The New York Herald Newspaper, March 23, 1872, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Volume XXXVIL...000seeeeeseeeeseeeeeees NOs SB AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Tie BALLET Pan TOMIME OF HUMPTY Dumprr. Matinee at 2. 4 EDWIN'S THEATRE, 780 Broadway,—WrtcHEs Matinee at 2. or New Yous. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Twenty-third st,, corner Sixth av. — Tux Foou's REVENGR. Matinee, 1s—Tux Inon Ourst. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and 13th street. — Tux VETERAN. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, corner of Sth av. and 284 st LaLa ROoku. Matinee at 134. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between ‘Houston sts.—La BELLE SAVAGE. 8ST, JAMES' THEATRE, Twonty-cighth strect and Broad- way.—MONALDI. Matinee at 3. ‘WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner 30th st. —Perform ancesafternoon and evening—W ORKINGMEN OF NEw YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street,—ITaLian OPrrRA—Matinee at 1}6—RODERTO IL DIAVOLO. BOWERY THEAT: Bowery—VALENTINE AND 01 6ON—BUFFALO Bitt, Matinee at 2, va FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street,— LONDON ABBURANOR. Matinee, 1}j—PROVOKED HUSBAND. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Montague street— ENGLIsN OrRRA—'RA DIAVOLO. a MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— Lvorezia Borcia, &c. Ma at AMILL, PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, — Burrao Bin. sd a ay THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Cowto Vooat- 18M8, NKGKO AC18, AC.—CINDERELLA, Matinee at 234. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth at. and Broad. way.—NEGRO ACTE—bURLESQUE, BALLET, 4c. Matinee, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery. — NFORO ECCENTRICITING, BURLESQUES, 20. Matinee, 2. BRYANT'S NEW OPERA HOUSE, 284 at., between 6th and 7thava.—BRYANT’S MINSTRELS. Matinee at 2. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET THEATRE, near Third ave- mue—VARIRTY ENTERTAINMENT. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL H. — ‘THE BAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS. ee PAVILION, y, He a CEAVILION, No. 688 Broadway, near Fourth st.—Gaanp NEW YORK CIRCUS, Fourtsentn strant.—SORNRS IN ‘TRE RING, AOROLATS, £0. Matinee at 234. ° Prince and sts,—La BELLE SAVAGE. Matinee at 2 TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Saturday, March 23, 1872. = = ~ CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. Advertisements, 2—Adveriisements, 3—Washington: The Spanish Chains; Connecticut | and the Democracy; Labor Keformers Luok- ing Up; Curious Course of the Robeson Inves- tgating Committee; The Quartermasters’ Troubles—ltalian Opera—Weather Report— Personal _Intelligence—Miscellaueous ‘lele- gramp—Gearyis lanifesto. 4—Bend the Var: The International Race Between the Atalauta and the London Rowing Club Crews; The Race To Be Rowed in June; An Old Oarsman on the Race—News from Brazil— Art Matters—The Feast of Purim—bogus Meill- cal Colleges—Obituary—Life-Saving Stations at Oape Vod—Tue African Diamond Fields—A Brute of a Husband. S—Congress: The Tariff in the Senate; The Sol- diers’ Homstead Bill Passed; Private Bill Day in the House—The Custom House Inguiry— The Doubie-Barrelled Arms Inquiry—Political Movements and Views—British and American Drunkards—The English Army—Brooklyn Af- feirs—Enzlish Racing—New York City—A Newark Industrial Exhibition—Smalipox Stull Spreading. G@—Editoriais: Leading Article, “The English Press and the Alabama Claims’—Amusement Announcements, ‘7—The Swemp Angeis : Great Excitement in Wil- Mington Over the Herald Vapiive; Statemenv of a Lumbertonian; Another Meeting at Moss Neck; Searcuing the interviewer tor Chloro- form; the Outlaws Afrali He Would Put Them wo Sieep; ‘Treated as a Washington Spy and Disarmed—The Alabama Claims—Cable Telegrams from England, France, Germany and Portugal—The Cuvan Insurrection —The Mormon Murderers—The War in Mexico—Mis- cellaneous ‘lelegrams—Business Notices. S—Interesting Proceeding tn the United States, New York and Brooklyn Courss—The Mur- dered Chevalier—ithe Judiciary Investiga- tion—Mayor Hall—The Daly-Hackett Spurt— The Stokes Case—The Jersey City Frauds—A Place for High-Toned Amusements Only— Another Mystery—Still Another Mystery—The Geneva Watch Company—Sell-Butchery—The Value of Our Marine Corps—cily Steam irap- sit—Highway Robbery. nancial and Commercial : Relaxation in the joney Market; The Cilgues Supposed to be Seliiog Ouc Locked-up Funds; A Strong Mar- ket at the Stock Exchange, with New Fea- tures; a “Point” for Novices About Ohio and Mississippi; A New Departure in Pacific Mail; Gold, vernmeuis and Foreign Exchange Steady—Domestic Markets—Excitement on the Produce Exchange Over the Purchase of the Building—Hydropnobia : Low to Cure It— Marriages and Deaths, 10—The State Capital: Talk and Tactics of tne Erie Emissariea—Rumored Coilapse of the Bill to Amend Southmayd’s Act; a Legislative In uty Coféerning the Remington's Militia Rifle Contract—The Senate Toying with Rapid Transit; Proposed Codification of the Laws Governing the Marine Court—The Miller In- ation—Tammany Hall Reorganization— Navi vlnsela hens Shooting —Euro- pean Markets—Cotton Receipts—Shipping in- telligence—Advertisements, 1—Horse Notes—Long Branch Races—Deadly As- sault—The Fourth Avenue Ratlroad—Aaver- tivements, 12—Aavertisements. 9! vest Cart Sonvrz yesterday, before the Senate committee on the French arms business, was called to give his testimony on the subject. So far, however, his evidence recalls only the old fable of the mountain and the mouse, Tue Orossina oF THE Ling by the sun for this rough and blustery month of March was signalized over nearly the whole area of the United States, east of the Rocky Moun- tains, by the coldest and stormiest spring equinoctial weather upon record. And now another storm is coming up from the south- west which probably may extend into the New Dominion. Let it come; for we expect it to carry off old Winter to the North Pole, Tar Coxngcticut ELECTION draws nigh; the battle waxes hot and sharp; the State is closer than New Hampshire. Four or five bundred majority for the Governor is consid- ered a great victory. The present Governor, Jewell, is said to be, by his friends, good for ve hundred majority. He had only one hun- dred last year, and this year one or two hun- fired anti-Grant republicans may spoil his cal- culations. New Hampshire, on the other band, has shown that the anti-Grant republi- cans are very few, though very noisy ; and so {mn Connecticut the odds appear to be in favor of Jewell, The loss of the helping hand of Tammany, too, has been a heavy loss to the democracy everywhere, but especially in Con- aecticut. ‘itensiniiLiclslliiledas Mexroan Wanrrare is forcibly illustrated by our special despatch from Matamoros re- porting that the revolutionary General Tre- vifio, who was 60 badly defeated by. the government troops near Zacatecas, has set about repairing his bad fortunes by prestamos, in the accustomed manner, This operation is safer and pays better than fighting, and is, therefore, more congenial to his heroic nature, Trovifio is no respecter of persons or nation- ality. So an American who refused to come down with the cash was ‘“‘sold out,” and the proceeds of his goods and chattels applied for the bemefit of the extortioner. How much longer will the United States government be content to look on? “Job's patience” must hide ite undiminished head by the side of the lamblike forbearance which our government bas shown towards Mexico, story. demands that are capable of boundless ex- pansion, be we are not expressly told; in tact the com- putations of the United States government have not yet reached the mighty sam. * * * Happily claims such as these are no longer matter of controversy between England and the United States. rectitude and in the substantial justice of our ‘The English Press and the Alabama Claims. The opinion, which seems at present to ob- tain to some extent in Great Britain, that the submission of what are called the claims for indirect losses are not within the province of the Tribunal of Arbitration, has been reached by very slow process. The “case” of the American government was officially delivered to the agent of the British government at Geneva, in pursuance of the terms of the treaty, on the 15th day of December last. A dozen or more copies were delivered by Gen- eral Schenck to the Foreign Office in London on the 20th day of December, and an addi- tional number within a very few days there- after; and the leading press in London were furnished with copies about the same time. Copies were freely distributed to those who desired them as soon as they had been given to the Foreign Office. The ‘“‘case” was there- fore in the possession of the British govern- ment on 15th December, and fairly before the British public by the 25th or 26th day of De- cember. It is believed that the first comment made on our case was in the Morning Post, of December 28. Attention was called to these claims and to their possible magnitude, and the writer closed by saying :— “The extravagant nature of these demands is the best evidence that the arbitrators, a ma- jority of whom are to make an award, which is to be final, will refuse to entertain them. But that they should be made, when their rejection is certain, is not a pleasant circumstance.” Not one word about the presentation being an infraction of the treaty, On the contrary, England was to be protected by the rejection of the claims because they were extravagant. On the 2d of January the 7imes opened fire. It said :—‘“‘The safest, as well as the most dig- nified course Is, therefore, to stand upon what we conceive to be sound legal principles, and to demur to any such claim for indirect dam- ages, * * * Itis fair to notice that they [the rules of the treaty] are ex post facto law, * * * andto remember also that in past wars, when the United States were neu- tral, their government is admitted to have acted quite at variance with the loosest con- struction of such rules, * * * The very vagueness of these demands, and the impossi- bility of estimating the damage and apportion- ing the compensation, show their unsounduess. w Still not a word denying the right to pre- sent the claims. They were to be demurred to, not because they were not within the scope of the treaty, but because they were vague and impossible to estimate. The next day the Daily News took up the It said :—‘‘ We have here to do with * * * What that full extent may Confident in our own cause, we have oonsented to refer it to a tri- bunal so constitated as to insure the confi- dence of the world. We shall not anticipate its decision, but we shall be quite ready to accept its justice.” It will be observed that this journal, which has been the most rabid in its counsels to break the treaty unless the United States will withdraw its case without discussion, in its issue nearly three weeks after the meeting at Geneva and a fortnight after General Schenck had begun distributing the case in London to whoever wanted it, was of the opinion that the arbitrators were to pass upon these claims. On the 4th of January the Morning Post was of the same opinion. That the agent of the government of the United States, it said, “should contend, in the case he has presented, that we should also be responsible. * * * even for the prolongation of the war, is not surprising, since he speaks as an advocate. But no judge could for an instant entertain such claims.” The Standard of the same day says, com- menting on our case :—‘‘No demand bas been advanced for indirect or constructive dam- ages, largely as these have been insisted upon in the argument with which the American representatives have opened their pleadings, * * * The verdict of the Court upon such an issue as that we shall not attempt to antici- pate.” On the same day the Pall Mall Gazette gave its views on our case, which the writer had evidently read, ‘‘The Treaty of Washington would have been almost certainly rejected by the Senate if it had excluded the Americans from stating their grievances by way of foren- sic argumeft as strongly as they had done in diplomatic communication. The real question is whether the treaty, which is undoubtedly on its trial, has proved » means of applying to these passionate statements, now seven years old, the criterion of detailed inquiry, settled law and sober reason. * * * The issue may well be awaited with the keenest interest and even anxiety; but there is no solid ground for the anticipations of disaster which have been abroad for a day or two.” The Morning Post and the Standard of the 5th, and the Telegraph and the Spectator of the 6tb, each had an article on the subject, showing that the several writers had read our case, and understood the claim for indirect damages. In none of them is there any evidence of a design to contest our right to present such a claim, The Spectator, on the contrary, says that “the wording of the treaty does not expressly exclude such demands,” and the Telegraph says, ‘he (the President) has resolved to workthe statesmanlike treaty ia « popular way and to cover the act of submitting the affair to arbitration by Yankee flourishes of the most extravagant kind. If it amuses his countrymen \t may save bim ; it certainly doeg not burt us, Labelle To the bilious Saturday Review belongs the credit of having invented a plausible way for England to do a dishonorable and a disgrace- fal act. In its issue of the 6th of Jauuary it says :—'The treaty was drawn with culpable laxity, but it cannot be strained into an inter- pretation consistent with American demands, The English agents would have no choice but to withdraw from the arbitration in the im- probable event of a consideration by the tribunal of the claim on account of the imaginary prolongation of the war.” It will be esen that even this unscrupulous writer had not then imagined that the tribunal itself NEW YOKK HERALD, SATURDAY, could not take cognizance of the preliminary question of jurisdiction. To the honor of the English press it may be said that it was some time in reaching the standpoint of the Saturday Review. During the following week the Times had articles nearly every day, none of which showed a purpose of removing the subject from the jurisdiction of the Geneva Tribunal. The Spectator of the following Saturday (the 13th) returned to the subject. It could scarcely find language strong enough to express ite objec- tion to the claims, but, it added, ‘‘the jurists assembled at Geneva will certainly not forget the tendency of such absurd claims to render international arbitration of this kind altogether hopeless and inoperative in future.” Still, England was to be protected at Geneva, not by her own act. The Spectator of the 20th had another long article entitled, ‘‘The Appearance of Sharp Practice in the American Case,” in which, with the expression of much ill temper, it at- tempted to show that by a proper construction of the treaty consequential damages onght not to be allowed at Geneva ; but it had not then made up its mind that this was a question for Great Britainto determine rather than the arbitrators, During the following week the excitement continued to increase in England as the open- ing of Parliament approached; but it does not appear that the press was even then seriously considering the forcing the Ministers to uct in the direction of taking the question out of the jurisdiction of the tribunal. On the 28th of January (Sunday) the O}- server, usually a careful journal, said:—“ It is better we should say openly and distinctly that we hold ourselves responsible for the direct damages caused by certain particular vessels, but we repudiate all pecuniary lia- bility for the indirect consequences of our na- tional policy.” The cue thus given was taken up by the press with great unanimity, and has become substantially the position of England. It will thus be observed that the press, with the exception of an angry diatriba in the Sat- urday Review, was seven weeks and two days in finding out that the claim for indirect dam- ages were not admissible; and it was six days later that Lord Granville and the Ministry, with the fear of Mr. Disraeli before them, fol- lowing in the wake of an excited press, wrote their note to General Schenck. It was some days later still that Mr. Gladstone, again goaded by Mr. Disraeli, made the speech which required two explanations on two successive nights on the floor of the House, to say nothing of a subsequent letter to the correspondent of a New York journal. Hell Gate and the East River Improve- ment. Few people are aware of the stupendous work going on at Hell Gate and of the im- portant results that may be expected to ensue from it. The removal of the rocks there which obstruct navigation so as to make a per- fectly free and safe channel for the largest vessels was a vast undertaking. In this age, however, hardly anything seems impossible to engineering skill. In view, therefore, of the importance of opening a free and safe channel for the commerce of New York by the way of Long Island Sound and the East River, the government resolved to remove the Hell Gate obstructions, The work was commenced about two years ago, and it is believed that in less than two years more the whole will be com- pleted. It is under the charge of Major General John Newton, of the United States Engineer Corps. A vast deal of rock has already been blasted out and cleared away. Of about one hundred and _ sixty-five thousand cubic yards of rock to be removed at least forty-two thousand yards have been taken out. For removing the rest the rock is being tunnelled and pierced in every direction. When this is accomplished a tremendous blast will be made with seven thousand pounds of nitro-glycerine, equal in force to seventy thousand pounds of gunpowder. The explo- sion will be a small earthquake, The details of the work are exceedingly interesting to scientific men. But the important fact we now call attention to is with regard to the re- sults that must follow to the commerce of the city and to the improvement of the upper part of the island, When the largest steamship in the European trade can come safely to this port through Hell Gate and by way of Long Island Sound, thus saving time and some- times avoiding danger by the outer passage, we may expect a portion of the business at least will be located far up town; and when, in addition to the clearing of Hell Gate, a large ship canal and fine system of docks shall be made, by the Harlem River and Spuyten Dayvel, to connect the Sound and East River with the Hudson River, there will be, no doubt, a surprising change in the business localities of New York, General McClellan and our Dock Commissioners will, undoubt- edly, keep in view these great prospective improvements in the grand plan they have de- vised for reconstructing our docks and in making thie commercial metropolis the pride of the country and admiration of the world. Neither the federal nor our city government can spend money so usefully as in giving all the facilities possible to the commerce of New York. Tue ANGLO-FRENon COMMERCIAL TREATY.— Lord Lyons, British Minister at Versailles, has notified President Thiers that the English government cannot modify its customs duties charges on French commodities imported into the kingdom duriog the year the commercial treaty between the countries remains in force. This means that Great Britain will maintain the Cobden-Bonaparte treaty intact until the moment of its expiration by its own limita- tion, next year, and thus throw the onus of deciding between free trade and o tariff tax protection on Thiers or his successors. The French Parliament is willing to wodify the scale of customs rates, as will be seen by the legislative statement which we publish in the HeRawp to-day; but England appears to be disposed to adhere firmly to the principle which has benefited her own manufacturers, without any great care for the peculiar posi- tion of her Fronch neighbors, Emperor WILLIAM OF GERMANY was com- Plimented by his subjects yesterday on the occasion of the completion of the seventy- fifth year of his age, A very remarkable man and deserving of the honor, MARCH 23, 1872—TRIPLE SHEET. Cosmical Moeteorelogy and the Light Is Throws on Our Cold Winter—The Celd Snap. The great success of sclence in predicting the daily phenomena of weather bas revived the long cherished hope of foreseeing the cli- matic character of the seasons. Who can say what the immense value of such information beforehand would have been in this peculiarly stormy and severe winter? It has long been the belief of both peasants and philosophers that the variations of temperature are not as irregular as they are vulgarly supposed to be, and in very recent times many eminent as- tronomers have pointed out the remarkable coincidence between the earth’s seasonal cy- cles and the sunspot cycles. A Canadian writer, using the returos of the Toronto Ob- servatory, bas also recently indicated for that location a connection between the amount of annual rainfall and the sunspots, and of these again with ‘‘several interlacing streams of circumsolar meteors,” The Radoliffe astron- omer in England, in his report for 1871, an- bounces that the mean direction of the wind at Oxford, computed by the records of self- registering instruments, varies between the maximum and minimum of sunspots, the ten- dency of the wind to westward increasing with the number of sunspots, and, with such west wind, the amount of rain. The Astron- omer Royal, Professor C. Piazzi Smith, has very lately made an important addition to our knowledge of this subject of cosmical meteorol- ogy, and ventures some striking and well con- firmed suggestions. Basing his deductions upon the results obtained from the rock thermome - ters of the Royal Observatory at Edinburg, he states that the most positive and striking feature of the whole series of observations is “the great heat wave which occurs every eleven years and a fraction, and nearly coin- cidently with the beginning of the increase of each sunspot cycle of the same duration.” The sunspot cyles have been well determined by several authorities, working independently, and the views of Piazzi Smith, therefore, are neither conjectural nor theoretical, but en- titled to earnest study and research. He reads off from his magnificent thermometric records, as the next largest feature, an “extreme cold close on either side of the great heat wave,” to which he gives the dis- tinction of the “cold wave,” and, writing some time before tho present winter had developed its phenomenal rigors, he stated that, “depending on our later observed eleven year periods, or from 1846 to 1857, and from the latter up to 1868, we may perhaps be justified in concluding that the minimum tem- perature of the present cold wa ve was reached in 1871, and that the next similar cold wave will occur in 1878.” This prediction has, it would seem, been in the main points substan- tially verified; and it is sustained by the roughly-estimated ‘“‘‘en-year period” familiar to the old Western pioneers, whose fortunes and interests have made them such close ob- servers and really such excellent philosophers. The oceanic masses on our globe are, of course, the most potential regulators of cli- mate, because their surface is three times as large as that of the combined land masses, and because in their deep waters—@eir Gulf Streams and Kuro Siwos—are the great reservoirs of solar heat and energy. It is easy to see that the mensual or annual variations of heat from cosmical regions would be first made sensible in the torrid zone of the sea, and thence be felt in the higher latitudes, and on the wind- ward sides of the great continents like North America, The windward side of our conti- nent is its western or Pacific side, and this fact may account for the remarkably severe snow storms of the Rocky Mountains this win- ter, which have made their passes impassable even to the iron horse, and blockaded the only transcontinental railway we now have. Itis now, however, known that the narrow and shallowchannel of Behring Straits, which is the gateway of the Kuro Siwo, or hot Japan Gulf Stream, into the Arctic Ocean, becomes gorged with icebergs and frozen solidly across, and to the bottom, in midwinter and March. We are forced, therefore, to the conclusion that the great equatorial stream, denied ad- mittance there, must find its way eastward, and is projected with its sea of warmth over upon the northwestern coasts of America. There is no other circulation possible for the Pacific when Behring Sea is blockaded, and itishighly probable that when the earth is passing under one of these enormous ‘‘cold waves,” as Piazzi Smith designates them, the result is an early and premature closing up of the Behring channel. We may comfort our- selves, therefore, with the conclusion to which these facts lead us, that in the winters of greatest severity our whole continent is tem- pered by the warm water lying to windward of it, dammed up in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands, and having its warmth and vapor drifted by the westerly winds and spread as a mantle of heat over the whole country. During the last cold snap the Heratp showed conclusively that it was not due to the transmission of cold atmosphere from the Rocky Mountains, as the old theory explained such severe spells, but that it was due to the vast current of descending arctic air from the northern part of British America, which had been deflected by the warm southwesterly winds on the Pacific coast crossing the moun- tains and forcing this Polar current to the east side of the British Possessions. The Signal Service reports of the past few days show how well founded this explanation was and perfectly prove its correctness, For sev- eral days previous to the beginning of this cold snap, from which we have fered 80 much, the Rocky Mountains were in the great band of southw esterly equatorial air sweeping across Montana in to the valley of the Saskat- chewan and piling up the Polar current north of Lake Superior, On Wednesday moroing this wave of cold air bad spread over all the Northwest with zero thermometers and was rolling away to the eastward, From Michi- gan to Lake Ontario the surface winds were rapidly rising, with intense cold, and on the icy summit of Mount Washington— lying on the extreme eastern side of the great polar current—the thermometer had fallen to twenty-seven degrees below zero and the wind had already attained the hurricane velocity of one hundred and twenty miles an hour. It is due to the published Signal Service reports, from which those facts are gatherod, to say that their probabilities gave timely notice of this Boreal invasion on Monday. showing the rapld progress it is making in fathoming these wonderful and mysterious phenomena of the atmosphere. We onght by all means to have telegraphic information from the region north and west of Lake Superior to enable General Myer to get the earliest premonitions of the approach of these vast anti-cyclones, which are as important in their results as cyclones from the South, Indeed, without any preten- sion to weather wisdom, and judging only from experlence, we should not hazard much in the prediction that this severe cold spell is the prelude to and the premonitor of a great equinoctial gale, now fully due. The mariner may do well to keep « sharp lookout for it. The Alabama Claims Question in the British Parliament. The subject of the Alsbama Claims bill of the American government, and the Treaty of Washington generally, was brought to the notice of the House of Lords by Earl Derby yesterday evening. His Lordship was anxious to know if the Queen’s government would remain firm in its determination not'to entertain the claim for indirect damages. He referred to the anxiety which prevailed ont of doors on this point, and warned the Ministry that a continuous sacrifice of principle, even for the sake of securing peace, is dangerous. The indepen- dence of the press in commenting on the gen- eral subject was acknowledged completely by the peer, who seemed to regret that the news- papers were permitted tobe ahead of the Parliament in the enjoyment of an opportunity for the exercise of its privilege. He wished to know if Great Britain would appear again be- fore the Geneva Board of Arbitration. Lord Malmesbury supported Earl Derby's position, regretting the government delay in discussing the Treaty of Washington, Lord Westbury was animated in his opposition to the indirect damages claim, and not exactly complimen- tary to the diplomacy of the United States, if his remarks have been reported correctly. The debate terminated without having pro- duced any exact result, Earl Granville refer- ring the oppositionists to the previous state- ments of Mr. Gladstone on the subject. ~The Foreign Secretary alleged, in conclusion, that the Treaty of Washington had been miscon- strued, This declaration may, perbaps, indi- cate the advent of a moment of mutual amica- ble interpretation of its provisions, Substantial Argument for Reducing Taxa- tlou. The customs receipts for the week ending March 9 amounted to $4,373,759, which is at the rate of $227,485,468 a year. They were for the week ending Murch 16 $3,842,404. The average of these two weeks would give, at the same rate throughout the year, $213,620,238. There is little doubt that with the present duties. the income will be at least two hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and thirty millions, for the receipts of the last two weeks are less than‘ the average for the whole year. For the first eight months of the fiscal year—from July 1, 1871, to March 1, 1872, the receipts were $146,721,000. Mr. Sher- maa, in his speech on the financial condition of the country, delivered in the Senate on the 15th of this month, estimates the income from customs at $226,061,500. This exceeds Mr. Boutwell’s estimate by fourteen millions. We think Mr. Sherman's estimate will be less than the receipts. Now, the interest on the debt, considering the principal that has been redeemed, ought not to amount to one hun- dred and fifteen million dollars. We shall have, therefore, from customs duties alone, about a hundred and twelve to a hundred and fifteen millions more than is needed to pay the interest on the debt. This ought to be ample for all the current expenditures of the gov- ernment, exclusive of interest on the debt. A hundred and fifteen millions ought to pay everything and leave a surplus for a sinking fand, under an economical administration. We see, then, that the present receipts from customs are enough, without internal taxes, for all necessities. Who will now say, there- fore, that there is not a large margin both to reduce the tariff and to cut down internal taxation? It is evident the revenue could be safely reduced a hundred millions a year and then leave a large surplus to be applied to the liquidation of the debt, Instead of paring down the taxes, a little here and a little there, which the people would hardly feel, we need a sweeping measure of reform that would cheapen living and production and give new life to trade and commerco, Tur Rartroap AoorpENT on the West Pennsylvania line, which occurred yesterday at Conemaugh Furnace, by which the South- ern express train was wrecked, brings its lessons of warning to railway officials all over the country. The cause, we learn, was a broken rail, and ia the break-up of the winter, with its mountain fresbets, floods and sudden changes of temperature, making rails as brittle as glass, many such causes will call for the most acute attention and prevision. The lives lost in this last catastrophe appear to be only two, which, as three cars appear to have gone over the embankment, we admit to be providentially small, Fourteen other pas- sengers were injured. We have every reason, therefore, to be thankful that a more terrible loss of life is not to be recorded. If the end of the winter necessitates increased pre- cautions on the great rivers, we recommend a similar care by the officers of the railroads in whose hands so many lives are placed bya public that in this age of stir and bustle can- not remain still. Tne Lasor Rerormers, in February last, nominated Judge Davis and Governor Parker as their Presidential ticket; but it appears that neither of these two anxi mea | been officially informed of the bigh distinction conferred upon bim. The Labor Reform Convention, perbaps, forgot to appoint a com- mittee on the subject, and so their nominees may never be informed officially of the action of the Convention, Well, as Mr. ‘Toots would say, “Never mind, it’s of no consequence.” Mr. Sumyzr’s Postrion, from the latest semi-official information concerning it, ap- pears to be this: He will not support Grant for President under any clroumstances; he will not support the labor reform nominations, and he never will swing over to the demo- cratic ticket. As John Randolph once re- marked in Oongress:—‘T' is clear, Mr. Speaker; clear as the ligh whioh ia not very olear,” The Cincinnati Convention—Tho Ameng the Gheop Concoraiag Goate—The Door Closed. There is to be, according to the orizinal call Alarm the from Missonri, a ‘‘National Mass Convention” of liberal republicans “‘in the city of Cincin- nati on the first Monday of May next (the 6th day of the month), at noon, there to take such action as our convictions of duty and public exigencies may require.” thrown out by the HeRAtp to those liberal re- publicans who are in favor of the re-election The suggestion of General Grant to goto Cincinnati and there nominate him for another term has evidently created some alarm among the anti-Grant liberals, and even among the democrats, who are looking to and waiting for this Cincinnati gathering in joyful expectation that it will make a new political kite with which the democratic party may serve as the tail. A hopeful democratic contemporary, assuming, io reference to this Cincinnati project, Prince Bismarck’s position of “benevolent neutral- ity,” gives some benevolent advice on the sub- ject. It shows how by a few simple precau- tions at Cincinnati, such as the hiring of a ball, and the issuing of tickets of admission, and the employment of vigilant partisan detec. tives—such, for instance, as Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz for Missouri, and Fenton and Greeley for New York—they may nicely separate the sheep from the goats, and prevent @ packing of the Convention “‘by the crea- tures and tools of Grant.” These precautions are, indeed, suggested as imperatively necessary; for otherwise Gov- ernor Brown may be served as Sir Charles Dilke was recently served at one of his liberal republican meetings in England, in having the voice of the assemblage turned against him by an overwhelming invasion from the other side, In other words, we are admonished by our benevolent democratic contemporary, that ‘Gf the partisans of the President should fill the hall in which the Cincinnati Convention meets with their own creatures they might nominate Grant by acclamation and make the whole movement ridiculous.” And so they might; but here Mr. Greeley comes: dashing in to the rescue. He warns the federal office- holders that the Philadelphia Coavention is their concern; and he hopes no man will ga into it who bas not made up his mind to give another four years’ lease of power to Grant; that the office-holders have no business at the Cincinnati Convention, that they did not call it, are not invited and are not wanted there. He bows them out by flatly informing them that “they may do as they will at Pailadel- phia, but they cannot have their way at Cin- cinnati.” In fact, it appears that the original call of Governor Brown, which was for ‘ta mass Con- vention” at Cincinnati, at which no vouchers or tickets would be required, has been aban- doned, in consequence of the broad hints thrown out that the Grant republicans were preparing to move upon the enemy’s works and to carry them Ja Fort Donelson. The plan, therefore, of a regular political national Convention has been substituted, and parties applying for admission to a voice in its delibe- rations will be required not only to show their. tickets, but they will each have to pass the inspection of a lynx-syed detective, who can tell at a glance whether the applicant is » sheep or a goat. Mr, Greeley’s instructions to the federal office-holders touching the Cin- cinnati Convention, then, will probably be respected by them, because Greeley and Fenton know all these office-holders in New York, city and State, and how they got in, Tom, Dick and Harry, by getting out or turn- ing off good Fenton and Greeley men, Brown and Schurz, in the same way, are as well posted upon the Missourl office-holders and outside office-seekers, and no doubt there are some outside liberal republicans or old-line democrats in each of all the other States who, as well as Petroleum V. Nasby, can pick out the obnoxious Grant office-holder from the remotest corner or cross-roads post office of the State they represent. Here, then, we draw the line. The Cincin- nati Convention will be an indignation meet- ing of outside republicans in regard to the spoils and plunder of the national administra- tion, and the Philadelphia Convention will be a family love-feast of inside republicans. The democracy expect a satisfactory treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, from Cin- cinnati, because they, too, are outsiders, The great body of the people, curing nothing for the spoils of the federal offices, nor for insiders or outsiders, will settle the question of the next Presidency upon the substantial merits of General Grant’s adminis- tration, Dread of the Bonnpartes ta France. Rumor has it that one of the members of the Murat family, while on bis way from Eng- land to France, quite recently, was arrested at Calais and compelled to return. Count Murat, or Prince Murat, as some will prefer to call him, is a member of the imperial family; and the presumption on the part of the Thiers government that he was bent on some business in connection with the restora- tion of the Bonapartes was not unnataral. If this report proves to be correct it will furnist another and most substantial proof that the Thiers government is painfully sensitive as to the danger which threatens it on the side of the Bonapartes, Nay, more. It seems to im. ply that the danger is not imaginary, but real, MacMahon Is still at the head of the army; and Shy hanges are made ip all directions the French army féitalne substantially what it was under the empire, The general focling is that while MeoMabon might at any mo- ment remove President Thiers, it is not in tha power of President Thiers to dispense with the services of the Commander-in-Chief, Ia, France things are not yet quite as they should be. We ato most anxious to see the republic and take root. But what with the daily executions of Communists, the inexplicable and fraitless coquetting with royalty and the awfal dread of the return of the Bonapartes, we are not encouraged to believe that France has yet found her goal. There must be more sorrow before there is rest, peace and pros. perity. wn = Tue Union or Cruron ann Stare in France and in Great Britain continues to impede the course of beneficial legislation toward the peo- pie of both countries, as will be seen by our cable reporis of the proceedings of the French Legislative Assembly and the English Pur- liament vesterday, *