The New York Herald Newspaper, January 29, 1873, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD] BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Wolume XXKVIII...........-::00100-NOe 29 AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING, oe OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st. and Eighth V.—-CataRact oF THE GANGES. ATHENEUM, No. ‘85 Brondway.—Gaanp Vanier E- Sxrraumenn, Matince at 236. Py ind between Prince and NIBLO'S "%, CAE, loustop streets. —Lxo bial SQUARE THEATRE, Union square, Dateroen Broadway and Fourth av.—Onr Huxpaep Yeaks 01 Raber td FERATER, Broadway and Thirteenth etreet.—Brotuzn 8. BOOTH'S THEATRE. Twenty-third pores corner Sixth Bvenue.—Bavrus, on, Tux Fat or Tazquix. THEATRE COMIQWE, No. 514 Broadway.—Lass Rooxm. Matinee at had ic OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, vand Bleecker streets. ALHAMBRA. GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteeath ptrant, near Third (ev.—Das MILCHMAKDCHEN 4U8 SCHOENSS! detwess fonston fatinee at BOWERY THEATEE, Bowery.—Burrato But—Srace raves Yanxex. ‘NEW FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, 728 and 730 Broad- etadcinsians A woopD's MUEBUM, L aeey, corner Thirtieth st— tr, ras ARKANSAS T' ‘Aiternoon and Evening. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—Das Sriz- e TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE, Sth st., between Lex- tom and Sd avs.—MARRizD ‘Live—Guanp Concant, £0. MRS. F. ‘mn CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— ‘us Inon Masx. BRYANT'S wa tao HOUSE, Twenty-third st. corner ped ev.—Nxano Minstaxisy, Kocentaicirr, £0, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— )Nauure Ewrantapocst. psa we EAR CHICO, MINSTRELS, corner 28th st. and .—ErHioriax MixstREisy, £c. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— | Fcixnce AnD Arr. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 1873. — NEWS OF YESTERDAY. ¥Lo-Day’s Contents of the Herald. THE ABOLITION OF THE FRANKING PRIVI- r LEGE! A LITTLE BILL, BUT A GREAT REFORM” — EDITORIAL LEADEK—Sixta ’ Pacs. WANOTHER FIGHT WITH THE MODOCS! THEY ARE DEFEATED! ONE BRAVE KILLED AND OTHERS CAPTURED! ALARM OF THE SETTLERS! VOLUNTEERS COMING FOR- WARD—SEvENTH Pace. DESTRUCTION BY FIRE OF THE NATIONAL THEATRE! THE OATES TROUPE REHEARS- ING AT THE TIME! GREAT ALARM IN THE HOTELS ADJACENT! AN EXCITED RUSH TO SAVE PROPERTY—SEVENTH Page. WELLOW JACK! THE FEVER BREAKS OUT AT RIO JANEIRO—REPORTS OF THE WEA- THER—LATE TELEGRAMS—SEVENTH PaGE. NICE PRESIDENT COLFAX WANTS A SENATE COMMTITEE ON HIS CONDUCT! THE SEN- ATE THINKS THE MATTER SHOULD BE LEFT WITH THE HOUSE—SCENES IN THE COMMITTEE ROOMS—Tuirp Pace. M. ©’S AND THE 0. M.! THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AND GENERAL LOGAN STATE THEIR CASES! VOLFAX’S BANK ACCOUNT PRODUCES A DECIDED SENSATION! BOOKS EXPECTED AS REFRESHERS FOR THE HOAXER’S TREACHERUUS MEMORY— Fouatu Pace. PENNSYLVANIA HAD THE HONOR OF PLACING THE KEYSTONE OF CORRUPTION IN THE ARCH OF CONGRESSIONAL “VIRTUE!” NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY REFUSED— Tarp Page. [HARTER ARGUMENTS BEFORE THE LEGISLA- TIVE JOINT COMMITTEE! THE SEVENTY WISE MEN BLOW A UPAS BLAST UPON THE ASSISTANT ALDERMEN, GREEN AND VAN NORT—SEVENTH PaGE. LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND AGITATION ABOUT THE NEW YORK CHARTER! THE PINCH- INGLY ECONOMICAL COMPTROLLER TO BE SHELVED! THE DEMOCRATIC COALITIONS! THE QUARREL OVER THE PUBLIC CRIB— TENTH PaGE. EUROPEAN OABLE NEWS! THE DEFENCE OF THE GERMAN COAST! ITALY TAKING CONVENTS! A FIGHT WITH CARLISTS IN SPAIN! SEVERB INSURGENT LOSS— SEVENTH Pace. EMINENT PEOPLE FROM EUROPE AND ASIA TO VISIT THE VIENNA WORLD'S FAIR! NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1873.—TRIPLE SHEET. tt tN the fierce and frosty trials of the next two/ What Party Legislation Should Let The © Abolition of the Franking Privi- lege=A Little Bill, bat a Great Re- form. An agreeable surprise has been given the country by the House of Representatives in the passage of the bill, as it camo from the Senate, abolishing the franking privilege, whereby only the President's signature is needed to make this repeal a law of the land. As no doubt is entertained of the President's approval of the measure the bill may be con- sidered a law. It is brief, but to the purpose. It provides that from and after the 1st. of July next “all. official correspondence, of whatso- ever nature, and all other mailable matter (public documents, &o., sent off by members of Congress, &c.), shall be chargeable with the same rates of postage as may be lawfally im- posed upon like matter sent by or addressed to other persons.’’ In other words, the cor- respondence of members of the Oabinet and of Congress and other federal officials, and the public documents of all descriptions, and garden seeds and books, photographs, hand- kerchiefs, gloves, ‘‘old clo’," d&c., &,, now sent free under Congressional or Executive department or bureau franks from Washing- ton to all parts of the country shall, from and after the 1st of July next, pay the usual rates of postage for such letters, ‘pub. docs.” or other mail matter, without distinction of official position, race, place or previous con- dition of servitude. 'To Postmaster General Creswell, we be- lieve, more than to any other man, belongs the honor of this important measuro of re- form. From the beginning of General Grant's administration—of course with the hearty support of the President—he has fought for that measure with a persistency and ear- nestness which would admit of ‘no such word as fail,’ though from year to year baf- fled, disappointed and defeated. But his per- severance and his arguments have at last car- ried the day, and very unexpectedly, too. The pill which now awaits the signature of the President passed the House last week and was sent to the Senate to be killed. Anxious, how- ever, to divert the attention of the country from the Crédit Mobilier scandal, the Senate not only took it up in earnest, but added de- sirable amendments and gent it daok to the House. Thus the fopresontatives ‘of the F people were forced to act on the measure, But let us, still remembering in such cases the good example of Sancho Panza, “‘bid God bless the giver, nor look the gift horse in the mouth." The Postmaster General, from time to time, has shown that the actual loss to his Department from franked letters and documents has ranged from two to three millions of dollars o year. For the Presidential canvass of 1872, if all the franked letters and campaign documents sent out from Washington and other points on both sides had paid the usual postage charges it is probable that there would have been a saving of at least four millions of dollars to the De- partment. From May and June to the Greeley and Brown explosion of October the mails from Washington for the East, the West, the North and South were encumbered with tons of electioneering rubbish. Special Congres- sional committees were kept industriously employed for months in preparing pamphlets and speeches exhibiting the virtues of the administration and the vices of the opposition elements, and, on the other hand, the corrup- tion of the party in power and the millennium which would be inaugurated with the cleansing of the Augean stables under Greeley and Brown. And scores of folders were employed in the packing up of all this political chaff and dozens of clerks in addressing and franking it under this or that or the other Congressman’s per- mission or instructions; and all this mass of perilous and scurrilous stuff trom day to day, beginning with the party conventions of May and June and culminat- ing in the opposition collapse of October, was packed off ‘‘free” through the mails, And this was the real secret of the smothering of the abolition bill in the House at the last ses- sion. All parties concerned desired at least once more the full advantages of the franking privilege in the rongh, hot work of a Presi- dential contest. We presume that all parties are now satisfied that the game was hardly worth the candle. On the final test, upon the passage of this THIERS AND BISMARCK WILL BE THERE— SEVENTH PaGs. JNEWS FROM WASHINGTON! JAMES L. BENE- DICT APPOINTED SURVEYOR OF THE NEW YORK PORT! THE CUBAN AND NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY QUESTIONS— THIRD PaGE. WHAT WASHBURN, OF WISCONSIN, THINKS OF SUBSIDIES—ALLEY ACKNOWLEDGES EFe FORTS TO CORRUPT CONGRESSMEN BY WINING, DINING AND OTHER OF “THE USUAL” INFLUENCES—WILSON, OF IOWA, AS A CO. M. UPHOLDER—Fovurts Paar. XNQUIRY INTO THE LOUISIANA DIFFICULTY! COMPONENTS OF THE DUPLICATE LEGIS- LATURES! WHY THE CITY VOTE WAS EXCESSIVE ! PINCHBACK’S ELECTION TO THE SENATE—Tuinp Pace. INTERESTING TESTIMONY IN THE TWEED AND JUMEL CASES! A LACE SEIZURE BY THE SHERIFF DECLARED ILLEGAL! LEGAL BUSINESS IN THE VARIOUS TRIBUNALS— Firtn Pace. CESNOLA’S CYPRIAN CURIOSITIES! WHAT HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED AND HOW! THE RELICS AND THEIR HOUSING! A GRAND RECEPTION! PERSONAL SKETCH OF THE GENERAL—NintH Pack. BUSINESS IN THE WALL STREET EXCHANGES! GOLD ADVANCED! A RUMORED STOCK “CORNER"—THE ERIE RAILWAY—REAL ESTATE—EIGuTH Page. RELIEF FOR THE PFEIFER FAMILY—LITER- ARY JOTTINGS—PROCEEDINGS OF THE MUNICIPAL BOARDS—MUSICAL AND THE- ATRICAL NOTES—FourtH Page. . sweeping bill of referm, only forty-eight members were found in the negative. These forty-eight Solons, no doubt, conscientiously believe that in their privilege of franking letters, newspapers, pamphlets, books, garden seeds and other notions to their constituents, the advantages accruing to the people and their representatives ought not to be measured by the paltry deficiency of four or five mil- lions as between the receipts and the expenses of the Post Office Department. But these unfor- tunate men will learn wisdom from experi- ence, Besides, the mew law does not go into effect till July, and in the interval those mem- bers of the two houses who contemplate with painful forebodings the payment of their postage can bring up their arrearages in correspondence and clear their desks of all their accumulations of mail matter. Justice is, therefore, so far tempered with mercy in this bill as to adapt it somewhat even to the fixed habits of those Bourbons ‘‘who never learn anything and never forget anything.”’ Moreover, in the interval to July the members of the next Congress can inform their constit- uents of the working of this new law, and that where they wish or expect from their Rep- resentative an answer to a letter the enclosure of a three cent stamp will be the proper thing. In those good old times when the pay of the members of Congress was for each eight dol- lars a day during the session and his mileage, Sreamsurr Sunsrpres—A Goop Movement. — General Burnside is doing good work at Wash- ington in urging the passage of a bill to cut down subsidies to steamship lines. His special object is to open to competition the San Fran- isco, Sandwich Islands, New Zealand and Australian mail steamer service, and thereby to reduce the subsidy. It is eaid the General is an interested party, and that from personal considerations he is striking at the Webb line. But be this os it may, the publie will gain by s successful attack on the extravagant subsidy At least this effort will tend to venti- tate the whole subject, to make Congress more eareful about granting enormous subsidies, and to show that if one lino can exist and carry the mails for a reasonable compensation pther lines ought to be satisfied with doing Yhe same. Competition is the thing, and we gannot have too much of it. and when onr postage on letters was six and a quarter, twelve and a half, eighteen and three- fourths, or twenty-five cents, according to dis- tance, the franking privilege was a cash item to any member, and particularly to the gen- tlemen from Missouri, Arkansas or Louisiana. But with the introduction of cheap postage the Congressional letter frank became a snper- fluity, while the frank on the ‘‘pub. doc.” de- into a public nuisance. During the sry sete that. the lamented Horace Greeley was a member of Congress his whole mind and energies in the House were devoted to the correction of the two abuses of the franking privilege and the members’ mileage. On the franking question he was simply laughed at for his verdancy and his folly, and on the mileage question his efforts for reform were equally fruitless. ‘The gentle- man from Arkansas, who found it convenient to travel to Washington by way of Havana, and the gentleman from Louisiana, who charged his mileage for the distance travelled by way of Chicago, were looked upon by their fellows as no great sinners, considering the beggarly pay for their public services, And here lies the evil of much, if not most, of our Congressional demoralization. Even five thousand « year toa Congressman who has nothing else to depend upon is an inadequate compensation for his time and labor devoted to the public interests ; and if he is driven to questionable or disreputable expedients to make both ends meet, or to share in some golden speculation, in many cases he can at ‘at leas’ plead, with tho poor apothecary, that it is poverty, and not his will, consents. The addition of a thousand—yea, of five thousand—a year to the pay of members of Congress would be but a small item from the savings of this act abolishing the franking privilege, and it would doubtless be a gain to the public service and the public Treasury in every way. We are, however, dealing with the savings to the national Treasury which will result from this repeal of the franking privilege. The savings will not bo limited to the postage gained on speeches, newspapers, letters and mail matter of all descriptions now sent free, but they will extend to great reductions of the extra and superfluous jobs of printing, ‘which have increased, are increasing and ought to be di- minished" in the government printing office. The five, ten or twenty thousand extra copies so frequently ordered to be printed of the President's Message and accompanying docu- ments, of the Patent Ofiice Report, reports of survoys for railroads and all sorts of reports, will now be suspended, as these extras can no longer be sent free through. the mails. Our public documents for general circulation, at all events, will be cut down to the really useful matter which they contain, and the masses of rubbish with which they have for many years been filled, apparently for no other purpose than the enriching of contractors for ink, paper and other materials, will be excluded. How many hundreds.of tons of ‘pub. doc."' sent free through the mails could now be gath- ered from the farm houses of the Union, with their leaves uncut, and how many hundreds of 3 ve to the grocer wo can hardly va ee we eee cea int on our sturdy yeomanry will lose nothing of any consequence from a great retrenchment in such intellectual, supplies. This abolition of the franking privilege, then, is a great practical measure of reform actually achieved, and when least expected by the country. But still, with all these magnifi- cent projects pending, in the shape of Trans- Alleghany horse-boat canals and seaboard and Niagara ship canals, and steamship subsidies and grand monopolizing public land and im- migration companies, and railway jobs and Tndian land and territorial schemes, we fear that we shall henceforth only secure from Congress that sort of retrenchment and reform which saves at the spigot while wasting from the bunghole. However, as this abolition of the franking privilege is a positive gain to the Treasury of some millions of money so far wasted in the transportation of franks, there is still ground for the hope that the government will not be sacrificed even to the tempting dividends, in any shape or form, of the Crédit Mobilier. Barning of the National Theatre at Washington. We have again to record the burning of a theatre—this time of the National, at Washing- ton. This is the second time the theatre was destroyed, the former fire occurring March 5, 1845. If it were not useless we might make this accident a text for once more insisting upon better precautions against fire in our places of amusement; but this is a work which must be done by Legislatures, for it seems managers will not do it until the law compels them to keep a better watch upon their property. The burning of the National Theatre will be seriously felt in Washington. It was not a very pleasant theatre, but it was the only place in the capital where dramatic and operatic performances could be given. During the sessions of Congress it was gen- erally well filled by the inultitude of strangers which gathered about the Capitol, and Con- gressmen and their friends found it a relief after the work of the day. These things made it prosperous, and it was generally profitable to the manager in spite of the large sums car- ried away by the ‘stars’ who followed each other in rapid succession during the season. Now that it is destroyed it is to be hoped that a larger, better and safer building may take its place. There is wealth enough and there ought to be public spirit enough in Washing- ton to build a “National Theatre’’ worthy of the name and of the capital. If the money cannot be found among the bankers and wealthy citizens of the District there are plenty of New Yorkers who would be ready to build a suitable theatre for that city ; but it would be better if the Washington capitalists saw the necessity and built it independently of other places. 40 Colleges and Begging Circalars, Lovers of sport and manly arts will be overwhelmed with joy to learn that the boys of good old Columbia College are about to forma boating club, with a boat house and every necessary accompaniment by the Har- lem River. We almost weep with joy when we picture to ourselves the gallant undergrads practising upon the water which separates this Manhattan Island from Westchester county. Go in, young gentlemen, and give yourselves healthy bodies to contain your healthy minds; let your biceps and your brains be equally de- veloped; let pectorals and particles be ac- quired in large quantities. But take our ad- vice and pay for your own scull work, as you do for your brain work. The young men who study at institutions like Columbia College should be as much above sending round begging circulars for sid to build a boat house as for aid to buy a Homer ora Sallust. The importance of the College having a crew in this year's regatta we pro- foundly appreciate, but cannot see why the parents or guardians, who meet the expense of the young gladiators’ collegiate course, cannot pay for the privilege of seeing them worthily battling on the race course, It is not long since St. John’s College, Fordham, sent out similar circulars for base ball club. If these institutions are eleemosynary in nature it is just as well to understand it, Then let the generous public see to it that the favored students have not only a high class education, but evory possible appliance for boating, ball- ing, cricketing, ground and lofty tumbling, horse and carriage riding, fencing, boxing and rope-walking. Have your boat house, boys, and pay for it like mon. If you must gend circulars, let your dads be the recipi- ents; but, as you value your self-respect, do not send round the hat, The Augustem Age of Murder—Shall the Theatre Invade the Courts ef Justice? ‘We wish to put a serious question—not a conundrum—to that portion of the public which is accused of thinking. It is o small portion we. know; buts tall oaks from little acorns grow, as conspiracies originate in one mind and revolutions are the work of a few, perhaps the thinking public may, in the course of ages, impregnate the moral atmo- sphere so effectually as to saturate the uni- versal brain with something akin to reason. We ask, then, whether the theatre shall be brought into court to act upon the sickly sen- timentality of spectators hungering for morbid sensations, or whether grand transformation scenes shall be confined to Niblo’s Garden and the Eighth Avenue Opera House? In an in- satiate desire to construe murder intoa fine art is it our duty to resort to every possible dramatic effect, or shall we confine ourselves to facts’ shorn of set scenes and in- teresting dramatis persone calculated to draw tears from even the man- liest eye? Which shall it be, naked truth or dramatic fiction? The question must be answered without delay, that murdered as well as murderer may equally impress the moist eyes of a snivelling court room. The great and injured Nixon, who shot Pfeifer for auda- ciously getting in his way, whose immortal words, “I just pulled out my pistol and shot him,” will be remembered as long as the demon of murder feasts like a vampire upon humanity—this great man, we repeat, has not posted theatrical bills in vain. They have taught him the necessity of putting things cunningly before the public; they have taught him that nothing draws like a sensa- tion, and that, whether you commit a crimeon the stage or off it, red lights, slow music and feminino shrieks, artistically rendered, are in- dispensable for an effective tableau and thunders of applause. So, whon Nix Nixon is examined for murdering fin honest, ‘unoffending man, Mrs. Nixon is present. This is well enough, we presume ; but mark what, i follows, pu uring the 2 re of j= the evidence, before ‘the jury Nixon withdraws, only, however, to glk with a beautiful little girl No sooner does the jury leave the room than the six-year-old child bursts into violent sobs, which so affect the mother as to cause her to mingle her tears with those of her offspring. Beholding the grief of mother and daughter, the prisoner, who coolly shot a man without the faintest shadow of provocation, becomes visibly affected. Tears start unforbidden as he extends his arms toward the little girl. She rushes forward and presses her face to the parental breast. The murderer and his family form a striking picture ; the spectators are touched by it; some wish to liberate Nixon on the spot, and how the jury dares, in the presence of that wife and child, to declare the husband and father guilty of murder is most astounding. However, as Nixon is not yet hung, that tableau in the court room will undoubtedly be repeated and eventually re- store a valuable citizen to an admiring com- munity. But if this scene is to be repeated, we in- sist that two be allowed to play at a telling game. We ask fair play for Pfeifer's poverty- stricken family. We demand that the body of the murdered mon be exhumed; that his bones be brought into Court, for of course Nixon will not be tried for several years; that his widow, arrayed in deadliest black, sit be- side them; that his children, too young to realize their loss, be taught the art of msthetic weeping, and, if these children be not as beau- tiful as the child of the murderer, that others endowed by nature and skilled in deceit be hiréd for the momentous occasion. It really will not auswer for vice to enjoy all the cakes and ale. Virtue must be rescued from its present abject condition. It must learn to handle weapons now deftly turned against itself; then perhaps it will have some chance of dying a natural death. There may have been a time when ignorance was bliss, but that time ceased shortly after Eve partook of forbidden fruit, and Cain, out of pure brotherly love, killed Abel. To hold its own virtue must be knowing. Innocence will answer when we all take wings and when lying is unknown, which Spiritualists assure us is the casein The Summer Land, where thoughts are read in the face and speech is a useless disguise. So long as we are a good deal lower than the angels we warn virtue of the fearful odds to be played against, and bid it study the tactics of triumphant vice. If Nixon, the murderer, be surrounded by the trappings of woe, we claim equal spectacular display for the mur- dered Pfeifer. What say you, thinking public? Shall children take their first lessons in crime on parental bosoms, amid the sym- pathetio silence of crowded court rooms, or shall there be societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals that are unfortunate enough to stand on two legs instead of four? Let this matter be settled at once, and let us know whether, when we thirst for the sensa- tional drama, we are to revolve ‘Round the Clock’’ or attend a court of justice. A Cotp Snap leomvent.—Again the latest telegraphic reports warn us of another cold snap marching on us from the North- wost and the northern basin of the Missis- sippi. Very cold and clear weather is announced as prevailing from the State of Minnesota to Kansas, and thence eastward to Lake Michigan and Indiana; and, as our own bitter experience admonishes us, the cold wave will give us a benefit here. It would seem that January is determined to hold its stern wintry control, and to balance the mildness of its late ‘‘thaw’’ by increased rigor as it leaves the stage. These sharp and sudden changes of heat and cold, dry, piercing narthwesters and slush-making southeasters, interlarded fog, muggy weather and almost vernal sunshine, make up the sum total of our rack- ing and tormenting Winter discontent and discomfort, and bring in their train the fright- fal brood of our Winter diseasés. Unfortu- nately for our invalids and consumptives, there is no relief “till the blasts of March are over’’ this side of the Rocky Mountains; and, if it is powible, the best thing to be done. to escave months, is to try the evan and equable climate of the Pacific coast. The Oredit Mobilier and Mr. Colfax— Other Developments. The Vice. President yesterday took ground upon the question of his connection with the Orédit Mobilier which proved very unstable. In a short address ho requested the Senate to appoint @ committee with power to send for Persons and papers to investigate his relation to Hoax Ames and see if there was any harm in it, This attempt to take the investi- gation outside the committee which has it in charge was doomed - to speedy stoppage. Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, with a severity that looks as though Mr. Col- fax will be made to feel every shade of rebuke, addressed a fow telling remarks to the Senate, with the bitter point in them that there was only one way to please Mr. Colfax, and that was by impeachment, which should originate in the House of Representatives. «The force of this speech will be appreciated in the fact that the proposer of the resolution, Mr. Pratt, of Indiana, was alone in his vote for the investi- gation. To have waited in fear and trembling lest the impeachment might loom into a gigantic shadow and enshroud him were bad enough ; but to find that the desperate push he was about to make for freedom only brought him face to face with the shadow itself must be a terrible punishment to Mr. Colfax. As with Mr. Brooks, he said too much for his own sake in saying anything about his consciousness of innocence. The proceedings yesterday before the Poland committee point the error, to say the least, of his course. The cashier of the First National Bank of the District was called, and seems to have fixed conclusively ths fact that the twelve hundred dollar check which old Iago swore to handing Mr. Colfax had in re- ality been received. On the 22d of June, 1871, it was found that Mr. Colfax had deposited nearly two thousand dollars in three checks and the sum of twelve hundred dollars in cur- rency.. It will be remembered that Mr. Colfax distinctly swore that he did not receive this sum from Hoax Ames; but, as this deposit stares us in the face, we can recall the words of old Iago—“I am sorry to hear you’’—with a curious tingling sensation. The reservation ‘which Mr. Colfax made at the time was that he could hardly receive such a sum without omen bee it We are re_sorry for him, put he shoul go refreshed his'memoty. Let the whole people look from the scene in the Senate fo the scene in the committee room and behold how the reputation a man toiled for years to build can be blasted in a day. Without impeachment, without conviction and dogradation, the torture a man so situ- ated as Mr. Colfax must endure is painful to contemplate. Bofore the Wilson committee the mysteri- ous one hundred and twenty-six thousand dol- lar item received some attention. The cashier of the company swore to handing James F. Wilson a check for nineteen thousand dollars as that honorable man’s share of the amount. Mr. Wilson, like Mr. Colfax, could not remem- ber the transaction, and oath was plentifully made that President Clarke would never allow any money of the company to be used for such purposes. The use of evidence of this kind is not discoverable, as Mr. Spence testified that the money given to Rollins as his share of the gross amount above spoken of was understood by him to be for services in Washington. The two million dollar item seems to be strangely confused at present, and at the time the Crédit Mobilier received this sum it is apparently not known yet whether that body was not in debt to the railroad company nine hundred thousand dollars. Millions playing shuttlecock backward and forward, with somebody taking a chip off every time the millions came his way, is the only figure to express the transactions of these two companies. Itis but just to Mr. Blaine, in the Sioux City Railroad matter, to say that there does not at present seem to be any guilt attaching to him in his transactions in the stock of that road. The only consistent figure in the inves- tigation is ‘honest, honest Ingo.’’ Tax Cxsnota Cotrection.—Few words are needed here to give point to the long article which will be found on an adjacent page in reference to the famous collection of Egyptian antiquities which General L. P. di Cesnola, the American Consul at Cyprus, recently dis- covered. These invaluable and interesting antiquities, which are the envy of our cousins across the water and the despair of the Euro- pean archmologists, who were deprived of the opportunity of seeing them swell the collec- tions at the British Museum, arrived at this port a few days ago, are passing through the Custom House, and will soon be arranged for exhibition in a vast mansion leased for that purpose pending the completion of the Cen- tral Park Museum. The affair is of national importance, and neither General Di Cesnola’s devotion to art and practical shrewdness, nor the enterprise of Mr. John Taylor Johnson, the purchaser of the collection, can be too highly approved. Is Szcrerany Fra to Be Ovustep by a conspiracy among the New York republicans? Some days since our Washington correspond- ence furnished us with the intelligence that @ plot was on foot to obtain the Secretaryship of the Treasury for this State, and now the partisan papers of this city commence the ad- vance. One of them, noted for its sedulous adulation of Mr. Fish and all his departmental belongings during the late campaign, now at- tacks him through Assistant Secretary Davis. No glorification of Mr. Fish or his subordi- nate was too highfalutin for the republican partisans when the election was ahead. Is it not a very petty mode of attack this of stabbing at Mr. Fish through Mr. Davis? Whatever the diplomatic triumphs of which the republi- cans boasted may be, they are all ascribable to Mr. Fish and Mr. Davis. If not, to whom? Certainly not to the partisan press. If the press here have entered into a plot against Mr. Fish why cannot they come from behind the mask and say so? Wouid it be too much to expect straightforwardness in such » matter? Do they fear the responsibility-of attacking Mr. Fish directly? Or do theyrex- pect to take him in the flank, and induce.’ him to get upon the defensive? The ways of politi- cians and partisan papers are very unlovely at best; but is not this among the meanest of party ingratitudes and treacheries? 7 Alone. ‘Thé annnal for oliange at Albany breaks forth -with its usual vehemence thie year. There is always a Now York charter to be tinkered, principally with a view to decapi- tating the “ins for the purpose of putting official heads on the ‘‘outa.”” It is more than probable that thero is always a margin for im- provement in the persons whom city charters place at the head of affairs, and it is natural that the party in power should believe it had just such men in its ramka, There is not likely to be any offence against trath in stating that the party in power is frequently mistaken in this respect. But, even with the best of men and the best intentions granted, there is’a cer- tainty that this passion for change works serious detriment to the public service. If we take only two instances wo shall be able to show that some offices at least should exist above the reach of party alternation. The Fire Department is one which needs a continuous attention to discipline and detail, and one , on. whose efficiency much depends; yet its best officers must give way at every change of party power to men of inferior experience. ‘The School Board ia another branch in which this impolicy of change works especial mis- chief, The trained Superintendent is at the mercy of hig political magters for the tims be- ing, and the system which should be carefully perfected is periodically thrown backward. These things should not be. Incompetence should always be sought out and weeded out; but the man who has learned to control a fire department or a portion thereof, or to super- vise @ section of our educational machinery, should be in a certain measure above party. Tue Onpzr ror 4 Dovstz Szsston of the Court of General Sessions was the subject of some remarks in the Board of Supervisors yesterday. Recorder Hackett explained the difficulty pertaining to murder trials in this Court, a stay of pro- ceedings being obtainable without even a bill of exceptions. If there were no Judge Pratts on the bench we might have no hesitation in urging the trial of our murderers at this Oourt. At the Court of Oyer and Terminer, where the interference with a verdict and the sentence is not so easy, the sittings are short and few. Cannot the Legisla- ture provide us with a co-ordinate branch of this Court as. well? They should certainly do something to remove the d disgrace untried murderers from our city’s fanie. What say the Representatives and Senators from this island? Will they act ? a1 Oy PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. VICE President Colfax wants to have his virtae investigated. Judge J. G. Abbott, of Boston, is at the Brevoort House. General J. W. Barnes, of Texas, is staying at the Grand Cantral Hotel. “Pub. Docs.’ are getting out of favor in Wash- ington. So are the Mo-Docs. Ex-Governor Theo, F. Randolph, of New Jersey, is in town, at the New York Hotel. General F. C. Armstrong, of Texas, has tem- porary quarters at the New York Hotel. Mayor John K. Tarboz, of Lawrence, Mass, haa pitched his tent at the St, Nicholas Hotel. Professor George L. Andrews, of tne West Point Military Academy, ts at the Hofimaa House. Ex-Congressman ©. A. Griggs, of Illinois, is happy as his namesake, at the St. Nicholas Hotel. M. R, Waite, of Toledo, one of the coansel of the United States at Geneva, yesterday arrived at the St. Nicholas Motel. Miss Mary E. Beedey, M. A., graduate of Antioch College, has been lecturing in Edinburgh on Ameri- can schools and colleges. Two hundred boys under ten years of age have have been discovered at work in coal mines near Bath, England, contrary to law. Mr. John Bright recently visited Mr. Lord at Leeds. His health appeared perfect, and he was enthusiastically cheered by the populace. In the new Ear! of Galloway the British House ot Lords is said to gain “one of the best dressed legus- lators of the day"’—a sort of Bayard tailor. Aparty of Mexican capitalists, among whom ie General A. Bustamente, yesterday arrived on the steamship Ocean Queen, and are now at the New York Hotel. ‘The Parisian journalists, Paul de Cassagnac and M. Rane, feel themselves insulted, each by the other, but dare not fight, as circumstances insure the death of either of them. Tae newspaper reports of Captain Jack’s fight with the regular troops confirm the statement that the Modocs fought naked, The regulars were not to that manner of fighting born, William A. West, of Cineinnati, yesterday resigned his position as Judge of the Supreme Court, to take effect February 25. Walter F, Stone, of Sandusky, ‘was appointed to fill the vacancy. The statement that Magruder, who shot Leck- wood, the printer, in this city, is of the same family as the late General J. B. Magruder, is denied by members of the family residing in Baltimore. The Hartford Post complains that no mention ia made in the report of the Superintendent of the East River Bridge of the Engineer-in-Chief, W. A. Roebling. His turn may come when the bridge is finished, The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution hints the name of A. H. Stephens for Congress, from the Eighth dis~ trict, and hopes he will be elected witnout opposi~ tion, He may find his greatest opposition after he gets into Congress. Sir Ivor Guest has $5,000,000 invested in iron works at Dowlais, Wales, and employs 11,000 men, who are mostly on strike, twelve of his.sixteem furnaces being “damped down.” We should say they are damped up and down. Lady Ida Hope broke her arm by a fall from her horse while hunting a few days ago. It is. hope® she is not otherwise injured. Lord Grey de Weltom also fell and was carried home in 4 carriage. How her ladyship got off the fleld is not stated, Lady Burdett Coutts supports a sewing school of 200 pupils in Spitalfields, and a night school im Shoreditch, where she lately made a speech tull of good advice to the street Arabs whom she hopes to benefit, She is charitable coute que coute, John Baker, @ bright boy of two years, in the parish nursery of Marylebone, London, was picked up in atannel of the Metropolitan Railway when about two months old, having been dropped from @ passing train, and escaping with slight injurias. The Dubuque Herald calls upon the Legislature of Jowa to passa resolution asking Mr. Harlan te resign bis seat on acconnt of his acceptance of the $10,000 of Pacific Railroad money. Why not let hia, sands of political life run out according to. cun- tract—March 4? Georgia proposes to buy Stone Mountain aad build a State Penitentiary, at the seme time selling enough granite to New Orleans—two milliens worth—to pay the cost. This looks as if Georgia legisiators really had an eye to other business be sides their own. ‘An Iowa paper administers “cold comfort” to. ite brethren in Minnesota by publishing the follow. ing:—A country paper in Minnesota wants to know who swindled the Indians out of “such an infernal cold country as Minnesota is, and who de- luded the white people into it.” Ex-Governer James L. Orr, of Sonth Carolina, the successor of Minister Curtin, is at the Grand Cen- tral Hetel, having come from Washington with his family yesterday. Governor Orr witli not sail to- day, as he had anticipated, to assume the dutiva of ‘United States Minister at St. Petersburg, but wilh remain in this city ler several days,