The New York Herald Newspaper, May 10, 1874, Page 8

8 NEW YORK HERALD SROADWAY aND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Henax. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be Teceived and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. Volume AMUSEMEN — LYCEUM TWEATRE, Pou street, near Sixth avenue.—THE SCHOOL FOR taney v ateP. M.; closesatil P.M. Missy Jane Coombs. TO-NoRROW. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway. corner, of Thirtieth strest.—DEBORAB, at 2 M.: closes at 4:20PM. WILD CAT, at P. M.; closes 4: 0'd0 F. Me Sophie Mies, Marietta Ravel GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth stteet, wear Se ing ng pinon. .—DAS STIFTUNG- FEST, at 8 P. M.; closes at |) NEW PARK THEATRE, mom THE LONG STRIKE, ats P.M. J. ud. Stoddart, Ring- gold, Rockwell. DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATR Tentyeighih street and | Broadway. MONSIEUR ALPHON> ateP. M.; closes ab 2 L. Dyaa, Mise Care Davenport, Bou Heron, Mr. Fisher, THEAT No. $14 Broadway.—V P.M. ; closes at id 330 & TX OEM TRB AINMENT, ats WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street — SCHOOL 8 P.M: clneesnat MT Nie Lester’ Wallack, Mise detires Lewis, Jedreys MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street, near Fulton street, Brooklyn’ —8HB STOOPS 1C CONQUER, at8 i. M. Ida Savory. oa THEATRE, between Houston and Bieecker streets. — puna and, Be eee ENTERTAINMENT. at ; Closes at 10:45 P. st, BROADWAY THEA’ Broadway, opposite ang place.—HUMPTY Bon ye AT HOME, &c., at3 P.M; Close atll P.M, Fox. pre. Booey peaeees. a hye: ixth avenue, corner ot Twent rd street. AR Fd US, at 6 P. M.; closes at 1045 oy, M. Mr. John NeCul- ough. STADT THEATRE, bra 9 aS, at8P.M.; closes at 1 P.M. Tima METROPOLITAN THEATRE, No. 58 Broadway.—V. oo ENTERTAINMENT, at 7:45 P.M. : closes at 10:30 P. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MOSIC. BIP VAN WINKLE, at SP. M. Joseph Jefferson, TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 20) Bowery.—V \RIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at 2:39 E = closes at 5:30 P, M.; also at 8 P. M.; closes atll RYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty third street, near Sixth avenue, “NEGRO MIN- STRELSY, &c., at 5 P. M.; closes at 10 P. M. ACADEMY OF MUSIO, Fourteenth street, fener of Irving ‘place.—SOIREES MAGIQUES, at 5 P. M. Professor Herrmann. COLOSSEUM, corner of Thirty-fifth street—LONDON IN M.; closes at5°.M. Same at7 P. M.; closes ROMAN HIPPODROME, Madison, avenue and Twenty-sixth street—GRAND T—CONGRESS OF NATIONS, at 130 P. M. and QUADRUPLE SHEET. New York, Sunday, May 10, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabilities Gre that the weather to-day will be generally clear. Tae West Rervputes Rervprators.—The Chieago Tribune foots up the opinions of the press of nine Western States on the Presi- dent’s veto, and finds that two hundred and sixty-eight support the veto, one hundred and sixty-five oppose it and twenty-nine express no opinion on the subject. The verdict of the press, it believes, will be ‘for the veto. It will show conclusively that the West repudi- ates the repudiators; that Carl Schurz, not John A. Logan, gives voice in the Senate to Western thought on finance.’’ Genzrat Howagrp acqurrrep.—The Howard investigation case is ended at last. The court of inquiry closed its labors yesterday and adjourned sine die. It will be seen from the despatch that the General has been acquitted on every charge. The papers are in the hands of Judge Advocate General Holt and will be laid before the President for approval. This final triumph of General Howard, whatever others may think or say, must be a source of gratifi- cation to the General himself and to his many friends. MMR vyesiiat Say ‘Tre Crrr Ice Compantzs have entered into a combination against the consumers, and now announce to their customers that the price of ice is exactly doubled, the advance of one hundred per cent dating from the Ist inst. Of course people cannot do without ice, and hence are at the mercy of the companies ; but cannot some ice collectors outside the city come to our relief? If outside dealers can send their ice to New York and sell it ata fair price they may be certain of securing nearly the whole trade of the city, for the people regard the action of the home com- panies as outrageous, and would be glad to be rendered independent of them. Beer yor tHe Founpuie Asyivm.—The experience of many years has shown that the Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity in this city is not only a beneficent institution, but a great public charity. Is has been efficiently and econom- ically managed—much better, indeed, than if ithad been under State control—-and its | works of charity and mercy are beyond all | price. A bill for the relief of this institution, and to enable it to go on with its good work, awaits the signature of the Governor. It is to be hoped Governor Dix will regard the institution in the light of a great public | charity by giving his assent to the act of the Legislature now in his hands. ‘Tue Cantist Banps are said to be dissolv- ing. All the facts reported seem to indicate that the relief of Bilbao, effected by the gov- ernment troops, was destructive of all the | plans and ruinous to all the immediate pros- peets of Don Carlos and his friends. It will not be at all wonderful, however, if another and serious encounter should take place be- | Neen rrmmmimniummrmarmnmmmmmnrmnss uses aes aerial ucaauaaeamcaaaa aan ANE NEW YORK HERALD, SUN DAY, MAY 10, 1874.-QUADRUPLE SHEET. ‘The Reign ef Anarchy in Arkansas— A Tardy Movement Tewards Law and Order. Very few persons can have watched the progress of the unbappy civil strife raging in Arkansas‘ without experiencing a feeling of regret that the administration at Washington has not manifested something of the prompt decision, the iron will and the vigorous action of Jackson in its treatment of this national scandal and danger. From the moment of the seizure of the State govern- ment by Brooks and his partisans upon the strength of a decision questionably obtained from a Court of doubtful jurisdiction, it was evident that in the excited condition of the public mind no peaceful solution could be expected without the strong arm of the federal authority to enforce it As the rival factions gathered about them their armed partisans, and commenced to strengthen themselves in strategic positions, the apprehension of bloodshed became a con- viction, and the friends of peace looked on in wonder and dismay at the continued inaction of the President. The case was felt to be a very different one from that of Louisiana. It was not necessary that the national administration should undertake to make or unmake a State government, The Legislature of Arkansas was in existence, and the constitution of the State gives to the Legislature the sole power to decide just such a contest as that which has arisen between Baxter and Brooks. In the case of Louisiana it seemed to be clearly the duty of the President to allow the State authorities to decide the question of the legality of the State government, in accord- ance with the State laws, without federal in- terference. In the case of Arkansas it appeared to be just as clearly the duty of the President to use the power of the federal arm to preserve the public peace, to prevent anarchy and to protect the proper State authority in settling in a constitutional manner the contest for theGovernorship. In Louisi- ana the interference was a political one. In Arkansas it would have been a military one, in accordance with the provision of the federal] constitution. If the President had acted promptly in the matter, and had re- sponded to the call made by the Governor then recognized at Washington as the legitimate Governor of Arkansas hy sending General Sherman with a sufficient force to protect the Legislature while investi- gating and deciding the contest for the Executive office, the bloody scenes of the past three days would have been avoided. The sacrifice of life is not of so much account, provided the persons killed are the madmen who have been willing to plunge the State into the horrors of civil war ; but the scandal to the nation would have been saved, and re- publicanism would have been spared the in- jury which such crimes inflict upon its cause all over the world. The settlement which the President had it in his power to make several days ago seems now to be in a fair way of consummation through a compromise between the represen- tatives of the rival Governors at Washington. At an early hour yesterday morning the Bax- ter party submitted to President Grant the following proposition :—That the Legislature, already notified to convene, shall be recog- nized by both sides as the General Assembly of the State, and shall meet in the State House without molestation; that it shall investigate the contest between the tival Governors in the manner prescribed by the constitution and the laws of the State, and, after a fall ond impartial hearing, shall decide by joint ballot which of the con- testants received a majority of the legal votes cast in the election in 1872; that this being done the party declared elected shall be recog- nized by the government at Washington as the rightful Governor. This first proposition required that pending the investigation and decision by the Legislatnre Governor Baxter should be considered and treated by the federal authorities as the ad interim Governor of the State. The Brooks advocates, who had been tolerably confident up to yesterday morning of a recognition by the President, were startled by the sudden an- nouncement of the Attorney General that the proposed settlement appeared to the Presi- dent to be a very fair one, and that unless some such agreement should be reached the question of recognition would be decided by the administration before night. They con- strued this as a hint that Baxter would triumph with the President unless the constitutional right of the Legislature to decide the contro- versy should be admitted and respected by the Brooks party; hence they at once signified their acceptance of the proposition for the peaceful convening of the Legislature, only objecting to the ad interim recognition of Baxter. They based their opposition to this on the ground that whatever party might bo recognized at Washington would exercise an undue influence over the Legislature, and so they thought it would be preferable that neither or both should enjoy that advantage. This proposition was a singular one, and scarcely likely to meet the Prosident’s approval ; so the Baxter party so far modified their first plan of settlement as to leave Presi- dent Grant at liberty to recognize whichever Governor he might please pending the action of the Legislature, if it should become neces- sary to make recognition at all. At a later hour in the day the Brooks men made the tollowing proposition :—That the Legislature shall be called by both Governors, to meet on | the fourth Monday in May, and shall decide “in accordance with the laws of the State’’ whether Baxter or Brooks received the most votes in the election of 1872; that both armies shali be disbanded, except a body guard of one hundred men for each Governor; that warlike demonstrations shall cease and both sides preserve absolute peace, and that the status of the claimants shall remain as at present until a decision is reached, unless the President deems it necessary to previously recognize one or the other as Governor ad interim. The Baxter party made no objection to these terms, although they thought it pru- fore the Oarliste quit the field. General strengthening his position near Bilbao, and | Don Carlos and General Elio, with a lnrge | | body of men, are at Durango, only thirteen miles southeast of the lately relieved city. Serrano, on whose life the welfare of Spain | so much depends, is said to be indisposed. The presumption is that Spain, for some time to come, will largely engage the attention of | tha worlds | dent to telegraph to their chief to ascertain Concha is erecting fortifications and otherwise | whether they were acceptable to him. At eleven o'clock last night the parties again met, and although Governor Baxter's reply had not been received, and the representa- | tives of both Baxter and Brooks declared that they scarcely feli authorized to bind their principals to a settlement with- out instructions to that effect, Mr. Williams notified them that a determina- | tion must be reached at once, suggesting that they should agree as Chitin, iia to either contestant the responsibility of dissent- ing from the terms. This proposition seems to have been accepted perforce, and the At- torney General then submitted the final plan of settlement. Throughout this controversy Baxter has certainly held the strongest ‘position and has seemed to have the best case. His origi- nal proposition was to refer the settlement of the contest to the Legislature; and the prompt aid of the federal government in protecting the General Assembly from armed violence would have brought about a termination of the trouble several days ago. His friends at Washington have acted with temperance and discretion, evincing cheerful readiness to yield minor points provided the great end of the constitutional action of the State Legislature could be reached. Brooks, on the other hand, by first opposing the convening of the Legislature and threat- ening that body with violence placed himself in opposition to the express letter of the State constitution, while, in afterwards proposing that the Legislature shall decide the contest, he concedes the incompetency of the Court upon whose decision his seizure of the government was justified. It is singular, too, that at the moment his friends at Washington were arranging the terms of a settlement, based upon the constitution and laws of the State, he telegraphed to the President an appeal for recognition and federal aid as the rightful Governor of the State, legally. placed in office and holding actual possession, Unfortunately, while these negotiations were proceeding at Washing- ton yesterday, the tools and accomplices ot the rival factions were spilling each other's blood in Arkansas, and bringing fresh re- proach on the country. It is to be regretted that the peaceful solution now so nearly reached was not brought about, as it might have been, through the instrumentahty of the federal power before the soil of the State was stained with blood, and it is to be hoped that there will be no further temporizing with so dangerous question, but that its settlement will be firmly enforced by the President. In view of the folly and reckless- ness heretofore displayed on both sides it may be just as well to send General Sherman to the scene of the disturbance as a sort of safe- guard against backsliding, and to keep him there until the Governor constitutionally de- clared elected shall be firmly established in power. Pulpit Topics for To-Day. We have to-day announced for pastoral meditation a series of topics at once doctrinal, practical and speculative; some of an ordinary turn and others of more than ordinary force and bearing. Wr. Samson is dealing with the antediluvians, and is drawing from their long life some useful lessons, as he will demonstrate this evening. He will also indicate certain methods by which we may serve our genera- tion. The Rev. George H. Hepworth will tell his young people this evening how to keep their temper, and will explain to old and young this morning how the great atonement was made for them, and is therefore a personal matter for each to attend to. ‘The True God and Eternal Life’? will command the atten- tion and the thought of Dr. Ganse, who will also continue his sermons on typical forms of Gospel grace, giving some reflections on the restoration of hearing to the deaf. Dr. Cheever will also continue his series of dis- courses on the ‘Evidences of Christianity,’ which are cordially received and are warmly commented on by the religious press, The human mind, in its finiteness, cannot grasp more than a small measure of the nature and extent of Ohrist’s love, and yet even the smallest share gives food for reflec- tion and an ideal for emulation. Mr. Nichol- son will endeavor to set forth in some sense the topic here indicated and also to explain and account for the opposites that were mani- fested in Christ. We are all so used to listen to the excuses made by men for their own failures that it will be something new this morning to listen to God’s excuses for man’s failures as they will be presented by the Rev. Mr. Platt, of Brooklyn. If it be true that as a man thinketh in bis heart so ishe, then it must follow that strong feelings make strong men, and this is the proposition that Rev. Mr. Horton will sustain this morning. He will also show this evening that God is a God of the living as well as a living God. The Rev. ‘W. ©. Van Meter, who has just returned from Italy, will interest at least three audi- ences to-day with a recital of his mission work in the city of Rome, and will, of course, awaken sympathy among his Baptist brethren for his schools. The heathen had some theory of future pun- ishment. They had not advanced as far as we have, and hence they did not believe that the wicked should go unpunished, but that retri- bution would overtake them; if not here, then hereafter. Dr. Riley will tell us this evening what their doctrines of future punish- ment were, and we may be able to judge how nearly Scriptural they were, too. The Rev. Mr. Sweetser has prepared a discourse on “Spirits in Prison,’’ which he will deliver this evening, and will prob- ably explain how they get in and how they may get out. The Rev. Mr. Phelps takes for granted that Christians wear mitres, and he will therefore describe the “‘Golden Plate on the Christian's Mitre” and give some instructions that it may be always kept bright and bur- nished. The personality of Christ and His second coming are doctrines held by all shades of Christians, but the day and the hour of His coming are left to speculation. Cer- tain preparations are necessary for us to make ere He comes and certain preparations must be made by the Holy Ghost for the personal coming of the Lord Jesus. What these prep- arations are will be indicated to-day by the preacher in the Catholic Apostolic church. Spring’s Outburast. After long incarceration in the chambers of the South the spring has made a sudden ont- burst over the whole land. The weather bul- letins show that the past weck closed with more than summer heat in the Western States. On Friday afternoon the thermometer rose to over eighty-five degrees in the Upper Missis- sippi Valley and surrounding States, and to ninety-three degrees and ninety-five degrees respectively at Breckinridge ond Pembina, the most northerly towns in the United States. Although these excessive temperatures, rang- ing above ninety in the Northwestern districis, | were partly due to the presence of a storm centre, in front of which the thermometer always rises, the thermal effects aro the same upon vegetation and will give it o great im- pulse. The same vernal conditions were re- ported on Saturday as prevailing everywhere," except in New England, to which they have ultimately extended. This genial and fructi- fying weather will inspire the country with the joys of the season, and bring relief from the protracted cold, for this year we have literally fulfilled the poet's figure—‘‘Winter lingering chills the lap of May.’ ‘The entire country has enjoyed a plentiful rainfall, and the agricultural prospects North and West are as bright as sunshine and shower can make them. The Southern Floods—Indirect Conse- quences of Bad Government. Considerable portions of the States of Lou- isiana, Arkansas and Mississippi—districts ordinarily cultivated and yielding splendid crops of cotton, sugar and corn—are now under water. Onr latest report from Arkansas is that the water stands as high as four feet above the floors of many of the houses. Not only plantations, but whole valleys are sub- merged and the people flooded ont. Some settlements appear to have been under water three weeks. In Louisiana it is said that the parishes under water ‘contain two-thirds of the wealth, the population, the industry and the produce of the State.” More than halfa mill- ion acros in that State which were under cultivation in cotton, sugar and corn, are overflowed, besides a million and a half acres of other lands. All the Yazoo Valley is a lake. In Arkansas the Washita River, for over two hundred miles, is from ten to fifty miles wide, and the people flying before the advancing waters up this stream, with such property as they could save, were met by the waters from the Mississippi crevasses, and were compelled to make themselves at home on the housetops, where they remain. It is estimated that the loss to the cotton crop will be three hundred thousand bales, to the sugar crop forty thou- sand hogsheads, and that the tobacco and rice crops will be nearly a total loss. In some cases the spread of water over the country 18 due to freshets in the minor streams that feed the Father of Waters. Swollen by the spring rains these streams have exceeded their ordinary limits, as streams sometimes do in every country. But the overflow from freshets is an inconsiderable item in the sum of the present trouble. It is the irraption of the Mississippi that gives the event its gravity. Breaches or ‘‘crevasses” have been made by the river in the levee constructed for the pro- tection of the bottom lands when the water is high. As the dykes in Holland protected the country of the. hardy Dutchmen from the “rolling Zuyder Zee,’’ so these levees, or artificial banks, retaining the vast river within a given line, save the rich bottom lands that border it on either side for nearly the whole length of the lower river. Some of the cre- vasses are half a mile wide and ten feet deep, and through these breaches the waters of the Mississippi rush out at a rate of from three to nine miles an hour, an enormous cataract, with the volume of the great river behind it, inundating the fertile fields and pleasant places that are the homes and source of support of the whole people. The breaches in the levee are so numerous that their aggregate width is counted at fifty miles, and it is estimated that two thousand million cubic feet of water is poured every hour upon the fields of the people upon whom this terrible calamity has fallen. With this quantity of water flooding the country in every direction a large part finds its way into the minor streams, and these, thusswollen, burst other barriers and inundate new districts. With a large proportion of three States in this condition there is, of course, a scarcely describable distress among the people. Driven from their homes, provided only with such portable stores as they could hastily gather, they have taken refuge in every conceivable place, and are making, against every adverse circumstance, a desperate fight for life. In some instances the tragedies by the pic- turesque presentation of which art has en- deavored to convey to us the story of Noah’s Deluge have been repeated in such unprom- ising lives as those of the freedmen and the poor whites of these three States. Nochron- icle can tell the whole of such astory. There are families, and, perhaps, many of them, now gathered on their housetops, surrounded by the dreary waste of waters, having eaten the last of their hastily gathered stores, silently waiting for death by starvation or for the sub- sidence of the waters. And as the trouble comes from the Mississippi and that river will continue high fora month, or will even rise in that period, all this must, necessarily, be worse before it is better. No physical calamity so extreme or so widespread in its operation ever afflicted the people of this country. All this incalculable misery visited upon @ country and ao people is caused by the de- fective condition of the Mississippi levee; but what is that caused by? It is plain enough that the broken dykes are to blame for the presence of the water; but who is to blame for the broken dykes, and is, therefore, responsi- ble for the calamity? Is this an occurrence in the course of nature, as inevitable as an earthquake or a hurricane, against which no human foresight or providence can guard? Or is ita consequence of criminal disregard to im- portant concerns and the failure to take steps that previous experience has taught are sufii- cient against this danger? It is the latter; and the responsibility for this calamity comes home in a great degree to those who feel it most, as wellas to those who are altogether blameless. First of the causes, doubtless, is the natural effect of the war in the general breaking up of the whole social organization of the Southern country, which crippled the levee system that had been con- trived to prevent occurrences of this nature, Next in importance to the war as a cause is reconstruction, which put the whole ma- chinery into the hands of negroes and carpet- baggers. On every acre of the States whose welfare, and safety even, are involved in the security of the levee, a tax is laid to keep this barrier in order; and this was a part of gov- ernment so vital totho people that under the old system it received the attention necessary to keep it in honest and efficient operation. Under that system crevasses occurred, of course, just as there is wear and tear in every material contrivance for human safety; but, with comparatively small damage, the danger of widespread calamity was always averted. Now we seo something equal in its conse- quences to a wholesale collapse of the levee; yet the taxes have been gathered just the same, only they have not been spent honestly. They have not been applied to keep the levee in repair. They have gone to fill the pockets of carpet-baggers. This is one of the mines that those unscrupulous political adventurers discovered and worked in the Southern States with the results that are before us. Englend’s Military Dilemma. From a paper recently read by Colonel Chesney at Woolwich, England, on military organization, it appears that one of the sub- jects attracting a fair share of attention from the English mind is the dilemma in which the growth of continental armies Las placed the pensive lion of England. Shall England, in all conditions and all circumstances, pursue a peace policy, or shall she undertake to bea military Power? Inthe way of her aspirations to bea military Power stand gbstacles scarcely surmountable; for the days when ‘‘great men won great battles with small armies’’ are gone by, and England can never have any but a smallarmy. As war must be wagod in future on the Continent of Europe armies in battle would hold a reserve for emergencies'equal to the whole force of the British Army. Ger- many or Russia could fight two or three battles on the same day, with two hun- dred and fifty thousand men in line of battle on each field; but England, straining every nerve, cannot put into the field more than sixty thousand men. Outnumbered thus, it must seem desparate for England to pre- tend to be a military Power; and why should she, then, in the endeavor to keep up an or- ganization that cannot have effect in practical events, spend the present cost of her army? Shall she, then, save this money and stand up always for peace? She is a pugnacious old lady, and has defects of temper that unfit her for the réle, and she has an aristocracy with military tastes and under some obliga- tion to keep themselves in military condition, whose policy and whose pride at once revolt against the suggestion. What, then, shall be done? Colonel Chesney proposes a plan by which to avoid at once the peace necessity, as well as the consequences of England's inferior numbers in’ military array. His proposi- tion is to make a little army so good as to enable it to whip all the big armies. To make an army such as our raiding cavalry was during the war—a mounted force with artillery that sball be able to move rapidly from point to point, and the men of which shall also be trained to fight as infantry. He believes such troops could whip any large army organized on present principles; but he does not attach sufficient weight to the fact that other nations as well as England could organize such o force. It does not seem to us that this is the way of England’s escape from the military dilemma ; but that the true escape is by a policy of alliances. England's sixty thousand added to the armies of France and Belgium would stay the tide of German advances at any designated point. There was not a battle fought in the Franco-German war that could not have been decided in favor of the French by twenty thousand English infantry on their flank. Twenty thousand Englishmen would have gone through the German lines around Paris any time in January, 1871. One must not lose sight in such a problem of the splendid quality of the British troops, and this would give a morale to their allies worth even more than their numbers. The policy of alliances asa solution of the present prob- lem of European politicians was perceived by Louis Napoleon and Palmerston before the war came ; itis strange if England does not see it with all the light the war has thrown upon the subject. An Investigation Needed. The Mayor, on the application of the Com- missioners of Charities and Correction, has decided to investigate the charges against the management of that department embraced in the presentment of the Grand Jury. The in- vestigation is needed, and it must not be made in a Pickwickian manner, simply to save the appointees of Mr. Havemeyer. Ac- cording to the statement of Mr. Laimbeer ‘4naccuracies,’’ as he is pleased to call them, have already been discovered in the accounts of the department by the Commissioners of Accounts, who have been called in to make an examination, and, although the Chief Clerk is sought to be held solely responsible, there is good reason to believe that the whole department needs purification. A million and a half dollars is no small sum to disburse annually, and if the reports that reach us are weil founded it will be discovered that the ‘reform’ administration has not been superior to the temptations which proved too strong for Tweed and his associates, There should be no delay in the investigation, and if Mr. Havemeyer should evince a disposition to treat it as he treated the charges against the Finance and Police departments some public spirited citizens should take it out of his hands and avail themselves of the protection afforded by the charter. Education in Europe and America. Mr. Francis W. Newman, the radicul writer on education in England, in a recent paper is immensely complimentary to the United States. Our free schools, he thinks, are mod- els for the rest of the world. What especially strikes Mr. Newman as remarkable in our common school system is the fact that we have abandoned the old methods, studies and tradi- tions and boldly carved outa system of our own. Ina new country, with the determina- tion of the early settlers united upon making education general and free, this was inevita- ble, and in the absence of a large number of endowed schools it was comparatively easy of accomplishment. The only real drawback in elevating the standard of general education in the United States has been found in the secta- rian colleges. A great number of these, with pretensions far beyond their merits, exist in every part of thecountry. They have assumed to give the youth of the country the higher education, which it was held the free schools would not beable togive. The result has been to retard that growth which our colleges were supposed to foster and in many parts of the country to prevent the formation of free | schools above the grade of grammar schools. In England and Germany, where endowed schools, and what might be called endowed prejudices, are more numerous and more last- ing than in this country, their influence has been strenuously and successfully exerted to | prevent any general higher education wbat- i acquiring a knowledge of music, literature, the modern languages, natural science and the higher mathematica, our so-called colleges will soon become useless, and even Old Har- vard will find a dangerous rival in the free universities. Spirit of the Religious Press. There is a charming diversity this week in the topics which the editors of our religions contemporaries deem worthy of notice. The Independent, now that the temperance excite- ment has subsided a little, takes up the wine words of Scripture and reviews rather sharply the temperance exegetes who deny so stren- uously that the Jews used fermented wine at their feasts. It quotes from missionaries who have lived in the East to prove that the only wine known now or ever known there is fer= mented, and no method of preserving it un- fermented is known. That the wine produced by our Lord at Cana and that of the Last Supper contained alcohol, the Independent thinks, allows of no reasonable question. The Methodist thinks the fraternal dele- gates from the Methodist Episcopal Church to the General Conference of the Church South, now in session in Louisville, have gone on a bootless errand. They have no powers to settle anything nor even to propose a settlement or reference of disputes between the two sections. The Southern Conference has already, early in its session, appointed a committee to suggest plan for regaining the Church property belong- ing to it, but now in possession of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Until the Northern Church can offer something tangible in this direction all hope of fraternization or union may be considered dubious. The Christian Intelligencer rejoices at the spread of Protestantism in Russia, which has aroused the ire of a local paper of St. Peters~ burg. If Russia should become largely Prot~ estant the Intelligencer believes it would fur- nish a key for the Christianization of Asia and its hundreds of millions on a grander scale than has ever been possible hitherto, The Observer lays the lash on the backs of the New York manufacturers of “foreign” mdence for the religious press. It declares that the man who makes money by manufacturing lies for the religious news- papers is no better than Ananias, and de- serves to be struck—from the society of honest men. Recurring to the murder of missionary Stephens, in Mexico, the Observer charges it to ‘the Romish spirit in America.’” Tho Evangelist is satisfied that a Presby~ terian Ecumenical Council is needed, that the different branches of the great family may come together and know one another more and better. Some kind of union is needed, though it does not advocate any form of or- ganic union. The Tablet draws comfort from the auspi- cious day which ushered in the Month of Mary, 1874, as indicative of golden opportunities offered to Uhristians of doing special homage to God and honoring those whom He delights to honor. - The Boston Pilot calls attention to the ime portance of higher education for the future of America. It thinks that by and by we shall have more men of leisure in America and that some great universities will spring up among “Sirhe Jewish Messenger calls attention to tha annual meeting of the Board of Delegates, which takes place here shortly, and the Jewish Times has some reflections on the Chicago Sunday service in the synagogues there. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Bagley, of Michigan, is at the Governor John J. Windsor Hotel Captain Martyn, of the steamship Java, is at the Brevoort House. Commander P. B. Smith, United States Navy, is at the Irving House. Mr. Giadstone is to spend a few weeksin the neighborhood of Snowdon. Rev. Newman Hali’s application for a divoree will, it is sald, be withdrawn. Assemblyman A. G, Eastman, of Poughkeopsle, is again at the Filth Avenue Hotel, Robert Browning’s son has chosen the profession of an artist, and has commenced to paint, Lieutenant Commander Frederick Pearson, United States Navy, is staying st the Hoffman House. Lieatenants H.W. Lyon and H. G. 0, Colby, United States Navy, are quartered at the West- minster Hotel. Secretary Richardson resumed his duties at the Treasury Department yesterday. He is now im excellent health, The Marquis ae Clermont-Tonnerre, Secretary of the French Legation at Washington, has apart ments at the Brevoort House. Captain Jolitfe, the conservative member for Petersfield, England, has been unseated by the scratineers of the polls and the seat given to Mr. Nicholson, the hberal candidate. ‘Thomas Carlyle has rented @ house in Wales, and is going there, accompanied by Mr. Froude, to spend the summer. The old gentleman is very feeble and has almost ceased from writing. Mr. Milburn, a compositor in the Loadon Times office, who produced a set Of verses in honor of the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgn, has received an autograph letter of thanks from the Empress of Russia. Pere Jeanguenat, one of the dispossesscd Catho- lic curés of Switzeriand, {s very pugnacious, His hostile attitude toward the authorities caused a warrant for bis arrest to be ‘jssued, but he was always kept in safety by an armea guard of re- tainera, Recently he paraded through Bontot with his followers. AS he was returning, with two servants, at night to his refuge in France two gendarmes stopped hia carriage. The Curé was equal to the necessity, however. He leaned from the vehicle and struck one of the officers senselesa | witha cudgel The horses wore then urged om and the apostie of the Church Militant escaped over the frontier. Chinamen are as imitative as monkeys, and Scotchmen pervade the distant British colonies. A Mr. Macpherson was, upon the opening of* sealed proposals for some public work in Otago, New Zea- land, found to be the successful competitor for it, ‘The supposed Scotchman, who was unknown, was invited to attend to complete his com tract. To the amazement of all the officials a Chinaman, with @ noble pig-tatl, pat in an appearance. “Where's Mrr Macpher- gon? asked the clerk. “Me! replied Joh. “How came you to be called Macpherson t” “Oh, | Nobody get nothing tn Otago if ne be oot & Mae Fedlied (he anapagbed Celestial,