The New York Herald Newspaper, January 1, 1873, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, Volume XXXVIII...... AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Twenty-third street, corner Sixth avenue.—Ricuarp II, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Brondway, between Hi and Bleecker seus Pxnit Faves” ween Houston WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtleth st.— Jack, tax Giant Kinixr. Afternoon and Evening. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Matines at 2-7: #0 mx Last, Ac. Evening-owa Axdnis, a600 GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-thira st. and Eighth av.—Rounp tux Crock. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets.—Leo ann Loron Matinee atl ‘UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Broadw: Thirteenth and Fourteenth sts,—How or rue Gott, ke. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-f - New Year's ve. Matinee at 13. Roe SAP w. .CK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth strect.—Bromrr Sam. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Bi Diva DonG Brut, Matinee at Es i pie ibd TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE, 58th st., between Lox- ington aud Sd avs—ADVENTURES IN ITALY, do. n STADT THEATRE, Nos. 45 and 47 Bowery.~Orzna— Der Faxiscuvta, % between GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near Third By.—DeR MeUNEIDBAUER. ATHENEUM, No. 58) Broadway.—Ta® Taree Hunca- sacks. Matinee at 2. F. B. gon’ sh * eu NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 1875—WITH SUPPLEMENT. The New Year. boast that he can change the name of New Repentance ought to be represented with | York at will. Other Laura Fairs will emerge one hand to the plough and her eyes wistfully | to prove the beauty of homicide, and fresh Mrs, looking back. In this sense she cannot be | Millers attempt to demonstrate that Providence said to be fit for the kingdom of heaven. She | meant woman as @ checkmate to man, not forsakes father and mother for the sake of a | helpmate. Heaven grant that the future holds principle, and sacrifices fleshly delights at the | in tho hollow of its hand no ruined Boston and beck of conscience ; but no sooner is the self- | Chicago; though statistics forbid us to believe tential spirit yearns after the very iniquities from which she smarts. Robed in sackcloth, she pines for the prariencies that she tasted ingatin. Crowned with ashes, she covets the coronet of roses she has just dashed at hor feet. The sinner with an over-sensitive con- science is one of the hardest oases with whom psychology has to deal. There is no knowing where to have him or how to keop him. His moral nature, like changeable silk, reflects all hues. One moment you detect him’in a crime and the next you find him prostrate before the altar. To-day he is triumphant in vice and encased with a pachydermatous cynicism ; to- morrow he is as soft as the answer that turns away wrath and as pious as an obituary in the Philadelphia Ledger. It would seem severe to say that he paves hell with good in- tentions ; but he certainly tessellates his path through life with them, and the mosaic is so nicely inlaid with good actions and so finely variegated with picturesque cross purposes that there is no saying in what bourn, whether of bliss or bane, that path will termi- nate. It is a platitude with praying people that their very tears need rinsing and their prayers purification. But how much moro entirely this is true of the prayers and tears of vacillating penitence! With your man of broken promises the rapture of pardon is sandwiched with the sweetness of sin, and the CANTERBURY VARIETY THEATRE, Broadway, be- tween Bleecker and Houston.—Varizry ENTERTAINMENT. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— Scimnoe AND ART. WITH SUPPLEMENT. New York, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 1873. THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. ‘To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. “THE NEW YEAR!"—LEADING EDITORIAL SUB- JECT—FourTn Pace. DANGERS FOR THE HERALD'S CUBAN OCOMMIS- SIONER! THE INDIGNANT DONS DENOUN- CING HENDERSON! A SAFE CONDUCT NOT TO BE HAD! FEAR OF HERALD “FLIBUS- TEROSi" THE COMMISSIONER’S INTER- VIEW WITH THE CAPTAIN GENERAL— Firta PaGs. EUROPE! SPAIN DECLARES FOR NUN-INTER- VENTION; ANOTHER INUNDATION THREAT- ENED BY THE H “THE ENGLISB WAR SECRETARY: Hae ASTER OFF PLYMOUTH: MARSHAL BAZAINE’S TRIAL—Firtu PaGeE. ‘SIR BARTLE FRERE AT ADEN—WEATHER RE- PORTS—THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—FirTa Page. ;CALAMITIES AND ACCIDENTS DURING THE PAST YEAR! THE FEARFUL DESTRUCTION WROUGHT BY THE ELEMENTS ON LAND AND WATER, IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND! SLAUGHATERS BY STEAM ‘ AND LIGHTNING—TairD Pace. FEARFUL OCEAN GALES! THE STEAMER CHAR- ‘ RUCCA SUNK: THE COSTA RICA DISABLED: DREADFUL VOYAGES OF THE UUBA AND A BREMEN BARK—SEcoND PAGE. THE LATEST TIDINGS FROM THE OHIO ICE GORGE! MORE DISASTERS APPRE- HENDED! OTHER VESSELS LOST—NEWS FROM CHINA—GENERAL TELEGRAMS— Fiera Pace. (HE ARBITRARY CLOSING OF CATHOLIC CHURCHES BY THE PRUSSIANS—THE LATEST SNOWFALL—SECOND PaGE, ‘TRANSACTIONS LN THE FINANCIAL EXCHANGES! NO “LET UP” IN MONEY: GOLD DULL: GOLDEN PROSPECTS FOR GOVERNMENT BONDS: STOCKS ADVANCE—REAL ES- TATE—SIXTH Pace. BREAKING OF THE ICE GORGES ON THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI! DESTRUCTION AND DAM- AGING OF STEAMBOATS—THE NEW OR- LEANS ELECTION BOARDS—SEcOND Page. PROGRESS OF THE CENTRE STREET EXHUMA- TION! ANOTHER DAY'S FRUITLESS AND DESPAIRING SEARCH—AID FOR DISABLED FIREMEN—EMIGRATION—THE MODOCS— THIRD Pac. THE OLD YEAR DEAD, HAIL TO THE NEW! NEW YEAR’S GIFTS AND GENIALITIES: THE METROPOLIS IN CHURCH AND AT HOME ON THE FAVORITE FESTAL DAY OF THE YEAR—SECOND Pace. BIATE, COUNTY AND CITY OFFICIALS FOR 18731 MAYOR HAVEMEYER'S WELCOME: MUNICIPAL CHANGES: WHU WILL BE THE ALDERMANIC PRESIDENT—LOOAL ITEMS—EQUINE GOSSIP—ErouTH Pacg. FRENCH ASSEMBLY DISSOLUTION! A FIERCE ROW OVER THE PETITIONS: THEY ARE THROWN ASIDE: M. THIERS’ SUCCESS- FUL STRATEGY—NintTH Pace. INTERESTING LEGAL PROCEEDINGS! DEFEND- ING STOKES: THE DOCK COMMISSION- ERS' DISBURSEMENTS: MANDAMUSES MUST BE OBEYED: ANOTHER COMP- TROLLER—EiGuTH Paces. a. News From Hono-Kono, Cuma, to New ‘Yorx in one day, and published in the Henatp on New Year's Day. An encouraging fact for the cause of progress and civilization. Feom Taz Warre Bears or Araska to the alligators of Florida what varieties of holiday costumes will mark this day the different climates of the States and Territories of our great and glorious country! Tuwpme m Excise Scnoors.—England cup of thanksgiving alternates with the intoxi- cating bowl The daily bread for which he supplicates is not half so relishable to him as the stolen waters that he has vowed never to taste again, and the communion of saints grows flat and vapid beside intercourse with sinners. Repenting supinely upon his bed of roses he envies (or affects to envy) martyrs who writhe on’ beds of fire, He sits at the table of Dives, yet looks forward with trem- bling hope to the bosom of Abraham. If ho takes up the Cross he tries to whittle it into a fairy’s wand. Surely the eyes of the Recording Angel are red with the effacing tears they have shed over the weak man’s broken resolutions. And when the New Year dawns and the peni- tent turns a fresh page even angelic sympathy might naturally grow exhausted and consent to let the prospective catalogue of new iniqui. ties remain unblot ted aired m ‘These gonsidens*Sng do not aeem altogether inappropriate to New Year's Day—e day which may be called the opening eyelid of the year. Hayjng devoted the past twenty-four hours to conviviality and congratulation, those of us who are yet young (and some who are no longer young) a ive and také account of our moral stock. We invol- untarily attribute a magic influence to the hour, and persuade ourselves that, a clean start being made, the future will take care of itself. We seek to establish a sort of perpetual motion in our morals, and would gladly be- lieve that the temperamented machinery, once put in order and set going, will adjust itself from time to time without jar or stop- page. How consistent such a superstition is with the manner in which the first day of the New Year is generally spent it may be interest- ing to consider. Perhaps the good resolutions that ore invariably made on the 2d of January are attributable in some slight degree to the wine drank upon the first. What is called the sting of conscience may be merely a disordered stomach, just as remorse is fre- quently another name for dyspepsia. The convictions of sin and folly which accompany so many people through the first week of the new year are linked quite as closely with mem- ories of champagne as of opportunities wasted. The despondent brooder reflects that he has made so many calls and so few successes, and wishes that he had paid less compliments and more debts. If civilized humanity offers to @ cynic one sight that is more refreshing than another, it is that of the youthful New Year's caller, with yellow-kidded hands and legs in lavender, gradually liquoring himself up to incohorency; and the same misguided being twelve hours after, with notebook in hand and memoranda before him, making a careful diagnosis of his moral nature, composing an obituary upon his animal desires, and drawing up a series of pious resolutions over the corpse of sensual passion. Probably we have all been through this process, and those of us who are not yet forty will go through it often again. But let us not sneer:too much at the 2d of Janu- ary penitent. If his good resolutions do not succeed in making him a model of virtue perhaps they keep him from being quite so bad as he might otherwise become. If they do not convert him into a prig they prevent his development into s hopeless reprobate. To-day he is picking out all the Scripture texts that denounce strong drink; yesterday he was just as assiduously gleaning all that were in favor of it. He seems to sin in order that grace may abound, and when retribution comes he blames the institutions that made his fall so easy. Our besetting sins are like young kittens, which we feel it our duty to drown, but, pleased with their sleek aspect and their pretty ways, we let them live against our bet- poas been greatly exercised over the practice of ,{tanding” in Winchester school, one of the most prominent boys’ seminaries of the King- Yom. This is # punishment of flogging with rrythes of ground‘ash, inflicted by the pre- “Sects, who are elder pupils, upon their juniors for offences against distipline. Young Mac- \pherson, a plucky lad, Intely had a bundle of fhe tough whips worn out upon his hack for refusing to attend an examination in ‘‘no- y’—that is the vulgar slong of the branch of education he had no for. After an official inquiry into the ‘pase the governors of the school have devided that this barbarons practice shall continu: ‘That may onswer in a school for young Eng- Tish gentlemen, but would not be tolerated for » doy by the parents of incipient American MI . asasscendscliesneeaaln Ove Jawvany Taw, or something very much like it, set in yesterday. If it should continue to-day it is to be hoped that our city authorities by general consent will make it, qithout regard to the objections of red tape, of enparalleled activity in the removal of the slush and snow from our blockaded ter judgment, only to be scratched and tor- mented by them when they attain full size, but beguiled every now and then by tho treach- erous purr by which they assure us that they mean no harm. If this be so it is a comfort- able reflection that our periodical repentances (like those which visit us at the New Year) save us from being quite as much tortured in this way as we might otherwise expect to be. The universal joviality with which wishes for happiness are interchanged at New Year's is in touching contrast to the network of suffering, sin, accident and crime of which so great a part of the twelvemonth just elapsed is composed. Humanity does not improve #0 rapidly as to warrant us in believing that the cycle upon which we have just entered will be | much freer from these elements than the one which yesterday ended. Few who do not take the trouble to review the events of 1872 can appreciate how fine and various is its wob, how wonderful and complicated its woof. And the spirit of all these events will be reproduced in 1873. If we entertain no Grand Duke from Russia wo shall possibly act the host to an ex-Prince Imperial out of France. Mr. Tweed's movements will continue to be watched, and some yot unrison Fisk will denial made than it is regretted, and her peni- | that 20 clergymen will be found in gambling houses, Or that -tho catalogue of murders and suicides will suffer any material diminution. Poisoning cases will probably loom up in Baltimore or nearer home. The frauds at the Custom House will survive, in some shope or other, to bea godsend to the writers of didactic editorials, and ministers like Theodore L. Cuyler will be visited with just retribution for yielding their pulpits to women. Philadelphia will have the oppor- tunity of growing excited again over the pro- posed purchase of Independence Hall by the general government, and some question akin in interest will supersede the Alabama claims. Topiog kindred tg the French arms scandal will share the attention given to Quarantine abuses, and every other month the world will hear with consternation of the famines and the epidemics being endured at the end of it. ‘There will be other rescues of Erie and other overthrows of other Goulds. Black Fridays will reduplicate themselves, and the Tichborne trial shall see its lineaments reflected in the mirror of the future. Earthquakes shall, haply, shake the Atlantic as they have the Pacifico coast, and a moral and intellectual tidal wave run through all the affairs of men. Fresh Professor Fiskes shall lecture on new aspects of the religion of cosmism, and the orthodox world shall howl at Tyndall until he charms it to silence with his fluorescent light. There will be deaths from hydrophobia in places far and near, culinary explosions, miasma from manure dumping-grounds and the average number of careless topers burned to a crisp by spon- taneous combustion. The servant girl ques- tion and the expense of living will farnish the confirmed letter-writer with his habitual news- paper complaint; and if we forget the frauds in food and in Methodist Book Concerns it will be because Gilmore will seduce us with a miraculous jubilee. The Indians will pay us their periodical visits, and Miss Nellie Grant repeat her European tour, and Vanderbilt's underground railroad come up for discussion, and day continue to break in Spain. Artists like Rubinstein will charm the astonished ear of music, and singers like Lucca and Kellogg carfy On a friendly war. Othe. ery tas | will be tlumphantly {nterviewed, an iers solve the problem whether he is to become a “doddering’’ old man. Sothern will be asked his opinion of the Prince of Wales, and Train give his on the mortality at the Tombs. And if the coming r rae ivalri betweon 8 Froude ted a fer ¥ te upon it 1873 will be quite lively enough with- out them. Fate, or Providence, or force—call it what you will—will go on elaborating tho wonderful universe, and humanity will search vainly after the unknowable and seek to attain unto things that are too high for it. But let us hope, meanwhile, that the world, on the whole, tends to be a better world, even when the progress is sometimes impercoptible. “Is This Crowner’s Quest Law 3” An interesting question is now agitating the public mind, and that is, why were certain witnesses who were at hand and ready for ex- amination (according to the statement of the Coroner) in the case of the unfortunate woman who came to her death by being dashed into a Brooklyn dock in a runaway carriage, some nights ago, not brought forward and duly ex- amined? It is idle to say that a Coroner's duty ends with the mere fact of his jury find- i] ing a verdict of ‘found drowned” in a case like the one before us, and it was not alone to satisfy ‘‘peurile or morbid curiosity’ that a more searching investigation into the circum- stances attending the death of this wretched woman was demanded. There seems to be some strange mystery surrounding the whole ocourrence. Why was not the woman's companion on the night of the fatal ride pro- duced before the Coroner’s jury? Why were not the relatives of the deceased called upon to identify the remains? Why did the Coroner himself make the unprecedented speech he did to the jury, in which he expounded ‘‘Crowner’s quest’’ law as it never before had been expounded? Why is the fact that no screams were heard from the carriage while its inmate was on her terrific death ride to eternity not enlarged upon oran attempt made to account for the tomb-like silence? Why, in short, were the entire proceedings before the jury conducted with but little more ceremony than if a log of wood picked up adrift had been the subject under investigation and not the mortal remains of a human being? There may be family or other reasons for throwing the mantle of ob- livion over this melancholy affair, but at the same time the community have some rights in the premises which Coroners and Coroners’ juries should be compelled to respect. “Farra, Hore anp Cnanity, these three ;"’ “but the greatest of these is charity,’’ saith St. Paul. Good every day in the calendar, but particularly good on New Year's Day. Tae Brrrtsa Istanps have seventy-seven million acres of land and thirty-two million inhabitants. Farm laborers complain of a branches ask higher wages on account of scarcity and high price of food, and discon- tent reigns in all quarters among all classes. The London Standard prescribes emigration as the cure for the trouble, instead of adopting the proposition to cultivate the parks and commons, which would afford only small and temporary relief. Canada and Australia have abundance of virgin land open to settlement, while our own boundless prairies offer to colo- | nists not only homes of plenty, but free citi- zenship and an equal share in the control of governmental affairs. Ovn Gneat New Your Festtvat.—Thanks- The Herald Excitement in Cuba—The Independent, the Party and the Official Press, By some freak of the mail or from some other occult cause the letter ot our new Special Commissioner to Cuba, under date of the 21st ult., has reached us three days after his com- munication of the 24th, which we published in the Hzrarp of Monday last. The im- portant interview with the Captain General, which we now publish, will throw additional light on the correspondence which passed between our Commissioner and General Cebal- los. We observe that while the Captain General registers his refusal to accord the same privileges to Mr. O'Kelly that he did to Mr. Henderson, on grounds which have a suspicion of Pique rather than logic, he adsures him of his safety under the protection of a vised passport. Our Comimissioner has certainly placed the argument of his position before the Cuban Executive in a light not to be misun- derstood. As the representative of the HzpaLp he can claim po consideration under any con- dition Into which the neutral charecter of his mission does not enter. The neutral. repre- sentative of an independent journal is the character in which he asks for facilities to judge unbiassedly of the deplorable warfare. The Captain General, neither in the inter- view nor the correspondence, denies a point of this representative capacity. The nearest approach to his reasons for denying the safe conduct would appear to be that our present Commissioner must suffer all possible dangers and inconvenionces in the fulfilment of his mission, because our late representative displeased, misrepresented or deceived the Spanish authorities. Our Com- missioner, with a high sense of duty, accepts the position, perilous though it be, having in all courtesy informed the Captain General what is the simple truth, that any accident befalling him will more probably result from the refusal than from the extension of pro- tection. The reply of General Ceballos we hold, however, to be a strong guarantee for Mr. O’Kelly's safety, although not expressed in a formal order to his subordinates in the island. Nevor in the history of journalism was a single journal so much the cause of govern- mental and popular discussion as the New Yorx Henarp. Foreign governments, feeling something of its power, treat its utterances as indications of the national intelligence in its broadest sense ; political parties court its in- fluence, without understanding the spring of its declarations, Rivals in art, the drama, the law, on the floor of Congress become continu- ally mystified as to its policy. ‘Why is it,” every one of these will ask, ‘that the Hznazn, which supported the view held by us to-day, Goes not fo m update a8. ye,ma; eld to-morrow ?”” Bae, a “an curt—Because the Heratp is a truly inde- pendent journal and pins itself to no govern- ment, to no individual, nor to any man’s policy. In this one respect of independence it excels all other journals in the world, as it stands at the head of all newspapers in the particular of collecting news. Curious, indeed, while on this point of news-collecting, is it to ponder over the Diario’ s correspondent, whose profound knowledge of things in gen- eral is evinced in his tribute to the Hznatp as a paper of ‘‘advertisements and news." Much as he wished to hide this tribute under petty superserviceable malice, it would crop out in spite of all his poorly guarded inten- tions to serve his patrons. A proper gauge of this estimation of the Henaxp will be found in the regard in which our representatives are everywhere held, not merely as irresponsible partisans or personal emissaries to color facts to suit individuals, but as the ambassadors of a tangible independ- ent power which has its master only in the pub- lic intelligence. We have agents inevery part of the world. When they serve us faithfully we feel at liberty to praise ‘them; when they fail unnecessarily, intentionally deceive us, or disappoint just and reasonable expectations in any particular, we are not afraid as publicly to condemn them. The scrutiny bestowed upon their work and the important public character which they fill place them, as Gen- eral Ceballos observes to our Commissioner, more in the rank of ambassadors than any- thing else. This high trust—the great em- bassy of public opinion—causes their actions and utterances to be still more carefully weighed. Hence it is that our agents are not treated by us with the mincing leniency in which other partisan, personal or merely offi- cial journals hide the shortcomings of their representatives. Our duty is to the public, and no personal considerations can weigh in influencing our expression. ing to us unless the truth inheres in one of them. We never hesitate to place both sides before our readers. When we thought Mr. Henderson failed in his Cuban mission we did not seek to conceal that fact, as a journal not having a proper sense of its public duty might have done. When subsequently we found he had accomplished more than we supposed at first we were not sparing in our expressions of approval. If this course puzzled some of our contemporaries in America, and the entire Spanish and Cuban press, it is because they knew not whether to wonder most at the en- terprise in carrying out such a mission or the lack of employment, workmen in all other | bold independence in dealing with our own Commissioner. The strictures of the official press in Havana or Santiago de Cuba on the mission of Mr. Henderson could not be so severe as to prevent our publication of them when they stated anything in the shape of fact. It isa system of fair dealing we would recommend to those whose station in that fair but troubled island places them, though toa lim- ited extent, in the position of guides of public opinion. We give their articles as we gave the President's Message on Cuban affairs, or as we give to-day Minister Zorrilla’s declaration against tolerating foreign intervention in Span- ish colonial affairs. Biving is the great social festival of New Eng- solid Dutch patriarchs of New Amsterdam, is A new year now opens upon the strife in Cuba land; Christmas is the time-honored day of | with the gathering notes of Spain's determi- all the days in the year ‘down South,” but | nation still to wear the Gem of the Antilles in | New Year's Day, handed down to us from the | the crown of Ferdinand. A new year breaks in hope or in desperation on the revolutionists the great ‘at home’’ anniversary of Now | in the ficld, who strive to pluck that gem York. And so, in the expressive formula of | from the Spanish diadem and set it in the the sociable Rip Van Winkle, we submit to | strong clasps of republicam independence. our fellow citizens respectively, and to the | Without sign of ruth the warfaro will be stranger within our gates, ‘‘Here’s to you and | waged to the bitter end. Whatever that end your family, oropper."’ and may they all live long and, may be wo One side or the other of question is noth- | pray on the threshold of this young year that the finale may be soon, and that next New Year's Day may shine over the | p,-emier beautiful island on men at peace, and, under whatever flag, that there be neither bond nor free, but all alike. Tue Stoxxs Trrat has been adjourned till to-morrow. A witness whose name is Jester appeared and testified to seeing a lady pick up 4 pistol on the stairway at the instant of the tragedy, Commodore Vanderbilt testified that Fisk was a most unscrupulous man. The case does not seem to call for comment while it is in progress, though the reqult of thé'trial is of the utmost importance, The Outgoing and the Incoming Ad- ministrations. The State and municipal administrations change hands to-day. The democrats go out in Albany and New York and the republicans come in. Reversing the rule of nature, the young men disappear and the old men step into their shoes. The terrible tribe of Tam- many becomes extinct and the glorious com- pany of reformers springs into existerice, Corruption closes its career when the hands of the dial point the hour of noon, and Honesty holds everything henceforth in its own hands. The tribulations of the taxpayers are to cease from to-day. The rate of taxation is to be lowered from thé present moment, The State finances are to bé redeemed from bankruptcy as soon as both hands.on Trinity church clock unite on the highest figure of the circle. From the instant that the big bell ceases to ring out its twelfth stroke all city accounts are to be properly audited, all city vouchers are to be carefully scrutinized and rescruti- nized, all sinecure offices are to be abolished, all jobs are to end, all canal rings are to dis- appear, and the people are to be relieved from all oppressive burdens. Glory, glory, Halle- lujah! There may be those who desire to say a kind word to the retiring officials ; to compliment Governor Hoffman on the dignity he has thrown about the office of Chief Executive of the State, so long in the hands of such men as Clark, Morgan and Fenton; to concede to Mayor Hall the possession of qualities which shave been useful and creditable to the city which he has represented for the past four years. But they will, no doubt, meet with fierce denunciation from those. who, in the continued Shibboleth of ‘Tammany frauds,’’ seek to deter the people from recognizing the more recent facts of the Louisiana usurpation and the Crédit Mobilier corruptions. It is possible that some people may be disposed to regard Governor Hoffman’s public services with favor and to give him oredit for having faithfully discharged his official duties ; that they may consider Mayor Hall’s twenty years’ labor—three as Assistant Dis- trict Attorney, thirteen os District At- torney and four inyor—deserving of somé grateful recognition, even Though ho may have found himself at the close of his voyage on a pirate ship, and may or ma: not have basi Sireless Eibetcling gy i accounts of the crew while they were sailing under false colors. But of course the people who entertain such outrageous opinions will be severely censured for their heresies, and will be sharply reminded that no good can come out of Nazareth. To be sure, Governor Hoffman has been endorsed by all parties as a faithful Executive in the city and in the State. To be sure, Mayor Hall won golden opinions from all sorts of men when he held the im- portant office of District Attorney. But are they not both Tammany officials? And are we not, as good and faithful republicans and office-seeking reformers, bouad to denounce them as pariahs? Are wo not, as honést | citizens, called upon to rejoice at the termina- tion of their official carecrs? To be sure we are. Glory, glory, Hallelujah ! It is consoling, at least, that whatever | diversity of opinion may exist in relation to the outgoing State and municipal adminis- trations all candid and fair-minded men can unite in commendation of the incoming ad- ministrations. In General Dix the people have secured a Governor who will do honor to the office both as an honest and able official and a courteous and accomplished gentleman. In the sterling integrity of Mayor Havemeyer the citizens of New York feel satisfied that municipal corruption must bea thing unknown. Both our new Executives are advanced in life, numbering over seventy years, and they suc- ceed young men. The general belief has been in old men for counsel, young men for action; but if Governor Dix and Mayor Havemeyer unite, as we believe they do, the heart of youth with the head of age, the political millennium must be athand. Glory, glory, Hallelujah! © il Bismance’s Postrion.—From the Spener Gazette of the 16th ultimo we learn that the resignation of the Presidency of the Prussian Ministry by Prince Bismarck does not with- draw him from the Prussian Ministry. He will retain the post of Minister for Foreign | Affairs, and thus maintain the coherency | between the Prussian government and that of the German Empire. Tue Taxpayers or New York will be glad | to see by the statement from the Commissioner of Public Works, which we publish elsewhero, that the receipts from water rents for the-year | just passed have been $158,458 10 in excess of those for the year 1871, while the expense of collecting has been reduced $37,227 67. The net revenue of the city from Croton | water is thus increased nearly two hundred thousand dollars in a single year. If Com- missioner Van Nort has been equally efficient | and economical in the administration of the other bureaus of his department the people of New York may well congratulate themselves upon having so capable an officer in this im- portant position. His statement, and the | promptitude with which it is made—on the | first day of the New Year—are proof of the efficiency of his administration. Tuer Two Hovszs or Conoress having adjourned over to the 6th of January, there will be comparatively few of the members present to assist in the official festivitics of ‘Washington ; but, nevertheless, the receptions of the President, of the members of his Cabinet and of the Diplomatic Corps, end of | | period of his life a Congregationalist clergyman, the Governor of the District, and of the city officials, &c., &c., will make a great day for our national capital A Detromtrot. Cxancz—The change from the dreadful fire bells to the pleasing chimes of Old Trinity in honor of tho New Year. They tarry peace aven to the perturba spirit of, Annoke Jpna. Gladstone's the British People Nations. The Rigsht Honorable the Secretaryfor War of England ..addressed a public meting at Oxford on the 30th ultimo. The poitts of his speech have been’ reported to us by cable. The expression is important in the view thek it may be accepted as affording an unofficial outside inkling of the policy which Fremier Gladstone will pursue toward tho British people and the foreign nations during the next session of Parliament. Mr. Cardwell’ Polley Toward and Foreign r ces to the Ballot bill, the shortening of u , of army enlistment and a probable fus. he toning down of the military system, uf the army establishment with the militia, proyes that Her Majesty's Ministers have estimated the power of *nalo-Saxon democracy, and that they will . to lead it in its advance toward th. vik of @ safe and liberal plan of citizen en- franchisement. The Secretary's allusions to the United States generally, and to the result of the Geneva arbitration specially, breathed the spirit of a cordial international fraternity which is rendered still more sincere, perhaps, by his knowledge -of the fact that in the ro- sult of the more recent intercommunion be- tveen America and England the English people have discovered. the essentials of & grand supplementary and inevitable ad- dition to their bill of rights or Mngna Charta, while the great nations have found in it an exact definition ot te principles of an honest neutrality in time of war. Tus New Year will be distinguished in New York with the inauguration of our new Governor for the State andour mew Mayor for the city. Reform! Reform! Let us hope that they willin reality give us some good works in reform,. beginning from this day. ‘We await with more than ordinary interest the inaugural of the Governor and of the Mayor. The Weather for To-Day—The Weste ern Rivers Again Rising. The weather reports premonish a wet and rainy New Year's Day for the Middle and East ern States. The telegrams from the West on Monday night announced a considerable rain- fall in the Central Mississippi and the entire Ohio Valley; and so perilous had become the loosening ice gorge at St. Louis that it was said that unless the rain ceased the great bridge there would be abandoned by travel. From midnight to the morning of Tuesday torrents of rain—ninety-nine hundredths of an inch— fell at St. Louis, and the rain belt, of several hundred miles width, extending from St. Louis to Memphis, and thence northoast- wardly to Western Pennsylvania, was. precipi- tating large quantities of water into the Ohio Valley. The same precipitation probably pre- vailed also in the Lower Valley of the Mis- souri, and these combined dowa-pours will undoubtedly swell the already swollen volume of the great Western rivers, producing an almost vernal rise. pei These recent rains belong to a stotm located in the Lower Ohio Valley yesterday afternoon, and then moving northeastwardly toward the lower lakes of Pennsylvania and New York, the effects of which we shall prob- ably feel to-day. It has frequently happened that the Missouri and the Ohio rivers have frozen over in the early Winter, and have broken up in the first part of January, fora brief interval, to be again solidified. With the high temperature prevailing in the West yesterday it is highly probable these rivers will liberate their ice masses and be temporarily reopened. While the Upper Hud- son above Poughkeepsie and the New Eng- land rivers are more likely to hold their crystal ice bridges till the Spring thaw, : it is more than possible that the Susquehanna and the Potomao will break up the last of this week, with the rainfall now imminent over the Middle States. The moving ice masses im the Lower Hudson yesterday fully verify the warning of the Hznatp published on the morning of Sunday last. The latest weather indications threaten. increased rainfall anda fresh rise in the Hudson to-day and to-night, and our river men and ferryboats must be doubly vigilant. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. —— Judge Ferry, of Boston, has brougtt up at the St. Denis Hotel. Bank Commissioner D. 0. Howell is staying at the Astor House. General Alvert Pike, the ‘Arkansas poet,” is st the Coleman House. Smith M. Weed, of Plattsburg, has sprung up at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Ex-Governor Stanford, of California, has arrived at the St. Nicholas Hotel. r Congressman Oakes Ames, of Massachusetts, ity at the Fifth Avenue Hotet. Ex-Congressman D. A. Bridges, of Penusylvania, is at the St. Nicholas Hotel. . Colonel Charles Boyd, of the British Army, hae’ arrived at the Grand Central Hotel. Pred K. de Luca, Italiam Consul in this city, sat present stopping at the Astor House. Colonel Owen Hale, of the United States. Army, has quarters at the Grand Central Hotel. Baron J. Wrangel, of St.Petersburg, Russia, te calmly sojourning at the Grand Central Hotel. Colonel Daniels, a Richmond (Va.) editor, wilt enter the lists as a contestant for the Clerkship of the next House of Representatives. General W. 3. Hancock, the Commander of the Department of the East, will remain at the West- moreland Hotel through the Winter, Governor Converse, of Vermont, who a few days: ago lost his wife, is now called to mourn the death of a niece, Miss Luna E. Edson, who has long been. a member of his household: Senator Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois, will resume: the practice of law after the 3d of March, the day on whicn his Senatorial term expires. He-has been in the United States Senave since 1855—sevem- teen years. John Bellew will sail from England for America , on the 9th of January. Mr. Bellew was at one ' ofictating in London. He subsequently joined the: ) Church of Rome as a layman. He is of rare ora- torical ability and has lately given some very wl é tractive readings in England, which mag, perhaps be repeated in the United States. if / Don Jos¢ Maria Morales, a merchant, and Colonet' of the First battalion of Veluateers, in Havana, is now pretty well stricken in years. Having been ill for some days his illness assumed such a grave’ character that It Was considered necessary, asta such cases, t@ apply the consolations of the last sacrament. On ‘the 18th ult. the priest of his parish, Who carried the holy host, on foot, ander @ palllum, war accompanied by a donbie line of volunteers, militia and members of different pro- fessions and commerce, all personal friends, each with lighted tapors. Three bands of music and tho charitabte association of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sacrament, with their lighted lanterns, alsa ’ formed part of the cortége. Although very woak Mr. Morales insisted on being dressed in his vol- unteer uniform, and received the eucly,riatio wales. in that dregs and on hie ences.