The New York Herald Newspaper, September 9, 1874, Page 6

BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, Peat eend, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HERALD, published day in the year. Four cents per copy. nual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Youre Herawp. turned. cvery An- NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1874—TRIPLE SHEET. construction. quence will be that we “proclaimed emancipa- tion from four millions to forty, the acquisition of-vast dominions, the century's achievements in science, literature, education and war, will all be subordinate to that one event which stands out from our history as our supreme | would we in any way detract from the majesty | and wisdom of that deed. Rather than that When our orators come to celebrate the | hundredth anniversary of the independence | | of the United States, the one fact which will | certainly point every period of resonant elo- tion.’’ Material growths, the increase of popula- | Rejected communications will not be re- | contribution to liberty and civilization. Nor | ‘The Trae Centennial Colebration—The | so long as it was an advantage to us Wwe National Comvention of Peace and Re- cherished it; when it became simply an ad- vantage to the South we destroyed it. It was not then an act of humanity and justice, but @ measure of cruel war. We do not see how we can enter upon any broad measure of reconstruction without con- | sidering this act. There is no way of con- | sidering it but in a national convention. We | do not propose to restore slavery. As well | seek to restore the rule of the English crown | over these States. We do not advise the | limitation of any of the rights of the freed- men as citizens. On the contrary, we should insist that they were protected in the enjoy- ment of every right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We would go as far as Letters and packages should be properly | another negro should return to the slavery | General Butler himself in protecting the sealed, Sane Heri from which he was rescued we should advise | | any extremity of resistance. But before the negroes from lawlessness. But we are bound | to consider whether we do not owe the LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK aot of emancipation passes into history, or at Southern States something more in the way HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. uPA JOB PRINTING ay every description, also Stereo typing and Engraving, neatly and promply exe cused atthe lowest rates. No. 252 Volume XXXIX. = ss AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. LYCEUM THEATRE Fourteenth street and sixth avenue.—LA TIMBALE D'ARGENT, at 5 P. M.; closes at 10:07. M. Mile. Aimee, Mile. Minelly. sears THEATRE COMIQUE, Nog Broadway.—VARIETY, at SP, M.; closes at 10:39 BOOTH’S THEATRE, corner of Twenty-third street aid Sixth avenue.— BELLE LAMAR, at 8 P. M.: closes at 10:0 P.M. John McCullough and Miss K. Rogers Randolph. NIBLO’S GARDEN, Broadway. between Prince aud Houliston streets. —THE DELUGE, at 3 P. M.; closes at 11% M. The Kiralty Family. 2 WALLACK’S THEATRE Broadway.—OUR CLERKS, ICL ON PARLE FRAN- | CAIs, and OFF THE LINK, at 5 P. M.; closes atll P.M. | J. 1, Toole. PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN. UIN, Tih ACTOR, and SLANDER; OR, IS SHE GUILTY? at$ P.M. Dominick 2 WOOD'S MUSEUM, Brdadway, corner of Thirtiett siree\—FOUL PLAY. at2 P.M. apd at 3 P.M, 1030 P.M. Louis Alarich and Miss Sop! METROPOLITAN No, 585 Broadway.—Parisian C. FATRE, cau Dancers, at 8P. M. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Na, 624 Broadway.—VARIBTY, at 5 P. M.; closes at 10:45 | BRYANT’S OPERA MOUSE West Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, at8 P.M. Dan Bryant. GLOBE THEATRE, ons Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 f. M.; closes at 10 SAN FRANCI.CO MINSTRELS, Broadway, corner of Twenty-ninth street—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, at 5 P. M. a CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, fty-ninth street and Seventh avenue.—THOMAS’ CON- CERT, at 8 P.M. ; closes at 10:30 P. M. nd Pitt v — VARIETY. ats P.M. sa aabeaay aces TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1674. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be partly cloudy or clear Want Sravet Yesrrxpay.—Stocks were ir regular yesterday, with a strong undertone, but closed at a reaction. Gold was steady at 109§ a 1093, closing at the higher figure. Gorp Mixers Bovunp ror THE Buack FIFTH AVE. HEATRE S% FAMILY. at 8 P. M.; closes at Il P. M. Dyas, Miss Sara Jewett, Lewis James, DH. | least before we enter upon our centennial | felicitations, let us see how much merit be- longs to the North and what results flowing from cmancipation should be considered in | our work of reconstruction. | Emancipation was & war measure on our | part. We did not free the slaves because we | believed in freedom, but because we felt that it was a blow at the war strength of the | = | Southern Confederacy. If the preservation | of the Union had depended upon the maintainance of slavery Mr. Lincoln would not have issued his proclamation. Emancipation was a fine, a punishment, a military penalty, and as such we must con- sider it in any measure of reconstruction. No one questions the wisdom which imposed this and other penalties upon the South during the war. They came from the necessity of |“self-preservation. We only advance the ques- | | | { tion now because we are convinced there can | be no reconstruction in the South that will insure the permanence of the Union that does not consider all the war measures of the rebel- lion, our legislation, our financial expedients, | the relation of State to the nation, the division | of States like Virginia, and, in fact, our | | whole scheme of government. We ourselves ‘ire not unconcerned in this discussion. The effect of the war was to drive us far away | from the original plan of the fathers; to bring new ideas and problems to life, In one small | fact, the disposition to renominate General Grant for a third term, a fact that would have been equivalent to treason before the war, we ' see how our public mind has been changed. The growth of gigantic and overshadowing corporations which exercise a feudal power more absolute than the Plantagenet barons is another fact of the gravest importance. Reconstruction in the South, railway | dominion in the West, finance and tariffs in the North, the labor and emigration problem on the Pacific, our rela- | tions with Canada and Mexico, the unusual | powers which have crystallized around the | Presidency and the Senate, weakening the rep- resentative independence of the House, the * | melting of State rights and immunities into one general central power—civil service, debt | and taxation; all these questions have assumed | anew and morbid importance since the war | and because of the war. They should be de- | termined in a national convention. | We consider emancipation now, because it is a question more directly concerned with the troubles in the South, and because it is more | completely an illustration of our argument | in tavor of this proposed convention. We | imposed emancipation as a fine upon the | South—-a fine that may be rudely estimated in money value at from two to four thousand Hmis.—Notwithstanding General Sheridan’s | minions of dollars, or from two to four times warning that bands of white men attempting | 4. much as that imposed upon France by s trespass upon the reservation of the Indians, | 8 as gold bunters bound for the Black Hills, will have their wagons burned and will be ar- rested by the United States Army, we have the information in a despatch from Bismarck, on | the Northern Pacific Railroad, that a party of fifty men, experienced gold miners, are organ- ized at that point for an expedition to the Black Hills, and will probably leave inside of thirty days. They expect to evade the United States Army and to give the Indians the slip, and to live on the game in the Black Hills, Indian fashion, while engaged in “prospect- fmg.’”’ The chances are that if this party of miners are permitted to leave on this fool- hardy enterprise they will never return, for the Sioux Indians, by bundreds, make the sheltered valleys of those Black Hills their winter quarters. Senator Antony, of Rhode Island, the ed- itor of the Providence Journ, in alluding to the Heraup as ‘‘a paper which has an im- mense circulation,”’ says that ‘‘as an indicator ‘and mover of public dpivion it is entitled to the serious attention of all who understand the American public.” For this reason the Senator controverts the Hzratp's argument in favor of a national convention at much length, | and with a temper so judicions and admirable that we must commend it to the howling curs who lie around the administration kennels and imagine when they bark they speak the President's sentiments. We may have occa- sion to dwell more at length upon the views of the Senator, but just now we advance this point: —-‘‘How much better will the Union be if we permit the success of Southern repudia- tion than it would have been if we had been defeated in the rebellion? And how can we better avoid this danger than by a national convention of peace and reconstruction to consider all these questions and determine them?" Fes mm tae Prxe Woops or New Jer- sty—Tux Dsovent.—The fires in the pine woods along the line of the Atlantic Railroad in New Jersey have extended to both .sides of | from the road and are still spreading in all direc- tions. In some other localities of the same | State the soil, to the depth of five or six inches, is burning, and has to be ploughed up to arrest the fire in the grass fields, Snch are the results from the drought in New Jersey. And the bush fires in Canada, from the same | general cause, have destroyed and are still consuming vast amounts of timber, lumber and other valuable property. The fires al- most invariably originate from sparks and Jiving coals from railway engines, and in the midst of a general drought like that from which the country is now suffering there is no calculating the probabilities of this work of destruction. Late as it is in the season, an old-fashioned northoaster spreading over the whole {and would be worth millions of dollars to the country. And still we hope it is com- ings Germany. This was only one of the fines | thas imposed, a fragment of what the South was compelled to pay. There was the loss of | thousands of lives, the destruction of trade | for four years, the suspension of the | cotton crop, involving a loss of hun- | dreds of willions, and of rice and | | sugar and tobacco, involving other millions; | the extinction of the Confederate debt, of the local war debts, of the whole volume of Con- | federate currency, of the obligations given by | the Richmond government for supplies, the | paralysis and virtual destruction of the South- | ern railway system, the devastation of the | Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and | Mississippi—all these were so many phases of | the indemnity imposed by us upon the South, | When to them we add the emancipation of | the slaves and the annihilation of the enor- | mous wealth they represented, the result is | that we not only conquered the Confederacy, | but entailed virtual ruin upon its citizens. | Our theory seemed to be that so long as we | did not execute the rebels in arms they could | not complain. As an act of statesmanship we | now see that it would have been better to have | satisfied the spirit of vengeance by hanging every leading man in the Confederacy, if we | could also have shown magnanimity and | generosity to its people. ‘The world stood aghast at the indemnity imposed upon France by Germany. That in- demnity was one thousand millions of dollars. But suppose that the Germans had blockaded French ports and suspended all trade for four years; hgd confiscated or destroyed the wine crop for Ke same time, and not wine alone, but all other crops; had virtually uprooted the whole railway system; had ravaged the country from Lille to Marseilles and Bayonne; had compelled the repudiation of all of the loans raised by the Tours government; and not simply this, but all other loans, and the vast | volume of the Bank of France currency, what would the world have said? When, in | addition to this, was added an actual fine of two to four thousand millions 'of dollars, we can readily imagine the horror-stricken protests of Russia jand England; nay, even of Germans | themselves. Yet this is practically what we have imposed upon the South, and we wonder that, with such a burden, there should not be prompt and prosperous reconstruction. We | emancipated the slaves as an act of justice; | but the justice is only in the punishment ot the rebels, We forget the fact that slavery was as much our institution as the South's; that But orators will say with pride America abolished slavery. | of reconstruction than our simple felicitations | to the leaders of secession that we did not | hang them. What do we owe asa matter of justice to them as well as of advantage to our- selves? We see clearly enough that we cannot reconstruct the South upon the existing basis, that we cannot ignore the real leaders and citizens of the ‘States and make an alliance with the negroes and carpet-baggers. We have been laboring to do this for nearly ten | years, and we see anarchy, poverty, corrup- \ tion, outbreaks, bloodshed, threatened civil strife, and overall the phantoms of repudiation and a St. Domingo war of races, This is what our plans of reconstruction have brought, because we have never approached the question in a spirit of courage and justice. We have treated the South, not with wisdom and foresight—for we do not now speak of considerations of humanity and | brotherhood—but as Attila and Genghis | Khan were wont to deal with their conquered | foemen. We have destroyed the genius, the valor, the enterprise of the Southern States ; we have given thema peace which is simply bankruptcy and desolation; we have de- prived them of material and moral power ; and yet we marvel that its people do not ari: again and show the spirit which sent Wash- inton and Lee into the field, Jefferson, Henry and Calhoun into the Senate. Let us, then, approach this question in a spirit of courage and justice. Let us profit by what William III. did after the Revolution, and by the wisdom of Napoleon and the late Bourbons when they came to power on what seemed the ruins of France. Out of these | ruins they rebuilt a France surpassing in wealth and splendor and scientific achieve- ment any previous epoch in its history. We can do as much with the South. But we must begin by an act of justice. Let us assemble in national’ convention and discuss these questions of peace and reconstruction, If the abolition of sey has imposed upon the South too severe a burden, let us see in what way we can aid the people to carry the burden. Let us consider the State and local debts as- sumed since the war and arrest the tendency to repudiation, which injures the North as well as the South. Let us consider some gen- eral plan of public improvements, and more especially how we can restore Southern in- dustry, agriculture and commerce, If eman- cipation is so glorious an achieve- ment that redounds so much to our national honor, let us assume our share of the burden it imposes, more espe- cially as we enjoyed the advantages of slavery and protected it ss a sacred institution for generations. Do not let history say that we treed the negroes as an act of cold, cruel, mili- tary advantage, and at the expense of our con- quered brothers. In this convention let us consider other questions, less immediate, per- haps, but arising out of the war, and of transcendent importance to ourselves. The term of the Presidency, the exceptional and unrepublican powers of the Senate, the finances, the power of States to borrow money with no intention of payment, the relations of the States to the nation, the railway system, civil service—dll these questions arising out of the war and unforeseen by the fathers should be considered now. Ina short time we shall celebrate our centennial anniversary of national existence. How better can we celebrate that glorious time than by assem- bling in a national convertion of peace and reconstruction that will give new life to the stricken and suffering South and strengthen republican institutions through- out the land? Tue National Republican, the winter organ of the administration, discusses the argument of the Hzrawp in favor of a national convention of peace and reconstruction upon the theory that the Sonthern men should all feel gratefal that they have not been hanged, and that be- cause there have been no imprisonments, no executions, no trials for treason, no ransoms exacted, no sureties demanded for the future and no confiscation, that it is an error to com- pare the Southern States with Poland and Al- sace and Westmeath. It is difficnlt to impress an idea upon the mind of a journal which really believes that the Southern people should feel that reconstruction was completed when they were not hanged, and which does not re- member that Mr. Lincoln proclaimed emanci- | pation not as @ measure of humanity but as | an act of war; that he declared that he deemed | the maintenance of the Union to be paramount to emancipation—a journal that fecls that be- cause of “Libby and Andersonville” the South. ern States should be ailowed to drift into anarchy, a war of race with race and legisla- tion that means repudiation. Oxi Repusiicans on Boxarantists,—Jules Simon, who was a member of Gambetta’s Government of National Defence, says that the monarchy in France is impossible ; that the nation comprises only republicans and Bona- partists. This fact has been apparent to the outside world for some time—that is, since the rigid orders of exclusion against the Bona- partes from the government of President Thiers and his vigilance in his efforts to sup- | press the imperialists, They gained strength | from his persecutions, and the remembrances | of the splendors, glory, prosperity and in- | that we recognized, cherished and profited by | ternal peace of the Empire have been steadily | it; that its sin is ours, and if we take glory in | growing stronger under President MacMahon. | abolition we should take some of the respon- sibility of the commission. Our centennial makeweight as between republicans and Bona- free | partists. The contest is between the Republic they | and the Empire, and the republican party in will only speak the trath when they also say | France is sounder and stronger at this time that we abolished it at the expense of the | than it was at any other time in ite eventtul conquered commonwealths of the South: that The Bourbons have now become a mere history. The Rural Democracy and Tammany Hall. The Rochester Union, one of the ablest, most spirited and most widely circulated democratic journals in the State outside of this city, protests against Tammany Hall making any figure in the Democratic State Conven- tion, and especially against its seeking any representation on the ticket. It winds up its article on the subject with this sentence: — ‘Témmany Hall has no place in a Democratic State Convention; and if it is wise and has the welfare of the party in the State at heart it will neither ask nor accept any representation on the State ticket.” The only necessity for this protest arises ont of the intention of the’ Tammany leaders to'thrust upon the Con- vention the nomination of Mr. Tilden as the party candidate for Governor. Although the Union is published near the home of Judge | Church, and has always represented his views more nearly than any other democratic paper, we have no idea that the article was written at his suggestion. It is a spontaneous ex- pression of the almost unanimous senti- ment of the rural democracy. Soon after the mecting of the Democratic State Committee at Saratoga, to issue the call, the Buffalo Courier, edited by Mr. Joseph Warren, its secretary, said that members of the committee from the country districts were unanimous and emphatic against taking a gubernatorial candidate from the city, and in the interviews with promi- nent rural democrats lately published in the Heratp the strongest opposition was ex- pressed to the nomination of Mr. Tilden. When the World, a few days since, undertook to collect evidence of Mr. Tilden’s accepta- bility to the party it was able to quote only one democratic journal outside of the city— the Utica Observer. The Observer is published at the home of Francis Kernan, who owed his nomination two years ago to the activity of Mr. Tilden, and is willing to repay the obli- gation, The democracy of the interior of the State dread to go into the election with a can- didate brought forward under the auspices of Tammany Hall. Their views are candidly expressed in the following extract from the body of the article in the Rochester Union :— “The democratic party of the State of New | York is out of the power to which its majority of electors justly entitle it, solely in conse- quence of the disgrace heaped upon it through Tammany Hall and the damage done it through the men placed in office by Tammany Hall, in the hands of Tweed, Sweeny & Co. It is true that these men have been expelled from Tammany Hall, and that good and honest democrats are in control of that organization. But to the democracy of the State Tammany Hall, acting as a unit with all the old war paint and cun- ning strategy, is in State politics as objection- able upder its resent leaders, 8 under its former leaders. ‘They want and will have no more of it, Tammany Hall is all very well as o local organization in the city of New York, but it has no more business in a Democratic State Convention than any other democratic society or club in any other part of the State. We fear our friends in the metropolis do not appreciate the feeling that exists throughout the State among democrats as to Tammany Hall combination and domination in the councils of the party and in the politics of the State, or realize the fact that in the average republican and no-party country mind Tam- many Hall under honest John Kelly is exactly the same as Tammany Hall under dishonest William M. Tweed. Hence, in all kindness but with all emphasis, to think well on the fact of its teeling on the one hand, and of this ignorance and prejudice on the other in entering the approaching campaign and mak- ing nominations for State offices.” Nobody who understands the political situa- tion can be at any loss to perceive the drift of this emphatic advice. It isa democratic protest against the nomination of Mr. Tilden, and has no pertinence except as directed against the in- tention of Tammany Hall to force his nomi- nation. There is not the slightest apprehen- sion of s renewal of the old time squabbles in the State Convention between Tammany and rival organizations. Only Tammany delegates will be sent from the city this year. And even it there were to be competing sets of delegates, a rule which was adopted in 1871 would pre clude the old scandalous contests. By that rale the delegates are required to be elected by the separate Assembly districts, each answer- ing for himself in the Convention without regard to any other political association than the democratic voters of the dis- trict. But the practical effect of this rule is merely to save trouble in the Convention; it does not prevent Tammany Hall from virtually electing all the city dele- gates. The method is a little more circuitous, but the result precisely the same. The active politicians of the city, who control the Assem- bly district conventions, sre members of Tammany, and know perfectly well that they can have no finger in the city spoils unless they submit to its dictation, When Tam- many wants any particular candidate put on the State ticket, its power fo send a unani- mous delegation to support him in the Con- vention is as perfect as it was in the palmiest days of Tweed and Sweeny. This is well understood by the rural democracy, and it is their tears of mecting a Tammany delegation every man of whom is pledged to Tilden that impels them to make the vigorous re- monstrances of which we have reproduced a | fresh specimen. Tue New Yor« Liperat Repusiican Con- yENTIoN, which meets at Albany to-day, will not fill the town with a countless multitude of office-seeking politicians—its proceedings will probably not be telegraphed to Constanti- | nople—but it will be, nevertheless, a conven- tion of some importance, as representing a party which in our last November election proved itself a balance of power. In our com- ing contest it appears to be the purpose of these liberals to take the field as a third party, regardless of republicans or democrats; | but the proceedings of thie Convention, it is expected, will disclose some very interesting movements of the machinery behind the scenes. Taco A Barcy or Porrrican State Conventions will be held to-day, viz.:—That of the Massa- chusetts democrats at Worcester, that of the New York liberal republicans at Albany, that of the Minnesota republicans at Minneapolis, that of the Michigan reformers at Jackson, that of the Nebraska prohibitionista at Lin- | of +them. | brated comedians, who had given their lives Virginia City. And to-morrow there will be some more of these party conventions, inclad- ing that of the Michigan democrats at Kals- mazoo, that of the Nebraska democrats at Lincoln and that of the Nevada democrats at Virginia City. We shall have others of these conventions scattered along to the 23d of this month, when the New York republicans will assemble in State council at Utica, which will bring the schedule for this year nearly toa close. It will be observed that various new parties appear in these conventions, and no doubt some very curious results will appear from the elections soon to follow. Shakespeare or Bacon! ‘The influence of the press as a lyceum or forum for the exchange of opinion and the ultimate discovery of truth was never more clearly illustrated than in the discussion which is now taking place in the columns of the Heratp upon the authorship of the plays attributed to Shakespeare. This attrition of opinion against opinion is, perhaps, the surest way of obtaining light, and by light truth. All sides of a question are presented, every form of an idea has a hearing and naw views come from new minds. The arguments of Mr. Boucicault and Mr. White on the Shakespearian side of the controversy, as pre- sented yesterday, were models of clear, original, concise thinking. ; The opinions we present this morning on the same subject are full of merit. Mr. | Brougham mekes the strong point against Bacon that he was too much employed in the pursuits of philosophy and law to write plays. In other words, Mr. Brougham might well say that Bacon’s work and Shakespeare's work, as they appear in the libraries, were cach the full results of a busy life, and that no human | faculty could have produced the work of both Ex-Mayor Hall, who has wide literary knowledge, gives us some in- teresting facts about the late Mr. Bur- ton and Mr. Hackett. These cele- | to illustrate Shakespeare, believed in him and not in the Chancellor, while James T. Brady, who was, perhaps, not unmindful of his own calling, was an advocate of Bacon's claims. Mr. Hall says that, judged by all the rules of | evidence, the case is with Shakespeare. Mr. Stedman takes the same view, while Mayor | Havemeyer, whose mind, no doubt, rans to Dutch poetry, seems never to have heard of the Bard of Avon, and appeared to think, when our reporter called, that Shakespeare was a candidate for some office in an uptown ward. . So the discussion flows on, and we shall have all manner of opinions floating into it and with it. Some of our contemporaries refer to the subject as a ‘“Heraup sensation,’ and intimate that we are secking to destroy the beautiful and glorious memory of Shake- nested hie St Safes oe oe aot speare. But the truth is, we have said nothing whatever on either side of the subject, simply because it was not one that called for judgment. As a journal we took up a great question, one that has interested multitudes of people, and that now | dceply interests every lover of literature, and presented it to the American people for dis- | cussion. Our columns are the forum on which this discussion is taking place. If it should be necessary for us to express an opin- ion we shall not fail in that duty. Buta great joyrnal can do nothing better than to submit matters of this nature to the people, with whom altogether rests the qnestion, “Did Bacon write Shakespeare's plays?’ The British Association. In our letter from Belfast will be found a good running commentary on a number of } the topics discussed at the Belfast meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. This is the second meeting of the association which has honored the corre- spondents of the Herarp with invitations to | contribute papers on subjects within their knowledge—our correspondent with the ex- pedition to Khiva, Mr. J. A. MacGahan, havy- ing been honored this year at Belfast, as Mr. Stanley was at Brighton in 1872. Mr. Mac- Gahan’s paper led to a discussign on the sub- ject of the deflection of the Oxus from its an- cient bed and the discharge of its waters into the Aral instead of into the Caspian Sea. From the obsetvation of a Russian savant | who was present—Mr. Khanikof—it would appear that this change was not a consequence of the unassisted operations of nature, but the result of a piece of ancient engineering science, the river having been turned by dikes constructed in its course—the object being to reduce to submis- sion the Turcomans of the desert to the west of Khiva by making their supply of | water subject to the Khivan authorities. Doubtless the investigations which the Rus- sians are still making in that country will yet give much further light on the highly inter- esting topic of the hydrography of that part of the world. Our Belfast correspondent gives further pleasant glimpses of the vital topics before the learned body. What was said under the head of speculations on the future of America will at least contribute to | the amusement of people on this side the water. With some painfully truthful obser- vations on the results of the activity of “peedy adventurers’? in political lite, it is comicalty at tuult in the majority of its stric- tures, but most so in the observations of that startled old gentleman who apprehends that | the ‘nomination’ of Governor. Hartrantt to | the Presidency will paralyze the Executive. The War in Cuba. From Spanish sources we learn that two fights have lately occurred with the insur- gents. It is almost needless to add that in both the Spaniards were completely victori- ous, and the insurgents, if not de- stroyed, so dispersed that we shall not hear of them for a week or two again. One combat took place in the Cinco Villas, where the Cuban patriots charged with the machete, evidently having no powder and ball. It is well known that within the past year many a gallant soldier has fallen, owing to the ab- solute want of munitions among the insur- gents, and yet no adequate effort/seems to be made to supply the need by those Cubans out- side the Spanish dominions ‘who could sid their countrymen if they would. In the Eastern Department General Calixto Garcia is reported to have fallen. ‘If this is true the cause of Cuban indeperdence has indeed re- cieved a se’ but notes fatal blow. Could the men who have, so long maintained coin and that of the Nevada indevendenta at | the war againgt Spain only obtain LL LLL LLL the neceasgry military supplies there would be no danger that the struggle for inde- pendence would be abandoned. But even the rudest courage must sink when exposed to at- tack without the possibility of defence, In commuting the death sentence of three cap- tured rebel prisoners the Havana authorities show signs of returning good sense. This action is not merely humane; it is wise, and if persevered in may lead to the pacification of the island, A New England View. The Boston Traveller, one of the most ac- curate and sagacious journals in New England, in speculating upon political affairs in New York, says that Centennial Dix ‘will undoubt- edly sweep the State,”’ and is not only our strongest man, “but is held in great respect by the democrats.” The Traveller admits the high character of Mr. Tilden, but it thinks that he lacks *‘the broad, statesmanlike quali- ties of General Dix,” and that ‘ his peculiarly gloomy views and predictions just before the outbreak of the war indicate a mind unable to grasp the idea of a great principle which in- volves the sacrifice of policy.” Centannial Dix, says this clear minded editor with un- answerable force, ‘‘would seize upon the salient points of a question, and decide rightly with great promptitade. Mr. Tilden would decide rightly too, as a rule, but it would be only after the most searching in- vestigation. While General Dix was ordering his subordinates to shoot any man upon the spot who attempted to pull down the Ameri- can flag, Mr. Tilden would probably have argued over the matter in his mind until the flag had been pulled down.” “And yet,” continues the editor with much trath and justice, ‘there is no democrat in New York State more worthy of the party nomination than Samuel J. Tilden, and with any other candidate than General Dix he would be a hard man to beat; but the General's record is bright and clear, and he is indisputably the most popular man who has occupied the office of chief magistrate of the Empire State for many years.” The difference between Mr. Tilden and Centennial Dix is the difference between Ham- let and the Venetian Doge Dandolo. Hamlet was full of speculation, a philosopher irreso- lute, apt to see the metaphysical side of all questions, “sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.’? Centennial Dix has all the fire and nerve of the Doge, who was called upon toserve the State after he was eighty, and who made just such a waras Dix inspired when he gave his command about the flag. The venerable Doge displayed the gonfalon of St. Mark, animating his followers to victory. Centennial Dix carries the gonfalon of St. Mark in the present canvass, and it will re quire a greater antagonist than the philoso- pher Tilden to defeat him, A The Proposed Republican Conventions The Reptblican National Congressional Committee have agreed to aid and support the call for a convention of the republicans of the Southern States, to meet at Atlanta, Ga., on the 12th of October. It has been decided, too, that the most thonghtfal, wise and fair- minded men of the party shall be appointed as delegates to said Convention, the object being to set forth to the nation the true con- dition of the South, and to show the wants and to suggest the reforms necessary to secure a perfect reconstruction of those States on the basis of the new amendments of the constitu. tion, Prominent republicans of all sections are engaged in forwarding the movement, and it is expected that President Grant, Vice President Wilson and other distinguished national officials will attend the Convention, By a very large portion of the people of the United States, including all the political ele- ments opposed to the party in power, the ob- jection will doubtless be made against this Convention that it will be only a party affair for party purposes, regardless of the rights or wrongs of the Southern people. In our judg- ment, however, this Convention will at least be a step, and an important step, in the work of ascertaining the true character and extent of the political and social troubles in the Southern States, and their causes and the remedies required, If the opposition elementa of those States find from the representations of this republican Convention that their mo- tives, objects and acts are outrageously falsi- fied, can they not set themselves right betore ' the country through an anti-republican con- vention of said States? Weighing the law, the facts and the testimony which would ba thus furnished on both sides, we cannot doubt that all parties would be brought to a pretty clear understanding of the actual necessities of the States concerned. For the reason, too, that this coming party Southern Convention may open the way to a national no-party con- vention for the same objects we have'no ob- jection to enter against the movement. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. SRNR ah Bright 1s at Brighton. Mosquitoes are troubling London, Mr. Schenck has gone to Ireland. Swarms of winged ants all over Kugland. Secretary Bristow has returned tb Washington. Major Suow, of the British Army, is quartered at the Brevoort House. Mr. Francis §. Thayer, of Troy, 18 sojourning at the Fitth Avenue Hotel. Protessor F. [. Ritter, of Vassar College, has ar- rived at the Everett House. Congressman J. H. Sypher, of Louisiana, 1s stay- ing at the Futh Avenue hotel. EX-Mayor Richard Vaux, of Philadelphia, ts re- siding at the Hotel Brunswick. Governor C. R. Inzersoll, of Connecticut, has apartments at the Albemarle Hotel. Ex-Congressman William H. Upson, of Oto, ts registered at the St. Nicholas Hotel. captain H. ‘Tibbits, of the steamship City of Paris, has quarters at the Everett House. At Amboise, in France, they have found in the castle a stone coffin and in it Leonardo da Vinci, General Charies H. 1. Collis, City Solicitor of Philadelphia, yesterday arrived at she Brevaort House. ‘The fly which was 0 promptiy rescued fromthe cream jug by Mr. Bergh last Monday is slowly re- covering. Sefor Don A. S. Ybarra, Secretary of the Lega- tion of Venezuela a) Washington, is at tae Hof man House. ‘The Baroness Burdett-Coutts gave Mr. Stanley & dog, valued at $2,500, which he has taken wita aim to Africa, Mr. A. J. Cassatt, vice president of the Pennsy!- ‘vania Central Rauiroad Company, is stopping at the Windsor Hotel. Letters headed with pictures of coffins are not @ Wtewary success in ireland, The writers are kept Incarcerated until they explain. ‘Dear Tom's’ unconscious honesty in that letter to be attributed only to bis failure to resect t mieht some time be made OUDdIId