The New York Herald Newspaper, August 25, 1872, Page 6

INEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, peli aA es Letters and packages should be properly AMUSEMENTS TO-MORROW EVENING. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—A Trip to Wituiams- ‘BURG—SHIN Fane, ‘WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtieth st.— 2 Octoroon, Afternoon and Evening. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker sta —A Lirx’s Dexan, &0. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street —Biux Brarp. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st. and Eighth @v.—Roi Carrots. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Twenty-third street, corner Sixth avenue.—Tux Brits; ox, Tux Pouisu Jew. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway. —Ermiortan Ec- jceNTRICITIAG, BURLESQUE, Drama, WHITE'S ATHENEUM, 585 Broadway.—Necro Mry- jeTRELay, &c. BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st., corner Oth av.—NeaRo Minstreisy, Hocentkiciry, &c. ST. JAMES THEATRE, corner of 28th st. and Broad- ‘way.—San Fuancisco Minstees iN Pance, &c, CENTRAL PARK GARDEN.—Grano LwstrumentTaL Concent, PAVILION, No. 688 Broadway, near Fourth street.— Guanp Concert. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— erunce anv Art. ( New York, Sunday, August 25, 1872. i 5 MONTENTS OF TO-DAY'S HERALD. \Pacr. 1—Advertisements. 2—Advertisements. . S—Mysteries of Fort Hill: Ghosts in Possession of @ Part of Long Island One Hundred Years; Terror of the Old Farmers and High Times Among the Spirits; First Bloody Tradition of Hig [njun ‘Tecumwah; The Fatal Loves of a British cape and) an = In- dian Girl; The ay the Ghosts Ku Kluxed a New York Poet; How Yoor Pat McCave’s Hair Turned White; ‘The Brave Lady That Built Fort Hill House; How the Jesuits Fought the Ghosts and Won the Victory—Hospitals in New York: Four New Institutions Buiiding; The Pavilion System Generally Adopted; Philanthropy and Liberality of Our Citizens; Princely wire of Mr. James Lenox—Chambers and Edwards— Fire in the Olympic Theatre—Yachting—Acci- dent to an Actress—Sam Weller’s Advice Un- heeded—Pacific Coast—Nava! Intelligence. 4—Religious: Programme of Church Services To- Day; The HERALD's Theological Correspond- ence; Defence of the Doctrine of the Immor- tality of the Soul; The English Positivists’ Denial of the Emcacy of Prayer; A Mongolian Praying Machine Described; Swedenborg the Only Reliable Expositor of Spiritualism; Min- isterial Movements at Mome and Abroad—The Case ot Mr. Dungee—A Case of Matricide— anleged Cruelty to Sailors. S—New York: Rural Sages Reviewing Sumzer’s Speech; Arguments of the Village Throng; The Quakers of Quaker Street Declare Them- selves for Grant; The Old Men for Greeley; x Men Against Him; Greeley in the e of Chappaqua on the Labor he Political Headquarters—Chas. . Loew’s First Card—State and City Politics: A Review of the Political Field; The Utica and Syracuse State Tickets Contrasted ; The Demo- cratic-Grecley-Republican State Nominations; The City and County Elections; The Mayor- alty and the Candidates; Ex-Sheriff James ‘O'Brien and Ex-Sheriff John Kelly; The Court Vacancies ; The Congresstonal aud Legislative Contests—The Jersey Bourbon Democracy: Election of Delegates to Louisville—How the Fourteenth Saturday Concert at Prospect Park Passed Oft—Cricketing in Canada—A Jersey Policeman Attempts suicide. : ®—Editoriais: Leading Article, “The Reform Movement and the Political Conventions— The Opportunity of the Opposition” —Amuse- ment Announcements, J—Editorials (Continued from Sixth Page)—Cable Telegrams from Spain, France, Germany, England, Ireland and Switzerland—News from Cuba, St. Domingo, Hayti and Vene- zuela—The “Bolters” Convention in South Carolina—The West Virginia Election—Judge Church's Ultimatum—Sioux in War Paint—A Coiliery Expiosion—News from Washington— Literary Neeplecoh aryietaet Intelligence— Miscellaneous Telegrams—Business Notices. 8—-A Dying Corporation: A Career That Has Never Given Satisfaction to Anybody; Last Moment of the Staten Island Raflroad aad Ferry Com- pany—Long Branch: The Gay Season at Its Fretznts How the Belles While Away the Time; Scenes in the Hotels, on the Beach and in the Water—Sandwich Islands: Christian Mission- ary Erfort Impeded—New York City News— The Frigate Numancia—Fatalities in West- chester—Gallant Tom Willlams—Forgery in Jersey City—Marriages and Deaths, g—vinanclal and Commercial: A Steadier but Mod- erately Active Money Market; The Rate on Call Just Four Per Cent; The Bank Statement Unfavoranle on a Strict Analysis; Its Features Capable of Better Interpretation; A Rattiing | Decline in Gold; the Price “Of” Yo 1125; Progress of the Speculative “Swinging Around the Circle ;” Further Prose‘ytism in the Gold Room; Rapid Advance and Active Movement in Foreign Lopes t Stocks Dull and Firm; Erie Unsettied and Weak; The Imports of the Week—The Jersey Birmingham—Brooklyn Affairs—Immoral Publications—Jefferson Mar- ket Police Court—Guilty Burglars Caged—Fire in Trenton—Advertisements, 10—Our Union Jack Abroad: ‘The Honors to the United States Fiect in British Waters; The Visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the Fleet; Reception on Board the Flagship— | Shipping Intelligence—Advertisements. W—Advertisements. 12—Advertisements. Tue Feature or roe Werx in Wall street was the decline in gold, which went off to 112%, or three per cent lower than it was ®@ few weeks ago. The money market was unsettled, and, after advancing to seven per cent, declined to three per cent, closing pretty active at four per cent. ot atu ee ee wie ST Mr. Cuantes O'Conok AND THE SrRatont- out Farce.—It is reported on good authority that Mr. Charles O’Conor has addressed a letter to the Louisville Convention of “straight-outs,’’ prohibiting the use of his name by them for the Presidential or any other office. Mr. O'Conor states that ‘the fee simple of the world’ would not induce him to accept the nomination. This certainly is emphatic enough, and while it does credit to Mr. O'Conor’s sense, it obliges the side show to look elsewhere for a figurehead. Where will they find one? We suspect every reputa- ‘ble citizen will, like Mr. O'Conor, decline to lend his name for so useless a purpose as that proposed by the Duncanites. Under these cir- -eumstances we do not see how the straight- outs can do better than to nominate Blanton Duncan himself, unless, indeed, they could in- duce George Francis Train to accept the head of their ticket, with the gallant Kentucky Col- onel as his second. _ —The elections for Tur Srantsy Exot members of the Spanish Cortes were held | The citizen political contests The returns had not been yesterday. passed off quietly. weceiyed in lvid. when our news despatch | i Ae weaniee = iki Genie Was forwitded in the evening. The indica- tions are that the opinion of the country has been pronounced in favor of the new royalism, and that the people have strengthened the hands of His } Amadeus, and of his ministry, by a vote upproving of the policy of ihe government. ‘The King, accompanied by ‘his wife, returned to Madrid from their tour in the northern provinces just subseqnent to the close of the polls—a bappy coincidence under the circumstances; one which will be accopted as a sort of formal recrowning of the Jpaonarchical edifice ig Spain. ; NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 1872.—TRIPLE SHEET, ‘The Reform Movement and the Po- litical Conventions=The Opportunity of the Opposition. While the attention of the politicians has been concentrated on the Presidential contest ever since the liberal republicans at Cincin- nati sounded the first note of the campaign, the quiet, undemonstrative voters, who last year inaugurated in this State the great move- ment against official and political corruption, have not lost sight of the important question of reform. Last November they made their power felt at the polls by overthrowing in a day an organization whose strength had been the growth of years, Their ballots drove from office the men who had betrayed their trusts, and elected in their stead the candidates of a party pledged to the cause of reform. The revolution was thorough. In the city of New York, democratic by seventy thousand, the republican Register was successful by nearly thirly thousand majority, and in the State the entire republican ticket was elected by “twenty . thousand majority. Mr. Charles O'’Conor’s timely letter, re- minding the people that honest legislation must lie at the foundation of real reform, was not without its effect; and in order to insure such laws as would secure the fruits of the victory won at the ballot box the reform | vote gave the republicans twenty-five State Senators out of thirty-two and ninety-seven Assemblymen out of one hundred and twenty- eight. This large majority—over three- fourths in each house of the Legislature—was designed to place in the hands of the repub- licans the full power of controlling legislation against any opposition, and of overriding, if necessary, the veto of a democratic Executive. In New York city the strongest logislatiy i: candidates - the old ring werd et aiey Only one escaped. William M. Tweed, to the disgrace of the city, was re-elected to the State Senate, and the otherwise gratifying victory was felt to have been incomplete. But the honor of the metropolis was to be vindi- cated. The people were assured that the re- publican Senators would save.the good name of the State by promptly expelling the Tam- many leader from their circle. The failure of the republicans to redeem the pledges made by the party before election is notorious, and it is not necessary to detail the shameless frauds and corruptions of the last Legislature. They have already been exposed by one of the few conscientious mem- bers of the most depraved body that ever con- vened in the State Capitol. In the hands of the lobby from the first hour of the session, seeking to sell their votes on every question that came before them, they rejected almost every reform measure that was proposed and ad- journed covered with infamy. As the republican party was responsible for this depraved Legis- lature, it was reasonably expected that the Republican State Convention would have repudiated and denounced its members and have called upon the republican Senators who hold over next year to resign their seats and suffer the people to elect a new Senate with the new House of Assembly. This expectation was not ful- filled. No word of condemnation was uttered against the men who had betrayed the cause of reform and sunk the State Capitol deeper than it had ever been sunk before in the mire of corruption. Indeed, the Legislature of last Winter was honored in the Utica Convention. ‘as in words, can the Greeley party in this One of the Senators was the most prominent candidate for the office of Governor, and would have been the nominee but for the mine sprung under his feet by the father of the lobby, Thurlow Weed, while notorious Assem- blymen and lobbyists figured prominently in the proceedings. This was the blunder of the Utica Convention; for the reform movement still lives, and the men who won the victory of last Fall have not forgotten the treachery of the politicians who betrayed them after that event- ful election. The least the republican party could have done would have been to de- nounce the legislation of last Winter at Al- bany, and wash their hands of its corruptions. Such action would have strengthened their ticket more than all the bids they could make for democratic and negro support. The Siamese Twins conventions of demo- nee is not an old political hack, already broken down in the service of office-seeking, or one whose antecedents will be calculated to revive the dead issues and the sleeping enmi- ties of the past. If the Greeley unionists are prudent on these points they may make a suc- cessful fight in the State, in defiance of any opposing combinations in this city. The municipal and legislative nominations will yet remain to be made by both parties, and to these the attention of the people will be specially directed. We warn both repub- licans and opposition that it will not do to place a single tainted or suspected name on an Assembly ticket, and the wisest policy to be pursued by all parties will be to reject every candidate who was at Albany last Winter. The people are now more than ever convinced of the necessity of electing honest men to the State Legislature if they desire a thorough reform in the municipal government, and they will not again suffer the character of the State to be blackened by the foulness of the State Capitol. Wherever a citizen of established integrity is opposed by a candidate of ques- tionable honesty the people will vote for the former without regard to politics. If cither party would adopt the principle of placing the name of a prominent business man of wealth and position upon every legislative ticket it would sweep the State like a whirlwind. The democrats in this city and in Brooklyn, trusting to their overpowering majorities in some of the Assembly districts, have been in the habit of running and electing candidates whose names are familiar in all legislative jobs. The experience of last year will probably teach them that they can no longer adopt such a policy ; but, even pene they be ptrong endtigh to elect such can, tes in “particular districts, they must remember that their nomination is a serious damage to the whole of the ticket all over the State. In the selection of a candidate for Mayor similar caution is necessary. The people of New York desire solid and lasting reform, joined with enterprise, energy and liberality in thé admin- istration of their municipal affairs, They will demand of the next Legislature a plain, prac- tical charter for the city, giving power to an honest Mayor to make an efficient government and leaving ample scope for the prosecution of all desirable works of public improvement. Itis proper that a competent and upright Chief Magistrate should be entrusted with the work of reorganizing the government under the new law, and hence the importance of the present contest for the Mayoralty. We refer else- where to the candidates most prominently mentioned for this office, and among them will be found names that commend them- selves to the favor of the friends of progress and reform. It matters not on what tickets or through what political combinations the candi- dates may be placed before the people; the silent vote of the city will be cast independ- ently of the politicians, as it was last Novem- ber, and the best man will win. The Western Indians—The Sioux on the ‘Warpath. From a special despatch, dated at the cross- ing of James River, in Dakotah, on the 22d, it appears that actual Indian hostilities exist along the proposed line of the Northern Pacific railway. A military force, assigned to the duty of escorting the surveying party en, in selecting and designating the route between the Red River of the North and the Upper Missouri, was, on the 19th, attacked by a band of Sioux, the tribe of our recent visitor Spotted Tail, who on all sides menaced the expedition. Of course discipline, science and good arms were more than a match for Indian ferocity and savage courage. As is the universal rule, the red men paid the penalty of their temerity by defeat, with considerable slaughter, while our forces were not seriously harmed. There may be more of the bloody work. If so the results will be the same in kind, with varying details. Civilization is too strong for barbar- ism; its westward march is irresistible, and whatever opposes it will be ground to pow- der. Not only in Dakotah are there mutterings of Indian trouble; Utah and New Mexico present similar scenes. The Utes protest against white encroachment and crats and liberal republicans are to meet at Syracuse on the 4th of September, and it is probable that they will profit by the omissions of the regular republicans and will enter the field as the reform party of 1871. This is their opportunity, and if they avail them- selves of it it will strengthen them greatly in the State. The liberal convention in especial should guard jealously against the attendance of any tainted member of the exist- ing Legislature as a delegate, and should not suffer the name of a republican Senator or Assemblyman to be mentioned for any office. The resolutions should speak out plainly fn denunciation of the Albany corrup- tions, regardless of persons, and should de- clare against the renomination of any of the present Assemblymen in a single district of the State. The infamy of the State Capitol attaches to democrats as well os to repub- licans, although the latter had the power of legislation entirely in their hands, and no political considerations should be suffered to silence the voice of the Convention on the subject. No member of the Legislature whose record is not unassailable should be sent os o delegate to either body, or be admitted to a seat if sent. Only by an entire repudiation of the Albany corruptionists, in practice o8 well State benefit by the blunder of the Republican Convention in virtually endorsing the in- famous Legislature of last Winter. It will not do, however, for the Syracuse double-headed Conventions to content them- selves with a verbal condemnation of the bogus reformers, although they have two tongues to wag in denunciation. The people are suspicious of platforms unless backed up | by men whose names are a guarantee that they will carry out faithfully the pledges upon which they are elected. Several names are now mentioned in connection with the office | | of Governor, and we give elsowhere in the Heratp to-day a graphic account of the gossip and schemes of the politicians in | regard to the nominations. Judge Church has declined to run; but for the good of the cause it will be well if he cau be indaced to recon- | sider that determination, His nomination would be accepted as a guaran | reform and would give character to the ticket. | There are of course other good names men- ask relief in the State of the Latter Day Saints, while further south Lone Wolf howls for the enlargement of Santanna, imprisoned for murder, and demands the restitution to his unruly band of Kioways of all the territory between the Missouri and the Rio Grande del Norte, a tract six to eight hundred miles wide. If these conditions are complied with the prowling Chief of the Kioways will promise peace with his white brothers. Our railroads and telegraphs are fast erasing from the map the “Great American Desert,’’ which for centuries sustained herds of count- less buffaloes and furnished food for the Indian hunters. White settlers and hunters with plough and rifle every year circumscribe the buffalo range and curtail their numbers; and it is rapidly becoming to the Indians a ques- tion whether they will quit predatory life and the chase, go to work like white men, or starve. Their accustomed food disappears. Unwilling to work and ignorant of the methods of industrious life, they are naturally perplexed and quarrelsome. In every encoun- ter with our forces they are defeated. Govern- ment offers them’ reservations where they may be protected from encroachment, and where, if they will work, they may live in peace and plenty. But it is hard to teach the wild men the way of civilization. Radicalism in South Carolina—A Frightful State of Things. Our despatches from Columbia, South Caro- lina, show that the State is in as bad a condi- tion politically as it is financially, if not ina worse. It has been plundered in the most barefaced way by the carpet-bag rascals and their negro allies, and a debt has been piled up that staggers the people by its weight. There is nothing comparable in the history of this country to the flagrant robbery and abuse of power by the radical authoritics there. And now, when the time had come that the respectable portion of the community hoped to find a remedy for the evil through the regu- in the State. So outrageous was the conduct House to save themselves from serious per- were raised over the shoulders of members, ready to strike, and bedlam seemed to be let loose. . It is really a wonder there was not o general riot and much bloodshed. James L. Orr, United States Senator Sawyer, District Attorney Corbin, and others finally called a separate Convention; but they represent only a minority or faction of the party. The majority appear to go with the carpet-bag plunderers. This is the old story of negro government. History is repeated. Wherever the negroes have attained the ascendancy or the balance of power in any country there everything has gone to chaos andruin. It was so in Hayti, in St. Domingo, in Vene- zuela, and in all other countries where the blacks having political power have outnumbered tho - whites, or where a few knavish whites have used the blacks to ride into power. This should be a solemn lesson for us, but it seems our Politicians will not heed the teaching of his- tory. Unless the radical republican party be split asunder and a part of the negroes should have the good sense to go with tho conserva- tive and more respectable portion in South Carolina, the State must remain in a most hopeless condition. Camp Meeting Eccentricitics, It has never been our good or bad fortune to have witnessed an Indian war dance, but from what we have read and heard of such scenes, and from what we have seen and heard. at Methodist camp meetings, we should judge that there is not much difference between the two, especially when the latter becomes in- tensely excited. Aso means of social Chris- tian enjoyment undoubtedly camp meetings have their advantages, not only for Methodists, but for all other denominations of Christians; but as a means of promoting spiritual growth they have, like many other means, outlived their usefulness, and have now degenerated into huge land speculations, whereby a chosen few make money at the expense of the many who are called but not chosen. Viewing camp meetings cither in their social or in their re- ligious aspects we have never been able to comprehend why such unlimited license of word and deed should be granted to dwellers in the tented grove which would not be allowed nor be expected in the private dwelling or in the church. We cannot see the propriety of a score or a hundred men and women jump- ing upon the seats ina church as politicians do at mass meetings, and shoyting ‘‘Hurrah for Jesus,”’ and clapping hands and falling on each others’ shoulders and necks and bellowing like maniacs let loose from bedlam. Andifthere is no propriety in acting thus ina church, by what law and under the operation of what principle of physics or of morals is it permis- sible in a grove church? The ‘Apostle Paul must have had some experience with highly emotional churches in his day, else he never would have written to the Corinthians as he did, cautioning them against all talking at once. He recommends the Christian breth- ren when assembled together to prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be comforted, and he ferestalls the objections of ‘good old songs of Wesley and Cowper, and. lar Convention of the dominant party and a change of rulers, the robbers have over- | whelmed the reformers. By pistols, bribery and vociferous clamor they nominated | a most unscrupulous batch of plun- derers for all tho highest — offices some, who think they cannot repress their en- thusiasm, by assuring them that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. And there are many in the Church who think they are led by the Holy Spirit into these excesses, and to all such the Apostle declares that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. While the indi- vidual soul may be benefited and relieved by a good shout or a hallelujah once and again, it is unquestionably true that strangers, and especially irreligious persons, are not edified, but, on the contrary, they receive the impres- | sion which Paul declared the unlearned and , unbelievers would receive upon entering such a gathering of babbling Christians—namely, that they are all mad. This is one reason among many why camp meetings of to-day hearts nor in human experience. The list might be extended almost indefinitely, but need not be, There are a few of the most Prominent camp meetings of the country yet to be held, and their managers can make them models of Christian decorum if they will, and uot permit a repetition of scenes which have other meetings, such as jumping about like lunatics, and promiscuous hugging, which is condemned by one of the leading Methodist papers of this city, in its last issue. Such scenes are a blot not only on Methodism, but on Christianity itself, and they give to the public that false impression of camp meetings which so gerierally, even almost universally, Prevails, The Decline in the Greeley Enthu- silasm—The Presidential Balance of Power. Whatever the causes, it is apparent on all sides that, since the late North Carolina elec- tion, there has been a reaction in the tide of public opinion on the Presidential question. From the Baltimore Convention, which pro- claimed the Cincinnati liberal republican can- didates, Greeley and Brown, the demogratic ticket and the Cincinnati liberal resolutions, the democratic platform, down to the election in North Carolina, there were such signs and manifestations of » general popular uprising in favor of “Greeley, Brown and reform’? as to justify the impression that we are in the midst of an irresistible political revolution. Nor can it be questioned that the first election reports from North Carolina greatly strength- ened this widely pervailing opinion. But when the distant election districts and the back counties were all in, and it was ascer- tained that the republicans had secured the Governor, which was the Presidential test in the election, and the accepted test on both sides as between Grant and Greeley, there was an abatement in the democratic enthu- siasm for Greeley, and the tide of public sentiment began to change in favor of Grant. The substantial fruits of the North Carolina election in securing the Legislature, which is to elect a United States Senator, and in secur- ing o majority of the Congressmen, were reaped by the democrats ; but the Presidential test was upon the Governor, and here the moral result was,,as we have indicated, a democratic defeat which changed the whole aspect of the national battle field. The Greeley republicans may have materially strengthened the democratic party in this North Carolina contest ; but with the general knowl- edge of their failure to elect, as the balance of power, the democratic candidate for Gover- nor, began this general decline in the demo- cratic enthusiasm for Greeley. In the outset, among the young and progressive democracy the novelty of Mr. Greeley as the candidate of the democratic party for the Presidency was 80 fascinating as to carry with it the idea that ‘the fountains of the great deep were broken up,” and that a deluge was rising which would overwhelm Grant, his administration, his party and all their great expectations and calcula- tions in connection with another four years’ lease of power. But this sudden flashing up of democratic enthusiasm has died out, and the fear is gaining ground that the republicans, brought over to the democracy in support of Greeley and Brown, may possibly be outnum- bered by those old line Bourbon democrats who are resolved to vote for Graut or to stay at home on election day if they cannot get a straight-out democratic ticket on the platform of ‘the time-honored democratic principles of Jefferson and Jackson.’’ Seeing is believing ; but until we see that these anti-Greeley Bourbon democrats can do, are doing and intend to do something in this campaign, which will compel their recognition ‘as a balance of power, we shall continue to hold them as belonging to the same class of makeweights or political guerillas as the temperance reformers, the labor re- formers and the women’s rights re- formers. The democratic party adopted the Cincinnati Presidential ticket under the lack the spiritual power over sinners which they once possessed. But eccentricity manifests itself in other forms besides these in camp meetings. It is seen and heard in its most ludicrous light in songs and prayers, and sometimes in preach- ing. Some of the most meaningless twaddle that can be gathered together is heard on camp grounds and passes for sermons. They con- tain neither the statement of the fact nor the relation of the experience which an eminent minister at the Sing Sing meeting declared constitute preaching. It seems to be taken for granted also that any kind of trashy rhyme is good enough for the camp meeting, and people go to those gatherings surcharged with wretched doggerel. The Doddridge and Watts, and Montgomery and Toplady, and Newton and their compeers, are too tame, too pure and too poetical tosuit the feverish imaginations of the present gene- ration of Methodists. If they could be equalled, or in any way nearly approached by- the meteoric poets of to-day, we should not find fault, but it requires very little poetic knowledge to appreciate the superior senti- ment and rhythm of the former. The prayers, too, of camp-going Christians lack that conciseness and purity of diction which a knowledge of the nature of prayer should and does impart. We have sometimes heard men pray that the Lord would knock some certain sinner heels over head, or that He would shake him over the bottomless pit without letting the guilty one fallin. We can searcely imagine the effect such prayers must have on the souls that feel their burden of sin and are seeking salvation by faith in Jesus Christ ; but it seems tous they ought to. deter many from seeking, if they do not drive others away altogether, from the Cross. We heard a minister’s wife lately, at a camp mect- ing, tell the Lord in a prayer what a good busi- ness her husband gave up that he might enter the ministry, and how rich he might be had he continued in business, and we could not eseape the conviction that that much of the prayer was, to use a Hibernianism, no prayer at all, We have frequently heard men and women tell God how much they had done and suffered for his cause, and by implication how much they were entitled to receive from Him in return, And, again, persons praying often indulge in exhortations to the Lord how He should act in given cases, and to the people how they shall perform certain duties, Such of the Convention and such terrorism was ex- | tioned in the list of candidates, but the hibited that the best men of tho radical repub- sentences and phrases, however nicely rounded, are not prayers. They never reach the throne Conyeutions should be careful that their nomi- | ican party were glad to escape from the State Lof God and aro never answered to human impression that from the republiean camp it would bring them the balance of power in the election; but against all the reinforcements to the democracy within reach of Greeley and Brown, tho probabilities, since the North Carolina elec- tion, have changed in favor of General Grant. Senator Schurz, as a _ bolter against the administration, has been hailed as. a hero by the democrats because of the balance which it is supposed he may reach, here and there, in the diversion of the German vote; but the German, as a rule, is very apt to vote according to his own ideas of the fitness of things; and so nothing de- cisive-has been gained by Greeley and Brown in gaining Mr. Schurz. Again, it was sup- posed: thatthe fame of Mr. Grecley, with the great name of Mr, Sumner, as the black man's friend. would bring over to the ,opposition alliance ticket the balance of power from the colored. clement, which, in the Presidential election, will poll probably seven hundred thousand votes or more; but along the lines of the African legions the word has been passed for General Grant, so that there is. no hope in that quarter for Greeley and Brown. Our Irish-born fellow citizens in many places, and especially in this city, constitute an important democratic balance of power; but itis by no means certain that the Irish ele- ment of this island will be a unit in our November national or local elections, In our municipal complications of parties, rings, fac- tions, cliques and coteries, we shall probably have the confusion of Babel, a demoralizing confusion, which, to the regular democrats, may imperil the city and the State. In short, from the present outlook the prospect from every point of view is growing somewhat gloomy for Greeley, and unless in the results of the coming State elections he shall make a. break in the apparently compact lines of the administration party, the Philosopher of Chap- paqua, as a pilgrim for the White House, may Lay down de shovel and de hoe, And bang up.de tiddie and de bow. Tue Awerrcan Feet wy Bairistt Wamens.— A correspondent of the Heranp at, Cowes, account of the honors shown our flag by our English coasins. The Prince and Princess of Wales paid a visit to the fleet and Admiral Alden and General Sherman were received on board the royal yacht with due honors. The stay of the fleet in British waters will be long remembered, as it will be associated with memories of right hearty ond royal welcomes, brilliant goones and worm friendships. | Isle of Wight, furnishes a bright gossipy let- | ter, which we print this morning, giving an | The Telegraph and Our ‘Weather Watchmen, . The country is now looking daily with great interest for the general breaking up of the fiery season through which we are pass- ing, and all classes are deeply interested in the daily reports of our weather watchmen. Although the equinoctial season is usually sup- posed to commence only when the sun is ver- tical upon the Equator in September, it must be remembered that the atmospheric forces which then engage in tempestuous battle begin to array themselves several weeks pre- viously, and are already deployed. If the Italian astronomer Tacchini is correct, as he doubtless is, in his recently announced dis- covery of the singular appearance of magne- sium in the chromosphere of the sun, and the coincidence between the brightness and broad- ness of these spectroscopic magnesium lines and the more pronounced and brilliant flames in the eruptions of solar volcanoes, it may be that this year, though somewhat delayed, the phenomena of storm and hurricane will be peculiarly grand. At any rate the arrival of the changed season will be as eagerly looked for this year as the annual arrival of the sun within the Arctic circle is looked for by the Esquimaux or the Laplander, It seems, there- fore, a fitting time to call the attention of the public to the conditions which must ever un- derlie a safe and useful meteorological system, such as that of our Signal Bureau at Wash- ington. When the almanac maker had the monopoly of weather science it was very natural to laugh at every augury or prediction of what the Roman poet called ‘‘varium ef mutabile sem- per.” Sensible men knew the difficulties of foreseeing the operations of the atmos- phere, and until very recently, when the telograph spread its network of wires over the world, scientific men dared not undertake a system of storm signals. Experienee has, however, demonstrated—nowhere so fully as in America, where the immense territory pre- sents advantages of meteorologic study en- joyed by few other nations—that, with com- plete and continuous chains of weather sta- tions crossing the Continent on parallels of latitude along which the storms of every coun- try chiefly move, it is possible to announce, hours and days beforehand, the advent and force of these violent meteors, and to fore- warn alike the farmer and the seaman. Indeed, it may be safely affirmed that, with the present light now obtained on the law of storms, the chief problem of weather telegraphy is how to maintain o perfect sys- tem of accurate and prompt telegrams from the various reporting stations of the Signal Bureau. As long as these tri-daily telegrams are punctually furnished by the telegraph companies to the central office of the Chief Signal Officer no fear need be felt that any dangerous tempest can sweep over the land unheralded. As the graphic weather map of the War Department, issued by the Chief Signal Officer, shows, every atmospheric eddy, every current, every cloud that moves or floats through the deep caverns of the serial ocean is detected, telegraphically announced and clearly charted for the eye of the meteor- ologists at Washington who have in charge the deductions and ‘probabilities’ of the weather to ensue, Unfortunately, however, the continuity and completeness of these telegrams have for some months been seriously interrupted: and their timely information suspended by the refusal of some of the telegraphic corpora- tions to transmit them at rates within the means of the Signal Office to pay. As long as this evil lasts it must, we presume, fre- quently occur that at the most critical junc- tures, as at the present, reports of observa- tions at the different stations will be delayed, and the correctness of the forecast be rendered. most precarious, to the great jeopardy of our shipping and of thousands of lives embarked on our const steamers and trading vessels, and to the annoyance and disappointment of the entire public. It is obviously unjust and ab- surd to expect successful. ‘* probabilities’ of the weather, especially in the changes of the stormiest equinoctial seasons, un- less the chief Signal Office is enabled— as we reliably learn abled—to secure regular and prompt trans- mission of its bulletins and reports in cipher. The attempt to foretell the weather without previous teports revealing all the varied agen- cies at work can surely be little more than mere vaticination; and it will be a. scandal! to- the nation if the splendid success which has. uniformly attended and still attends the Weather Bureau should for any period of time be marred by such difficulties as now embar- rass it. So frequently and gravely do these difficulties now obstruct its work that many of. the reports furnished the press state that, dar- ing the past eight hours, no intelligence. has: been received from the majority of its sta.- tions. Whole sections, and those often. whose reports furnish the key tothe weather, are not heard from and their reports to the central office, though always made, are declined by the telegraph companies and re- fused early transmission. Fortunately for the good of the public and the good name of the Signal Office, which has beon won by a series of brilliant successes under a good telegraphic system, the atatement of ‘‘no reports received,'* from such and such sections, will be under- stood to. exonerate the office ftom the respon-. sibility of the work ithas thus to do in the dark,. and will show those interested that tho, ‘probabilities’ are then merely conjectural, All. that can be expected:of the Chief Signal: Officer is that, given hina all the telegraphic facilities the country possesses, ho should, in. the present imperfect state of meteorology, furnish generally, correet predictions. Wa earnestly trust these may soon be restored'and seeured to him forall time. But until this is done all criticism of the weathex-reports.muste be unfounded and unjast. The Reiigious Press. Professon Tyndail’s proposition to test the efficacy of prayer by setting apart a ward in some first class hospital where patients shall be the special subject of prayer by all the Church during o succession of years, and a compaxison of the records of that ward with consideration by several of the weeklies. The Interior compares the proposed test to that suggested to the Master by the doubting sister of Lagarus that her brother should be rean- imated. It doubts the propriety of asking the Almighty to stay the virus of smallpox or de- cree that water shall not drown—in short, ta work a miracle to cure unbelief even in men it is not now en-, others under equal circumstances, is receiving *