by the Legislature of the bill which comes up to-day as a special order in the Senate. It contains many desirable provisions, and the new directors of Erie, as we have said, desire that it should become # law. They regard themselves only as th@ temporary custodians of the road, and acknowledge the right of the stockholders to elect their own officers. Jay Gould and others cannot be removed until the Classification act shall be repealed, and justice requires that they shall go. Besides, if the principle of classification be good at all, ¢ aot passed in 1869 is open to serious ste tion. It prevents absolutely the removal of e director, while the English Classification law leaves the stockholders free to remove direc- tors by a vote at any ordinary meeting. Sena- tor O'Brien's bill, in addition to the repeal of classification, prohibits the company from adopting or enforcing any bylaw or rale to fors bid the transfer of stock upon any lawful trust or agency or to restrict the trane. fer to cases of change in the beneficial ownership, and prohibits persons from voting atan election when they have parted with their interest in the stock and are not in’ pos- session and control of the certificates. These provisions are proper under any ciroum? stances, and the passage of the law is quite as desirable, if not entirely as indispensable, now as before the overthrow of Gould and bis asso- ciates. Indeed, the recent revolution and the mpnner in which it has been received by the padple should convince the Legislature of the necessity of the lay, bid should fnipark ‘go fm- petus to its passage.” aa “3 Meanwhile the new directors shonld remember that they have a duty to perform that must not be neglected. They are now in possession of the books and papers of the Ring, and are under obligation to put the people in possession of the true history of its operations. They must let us know what has become of nearly fifty million dollars, unac~ counted for by Gould and his companions, and whether the property of the road has been confiscated by them. They must expose the facts in regard to, the enormous sums drawn for legal expenses by Jay Gould, Tweed and a notorious lobby agent in 1870, They must further inquire into and immediately repudiate all illegal and corrupt contracts entered into with any of, the old direotors of the road, or in which any director or officer may be interested. The evils complained of in the Ring management must be at once end effectively crushed out and destroyed. There must be an end to every questionable job that has a taint of Gould about it. General Dix owes a duty to himself and to the people in the position he has accepted, and it must be religiously performed. The power of Gould and his associates in the old Board and his hired gangs of crop-haired rufflans is bro- ken, but with it must go all car contracts, from contracts, freight contracts, and every other corrupt job through which the Ring ma: to plunder the stockholders, or the sgl in Erte will not be complete. Let the new) régime give us at once a true history of the pest and a clear ethe fapure , < v