The New York Herald Newspaper, February 16, 1874, Page 3

THR ENGLISH ELECTIONS. Why Gladstone Precipitated a Great Constitutional Crisis, omceaarent THE PEOPLE MOVING FOR RADICAL CHANGES Foreign Diplomacy, Home Rale and Economic Reform. DISRAELI’S POSITION. Is It an Election or a Moral Force Revolution ? Aristocrats Anxious for the Secu- rity of Their Order. Lonpon, Jan, 30, 1874, ‘The sndden dissolution of vne British Parliament Bas plunged the United Kingdom into the turmoil ef @ general election, Circulars and addresses, Posters blue, yellow and red have began to shower ever the land; the telegraphic wires have pulled home by the ears, as It were, flocks of peripatetic members of parliament who were wintering Placidly in italy and France, and of many of whom One might say in Gray’s pathetic lines :— Alas! unconscious of their doom, The little victims pla: Xo thought have they ot ills to come, Nor care beyond to-lay. From Lerwick, in the Shetlands, to Berwick upon Tweed, and from Kerwick to the Scilly Isles ; from the plains of Ulster to the wilds of Con- naught; in pocket boroughs and teeming cities; in tory shires and Irish strongholds, there 1s a scampering as of herds of Bashan bulls let loose, and @ thunderous bellowing of, “Vote for us!’ “Vote for us!’? Again one must break into rhyme and say :— From Manchester, where tories are few and far between, From corniand shires, where radicals have never yet been seen; From sturdy North and Cockney South, from Centre, East and West, Up, up they come, with tongues awag, each man pre- Dared to stuinp his be For “Church and Queen” or “People.” But why this unexpected call for “stump” and WHAT ARE THD CAUSES OF TRE DISSOLUTION ? In his address to the electors of Greenwich—one Of the dreariest, most labored manifestoes ever penned—Premier Gladstone makes a clean breast, @nd says that the Cabinet was no longer strong enough to carry on the affairs of the country. The triumphant liberal majority of 110 votes returned at the elections of 1863 had dwindled down to something under sixty, and of these aixty not ten could be fully depended upon. The ballot, which 1t had been thought would swell the liberal ranks, bas had just the contrary effect, and one borough after another slipped out of the grasp of the Re- form Club. Bath, Gloucester, Dover and Bhaites- bury were lost; Greenwich, long steadfast in the faith, admitted an enemy to sit beside the Premier, and then Stroud deserted, with arms and bag- gage. This was the crowning bitterness. Stroud had returned Lord John Russell in the days of the first Reform bill; Stroud had of late years elected Mr. Winterbotham one of the Under Secretaries of State, and that Stroud, should after this transfer its allegiance to the “‘Biues,’’ was proof enough that the “tory reac- tion,” so long denied by the Daily News, Daily Telegraph and Spectator, could be denied no longer. Then there was that Ashantee war, flip- antly undertaken and grossiy bungled. Had ‘inisters met the old Parliament they would have een roughly called to task and -have been obged to furnish explanations most aisagreeabie to them, seeing that war is an operation ol which they know no more than cats do of gunpowder. Again, there was the settlement of the Russians in Khiva, contrary to the promises made by Count Schouval- hoff; the famine in Bengal, the increase of the home rule movement and of ultramontane pre- tentions in Ireland, and, lastly, there was the ques- tion of Mr. Gladstone’s seat at Greenwich, which ® Parliamentary committee would have been pretty certain to declare vacated by the Premier’s assumption of the Chancellorship of the Ex- chequer, . By dissolving Parliament tne Ministers avoided the pain{ul necessity of being interrogated and vexed on any of the above topics. If they be beaten they will resign before the new Parliament meets; if victorious then they will be enabled to override opposition criticisms, a8 they did in 1869 | and 1870, when vbey bad an obedient majority at their backs, Mr. Gladstone says that THE LIBERALS ARE THE TRUE UPHOLDERS OF THE THRONE, and he dwells on the tact that forty years of libe- tal administration have done more to consolidate royalty than forty years of torytsm ever did. This is undeniably true, but Mr. Gladstone omits to point Out the true reason of this phenomenon. When the conservatives are in opposition they do fot fling stones at the Queen and constitution; and the liberals, who at heart love titles, stars, ribbons and embroidered clothing as much as their rivals, are allowed to take a surfeit of these blessings in full ease and security, But when the Uberals are out of office how different is the con- dition of affairs! Then is the time to hear fervent | declamations against a “bloated aristocracy,” ® pampered episcopacy, ruinous armaments, extravagant departments and downtrodden working classes. Then is the time when the ex- penses of a royal court are most keenly examined, @nd when the democratic institutions of America are extolled. The Daily Telegraph grows hoity- toity about the Crown, pokes fun at court chamberlains and asks why the Duke of Cambridge (s Commander-in-Chief, The Daily News wakes up to combative radicalism, opens its columns to for- eign refugees, prints letters from Mr. Goldwin Smith and seasons its excited leaders with aphor- isms from Stuart Mill and Comte. As for the Spectator, its sneers at the House of Lords and the Bench of Bishops flow from pens fu!) of all the re- publican irony which Young Oxiord can distil. Then, too, comes the time for REVOLUTIONARY MEETINGS IN HYDE PARK. ? Deputations of workingmen wait upon Mr. Glad- + stone and receive his earnest assurance that | mechanics have a right to sit in Parliament; Mr. | Lowe recounts his Australian experiences to en- | thusiastic audiences of iconoclasts; Mr. Bright | pounds away at superannuated shams, dignities | | and privileges; Mr. Stansfeld champions women's Tights, and minor liberals by the score spring up and jostle one another on the great road of prog- tess, Then, again, nears the time when private bills trop up in fall force. Hot and fractious M. P.’s, | who, when the liberals are in office, are coughed | down or “counted out’? whenever they try | to air their schemes at the Wednesday sittings, | Now find themselves made much of. The liberal | “whips” take care to “keep a house” for them, In order that their schemes shall be fully debated, and the liberal leaders compliment tnem on their patri- otic zeal for starting questions which nobody wants to settle, Ah! it is truly a balmy ecason for men | Of short purses and long tongues; for every man ‘who basa plan for reforming anything or smash- ing anybody becomes a personage, and may dream himself on the high way to Cabinet honors, while | peers, on the other hand, are made to feel small and superfuous, One may always know whether conservatives or liberals are in Downing street by the treatment which these unhappy peers receive at the hands of the press and also by the tone in which social scandals are discussed, Under Mr. Gladstone there is not an average liberal paper that would print a line agatnst an individual mem- ber of the Upper House; under Mr. Disraeli let a Aory peer come before the world in any unpleasant Right, political or domestic, and the virtuous outcry against his profligacy or imbecility, as the case may be, is such as wonld giadden a conciave of saints, Great landowners like the Dukes of Devonshire, Bedford and Sutherland and the Marquesses of Sw estminster and Lansdowne do notcall themselvea | | to the bad in the new Parliament. | licensed victuallers, Nonconformists and Roman ———— Mverate fr nothing. Whey well know that thetr rienes and the pretegatives of their order are only safe under 4 jiberal administration. It has been truly said that if the whigs had been in opposition fat the time of’the Irish Reform bill riots there would have been & revolution in England, for the younger sous of whig peers would have put them- selves at the head of the mob and have led them till they themselves were carried off their legs by the torrent, Mr. Gladstone is, therelore, quite Tight when he describes the liberals as being the firmest upholders of the throne. They are more than its upholders—they are ita saviors; for each time they return to Office they find the throne splintered, soiled ama tottering irom the stones and mud which their faithful followers have been flinging at it, and tie Queen naturally heaves a glad sign of relief when she sees shem come, for their arrival simply means “No more stones for the present.” Mr. Gladstone, then, is anxious for a iittle rest, bug before vacating Downing street he has taken the precantion of jaunehing TWO PARTHIAN ARROWS AT THE CONSERVATIVES, to wit:—A promise to awolish the income tax and ap andertaking tO support household franchise in the counties, These two measures, if resisted by the torids, will serve as useful texts for radical declamations against Claas ascendancy during the period of Mr. Disraeli’s rule. 1f, nowever, the tories accept them, then the former innovation will involve the conségyative Chancellor o1 the Exchequer in diffeulties with bis finances. He will be unable toshow big surpiuses in his budgets, and will be obliged, perhaps, to cast about him for fresh taxes, whereupon the liberals will clamor, \ke one man, that the tories understand nothing about managing the public purse, and they will complacently adapt to themselves Tennyson’s lines :— ‘Tis only we who love the people w: And loathe to see them overtaned” sa As to the household suffrage in counties, should the tories support that, what pretext more fruitful Jor long drawn sighs over the unscrupulousness of Mr. Disraeli, ever ready to sured away bis con- victions for the sake of retaining place? We have scarcely done yet with the storm of liberal in- dignation wsroused when Mr. Disraeli dighed the whigs with his Reform bill of 1867, and @ new surrender on his part would be pointed at as a final symptom of degradation in the man, So Mr. Glaastone has virtually contrived to make things pleasant for his successors; and possibly some of the keener liberal office-boiders, who are not 60 anxious as their chief to take a little rest, may be thinking that Mr. Gladstone’s two measures may yet turn the scale in his favor @t the balloting. But this is not likely. THE COUNTRY 18 TIRED OF MR. GLADSTONE. Never personatly popuiar (for the qualities at- tributed to him five years ago were such as com- mand respect rather than affection), the liberal Jeader has managed to rulo Britain in @ manner profoundly repngnant to the majority of English- men. He has humiliated England in foreign eyes, and this to 80 unmistakable an extent that even the most partisan ra@fcal is forced to own that Britain no longer holds the infuence in the world which she wielded under Palmerston. Russia has torn up the Black Sea treaty in her face; the United States (let this be sald without offence to American readers, for we are here dis- secting Englisn opinion), has forced her to submit to @ fine which, if proposed to the universul suffrage of the United Kingdom, would have been rejected; and the new born Em- pire of Germany has spoken once or twice to Lord Granville in a tone which no nation durst adopt in former times when speaking to a British Minister, ‘Then, in the Franco-German war every one now feels that the Gladstone Cabinet let slip an oppor- tunity of restoring Hngland to the proud position she held afier Waterloo. When Napoleon disturbed the peace of Europe by declaring war against Ger- many on the most flimsy vf pretexts, it was the duty of England to take part against the aggres- sor. Had she done this she would have shared the triumph of the Germans and would even have ben- efited France, for she might have declined consent- ing to the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, and the Germans, thinking they owed half their victories to England, would'abt have insisted on the point. This is what Englisomen are thinking about Mr. Gladstone’s foreign policy—a policy at once timid 4nd auti-humanitarian in its final results; but they are not more satisfied with his policy in home matters. The concessions made to the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland; the scandalous ap- pointments of Mr. Harvey to the rectory of Ewelme and of Sir J. Collier to the Lord Chief Justiceship in defiance of the law; the overriding of the will of Parliament by royal warrant; the frivolous ex- periments of Mr. Lowe in finance; the vexatious | legislation of Mr. Bruce for she regulating of the | Liquor traffic, and the invariable discourtesy shown by the Cabinet in its relations with corporate or scientific bodies—all these things would have cov- ered a tory administration with ineffaceadie oblo- quy, and they have made Mr. Gladstone and his | colleagues contemptinle. Then sense and candor will not readily forgive them, either, for tne mapy acts of petty jobbery they have perpetrated to recompense party services, Liberals who are 80 energetic in denouncing THE INCAPACITY OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS should, one would think, be more sedulous than their opponents to appoint to that House none but men of proved ability, and yet of the numerous peers which Mr. Gladstone has created (he has created more by himself than had been created dur- ing the reigns of George IV., William IV. and of Vic- toria before him) the majority are bumdrum bankers and merchants and the rest all gentie- men undistinguished by any public service of con- | sequence, Then, again, in the award of minor honors Mr. Gladstone has so invariably preferred | partisanship to merit that, with the single excep- tion of Mr. Amplett, just appointed to a puisne jJuagesnip, not one conservative bas obtained any favor at his hands. In a word, the Gladstone Cabi- net has stamped itself witha brand of meanness and ungenerous pettifoggery. It is a Cabinet of which Englishmen feel ashamed, and the ballot will afford them an opportunity of condemning it more emphatically than might have been the case under the old system of voting. For THIS 8 THE FIRST GENERAL ELECTION HELD BY ‘ BALLOT, and the ballot has altered the entire aspect of English parties. Under the old system of open voting party discipline was kept up without dim- culty, for men were in a manner responsivle to their neighbors for the votes they gave, and they were averse from changing sides save for very cogent reasons, But nowadays in: towns where parties are pretty evenly balanced the scale must be turned by those voters who are not particularly attached to one side or the other, but who oscil- Yate from liberal to tory, according to the caprices or grudges of the hour, Now the caprices are. as | we have shown, all against the liberals, and so | @re the grudges. It is a significant fact that | altnough the liberals have lost nineteen seats in | Dallot elections they have not been able to con- quer a single seat which they did not possess be- fore. Should this state of things prevail at tne general election they would probably lose all the seats where they only triumphed by narrow ma- jorities in 1868, and find.themseives some 100 votes But it must be remembered there is always @ difference between the temper of a constituency during a partial elec- tion and its purpose at @ general election, when the government of the country is at stake; and it may be that some of the interests now arrayed against the liberals—namely, the home rulers, Catholics—may conclude secret treaties with the party wirepuilers before the day of battle, although this is almost hoping against probabilities, WHAT I8 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS? Americans may here ask, “What does tne House of Commons represent?” and to give the answer to that questron would puzzle the Court of Queen’s Bench. It represents different people and different things in different places, The members for Man- chester are generally supposed to represent the Town Clerk, County members often represent the jocal” clergy, who represent a few Predominant maiden ladies of noble smi- lies. Most noblemen of good landed prop- erty, who reside on their estates, send one or two members to the House of Commons, nd one constituency not far from London ts un- Garatood to be in the gilt of the local medical man. Not tong ago # gentleman of European reputation ; determined to stand for this place on the death of @ former member, and he called in the usual way upon ® Parliamentary agent for advice. ‘On,” said the Parliamentary agent, ‘1 will give you a letter to Dr, —, and he will agk you down to his house. He ia a very pleasant feliow, and if you are & fair judge of port wine he will return you.” THE POWER OF THE ARI@TOCRACY. The fact is that the strong thinkers, who hold the threads of public opinion, are beginning to despise Parliament and all belonging to it. They Weuld rather write and speak as they please than Vote as they do not please. The whole system of Parliamentary procedure in England has become childish and ridiculous. The House of Commons, a8 at present constituted, is Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli, occupied and about to be occupied for one while in talking nonsense upon the topics which happen to be uppermost, and in changing seats with each other. How does all this rhodo- montade and seat changing affect the people or their leaders? It does not affect them at all. All the old tricks of public life are played out, and nobody 18 any longer deceived by them. Such a ferce light of publicity beats upon office that those who have arrived at public honors appear in their true proportions, They have been seen climbing up every step of the way—sometimes tumbling down, sometimes clinging on to bad eminences by the skin of their teeth—and pitiabdle sanres, enough, poor souls! Then they are always the same set. Mr. Gladstone is, indeed, a middie- class man; so is Mr. Disraeli. Mr. Gl&dstone comes of a family of Liverpool tradesmen, MR. DISRARLI is a brilliant man of letters, who used to be pleas- | antly called “the Jew boy,” and who had no ances- try Or connections at the English Court, But the men who surround both of them are dukes, earls and barons, who could and would render all gov- | ernment impossible, under the existing system, unless they had the lion’s share of it, Now and then a@ commoner, with a supple back and warranted quite tame, like Mr. Ward Hunt, Mr. Stansfeld and Mr. Bruce, is allowed to wriggle in among them; but the essence of the British government 18 aristocratic. So is the very soul of the people. They are formed by their education and institutions to be a people of slaves and servants, and their innermost hearts are steeped in respect for rent and title. Thus a few days ago a uewspaper editor went to a shop to buy a new hat. The hatter himself was not at home, It is the custom of the English nobility to ride in Hyde Park before breakiast, and the hatter was aping them by riding there also. One of his shopmen, how- ever, was ready to serve a customer, oken to with proper groffness; and the editor, who had a bundle of rere with him, asked this shopman if he would like to have one. The shopman chose the jorning Post, & journal which is filled with accounts of noble weddings, christenings and fashionable entertainments, He did not select the Faia 4 News, or the Telegraph, which are written for him. A paper setting forth the wants and. interests of his own class evidently bad no interest for this shopman. He wanted to read aboat lords and ladies; as children prefer the ‘Arabian Nights” to “Lindley Murray’s Grammar.” He was the commonest type of shopman. But will, or may say, the American public, ‘Are there no new opinions and interests asserting themselves in unmistakable language and about to make themselves heard?” Possibly not yet. Itistrue that there is @ sort of misery and discontent ip bet Pe 80 deep, that it has not been before imagined or dreamed of in the history of the world. PEOPLE STILL DIE IN LONOON OF STARVATION. There are hundreds of wretches in this rich city who have no homes, and spend their lives in wan- dering about dependent upon chance for @ meal; but these ople will have no representative in the next Parliament, They never have had any champion in the political lists, They are not voters. ‘They do not influence any statesman, reputation or prospects. Their cases, when they are ‘found drowned” or otherwise finally dis- posed of, supply indifferently gooa padding lor the philosophical weeklies; but they are of no other use to any one. THE PEERS ALWAYS IN POWER. As for political combinations, of course, there will be euough of them. Mr. Disraeli will bid for tive votes of all who have deserted his predecessor. The radicals have found out that liberal govern- ment, 80 far as Mr. Gladstone goes in it, is a con- temptible sham. He has three Lords at the oreien Office—Lords Granville, Tenterden and Enfield—having committed a breach of the consti- tution to put them there. He has another Lord at the Colonial OMce—Lord Kimberley. A duke— the Duke of Argyil—governs India in London, and @ banker peer—Lord Marlborough—is supreme at Calcutta, A marquis manages the affairs of Ireland, and he is superintended by an eari—Lord Spencer. Mr. Gladstone has taken two of the highest ofices, in the State, and two salaries for himself. He has distributed the best things in his gift to his sons. But what could the stanchest tory do more than thist If Mr. Disraeli comes in soon, he must imitate this liberal premier, and four dukes will be seen in one inet With a mob of expec- tant earls Ontside, in waiting for admission. All the great offices in the diplomatic service are in the possession of born diplomatists. All the best Colonial governorships are given to born rulers. When, therefore, Mr. Disraeli says to Messrs. Bradlaugh, Odger and Holyoake, as Mr. Gladstone said before him, “Come hjther, my little friends, and support me, Iam the right man for you.” Messrs. Bradlangh, Holyoake and Odver, will say to him, “Go to those vain men. Let us first know what we shall have for our sap- port?” and Mr. Disraeli will answer, because he must answer, “Nothing; no, absolutely nothing—unless words will content them. Any ritish Minister moreover can make this answer quite safely. Messrs. Odger, Brad- laugh and Holyoake have no hold on the public } feeling. Nor has a far higher class of reformers, such as Sir W. Dilke, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Auber- son Herbert. Indeed, the last named gentieman | has quitted public life, for a time, in sheer hope- | lessness, The great mass of the English people never quite forgive those who take up their cause. ‘They look upon Messrs. Odger, Bradlaugh and | Holyoake as people who ‘‘are not in society ;” and they consider the noble Dilke and the noble Her- bert as traitors to their order, or crack-brained young men whose wits can only be set to rights yy time and experience. As for Mr. Harrison, he is merely @ scholar and a man of letters. Who | need trouble himself about what such a man writes | or thinks ? No one who has not a landed eatate is roperly entitled to an opinion in England. Lora erby, indeed, with six hundred thousand a year, Harrison? Pooh! Pooh! ‘THE TICHBORNE CASE, “Nevertheless,” may observe the intelligent American, ‘that Tichborne case appears one likely enough to give work to a new Ministry. It | has an awkward resemblance to that diamond | necklace business which upset the French Mon- | archy.” So it has. Noreasouing can possibly be , truer; and yet nothing will come ot it. THE ENGLISH PRESS is under a terrible sort of censorship. It has muz- zied itself. All the principal newspapers are in the hands of very rich men, Mr. Walter, the proprietor of the 7imes, has long been booked for a peerage. Mr. Levy, of the Daily Telegraph, is to have a buronetcy. ‘The Daily News is under the control of the liberal party. The Standard and the Morning Post are pledged to approve all exist- ing things. ‘The weekly press is nowhere. The Pall Mali Gazetie ia hostile to the claimant. ‘there- jore, although it 18 certain that, whether be is Tichborne or Orton, he has been unfairly tried; that government has put iorth all its strength to take uniair advantage; that it has produced wit- esses Who have perjured themselves; that it has bribed others not only with money but with public offices, Still it has done so, and might do so again without serious fear of unpleasant consequences. HOME RULE. To be sure, there is the “home rule movement” in Ireland, and it has been agreeably noticed that Mr. Buttis the head of it. What then? It is, say the English lobby politicians, an Irish toy; and there is an end of it. If Mr, Butt becomes trou- biesome ae deal with him as a! dealt with O'Connell. English royalty is in no danger from him. The fighting spirit of Irishmen has gone to America. If it pleases Mr. Butt to go about talk- ing of home rule he is welcome to do so, up toa certain point; after that is there not the omni- present policeman? AN ELECTION AND NOT A REVOLUTION. | To sum up, the next election is merely an elec- tion and nothing more. It is not a revolution, and Will not, as yet, even point the way to one. ‘there is @ great heap of combustible materials scattered about in England; but they are not collected together. ‘They will explode like squibs, and not like powder a oie and the torches are not lit which will set light to them. The predominant tone of mind among the best class of Englishmen {9 @ mourniul indifferent- ism. They see that there is much which is terribly wrong; but they do not hope much trom.any prob- able change. Universal suffrage, popular govern- ment has been tried elsewhere, How has it ended? In Austria reforms have turned out a jugubrious farce; in France and in Spain a feariul tragedy. Nobody would be content to see Mr. Odger or Mr. Bradlaugh President of a British Republic. Sir W. Dilke is not a very wise gentleman, and these are the aposties of the coming race. England has | gone backwards rather than forwards of late ears, and no government since the time of Mr. itt has been so powerful as that of Mr. Glad- stone, ll the old constituttonal checks upon power, which were framed by men_ like Somers and Halifax, have been broken down; the liberty of the supject is no longer | safe, and law has become a luxury only meant for the use of therich. Yet there has been no public demonstration of late years like the Gordon riots, or the Cato stieet conspiracy, or the riots of 1810 and 1829, or the Wilkes business, in which the city | 1 London took part; there has been nothing even | like the anti-corn jaw agitation or the Chartist de- monstration. Mr. Beales, the hero of Hyde Park, is a County Court Judge; Mr. Bright is an out-and- out government man; Lord Russell ts latd on the shell; Mr. Vernon Harcourt has just accepted office. Where, tlien, are the leaders of a great reform? There aré none. There are—or there were very lately—according to of returns, 380,000 Fenians in the United States, and they esd get whigs and not a little at one time. They are quiet now. All is quiet everywhere in the British domin- ions, save among those pestilent nigger: Asha tee, who persist in disturbing the universal har- mony of things English, Perhaps it is te calm WhiGh precedes a atarm, | { has a janded right to think as he pleases; but Mr. | | | ASHANTEE. The British Advance March Tow- ards Coomassie. Sir Garnet Wolseley’s Headquarters “Turnout” and His Appearance When Mounted, KOFFE’S ENVOYS BROUGHT INTO CAMP, Inkling ot the Peace Di- Plomacy. PRANSOU, ON THE PRAH, Jan. 4, 1874, Sir Garnet Wolseley, the young chief of the Anglo-Asbantee expedition, arriving bere on the morning of the 2d inst., was well received. He was mounted in solitary state on the top of a light buggy. which had been @rawn all the way from Cape Coast Castile by six strong Fantees, assisted bow and then over the deeper sloughs by the po- lice bodyguard. Uolone] Wood, Majors Russell and Hume were in the great square of the headquarters ready to receive their chief, and when the news passed through camp that the General had arrived the. enthusiasm of the native troops manifested itself in a hoarse murmur and deep hum of joy. REVIEW OF THE WORKS, Sir Garnet, having reported himself well, in ex- cellent health and spirits, to the numerous queries propounded to him, expressed himself very well satisfied with the vast clearing, the construction of the spacious huts, the ample accommodation provided for the white troops, and with the prospective sanitary condition of the camp onthe Pran, The officers of his staif corroborated toa man the descriptions | have ab ready given to you of the country between the sea and the Prah, and gave the palm for general ais- comfort, muddy cataclysms, desponding sloughs, dreary, depressive, melancholic appearance to that part which lies between Sutah and Yan Coomassie Assin. ENVOYS BROUGHT IN. Early the same morning Lieutenant Grant, in charge of the pickets on the other side of the Prab, was informed by his people that there were some strange people, probanly Ashantees, skulking be- hind trees at some distance beyond. When Lieu- tenant Grant arrived upon the scene he found both Pickets and strangers gesticulating violently tow- ards each other, ducking their heads and dodg- ing bebind any defensive tree that offered itself, each evidently desirous to im- press the other party with the feelings of amity which possessed them; but, in the words of @ Britisn officer who criticised the perform- ance, “both parties were in @ beastly funk.” The Lieutenant, however, contrived to caim the ges- ticulative pantomime, and to induce the small party of Ashantees to come forward, when he was told by @ small, stontly formed Ashantee, wearing 8 large square goldplated badge on his breast, that he was the town crier of the Asnantee capital, come upon an errana from the King to the Eng- lish chief; that his companions, at least six of them, were sent with him to see that he did his duty. “But who are the others? There are eleven of you Altogether,” demanded the Lieutenant, “Four of them,” replied the messenger, ‘tare Ashantees, who overtook us on the road from Amongqnatiah’s camp.” “Well, what do they want here if they are not of your party?” “They came to find out where the white men are.” Fr white men, 300 West Indiani “Ob, indeed! they are scouts, then,” said the Lieutenant. “1 they will accompany me they shall see where the white men are.” “Could you not let them return to their chief, who is waiting to near from them?” demanded the messenger. “No, Lcould not do sucha thing. They came to look for the white men. The white men are on the otner side of the Prah; but they must come and see them for themselves, that they may be better able to report about the white-men.” The eleven were accordingly brought across the Prah, and, a8 the General had arrived, were con- ducted to him; but as he was too fatigued to see them just then they were taken toa hut guarded | by adetachment of the Second West India regi- ment. THE ROYAL MESSAGR. The gold badged ambassador had brought a let- der to Sir Garmet Wolseley trom the Ashantee King, the contents of which, when read, created no small astonishment among the staff. ‘The King of Ashantee, in his customary, ambigu- ous way, which may be seen by a glance at his for- mer letters published in the Blue Book, had written to say that he was grieved to hear from his mes- sengers the losses his troops had incarred from an attack made on them at Fasua by the white people. ‘The attack, he said, was perfectly unjustifiable. His young men were returning to their own coun- try from a visit which one of his chiefs had made to the King of Denkerah, when, after the Denkerah King’s death—which had occurred during the visit— his men were set upon them by the white people, who slew many hundreds. He had always loved the white people, had ever been friendlily disposed toward | them; had always wished to cultivate nearer and amicable relations with them; but this wanton at- tack on bis people in the forest of Fasua he could not understand, Would the English chief conde- scend to let him know what this hostility meant, and send his messenger, who was in his conficence, back to him in safety ? THE EFFECT. The feelings of all who heara the contents of this strange letter may be better imagined than described, Either the Ashantee King 18 a pro- found diplomatist or he is a poor tool of the Ashan- tee chieis, who have made war upon the Fantee protectorate without informing him of the enter- prise in which they have been engaged since Feb- ruary, last year. Either he is an unmitigated rogue or @ fool, who is not.aware of the valuable time he is losing by writing such puerile letters, when he Still might save his kingdom, and perhaps his crown and life, by asking on what terms can peace be secured at this late hour. A LESSON IN GUNNERY, This morning the Ashantee ambassadors had the gratification of witnessing the mechanical powers of the Gatling gun. The gun was constructed by Sir William Armstrong, and cost the sum of £245. it weighs, without the caisson, nearly 400 pounds, The caisson 18 asquare chest mounted on wheels and contains but four drums, each drum contain- ing 240 cartridges. By tne time thé gun was wheeled behind Sir Garnet's house, with its omi- nous muzzle pointing up a snaggy bosomed reach of the Prah, it was apparent that the Gatling's harsh thunder was to have a larger audience than had been antictpated. Every oMfcer to whom its wild cracking, ripping notes were unknown had gathered about the Ashantee ambassadors, in the rear of the monstér, and away rearward was a vaat concourse of Fantee laborers, who had crowded every available spot to witness the eifect of the Gatling upon the unconscious Prah. Captain Rait and Lieutenant Knox, of the artil- lery, Who superintended the arrangement, were evidently not quite perfect in the mechanism of the Gatling, for, though the preliminaries were be- gun ina caim way, the Gatling came near being pronounced @ failure by some of the strong con- servative gentlemen, One gentieman had already given his verdict and said that he never saw such | “a rotten arrangement; that wherever he saw it tried, nO matter where, there was always sure to be some stoppage; that so many men as were en- gaged on the Gating, armed with Snyders, might have made a far more effective impression on the minds of the ambassadors from Ashantee.” The gentleman had hardly done speaking when a new drum, loaded with shot, was piaced on the top of thé gun, and, the handle being turned, the Gatling | began to speak with startling emphasis. Thas part of the river at*which it was directed began to shoot up tall columns of water and spray. until it appeared as if the Prah was about to form itself into 80 many gray columns of liquid and to join in @ dance. The contents ofthe drum were expended without a halt, ana the effect of the ex- hibition was hailed with boisterous applause by the Fantee spectators and by the Ashantees with low remarks and expressive looks towards one another. The oMcers were also well pleased with tne effect, and the Gatling, which had its reputa- | tion previously endangered, had redeemed its fame and become more highly appreciated than ever, THE NAVAL BRIGADE WORKING ASHOKE—‘JOnN BROWN’S KNAPSACK, NO. NINETY-TWO,” Yesterday morning the camp of Prabsu, which is | rapidly assuming vast proportions, was stirred vo | its centre by the arrival of the naval brigade, con- sisting of 260 picked blue jackets from the Cape Coast squadron. These brave fellows had marched from Barracoe, seven miles from here, They ad- vanced in perfect order along the road, one half singing the well known song, ‘When Johnny comes marching home,” the other half keepiug step and chorus to “John Brown’s knapsack 19 num- ber ninety-two.” Ifany set of men ever looked | adapted for hard work the lithe bodied, soft paced | men of the naval brigade did. Their frames looked Green, sapful, and their faces so cheery and healthy that one could hardly believe they had | marched through the eighty mijes of irreclaimable forest and swamp between Cape Coast Castle and the Prah River, Satlors always march as if march- ing were natural to them, as if they were ani- mated men, of joints and muscles; while English soldiers appear stiff and rigid, more like walking machines in comparison, ‘The uniform of the sailors is the naval blue shirt and wide pants, which they use on shipboard, | while they appeared somewhat jauntier in their | broad brimmed straw hats, covered with @ canvas cape fastened around the bat by a brown muslin veil. The naval brigade is armed with Snyders. TH COLORED TROOPS FIGHT NOBLY. To-day 300 of the Second West India regiment arrived, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Webber, who has been rusticating so long with his people at Mansu. The Second West India regiment consists, a8 you may probably be aware, of colored soldiers enlisted from the negro populations of Jamaica, Nassau and other British settlements. Physically they are fine, buge fellows, some of them giants in irame, but as sokliers they don’t strike me favorably. They are faith- fal, loyal men though, and I suppose are as ardent in Queen Victoria’s cause as the blue jackets are, and no one can rob them of the laurels they have already acquired on this cam- paign tn the bush skirmishes of Abracrampa, Dun- quah and Fasua. But their appearance contrasted unfavorably with that of the naval brigade. Their marching was @ mere slouch, @ heavy, careless, leaden walk, There was no dignified military pace among them; they jerked their heavy feet forward, after which they permitted them to fall, without order, unison or emphasis, on the ground; and, of course, their bodies were ag ill regulated as their pace. Their arms were swung about as if they were using sledge hammers; their heads bobbed up and down irregularly, and their bodies swayed | indolently trom side to side, with @ downward | droop distressing to witness, CAUSES FOR ANXIETY. One need only have glanced at either of the bat talions whose entrée to Prahsu I have described to know at once where must lic Sir Garnet's chief anxiety. The naval brigade was accompanied by @ force of carriers laden with baggage and ham- mocks, which were almost disheartening, and the battalion of the Second West India was almost as bad. There were probably 800 carriers for 550 sol- diers. How many carriers will at this rate be re- quired for the Forty-second Hignlanders, the Twenty-third Fusileers and the Rifle Brigade’? At the least, I should say, 2,500. Where are the con- trol carriers to come trom? For a body of 2,500 | ans, 1,000 native allies, 500 Haussas and 600 irregulars,” how many carriers will be required to provision them on the march to Coomassie? A movable force of nearly 5,000 soldiers, exclusive of their auxiliaries, in the shape of burdea-bearing men, requires no small amount of provisions for thirty | days, The intention is to march en masse on the 15th inst. across the Prah to the next camp, six miles distant. The bridge has not been completed as yet, and the advance force, which was expected to leave on the 3d, has not begun its forward movement. I have been at this camp now four days, and not an ounce of provisions have I seen arcive as yet, although every new arrival must pass before my tent door, as the tentis planted within a few feet of the road. If we are to leave this on the 15th inst, and the expedition is des- tined to have an early success this trans- | port and control matter is really al)-m- portant. The road must in some measure be widened to admit of the artillery and rapid progress of the troops, a strong detach- | | ment must always be engaged some distance ahead, and supplies for such a concourse of men as Will follow ought to be constantly pushed for- ward. Unremitting attention and energy paid to these matters will far more insure the success of tne expedition than the most consummate skill in war tactics, because Sir Garnet is not about to measure his military Knowledge with that o! the Ashantee generals, He has only the task of show- ing the Ashantees to nis gallant Scotch Highland- ers, fusiJeers and rifemen, who will know how to deal with them, without any generalship. This is as certain as though it uaa been an already accomplished fact. We nave come so far fairly enough; it would be @ thousand pities if any laggardness were shown now, and a fine body of white men compelled to wait at Prahsu until they perishea by hundreds from the fatal unhealthiness of the climate. Ido not suppose that they will be permitted to remain thus exposed; still, tt is a matter of anxiety that | four days have elapsed and we are not a foot advanced forward. I have confidence tn Sir Garnet that he has in him all the ele- ments of a good leader—a bold, dashing, intrepid chief—and if I hesitate to give him the full measure of praise that more enthusiastic | and less prudent admirers have already accorded | him it is that I but wait to see those elements of fitness for his work developed. In what has been | done heretofore Sir Garnet has evinced considera- bie ability, but it is in that which lies immediately before him that he must show the full extent of his genius, THE ROYALIST ENVOYS UNDER GUARD. ‘The Ashantee ambassadors are closely guarded, and any conversation with them is strictly pro- hibited, THE NATIONAL FINANCES. Dawes and the Republican Party-—Dan- ger Apprehended—Garfield to Set the Figures Kight—Hard Task on Re- trenchments—Grand Schemes that Will | Fail—The Grangers Reserving Their || Fire. : WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 1874. The republicans in Congress are considerably ex- ercised to-day over the exposition by the merciless Dawes, of Massachusetts, yesterday, of the ex- | hausted condition of the Treasury and his pian for sweeping retrenchments, in order to make botn ends meet at the end of the next fiscal year. Dawes, they say, is a bird of evil omen, and bas gotinto the habit of croaking when he should | crow. What can we expeot, in New Hampshire, for instance, from his array of figures on the ex- Ppenditures of the last year; what can tollow such disclosures but bad luck ? His speech will be a wet blanket to the republicans, while it will serve as an official campaign document to the demo- cratsin New Hampsnire and Connecticut. Now, if we begin the year’s elections with reverses in the East we may find ourselves wrecked and hard aground in November tn | the West, Such are the views of those | calculating republicans who think that every | thing affecting the interests of the country should | be measured by the interests of the party. Mr, | Dawes, however, having in charge the ways and means for keeping the government upon its legs, 1s constrained by the duties of his position as book- keeper to exhibit both sides of the ledger and to report the ways and means necessary to balance the genera} account. Mr. Garfield. chairman of the Committee on | gress at present, nay, it is A stood, tive and Judicial Appropriation bill, under take to show that the figures of Mr. Dawes do not tell the whole story nor give the proper ess timates as to the resources, the liabilities and Probable receipts, expenditures and balance in the Treasury at the end of the next fiscal year. Mr. Garfield inclines to the great Western idea that More currency i# the chief want of the country. He will probably support that portion of the House which holds that the panic of 1873 is over; that the general business afairs of the country are rapidly improving; that without any increase of taxation upon anything, internal or external, we shall have largely increased revenues from cus- toms and toternal taxes, and ‘that retrenchments may be pushed go far as to result in serious losses Sane and the general interests of the Meantime on a bill fora redistribution of the currency, 80 as to give the West and South a larger share than they now possess, the discussion of the money question in all its béarings and sunder every possivie theory of reform goes OD iD the Senate. Nothing hg been done by thus learned | body on the Danks, the o! i |. Caetignate one ait currency or taxation; but to clear the und {OF ac tioh and to bring the members io" some under- standing from the numerous plans of financial re- ef submitted. ‘Phe only important question upon which the republicans of both houses appear to have reached & common agreement is the question of retrenchment. They have entered upon the dificult task of meeting the current wants and accumulated defiziencies of the ‘Treasur: without increased taxation if possible, and to do this many of the ~ savin, proposed, even by Mr. Dawes, appear like candle | ends and cheese parings against a deficit to be overcome of $40,000,000, But it is feared that, whether liberal appropriations or pinching re- trenchments are adopted, the results will be dis | astrous to the republicans in the tall elecuions—in. the one case by the revival of the cry of corry tion, and in the other by the revolt o} thousands of men thrown out of employment. In any event the prospect this session for the lobby 18 exceedingly gloomy, and especially upon all such grand money, bond and land absorbing Schemes as the following :— 1. The Northern Pacific Ratlroad. 2°The Southern Pacific Railroad. 8, The various land grabbing Western State and Territorial railway schemes before the two Houses. 4 The Rocky Mountain and California grand irrigating canal schemes, 6. The several schemes for steamship subsidies introduced in the House or the Senate. 6. The several trans-Ajleghany canal schemes, the proposed seabogrd and Niagara ship canals. 7. The trans-Facitic telegrapb projects. & The proposed snip canal through the delta of the Mississipp! River. There may be some doubt expressed, however, in reference to the fatg of this last named enter- prise, ag it is supported by the grangers, by their representatives in Congress irom the Soutn and West. It is possivle, nothwithstanzing the silence Of these representatives of the grangers in Con- robable that before the end of the session they will make the regulations of railway freights between the West and the East and the proposed Mississippi canal, each an ulti- matum to the House and the Senate. The test question of the power of Congress to regulate the railroads has been tried in the House, and by a heavy majority the question has been decided in the affirmative, so that the grangers are takin; their time in arranging their plaus, knowing that whenever they are prepared to strike the coast Will be clear. The grangers have not withdrawn from the fieid. They are only reserving their fire. MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC NOTES. Mlle. Desciée is said to be recovering. “Leatherstocking" will be the feature to-night at Nivio’s, Bach has lately loomed up en suite at the Paria Conservatoire. William Warren, the Boston comedian, is stop. ping at the Windsor Hotel. “White Swan” is tobe brought out at the New Park Theatre, Brookiyn, to-night, The theatres in general are preparing for special observances of Washington’s birth-day, Mrs. Richings-Bernard gives a concert with her “Musical Union,” at Steinway Hall, on Monday. The Jubilee Singers have invaded England, Hence the defeat of the Ministry, riots, revolu- tion, £0. Mrs. D. P. Bowers will appear as Amy Robsart at Mrs. Conway's Theatre during the first five nights of the present week. To-morrow evening is set apart at Irving Hall for the Alsacien-Lorrain pail, for the benefit of emi- grant Alsaciens-Lorrains, Miss Lisa Weber, who has not acted in this city for some montis, begins an engagement this even- Ing at the Théatre Comique. repre Mr. Daly is characteristically busy endeavoring to solve the mystery as to the previous representa tion of “Love’s Labor Lost,’ in this city. Patti and Gounod have entered into a compact, the result of which was the production of “Miretlle” at St. Petersburg on February 3. . The Darwinian orchestra has arrived at the Colosseum. Its success 1s due to the principle of natural selection and survival of the fittest. Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams will begin an en- gagement at Mrs. Conway’s Theatre in Easter week. They are now at their home in this city. At the Charity benefit at the Grand Opera House next Thursday afternoon Mr. G. L. Fox will play Richard IIL, and Mr. Frederick Vokes, Richmond. Here isamediey. At the Berlin Opera House Gluck’s “Alceste,” Halevy’s “Mosquetatre de la Reine” and Verdi's “Aida” are in active prepara- tion. The New York Constrvatory of Music, the leade ing musical establishment in this country, will give @ grand concert at Steinway Hall next month, ps Mile, Aimée makes her rentrée at the Lyceam Theatre in a few weeks in “La Fille de Madame Angot.’? She has been very successiul in Havane and Mexico, M. Louis Dachauer, organist of St. Ann’s church, in Twelfth street, will produce during Lent, for the first time in this city, the Passion music oj Bach. The last of the Yorkville course of entertain ments, under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association, comes off this evening with the performance of the Hampden singers at East- side Hall, Kighty-sixth street and Third avenue, At Booth’s “‘Elene” will be given to-night and Tuesday night, ‘La Femme de Feu" on Wednesday and Thursday and ‘‘Lady of Lyons” on Friday. On Saturday evening Mrs. Booth willend the engage- mentshe hag fulfilled so creditably by taking a benefit and appearing as Juliet. ‘‘Cheaney Wold” is the next novelty. Mme. Pauline Lucca and Mile. ima Di Murska leave Aavana on Thursday next for this city.” The former artist will play in German opera ut the Stadt Theatre, commencing early in March, and the latter will appear in Italian opera at the Acad- emy during Easter week. Messrs, Rullman and | Maretzek are the managers. Haydn’s “Seasons’’ were given last evening at the Germania Theatre before an audience of fifty people. The soivists were Miss Rokohi, Mr. Fritsch | and Mr. Remmertz. The performance was slovenly and ineffective, and did not inspire confidence in the future artistic success of the impromptu oratorto society. It was anything but @ success. We look for something better in the succeeding concerts, A peculiar entertainment will take place at the Grand Opera House, next Thursday afternoon, for | the benefit of the poor of New York, We must enter into particalars on another occasion. All we | can say now is that Mr. Frederick and Mr. Fawdon Vokes will act as ushers, Miss Jessie Vokes will have charge of the gate, Miss Victoria Vokes will preside at the bouquet stand, Miss Rosina will dia- pose of the programmes and Mr, G. L. Fox will of ficiate at the box office window, ‘The concert at the Grand Opera House last night had many attractive elements. The principal one was the farewell appearance of M, Wieniawski, the distinguished violinist, who starts for Havana this week, He played some of his best selections, and had the honor of @ recall on every occasion, Gilmore's band, of the Twenty-second regiment, played selectiona by Weber, Donizetti, Flotow, Rossini and Handel, Mme, Lichtmay made a suc cess in the “Ave Maria” of Gounod. The initial performance of “Lucia” ab the Academy on Friday evening by the Strakosch troupe will have the following cast:—Lucia, Mme. Nilsson, Edgardo, M. Capoul, Ashton, M. Manrel, On Saturday evening.““Les Huguenots’? will be presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The next week’s performance in New York will be—Monday, “Mignon; Wednesday, “Il Tro- vatore ;” Friday, “‘AYda;” Saturday, “Lucia.” Thas it will be seen that Madame Nilsson sings in every opera except Aida.” The sale of seats COM> mences at the Academy on Monday morninite