The New York Herald Newspaper, June 18, 1874, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1874.-TRIPLE SHEET, NEW YORK HERALD| BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT. PROPRIETOR. AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING BATRE COMIQUE, 4 Broadway NECK | 'D NECK, at 8 P. M.; closes | aeigen M. ET, otetsou and Marion Sommers, WALLACK’S THAT Broadway snd Thirteenth street — Pal EF, at 8 P.M; 4 cloges at 11 P.M. Bliss Carlotta Le Clercq. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadw: tween Houston and Bleecker streets.— vary ‘ENTERTAINMENT, at 70 7. M.; Closes at 10:45 Broadw: we Omirtieth rest MONDAY ; OR, t Thirtieth strec yack “ERA WA AMONG THE BRIGANDS, at'2 P. closes at #0 P, M Sane at 8P. M.; closes at 10:30 Pia Gernaadex Foster. NIBLO'’S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince ani Houston —THE ORYProuuaM OR, LUST AND WON, oer Me jcloaee at 1045”. M. Mr. Joseph Wheelock aud Miss fone bi TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE, | Fifty-cighth street, near Third avenue.—Concert, Dram: alae, and Operatic Performance, at § P. M.; clases at Ti TOR'S OF ERA HOUSR, rowers —RETaE Rta" areP. Mw; Ehovee at 10:90 P. ‘Mi Matinee at2P. M. BRYANTS OPERA HOUSE, third street, near Sixth svenee: oneamen MIN- Y, &c., at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 &, pan CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, -ninth street and seventh avcnue —l'HOMAS? CON. | CERT, at 8 P.M. ; closes at lU;0 P, Me COLOSSEUM, way. corner of Thirty: fisth street. LONDON 2 | SIGHT at PE closes at 3 Pi a7 P. Closes arly P. Brey | HIPPODROME, Madison Twenty-sixth ‘street.—GRAND 7 celimaaaie OF NATIONS, at 1.3) P. M. and TRIPLE ‘SHEET. York, Thursday, 1874. =f From cisxieeid pwor the probabilitics | are that the weather ic-day will be clear and | warmer. | Wart Srreet Yesrznpay.--Stocks opened | low, but recovered on an active market. Gold | opened at 111} and closed at 111}. ‘Tar Paeswoayr axp THe Oxtp’s Kiss.— New June 18, As President Grant is supposed not to read | the Henaup, we are glad that another paper | which he is accused of reading has copied from a Henatp report the pleasant little inci- no doubt gratify the President to sce the story in print, and it is better reading than he is | sceustomed to find in his favorite organ. ‘Tae Laprms’ Reoatra.—The Regatta Com- mitte of the New York Yacht Club have issued their rules and regulations for the Ladies’ Regatta on Thursday, June 25. One grond | feature of the race is the provision that yachts shall sail in cruising trim, so that the owners may baye their fair friends on board. The best yachts in the club are certain to be en- tered for the ladies’ race, and it promises to be one of the most interesting and best at- tended regattas of the season. Tue Scnurrani Recarra yesterday waso spirited and interesting contest and the row- ing was generally good. The first trial heat for fours was won by the Pennsylvanias, heat- ing the Friendship and Crescent crews. The second trial heat of fours was won by the Argonautas, of Bergen Point, beating the | Vespers, of Philadelphia. In the race for pairs the Nassaus beat the Undines and the Gramercies, the latter rowing under protest. The opinion prevails that a marked improve- ment is manifest in the style of rowing among all oar crews. A Pzorzr Decision, sur a Crosz Vorz— That of the Judiciary Committee of the House to impeach Judge Durell and Judge Busteed. The vote was six for the proposition and five against. Let us hope the House, notwith- standing the closeness of this vote of the Ju- diciary Committee on party considerations, will accede to the recommendation and bring these Judges before the bar of public opinion and the laws, The South needs o riddance of such judicial vampires and firebrands, and a wearching and thorough investigation will do much to accomplish that. Warat axp Gorp.—Emerson says that peo- ple can slways find gold if they will only dig for it. It seems that many wise pioneers who sought gold in California have found wheat. An estimate of the harvest for this year alone is that after deducting the amount of wheat used for home consumption, enough will re- | main for exportation to double the amount exported last year by Russia, much larger | indeed than that exported by the rest of the United States. It would be an odd and at the game time a gratifying circumstance if the land of gold should become the land of wheat, and richer from its wheat than it could ever have been from its gold. A Poon Vicrm or Liquor who was sent to | Blackwell's Island for six months on the 224 of last month was yesterday taken before the Police Justice who had sentenced her on a | charge of intoxication. When asked how she | obtained her liberty she stated that she and others had been discharged from the Work- house by the Commissioners of Charities and Correction on the pretence that the place was overcrowded. This is how the “population” under the control of the Commissioners is counted up. The names of the prisoners thus illegally diseharged remain on the books and are enumerated over and over in the census in order to make the population appear large and to excuse the enormous expenditure for supplies. Tax Croup im Tax West.—The Republican State Convention in Illinois has opened the campaign with a platform declaring boldly for free bankingand inflation. While patting President Grant on the back with the object of keeping bim im good temper with the fed- | eral office-holders who formed the majority of the Convention, the Dlinois republicans re- pudiated his hard-currency doctrines, virtually condemned his veto and his memorandum and planted themselves on the ground of an increased currency, fair distribution between the sections on the basis of population, and opposition to the control of the currency of the country by capitalists and combination of capital. The position of the Illinois Conven- tion, President Grant’s own State, is most sig- nificant, find points unmistakably to a sec- tional financial issue in the next Presidential election. | Politics im pinaascmrenmeats of the | said to have thrown the last spadefuls of } | Republic. As parties now stand in France armed col- | lision im the streets or elsewhere is scarcely possible; and it is a fact far from insignificant that in political discussions which give rise to very warm expressions Frenchmen find them- selves able to give and take, as do the people to whom parliamentary institutions are natu- ral, without the immediate impulse to solve their differences by a resort to force. This | encouraging state of affairs may be due to an advance in their knowledge of practical poli- tics, consequent upon the experience acquired in an Assembly which has been the first in very many yeers to have freedom to deal with the | real problems of government; or it may be due to the fact that revolutionary “ebullitions’’ in France have never been strictly ebullitions— have never been the spontaneous outbursts on the surface of the popular life that they have generally seomed—but have been always orgavized, and that now there is no party which finds it in its interest to organize revolt. All the active parties now tend toward the same end. All the parties that operate | at any time by revolutionary methods | now agree together in the general | wish to organize the Republic; and the monarchists who never build barri- | eades, and the Bonapartists who have equally | little tancy for that occupation, are not only | not in power, but are inthe minority. As the parties that usually organize opposition to authority are by their union on the general principle of the organization of a liberal government practically in authority, there is ne provocation to fighting. It could only come by resistance to a coup d'état for the establishment of an illegal power; and such a coup is not to be regarded as possible while MacMahon is in power. Yet with this general agreement of parties | on all but detail, which seems to assure tranquillity, and with no step imminent that could provoke resistance to the government, the Deputies at Versailles seem to act as if they wore under the influence of a panic. ‘They rush forward all at onco for the estab- lishment of the Republic as if impelled by some fancy that it must be established now or never; that this is the last chance; that delay would be certain ruin. They precipi- tate themselves toward all sorts of republican platforms, projects and schemes, as men on a sinking ship might jamp , ‘ *i- | for anything that looked like a raft or a, dent of the child’s kiss at Cape May. It will | boat or & life-preserver. Is there any canso for this energetic and sudden activity for the organization of a republic over which these same clamorous deputies have maundered and drivelled since 1871? And is this cause merely their exhilaration over the very genaral recog- nition of the impossibility of the monarchy, or has it another origin? All this pameclike anxiety and eagerness seems to us due to the apprehension excited at Versailles by the known activity in the country of the Bonapartist propaganda, Bonapartism has, in fact, been actively, pur- suing the people in their homes while other parties have been content to agitate at Ver- sailles. It was to no purpose that the govern- ment of Thiers and the government since him suppressed Paris journals or provincial journals also, when they seemed to press their advocacy of the imperial hopes too near a for- bidd,a limit, tf the leading articles that would have appeared in these papers were printed on slips and mailed in envelopes to every voter throughout France, And this, in fact, was what was done by the untiring Bonaparte agents. Royalists at Ver- sailles discussed the theories of the monarchy and the musty histery of the flags of various colors, and the more active republicans, like Gambetta, went down into the provinces now and then to attend some anniversary banquets and harangued the public that came to meet them, and which sympathized with them al- ready, and both parties printed in the various cities, great and small, many more or leas well written journals in which any one for two sous could get at the politics of the day from tho party standpoints, But the Bonapartists worked as oar own election committees work for the thorough canvass of the whole country. They used the printing press and the Post Office, and went to every man's dinner table. They spared the small rustic the necessity of spending his two sous. They sent him the news adroitly colored with their own views, and at the same time flattered his vanity by making him personally an immediate object of the attention of the imperial party. If we consider that the country was always the stronghold of this party, and reflect on the possible effect of a propaganda such as we refer to in reviving and refreshing the allegiance of the seven and a balf million electors who voted ‘oui’ on the last plébiscite and in gaining new adherents, we may comprehend that the apprehension of the Deputies at Versailles at the propaganda, whose success inspires the confidence of the imperialist members, is not one that, like panics ordinarily, can be called altogether irrational. Although political steps taken under the in- fluence of panic are never likely to be very wise, it is better that the republicans should | even be alarmed at the Bonaparte activity than that they should ignore it ; for the im- perial party is the source of the only danger that remains to menace the Republic. Mon- archy is effectually cleared from the board ; kings and queens are ont of the game. It is recognized at Versailles as the definite result of the three years’ endeavors to establish the monarchy that the monarchy is the one form of government that is impossible in France at the present day ; and this result is so thoroughly in accordance with the sense of history and the logic of polities that it inspires the first sentiment of respect the world will feel for the capacity of the Assembly. There can be no monarchy without a king, and ao king cannot be made by compact out of one 4 the people; snd the experiment transplanting foreign kings has not been suc- cessful lately. Leopold of Belginm was the | | ] of | last transplanted slip of royalty that took root | in the new soil, and the polytical world, even of his day, was more 1874. Out of the men of the * France,’ as the younger braneh ia now the legitimate heir of the elder, s monarch might have been made around whorn the old notion earth in making the grave of the institution by which they would have claimed all France as their property and all Frenchmen as their submissive subjects, Buteven if these men had been possessed of ordinary sagacity it is | still doubtful if a monarchy could have been set up in France, since the whole territorial, political and social system which the mon- archy created and upon which it rested has been effectually swept away, and there isno founda- tion for the operagions of such a system. Even the réstoration was a bogus monarchy—- mere simulacrum of the old splendor without vitality, and which fell at the first real col- lision with popular power. But, as the monarchy is cleared away and the moderate monarchy men seem to become conservative republicans, the issue is made plain that the only real foe of the Republic is the party which hopes to’ set up that hybrid system of imperial power which pretends to combine the strong central authority of o monarchy with the liberal spiritof democratic laws, but which, in fact, is a vast ring of cor- rupt speculators, who hope to seize the coun- try in order mainly to plunder the troasury and ‘appropriate the offices, It is but natural that the party which, without any scruple or any restraint of conscience, cultivates the Napoleonic tradition only for the ultimate | exploitation of the people and their rights, should excite some apprehension; but it is encouraging to know that the republicans recognize the true source of the only remain- ing danger, and we cannot but believe that they will be able to oppose it with success, strengthened as they will be by the accession to their numbers of all those who lately be- lieved in the constitutional monarchy, but who have relinquished the hope of estab- lishing it The Herald and the War Department. We have received the following letter from the War Department:— Wak DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, June is, 1874. To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD :— The War Department has come into posses- sion of a file of tae New YORK HBRALD from Janu- ary, 1861, to April, og but there are missing numbers, igsyed on the following named dates :— 72 4 7 and 8 =, ante. bent in, 8, 21, 2 6 Tand 14 Juiy@ wud 22. Jun Deroher 8 and 9, ~ Jul; iyp28 and a November 13, 18, 20,28 August 6 and 19. and 30. September 26 and 29. December 14, December 20 and 24. 1862, 1865. January 2. January 3, July 5, March 28, November 14. August 8 $63, Bertani 18 and 21, fant ber 4, 6, 7, 10, 13 and Februaryl4 /# March 26. 26 November 17 and 27, eh is 14.7 December 25. Januar; January it will ‘a much oblige the a if these missing numbers can be supplied by the HERALD office, a8 these papers aré of much ‘value to us, aud if is quite important that the files should be complete, Please inform me whether you can furnish them, and, it 80. tne cost of the same. Very respectfully, your obedient sornaat eae Chiet Clerk, the Seoretary of War. A file of the Helis tag the years mentioned in the communication of the Secretary fur- nishes the most complete and reliable history of our civil war and of the stirring events im- mediately following its cessation that can be found in existence. The value of such a his- tory tothe War Department can readily be understood, and we regret that it is not fi our power to supply the missing numbers. We keep no back numbers, except for the use of the Hzraxp office; but we publish the Secre- tary’s letter, in the hope that it may be seen by some person who will be able to furnish him with the numbers required to complete the department file. The Herald’s Rochefort Letter Paris. A cable despatch announces that the Hznatp containing Rochefort’s famous letter was seized on its arrival in Paris. The immediate pretence for its suppression was the attack made by Rochefort on General MacMahon, but he real reason was the disinclination of the French government to afford the people a glimpse of the trae history of the days suc- ceeding the overthrow of the Commune. Paris is certainly in a dangerous ferment at the present time, and it would take but little to excite one of those outbreaks which have been 80 often experienced in the giddy capital and accepted as revolutions bv the rest of France, But Rochefort’s letter was a plea in defence of things past more than an appeal to the mob such as the government might dread. Looking at the act of suppreasion from our point of view, it appears like one of infatuated folly. The Rochefort letter is a page of history which cannot be blotted out, and the anxiety of the French government to suppress its circulation only proves its importance and renders inteHli- gent Frenchmen the more anxious and the more resolved to read it. It gives increased notoriety to a document which the French government would gladly see buried in ob- livion. Nearly every European paper will republish it, and the French authorities will find themselves compelled to establish a blockade on their frontier against the whole foreign press if they desire to keep the Henraup Rochefort letter out of France. For these reasons we look upon the seizure of the Henatp as o foolish mistake. In a broader view the arbitrary act illustrates the cowardice of the present government and the true character of the so-called Republic. Peos ple will ask themselves, What is the difference between the Empire and the present rule, ex cept that the former was genuine, while the latter is a deception? The former was business activity, wealth and gayety, while the latter is depression and uncertainty. The men who are foarful of a review of their own acts, who tremble at the breath of an escaped political convict, who dare not suffer the letter of a banished countryman to be placed before the people, are scarcely fitted to lead a young re- public to success. Rochefort’s letter will live after they have passed away, ond will probably be circulated in Paris after their own proclamations of suppression have been forgotten. Tue Crors os Ixpta, we are told, are full of promise. Three hundred thousand per- sons are still fed by the government, | The copious rains now falling, while bright- of national fealty might have grown, if even | that notion is not altogether dead in these | days ; but these men were found #0 utterly | imoracticable that they themsclves mav be | vrevented or rendared unnecessary- ening the face of nature are also gladdening the hearts of men. Providence has come to the aid of the government. It will be well if the Indian government, having learned the lesson of experience, shall so make provision for the future that famines and Providential interposition, in the way of relief, shall be The Law to Contracts for City Work. In the suit of John B. Leverich against the city of New York, in which the plaintiff claimed thirty-one thousand dollars for work done on repairs of streets under the Tweed administration, the defence was that the amount being over one thousand dollars there should have been a contract after an advertise- ment for bids. The Court (Judge Van Vorst) held the defence good, and that, though each item of the bill was under one thousand dol- lars, yet being of the same character of work they should have been aggregated and propo- sals invited. This is the law, beyond doubt, and the do- cision of the Judge is correct. But how is it that with such a law in existence Mr. Stern, one of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction, is allowed to buy of a relative, without inviting proposals, dry goods to the amount of three thousand to five thousand dol- lars in a single bill, and how is it that such accounts are allowed and paid by Comptroller Green? Howisit, with such a law in existence, that Commissioner Laimbeer is permitted to purchase flour to the amount of eight thou- sand and ten thousand dollars in a single bill without inviting bids, and how is it that Comptroller Green allows and pays such ac- counts? Independent of the fact that Mr. Stern’s dry goodsare charged to the city by Mr. Stern's relative one-third more than they are worth in the market, and that Mr. Laim- beer’s flour must be bought at nearly double its value, or must be used in quantities suffi- cient to feedan army of ten thousand men, the purchases are grossly illegal according to Judge Van Vorst’s decision, and in wilfully vio- lating the law the officials implicated are guilty of malfeasance and subject to punishment. The city charter provides that, except in certain specified cases, no work shall be done and no supplies purchased by any department or officer of the municipal government, the amount of which shall exceed one thou- sand dollars, without advertising for bids. As the city invokes this pro- vision of the law to evade the payment of an otherwise just debt, by what right can the Mayor—the head of the city government— suffer the same law to be violated by his subordinates with impunity? The Police Commissioners have been giving out work amounting to thousands of dollars, not only without invitir proposals, but, we under- stati; WERSUT thoShow of a fornial résotation. They aye violated tho law again and again, and have’ done so wilfully and with a knowledge that their action is illegal. The Charities and Correction Com- missioners, as we have ssen, have made no pretence of obeying the law, although by altered bills and fictitious entries they have endeavored to cover up their illegal action. The Comptroller, with a well paid army of legal quibblers and Bohemian spies over scrub women and clerks, kas paid these bills after their fraudulent character hag been brought to the notice of his department. It is in the power of the taxpayers to bring these official misdemeanors before a court of justice, and, as we are evading the payment of bills on the plea that they have’ been incurred in violation of this contract law, and thus punishing the probably innocent creditor for the malfeas- ance of an official, it is only just that we should punish the officials who wilfully vio- late or aid and abet the violation of the same law. 4 The Weather and Harvest Outlook. The current “Weather Review,” just pub- | lished, contains data of last month’s weather interesting and useful in the crop calculations of the season. The very valuable chart, show- ing by isohyetal lines the distribution of rain, proves that the precipitation in May was in a manner remarkably complementary to that ot April, the districts flooded in the former month escaping excess in the latter month, and those suffering deficiency before were generally replenished. The Southern and in- terior districts, whose wheat crops ripen early, had no wetting and destructive weather to rot the harvested grain, while the rainfall on the seaboard has been very nearly just what the crops need. The reports show that in the interior of Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana the month was dry and the temperature high, but that heavy dews prevailed, so that no detriment to the crops is complained of. ‘These are favorable returns for the agricul- turist, especially when combined with the thermometric data for the same period. The isothermal chart reveals a decided supera- bundance of temperature in the interior and grain growing States, which, as we know, has been, since May closed, extended over the entire seaboard. The electrical phenomena have been pecu- liarly violent and frequent, and on Pike’s Peak fortwelve days, in the latter half of the month, they were among the most interesting and instructive on record, being almost daily attended by hail storms and thunder storms. We might, therefore, very properly inquire whether the prevalence of these violent thun- der storms in the Rocky Mountains towards theend of May does not explain the similar phenomenon over the eastern side of the country? And, ifso, would not the indica- tions from Pike’s Peak furnish an intimation to the Western farmers of the coming torna- does and hail tempests? The summer west- erly winds, which do the work of condensing the clouds and squeezing out their vapor on the soilof the interior and seaboard States, come largely from the Rocky Mountains. They travel in the high nérial regions, with twice the velocity of an express train without stoppages, and transport the thermal condi- tions eastward with marvellous rapidity. With a little stady of tho tri-daily data from which these monthly summaries are made up we doubt not tho private citizen, the farmer and steamboatman could. gain great advan- Te Recrprocrry. “Tueaty wire Caxapa— ConsvuLTInc THE Senate.—Secretary Fish is feeling his way, evidently, with the Senate as to theyproposed Reciprocity Treaty with Can- ads. Itis reported that a draft of the treaty has been or will be shortly submitted to that body, and that a special executive session will be called for the purpose of considering the provisions of the treaty. This deference to the Senate may bo proper enough, but if Mr. Fish were not so timid and slow he would have found out the views generally of Senators and have had the treaty ready for Executive action, Should the matter be delayed any longer there will! not be time for definite action this session of Congress, and much of the work will have to be done over again. The pnuciple of reciprocal trade with our colonial neighbors is generally approved both by Con- greas and the public, and there ought not to be much difficulty in agreeing upon the de- tails. Central Park end Its Management. The Department of Public Parks asks for another one hundred thousand dollars on construction account; but, on motion of Mr. Vance, the Board of Apportionment, at a recent meeting, laid the resolution on the table. The taxpayers will thank Mr. Vance for this action. Before any more bonds are voted for Central Park the people would like to discover what amount is paid out of the construction account for salaries and by what right any salaries are charged to that account, Mr. Vance is right in demanding a detailed exhibit of all expen- ditures of the Park Department from every source before the estimate for the year’s taxation is acted upon. Under the present system of dividing the expenditures between construction and taxation accounts it is impossible to dis- cover how much extravagance and unnecessary outlay there may be in the department. The mystery in which the managerent of the parks has been involved is extremely mis- chievous. It leads to scandalous jobs and enables mercenary men to gratify their greed at the cost of the public without detection. Only recently the fact has leaked out that Mr. Andrew H, Green, while a Park Commis- sioner, filling what was supposed to be an un- salaried office and professing much disin- terested affection for Central Park, man- aged to draw out of its treasury, during eleven or twelve years of service, in salary and perquisites, about one hundred and forty thousand dollars. This preying upon the public purse would scarcely have been permitted if the affairs of the Park Department had been as open as Mr. Vance desires they shall be, Besides, the people baye made up their minds that the policy of Central Park management is not such as they can approve. They do not want the services of an army of landscape archi- tects and architects under a dozen ghanges of }- tiljetind Would not give a sisaw for all their ‘work. ‘What our citizens desire is that Cen- tral Park shall be made like Hyde Park, in London, and the Bois de Boulogne, in Paris— @ tashionable rendezvous for carriagers, riders and pedestrians, where all New York can gather to see and be seen, With this simple and inexpensive improvement Central Park is good enough fcr popular enjoyment as it is, and all that need be expended on it for the next ten years is a sufficient sum to maintain it in firat rate order and to provide for it an efficient police. A Question for the Colleges. During the next three or four weeks we shall hear a great many platitudes on educa- tion from the chosen orators of the literary societies at our colleges. The choice of orators is usually made from motives so whim- sical that it is not surprising so few Com- mencement addresses attract any attention whatever, Because. man has made some fame asa lawyer or politician is no reason why he should be asked to come back to his’ alma mater and bore everybody with a speech ona subject which he has not thought about since he left college; nor is there any reason why the old line of topics should be any longer discuseed: There_is nothing new to be said of the poems and romances of Sir Walter Scott and kindred subjects. Advice to young men’even is well-worn theme, that might be left to the baccalaureate sermon. There are plenty of new themes growing out of the progress of the age which would be fitter subjects for discussion. It was a good impulse which prompted the young men of Massachusetts college two or three years ago to ask a New York editor to tell them some- thing about the profession of journalism. The editor could not fail to interest and in- struct them, for he came before them with a fresh topic, concerning which he knew a great deal an and they nothing. The influence of rail- roads t ‘apon society and morals, the changes wrought by modern discovery in both natural philosophy and natural science, are subjects which have never been investigated. What: could be more interesting than astudy of the present epoch since the application of steam divorced the world from its traditions? Even those who study men and society the most havo not yet given us s book ora paper or a specch on the social and moral aspects of the means of modern travel. Our social and po- litical life suggests new subjects at every turn, but they are all neglected by college orators, including even the improved methods of edu- cation of the past few years. We make the suggestion because the college yesr is about to close. We do not expect, however, to work an immediate revolution in the character of the addresses delivered beforo the college societies. Those which are to be read at the coming Commencements are al- ready written and in rehearsal before the par- | lor mirrors of presumptive orators. What we wish to do is to call the attention of persons connected with our leading colleges to the changes which have taken place in the last | forty years, and the consequent necessity of | looking upon educational processes from o different standpoint. The common schools have become the toundation for all subsequent instruction. It is idle to oppose them either for sectarian or social reasons, and what is of more importance is the fact that our colleges must adopt the methods of instruction which find favor in the common schools. In conse- quence the controversy about the value of the classics in mental training is practically over. If the older colleges fail to appreciate this fact younger institutions will spring up to tako | mediate” attention, for if they fail to meet the wanta of the people the sphere of publie education will soon be so widened as to destroy all unendowed colieges and to make the others useless. This Commencement season will be an excellent opportunity for the consideration of a question which, if left to itself, will be settled adversely to the colleges. Tae Srocksospens anp.Gorp GaMBLERS Ler Orr ror Taz Parsznt.—The Senate Oom- mittee on Finance have agreed to postpone the amendment to the Tariff bill for taxing sales of gold, silver and stocks. The Chair- man, Mr. Sherman, opposed the amendment on the ground that it was crudely drawn, and, as it would give rise to protracted discussion, there was not time this session to give it due consideration. Other Senators of the com- mittee agreed with Mr. Sherman as to the ad- visability of postponing the subject without going into or deciding upon its merits. The understanding is that the whole matter will be brought up again next session, but it is not unlikely this may be the end of the pro- posed tax. Tae Dmsentixa Opmion mm 1HE Rima Surrs.—An opinion by Judge Rapallo must always. deserve consideration and prove of interest and importance to the legal profea~ sion. We publish to-day the dissenting opinion of this Judge in the Ring suite recently argued before the Court of Appeals and decided by a majority of the Court—five judges out of seven concurring—agaivst the right of the people of the State ta maintain an action. Judge Rapallo takes the ground that the Attorney General has a right to prosecute all actions in which the people are interested, and as the loss of the money dishonestly aj i by the defendants in these suits falls on the taxpayers of the county of New York, who are a part of the people, the right can be properly exercised in these cases by the At torney General. The dissenting opinion does not regard the money as belonging to the county, and in this respect differs widely from the opinion of Judge Allen.‘ The rea- soning is elaborate, but it does not seem to shake a single one of the many strong points in Judge Allene Opinion. _... ’ ae Cenrsonr of awarding the “plone te the graduating class of '74 at West Point yesterday drew together, as usual, a fashion- able and happy attendance. The proceedings were somewhat marred by the rain, which prevented the anticipated outdoor exhibition under the giant oaks; but the chapel was sub- stituted for the grass plot, and as the skies brightened and the sun darted its rays through the windows before the cera monies commenced the acene was gay and inspiriting after all. After am address by Professor Wayland and the customary indulgence in an Indian dance by the disenthralled graduates, during which the dress hats were ruthlessly destroyed, our future heroes adorned themselves in citizens’ dress and plunged into the wide, wide world, _ with their mothers, sisters, cousins and other fair friends on their gallant arms. So rae Memosr of our great national events dies outiBunker Hill’s anniversary yester- day, and nothing but lager beer, ice creams and dancing at a park on the East River side in New York. A ‘(quietly observed” day in Boston, with a half holiday for Custom House and Post Office clerks, and a dry meeting of the Bunker Hill Monument Association at Washington. Only this, and nothing more. How long will it be at this rate before we will forget when Washington was born and before our little sons discontinue the operations of blowing their fingers off with cheap pistols and fire crackers on the glorious Fourth of July? PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, M. Gulgot’s healtti is improved. The voice of the lightning rod man 1s heard.im the land. Robert H. Pruyn, of Albany, is at the Filth Ave- nue Hotel. Strawberry festivals are to be succeeded by rasp- berry jimjams. Baron Geymiller, of Austria, is residing at the Hoffman House. Ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, is registered. at the Windsor Hotel. Ex-Governor J. 8. Page, of Vermont, is staying at the Windsor Hotel. Major Fraser, of the British Army, ts quartered at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Duke de Mouchy is convalescent, and was ogo 1a the country ina few aays, Postmaster Thomas Coggeshall, of Newport, R. L, 1s stopping at the Everett House. Major Isaac Doughty, of the United States Marine Corps, has quarters at the Astor House, Governor Adelbert Ames and family, of Missia- sippi, have apartments at the Astor House, Ex-Goternor William B. Lawrence, of Rhode Isldnd, is sojourning at the Albemarie Hotel. Ex-Speaker Dewitt ©. Littlejohn, whose home ts at Oswego, N. Y., is at the Metropolitan Hotel. Colonel Joachim Matdhof,, late of the Eleventh regiment, N.G.3.N.Y., sailed for Europe this week. Lieutenant Governor John C. Robinson arrived | at the Metropolitan Hotel yesterday from his home at Binghumton. Footpads robbed T. C. Plamb, of Connecticut, of $25. It is thought Plumb was off his perpendica- lar at the time. B, Gratz Brown has taken to the Gospel. What 1s the difference between excessive piety and the | Vice Presidency? General John ©. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, arrived in the city last evening and took up his residence at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 8. £. Black is Postmistress at New Lebanon, Pa. ‘The people do not complain that there is any un- usual knowledge of the contents of the letters, St. Louts is establishing @ morgue for the ex- hibition of ner defunct politicians. Alow delignt- ful to learn that there is one city in which the poli- ticians die. Captain Sarmont, of the Pereire, has received a - testimonial from the American pilgrims for Jana- ing them on the shore. Congressman P, M. B. Young, of Georgia, arrived at the Hotel Brunswick last evening (rom West | Point, where he has been acting as a member of their places. Harvard occupies the first place | among our institutions to-day, not because she ig the oldest, but for the reason that she is, | with all her years, the youngest of our colleges, Her optional courses give wider opportunities than are afforded by those institutions which | confine themselves to an effete curriculum. | This, then, is the topic we wish to suggest for Commencement Day—the great question of how to make our colleges take up the work of the common schools and carry it forward in the spirit in which it was begun. It is on this qnestion and on the necessity of adapting collegiate instruction to the needs of the time that college professors: and the alumni of all our higher aohools should aive their im- the government Board of Visitors, 6 Chicago inflators who believe tn restoring specta payments with @ blow pipe call Jones the Goldem Caif of Nevada. If the Western people will send calves to Washington to represent them, tt is goo® that one State will send a golden one, ‘Those who have enjoyed the magnificent acting of Rawin Booth during the season just closed were forvunate, as the great trageaian declines all en- gagements offered bim for next year. Overwork has affected his nervous system, and his physicians fosist upon absolute quiet for at least a year to come. Colonel Stoffel has been removed from the Pent tentiary at Versailles to the House of Detention La Santé, tn Parts, because of tilness. He is impria- oned nominally for words used in court om one of the Versailles trials, but really because be had made himself conspicuous as the only man ID the French army who foresaw what would haopen ia the recent war,