The New York Herald Newspaper, December 21, 1873, Page 8

NEW YORK HERALD] BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. _ JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yonx Heratp. Letters and packages should be properly gealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Volume XXXVIII. AMUSEMENTS TO-MORROW EVENING, WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth strect.—A Man oy Hoxon. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Union square, —Lxp Astray. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadw Hauer. Afternoon and even BROADWAY | THEAT. Tur Woman in Wate. GRAND OPERA HO! Bi st.—Humery Dumpty ABROAD. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Parricive, BOOTHS THEATRE, Sixth ay. and Twenty-third st.— Kir; OB THE ARKANSAS TRAV RLLER. near corner Thirtieth st.— 723 and 730 Broadway.— ighth ay. and Twenty-third h st. and Broadway.— PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn, opposite City Mall.— Enocu Arven. METROPOLITAN THEATRE, 585 Broadway,—Vanierr ENTRRTAINMENT. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Krsa 1x tax Danx— Panu or Savoy. MRS. F. B. CONWS Tux Wicxep Wortp. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street.—Lapy or ‘Lrons. THEATRE COMIQUE, No. | ENTERTAINMENT. BROOKLYN THEATRE.— 514 Broadway.—V antsy NIBLO’S GARDEN, Broadw between Prince and ‘Houston sts.—CurpRen iN THe D. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— 'Wanisty ENTERTAINMENT. BRYANT'S OPERA HO! ‘Sixth av.—Negro Minster ‘wenty-third st, corner RAIN HALL, Great Jones street, between Broadway @nd Bowery.—Tux Prucria. THE RINK, 3d avenue and Fath axp Museum "Afternoon and ev street —Menacenie ROBINSON HALL, Sixteenth street.—Magicar Enter: ‘TALNACENT, NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, No. 613 Broad- way.—SormNck anv ART, New York, Sunday, Dec. 21, 1873. QUADR THE YESTERDAY. NEWS ‘Ko-Day’s Contents of the Herald. “THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND THE W REFORM MOVEMENT"—LEAD- ER—EIGHTH Pace. CASTELAR’S CABINET DETERMINE TO DEMAND THE RESURRENDER OF THE VIRGINIUS AND THE CAPTIVES! AN OFFICIAL NOTI- FICATION TO THE AMERICAN MINISTER! BSICKLES WILL RESIGN! EXCITED HAY. NESE CUTTHROATS IMPERILLING FRIEND AND FOE—NiINTH Pace, SNEAKING OUT OF THE YVIRGINIUS PROVED A NECESSITY ! WILD FURY OF THE VOLUNT! THE PLACE BUTCHERY ! NEWS FROM THE MAMBI HEADQUARTERS—FirtH PaGE. WORK AT THE SIEGE OF CARTAGENA! SORTIES FROM BOTH SIDES! REPUB- LICAN OFFICIAL CONGRATULATION— Nintu PAGE. DUTCH SOLDIERS PUSHING THEIR BAR- BARIAN ENEMIES 1 [HE WALL IN | ACHEEN! ALL THE TERRITORY LEFT OF THE ACHEEN RIVER IN THEIR HANDS— NinTH Pace. DIREFUL IMMINENCE OF THE EAST INDIAN FAMINE ! THE PROVINCE OF BENGAL EARLY DESTITUTE OF FOOD SUPPLIES— INTH PAGE. BAKER PACHA TELLS THE BRITISH GEO. GRAPHICAL SOCIETY WHAT HE SAW, HEARD AND DID IN THE SOUDAN! THE CURSE OF CENTRAL AFRICA PUT DOWN! THE PRINCE OF WALES’ SPEECH—SEVENTH Page. GERMAN AUTHORS AND THEIR WORKS! KING JOHN OF SAXONY! BRET HARTE COR- DIALLY WELCUMED—SixTH Pace. IMPORTANT ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE IRISH CATHOLIC UNION AND THE ORANGE GRAND LODGE IN THE IRISH CAPITAL! THE PROPOSED UNIVERSITY! POPULAR “ROWS AND RUCTIO: SEVENTH PaGE. THE FIGHT OVER THE NEW HOOLHOUSE AT WEST FARMS! MASS MEETING OF INDIG- NANT CITIZENS—PIGEON SHOOTING— TWELFTH PAGE. FASHIONS FOR THE FAIR! WHAT THE Mo- DISTES HAVE PROVIDED AND THE LEAD- ERS OF THE TON ARE ARRAYIN THEMSELVES IN—CHRISTMAS ART CURI- OSITIES—SIXTH Pace. RING FRAUDS! THE CASE OF WOODWARD— LEGAL SUMMARIES—TUE LUCH EARN'S OFFICERS ON THE MID-OCEAN HoRRUR— TENTO PaGE. CHURCH SERVICES FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT! BELIGIOUS NEWS AND COR- RESPONDENCE—THikTEENTH Pack, REFORMING THE JEWS! EX-KABBI SCHLAMOU- VITZ’S GREAT MISSION—Se£vENTH PaGE, FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS YESTERDAY —DARING RAID OF THIEVES— THE SAMANA COMPANY—ELEVENTH PAGE, THE HOT THE Tae Treascry Report Suows Tuat the Treasurer holds in trust for national banks over three hundred and ninety-three million dollars to secure circulation. The govern- ment pays on this to the national banks nearly twenty-four million dollars a year interest, at six percent, although it gives back to the banks in their own currency over three hundred and forty-eight millions to invest and make interest on over again. These favored institutions, in fact, have ninety per cent of their capital in their hands to use, and yet receive from the government six per cent upon that capital, Mr. Richardson wants moncy and proposes to tax commerce and the necessaries of life to obtain it. If he will pro- pose to sweep away the national bank circula- tion and make all our currency of one de- nomination, legal tender, he will save nearly twenty-four million dollars now given asa bonus to the national banks and be just so touch richer without taxing the people at all. Wuat Has Become of the valiant editor who vowed to leave Cuba forever in the event of the surrender of the Virginius? Is he the same pergon who is reported to have been robbed? If so, let the Havana liquor dealers, Jandladies and washerwomen look out for their small accounts before the gallant man departs from the ever faithful island, and let the Havana police inquire whether the al- legod burglary was really a genuine affair, OF | NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1873—QUADRU PLE SHEET. The Protestant Episcopal Church and the New Reform Movement. Religion, in spite of the so-called men of science, is still a power in the modern world. ‘The influence of the Scottish Hume and the French Voltaire, we admit, is not yet dead; but Darwin and Tyndall and Huxley, with all their large knowledge and the support which they claim from the daring thinkers of the past, have not yet been successful in making men indifferent to what are called the inter- ests of religion. The materialistic tendencies of the day are no doubt powerful. It would be strange if they were not. They ate fed and encouraged by many of the ablest minds and by much of the best thinking of the hour. In social circles, public and private, learned fathers and precocious youths and strong- minded ladies preach infidelity as the word was once understood, langh at the preachers ot the Gospel, and, with a nonchalance which is sometimes as amusing as absurd, pro- nounce the churches institutions much more convenient than necessary. Milk for babes, but not strong meat for men—such is the too general opinion entertained regarding the ecclesias- tical teaching of the present. That the Dar- wins and the Tyndalls and the Huzleys have taught and are teaching skilfully and with success, and that their disciples are numerous and enthusiastic, we cannot refuse to admit ; but, notwithstanding the skill and success of the teaching, the numbers and enthusiasm of the following, the churches remain strong, and ecclesiastical questions are the most vital and interest-commanding of all the questions which agitate this strangely perplexed, con- fused and agitated age. The late Franco-German war did much to convince the world that the religious senti- ment was not yet dead. Sympathy with the combatants during the war was very much determined by religious belief. It is the same to-day. Germany is the recognized repre- sentative of one form of Chistianity. France is the recognized representative of another. The two great rival nationalities divide the world at this moment almost as much as they did during the war, and the determining and dividing element, now as before, is religion. Religion is not only a prominent and power- ful question as between nations; it is a vital and disturbing element in the politics of all | the leading nations of the day. In Germany all the power of a strong government is being exerted to place the Church ina condition of subordination to the State. It is the same in Switzerland. It is the same in Italy. It is to a certain extent the same in Spain, although the present republican government has in this respect—and wisely, perhaps—been less daring than some of its predecessors. To come to the New World, the fight for supre- macy between Church and State is as vigor- ously carried on in the Brazilian Empire as in the Mexican Republic. Scottish and English politics are both seriously affected by religious questicns, and it is a religious difficulty which lies at the bottom of the home rule move- ment in Ireland. In this country and on this free soil we have not and cannot have religious difficulties in precisely the same form in which they exist in the various countries to which we have re- ferred. Here the State knows no religion. All forms of Christianity are free—free as they | are nowhere else on the face of the earth, Under his own vine and under his own fig tree every man may worship, and no one can, with the sanction of law, seek to disturb or make him afraid. With us religion is neither forced nor resisted; but of all the plants which we have imported from the Old World, no one has more prospered or given nobler fruitage than that of the Christian religion. In spite of the absence of State patronage and State control Christianity flourishes in the midst of us, and all the various denomina- tions reveal unmistakable signs of strength and give abundant proof of their usefulness. The materialistic teachers have no doubt their followers here as they have in Europe; but, strong as are the so-called scientists, stronger still are the men who remain in the old path- ways and steadfastly cling to the Book of Revelation as well as to the book of nature. The schism which has just taken place in the Protestant Episcopal Church deserves to be looked at from this point of view. Whatever the merits or demerits of the new movement of which Bishop Cummins and Bishop Cheney are now the recognized leaders, it affords unmistakable evidence that our Christianity has in it the genuine elements of vitality, and that we have men in the midst of us who are as able and as willing as in the brightest days of all the Christian past to make for conscience’ sake needed effort and needed sacrifice. In the Episcopal Church Cummins and Cheney were men of recognized influence. That to that Church both were sincerely attached we have no reason to doubt, but every reason to believe. To sever them- selves from that Church as they have done, and to attempt to build up a new Church, re- quired not a little of the spirit of the martyrs of olden times; and, in so far jas they have stood up for principle, fought for conscience, revealed daring and made sacrifices, they have a right to be spoken of with the highest respect and they have a claim on the public for sympathy and support. Not a word has been said either by friend or foe to detract from the character of the two men who have taken the lead in this secession movement from the Protestant Epis- copal Church. That they are men of respect- able ability and that their characters are worthy in every respect of their sacred pro- fession has been universally admitted. In the Episcopal Church both men were pros- perous; and the one and the other might have risen to the highest position which it is in the power of the Church to confer. Not satisfied with the prevailing practice which they believed the laws of the Church, properly understood and properly interpreted, dis- allowed, and finding it impossjble to check the growing evil, they claimed their tights, as men and as ministers of the Gospel, and re- tired from an association with which they were no longer in sympathy. In his own ehurch at Chicago and when the congregation were called to decide whether or not he should accept the office of bishop in the new Church, Dr. Cheney put the case well whon he said :— “Previous to the action taken by my friend Bishop Cummins the only way out of our difficulties that seemed possible to me was the organization of a truly Protestant Epis- copal Church, We are Episcopalians by 1 choice, and many of us by education, We have beon urged to withdraw ; but I have uni- formly given the answer that, sooner or later, some bishop would see the monstrous actions taken, and that, through him, we would come out right in the end. At last a bishop has seen this.”’ It is not our business to discuss here the question of apostolical succession or to decide whether or not Episcopal rights once conferred can be withdrawn. To most people it seems plain that if apostolic succession is a property of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which is itself a seceding Church, it is a property which belongs to the new organization quite as much as to the old. Bishop Cummins was @ regularly ordained Bishop when he ordained Dr. Cheney; and it there be any virtue in ordination and the laying on of hands, that virtue has been transmitted to and remains with the seceders. The right to secede and the wisdom of seceding in this case have been much discussed. The right to secede ought to be plain to all who do not abide by and fully recognize the authority of Rome. What was the Reformation, of which the Protestant Episcopal Church is a not undistinguished monument, but a grand secession? If seces- sion is wrong, it is wrong absolutely and always; and the wrong rests as much with the venerable establishment which dates back to the days of Henry VIII. as with the younger offender of the year of our Lord 1873. The wisdom of secession is proved by the fact that large numbers of the clergy of the Episcopal Church, Dr. Tyng, Jr., included, have admit- ted that reform inside the Church was impos- sible. The new Church is fairly launched; it has many friends and well-wishers, and it will be well for the authorities of the Protestant Episcopal Church to abandon all ideas of persecution and to leave it alone. From this new movement we expect little evil, but much good. It gives proof of vitality, not of decay. The First Month of the First Session of the Forty.third Congress. The two houses of Congress haying ad- journed over to Monday, the 5th of January, 1874, the record of their doings for this month of December is before the country. It does not amount to much, and it warns the country to prepare for a long, exhausting and com- paratively profitless session. Five millions of money have been voted to complete the re- pairs commenced by the Secretary of the Navy on our available ships of war; a miser- able apology in the shape of a modification of the increased salary and back pay grab of the last Congress has been passed by the House; also a general amnesty bill and a half-way re- construction of the Bankrupt law—all of which have been hung up to dry in the Senate. A bill providing for the redemption of the loan of 1858 (sixteen millions) has passed both houses, and this recapitulation covers the legislative work of the two houses since the first Monday in December. It may be contended, however, that, com- pared with the first month of most of our Congresses of the last forty years, this is not a discouraging report; that the first month of a new Congréss is necessarily absorbed in the organization of the two houses, in the ap- pointment of the regular committees of each, in the preparation and introduction of bills and resolutions and in the general work of clearing the field for business. It may be further contended that in these needful pre- liminaries for active business operations tho five or six hundred bills and resolutions intro- duced in the two houses since the first day of this month are evidence of an industrious opening, and indicate a conscientious appre- ciation by the members of the House and the Senate of the work before them and of the wants and expectations of the country. We find, however, that of these numerous bills introduced in the two houses, while com- paratively a few are intended for the relief of the Treasury or the financial embarrassments of the country, an unusually large proportion are bills making lavish appropriations of the public money, the public lands and the public credit, to internal improvements of all sorts, for national universities and all the various schemes and jobs ofa powerful, organized and expectant lobby. These preliminaries for the business of the session are not encouraging. Nor is the confusion of ideas developed in the numerous conflicting schemes proposed for the relief of the Treasury and the country trom our existing financial difficulties. The con- fusion of ideas and quack prescriptions pre- sented on this subject are very discouraging, particularly when the dominating idea and purpose of the responsible party in Congress appears to be a reckless inflation of the currency, a disposition to shirk the respon- sibilities of the present time and to leave the consequences to take care of themselves. Possibly within the next ten days, during which most of the members of the two houses will be among their constituents, our Congressional Solons may pick up some useful information in reference to the ways and means required to supply the deficiencies of the Treasury and to re! » the country of this financial pressure without imposing upon the people new burdens of taxation, The prevailing idea among the people is that, ifassured of the continuance of peace with foreign Powers, the policy of Congress and the administration should be the policy of econo- my, retrenchment and reform ; and here, in the application from the House committees on the subject to the executive departments for a general reduction of their estimates for the ensuing fiscal year, we have a movement which, we trust, will not be abandoned. Not infla- tion nor increased taxation, but reduced ex- penditures, is the only safe rule of action for this session of Congress. A New Scenz mn an Oxy Fancr.—Now that the Virginius has been sneaked out of Havana and the survivors of her passengers and crew are on their way to the United States, the Spanish government, as our cable despatch informs us, has resolved to reclaim both the vessel and the prisoners, and has sent a notification to that effect to the United States Minister at Madrid. If this new scene in the farce is intended to tickle the vanity of the ginger-pop Dons and to save Castelar, we can smile at it and let it pass. It may afford the Spaniards some gratification, and certainly cannot do us any harm. But it is just possible that it may be designed as an excuse for some contem- plated action against the vessel and the sur- vivors when they reach the United States. In this view only is the apparently puerile action of the Spanish government deserving of serious consideration, Reform Still Wanted in the Streets, It should, in a city like New York, be un- necessary to urge forever on our city author- ities their duties in regard to keeping tho thoroughfares in decent condition: In Tam- many times the mud on the streets was con- sidered part of the indictment against that corrupt combination, Reform, so called, has left the evil state of chronic filthiness in our streets unremedied. A smart shower of rain makes our city horrible and a paradise only for bootblacks, Let the sun dry up the mud, _and there is a chance that the wind will clean portions of the strects by lifting the dust in clouds into the gir, there to form awhile a de- licious addition to the atmosphere we breathe. | The dust, of course, will be precipitated in a short time and the round of mud begins again. The city in this respect is treated as though, on the first day of every year, the en- tire city government were dipped in a Lethe of obliviousness to all the experience .of past years. There is no foresight displayed. Clouds of dust are the first indication that the blustery March month is upon us. The mud of April finds our City Fathers quarrelling over means to fight the dust. The hot weather announces itself to our nostrils from heaps of decaying vegetable matter, the fetid remains of dead dogs and horses and the odorous offal of the rendering establishments. The authorities think of abating these olfactory nuisances about the time of the first frost. A blockade of our streets is the first intimation that snow is a thing that may be expected to fallin December. It may not agree with the notions of our embryonic Clays in the Common Council to trouble themselves about the fluctuations of municipal mud while the world of politics is their kitchen garden; but, if they attended to all their duties, we should have clean streets, and our City Fathers would have less time to throw mud at each other. If the lordly patrolman, too, was not so much wrapped up in serene self-contemplation he might report derelictions against the laws of street cleanliness which are supposed to exist in the shape of city ordinances. The Board of Health takes occasional spasms of that thing which is next to godliness, and for a hot month or so the welkin rings with “teports;” but the next hot season will find the Board astonished that dead horses, swelter- ing pools and festering vegetable garbage are bad things for the health of the city. The power seems to reside nowhere for suppress- ing nuisances, if we judge by the persistence with which they reappear when the first chance offers; yet, if the laws are examined, it will be found that the authority is every- where. The plain fact is that from the Alder- men down to the patrolmen our officials are above their business. From present appearances the first serious fall of snow will find the officials as impotent as Pliny the Younger before the showers of ashes from Vesuvius. Do they ever wander as far up town as the works on Fourth avenue? Ifan Alderman or Assistant Alder- man musing on ward politics, a police cap- tain dreaming of capturing Sharkey, or a patrolman wrapped up in the usual ecstatic contemplation of himself should walk over the unprotected precipices on Fourth avenue to the breaking of his neck, something might be done to protect the public, as Sydney Smith believed in the matter of railroad acci- dents if a bishop were once killed. At present not only the Fourth avenue ‘improvements,”’ but all the cross streets in that portion of the city, abound in traps, wherein every disa- greeable fate besets the wayfarer, from the common one of immersion to the knees in mud up to the actual loss of life. Why these things remain unattended to is puzzling. Somebody is to blame; but the authorities go upon the theory that it is nobody's business to hold anybody accountable. This is a theory from which we emphatically dis- sent. The belated citizen can walk off almost any of the piers on either side of the city without a single barrier to interpose be- tween him and his body furnighing a snug fee for the coroner or food for the fishes. We cannot think that the coroners form a con- spiracy to keep the .piers unprotected; yet among all mankind the benefit inures only to them. Why has Worth street been left for years a hideousness? When our sidewalks are slippery the smooth iron cellar plates will break legs by the dozen, and the papers will exclaim against the danger to limb. Why not preserve the legs unbroken by seeing to the cellar plates? We should like to see these matters taken systematically in hand by the “authorities.” Efficient ordinances can be made, providing against every abuse we have mentioned, and with the present machinery of government they could be adequately enforced. Do not be above your duties, O city magnates ! Atime may come when a model Alderman will be appreciated and when the-present un- improved type of lobbying, caucusing and mud-flinging City Father will be as a pariah. This, possibly, is looking too far ahead, but we advise the authorities to work up to the ideal as diligently as possible and to give usa clean city to begin with. Toe Barrisa View or toe Ricut or Srarcu undergoes modification according to cireum- stances. The leading press, commenting upon that part of the President's Message referring to the Virginins, admits that our government is carrying out the time-honored doctrine of the country. It, however, calls the claim of immunity from search of vessels carrying the American flag ‘“pretentious,’’ though this claim has been asserted for threescore and ten years, and though we have fought for it on land and sea. ‘The remembrance of this is not at all agreeable to the British, though they have been compelled to concede the im- munity we have claimed and successfully main- tained. Still, the English press cannot help carping. It questions whether the “immu- nity to an open pirate’’—meaning the Vir- ginius—can be sustained. But the question is not one of an ‘open pirate,’’ or a pirate at all. The Virginins was not a pirate. She was not an armed cruiser, preying upon the com- merce of any nation. She was simply o trader—a contraband trader, perhaps—which in the open seas was protected by her flag, and was only subject to seizure as a contra- band when found within the waters of a for- eign Power for contraband purposes. The term pirate’ would not have been applied to her if she hod been a British vessel. But John Bull is delighted when he can show his spleen on this question of right of search, and when he thinks he has a chance to say anytuing derogatory to America or Americans, Our Religious vontemporarics—Agassiz, Darwinism and Other Matters. Our brethren of the religious press this week devote unusual space’to the considera tion ot the worth and services of the deceased Professor Agassiz. Forexample, the Methodist affirms that Agassiz was a Christian. ‘He be- lieved in God, that man was created by God, and not self-developed ; and that the whole scheme of the creation was designed by an intel- ligent, all-powerful Being, and was not a self- existing, self-directing concourse of atoms. For the expression of this belief he has been | assailed by the men who think themselves wiser thai their Creator, but who have harmed him not.” The Christian Union avers that the death of Agassiz is a public calamity. His devotion to science ‘combined the simplicity of an in- genuous nature with an enthusiasm like that of asaint. It was this unreserved, unselfish devotion to his work that brought his life to a premature end.’’” The Union also has something to say about “Liberty in the Church,” and here the pastor- editor has something to say in his own behalf. “If aman,” he asserts, ‘sets out to be an exponent of a creed he will not be allowed to give to the creed of his sect a false construc- tion. But if his only idea of a creed is that it is material with which to work for the sal- vation of men, then he will have a latitude in the use of it as great as he may desire. For creeds are not sacred or divine. They are means to an end, and the end is a thousand times more important and sacred than the means.” ‘Are churches,’’ exclaims the editor, ‘‘to be controlled by creeds or by living men? If sects can agree to permit liberty in the construction of articles of faith, is it not better to abide at home in the church of one’s choice? And if a sect is not yet enlightened enough to permit such liberty of thought, is it not a good and honest thing for aman to know his place, and labor to bring the Church up toa nobler ground of toleration ?’’ The Christian Intelligencer declares that ‘‘the Church is not an automaton, a machine to be wound up and run down and wound up again.” The Baptist Weekly discusses the views of Agassiz on Darwinism. He declares his article, published in a monthly magazine, to be an able refutation of the English philosopher's specula- tions, and Dr. Patton thinks the descent of man from soft shell clams is, as a Scotch ver- dict might be given, ‘not proven."’ “It is, therefore, with the deepest sorrow,” the rev- erend doctor says, ‘‘that we are called upon to record the death of this greatest of living scientists just at the opening of a service promising one of the most important contribu- tions on a topic which has enlisted the thought of the ablest minds of the age, and which bears at once on a cherished theory of science as in conflict with the deductions of theology.” The Evangelist, with its usual thoughtful- ness, speaks a kindly word forthe poor in connection with the services of the “New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor,” and says that the experience of the last generation ‘suggests no improvement on the method of the association, which, mainly through city missionaries, selects its visitors, and, in harmony and co-operation with them, carries out its plans of charity, and accomplishes a work whose value cannot be estimated.’’ In regard to the demige of Professor Agassiz the senior editor of the Observer (Dr. 8. Ireneus Prime) asserts that one of his (Agassiz’s) last letters was one “expressing regret that he could not accept his invitation to deliver a series of lectures against the Dar- win theories in New York this winter, and declining on account of his feeble health.” The Freeman's Journal (which usually pro- fesses to have the only if not the earliest news trom Rome) refers to the encyclical letter of the Pope, issued on the 21st November last, and says that, forgetting his own sorrows, “our Holy Father extends his sympathy and lavishes his love on the faithful Bishops of Switzerland, persecuted and exiled for the faith, Turning next to Germany,’’ says the editor, ‘the stigmatizes the indecency and the bad faith of the so-called ‘Emperor of Germany,’ in having published, against all the rules of kingly etiquette, the letter of pri- vate expostulation that he addressed to the stupid William, and of having accom- panied it with an answer full of gross in- sults, not only to the Pope, but especially to his dear brethren and sons, the pre- lates that the German despot is persecuting. The encyclical then,’’ it appears, “speaks of the abortive attempt of the new heretics, call- ing themselves ‘Old Catholics,’ to get upa new church ; and the Holy Father, by name, excommunicates Joseph Hubert Reinkens, who got himself, sacrilegiously, consecrated Bishop by a rancid old Jensenist heretic and schismatic who was, sacrilegiously, made a schismatic Bishop.’’ The Christian At Work had better be at work if it proposes to give any new ideas to the reading public, although the fruitful Rev. De Witt Talmago is announced as the editor, The Jewish Times gives notoriety to the Jewish festival called Chanukah, or festival of consecration, copies something about Agassiz, but, strange to say, has nothing original to utter about the deceased philosopher. Gnant on His Cuter Justicr.—General Grant is reported as saying that before making the nomination for Chief Justice he had given the matter very earnest consideration and had arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Wil- liams was the best man, and that he does not intend in any circumstance to withdraw his name. There are noteworthy points in this little speech. First, he gave the subject “very earnest consideration.'’ We see the value of the President's ‘‘very earnest consideration’’ in the results, and we suppose if he had thought a little more it might have been worse. Next, he will not, in any event, withdraw the name. As there are others to be pleased be- side Grant—as his ‘‘very earnest considera- tion” is the measure of all public transac- tions-—it is to be hoped that in future he will consider less earnestly and change his mind very often, Women Docrons—A Oosaenpanre Ap- vance. —One of the oldest and largest medical societies in the United States, that of the county of New York, a society which has num- bered among its members such names as Mott and Francis, and which now embraces | the leading physicians of the city, has taken a commendable step in recognizing women doc- | tors who have graduated in regular schools, | A lady who has graduated with houor in the | | University of Franco is to read a paper before the society to-morrow evening, the subject being the ‘Pathology of Infantile Paralysis.’* Under this potent influence the prejudice of @ portion of the profession against recognizing and consulting with female practitioners will rapidly disappear. Obstruction of the Roads—A Hint for the Police. The streets of New York are notoriously a disgrace to the city, With a few exceptions they are in a deplorable condition, and in some instances, in the most crowded localities, itis scarcely possible to drive over them with safety. This is due partly to the swindling paving contracts made in the palmy days of the old Ring rule and partly to the imbecility and mistaken economy of our present munici- pal government. We have honesty and efficiency in our Public Works Department, but the improvement of the streets is pre- vented by the obstructiveness and incapacity of the Finance Department and the stupidity of the Board of Apportionment. We have treated elsewhere of the necessity of some efficient action, now that the season of snow is approaching; but there are some evils which might be removed at once by a little better management than we now have on the part of the police. Independent of the bad condition of the roads, citizens, who are in the habit of driving on the avenues and streets on which horse cars run, are subjected to vexatious and un- necessary delay by the obstruction of the road on the sides of the tracks by loaded trucks and wagons. There is gen- erally ample space for two vehicles to pass each other in the space between the track and the curbstone; but a carriage may be com- pelled to drive on for many blocks behind a creeping wagon before the driver of the latter will trouble himself to pull out of the centre of the space, and give room for those in his rear to pass him without turning out over the rails. The annoyance is especially felt by medical men whose time is valuable alike to themselves and their patients. The truck- men even appear to relish the fun of keeping a carriage or a light wagon behind them as long as they can, and there is no one to pre- vent them from indulging in the amusement. In London the police regulations in crowded thoroughfares are excellent. Loaded wagons, which are driven slowly, are compelled to fall into line on the sides of the road, while a space is kept clear in the centre for vehicles driven more rapidly, and the crossings are kept open by allowing the passage in the different directions to be made alternately until each line is relieved. Here we have police regulations on Broadway, but the rest of the thoroughfares are left to take caro of themselves. We have a mounted police, and they might be used to advantage to prevent such annoyances as those to which we allude. The drivers of trucks and wagons should be made to understand that they must not obstruct the roads where it can be avoided ; that itis their duty to give space at once to vehicles in their rear to pass them, and that when halting they must drive close to the curb and leave the road as little obstructed as pose sible. Our patrolmen have not very hard labor to perform, and the Commissioners should at once issue an order requiring them to keep the streets and avenues free from the unnecessary obstruction we have pointed out, This may, indeed, be at present a part of their duty, but ifso it is certainly neglected. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. General George W. McCook, of Ohio, is registered at the Hotel Brunswick, ssman Charies Foster, of Ohio, is staying icholas Hotel. ©x-Senator H. W. Corbett, of Oregon, has are rived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Ex-Vongressman James F, Wilson, of Iowa, has arrived at the St. Nicholas Hotel. ; jovernor Howard, of Rhode Island, yesterday arrived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Rear Adiniral W. R. Tayior, United States Navy, is quartered at the St. Nicholas Hotel. ‘Yom Karl, the tenor, and Mme. Camilla Urso have apartments at the New York Hotel, Captain Gore-Jones, Naval Attaché of the British Legation, is staying at the Clarendon Hotel, Lieutenant Commander A. H. Wright, United States Navy, has quarters at the New York Hotel. Colonel T. J. Treadwell, United States Army, ia among the late arrivals at the Metropolitan Hotel, General Julius White, United States Minister to the Argentine Repubiic, is staying at the New York Hotel. Charles Bradlaugh, who has been on an exten- sive lecturing tour in the West, yesterday arrived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Senator Fenton, Speaker Blaine and General Butler were at the Fifth Avenue Hotel yesterday on their way home from Washington. Prince Arthur is now announced to have volun- teered for the Ashantee war, and as having been very anxious to accompany Sir Garnet Wolseley’a force. Mr. Richard A, Proctor, the English astronomer, who ts now in this city, is a member of the Senate of the Roman Catholic University about to be in- stituted in Kensington, England. He is a convert to the Catholic faith. Captain Wells, of our corvette Shenandoah, was presented with the Cross of the Legion of Honor, on the 28th ult. by the Prefect of Nice, in the name of M. Thiers, during whose term the honor was awarded to bim. On the same morning Captain Wells’ daughter was married to Lieutenant Reider on board the Shenandoah. Sub-Constable Bunyon, of Clonmel, Ireland, recently murdered @ comrade constable and committed suicide. The country people, for some peculiar reason, were determined that his body should not be interred in a cemetery, and for two weeks they frustrated every attempt to bury it. Finally, all the constabulary were called out, and, under their protection, the burial ceremony of their homicidal comrade was carried out. Lieutenant Pollard, of the British army, does not applaud the valor of the Fantee warriors on the Gold Coast of Africa, though he does think some- what well of their prudence. The Lieutenant had command of a party of them, ‘hey became fright- ened in @ skirmish and ran away, Looking back they saw the lleutenant emptying his pistols at the enemy. Having an access of good sense some of them returned to their commander, and putting him into a handy hammock bore the kicking devo- tee to military propriety away from the field. ~~ OBITUARY. iMeutenant General Bixio. A telegram from Rome under date of the 20th inst. reports as follows:—“Lieutenant General Bixio, of the Italian army, is dead.” Nino Bixio was a native of Genoa, @ distinguished soldier, an able legisiator, and most popular in Italy. Wounded at Rome, tn 1849, by the side or | his compatriot and friend, Godefroy Mamely, he formed part, in 1859, of the legion commanded by one of whose brilliant lieutenants he 1 to the sea, ike Garibaldi, having served captain on @ long voyage, he rendered service to an expedition tn which he com- emin manded a force of democratic Lombards, He atded the cause of italian unity, and was highly esteemed by King Vietor Emmanuel personally, of which we have evidence in the important commission which he beid at the moment Of his death,