The New York Herald Newspaper, August 26, 1872, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, :W YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. a All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—A Trip To Wittiins- BurG—Suin Fann, WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirticth st— ‘Tux Octoroox. Afternoon and Evening. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker sts.—A Live’s Dream, &c. + WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth Btreet—Biux Buaxp. {GRAND OPERA HOU: By.—Ror Carrore. BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third street. corner Sixth ayenue.—THe Buus; on, THe PoLisu Jew. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway. -Erurorian Ec- centkICITIES, BURLKSQUK, Drama, dc. Twenty-third st. and Eighth SrRELsy, &c, NTS OPERA 10U 6th av.—Necro Minsteevs' Twenty-third st., corner cKNTRICITY, AC, ST. JAMES THEATRE, corner of 28th st. and Broad- ‘Way.—San Francisco Minxstuxss in Faunce, &c. CENTRAL PARK GARDE: Concert, Grand INsTRUMENTAL PAVILION, No. 688 Broadway, near Fourth strect.— Gxanv Concent. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— ENCE AND ART. w York, Monday, August 26, 1872. CONTENTS OF TO-DAY’S HERALD. Pace. ; 41—Aavertisements. 2—Advertisements. B—Geneva: Arguments of William Caleb Cushing Before the Intern: bunal; Summing oP the An Ci Complete and Crush ng Reply to the English Counsel; The Law of Nations Explained; Violation of the Laws of Neutrality by Great Britain; The Treaty of Washington Inter- preted; How the Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida and Georgia Were Permitted to Prey Upon American Commerce; Rights of Asylum Defined; Municipal vs. International Law; How the Kebels Were Comforted; Chief Justice Cockburn Instructed in Geography and Law; What America Claims; What a Neutral is Bound to Do and What England Did Not Do; England, Not America, on Trial. 4—Geneva (Continued froin Third Page). 5—Geneva (Continued from Fourth Page). 6—Editorials: Leading Article, “The Work of the Geneva Court of ‘Arbitration—The Closing Arguments of Counsel”—Amusement An- nouncements. Q—Editorial (Continued from Sixth Page)—The Alabama Claims: The Arbitration Between Great Britain and the United States Drawing to a Close; Waiting for the Verdict—Cable Telegrams from Spain and France—News from Washington—sea Clif Grove Camp Meet- ing—The American Institute Pair—Obituar, Miscellaneous Tclegrams—Business Notte 8—Geneva (Continued from Fifth Fage)—French Internationals in Council—‘Keno” in New- ark—The Kesult ofa Trip to Coney Island— Suicide in Trenton—Livingstone: Additional Comments of the Foreign Press on the HERALD Livingstone Expedition; The Secrets of the Nile; A Land Inviting to the Adventuresome and Enterprising; The Belles of Interior Africa; Livingstone Something More Than a Lost Geographer; The Slave Trade on the Coast—Racing at Long Branch—Horse Notes— A Double Shave. 9—Financial and Commercial: The Close of the Cotton Year; The Crop of 1871-72. as Ng d with ‘That of 1870-71; The Great Flank Move- ment of the Speculators in Gold’; The Philoso- hy of the Decline; The Tendency to Specie uyiments; The Problem of Money as Modified by the Failure of the Chicago Wheat “Cor- ner; Saturday's Bank Statement and Its Purport—Domestic Markets—The Far West: Explorations in Central Utah by Lieutenant Wheeler; More Wonders for the Tourist in the Future—Jefferson Market and Yorkville Police Courts—The Death of Mrs. Dykes— Deaths—Advertisements. * §O—London Theatriculs: Close of the Season in Evarts and the British Metropolis; Improvement in Public Taste—A Baptist Minister in the Role of a Pu t—The Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown— Stabber by His Stepdaughter—Sharon Springs: Beauties and Health-Giving Proper- ties of the Place—Shipping Intelligeace— Advertisements. 11—Religious: Christian Congregations in the City and Country; What Was Said and What Was Done; Bull Polemics and Pastoral Piety; ‘The Rev. J. F. Elder on the Doctrine of Im: puted Righteousness; Father John McCarthy Urges the Obligation of Attending Mass and Reproves Its Neglect; The Personality of God and His Good to Man Commented on by Dr. Foss at the St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Chureb; Seaside Services and Sermons; A Crowded Attendance at the Episcopai Church at Rockaway; Babylon and Its Presbyterian Church; Services at Newburg, on the Hud- son—Sermon by the Rey. T. Sproule; New York City News—Advertisements. 12—Advertisemen' Avstranastan Apvicrs under date Sydney, July 5, by mail, report that the importation of cvolie labor had been commenced in Queens- land. The New Zealand chiefs professed loyalty to the British Crown and peace to- wards the white settlers. A long-continued drought caused heavy losses to the squatters in Queensland. Tae Sranisn Exxcrion: he first returns ofthe Spanish preliminary elections for mem- bers of the Cortes have’ been analyzed and classified in Madrid. The totals indicate that the ministerialists, or royalists of different shades of a local party feeling, have wona ‘united triumph. ‘This victory has been ob- tained in the chief towns—hitherto the stronge holds of the unterrified democracy—and the more rural districts equally. The federal re-" publicans issued a manifesto to the voters on the morning of the election, which was suffi- ciently spicy in its revolutionist essentials for governmental change had the Spaniards re- sponded with proper radical gusto. But they ‘did not do so, by any means, as a nation, and ‘hence we incline to the opinion that Amadeus remains all right for the present, and that the meighboring thrones are still safe from the influences of the Spanish democratic propa- gondism. } Contosrrres or tue Dean Lerrer Orrtce,— Ut is officially stated that thre Setters went to the Dead Letter Office last 5 fand that they containcd a sum exceeding ‘three millions of dollars in moncy, drafts, whecks, and so forth. Ninety-two thousand dollars of this was in cash. It is estimated that on an average every letter that goes into that office loses a dollar to some one. Fifty- eight thousand letters had no county or State direction, fonr hundred thousand lacked stamps, and three thousand were posted with- | ‘out any address at all. What a commentary is this on the absent mindedners and vaga wf our population. Part of the mistakes arise, no doubt, from ignorance and from ‘weak-minded persons, and a good many from that mental absorption characteristic of our intensely active people. thousand letters going to the Dead Letter Office for the want of stomps a portion, prob- ably, were stamped and Uncle Sam's imperfect glue would not stick. Curious romances might be woven out of the lost letters. The extraordinary facts thus officially reported ght to have the effect of making our people ore careful in stamping, addressing and Of the four hundred | Tne Work of the Geneva Court of Arbitration—The Closing Arguments of Counsel, A special cable despatch from the corre- spondent of the Henarp at Geneva, published to-day, brings information of the approach of the close of the labors of the Court of Arbitra- tion on the Alabama claims and of the present condition of the proceedings, together with a brief account of the banquets, entertain- ments and festivals provided in honor of the members of the tribunal and at which they find agreeablo relaxation from the duties which have held them in session during the Summer months, At the same time we have received by mail and also publish to-day the closing argu- ments of the American counsel, Messrs. Cush- ing and Evarts, in response to the English discussion of certain points submitted by the Court for explanation subsequent to the close of the counter cases. Our special cable despatch represents that all the busi- ness before the Court, so far as the pleadings are concerned, has been disposed of on both sides, and that the work which yet remains to be done is principally that of the accountants, who are calculating the exact amount of damages sustained by Americans through the acts of the Anglo-Confederate privateers. When this business has been concluded and the totals are ascertained the arbitrators will render a formal judgment on the issues: first, whether England is responsible or not re- sponsible in each separate case, the treaty requiring a decision of this point in regard to each cruiser; and, next, what amount Eng- land should pay as a compensa- tion for the American cases, if the question of liability is decided affirm. atively. We are told that the case of the Shenandoah excites an earnest and not over-pacific controversy, the English agents and counsel evincing symptoms of irri-. tation at what they please to call the per- tinacity with which the American side presses for damages sustained by the destruction of the whaling fleet; and it is even said ‘that scenes of an exciting character have recently transpired in the presence of the Court. This statement must, however, be accepted with due remembrance of the dignity of the tribu- nal, and it must not be supposed that the ex- citement alluded to was such as we are accus- tomed to witness in our ordinary courts of law when learned counsel get heated in their argu- ments. We do not suppose that the scenes in the Stokes trial were re-enacted at Geneva, or that Messrs. Cushing and Evarts, on one side, and Sir Roundell Palmer, on the other, indulged in such professional compliments as occasionally pass between counsel at the New York Bar. A warm fiscussion and an exciting scone before the staid and decorous Geneva Court would probably appear tame enough in the eyes of those accustomed to peruse our law reports. The case of the Georgia is reported to havo been practically abandoned, and the claimants for the damages inflicted by that vessel will probably not be found among those who, ac- cording to the atereotyped official reports from Washington, are to be “highly satisfied’ with the result of the arbitration. It is expected that two weeks from the present time will see the whole subject of the claims finally decided. Turning from the uninteresting business of the Court—uninteresting at least to all except the insurance men and the few others who expect to get a portion of their losses back from England—to the more agreeable features of the season in the city of Geneva, we find that the Hotel Beau Rivage has been the scene of a splendid banquet, given by Mr. Bancroft Davis in honor of the arbitrators and others who have connection with the Court; of a brilliant ball, which wound up the enjoyment of the evening, and of a second banquet, in which representatives of the American press were the hosts. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, of England, however, was not present on either occasion, having adopted for his guidance an ‘‘inflexible rule’ to decline all invitations while the arbitrations are pending. The enterprising citizens of Geneva, too, are getting up a grand peace jubilee, after the fashion of Boston; but, fortunately for the ears of the residents and visitors, on a much less noisy scale, in which four thousand performers are to take part. Triumphal arches, in honor of the occasion, are erected in the principal thoroughfares ; flags of all nations float from | the various buildings; tho members of eighty- six musical corporations have arrived, as an avant-garde, from France, and, to crown the whole, the weather remains magnificently fine. ‘The arguments of Messrs. Evarts and Cush- ing, which ulso appear as a portion of the Alabama chapter of to-day, will be read with much interest. We may expect on this side of the Atlantic to be impressed favorably by the pleadings of our own representatives, because we are tolerably certain to look upon the mat- ters in controversy ffom the same point of view from which they are considered by the Ameri- can counsel. At the same time we do not con- sider it a partial judgment when we declare that the Americans have evidently had the best of this last forensic contest; that the broad prin- ciples of law and justice have been on their side, while the English have been led into the use of quibbles and special pleas. It is true that we have not the English arguments before us, and hence may be liable to a suspicion of unfairness in pronouncing this opinion; but the facts are too plainly stated by both Mr. Evarts and Mr. Cushing to leave room to doubt its justness. This supplemental dis- cussion arose on the three points published | some time ago in the Hxratp, on which, it will be remembered, the arbitrators requested explanations from the English counsel. The points were—first, as to the question of what constitutes “due diligence’ on the part | of a neutral; second, as to the effect and value of the commissions held by the Confederate war vessels that entered British ports; third, as to the supply of coal accorded to such vessels in British ports. While complying with the request of the Court, the English counsel took the opportunity to enter into a general | reply to the arguments of the Ameri- cans in their counter ease, and thus revived much matter that it was supposed had been disposed of so far as the pleadings of the lawyers on both sides were concerned. The American counsel, of course, | availed themselves of the right, under the | provisions of the treaty, to reply fully to the | | English special argument, but in so doing | confined themselves mainly to the examination point as to what constitutes ‘due diligence” on the part of a neutral, and to the overturning of the special pleas by which the English pleaders sought to reduce at once the scope of their government's liability and the amount of damages they would be called upon to pay. It is unnecessary to follow here the thread of the American argument, because all who take an interest in the discussion will read the able speeches of Messrs. Evarts and Cushing, published in full to-day. Tlie attempt of the British counsel to establish rules of due dili- gence based upon their own municipal laws and the laws and practice of other nations was completely met by the answer that the Americans do recognize and the Court can recognize no other ‘‘due diligence’ than that set forth in the Treaty of Washington itself. Thus, when the British side discussed elab- orately the difference of the duty of neutrals under the common law with regard to vessels armed during the war and vessels equipped for the war but not yet armed, with o view to evading the responsibility for the escape of unarmed vessels, the American side simply declared the question to be settled by the first rule of the treaty, which provides that a neutral government shall use all due diligence to prevent a vesselin the limits of its jurisdiction, which there is sufficient reason to think is intended for committing acts of war against a friendly Power, from either “going to sea’’ or being armed or equipped, or from leaving the limits of its jurisdiction, whether such vessel shall have been wholly or only partly fitted out for warlike purposes. As England is bound to accept these treaty rules as the standard by which her acts in the case of the Anglo-Con- federate privateers is to be adjudged by the Court, she is, of course, precluded from travelling outside the rules to find justification for those acts. It is, however, a singular fact, alluded to by Mr. Cushing, that so much of the rule as prescribes liability for suffering a vessel to ‘go to sea’’ was omitted from the English translation of the treaty prepared for the use of the Geneva Court, In the course of their argument the English counsel’ had questioned the preventive power of the law of the United States for the preser- vation of neutrality in the case of a vessel not armed or not in a condition that would permit the committal of hostilities at the monfent of its departure from an American port, and had also cited instances in which filibustering ad- ventures had been sustained by the Amer can law. To the first part of this argument Mr. Cushing satisfactorily re- plies by quoting the law of the United States and the decisions of the Su- preme Court sustaining the broadest interpre- tation of its preventive provisions. The second part he equally happily disposes of by reminding the Court that England is now before the tribunal, accused of having failed to use ‘due diligence’ in observing the conven- tional rules of the Treaty of Washington; that if America has failed or not in her duties of neutrality according to the common law is not the question submitted to the arbitrators; and that America replies at a proper time and place for her acts to those whom such acts may have injured. It matters little, argued Mr. Cushing, what the interpretation of the municipal law of England may be. The interpretation of the law of the United States matters still less. The conduct of the United States towards Spain, or Mexico, or even wards England herself, is not in dispute. ere is only one question to be decided by the Geneva Court—Has England failed, yes or no, in using the ‘due diligence” required by the Treaty of Washington in the case of the Anglo-Confederate privateers? It is to be hoped that we shall soon have an end of this Alabama business in 2 verdict that will put a few dollars into the pockets of private losers by the acts of the rebel cruisers. The American people will be out of pocket heavily by the transaction, what with the expenses and the adverse judgments of the Claims Commission, and will besides have the cha- grin of fecling that they have teen worsted in diplomacy and disgraced by the weakness and vacillation of their Washington politi- cians. The Treaty of Washington itself will be a dead letter so far as any real set- tloment of our differences with England is concerned, and in the end it will be seen that the bad blood engendered between the two English-speaking nations by England’s conduct during our rebellion has not been pu- rified. Nevertheless, the sooner the claimants get their awards ond the dignified members of the Court of Arbitration subside once more into quict, respect- able, every-day citizens of their respective countries, the better pleased the people will be. We have already had too much of the humiliating farce, and every one will be glad when the drop curtain descends and shuis the showy scene and the well-got-up actors from view. Emigration from Alsace and Lorraine. The conquered provinces of France do not take kindly to German rule. Homes of long years’ standing are broken up and those who inhabited them are leaving for foreign parts, Unlike the Germans, the French are not great colonizers. Even in this country, where in- ducements are numerous to ‘emigrants and where wealth and reward invite the active and ambitious, we have had a comparatively small number of emigrants from France. When the war closed in France, and the German troops, with the exception of the army of occupation, vacated the French prov- inces, the Alsatians and Lorrainians displayed a restive disposition and a dislike to live under German rule. Emigration followed and has since continued. The population of Metz has already been diminished by over one-third. About fifteen hundred of the inhabitants of the two provinces sought Algeria as their future home and refuge, but their destitute condition unfitted thom for the colony they sought to establish. America is now the land which attracts the French emigrants, and Canada, rather than the United States, the particular location on the Continent. It is estimated that over seventeen thousand have already gone to Canada, and more are sure to follow. Among those coming across the At- lantic are skilled mechanics and artisans, a class of people who will find the United States a much more profitable field for their energy than the Canadas, and we doubt not that some of these, at least, will direct their course to J of the positions taken by thg other side on the | the Great Republic, AUGUST 26, 1872.-TRIPLE SHEET. New York and Its Commercial Rivals— The Channels of Trade—A New De- parture Wanted. The commercial and financial pre-eminence of New York over all other cities of America is well known. Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis and other jealous rivals are compelled to con- cede this while they magnify their own im- portance and pretend to wonderful achieve- ments in the future. The growth of the metropolis in business, wealth and controlling money power, as well as in population, has kept pace with the astonishing progress of the country. Indeed, the city has advanced in‘ all these things faster than the country through the centralizing tendencies of the age and the influence of the railroads and telegraph. New York has natural advantages far superior to any other city for commercial supremacy. It lies on the Atlantic, for our splendid harbor and magnificent bays are but inlets of the ocean. On one side is the superb Hudson and on the other the East River, connecting both ways with the sea—through Long Island Sound on one hand and the Bay and Narrows on the other. Tide water washes the wharves and shores of Manhattan Island all round. Nature made New York the site fora commercial me- tropolis. Then there are the great railroad lines and canals stretching into and tapping every part of the country. These natural and. artificial advantages have been well utilized, too, by our enterprising and skilful merchants and capitalists. Tour-fifths, at least, of all the foreign imports of the United States come to New York, and fully that proportion of the revenue of the government from duties is col- lected here. ‘The proportion of exports is little less, with the single exception of cotton from New Orleans. And even for the com- mercial operations and enterprises’ in other parts of the country a great deal of the capi- talis supplied from this city. There is little reason to fear New York will not hold the proud and commanding position it has at- tained. Nothing in the usual course of human events can change that. Yet, by neglect or want of foresight, the currents of trade might be diverted to some extent in other channels. While New York must remain pre-eminent as the commercial and financial metropolis, it might, from the want of forethought and proper action, lose relatively in the struggle which is and will be made by other cities for the trade of the interior, and particularly for that of the Great West. The first important enterprise that should be undertaken by New York is to make a double track freight railroad, or, at least, a single track one with numerous convenient turn-outs to the heart of the West. Such a road might have for its Western terminus for some years to come the city of St. Louis, which is the most central point of the West and its grand system of rivers. Here the vast and rapidly growing trade of the trans-Missis- sippi and Missouri region up to the Rocky Mountains and beyond to the Pacific Ocean, the trade of the Northwest up to the British line, and that of the Southwest into Arkansas, Texas and Mexico, is concentrating. The railroad system of these extensive and fruitful sections of the country is assimilating that which nature has established in the ramifica- tion and course of the rivers. St. Louis is the heart of all that immense region drained by the Missouri, the Mississippi and their trib- utaries. The productions of that region at present are astonishing, but no one can ven- ture to calculate what they will be in the course of a few years. Then there is Chicago and its vast lake trade, which should be tapped by such a freight railroad as we sug- gest either by the main trunk or by a branch. The present railroads, numerous and useful as they are, have not the capacity and are not adapted for transporting the greater portion of the products of the West. The cost of bringing these products such a great distance to the seaboard at New York is too high. Un- less the market price of produce is raised by some temporary cause and unusual demand the greater part of it has to be left in the far West, and often to rot on the ground. Our ordinary passenger railroad lines could not under any circumstances afford to bring the bulk of Western produce to New York so as to leave, a profit to the producer; but with their inflated and watered stocks and bonds, heavy debts and grasping cupidity, it is im- possible to meet the wants of the culti- vators and of commerce on the | seaboard. Nothing but railroads made especially for freight, thatcan be managed cheaply and on which the trains can move slowly, comparative- ly, with little wear and tear, will enable farm- ers and merchants to send the bulk of the pro- duce of the West to the seaboard at moderate cost and to leave a profit for the producer. With such railroads, and particularly with one grand trunk line from New York to St. Louis, this city need not fear any rivalry. Grain and corn is always in a better condition and more marketable when transported in cars than by water. Neither the Mississippi and its tribu- tarieson the one hand nor the lakes and St. Lawrence on the other could successfully com- pete with freight railroads. Boston, Portland, New Orleans and other aspiring rival outlets for the vast products of the West would only get the surplus drippings of that trade, while New York would absorb the bulk of it. Canals are well enough in their way, and our State canal has contributed, and still contributes largely, to the commerce of this port; but they are unequal to the requirements of the time. The canals or the ordinary railroads will not do for the vast and growing business of the country, particularly for the commerce between the far West and the commercial metropolis. One improvement follows another to meet the rising wants of the country, and we have now reached that period when freight railroads exclusively are needed and next in order. There is another thing to be considered with a view to perpetuate the commercial supremacy of New York, and to increase its trade in pro- portion to the growth of the country. Cheaper and greater facilities are required for handling and transshipping produce at the port. The cost of moving, handling and reshipping pro- ducts and merchandise now is far too great. It operates as an onerous tax and tends to drive trade to other localities. A good deal of the cartage anda number of dock, wharf and store workmen, which add greatly to the cost of shipping business, could be dispensed with if we had a better system of wharfage, storage | transportation. Neither our merchants nor the city authorities have given this matter proper attention, The federal <avarmmant. too, has burdened commerce unnecessarily, and crippled the trade of the city by its wretched custom house management and want of suitable and properly located bonded warehouses. First, then, our wharves, piers and docks should be reconstructed and improved on the best plan without delay. The necessity of this has been recognized, and the initiatory steps have been taken to carry out improvements. An able engineer officer, Gene- ral McClellan, has the work in charge, and we hope much from his ability. But, from some cause, the improvements go on slowly, We see scarcely any results, though the Dock Commission has been organized a long time. Nor is the public generally made acquainted with the work contemplated, if, indeed, any general and comprehensive plan be determined on. With new and substantial piers, wharves and docks all round the lower portion of the island and as far as shipping is likely to need them on each side, both up the North and East Rivers, there should be a broad avenue for railroads, both for freight and passengers. The freight roads should connect with the great trunk lines of the country, and with the freight line or lines to the West we have sug- gested. In this way produce even from St. Louis could be brought direct to the shipping and placed on board with comparatively little cost. The transfer of merchandise destined for the interior could be transported with like facility, especially if the government should have its bonded warehouses built up by the water's edge on the new piers, wharves and docks. Every one must see the great saving of expense and the convenience to our mer- chants and the public if such improvements were carried out. Besides these we want substantial viaduct railroads through the city from one end of the island to the other, and on both the east and west sides. A freight track or tracks could be laid on these, as well as o double track for passenger trains. There should be one grand central depot in Westchester county, near the Harlem River or Spuyten Duyvel Creek, where all the railroads running to and from New York on this side of the Hudson and the rail- road system of the city should be concentrated and unite. Wedo not enter into details. or dwell upon cross-town connections that may be necessary. This is a matter for enginecring skill and future consideration. The general plan is simple and practicable, and, if carried out, must greatly promote the commerce, value of property and beauty of our city, as well as the convenience of the people. Then the time cannot be distant when, with a free and safe ship channel through Hell Gate, a large por- tion of the shipping business will be ex- tended up the East River and to- ward Harlem. A broad ship canal, with spacious docks and warehouses along the gap of the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek, from the East to the North River, would be, undoubtedly, the next grand improvement. The vast trade of the North River would thus be brought in immediate contact with the shipping and the whole rail- road system of the country and city, and the transfer of produce and merchandise would be both cheap and convenient. The capital to accomplish these grand improvements can be found here. It is only necessary for our wealthy men, merchants and the city govern- ment to comprehend tho present wants of the city and the glorious fature that must result from the works we have suggested in order to insure their accomplishment. The wealth and enterprise of New York can accomplish any- thing within the range of possibility. Will not the Chamber of Commerce, the Boards of Trade, Mr. Vanderbilt, George Law, A. T. Stewart, the Astors and others who are deeply interested in the prosperity and progress of the city move in this matter? We cannot stand still while the whole country is progress- ing rapidly without losing ground. Whatever may be the cost of the works spoken of the profit to this metropolis will be much greater proportionally, and they will go far to make New York the mgst beautiful and attractive city in the world. Late Investigations of Cometary Physics. A most able and important contribution to science has just been made by the Naval Ob- servatory in the reports of Professors Hall and Harkness on the last return of Encke’s comet. The motion of this meteor around the sun has occasioned many valuable investigations, which promise to lead the way for a new theory of the comet and a new explanation of its mys- terious and fiery tail. The clearest view of this comet was had on the Ist of December last, during a clear moonless evening, and by the aid of the spectroscope and solarscope Professor Harkness reached his valuable re- sults now published. Among these results he clearly establishes the material constitution of the cometary body of 1871. The English as!ronomer Hug- gins has proved, from the spectrum of the second comet of 1868, that it is composed of incandescent carbon in a gaseous state. Pro- fessor Harkness says that the wave lengths of the spectrum of Encke’s comet are so nearly identical with those of the spectrum observed by Huggins and the general appearance of the two spectra so similar that it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the two bodies are absolutely identical; and, in any event, his observations show that Encke’s comet gives a carbon spectrum exactly like that obtained from an electric spark taken in olefiant gas. Little as we realize the weight of gaseous bodies, it is meteorologically certain that one cubic mile of atmospheric air weighs over five million six hundred thousand tons, and one cubie mile of pure hydrogen, the lightest known substance, weighs no less than three hundred and eighty nine thousand tons. It will, therefore, appear somewhat startling to those who laugh at the terrors of our fore- fathers when the earth was threatened by col- lision with comets to learn thatsuch a gaseous body as that so carefully investigated by these observatory savants has an enormous weight and its mass is not less than that of anas- teroid. It would have, if reduced to the density of the earth, a diameter somewhere between thirty-two and two hundred and thirty- }, seven miles, and if reduced to the density of a sphere of lead would have a diameter which may approximately be put at least as high as fifty miles. An observation on the retardation of this meteor has also led these observers to new light on the supposed resisting medium which per- yades all space under the name of ether, and has furnished them with the data by which they have computed the density of this inter- wellax cther in ipobea of a colump of mercury which it would support in the barometric tube. Without going into any elaborate discussion of the vexed problem of comets’ tails, Professor Harkness calls attention to the interesting fact that many circumstances indicate theix character as an electrical phenomenon, and that they will all be found to give spectra simi- lar to that of the aurora, although .additional lines may be present. If, as this gentleman suggests in his able report to Admiral B. F. Sands, the electric currents which give rise to auroras are propagated in a medium which pervades all space, and that the spectrum of the aurora is in reality the spectrum of this colestial ether, the very important and practi- cal problem of auroral displays -may soon be solved for the benefit of meteorology and other branches of science. The reports of the observatory to which we allude will do honor to American science and pave the way, we hope, for more extensive and sustained researches in the ficld of meteorie physics. Sermons from City and Country Pare i sons. The moderately cool weather of yesterday had but little influence upon the church con- gregations. Those who attended religious ser- vices were for the most. part the regular church-goers, whose faces are always familiar whether in Summer or inWinter. No changes of season or place can make any change in their devotions and in their attendance at the sanctuary on the Lord’s Day. But hundreds and thousands not so religious as they crowded the excursion steamers and sailed away for the towns and villages and groves along the Hudson and the Sound, to spend the day in pleasure or in quiet recreation. The few who went to church received the instruc- tions very generally of their own pastors, who have either finished their vacation or so nearly finished it that they are able to spend the Sab- bath in the city. Dr. Foss, in St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal church, reproved and re- futed the current atheism of the day, which de- nies the existence of a personal God and credits luck or logic with doing everything that has been or that is done in the world. The idea of the personality of God begins with the opening chapter of Genesis and runs all through the Bible to the end of it, and, as Dr. Foss declared, ‘if there be not a personal God then the Bible is a stupendous fraud.’* The relations of this personal God to man were shown and faith in Him was urged as a necessity to salvation. The Rev. J. F. Elder, having returned to his Baptist church in Madi- son avenue, undertook to fill the place in- tended to have been occupied by the great Baptist orator and divine of Liverpool, Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, who arrived by steamer’ yesterday from Liverpool, but too late to preach. Mr. Elder presented the grandeur of the doctrine of justification by faith, and con- demned the doctrine of inherent righteousness asan unseasonable and ‘a horse-jockey doc- trine.’” Man has no righteousness of his own and is justified by the imputed righteous- ness of Christ. Preaching is considered such an important duty that we are apt to leave it toa regularly ordained class of men. But after Rev. Mr. Stewart's definition of it yesterday we pre- sume no one—young or old, ignorant or cul- tured—will admit that he or she cannot preach. “Preaching,”’ said Mr. Stewart, ‘‘is talking’”’— talking to sinners about a Saviour, and this is the duty of every saved toward every un- saved sinner. Very justly did this minister of God condemn ‘the intellectual gymnastics’’ of some speakers and preachers. Fasting does not really amount to anything. It will not make a man more spiritual or more penitent, in My. Stewart’s opinion, and the only steps to salvation are prayer, repentance, faith. ‘The two latter go hand in hand, and it was by these that the people of Nineveh were saved under the preaching of Jonah. The condition of every sinner in bondage under the law and his great deliverance by Jesus Christ were set forth by Dr. Meade in St. Ignatius’ church. Though delivered in the most advanced ritual- istic church in the city the discourse is emie nently and remarkably free from any taint of ritualism. Salvation, according to Dr. Meade, is all of grace and not at all by works. It is Jesus Christ alone who became obedient unto law that He might redeem them that were under the law and held in bondage by it ;.s0 that, after all, it is rather the justice than the mercy of God which unbars the door and sets the sinner free. New York is not the only place where church people drop in to worship when and wherever they please, as they would into a becr garden, without any regard to the convenience of others and the propricties of the occasion. We discover by the remarks of Rev. John McCarthy that the Catholics of St. Paul’s church, Brooklyn, are accustomed to do just this thing. And not only to enter, but to leave the church whenever they please. We need hardly remind such late visitors and easy- goers how much they personally lose by such erratic attendance upon the sanctuary services, And, as the reverend father intimated, the blasphemers of the holy name of Jesus, the Sabbath breakers and the drunkards and the vicious generally, are not they who are found in their places in church at the beginning of service and who stay until its close. No, no. The vicious keep as far as they can from the church and from ‘the altar. They will not come to the light lest their deeds should be re- proved, and we hope Father McCarthy will not have occasion again to reprove his. people for laxity in this regard. And other church- goers that we wot of might also take a hint and be in time in their places on the Sabbath Day and wait for the blessing of the Lord. Dr. Henry B. Chapin let the Murray Hill Presbyterians know that salvation is obtained only after earnest seeking. It is, indeed, the violent that take it by force, Enrnestness of purpose and intensity of desire are among the conditions precedent to its giving or getting. Bat when obtained it is worth all the agony of desire and all the perseverance of effort that was required to get it. From out of town we have .scrmons de- livered by Rev. 'T. Sproule to the Presbyte- rians of Newburg, N. Y., on the Saviour’s love to mankind ; by the Rev. Dr. Pierson to the Episcopalians of Far Rockaway, L. L, on Agrippa’s mistake in delaying the acceptance of Christ and His salvation; from Babylon, L. L, we have the results of right and wrong doing set forth by Rev. James McDougall, Jr., of Brooklyn, before the Presbyterians of that country town, The Sea Cliff camp visitors, tao. hod 0 feast of fat things yesterday under ae