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

6 NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1874.—TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK HERAL BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. D THE DAILY HERALD, published every day tn the | ear, Your cents per copy. Annual subscription yrice $12, All business or news letters and telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New Your Hera. LONDON 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 AFTERNOON AND EYESING WALLACK’S THEATR! Broadway and Thirteenth street.—C ENTERAL PARK, at 8P.M., cloves atll P.M Mr. Lester Wallack. MRS, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, Wathington street, near Fulton, street, Brooklyn — CHARITY, at 8 POM.; closes at UP. M.” Miss Minme Conway. OLYMPIC THEATRE, between Houston and Bleecker streets. PRODEMTLI ana, NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT. at T4OP. Me; + closes at 1045 P. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MostO, ue street. —strakos Tualian Opera Pye: bow HOVANNI, at sl M.; closes at ll Lueca, Signor Caimpanini. BROOKLY N PARK THEATR! gPRosite City Hall, Brook; a KHO P.M. ; closes at U1 P.M. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—THE POLISH JEW and VARIETY, BNTER. TAINNENT, Begins at 8 P.M. ; closes at 1 METROPOLITAN THEATRE, $85 Broadway. VAIUETY ENTERTAINMENT, at P.M. ; closes at 10:30 P. M. NIBLO’S GARDEN, way, between Prince and Houston streets.—DAVY KETT, at P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. Mr. Frank $58 LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near Sixth ayenu.—French Opera Bouffe—LA FILLE Dk MADAME ANGOT, at 8 P.M; closes at 10:15 P.M. Mile. Marie Aimee. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtieth street.—UNCLE TOMS CABIN. at2 ?. M.: closes at4 30 P.M. at 3 P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M, DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-cighth street and Broadway.—CHARITY, at 8 P. M.; closes af 10:30 P.M, Miss Davenport, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Lewis. COMIQUE, TY ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 GERM ANIA THEATRI E, Fourteenth street, near Irving place.-LOHENGELB, at 8 P.M. ; closes at li P. M. BOOTH’S THEATRE, Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street.—ZIP at7 5 P. M.; closes at 1045 P.M. Lotta, ASSOCIA Fourth avenue and Twen' Carolina Singers, at 8 P. ‘ON HALL, rd street.—Concert of the loses at 10 P.M. STEINWAY HAL Fourteenth street.—Concert of Yale “College Glee Club, atSP. M.; closes at 10 P. M. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bower: 7s —VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at 3 P. M. ; closes at 1 BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Trenty third street, near Sixth avenue, ig NEGRO MIN- STRELSY, &c., at 8 P. M ; closes at 10 COLOSSEUM, HOOSTIB T.atlP. M.; closes atSP.M. Same at7 P. 3 closes at ly P.M. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Thursday, Aprit a, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cool, with occasional light rain, and clearing towards evening. Tas Doreicr Ixvestication.—The investi- gation into the affairs of the Board of Public | Works in Washington yesterday developed a very warm denial from Governor Shepherd in respect to the testimony of a witness named Fowler, affecting the paving of Pennsylvania avenue. We commend the episode to people | curious on the subject of the administration of public trusts and the investigations which inevitably follow. A Sranprne Anmy.—The serious nature of the revolutionary outbreaks in the United States of Colombia may be estimated from the fact that President Murillo has determined | to keep two hundred soldiers in the State of | Panama to prevent disorder. We commend this example to Prince Bismarck just now that he is in trouble over his Army bill. Oxsszrvance or Goop Frmar.—Although | Good Friday is not a legal holiday in this State there is a growing inclination to refrain from the transaction of business on a day | which to Christians ought to be one of the greatest solemnity. it a legal holiday, and the action of the Cot- ton, Produce and Stock exchanges in sus- pending business indicates a growing feeling in favor of a similar observance of the day in this State. In Europe Good Friday is cael erally observed. The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible | paper I regard with amazement and aneiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and a ene Canes SUMNER. Tarcxs oF Stoce Spzcu. LaTors.—In the want of some exciting cause at home to send stocks kiting up or down the lively and in- ventive stock jobbers in Wall and Broad streets cast their eyes abroad for one. They have been making desperate efforts to get up @ sensation on reports, made to order in the main, no doubt, of a panicin London. It turns out, however, that the mountain seen through the stock speculators’ vision is only a molehill. Prominent bankers here have tele- graphed to London to learn the truth, and the reply is that the rumors are unfounded, and that only one or two speculators had failed. It is no uncommon thing for one, two or more of these gentlemen to fail, and yet the world moves. What will be the next stock-jobbing | dodge? Tue Posiic Dest was reduced during the month of March $2,159,338. This is not a great amount, but it shows the improved con- dition of the Treasury. A few months since we had the disagreeable news of an increase | of the debt, and, therefore, however small the decrease now, it is a matter of congratulation and hope. True, we are not told in this brief ‘Treasury statement for the Ist of April in | what way the reduction bas been made, through the sinking fund, by the purchase of | bonds or in whatever other manner, but we take it for granted the debt has been reduced. The Treasury figures are too often puzzling, and it would be well if the periodical state- ments issued were more simplified and ex- plicit, OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK | E. _ AND NECK, at 8 | ‘| is certainly an extraordinary phenomenon, LITTLE RIFLE | Dyas, Miss Fanny | corner of Thirty-titth street.—PARIS BY | Pennsylvania has made | The War Against Inflation—Sectional Legislation. The inflationists in the Senate preserve a | compact and serried column. Thus far there | has been no break in the ranks. The moderate _ measure of Mr, Sherman, which shows the discreet conservatism of its author's character and is far from being as stringent and just as | we should wish, has been deprived of its real | Yalue. When it comes from the shearing | process ot the Senate it will be as mischievous | as possible and what the extreme inflationists | desire. And yet we have never heard the saving common sense of the country expressed with more emphasis than upon this question of | the currency, although it makes no impression | upon the compact majority. We cannot recall more than one or two influential or well in- formed journals in favor of inflation. The | | moneyed and intellectual centres are opposed | toit The most thoughtful and gifted of | om statesmen antagonize it. So far as we | | | have had any expression from the democratic or republican organizations it has been in | favor of a speedy return to specie payments } as the first step towards the consolidation of our national credit. All the lessons of history, as shown in the rise of great commercial Com- monwealths like Genoa, Venice, Hamburg, Frankfort and London, teach us that we can- not establish credit by a violation of the fandamental laws of honesty. As Mr. Beecher eloquently expressed it the other evening: “Anything which weakens public credit im- pairs the growth of industry,” and it is “gigantic wickedness” tor the government to “print lies by the hundred thousand.’ As Mr. Sumner said, in words which have be- | come, as it were, sanctified by his death, the possibility of such a thing as inflation is to | | be regarded ‘with amazement and anxiety,” | | and its accomplishment will be ‘a detriment | and a shame.” | Why is it, then, that in presence of these instructive and commanding evidences we | | should have the Senate resolutely defy public | | | opinion, as well as the lessons of history? It | | but not altogether surprising. History shows | that no class of men are more apt to make | mistakes than legislative bodies. Franklin said in the last century that ‘most of the statutes, acts, edicts and arréts of Parliaments, | princes and States for regulating, encouraging | or restraining trade have been either political | blunders or jobs, obtained by artful men | for private advantage under pretence of public good.” This is a sweeping | condemnation, and we accept it with reserve. | But one of the most learned and philosophical | writers of modern times argues that the whole | course of modern legislation in England has | been marked by so much ignorance and care- | lessness that if the laws had been obeyed | trade would have been stifled. His reasoning showed that English commerce was only | saved by the energy and fearlessness of the | smugglers. We saw during our war what came of the extraordinary effort to collect a tax on whiskey three or four times greater than | the original cost of the article. Whiskey was | openly sold for less cost than the tax; and | all the resources of this imperial Republic, although sufficient to conqueran armed nation like the Southern Confederacy, were insuffi- cient to enforce a plain revenue enactment. | So we might repeat lesson after lesson from our own history, from all history, in fact, | demonstrating the incontrovertible proposi- | purely sectional, and tha! the power to print eighteen millions is the power to print eighteen huridred millions, unless checked. Furthermore (and it is not without diffidence that we present this point to the mind giddy with official splendors in Washington), the wrong of an unjust measure does not consist | in the extent of the transaction, but in its character. The country could very easily siand the reissue of eighteen millions of dol- lars, just as it might stand the cost of rebuild- ing Washington at an expense of twice its real value. But where is it to end? And And how can we expect to fund our loans when our national credit lies wallowing in the degradation which has fallen upon Turkey and Spain? It is not the extent of the pro- posed inflation that alarms us. It is the | policy that inspires it, a policy which, in | wantonness and ignorance, proposes to gain | popularity for a few needy demagogues at the | expense of the national honor. And if, in addition to the multitudinons | evils that lie within the womb of this inflation | policy, we encounter also the perils of section- alism, we should be wanting in our duty not otic legislation. ——I!_ we rear this house against this house It will the wofullest division prove That ever fell upon this vursed earth! We did it before on the issue of slavery. We are doing it now on the issue of inflation. Then it was s wrong which, as a nation, we inflicted upon a class; now it is a crime which we perpetuate, as a people, to our own discomfiture and shame, The lesson we then learned was that the statesman who advanced the interest of a section at the expense of the general welfare of the Republic was guilty of moral treason. Is it not too soon to despise that costly teaching ? The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and ansiety, and, ment and a shame.—Cuartes SUMNER. The Cuban War. The state of Cuba is growing daily more hopeless. Financial embarrassment is added to military failure, and every one sees that the grand crash is coming. From Havana we have the news of financial failure and dis- turbance, and from the Central Department comes news of military disaster. the insurrection losing strength the troops gathered to give the final, crushing blow, which has been impending for six years, but somehow never comes down, are routed when- ever they venture to leave their fortified strongholds. So unfavorable has been the tide of war lately that the Spaniards can no longer conceal their reverses from the outside world. The Cuban forces under General Gomez have operated in the neighborhood of Puerto Principe during several months, and every effort to disperse them has ended in de- feat. So far as these repulses can be disguised they are ; but the constant presence of a large Cuban force in the neighborhood of the head- quarters of the Spanish army is the best answer to pretended victories that end with the hasty shelter, the army by the enrolment of volunteers, the Spaniards are unable to disperse the patriot forces. General Arminan’s brigade has been defeated at Guasimoclara, not far tion that trade and finance cannot be regu- | lated by an arbitrary decree; that the laws which they obey are the laws of fair dealing, honesty and respect for national integrity, as old as the decrees of the Medes and the Persians. Therefore it does not surprise us that our prairie statesmen should impetuously argue | | that when money is scarce we should resume | our printing presses; that, in the words of Mr. Beecher, we should begin to publish “‘lies by the hundred thousand.’’ The country seems to be passing through a period of delu- sions. Nothing seems plainer to the impul- | sive, unthinking mind, the Sierra Nevada statesman—who drinks in his statesman- ship from the breezes that come from the calm Pacific seas—than that, when currency is scarce, the true way is to in- | crease the amount of currency. This is cer- tainly a logical proposition, and we can see how crude thinkers would accept it with alac- rity as in some respects a relief from the bur- dens of the war. But currency is not a value | | unless when made of metal. It is only an ex- pression of value, and we must know what underlies it before we can approve the issue. In the present case there is nothing behind the | issue. Congress, exercising an arbitrary, dog- matic and peremptory power, simply says:— “We shall print so many more reams | of decorated paper and call it money. This | will increase the volume of money. It will | relieve the South and the West. It will im- prove the crops of the farmer and add to the jeer eae of the business man and laborer. So we shall enter hand in hand upon new paths of prosperity and contentment.” But we answer that an increase of currency does not increase, but decrease, the vol- ume of money. The country is no richer, but practically poorer. The cur- rency passes into the hands of those who | can afford to buy it, the banking and specu- | lative classes, the adventurers in business and the gamblers. The producing classes, the | farmer and laborer, suffer because an increase of currency means an increase of values and no corresponding advance in the purchasing power of money. West obtaining: relief, in the end they will | suffer infinitely more than other sections. When the country is in distress no particn- | lar sections can prosper. As the body feels | the wound in the hand and the foot, sowhen | | the body of the State suffers from the un- | necessary and inexcnsable financial diseases now offending it, Alabama and Maine, Oregon and Louisiana mnst sooner or later suffer alike in sympathy. This, more especially at the present time, when the leaders of the inflation movement antagonize one section against an- other. After all, this is the gravest form of the evil. One of those majestic organs of | public opinion which beam ont upon us from the benignant «gis of the Washington Board of Public Works is dissatisfied with the | Henao for pressing this point unduly, and smiles at “the horrible results of inflation to arise from the reissue of eighteen millions more of legal tender notes.'' But the point which comes upon us with painful clear- ness is that the legislation which pro- pores to reissue additional currency is | So far from the South and | from Puerto Principe, and obliged to abandon their dead and wounded to the enemy. There is nothing decisive in these endless battles, but they go to show that the Cubans are able to prolong the war indefinitely, and that after six years of wasting struggle they are more powerful in a military point of view than they were at the outbreak of the insurrection. | The end of the struggle is no longer doubtful. It may drag on for years, exhausting the re- sources of both Spain and Cuba, but in the end the Spaniards will have to relax their grasp, as they have had to do with all their American possessions. More Strikes Threatened. It is one of the peculiar features of the present crisis that, in spite of the tightness of the money market, the bosses and the work- men seem to be getting into greater antago- nism than ever. Strikes are threatened by the carpenters, by the bricklayers and plasterers, The bosses have, evidently, come to the con- | clusion that the present is a fitting time to | break down the eight-hour arrangement. This determination is especially strong on the part of the boss carpenters ; but itis also the un- disguised purpose of the bosses of the brick- determined to hold on to what they think a solid victory, and it is their opinion that to give up the eight-hour arrangement would be to abandon a position won after years of laborious effort. The workingmen’s appeal has already been made public, and no one who has read that appeal can come to any other conclusion than this—that the men mean to fight it out to the bitter end. The strikers are not to be confined to any one trade or business. The movement threatens to be general. The millworkers are already out in some parts of Massachusetts, their motto being ‘‘More pay or no work.” The prospect is not pleasing. It is to be hoped, however, that wise counsels will prevail, equally with the employers and the employed, Strikes are an injury and a loss to the com- munity generally. They have never proved a gain either to the masters or the workmen, Another mode of settling these trade difficul- | ties is surely J possible, Tue Massacuvsetts Senatonsmr, —There have been eight ballots for United States Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, the result being identical in effect in all of them. We can well understand that the friends of Mr. Dawes should cling to him to the last with the expectation of electing him, but | that Mr. Hoar and Mr. Curtis should continue to divide one hundred and fifty votes between them day after day is inexplicable. That neither will be elected seems a certainty. If Mr. Dawes will not make a good enough Senator to suit men who are his enemies | merely because Butler is supposed to favor | him, it is not to be expected that his friends will help to elect a candidate set up to defeat him on such grounds. Either some of the crate to elect Adams. Something else may happen ; but nothing has taken place so far | to indicate any possibility except one of the two courses we have mentioned, what are we to do with our credit abroad? — to impress upon our friends in Washington | the sure results of their heedless and unpatri- | in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- | So far from | retreat of the victors to the nearest place of | In spite of the recent reinforcement of | layers and plasterers. The men are equally | supporters of Hoar must go over to Dawes or | they must make # coalition with the demo- | Futere Corn Crops—Agricultural Pros- peets of the Country. The Mlinois correspondent of the Couniry Gentleman makes the following statement:— | ‘It is my impression that the corn crop of | 1874 will be light as compared with those of | 1871 and 1872, and probably a good deal less than that of 1873. Indeed I do not expect to see oftener than once in ten years seasons a8 favorable as 1871 and 1872, and I question | whether we shall ever again see the amount of corn in Illinois, or indeed in the corn region, we saw in 1872. As compared with the wheat region the corn region is rather limited in area. I consider the corn region proper to be also par excellence the grazing region, and to | be confined to that climate and area where fifty bushels of corn isthe average yield for good cultivation, and where permanent pastures may be kept and maintained through the year—pastures which will carry horses, sheep and cattle through even the coldest winter,’ | with the assistance of hay and straw stacks to run toin rough weather. Through all this region of corn and cattle, hay, grass, hogs aud bad roads the tendency is to more and more pastures every year—to less corn to be consumed off the farm and less wheat and other small grain.” The corn crop of 1874 will depend on the results of the season’s harvest, not upon any tendency in farming to grow less corn; nor is there any reason for supposing that we have seen our largest corn crop or anything like it. There are a good many reasons why the | corn crop must be large for many years. First, the majority of farmers in the West are not intelligent enough to grow other crops, while no other crop, as farming is conducted, is soprofitable, There isno use of trying to grow winter wheat on the bleak prairie. There isa constant and increasing demand for corn, to be fed on the premises to cattle raised in | Texas, Colorado and the Southwest. Further, | not more than half the corn land of Illinois | has even yet been broken, and nothing 1s more certain than that during the ten years following its breaking it will be mostly de- voted to corn. But Illinois is not the only State tbat by good cultivation can produce fifty bushels to the acre. The southern half of Iowa and _ the northern half of Missouri are equal to Central Illinois, and beyond is Nebraska, with an immense corn area, while Kansas will produce a world of corn. Comparatively speaking, we have hardly begun to raise corn, and, so far from the crop of 1872 being larger than any we are likely to grow, the crop of 1882 may, and most likely will, exceed it ten, possibly twenty, times. There are other regions besides the States and Territories here named where corn is to be grown extensively. The Indian Nation has a large extent of good corn land; so has Texas, and there are millions and millions of acres with not a furrow turned, each of which is good for thirty bushels to the acre. Then, Northern Iowa can grow good corn, and even | in Minnesota the aggregate will be large. : Of course there are second and third class corn | regions, but they will help swell the grand total during the next ten or twenty years, as the prairie sod shall be broken, and, unless there shall be much greater intelligence among the farmers, corn will be grown for the next | fifty or one hundred years far more exten- sively than at present. The steady in- | States and creased breadth of corn, and it would be difficult to imagine how the world would get along without it, for the corn crop of our coun- try gives what nothing else can give, the beef, lard, bacon and pork that form, to a great extent, the basis of commerce. Take the corn- fed beef of Dlinois from the New York market and good steak would rise to forty cents a pound. Theabove writer assumes that the Illi- nois corn region is eminently a stock region. State, but this is for want of understanding the facts. The large number of cattle re- ported as coming from Illinois are raised in Texas, Colorado and the Southwest, Arkansas and Missouri, and they are brought to the corn region to be fattened (first to Chicago, whence they are distributed), and when sent to Eastern markets they are set down as coming from Illinois. This simply shows the | capacity of this corn region for fattening cat- tle. Sosoon asthe other corn regions shall be put in cultivation other distributing points will be established on the Missouri River; in- deed, Kansas City is rapidly becoming such a point. Another mistake in this connection is the statement that a corn region is also a grazing region. This is not the case atall. Tae soil best suited for corn is not best suited for grass, for both the soil and the climate are un- favorable, inasmuch as a stand of fine grass is obtained with difficulty, as those who for twenty and more years have been trying to get good grass in Central Illinois well know. The great obstacle lies in the heat of the summer sun, which dries up the grass, North of the corn belt grass isa natural product, and there, as is well known, are the dairy regions. Butter is a scarce article in the corn region, especially in summer. It is true that blue grass can after a time be had, and that it will make fine fall and winter pasturage; but it will not be obtained to any great éxtent until farming is much better than it is now, and until capital shall be more abundant, so that one can afford to let the land lie idle till blue grass can work its wayin, which requires several years. The blue grass of Kentucky grows ona soil peculiarly favorable; it came in through the course of years, and it was ob- tained by intelligent farmers, who became wealthy, in the first place, throngh raising mules, corn and slaves. The other parts of Kentucky not suited to this grass are poor enough. This is commercial as muchas an agri- cultural question, and each is connected with the other. Of such vast importance is the corn crop that the best method of moving it and its products has entered into the legisla- tion of several States, and it has forced its way into the halls of Congress, Possibly it may largely influence the next Presidential ‘election, All the great Western lines of railroad, representing more than two hundred million dollars, are to be af- fected by the legislation arising out of this great agricultural interest. It is an absolute necessity that, for twenty years | atleast, large crops of corn shall be grown, and that the jprice gball be remuneratiye: for | crease of population, both in the United | in Europe, demands an in- | The readers of market reports are apt to think | Illinois produces more cattle than any other | | the soil, the feeding established and the lines of railroads built and to be built belong to one system, which cannot be broken up with- out financial ruin to the whole country. The commerce, the business and the finances of the nation depend upon the corn crop because it is so much larger than any other crop, and in its nature it is so indispensable that it must be grown year after year, and in increasing quantities, to meet the demands of an increas- ing population. Individual farmers may cer- tainly find it to their advantage to vary their productions, but should any considerable number do so the price of corn would rise, and then everybody would grow corn. Almost the same considerations apply to cotton, and it is difficult to say which is the greater king. The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and ansxiely, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and a shame.—Cuartes SUMNER, Burial of Emigrants. It is consoling to know that the authorities at Castle Garden sometimes occupy themselves with other matters than railroad patronage and personal squabbles, They are supposed to look after the interests of incoming emigrants, but there is a very widespread opinion among the public that their chief occupation is taking care of themselves, We are, therefore, glad to beable to call attention to at least one act which shows the tender thoughtfulness of the Commissioners to their charge under circum- stances that leave no hope of any return from the objects of their solicitude. It is no- torious that very little is done at Castle Gar- den for the live emigrants; but in order to silence all complaint the Commissioners have adopted a resolution to make new and satis- factory arrangements to accommodate such emigrants as will kindly come to America and die at Castle Garden. The poor wandérers are no longer to be cast into pauper graves “anywhere out of the world,’’ but are to have a nice green patch selected in some romantic spot where they may rest comfortably, and without having their feelings shocked by being brought into contact with the pauper dead. The objects of this thoughtful attention will, we are sure, feel very grateful to the Commissioners, nor will the public fail to be pleased at an exhibi- tion of reverence to the dead quite novel among politicians. This making burial at- tractive has, however, its shady side, and we fear it may involve serious consequences to our city. If the news should get widely cir- culated through Europe we might have troops of pilgrims coming over with the fixed inten- tion of getting buried in the nice green patches recommended by the Commissioners. The Famine in India. A cable despatch from Calcutta, dated March 31, informed us that in the districts af- fected by the famine the situation is greatly improved. The measures taken by the gov- ernment to relieve the distress of the people have proved effective even beyond expecta- tion. Outside of Tirhoot, it is said, there are no actual cases of starvation; and even in that district, which has suffered most severely, the means adopted by the government have brought relief to almost every door. It is well that the difficulty which at first had so threatening an aspect has so far been got over, Governments are not expected to be | always prepared for the freaks of nature and the mysterious ways of Providence. It is un- deniable, however, that the causes of famine | and pestilence are now fully within the limits of human knowledge. These causes are neither above nor beyond the means at man’s command. When we know the root of the disease we are more than half way to the cure. Good government can do much to make famine next to impossible. Willing, as we are, to give the British government all praise for the good work it has done in India, we must be allowed to say that first class statesmanship in this advanced age of the world ought to be able to render such calamities as that which has just befallen India almost, if not entirely, impossible for the future. If Great Britain would retain her hold on India her statesmen must seriously give their thoughts to this subject. Tue Puxsiscrre Is Satvation.—The full text of the speech of the Prince Imperial at Chiselhurst on the occasion of his coming of age appears in the Henaxp this morning. The remarkable feature about it is its imitation of the style of the Emperor—‘‘The Empire is | peace’ —“The plébiscite is salvation." Tue Istumus Canat.—A correspondent of | the Hrraxp, writing from Greytown a week after the arrival of the commission to examine | the Isthmian routes already surveyed for a canal to the Pacific, teresting information in regard to both the Nicaraguan and the Atrato scheme. The report of Commodore Ammen and his associates will be looked forward to with great interest, because it is expected it will virtually settle the whole question of an interoceanic canal. The subject is one ot grave importance, and our correspondent shows that the commission is vigorously at work, having already left Greytown to exam- ine the Atrato route. Tux Erauta Waxp Nutsaxces.—The insolent conduct of Captain Williams in refusing the Board of Education a list of the disreputable houses in the Eighth ward in proximity to the public schools has called general attention to a parade of immorality that cannot be tolerated. Fortunately the District Attorney has the liste which were denied to the Board, and it is to be hoped he will vigorously pursue the prose- cutions already begun and others necessary to gives some in- be instituted. Neither the Board nor the | prosecuting officer must relax their efforts for a moment till these pest houses are cleared away from the neighborhood of the public | schools, Ret Orperep to Appear Beronr THE Canapian ParviaMENt.—Louis Riel, who was prominently before the public in connection with the Red River rebellion a few years ago, has again been brought into notice by his election to the Canadian Parliament. The law officers of the Crown have declared their intention to arrest him on the indictments found against him by the courts of Manitoba on account ot his rebellion. Under these circumstances it is not probable that Mr. Riel will appear in his place in the Legislature. He is said to be concealed in Ottawa, but the resolution of the government to arrest him is likely to induce him to try a change of air on the earliest opportunity. | The Bank Presidents on Inflation. A Henaxp reporter has had a talk with a number of bank presidents in this city on the great question of inflation, and the result is a curious medley of contradictory opinions. Those who had the least to say generally said the most, and those who said least took the greater time to say it. The President of the Park Bank, for instance, was opposed to the Four Hundred Million bill, because if ‘‘the inflation business was once begun no one could tell where it would end.” There is a whole vol- ume of political economy in this remark; though President Scott, of the Hanover Bank, expressed the same truth even more tersely— “Tt is an unnecessary measure.” It will be observed that the officers of most of our oldest institutions—the Fourth National, the Nassau, the Continental and the Bank of the State of New York—are all opposed to inflation, and in a few words have pointed out the evils which must follow the passage of the bill which awaits the President’s signature. It is not every bank officer, however, who takes the same view. There is Mr. John Thompson, Presi- dent of the First National—he is not a bit frightened. He knows all about finance, and he thinks that increasing the legal tender cir- culation from three hundred and fifty-six mil- lion dollars to four hundred million dollars is not expansion. He calls it “necessity.” This alone ought to stamp him as the great finan- cier of the age. But Mr. Thompson has also a theory about the purposed addition of forty-four million dollars to our national bank circulation which seta all our fears at rest. He shows that it will be so unprofitable to establish a bank with the new issue that nobody will take any part of it. It follows, we presume, that as this cirewation is to be obtained on precisely the same terms as those accepted by the banka already established, even they will soon be compelled to go into liquidation. This is very remarkable logic, we confess, in view of the fact that the banks are handsomely paid by the government for accepting a monopoly; but Mr. Thompson knows all about it, and so long as he is not frightened he cannot be gainsaid. But he has a dangerous rival in the President of the Metropolitan National Bank, who wants currency enough to go all round. This is a noble proposition, worthy of that distinguished statesman, Tittlebat Titmouse, Esq.; but Mr. Thompson's doc- trine of ‘necessity’ in finance is even more remarkable. Aerial Microscopy. A British microscopist has recently pub- lished the results of extensive experiments in this novel but intensely interesting domain of science. The microscopic examination of air, it has been long promised, would afford many clews to the origin of the great epidemics, and also solve many interesting points of medical and agricultarul climatology. A great physi- cian has shown that we take into our lunga daily from one thousand to two thousand gal- Jons of air. The detection of impurities in - the air and the discovery of their sanitary effect is of the utmost practical moment. In the experiments of Mr. Douglas Cun. ningham, now referred to, the specimens of air were taken in the tropical atmosphere near | Calcutta in thin brass tubes. Among the chief conclusions reached we find that in- fusorial animalcules, their germs and ova, are almost entirely absent from atmospheric dust. No connection could be traced between tho number of germs found present in the air and the prevalence of cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea, ague and other diseases. Although this latter conclusion seems to abso Te? hope of connecting the origin of disease with atmospheric germs, and apparently upsets Professor Tyndall's famous theory of the re- lation between ‘‘dust and disease,” the ex- periments were not exhaustive, and refer only to aérial particles distinguishable while in the air. Countless finer molecules, perhaps peopled with living beings, may and doubt- less will be found present in the air. That the air is itself heavily freighted with in- fusorial life, capable of affecting the humana system, as we know it often fatally affecta hardy vegetation, has long since been fully established. In 1863 Pasteur, the eminent French microscopist, investigated the diseased | silkworms, upon whose health and labors the | prosperity of the Empire largely depended. Although the microscope could not detect the plague corpuscles in the fertile egg of the silkworm, and the scientist was at first baffled, he soon conjectured that the worm and its infusorial parasite grew together, and the tests confirmed his conjecture. Ata later stage of the development he was enabled to wash the claws of the diseased worms, and, under the lens, easily found the enlarged plague corpuscles. It is well known that in wounds where the blood is mixed with air that has passed through the lungs there is lesa danger of putrefaction, since the air has thus been filtered. It is obvious that the deposi- tion of organic matter and infusoria in the respiratory organs must be a great source of disease, especially pulmonary, and this re- search has an immense practical significance, The discovery of Mr. Douglas Cunningham, that these swarms of atmospheric infusoria do not make the dust particles their habitat so much as that they live independently of them, is of especial interest to the denizens of our large and dusty cities. It may be hasty to assume that the animalcular life examined by Pasteur was derived from the air, and that it may not have been existent in vegetable sur- faces with which the silkworm had been in- oculated by contact. But, at any rate, the atmosphere is the medium of transit for these organisms, and the microscopic and chemical analysis of the air in the various geographical zones and special localities would richly repay the investigator. The possibility of @ new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and anxiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a delri- ment and a shame.—CHABLES SUMNER. NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, Panama correspondence of March 22 reports as follows:—The United States steamer Saranac arrived here on the 15th inst. last from Acapuico, and remains here subject to the orders of tha Interoceanic Canal Commission, Naval Orders. WASHINGTON, April 1, 1874 Lieutenant Commander Edward A, Walker is de- tatened from the Lancaster and ordered to return home. Lieutenant Commander Fred R. Smith i de tatched irom ordnance duty at Key West and ore dered a8 executive oflicer ol the Lancaster.