The New York Herald Newspaper, April 13, 1874, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD | BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the aeor, Four cents per copy. Annual! subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yorr Heraxp. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be properly sealed, WE iee LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be | received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING PARK THEATRE, Broadway and Twenty-seventh street, LOVE'S PEN. ANCE, atS P. M.; closes at ll P.M. Charles Fechter. ay.—CHARITY, at P. ja Dyas, Miss’ Fapny THR AT Bie! yk No, Slt Broadway. ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 P.M. ; closes at 10:30 BOOTH’S THEATRE, Sixth avenue bg) Tw ay ae street.—ZIP, at 7015 P. M. ; closes at 10:49 P.M. WALL. ‘ATRE, Broadway and Thirtietn street —THE VETERAN, at 8 at li P.M. Mx. Lester Wallack,’ Miss Setreysioes. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, } Fourteenth street and Irving place. opalinn Opera— il TROVATORE, at 8 P.M.; closes atl P.M. Jima di jursks. MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, n street. near Fulton street, Brooklyn.— SOOGAH, at8 P.M; closes at LLP. M. Mr. aad Mrs. ba ey Williams, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker streets. — AUDEVILLE ane NOVELTY ENTLRTAINMEN |, at P. M.; closes at 10:45 P. M. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Eighth Pipes ie and Twenty-third street—EILEEN OGE, at?P. M.; closes atli P.M. Mr, and Mrs. Florence. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway, opposite | Washington Fiace.—HU MPTE DUMPTY AT HOME, &e., at 8° P.M.; closes at 11 P. M. G. L. Fox. BROOKLYN, PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, Brooklyn.—LA MARJOLAINE, ats P.M; closes at P.M. Fat 2 B Bowery.—THE LITTLE 0 ENTBETAINMENT. Begins at 8 ide B RE, No. 58 Broadway.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at | 7:45 P. M. ; closes at 10:3) P. M. a away, between Priace and Houston streets.—DAVY GRUCKET I, aS. M.; Closes ativw Me Mr. Frank Mayo. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourveenth, street, near Sixth avenue.—Grand Parisian Folly, at 3 P. M. ; closes at 11 P. M. woop’s M BUM, | Broadway, corner of <THE HIDDEN HAND, at? P. M.; ST. MARC, THE | SOLDIER OF P.M. ; closes at 10:30 P, * | Mr. and Mrs. BE. L. DAVE. | TONY PASTO No. 201 Rowery.—V M.; closes at 1f BRYANT'S Twenty-third street, STRELSY, &c., ats P A HOU! VAIS MENT, ats. PERA HOUSE, Sixth avenue.—NEGRO MIN- loses at 10 P. M. M, , rty-fitth street.—PARIS BY | ; closes at5 P.M. Same at7 P. From our pode this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cloudy Tar STEAMSHIP REZCE.—Up ) to the time | of going to press no news reached us regard- | ing this vessel, which brings with her the | | of every subject. NEW © YORK HERALD, -MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1874. --TRIPLE SH#ET, Inflation tm the House—Dissolving Views ef National Solvency. Is the prosperity of this country, com- mercially, industrially and financially, to be secured by measures that are coptrary to sound principles in commerce, industry and finance? Andif the country is in this strangely exceptional condition what are the facts that suspend, in the case of the United States, the operation of those economical laws that affect trade, industry and finance in every other country under the sun where they flourish? Here are two questions which the inflationis's should answer out of respect to the people whom they propose to ‘‘relieve’”’ by laws which an intelligent portion of the public believe must prove the immediate cause of incon ceivable distress to the masses and of ruin to the national credit. Our paper money is now worth cighty-cight cents on the dollar—that is to say, the note whicb is called a dollar will only buy in the hands of the people eighty-eight cents’ worth of meat or flour, and will only pay eighty- eight cents’ worth of rent. In the langaage ot the people, meat and flour and rent are “high;” but they are worth very nearly what they were worth before. It is the paper money that is worth less, and consequently more of this is required to purchase the same quantity of these and other commodities. With this condition before us it is now proposed to largely increase the quantity of paper money. Tt has lost its nominal value because it is so plentiful already. If there were two hundred | millions less of it in circulation every paper dollar would be equal in value to a gold dollar; but, instead of passing a law that would make | the dollar, in which the poor man’s es are | paid, worth a hnndred cents at the bufher's | or the grocers; instead, even, of leaving alone as it stands, with a value | of eighty-eight cents, it is proposed to pass | laws which, by adding a hundred millions or may be two hundred millions to the quantity | | of paper in circulation, will make the paper | | “dollar'’ worth eighty cents or even seventy- | five cents. And this is called making laws to | | relieve the people and secure the prosperity | of the country. Certainly there are classes of | | the people who will be ‘relieved’ and “assisted’’ by these laws ; and’ one of these isa | very important class. Every employer of | labor may rub his hands with satisfaction to | see inflation laws in so likely a position in | | both houses of Congress, for these are con- | | | it trivances that make unnecessary his baitle | | against strikes and trade unions. Lately em- | | ployers have endeavored somewhat to get wages down, but they have been generally uusuecesstul ; now Congress comes to the | rescue, and as thé workman will yet the same | number of nominal dolars for his labor the | dollars are made of smaller value, and so i tees the House to-day will, perhaps, indi- cate that it is not dead. At the beginning of this inflation mon- strosity we denounced it as leading inevitably towards ruin, repudiation and, dishonor; bat we were denounced in turn by some of our calm and drowsy contemporaries up in the country, who, though opposed to inflation in principle, did not see that the moderate clauses of the Four Hundred Million bill justi- fied such positive terms. To them wo now commend the case of inflation as put forth by Mr. Butler. The Four Hundred Million bill as it was then, with forty-six millions of national bank currency added to it since, is now looked upon by the republican leader in the House asa mere finger-post on the high- road of financial progress. It. merely indi- cates the direction and establishes the prin- ciple. It does nothing to relieve, but it com- mits Congress to the relieving progress. With this bill off the conscience of the Congres- sional majority the House bill for free bank- ing will be taken up and passed in such a form as will deluge the country with paper the majority that acts with Mr. Butler. On the vote which gave him control of the proceed- ings he had upwards of sixty supporters from Southern States and fifty from Western States. Pennsylvania was the only Middle or Eastern State that assisted in any degree worthy men- tion. Pennsylvania has 4 financial policy of her own, which is to favor any course that helps the operation of the tariff which pro- tects Pennsylvania by making foreign goods dear, so that Pennsylvania may add something more to the price of her manufactures and still keep the market. Henoe her vote. But, aside from that vote, the line is sharp and clear of the South and West moving shoulder to shoulder to carry in the House the policy | that the South and West carried in the Senate. All the operations and all the plans of the repudiators are not yet clear; but that Con- gress, in both houses, is now in the hands of the most enormous ring that has yet appeared in the corrupt history of our recent legislation seems to us evident. Hitherto we have thought that inflation was the result of the delusions of | some, the recklessness of others and the sec- tional animosity of nota few; but it becomes hourly clearer that other motives are behind | it. Popular perception does not yet penetrate the real character of this movement; but when its history shall be known the frauds of Crédit | Mobilier, the small chicanery of the salary bills and all the other pieces of jobbery by which Congressmen have indicated both their | dishonesty and their shamelessness will seem | so insignificant in comparison that we shall denunciation. | Or Books and Authors—Future American wages are practically brought down. Let in- flationists prove that these are not facts, or | else admit that in their anxiety to pass laws | for the relief of the people they have very good eyes for the discrimination of the particular | classes of the people they propose to relieve. Inflation has as yet made no great prog- | ress in the House. On Friday it fell | for a time into the bends of Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts. Whether it fell | to him as a leader because, in despite of republican opposition and democratic support, it is still accepted and held as a republican measure, or whether he supports it by natural sympathy with that to which many thought- | ful people object, we leave to the decision of others. It is certain that this gentleman has in the national councils what appears to be an instinctive relation with the bad side | His especial function is to head and front of every | popular folly. His one principle is to | take an extreme position. This he has done on every public topic, of course | be at the crew and passengers rescued from the lost | steamer Europe. The Cunarder Abyssinia, | which left Queenstown three days after the | | Greece, reached quarantine lest evening and | did not encounter the vessel in question. The “detention necessarily caused by the rescue of | the crew and passengers of the Europe and the boisterous weather of the last few days furnish sufficient reasons for the non-appear- ance of the Greece. She may be looked for now at any hour. Tar Remamws or Dr. Livixostoxe will, | doubtless, reach the shores of England to-day, and will receive all the honors due to a man | who has labored so long end so faithfully in | the cause of humanity and science. Among the distinguished names inscribed on the | pages of history that of Livingstone will hold a | prominent place. His untiring perseverance, singlemindedness and grand success in open- ing up to the civilized world and introducing the light of humanity and faith into regions hitherto buried and unknown can never be overestimated. His grateful countrymen propose now to honor his remains in a truly regal manner and thus show their apprecia- tion of his greatness. ANOTHER ‘Naw’ l'xeatre.—This evening will witness the ng of a new theatre, de- voted to the higher class of dramatic en- tertainment. Its situation has been happily chosen with a view to the present and future wants of the theatre-going public of New York. It comes with a name familiar to old, New Yorkers and ussociated with some of thé | brightest memories ct the American stage. Mr. Stuart, who will be remembered as man- | aging the Winter Garden, in connection with | all his life. | price of United States bonds—and he is now | President wil be | without regard to the moral character of the point at issue in any case. He was | the most desperate of the old democrats who were ready to split the country and the constitution and the solar system if necessary | into ten thousand splinters in order to save | the democratic party. None was so ter- rific in the ~novement to impeach Andrew | Johnson for a mild assertion of those prin- ciples that Mr. Butler had savagely asserted | He also wanted to pay the in depreciated paper—a move- perhaps, intended to ron down the | national de! ment, the high priest and prophet of inflation, which possibly may have this for one of its purposes. He has varied his severer labors with such mild interludes as the defence of the Crédit Mobilier | swindle and the salary larceny; for, with a wonderful disposition to be the most extrava- | gant in the assertion of what he believes to be | & popular view, he seizes especial occasions to defy ony sentiment, in order that he may | seem superior to valgar prejudices. | Since mflation in the House is somewhat | in the haads of this gentleman as leader or | driver, it may be conceived that, though | temporarily delayed, no great quantity of | | grass will grow under the feet with which it | | goes forward. He has given the country | beforehand some glimpse of his plan. His | propositicn was, first, to pass the Merrimon | bill from tae Senate, which adds ninety | millions to the currency, because this, wider cover of one of its clauses, legalizes and con- dones the course of the Secretary of the Treas- | ury in issuing twenty-six milions of legal | tenders. Mr. Butler does not believe the ‘foolish’ enough to because it is a mod- veto that measure, Edwin Booth, and laboring with that dis- tinguished artist to premote a Shakespearian | revival, undertakes the manag’ ut. Mr. Boucicault also is interested in the house, and, under these circumstances, the public will be ‘disappointed if the New Park Theatre falls short of the excellence whick its associations and management give a right to expect. Tae ScHoorsnir Menccry bas arrived at | this port after a five months’ cruise. now nearly five years since this vessel was placed in commission, and during that time she has liberally supplied the navy with sea- men recruited from the young waits of this city. The Commissioners of Chanties and Correction may well be proud of the results of their enterprise in fitting out this ship for the purpose of training the vagrant boys placed under their care for the navy and merchant service, and every one will gladly re-echo the -wish of Captain Pierre Giraud, of the Mercury, that the day be not far distant when every large seaport city will have its schoolships lixe New York. They will prove of incaleu- Jable benefit as vreventives of crime, | erate inflation and protects the President It is | and his Cabinet, but he is evidently | of opinion that he President may interpose the veto power al some point, so he will at least make sure o’ all he can get under that bill, and then, veto or no veto, he will try for more; or,to use his own refined and classical terms, hewill “spit on his hands and take another heave’” He has another thought, however, in acting immediately on the Senate bill besides that of naking certain of the beg- garly ninety millias it adds to the paper money. His other tlought is that he will pase that bill merely “tc establish the principle” that inflation is the yolicy of the majority in Congress. He will sétle that fact beyond dis- pute es a wise prelimhary to further advances. Having passed that masure simply ‘as estab- lishing the principle » which Congress means to act,” he will then proceed to inflate the currency—will take upthose steps of inflation proper which have ben contemplated from the first by the men wh now have Congress in their power. This pogrammo is now ina Literature. There are only two genuine literary sensa- tions—a new book bya great author and a | great book by a new author. Very few books have been published during the season which come under either category. Forster, in com- pleting his biography of Dickens, finished a work whose object was in itself sufficient to make the work great. Victor Hugo, in his “Ninety-three,"’ gave us one of those peculiar pleasures he will never cease to give us while he lives. But all of the great English and American oracles have been silent. ‘The Parisians’ and ‘‘Kenelm Chillingly’’ belong | to the year that is past, and Bulwer to the past | altogether. We have had no really great novel by a living hand since ‘‘Middlemarch.”’ |; Tennyson is silent, and so are Longfellow and Lowell. Carlyle has not given usa book in a long while, and we are not aware that Emerson has anything new in the fur- nace of his brain. The fecund Whittier, who gave us a new book almost every year from 1856 to 1873, seems loitering in the byways of literature. Darwin, Herbert Spencer and Hurley are as quiet as if the doctrine | of evolution could work out its own justifica- tion. There is nothing new in poetry, phil- osophy or history, even the younger poets— Morris, Buchanan and Swinburne, Bret Harte, John Hay and Jcaquin Miller—being eontent to rest on the laurels already gathered. The | great autbors are doing nothing, or working so quietly that we hear little of them, and the new authors apparently fear to tempt the smile of criticism. Among our young men Julian Hawthorne alone announces a new book, and we trust to get something soon again from Harriet Prescott’s florid pen. Miss | Norah Perry has a volume of her fugitive poems in the press, and we may expect, when | her songs are gathered together, a revelation of plaintive and wailing subtlety that no other American woman has shown. In his- torical writing a new mine has been opened, and before the season closes we shail have a pretty free discussion of the last three or four decades of the Republic. A life of Sumner, two lives of Chase and a new life of Lincoln are promised. Mr. Gideon Welles has given ‘us much secret history of Mr. Lin- coln’s administration in his recent volume on ‘Lincoln and Seward,” and Mr. Nathan Sar- gent is doing an almost similar service for the administration of the late President Fillmore. These numerous volumes must compel a com- pleter study of our recent history and of the men who figured in politics before and during the rebellion. All this we may expect will lead in the end to a history of the transi- tion period in republican America as vivid as that with which Macaulay surprised the last generation by his history of the transition period in English monerchy. The tendency of the next ten years in American literature will be toward biographical and historical writing, and it will scarcely be until after we thoroughly understand our history and our- selves—especially the changes introduced into our civilization by the new agencies of the railroad, the telegraph and the power press— that the coming American novelist will ap- pear. Just now we are too much amazed at the changes wrought in the recent historical period fully to understand them, and even our literature will have to wait upon our studies of ourselves and our surroundings. Tse Rexiciovs CoNPERENoES. In Now York and our sister city, Brooklyn, our Meth- odist friends are sitting in sclemn conference. The meeting to-day, it is expected, will be more than usually interesting. Brother Ferris, it is understood, will be heard in the matter of the ‘commutation ticket.’ The Doctor does not deny that he did something which was very wrong. It will be well if he is able to explain the affair in a manner satis- state of enanended vitaliv: but the vroaeed- factorv to the Conference and the vublic zen- money. If anybody doubts this let him study | wonder people ever thought them worthy | onal. ibis, espiskiase’ ladion aio’ ty ba heard at the Brooklyn Conference at half-past ten A.M. We wish the ladies success. It will not be well if the Conference gives them the cold shoulder. The cause they represent is a good one, and it is the duty of all the charches to give the ladies advice and en- conragement. ‘The Labors of the Legisiatare. No good reason can be given why the Legis- lature at Albany should not perform its work within the term of one hundred days, as fixed by the constitution. It takes but little legis- lation to keep the machinery of our State gov- ernment in runningorder. All that is noeded annually might be transacted in forty working days. If the Legislature would give six in place of four days out of the week to the dis- charge of the public business no necessity would arise for an extra session. Take away the volume of special legislation, from which all the corruption springs, and the bulk of measures affecting the people of the whole State appears very small. Noxt Wednesday the one hundred days expire, and if we look for what has been done we shall find little of | general interest. It is true, this Legislature is relatively ahead of that of last year. A large number of bills concerning private in- terests and private individuals have been passed. The ono for which the people of this city most eagerly ask, that of rapid transit, is still to be acted on, With this settled, wo | could afford to let every other measure wait | until next year. t The amendments to the constitution have been disposed of, and it only remains to pass some measure directing the method of their submission to the people. The committeos retain a number of bills in their possession which are of more or less importance. In the Canal Committee the Canal Funding | bill vegetates. This is an important , measure to the people of the entire State. It aims at | radical reform by throwing the canals on their | own resources and making them self-sustain- | ing. Nobody will deny that the canals have | been a source of great corruption and most | shameless plunder. The State is annually robbed for their pretended support, and re- | form in their management seems utterly un- attainable. The bill for the consolidation of | the city and county of New York should by | all means pass. The double-headed monstros- | ity that exists is responsible for countless | frauds on the city treasury. Another bill that | recommends itself is the one providing for a | return to the contract system of performing work for the city and doing away with the expensive mode of opening streets by special | commissions. Still another is the one look- ing to the organization of the new territory an- nexed to New York. The three towns of West- chester that have cast in their fortunes with | us are in deplorable chaos as far as their mu- | nicipal affairs’ are concerned. The bill will | require careful scrutiny, so that nothing | creeps in to enable the frozen-out politicians | of Westchester to prey upon the Treasury with | pretended claims. In the Assembly the bill must soon come up for debate that will settle the question whether the people of New York have a right to elect their chief financial officer. The democrats in the Legislature are | said to be restrained from voting in its favor | by the instructions of the head sachem of | Tammany Hall, It is perilous policy for the ‘big Injun” to play. The New York demo- cratic as well as republican representatives should be the mouthpiece of the people and not of a man ora party. If the gentlemen at Albany will just pass a .proper rapid transit bill we will dispense with their services for the remainder of this year of grace. English Honors to American Astrono- mers. The valuable information communicated by our Washington correspondent on the prog- ress of astronomy in this country, published elsewhere, demands more than a passing no- tice, for we find that our English rivals have not been slow to recognize the great ad- vances made in the United States—greater than have been made in other countries dur- ing the same period of time. Ina few weeks the expedition now fitting out will sail for dis- tant waters to observe the transit of Venus. It will have some of our dccomplished as- tronomers on board, and their work, we hope, will equal that detailed in our interesting let- ter. The record of discovery is unusually brilliantin astronomical triumphs, Five more asteroids have been discovered, four of the five by Petersand Watson. The work of Pro- fessor Peters, of Clinton, N. Y.; of Professor Yarnail, of the United States Naval Observa- tory; the illustrations of astronomical phe- nomena by Professor Winlock, of ‘Harvard; the successes of Dr. J. B. A. Gould; the discovery of two hundred double stars ky Mr. Burnham, of Chicago, and _ the just tribute to Professor gNewcomb, of the United States Naval Observatory, indicate a progress which does not surprise us at the testimonials of the Royal Astronomical Society. We can take even a wider view of our national successes. Professor Bond gave a new satellite to Saturn; Miss Mitchel received a gold medal from Denmark’s King for the discovery of a comet, and Tuttle and Ferguson have assisted to swell the number of planets, discovered by Americans to nearly fifty. The magnitude of the labors of these devoted scientists can best be appreciated when we note that Dr. Gould, of the Dudley Observatory, with his assistants, Mr. Thorne and Mr. Bachman, have been observing tour hundred zones, embracing fifty thousand stars, in the Southern Hemisphere, and which they have beer. photographing after the method of Mr. Rutherford, our own distinguished ama- teur. Mr. Burnham's discoveries furnish a good example of the quality of our American work, when we read that he has found ‘pairs of double stars which had escaped the notice of the two Herschels, the Struves, Dames and other double-star observers. Pro- fessor Newcomb bore off the gold medal for his eminence as an astronomer, and the late Captain M. F. Maury is remembered as dis- tinguished in the department to which he had devoted the labors of a lifetime. Although these honors come to us with gratification, we should not forget that there are hundreds of others doing quiet, effectual work in all depart- menta of American science—Professor J. H. C. Coffin, in mathematics and nautical astron- omy; Professor Nourse, in the same depart- ment: Goneral Mver and Thomoson B, Maury. Two essential bills—the Appropriation and | Supply—have been more rapidly advanced. | a Me 8 ek Aan ge } rr , in the signal pe Professors Hayden and Gardiner, in geology and geography, besides Clarence King, Lieutenant G. M. Wheeler, Commodore Wyman, Professor Peirce, Gon- eral A. A. Humphreys, W. H. Dall, in their own specialties; and many others whose names are familiar to the public. We hope that these gentlemen will continue to exhibit the same commendable enthusiasm and energy which are earning renown for the na- tional name among all the academies of the Old World. The Romance of Nineteen Bricks. Crime has its romances as well as love ; but romantic crime in New York has no parallel, either in wickedness or grim humor, to the story revealed in the Henaup yesterday and to-day. The plain Dr. Uhling, of Eldridge Street, has swollen to the magnificence of Le Chevalier Ernest do Bagnicki, and his wife, while she consented to call him Ubling, pre- | ferred to keep her own name, which turns out to be Mme. Marie de Bagnicki, née de Szent Ivanykyi. George Lippardscould not have in- vented anything half as fine for a novel, and they brighten a police report with a lustre that makes the dreary stories from the Tombs assume a brilliant glory that can only be described as Bagnickian. It is true the crime, or rather crimes, to which these names lend a romance that is exceptional even among criminal romances, were vulgar enough. There was, presumably, malepractice, that most terrible of all offences, and then an effort to swindle an insurance com- pany by a pretended death and burial. But | there was fun in the coffin. A suspicion of murder by malepractice caused the exhuma- tion of the supposed body, when nineteen bricks were found nicely coddled together in the casket. ‘This was the first chapter in this romantic crime, and, could bricks speak, they would reveal a terrible story to walls that have ears. They would tell how the dainty hands of a Chevalier manipulated them and finally honored them with a decent and respectful funeral. They might even reiate their sus- picions of the Chevalier, or say outright that they knew Uhling to be Bagnicki from the be- ginning. They might, give some charming gossip about the young woman who had occu- pied their resting place before the Chevalier persuaded them to take it. They might even give a clew to the whereabouts of the young woman herself, for up to the present time the only capital offence of which the Doctor can be convicted is the murder of nineteen bricks. So magnificent a man as the Chevalier can never be convicted of murdering a vulgar brick, though a Bagnicki might condescend to bury nineteen of them in one coffin and a common grave. Already these bricks have been heard to the disadvantage of the Chevalier physician. They have defeated his case against the in- surance company, for the burial of nineteen bricks is a very different thing from the death of a young woman | whose life was insured. But what has become of the woman? And how did she behave toward the nineteen bricks which took her place in the hod? Did she regard the operation of placing them there as bricklaying and the Chevalier as a bricklayer? Did the Chevalier himself catch the ludicrous side of the situation and look upon the pall-bearers as hod carriers? All these things must be revealed on the trial, and if the Chevalier is acquitted he mjzht find employment as an insurance agent. His “cheek’’ should not be wasted on a calling: requiring less of it than he has shown him- self to possess. As for the undertaker, his story seems about as limp as the pony he placed in the cot coffin, Our Daca Proreces oN THE Pxains.— The Indian Commissioners out West, who undertake to take poor Lo in hand and cure him of his scalping and thieving propensities by powwows and wordy argument, have met with a significant rebuff from the redoubtable Spotted Tail and his tribe. The old chief, who has only temporarily retired from the tomahawking business, was indignant at the invitation of the Commissioners to move on, and expressed himself in terms more forcible than polite. The rudeness of the language of one of those painted savages would not matter tauch were it not generally followed by the scalping knife. Peace policy seems to be thrown away upon them, and the most efficient argument in the case has always been the rifle. The Chesterfieldian suavity of modern Commissioners ouly excites the de- rision and contempt of such shining aborigines as Spotted Tail. One stern command from Sheridan or Custer is the a thousand peace powwows. Cuna.—A novel mode of emancipation has been adopted by the Spanish government. All the slaves furnished to the government, in accordance with the decree issued during the administration of Captain General Jovellar, are to be organized as soldiers under white officers. The term of service is to be five years, at the expiration of which they are to be declared free. enough. It will be an immediate convenience to the government. In the long ran, how- ever, it will make the negroes masters of the situation. Once the negroes are thoroughly trained to the use of arms they will not sub- mit to the domination of the white man. Do as she may, Spain cannot much longer bold on to Cuba. Pity she cannot see that she would be better without it. But for Cuba Spain to-day might have been a prosperous Republic. A Maritime Lancuace.—We Unsivens have, by the conrtesy of a distingnished | officer of the United States Navy, received a | copy of “The International Code of Signals for the Use of Al! Nations.” ‘This volume should be in the hands of every ship, schooner or sloop owner ‘in the world, as it is a com- plete and intelligible system by which craft of all nationalities anc classes can communicate with each other when at sea. Nearly all the maritime governments have adopted it, and it can be used by ships though their officers may be unable to employ any other language incommon. The code is admirably organ- ized, consisting of a series of phrases current on the sea, besides a geographicai index and a signal cipher, extremely neat and simple. In future editions of this work we hope that the editor will make provision for the different yachts om our coast, and for the revents squadron as well, in order that they may avail themselves of the advan- tages of the language. This work suggests to us many improvements which might be made in all the axiating avgtama .bv which travel on The plan seems good | the ocean might be rendored leas dangerous and certainly more expeditious and sstie- factory. We should have fixed steam lanes, the erection of an international tribunal tor the government of commerce anda system of rigorous laws, by which careless command- ers could be punished for criminal negligence resuiting in loss of life. The Sermons Yesterday. As there was nothing new or exciting smong the kingdoms of earth the clergy of this city and Brooklyn yesterday favored their flocks with a few thoughts upon the kingdom of heaven. There can be no doubt that a good old-fashioned sermon has its advantages now and then, even though it is a little surprising to find the preachers nowadays contenting themselves and their hearers with a plain doctrinal discourse. After informing his people that some “gifted artists” were to give a concert in his church, and that the “gifted doors’ of the meeting house would open at half-past seven o'clock, Mr. Beecher proceeded to prove that the kingdom of God is in the individual and not in the Church. Many of the teaders of the Hzzaup will disa- gree with the distinguished pastor of Plym- outh church on this point—a fact which will make his sermon especially interesting to them. At the Church of the Messiah, in Thirty- fourth street, the Rev. Dr. Cudworth preacheé @ sermon on the aspirations of humanity to- wards God. It goes over the old ground of a universal belief in a Supreme Being, which cannot be too often recounted in a doubting age. Dr. Taylor, at the Broadway Tabérnacle, gave what was, indeed, a common sense view of religion in daily life, and our very full re- port of his practical discourse should not es- cape general perusal. It isa subject that can- not be too often touched upon by the clergy of all denominations. Bishop Potter deliv- ered a confirmation address at St. John’s chapel. Outside of the doctrinal sermons we have reports of the dedication of a Universalist church in Williamsburg, the Rev. Dr. Chapin preaching the sermon, together with our usual notes of the other churches in the sister cities. While we need not commend these discourses to our readers, either in general or particular, because they are certain to find readers without any special commendation, we may again point to the absence of sensational topics among our clergy and remark the interest of the purer subjects to which they devoted themselves. Pulpit'themes, embracing that simple duty so faithfully performed by the old pastor de- scribed in “The Deserted Village,” whose work it was to “allure to brighter worlds and lead the way,” are something of a novelty, and if our clergy chose them more frequently they might oftener realize some of the fratits of that labor in finding that even in their own work, sometimes, ‘fools * who came to scoff remained to pray.’’ After all, the old-fashioned preaching is the best, and even if it is worldly reputation that is - desired it is plain that the repute of a Jonathan Edwards is more lasting than the fame that comes and goes with the occasion that gave it birth. Strife After Death. We can think of nothing more ill-advised than the publication at this time of the sup- pressed speech of Charles Sumner giving his version of his difficulty with the President on the St. Domingo question. This criticism is upon the ‘friends’ of Sumner who made the publication, not upon the journals that, of course, made the pub- lication as a matter of news. This digging up the bones of the dead to be used as missiles for political combat is the meanest thing that has been done in our politics for a long time. This is saying a great deal, for our politiciana have done so many mean things to one another that no gentleman can think of pub- lic life without fear and trembling. In this instance there was every reason for the suppres- sion of Mr. Sumner’s speech, at least until the time whén it would bea literary and historical curiosity. He had not delivered it himself or consented to its publication. That in itself shows that he felt that it should not be pub- lished. Then, Sumner was not a coward, and he would not have aimed a blow from the grave. He was in active public life to within a few hours of his death. If any wise purpose were to be served by this speech he was the judge, and the only judge. For his executors or party associates to assume that they knew better than the Senator what was due to his State and the country was to outrage the memory of the man they claimed to serve. We do not take into account the merits of the question. We have no doubt many things were done and said by Mr. Sumner, as well as | by the President and Mr, Fish, during that heated St. Domingo time, which they all re- gretted. No fact is better known, for in- stance, than that Sumner himself always felt that be should have, as a supporter of the administration, called upon the President and frankly mentioned his reasons for opposing St. Domingvu before he made his sudden as- sault in the Senate. Had this.been done the treaty would most likely have been withdrawn or modified. We say that Sumner always re- gretted that he had not done this; and, per- haps, the feeling that he had not been alto- gether free from indifference in regard to the Presideat may have inspired him with the resolution not’ to pursue the matter auy further. This speech does not exalt Mr. Sumner. It isa very human speech, fall of temper and vexation and littleness of detail and per- sonal complaints. We could understand a Senator in ill health writing such an address, but we can never imagine the intrepid and glorious Sumer actually rising in his place and discussing to a listening Senate what passed between Mr. Fish and himself at his own table, orintimatizg that he really thought the President was eager to engage with him in a duel, or that he dreaded a personal en- counter with General Babcock. The morg we look at it the more painful and pitiful it bee comes, dishonoring in the last degree to the foolish en who could rifle the grave of dead Senator to make war upon a living Presi- dent. Are cur political relations to become so bitter that even death will not grant us truce? Shall we carry our small quarrels and strifes beyond the gravo? Is it possible that. we shall ever feel that, before everything else in the world, fame, success, partyypower and political emelument, it is incumbent upon as to be gentlemen, and that no gentleman would treat the memory of a friend sa Mr, Suamor’a has been treated?