The New York Herald Newspaper, February 2, 1874, Page 3

WASHINGTON. Morton’s Plan for Protection of the Louisiana Monstrosity. DURELL ASKED TO RESIGN. Reliance Upon a Corrupt State Judiciary. Correspondence Between Don Carlos and His Friends in Cuba. THE REPEAL OF THE PRE-EMPTION LAWS, The Rebel and Radical Compo- nents of Congress. Wasunaron, Web. 1, 1874. Morton’s Pian for Protection of the | Louisiana Monstrosity—How Kellogg | May Dictate a Judicial Decision of the | Election Question. In opposition to a new election in Louisiana Senator Morton to-morrow proposes to refer the matter to the Supreme Court of the State, to de- cide on questions ot title to ofiice, and alleges that in this there is a sufMicient corrective and resort for the evils complained of in the Present State government. To show that this is an inadequate remedy, he will remind the Senate that under article $1 of the constitution of | Louisiana the Legislature can, by a vote, without | trial and without charges, turn the Judges of the | Supreme Court out of oftce whenever their de- | cisions shal] displease the General Assembly—in | other words, the Supreme Court, the tribunal re- | Ned upon by Mr. Morton to adjust upon | equitable terms the conflicting interests of the State at issue, is the creature | and perfectly at the mercy of the de facto Legisla- ture, one of the parties litigant in the present im- brogliio, and said Court for the purposes proposed ig utterly worthless and unreliable. Again, Mr. Morton will allege that the election of the General Assembly in November next will solve the polit- teal difficulties of Louisiana, by afford- ing the people an opportunity to elect: | 8 General Assembly that will represent | their views. This proposition is regarded by those | familiar with Louisiana politics as a delusion and | sham, inasmuch as Governor Kellogg, under the } Present election law, appoints the Supervisors of Registration and removes them at pleasure, and appoints also the police juries of the several | Parishes or counties, who in turn designate | the judges of election, and thus Kellogg controls the whole election machinery of the State, and can control in perpetuity ander the existing law the election of the General Assembly, so tat neither the Supreme Court nor B new election under the supervision of the de facto government would furnish a remedy for existing evils or secure a fair expression of the popular will, Evidently the only help for the people of Louisiana is. irom without, as, if evila and wrongs have originated under B federal statute and’ by a force foreign and outside State authorities, the only remedy tor | the present exceptional and deplorable state of ‘fairs is to be found in federal intervention in the interest of the people of the Stare, so jar as not to establish a new government, but to enable the people to establish by ballots a govern. mont that sball represent Jairly a majority of » the suffragists of the State. To this complexion the matter has come. Congress must remit ac- tording to the constitution the question of State yovernment to the constituents interested, or else sssume the responsibility of fathering the Louisi- na monstrosity and thus fostering a villany that will destroy the republican party, if it does not as tn established precedent strike down the integrity bf our institutions, 4 Loulisianian’s Deprecation of » New Election Under Congressional Decree— Let the People of the State Right Their Own Wrongs. Ex-Governor Hebert, of Louisiana, who is now m Washington as the representative of the levee | imterests of Louisiana ana the Mississippi Valley, has written a letter to Senator Bayard, of Dela- ware, deprecating Congressional interference in the affairs of Louisiana. Alter briefly reciting the wrongs imposed upon the people of his State in the name of sv-called political liberty, he says:—“‘A. aew election cannot right any of the wrongs com- | plained of. There is no doubt that great outrage was committed in the judicial proceedings by which the present government of Lonisi- ena was installed, but what is now pro. posed is for Congress to commit another wrong and convuise the State with a new tlection. This is a grave proposition, ‘seriously | affecting the rights of all the States under the con- stitution. While it might accomplish an end of | temporary expediency, it would set a precedent | under which elections in the States could con- stantly be meddied with by Congress. Cui bono? Examine the practical results of this legisiation. Anelection, if ordered now, could not well take place before the month of June—at a season of crisis 1n crops and at a time when thousands of | white people leave the State. The constitution of Louisiana provides for a new election in November of the members of the Legislature. The old one adjourns on the 4th of March. If there are wrongs | to right the people of Louisiana can | tight them under their own constitution and | taws in November, which will answer all the prac- tical purposes of an election in May or June upvder & Congressional interference. If Governor Kel- logg bas, in the judgment of the people, behaved improperly, the constitution of the State author- izes a majority of the House of Representatives to impeach and suspend him from office, and so with | the other State offices. All the grievances co; plained of can be settled under the State consti- tution, without involving the dangerous and e. pensive means of a new election, ordered by Con- gress. I nave presented you these viewsas ademo- | trat, a native and a citizen of Louisiana, deeply interested in her prosperity and welfare. I know the interests of my State cannot be promoted at this juncture by interference by Congress in orders for a new election.” Judge Purell Importaned to Resign and ¥ Save the Party. It 18 unaerstood that Senators Morton and West have, on behall of the President, written a letter to Judge Durell urging him to tender his resignaticn at once and relieve the republican party of the odium which is being daily heaped upon it by the revival of the fame cbr his scandalous conduct in establishing the Kellogg government in Louisiana, E. E. Nor- ton, the universal assignee in bankruptcy under Durell, and by his appointment, will not consent to a resignation unless he can control the succes- Won, and threatens damaging developments in case the impeachment investigation procecds, Ifa judge not m harmony with Norton should be appointed, multiptied suits against Norton for ex- tortion, iraud and damages would be instituted, and his ill-gotten gains of a million or more a8 assignee in bankruptcy would be dissipated in adverse judgments and eoste, Durell stands firm because Norton dies hard. A pretty pass is this, that a great party has its integrity threatened and its success jeopardized by the selfish diplomacy of one of its corrupt mem- bers. 1 can be stated thatt he President will not, under any consideration, accede to dal- liance with the trucuient Assignee in Bank- ruptey, cither as to the question of resignation or succession. It is credibly reported that Gen- era; Butler says that Durell, the catspaw used by Kellogg, in establishing the usurpation known ag the de facto government, must bear the blame of | the monkey that used him. Jn otier words, the |, | in Spanish politics that before three % | the Carlist movement that Don Carlos has assented | could not maintain a republican form of govern- | right to build about 250 miles of additional road: | Purpose in administration circies 16 pronounced that Dureli is to pe the seapegoat to bear the sins of omission and commission of the republican party in the Louisiana case. The public demands @ eacrifice that the outrages committed may be atoned for, and Judge wvurell, personally opprobrious and unpopular and having outlived his party utility, is the most avaiable offermg. It is understood that Pinchback 13 at hand as @ supplementary offering to meet the demands of Senator Morton and to vindicate the implicated integrity of this Senator for his unani- mous and miscellaneous advocacy of the Louisiana monstrosity. Reported Correspondence Between Don Carlos and His Friends in Cuba— Memorandum of an Agreement to Scil the Island If He Gain the Throne of Spain. it 1s reportea in diplomatic circles that Don Carlos ts in active correspondence with influential friends, resident in Cuba, to secure their aid in his behalf, and that they are promptly advised of every movement relating to his ultimate*success, In explanation of the statemert recently made, that if Don Carlos succeeds he will favor the sale of Cuba to the United States, it is said that on the 18th of December last a conference was held in Brunswick Hotel, London, by prominent European diplomatists, at which it was agreed, after much Geliberation, to prepare & memorandum of the policy Don Carlos should follow toward Cuba in the event of his triumph. It began by stating that the Asturian cause was making such headway months should have passed the son of Isabella, the Prince of Asturias might be crowned King at Madrid. The only way to counteract the Isabella party, it ‘was represented, was for Don Carlos, first, to raise money, and, secondly, to enlist active foreign sym- pathies to his aid. This, it was indicated, would be done by a royal proclamation, which would de- clare the abolition of slavery in Cuba and express the consent of Spain to leave the island free to provide for herself. In order to secure the support of the slaveholding interest it was furtner indi- | cated that Cuba, after she by a popular vote should have agreed to it, might be sold to the | United States, with the understanding that the sum received would constitute a compensatory fund for the former slaveholders; and ifthe United States did not want to annex the island, it was indicated that the newly formed Republic of Cuba, | as @ payment for her granted freedom, would guarantee a compensation from her own treasury to the former slaveholders. “This memorandum was sent immediately to Don ‘los, and a copy despatched by tne Pretender to nis allies in Havana for their approval. At the time the conference was held the Virginius affair was settled, without having practically advanced the cause of emancipation, no more than it had been done by the proclamations of Castelar and other prominent Madrid republicans, The Serrano coup da’ctat was fully anticipated, as shown in the HERALD’s telegrams irom Madrid and London, and it was thought to be good policy, theretore, to manceuvre so that @ formal promise of aboli- tion and of the “Cuban autonomy should be drawn from Don Carlos, 1n case he should succeed in his effort to win the Spanish throne. It is be- lieved here by those claiming to be weil advised of tothe suggestions indicated in the memorandum and only awaits the advice of his Cuban supporters. as to its practicability. In the preparation of the document advice was sought of Americans well | versed in the policy of the United States govern- ment, and it was represented that, if Castelar ment, our policy was to secure from whatever party might be in power such reforms in Cuba as would portend lasting peace on the island and more favorable commercial facilities to the United | States. The Proposed Repeal of the Pre-Emp- tion Laws—Probabie Disposal of All - the Pablic Lands Within a Century— New Provisions to Prevent Fraud and Speculation. The Committee on Public Lands of the House of Representativer,.4 & recent report say that, | notwithstanding by the late report of the Commis- | sioner of Public Lands it appears that we have 1,200,000,000 acres yet unsurveyed, it is the opinion ot the Commissioner, as shown in his letter of Feb- ruary 13, 1873, to Senator Stewart, and of Mr. Ju- lian, a late chairman of the committee, with great knowledge hereof, that the whole arable land re- maining, aiter deducting mountains, alkaline | plains, sand and sage deserts, swamp lands and | shoal lands, railroad grants, &¢c., cannot exceed | 350,000,000 to 400,000,000 acres, There were taken | up by homestead entries alone last year nearly 4,000,000 acres, and, as our population increases, this yearly amount will also increase, and at so rapid a rate that, in less than a century | (a@ short period in the history of a@ nation), | the whole arabie land of the government will be | absorbed by settlers. As this absorption pro- gresses the remaining lands will become thore | valuable and more the object of the desire of speculators. Although it has been the beneficent intention of these laws to aflord cheap homes to the people, yet both laws, and especially tnat which allows pre-emptions, have been perverted from their original design, and have been made the instruments Whereby speculators have ob- tained large areas of land and hold them unim- proved to the great disadvantage of the States in which they lie, waiting until the neighboring im- provements of industrious settlers may enhance their value and afford « profitable sale. In a limited degree the same abuses have grown up under the present Homestead law. To correct these abuses, | to insure to every one who wants ita home, to prevent irauds on the national government, and to bring under improvement the public lands, and to add to the wealth of the States and the nation, is the object of the bill reported by the committee. It repeals the pre-emption laws, except that it al- lows inchoate titles under them to be completed according to their provisions. It also substitutes for the present Homestead iaw an entirely new one, retaining ali the best teatures of the existing law, and adding others that the experience of the working of that law seemed to require, It does not interfere witn the Soldiers and Sailors’ Homestead law. Its new features are as follows:—It requires actual settle- ment and cultivation for five years, after which, on due proof thereof, the settler can obtain a title to 160 acres of land, the wholecost of which will be $10 on entry of the iand and $8 on final proof. Ii, however, the settler wishes to obtain a title earlier than in five years he can do so at the end of eighteen months on payment of the minimum price of the land. The biliexempts ‘pine lands,” | with mineral, coal and saline lands, heretofore exempted, in order to save vast tracts of | valuable pine timber to the government that are now destroyed under the present | Jaws without insuring sttuement or cultivation. It extends to minor heirs, at tne death of their parents, the right to continue the parents’ settle- ment with the consent of the guardian, and allows widows, alter settiement and before entry, to | make entry in their own name, It provides for the | determination of controversies, where two or more persons have settled on the same quarter section or smailer legal subdivision; also that yacancles in the office of register or receiver shall | hot prejudice claimants as to any matter necessary to the establisnment of their claim. Among other provisions it allows | the purchase with cash of small tracts of forty acres for sites for mechanical, commercial or man- | ufacturing purposes, after one year’s occupancy thereof, and provides that all the United states re- served lands, within the lateral limits of railroads, shall be held at the double minimum price of $2 50 per acre. Preposterous Claims of the Central Branch Union Pacific Ratlroad Com- pany. Mr. Wilson, of Indiana, yesterday made a speech in support of his bill, declaring that the Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad Company has no right to a land and bond subsidy for an extension of its road trom the present western terminus to the Union Pacifie at the one hundredth meridian, He showed that this company has been for several | years past trying to procure a recognition of its | and to receive on account thereof # land and bond | subsidy of about $8,000,000; that, nobwithetand> | | provisions of the bill. ing adverse decisions oy secretaries Hrown- ing ana Cox and an adverse decision by Attorney General Akerman, the company is stil pressing this demand. and that recently the solicitor General has given an opinion in its favor. Mr. Wilson reviewed the statutes at con- siderable length, the briefs of the attorneys o! the company filed in the departments and the opinion of the Solicitor General, and argued that the claim had no legal basis upon which to rest. In conclusion, he urged the House, in consideration of the fact that the vast amount involved would induce the company to continue to press this demand upon the President and the departments, to set it at rest by passing his bill. Froposed Revival of the Grant of Lana to the Louisiana State RaiJroad. By an act of Congress, approved June 3, 1856, public land to the amount of six sections to the mile was granted to the State of Loutsiana to aid in the construction of a railroad from the Texas State ime, via Greenwood, Shreveport and Mon- roe, in that State, to @ point on the Mississippi River opposite Vicksburg, Miss, The length of the road when completed will be 190 miles. Dur- ing the first five years of the ten years allowed by the act for the completion of the road ninety-foar miles, or about one-half of the road, was con- structed, The late civil war then intervened, dur- ing which time the road as far as built was almost completely destroyed by the military Jorces of the United States and of the Confederate States, Since the war that portion of the road completed prior to the war has been re- constructed and restocked, An official letter of the Commissioner of the General Land OMice, recently transmitted to Congress, shows that more than two-thirds of the land granted by the original act lies opposite the uncompleted one- half of the road, there being comparatively a small amount of public land opposite the com- pleted one-half of the road, The completion of this road will give to the entire system of railroads: east of tne Mississippi River a direct connection with the railroads of Texas and the Texas and Pa- cific Railroad, of which this 18 the direct eastern prolongation. The House Committee on Public Lands therefore recommend the passage of the bill reviving the grant of lands heretofore made. The grant covered 353,211 acres. The lands which have not reverted comprise 100,652 acres, leaving 252,559 acres which have reverted to the United States, and which the bill lately reported by the House Committee on Public Lands would again confer upon the owners of the road. Determined Popular Opposition to the Change of Officials in Colorado Ter- ritory. When the nominations of McCook and Jenkins come up for contirmation as Governor and Secre- tary of Colorado Territory they will meet with severe opposition. The Delegate from the Terri- tory openly states that the removal of thé present oficials—who are entirely satisfactory to his con- stituents—will be almost a fatal blow to the repub- lican party in Colorado, on account of the great dissatisfaction which it creates. The only reason which the President assigns is that certain of the federal oMcials in that Territory have been en- gaged in land stealng operations, and he had ae- termined, when this was brought to his attention, to make a clean sweep of all the Territorial officials and replace them with anew set, He intimated also that he thought it was about time to make a change throughout all the Territories. Governor McCook was appointed through the personal friendship of the President, Secretary Jenkins at the request of Messrs, Senor and Platt, of Virginia, and Mr. Searight, the Surveyor General, at that of Senator Cameron. Who are to be Register and Receiver of the Land Office are not as yet desig- nated, but the nominations will be made ina few days. It is understood that General Butier is press ing a friend for the position of United States Ma shal, at present filled by a protégé of Scnator Mor- ton. The Life-Saving Service—Medale Meritorious Bravery. for The report of the Board appointed by the Secre- | tary of the Treasury on the subject of life-saving stations, &c., states that for most points on the Pacific coast and the lakes there are necessary only lifeboats, constructed on the English system,. with houses of sufficient capacity to contain the boat on its carriage, and such apparatus as par- tioular localities may require. The exceptions are a few localities remote from habitations, where it may become necessary to afford accommodation for certain periods to the crews attached to the boats, and at points where the chief signal officers of the army may desire to connect signal stations with (he life-saving service. At the latter places | the houses would only require suMcient accommo- dation for the observers. It is proposed that the lifeboat stations should in general be manned by volunteer crews, as the occurrence of dis- asters at the points named for them are not so frequent as to warrant the em- ployment tor long periods of regular crews. To insure efficiency from the volunteer crews in these cases compensation might be paid for services rendered at each wreck, and a system of rewards, in the shape of medals of honor, to be bestowed upon those making unusually merito- rious efforts, might be adopted. No stations are recommended for the Gulf coast. The soundings here are so regular, and the shoal water extends soevenly and gradually for such long distances into the Gulf, that the sea is rarely, if ever, high enough to break up stranded vessels, and the crews are never in imminent danger, except dur- ing heavy hurricanes, when a lifeboat or other ap- paratus would be useless, Serious disasters are, perhaps, as frequent at Galveston Bar as upon any portion of this coast; but an able revenue steamer, such as it is understood is to be stationed there in the spring, can render much more efficient aid in saving life and property than can be done with the apparatus at a lite-saving station. Bill for Preventing Collisions and Loss of Life at Sea—Its Commendable Points. ‘The bill introduced in the House by Mr. Hough- ton, of California, providing for classing vessels as to seaworthiness and for advisory rules regard- ing building vessels attracts atvention and com- mands favor, Letters asking copies of the bill are being secured by the members from commer- cialand shipbuilding districts. A board of in- spectors is organizea under the bill, to be ap- pointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, who also is to supervise and approve the rules, Steam vessels must have life rafts, life protectors, signal lights and other requisites to protect life. No fines or penalties are imposed. Ocean-going steam ves- sels, before clearance, must exhibit to the collec- tor a certificate irom the inspectors that the necessary signal lights, life rafts, life preservers and appliances are on board, and that the vessel is in all respects seaworthy; otherwise clearance is refused. passengers or the mails do not come under the Ifthe Ville du Havre, it is asserted, had come under the provisions ot such bill either the collision would have been avoided or, if it did occur, every person would have been saved. Lifeboats are weighty and require cool seamanship to launch and man, while liferaits are , light, can be got overboard right side up by any- body, and then will carry safely more persons than | lifeboats, The Ville du Havre, like all steamships, was sadly deficient in life saving appliances. It is the duty of Congress, it is ciaimed, to so legisiate that citizens going to Europe may be safe when in transit. It foreign shipown- ers will not make the necessary provisions to this end, then these ships will not be permitted to take our people on board at the risk of drown- ingthem. Modern signal lights afford particular safeguards as to collisions, Tnese can be seen miles away atsea even in thick weather. Steamships now will not carry such lights, alleging them to be too expensive to keep in operation, Full passeu- ger rates, however, are charged, lights or no hghts, and being paid in advance, the vessel owner has the money, even though the passengers all drown. Besides this, every owner, if he desire, can have his vessel classed by the inspecwr. The rules for that will be uniform. By this means a national standard as to character and seaworthi- ness will be established. ‘The inspectors are paid out of the fees alone, and these are regulated by the Treasury Department; so there are no salaried oMicers under the bil. As it leaves shipowners to avail themselves or nof of its provisions, no one can comp!aim that their interests are imiurigusiy Steam vessels not taking | affected by the provisions. As it protects life absolutely and positively by preventing vessels sailing away with people on board to he drowned, it appeals to the favor ot every one; and asit takes no money out of the Treasury, but guards the Treas, ury, by preventing rebates in duties on damaged goods imported, unleas the extent of the damage is certified to, it recommends itself to all, The mspectors are subject to imprisonment and fine Jor fraudulently or ignorantly reporting. It is hoped Congress will make Mr, Houghton’s bill a law at once, if for no other reason than to stop the Waste of valuable lives, as of late, on European- gomg steam vessels, Fines and penalties will not do this, but such a law will. A State Dinner to Mr. Cushing. General Cushing has been making a parting visit to “Glebeland,” his country seat, in Virginia, about five miles trom the capital, where he will leave his valuable Inw library, Un Monday even- ing he Is to be entertained at dinner by Secretary Fish, who has invited a party of his friends to meet him. He is in excellent health. Pensions for the Mexican Veterans. The House Committee on Invalid Pensions hag appointed a sub-committee of five to consider the question of giving pensions to the soldiers of the Mexican war. Itis believed the committee will report such a bill with great unanimity. The Abolition of the O fice of Brigadier of the Marines. The marine officers are in trouble, as the Senate amendment to the Naval Appropriation bill not only abolishes the oflee of brigadier general of the Marine corps after the death of General Zeilin, but also that of colonel commandant. If this is passed the Marine corps witl have to be under the command of a colonel, who can have no aide-de- camp to draw forage, and who will not be able to sustain the hospitalities of neadquarters with his pay. Whe Story About Eight Newspaper Cor- respondents and the Centennial Com- mission, Joseph R. Hawley, President of the Centennial Commission, to-night made public the letter of A. J. Goshorn, Director General of the com- mission, in explanation of the charge recently made that eight correspondents, representing leading newspapers, had offered for compensation to lobby an appropriation bill in behalf of the Exhi- bition through Congress, He says that the an- nouncement greatly exaggerated the facts, only one person having made any proposition, and that nad nothing to do with Congress, but was regarded as an advertising scheme, considered by the com- mission purely on its merits and rejeeted after due deliberation. Recognition of a Vice Consul. ‘The President has recognized Henry C. Adams as Vice Consul of Brazil at Boston. The Proscriptive and the Confederate Elements in the Composition of Con- gres! : Your corresponderit’s attention was invited during a late conversation with & prominent man in public life, and as a marked feature of Mr. Cushing’s unsuccessful race for the Chief Justice- ship, to the manifest revival of @ proscriptive spirit in Congress toward those who took the wrong side in the late war, as wellas those who were tardy in cutting loose from the leaders of secession before the outbreak of hostilities. This gentleman takes the ground that, though the op- | position to Mr. Cushing’s nomination began and was protracted in baseness and treachery, it was | the letter to Jefferson Davis that secured his actual overthrow, by calling up a bitter feeling of partisanship, or affording a pretext for it, on the | part of Senators who otherwise would have yolun- | tarily, or im fear of Presidential displeasure, | voted for confirmation, and so have made Mr. Cushing the Chief Justice. In the course of the same interview reference was | made to the fll-concealed disfavor with which the Coniederate delegation in Congress are looked upon by their fellow members of the more radical type, and to the stage whisperings in Congres- sional circles of calamity to the nation, the party, and the freedmen, if the rebel army element in Congress to go on increasing in the way it | threatens to do, Two remarks of Senator Gordon | in nis late speech on reduction of salartes were | mentioned as having been the theme of much private comment about the Capitol: the first, his | complaint that a late adherent of the Confederacy | im Congress was in danger of having his rebellion record thrown into his face as often as he took | issue im matters of public policy with | any whose loyalty was of the iron-clad sort; and the other, that if thg settlement of the war had been left to the men who con- fronted each other on the battle fleld for the four years of its continuance the country would have been spared the misfortunes that have since over- taken the South. These two chance remarks have been applied to the composition of the present Congress, wherein are thirty members, in botn houses, with @ rebellion record available for use against their present fealty whenever it shall so please the tron-ciad members to stop their mouths | or break the force of their arguments against | pending legislation, while the thirty are confronted by sixty-nine of the men whom Senator Gordon be- | lieves could have made an honorable and prosper- ous restoration of the Union at Appomattox Court ; House. It 18 to be noticed, however, that while | | the Confederate army element has grown stronger | the Union army eiement has been largely replaced by men who took no direct part in the war, and this very tact suggested as a partial explanation of the reappear. auce of the old spirit of proscription that immedi- ately followed the war, and was first renewed when Andrew Johnson's rupture with his party set | the North and South at variance again. It is mani- fest, however, that the President has no share in | the smouldering hostility in Congress to the pres- | | ent results of reconstruction, and is, from all ap- | pearances, better pleased with the advent of real representatives of the Southern people, whatever | their politics, than grieved at thé thinning out of | the carpet baggers, for whom this present admin- istration has no further use nor affection, The conservative tendencies lately attributed to the | President are not much regarded by the better in- | formed class of politicians, who discern clearer evidences of a tendency among the radicals to get up another rallying cry of danger to the constitutional amendments and the re- suits of the war for service in the | \ | next Presidential campaign. It is an opinion very | freely expressed here, in quarters entitled to at- | tentive hearing, that the republican party, as now | constituted, will have nothing on which to go be- | Jore the country in 1876, except a third term for | Grant or a fresh crosade against the “lost cause.” | The third term has an unlikely look since the events of the present session, and as the alterna- | tive suggested may be the only one two years hence, and has been lately strengthened by indis- | creet utterances in some parts of the South, it | looks as if it were to be kept before the country | against the day of need. Mention having been made herein of the number of late confederate omi- cers in Congress it may be well to append their names and States. Alabama has Lieutenant Col- onel John H. Caldwell, Major James H. Sloss and | Captains Charles Hays and Charles Pelham. Sen- ator Goldthwaite was also Adjutant General of the State during the war. Georgia has Major Generals Join 8B. Gordon and Pierce M. | B. Young, Brigadier General Philip Cook, Colonel Hiram P. Bell, Lieutenant Colonels Morgan | Rawls and James H. Blount and Major R. H. T. | Whiteley, the latter a republican. Mississippi has | Brigadier General James L, Alcorn and Colonel L, | QC, Lamar. Missouri has Brigadier General John B. Clark and Major Robert A. Hatcher. North | Carola has Major General Matthew W. Ransom, | Brigadier General Robert B. Vance, who lately de- | clared himself on the floor of the House ready for | another rebellion, and Colonels James M. Leach, Alfred M. Waddell ana William M. Robbins. Ten- | nessee has Lieutenant Colonels W, C. Whitthorne and John D. ©. Atkins, Texas has Colonels DeWitt | ©. Giddings, Roger Q, Mills, Major Asa A. Willie and privates W. 8S. Herndon and W. P. McLean, Vir- | ginia has Brigadier General Eppa Hunton and | Major Thomas Whitehead. Mr. James B. Sener, re- publican representative trom the Fredericksburg | district in this State, also campaigned with tne | Confederate Army as correspondent of the South- erp Associated Press YORK HEKALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1874.-TRIPLE SHEET. ‘IN THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH. ‘The number of female novelists is so large that it sometimes seems as though the reading world nad a decided preterence for the mode in which the gentler sex is fond of describing human life and character. Between George Eliot and annie Thomas in Englana, and Miss Alcott and Mrs. Southworth in the United States, the literary | space is wiue, but it is abundantly inhabtted. For | the present we confine ourself to English ground | and weave bound to gay that it has yielded, | among female novelists, one extraordinary and several admirable specimens, 1t 1s scarcely nec- essary to add that under the first head comes the author of “Middlemarch,” or that under the second are to be ranked Miss Mulock, Mrs. Oliphant, the author of “Doctor Jacob;” Miss Amelia B, Edwards and possibly one or two others, We have omitted mention of Mrs, Henry Wood and Miss Braddon, not because they are without merit, but because the conditions to which they have deemed it expedient to submit have forced upon them an extraordinary amount of labor and prevented their doing much that ls thoroughly good. Their strength has become dis- sipated over thirty novels instead of being con- centrated upon three. Miss Amelia B, Edwards, whose present volume we propose to discuss, has either been more wise or has been placed amid happier conditions which did not necessitate such unhealthy stimulus, She has written much more slowly than the two prolific novelists to whom we have just referred, but her average is much better than theirs, and her novels deserve a higher rank a8 works of literary art, ‘In the Days of My Youth’? is @ novel written autobiographically, and describes the adventures and experiences of a@ young man, who, when scarcely more than a boy, is thrown alone amid the pleasures and temptations of Parisian lItfe. The subject is a tempting one, though perhaps somewhat strange for a woman to adopt. Any equivocality, however, that it might possess is removed by the delicacy of the author’s treatment—a delicacy that is full of wom- anliness. Of course it 1s impossible to beMeve that Miss Edwards has obtained all her informauon at first hand, The average healthy mind, with per- haps a fibre of vulgarity running through it, ac- cepts without hesitation anecdotes which repre- sent Mme. Dudevant wearing male costume during her early liverary life, and gathering in that guise the observations of which she subse- quently made such powerful use in her Masculine creations. But what the aver- age mind accepts as something that was to have been expected in @ French woman, and particularly in a French authoress, it shirks from when an English nationality is substituted. In sympathy with the commonj idea, therefore, we should be forced into the bellef that certain scenes and experiences in Miss Edwards’ novel, as, for instance, the relations of Basil Arbuthhot to Jose- phine, the grisette; his visits to her in the Rue Aubry Je Boucher, Mis famtliarity with the Bohemian members of the Society of Les Chicards, and with numerous little ins and outsof Parisian life, were revealed to Miss Edwards rather through’the nar- rations of cthers than from personal tuspection, Mrs, Gaskell once questioned Charlotte Bronté as to her methoa of going to work when, in the course of constructing a novel, she found it necessary to describe something she had never seen or experienced, and which present circumstances debarred her from seeing or experiencing. Miss Bronté replied that she thought the matter out until an appropriate representation of the subject, or a representation that seemed to her to be appropriate, was evolved. The explanation had to be satisfactory; for it was the only one Miss Bronté had to give. But it does hot seem to account for the truthiulness of her descriptions of certain characters and phases of feealng which nothing in her life intimates had come within her personal experience, except upon the principle that consciousness contains the raw material for literary and artistic manufacture, and that people of exceptional temperament have @ wonderful gift of getting at the mght thing though the process of introspection. We do not know whether Miss Edwards has any solution like this to offer. She appears to be very mucn at home with places with which few women who have much respect for conventionalisms, and that fas- tidious circumspection which it entails, would con- Jess familiarity, and she is perfectly unembar- rassed with one or two classes of people who dwell outside the circle of propriety and bring | with them a flavor that is unmistakably Bohe- mian. Yet there is not a word or an intimation in her book which chastity itself might not read, and Miss Edwards has performed the dificult task of reflecting much of the sensuous and something of | the sensual side of Parisian life, without swerving from the delicate standpoint which every pure and refined woman would wish to be regarded as main- taining. To come to the story, however, Basil Arbuthnot’s | father is @ misanthropic widower, and leads the | life ofa recluse physician in Saxonholme, an ob- | scure English hamlet. In this home the boy is educated until he is about twenty, when he is sent to Paris to study medicine under Dr. Chéron, a | distinguisned surgeon. Previously to this, how- | ever, when about sixteen years of age, he has an experience, the bearing of which upon the story | comes to light only in the last chapter. magician, named M. le Chevalier Armand Proud- hine, visits Saxonholme, and gives a public per. Jormance in one of the rooms of the hotel. During | the performance he borrows Basil’s watch to periorm some trick with it, but sud- denly succumbs to an illness from which he is very evidently suffering, and soon alter him. The watch is not found upon his person and | remains undiscovered. At Paris Basil accidentally makes the acquaintance of Captain Oscar Dal- rymple, many years older than himself, Captain Dalrymple takes a fancy to him, and gratifies | that fancy by initiating him in Paris. This in- | cludes an acquaintanceship with fine ladies and grisettes, actresses and artists, and the design of | the author at this point appears to be to convince the reader that she knows Paris in its heights and depths quite as well as the most accomplished courrier. We have picnics up the Seine, flirta- tions between grisettes and commis voyageurs, a | visit to the salons of Mme. Rachel and Mme. Son- | tag, grog au vin at the Society of Les Chicarda, dinners at the Maison Dorée, in the Quartier Latin, an amoar with a grisette and an affair of the heart | with a fashionable lady, all of them very cleverly described, and mingled with conversa- | profound and original thought it never sinks into | that of vacuity and commonplace, Miss Edwards | | is not a leader in fiction. She possesses none of | those grand structural capacities which are in- cluded in the genius of the great novel writer. Her works are not exponents of the profound and sacred experiences of the heart. Her treatment ot | such experiences indicates rather a thorough ac- | quaintance with the manner in which they are | handled by masters than the capability of handling them ip that manner herself. She is familiar with | what may be called the stage business of novel- making and in performing the work which | such knowledge entails. She glosses over the con- | ventionalism of the process with a neatness, verve and brilliancy that are most perceptible in the conversation of ner characters, and that are very acceptable in these days of slipshod colloquy, We shall not inquire too closely into the moralities | of the position of cavatiere servente, It is enough to say that in her reference to them Miss aspect which, she says, a@ boy’s first love for a beautiful woman, much older than himself, is apt to wear. We are not inclined to place @ great deal of confidence in the purity of these devo- them, and the poeticalness has a delicacy of tint that few men writing on the same subject would be likely to bestow. To continue our pursuit of | the hero, however, the new friends he makes and | the various and widely contrastive circles that | are open to him do not perceptibly advance the plot Uf the story, and in the endeavor to discover @ thread the suggestion again | rises tha Miss Edwards wrote “In the Days of My Youth” less for the sake of telling an interesting tale, governed by A French | expires, notwithstanding ull that 1s done to save | evening parties | tion that is generally smart and select—if it never | | rises into the region of purely intellectual wit or | | Edwards has preserved the pure and chivalrous | tions; but Miss Edwards writes poetically about | 3 human emotions, than to show how many smart things she could put into the mouths of people wha have evidently seen so much of this world as not to have had leisure to bestow much thought on the next. In due time, however, Hortense Du- fresnoy makes her appearance and the real motive of the story is felt, Mile. Dufresnoy is a teacher of Janguages, and resides alone in an apartment ina large double house inhabited by thirty other ven: ants in the Cité Bergere. The course of the true love that springs up between her anda Basil Ar- buthnot is very prettily and delicately described. ‘The interest 1s deepened by the mystery which overhangs Mile. Dufresnoy’s surroundings and pursuits, The mystery culminates in her stealing away irom Paris during a temporary absence of Basti and leaving a note, in which she informs him that duties more sacred than mare riage, sterner than Jove aud imperative as fate call her away. How the lovers | come together again, how Hortense {3 discovered to be the danghter of M. ie Quevalier Armand Proudhine, and how, finally, the lost watch of Basil's youth, together with patents of nobility belonging to the poor conjuror, are found hidden away among moth and rust, we will not stop to tell, The book is worth being weil received be- cause Ita descriptions of Parisian life, so far as they Go are accurate and vivid; vecause, with one or two exceptions (a8, for instance, the implied apotheosis of Dalrymple, who kills in a duel a man whom he proposes to combat), no vicious bias ts Perceptible; and because shrewd reflections fre- quently alternate with bright repartee. These are not great qualities, but they are qualities worth recoghizing when so much literary work is loose and vapid, * «In the Days of My Yonth.” By Amelia B. Ed- wards, Published by Porter & Coates, Philadel phia. LITERARY CHIT-CHAT. Tus GRaNGERS’ MOVEMENT has found a historian in Mr. Jonatngn Periam, editor of the Western Rural, whose “History of the Origin, Aims and Progress of the Farmers’ Movement, the Trans- portation Question,” &c., will soon appear from the subscription press of E. Hannaford & Co., Cin- cinnati. Mz. RoBgRT BROWNING has still another poem in press, which, it 1s said, will be a Greek play ina modern dress" Tue DRaMatio Works of Thomas Heywood wilt shortly be published in six volumes, uniform with the works of Chapman and Dekker, which ap- peared iast year in London. This publication will complete the round of modern editions oi all the Elizabethan poets belonging to the Shakespearian circle. SENOR CASTELAR'S “Life of Byron’ is now being translated for speedy publication in English by Mrs. Arnold, of London. SCOTLAND'S CATHEDRALS, monasteries and con- Ventual and collegiate churches are to be com- memorated in a volume entitled “Scoti-Monasti- con,”? by Rev. McKenzie E. C. Walcott, an able archwoiogical wriver. Tue Hakaik, a Stamboul journal with a large circulation among the Turks, has just been sup- pressed by order of the Turkish government for an article on the recent events in Arabia. ANOTHER History oF Jesus has been trans lated from the German of Dr. Theodore Keim and published in London. ‘The book is thoroughly Ger- man in style, exhibiting the profound learning, wide generalization, scepticism as to facts and powers of analysis belonging to the greatest Ger- man critics, The translation is bad. ‘TuE SECOND and concluding volume of Dr. Mof fat’s work on the “Comparative History of Re- ligtons”’ is ready for publication at Dodd & Mead’s, Mr. ROBERT MONTGOMERY, Whom Macaulay im- mortalized as “Satan Montgomery,” was the Martin F. Tupper of five and twenty yeurs ago. Edition followed edition of his works. Whether he wrote of the Deity, of woman or of the devil, his long and wearisome poems commanded a great sale, although they were laughed ai in the | literary world. ‘Tue Best RECENT Book on Italian art is the “Cicerones; or, Art Guide to Painting in Italy,” by Dr, Burelshardt, just published by Murray. Itisa trustworthy summary of the latest researches on the authorship and locality of all the pictures in | Italy. M. TAINE has selected an American—Mr. John | Durand—to translate the work on the French Revo- | lution which he ts writing. Tue Most ENTERTAINING sportaman’s book lately published is “Mountain, Meadow and Mere,” by G. Christopher Davies, just issued in London. It is | not like Gordon Camming’s monotonous records of | butchery, but is pervaded with the fine aroma of English and Welsh country life, where the waiter found his sport. The author likes best filing his bag in rough walking through picturesque scenery, | or following wild fowl and water fowl into their jonely haunts. THE PUBLICATION of the Simancas records, re- | lating to England and Spain, has reached the third volume. | AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION to revise the | copyright treaties between France and England | was recently held at Paris, The French agents complained bitterly of the thieving ‘adaptations’? | from French dramas for the English stage, made | under the existing laws, through which all tne | profits of representation are lost to the French | author, The system of registration at Stationers’ Hall is also very defective. It will be abandoned by Great Britain, and a more liberal treaty of copy- right will be made, | THE LoNDON ACADEMY, @ literary weekly of | twenty pages, will be, it is thought, a formidable rival of the Atheneum. | A Memore of the late Thomas Ewing, by his | daughter, the wife of General W. T. Sherman, is said to be in progress. Tue EaRLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY will publish, in 1874, tne “Cursor Mundi; also Palladius on “Husbondrie,” Englisht, and “The Gest Historiale | of the Destruction of Troy.” THE LONDON Academy for January 3, the first | Rumber under the new régime, which makes it a | weekly review of literature, science and art, is full of good things. Mr. ROBERT BUCHANAN says of his great country- | Man, Thomas Carlyle, that his influence has been thoroughly noxious, and that he has supported every kind of tyranny and three great les—“the Me of the South, the lie of Jamaica and the lie of | the German war.” AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR appears to be needed in | the West Virgimia Legislature, which lately passed | an act “to prevent the owners of hogs from run- ning at large.” Tue VicToRIaA MaGazINE says that Germany | stands lower in civilization than any European country except Turkey; for in no other country | does woman occupy so ignoble and servile a posi- | ton, In England women are treated with re- | spect; in France and America they are worshipped ; | in Germany they are simply utilized. | PRoFEssoR MomMSEN 1s about removing from the | Berlin University to that of Leipzig, which is now incomparably the best equipped and attended of all German universities. Mommsen's lectures on the institutions and policy of ancient Rome ‘will draw still more students, Euiuv Bureitt, the learned blacksmith, has a. new book in press entitled “Social Walks and | Talks with Young Students Among the Lan- guages.” GEORGE MACDONALD's new novel will be entitled “Malcolm,’’ and several of its scenes are laid in America, Tue UNITED StarRs ts not the only country where the book trade has recently sutrered paralysis. Great numbers of printers are idle in Germany, and the business of book making ts almost at a standstill. Many printers in Paris are also out of employment, A BRITISH NATIONAL expedition to the Arctic regions has been petitioned for in conjunction by the Royal Society, the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Geographi- cal Society. PRINCE Louis LuctEN BONAPARTE {8 still at work on a glossary of the dialects of the Basque language, which has absorbed bim for several years. Vicror Hugo, whom M. Veuillot accuses of have ing an “epileptic imagination,” will postpone the Publication of his “Quatre Vingt Treize,” for a month. He has sold the copyright for Holland, Germany and Englana