The New York Herald Newspaper, April 27, 1874, Page 6

i 6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Annual subscription | Price 1%. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Henaw. Rejected communications will not be re | turned. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions aud Advertisements will be | received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. Volume XXXIX. AWseMENTS Tas AFTERNOON ‘AND EVENING ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteevth street, corner of re irying. place.—Strakosch ata P. M5 Jinllen pee Cocnpeny Lone ENGR. Creed at IP. ‘Misson, Cary, Campanini, Del Puente, | Nannetti. WOOD'S MUSEUM, rer corner of Thirtiett street. EAST LYNNE, 1 | M: Closes at 430 P.M; LADY OF “oot at 8) ea closes at 1:30 P. M. Sophie Miles, Gi ainnas Porrest. \ PARK THEATRE, Broadway and Twenty-second street.—LOVE'S PEN- | ANCK, ate PM; ol eat P.M. Charles Fechter. GERMANIA TH Fourteenth street, near Irving VON BAVENNA, at 8 P. M,; Janauschek. DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broadway.—MONSIEUR ALPHUNSE, a8 P. M.; closes at 10:30 P.M. Misa Ada Brag Miss anny Davenport, Bijou Heron, Mr. Fisher, r. Clar! EB, DER FECHTER P.M. Fauny THEATRE COMIQUE Ho, pid Broadway, —VARIKTY ENTLREAINMENT, at8 | (Clowes at 10:30 P.M. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street.—'H» VETERAN, at 8 $f, Mosclows at P.M Mr, Lester Wallack, MissJeitreys wis, aa’. commarn BROOKLYN THEATRE, Wael ree near Fulton street, Brooklyn THe Wiklow oc cops, at 8 P. M.; closes at 0 P.M. Ur. ©. W. Couldoc! OLYMPIC THEATRE, between Houston and Bleecker streets. — LLE and NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT, at | ? oP. Me closes at 10348 P. uM. ae GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Eighth avenue and Twenty-third street.—DONALD McRAY, at SP. M.; closes at 1 P. M. Oliver Doud Byron. BROADWAY THEATRE, | Broadway. opposite | Wasiington — place. 110 wry | Breer AT HOME, &c., at8¥. M.; closes at 11P. M. | . L. Fox. BOOTH'S THEATRE, ‘Bixth avenue, corner % Twenty: third THE | | ea Ky at 8 P, M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—MACBETH, at 8 P. M.; closes at 11 P. M, METROPOLITAN THEATRE, | No, $85 Broadway. —V, Aalery ENTERTAINMENT, at | 746 P.M. ; closes at 1030 P, NIBLO’S GARDEN, roadway, between Prince and Houston streets. —VARI- | Buy Ente RTAINMENT, att. M.; closes at 10:90 P.M. NUW PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN, BLUE BEARD, at8 P.M. Lydia Thompson Troupe. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near aoe avenue.—LA MARJO- LaliNe, ats’. M.; closes at I P.M. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, Ro, iB! Bowery. VARI TY ENTERTAINMENT, at 2:30 os closes at 5:30 P. M.; also ats P.M ; closes at li BRYANT’S OPERA HOU*E, ‘Twenty-third street, near -ixth avenue.—NEGRO MIN- STRELSY, &c., at 8 P. M.; closes at LUV. M. BINSON Sinteonth street—AP ENTERTAINMENT, ateP. M COLOSSEUM, Broadway, corner of bn Atth street.—LONDON IN ar i. M.; closes at P.M. Same at7 P. M.; closes | Teen Se SHEET. New faba Menany. rom our > reports this Wicking the probabili- | ties are that the weather to-day will be partly | cloudy. Poxrricat Murpers are the latest features in | the criminal calendar. A policeman was shot at the Battery on Saturday night by a private | watchman with whom he had a dispute, and about the same time a yonng man was killed | in Norfolk, Va., in a street fight. The pistol | is a very illogical argument in a case of differ- | ence of opinion on politics or any other sub- | ject, and it is to be hoped that the strong arm | of the law will be felt in both these cases. April a7, 1874. Baty Movntarn has a fresh fit of ague, and the North Carolinians are again ina fever of | excitement. The volcanic influences that are | supposed to agitate the venerable hill are as | active as ever, and in due course of time we | may be able to chronicle the birth of a genuine American Vesuvius. An eminent professor | who has investigated the phenomenon is of | opinion that the cause is ‘that general vol- | canic or earthquake force which seems as necessary to the economy of nature as light, | heat or electricity.” Tur Conprmon or Frere AvENvE is a) public scandal. The present pavement is not only a disgrace to one of the finest thorough- fares in the city, but is destractive to vehicles and cruelly dangerous for horses. There is Bo money in a bill for the repaving of the avenue and its transfer to the authority and care of the Park Commissioners; but the people of New York ask for the passage of such a law, and as nothing can be realized by its defeat it is to be hoped that the “Modoes’’ of the Legislature will allow it to be enacted before the adjournment. A New Ipgea om Cremation.—A corre- spondent writes to Sir Henry Thompson a notable suggestion in regard to cremation— namely, that instead of building furnaces to consume the dead the town gas works be util- ized. Says this correspondent: —‘‘Nearly every town possessing a cemetery also pos- sesses gas works. Therefore all that would be mecessary would be o few retorts large enough to receive the coffin. If the public objected to the gas being used in their private houses arrangements might be made NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1874.—TRIPLY SHEET. Political Consequences of the Veto, As President Jackson's famous and intrepid veto of the old United States Bank in 1832 gave color and complexion to the politics of the ensuing ten or twelve years, and made monetary and fiscal subjecta the staple of public discussion and party controversies until the slavery question came in with the annexation of Texas, so we are likely to have another era of financial contention as a con- sequence of President Grant’s courageous veto. Like the strong-willed old hero of » for- | mer period the military chieftain who holds the office of Chief Magistrate bas roused and electrified the public mind and stirred popu- lar feeling to its profoundest depths. Like | General Jackson he has erected a dike against which the paper money flood will dash in vain, while a great question goes through the ordeal of excited discussion and angry elections; indorsed by the whole body of his grateful | countrymen. But for the ensuing few years | versible judgment of the people expressed through the elections. While there are points of resemblance there are also points of marked difference between the circumstances of General Jackson's famous veto and that of General Grant, which will be- come equally famous, In Jackson's time the currency controversy was not sectional ; the dividing line was not geographical, but | merely political. It arrayed parties in oppo- sition to each other, but not wide sections of the country. But the present division in- | stead of running parallel with party lines cuts directly across them. President Grant's noble veto does not inflame the mutual hos- tility of existing parties, but tends to disrupt both and rearrange their elements in new combinations with the great question of the currency as the dividing issue and a geo- graphical limit as the line of demarcation. This tendency to a general break-up and re- construction is obstructed only by the cohe- sive force of government patronage, which complicates the question and retards the operation of natural affinities. But the veto andthe profound feeling it awakens bring the currency controversy into the foreground as | the overshadowing issue in American politics. | Like the repeal of the Missouri compromise in | 1854, it must lead to a revolution of parties, All the questions growing out of slavery, the war and reconstruction are practically defunct and have lost all active hold on the public mind. Their only wretched remnant consists | ot the factions squabbles over the disor- ganized governments of some of the Southern States—the politics of the anti-slavery period going out like the smoky flicker of a candle in ite ill-smelling socket. The mongrel negro carpet-bag governments of the South have become so odious and abominable that no political party can afford to stand sponsor for them, and their authors. are eager to wash their hands of the disgrace. They are the | last surviving relic of the questions which have divided parties for the last twenty years, If we are to have any future politics other than those of the spoils parties must be organ- | ized on new questions ; and there is no ques- | tion either of such far-reaching importance or such rising interest in the public mind as this | of the currency, which is cleaving both of the | | old parties into segments. President Grant's veto will operate like the displosive force of | nitro-glycerine in the faintly-marked seam of a ledge of rocks, riving asunder what had already a tendency to part. This currency question will not end with General Grant’s veto any more than the bank question ended with the veto of General Jack. son. Instead of quenching the controversy the veto will flame it. The inflationists are too strong in numbers to succumb under one defeat. They will carry the question into the Congressional elections and make a strenuous | | fight. A majority of the people in the West | and South are undoubtedly with them, and an infusion of sectional bitterness will animate and exasperate the contest. The inflationists will delude themselves with the idea that time and the progress of events will work in their favor. They fancy that in this sectional question they stand upona strong vantage ground, like that occupied by the North in its great contest against slavery. The North wasso rapidly outstripping the South in population that its triumph was inevitable if the dispute | were kept alive. There is a similar growth of the West as compared with the East, and after the next census, or at furthest the next after that, the valley of the Mississippi will be the seat of political power, comprising a majority of the voting population and controlling the government. In any sound cause, in any cause which could stand thorough discussion, the West, if persistent and united, would ul- timately carry the day with as much cer- tainty as the North succeeded in its protracted controversy with the South, and by the same inevitable preponderance of uumbers, The inflation leaders, imagining their cause to be good, and conscious of the growing strength and great destiny of their section, will boldly prosecute this dispute, and the country seems on the eve of another heated sectional con- troversy. But the East will not labor, as the South did, under the fatal disadvantage of on inde- fensible cause. Instead of revolting the moral sense of mankind, like the champions of slavery, the opponents of inflation will be supported by the public opinion of the civilized world. In this respect the East will have pre- cisely the same advantages which the North pos- sessed over the South. The educated public opinion of all countries, the unanimous judg- ment of all sound financiers and the whole past experience of mankind will strengthen and encourage the advocates of financial honesty and correct principles. Lot the dis- cussion proceed. The truth will moro and | more penetrate the Wost, where it has already to light only the street lamps with it. If this plan of cremation was adopted the ratepayers must obviously be benefited.” Putting aside all the ordinary objections to this mode of cremation, and regarding it simply trom its economical aspecta, it has much to recom- mend it. It is obviously the cheapest method yet suggested, and it has other advantages which seem to have been overlooked. There | is no estimating the brilliancy with which the public thoroughfares would be lighted if cer- tain Congressmen and other gassy orators were thus enabled to show that “E’en in | strong and efficient champious in the public | press, and the final upshot will be that a ma- | jority of the Western people will recognize | the debt they owe to President Grant in sav- | ing them from the consequonces of their own misguided wishes, But meanwhile, and prob- ably for several years, the curreacy will be | | the chief topic of political agitation, and will | give quite a new complexion to the strife of parties. President Grant has rescued the country from a yawning abyss, bankruptcy, repudia- tion and dishonor, and placed it on firm | and, like Jackson, he will ultimately be | the battle will be strenuously fought, until the | controversy shall be finally closed by the irre- | | less. Europe, but it three years we are cafe. No man ever had | The Mississippi Floods—Relief and Pre- | The less aptitude for retreat than General Grant. That is the talent of others; it was never his. Ho is still on the line of his first annual message, a line upon which until now he has had no occasion to fight; but, having made his first successiu! assault on a great and dan- gerous delusion, nobody doubts that ho will act in the spirit of his famous military declara- | tion in 1864 During the throe annual ses- | sions of Congress which remain before his term expires he will moet every inflation measure with an unflinching veto, The re- assured country may rely with confidence upon the exertion of his constitutional nega- tive until he goes out of office, and by that time let us hope that the progress of sound | ideas will have disabused the public mjnd of the West. True Missionary Enterprise. | work of David Livingstone will be better ap- preciated than they are now. We are too close to him to measure his herculean stature accurately. The minster that shelters his re- mains holds not one among the noble dead who had a larger claim to our admiration than he whose sterling qualities have endeared him to both hemispheres, He united in him- self elements of character widely diverse, and was at once missionary, explorer, philosopher and Christian. Gentle as a child and brave as | lion, he blazed a path through the almost trackless forests and jungles ot Central Africa, along which some future civilization will tri- umphantly march. His letter to the HeRaLp shows his ability to penetrate the petty and wreiched schemes of speculators who would carry on a contemptible traffic under cover of religious protection, and to lay out plans, large hearted and far reaching, by which that | fertile and important region may be brought | within reach of European statesmanship and | Progress, He tells us, perhaps a little too plainly for | our conceit, of the folly of that faint-hearted | class of missionaries who dare not penetrate | into the interior, and who waste their time on | the coast population until their health is gone, and then seek recreation on board o British man-of-war. We have long felt that the money spent on the east and west coasts of Africa was largely lost. The inhabitants come in contact with only the worst part of our civil life, imitating our vices with great greediness, but having no taste for our vir- tues. For generations this part of the popu- lation of Africa has been subjected, through the persistent slave trade, to a demoralizing influence from which it can never recover. It is poor material to work upon, and scarcely repays in social or moral improvement the vast sums of money spent. -The growth of Africa must be endogenous, You cannot change the tree by cutting atits bark; you must get at its heart. The sea coast pop- ulation is doomed, because it is worth- It may put on the clothes of will never assume its | habits, Ove vessel, with its slave captain and | crew, will do more harm thana dozen mission- aries can do good. The clanking of chains is heard above the voice of the preacher, and is more eloquent and persuasive for evil than. a ship load of Bibles and tracts are for good. History repeats herself according to certain laws easily understood. Those laws predict the certain destruction of all tribes within a hundred miles of the Atlantic on the west and the Indian Ocean on the east; they will grow weaker and more demoralized, until at last they will fade away altogether. Not so with the very promising nations of the interior. They have been untouched by the contaminations of a commerce which is little better than plunder and murder, and can be readily reached and acted on by mission- aries who are ready todo the Lord’s work, and not go into partnership with the devil. Liv- ingtone very evidently draws a fair picture of their domestic and civil life. He describes them as very confiding, hospitable, tractable, teacha- ble and brave. Some instances of devotion, re- lated by him, might well put to shame the average Christian of New York. Their honesty under trying circumstances could be very prof- itably imitated by our own public officials, and | several tribal characteristics might be imported to Washington without detriment to that immaculate city. An exchange of a score or two of picked politicians for the same number of Central Africans would | be a safe thing for us and something of a revelation to them. Livingstone tells us with a half smile that the people among whom he labored are not altogether ignorant of | political economy, and cites in proof the fact that certain chiefs refused to go to war because it would interfere with the ivory market. They maintain certain intertribal relations in order to protect trade, and are far-sighted enough to know that to kill each other is money out of pocket, War does not pay, is their motto, and they honestly say it, We declare that war is wrong, but we mean by it that it costs too much money. Whatever pays is apt to be right, among tribes as well as nations, and whatever drains the pocket is wrong. Civili- zation is largely a matter of dollars and centa, and even Central Africa is near enough to the In the next generation the character and vention. The sudden calamity which has converted into a wide watery waste large tracts of in- habited country, the smoke of whose chimneys no more rises in the air, their fires having been quenched by the incoming pitiless flood, has awakened the pity of feeling hearts in all parts of the country, and, with the character- istic benevolence of our people, prompt -con- tributions are sent for the relief of the dis- possessed and desolate sufferers. We need not urge a continuance of the aid which they must receive for along time to ccme. The philanthropic activity of our large cities | can always be securely relied upon when such |- terrible disasters are brought fully to their knowledge, and the faithful publication of the news is generally a sufficient exhortation to deeds of mercy. But while the impression produced by this great calamity is still excit- | ing painful sympathy the time is best chosen for discussing the means of future prevention. There can be no doubt that these destruc- tive, desolating inundations may be effectu- ally provided against, but it requires an ex- penditure of capital far too great for the re- sources of the people who would be most im- mediately benefited. If the banks of the Lower Mississippi were cultivated and thickly settled sufficient embankments could be con- structed and kept in repair at the expense of the owners without imposing an insupportable burden. But there are long stretches without | inhabitants, extensive tracts of unreclaimed lands which can never become fit for cultivation until they are redeemed by a great outlay of money ; though once redeemed they would be the garden of the Continent. The safe embankment of the Mississippi and the reclamation of those lands is the proper work of public authority; and it unfortu- nately so happens that no existing au- thority seems adequate. Although expen- ditures for improving the navigation of the river are habitually made by Congress, it has been held to be beyond the scope of its powers to make appropriations for the protec- tion and benefit of private property skirting its banks. It does not seem to have been sufficiently considered that the federal govern- ment is itself the owner of a great part of the | unreclaimed lands of the Southwestern States. When States formed out of the national terri- tory are brought into the, Union the federal government retains the proprietorship of all | that part of the soil which it had not pre- viously sold, and the greater portion of the unreclaimed lands on the Mississippi still belong to it. It ought at least to bear its fair share with other proprietors in any expense for the common benefit of the property of all. But the difficulty is that, being by far the largest proprietor, the federal government would not wish to bear expenditures not made under its own direction, and moreover it never permits its lands to be taxed by the State governments. So the unre- | claimed lands remain worthless and unsala- ble, and private owners are exposed to deso- lating ruin because they possess too smalla part of the property to sustain the expense of efficient embankments. The States which bor- der upon the river are at present too poor to | pay even their ordinary taxes without incon- venience, and they would, under any circum- stances, refuse to be taxed for the benefit of the minority who own lands subject to inun- dation and of the unreclaimed lands which | belong to the federal government. So these afflicting inundations continue because there seems no governmental authority willing and adequate to erect barriers against them. If the country subject to inundation all lay with- in a single State the problem would seem less unmanageable; but the river washes the boundaries of several States, and an efficient system of embankments would require their concert and co-operation it the work were not done by the federal government. Now, there isa method, first suggested, we believe, by Mr. Calhoun in his address te the Memphis Convention in 1845, by which all these difficulties could be obviated. It con- sists ina relinquishment of the public lands to the States in which they lie, thereby creating a motive and furnishing means for the States to make the necessary improve- ments. The sale of the reclaimed lands, after they were fitted for the market, would defray the expense of substantial levees and of the superintendence and repairs needed for keep- ing them in a state of constant efficiency. The grant of the lands ought, of course, to be accompanied with a condition that they should be converted to this use, and the States accepting them should enter into an obligation to prosecute the work at once. They would have no difficulty in procuring loans based on the proceeds of | the ceded lands. If concert between the States should be deemed necessary for systematic uniformity of plan the constitution authorizes Congress to consent to a compact between them for that purpose. That perfect security is attainable with proper engineering skill is beyond all ques- tion. We do not read in recent times of great inundations of the Po, although its bed is con- siderably higher than the plain through nineteenth century to have some faint glim- mering of that fact. The social life of these people is of o higher order than we have been led to suppose. If they practise polygamy, it is for want of a better knowledge of the laws of domestic life. The men are stalwart and brave, with many noble and admirable qualities. The women wear short hair and use a vast deal of pomatum, but they are generally chaste, and ready to adopt better ideas. Altogether, it seems to be time for the British and American missionary so- cieties to enter on a new field and to win no- bler victories than heretofore. It is vastly better to work where work will pay than to spend useless labor on unproductive ground. | Every dollar that is given to seacoast work is thrown away, and all moneys which send true men into the interior hasten the day when Africa will join hands with Europe and Amer- ica in a common civilization. Take the hint, gentlemen, and place your cash where it will do most good. David Livingstone has left his footprints on the only part of Africa that will pay for cultivation. Follow his lead, and be- fore this generation dies a new page of history will record conquests never dreamed of before, Avery Frimsy Rumor comes by cable to the effect that the Carlists have made application their ashes live their wonted fires’ by emit- | ground, where it may securcly await the dis- | to Serrano for amnesty in consideration of ting their light for the last time throngh the street lamps ruption and reorganization of parties and the progress of the inflation controveray, Kor their submitting to him. As far as veracity is concerned this rumor logks verv Spanish, which it flows, and in some places higher than the roofs of the houses near its banks ; and yet the Po, like all the other rivers in that part of Italy, is subject to great spring floods occasioned by the melting of the snow among the Alps. The great rivers which dis- charge their waters into the German Sea—the Bhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt—would annually submerge the regions near the lower part of their course if they were not protected by great dikes. The whole of Holland was thus recovered from these rivers and the ocean. The description which Motley gives of the original condition of that country, which has so long been a miracle of fertility, would apply, almost word for word, to the great district around the mouths of the Mississippi:— “It was by nature a wide morass, in which oozy islands and savage forests were interspersed among lagoons and shallows—a district lying partly below the level of the ocean at its highest tides, sub- ject to constant overflow by the rivers and to frequent and terrible inundations by the sea.” The banks of the Neva near St. Petersburg have in like manner been reclaimed by embank- ments, and there are too many similar and equally successful examples, both in ancient and modern times, to leave any doubt that sufficient capital and proper engineering skill might render the country along tho Mississippi as secure as any in the world, “Bridging Over” Policy in Our City Fimances—How We Psy as We Ga The rate of taxation in New York for the present year is $3 40 per cent on the valuation of 1873. It is probable that the valuation of 1874 will be about the ssme in the aggregate, that of real estate being increased and that of personal estate being slightly decreased. This rate is enormous; but, to make a fair com- parison of its increase over that of 1871, when the present financial administration came into power, the rate should be calculated on the valuation of that year. The total valuation of real and personal estate for 1871 was $1,076,253, 633, and on this amount the taxa- tion of 1874—$39,250,000—would impose a rate of nearly $3 70 per cent. We have pointed out some of the leakages which help to swell our taxes to this trightful extent; but the most glaring evil is the “bridging over’ Policy adopted by Comptroller Green. De- ceptive reports are put before the people for the purpose of creating the belief that a large portion of the public debt is being wiped out, when the trath is that the bonds are for the most part extended and still remain a part of the debt. In the false financial exhibit published by the Mayor and Comptroller last January, for instance, it was made to appear that only $1,474,581 of | revenue bonds were outstanding on December $1, 1873, when in fact about $11,000,000 of those bonds were then actually in existence, unpaid and unconverted. Long after Decem- ber 31 some $9,000,000 of them were changed into ‘consolidated stock’’ and put into the ‘funded debt, but not paid. In the same state- ment the total debt was made to appear $665,000 less than it was by impreperly credit- ing that amount as paid, when in fact, al- though due, the bonds were held over at the request of the Comptroller and were not re- deemed until the following January and Feb- ruary, the interest on them being paid in full up to the date of their cancellation. In order to show how extensively this “bridging over’ policy is pursued by Mr. Green it is only necessary to look at the amount of bonds authorized to be issued since October last to take up old bonds as they fall due, instead of paying them. The transac- tions of the Board of Estimate and Apportion- ment, so far as published, show the tollowing new issues to have been authorized for that purpose alone :— 1873, Oct. 11—Street Improvement bonds to take up Iike amount due No- Vember 1, 1873 ....... .+0.-s++ 200,000 Oct. 21—Street improvement bonds take up like amount due No- vember 1, 1873.......... 2,000,000 Nov. 19—Street Improvement bonas to take up like amount due in No- vember and December .,........ 1,165,000 Oct. 11—Assessment bonds to take up like amount due November 1.. 605,000 Oct, 11—Central Park Improvement bonds to take up like amount que November 1..............++ 26,000 Oct.. 11—Department of Parks Improve- ment bonds to take up like amount due in November . 300,000 Nov. eran bonds, not exceed- ing five years, to take up ike amouat due December 1 150,000 Oct. 11—Consolidated stock to vacated assessments. = 2,000,000 Dec. 16—Consolidated stock to City and Count Revenue bouds doe Januai tober, 187: 8,310,397 Dec. 19—Street Ii ind vonds to take up like amount Hts due January and February, 1874 = 762,500 Jan. 14—Assessment bonds, not exceed- ing five years, to take up like amount due January 20 and February 1... ..s.2seeesseeeeees 300,00 March 12—Assessment bon: not ex- ceeding five F hgh Oo take up like amount due March 16...... 220,000 Total {ssue authorized to extend old debts, in Ve MODLDS ............e sree: $17,037,897 We are now “bridging over” by issuing bonds to pay the State taz, and by a thousand devices by which a postponement of the evil day of settlement can be secured. But that day must comeat last. And until it arrives we are to go on paying seven per cent interest on all the money we borrow, except, perhaps, a few trifling temporary loans from banks of deposit. No wonder that our interest account increases three million dollarsin three years, and that, while our taxes reach the enor- mous rate of $340 per cent, our debt grows steadily at the average rate of ten million dol- lars a year. The Arkansas Muddle. A Chinese puzzle would be perfectly in- telligible in comparison to the present politi- cal situation in the land of the Arkansas traveller. The Brooks-Baxter squabble, if it did not assume, as according to our latest advices, tragic proportions, might be con- sidered as ludicrous in the extreme. The ‘minstrels’ who at first enrolled themselves ‘ander the banner of the radical leader and high toned Southerner, Baxter, have now gone over to the opposite camp, the ‘brindle tails,’’ and have sworn allegiance to the Northern liberal, Brooks, while those who voted for the latter now declare their intention to stand by Baxter to the last extremity. No Durell being ayvail- able in Arkansas the United States Court is unwilling to interfere, and both par- ties are in arms ready to blow each other’s brains out in order to settle their dispute in the most logical manner. While the rival Governors are in the field with their forces the unfortunate community suffers in every imaginable way and business is paralyzed. The telegraph lines are seized and martial law is threatened. What a comment upon Southern reconstrnction ten years after the civil war! A bloody contest may be looked for at any time. Tue Bustvess or tax Port.—Over one hundred vessels cleared the port of New York for foreign ports during ‘the past week, about one-half of which were for Europe and the rest for the West Indies and South America, This will give a general idea of the commerce of the metropolis at this season and of its direction, the apparent healthfulness of our West Indian and South American trade being a subject for especial congratulation. It is pleasant to record, after the terrible disasters of the week before, the fact that no accidents of any particular moment occurred during this period. The arrivals during the week were eighteen steamers, eight ships, forty barks, twenty-nine brigs and twenty-eight schooners—making in all one hundred and twenty-three. Of these fifty-seven were from Enropean ports, about one-fourth of them in ballast and the others with cargoes. Tho remaining sixty-seven came from Brazil and the West Indies laden with coffee, sugar, molasses and tropical fruits. These are grati- fying signs ; but, while we rejoice at such indications of prosperity, we must not over- look the duty of preserving ag nearly as pow a sible that balance of trade which is after all the true index of a realiy prosperous 60m. merce. With cheap transportation between the West and the East, a sound currency and financial peace this is comparatively easy of accomplishment, and the assurance of them must vastly accelerate the business of the port of New York. The Spirit of the Pulpit. Yesterday was the first Sunday we have had thus far in 1874 that could really be accepted as an expression of the spring. The terrible rain of the day before had swept the city into wunwonted tidiness, and the day brought with it fresh airs from mountain and sea and radiant, sunny weather. There was so much oxygen and life in the air that we are not surprised to find it reflected in the pulpit. Two things are quite essential to a due appreciation of religious ob- servances—good health and good weather. We see a glimpse of what Heaven may be in the perfection of asoul-inspiring spring day, and Christianity assumes a generous, manly, real quality, as though this world were something else than » vale of tears. Mr. Hepworth was in with the season in his intrepid championship of a belief in God. The very perfectness of formation, the wonder and ingenuity shown in the structure of the world, prove that there must have been a designer. There was no excuse for disbelief in God, because every race has believed in Him since the world be- gun. If the human heart was controlled by any one passion it was love, a passion in- herent in our human nature. It was im possible for man to live without loving some- thing or somebody, and the love of God was the highest, the most instinctive expression of love. We needed God in our hearts and in our homes, for God's presence made homes reality. God was nota despot. He was our Father, and we could not exist as a world or as a people without believing in Him. Mr. Frothingham celebrated the day bys philosophical and scholarly analysis of the modern battle now waging between good and evil—a battle which was really the world’s conflict with evil. Even before Christianity there were usages, customs, laws and institu- tions, so that every man who was not a fool knew whether he was living in the dominion of Ormuzd, the good spirit, or of Ahriman, the spirit of evil. This belief was trans- mitted. to Christendom and took a palpable form, and he saw it in the wars made by Christian sects upon Catholicism, and by the earlier abolitionists upon slavery. But the reverend speaker did not inculcate any doo- trine of total depravity. It was convenient faith to men who were partisans and felt it necessary to make a war of proselytism. No such doctrine could be preached now. God begins to live when man begins to learn. We no longer regard the world as a place of exile and battle, but asa home and a resting place, full of opportunitiea, joys and boundless privileges. But, at the same time, under no thoory were we absolved from battling for the triumph of good. But we no longer subdue—we teach. Take intem- perance as an illustration. The old way to fight intemperance is to confine the war to in-_ temperance, and not against temperance ag well, All that is necessary is for society to make a beginning. In the end the experiment will succeed. Mr. Beecher began by announcing that Mrs. Everett would lecture in a neighboring church, and although her address would be on the sub- | ject of health, that in itself was a form of Gospel preaching that should not be despised. He also announced a lecture by himself for charity, intimating to his hearers that he did not care whether they came to hear him or not so they purchased tickets, After this he proceeded to preach about Christ and the influence of Christ upon human welfare. He inculeated the broadest Ohris- tian charity. He had many friends im Rome, and the Pope was one of them. He believed the old man to be a good man, and would willingly offer him his pulpit if he came to Brooklyn, for while there was much rubbish in the Church of Rome there was a great deal that was good and pure. The general tone of the other sermons was cheer- ful, broad and humane. We are glad to note ‘an absence of bitterness and vituperation among our clergymen. Heligion seems to have ascended toa higher and purer level; and it is cheering to note the generosity, can- dor and benevolence that seem to pervade the pulpit. Steam Lanes—Their Rationale. There is an -impression in the community that “steam lanes’ are simply tracks on the sea, having rather indefinite limits. This is not so. Because a company advertises that ita steamships will cross a certain meridian at a fixed latitude is no more the realization of a steam lane than for a man to say he will take an air line for San Francisco, stopping at Duluth, Another company informs its patrons that its steamers will pass a certain number of miles to southward of Cape Race, and this also has been supposed to constitute a ‘‘steam lane;” from which hypothesis we beg most respectfully to differ. A ‘‘steam lane,” ag we have said again and again, is not a mere theoretical course on the occan to vary with the whims and caprices of the captain, even though he may go ‘two hundred and fifty miles to southward of Oape Race,” or out his fixed meridian in twain at his appointed lati- tude. A “steam lane,’’ as we understand the ocean highway in prospect and as we believe it must ultimately be laid down, is this:— The shortest, safest and best route between New York and some point to seaward of the European coast where the steamers diverge to seek their respective ports. This course must pass every meridian ata fixed latitude, and, other things being equal, should be as neurly as possitle on the arc of a circle. Say that this ‘lane’ is laid down by the common consent of the maritime nations; that for steamships bound out it is twenty-five miles wide, and that the law is mandatory on the captain to keep upon this highway, ‘‘sink or swim, survive or perish.” What is the next practicable step? Evidently to ascertain the speed of the various steamers sailing from this port; then to send two out as twin companions, say on Monday; two on Wednesday and two on Saturday, placing ® strong prohibition on racing and corapelling one steamer never to escape the sight of the other. ‘This companionship on the sea would not only meet almost every contingency that can be imagined, but it would serve to remove