The New York Herald Newspaper, May 15, 1874, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY aND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Aunual subscription ‘son ona. All business or news letters and telegraphic Mlespatches must be addressed New Your ‘Hama. Letters and packages should be prop- erly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re darned. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. Volume XXXIX................. -No. 135 DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEA’ Rreideew at io'ae igs SdG yan, Mee’ Panay Davenport, Bijou Heron, Mr. Fisher, Mr Clark. No. 616 Brondway VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, roadway.— Pid. closes at 1d 30 P.M, ane ia 4 ee Rr roadway and Thirieenth street —8C! atsP.M.; Glones at 'P, Mr Lester’ Wallach, Wiss Sediens Lewis. OLYMPIC THEATE! Pee ORV Tuite nod NOVELTY “ENTRETSIIES Tat a : 746 P. M. ; cloges at 10:45 P.M. * 534 BROADWAY THBA’ Broadway, _ oppsaite” Washlatios - place.—EUMPTY rT tor HUMPTC AT WON, acy MUST. M,; Slows wee Me G. L. Fox. Sixth roar of Seren band street.—8: xth avenue, corner remy FACS, ato F: MeVeloses at lua PM Mr Joba Maul, #95 Broadway VARUGTY ENTHETAINM P.M. : closes ai 10:90 F. M, si Xo. ror Thirteth: ace! EBORA! i tJ M.;"closes at 30 P.M. THE FREN ay rapes (closes at 10:30 P.M. Sophie Miles, Marietta Ravel Fourteenth strect, ueat lrving place LES BRIGAN! acSt. Miciosesat ie we ey BOWERY THEATRE, Bowory.—Benefit of Mrs. Jones, at 5 P. M. oy SET AEESTERESE: EDEN nN, M. J. a. Stoddart, Bing. w: Ltn eee Ae? eee he gel reet, near Fulton street, Brooxiya. 1 OF 4 LOVER, ath EM. Hoche, Conway, eo OAN TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, B 201 Bowerv.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMANT, at 2:30 meme rtrg bonis ten) also at 8 P. M.; closes at il *STBELSY, &c., ate P closes at Pm \ amas CENTRAL PARK GARDE! THOMAS’ CONCERSS, at 8 P. M, me FF sia ACADEMY OF a " fourteenth street. corner of Irving ‘place.—SOIRE! MAGIQUES, at 5 P, i Professor Herrmann, me COLOSSEUM, Faceterey, corner of Thirty-fitth street—LONDON IN | Bi6 at LY. M.; closes tb P.M. Same at7 ¥. M.; closes | atu P. M aes ROMAN HIPPODROME, ison avenue and Twenty-sixth ‘stre N FAGEANT—CONGKESS OF RATIONS, alt) Peat aud “TRIPLE SHEET. York, Friday, May 15, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabilities Gre that the weather to-day will be generally clear. Waiz Srazer Yesterpay.—Gold 112 to 112}. Stock market dull and weak. Money easy, without takers. Tse Democrats propose to nominate Gen- eral McClellan for the Governorship of New Jersey. Goveryoz Dix has done nothing that will be of more advantage to the State than put- ting his signature to the Compulsory Educa- tion bill. ‘Tax Fortorn Hore. of liberal republican- ism, under General John Cochrane, rallied in Albany yesterday and resolved to save the country by maintaining ‘intact’ their organ- ization. We hope they may be able to main- tain themselves without political success, for their chances of preferment in that direction do not seem to be very encouraging. Liberal | republicanism is a child which ‘nobody owns." Sznaton Scuvurz writes a card intimating that the letter published a few days since set- ting forth his views on national politics was not authorized. It is noted, however, that the Senator does not deny any of the declarations attributed to him. One of the advantages of the interview, as a form of expressing opin- fons, is that you can always deny it, and at- tribute its inaccuracies to the heedlessness of @ reporter. Sir Lambton Lorraine under- stande this, for instance. Ma. Wiiu1ams’ famous landaulet will play &s prominent a part in the next campaign for the Presidency as the celebrated gold spoons of Mr. Ogle in the Van Buren campaign, An ingenious politician has purchased the landau- let, and proposes to drive it through the West, drawn by four horses and with liveried ser- vents. His purpose is to show the horny- handed and hard-fisted people an example of the luxury and dissipation of official life in Washington. Govennoz Drx is doing good service in his close scrutiny of the bills crowded into the Executive chamber at the latter end of the | legislative session. It is to be hoped that he | will withhold his signature from every law of | doubtful honesty or expediency. There aro enough loose and useless laws on the statute books already. At the same time it is to be hoped that such measures as are demanded for the public interests or in the cause of hu- manity will receive his prompt approval. The | people are well satisfied to leave the decision ‘in the hands of Governor Dix. ‘Tux Evience in regard to corruption in the Department of Charities and Correction is said to be of & Very Gamaging character, It jis rumored that the purchasing of supplies will equal anything perpetrated under the old wrégime in downright rascality. It is difficult \to believe this, since all the bills for purchases ‘have to undergo the scrutiny of Comptroller Green, who would scarcely have allowed them to be paid if they were open to sus- picion. But why is not the investigation an open one? Why is it conducted with closed doors and with the seal of secrecy stamped on _fyery man's lips? ; NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1974.—TRIPLE SHEET, ‘ The plication of the Money. There is evidently an Alabama ‘“‘ring.” Ex- cept upon this hypothesis it seems impossible ‘to understand the Senate bill for the distribu- tion of the Alabama award. By that bill it is proposed to shut out a class of claimants, and a class generally not given to suffering in silence. It is proposed to exclude insurance companies from the benefits of the indemnity. Now, ifa bill had been brought in to give the whole indemnity to insurange companies and exclude everybody else, it would have been nearer what seem the ordinary ways of legis- lation and the operations of large combina- tions of capitalists. But how an interest could have been made on bebalf of many isolated shipowners and solitary sea captains, and even poor individual tars, to get their shares and exclude a great money interest that could readily combine appears rather a puzzle as first looked at; but the difficulty passes away on closer observation. It seems probable that the insurance companies, as they could afford to wait, have held on to their claims and waited, but that all the other claims, as necessity pressed the holders, have been sold out, and that the keen speculators who have bought these up have now com- bined to get the whole sum, and hope, under cover of a popular cry against insurance ex- ' tortioners, to drive out of the field the un- derwriters, whose demands, amount to nearly @ third of the whole sum. If this is the in- spiration of the case for the seizure of the indemnity fund, the combination has secured influential representatives in the Senate and is, no doubt, sure of its game in the House. ‘We may look, therefore, we fear, to the con- summation, so far as relates to the two houses, of a great piece of national roguery, which, alas! is of late altogether characteristic, It is the theory of the bill which passed the Senate that the money awarded at Geneva was awarded to the United States, and is the property of the United States to do what it will with, so that it may, if it choose, put the money at interest to accumulate asa fund to pay the expense of catching future Alabamas. But the United States, for some reason of its own, is disposed to pay this money out to certain claimants who had ships destroyed by Anglo-Confederate cruisers, or to persons who have bought the claims of those who had ships destroyed, unless these persons are called un- derwriters. And why not pay underwriters? Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, has given o wonderful reason for this, speaking, of course, in support of the bill. His reason is that the depredations against our commerce were acts of war committed by belligerents, and there- fore legal captures, on account of which no claim could arise against any foreign govern- ment. If this argument is sound why did we go to Geneva? If it is & good argument against ene set of claims it is equally good against all the others, and so, by the Senatorial logic, we come to the fact that, strictly and in justice, there are no Ala- bama elaims, though our clamor over them has filled the diplomatic world for nearly ten years. Here we have stood, pretending to be ready for war and extorting treaties and call- ing for arbitrations and exciting ourselves and the world generally, yearin and year out, and now at last, with the money in our hands, we discover, ora Senator discovers for us, that the captures of all our ships were made legiti- | mately by belligerent enemy and in such circumstances that no just claim for indemnity arises. How will the country relish this sort ‘of self-stultification—this argument, so like that of a low swindler, that we were greatly injured before damages were allowed us and the sudden discovery afterwards that no damage whatever had been done? Was the money awarded to the nation as its own? At Geneva it was thought it would be unworthy the dignity of an international tribu- nal and altogether a mean and pitiful labor to enter into the examination and adjudica- tion of just how much had been lost, and how much should be paid to John Doe and Richard Roe in consideration of the depredations of one or another of the Anglo-Confederate cruisers, Roe had lost the ship Brilliant by the acts of one cruiser and the Samson by another, and Doe's losses also had been many and various, and Doe could have kept the court a round season with a parade of wit- nesses to prove every copper of his claim and Roe could have done as much; and, in short, there could have been cases and counter cases on every individual ship, as voluminous and burdensome as were the cases and counter | cases on the main issue between the govern- | ments. But the tribunal wisely deemed that a court of such learning and political calibre, whose members were selected by the gover- eigns or supreme authorities of several coun- tries, could not properly enter upon investigations involving the legal details of the municipal law, but only sat to determine the great principle of the liability or non-liability of one government to another on admitted facts as to the acts of certain vessels. It was their province to de- termine a great principle of interest to the future peace of the world; not to haggle over a claim for a chronometer or a sailor's chest. They were made the judges of the propriety of their own course on this point. It was contemplated that the Tribunal might pay in detail every claim made upon its own judg- ment of the validity of the claim, It might have incorporated in its verdict a schedule of the names of the indemnified, with the sums | they were deemed entitled to. On the con- trary, it was contemplated that it might, apon consideration of the claims altogether, adju- dicate a gross sum in settlement, to be paid into the hands of the government, whose caso | rested upon the aggregate claims of its citi- | zens and was made up of those claims, This | course was the one pursued, as our readers | are aware, and it was taken, as is well known, | from the view of what was becoming to the dignity of the Tribunal, But there never was any doubt that the | damages awarded were given to the United | States in trust for those of its citizens whose claims were presented to the Court. Those claims were the substance of the case. It was from consideration of the aggregate sum they presented that the starting point was taken in the endeavor to ascertain what sum would be | @ fair indemnity, Therefore the pretence now made, that the fact that a gross sum was awarded makes that sum the prop- erty of the United States to do what it will with, is gratuitous nonsense, It is even Giisen ‘hadtasecpeest’ Iteaps | evived this moncy otherwise than in trust for the claimants, or that it has any right to do what it will with it, or any right to do with it any other conceivable thing than pay, 80 far as it may proportionately, those very claims of persons and corporations that were Presented by our government at Geneva and vouched for by it as honest claims—these as- sumptions are false, and are belied by every line in all the arguments and judgments and opinions that touch these points. As the Alabama claims now. stand before our government there is on the main point regarding their character no difference between them; but on the points on which there iss difference it is in favor of the honesty and fairness of the class the bill proposes to ex- clude. If an insurer has paid the owner full value for a lost ship it is common sense as well as common law that the insurer becomes the owner of any part of the property that may be saved, for he is, rationally, in the position of one who has bought the property and paid for it. He is aleo, in tho same way, the owner of the claim for indemnity in regard to the destruction of that ship, for he has bought that claim as part of the property. Insurers ere therefore holders of claims by purchase. Now, by far the greater number of other hold- ers of Alabama claims arein the same position on this point. Those claims have been bought up—some for seventy-five per cent, some for fifty per cent and some, we believe, as low as twenty-five per cent But between these two classes of holders practi- cally, by purchase there is this difference— underwriters bought their claims in the pur- suit of legitimate financial transactions, in a traffic that is beneficial to commerce, and in every way meritorious and useful. So far, therefore, as they may be called purchasers, they are purchasers whom the law should favor. But as for the other purchasers, they stand in the position of speculating sharpers, who gambled on the chances of England's ever paying a penny. Which of these posi- tions is the more strictly moral and honest? | If the insurers recover the sums they paid | to owners less the sums they received as pre- miums on the ships for which indemnity is paid, they, will only be reimbursed as to those | transactions. But if other holders are paid they will get sums largely in excess of those they themselves paid to the original owners. They therefore have @ large margin on which to gain, and it is the side which has the margin that always @ppears in the lobby and is able to excite the ‘‘interest’”’ of legislators. Arkansas—-The Legislature in Session. There is clearly no room for turther doubt respecting the case of Arkansas; for at last the Legislature is in session and has called upon the President to put it in possession of" the State House. By simple precedency this appeal at once relieves the government at Washington of the whole complication and of the duty of deciding between the Governors. Before the President could decide whose appeal he should act upon, as between Baxter snd Brooks, he had to determine which was Governor of, the State; but there is no such doubt in regard to the Legislature. There is only one Legislature and no pretence of the existence of another, and the call of the Legis- lature is of superior force to that of the Executive. It is the call of the Legislature upon the United States government that is primarily contemplated in the constitution, and the call of the Executive is to be recognized when the Legislature can- not be convened. The general government is to protect each of the States ‘against inva- sion, and, on application of the Legislature or of the Executive (when the Legislature can- not be convened), against domestic violence.” As the Legislature has, therefore, now been convened and has called upon the President, its call must be attended to in preference to any other; and as it is the proper tribunal to determine any issues as to the choice of a Governor of the State, it supersedes at once all the active measures of the factious spirits at Washington, and the country is, we trust, happily md of the whole excitement. The City Debt. The Commissioners of Accounts publish in the City Record a statement of the city and county debt on March 31. The gross amourt is $136,317,503, an increase of more than $5,000,000 since December 31. This, how- ever, includes revenue bonds payable from the taxation of the present year. A curious fact appears in this report. In one column is a statement of the “amount of debt outstanding December 31, 1873,” the recapitulation of which is as follows: — Funded debt... ‘Temporary deb‘ Revenue von County debt County reven: Total debt December 31, 1873.......... $131,869, 570 It will be remembered that the Comptroller and Mayor in January last falsely represented the amount of debt outstanding on December 31, 1873, to be $131,204,570 and the total amount of outstanding revenue bonds to be less than $1,500,000. When the Commis- sioners of Accounts made their debt state- ment for the year ending December 31, 1873, they were coerced by the Mayor into falsifying their figures so as to make them conform to the total debt as untruthfully stated by Mr. Green. In this report, however, the truth unconsciously leaks out, and the total amount of debt on the last day of December is shown to have been $665,000 more than was repre- sented by the Mayor and Comptroller. Whether a similar deception has been prac- tised in the March statement, we are anable at present to decide. Tue Srazet Crzantna ScaxpaL.—We print this morning a letter from the pen of H. G. Eastman, the chairman of the Committee on Cities appointed by the Legislature. Mr. Eastman’s letter claims that the com- mittee, so far as the Street Cleaning Bureau is concerned, faithfully did its work. No doubt can any longer rest on the mind of any one as to the corruption and bad management laid to the charge of this bureau, Negligence, ignorance of duty and a misuse of authority in the way of levying contributions for selfish and ends—of these and like offences the Committee of Investigation found the Street Cleaning Bureau guilty. It was the opinion of the Committee of Investigation, however, that the ‘‘control and execution of this important work should be in the hands of an efficient Police Board.’’ The great ques- more; for if it is not ridienlous ignorance it is wilful dishonesty, That the United States re- tion still remains how an efficient Police Board can be found, | The Currency Question. With the passage by the Senate yesterday of the Banking and Finance bill s paintul fact forces itself upon us, altogether independent of the character of the measure, which we is not a little singular that in the pro- tracted debates of the present session every speaker has missed one of the most important functions of @ sound currency, and conse- quently one of the most cogent arguments for an early return to specie, It is a narrow and misleading treatment of this great subject to confine attention to the office of the currency in facilitating domestic trade. To disasss the currency without reference to foreign com- merce is like leaving Hamlet out of the play of that name. There has apparently been no thought among our Congressional orators and financial schemers of remodelling the currency with a view to anything beyond its domestic uses. Nobody has attempted to frame a bill for putting our foreign and our domestic trade on the same monetary basis, although it is so easily demonstrable that the most im- portant function of money is the self-acting process by which it links foreign and do- mestio trade indissolubly together, and so regulates home prices as to perpetually bring back foreign commerce to its fandamental idea of a barter of equivalent values of com- modities. It will not suffice merely to re- duce our currency to the same volume that would circulate on a gold basis, if it is, never- theless, to consist wholly of paper. The reason is obvious. The paper has no intrinsic value, and cannot be exported. It is impos- sible to detect by its oscillations whether the country is exporting too much or too little. Its amount 1s susceptible of neither.increase nor diminution by any possible state of foreign trade. An irredeemable paper cur- rency, or, which comes to the same thing, a paper currency redeemable only in other paper—is adapted only to a country sur- rounded by an impassable Chinese wall and content to relinquish the gains and advantages of foreign commerce. If the country is ex- porting too little of the products of its indus- try to pay for what it buys in foreign markets, such a currency is not self-contracting. It does not regulate domestic prices in such a way as to enable the country to pay its foreign debts by increased exportation of commodi- ties, That is to say, it fails to discharge the chief office of a sound currency by regulating trade and prices. The reason why this great defect and evil has not been brought home to the national consciousness is that since the close of the warwe have been settling our international balances by the sale of our bonds in foreign markets. It is too evident that this process must stop. Our gold bonds, having risen to par, are no longer a tempting object to foreign speculators, Moreover, the supply for exportation is nearly exhausted. Nearly four hundred millions are necessarily retained in the country to secure the circulation of the national banks. The savings banks and trast companies also need large amounts, and many pri- vate citizens prefer them to any other securi- ties for permanent investment. We have gone nearly to the length of our tether in ronning in debt to foreign countries by the sale of bonds. The panic of last fall was one of the symptoms of this check. We seemed in a state of swimming prosperity so long as we could procure every year enormous amounts ot foreign goods and settle the account by the exportation of paper obligations. The time has come when we must make real pay- ments in the products of our industry. We must not only pay for our imports, but meet the annual interest on our bonds held abroad, enrich foreign shipowners for carrying the commodities we buy and sell, and ultimately discharge the enormous debt which we have been accumulating, equal in amount to the principal of all our government bonds and railway debentures held abroad. These great and inevitable drains upon our re- ; Sources can be met only by exportation ; of American products, and our cur- rency seems likely to remain in such a state as to cripple the country in every joint. There could hardly be @ more stupendous blunder than the attempt to legislate on cur- rency without reference to the necessities of our foreign trade and the close connection be- tween it and our domestic prosperity. Our rulers having failed to perceive by foresight, must now learn by their experience the vast difference between keeping creditors easy by meeting debts with paper evidences of other debts, and actual payment. when this resourco is exhausted. It is our mischievous, delusive currency that has so fatally blinded both the country and the government. If we had wisely returned to specie soon after the close of the war we should have better understood our true condition ; and, what is more im- portant, we should not have piled up such a mountain of foreign indebtedness to be dis- charged out of fature earnings, Had we re- turned immediately to specie there would in- deed have been much complaint of low prices ; but low prices would have checked imports and increased exports, and the country would be richer by the difference. By our insane policy of sundering all di- vect connection between our currency and the precious metals we have made this the most tempting market in the world for the salo of foreign goods. The notorious but as yet insufficiently explained fact, that the excess of general prices in greenbacks is three or four the direct consequence of # currency whose volame is not affected by the exportation or importation of specie. Under the present absurd system, when gold is exported its value rises as a commodity; when it is im- ported its value sinks as a commodity, but general prices stand at the same level because the amount of domestic currency remains un- altered. But before the complete divorce of the ordinary currency of the country from gold every large exportation of specie com- pelled the banks to contract their circulation. Money thereupon became scarce, the prices of commodities fell, importation was checked, foreigners were drawn to buy in our markets, and by that means we discharged the foreign balance against us and brought back what- ever gold we needed. Having put ourselves beyond the beantiful and beneficial opera- tion of this law of trade we are like a ship at sea without a rudder. There is no safety but in restoring our domestio currency to the self-acting regulation of foreign oom- merce, do not at present purpose to discuss. It | times the amount of the premium in gold, is’ Steam Lanes—Should Not Steamships Sell in Twin Companionship? No suggestion that we have urged in con- nection with the establishment of ‘steam lanes” has been more emphatically endorsed among seafaring men than the proposition that two steamships making the transatlantic passage should leave port together and keep company across the ocean, never being beyond “‘hail” or signalling distance of each other, every circumstance of wind, atmosphere or sea to the contrary not- withstanding. Can this be done? Oan one steamship become the convoy of her com- panion, and, if it could be achieved, would not safety on the greatest ocean highway of the globe become an absolute certainty? It is the opinion of seamen and practical navi- gators that there is no difficulty in keeping two powerful steamers always ‘‘abeam’’ on a fixed ‘dane.”’ Indeed, there has rarely been an instance when either a monitor, a transport or any unwieldy sea leviathan haa escaped the sight of her convoy, even along the stormy goast of Hatteras, Surely, if this is the maritime record over the great area of cyclones in the South Atlantic, it would be an casy matter to establigh the convoy principle in connection with “steam lanes.”’ As we have said before, a system of electric lights must be used and fog signals of the most powerful class. But, more important than these, is accuracy in navigation, which is essential to the estblishment and observance of the highways tobe laid down on the charts. Two heads in, an emergency are always better than one, and espepially in navigation. It is 8 well understood fact that our merchant cap- tains are not scientific navigators, although in many instances their land-falls are of sur- passing accuracy. | But there is a class of offi- cers in the United States Navy, in the junior grades, who have been schooled in navigation from its elementary principles to the niceties of its intricate calculations. These officers are poorly paid ; their salaries are beggarly ; their lives in time of peace monotonous and unrelieved by any pleasing incidents, It would be to the advantage of transatlantic travel if the companies would constitute a grade of navigator, and the duty of this officer should be to keep the steamer on a given course, according to the prescribed “ane,” taking charge of all the instruments, chronometers, log books and charts, holding them subject alone to the orders of the captain. Of course it would be impossible and unwise to divest the captain of any share of his authority. But now he has too much responsibility, too much labor, and, necessarily from his long and practical life at sea, too little scientific knowledge, There is another element in such an innovation that should not be ignored. Naval officers are masters of discipline, and in a moment of danger are cool beyond comparison. The mere knowledge that such an officer is on board a steamship would reassure a flock of landsmen in a panic at sea. Financial Anomalies. Among the financial anomalies of the present are the plethora of money and low rate of interestin Wall street, while there exist a want of money and high rate of interest in many parts of the country, especially in the South and West. The money em- ployed in one day in non-productive and demoralizing stock gambling—yes, the money loaned by the banks for this purpose—would, if applied to legitimate business and enter- prise, employ many thousands of work people and add greatly to the national wealth. There is ample security for money in the property and industry of the country and a good interest to be obtained, but the banks and capitalists prefer lending to stock speculators on col- laterals, upon the pawnbroking principle of business, because they make more by that. Even the country banks, supposed to be established for the benefit of the people in their several localities, send their money and that of their depositors on to New York to be used in ‘the street,’ and leave the farmers, traders and manufacturers at home without means, Iowa reports that there was never a better prospect for the fruit and wheat crops than at present. Taz Dmezcr Castz.—Our correspondence from London this morning describes the prep- arations already made to lay what is called the ‘direct cable.” This line will ran from English soil to a port in New Hampshire. Twenty-four hundred miles of the wires are now ready, and the company hopes to have the cable down and in working order by, August. Among the promises of the directors is the assurance “that rates will be reduced to fifty cents a word. If this promise is redeemed it will be a great advantage and the first blow at a monopoly that has never hesitated to take Shylock’s advantage of the public. Coronavo claims to yield sapphires, one of which was sold recently for five hundred dollars, Tux Reyormen Ermcorat Cuurce rm Coux- cr.—Yesterday the Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church held its second session. The new Church does not appear to be troubled with any great pressure of business; but it lives and can afford to hold a General Council, and that is something. Yesterday a large portion of the day was spent in discus- sions about wardens and vestrymen and sach like. A new Church, having the proper idea of a Church’s mission, might find more suita- ble themes for discussion, The Reformed Episcopal Church does not yet fully compre- hend its. mission, if it has any. It ought not to concern itself too much about “old clothes” it it means to make its mark in the world, The active modern world cares less about old-fashioned names than about work. We advise Bishop Cummins to be done with all this rubbish and get to work. A Sensrstz Temperance Gospet.—Henry Ward Beecher lays down ina recent letter that “total abstinence is the rational and safe remedy for intemperance.’’ He sees no value in preventive laws at this time which, however right in principle, cannot be enforced now be- cause of the low tone of public feeling. He would win his fellow men from the despotism of strong drink by reasoning, moral influence and kindness, rather than by any form of vio- lence, From Auazama we learn that the peach crop promises a splendid return, and that “the trea seem to bo a polid mane of bloom” The Woman Suffragists. ‘The apostles of woman's rights held their annual meeting yesterday at Irving Hall, and it will be seen from an account published in another column that their proceedings were marked by unusual enthusiasm. The tireless Susan still urges on her petticoated legions to struggle against the domination of the brute man, and under the leadership of this female Oxsar the Amazons threaten to become a danger to the State. The cotton umbrella of the oratorical lady shines in the vanguard of the woman’s movement like the oriflamme of Navarre, and whenever that awful piece of cotton waves tyrant man trembles, The most serious part of the business is that the legions are no longer recruited from the female printers and the somewhat repellent ladies with the cropped wigs, but the services of the young and dashing belles of Fifth avenue have’ been enlisted. It will puz- zle the male kind to find out the grievances of the latter class, unless, indeed, they may think of executing a change of front and be- coming useful as well as ornamental. Per- haps they have taken pity on their husbands and papas, and want to have the right to’earn some of the silk dresses they look so well in. If this be part of the programme we do not doubt that it would prove quite acceptable to the tyrants. Indeed, we think a good many reforms of this nature would be necessary before extending the much desired suffrage to the ladies. We ‘have already too many politicians, and patridtic persons are endeavoring to find some means of reducing this class within reasonable limits. Under these circumstances the irruption of the ladies into the political arena would be viewed with alarm by the community, as cal- culated to turn every household into a minia- ture Arkansas. Two Governors in one State have proved disturbing enough, but the estab- lishment of divided sovereignity in the home circle would produce universal anarchy. For these good reasons the umbrella of the woman suffragists will be for some time to come waved in vain, as the disagreeable fellows who hold the reins of power mean to keep them in spite of Miss Anthony and her noisy legions. Postal Treaties and Postal Laws. Our correspondence from Paris this morn- ing confirms the despatch ‘we published the other day in reference to a postal treaty be- tween France and the United States. This treaty would have been matured some time sinca but for the obstinacy of M. Thiers’ gov- ernment, which insisted upon an extravagant rate of postage. Under the new treaty, post- age will be reduced to a reasonable rate, and the French government will find an advan- tage in it, as heretofore the bulk of American correspondence between France and America has been transmitted through London, with a consequent Joss to the French treasury. The French have yet to learn that nothing is so desirable as a revenue as cheap postage. This is a lesson, too, that should not be for gotten by our authorities at home. Thusa Heratp despatch from Washington informs us that the Postmaster General has ap- proved a new bill providing for the pre- payment of postage on all newspapers and other printed matter at the rate of two cents a pound for journals and periodicals. Pub- lishers can thus psy in bulk for large pack ages, without stamping each particular news- paper or magazine, The principle of pay- ment in bulk for all such matter seems to be a sound one; but we think two cents a pound is too high a postal rate. The experience of the English authorities in this matter should not be lost upon us. They accepted the doc- trine that the Post Office was not merely to earn revenue for the government, but to minister to the public convenience and dif- fuse intelligence. What we want is cheap postage. England has found cheap postage more profilable as a revenue even than the old system, and we have no doubt the same plan in America would lead to similar results, Itseems to us, therefore, that in the interest of cheap postage it would be better to average the rate of postage on newspapers sent to subscribers at one cent per pound. The sume rate might be applied to magazines and books; although two cents would not be an exorbitant charge. This rate could be paid by the publisher at the office, payment being made in gross for the absolute weight of mail matter delivered. This would be more just and feasible than the present plan, undar which, as we learn from published statements, the Post Office authorities only succeed in collecting about one-third of what is due them. Enforced prepayment would insure the whole amount, and it would be far better to have a uniform rate of one cent a pound, invariably paid, than the two cents a pound, which is never collected. This plan seems to be worthy the attention of Congress, A Fatima Epmice m Broapwar.—In another place in the Herazp of this morning will be found an article descriptive of an up- town scene which largely occupied the atten- tion of our citizens yesterday. A large build- ing in Broadway has been robbed of some of its supports by the demolition of some small houses adjoining. The result is that the side wall which stretches from Broadway to Crosby street has bulged out, All day yesterday crowds gathered in the neighborhood, and there was momentary expectation that the wall would give way. At any moment the building may fall, and, in addition to the probuble loss of much valuable property, there may be loss of life. It is another illustration of the reckless manner in which our entire building system is conducted. In this direc- tion reform is greatly needed. Tom Russian Ancupuxe Nicuouas, accord. ing to the Augsburg (Gazette, has not been ar- rested on account of any political offence This announcement but increases the mystery. What hos the brother of the Czar done that he should be placed in this position? The Grand Duke is certain to be one of the lions of the hour. He has won notoriety if not fame. In Sour Carona the farmers are busy cotton planting. THE CONNECTICUT SENATORSHIP, Nsw Haven, May 14, 1874, At ® caucus of the republican members of the State Legisiature held here to-night Senator Wil lam A. Buckingham was renominated by acclama- tion for United States Senator, This is in the nature of @ compliment, as the democrats, who have nominated W. W, Katon for the same pos Won, are in & heavy inajoritye