The New York Herald Newspaper, December 14, 1872, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, --No. 349 Volume AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. NIBLO’S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Nouston streets.—Leo anp Lotos. Matinee at 1'¢. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Broadway, between Th: fecmth and Fourteenth streets.—AGnes. Matinee at 1! FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— fux Scuoot vor ScanpaL. Matinee at 145. WALLACK’S THEATR etreet.—Oun American C Broadway ama Thirteenth . Matinee at 1. 514 Breadway.—Arnica: or, Matinee at 24, TNEATRE COMIQUE, LAvINGSTONE AND STANLEY. GERMANIA TMEAT! Fourteenth street, near Third av.—Das Stivtunasres’ BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third street, corner Sixth avenue.—Lapy or Lrons. Matinee at 2. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broa aud Bleecker sta—La Perion way, between Houston x. Matince at STADT THEATRE, Nos. 4 and 47 Bowery.—Orzra— Tux Macio Fiure, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Fivine Dutcuman— Yuu Sreine or Peanss, &c. Broadway, corner Thirtieth st.— and Evening. WOOD'S MUSEU On Hann. After ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—Matinee at 1—In TrovaroRe. GRAND OPERA NOUSE, Twenty-third st. and Eighth av.—Rouxp tue Crocs. Matinee at 1s MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE,— Jxarous Wire--Ropert Macaire. Matinee at 2. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUS th av.—Necro Minstextsy, Ei Twenty-third st., corner ‘eNTuICITY, &c, Matinee. ATHENEUM, No. 585 Broadway.—Sriexpip Vanzety or Novunties. CANTERBURY VARIETY THEATRE, Broadway, be- tween Bleecker and Housten.—Varixty ENTERTAINMENT. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No, 201 Bowery.— Granp Vanrety ENTERTAINMENT, &¢, Matinee at 23. FAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, orner 28th st. and Froadway.—Eruiorian Mrw: r¥, eo. .BARNUM'S MUSEUM, MENAGERIE AND CIRCUS, Fourteenth sireet, near Broadway.—Day and Evening. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— SCIENCE AND ART. TRIPLE § New Yerk, Saturday, Dee. 14, 1872. i —- THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. 'To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. “PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO TILE CONSTITU- TION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND THE REASONS WHY!"—LEADING EDITORIAL THEME—SiuxTi Pace. A BEAUTIFUL CONCERT WAITRESS SHOT BY HER PARAMOUR, JOHN HARRINGTON! A SAD CAREER AND ITS HORRIBLE END- ING—THE CRYSTAL PALACE—SgvENtTHO Pace, KELLOGG AND WARMOTH FACTIO FIGHT! CARPET-B. THE THE VOLUNTEERS: LEGAL AC- TION—Turp Pace. EUROPE BY CABLE! THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY PERTURBATION: A SHIP GOES DOWN AT SEA, WITH ALL, ON BOARD: DISASTROUS STORMS AND FRESHETS: AN ENGLISH RAILWAY STRIKE: ANOTHER SPANISH OUTBREAK—SEVENTH PAGE. A TOUR THROUGH THE SOUTHERN STATES! OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS OF A HERALD “CHIEL:” TIE CURSES OF RACE- CONFLICTS, CARPET-BAGGERS AND SE- CRET LEAGUES: A BRIGHT OUTLOOK— FOuRTH PaGE. WASHINGTON AND CONGRESS! MEXICAN CLAIMS: LOGAN AND SUMNER: THE PRESIDENT INTERVIEWED—Tuirp Pace. STARTLING TESTIMONY IN THE TRIAL OF DR. IRISH! IMPORTANT EVIDENCE FOR THE PROSECUTION: A FORMER CLERK OF DR, IRISH ON THE STAND—THE ALLENQUIST POISONING—Firtu Pace. A PACIFIC STEAMSHIP WRECKED! THE TA- CORA STRIKES AN ISLAND: RACING STEAMSHIPS—ART AT THE GALLERIES— Fourth Pag. HORACE GREELEY’S WILL! OPPOSITION TO THE LAST TESTAMENT CEASING: MISS | IDA GREELEY SETTLES HALF THE ESTATE ON HER SISTER—Firta Pace. A NEGRO FIEND SENT TO RIS LAST ACCOUNT! THE CRIME AND EXECUTION OF THOMAS JOHNSON: OUTRAGING A WHITE WOMAN— Firti PaGs. CLEARING AWAY THE DEBRIS! THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL FIRE AS VIEWED BY THE PEOPLE: ARRANGING FUR THE INTER- MENT OF THE UNFORTENATE GIRLS— | E1auta PaGE. WALL STREET BUSINESS AND QUOTATIONS! LOCKING UP MONEY: PACIFIC MAIL AND ROCK ISLAND—COMPLICATIONS IN THE CHINESE COOLIE TRADE—NINTH Page. MAUD MERRILL! THE CORONER'S INQUEST: THE GIRL'S DIFFICULTIES: A HYPOCRITI- CAL UNCLE—THE COURTS—PIGEON SHOOT- ING—ROWING—ELEVENTH PaGE. | MEETING OF COLORED MEN AND CUBANS! | RESOLUTIONS FAVORING CUBAN IND! PENDENCE AND CENSURING SPANISH | SLAVE LABOR—TENTH Pace. | IMMIGRANTS OR BANDITS? THE ITALIAN AR- | RIVALS ON EMIGRANT SHIPS—YACHTING AND HORSE NOTES—ELEVENTH PAGE. CENSURING SUMNER! THE MASSACHUSETTS } LEGISLATURE ON THE PROPOSED ERASURE OF BATTLE LEGENDS—MUNICIPAL—A HOR- RIBLE END—Eicutu Pace. ‘fae Srrvation mx New Onrxans continues | to be very grave. An attempt was made by | the police of the city, armed to the teeth, to dislodge the volunteers by the game of bluff. | This failed, and as neither side intended to shed blood the affair was merely threatening. It would seem that General Grant and his At- | torney General had decided definitely to use the | federal power on the side of the republicans. Kellogg and Pinchback may therefore plume themselves on the victory won by audacity, backed by force. Weare not prepared to say that Warmoth, the carpet-bagger in its most offensive sense, is entitled to the position he claims for his party; but docs not this action of the Executive at Washington give him claim | to an outcry against what seems absolute \tyranny? A Manger ror Warat.—England will want in the twelve months between September, 1872, and September, 1873, ono hundred million bushels of wheat from foreign fields. She is now feceiving five million bushels por week, of which a considerable share is from France, where the crop has been excellent, Our own broad fields will do their part toward making good the English deficiency, and with this mar- ket wo can cou: Proposed Amendments to tne Constitu- tion of the United States, and the Reasons Why. The extraordinary and suggestive events connected with our recent State elections, and with the recent votes of some of the Electoral Colleges for President and Vice President, have already resulted in the submission of resolutions in the national House of Repre- sentatives for wo amendments to the consti- tution. One proposes to give the power to Congress to fix a uniform day for the State elections in all the States; and the other, and more important one, proposes the election of President and Vice President directly by the people, the extension of the Presidential term to six years and that the President shall bo in- eligible for a second term. Both these amend- ments, excepting the one-term absurdity, are desirable, and for reasons which may be briefly stated. First, it is desirable that our State elections shall all take place on the same day, especially in the Presidential year, in order to remove those corrupting influences now employed by party politicians to carry such State elections as are believed to be important in reference to their moral effect upon the Presidential con- test. For example, it has been contended by the supporters of Greeley and Brown in the late Presidential campaign that had they carried the North Carolina State election for Governor in August last the moral effect might have given them Pennsylvania and Ohio in October, and possibly the Presidential victory in November ; that, in short, the Presidential battle was actually fought and determined in North Carolina, a closely divided State be- tween the contesting parties ; thatthe national issue was determined in that local battle of August, in which the administration party, with its offices and its money, controlled the popular balance of power. We know, too, that this statement as to the consequences of the result in North Carolina is substantially true; that the party or parties supporting Greeley and Brown were prostrated by their defeat in North Carolina ; that the September results in Vermont and Maine further dis- heartened and weakened them, and that from the October results in Pennsylvania and Ohio they threw up the sponge, and permitted the main battle to go by default in November. These are facts which cannot be overthrown. On the other hand, if all our State elections of 1872, like that of New York, had come off onthe same day with the Presidential election, it cannot be doubted that the local and Presi- dential results would have been greatly differ- ent from the results actually before us. All these floating elements which drift with the tide of these experimental State elections would be held more closely to the principles which they really favor with all these State and national elections fixed for the same day. The appliances of managing politicians, which may now carry the Presidency by car- | rying half a dozen preliminary State elections in detail, would become comparatively impo- | tent if diffused over all the States for their tactics and strategy. Hence we concur in the proposition for an amendment of the consti- tution in this direction. Meantime Congress might induce the States to adopt the idea in providing by law that all the elections for the House of Representatives shall be held on the same day—to wit, on the day of the month fixed for the Presidential election. ~ Under the constitution as originally adopted the Presidential electors voted for two candi- dates for President, the highest of which in the votes given him was the President and the next highest the Vice President, provided that each had a majority of the whole electoral vote cast. Under this rule the republican party of that day nominated as their two candidates for President Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, and the federalists nominated John Adams (President at the time) and Charles C. Pinckney. The electoral vote was—for Jeffer- son, 73; for Burr, 73 (republican electors) ; for Adams, 65; for Pinckney, 64; for John Jay, 1 (federal electors). The tie between Jefferson and Burr for President carried the election into the House of Representa- tives, and in that body for a time the | contest was so close, hot and exciting os to | threaten a coup d'état; but finally Jefferson was chosen President, and so Burr became Vice President. The next thing was an amendment of the constitution to avoid a repe- tition of the row experienced and the danger escaped ; and hence the provision for a choice of President and Vice President by the Elec- toral Colleges, as the constitution now stands. No further change was made in the modus operandi of electing our President and Vice President till after the election of 1844, in which the great ‘‘Harry Clay’ was defeated by the comparatively obscure Tennessee Con- gressman, James K. Polk. Down to that election and in that election the several States | voted for the President on the day of their own appointment, and thus New York, being among the last of the States voting, and the | issue being with New York, it was charged that Clay in this city had been cheated out of the State and out of the White House by democratic frauds. There had been, no doubt, in that canvass some cheat- ing on both sides, as usual; but the whigs demanded, as a cure for the evils com- | plained of, the same day in all the States for the Presidential election, and, the democrats mostly concurring, the law was passed as it | now stands. And yet the object in view—a | fair and square popular election for our Presi- | dent and Vice President—has not been gained, and our scheming and unscrupulous elec- | tioneering politicians will not be circumvented | short of these suggested amendments to the | constitution. We want, among other things, | the same day for our State elections in all the | States, and the day which in the Presidential year will be the day of the Presidential elec- | tion, as we have it in New York. The amendment proposed whereby the | Electoral College system will be abolished and | the President and Vice President will be | elected directly by the people we hope will be | carried through without loss of time. We have seen, from the confusion of the electors chosen in behalf of Greeley and Brown and from their scattering votes in every direction in consequence of the death of Mr. Greeley, | that if the Presidential candidate really elected by the vote of the States, as expressed in their | popular vote respectively, should die before | the meeting of the Electoral Colleges, some | nt on our wheat for the means | man may be chosen President by them never of paying the value of much of those goods | dreamed of by the people and obnoxious toa and wares with which English enterprise and | majority even of the party he represents. Our Prosident and Vice President, then, should be industry suvvly us chosen directly by the people. They have outgrown their constitutional swaddling clothes of 1789 and are entitled at least to the habiliments of the boy who begins to feel that he is aman. In short, while the American people choose their President and Vice Presi- dent through this second hand process of Presi- dential electors their sovereignty is a delusion and a snare and they are held as a consenting party to the fallacy that they cannot govern themselves, The extension of the Presidential term to six years is eminently desirable, because the short term of four years hardly gives the country a year of repose from the demoraliz- ing agitation of one Presidential canvass be- fore we are involved in the intrigues and ex- citements of another. A term of six years would give us two or three years of rest from these Presidential hullabaloos, in which pub- lic decorum is lost in a reign of scandalous party personalities, and in which all the busi- ness affairs of the people are more or less deranged by the noise and confusion created by brawling politicians. Before they went off into their disastrons Southern Confederacy adventure the shrewd old managing poli- ticians of the South had had enough of the demoralizing popular excitements incident to this short term of four years to the President; and so, in the constitution of the Confederate States, they gave their Chief Magistrate a term of six years. Their experience in this matter has been our experience, and their example may be wisely followed. As for the one term limitation, we would leave it likewise entirely in the hands of the sovereign people. Upon this question, over and over again, they have shown that they are wiser than our doubt- ing politicians. An Attempt at Insurrection Near Madrid. From a cable despatch which we print this morning it will be learned that an attempt at insurrection was made on Wednesday night in the suburbs of Madrid. On Thursday, when the news was published in the city, consider- able excitement prevailed, and all kinds of wild rumors were put in circulation. Later in the day, when it became known that the disturbance had been ona small scale and had been easily put down by the government troops, the excitement subsided and quiet was restored. If it be true that some twenty of the would-be insurgents were either killed or wounded by the government troops it may be inferred that the crowd was somewhat large; but itis just as reasonable to infer that the government acted with vigor in putting down what, so far as they knew, might have proved a serious riot and possibly a dangerous insur-* rection. If the government troops fired rashly on the crowd it is difficult to blame them, con- sidering the peculiar difficulties which sur- round the throne of Amadeus. Vigor and prompt action on the part of the government are necessities in Spain at the present moment. In the Cortes on Thursday the affair was alluded to by Seiior Martos, one of the Minis- ters. The government, he said, attached no importance to the movement. It was a feeble attempt on the part of certain disaffected par- ties to mar the success of the new loan. Although we have from time to time occasion to find fault with Spain, it is our desire to seo a strong government established, and the gov- ernment of Amadeus bids fair to prove a suc- cess. > Doras at Tue Narronan Carrigi:—In the Senate yesterday the House bill providing for six new vessels-of-war was reported back to the Senate from the Naval Committee, with a pro- position to increase the number of the ships to ten, and other amendments. Ten ships is the ultimatum of the administration, and ten it will be. Vice President Colfax gave notice of a few days’ absence from the Senate, which proba- bly means that he is coming to take a look at the Tribune office, in order to get an idea of the wheels and pulleys of the machine before undertaking to run it—a business-like pro- ceeding. Ir Appears that the two Legislatures of Ala- bama have virtually agreed upon the com- promise submitted by the United States Attor- ney General Williams. The two Legislatures of Louisiana, and her two Governors, on the other hand, have as yet reached no compro- mise. Some of the Warmoth party had a con- ference with the President yesterday, but we apprehend that they were too late and that Warmoth will be pushed out. Tae Morvan Lire Rates—Auuecep Serrie- MENT.—It was announced yesterday in the city, on what would seem good authority, that the Mutual Life Insurance Company had re- ceded from the position it has lately taken relative to the reduction in the rate of pre- mium to new policy-holders. This, if trust- worthy, will be good news to the eighteen companies which have contended for the rate of premium at present common among them. The company, however, have a meeting to-day, and the whole truth in the matter will probably be told. It will then, also, be of the first moment for the officers themselves who are concerned in the late statement in our col- umns of a policy-holder, in justice to them- selves, to cause a fair investigation to be had into the alleged facts. We are far, indeed, from wishing to believe that everything therein stated is not explainable; but in so vast an institution, with such enormous funds at its disposal, the officers will find that a fair and fearless investigation into the circum- stances is what the case requires. Ovr Cororep Brorazrs anp Tuetrs 1x Cusa.—Yesterday evening « large number of our fellow citizens of African blood met in the Cooper Institute to express their views on the question of slavery inCuba. They pleaded for half a million of their race, and surely that ap- peal has more justice and naturalness in it than any other on the subject which has been made. A better from the editor of El Cronista, the Spanish paper in New York, asking the negroes not to take sides against Spain, did not appear to meet with much favor from emancipated Sambo. Late Excise Jounnars allude to a rumor that poison, and not rheumatism, was the cause of the recent severe illness of King Amadeus. Between open revolt, attempts at forcible assassination and the drugged cup the bravo and gallant young Savoyard who grati- fied the Castilians by accepting their proffered throne is learning in the dear school of ex- perience the danger which doth hedge royalty and the uneasy rest of the head which wears a crown. The Condition of the South. In another part of to-day's Henan will be found an article of considerable exhaustive- ness on the present material condition of the Southern States. While that unfortunate section is working out the political question in a halting and tedious manner, it is satisfac- tory to learn, on reliable authority, based on close estimates and keen observation, that the vital process of recuperation is being ad- vanced much more rapidly. Intimately woven, we may say entangled, with this story is the warp of politics which divides its rotten threads between a disheartening mental in- capacity to seize the true needs of the South on the part of the rich whites, an era of plunder by the carpet-baggers, and, worst of all, an insensate antagonism of races. The gradual increase to its old ante-bellum stand- ard in the cultivation of the great Southern staples is the true test of a set- tlement of things all over the lately rebellious States. Cotton, sugar, tobacco, and even rice, are once more taking their places in wonted form in tho markets of the world. It must necessarily be admitted that this pleasing result is greatly due to what Darwinism has termed ‘the struggle for existence,’ and which can no more be ignored or deferred than the neces- sity of breathing. Obstinacy, founded on false sentiment, false pride and bad tradition, has done much to limit the extent of this struggle at the South. It fortunately could never be exactly regarded as a ‘Lost Cause,” although the manner in which the late slave- holders bemoaned the new state of things led thousands of democratic prophets of evil at the North to lament as loudly as Jeremiah over what they called in pompous phrase the “political enslavement and financial and material ruin of the already war-impoverished South.’’ The fact is that when bread and butter, or their Southern equivalents—pig meat, chicken potpie and corn bread—become a ‘Lost Cause’ there will be no one left to mourn it. Whatever inequalities and fantastic wrongdoings have cropped out in the sad chapters of Southern political history in the past seven years, the necessity for industry has preserved it from worse. It has settled the question whether the negro would make as afree laborer as available an individual as when a slave, and has forced all other than an affirmative answer out of the field. That the South should regain every iota of its political rights is certainly desirable ; but the moral of it all is that until the fusion, or at least the mutual toleration, on a free basis, of the white and colored races is frankly admitted in poli- tics as it is in labor—at the polls as well as on the plantation—that the millennium cannot arrive. To the haughty chevalier this is the thing in his mind to be resisted with all sorts of mulishness; but as the colored race can neither be killed off by the Ku Klux nor obliterated by a sweeping flourish of sophomoric oratory, he had better put his hand to the hoe, and cease, by his Bourbonism, to make the carpet-bagger a necessity to the negro, whose strong arms he cannot exist without employing. The secret Leagues of the blacks as well as the Ku Klux of the hairbrained whites would then disappear, and both races be left to industry and peace. The emigration to Texas is certainly an ex- ample which might be followed out with great advantage by the other States. The absurd Chinese feeling, which throws difficulties in the way of muscular emigrants from Europe cr from the North, is unworthy of a people of such pratension +0 enlightenment as the South- ern whites, These meti and women would not come as conquerors or as enemies, but as brain and brawn, and should be welcomed as people of their own race who come to cast their lot for good along with them. The Proposed School of Painting. The action of the students of the Academy of Design in beginning a subscription towards thé endowment of a school of painting de- serves the strongest commendation. It is a good sign to see people willing to help them- selves, and it is a guarantee of success. There can be no question that such a school as is now proposed is sadly needed in New York. Under existing circumstances the aspiring art student has to plod his way wearily without efficient guidance and waste his best years making discoveries that a moderately intelli- gent master would have taught him in a very short time. One of the chief results of the present state of art teaching in America is the almost total absence of first rate figure paint- ers ; even the few men we have in this depart- ment owe their education to European sources. Ifa young man desires to become a really good artist there is no school to which he can apply for instruction, and he is, there- fore, forced to go to Europe, if he possesses the means, or to work his way as best he can, with no other aid than in- domitable pluck and native genius. This is not at all creditable toa great nation proud especially of the educational advantages en- joyed by its people. We have not yet reached the point of comprehending that it is not enough to teach the youth of a country to read and write; but the progress of industrial education in other countries will force us to look this question in the face before many years. In the meantime it is well that private enterprise should initiate the work, and it is sincerely to be hoped that the appeal made by the art students to the rich art patrons of the | city to help them in founding a school of paint- ing in New York will be answered generously. It only requires a few thousand dollars to carry the project to a successful issue, and some of our millionnaires could not leave a bet- ter monument behind them than a national school of painting, with which their names would be associated forever. Facormea axp Frocaimea in English schools is exciting great attention justnow. Old John Bull stands stoutly up for the right of his youngest boys to be kicked and cuffed by those next above them in size, who in turn are entitled to be flogged by prefects and other school magnates. It helps to develop their courage and powers of endurance, you know ; but some of the boys are willing to sell that birthright for ever so little pottage. Tae Massacnusetts LeGistature proposes to condemn Senator Sumner for his action in favor of erasing from Union battle-flags the record of Union victories. Massachusetts would be nothing were she not engaged in some scheme to keep the people of the coun- try continually in hot water. NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1872.—TRIPLE SHERT. The National Commercial Convention, For the last twenty-five years, more or less, we have Periodically noticed the sessions of gentlemen interested in commerce upon what we formerly called our Western rivers, those natural highways which traverse tho centre of our country, draining the products of a dozen States, towards the Mexican Gulf. The Convention is now at work in St. Louis. Tt has members from the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, from Texas, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and it is considering a wide range of subjects, none of which are entirely new. Improve- ment of rivers has been a standing topic for buncombe speeches since the days of General Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet; yet it is hardly likely the people or representatives of the whole nation will assent to the propriety of taxing Maine and California to remove bars or straighten the channel in the Tennessee River. There may be valid reasons for national aid to a ship canal around Niagara Falls on our side, and fora short-cut channel from New Orleans to the Gulf; but the proposition of artificial water communication from Huntsville, in Alabama, to the Coosa River, in Georgia, looks too much like a local benefit to be made a national burden, Asa rule, im- provements worth the labor can be made with- out governmental interposition further than to grant the necessary powers to proper corpora- tions. National regulation is required in rela- tion to railroad tariffs, insurance and cultiva- tion of timber. Every intelligent citizen will agree with the Convention that we need more trans-continental railways ; and probably the majority would be glad to see the telegraph become part of our postal system, though all who are disinterested will oppose the purchase by the government of watered telegraph stock at inflated prices. Tariff or free trade, high duties or low duties, are interesting topics, but as the Convention can only debate without set- tling them, and probably without adding to the popular information, it seems a waste of words to discuss them. Common schools, which the Convention urges upon those States which lack them, cannot receive too much attention, and these commercial gentlemen will justify their assembling if they carry the schoolmaster into any territory which does not own his sway. If by selling the overplus of Indian lands, be- yond the requirements of the tribes for agri- culture, an education fund can be created, to teach the red men civilization, no doubt all their white neighbors will vote for the pro- ject. Doubling the salary of the President of the United States and heads of departments hardly seems within the natural scope of a commercial convention, but as any one of its members may be called from managing steam- boats to guiding the ship of state the propo- sition may possess a personal propriety which accounts for its introduction. Why govern- ment should appropriate two million dollars for experiments to settle the best methods of improving rivers it is difficult to guess, unless the gentleman who asks it has an axe to grind thereby. Finally, though this Convention, like its predecessors, appears likely to talk of many things without agreeing upon any ex- cept those which have universal approbation, its members and the internal commerce of the country will be the gainer by their acquaint- ance and association with each other, which will tend to unite in interest and sentiment portions of the Union wideiy separated. Squandering the Public Domain. The bill granting homesteads to soldiers, which was introduced by Mr. Holman, as an amendment to the Stoughton bill, and which passed the House of Representatives on Thurs- day by a vote of 105 yeas to 62 nays, disposes of about four hundred millions of acres of what is left of the public domain. The enor- mous railroad and other grants profusely made of late years had already taken a large portion of the best public lands, and now this bill gives away the fairest and a great part of what remained. No American citizen would object to giving a reasonable amount of land to the soldiers or their families for actual settlement and for homesteads, but this pro- posed grant is too large and will be of little benefit to the soldiers or their families. It should be called a bill for the benefit of land speculators and agents. Actual settlement or occupancy should be a condition of title. It is time Congress should begin to husband this precious heritage of the American people—to hold some portion of it for the rising or coming generation, and to cease squandering it upon railroad monopolies and for the benefit of speculators. We Ane Guap To Hear that the government has taken up the subject of those poor Italian emigrants that are being landed in New York at the rate of three or four shiploads a month, with no other prospect before them than starvation or the almshouse. We learn that the Italian government will be f@lly informed of this business, with the view of taking some action to put a stop to the gathering up of emi- grants for this country, who have no money for a day’s subsistence beyond their voyage and hardly a chance for a day’s employment till the Winter is over. Nor can we doubt that the Italian government will promptly act in this matter as the circumstances may demand. Tuomas Jounson, A Nero, was Hanorp at Lexington, N. C., for the commission of a horrible outrage on an aged white lady. He died happy, protesting his innocence. The fatal cord would seem to have use everywhere but in New York. Tue Box AvtHonizina THe Excuance or Reoisterep ror Coupon Bonps.—The action of the House of Representatives on the bill authorizing the exchange of registered bonds for coupon bonds, which passed by the large majority of 136 yeas to 22 nays, will be favor- ably regarded by the public, and, if the bill becomes law, will tend to give more ease to the financial operations of the country. If Congress were to act as promptly and with the same business energy in other matters to pro- mote the public interests its sessions need not be prolonged and the calendar would soon be cleared. “Tur Porrtics of all the new States are corrupt and mercenary,” is the broad asser- tion of the Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Democrat, and, he might have added, so, unfortunately, it is with the politics of many of the older States. The now States are exceedingly quick to learn the tricks of their elder sisters, and have a greed and ap- petite for public plunder corresponding with their youth and vigor. Why Our Navy Should Be Increased. For nearly a dozen years England, feeling the necessity of holding and parading her claimed supremacy of the ocean, has been building armor-plated ships of broadside, casemate and turret principle, and step by step the heavy gun has been forged that hurled the projectile through all the multi- plied plates that cover the different types of iron-clads. Now, where is sho to stop? —for, it may be safely asserted, however thick you make the iron plates, either to protect forts or ships, the gun can be made to drive the shob which will destroy them. Indeed, the twenty- eight-inch wrought iron plate has been made, and the American fifteen-inch projectila crushes it, No iron-clad has as yet carried such thickness of iron. We read much of the won- derful English iron-clad Devastation as an almost impregnable floating fort, and we should consider her ability to work destruc- tion, She is vulnerable to only a few of our heaviest guns, has great speed, handlea readily and can act effectively asaram. To this add improved torpedo appliances, and we have an ugly fellow to handle. It is, perhaps, a satisfaction to know that tho iron-clad Peter the Great could resist and challenge the Devastation with fair chance of destroying her; and it affords us a subject to comment upon, the striving on the part of England, Germany and Russia to outbuild the other in the matter of wonderful iron- clads. These great nations, one would judge, had partially forgotten a certainty in naval warfare, which is torpedoes, for they must and will come into gencral use ; all classes of men- of-war will use them, and the nation that first fully adopts the torpedo, with extraordinary applied speed, and the many compartmented ship will find she can work destruction upon her enemy on the high seas more successfully than the nation who has spent her millions upon iron-clads. We now believe the people have cause to congratulate themselves upon tha conservativeness of their legislators, who have hesitated to make large outlays of money upon huge armored ships, particularly in the last five years. It is well we have awaited to profit by the experience of England, France and Russia. But much longer hesitation will not do, and if persisted in as to what course the United States shall adopt it will, if we are involved in war, lead to a grave misfortune to us asa nation. Our legislators must at once give us twenty of the best modelled ships (two thousands tons), with great speed, many water-tight compartments, armed with a few heavy guns and every modern improved torpedo appliance for use on board, Then wo can send forth cruisers to work destruction, with the certainty that if they meet the heaviest of the enemy’s vessels, with their torpedo appliances, they can destroy them, even if destroyed themselves. Hence, at a small outlay of say ten millions, we can meet and destroy navies that cost ten times that amount. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Judge Lochrane, of Georgia, is at the St. James Hotel. Loring B. Barnes, of Boston, is at the Grand Cen tral Hotel, Congressman John A. Kasson, of Iowa, is at the Glennam Hotel, R. W. Daniells, Collector of the port of Buffalo, i¢ at the Grand Central Hotel. Wendell Phillips returned to Boston from the St. Denis Hotel yesterday morning. Colonel Henry Page, of Little Rock, Ark., ig stopping at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Miss Mary Thurman, eldest daughter of the Ohio Senator, is to wed a naval officer. Silas B. Dutcher has been confirmed by the Sen» ate as the Pension Agent in this city. ‘The great trio of the Empire State next year— Dix, Havemeyer and the Legislature. Governor Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, is at the Fiith Avenue Hotel. A jewel in a sombre set- ting. General Sherman, with his wife and daughter, arrived at the Astor House from Washington yes- terday. Prince Jerome Napoleon is visiting the ex-Empe- ror at Chiselhurst. “I'll weep with thee, Thiers for Thiers.” Ex-Congressman Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rnode Island, is receiving civil service from the employ¢é at the Astor House. Solicitor E. C. Banfield, of the Treasury Depart. ment at Washington, yesterday arrived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Sir Donald McLeod, late Lieutenant Governor of the Punjaub, was killed bya railway accident at the Gloucester road station, London, on the 28th ult. It is charged pretty broadly that Mayor Gaston has been re-elected Mayor of Boston by fraud. Ward Two is accused of stuffing his Thanksgiving turkey. Rev. Mr. Spurgeon, the distinguished London Baptist pulpit orator, has been seriously ill im Southern France, but has returned home conva- lescent. Princess Louise, the Marchioness of Lorne, had been elected President of the British National Union for Improving the Education of Women. No longer for Lorne. Mr. Wisker, the victor in the recent London chesa tournament, has been presented with the chal- lenge cup by Lord Lyttleton at a dinner in the Albion Hotel. Murat Halstead, of the Cincinnatt Commercial, with his usual modesty, refrains from denying the report that he is a candidate for a nomination for Governor of Ohio. The death is announced of Marguerite: Bellanger, who played a conspicuous part in the well known scandal connected with the second Empire of France, under Napoleon the Third. The Chicago Post says it is confidently expected that of the sixty-flve members of the Yale school of journalism one or two may some time gaze fool- ishly into the paste pot ot a country weekly. ‘The Minneapolis Tridune don’t like the appoint- ment of Ward Hunt to tne Supreme Bench, and says the President might have made a ward hunt almost anywhere and got a better man. Doubtful. J. Q, 0. Lamar, member of Congress elect from Mississippi, whose disabilities were removed & few days ago, was prostrated on Thursday by @ para- lytic stroke, The attending physician has hopes of his recovery. . Thomas H. Nelson, United States Minister to Mexico, is about to return to his post of duty, his leave of absence being abuat ended. He reached this city yesterday from Indiana, and is now at the Metropolitan Hotel. We are specially informed by letter from Rio Janeiro that Queen Victoria has requested the Em- peror of Brazil tomake known to Baron de Ita- juba her high sense of his ability and impartialtty as displayed at the Geneva arbitration. It is stated that Congressman Cox ts going ona long voyage next Summer. He expects to travel through Norway and Iceland, and as near to the North pole as he can get. Two years ago his search was for Winter sunbeams; next year it will be for Summer icebergs. ‘On the Sthinst. President Grant nominated Henry H. Wells, of Richmond, Va., to be United States District orney for the Eastern district of Vir- ginia, vice his father, General Henry H. Wells, re- signed, Tb? Judge of this Court is John C, Under- wood, a native of Herkimer county, New York, ant the Governer of Virginia ts Gilbert ©. Walker, o native of Binghamton, N.Y, All three are grab uates of Hamilton College,