The New York Herald Newspaper, July 18, 1872, Page 4

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yorn Henatp. Volame XXXVIL.... AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thii - Norke Dame. Afternoon and roniug. Agel OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Vaniery Entzn- FAINMENT. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Mth st. and Broadway.— Tae Voxes Pamty—Tue Weona Man ux tra Ricut Puace. WALLAOK'S THEATRE, Bi ‘Thirtocath LLAOK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteen TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— Exocu Agpex—Rozart Eavert. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowory.—A Wire ron A Dar— Woman's Witt. en ‘ CENTRAL PARK GARDSN.—Ganpen Instauwenta, Concenr. " TERRACE GARDEN, *9th, st., between 3d and Lexing- avs.—Scuxrn EvENing Concents, NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— AND Apr. DR. KAHN'S MUSEUM, No. 745 Brondway.—Axrt and FCIRNcE, SUPPLEMENT. WIT New York, Thursday, Jcly 1 CONTENTS OF TO-DAY'S HERALD, Pace. \ Le-Advertisoments. 2—Advertisements. —The Tammany Trials: Arguments Continued tn the Tweed and Connolly Suits—Judge bar- nard’s Trial: The Court of Impeo Saratoga—Fat Rendering Stopped. y rl City Items—Lold Burglaries—Obituary—Tried by a Jury of His Peers—brooklyn Affairs— Probable Murder—Advertisements. itortals: Leading Article, ‘The President and His Advisers—The Necessity of an Imme- diate Ciange”—Personal Intelligence—The Alabama Claims—News from Washington— Virginia: Senator Wilson and Henry A. Wise in Conference—Charies Sumner's Letter to eee Weather—Amusement Announce Be GeEgypt: The Shooting Affray Between Ameri- cans in the Streets of Alexandria—Speech of Secretary Boutwell at Greensboro, N. 0.— The Indians: Horrible Outrage by Red Devils in Texas—Grant: A HenaLp Correspondent Interview with the President—The Hot Wea- ther—General Banks—Business Notices. G—Agassiz's Expedition: The Scientists in Callao and their Exporienbes of Lite in the Republic of the South—Arrival of President Guardia, President of Costa Rica, in this City—Madame Peschka-Leutner—A Policeman on his Mus- cle—One More Unfortunate—Marriages and Deaths, J—rAdvertisements. 8—Now York Courts—The Greeley Headquarters— Gratz and Brown—The Juvenile Republi- cans—A Talk with Stokes—Dr. Livingstone— Board of Aldermen—Department of Docks— Bumsted’s Successor in Jersey City. Groundiess Charge—Long Island City Ap- Ppolntments--The International Vrison Con- CBS, onthe International Prison Congress (Continued ‘om. piu PRS National Anni- ‘tance! eereeeen versal d' Commercial: A Quiet and Firm Speculation ‘in Gold; The Price Touches the Highest of the Year; Continued Apprehension of a win the Bank of Eng- land Rate; The Gold Pool Temporarily on tho Auxious Set; The Specie Exports Falling or in; Horace Greeley asa “Bull” Infu- ence Upon Southern Bonds; Government Bonds Lower in London and Higher Here; The Relaxation tn Money; Stocks {ntensely Doll, but Firm; Commodore Vanderbilt Agrees to Pay, Under Protest, the Tax on the Scrip Dividend—Amusements—Hydrophobla— Risks on the Southside soe FE Seen Races: Fourth Day of the July Mect- tog; Grand Racing in the Rain and Overa Muddy Track; Fastest Time Ever Made tn America—Trottr at Saratoga—Prospect Park Fair Groan leveland Races—Yacht- ing—Ship) Intelligenco—Advertisements. Tae Auanama Oxarms Ansrrratrox.—Tho members of the Alabama Claims Arbitration Court met in session in Geneva yesterday. They assembled an hour earlier than usual. The diversity of language spoken by the prbitrators causes delay in the proceedings, ps lengthy translations and tedious inter- communications are necessary in consequence. The Court has decided to take up the case of each privateer ship sertatim. The citizens of Geneva are in a state of jubilation, evidently over the prospect of a pretty lengthened stay of a large number of profitable guests among Shem. Tae Rep Devus mw Texas are slaughtering the white inhabitants with impunity, carrying off prisoners and cattle. The peace policy may be very well with Indians surrounded by s cordon of forts and civilization growing up at hand, but on the Toxan border, with Mexico on one hand for escape and the reservations on the other, we believo in tho opinion of General Philip Sheridan that the Indians out thero must be punished severely for their crimes: before more blankets or rations are served out to them. The atrocities wreaked on the inoffensive Lee family, as related in another colunin, will point his argument. Tax Lyrernationat Pnison Conaress.—Our London correspondent furnishes a report, which is published on another page of this morning’s Heraxp, of the business transacted during the first two days’ conferences of the International Prison Congress. The matters discussed, as may be imagined, tended to throw light upon the present prison systems of the different countries represented. The spirit with which tho members of the Con- gress entered upon their work, tho interest which they evinced in the subject, and the sincere desire they have expressed to promote reformation in the treatment of criminals, lead to the hope that the labor they have un- dertaken 0 disinterestedly and philan- thropically will yicld in the near future the best of results. . Tae News rxom tus West Ixpres may be summarized as follows:—The agont of tho New York Associated Press has sent a peti- tion to the Jamaica Legislative Council asking for protection against local pirates. The glorious Fourth was celebrated with a fair show of bunting and the usual enthusiasm by the American residents in Kingston. It is proposed that medical practitionors from all countries shall henceforth be allowed to prac- tise in Jamaica, there being a great scarcity of medical men throughout the colony; mal- . practitioners not wanted. Gas works are to be erected in Kingston; whoever wants to do the “job” at a reasonable price let him apply. The Bishop of Kingston is not satisfied with his salary, and has petitioned tho British gov- ernment for more, but the home authorities have snubbed the petitioncr. The news from Dominica, Barbados and Santa Lucia is not important enough to oxcite special interost. The British government is trying to better the condition of tho coolics in Demeram. An East Indiaman, which lately arrived there from Calcutta, had cholera on board, and thirty-seven coolies died of the epidemic during the voyage. Such is the résumé of our ‘Rew from the West Indies. The President amd His Advisers—The Necessity of bg Immediate Change. Some of the opposition journals are assail- ing General Grant and hig Cabinet for desert- ing their posts at Washington to socek tho pleasures of the seashore or to make stump speeches in North Carolina. We do not be- lieve that any reasonable man can expect or desire that the members of the government should shut themselves up in the White House and the department offices during the entire summer season, with the thermometer close upon one hundred in the shade, and give up the healthful recreations of the country bo- cause they happen to receive a paliry and inadequate salary from the public Treasury. Our political heads require change of air and of scene as well as ordinary citizens, and when they do possess intelligence and capacity their usefulness is enhanced ond their powers im- proved by relaxation and amusoment. If we are to require our highest government officials to become mero drudges and to seryga four years’ term of imprisonment in such an unin- viting city as Washington we should find it difficult to fill the fodoral offices even with as good men as now hold them, and the nominations would go begging instead of being so greedily sought after. Tho indul- gonce in stump oratory on the part of some members of the Cebinot is altogether a differ- ent matter, and may be considered of ques- tionable taste by many consorvative persons; but it is not unprecedented, and is probably excusable at this time in consideration of the exigencies of the case. The opposition to the present administration is duo more to the advisers of the President than to the President himself, and Secretaries Boutwell and Fish, rather than General Grant, may be regarded as on trial before the people. It will be said that the President, as the head of the government, is responsible for the policy of the administra- tion ; and this is unquestionably true. But the American people know that General Grant is neither by habit, inclination nor capacity, a politician, and that he has never been person- ally in sympathy with the policy or principles of his radical supporters. He was chosen as the candidate of the republicans four years ago from motives of expediency, and not as one | of their own stamp, and has quietly suffered his administration to be ruled by them in accordance with thoir views without regard to his own wishes and convictions. Left free to | follow the promptings of his own mind, the President would no doubt have pursued a different financial policy from that growing out of the crotchety brain of a Secretary of the Treasury who has been for three or four years studying political economy at the expense of the United States, and a different foreign policy from that adopted by a Secretary of State who believes that tho chief aim of American diplomacy should be to satisfy moneyed in- terests and gratify foreign governments. Tho American people, therefore, insist upon sepa- rating General Grant from his advisers, and exacting less from him than they would from President taken from the party ranks and well versod in all the tricks of the politicians. Nevertheless the unwise acts of his Cabinet have caused all the troublo and uncertainty of the present campaign, and hence Secretary Boutwell, no doubt, feels himself in honor bound to do all that his ability as a plausible stump speaker will enable him to do in behalf of his chief, although during his absence from his post a dark cloud is gathering over the financial sky and gold is rising with the ther- mometer. So far as President Grant is concerned, he has as perfect a right to smoke his cigar on the beach at Long Branch and to enjoy the races at Monmouth Park, as Horace Greeley has to chop down trees on the Chappaqua farm and to regale his political visitors with ORSDAY, JULY 18, 1872—WITH SUPPLEMENT, nese of purpose and firmness of the successful | without delay vigilance committees may again’ | States Supreme Court’ would be 80 manipu- military chief would guide tho inexperienced civil leader to an unexpected success in his new career. Wo looked to see Cuba free or under the protection of the American flag before another Presidential election should roll round ; to find peace and order established on our border and Mexico shielded by the strong arm of an American protectorate ; to behold England azixious to make amends for her un- friendly action during the rebellion and care- ful to restrain her arrogant spirit before our soldier President. We anticipated that the Southern States would be treated with a soldierly generosity that would speedily restore. happinoss and prosperity to their gallant people, and bring them into the poli- tical contest of 1872 as peaceful, loyal and united as any Northern States in the Union. We thought that the American name would win additional lustre abroad, and that at home the government would be administerod with a simple honesty and an efficiency new to tho politicians, but the natural fruit of a thorough military education. We cannot refrain from contrasiing these rose-colored anticipations with tho reality. We cannot close our eyes to our huiniliation at Geneva, to the unpopularity of our Cuban policy, to the miserable condi- tion into which tho South has been plunged through. the eruel intrigues of political adven- turers, to the general demoralization of tho civil service. The fact that General Grant has not successfully resisted the bad counsel of the politicians of the radical school is unde- niable, and the only recompense he can now make to the country is through ean entire change in his Cabinet, and tho instalment in power of men of greater ability and more honesty of purpose. The Presidont will probably bo told that these concessions to the popular will can better be made after the election than during the can- vass; but will it be safe to delay what the peo- ple demand as an immediate reform? The ex- traordinary efforts now being made to keep North Carolina in line will best answer this question. The people are still willing to trust the General who saved the Union eight years ago, but they will insist that they shall not bo honest politicians who surround him, and who have managed thus far to bend him to their views. Let Grant place himself once more be- fore the people on his own morits, as he stood before them four years ago, and they will honor him ‘how as they did then. But if bo insists upon remaining surrounded by Cabinet min- isters of proved incompetency or mediocre ability; by foreign representatives of the cali- bre of ward politicians; by corrupt office- holders and unscrupulous partisans, there is danger that his own good qualities will be hidden from view. The people know’ that the men who have been powerful at Washing- ton for the past three years will not be likely to loosen their hold upon tho administration should they succeed in securing another tern of office; and hence they will insist that these men shall be turned adrift at once. General Grant should pay no heed, then, to the advice of the interested sycophants by whom he is surrounded. He knows the advice of the Henaxp to be disinterested and sincere, as its support has been independent and unsolicited; and we now tell him that an immediato change in his advisers, a reorganization of his Cabinet that shall insure a generous and just policy towards the Southern States and a ‘more dignified and American attitude towards for- eign nations, can alone avert the imminent danger of defeat in the approaching election. President Grant holds the result in his own hands, but to render it certain he must rid himself at once of tho narrow-minded politi- cians and dangerous adventurers who are cold water from his famous spring. In the case of the President's Cabinet there could be no possible objection to their leaving Wash- ington, provided they were never to re- turn to the national capital as the Presi- dential advisers. Secretaries Fish, Boutwoll and their associates and the President himself must by this time recognize the fact that the people demand some sort of a change at Washington, and that if they cannot obtain it as a concession they are very likely to seoure it in another way. Tho administration may attri- bute the disruption of the republican party and the action of the democracy at Baltimore to an unworthy desire to obtain possession of the spoils ot office; but how can they clear themselves from the suspicion that their un- willingness to make the change insisted upon by the country is attributable to an unworthy desire to hold on to the spoils of office? The cry for a radical reform in the policy of the administration in finances, in our foreign relations, in tho treatment of tho oppressed and outraged South, in civil servico reform, comes from those who have no favors to ask or to expect from the hands of the federal government, as well as from place-hunters and political adventurers, and it will be as well for General Grant to un- derstand this at once. The Herarp has been one of the firmest supporters of his administra- tion in all that has been deserving of support, as it was the first to insist upon his claims to the highest office in the gift of the people. We now tell the President the time has arrived for a change in tho Cabinet that will insure a complete romodelling of tho policy of the federal administration for the next four years, and that it is his duty to respect the popular wish, and to make this concession to a gener- ous people who have honored him in tho past and desire to continue to honor him in the future, When General Grant assumed the duties of the Prosidential office the politicians were astounded and chagrined at his determination to choose his Cabinet for himself, and to make his selections without reference to the opinions of the party leaders. The Henstp maintained the right of the President to exercise this priv- iloge, and applauded the firmness with which he adhered to it. Wo wore gratified to find that the names he put forward for Cabinet positions were not those of the political hacks who had been prominent on tho Washington track for so many years; and while there might have been a lack of established ability and experience in the list it seemed to promise something dif- ferent from the dull, spiritless rontine of Presi- dential policy of which the nation had become weary. We approved General Grant’s action mainly because we believed that it foro- shadowed a new departure and an original, bril- liant American administration of our national Lafinins, We vredicted tbat the honesty. direct- doing their best to destroy his chances of success, " © Trial of Edward 8. Stokes What They Say About It in Eng- land. Our English cousins, who have an open eye always to our shortcomings, have found an opportunity in the Stokes case for sitting in judgment on the whole American people. Commenting on the issue of the trial, the London Times says: —‘‘At the bottom of what. we call this miscarriage of justice is that indif- ference which Americans feel for violent crimes in which both the murderer and the victim are rowdies."’ The London Times has a right to use what language it pleases when speaking of the American or any other people; but if the writer in the London Zimes had been a little better informed ho would not class cither the murderer or tho victim with rowdies, Jim Fisk, the murdered man, was not a repre- sentative American, but he was not a rowdy in the sense in which wo pepe the yord. 4 Rogen Pene vadne 4 it Stokes, the murderer, is nota representative American, but as little is he a rowdy in the proper sense of that word. In so faras the London Times feels and expresses that in this case there has been a miscarriage of justice we agreo with it; butour judgment is based on other and more substantial reasons, It is a libel on the American people to say that they are ‘‘indifferent’’ to the result in this case. It is felt here quite as much as in Eng- land that justice has failed. The American press, which is a fair reflex of the American mind, admits with scarcely an exception that justice has failed; and the American press, speaking for the American people, demands that some such chango be made in the mode of trial as will secure punishment when punish- ment is deserved. What we have said again and again woe must repeat, Our jury system is radically and essentially wrong. A man who has sufficient intelligenco to make a daily newspaper to him a _ necessity can- not be a juror. This state of things has reached o climax; and it may now be regarded as certain that this Stokes trial has so opened the eyes of the American people that a non-intelligent jury is but little likely to trouble us in the future. Out of evil sometimes comes good. Then, again, it is simply absurd to insist that in a murder caso twelve men mustagree. A unanimous verdict must more and more become an impossibility. In Scotland, where the criminal law differs slightly from that of England, the majority of the jury can bring ina verdict. If we cannot adopt tho Scottish system there ought to be no objection on our part to adopt the two- thirds vote. Let the law be so modified that two-thirds of the jury agreeing will be able to bring in verdict, and, unless we greatly mis- take, justice will less frequently miscarry. A change must bo made at once, if lifo is to be |anfe iy this country, If a change ia not mada called upon to trust the incompetent and dis- | spring into existence as necessities of the situation. The Press and the Presidency. Our partisan exchanges throughout the country may be regarded as having quietly settled down into the political faith they are to worship until next November. There were several democratic papers which at first refused to accept the gospel according to Cincinnati and Baltimore as the true democratic doctrine, but they have since yielded to popular clamor or to partnership interests, and are now swing- ing their editorial axcs in harmony with the champion Woodchopper of Chappaqua. Those democratic papers that still wage war upon Greeley are the Chicago Times, Louisville Tedger, the Sag Harbor (L. 1.) Watchman, and, perhaps, two or threo others. The De- troit Free Press succumbed the hardest, yield- ing only under the pressure of a change in its editorial management. The La Crosse Demo- crat (Brick Pomeroy) surrendered only by giving up the ghost absolutely and having reared upon its manes a Liberal Democrat, devoted to the Greeley interest. The Louis- ville Ledger, it is understood, has also abjured its Bourbon and adopted the Greeley faith. Perhaps one or two Grant papers have ‘gone where tho woodbine tyineth’’ ginco o last published record, and a few independent! papers (the Boston Herald and the Baltimore Sun, for example), have declared for Greeley; but, asa general thing, we find the press of the country never so equally balanced, as re- gards circulation, in a Presidential campaign as itisin the present one, with whatever ad- vantage there may be in favor of the coalition under Greeley. Tho Albany Evening Journal (Grant) makes a point in behalf of its candidate by quoting from the Rochester Democrat (Grant) a state- ment to the effect that Mr. A. T. Stewart, of this city, is opposed to Mr. Greeley’s election for the reason that ‘tho financial and com- mercial interests of the country would be un- safo in his hands." The Journal is of opinion that tho “very doubt and uncertainty in- evitably following Mr. Greeley’s election would palsy trade and induatry.’’ There are, however, conflicting opinions on this point; and it would, no doubt, be a good idea for one so familiar with the commercial and financial interests of the country as Mr. Stewart to give public expression to his views in the premises. The Newark Register, touching upon the influence democratic managers had over the nomination of Mr. Greeley at Cincinnati, puts the point very clearly and concistly when it says ‘Greelvy’s name did not have the slightest democratic support at Cincinnati, such pres- sure as there was there from that quarter favoring cither Adams or Davis. Another fact showing the absurdity of this theory is that after the fominations at Cincinnati many of the democratic members of Congress were inclined to look very coldly upon them. It was only after they had gone home and taken counsel of their constituents that they yielded to the great popular pressure which insisted upon a reunion of the North and South.”’ Tho Macon (Ga.) Messenger takes a similar view of the case, and avers that the Greeley movement “took an organized form only seventy days ago, and yet to-day it holds that gigantic Grant despotism by the collar, and, in spite of all its affected ridicule, it is shivering in the grasp in conscious terror of impending doom."’ The Philadelphia Press (Grant) declares that President Grant is from ten to twenty thousand stronger in Pennsylvania than the republican party, and insists that while the October election may go against the republican State ticket, everything is all right for Grant in November following. Don’t know about that. The Pennsylvania State October election, following that in North Carolina, and espe- cially that in Maine, is a very pointed indica- tion of the way the State will swing at the Presidential election. The Philadelphia North American believes Grant ‘can go over the political course in No- vember under a strong pull.” The Age (Grocley) also thinks he can, ‘‘on paper;’’ “but,” adds the Age, “when public feeling in reference to his administration is carefully canvassed, it becomes very apparent that it will need a heavy application of the whip and spur to keep the administration nag up to the shoulders of the racer of Chappaqua.’’ The Selma (Ala.) Times says it did not love Hornce Greeley, but on the issues of the hour “he is as unexceptionablo as any man of the North who would have tho least show of an election.” Tho Times belioves that Greeley will be elected, and that his clection will be the dawn of a return, to genuine peace and prosperity to the whole land. The Albany Journal (Grant) régards the division of parties as sharp and unmistakable. “Tf we look to personal fitness,"’ it says, ‘we find Grant the superior of Greeley. If we look for the assurance of steady and prudent ad- ministration, we find it in Grant and not in Greeley. If wo look to the elements which constitute their support and shape the ten- dency of their rule, wo find behind Grant those which have saved the country and be- hind Greeley those which have sought to de- stroy it.”’ Tho Georgia Constitutionalist (Greeley), ro- ferring to ‘“‘the tremendous popular upheaval,’”” says it ‘has jostled people and politicians out of their old lines of thought;’’ but it believes the main result is a settled conviction among the people that the “best practical thing for the restoration of peace, harmony and pros- perity to our Stato and section will be the election of Horace Greeley to the Presidency.”’ Referring to the colored race and the position of Mr. Sumner, the Boston Advertiser (whilom { the organ of the Massachussetts Senator) do- clares that Mr. Sumner is the last man living who could afford to put himself jn antagonism with the colored people. ‘He knows very well,” adds the Advertiser, ‘that ninety-nine freedmen in every hundred are republicans to the backbone. To them the republican party is the party of freedom in a sense grandly .of the Darwinian theory of animal life. lated, under Chief Justice Chase and a possible majority in Congress, as to ignore the four- teenth amendment to the constitution. The Post considers it not an ‘imaginary danger.”” In retiring from the editorial control of the Detroit Free Press (old democratic stand-by), Colonel Freeman Norvell, the former anti- Greeley editor, says: — The parties now in control of the paper differ with me in my opinions, and as the action of the Convention has left everything in the democratic pace to the individual judgment of tts members, I We no right o pores now to criticize their judg- ment In the conduct of their politics any more in the conduct of their property. 7 Wat The views of the present proprietors of the Free Press in hoisting the Greeley flag are: — That the only hope of the country is the defeat of the republican party in the ensuing contest; that the Convention of the democracy, r a deliberate survey of the whole field, having determined that Greeley and Brown shonld be the standard bearers of the democracy in this contest, it is the duty of the whole body of the democracy and of all demo- cratic organs to give to those candidates @ hearty and loyal fee Henceforward the course of the Free Press will be tn accord with these views of its proprietors, and in the campaign now ope git will be found, as tt has been found in all previ us campaigns, render: Whoie-hearted and faith- ful service in the cause of conservative principles and the democratic The Agassiz Scientific Exploring Ex- pedition, ean “ Our special writer attached to the Agassiz exploring expedition continues, under date of Callao, Peru, the Henny special report of the progress of the work. His present communi- cation, which appears in our columns to-day, “is one of the most interesting of the series. It recalls to memory what the South American countries wero in the days of their material greatness under the royal rule of Spain, and presents them as they are under the régime of the democracy. The change is indeed remark- able; but, although its consequences show, here and there, marks of the violence with which it was accomplished, the evidence is all in favor of the democratic system of progressive advance. Nature alone remains ynaltered, with charity, hor first and most saving attri- bute, brilliant as at the beginning, as will be seen from the description which is given of the extent and interior management of one of the great hospitals of Peru. The new light which is shed on the cause of science—in zoology and topography particu- larly—is of great value in the matter of public instruction, even although it is refracted to some extent by being passed through the lens Our correspondent returned to Panama from his tour in and around the Galapagos Islands. The Department of Docks—General McClellan’s Plans of Improvement. ‘The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund held a meeting yesterday at the office of General McClellan, by whom the plans were submitted for inspection which he proposes for the im- provement of the dock and bulkhead system of the river front of the city. Commissioner Green was not prepared to commit himself to those plans, and they were laid over to the next meeting of the Board. The consideration of a motion by Mayor Hall for the issue of one million five hundred thousand dollars of Dock bonds, upon which to raise a fund for the beginning of these water front improve- ments in accordance with General McOlellan’s plans was also postponed to the next meeting of the Commissioners. But here we have at least a movement which looks like business in reference to these im- portant improvements proposed by General McClellan. We have heretofore some- thing of the details of the General's plans for @ complete overhauling and reconstruction of the bulkheads, piers, &c., of the water front on both sides of the city. To these plang into execution an immense sum of money will be needed; but when completed, or but partially completed, our merchants and citi- zens generally will, we are sure, be satisfied that no public appropriations fot any public improvement will compare as a good invest- ment with the moneys invested in this great work undertaken by General McOlellan. He says that if the department will farnish him the sum proposed by Mayor Hall (one million five hundred thousand dollars) for o begin- ning, he will show before the Ist of next Jan- uary that the mogey has been well spent, and we have no doubt that the General, if given the opportunity, will make good his promise. We hope, therefore, that at the next meeting of the Sinking Fund Commissioners the mo-" tion of Mayor Hall will be adopted; for, surely, the commerce of the city has been waiting long enough for a beginning in these much- needed improvements. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. ee Assistant Postmaster Genefal G. W. McClellan is at the Astor House. General A. Grant, of Washington, has arrived at the Grand Central Hotel. General J. L. Neagle, of Sonth Carolina, ia among yeaterday’s arrivals at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Judge H.C. Dibble, of New Orleans, is stopping at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. General Esty, of Washington, has arrtved at the Astor House. His Excellency General Tomas Guardia, Provi- sional President of Costa Rica, yesterday arrived, by steamer, with a number of other gentlemen istingutshed in their military or civil connections. The party 1s now at the Brevoort House. The Emperor William has contribuced from his private purse the sum of 100 twenty-mark pieces for the relief of tne sufferers from the inundation in Bohemia. Bismarck’s retirement from Berlin does not con- duce to his rest from public cares. Durlug his ab- sence at Vargin courters are almost constantly running from Berlin with despatches to him, and the telegraph fs in continrfal reqnisition. ‘The King of Bavaria has lately narrowly escaped drowning. While atone on the Kochelser, one of the upper Bavarian lakes, his boat was upset. He, however, mandged to support himsel{ until reacued by witnesses of his disaster. A Spanish envoy has returned from Siam who has concluded a treaty of commerce and alliance with the King of that country, and brought from bim an autograph letter conferring the decoration of the White Elephant on the King of Spain. The Emperor Alexander of Russia, while on his yate tour, caused the first Salute to be given to the Russian fag on the Black Sea that has been fired on its waters during his reign. Afterward, in the harbor of Odessa, he received the officers of the now Black Sea fect, and said to them:—"I have now seen with my own eyes the commencement of the regeneration of the Black Sea feet. May God grant that simultaneously with literal, and they will not desert it for any other, least of all for one which has inherited the traditions of the slave-holding democracy, and is fighting once more for political ascendancy with cunning and energy imspired by a long experience of defeat and despair.’ Suppose the present Presidential contest should be made a war at the ballot box between races, which would win, white or black ? The Detroit Post (Grant) imagines a case wherein, if Greeley ba elected, tho United its regeneration will also be revived that spirtt bravery which has always been charactertstic of the Black Sea fleet, and of which Russia was 60 proud.” » Major General Mott, formerly of our army, bat now Major General of the Egyptian Army and ‘Aide-de-Camp to the Viceroy, is on a visit to this conntry, and was presented at Washington to Seo- retary Belknap yesterday by Acting Secretary Richardson. General Mott ts virtually Minister of War of the Egyptian government. Ho returns to Egypt in the course of a few months ‘with 4 Aon of the Viceroy, Lf THE ALABAMA CLAIMS.\* The Geneva Arbitration Court in Session Yeater- day—Diversity of Language a Cause Delay—The Course of Procecding Decided—Swiss Citizen Jubilation. TELEGRAM TO TWE NEW YORK HERALD. * GENEVA, July 17, 1972, The Board of Arbitration asse: o-day hour earlier than usual. sorrel 3 The proceedings are somewhat delayed in conse- quence of the difference of the languages spokew by the members of the Court, which renders tedious translations and explanations necessary. But all preliminaries have been settled, and the Board hag finally decided to take up the case of each stip servatim. Professor Montagu-Bernard arrived to-day. CITIZEN JUBILATION. The roofs and balconies of the hote!s are again decorated with fags and streamers. WASHINGTON. WAsHINGTON, July 17, 1872. The Yew York Central and the Scrip Dividend Tax. Mr. Fairfield, the attorney, and Mr. Worcester, the treasuret of the New York Central Raitroad Company, called upon Assistant Secretary Richard- son and Commissioner Douglas this morning, in relation to the scrip dividend tax, amounting to nearly half @ million of dollars. The representatives of the company want the department to bring suit for the recovery of the money instead of collecting {t by summary process, They wero informed that the department could not assent to that proposi- tion, but that if they would deposit United States bonds to the amount of the tax claimed, they might bring sult against the Collector at Albany, Just as if the money had been obtained by distraint of the company’s property, and promising that on the trial the department would interpose no techni- cal objection that the money had not been raised by distraint. This position of the department is with a view to facilitate an action in the premises. The representatives of the company will return to New York without delay, and have promised a re- sponse in a few days. The New Tarif Law and tho Merchants. The Secretary of the Treasury has received a large number of letters from leading New York merchants, asking for decisions on questions likely to arise under the new Tariff act, which goes into Operation on the 1st of August. He positively de- clines to give any opinion upon hypothetical cases, and says that merchants must await actual contact with the law before presenting auch questions for the consideration of the department. Tho Steamboat Inspection Law. Supervising Inspector General Nimmo leaves here to-morrow for New Yo@and Boston, to ex- amine into the workings of the Steamboat In- spection law. A Cavalier for Grant. Philip Ciayton, who was Assistant Secretary ov the Treasury under Buchanan, and who frequentiy declared that the sooner this government was broken up the better it would be for the people of the South, not only supports Grant for re-election, but is prosecuting some claims before thé Post Office Department for mail contracts in Georgia for money due at the breaking out of the rebellion. An Old-Time Duel in Prospect. It 1s reported here that a personal misunder- standing has arisen between Senator Poole, of North Carolina, and the democratic candidate for, Governor in that State, and that Merriman has in- timated his readincss to fight Poole. The Senator is regarded as acrack shot and never declined a challenge. A Gold Bank at Sacramento. Tho Comptroller of the Currency to-day author- ized the organization of a gold bank at Sacramento, Cal, witha capital of $300,000. The President is D. 0. Mills, who ig also President of the Bank of California, Exemption of Shipbuilding Materials. ‘The Treasury regulation of June 20 concerning the exemption from duty of imported materials going into tho construction or repair of vessols will be 80 Modified as to require the payment of duty on hemp and Manila cordage, iron ba copper and c positon. sheathing upon thelr entry; and when ft shall be shown that such articles have been manwactured into materials going into the con- struction or repair of American vessels the duty paid will be refunded. VIRGINIA. ee Senator Wilson and Henry A. Wise in Conference—Wise Refuses an Invitation to Address a Grant and Wilson Meet- ing at Alexandria—The Correspondence. RICHMOND, July 17, 1872, Henry A. Wise and Senator Henry Wilson had a long conversation yesterday together, seated by themselves on one of the stone seats in the Capitol square. The whole city was excited over it, but no portion of their conversation has transpired. There was a conference last night between the democrats opposed to Greeley and Brown and the republicans, at which Lyons, Mosby and Gilmer were present, but nothing has transpired. The following correspondence has taken plac? between General H. A. Wise and @ committee of Alexandria republicans :— AN INVITATION TO WISE. ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15, 1972, Benry A. Wise, Richmond, Va. :— DEaR Sir—On behalf of the Committee of Ar rangements I take pleasure in laviting you to ad- dress a Grant and Wilson ratification meeting to be held in Alexandria on Thursday evening, ny 18 Several speakers are expected to address thi meeting, and we snould be much gratified to add the name of go distinguished an individual as your- self to the list. Very respectfully, yours, E. E. WHITE, WISE'S POLITE REFUSAL. Pn RucumonD, Va., July 16, 1872. . E, WHITE : : DEAR StR—I have the honor to acknowledge the compliment of yours of the 15th inst., and while L cannot accept the invitation of your committee E. can but express gratification at this manifestation of amicable feeling. It is entirel; unfit for me to act wit al tical party at the present time and in the’ resent attitude of affairs. This [have said, that cannot and will not act or vote with the so-called Uberal republicans, They are tco liberal; they are 80 loose as to have no principles, and to adopt the worst as well as the best, to siit birds of eve feather met together at both Cinginnatt and Balti. more, They have tn st e confusion mingled white spirits and gray, so that the worst ol mongrels, and gil things to all men. oul have patriotic word to say—excel the {inerat Tepublicang, Be just and true republicans to yourselves and to all men. The time come for aay ane % Lg us thd peace. Very respect ‘our obedicnt servant, beatae HENRY A. WISB. A conference of several prominent, straight out democrats was held to-day with the alleged pur- pose of forming a coalition against Greeley and stump the State for Grant. OHARLES SUMNER'S LETTER TO REAVIS. Sr. Louis, July 17, 1872. It appears that the letter from Charles Sumner to 1. U. Reavis, of this city, telegraphed from here last Saturday night, and published in the Times of this city on Sunday, was garbled by leaving out the two closing sentences, The full letter is as fol- WS eg WASHINGTON, June 27, 1972. L,_U, REAVIa DEAR Sin—I think that on reflection yon w not think it advisable for me to write a public let- ter on the matter to which you call attention. Mr. Greeley and myself have been fellow-laborers in many unk, 'e were born tu the same year, and Thonor him very much, Between and anoshor person, who shall be nameless, f am for him ear- ba A T shall be here for ton a longer, Tho repul ope party ge! be pik and what I can do shall be done for it, Very truly, yours, > CHARLES SUMNER, THE WEATHER, Wak DBPARTMEN" Orrice OF THe Cine SIGNAL OrriceRr, Wasulxarton, D. C., July 18—1 A. M. Propaviltties, Southwest winds, with more numerous local storms, ara probable for Thursday in tho Southern States; westerly winds, with cloudy weather, over the Ohio Valley, clearing away on jursday night; rising barometer and cooler wea- ther prot over the lakes; the area of high barometer continue over Northern New England, with Simintshed easterly winds, ‘| {