The New York Herald Newspaper, December 16, 1872, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hera. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Volume xXxXvil,. iE ibs AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, WARE THEATRE, Broadway, between ‘ourteenth strects.—AGnxs. seeeeeseres NOs 351 UNION tecnth and FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street— Mareen Lire. | WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth ‘strcet.—Oun Amexican Cousin. * THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Arnica; or, Livingstone AND STANLEY. ROOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third street, corner Sixth ‘evenue.—Tax Lity ov France, OLYMPIO THEATRE, Brosdway, between Houston wand Bloccker st8.—La Bruix Henne, : {_ sTADT THEATRE, Nos, 4 and 87 Bowory.—Orera— (ux Manny Wivas or Wixpson. { BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Maserea—Mr. axp Dius, Peren Wire, { woon's MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtioth st WBapea w me Woop.’ At n und Evening, GRAND OPERA nO! @v.—Rounn tz Crock. " NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets.—Leo ann Lotos. ' onty-third st. and Eighth BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st., corner Dth av.—Nucuo Minstarisy, Eccen ticity, &c, ATAENEUM, No. 585 Broadway.—Srienprip Vartete jor Noveurigs. r CANTERBURY VARIETY THEATRE, Broadway, be- ‘ween Bleecker and Houston.—Vanisty ENTERTAINMENT, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— Geanp Vantery Enrentarxment, £0, SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, corner 28th st. and Proadway.—Etauorian Mixstnxrsy, £0, STEINWAY HALL, ‘Tux AnGonavts or ‘49. BARNUM'S MUSEUM, MENAGERIE AND CIRCUS.— Fourteenth street, near Broadway.—Day and Evening. , Fourteenth street.—Lecronz, NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— Betewax anp Art, ‘TRIPLE SHEET. ' New Yerk, Monday, Dec. 16, 1872, ke THE ?Lo-Day’s Contents of the Herald. NEWS OF YESTERDAY. THE ADMINISTRATION AND ITS NEW DOMES- TIC AND FOREIGN POLICY! A MAGNIFI- CENT BUT COSTLY PROGRAMME”—LEAD- ER—Sixtu PaGE. EUROPE BY CABLE! HEATED DEBATE IN THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY OVER DISSOLUTION: THE RIGHT OF PETITION SCANDALIZED: ITALIAN ANTAGONISM TO THE JESUITS— SsVENTH PaGE. QUE POLITICAL TURMOIL IN NEW ORLEANS! THE PRESIDENT’S INTERFERENCE: THE CITIZENS’ COMMITTEE ON THE WAY TO INTERVIEW HIM—Turrp PacE, AN IMPARTIAL, THOROUGH REVIEW OF AF- FAIRS IN THE SOUTH! LOUISIANA AND ALABAMA CARPET-BAGGERS AND THE REIGN OF TERROR AND REPUDIATION THEY HAVE FOSTERED—Firty PacE. WALKS WITH THE UNANNEXED! OANADIAN DISCONTENT WITH THEIR PRESENT RUL- ING: OPINIONS OF FARMERS AND POLI- TICIANS—FRENCH CANADIANS—LITERA- TURE—Firru Pace. DEFENDERS OF THE CREDIT MOBILIER IN CAUCUS! OAKES AMES AND BROOKS RE- TORT UPON M’'COMB: COMPROMISE EF- FORTS—Tuirp Pace. OFFICERS RETIRED FROM THE UNION ARMY! THEIR NAMES. RANK, PAY AND HOW DIS- ABLED: THIRTY-YEAR RETIREMENTS— Tanta PAGE. BEWERAGE OF THE METROPOLIS! THE DE- FEOTS IN THE PRESENT SYSTEM AND UNSCIENTIFIC PLANS OF CONTRACTORS: FOUL AIR AND DISEASE GENERATORS— Fourta Pace. SUDDEN DEATH OF JOHN F. KENSETT! HIS ARTIST LIFE AND ITS HONUR-CROWNED ENDING—PERSONAL NEWS GOSSIP—Szy- ENTH PaGE. /ENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN MAIL NEWS! f PUBLIC WORKS AND POPULAR PROG- RESS—ELEVENTH Pace. BAPANESE RELATIONS WITH LOOCHOO AND FORMUSA! SILK-WORM FRAUDS: AN ELECTIVE PARLIAMENT: SOCIAL RE- FORM—ELEVENTH PaGE. WOW THE PUBLIC ARE PLUNDERED! WHAT ASSISTANT ALDERMAN GEIS KNOWS OF RAILROAD COMPANIES THAT PAY NEITHER RENT NOR TAXES—Tuirp Pace. IMMIGRANTS OR BANDITS! ACTION OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY ON THE RECENT AR- RIVALS: THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT DENOUNCED—SKATING—NAVAL— MARINE NEWS—TENTH PGE. REVIEW OF THE BUSINESS AND QUOTATIONS OF WALL STREET FOR THE PAST WEEK! STOCK MANIPULATION: THE LAPSE IN GOLD—TOMBS POLICE COURT—NintH Pace. LESSONS OF THE HOUR FROM CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT STANDPOINTS! THE. PAS- TORS’ PREACHING TO THEIR FLOCKS: THE “FREE-FOR-ALL” RELIGIOUS RACE— Eiantu Pao. HE PUBLIC WORKS OF MANHATTAN! REPORT : OF COMMISSIONER VAN NORT—AFRICA— THE INTERNATIONALS—GOVERNOR DIX’S STAFF—Fovurta Pace, More Cavs ror Compiamt.—The friends ‘pf Mayor Havemeyer have more cause for plaint. Those objectionable Tax Com- ioners, Messrs. Sands and Creamer, have wppointed Charles E. Miller counsel to the missioners, at a salary of ten thousand far a year, and David M. Henriques Deputy lector of Taxes and Assessments. These ppointments have been made on the eve of yor Havemeyer’s accession to office, ‘Dae Tratux PantraMent anp THE Monastic ‘Tons. —A committee of the Italian Par- iament has affirmed the principle of the Reli- ious Corporations Suppression. bill, which referred to it for consideration by the ties, and also the plan of the alienation f the greater portion of the monastic institau- ions to the uses of the State, The main pro- ions of the Legislative measure, which will based upon the report of the King’s govern- yment, are published in the Henaxp to-day. They hppear fair enough, but will press, as we are Drder of the Society of Jesus—a vast change in the public sentiment of Italy since the mo- ment when Charles Albert, Victor Emmanuel’s father, doffed the crown and donucd the batt pf the cloister. NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1872—TRIPLE SHEET. The Administration and Ite New Do- mestic and foreign Poltcy—A Mag- nificent but Costly Programme. A great soldier in the réle of « statesman and in the conduct of a peace policy is still apt to be carried away by grand military ideas into enterprises which if suggested to ordi- nary minds would be dismissed by them as visionary or impracticable. Thus tho First Napoleon, for example, in the lucid intervals of his stormy reign, developed a system of in- ternal improvements for France never dreamed of before, but which, in material progress, advanced her half a century beyond her neigh- bors; and thus, in adopting the Napoleonic idcas of his uncle, the nephew has loft behind him such enduring monuments of substantial prosperity to his people that, perhaps, a ma- jority of them at this day believe that the de- parted internal peace and progress and glory of France can be restored only with the restoration of the Empire. We soe, too, that General Grant, relieved of the duties of war, in which he directed the movements of a mil- lion of armed men, in coming into the duties of the Cabinet, though he stands before the country and the world as the embodiment of peace, cannot confine himself within the nar- row limitations of a sleepy routine peage estab- lishment. His mind, drawn from the combina- tions of numerous armies, dispersed over half @ continent, and their concentration upon this or that éffective point against the enemy, still naturally turns, even in the sue of peace, to enterprises of a corresponding magnitude. Hence his St. Domingo annexation scheme; his surveying expeditions to the isthmus passages of Central America for an inter- oceanic ship canal route; his broad and com- prehensive Indian policy; his fifteenth amendment; his High Joint Commission and hig Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration. Hence, too, the stupendous programme of internal improvements outlined in his late annual Message, embracing a land-locked line of ship navigation along the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Florida, a ship canal around the Falls of Niagara on our side, and three or four smaller canals across the Alleghanies, ‘between Maryland and Georgia. These grand enterprises of pence, we say, are but natural to a mind developed and matured in working out the tremendous problems involved in the effective handling of a million of soldiers, divided and sub-divided into hundreds of armies, detachments, raids and posts of ob- servation along the Southern seaboard, and from Maryland to Missouri and thence to Texas, Nor can the dullest comprehension fail to perceive that the benefits which the country, peace or war, would realize from these sug- gested improvements would be immense and enduring. But still the question recurs, Should the general government enter into these magnificent undertakings, as a copartner or as bounty. giver or money lender, what will be the costs and the consequences? Beforo the advent of the iron horse our undeveloped great West lay just beyond tho Alleghany Mountains. To open the public lands in Ohio, Indiana, &ec., but first of all to provide aninviting passage over the Alleghanies to the Ohio River from the East, the great national road, a broad macadamized highway, was built by the government from Cumber- land, Md., oygr the mountains to Wheeling, and next through the heart of Ohio into the heart of Indiana. Near Wheeling there is still standing on this road a pretty monument to that great patriot and public benefactor, Henry Clay, as its projector. This road over the mountains, broad, solid and smooth, with its easy grades, its iron mileposts, its hand- some and substantial bridges, its tidy toll- gates, its splendid post coaches and comfort- able taverns, was as much the theme of public wonder and admiration in that epoch as was, forty years later, our pioneer Pacific Railroad upon its completion. But while they were pushing this national road in Indiana still westward the iron horse came whistling in, and this work of goverament macadamizing was stopped. Then came the government policy of land grants to railroads, first broadly developed in the bill of Senator Douglas granting millions of acres to the Illinois Central, and culminat- ing in the imperial grants of lands and bonds to our Pacific railroads. That these roads, as faras constructed, are abundantly repaying the government and the country for the ex- penses incurred is manifest im the settlement and development of our Rocky Mountain and Pacific slope States and Territories. But how many millions of money devoted to these great enterprises have been appropriated by corrupt combinations of managers and lobby jobbers will probably never be known, even to the Crédit Mobilier committee now en- gaged in the investigation of this interesting subject. How far the lobby is calculating upon its profits from these magnificent canal projects will never, perhaps, be suspected. short of the loss of many millions to the gov- ernment after plunging into these inviting schemes. But while there was no other alter- native to the government than the building of railroads in order to bring its lands west of the great Plains into market, there is no such necessity for these seaboard and inland canal jobs. These trans-Alleghany canal schemes belong to the several States concerned, and this proposed line of land-locked navigation along the seaboard is only another device for constructing a chain of local canals from the funds of the National Treasury. The same objection applies to the attractive idea of rebuilding our carrying trade on the high seas by means of subsidies to two orthree or a dozen steamship lines, If Congress en- ters into this business of oxcavating canals New York will have her share of the govern- ment conéributions as well as New Jersey, and Ohio as well ag West Virginia. As it has been with these land grants to railways so it will be with these bounties to canals—there will be no end to them till the spring is exhausted. So, too, if we subsidize two or three steam- ship lines, we shall have to subsidize two or three oradozen more, for the arguments of the lobby are potential in proportion to the margin for pickings and stealings. In a word, these splendid internal improvements sug- gested as the future domestic policy of Gen- eral Grant, we fear, are splendid schemes only | for widespread corruption, public demoraliza- informed by cable, with special severity on the | tion and national bankruptey. The projected foreign policy of he adminis- tration, 80 far £8 We con judge from present indications and ramdt, oMbracey_& vigorous preparation for war in reference to our com- «| plications with Spain and Guba, the revival of the St. Domingo annexation acheme, an inter- oceanic ship canal and new treaties of amity and commorcial reciprocity with Mexico and the Central and South American States, with an eye to a few more subsidized steam- ship lines. This programme, in addition to the budget of internal improvements sug- gested, may well cause the Secretary of the Treasury to shudder at the prospect before him. Of course all these grand projects will require a prodigious supply of bonds and groenbacks, increased instead of reduced taxes, and a suspension, first, of the payment of the principal, and next, a suspension of the interest of the national debt, in order to make both ends meet. The President tells usin his Mes- sage thatin view of needful expenditures any further reduction of our national taxes aro, for tho present, impracticable. Woe presumo that, for the present, ho intends to indulge Mr. Boutwell in his pretty conceit of a redemption of the debt at the rate of a hundred millions 9 year until these other uses are found for his surplus funds. The whole outlook is anything but that of relief to tho toiling masses of the people, From the material facilities of the age, such aa railways and telographs, eyory country concerned in these. agents of modern progress is inevitably tending to a strong or stronger centralized goyernment. This tendency is the modern law of gravitation, ‘If there had been no, Southern rebellion the railway and the telegraph would have banished by this time the State rights doctrines of Calhoun even from South Carolina. But these interventions in Southern local entanglements, and these in- ternal improvements and steamship subsidy projects suggested by General Grant, indicate @ tendency to a centralization aa patriarchal as that of Pekin and as complete as that of St. Polersburg. But there is still this encourag- ing compensation before us, that when, like Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, we shall all come under the care of our Great Father, we shall all be relieved of the trouble of taking care of ourselves. How this idea will affect the Presi- dential contest of 1876 is a question which we submit to the scheming politicians of Con- gress. End of the Insurance War. We announced to our readers yesterday that the Mutuat Life Insurance Company had, after a stormy and spicy five hours discussion on Saturday, abandoned the proposed policy of @ sweeping reduction of rates. No doubt this will be good news to the policy holders and quiet some well grounded apprehensions, Tho proposal to deviate from the long estab- lished rates, the safety of which had been fully demonstrated by experience in this coun- try as well as in Great Britain, has encountered almost universal opposition, Lawyers have not hesitated to say that such a deviation, about which actuaries differ, might in the case of @ purely mutual company imperil sacred trust funds, the heritage of widows and orphans, and be therefore actionable at law. The signatures affixed by thousands to the pro- tests against it which have poured in, and are still pouring in, from all parts of the country, represent an aggregate of interests amounting to millions of dollars; and among the signa- tures to the protests daily received are tho names of eminent citizens and several distin- guished judges of our courts. The noted Californian who drove his four horses furiously yet safely down a mountain road for many years was at last suddenly upset and run away with. A vessel which sails smoothly enough off soundings may tack and head towards some rocky promontory, shaving it closely, and yet escape tho breakers; but the chances are ten to one that by a sudden squall it may be shipwrecked. So it is gen- erally felt that even if an insurance company is rich and strong enough to bear for a time the strain of a revolutionary experiment it cannot always be secure against liability to fatal accidents. The public recog- nizes marked distinctions between a fire policy which is made for a single year and: the con- ditions of which may be changed on the part of the holder or that of the company, as ex- igencies may require, and a life-policy which iso contract ‘for better or for worse’’ for a long term of years or until death. In the latter case yearly dividends may be an equiva- lent for the conveniences of the former, and the faculty of withholding dividends on oc- casion is, as it were, a safety valve for a life insurance company. The public must feel reassured by what is virtually an abandonment of a-mistaken pro- ject and a return to the safe rates to which it has hitherto been accustomed. Such rates promise to be henceforth a bulwark of American life insurance. This beneficent institution will, perhaps, be stronger in itself and in its hold upon popular favor, now that it has weathered the recent storm. It remains to be seen whether the concession of the Mutual Life Insurance Company to en- lightened public opinion will avert a search- ing investigation of the serious charges which, rightly or wrongly, have been brought against its management. At all events, the prevailing sentiment demands that the officers of every insurance company should be, like Cesar's wife, above suspicion. Dundreary and His Brother Sam. Nothing in the way of character acting is more remarkable than Mr. Sothern’s Lord Dundreary except Dundreary’s Brother Sam. Both creations are as independent of the play- wright as Dundreary’s story of ‘‘the dogs and the wabbits’’ is independent of the scarcely finer touch of Thackeray or Dickens. Sam isas different from Dundreary as one strongly in- dividualized brother can be from another. Both are inimitable, and Sothern holds them by a title stronger than an international copy- right—his own genius. Both are fops, but fops of o different order. Dundreary's whiskers are intensely aristocratic and very English, while Sam’s mustache is oftener seen in Broadway and the Blossom than in the neighborhood of Regent Park and the Lon- don clubs. The brothers differ in mind, in manner, in speech and in person, Dundreary is soggy; Sam is shrewd. Dundreary lisps, and nothing is funnier than to hear him swear; Sam never stutters, and has a dry, droll laugh that is merrimont itself. Dundreary is as certain as he can be certain of anything that you don't know Sam; Sam knows every- body to everybody's cost. Dundreary is morose, if he sosses any such thing asa temperament ; Sam is constantly declaring that ho is “awfully jolly,” and is very fond of “that sort of thing.’’ We cannot say which of the fops we like the beat, bul wo confess to @ liking for both. Their characters, differing | hig oven in the minutest details, are the results of pure acting, and neither of them can open his mouth without “putting his foot in it," if the impulse to laugh among Mr. Sothern’s auditors is to be taken asacriterion. The publio have enjoyed the oddities of the one at Wallack’s for weeks past, for though Mr. Sothern has played the part over twenty-one hundred times people never tire of Lord Dundreary, and when they consent to part with him for awhile they want to see Brother Sam. Dundreary yields to Sam noxt Saturday evening, even in this following their own in- stincts and coming and going when they please to come and go. AMEE P The French Assombly—The Petitions for Dissolution Thrown Out. ‘Tho fierce and exciting debate in the French Assembly on the petitions from all parts of France praying for the dissolution of that body has been brought to a close by the unusual measure of rejecting the petitions altogether. It may well be conceived that the monarchical and ministerial majority of the Assembly, perfectly aware of the narrow chances a general election would afford of their being returned in anything like their. -present force, should combat all attempts at dissolution. ‘The petitions in question, it will be recalled, are direct emanationd of tho radical. party. and set on foot by the radical press under tho lead of the Sidcle. Asa califrom the party headed by M. Gam- betta they were, above all things, open to hos- tility, yet the mannor in which they have been rudely thrown out indicates nothing short of the passion that springs in irritable minds from a consciousness of weakness. The right of petition, a grave and sacred right in all free countries, seems either not to be understood by the government, or else, with sublime indifference to everything which is not an emanation of their own party, they resolved to ignore it. The debate on Saturday morning was opened by M. Duval with the potti- fogging assertion that the petitions which were brought forward for the dis- solution of the Assembly were irregularly signed, and were, evidently, the work of agitators, Gambetta followed and swept away the cobwebs of his antagonists most skilfully, He pointed to the fact that the country had given significant and successive manifestations of its dissent from the policy of the Assembly by returning republican candidates in most of the recent elections, wherein democrats had been success- ful over monarchists, even in the ancestral districts of the latter. He defied the mon- archists to establish a monarchy. The Right was greatly excited and passionately’. inter- rupted Gambetta, M,. ‘Audiffret-Pasquier followed attacking the radicals and in de- fence of thé monarchists, On reassembling in the evening the Ministry took part, when M. Dufaure, of the Depart- ment of Justice, attacked M. Gambetta and the petitions together. The scenes and speechcs which followed are deseribed as violent and exciting, and were only ended for the moment by a division giving a two-thirds majority to the government. Following up this questionable advantage, it was ordered on a second division that the Minister's speech should be placarded all over France. In this mood it was scarcely to be expected that the Assembly would agree to accord the same public advertisement to the speeches of the radicals, as was sardonically but, we think, justly proposed. This way of showing the people what their rulers think good for them at the national expense is not new, but essentially demoralizing wherever it is adopted. To be at all logical it should, like our plunderous franking privilege, work with some show of equality for both sides. The radical press, it is stated, maintains a dogged indifferentism to the work of the Assembly, and urges the continuance of the work of preasing for a dissolution. We must not at once conclude from the fact that there was tumult in the Assembly that any dangerous crisis is at hand. Legislative As- semblies in France for eighty years have been holding noisy carnivals without any sur- prising results springing from what the Parisian journals complacently note as «= “tumult,” just = as. we write “confusion” and the English press “loud groans.” They are, naturally, more demon- strative than either; that is all. But the de- bate developed the condition of things politi- cally in France with considerable exactness. M. Gambetta, from his seat on the Left, angrily defying the monarchists to establish a monarchy, points with a taunt what M. Thiers announced in another form in his late speech— the impossibility of the monarchy. So far so good. If, however, the old gentlemen of the Right cannot have an Orleans or Bourbon king, they seem determined to delay the actual assertion of the Republic as long as possi- ble. Poor royalistic Micawbers ! Their last chanco seems crowded into wishing that something frightfully democratic may not turn up. The rejection of the petitions gives feeble expression to this wish, Gambetta and his party, emboldened by the result of the late elections and the growth of the republican spirit everywhere, find it bard to restrain themselves, with the future, os they believe, in their hands, They need not fear the rage of the Assembly and they should, therefore, allow the fruit to ripen before pluck- ing it. It will fall into their hands or perhaps those of more moderate republicans. They chafe even at the delay which a partial re- newal would hang upon their progress to ab- solute control. This is the signification of the petitions and the short-sighted measure which rejected them without any of the courtesy which even political opponents should receive, Thiers was absent. Wise Thiers! Tae DerantMent of Pustio Wonxs.—The annual report of the Commissioner of Public Works contains many interesting facts, some of the most important of which will be found in to-day’s Henatp. It will be seen that the work of reformation in this department—tho most corrupt and the worst abused in the whole city government under the rule of the old “‘Ring’’—has been pushed vigorously and effectively, The department was the asylum of all the political ragamuflins of the city, and was filled with sinecurists and foul with corrup- tion, Commissioner Van Nort has succeeded efforts have been a saving of over ‘ix hundred thousand dollars in the year’s ex- penditure of the department, a material im- Provement in ita efficiency, and an increase of over fifty thousand dollars in three months’ receipts for rents and penalties. The other reforms made in the department are numerous and valuable, and with friendly co-operation on the part of the Comptroller they could be still further increased. As the Department of Public Works includes the control of the Cro- ton Board, its proper management is of the utmost importance to the city. taxpayers are to receive only injury from it, we might as well cut off the Croton water from the distributing mains and then invite the pee- ple to visit the aqueduct and admire its ample supply. Advent and Other Sermons. Tho arbitrary rules of the Catholic Ohurch are of great benefit to the people by keeping before them in regular order the great doo- trines of Christianity. While other clergy- men can take up any topic they pleaso—and, as our columns testify, these topics are mani- fold and are variously treated—the Catholio glergy have their lines of thought and their pulpit topies in a great measure laid out and defined for them. Hence tho incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, His manifestation to the Gentiles, His agony and betrayal, Hie Subjects for Explanation—Will Comp- tgoller Greom Let Us Have Light? There are two subjects upon which the pub- lio would no x to receive some light from thal of the clty Treasury, Comptroller Green, who has rendered such valuable service in the cause of municipal reform, and whose honesty is as notorious as the unfinished condition of the new Court House. The first is suggested by the resolu- tion introduced in the Board of Aldermen by in lesg than ao year in making it one — Ye 8 ee oe of the best, if not the best conducted under the city goverument. ‘Tho practical results of Alderman Geis directing the Comptroller to report to the Board, at its meoting to-day, the amount of arrearages of rent and interest now due the city, especially by the New York and Erie Railway Company, who appear to havo held possession for some years of the valuable property, formerly occupied as‘their principal’ offices, on Duane, Washington, Reade and West streets, without paying a dollar for the same since 1868. In a conver- sation held with Alderman Geis’ by @ Huznarp reporter yesterday, and pub- lished this morning, it will be seen that the Erie Railway agreed to pay five per cent an- nually on the appraised valuation of that property in consideration of a twenty years’ lease, commencing from January 1, 1868, and that the property was appraised at two hundred and twenty-five. thousand dollars, which is said to be much less than its value. The rent upon this valuation, however, would be eleven thousand two hundred and fifty dollars 4 year, or in four years up to January next forty-five thousand dollars. Not a cent of this amount, Alderman Geis asserts, has ever been paid, and he charges that Comptroller Green, coming into office on reform prin- ciples, shoultt have looked sharply enough after the city’s interests to have col- lected the amount due, if not sooner, at least as soon as his fellow re- former, General Dix, obtained entire pos- session of the funds and business manage- ment of the Erie road. In addition to this Erie swindle, Alderman Geis charges that the arrearages of rent for docks and slips and for ferry fees amounted in May last to nearly half a million dollars, and that the Third Avenue Railroad Company, with a direction of promi- nent city “‘reformers,”’ has never paid one dollar of personal or other taxes since the company was first inaugurated, in 1859, to the present day. As the Comptroller's duty is to see that all arrearages are paid and that no one swindles the city by evading taxation or neglecting payment of moneys due, that officer will probably have some reply to make to Alderman Geis’ charges, It seems difficult to believe that Comp- troller Green, who ‘will not suffer a clerk to draw a day's pay for work not actually performed, or a scrub woman to include a holiday in her weekly bill, would .neglect for more than a year to collect thirty or forty thousand dollars arrearages of rent from a wealthy corporation controlled by fellow reformers, or shut his eyes to the evasion of taxation by one of the richest railroad com- panies in the city. Tho second question to which Comptroller Green will probably vouchsafe a reply is, what has become of the interest on the moneys re- maining in the city and county treasury? It will be remembered that under City Chamber- lain Devlin the interest on the balances in the treasury was claimed and appropriated by that officer. A very large sum was then kept on hand, for most of which the city had to pay seven per cent interest, the money being mainly the proceeds of bonds, The amount realized by the Chamberlain through this prac- tice was enormous, and the evil was loudly condemned by the taxpayers and the press, Ex-Chamberlain Peter B. Sweeny voluntarily gave up his right to the interest, if any right really existed, and paid over the amounts to the city's credit. He received, we believe, three and a half per cent from the banks on the deposits, and during his term of office and that of his successor, Chamberlain Brad- ley, who kept up the practice, the fund thus secured to the city reached somo five hundred thousand dollars, There being then no object in keeping large sums of money in the treasury, the balances ran down occasionally to two or three hundred thousand dollars and probably did not often exceed half a million. The tax- payers were thus saved the payment of heavy interest, Since Chamberlain Palmer's acces- sion to office we have heard nothing of this interest fund. What has become of it? Where | is it credited to the city? Has it beon paid at all, or has Comptroller Green suffered the city to lose it? ‘These questions are the more important from the fact that the amounts in the city and county treasury have wonderfully and repre- hensibly increased until they have reached the enormous dimensions of from seven to nine millions, We say “reprehensibly,” for on this‘sum the taxpayers are paying at least seven per cent interest, Three and a half per cent on the amount of nine millions for three months only would realize three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. Will Comptroller Green let the people know whether any inter- est at all has beon paid to the city’s credit by Chamberlain Palmer on the large sums he has held in the treasury, or whether the ‘reform’ government has re- turned to the corrupt system prevailing be- fore Chamberlain Sweeny's accession to the office? The money borrowed on city bonds bears seven per cent interest, The city is bound to pay seven per cent interest on all claims not paid at maturity or when due to the city creditor, and under a policy of never paying any claims until further delay is im- possible this interest is likely to prove an im- portant item in the city expenditures, If we add to this legal expenses for litigation, which have recently been large, we shall find the taxpayers are losers by the large balances kept on hand under any circumstances. They would like to know whether, in addition to all this singular ‘reform’ economy, they have lost the three gud a balf per cont paid by the arrest, trial and condemnation, His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, are all brought before the minds of the people in their propes season, Hence the advent of Christ, s0 socom to be eommemorated .by .the Christian Church, finds its: appropriate echo in the Catholic. Church, whoge: ministers: yesterday, adopting the language of John the Baptist, called sinners to repentance ere this golomn season shall pass away. Mev. Father Kane likened St. Joba to the morning star that ushered in the day of the Son jhteous- ness. He came to prepare men's | and, to point them to the Lamb of God, who dood not despise the heart that is bowed down an@ crushed to earth with the remembrance of many sins, but rather lifts it up and seeks to lead it higher toward His throne. If we could see with the eyes of angels the heinousness of our sing, the reverend preacher thought the still stars would then look down upon us be- holding our ruffled brows and agonized eyes lifted to the sky while prostrated before God wo asked his mercy and forgiveness. So we believe, too. But the great trouble with preachers of every name and denomination is to get men to think. The thought of the enormity of their sins would soon drive people to Him who pardoneth iniquity, transgression and sin, We do aot, however, regret that the days of enforced penance have passed away: It is better for the world that God should deal separately by His Holy Spirit with every indi- vidual heart than that either Church or State should bind men down to a particular or pre- scribed form of faith or of ritual. Never. theless the admonition of the reverend Father Kane is well worthy the attention not only of all who hear, but of all who read hid words to-day. Rev. Father McCready .was equally plain and practical. His effort was te show God’s justice as well as His mevoy toward sinners. Sin demands either pardom or punishment, and in human society thoga principles are illustrated in our every-day life. And what we do ourselves to our follow men shall we deny God the right to do to His crea» tures? Shall we dare to bind up the hands of God, and say _ thaf He the Creator must . not demand from us what we exact from one another? Certainly not. We should acknowledge the justice of the Almighty’s claims upon us and yield prompt and hearty obedience to Hig commands. Father Romayno insisted that ad God so loved mankind as to give His only Son as a sacrifice to reconcile the world unto Himself it is the duty of every Christian ta make ready for tho Saviour's coming by living lives of purity and of love to God. The Saviour, by battling with the world and over- coming it, has set us an example of courage and determination which we should follow. Mr. Frothingham handled the doctrine of immortality and man's faith in it yesterday in his usual style. He acknowledged that the doctrine is an old one and that the conviction of immortality cannot be eradicated from the human mind. A faith, he remarked, that could live through the two thousan® years of Christendom, a faith that still lives ix the nineteenth century, a faith that has sur’ vived the Roman Catholic Church, a faith that has survived the Protestant Church, which is all hell and no purgatory, must be @ cardinal, fundamental faith—an indestructible faith. It was splendid faith to believe that there wasa child, the son of a poor carpenter, who rose to such a height of dignity and. sweetness that he became a monument for all time, In such faith there was hope for alf. The Pharisees, who, because they live @ tolerably decent life here, expect a life of per. petual bliss hereafter, receive a just rebuke, and the suggestiveness of the inspiration to goodness in this life drawn from the faith in the future is worthy of thought ond medi- tation, Mr. Hepworth contended for the stability of the Word of God. Jesus Christ declared that heaven and earth should pass away, but His words would not pass away. At tho time these words were uttered they might seem to be arrogant, but now they are imperial—they are the words of aking. Jesus came a king, but he went forth a prisoner, and died the death of one who had greatly offended the law. Bat His resurrection had imparted to the disciples @ power which had enabled them to perform the great works which they afterwards did, and before six centuries had passed the Gospel was preached from shore to shore of the Roman Empire. The triumph is come, but the Mastes is gone—gone, yet ever presen Dr. Chapin, exalting the spirit and life of the Christian re ligion, found that whether it be defined ae faith in the divine mission of Christ or belief in the method of salvation that He promul- gated, it is more than either—it is spirit and life. It is morg {han theology ang creeds. Theology is not even & stand- ard of religion. The soul is larger than logie and religion is more than theology. ‘Am EF a heretic,” the Doctor asked, ‘because I be. lieve no one has the right to take the measure of another man’s religion? Am I o hereti¢ because I cannot believe that Calvin's or Wee ley's or John Murray’s brain work compre- hended all God’s religion?’ Certainly not. The Doctor very forcibly answers his owr queries. “There is religion in a belief in Christ, not belief about Him. There is reli- gion in trasting Him, not forming opinions of Him, The lame, the maimed, the leper, the sorrow-stricken whom He cured, believed im Him, but would they, according to theology and oreeds, have been fitted for installation im an Orthodox church?" And as tho Doctot remarked, prayer cannot jo hoyght by creeds,