The New York Herald Newspaper, May 3, 1874, Page 8

BROADWAY a5D AND STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed Nuw Youre Haman. I essa anh 2 LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORE HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms es in New York. Volume AMUSEX ENTS T og Tutrigeuck, street sSGHOO Jieedaclt Poke. Mr. Coser Wallack, Mise Je! ‘icentl MRS. CONWAY'S F ePulgon. tree Brogklyn near ye BEN wevLovaM ase M. Mr. Oliver Syrou. OLYMPIC THEATSE, Broadway. betw: Houston Biescker | streets. — veUDEY iLL and, NOVELTY :NTERTAINMENT, at 7 4b P.M, ; closes at 10:45 P. M. at SP. M.; ye Lewis BROADWAY THEATRE, romdway, Washington piace. HUMPTY BURCH ar BBME, ac., rays aL; a. fox. closes at 11 P. M. OOTH'S THEATRE, hela "Or Twenty-third cage a4 TANK SCS Met closes at 10:5 P. Mr. John TANS at 8B MeCuliough. 5 POLITAN THE. ETRO! ATRE, No. 585 Brosivay -VABISTY ENTRAINMENT, at 7:46 r. M. : closes at 1030 P. M. sn Prince aad Hous) ARE Broadway, between Prince jouston streets — q gry ERTL TAINMEN 4, at8 v’. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near sixth avepue.—THE SCHOOL FOR -CANDAL, ats P.M; closes atl P.M. Mi ‘Coomus. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Ponrteenth street, corner of Irvi —Strakosch Tallan Opera mpany—Capoul’s Benefit—sei'son, ae di Murska, Lucea, Capou), Viszani, Dei Puente, olare. WOOD'S MUSBUM, Broadway. corner ot Thirtieth suree.—AURORA FLOYD, at2 P.M; closes at 4:30 7M. JARLINE, at 8 P.M; closes at 10:30 P, i, Sophie Miles, Marietta Rowe. PARK THEATRE, Broadway and Twenty-second street.—LOVE'S PEN. ANUS, at oP. M.; closes at ll P.M. Charies Fechter. Fourteenth street, near irvine piace. “DEBORAH, at 8 ‘o' jpg piace. --! Fels; closes atl P.M. Fanny Jaususchek- in NeW PARK THEATRE. BROOKLYN. LEAH, Ti¥ FORSAKEN, at8 P.M. Miss ada Gray. DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATE ‘Twenty-eighth street and Broadway.—MONSIEUR DLPHOND&, at 8 P.M; closes at 10:30 P.M. Miaa Ada bras Bice Fanny Davenport, Bijou Heron, Mr. Fisher, r. Clark. No, 514 BronawaycVAMiMTY OY fe REAINMENT, P.M. ; closes at 10:30 P.M. ce TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUS: ‘No. 201 Bowery.—VAKI“TY ENTERTAINMENT, at 2:30 pei closes at 530 P. M,; aisoatS P.M; closes at li Ma street, near * a MN i. aTRELsy, c., at 8 P. M.; closes aclu PM, ae: ROBINSON HALL, Sixtoonth street.—ART ENTERTAINMENT, at 8P. M. Broad of Thirty aes, LONDO! . corner | street.—LON! Int at LP: Mo; clooes a65 FM. ‘Same at Fat closes acy. M BOMAN HIPPODROME, Madison avenne and Twenty-sixth ‘street. GRA! PAGLANT—CONGKESS OF RATIONS, at 150 Pe and OUADRUPLE SHEET. New York, Sunday, May 3, 1874. @re that the weather to-day will be cool and pordly cloudy. Axouwaine THE Morerres.—Yesterday a bill ‘was reported from the Committee on Ways and Means to the House of Representatives to repeal moieties and amend the revenue laws, the text of which will be found elsewhere in Tae Iereriicence reom Arkansas continues extremely warlike. Baxter's commander at Pine Bluff has a company of cavalry at Capitol Hill in a strategic position, while the com- mander-in-chief of Baxter’s forces, it is said, is making active preparations to commence fighting in Little Rock unless Brooks sur- renders the State House. Tae Bux to reform the Street Cleaning Bureau in this city, which was based upon the report of the Investigating Committee, died in the Assembly. It is said that its death was caused by the new bargain made between the venerable Mr. Havemeyer and the Custom House ‘‘Ring.”” Tux Boarp or ApporTionMENT met yester- day and agreed to notify the departments and officers of the city government that they are about to make a new estimate and apportion- ment of the moneys for the support of the city government for 1874. As the law requires the concurrent vote of the Board on all ques- tions that arise each member will be responsi- ble for its action. We expect to see a great Reduction of the rate of taxation. Honnons have accumulated rapidly recently. One has scarcely been told ere it is followed by another. The latest is the story related to-day of a frightful parricide ata village in Maine. James P. Davis, a young man, bru- tally murdered his father with an axe. The mother stepping from the door of the house into the yard, at eight o'clock in the morning, discovered the body of her husband with the top of his skull split off, while over him stood the murderer with the blody axe. The son had been an inmate of # lunatio asylum, but was considered cured. Comprroter Green, ina stump speech to Auditor Earle, makes a flourish over Charles O'Conor’s law to consolidate the city and county governments. Mr. Green pretends to anticipate ‘‘objections and obstacles” to the execution of the “benign provisions” of this law. Wo have no doubt that the law, which is a very proper one, will be complied with by all who have anything to do with it, unless Mr. Green should take it into his hend to make some sort of a fight over the patronage he tried so hard to secure for himself and his venerable pupil, Master Havemeyer. Tax New Arnawrmo Castx —It will be seen from a special despateh to the Hxnaup that the new Atlantic cable has been safely got on board the steamship Faraday. In a few days the necessary arrangements on board will be completed and the vessel wil? sail for Valencia, where she will begin to pay out and proceed on her way to the New Hampshire coast. An- other A(luntie cable is another bond of union between the Old World and the New. As we can scarcely have too many Atlantic steam- sbips, so we cannot have too many Atlantic Sebies, The more the better for the vublie, NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, MAY 3, 1874.-QUADRUPLE SHEET, The Legislature has adjourned, and already we hear the familiar refrain, How many years have we heard this chorus about ‘‘corruption,”’ “rings,” ‘infamies,” strifes, partnerships, “gpoils’’ and unholy ambition? More years, we fear, than even the oldest of us would care to remember, and long before, even in the read the press comments of the Hamilton and Jefferson period we see that there were “‘rings”’ in those days; that bitterness swayed party politics ; that Jefferson was an atheist; that Hamilton was a monarchist and used the money in the Treasury to corrupt legislation and found a personal party ; that the follow- ers of one wished to rob the Exchequer and return to their allegiance to George IIL, while the followers of the other longed to introduce the license and crime of the Reign of Terror. Then came, somewhat later, but still a long time ago, the Albany Regency and the Richmond Junta, famous ‘‘rings’’ in their time, and filling a large space in politi- cal history. Afterwards we had the celebrated firm of which Mr. Thurlow Weed is the only surviving member, and since the war—mainly, we may say, arising out of the war—new “rings” and new ‘‘firms,” and parties and caucuses and ‘‘Bosses” as thick as the leaves in Vallambrosa. There was the great Tammany Ring, part of which is in jail, and the Custom House Ring, part of which is tending rapidly in that direction. Now we have the ring of Venerable Statesmen, one of the most in- teresting and important in our history, whose work we see in the Legislature which has just adjourned. Time sanctifies many reputations and re- forms many judgments, and the members of the Revolutionary and Jacksonian rings are no longer shaded by slander and miscon- ception, but shine out with historical eplen- dor. As for our reigning ring, time, we must confess, has done a great deal for its members already, but the historfcal splendor has not come. The Legislature which ad- journed the other day has for its dirge the old refrain, corruption, rings, infamies, lob- byism and so on. We can imagine the sor- row that overspreads the countensnces of the aged men who controlled this Legisla- ture—our Mayor of 1776, our Governor of 1812, and that other illustrious Nestor of mod- ern politics whose time goes back to a period whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, as they hear the ancient chorus about a Legislature so dearly cherished and born with so many high mounting hopes. We shall not take any part in this opera of denunciation. Time will, no doubt, hallow the memories of the misunderstood statesmen who yesterday reigned on Capitol Hill, and our Husted and our Alvord, and their fellow laborers will have the compensation from a juster genern- tion. It isalong time, we admit, for mer- curial statesmen to wait, and they will, no doubt, look after their reputation with the pres- ent generation as well. But we are so weary with this dirge-like song of denunciation that we prefer to see some good in the Legislature. It was certainly not a whimsical body. We have never had o Senate and ao House in Albany animated by a more definite purpose, or who succeeded so admirably in carrying it out. The notion that they owed the city any care or protection was rejected at the outset and opposed with won- derfal consistency. Whatever these gifted men may have wished or hoped during their career in Albany, they succeeded in ignoring and oppressing New York. In the old times, before we came under the experienced jurisdiction of the Venerable Statesmen, there was the impression that the Legislature had no graver duty than to nour- ish and extend New York. The city was not only the metropolis of the State, but of the nation, and the prosperity of the State de- pended largely upon its metropolis. To the city the State owes the great lines of railway and canal communication which have studded our territory with thriving commu- nities, increasing the wealth and industry and commerce of the people a hundredfold. It was believed that this supremacy of New York over every other city in the Union, and over most of the cities in the world, was a great gain to the State, that travel was attracted hither—that our greatness came with art and music, architectural decoration and the refining evidences of a tasteful civil- ization. New York is the Empire State because her capital is the Empire City. In that trying time when the spirit of disin- tegration seemed to control our politics, and some politicians proposed to make New York a free city like Liitbeck or Frankfort or Ham- burg, the patriotic sense of our people re- jected o suggestion not without material advantages, and threw the city’s for- tunes with the State and the Union. The whole history of the metropolis is that of constant devotion to the Republic, and pride in its growth and glory. We have never asked from the State or the nation what we would not willingly pay for. We have always contributed to both State and Union largely in excess of any benefits we could possibly receive. Whenever a ring wished to use our Treasury for political or personal gain there was a Legislature always ready with o tax levy, and a Congress with an appropriation bill. But when the just, moderate, natural and neces- sary claims of the metropolis were to be con- sidered, ‘“‘economy was necessary’ and the “people would not permit any new expendi- ture. So, thanks to the Venerable Statesmen, whose Legislature has just adjourned, we have a city in a condition of arrested develop- ment. Nothing remains in the way of public improvements but the unfinished Post Office end the rapidly crumbling ruins of the Tam- many reign. Ali that is bad of the Tweed Ring remains—nothing good has been attempted, | nothing done. The streets are in a shameful and dangerous condition. If there were such highways as Nassau street and Fifth avenue in Paris all of MacMahon's army could not prevent an insurrection. Avenues and boulevards, necessary to the con- venience of the city, have been abandoned. Beyond the Park we have a section of the city that reminds us of the town of Eden, de- seribed by Dickens in his novel, very beauti- ful and striking on the map, with public buildings, warehouses and ‘narket places, but only swamps after all. Two or three roads run straggling out towards the Harlem River, but where are all the svlendid. inviting drives, that were to connect the city with Wost- chester and make the environs like the suburbs of Paris? It requires the highest courage to drive along Filth avenue, and nothing but despair would induce a sane man to ride down Seventh ave- nue. New York, below Canal street, is in @ condition of business plethora. In the morn- ing the tides run down, in the evening they run up. Asthere is only one, or perhaps two, practicable channels, progress is at these times almost impossible. The extension of Fifth avenue to the Battery would remedy all this, Even more important is the ques- tion, we may well say the vital question, of rapid transit. There is not a citizen in this community who does not know that rapid transit is an absolute necessity to New York; that a railway conveying passengers from the Battery to Yonkers or New Rochelle in » half hour would add untold millions to the value of property, not to speak of the com- fort of living, and the saving in time to as hundred thousand soula, In the absence of such a road all the natural tides of our prosperity and business growth presented from tho Calvinistic standpoint by Dr. Sampson, of Harlem. The Doctor will also show what was the “Climax of Human Depravity Before the Deluge." We do not suppose it differed much from what it is to-day. But we shall see. Ovems and Ashes. The Cinderites seem to be ata standstill for the present. They have meetings at somewhat irregular intervals, but no definite pian of operations has yet been adopted. In- deed, the society is afflicted witha kind of intermittent fever. Sometimes it burns with the desire to immolate itself, and talks with such enthusiasm that we fear some over- cerebrated individual may be tempted to set the building on fire and burn the whole audience for the sake of its ashes; and then again it lapses into entire indifference con- cerning this important and grave matter. No one seems to have fully made up his mind as tothe propriety of being changed into com- post and sold at so much per pound. Their indecision sugurs ill for the success of the movement. They appear to be quite willing which should tend towards Westchester, 4 to have a picked number of their acquaimt- unnatarally flow to Long Island and New Jersey. Thegmallest boon that the Legislature could have conferred upon the metropolis would have been a wise, well-matored and generally accepted plan of rapid transit. There was no question about the money. All we wanted was the bill, and all we have is a s:ries of crudeand indifferent bills meaning nothing, with no usefulness in them and postponing indefinitely any honest method of speedy communication between the Battery and West- chester. Let no one, then, accuse this Legislature of want of system or purpose in its life. Its members meant to oppress and neglect New York, and they have succeeded. When the war was coming upon us and the skies were darkened with the shadows of Sumter gloomy men said our day of humiliation was at hand, that grass would grow in the streets of New York, while desolation rested upon the housetops. The shadows of Sumter and the drearier clouds that followed have litted, but the prophecy is in a fair way of fulfilment. What the armed Confed- erate or his foreign ally could not do has been done by our Venerable Statesmen and their Legislature. Now York is a stifled city, and we have to thank Havemeyer, Green and company, who, under the pretence of reform, have only considered their own personal and selfish ends. Bilbao Relieved. At last we have despatches from Madrid an- nouncing that the republican troops have entered Bilbao and that the Carlists have re- treated from before the city in great disorder. We are not surprised to learn that intense ex- citement, in consequence, prevails at Madrid. Since the surrender of Cartagena to General Dominguez, on the 12th of January, Bilbao bas commanded the attention of the world. The surrender of Cartagena made an end of the Intransigentes, and such was the tone of public sentiment that Dominguez, who had put down the radical rebellion in the South- east, was deemed the man most fit to put down the royalist rebellion in the North. The Car- lista, however, were too strongly intrenched in their northern fastnesses to be ensily dis- placed, and Dominguez soon found that he was not equal to the new situation. Until the present his successors have bad but little better success, It has long been known that the whole sirength of the Carlists was concentrated around Bilbao, and the fact was not concealed that they intended to make that city memorable in connection with the restoration ot legitimism and div.ne right. The good people of Bilbao held out for the government at Madrid. The Carlists did their best to reduce the city to subjection ; but the citizens had faith in the national gov- ernment and believed that relief would come. After long and patient waiting, after much sacrifice and much suffering, the city has been relieved. The relief of Bilbao must be re- garded as a great triumph to Serrano and the national government, on the one hand, anda crushing blow to Carlism on the other. Once more the Carlist cause has gone down. We do not say that it is killed, but its chances of final success are now smailer than ever. It will not at all surprise us to learn in a few days that the principal Carlist leaders have toand their way into France. Now that rebel- lion is presumably ended the next question will be—the Republic or the Monarchy? Palpit Topics To-Day. The topics of ministcrial thought to-day are of a practical, a doctrinal and a specula- tive turn, Among the practical themes is that chosen by the Rev. Mr. Sweetser on the ‘Nobility of Serving Humanity."’ Next to serving God there can be no service so noble as that rendered to our fellow men. Mr, Sweetser will doubtless suggest various methods by which the weakest as well as the strongest may render such service. The themes chosen by Dr. Strong on ‘Confessing Christ’ and ‘Invitations to Christ” are also of the practical kind. They can be put into operation every day by every Christian man and woman. Nothing is harder, and yet nothing is more important and practical than for one to keep his temper, especially under provocation. Mr. Hepworth will direct at- tention to this topic this evening, and will probably show us how, even in the midst of provocation, we can be calm and temperate. The subject which just now receives the greatest share of public attention—‘The Disposal of Our Dead” — will be freated by Mr. Frothingham in his usual practical way. And Rev. Joseph F. Elder will endeavor to disstade his hearers from a too free indulgence in ‘‘Idlo Words.”’ The very prominent topie of temperance will be discussed by John B. Gongh in Allen street Methodist Episcopal church this even- ing, and by others in Forsyih street and Seventeenth street Methodist Episcopal churches this afternoon. And church exten- sion and missionary work among the neg- lected masses of this city will be talked about by Dr. Reid, Mr. Terry and others. Here are theines various enough and practical enough for all who are that way inclined. Among the doctrinal themes anounced is that of the “Recognition of Friends in Heaven,” which Mr. Hepworth will discuss in the furm of an inquiry, to which he will probably give an affirmative response, with the reason for the same. ‘The ‘Gospel View of Divine Sovereigntv tn Good and Evil’ will be ances reduced, the smaller ones to three pints and the larger and more bulky ones to two quarts of white or pale yellow dust ; but there isa certain degree of romance about sleeping under the daisies which makes them prefer for themselves a decent burial to a hot oven. Though eager to light the furnace fire they show no alacrity in offering their own precious bodies as backlogs. It seems to us that these enthusiastic gen- tlemen and the single lady who attended the meeting do not exhibit the proper amount of heroism requisite to put this movement on a proper basis. So great o change in the methods of modern society can be inau- gurated only by personal sacrifice. It is not enough to rob the Morgue to fill an oven, for that is beginning at the wrong end. Let one of these heroes emulate the example of the illustrious Indian who threw himself on the pyre at Athens, saying, to the amazed and admiring spectators, ‘Thus I render myself immortal,” and it will at once become the fashion for handsome widows ond forlorn maidens and love sick youths to despise life and flee to the fire. The wood is ready and waiting. Any wharfinger will supply com- bustible material gratis, provided his adver- tisement is hung on the side of the pile. We could havea show on Union square which would be periectly ruinous to Baroum. The street sweepers, properly disguised in mourn- {tug apparel, would offer their services to sweep up the ashes, and the remains could be put into homeopathic bottles and sold as a talisman against idiocy. The economical phase of oremation seems to have gone by the board. We hear nothing more about ashes for early vegetables, and nothing about saving up the cinders of our New York dead to fertilize the Western prairies withal, or to fillin the Long Island fata, It is sad to see our patriots begin a noble and commendable reform of this kind and then give it up before the experiment has been properly tried. If it is argued that we have compost enough to subserve the agricul- tural interests of the country ; still it is to be remembered that chemistry may lose, by our indifference to this subject, some miraculous combinations which would save the neces- sity of importing spring vegetables from South Oarolina. We love our country suffi- ciently to say that if by planting a iew poli- ticians in the Harlem gardens we can has‘en the growth and add to the flavor of lettuce and radishes it should be done at once. What are politicians, or even a statesman or two, in comparison with an early market? Let us sac- rifice them, with tears in our eyes, mayhap, but with the proud consciousness that others will arise who will have equal ability to in- crease our taxes and enrich themselves. They will earn the gratitude of all it they will lie quietly at the root of a grapevine or take their proper place in a hill of very small potatoes, which is much more than they are likely to do while living at our expense. There is another phase of this economical theory which was suggested some time since, but which, for good reasons, doubtless, has been overlooked. A shrewd chemist of Paris believes that when we burn theso country cousins of ours it is a shocking waste to let the constituent elements escape into thin air. They cught to be carefully gathered and utilized. The amount of gas, for instance, in the ordinary specimens of dead North Ameri- cans is sufficient to illuminate the city all the yearrouna. This estimate is carefully mado, but is to be regarded as an under rather than an over estimate. We are at present paying enormous sums for very poor gas. The va- rious companies which manu/acture this fra- grant element of civilization cannot get rich if they give us better light; so in pity for their present impecunious condition we are content to burn poor gas and allow them to put the price of a first class product into their pockets. The cremationists in the erection of their furnaces may correct this mistake of our good nature. They ought to prepare retorts for the reception of this aériform fluid, that even the dead, during the process of incin- eration, may not waste their sweetness on the desert air. These retorts would have to be very large and very sirong, because in the burning of some of our shining lights they would be tested to their utmost capacity. Wey doubt if even boiler iron could stand tho strain which would result from the incandes- cence of some of our prominent men. Then another point is to be observed. Tho farnaces onght to be carefully swept after each operation ; for it would be eminently anfair to mix in death those who would never mingle in life. The spirit of a millionnaire would not be happy even in the sevonth sphere if he knew that the bottle on the drawing room mantel contained not only his own immacu- late ashes, but those of his political enemy also. This would never do. It strikes us with horror to think of the fine, mealy dust of the dear departed Sophia Mingled in some jexing manner wie Jane, mare aah porcions of Hannah, Anything but this! The man who rode in his carriage would not lie still in the same jar with his coachman, nor would it be at alla pleasant thought that when you dropped the friendly tear on tho stopper of the vial that holds Gustavus Adolphus a portion of the salt water fell to the lot of Peter the groom. Altogether this matter is as yet undeveloped. Some sharp Yankee will undoubtedly invent the proper machinery, and many man will be carefully husbanded after death who made ieee aii nic @ very poor husband during life, and a saving influence will be exercised over the departed to which they were total strangers during their lives, The Central Park Management—How Is the Money Spent? The Commission which gave us the Central Park has always borne such a good character ond its work has been of so much benefit to the city that the taxpayers have been satisfied to allow it a broader licenso than has been extended to other municipal commissions and has not required at its hands any detailed account of itsexpenditures. Very few, if any, pereons outside the Park Commissioners and the Comptroller know to-day what salaries re paid in the Park Department; what sums are expended in experiments, designs, sur- veys, &o., or, in fact, any of the particulars of the inside management. The department has been so close a corporation that every person supposed the commission to have always been unsalaried, until the disclosure was recently made that Comptroller Green while filling the office of Commissioner had drawn from its funds over ten thousand dollars a year for ten or eleven years, in salary, expenses and extra allowances. No person questions the honesty of the present Park Commission ; but, in view of the enormous taxation with which we are now burdened and of the large increase of the public debt, it is just as well that every department should be held to strict accounta- bility, and that its management should be closely scrutinized with a view to economy. We are stre that Volonel Henry G. Stebbins, as one of the Commissioners, will approve of giving the widest publicity to the trangactions of the department, of throwing open the hitherto secret meetings of the Board, and ot fairly considering such suggostions as may be offered for a better and more economical man- agement of the public parks. There are some improvements which may be made in Central Park with great advan- tage and at a very trifling cost, while there are others in contemplation or in process of construction upon which a large amount of money is all but thrown away. Central Park is a great boon to the poople. It has pleasant walks and shady nooks in abundance for those who enjoy them. It has fine drives, equal to the best country roads, and ample apace for horse exercise. But it lacks one attractive feature of European parks—of the Bois de Boulogne, Hyde Park and tho Prater—namely, the grouping together of pedestrians, drivers and equestrians in one locality, where all can see and be sean. In short, it lacks a ‘Rotten row,’’ where crowds are gathered on tho footpath, lounging, walk- ing or sitting ; where carriages form a grand parade, and where processions of equestrians, male and female, give varioty to the scone. A “Rotten row’’ could easily be arranged for 8 proper distance along the Fifth avenue en- trance, with a carriage drive and bridlepath, and with an ample space set apart for a promenade where now the lounging police earn their pay by driving foot pas- sengers away irom the sacred grass. It would require but a trifling expendi- ture to make this improvement, and those persons who do not like the excitement of a crowd would be at liberty to use the less frequented parts of the Park, as at present. At the same time, we may well be satisfied to discontinue more elaborate and less popular improvements in Central Park until our tax rate amounts to less than $3.40. per cent and until our debt ceases to increase at an average of ten or twelve million dollars a year. The services of architects and others who now spend their time planning altera- tions and embellishments can be dispensed with. If the Park as it is can be kept in good condition it is pleasant and ornamental enough for some years to come, and the Money squandered on museums, menageries and other myths and fancies may be much more profitably expended on improving roads outside the Park. An appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars has been made by the Logislature for park im- provements and it may be well for the people to inquire how it is to be spent, and to make themselves better acquainted than they have hitherto been with the business affairs of the Park Department. A Lxowuative Muppie.—The Consolida- tion act, although drawn by Charles O’ Conor, was found after its passage to be impertect. An explanatory act was required to make it constitutional; for, as originally passed, the law made no provision for the Assembly dis- trict apportionments and for the election or appointment of constitutional county officers, After this explanatory act had been passed it was suddenly discovered that the patronage in the county buildings, &c., heretofore en- joyed by the Supervisors, passed to the Com- missioner of Public Works. Upon this dis- covery the venerable Mayor hobbled about his office in a furious rage, and Comptroller Green rushed to Albany as fast as steam would carry him. Another “explanatory act” was introduced in the Legislature, vesting all this | patronage in the Mayor and Comptroller. But this latter bill was defeated, and so the patronage goes to the Public Works Depart- ment. “It’s on ill wind that blows nobody good.” Tas Porrrican Ovrioox in New Yorn.— The adjournment of the Legislature has been the signal for the movement of the political leaders, wirepullers and office-seekers to set their various balls in motion for the No- vember election, and we give in to-day’s Herarp a sketch ot their plans, intrigues and gossip. There is every indication of a sharp contest over the Mayoralty, and already rumors are rife of a division in the democratic ranks and of two democratic nominations for Mayor. These rumors, however, come mainly from republican sources, and while there will, no doubt, be hard fighting among the unterrified until the nominations are made, the probability is that all will wheel into line as soon as that cere- mony bas been performed. Ansox.—A nefarious attempt was made yes- terdsy morning to burn down a tenement house on Lexington avenue. Fortunately the fire was discovered in time, and, owing to the promptitude and presence of mind of Officer Brophy, the fire was put out, The officer ar- resied a man on suspicion of having lighted the fire. If the crime can be proved against him woe hope the severest punishment of tho law will bo inflicted. Had it not been for the promptitude of the police officer many lives would certainly have been lost, The Religious Press on the Veto Several of our religious exchanges this week have editorial comments on the Prosi- dent's veto of the inflation scheme of Congress. ‘The reminds its readers of certain passages in the first inaugural of the Presi- dent, in which he promised, as faras his judg- ment led him, to act in harmony with the public conscience on all questions affecting the public. The Independent thinks the Pres!~ dent could not consistently do otherwise than veto the Currency bill, which simply turned all the past pledges of the government into falsehoods and was the first downward step toward ultimate repudiation, and the bill should have been labelled, ‘‘An act to destroy public confidence,” &o. The Christian Union considers that the act of the Presideut required great coolness and courage on his part, for-he knew it would give offence to many of his mostintimate and trusted political friends, who thought they had a right to be sure of his assent to the bill. The Union is sure that the inflationists, if they take an appeal from the President to the people, will be utterly routed. The Methodist is glad that we can still hola up our heads as an honest people, determined to pay our debts in ‘‘money’’ as distinguished from the paper promise of money. The Evangelist believes that sound policy and sound morals alike require that Congress should fulfil the pledge which it has solemnly given to the conntry and the world. The Observer is jubilant over the veto. We should thank God and take courage and never despair of the Republic. In view of the in- evitably evil results that must have followed a further expansion of the currency the country has cause to congratulate itself upon the fact that the President was equal to the emergency and met the issue fearlessly and wisely. The Christian Advocate considers that the re- sort to the expedient of using paper money is justifiable only as 9 war measure ; its uunece essary continuance long after the return of peace and the indefinite postponement of the return to the only just and equitable system of national finances would therefore be wholly unjustifiable, Thais the vetoed bill did, and ¢he Advocate cannot, therefore, do otherwise than approve the Prosident’s action. The Baptist Weekly thinks the President, by his great veto, bas placed himself squarely om the side of honesty. The Freeman's Journal strikes a stunning blow this week at all future St. Patrick's Day celebrations by its wholesale condemnation of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, whose mem- hers compose so large a feature of those oele- brations. ‘The Order is a secret one, and therefore condemned by the Catholic Ohurok. The Catholic Review looks forward hopefully to the coming of the day of trial for Catholics in the United States, because it sees the good and faithful ones in Germany, Austria and elsewhere suffering persecution. Our Jewish exchanges are taken up with purely denominational subjects, Waltz. Waltz is not a gratifying social result, not o fact over which our pivilization can especially ‘boast ; yet he seems to be an indication. His uncommonly large brain is the leading point in his case, speaking psychologically, He bad fifty-four ounces of this mysterious cerebral pulp, and this quantity indicates the possi- bility of great intelligence. Marderers gener ally, nearer to the animal and impelled by semi-animal impulses, have small brains, and their crime in the vast majority of cases is due to the fact that their intelligence is insufficient to contemplate the ultimate results of a cer. tain line of conduct with sufficient clearness ; the contemplation of ultimate consequences ia misty and shadowy on the mind compared with the impression of the criminal impulse. As the brain improves in the ascending scale of humanity the motive must be higher to give to the impulse the strength that over- powers the controlling faculty. Low down in human life the very smallest motive of cupidity, envy or bad temper is sufficient; higher up it must be honor or some glorious temptation of the sort that takes the reason captive altogether. Yet Waltz had a bigger brain than ninc-tenths of the men in Wall strest, and murdered a miserable itinerant scissors grinder perhaps in mere cupidity. He | seems, in respect to his crime, to be on a leval with those strange wild beasts of the Bender family, and yet in his brain he might appar- ently have been on a level with Fisk, of Erie, if his early life had taken the trading direc. tion; while if accident had thrown him into finance or law he would, perhaps, have been ® magnate in either. But he was without cul- ture altogether—bred only on that semi- religious, semi-superstitious food for the mind which makes it the prey of small delusions and fears. He drivelled in these. It would ap- pear also that in cerebral physiology am accidental direction may be taken. It acci- denial strictly it is as likely to be bad as good; | and brain once started in the bad direction, and reaching great development, may become as great for evil as for good. It is under the evil control with greater potency for its very size. It is not enough, therefore, to assure the progreas of society that the brain of man should increase in volume, but i¢ must im- prove in the distribution of its power. Had ‘Waltz been a resident of this city he would not have been hanged, probably, but would bave escaped on the plea of insanity. Fortu- nately, however, he is hanged and well out of tha way ; and we doubt not that society, in the light of such facts as his crime presents, will eventually come to the view that it must hang all murderers, sane or insane, as it did in the times before philanthropy was so much culti- vated as it has been for some years past. In such a case if # man is sane he will be justly hanged for the ordinary reasons, but if he is insane he will be hanged for other reasons— for reasons based upon the right of society to destroy any life or exterminate any species the continuance of which is a permanent danger, and which cannot be brought to comprehend and respect the laws. Tue Steamsnte St. Laurent, of the French line, was seized at her pier yesterday upon a libel of the National Steamship Company. The affair grows out of the Greece and Europe controversy, and the claim of the National line is for thirty thousand dollars. The St. Laurent was immediately bonded, two securi- ties being furnished, bound for sixty thousand doilars each, and tho vessel started on hor regular trip, only a little later than the hour named tor sailing. { |