The New York Herald Newspaper, February 2, 1874, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1874.—TRIPLE SHEET. Ot NEW YORK HERALD | "2 Races of Paring soe Deve BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. prec eicntesd JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. ulead SRL THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year, Four cents per 9oPy- Annual subseription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Heap. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned, At LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. * AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirticth street.—PUSS IN BOOTS, at z P.M} closes at 4:30 P.M. TRUMPS, at 5 P. M.; closes at 11'P. M. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Eighth avenue and Twenty-third —street.—UUMPTY DUMPTY ABROAD, at 7:35 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Mr. G. L. Fox. FIFTH AVE EATRE, ‘Twenty-third street aud B: .—FOLLINE, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:0 P.M. Mr. Harkins, Miss Ada’ Dyas, GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street—BARBE BLEU, Oifenbach’s opera Douffe, at 5 P. M. ; close P.M, THEATRE COMIQUE. No, 514 Broadway.—KENT DAY, and VARIETY ENTER- TAINMENT, at P. M.; closes at 10:30 P.M. BOOTH'S THEATRE, Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street—LA FEMME DE FKU, at 7:45 P. M.; closes at 100 P. M. Mrs. J. B, Booth. WALLACK’: Broadway and Thirteenth closes at 11 P.M. Mr. Le: Lewis. Y, atSP.M.; Kk, Miss Jetfreys OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker streets. — VAUDEVILLE and NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT and Holman Opera Troupe, at 8 P. M.; closes at Il P. M. BROOKLYN Hall, Brooxly |. ; closes at HEATRE, opposite, Cit UR AMERIUAN COU- si: Mr. E. A. Sothern. IN, at 8P, MRS, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington st Brooklyn.—LADY AUDLEY’S SE- CRET, at 3 P. M. Mrs. Bower: joses at Il P. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—THE SIAMESE TWINS; PASSION. Begins at 8P. M.; closes at 11 P.M. Miss Laura Alberta. METROPOLITAN THEATRE, jo, 585 Broadway.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at M5 P.M. ; closes at 103) P. NIBLO’S uston streets, —THE, ING MAN IN THE jeloses at 10:30 P.M. Broadway, between P GOOD FOR NOTHIN: RIGHT PLACE, Begins Vokes Family, | | 8 P.M. STUR’S OPERA HOUSE, RIETY ENTERTAINMENT, TONY No. 201 Bowery. M.: closes at 11 P. BRYA Twenty-third stree ELLA IN BLACK, M. ; closes at 10 P. i. RINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.-CHARLUITE CUSHMAN’S READ. INGS, at2 P.M. BAL Great Jones street and Ls GRIM, at 5 P.M. ; closes at 10 COLos: Broadway, corner of Thirty-fitth street.—PARIS BY NIGHT, at 1 P. M.; closes at SP.M.; same at7 2. M.; | closes at 10 P. M. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Monday, February 2, 1574. RI NEWS OF YE STERDAY. To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. THE SLECTIONS IN ENGLAND! FORY-EIGHT CONTESTS AT THE POLLS LAST WEEK, WITH A PREPONDERANCE OF CONSERVA- | TIVE SUCCESSES! ATTURNEY AL | JAMES AND MR. ONSLOW RETURNED— SEVENTH PAGE. KING KOFFEE CALCALLI SENDS A PEACE | EMBASSY TO GENERAL WOLSELEY! A | TRULY BRITISH REPLY! THE EMBASSY KEPT AS HOSTAGES—SEVENTH PaGE. NO CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN BISMAKCK AND GLADSTONE ON ULTRAMONTANISM— | GENERAL NEWS ADVICES—SEVENTH PaGE. CHOLERA IN ACHEEN ! RUMORED DEATH OF THE ACHEENESE RULER—SEVENTH PaGE. | THE DYNASTIES OF EUROPE! CHANGES IN | THE VARIOUS ROYAL HOU: DURING THE YEAR! THE “MUSICAL KING | COR- RESPONDENTS AND CROWNED HEADS— FourTH Pace. FALLEN CARTAGENA! THE BETRAYAL OF THE INTRANSIGENTES! FEARFUL SCENES.— FIrTH PaGE. HANGING OF A CALIFORNIA MANSLAYER! THE HEAD CUMPLETELY DISSEVE THE CRIME THAT LED TO THE EXECUTION— A CHILD'S SUICIDE—ELEVENTH PAGE. COLONEL McCLURE ACCEPTS THE PHILADEL- PHIA MAYORALTY NOMINATION! HIS SPEECH—THE HAMILTON DEFAULT~ TENTH PAGE. PUBLIC CHRISTIAN WORSHIP! THE LAMENTED LIVINGSTONE’S WORK AND REWARD! THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS! FAITH AND SIGHT, BELIEF AND PRACTICE—ErGuru | PaGE. PROTECTION FOR THE MONSTER OF MISRULE! | WHAT MORTON PROPCES! DON CARLOS | AND HIS CUBAN ADHERENTS—MISS ED- | WARDS’ NEW NOVEL—THIRD PAGE. } CHARITABLE DISBURSEMENTS IN THE CITY! | THE PROPER APPLICATION OF THE VAST | FUND CONTRIBUTED! “BOARDING THE POOR AT THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL”— | Fourta Pace. STARTLING DEFICIENCY IN FIRE FIGHTING AP- PARATUS UPTOWN! THE PERI JF OUR CITIZENS AS EVIDENCED IN THE INER HORKOR—BISMARCK’S WRATH—FourTn PagE, THE COURSE OF THE WALL STREET MARKETS LASt WEEK! SOUTHERN STATE IN- DEBTEDNESS—NINTH PAGE. Canracena, after a heroic resistance, fell by treachery among the besieged. The details given elsewhere should be instructive to pro- fessing revolutionists, because they teach that making war on society is a poor business, yielding no returns but infumy, poverty and death, Proresson Proctor axp tae HeratD.— Elsewhere we publish a letter from Professor Proctor, replying to our criticisms on his theory of evolution. We defer answering the exceptions which he takes to our comments on his theory till a future occasion; but we recog- nize the graceful compliment which he pays to American science, however much we may There is but one verdict which history can pronounce when it comes to survey the finan- cial vicissitudes of this country since the war, the crude plans of its Ministers, the idiotic measures of its legislators, the wily schemes of its political managers or the extravagant and impossible theories preached to the masses, That verdict is, ‘An era of folly, corruption and deliriam."’ To retrench expenditure; to fix the measure of values; to cheapen the cost of that measure— these are probably the postulates into which the greatest practical problems that affect our country to-day would be thrown by men of all parties. There is no question about retrench- ment. Its absolute necessity is universally conceded, except only by those loathsome parasites of the Treasury who fatten upon a prodigal expenditure. Here the ways and means are matters of little consequence. Re- trenchment is welcome, no matter the form in which it comes. Buta single doubt presents itself in this connection, and that is concern- ing the policy of discontinuing to pay off the public debt. To pay off a national debt and to pay off an individual debt involve entirely different con- siderations. Individual credit compared with national credit is low, and the market rate of interest charged for loans of money to indi- viduals is high because the risk is high. And since the rate of net profits of the capital em- ployed by individuals in their deahngs or in- vestments is certain to be less than the rate of interest they have to pay for money, it is usu- ally advantageous for them to pay off their debts as soon as convenient. Not so with nations. Under good management their debts are susceptible of being funded ata rate of interest quite as low as the average net rate of profit on capital—sometimes lower; and in such case there is nothing to be gained by paying them off, whether convenient or not. If money is worth to the taxpayers of this country, on the average, seven per cent per annum, there is obviously no advantage in their paying off a debt of money which they are borrowing at an average rate of five per vent. The interest charge is therefore the only source of concern which a nation should have with reference to its debt. To pay off the debt even when it has the means already amassed wherewith to pay it might, for the | reasons stated, be a losing operation ; to pay it off by instalments, with means wrung from time to time through taxation from the hard hand of toil, is sheer madness. It has, however, been claimed by the sup- porters of the debt-paying policy that to lower the interest charge was the very object they had in view. The payment of a portion of the debt, they argue, will give assurance of our ability and willingness to pay the rest; os though the bondholder—whose interest it is, so long as the bonds draw a high rate of interest, that they shall not be paid off—was not capable | of calculating this ability and willingness as well as the rest of the people! This part pay- ment will result, they continue, in an apprecia tion of the bonds and enable us to fund them at lower rates of interest. Messrs. McCulloch and Boutwell both held these views and tried this policy without success. They did not appear to be aware that the mar- ket rate of interest for money is always sensi- bly affected by the current amount and eco- nomical expenditure of taxation. High taxes and wasteful expenditures, particularly when, as now, they are accompanied by their usual concomitants—corruption, insecurity and a lax administration of justice—will themselves tend to render money dear; for who will lend cheaply to spendthrifts or where justice can- not be enforced with certainty? Therefore to taxa nation heavily, as we are being taxed now, with the object of acquiring a large sur- plus wherewith to puy off a portion of its debt, is precisely the way not to diminish the rate of interest which the remainder of the debt will have to pay. With light taxes, economy and a rigid enforcement of the laws, the nation could go into the market and borrow all the money it needed at three per cent, and with this money it could pay off its existing debt on which it is now paying an average of five per cent; but with the con- tinuance of the present system it can no more readily lessen its interest charge than a man can hoist himself into the air by tugging at his breeches bands. The principle in the two cases is precisely the same. Another very important consideration in connection with the public debt ‘is the unavoidable perturbations in values and com- merce occasioned by the collection of a large sum of federal taxes, its incidental retention, first by officials, next by the national Treas- ury and then by the ‘public depositories,” and its eventual distribution through the dis- bursing departments of the government. In this way no less than four hundred million dollars a year—a sum equal to the entire out- standing greenback currency—is sequestered from public use as money, either to benefit revenue officials or the banks, to lie idly in the Treasury or be sustained in a continual and useless voyage about the country in the locked safes of express companies. At the present moment of time no less than one hundred millions of public money are thus kept from their vitally useful purpose of measuring values and promoting industrial activity. Will it dare be maintained that such a tremendous and constant sequestration of currency has had no influence in upholding local monopo- | lies of capital, promoting panics or disturbing the industrial prosperity of the country? Inti- mately connected with the debt policy is the cur- rency. Any attempt to fix the volume of the latter by taking for a guide the measure of the currency in other countries or in this country at former periods is necessarily delusive. Cur- rency does not fix values nor even the relation between them. It is simply a measure, more or less long, and all the better, when itself rela- tively valuable and useful for other purposes, by which to measure these relations. This can be done quite as well with a single one dollar note, cut into four hundred million pieces, as with four hundred million separate one dollar notes; or, for that matter, with ten thousand millions. To increase the number of these notes will no more cheapen loan- able capital than would cutting up the present issue of notes into small pieces. Its only effect, when accorded the force of law, can be to dishonestly violate existing contracts and enable a debt under- taken at the measure of a long dollar to be differ from his views as to how its scientific Tesults may best be reached, discharged at the measure of a short one. This idea of expanding the currency. at first supported only by a few idle and mis- chievous demagogues, has been adopted by the Pennsylvania Railway Ring in desperate strait to bolster up their gigantic and totter-_ ing monopoly. This monopoly embraces fifteen hundred miles of railways, paid for in obligations hoped to be thus dis- charged, and their agents in Congress have been instructed to urge it upon the attention of that body. Some ignorant workingmen, wholly incapable of understanding the sub- ject, have been dragooned into supporting it with ‘‘resolutions,’’ and attempts have even been made to saddle it upon the Grangers, but, happily, without the slightest success. No apprehensions need exist that this scheme, or any modification of it, will succeed. Even if its advent in the House of Representatives cannot be deferred long enough to enable the people at large to weigh its mischievous tendencies there are probably already votes enough in Congress to defeat it. In the Senate or with the Executive it has no chance whatever. On the other hand, there are not wanting ad- vocates ofa speedy returnto specie payments— some even who would fix the day so shortly as three months hence. But such people evi- dently forget the six thousand millions of capital which the country lost during the war ; the tremendous and wasteful bills of taxation, federal, State and local, which it has footed during the past thirteen years ; the great fires of Chicago, Boston, &.; the loss of credit consequent upon the late panic; and they evi- dently overrate the national ability to imme- diately resume specie payments. There is time enough. It should naturally take longer to trudge up hill than to slide down.’ The do- nothing policy, as they scornfully call it, is precisely that which is always prescribed for sufferers from wounds, disease or overwork. Thousands of people in this couptry—the industrious, the thrifty, the frugal; those upon whom, if upon any one class, the future hopes of the nation most securely rest—are in- debted in part for their farms, their houses or their little stock in trade. Shall this burgher class, this yeomanry of America, be thrown into the bankruptcy courts, bereft, even an- nihilated, so far as public interest in them is concerned, merely because, forsooth, some wealthy capitalist of the cities is impatient to be repaid in gold that which he loaned in speculative, or, if you please, expectative paper? This whole subject must yet descend from the empyrean of theory to the solid ground of fact before it can be disposed of intelligently. True statesmanship flies not with the butter- fly's wings, but treads with the sure footsteps of vertebrate animals. The most bril- liant financial policy which the country can be led to adopt consists of the homeliest of traths:—Pay as you go; spend little, reck little; creep before you walk; make haste slowly. The Hydrographic Office and North Pacific Exploration—A Legislative Outrage. It is to be groatly regretted that the Con- gressional committee charged with retrench- ment has cut down the appropriation for the Hydrographic Office without reason. The reduction proposed by the committee is fifty per cent of the meagre pittance it has heretofore doled out to what is one of the most important arms of the navy and was once the pride of the nation. The committee have also determined to squelch the North Pacific Ocean survey and deep sea sound- ings, and consequently the cartographical labors of the chief hydrographer, which had been undertaken to correct our Pacific charts, now so unsafe as to be unfit guides for the mariner. Henceforth our commerce on all the oceans will have to rely on foreign charts for purposes of navigation if this crushing reduction now contemplated by the commit- tee takes effect. The Portsmouth, we learn, in consequence of the withdrawal of means, has already been detached from the survey, and the whole work of Commander Belknap will have to go by the board. The committee is very astute at retrenching in small matters, while leaving the great and stalwart excrescences in expenditure barely peeled. Apart from any scientific results, the deep-sea exploration of the North Pacific and its submarine telegraphy must go together; and it is proper the navy should see to the completion of the survey. The almost count- less islets and archipelagoes of the great ocean have never yet been charted; indeed, there are thousands which yet remain to be discovered and surveyed. The volcanic nature of its bed, and hence the frequent changes in the sub- merged rocks of the intertropical Pacific, also render frequent and full revision of its car- tography desirable. It is to be earnestly hoped every encourage- ment will be given to this and the other hy- dregraphic work so necessary for the navy and the whole mercantile marine. Out of four thousand charts of foreign seas and ports required by our seamen the Hydrographic Office has, owing to its niggardly support by Congress, been enabled to supply only five hundred. The commerce of the country has no other chart depot to which it may look for reliable and trustworthy guides on the ocean, and must be greatly crippled if the supply from the Washington office is cut off. The proposed reduction of its appropriation vir- tually brings that office to a standstill. Taunper Att Rovnp THe Sxy.—Our tele- gram from London gives some facts that have a threatening look for the liberals, In a given group of elections the conservatives have elected their men in all the districts hitherto held by them save one, and have gained eight boroughs that were represented by liberals in the last Parliament. An enormous majority was given against the liberals at Chatham. It looks as if the country was of opinion that the liberals had gone too far and needed to be brought up suddenly. Wrova.—An unjustifiable step has been taken by @ certain portion of the people of Missouri—described as “five masked and heavily armed men;" but, though heavily armed, they were clearly light characters, and, though masked, they were barefaced rogues. These men, ‘none of them under six feet tall,” stopped a train out of St. Louis, robbed all the passengers, taking about three thou- sand dollars, and rode away ina southerly direction on fine bloaded horses. There can scarcely be two opinions as to the impropriety of such a course. Travel is sufficiently in- convenient without interruptions like thia, and the loss of one’s money in such a way is even worse than investing it in bubble bank- ing houses. Perhaps, however, people could endure the delay and the loss of the money; but the cool depravity of thus riding away in @ southerly direction on fine blooded horses, when the whole compass was open to them and the train was at their command, is an in- Secretary Bouiwell used the following language in his report of December, 1872, namely:—*‘‘As the circulation of a bank is a source of profit, and as the managers are usually disposed to obligo their patrons by loans and accommodations, it can never be wise to allow banks and parties who have pecuniary interest at stake to increase or diminish the volume of currency in the coun- try at their pleasure; nor do I find in the condition of things a law or rule on which we can safely rely. Upon these views I form the conclusion that the circulation of the banks should be fixed and limited, and that the power to change the volume of paper in cir- culation within limits established by law should ‘remain’ in the Treasury Department.”’ By what right the Secretary made use of the word ‘“remain’’ in the above connection is a question that has been discussed in the finan- cial column of the Hxnratp, and it is to be hoped that it will be determined by Congress at an early day. The ideas of Mr. Boutwell with reference to “money” and ‘‘curreacy’’ appear to have been as much muddled as are some of the wiseacres of the present Congress, who pro- pose to substitute legal tenders for the entire volume of national bank notes, and seem to think the exchange would involve no inflation. But it would, and for the following reason:— The only ‘‘money’’ known in the United States is tho legal tender note of the govern- ment. That is the ‘‘unit’’ which every one is compelled to accept in the payment of a debt. A national bank note is not ‘‘money” any more than would be the check of Richard Roe or John Doe, drawn on a national bank. It is simply a promise to pay by a national bank, on demand, in legal money, and, being secured by a deposit of government bonds, circulates more generally as the representa- tive of ‘“‘money’’ than do individual checks, which are equally its representative, though more localized, yet still perform the duties of money in the system of commercial exchanges at the rate of at least ten thousand to one of both legal tenders and bank notes combined. In other words, the legal tender is made by statute our gold and silver, and the national bank notes bear to them the same relation that the old State bank notes bore to gold. It follows, therefore, that an increase in the amount of legal tenders is quite a different affair from a similar increase of national bank | notes. The one is an actual addition to the amount of ‘‘money” in the country, and per- mits an expansion by the banks in the propor- tion of four toone. The other is an expan- sion of mere bank credit, which the banks must keep within safe bounds or else suffer the penalty of misfortune. No one will deny the proposition that if the country were receiving twenty-five millions of dollars every three months in gold in payment of our products it would be not merely a sign of prosperity, but a basis for expansion and the creation of new enterprises ; but will any one pretend that a similar amount of ‘‘money,” such as has recently gone out, which is sim- ply the production of a press and an evidence of debt, is either a sign of prosperity or a warrant for fresh undertakings? If so, let him find congenial company in Washington. The Secretary said in his report, and the Senator has repeated it, that “the power should remain in the department,” &c.; that “the department’’ should make money elastic for the purpose of moving the crops. Let us see for a moment what a fearful thing an elastic currency may be when left to those who are ‘disposed to oblige their patrons ;” or, rather, what it would be under a free bank- ing law, hedged around with provisions for strict redemption. At certain seasons of the year the cotton, wool, pork, grain and other merchants require a large amount of currency to send South and West for the purchase of their respective productions. It may be ata time when money is stringent in the great centres. The merchant offers to his bank his ninety day note, secured by collateral and duly approved, for which he receives the notes or bills of the institution, agreeing to distribute them in the South and West. The bank is, of course, happy to make the accommodation on these terms, and the merchant accordingly scatters its bills. By the time they have passed through the various channels of trade and returned to the issuing bank for redemption the very product purchased is also at hand and the proceeds of the same are ready to re- tire the notes. They have performed their function, and, being no longer required by the uses of commerce, come back to the fountain, head to remain in vault until again demanded. There has been no undue or dangerous ex- pansion—no unsettling of values. The yard- stick was thirty-six inches long before, and it so remained during the issue and after it had been retired. Not-even a dollar of ‘“‘money”’ was used—nothing but its representative. Such an issue cannot become excessive, for the moment that it does so it will be pressed for payment. Can the Treasury Department devise any plan by which it can do the same work—even admitting the propriety of govern- mental interference with the laws of trade— and do no damage? Has the ex-Secretary ever heard that de- posits are a source of profitto a bank, and that when o bank is in the hands of bad or dishonest managers these deposits are a source of danger toa community? If so, are we to hear a proposal in the Senate that banks shall not receive deposits, but that “that power shall remain in the department?” Was the ex-Secretary honest in giving this reason why “the power shall remain in the department,”’ or was it a cunning way of meeting the charge, sure to be made, that he had violated the law in the previous October by the overissue of several millions of legal tenders—up to which time, it is safe to say, no man outside of the department dreamed of any such power—or do we find the real reason further on in the same report in a confession of his inability to con- duct the department? The language is as fol- lows :—‘‘The business of the depertment can- not be transacted properly if limit is fixed and the power to raise the circulation above or reduce it below that limit is denied.” All this from the successor of Mr, McCulloch, who had not only been abie to fund a floating debt | Solar spots and Solar Weather-Pre- of some thousands of millions of dollars with- out the aid of a “sliding scale,” but had also reduced the demand ‘promises to pay’? from over four hundred and thirty million dollars down to three hundred and fifty-six million dollars. We leave the ex-Secretary to the tender charities of the United States Senate, where, perhaps, he may learn some lessons in finance rot taught at the “department.” Indignant Virtue. 3 New York, Jan. 29, 1874. To THE Eprror OF THE HERALD Don’t you think the ratiroad companies exag- gerate when they state that one-third of their earnings is appropriated by their employés ? I do, and here are my reasons. For the want of better employment I was obliged to accept the unthank- ful position of “conductor” on the Eighth Avenue Railroad last October, the remuneration for which was $2 per day of about fifteen hours, Now, I con- sidered, as does every one else who accepts such positions, that the above pay was not sufficient, wanted to keep the job for the winter, and on that account took trom the company waat I thought and was told was very little—viz., two fares every half trip or $1 40 per day, of which the forty cents went to the driver, thus bringing my wages up to $3, which in ail justice is small pay enough for what a man endures conducting a Car. At the end of my ninth week’s employment I was lala off for being “short,” although 1 only took as above stated, and turned in $22 50 as my datly re- ceipt for the nine wecks, I am positively aware of another case in which the conductor only took $3 50 per week, considering himself entitled to as much wages 43 the driver; yet he was laid off, his returns being avout $20 per day for twelve weeks. Now, I and others too, ' suppose, would like to know how the company from the above examplea can say that one-third of their earnings is made away with? The fact is the stockholders find it necessary to hide the true amount of their earn- ings Irom lg W ose’ and exaggerating the thelt of employés offers a plausible way in which to do it, With many thanks, EX-CONDUCTOR EIGHTH AVENUE RAILROAD We are always willing to uphold the cause of the outraged and oppressed. , ‘Ex-Con- ductor’’ is an injured man, and we publish his letter in the hope that the railroad com- pany by which he was employed will do him justice, and restore so considerate and honest an employé to the position of which he has been cruelly and arbitrarily deprived. Such @ conscientious individual deserves better treatment than to be “laid off” for being “short.” Poor Lovistana!—Mr. Hebert writes to Senator Bayard ‘‘as a democrat, a native and a citizen of Louisiana,’ deprecating Congres- sional interference in the politics of that State and especially opposing the proposition for a new election. He may be right in his opposi- tion to the election, but he sustains his view absurdly, and puts himself in the position of the judge whose decision was not disputed till he gave his reasons for it. Mr. Hebert admits that a great outrage was done in the ‘judicial proceedings” that seated the present Governor, but he still objects to ‘‘convulsing the State with a new election.’’ Kellogg and company would, perhaps, ask nothing better than to preserve the State from such convul- sions for twenty or thirty years. Mr. Hebert is also of opinion that for Congress to order an election would establish a precedent for constant meddling of the same sort ; .against the precedent for an Executive installation of a fraudulent government he has nothing to say. Republican magnates have assured the country that the best men in Louisiana were against a new election, and this man is doubt- less one of that class. They think the less help they have from the republican lawmakers the better they will be off. Tue AswanTEEs have come down from their lofty perch, as the cable informs us this morn- ing, and they sigh for peace. The mi- trailleuses and artillery of Sir Garnet Wolse- ley have had the effect of showing the blacks that war is not the most desirable institution in the world, and the recognition of this sur- prising fact has induced King Koffee to send a dozen plenipotentiaries into the British camp in order that the English may be in- formed of this complete revolution in the ideas of their sovereign. But the General told the embassy that he would only treat with Koffee at Coomassie. This would indi- cate ample spoil, indemnity and permanent occupation. Bap Mepicryz.—General Sherman hes a notion that it is very ‘‘bad medicine’ to feed and coddle the Indians who make desert places of already settled districts in the Western country, and the common sense of the nation is with him. We suppose, however, there is not the slightest hope that the Indians will ever get the scalp of Governor Davis, of Texas, and if they should we can scarcely hope that this fact would put an end to a policy that de- pends upon official folly. There will be men of very moderate capacity left even when Davis is gone, so that the system of nursing the Indians and feeding them on sweetmeats and philanthropy is not likely to perish for want of fools to keep it up. Meanwhile the policy suggested by General Sherman, of giv- ing the Indians altogether to the War Depart- ment, is the true solution. All our Indian troubles come from cheating the savages, and the army is the only means we have of dealing with them honestly. In Manytenone Tom Hughes, known as the author of ‘‘Tom Brown’s School Days’’ and “Tom Brown at Oxford,” has delivered a long address in favor of co-operative associations of workingmen, his sentiments being heartily endorsed by Professor Goldwin Smith, of Cor- nell University. The workingman is a hobby which Mr. Hughes has ridden almost to his own destructjon. Asa politician Mr. Hughes has been a great failure. ‘The workingmen placed him in Parliament; but we have yet to learn that he has in any substantial sense advanced their interests, Professor Goldwin Smith, although somewhat of a fussy indi- vidual, is a man of a higher type. Mr. Hughes has need of all the assistance his friend can render him. Tue Mississtrri's Mouts is to be opened, if the Western members of Congress will vote ‘Aye’ on a proposition to take one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the Treasury and expend the sum ona scheme entitled ‘cheap transportation.” We see no objection to the preservation of public works in our harbors and along our «iver banks, as the Representatives propose, if itcan be demonstrated that the objects in | view are national; but we do see a very strong reason why the public money should not be expended on schemes which are intended for sectional aggrandizement alone. ‘The West- ern member is very set about one subject—he does not wish to have his produce moved via the Atlantic seaboard; and so determined is he that he would prefer even a route via Baffin’s Bay or Behring Straits. We would, therefore, warn Congressmen in general that they should be slow to advocate measures which clearly mean the destruction of the commercial prosperity of «yt great maritime cities, dictions. The great problem of sun-spot and temper- ature cycles has been recently reopened by the publication of the laborious researches of the German physicist Koppen. The question whether the increased frequency of solar spota in any given year affects the heat and mag- netic condition of the earth has never slum- bered since the celebrated investigation of the elder Herschel. This matchless astronomer formed the opinion that when the sun’s face is most thickly spotted it radiates unusually large quantities of heat; and he reasonably concluded that if this was true the price of corn in England would show it. Inquiry proved the correctness of his reasoning, for he tound corn had been uniformly cheaper in the years of maximum sun-spottedness, The inference drawn by Herschel is sus tained by the new inquiries of Dr. Koppen. Selecting the Central Physical Observatory at St. Petersburg, with its vast mass of meteoro- logical records, as the place for prosecuting his work, this scientist collates the registers of nearly thirty distinct regions and geographical districts, covering the last hundred years (from 1750 to 1870). On comparison of the thermal results with the sun-spot wave a strik- ing correspondence at once appears up to the year 1854, In the tropics the maximum of heat falls about one year be- fore the spot minimum; and in the extra tropical zones about a year atter the minimum. It seems probable from actual observation that the sun’s surface temperature is at ite highest one or two years before the minimum of its spottedness, It would also appear thal the spots (taking them to be solid bodies) take so long to melt in the glowing solar fires that their minimum temperature occurs after their heat supply has been mostly radiated on the terrestrial surface and raised its tempera ture to the‘maximum. The investigation fur ther shows that from 1815 to 1854 all the peculiarities and disturbances in the sun-spot curve are reflected in the thermometric curve, or, in a word, the trough of the one wave and the crest of the other are symmetrical, and vice versa. The author suggests that farther inquiry over a more protracted period of time will show several independent periodical ac- tions which are directly concerned in pro- ducing the climatic changes and weather cycles of our own planet. But, what is of more practical and of present value, he finds that the greatest anomalies of the earth’s heat occur for a considerable time in a series which progresses by multiples of nine, and in such a manner that an interval of twenty-seven years alternates with one o! eighteen years. From 1740 to 1857 the only exception is the isolated cold year of 1794, sa famous os that in which Pichegru’s whole army encamped and wintered in Holland. If the rule deduced be correct, and ite validity between 1740 and 1857 Se not a mere coincidence, then the next intensely cold winter for southwestern Europe is that of 1875-76. No doubt in many cases of prediction we find illustrated the aphorism of Lord Bacop, “Men mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss.” Itisa truism universally to be remembered, We must be careful how wa generalize facts before we have a sufficient number at our disposal. And yet, it must not be overlooked that the accumulated results of many such laborious and extensive inquiries as Dr. Koppen’s, prosecuted by independent physicists, with a single exception (that of M. Gautier, of Geneva), confirm the old view of Sir William Herschel. If, further researches conclusively demon- strate it meteorology would soon be able to * furnish approximate forecasts of exceptionally cold and hot years, stormy and serene seasons. The value and utility of such long predictions may be guessed at from knowing, as we do, the immense advantages of our present one and two days’ forecasts. The subject ia worthy of a vigorous and widely extended in- vestigation, and we may hope the data fur- nished by the Signal Office will finally avail for its solution. ‘Tue Urs anp Downs or Evnopzan Roraure are treated on in another part of the Heratp by one of our correspondents writing from Frankfort-on-the-Main. In two columns he gives a view of all the political systems of Europe, describing the rise and fall of dynas- ties, the striking events of the year, telling of the end of many dowagers—by that impartial fate which, with equal pace, Knocks at the palace and the cottage gate, It is one of those letters having permanent value, and which, as the critic would observe, “should always be at hand for convenient reference.’’ It has been said by a philosopher that the best history of the world could be written within a column’s space. However that may be, it is an auspicious sign that we are coming to the age of terseness, when men can read “solid facts’’ without being com- pelled to wade through wearisome rubbish yclept essay or disquisition. Comrcaniries In Concress.—Somebody with a keen sense of the ridiculous might write a very funny book on the humors of Congress. The record of the Committees on Claims alone would furnish many eccentricities. There is droll humor in Mr. Sargent’s propo- sition to reimburse Miss Anthony forthe costa of her recent lawsuit, and in the bill of a corn doctor for removing forty-six thousand dol- lars’ worth of bunions from the feet of our brave soldiers during the war. Then the vir. tuous indignation of Senators Carpenter and Conkling because of a discovery that station- ery had been issued to some impecunious Bohemians! It is true the Bohemians had no right to steal the pens, ink and paper; but the indignation of grave Senators over this petty thett while the time of the Senate might hava been spent in exposing immense jobs has ita comic as well as its serious side, Let us have a book on comicalities in Congress by all means. Tue AMENITIES OF JOURNALISM are scarcely preserved in Cincinnati. The newspaper edi- tors have been calling each other hard'namea for months, and some of them are now com. plaining that nobody will bring a libel suit. Tae Cararenine or Human Lure.—Elsewhere we publish an article showing the pitiable weakness of our Fire Department above Fifty- ninth street. We wish to call especial atten. tion to this subject, because every citizen oj New York is concerned in feeling that he it secure from the effects of the sudden fira which at any moment are liable ta break ou