The New York Herald Newspaper, May 11, 1874, Page 6

, Ps _ rescue of imperilled seamen has been in ques- | | the corporations to do as they please. This ‘NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. ‘THE DAILY BERALD, pudtished every day in the ‘gear. Four cents per copy. Annual subscription rice 912. All besinees or news letters and telegraphic —— = ——__.+—__—_ Woupon orrice oF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Gabsoriptions and Advertisements will be Teveived and forwarded on the same terms ‘woop's MUSEUM, Lopes PPrepeers: y. corner of Thirtieth street.—DEBORAH, at 2 eloign a 90 P. § WILD Gay, at8 P.M; closes [gi lbdo'T Sophie Miles, Marietta Havel GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteonth strect, near Irving place.—Das STLFTUNG- 6ST, wt8 Fr. M.; cloves at LL NEW PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN. THE LONG STRIKE, atS P.M. J. d. Stoddart, Ring- gold, Rockwell. Palys FIFTH AVENUE THEATRI ‘swears street and Broadway. Mom NSTEUR (ot cha atSP. M.; closes at 10:0 Mins Ada BY ie Fanny Davenport, Bijou Heron, Mr. Fisher, ir. THEATRE COMI Po, $4 Broadway. = VARIETY EN ®. MM. ; closes at 10 :30 B pf arose ied Le ant sina ae: roadway and Thirisenth sree ; glesge eR, EGE Lester Wallace, as Jetreys | ERTAINMENT, ats | MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATR Washington street, near Fulton street, Brockiya—SHE ‘wuors TC Conus, ae . M. Ida Savory. oLyMPrc THEATRE Fp ‘ay, between Houston and RODRVILEE und. NOVELTY “ENTRETAINMENT: at 45 B. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. AD" mate Washing »Broadway, ‘oy —HOM! ME, &c., at8 M. ; Sloses at I1'P. M. oF Cael “ir W BOOTHS THEATRE, ath avenue, corner of Twenty. tnitd. street. —SPAR- | ACUS, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. “Mr, John MeCul- METROPOLITAN THEATRE, No. 58 Broadway.: en id ENTERTAINMENT, at 7:45 P. M.; closes at 10 230 P. ROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC. RIP van WINKLE, at 8 P. M. Joseph Jefferson. LYCEUM THEATRE, street, near Sixth sronee, as SCHOOL 3 CAND AL ateP. M.; closes atll P.M. Miss Jane Coomps TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, {No. 201 Bowery.—VARIETY KNTKRTAINMENT, at 2:30 ‘3 a) ; closes at 5:30 P, M.; also at 8 P. M.; closes at lL BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, third street Ld ‘Sixth Sree acne MIN. Y, &c., at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 P. ‘went ‘BTBE: se AgADERE or peas i ‘SOIREES corner irving ‘place.—: autgues, at6P. M. Professor Herrmann. COLOSSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirty-fifth’ street.—LONDON IN a ag ‘M.; closes at5 2. M. Same at7 F. M.; closes | ROMAN HIPPODROME, MGdison avenue and Twenty-sixth ‘strect—GRAND | bier RAREST OF NATIONS, atl 30 P.M. and ‘TRIPLE SHEET. Wew York, Monday, — From our reports this morning the probabilities | wre.that the weather to-day will be generally clear. Tax New Yorx Priors have long enjoyed a | thigh reputation for devotion to duty, fearless- | mess and disregard forall danger where the May 11, 1874. | tion. The latest example of those distin- guished qualities is furnished in the case of | the pilot boat George W. Blunt, which fell in with the dismasted’ bark Alfred at sea, and | after a severe struggle of twelve days with a , NEW YORK “HERALD, MONDAY, MAY Ul, 1874. —TRIPLE SHEET. The Railroad Contest in Wisconsin— Battle of the Monopolists. Last winter the Wisconsin Legislature passed an act known as the Potter bill, limit- ing the rates and charges of the railroad cor- porations in that State. The act was very ob- noxious to the railway corporations, and the | Chicago and Northwestern Railroad under- | took the work of resisting its execution. ‘The principal ground of resistance is based upon the allegation that if the law is obeyed the business of the roads will become unprofit- able. Consequently we see the remarkable spectacle of the railroads boldly defying the laws of a State and ignoring the proclamation of the Governor, charged with the execution of the law. Asa matter of course the next step will be to test the validity of the act in the courts ; but instead of waiting to make their arguments before the only tribunal which can legally determine the question the roads are seeking to forestall the decision by exerting an influence upon public opinion. To this end the “opinions” of two eminent lawyers—Benjamin RB. Curtis, of Maasachu- setts, and William M. Evarts, of this city— have been obtained, both of these tegists up- holding the rights of the roads to set aside the law. * In all the railroad contests which have taken Place in this country there is none so remark- able in every phase as this one. The first point which will strike the reader is the fact that opinions so hastily obtained and so hastily prepared were not intended merely for the guidance of the company, but for publication. Though both opinions are aimed at the Potter bill, asserting that the law does not come within the powers reserved to the State, and | has the effect of confiscating and destroying the value of property—in a word, that the act is unconstitutional and void—neither the paper of Judge Curtis nor of Mr. Evarts has the dispassionate tone of a legal opinion, but each is rather a powerful argument addressed to the people. The sophistry of Mr. Curtis’ reasoning may easily be understood from his denial of the only position which can be maintained for the safety of the community— namely, that railroads are public highways and that railroad companies are public, not private, corporations. When Mr. Cartis and Mr. Evarts argue the contrary they are urging a tyranny upon the people worse than any that can ever be exercised by the powers at Washington or at the State capitals. Is it possible that the State Legislatures have been alienating the public domain for the benefit of railroad cor- porations without any power to regulate the charges of such corporations? The affirma- tive of this proposition is the assumption of these lawyers, and they bring both argument and legal decisions to uphold a position so extraordinary. If this position is a tenable one the sway of monopoly in this country has only begun. The contest in Wisconsin will settle the | question whether the railroads are the su- preme power in a State in the matters of | travel and transportation. The right to alter or repeal all general or special acts of the Legislature is guaranteed to the Legislature by the constitution of the State. Even Mr. Curtis does not altogether deny this, but he seeks to show that this power is a limited power; in other words, that it does not ex- tend to imposing restrictions and duties upon great corporations. This is simply placing the corporation above the law and above the constitution, and that, too, upon the singular ground that it is unconstitutional not toallow argument is worthy of Jack Bunsby, and it must have been under the inspiration of that noted individual that Messrs Curtis and Evarts sat | down to write. They argue sophistries that storm, succeeded in bringing her safely to this port. tte ed sw sea Me A New Treary.—Mr. Washburne, our | Minister to France, and the Duc Decazes, | the French Foreign Minister, signed, on April 28, the postal treaty between France | and the United States. The Duc will submit the treaty to the National Assembly as soon as | it meets. The date when it shall come into | operation has not yet been fixed, but Mr. ‘Washburne, on the part of the American gov- | ernment, has requested that it shall be soon, | end proposed next July. The terms of the | convention have not yet been published. Tue Crvm Szevice Exasaxens have made | report of their work during the year, trom which it appears that while they examined a | good many candidates in different parts of the | country very few of the successful ones have yet received appointments. Most of the report is | devoted to a defence of civil service reform | and complains of the inadequacy of its appli- | cation. In plain phrase the report means | that the civil service rules have been disre- garded in general practice, and their applica- | tion to the service is a blind for the people. Tre Coat Mrvzns at Nelsonville, Athens county, Ohio, are now out on strike. A reign of terror has been inaugurated by the union ‘men. Late on Friday night the union men in great strength fell upon the citizens, and scenes of the wildest violence ensued. ‘There ean be no solid objection to men uniting tor the purpose of protecting and advancing their own interests by legitimate means; but when | violence is resorted to, as in this case, the suthorities ought to be held responsible for | the punishment of the law-breakers. We hope | to hear that the authorities of Athens county have proved themselves equal to the occasion. Ta May Anwrvensanies.—Regulazly, year | after year, with the returning month of May, | would, if accepted, destroy the liberties of the | People. If railroads are only in a limited | sense public highways, and if railroad corpo- | rations are in any sense at all only private corporations, the States and the Legislatures have been forging chains for the people the | severity of which is unequalled by the powers | of an autocrat. But the Chicago and North- western Railroad is evidently not well assured | of the tenability of this position. Knowing | the powers they claim they may well doubt whether the courts will assist to rivet the chains of the ‘people by confirming their claims, It is for this reason that so much ado | is made about this matter. Some of the Wis- | consin papers declare that the assertion that | the tariff under the Potter bill will not pay is a pretence. However this may be, it is cer- tain, notwithstanding the apparent determi- | pation to carry the question into the courts, that the railroads are not anxious to try the issue there. The effort to make public opinion indicates a purpose to fight out the battle in the Legislature. The railroads seek to defy the obnoxious law upon the pretence of test- ing it only that they may secure its repeal. For them this would be as much a triumph as success in the courts. The difference in the attitude of the rail- roads toward the people now and a few years ago is very marked. It is not long since the most of them were begging land grants from the States and from Congress for the purpose of building the roads, The public domain thus alienated it was pretended was as much for the benefit of the people as of the rail- roads. Indeed, the benefit of the people was apparently held by the managers of the roads | as the supreme consideration. The whole country was covered with posters and | placards showing the great public good from that was to spring the con- struction of these Western roads; and the public domain, alienated by the gov- is New York tavored with visits by the various | religious societies. More and more, in fact, | does New York city become the favorite , centre for these religious gatherings. We are | already in the midst of this annual religious | excitement. Some of the societies, as will be seen by our reports this morning, held their | first services last night, and during the course | of next week a large number more will organize and proceed to business. Ail these | societies are doing good work—some of them | among the poor and neglected at home and others of them among the heathen abroad. The reports of last year’s labors, itis expected, will be more than usually interesting. Wo bespeak for the different societies, all of which are engaged in the service of the Master, the kindly consideration and encouragement of the Christian public. Funds are needed to continue and extend the work which bas been begun. New York, we doubt not, will show ite wonted liberality. ernment without recompense from the roads, was offered to settlers on the most enticing | terms, It is true the prices charged were in excess of those asked by the government for public land, but the superior advantages to spring from contiguity to the line of the road not only justified the higher price, but brought purchasers who otherwise could not have been tempted to go West. The roads were built and grew rich in an incredibly short space of time. It was not long until they were the feudal lords of the soil and the peo- | ple. Especially in MDlinois and Wiscon- sin they became the governing power in the State. There was apparently no way of resisting their demands and extortions; they were not only monopolies, but reckless, arro- | gant and grinding monopolies. At last, in | despair, the Legislature of Wisconsin passed @n act limiting and regulating their tariffs and charges. This was a policy not regarded as a sound one in the books on political economy, but it was necessary as a ee agile s | The water police in 1871 numbered ninety- danger never contemplated by the political economists. Anew power, organized by the State and calling itself a private corporation that it might be above and beyond the will of the people, had arisen in the State to tax and oppress the people. That a few men, to whom were eccorded extraordinary privileges—privileges now claimed to be above the lew and the con- stitution—should in a few years set aside the law and defy the officer charged with its exe- cution, was not thought possible at the time the charters were granted to the railroads. As the dangers of the new power over the people were not known in the beginning it was only Oe ee ee be as strictly as would have been desir- able. But nosane lawmaker would contemplate granting to a corporation, and a private cor- poration, as the railroads claim, powers which should be perpetual. Whatever powers the railroads obtained were only in trust for the people, and having abused their trust the same authority which granted them privileges can now annul them. Were it otherwise the fat monopolies of the West—the giant railroad corporations—would successfully resist every restriction imposed upon them in the inter- ests of the people and seek to prevent in every case, as in this one, any attempt at lim- iting their extortions by blatantly crying out against unjust and tyrannous laws. In every aspect the question is one of the greatest im- portance, and in two respects at least—the perpetuity of the charters granted to the railroad companies, notwithstanding their ex- tortions, and the inability of the Legislature to limit their tariffs for travel and transporta- tion—the position they and their counsel have assumed before the people is opposed to public policy and destructive to the welfare of the whole country. iy Arkansas. The Arkansas troubles are not yet ended, Baxter failing to acquiesce in the terms pro- posed by the Attorney General and appealing to the President to permit the Legislature, which is to assemble to-day, to at once con- sider and decide the question. This proposi- tion had already been rejected by Brooks. The whole thing is mere technical objection, and the refusal to accede to it | by Brooks is as well merely technical. The Legislature is as capable of deciding the question now as two weeks hence and two weeks hence as now. Why Baxter should object to the delay or Brooks insist upon it we cannot understand, At the same time the proposition that the Legislature shall meet on the 24th inst., instead of to-day, is the plan of the general government, and if the President thinks it wiser to wait till the later day Baxter must be compelled to submit, The plan of settlement differs in no essential feature except in time from that to which he declared himself willing to accede in the beginning, and there is no reason why he shonld be un- willing to accede to it now. His letter to the President, which we print this morning, cer- tainly gives no adequate reason why the slight delay under the Attorney General's | plan would be dangerous. The country would certainly applaud the plan of both men standing aside and patiently waiting for the verdict of the Legislature, acceding to it when it is made, This Brooks has promised to do if the Legislature is called for the 24th of May, and Baxter makes the same promise if action is allowed to be begun at once. In such 8 dilemma there is no other way than that the will of the Executive shall rule, for in any event the President is bound to see that the peace is preserved in Arkansas. We hope to be able to record the acceptance of both claimants of whatever time the President thinks will best subserve the public interests, and that the people of Arkansas will in due time obtain a peaceful and satisfactory settle- ment of the difficulty. The Transit of Venus. We give elsewhere an interesting record of the active preparations on foot in the world of star gazers with regard to the great astro- nomical event of next December. It will be seen that though the world has been thought to be too much with us “late and soon’’ it has not had an altogether paralyzing effect upon our aspirations for other knowledge than what its transactions afford. No better answer could be given to the charge of the deadening influences of materialism in current thought than to find, as we do now, that an interest international and world-wide groups itself around subjects so purely scientific as those which this great astronomical observa- tion involves; and an interest so sincere and extended as to be like a general enthusiasm. To see great nations appropriating large sums of money, and sending out their timely and well provided expeditions—not to slay ene- mies nor occupy new lands—but to make pic- tures of the shadows, and count the seconds of the passage of one planet across the face of another—may indicate that the material as- pects of modern thought are those that promise the greatest results. In astronomy and in applied science the transit of Venus is very much such a fact as occurs every day in the life of our harbor pilots. ‘These hardy fellows in bringing a great ship into port keep in their minds a constant knowledge of their whereabouts by the rela- tion in which they stand to distant objects on shore. If a big tree on the Jersey shore shows fair against a white church steeple farther away on the Jersey shore the ship is perhaps where she should be, but if the tree cannot be got at the right point the ship is too far one way or another. So when Venus crosses the sun’s disk the shadow she casts, the time she takes to pass and similar facts will give us the bearings of this good ship, the world, and tell us probably better than we now know just where she stands with regard to the sun. It is our distance from the sun especially that it is hoped these observations will determine, and this determination is very important, fora great part of the science of navigation depends on the accuracy of our knowledge of this distance. Inéuease or Water Runts.—The revenue 1872 and 1873 shows an increase of $272,960 over the two preceding years under the old Tammany rule, The average increase in pre- vious years since the introduction of Croton water in 1843 was only $43,000. At the same time the cost of collection last year was only from Croton water collected during the years | two, while last year only twelve policemen were employed This is certainly » good showing, and if a “similar economy and ef- ficiency had been displayed in other municipal affairs the “reform” administration would not now be regarded as but little better than the rule of the Tammany plunderers. Senator Schurs and Our Political Fature. Senator Schurz, of Missouri, has issued » proclamation in the convenient guise of an “interview” with a Washington correspond- ent, the substance of which we print else- where. Mr. Schurz is a candidate for re- election to the Senate from the State of Mis- sour The attitude he has assumed during his present term of office has opened him to much oriticism. But he holds a position in our national councils that makes any declaration of views of great value, as throw- ing light upon the political situation. His ean for re-election in Missouri has a na- tional importance. Carl Schurz is one of our most gifted public men, and his career shows conspicuously what opportunity America opens to the foreigner. He did not come to America until after entering upon man’s estate. Al- though among our younger public men he has filled many offices. Lieutenant Governor of a State, Major General in the army, Minister to Spain and Senator in Congress—these are cumulative honors that have been paid to few men, certainly to few foreign citizens. In some respects he has had an erratic career. He supported Seward againat Lincoln in the convention which nominated Lincoln. He was a teasing supporter of Lincoln’s adminis- tration, acting with the extreme radicals. He made the first assault on Johnson’s admin- istration, and was elected to the Senate be- cause of his radicalism. He supported Grant only to quarrel with him, and upon issues which failed to command the sympathy of the country. He presided over the convention which nominated Greeley, and then declined to support Greeley until he wrote a humiliat- ing letter. That doubting hesitation was the first blow Greeley received in his unfortunate Presidential canvass. These are traits that make Mr. Schurz an in- teresting character, for they show independ- ence of judgment if not steadfastness of charac- ter. He completes the circle of his political career by becoming a candidate for the Senate upon a conservative platform. Beginning os a radical republican, he is a conservative democrat. The contest now, he thinks, is between the moneyed aristocracy and the laboring commonalty. The question to be decided now is whether in subjugating the rebellion we have given the military idea an undue prominence in our government. The country is menaced by two monopolies— the money and the military monopoly. We have now in power an oligarchy, daily cen- tralizing its forces, narrowing its confidential limits, drawing itself aloof trom the people, and intrenching itself beyond their reach. It is held together by the cohesive power of public plunder, and its leaders are united by a mutual knowledge of each other's cor- ruption. The question is, not reconstruc- tion, finance, the purification of the bench or the amendment of. the tariff, but “Shall the people govern themselves ?” This is a brilliant, if not a sound and prac- tical, platform, but as a political work of art may be called in Murillo’s gaudiest style. The dangers which Senator Schurz sketches are certainly elements of a mew revo- lution in politics. The republican party to-day is absolutely under the control of the President, far more than was ever the democratic party under Jackson. There were rebellions in Jackson’s time, some of them successful. General Grant has encountered rebellion, but he has in all cases subdued it. Mr. Schurz himself is an evidence of his efficiency in that respect. Jackson was a man of stubborn will and did many things which history does not approve. But he never main- tained asa theory of executive duty that a cabinet was only another name for a staff, and that a president should select his constitutional advisers upon tho same principle that a lover chooses a sweetheart—for the color of their hair, their comeliness, or their skill in dancing and playing the piano. The fact that the Presi- dent has done this and has compelled the party to support him in the declaration, shows how absolute his power has become. Senator Schurz, however, gives us a shad- owy platform. There is a good deal of color and attractiveness about it, but no form. We have little hope of a successful campaign against the party in power upon any such issue as “Shall the people govern them- selves?’’ There is a vagueness about this declaration, which reminds us of the question in a humorous paper, ‘‘Are telegraph poles un- healthy?’’ Misty declarations of an abstract faith in abstract ideas are never successful in political warfare, Bell and Everott ran against Lincoln, Breckinridge and Douglas upon a platform of three lines about ‘the Union and the constitution.”’ It was a good platform and they were good candidates, but the people chose to vote for facta, not for men ond ideas. Senator Schurz can- not ignore the finances or the tariff or reconstruction. Upon all these questions the next canvass must turn. The practical point that a majority of Western republicans delib- erately repudiated the financial declarations of their platform, and the grave fact that there is no conspicuous republican journal or states- man that dares to ask the President whether he will run for a third term, are of more con- now in casting the horoscope of the political future than all the misty theories of the eloquent Senator from Missouri. The Sermons Yesterday. ‘What was indeed the first Sunday of sum- mer was colebrated by the dedication yester- day of the new Presbyterian church in West Eleventh strect and the laying of the corner stone of the new Catholic Church of the Sa- cred Heart in Brooklyn. At the former the opening sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Adams, and gt the Intter Bishop Laughlin delivered were the most interesting occasions apart from the regular sermons at most of the churches, of all which we present very full reports this morning. At Plymouth church Mr. Beecher preached an interesting discourse on liberty and love in the Christian Church, which, though devoid of any pointed reference to recent troubles, is $76,000 against a past of $190,600 in 1971. | eanecially volnable ag an exposition of his an address, These | views of duty brought before the Oongrega- tional Council some weeks ago. He took a bold, manly, straightforward view—what might be called the republican view of the rights of sects and of Christians—and in conclusion expressed great sympathy with Professor David Swing, on trial for heresy in Chicago. Mr. Beecher, while ad- vising everybody to stay in their sects, is equally liberal in advising them to construe their confessions of faith according to their consciences, The Rev. George H. Hepworth preached on the atonement at the Church of the Disciples. It is the same story in which all Christians put their faith, but it is told in the Hxnazp, as Mr. Hepworth told it in the pulpit yester- day, with a simplicity and earnestness and freshness that claim the attention of all readers, The “Religion of the Heart’ was the topic of Mr. Frothingham’s sermon at Lyric Hall. Like most of his efforts, it wasa genial and characteristic discourse, elevating the dominion of feeling above the sway of theology. It was bold and it was not orthodox. Mr. Frothing- ham takes issue with the New Testament as well as the Old. The demons entering the swine, the cursing of the fig tree, the denanci- ation of the Pharisees he declares the heart reads with horror, The description of the last judgment Mr. Frothingham rejects as he rejects the theory that religion is supernatural and divinely ordained. He boldly grappled with the subject of the atonement, taking the directly opposite view from that of Mr. Hepworth, making war on the theory and the system of Christianity, but still pinning his faith to religion. The sermon is one likely to attract general atten- tion on account of. its rejection of the teach- ings of all the sects and the boldness with which he replaces the religion of the Bible by the religion of humanity—its abnegation of dogma and the substitution of fecling and efforts to do good. Mayor Havemeyer’s Last Freak—The New Police Commissioner. The recent appointment of Mr. Disbecker as Police Commissioner is only one of the natural results of the fraudulent ‘‘reform” by which the citizens of New York have been vic- timized for the last two years. It is of a piece with that disregard of common decency which characterized the course of the republican legislature and lobbyists during the progress of the City Charter discussion in the Loegisla- ture of 1872, and the action of the Custom House leaders in the charter amendments con- cocted within a few days of the close of the last legislative session. It follows naturally the other remarkable appointments by which Mr. Havemeyer has signified his defiance of public opinion and his indifference to the interests of the city. It harmonizes with the scandalous squabbles of the reform leaders; with their denunciations of each other as cheats and gamblers on the one side and as abetters of fraud and rascality on the other side. The best that can be said by Mr. Havemeyer’s friends on the subject is that he has deceived and cheated the Custom House ‘“‘gang.”” The motive of the appointment is sufficient to brand itas an outrage. It was notoriously made with the object of influencing the action ot a committee appointed by the State Senate to investigate the New York Police Depart- ment, especially with reference to the conduct of the Street Cleaning Bureau. While the Legislature was in session an investigation was ordered by the Assembly, and, pending the inquiry, two gentlemen were consecutively nominated by the Mayor to the vacant Police Commissionership, both of whom were known to be friends of the Custom House repub- licans, who controlled the legislative majority. ‘These nominations effected their object. The report of the Assembly committee was as evasive and moderate as it dared to be in the face of the published evi- dence, and the Street Cleaning Bureau bill based upon the report was defeated. There is no more doubt that the nomination, first of Mr. Andrews and next of Judge How- land, although of course without the conniv- ance or knowledge of either of those gentle- men, caused the half whitewashing report of the Investigating Committee and the defeat of the street cleaning bill, than there is that it gave birth to the law which has empowered the Mayor to nominate Mr. Disbecker. When the Legislature adjourned the Senate Com- mittee was left in existence to prosecute a new inquiry into the Police Department. The Custom House republicans were then no longer useful. Their nominees were there- fore thrown overboard and a protégé of the leading member of the Senate Investigating Committee received the appointment of Police Commissioner from the Mayor. To make the job the more unmistakable the new Commis- sioner was made a member of the Street Cleaning Committee at his first meeting with the Police Board, an old member of the Board being removed to make place for him. We know nothing about Mr. Disbecker or his capacity for the position he now holds. ‘We pay no heed to the personal assaults made upon him by the political hucksters who de- nounce him because he is not of their own particular stripe, and whose characters do not entitle them to assail the reputation of others. But the fact that he is an untried and almost an unknown man is enough to brand his se- lection by Mr. Havemeyer as an outrage on the citizens of New York. The Police De- partment is the most important and responsi- ble of all the municipal departments. Bad men in other departments may rob the treas- ury and defraud the taxpayers. Bad police commissioners hold the lives, the property, the liberty and the morals of the whole people at their mercy. For such a position it is the duty of the Mayor to select only a citizen of established position in society and of tried capacity and integrity. There are hundreds of such citizens in New York ; men whose names would be accepted at once asa guarantee of their fitness for the office and whose services would be valuable to the community. In failing to select such a man for the vacant Police Commissionership Mr. Havemeyer has rendered himself liable to grave suspicion, and has shown that he is un- deserving of public confidence and respect. He may have successfully cheated the political hucksters with whom he has recently been driving a new trade; but he has disgusted all respectable citizens and has increased the public anxicty to rid the city of his incapable Land disaraceful administration, Mintsters vs. Ministers. Dr. J. D. Fulton belioves in cold for other People, but manages to keep himself in hot water most of the time. He has been in Brooklyn only a few months, but has already succeeded in getting our neighbors on the other side of the mythical bridge in a pretty general snarl, He is evidently an admirer of Darwin, believing that he and his people are only one remove from the quadrupeds, and takes as his familiar motto the classic lines we were taught when as boys we pulled each other’s hair— ‘theft nature ton He began his career by the championship of cold water in bulk. His de- nomination was growing recreant to its own traditions, which prescribed the exact number of gallons of the aqueous fluid which should symbolize regeneration. It was getting ready to move en masse towards that central point of union which history has been predicting to be the end of religious effort and the begin- ing of the millennium. This was too much for our Boanerges, who raised the cry of alarm at once, and gasped for more water. He threatened to disfellowship any man who was willing to be baptized in less than his own tank would hold. No matter how true @ man’s life might be, or how correct his theology, or-how large and wholesome his in- fluence; unless he was willing to be extrava- gant with the Croton his doom was sealed here and hereafter. Business men look on at these clerical vagaries and laugh at am institution which can tolerate them, and which can so belittle itself as to allowsuch a partisan view to have any influence whatever. Wall street does not care a whit whether a man has been baptized with the few drops that fall from the clergyman’s fingers or with the ebb and flow of the whole Atlantic; but it does care a great deal about the honesty, moral principle and high toned rectitude of which both forms of baptism are the type. Such narrow-minded attention to the mere details of a form indicates a carelessness of essential things which makes a man a bigot instead of a Christian. The world has an idea, the growth of practical experience for generations, that the business of the Church is to make honorable men, men of integrity in the administration of office and profession, and is utterly regardless of the cut of his clothes, the shape of his hat or the particular church he attends. If prefer sixty or a hundred gallons of water, let them have it; if, on the other hand, they are satisfied with as many drops, why quarrel about it and refuse to treat them with common courtesy? This attempt to make all men walk in single file and in each other’s tracks is, so far as social economy is concerned, whatever may be the religious re- sult, a dead failure. Until you can make all eyes blue and fit every foot to a number seven boot, men will have their own notions about these things, and do not propose to be called to account by any self-elected Daniel come to judgment. Another mountain throe and mouse birth has taken place in Chicago. Professor Patten, intended to swing Swing, and has only suc- ceeded in getting laughed at himselt. He was under the impression that the Professor needed coaching in theology. He had said something very respectful about bald-headed Socrates, and intimated that Plato was not half so much of a heathen as we were taught when we were schoolboys, and capped the horrible climax of heresy by openly declaring that it is perfectly right to laugh at odd times, when you have nothing else to do, and even to dance with your brothers and sisters and to play checkers with your grandfather. This long catalogue of crimes was brought before the Council in detail, and, alas! failed to produce the proper effect. It indicated a fearful lapse from the good old times, when such men as Patten carried a thumb:crew in each of their coat pockets and lighted the fires by which cremation was practically exemplified. The Council came, heard, and went home. There ‘was no more sense in its proceedings than in the old rhyme of Hickory Dickory Dock. When ministers play the roll of tattlers, and solemnly meet to retail the gossip of the sewing bees, the world begins to feel that until the farce ends it will not go to the play. To have a good nose for heresy seems to be the highest ambition of some people, who are never so gleeful as when they come across a good heap of social garbage. It is somewhat refreshing to turn from these theological pedler’s carts, whose small wares disgust all sensible people, to a genu- ine instance of self-sacrifice for the sake of principle. The Episcopal church has times when it is affected very much as Mount Ve- suvius is, and when it can find relief from its internal agony only by getting rid of dis- turbing elements. Some of its very best young men have of late had a quiet kind of invitation to leave the arms of the mother church, and @ great many more are in the act of packing their tranks. A few Sundays since Rev. Mr. Sabine, in a very manly sermon, gave ample reasons for not remaining under the old roof any longer. He refuses to go into the pulpit with a ball and chain. He prefers being a Chistian minister to being simply an Episeo- palian. The rigidity of the Church, its inelastic methods, its demand that every one shall travel in the beaten path, and, while boasting of being a member of the only Apostolic Church, shall refuse all practical fellowship with the heathen of other religious sects, are @ sufficient reason for stepping outside of sectarianism and becoming a courteous Chris- tian minister. He gives up an assured po- sition and salary for the uncertainties of a new movement and a small congregation. The clergy are not over much given to in- dependence either of speech or act, and though heroic enough to accept a largo salary sometimes show an evident reluctance to give itup. There is too much namby pamby sen- timentalism, too much flattery, too much cos- setting connected with the ministry to give the manly qualities full and fair play. Less necktie and more muscle seems to be the pre- dominant want all over the country, to the eye of a looker on in Venice. It is very com- mendable, then, in gentlemen of whom Dr, Sabine is the type, to break loose from what they consider thraldom at great personal sacs rifice, and to trust the future to take care of itself. It has a smack of the old days, and, if it does nothing more, it proves that heroism has not entirely died out. Looking at the matter through the speo~ Aacleg of political coonomy, it ig much morte a x