The New York Herald Newspaper, March 2, 1873, Page 9

8 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day tn the vear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription Price $12. Volume XXXVIIL........0.:sserseereees NOs 61 AMUSEMENTS TO-MORROW EVENING, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker streets.—Hurry Durty. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Union square, between Broadway and Fourth ay.—One Munorep Years OLD. WALLAOK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street.—Davip Gaxaicx, BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third strect, corner Sixth avenue.—No TuorovcHrars. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street—Itanian Orxea—Favst. THEATRE COMIQUE, No. 5i4 Broadway.—'%8; oR, tux Muper ar THe Far. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Mx. ano Mus, Peter Watre—Wiit o! trax Wisr. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, ay.—Bovanine Ir, NEW FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, 728 and 730 Broad- way. ALAR WOOlD’S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtieth st— Newcx any Neck. Afternoon and Evening, ‘wenty-third st. and Eighth ATHENEUM, No. 585 Broadway.—Graxp Vantery En. ‘TERTAINMENT, , NIBLO’S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets.—Lxo anv Loros. ST. JAMES’ THEATRE, Broadway and 28th st.—Bua- Lusqus Orkra—Masxs AND Facks, &c. MRS, F. B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— Aux. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Montague st— Ru Van Winkie. BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st.. corner 6th av.—Nuero Minstretsy, &c. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— ‘Variety ENTegtainment. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— Scrmncg anv Arr. QUADRUPLE SHEET. New York, Sunday, March 2, 1873. — THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. “THE NEW YORK CHARTER IN THE SENATE! PROSPECT OF ITS SPEEDY PASSAGE AS A PARTY MEASURE’—LEADER—EicETa Page. ‘ MODOC PEACE UNCERTAIN! GENERAL CANBY READY FOR WAR! THE COMMIS- SIONERS WILL NOT GO TO CAPTAIN JACK’S RENDEZVOUS—NINTH PaGE, BY CABLE FROM EUROPE! ENGLISH MARINE FATALITIES! THE FRENCH PEOPLE TROUBLED ABOUT THE ASSEMBLY! MINIS- TER BANCROFT’S GRAND DINNER! PORTUGAL BIDS FAREWELL TO AMA- DEUS—NINTH PaGE. ‘CONGRESS “PUSHING” LEGISLATION! NO JUs- TICE FOR POOR LOUISIANA! THE MEM- BERS “THINK BETTER” OF THE SALARY INOREASE! RECOGNIZING THE SPANISH REPUBLIC! THE APPROPRIATION BILLS RUSHED! SPECIAL ITEMS FROM THE FEDERAL CAPITAL—FirtH ‘Pace. CROWNING EVENT OF THE INAUGURA- RATION! PROFESSOR TORHILLON’S AR- RAY OF “GOOD THINGS” FOR THE GRAND SUPPER! THE “DISHES” AND THE COST—TWELFrH Pace, MEXICAN ANXIETY FOR ANNEXATION TO THE AMERICAN UNION! THE BELIZE COMPLI- CATIONS—NEWS FROM BRAZIL AND VENE- ZUELA—NINTH PaGE, NEW YORK AND SUBURBAN REALTY! THE OPERATIONS AND OUTLOOK! HEAVY SALES AND HIGH PRICES! THE NEW NAMES FOR WEST SIDE STREETS AND AVENUES—TENTH Pace. FASHION’S REALM! THE HIGH PRIESTESSES PREPARING FOR THE SPRING OPENINGS! WHAT THE FAIR DEVOTEES OF THE FICKLE GODDESS WILL ARRAY TREM- SELVES WITHAL—SEVENTH PaGE. PRIZE FISTICUFFS! THE CAMPBELL-HICKEN “MILL” STIRRING UP THE “ROLLING- MILL” CITY! RING CELEBRITIES ARRIV- ING! MAKING READY—TwEtrru PaGE, JAMES FISK'S WIDOW ENTERS SUIT AGAINST THE CREDIT MOBILIER FOR 20,000 SHARES OF STOCK! GENERAL LEGAL BUSINESS— TENTH PaGE. LENTEN SERVICES IN THE VARIOUS CHURCHES! LESSONS OF THE HOUR ELUCIDATED BY THE HERALD CORRE- SPONDENT CORPS! MINISTERIAL NEWS! THE FOREIGN RELIGIOUS FIELD—Sixta PAGE. ON ‘CHANGE! THE FIFTY MILLIONS OF “CALLED” BONDS! GOLD ADVANCED! THE PUBLIC DEBT DECREASED—NILSSON HALL ARMORY—ELEVENTH Pace. “FREE LANCE” INDULGES IN A THEATRICAL RESUME—MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES—ART AND LITERARY GLEAN- INGS—SEVENTH PaGE. CHARITY OVERSLAUGHED IN THE CHARTER— BROOKLYN ITEMS—SHIPPING NEWS AND CHANGES—TWELFTH Pags. OFFICIAL STATEMENT O¥ THE PUBLIC DEBT— FEDERAL OFFICE AFFAIRS—RICKETY EDIFICES—THE CHECK “RAISERS’—LO- CAL ITEMS—TentH Pace. LAUNCHING OF THE LARGE STEAM YACA8T AMERICA—FOSTER’S CHANCES—APOLLO HALL—THE CASTLE GARDEN INQUIRY— LEXINGTON AVENUE SYNAGOGUE — SEVENTH PAGE. A Repvuction mm THE Pusiic Dest to the extent of about five and a quarter millions of dollars is the principal feature in the Treasury statement for the month of February. Ac- cording to the same document the legal ten- ders have been withdrawn to the limit of three hundred and fifty-six million dollars, at which they stood last Fall, before Mr. Bout- well deemed himself authorized to issue a por- tion of the so-called reserve of forty-four mil- lions to dissipate the then stringency in the money market. Tur French DepaTe ON THE QUESTION OF Constrrvtionan GoveRrNMENT.—This important Proceeding passed off quietly and with dignity during the sitting of the National Assembly at Versailles yesterday. There was no exhibition of extreme political party feeling, as was at first anticipated, but, on the contrary, @ general expression of anxious patriotism with regard to the best system of future rule. The principle of the Republic was sustained. We ere not told of any allusion having been made to the monarchy. The discussion induced to almost a single point for legislative considera- tion—President Thiers os he is and acts, or ® premature constitution and consequent anarchy? M. Dufaure advocated the cause of the government, and evidently made a favor. able impression for the maintenance of the pact of Bordeauz, the general subiect of fature swe remaining in abpyance. NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 1873—QUADRUPLE SHEET. The New York Oharter im the Sonate— Prospect of Its Speedy Passage as ao Party Measure. The New York City Charter, after having passed the Assembly, is now in the hands of the Senate, and there are indications that the same farce witnessed in the lower House will be re-enacted in the upper. We hear of this Senator being desirous of one amend- ment and that Senator being importunate for another amendment; but they all apparently tend to the same end, the promotion of some individual object or interest. Those exploded patriots, the Committee of Seventy, are to be heard this week before the Senate Committee; but as their selfish views are already known, and as they have already exhausted all their arguments before the Assembly Committee without accomplishing any good, it is difficult to understand why the unprofitable show is to be again enacted. When the bill comes up for discussion we shall find a fair sprinkling of reformers eager to place themselves on the record as being boldly independent of all “zing’’ influences and earnestly desirous of securing a good law for the metropolis to live under, but in the end they will all be convinced by the reasoning of the ma- jority, or will satisfy themselves by securing immaterial alterations in one or two sections, and then the charter will go to the Governor for his signature. As Governor Dix has already recognized the large majority cast for the republican party in the State last Novem- ber as a proof that the people expect and de- sire a decisive policy, it is not at all probable that he will place his individual opinions or wishes in opposition to the large republican representation in the Legislature, and we may fairly anticipate that the charter, as it passes the two houses, will receive his assent, unless he should discover in it some unconstitutional provision. Hence we arrive at the conclusion that the wonderful stories of rebellion in the republican ranks at Albany and of dissensions between the Executive and the Legislature are all the creations of imaginative minds, and that we are already possessed of the main features of the charter under which New York is to be governed at least for the next two years. It is still, however, possible that mature consideration may suggest some minor points— minor, at least, in the estimation of the poli- ticians—in which the bill as it passed the As- sembly may be improved in the Senate, and to these the latter body should mainly direct its attention. The question of the appointing power may be regarded as finally settled, and it is of little consequence to the people of New York how the municipal offices may be filled, so long as they are placed in the hands of faithful and capable men. It is certain that by whatever path the result may be reached, the republican Board of Aldermen, and not the democratic Mayor, will be en- trusted with the distribution of the municipal spoils. The present proposition is that the Aldermen shall appoint and the Mayor con- firm the heads of departments originally, and that in case of non-confirmation the Board of Aldermen in connection with the Mayor shall elect by a majority vote. Some of the republican Senators are said to prefer that the Mayor shall appoint and the Alder- men confirm, with the same provision for an election in case of non-agreement. Others are reported to favor the simple plan adopted in the national and State administrations of a nomination by the Mayor subject to the con- firmation of the Board of Aldermen, but without any provision for filling the offices in case of the rejection of the Mayor’s nominees, trusting to public opinion to force a proper appointment from the Executive or the confirmation of a good nomination by the Aldermen. No Senator, probably, with the exception of Mr. Tiemann, is supposed to be really in favor of leaving the sole power of appointment in the hands of the Mayor, although the democratic mem- bers of the body will doubtless favor such a proposition for party purposes. Taking it for granted that in the Board of Aldermen is to eventually vest the distribution of the municipal offices, we regard the proposition to give the Aldermen the original appoint- ment as the preferable one for the following reasons:—If the Mayor should have the nominating and the Aldermen the confirming power, with the subsequent right of election, then, incase of the non-confirmation of the Mayor's nominees, the people would be ig- norant what selections the Aldermen would make until after the offices were filled. The names of the persons to be elected by the majority of the Board would not be before the people for consideration and discussion. On the other hand, if the original appointing power be given to the Aldermen, the majority that would appoint would also elect in case of a non-confirmation by the Mayor, and the people would thus have ample time to express their opinion of the character of the proposed officials. It was on this consideration that the Hxraup originally suggested the latter provision, and the Legislature acted wisely in adopting our suggestion. But, as we have said, the distribution of the spoils and who may win and who may lose in the scramble are matters of little con- cern to the people, however important they may seem to the politicians, and the Senate will do well to abandon all squabbling and all pretence at opposition on the subject of the appointing power. Its time can be more profitably occupied in a careful examination of the details of the bill soas to insure the easy and harmonious working of the several departments, and in the consideration of one or two important points connected with the future government of the city. The Heraup originated the suggestion that the Board of Aldermen should be increased in number and so elected as to secure a fair representation of the separate districts. The Assembly, adopt- ing this proposition, provided for the election of twenty-one Aldermen, three to be elected in each Senatorial district and six on a general ticket to be voted by the electors of the city at large. A minority representation is secured by limit- ing each elector to a vote for two district Aldermen and for four Aldermen-at-large. We would now suggest that the legislative power of the Aldermen might with advantage be increased, so that in fature no application might be made to the Legislature for laws es- tablishing or affecting street railroad lines or on other local matters, all of which should be placed within the legislative Province of the Board. Care should also be taken that no important office under the city government is underpaid, so as to prevent the acceptance of the trust by a competent person. An amendment in the Assembly cut off from the office of the Corporation Counsel all the costa, and left that responsible position with the paltry salary of fifteen thousand dollars a year, thus placing it out of the power of any lawyer of respectable ability to accept the of- fice. The absurdity of this provision may be seen at once from the fact that Comptroller Green has paid over seventy thousand dollars to outside lawyers for conducting city suits within ton months, and that not a single dol- lar of costa recovered has been returned by any one of these legal advisers to the city treasury. If the costs are not to go to the Corporation Counsel, then the salary should be increased to an adequate amount. We have on former occasions recom- mended the increase of the Police Commission from three members, as proposed in the charter, to four. We regard thisas a desirable amendment, first, because the duties of the Commissioners in the various branches of the department, if properly performed, are quite sufficient to occupy the divided labor of four persons; and next, because the, Mayor is ex officio a. member of the Police Board, and it is never desirable to risk a deadlock in the management of so important a department. There are many other points in the charter susceptible of improvement, and it is to be hoped that the Senate will consider them ma- turely and will not be persuaded either to waste time in mere clap-trap amendments or to finish up its work with undue haste. Lent. There isaseason of the year when more churches than usual are open and religion holds the worshipper night and day; when fasting and prayer cast their solemn but not unhappy shadows across worldly prosperity and fashion; when domestic mirth is shot and fluted with the serious and sober tints of a gentle austerity, and the pink and gold of pleasure subside fora time beneath the soft pearl color of punctual devotion. Society at such a time resembles what an artist would call a ‘‘gray day on the coast,”’ and, to carry out the simile, instead of flashing billows and brilliant embroidery of surf, we have one long broad calm, smooth as a mirror, deep as revery, intense as self-consciousness. The “Peace, be still,” of Lent is the effectual echo of Christ's voice commanding into silence wave and wind. A hush, quiet as twilight, falls on boudoir and drawing room. If Fashion speaks her voice catches the cadence of the litany, and the sweet, sad music of humanity all becomes intoned. The heart weeps when it remembers the Zion of happier days, and the harps we hang on the willows are those of memory and penitence. Such a season is upon us now. Sorrow is the obligato accompaniment to sin, and during Lent that accompaniment swells into a louder strain. Suspicions of the atmosphere of the land flowing with milk and honey blow freshly across us and we thrill with the fragrance of the near figs and grapes of Eshcol. We lose sympathy with ourselves in past conditions of pleasure seeking, and press forward, faintly, perhaps, but honestly, to that spiritual plane where the joys of the senses transmute them- selves into chastened memories. The soul brims with spontaneous kindness for humanity, like the mother’s breast with milk at the thought of her starving babe, and all our bronzed and crimson passions aspire after the hue of those white emotions nourished by the pure in heart. Love shines like the Pleiades in the firmament of the spirit and blesses the universe with its meek pulsations. Something of the buttercup’s infant simplicity crops out above the red-flushed’ russet of our moral Autumn and the etiolated leafage of a Wintry conscience. Convictions that strike home make us quiver with the potentiality of growing young again. Love to God and man makes a rift in the years that divide us from childhood, and across the aching interval we see the Sabbath school and hear the morning and evening prayers, we catch the chiding church bell and the fondly kissed good night, and find ourselves softly repeating the words of the hymn that we sung when we were young. Doubtless some of our readers will object to what they will call the sentimentality of this view. They will declare that, so far as the sin- cerity of a large majority of worshippers is concerned, Lent is merely a conventional ob- servance, the relic of a superstition enjoined by the priesthood and still cherished by the fashionable world as a sort of scapegoat for the sins of the year. They will argue that when society flagellates herself she uses silken cords, and always contrives to make her maceration as luxurious and picturesque as it is temporary. They accuse the fair religieuse of abjuring coffee only to luxuriate in tea, and maintain that the ostentatious ascetic mortifies not only his flesh, but his friends. They con- tend that there are other gates to heaven than those of starvation, and that the anchorite of the dinner table is not a hair’s breadth nearer tothe Infinite than is the unintermittent eater of chops and steaks. But spectacles of self- restraint are always galling to those who never practise it, and he who leaves the board swollen with rich repast cannot be expected to have any profound sympathy with the pale propiti- ator who butters his crusts with contrition and offers a broken heart over the broken bread. It is easy for the good liver to console himself with that poetic cant which proclaims that every healthy wish is in itself » prayer, and that in order to worship God truly we must show our appreciation of the bodies He has given us by furnishing them with delights. Thus, appetite and digestion become in some degree the gauge of one’s piety, and the prog- ress of religion in the soul is measured by the mount of enjoyment we extract from market money. On the whole, we think the fasters have the best of the argument. In an age when most people not only eat too much, but do not even know what to eat and how to eat, voluntary self-restraint in the mat- ter is a pretty fair evidence that conscience is at work. Conscience, indeed, may have made an erroneous application of the principles of right and wrong, and have been actuated by excellent motives at an inexpedient hour, but for the thousand victims of fasting and prayer hundreds of thousands have fallen by the hand of voracity. For every man that has died of sackcloth a thousand have died of sack. The Lent season, disfigured as it may be in exceptional instances with insincerity and for- malism, is one of the most valuable hold- backs of the scampering year. It is the very thumb of religious conservatiem, taking a good grip of a too licentious liberality and forcing it to look wholesome practical truths fairly in the face, It is not too strong a figure of speech to say that Lent takes by the hand all who are willing and leads them to where they can feel the eyes of Christ shining with tender scrutiny on all the hiding places of the soul. These wounded spirits, crushed at the foot of the Cross, remember its shadow with heavenly sadness as they finally pass into the sunlight. Thero the heart, appalled at self, rushes with confessions no human ear may hear. There the possible saint discovers the lurking Satan of his nature, and seeks with frantic hands the door to a future which will allow him to forgive himself. And there, too, visions open of a better world, where much inexplicable here shall be expounded, and where all the lost footnotes and missing pages from life’s fragmentary serial shall be restored. The Opening of Spring and Trade Prospects. Winter has closed its long reign—abdicated, like Amadeus, because no longer able to rule. Remembering what a tight grasp the graybeard has held upon us since Christmas, nobody was loth to leavo him behind. Yesterday ushered in Spring, with an earnest of such weather as we may expect during the next three months. True, there was unsightly ice in the narrow streeta, and provoking slush on the crossings ; but that was the fault, not of yesterday, but of Old Winter, whom we are willing to forgive and forget. Last night the warm, red sunset tints which curtained the horizon Jerseyward, and the bright radiance reflected across the East River from the window panes of Brook- lyn Heights, spoke of genial April days com- ing, and brought anticipations of Summer evenings, when we shall welcome the breezes off the bay again, at the close of scorching days in the city. With Spring comes a revival of business activity. A glance over the advertising col- umns of the Hznarp to-day indicates that the great business public of New York, having carefully reconnoitred the wide fields of their enterprises, at home, in the busy East, the fertile West and the inviting South, see sure promises of a most stirring and prosperous campaign, and are fully prepared and equipped to gnter upon it, | Political controversies are not in the way. President-making will be off the track after the inauguration next Tuesday. Domestic dissensions in Louisiana and other Southern States promise to die out. Crédit Mobilier, having been fully exposed to the scorn of honest people, though its culprits may escape criminal penalties, will receive uni- versal reprobation. It isa pity the disgrace they have brought upon the Republic could not be forgotten as soon as the recreants shall meet the popular verdict. For better or worse, we shall soon have our new city charter, and, put- ting away the infamies of Tammany thieving, commence fairly the era of a reformed munici- pal administration. After a snowy Winter the country may expect abundant crops. We have large stores of grain to send abroad. Last year’s scant harvests in the British islands will furnish ready markets and full prices. Tottering thrones, uncertain constitutions, in- sufficient wages, army conscriptions and many other causes of discontent in the Old World will send us throngs of immigrants. Our railroads are stretching their many lines in every direc- tion, facilitating intercourse with all parts of the wide national domain. Everything con- spires to denote that the Spring which is begun and the Summer which it will usher in will prove most profitable to the great com- mercial interests of New York and the Union. While these reflections cause just satisfaction, our citizens should not overlook the important fact that there is much to be done on Man- hattan Island to enable them to transact con- veniently and rapidly the chief business of a continent, and that their influence, energy and capital should make sure that no rivals rhall be enabled to offer easier, cheaper or more expeditious avenues of trade than those which centre here. We should not allow the coming season to be unproductive in means of rapid transit for passengers and freight within the city, and the enlargement, quicken- ing and cheapening of our communications with every section of the country. The Religious Amendment Convention. It is, indeed, curious that the Convention ona religious amendment to the constitution should not have had more to say for them- selves than was urged by the speakers at the Cooper Institute on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. They developed fully that their movement, such as it is, is narrow and secta- rian, and betrayed that habitual ignorance of politics which characterizes politico-religious agitators generally. It became at once evident that their object was not merely the intercala- tion of God in the constitution, but of a God with a personality and an animus in accord- ance with their confined scheme of religion, We do not care anything for the opponents of their little scheme who thought it worth their while to rise from time to time and offer objec- tions during the course of the sessions. These objectors served but one purpose—namely, to bring forth ina stronger light the intolerance of the advocators of the proposed amendment. The sending round of the hat, which is a nota- ble part of all such movements, has also little to do with the value of the agitation, although it is of first class importance to the salaried officials of the institution. From the Secretary, who opened the talk- ing, we learn that what he had specially to fight was the putting of Christianity (sic) on a level with all other religions (sic)—i. ¢., “atheism, infidelity, Judaism, paganism and Papacy.” We may not be shocked, but we certainly can be surprised to hear a gentle- man who followed quote Blackstone first and Plato second in support of his theory. It would be instructive to find in Blackstone any opposition to the union of Church and State ; and Plato, however notable a philoso- pher, is a poor authority on Christianity. The very Judaism which is so energetically black- balled by the Secretary was the very first of the nations to put God—the Jehovah—in their constitution. «It would, perhaps, be super- fluous to say that if the maligned Papacy had its way it would not only have God in the constitution but full choir of monks and cardinals as well. The attractiveness of al- literation for weak minds is, we suppose, & valid excuse for the contemptuous repetition of ‘Jew and Jesuit’’ which we find so often in the mouths of the religious speakers ; but their combined utterance is something of an index to what breadth of tolerance the Oon- véntion belonged. Perhaps the key to some of the fanaticism that struts under the sheltering wings of the amendment will be found in the doleful pro- phecies and warnings which the pious breth- ren luxuriously indulged in. When the long, angular face; the rolling eye-balls, and the windmill arms are well started in convulsive motion, cant is at its best. It becomes 4 Jeremiah on thé slightest provocation. It gathers a war, a rebellion, a cholera, a small- pox, an epizooty or a Crédit Mobilier to its arms with ghoulish alacrity. All these things have happened because God was not in the constitution. Herein is most that is misor- able and contemptible in cant. Its super- serviceableness is happily its antidote. It might, for instance, have let the Crédit Mo- bilier alone. The special feature of that dis- graceful business is the number of “Christian statesmen’’ involved. God—that is, the God of the canters—was their especial cloak. What would Colfax, Wilson, Harlan and Patter- son ever have amounted to were it not that they ‘‘travelled on’’ their Christianity? It is not the Jew, the Jesuit, the atheist or the infidel who is compromised by Oakes Ames. It is “‘the letter that killoth,”’ for these men’s reputations were built on their professions in the letter while the spirit was forgotten. Such ere the absurdities round which the amend- menters flew like moths around a flame. They profess themselves narrow, bigoted, in- tolerant and sectarian, and ask sensible people to believe that there can be no harm in giving them their way. 0, founders of our constitu- tion, how keen was your insight into the small, mean ways of men that you left behind an instrument that in its full wisdom defies the assaults of tyrnny and intolerance ! The Situation in Mexico, The Mexican government is commencing to experience that official uneasiness and pecu- liar anxiety concerning affairs of State which inevitably harass the men who attempt ad- ministration in the territory ot the neighboring Republic. The present causes of this con- dition of feeling are various and conflicting, both in their origin and aspect, but not the less serious on this account. The Texas fron- tier question remains unsettled between the Mexican Cabinet and the Cabinet in Washing- ton. A Mexico City journal intimates that the American people are laboring under an attack of what the writer terms ‘annexation fever.” It is intimated that these attacks are periodical with us; the present being, it is said, merely more intense than the preceding ones, by reason of the occurrence of disorders on the line of the Rio Grande. There is internal war with Lozada. The insurgent chieftain has been driven, with his forces, into the Sierras. Here he is engaged in fortifying the defiles against the advance of the federal troops. Great Britain has put in an appearance on the coast and in the capital. Her Majesty Victoria has despatched a series of State papers to the Mexican President, relative to the Indian out- rages on her subjects in British Honduras. The Downing street correspondence has been conveyed out in a man-of-war—a plan of pos- tal transmission which is extremely popular, under certain circumstances, in London. The Mexican Ministry must wake up if it intends to satisfy Washington, to pacify the Sierras, gain triumph in Yucatan, and sustain friendly relations with Lord Granville. Anti-Sectarianism Run Mad. A year ago or more a considerable stir was taised throughout this city and State against “gectarian appropriations.’’ The men of one idea both in the press and pulpit denounced the donating of the State or city’s moneys to maintain the State or city’s poor. The argu- ments presented had no other or stronger basis than that of religion. Asif man, when he becomes poor or helpless, has no rights which the State or city is bound to respect if he belongs to the Church. The shallowness and absurdity of these arguments were made apparent in the editorial columns of the Heratp at the time, and our contemporaries of the one idea after a while veered round and decided that the State, in its corporate char- acter, had certain relations to every citizen and to every'resident in the community, and these relations do not depend in the least degree whatever upon the age, color, social or political condition, circumstances or religious faith of the citizen. The condemned criminal has rights as sacred as the highest adminis- trator of the law, and the State is bound to protect him in those rights until he is lawfully deprived of them. The aged pauper and the infant outcast have claims upon the State for care, protection and maintenance which can- not be shirked without injury to the indi- vidual and injustice to the State. These considerations are called for by the renewal at this time of a blind discussion of the principles involved in what is called ‘‘sec- tarian appropriations.’’ With the legislation which, having provided a free common school system of education for every child and youth in the State, refuses to make special grants and appropriations for denominational schools, we have no difference at all. But let us be careful how we proceed, lest in cutting down the limb of the tree we too fall with it. The charter now before the State Legislature, while it very properly prohibits State aid to ‘any re- ligious or denominational school,” strikes a crushing blow at ‘‘institutions’’ which cannot be said to be sectarian in any strict sense of that term. There are asylums for the aged, the orphan and the foundling in our midst that may be ruined and must be greatly crip- pled by the withdrawal of the State’s aid. And in utter obliviousness of the obligations of the State to these classes we see some of our legis- lative solons resorting to all sorts of expe- dients to rush the matter through. Should they succeed in this mad legislation the State will lose far more by the withdrawal than it now grants in aid to these institutions. As the purpose of this legislation, very thinly disguised, is evidently to deprive the Catholic institutions in this city of the pecuniary aid they have heretofore received we may refer more especially to these. And one of the latest and best of them is the Foundling Asy- lum established here about three years ago last Fall. ‘This institution was not the result of elabo- rate plans and schemes prepared months or years before it was projected. It was rather the spontaneous and almost sudden outgrowth of « want deeply felt in the community at the time. And its beneficent effects have been fully approved, not only here, by the diminu- tion of the unnatural crime of infantcide, buf by the founding of similar institutions with like results in other cities. Since the estab- lishment of this asylum, in October, 1869, four thousand innocent waifs of society, many if not all of them the offspring of sin and shame, have been saved to society by its managers. But its beneficent effects are not seen merely upon the children, The morals of the mothers, and indirectly of the entire com- munity, have been strengthened and improved in this direction by this and similar institu- tions. The charge that these asylums pro- mote this class of crime is too futile to be seriously entertained by any sane man. But 1t is sufficiently disproved by the fact that the institution sheltered and nourished as many children during the first year of its existence as it has any yearsince. If the theory of in- crease is correct, the facts and figures of the institution cannot be. But the same theo- retical argument is applicable, with much more force, to the building of penitentiaries and almshouses, insane asylums, and other institutions maintained by the State. Does the multiplication of these increase also propor- tionally insanity, pauperismand crime? And if not, why not, according to the Foundling Asylum theory? But, it is charged, the institution is a secta- rian one, and should, on that account, be dis- couraged. Well, if an institution which cares for thirteen hundred children who know not their right hand from their left, and who for years to come will have no more knowledge of the Pope than of President Grant or Captain Jack, of the Modocs; if an institution which employs at least four hundred Protestant nurses out of eleven hundred altogether, can be termed sectarian because the hearts of a few Catholic Sisters of Charity instead of Protest. ants were first opened to attend to this matter and to rescue these innocent little ones from a violent and untimely death, then it is evident the charge is preposterous. The concluding argument bears upon tha purse and pocket. This institution, when it had been a year in existence, received Stata aid to the extent of one dollar a week for every child cared for. Could the State have done the same work for three times that amount? Not if we may judge by ita expen- ditures for peculiarly State institutions. Thig amount was subsequently increased to twa dollars a week, and at a later date a sum equal to that allowed to the Commissioners of Char ities and Corrections for similar objects— namely, seven dollars and forty-five cents per month—was allowed. But the actual cost is over ten dollars a month per child, and the expenses of the institution aggregate more than thirteen thousand dollars per month, of which sum between eight and ten thousand dollars 8 month goed toward tho mainte nance of the children. The balance needed to meet expenses and to provide for enlarged and improved accommodations must come out of the pockets of the charitable and benevolent of our citizens. And the State’a proportion is not one cent more than it should be. And now it is proposed to withdraw thia afd altogether, and leave the youngest and most helpless portion of the community to a fate that cannot be thought of without a shud- der. For the State’s sake, and for the sake of the thirteen hundred foundlings now safely housed here, we protest against this indis- criminate legislation. Messrs. legislators, don’t let your anti-sectarianism drive you ta the other extreme. Take the middle ground, in which alone can peace and safety be found. The Castle Garden Emigrant Depot= Necessity of a Speedy Reform. The proceedings of the Commissioners o} Emigration in regard to the admission to Cas- tle Garden of s person recently appointed ag the agent of the Erie Railway Company for the sale of tickets to emigrants inside tha depot, will serve to open the eyes of the State Legislature and of the people generally to the sort of management that prevails in that Com. mission. It appears that the newly-selected agent is an old emigrant runner, who has served a term on Blackwell’s Island under a conviction for a violation of the Emigrant laws, and against whom other serious charges have been made. The improper character of the appointment was brought to the attention of the Castle Garden Committee of the Board of Emigration by Commissioner Wallach, and an investigation was ordered. The ticket agent was represented by a lawyer, and was actively supported by the Superin- tendent of Castle Garden and by one of the Commissioners. The charges were that the man had been convicted under the Emigrant laws for soliciting passengers with. out a license, and served a term of imprison- ment ; that the complaint had charged him with extorting from the emigrant a larger amount of money than the legitimate fare ; that he had once given an emigrant a package of new one cent pieces in place of so many gold coins in exchange, and had subsequently made good the money, and that he had attempted to bribe a police officer to prevail upon the latter to violate his duty. The de- fence devoted their efforts to assailing the character and motives of the parties who testi- fied against the proposed ticket agent, and the majority of the committee decided that the charges had not been sustained. The wit- nesses for the defence were the ticket agent himself, the Superintendent of Castle Garden and two men, one an ex-policeman, who testi- fied that the police officer who appeared to substantiate one of the charges had expressed enmity against the accused. Now, the people have very little interest in the selection of ticket agents by the Erie Rail- way Company or any other railroad tion; but they have an interest in the proper protection of the two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand emigrants who an- nually land at Castle Garden. According to the rules of the Commissioners of Emigration the principal railroad companies are author- ized to send agents inside Castle Garden to sell tickets over their lines to the emigrants. This plan is adopted for the purpose of pre~ venting the emigrants from going outside the depot to obtain their tickets or change their money and falling into the hands of the out- side sharks. It is a very proper and desirable arrangement, but it can readily be seen that if dishonest persons are admitted to the exclusive privilege of selling tickets in- side the depot they have a better op- ity to defraua the emigrants than outsiders could possibly enjoy. It can be seen further that if any collusion or improper interest should oxist between persons inter