The New York Herald Newspaper, February 3, 1874, Page 6

o NEW YORK HERALD (ren te Rea BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. reat JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. ae fHE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the gear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. ‘All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Herat. Letters and packages should be properly sealed, Rejected communications will not be re- turned. i and 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. Volume XXXIX AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. — GRAND OPERA HOUSE, z 4 Fiehth avenue and Twenty-third street.—HUMPTY DUMPTY AUROAD, at 7250, M.z clases wt 1045 P. M. Mr. G. 1. Fox. FIPTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-third street and Broadway.—FOLLINE, at 8 P. .; closes at LOW PLM. Mr. arkins, Miss Ada Dyas. GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteouth street.—DIE JUURNALISIEN, at 8 P. M.; closes at P.M. THEATRE COMIQUE, No. SM Broadway.—-COLLEEN BAWN, and VARTETY ENTERTAINMENT, a5 P. M.; closes af 10:4 P.M. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Aixth avenue and Twenty-third street—ELENE, at 7:45 2M. ; closes at 10:30 P.M. Mrs. J.B. Booth. WALLA EATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street.—-MONEY, at 8 P. M.; clows at ll, M. Mr. Lester Wallack, Miss Jeffreys Wis, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston aad Bleecker streets. — VAUDEVILLE, NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT and | Holman Opera Troupe, at 5 P. M.; closes at 11 P. M. BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hali, Brooklyn.—LORD DUNDREARY, at 8P. M.; closes at 145 P.M. Mr. E. A. Sothern. MRS. CONWAY'S ‘Washington Broa RET, at 8 P.M. ; closes OOKLYN THEATR: ADY AUDLEY'S RE, PASSIM. Begins at | BOW Bowery.—THE SIAM WINS; Miss Lara Alberta, Br. My closes at iP.) METROPOLITAN THEATRE, 585 Broadway —VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at M. ; closes at 10:3) P.M. Broadway, 2 GOOD FOR NOTHING; E RIGHT PLACE, Begins at 8 Vokes Family, WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtieth street—PUSS IN at z P.M; closes at 4:30 P.M. TRUMPS, at Cloves at si P.M. noors, | 8 P.M; TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 21 Bowerv.—VARiETY ENTERTAINMENT, at 3 P. WL: closes at U1 P.M. BRYs Twenty-third sire ELLA IN BLA’ MM; closes at 10 P, BAIN HALL, Great Jones street aud Latayette placé.—THE PIL- GRIM, at 8 P.M. ; closes at 10 P.M. COLOSSEUM, | roadway. corner of Thirty-fMtth street.—PARTS BY | TGHT, at 1 P. closes at 5P. M.; same at7 | Closes at 10 P.M. { TRIPLE SHEET. Sew York, Tuesday, February 3, THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. THE ENGLISH ELECTIONS! GAINS OF THE CON- SERVATIVES AND HOME RULERS! GLAD- STONE AND DISRAELL ON THE SITUA- TION—SEVENTH PAGE. SERIOUS ILLNESS OF BARON ‘MAYER ‘A. DE ROTHSCHILD—FRENCH PARTY TRIUMPHS IN ALSACE-THE PRUSSIAN PRESS ON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND CHURCH IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM—Seventy Pace. OUR NAVAL DRILL! ORDERS OF THE ADMI- RAL! THE FLEET DIVIDED INTU THREE DIVISIONS FOR PRACTICE—SEVENTH PAG CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS! THE LOUISI- ANA MUDDLE! SENATOK MORTON IN DE- FENCE OF THE PRESIDENT! INQUIRY AS TO AFFAIRS iN THE DISTRICT OF COLUM- | may always be anticipated when the liberties | premacy of a party. It is the present purpose | Party.” Out of the Louisiana case comes the inevita- ble moral that the worst result of the war was the legislation it led to for the reconstruction of the insurrectionary States. Cities that were burned will be rebuilt; harbors that were obstructed will be cleared out again; indus- try, activity and the natural wealth of the country will remedy all the material devasta- tion; even the places of the fallen will be filled again; but the mischievous laws that were made to guarantee a party supremacy when the war was over, and which recon- structed not the rebel States, but the federal constitution; these have impressed the po- litical system, upon the integrity of which the freedom of the people depended, with changes from which it seems unlikely it will ever re-, cover, By one of the provisions of this legislation of reconstruction State elections are made subject to federal law, and subject in certain contingencies to the revision of the federal authorities ; and in the case of Louisiana we see exactly what this may be made to mean by the interpretation of the corrupt and unscru- pulous creatures who in these times are appointed to some federal offices. In Novem- ber, 1872, immediately after the election was over, our reports from Louisiana represented accurately the condition there; the State was carried for the McEnery party by an over- whelming majority, and there was good order and tranquillity everywhere. But the McEnery party was allied with the coalition or Greeley movement, and Kellogg was the regular repub- lican candidate, which little circumstance was sufficient to assure to Kellogg the sympathy and to McEnery the hostility of the federal authorities, who by law had the power to determine whether or no the elec- tion had been a fair one. Conse- quently the republicans of the regular stripe saw that though they were beaten at the polls all hope was not lost. They saw, in- deed, that the true power, the veritable sovereignty of the State, was not with the peo- ple who voted, but with the tribunal that was competent legally to give effect to the vote or to withhold it ; so they made their appeal to that tribunal, and not unsuccessfully. Affi- davits were the great instrumentality. They appear, from the evidence referred to by Sena- tor Carpenter, to have been forged by the thousand, all declaring that negro voters had been driven from the polls. There were dis- crepancies between the negro vote of this and previous elections, due probably to the spon- taneous movement of the negroes to States where they hoped for greater prosperity. But these inferences from the vote and the affidavits were held sufficient to justify a determination in accordance with the foregone conclusion of the federal authorities in the State, and the results of the election were not merely set aside, but reversed, the beaten party being in- stalled in office and the important positions in the State government being distributed in ac- | cordance with a bargain made before the de- cision was given. In this history we see the natural operation of the laws that have superseded the original provisions of the constitution. Perhaps the | fifteenth amendment and its ‘appropriate legislation,” honestly administered, might not thus have overshot the object of those who procured its acceptance; but fraudulent ad- | ministration must be assumed as one of the | possibilities of the case, and as constantly im- { minent; and, this assumed, it must become obvions to all that no State of the Union is to-day safe from such assaults of political vil- lany as have prostrated the liberties of the | people of Louisiana. But the doings of corrupt judges, the forged affidavits, forced inferences, improper use of the national soldiery—all these may fail of their intended object, because upon the claim of a member for admission the whole | series of events may come up for review in | Congress. There it can scarcely be possible | that the representatives of all the States can assent to an outrage on the liberties of any State which may be equally committed against any other. On this point also the Louisiana case instructive, for the result fore- shadowed in the Senate is typical of what is of a State are in the balance against the su- BIA—FoURTH PAGE. ~ EPISCUPAL MINISTERIAL VIEWS OF POPULAR | AMUSEMENTS—CONVENTION OF THE BNAI | BERITH—SUGGESTIONS BY THE PRESI- | DENT OF THE UNITED STATES LAW: As- SOCIATION ON THE BANKRUPT LAW~ | THE RAPID TRANSIT QUESTION—REAL | ESTATE—ELEVENTH PAGE. THE HAMILTON DEFALCATIC A STRICT IN- VESTIGATION TO BE INAU RATED! At TION OF THE GRAND JURY—Founrn Pace, | SKATERS AT THE CENTRAL PARK! A JOLLY DAY ON THE ICE—FivTH PaGE. WOMAN AND THE WHISKEY QUESTION IN | } | to smother the Louisiana case by the pressure of a party vote, and the simple reason for this is that though the whole business is so bad as to threaten scandal and ruin to the party he disclosures that a remedy would pro- voke are even a greater, because a more certain and more immediate danger. The | scandal likely to ensue from the application of a remedy for the Louisiana trouble appears to have relation to the diversion of four mil- lions of dollars, and to the implication of dis- | tinguished politicians who are supposed to | have shared in the misappropriated money. | It is a case therefore of danger to the republi- can party on one hand, by the exposure of a peculiarly revolting piece of corruption; and | of danger to the same party on the other hand, | OHIO! WORK OF THE PRAYING BANDS— | OUR WASHINGTON BUDGET—THE POLITI- | CAL CAMPAIGN IN CONNECTICUT—Tuigp | Pas. THE NEW YORK LEGISLATY! SHIPPING IN- TELLIGENCE—Tisxtu Pace. H NEW AUSTRALAS! 2 | ROUTE THRC RECEPTION OF THE NEW CATHOLIC BISHOP AT SYNDEY! A CHINESE RIOT— Firta Pace. POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS IN ¢ TRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA ! L | DEVELOPMENTS—THE CANDIDATES oR KING OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—Pirtu | PAGE. BUSINESS IN THE COURTS—THE STRIKING CAP, CIGAR, UMBRELLA AND PARASOL MAKERS—EIcurTu Page. & DULL DAY IN WALL STREET! MON ABUNDANT! GOLD STRONG—THE MAR- KETS—THE BROOKLYN COMMON COUN- CIL—Nintn Page. Tue Maror Has Dectep to offer a reward Of one thousand dollars for the discovery of the murderer or murderers of Nicholas and Mary Ryan. Now will the detectives go to work? Comprnotter Garey, the Supervisors say, | bas men on pay at five dollars an hour to | examine claims that are sometimes less in amount than one hundred dollars. Some- times, therefore, it would be cheaper to pay the claims than to pay for their examination, nd the poor people have to pay for both. If ® man were examining at five dollars an hour Green's claims to hold his present office he | by the demonstration that it is the enemy of freedom, and that under cover of protecting E | negro voters it has destroyed, for the first time in the history of this country, the political vitality of a State; that it has displaced candi- Naw YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1874.—TRIPLE SHEET. The Louisiana Case-The Subject To | which it is now proposed, out of respect for Be Dropped “for the Sake of the | public opinion, to impeach the judge who was guilty of it. But this delinquent judge cannot comply. Even he is not the lowest point in the com- bination that has secured Louisiana to the men who now rule it ; there is a pivot lower still. The salvation of the republican party turns on the consent of another than Durell. Durell himself, it seems, would likely give way; but a henchman appointed by him to a Place that, legitimately or otherwise, has proved one of enormous profit, will not con- sent to Durell’s retirement unless he may name Durell’s successor. Considerations of his own safety, perhaps, are his motive, and his power to exact this condition is derived from his capacity and disposition to make un- pleasant disclosures. Here is a fine party; this is the condition of that great political force which rallied and organized the power that put down the re- bellion. And all the facts of this condition are known to the President, and were known to him when lately he called this Louisiana trouble a monstrosity. His impulse then v4 come out in open hostility to such games of fraud and chicanery as the party name is made to cover, was creditable to his honesty and his political perceptions ; but his asso- ciates have succeeded in throwing dust in his | eyes, and he halts—for a short time only, we trust. As the strong man and the hero Her- cules was doomed by destiny to serve at the orders of a mean and pitiful master, so the man who forced the rebellion to its great sur- render seems to be at the bidding of paltry and villanous tricksters in his political maneuvres; but we doubt if he is the man to permanently accept the position, and we hope much for the country from the party rupture that his resolution must eventually produce. The English Elections. The returns, so faras they are now before us, afford conclusive proof that the present election contest in England is more than ordinarily keen. During the course of last week to Saturday there were forty-eight Par- liamentary elections; of the members re- tarned the liberals claim twenty and the conservatives twenty-eight. This, it must be admitted, is a large conservative gain, and it is not to be disputed that if the same proportion is maintained in the re- turns from the other five hundred and odd constituencies yet to be heard from Mr. Glad- stone will find it necessary, when Parliament meets in March, to give place to his great rival and take his seat on the opposition benches. It is too soon, however, to predict the final result with anything like confidence. There are-very few returns as yet from Scot- land, and the only news from Ireland bearing on the contest is that many Home Rulers, not- withstanding the shortness of the time al- lowed them to prepare, have announced them- selves as candidates, and that they have a fair prospect of success. As yet none of the members of the Cabinet have been defeated. The Attorney General, Mr. Henry James, has been returned without opposition from Taun- ton. Mr. Lowe runs unopposed for the Lon- don University. The conservative gains, so far, seem to indicate a great reaction among the English constituencies, and tho tories will no doubt be encouraged to make great efforts as well as great sacrifices in order to win. The very latest returns trom the polls report the observance of about the same proportion of conservative gains, Tae Snow Srorm which descended upon this city yesterday swept over a great extent of country. The storm came upon Richmond, Va., on Sunday night, hour not stated. It | | entered Washington at daylight, at ten A. M. it had reached Philadelphia, and at two P. M. it crossed the Hudson and began to whiten Manhattan Island, in its progress northeast- wardly, apparently against a strong northeast wind. We estimate its speed from Richmond to New York at twenty-five miles an hour— that is, the advance northward of the main body of the storm. The scattering fire of the skirmish line commenced here before the main column had entered Philadelphia ; and all this immense mass of clouds will hardly be exhausted this side of Nova Scotia. Indeed, as it frequently happens with our heavy northeasterly storms, the full force of this one may not be developed till it passes into Nova Scotia. Don Cantos aND THE CuBans.—We hope the report that it is the purpose of Don Carlos in case he becomes the King of Spain to sell the island of Cuba is true, because it is the only sensible proposition which any Spaniard has made for years in regard to the Spanish possessions in the Antilles. But we fear it is not true. As Mrs. Micawber used to say in {her own and her husband's extremity, “I never will desert Mr. Micawber,” s0 all “(good Spaniards’’ declare that Spain never will yield the possession of Cuba, and they say it with an unction that Mrs. Micawber, with all her devotion, could not equal. That Don Carlos should be so much wiser than his generation seems impossible. Dovsrrot Hoxesty.—The old Bureau of Elections has a claim against the city for $10,752 for unpaid salaries. The bill was | not ordered paid by the old Board of Estimate | dates against whom fraudulent practices were | ang A | charged but not proved, and has established | yopndiates. Judge Robinson decides that the | in power persons having no other claim than | | an estimate that they had received a greater new Board cannot be compelled to pay by mandamus, and says that the claimants ought number of votes than their opponents. Evi- | to pave got their money out of the old Board. | dently this latter is the greater crime, but the other is the especial offence perhaps of those | quiry. The mere hints that slip cut of the seeret history of the case give a vivid glimpse of the This may be law, but if the claim is a just . ; one it certainly does not seem to be justice or | who have influence enough to suppress in- | ponesty. The city should not resort to a trick to cheat any creditor out of a just claim. ‘Tue Ick Cror.—The temperature all along condition of the republican party. Pressure, | the Hudson for the last two days gives we are told, is put upon the judge who gave | promise of a fair ice crop, while “down East,”” | the midnight order to induce him to resign | with the thermometer at some places yesterday | and save his party the injury the investiga- | morning marking forty-six degrees below zero, tion into his actions will cause, Let the peo- | they will surely have ice enough to supply all ple picture to themselves the state of a party | deficiencies from New York to New Orleans, that wishes in the first place to be saved from popular indignation by concealment of its Oxty New Yous Crry.—The Chicago Inter- history, and that in the next place deems its | Ocean, which wants the currency inflated to safety may be secured by the act of a judge whose practices have exposed him to possible impeachment, merely for the appearance of public decency, at the bands of associates no better than himself. Let it be well remem- bered that the whole validity of this Louis- iana government which the President has the amount of a thousand million dollars, declares that the merchants, bankers and brokers of this city, who have protested against the issue of more paper money, ‘‘rep- resent only New York city.’’ The Inter-Ocean favors a banking system which enables the national bank monopolists to drive the cur- pportionment, and now the new Board | Rapid Transitt—Why Should the Logis- lature Hesitate? If our representatives at Albany would legislate for the city of New York in the same business-like manner in which they usually conduct their own affairs we should not be long without rapid transit. But, unfortu- nately, jobbery interferes to prevent honest legislation, and the schemes of lobbyists are considered in preference to the true interests ot the people. It is because Senators and Assemblymen believe that there is a mint of money in rapid transit in New York, and de- sire to secure a share of the spoils, directly or indirectly, for themselves, that we are to-day without steam railways through the city. The question as to the necessity of rapid com- munication is not an open one. It is settled by the established facts within the reach of every legislator. Before the city had stretched out so far from the business centre our increase in population was large. Prior to 1850 the average increase for each five years was at the ratio of twenty- eight per cent. Between 1850 and 1860 the population increased nearly fifty-eight per cent, while in the following decade the in- crease was only a little over thirteen per cent, If our former ratio of increase had been kept up we should to-day have a population of nearly one million and a half, exclusive of the newly annexed towns of Westchester county. On the other hand, the ratio in Brooklyn and the towns in New Jersey lying within twenty- five miles of New York largely increased be- tween 1860 and 1870, showing that the busi- ness people of New York were driven out of the city and compelled to seek homes across the rivers. This was caused by the impossibility of getting homes in New York that could be reached in reasonable time with- out living in crowded tenement houses and unhealthy tocalities, Again, the sanitary statistics show that, with a naturally healthy city, we swell our bills of mortality by overcrowding the popu- lation. The reports of commissions from time to time appointed to consider the impor- tant subject of our sanitary condition have agreed that this is the principal cause of dis- ease and death. Some of the wards of New York are more densely packed than any por- tions of any other city in the world. In some localities we have a population of two hundred and forty thousand to the square mile, while the most densely populated district in London has but one hundred and seventy-six thousand to the square mile. These statistics carry with them the proof that we are de- moralizing the people and breeding crime as well as disease through our neglect of those accommodations which would scatter our population and enable families to seek healthful homes at reasonable rents in the upper part of the city. Hence we say that the question of the necessity of rapid transit is not an open one, and that our legis- lators can require no argument or investiga- tion to convince them of the propriety of passing a law to authorize the construction of steam railways in New York. Even the question whether such roads would at once pay a profit to their construct- ors, while one with which the Legislature has nothing to do, is settled affirmatively by facts within the reach of every representative. ‘The statistics of the city horse-car lines prove that the present travel would give to a rapid transit road two hundred million passen- gers in the year. At a low rate of fare this would pay a handsome profit on the cost of a viaduct road, and few people will doubt that the travel would be nearer four hundred million than half that amount. Why, then, does the Legislature hesitate to give the city the necessary authority to build the road, unless from a desire to make a prof- itable job out of some individual scheme for securing the franchise? The increase of the city is checked, the value of property is at a standstill, our population is moving steadily off into another county or into another State, the public health and public morals are suffer- ing, and the people are put to serious annoy- ance, inconvenience and loss for the want of rapid transit. What but corrupt motives can induce the Legislature to withhold the boon from the city? There can surely be no ob- jection on principle to the proposition to give the people of New York the right to decide this matter fox themselves. What we ask is, that the Legislature shall appoint, or authorize the Governor to appoint, a thor- oughly unexceptionable rapid transit commis- sion, composed of citizens in whose integrity, energy and capacity the whole community will have confidence, and that to this commis- sion shall be assigned the duty of deciding upon the plans for rapid transit and of build- ing the road or roads. If there should be any doubt as to the desire of the people to do the work themselves provision might be made for a vote upon the law at the next election. This should certainly satisfy all scruples. Wili the present Legislature give us such a law and close the door of legislation in the face of all lobby schemes and fraudulent propositions, or will it be content to share the bad reputation that attaches to so many of its predecessors ? Tue Story or THe Runninc Down of the British ship Ellen Constance by the Spanish iron-clad ram Vittoria, near Cartagena, would be scarcely credible but for the well known cruelty and recklessness of the Spaniards, It is difficult to believe that the collision was not intentional, especially in view of the brutal refusal of the Spanish officer and crew to at- tempt the rescue of three English sailors who were left on the ship, or to allow the comrades of the victims who had escaped to the ram to make an effort to save them. The nineteen survivors, including the Captain, were held as prisoners, but the guns of an English man-of- war speedily set this part of the matter to rights, and procured their immediate transfer to a British vessel—the Topaze. It is probable that the outrage will not be suffered to pass unnoticed by the British government, Busteep.—Articles of impeachment were presented in the House yesterday against this first carpet-bagger. The first article, as to his citizenship, and, indeed, the whole bill, is as much an impeachment of Mr. Lincoln, who appointed him, as of Busteed himself. No harm will be done to justice, we fancy, if the impeachment succeeds. Cuanten Tivxens.—All the Legislatures seem to find charter making for the cities within their jurisdiction pleasant, and some, make a great deal of money before he | recognized, and for which the vapid Senator | rency circulation from the West, making it | perhaps, find it profitable, Trenton is now one quite satisfactory, Morton feebly argues, stands upon an act for | available onlv in Now York city, ghartering Jersey City. The Approaching New Hampshire Connecticut Elections. Our first State election for 1874 will be that of New Hampshire, on Tuesday, the 10th of March, and the next will be that of Con- necticut, on Monday, the 6th of April. Both these States are so closely divided between the republicans and the democrats that the slightest disturbance to the disadvantage of the republicans gives the victory in a State contest to the other side. Thus in New Hampshire, in 1871, upon the quarrel between Senator Sumner and the administration on the St. Domingo annexation question, a consider- able portion of the old dyed-in-the-wool abolitionists sided with Sumner and assisted in turning over the election to the democrats, as a rebuke to General Grant. But in 1872, St. Domingo being out of the way, the repub- licans, stirred to activity and unity by the Presidential agitation, recovered the State, and they retained it in 1873, Thus for the present canvass in New Hampshire the republicans hold the inside track, although from the elec- tions of last October and November the demo- crats are hopeful of a change even in New Hampshire which will turn the scale in their favor. On the other hand, the republicans, in having a chosen farmer and a granger (McCutchins) as their candidate for Governor, expect to “head off” the democrats in the game for this new political element. The result is doubtfal. In Connecticut the democrats, dispossessed in 1871 and beaten again in 1872, recovered the State in 1873, in consequence of divisions and disaffections, which weakened the repub- licans and strengthened their adversaries. The same disturbing causes, it is said, still exist in the republican camp, and hence the confidence of the democrats in the results of the approaching contest. They hold their State Convention to-day for the nomination of their candidate for Governor and the pro- clamation of their platform. As, however, a United States Senator, in the place of Buck- ingham, republican, will be involved in the coming Connecticut election of a Legislature, the republicans will leave no stone unturned to bring their rank and file together in order to carry the State. The result, as in New Hampshire, is doubtful ; but, as the republi- cans are aware of the inevitable moral effect of these opening elections of 1874, if they lose them, particularly after the damaging results to their party of the closing elections of 1873, we look fora sharp struggle and a full vote this time in New Hampshire and in Connec- ticut. No Senrment.—Hamilton, of Jersey, ran away with eighty-three thousand dollars, but did not run away with an actress. He is only @ mercenary rogue. Baron Revrer ann tHe Saan.—tThe little difficulty betweer. Baron Reuter and the Shah of Persia begins to assume a somewhat serious character. It has been well known for some time that the Shah had withdrawn his conces- sion to Baron Reuter—a concession which gave the Baron a monopoly of the construc- tion of certain public works in Persia. A special despatch from Berlin to the London Post stated thatthe Shah had made an ex- planation to the foreign Powers, giving his reasons for the annulment of the concession. During the course of his European tour the Shah says he discovered that the undertaking would not receive the necessary financial sup- port. The Baron, before commencing the proposed works, asked for six months’ grace. ‘This the Shah refused, and hence the annul- ment of the concession. Such is the Shah’s version of the story. Baron Reuter’s version is very different. He denies in toto that he asked the six months’ grace before commenc- ing the work. The work, he says, was actu- ally commenced before the stipulated time, and is now being proceeded with. The one statement flatly contradicts the other. It is a nice little affair as it stands. A Prayina Campatcn.—The scientific gen- tleman in England who proposed a prayer- gauge, and the gathering of statistical infor- mation to ascertain the effect of prayer, may read with profit the account in our columns of how the women in Ohio are praying the rum- sellers out of house and home and custom, PorvnaR AmuUsEMENTs.—In a discussion between ministers printed elsewhere will be found diverse views on this subject of public interest. The most sensible of the parsons was mainly troubled where we should draw the line, seeing no essential difference between amusements that are permitted and those that are forbidden ; but a good old Puritan did not see ‘how good could come from an indulgence in any form of admitted vice and sin.’’ In these loose days this good old doctrine, which leads directly to the roasting of sinners, has great comfort in it, AcHEEN.—The Sultan Siri, of Acheen, is re- ported to have died of the cholera, just as the Dutch war of conquest terminated in defeat for his people. If this be so the Sultan has had a melancholy fate. He was a monarch of fine spirit and great determination, deserving well of his Mahometan subjects, whose in- terests he protected with more valor than dis- cretion, If the terrible scourge has really | broken out in the island of Sumatra, there is danger that the Dutch troops may carry the contagion to European waters. Tue Dovntx-Heapep Assistant ALDERMEN are after the city railroads, to discover whether they are indebted to the city. They also ask the Park Commissioners whether they intend to finish the City Hall Park fountain or leave it in its present dilapidated condition, “an eyesore to the city.” To many Aldermen a water fountain is naturally an eyesore, whether finished or unfinished. FRanceE AND Genmany.—Versailles has been blessed with ‘a profound sensation,’’ which it has found in the North German Gazette, a paper that seems to be becoming nothing if not sen- sational. The Gazette urges restrictions on the ultramontane press and the ultramontane preachers in France; and if the Germans say the word the reigning Duke will have to apply the restrictions—notwithstanding the sen- sation, Tue Ertscora, Cuvrox at Avrona, Itt, is in a fever of excitement over the Cummins movement. The congregation is divided in opinion. One ‘straight out” Christian called Bishop Cummins ‘a scoundrel and rascal.” Of course, this was in 9 pious sense, and uttered in a spirit of Christian love and for- VOD.CHE, | | Protessor Proctor’s Letter to the Heralds The interesting letter of Professor Proctor, already published in the Henin, has doubt- less been read by many, and we venture to offer a word or two touching his views of solar science. Referring to what ho calla the Hunaxy's well written article on his theory of the solar system, he combats its reasoning with several strong statements, which will full somewhat heavily upon the intelligent Amori- can ear. We had merely thrown out in the ar- ticle to which he alludes the statement of a few facts well established by modern as tronomy which bring up questions seemingly unanswerable, if we accept his hypothesis. We say hypothesis; for, until this last utter- ance of the distinguished popular science lec: turer, we had not supposed he claimed that his theory ia a demonstration. ‘There are periods,’’ says Protessor Tyndall, ‘when the judgment ought to remain in suspense, the data on which a decision might be based being absent. I walked down Regent street some time ago with a man of great gifts and acquirements, who said to me, ‘You surely must have a theory of the universe.’ ‘I have not even a theory of magnetism,’ was my reply.” While we confess our inability to see how Professor Tyndall has consistently followed his own rule, as here laid down, it is apparent that Professor Proctor has disclaimed it, “Taking our earth,’ Professor Proctor writes, “‘we know that millions of years have passed since she began to be peopled, and a much longer time since she existed as an intensely hot orb,” and with unrestrained confidence he speaka of his theory as demonstrating the evolution of the solar system. When pressed by the physical facts which involve sucha hypothesis—for we must still regard it as such—and asked to explain how the meteor streams could have formed the solar system when their tenuousness is so marked, he expands his theory a little further, and tells us that the process of meteoric exhaus- tion had far progressed when the globes were formed. It is difficult to deal with a theorizer when, the moment his theory is challenged, he supports it by bringing forward another. Professor Proctor assumes that our orb was once intensely hot—an old assumption, which, however popularly received, has never been proved, nor has it to-day, among the most profound physicists, any decided advo- cate, while it is rejected by many; but when the bold thinker declares that ‘‘ We know that millions of years have passed away since the earth began to be peopled’ we may be pardoned for demanding something like evidence. It is now but little over a century since the great traveller Le Gentil imparted an impulse to the study of nebulm by his observations of the constella- tions of Andromeda and Orion. Toward the close of the last century Sir William Herschel, working with his colossal forty foot telescope, completed in 1787, pushed forward the study, and he was led to the belief of the nebular theory of star formation through the con- densation of cosmical dust, Newton had considered it possible that vapors from the sun, the stars and the tails of comets, might blend with our terrestrial atmosphere, and after Herschel’s views were adopted astronomers inclined more or less to push out boldly, with the assumption that they were correct. Still they all regarded these views, as the great elaborator had done, as mere hypotheses, and, to the present hour, we believe, with the exception of Professor Proctor, no astronomer has ever dared to call them demonstrations or to assert “‘We know them to be true.” We all know that since these great investi- gators ceased their labors the spectroscope has added its wonderful revelations of the star worlds, and that it enables us to analyze the star dust and cometary matter almost as well as if we had it in the laboratory. If, as Professor Proctor claims, the solar system, the earth, of course, included, is made up of this star dust, we should expect that speo- trum snalysis would establish an identity of matter between the earth and the comets. Far trom it. Since the spectrum ana- lytic method has been applied the comet of 1864, 1866, 1867, 1868, and Encke’s comet of 1871, have been subjected to this crucial test. The result shows no affinity between the cometary matter and our earth matter. The great as- tronomers, Huggins, Donati, Wolt and Secchi, observed with the spectroscope to test this very point. They failed in every in- stance to detect any affinity. Even when Hug- gins and Secchi independently analyzed Brodsen’s bright comet, the brightest yet tried with the spectroscope, they tell us that they found no coincidence with the spectral lines of any terrestrial substance. This is a crush- ing fact for Professor Proctor’s view; for if our globe is an agglomeration of cometary and cosmocal dust, the analysis would un- questionably prove identity. The chips of the block ought surely to be of the same material as the block itself. Professor Proctor closes his letter with an- assertion that the Baconian method has never achieved any noteworthy success. This will be startling indeed to an age which has always believed it owed all its great scientific advances to the inductive method. Macaulay tells us that while in the last quar- ter of the seventeenth century Eng- land’s lighter literature was o national nuisance, Bacon effected in science a revolution that will to the end of time be reckoned among the highest achievements of the human intellect. So thought and said Humboldt, and Herschel, and Faraday, and the whole band of modern discoverers that have been guided to their great discoveries by Bacon’s philosophy. No one doubts or denies that the deductive process has its uses. But it is the height of ingrati- tude for the modern scientist to disparage that to which he owes everything he has won, There can be no reason for such disparage- ment, unless to get rid of wholesome restraint on unbridled speculation ond reinaugurate that reignsof idle hypothesis which, till Bacon's time, had justly made science a by- word, synonymous with astrology and sooth- saying. From Constanrinorte we have a despatch announcing that a fire had occurred in the palace of the Grand Vizier. The building has suffered severely and a large amount of valu- able property has been destroyed. Fires in Constantinople are as common as fires in our Western prairies, and they are sometimes as destructive, In Constantinople fires might actually prove @ vublia benefit. if the anthori-