The New York Herald Newspaper, April 22, 1874, Page 8

NEW YORK HERALD| BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, pubitshea every day tn the rear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription Trice $12, All business or news letters and telegraphic @espatches must be addressed New York ‘Hunan. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. es 2 ‘LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. fubscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. Volume XXXIX. TRE, -third street. homme ses at 10:45 F. Miss BOOTH’S TH en #ixth avenue, corner of T AND JULIs1, at 5 P. Jeilson BOWERY THEATRE, )LD SLEUTH TUE Dé TECTIVE, and VARI. RTAINMENT. Begins at 8 P. M.; closes at 1 METROPOLITAN THEATRE, No. 58 Broadway. —VAk RILEY ENTERTAINMENT, at 745 P.M. ; closes at 1030 NIB. Fourteenth st LAINE, ausP. —Miss Cushman’s A UIAVOLO, at Fourteenth : uline Lucea, Cary, Capoul, Scolara. WOOD'S MUSEUM, rot Thirtieth strest —LADY AUDLEY'S P £423) PM. “WHE GAM- RLE Ss at 1030P.M. Mr. Dom inick } PARK THEATRE, ‘Broeie ay — Twenty-second street.—LOVE'S PEN- ANCE, at I, M.; closes'at Il |. Charles Fechter. GERMANIA yor eY nth street, near c eving, place. msiaRre STUART, oP. M.; closes at 11 P. hek. DALY'S FIFTH AVE) THE. ‘Twonty-cighth street and Broadway.—MONSIEUR ALPHONSE, at 8 P. M.: closes at 10:30 P.M. Miss Ada Dyas, Miss Vaony Davenport, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Clark. THEATRE COMIQUE, No. _ Broadway. “Fe pee ENTERTAINMEST, at 8 J. M. ; closes at 10:30 P, ATRE, WALLACK’S THEATRE, *Broadway and Thirteenth street.—THE VETERAN, ats Y.M.; closes at iP, M. Mr. Lester Wallack,” Miss Meffreys Lewis. MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, ‘Washington street. near Fulton ueeae Brooklyn. — pope Lk 47, at 5 P.M.; closes atlil.M. Miss Clars orris. OLYMPIC 1HEATRE, Peal ay, between Houston and Bleecker streets — TC OENILEL und, NOVELTY" ENTERIAINMEN!, at G6 P.M. :closes at 10:45 P.M. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Fignth avenue and Twenty-third street—TICKET-OF GcaVE MAN, at 8 P. M.; closes at 11 P.M. = Mr. and Dirs. Florence. BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway, opposite | Washington — p.ace HUM: DUMETY AT HOME, &o., at2 POM. 5 etbses at @:3) PM. ; at SP. M.; closes at UP. M. GL. Fo: NEW PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN, HOLMAN’S ENGLISH OPERA BOUFFE, at 8 P. M. TONY PASTOR’S OPERA HOUSE, Ro. = Rowery.—V ARIETY ENTER? A P.M. ; closes at 5:30 P.M. ; , at Sr’, BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSPF, {Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue.-NEGRO MIN- WeTRELSY, dc.. at 8 P.M. ; closes at 10 P.M. ROBINSON HALL *Bixteenth sireet.—ART ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 P. M, M, roadway, corner is Tatery: fitth street.—LONDON IN ae att M.; closes at 5 P, M. Same at7 P. M.; closes QUADRUPLE SHEET. New York, Weanestay, Apel 3 22, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabili- ties are that the weather to-day will be generally clear. Tue Senate has acted on the advice of the Heratp and adopted the concurrent resolu- tion as amended by the Assembly fixing the final adjournment of the Legislature on April 30, a week from next Thursday. There is yet ‘time to make a good record for the session of ‘1874, if the honest members of both houses rwill now set earnestly to work to pasgan effective rapid transit bill for New York and tto act on such other measures as the interests of the city and the State demand. Inriation. .—The inflation bill now before Abe President for his approval hangs sus- mpended between heaven and earth, like Mo- ‘hammed’s coffin. The President evidently gives the matter his most careful considera- ‘tion. There are no indications as to what his action will be. At the same time this matter should be settled. It will bea great deal to ‘know the exact attitude of the President. ‘Delay is almost as bad as the inflation meas- rare itself. The country has a right to expect ® prompt decision from General Grant, for, waiter all, he is our constitutional President ‘end not the Shah of Persia. Tar Dexvcr.—We print this morning full nd most interesting details regarding the floods onthe Mississippi. No such floods (have occurred in many years. It is not to be denied that the inundations have brought sorrow to hundreds and thousands of families. ince the Chicago and Boston fires we have had no suck national calamity. The sympathy ‘which was then evoxed will not now be want- ting. The American people were never unkind, nd we have no doubt that the appeals for Ihelp will be promptly responded to. As the Present trouble is not new it is but fair to say bat science shovid come to our aid. Such «calamities ought to be foreseen and provided Mor. jeood government. Coneress aNd tHE Mormons.—The Ju- ‘diciary Committee has reported a bill to abolish the dual courts existing in Utah and lace the whole judicial authority in the fisted States Court, where it onght to be. more serious step is the proposed exclusion of Mormons from juries. This looks very like imposing Sf Congress has the power to impose dis- ‘abilities upon the Mormons has it not the | game right to visit any other obnoxious sect with similar punishment ? Such exercises of power are dangerous precedents and ought mot to be lightly attempted. If Mormon jurors fail in their duty let the law punish them; but a law denying them equal rights with other citizens is a measure of pro- scription not in accordance with the liberal * ppirit of this century. ious disabilities, and | NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1874.-QUADKUPLE SHEET, Municipal Tyrants—‘A Plague on Both Your Houses!” With thirty tyrants, more or less, in power this should be, politically, a happy city; for, of course, every individual tyrant of the number is resolved to make us happy if he can, espe- cially if in so doing he can see a fair oppor- tunity to improve the appearance of his own bank account; and nearly all of them do see this opportunity, so that if the people have no great reason to congratulate themselves upon the result the fault must be in their stars. Just now we ought to be happier than ever, for the tyrants are in a state of special activity, since this is the season devoted from time immemorial to the prepara- tion of ‘‘slates,"’ In this season of blos- soms, for our political phraseology assumes, for special purposes, an Indian style, the wise men put their heads together, or as near together as seems safe, in view of the fact that their tempers are often uncertain, and reconcile, if they may, their claims and counter-claims for office and plunder. In their own words, they make ‘a slate."’ Now, a slate is @ treaty, and the high contracting parties to the treaty are the city .tyrants—as many of them as happen to be in power or fancy that they can get into power. Each has & protocol of his own—a scheme for the dis- tribution of power and patronage as he would like it; but each expects to give way on some or any point if he can gain an equivalent advantage on some other point, and the slatemaking is an exercise of mutual bluffing and concession. Sketched out in the spring, it is more amply discussed through the summer. Anciently these plans ripened at Rockaway or even Coney Island, and then on the flat sand about the now generally furgotten Ocean House, and then at Indian Harbor, and now, perhaps, the process of slatemaking is perfected at Long Branch or kindred pcints of general attraction and revelry. Some changes take place in the summer, perhaps, and the battle comes in the fall. “So was it ee our lives began ;"’ s0 is it now when we understand it a great deal better, and the principal changes that have taken place have been in the personal names of the tyrants who thus bargained away the popular power and in the places where they talked their plans over on the starry summer nights. Our Ring men were the pupils and acolytes of Fernando Wood, and as Fernando received the tradition from his seniors he oonveyed it to his juniors. That municipal Cesar, however, was too logical. He saw that, despite the pretty political fiction of the supremacy of the peo- ple, the true supremacy was in a dozen or two party leaders, and he could not see why the process of concentration might not be carried still further and the political su- premacy of the metropolis be gathered neatly under Mr. Wood’s hat. His: endeavor to realize that dream brought hideous ruin and confusion down on his fortunes. it put him in collision with Tammany Hall, and the gov- ernment of the city fell into the hands of men whom Wood had trained and who now readily crowded him out, only to be crowded out in their turn; and still in the name of virtue, re- form, good government, economy and abstrac- tions of that sort. All those ring tyrants were crowded out by the pretty group of tyrants now in power. These are Mr. Have- meyer, the Mayor; Mr. Green, the Comp- troller; Mr. Van Nort, the Commissioner of Public Works ; Messrs. Charlick and Gard- ner, Police Commissioners, and, of course, all the tyrants together in the Board of Alder- men. All these are reformers of. the most beautiful stripe. They were carried into office on the wave of a popular uprisirg in the name of virtue; but they are just like all | the others. Under tyrant Green and tyrant Havemeyer the city is governed quite as poorly as it ever was before, and the govern- ment costs a great deal more. In the name ot economy the city has been made bankrupt ; in the name of good administration it has no administration at all. Virtue, economy, clean streets and a non-partisan police, these were tho cries on which Mayor Wood was driven to the exile and outer darkness of a seat in Congress; but let the public see what progress we have made, con- sidering our condition now, on all these points. For economy especially, see Mr. Green’s accounts. For virtue, the streets and sundry similar particulars, witness the edify- ing spectacle of a Board of reform Aldermen urging upon a reform Mayor the imperative necessity of impeaching and removing a re- form Board of reformed Police Commissioners for malfeasance and corrupt practices in office. We were to have rosy ties when the Tammany Ring fell. There was to be no more corruption, no more squandering ot resources, no further encouragement to crime and political debauchery. This great city, which had been plundered by one combina- tion, was to be recreated by another combina- tion. The dishonor of a tainted government had been removed and we were to have a new, fresh, vigorous government, un- doing all the evil that had been perpetrated by the Tammany Ring and doing the thou- sand things its leaders had failed to do in their rapacious tenure of power. But what has been the result? In what respect have we improved upon. the infamous reign of Tammany Hall? Tweed is in prison, under- going, we believe, a just sentence; but wherein have we improved on Tweed? Take all the higher essentials of munic- ipal government—the paving of the streets, the building of the elevated and underground railways, of docks and bridges, the comple- ia | tion of the Court House and other public build- It is simply a question of prevision and | ings, the beautifying of the parks and squares, and in what respects have the new tyrants improved on the old? How much better are we governed? ‘These men are not supposed to steal—at all events any transactions of that nature have not been made manifest to a jury—but as a city we are no better. Everything turns to the aggrandizement of the leaders and the best*methods of winning power. Let nobody for a moment suppose that these appeals of presumed honesty against presumed dishonesty have any relation what- ever to the interests of the people. The sub- stantial interest of the people is the only thing for which no person of. any party cares a button, All this cry in the name of one or another clique of the parties in office or out of office is part of the slatemaking activity. When the tyrants have pulled one protocol sufficiently to pieces and put points from another in its place; when out of the interests of this or that clique of hunters for places they have made a plan and & programme for the fall campaign, and, abovo all, when they have carried their plan at the polls we shall hear no more of this spasmodic virtue for a while. All the tyrants who are out roar handsomely now. Mr. Kelly and Mr. Fox and the surviving braves of Tammany generally are now gathering together the embers of extinct coun- cal fires, fanning and nursing the vitality of the old wigwam; and it is part of the tradition to do it all in the name of the people; but the people have very little account in it. For them it is merely a choice of tyrants, and in the choice so far as appears at present only one fact is certain—they cannot be worse off than they are now. We are not sure that ad- versity has taught the Tammany tyrants any useful lesson, but we do know that the virtue of the other side is the most rotten articlo that appears on the whole political horizon; and while it is not conceivable that any future tyrants can be worse than those we have the hope must be indulged that if a change shall be in store for us it may be an improvement. American Honors to the Memory of Dr. Livingstone. The American Geographical Society will commemorate the public and private virtues of the greatest of modern travellers on Thurs- day evening, at the Academy of Music. The tribute will be a just one, and in the selec- tion of the speakers the society has evidently called the meeting with a view to make the oc- casion one of national not local grief. Ora- tors like Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Hayes and Dr. Adams can hardly fail to present the un- exampled career of the missionary-traveller in language worthy of enduring form. Living- stone's character was essentially American— bold, broad, comprehensive and always prac- tical. When he unfolded to mankind, but a few years before his death, that wonder- ful region of Africa lying on either side of the Lualaba, he did not forget to put a great spot on the map of that Continent and call it Lake Lincoln, doing by that act more to perpetuate American emancipa- tion than has been done by the countrymen of the great President themselves. Nor should it be forgotten that his qualities as a traveller were of the rarest kind—those of a peaceful nature, a patience that could never be exhausted, a firmness that sought success by other chan- nels than childish obstinacy and puerile revenge. There are great travellers, so- called, who think it a fine thing to be “resolute,”’ to make war on savages and treat them as if they had the intelligence of a European soldiery. This mode of travelling, while it may be full of adventure, is folly, and always ends in a disaster to the one who employs it. Had Livingstone, in his long walks over the most dangerous regions of hitherto unexplored Africa, sought to obtain satisfaction and indemnity from a barbarian chief because the negro had alluded to his color in disrespectful terms, we could per- ceive no chivalry in the proceeding, nor would it have had other results than to stir up anger and prepare a series of ambushes for future explorers. If we were to sum up his life and select that portion which seems to us the greatest we would say:—Where Living- stone has travelled others can travel too; he has been the best representative that the Cau- casian race could send to make the acquaint- ance of new peoples, for he neither cheated, oppressed nor slew them, but gave them a strong appetite to know more of that civiliza- tion of which he was an unblemished ex- emplar. Steam Lanes and Summer Travel. Recently we printed an authenticated statement that less than twenty thou- sand persons would sail for Europe os cabin passengers during the season just in- augurated. Although this large diminution, as compared with the exodus of 1873, is in no small degree ascribed to the baneful effects of the panic, it is admitted by the steamship proprietors themselves that the recent disasters have frightened thousands of our summer tourists. The man uncertain as to what he will do with several months of leisure proposes a transatlantic voyage. It is not his own life alone which he must con- sider, a delicate wife or child has to be per- suaded, and to-day it is an almost hopeless task. Of course all travel is surrounded by dangers ; life itself, even in the most serene hamlet, may be extinguished by ao dire and sudden visitation. But a succes sion of calamities on the Atlantic— calamities arising as much from negli- gence and avarice as from any other causes—have produced a deep-seated feeling in the community that a pas- sage to Europe is not a journey of absolute safety. We do not belive that there is any reason for the general alarm that would seem to provail. Because a vessel or two vessels are lost during tempestuous weather and from defects which could not be ascertained it by no means follows that foundering at sea is to become a daily pastime. Yet the system of navigation on the Atlantic, as on every open sea, is inherently defective. Hoe is not an old man who remembers the first steamship—the Savannah—that ever made the transatlantic voyage, and since that day, although it has been followed by about eight thousand more, we have never had a general system of ocean travel laid down. In fine, fixed routes— absolute ‘‘steam lanes’’—have only been pro- posed. To estimate the amount of experience and valuable knowledge that might be col- lated from these twenty-four million miles of travel would hardly be possible, but we as- sume that the result would be more than ample to define those ‘‘steam lanes’’ for which the Hzratp has so persistently fought, and for the immediate establishment of which we ask the co-operation of Congress and the maritime nations, Was rr Guycertvz.—The cause of the com- motion at Bald Mountain seems to be as diffi- cult of solution as is the identity of the man who strack Mr. William Patterson. A few weeks ago, on the authority of a Bald Moun- tain justice of the peace, we were informed that the rumbling was a miraculous answer of Providence to the prayer of Parson Owensby, the revivalist. Now comes a correspondent of the Knoxville Press and Herald, who declares that the noise and quaking are caused by work- men blasting at Boggen’s Cut with nitro-glyce- rine. Whether we are indebted to Pluto or glycerine for the phenomena the scientists have not decided; but there is no doubt about the benefits resulting, as we are told that ‘the quaking has cansed fifty-five conversions to religion, broken up twenty-seven illicit distil- leries, driven out the ravenue officials and caused the sudden flight of a sorry preacher.” Have the crusaders, after all, accomplished for religion and humanity as much as this poor, unproductive mountain on the North Carolina border? Our Venerable Statesmen. We are afraid this isa bad time for rising statesmen, not only in Europe, but in America. The brilliant young Alexanders and Napoleons, who came like meteors to dazzle the world, have faded away, and we are now ruled by the grave and reverend seniors of politics and so- ciety. In Europe the three most powerful men now living are Thiers, the Pope and the Em- peror William. The Holy Father is over eighty, while the Emperor and the ex-President are each bordering on fourscore. It is not long since Palmerston died in the fulness of power at an extreme old age, while Mr. Disraéli becomes Premier at seventy, and shows so much activity that the gossips insist upon marry- ing him, as though he were a young buck skipping around society, We can understand this reverence for age in Europe, but we have never been supposed to have an undue reverence in our American character. We think, however, that we have mis- taken ourselves all this while. In Peun- sylvania we see Simon Cameron in the full activity of power, although he is approaching eighty, the commander of the administration forces, and laying his plans for twenty years’ more rule, In New York we have a trium- virate of venerable fathers, three of the oldest men who have ever lived, and who to-day wield more power than any crowd of young statesmen who ever controiled the destiny of the State. We refer to Thurlow Weed, John A. Dix and Mayor Havemeyer. Mr. Weed is now seventy-seven years of age, and yet thinks no more of his semi-weskly trip to Albany to.counsel the ‘‘boys” and train up their youthful minds in the occult mysteries of legislation than he did fifty years ago, when he was developing the subtle genius of Seward. Greeley, who was one of his boys, has gone, and Seward also, and nearly all the men who acted with him in his prime. But the veteran still lives on, and is to-day more powerful than at any time in his extraordi- nary and memorable career. The second member of the triumvirate, John A. Dix, is put down in the his- tories as seventy-six. But this is, no doubt, a printer’s error, for the Governor is certainly eighty-six. He was in the war against Great Britain in 1812, and that was. more than sixty years ago. Moreover, he shows all the activity and courage of a young man of ninety. There is nothing like the pluck of your young heroes when they have preserved their youth for the best part of a century.” Governor Dix shows the true young man’s zeal. See how he hangs the murderers and disdains all sentimental ap- peals for mercy. Observe his resonant and timely appeal for the national honor, which rung out like a bugle call'and made every citizen of New York proud of his State. We have no modern new-fashioned youths who have the courage todo these things, for our modern youths are given to effeminacy and discussions of Herbert Spencer and the phi- losophies, The old-fashioned young men are the bone and sinew, after all. The remaining member of the trium- virate is William F. Havomeyer. Like Wellington and some other great men, the date, and even the #,0t, of Have- meyer’s birth is uncertain. But the best information is that he was born sbout eleven years before the Declaration of Independence and that he is now, therefore, in the hundred and ninth year of his age. Think of the memories that crowd into the life of this sprightly and vivacious Chief Magistrate, the oldest man in public life except Hon. Henry Bergh, President of the Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals, who is four years his senior, and remembers the horse upon which Washington rode when he fought the battle of Princeton! ‘The more we dwell upon the irrepressible vitality of Havemeyer, his fondness for eighteen-mile morning walks, arm in arm with Matsell, to inspect the pave- ments which remain as monuments of the Tammany reign; his frisky mes- sages and letters; his bubbling, efferves- cing rhetoric; his daily bouts with Foley and Van Nort, the Board of Aldermen, John Kelly and the numbers of prematurely young men who presume, with the audacity of wasted and ineffectual youth, to grapple with him, the more we are amazed, and the more profound our gratitude that he should be spared to us. Such vigor was never seen in the past, and it we could only have it ap- plied to questions like rapid transit, the paving of the streets and. the reconstruction of the city we should honor the perennial Mayor as Venice honored the old Dandolo. Who shall say hereafter that we are an irreverent people, when we are ruled by the political firm of Dix, Weed and Havemeyer, every member in the sprightly springtime of youth, and yet their united ages number more than two hundred and sixty years? Tue Antz, accomplished and miscellaneous editor of our useful contemporary, the Sun, we are happy to see, is not altogether absorbed in the rogueries at Washington, nor even in the “goodness’’ of Deacon Richard Smith. Natu- rally these topics attract the greatcr share of his attention ; but he has moments of relaxa- tion, hours of ease and indulgence, and at such times the Henatp is deemed of conse- quence enough to justify microscopic study. Appreciation is pleasant to us; for we hope we are not so bad as everybody in Wash- ington, though we know we are not so good as Deacon Richard Smith. Therefore we take especial delight in the knowledge that our columns are honored with the comprehen- sive glance of Mr. Dana, and even by his close and critical observation. It will always be a source of regret that every part of the Heraup does not equally please him, and especially that our Scriptural quotations are not always to his taste. But he does not, we believe, suf- ficiently consider that in a little sheet like the Sun these things can be very closely observed, while in o great newspaper that on some days is five times as large as the Sun, and whose advertisements alone often make paper equal in size to three copies of that journal, errors will occur and must occur, from the natura of things, and could not be preventea even if every one of | our subordinates were as wise, as great and as learned as Mr. Dana himself, and had his vast experience and unerring eyes for mishaps and shortcomings. But Mr. Dana has our heartiest thanks for stirring up our juniors. The Heavy City Taxation—Where Are the Leakages ? Every business man in the city of New York and every person who pays taxes knows tho fact that the taxation for the current year exceeds $39,000,000, and that all taxable property will be called upon to pay $3 40 on every $100 of its assessed value. No sophistry and no adroit mystification of figures can cover up that fact. The Comptroller and Mayor have informed us that in this taxation is in- cluded an amount for interest on the debt of 1874 $3,000,000 greater than the amount re- quired to pay the interest on the debt of 1871, thus showing that the increase of the public debt keeps pace with the increase of annual tax- ation, $3,000,000 representing the interest at seven per cent on nearly $43,000,000 of debt. The people of New York now wish to discover how it is that the expenses of governing the city are so heavy, especially at atime when there is but little activity in any of the public works, The clearest information yet afforded on this point is to be gathered from the recent report of the Commissioners of Accounts of the warrants drawn by the Comptroller on the Chamberlain for the twelve months from No- vember 30, 1872, to November 30, 1873. This report was published in the City Record of last Monday, and should be in the possession of every taxpayer of the city, instead of being hidden away in the basement of the old City Hall. It shows that the warrants drawn for the last year on all accounts amounted to $77,648,120, of which only about $22,000,000 was for nominal payment of debt, leaving about $55,000,000 as the cost of running the city and county governments for the year, in- cluding interest on the public debt and amounts paid on account of assessments. We say that the $22,000,000 was for ‘‘nominal’’ payment of debt, because, in fact, many of the bonds which appear to have been can- celled have only been taken up with the pro- ceeds of new bonds and stocks and still re- main in the public debt under another name. Fifty-five million dollars is a large amount for asingle year’s expenditure, and the taxpay- ers should closely scrutinize the report of the Commissioners of Accounts, in order to ascer- tain just where the small leakages occur; for inn government like that of New York city petty extravagancies are liable to reach in the aggregate a very large amount. Tho salaries and contingencies in the sev- eral municipal departments will best show which are managed with economy and which with prodigality. Leaving out of considera- tion the departments of Police, Fire and Edu- cation, we find the amounts of warrants drawn for last year in the other principal offices to be as follows: — COMPTROLLER'S OFFIC! Salaries, $282,885 Continyvencies and speciai levui expensea.. 37,214 Extra contingencies, Department oi Fi- nance... 89,942 DEPARTMENT OF Pustic Wonks— Salaries Contingencies and special legal expenses DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS— Salaries... $74,769 Contingenct 11,850 Total... $86,619 DEPARTMENT OF TAXES AND ASSESSMENTS— Salaries Pe coalng | Bee o daca ati Contingencies.. leseseeoes Mayor's OFFICE— Salaries and contingencies........+..++.+++ $34j970 The last published detailed report of the old Tammany government was that of 1868. We find in that year the expenses of some of the above departments to have been as follows: — Comptroller's salaries and contingencies, M $250,902 diaries and contingencies, 1863. 149,422 Public Works (then Street, Croton and City Inspector's departments), salaries and contingencies... Law—Salaries and contingen Mayor's Ofice—salaries and Col If we compare these departmental expendi- tures of 1868 with the expenditures of last year we find the following results: — COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE— Salaries and contingencies in 1873, under Mr. GY€CN.....00+0-seereeeeeees oeseeee » $300, Salaries and “contingencies in” 1868, under Conoolly.,. Increase in 1873. Pusiic Works— Salaries and contingencies of the depart- ments under the Tweed Ring, in 1868 now embraced in the Public Works) + $255,378 Salaries and contingencies in 1873.. 176,324 Decrease in 1873... LEGISLATIVE Depa Salaries and contingencies im 1 Salaries and contingencies iu 1363. . Increase in 1873... Law DBPARTMENT Salaries and contingenctes in 1873. Salaries and contingencies in 1868. Increase 1 1873......66e.se008 oe Mayor's Orrice— Salaries.and contingenoles tn 1868... Salagies and contingencies in 1873... Decrease 1M 1873..,...sesereereeeeees sees $18,958 From this it appears that the expenses of running the Mayor's Office and the Depart- ment of Public Works have materially de- creased since the profligate days of Tammany rule, while the expenses of the Comptroller's Office and of the Legislative and Law depart- ments have largely increased under the new régime. The Law Department increase is natural, since a great deal more business is done in the law now than at any former period in the history of the city government. Of the large increase ix the Finance Department, the extra contingencies, amounting to $39,942, are not properly chargeable to the expenditures of the Comptroller, since the money was mainly expended in payment of judgments and back claims for services, all of which, however, should have beon paid from and charged to other appropriations. Deducting the extra contingencies, the actual increase of the ex- perso of running the Comptroller's Office in 1373 over the ‘Ring’ rule in 1868, was $70,000. An examination of the warrants shows that a great portion of this increased expenditure is incurred under the objection- able head of “contingencies,” an item that should have no existence in the public depart- ments, But these and other leakages in the public traaanry will ha examined hareafter. EE ae The Trouble im Arkansas. ‘The volcano has broken forth in Arkansas, and we have fire and flame at last and the real shedding of blood. It is certain that the quarrel has takon a more sesious shape than. any event in the South since the war closed, with the exception of the massacre in New Orleans during the administration of Mr. Johnson. The story of this difficulty has been told so frequently that it need not be repeated now. Two politicians quarrelled for the Governor- ship of Arkansas. One claimed to be Gover- nor by the result of the popular vote ; the other contested this claim and obtained the decisior of a local Court in his favor. One contestant claimed that the Court was partial and without adequate jurisdiction ; the other insisted that the incumbent held an office to which he had been fraudulently returned. Behind each contestant was a large and angry political party anxious for power, and reckless of means and consequences so power was ob- tained. Each party strove to tempt the active interposition of the general government, but beyond making an effort to protect the tel- egraph wires and communication between Arkansas and the other States the Presidemt has done nothing. He saw very clearly that to impose the power of the federal government upon every Stale con- troversy would be to degrade and prostitute all federal dignity. He saw, further, that to make the interposition of the central power an easy matter would be the first step toward the disintegration of the government. For if President could send government troops to coerce @ municipality or a State whenever there were rumors of disaffection, then he would be constantly tempted to use his army for political purposes. We see what was done in Kansas during the time of Pierce and Bu- chanan. The whole power of the federal gov- ernment was devoted to the success of the pro- slavery party. This party wasin the minority. It had no real claim upon the government. It had no life outside of the federal authority. Yet the federal authority was desecrated to sustain it as a practical usurpation. ‘We can understand how earnestly a Presi- dent like Grant would strive to avoid the mis- takes made by Pierce and Buchanan. But on the other hand we have the duty that no Chief Magistrate can avoid without violating his oath of office. Our first blunder in dealing with the South was our failure to recognize the dependent condition of these States. We owed them 4 firm, generous, severe govern- ment, We had overturned the old condition of things and given nothing in its stead, Compelled to recognize the sudden enfran- chisement of a large, dependent ignorant | slave population, wé established the Freed-| men’s Bureau, which was to be the means of introducing the slave into an ee en. joyment of freedom. This was a work of hu- manity and duty. Like many works of that nature it was abused. The Freedmen’s Bu- reau, instead of being an agency of en- lightenment and education, was made the basis, the superstructure, of the most tyrannical governments, From this came the carpet-bag system, the enthronement of com- monwealths like South Carolina and Louis- jana. The ‘‘carpet-baggers’’ mainly went to the South as agents of the bureau, and when it was closed they remained to plunder and feed. The result is what we have seen so long in Louisiang and the Cagolinas and what we how see in Arkansas. Our best wishes go with the Southern peo- ple in their efforis to destroy the vampires who have fastened upon them and now hava their will. Our reconstruction thus far is a scandal and a shame. We have, shown that we could destroy the Confederacy, but we have not shown how to restore the Union. Arkansas js only one in a series of distressing scandals. The volcano will burn here, we presume, as it has burned elsewhere, until only the ashes remain. But if peace is to be preserved it is the President's duty to pre- serve it. Rapid Transit and Real Estate. The 1st of May comes on us rapidly, with all of its interest and excitement. This may be called the New Year of our domestic life, for the average New Yorker does not feel him- self to be really in his home’until the anni- versary is past. There is a large nomadic element in our New York character—a desire for change and movement, We presume it comes from our crude, unsettled ways; our tendencies to come nearer the opera; to reside within the sacred limits of Murray Hill; to go West. Every year, therefore, we have a new deal in our homes, and the shuffling day is the 1st of May. It is generally a season of unusual activity among our business men and especially dealers in real estate. And although there is more than ordinary business enter- prise and movemeut now the real estute mon seem to have fallen upon an unfortunate year. Some of the reasons for their misfortunes will be found in the exhaustive review of the real estate market which we print this morning. Of course the ordinary reasons for the depres- sion of business—the panic and the uncer- tainty about the financial legislation of Con- gress—have tended to depress the market. But there are, artificial reasons even more cogent. New York suffers from misgovern- ment—from a series of bad governments. We look back upon one administration of our municipal affairs after another and we see no honorable gchievement since the laying out of Central Park. ‘Tweed and his gang of Tammany thieves robbed tho city, and left monuments of their infamy in our uptown avenues and ourdowntown Court House. Have- meyer, Green and their associates have entered upon a policy of imbecility and incapacity. Tey stifle the city. We do not see any material reduction in expenditures—none what- ever in our tax burdeas—and yet everything stands still. Instead of o hearty co-operation between the various departments of the city for its improvement and prosperity we have a series of cabals for personal and political power. Van Nort quarrels with Green, and Green quarrels wite everybody else—except the Mayor and Dexter A. Hawkins, We have ring within ring, intrigue succeeds ine trigue, and all this time the city lies as dead as the Dismal Swamp. The question which excites our rulers is not how to extend the boulevards or surround the city with a new and comprehensive system of wharves and docks, or how to reduce the time between the Battery and Westchester, but who shall run the police, and what men shall compose. the new ring. We felt that we had been relieved from a great burden and scandal when Tweed