The New York Herald Newspaper, December 14, 1874, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD} BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. | JAMES GORDON BENNETT. PROPRIETOR REESE THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- nual subscription price $12, NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New York Henaxp will be sent free of postage. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Henan. Rejected communications wil) not be re- | turned. Letters and packages should be properly | sealed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—KO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions snd Advertisements will be .received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. Volame XXXxIx No. 348 AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. Brosdway, between Twentysitet eit Twenty-second way, detwoen Twenty.firsc ai ’ qieeemorube “AGL. AEP, Me; closes at 1030 P.M ir. John I. Raymond. THEATRE COMI Uk, Yo, pla Broadway.—VARIETY, at BY. M4. ; closes at 1090 BOOTH'S THEATRE, Fr of Twenty-third street and sixth avenue. —THE HaMG Ov THE'HOUR, at BP: Me; cloves at ls, Me ‘Mc. Henri Stuart, ROMAN HIPPODROME, nyse. sirevt and Fourth avenue—FETR AT PEKIN, afternoon and evening, at 2 and 8 W4LLACK’S THEATRE, Brosdway.—THE SHAUGURAUN, at 8 P. M.; closes at 4OP, 3. Mr. Boucicault ~@! h street an: 2 ave! joo Hiioe mtr a ea 4 FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, | Twenty-cighth street and Broadway.—3HE STOUPS TO | CONQUER, gt 8P. M.; closes at 10:30 P.M. Miss Fanny | Davenport. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, West Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO wee &c., ats P.M; closes at 10 P.M. Dan BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street —JANE EYRE, at 8¥.M. Miss Char. lotte Thompson. | corner 0 zy SiSwdee rare eo. Slowear ue. ae | ROBINSON HALL, | Sixteenth street BHOONE DULL CARE, Mr. Mao. | GLORE THEATRE, Broadway.—VARIE CY, at 8 P.M; cloves at 10:30 P. M. Miss Jennie Hughes LYCEUM THEATER, | nth street und Sixth avenue.—CHILPEBIC, at 6 | .; choses at 1:45, M. Miss Amily soldene. | NEW PARK THEATRE, Fulton street, Brooklyo.—!'HK URPHANS, R. M. Car. Poll and Sons. re Pr GERMANIA THEATRE, } Fourteenth street —DEK VETIER, até P. M. Broadway, corner Thnrtieth sreee -OLIFE 2 TWIST, i f et. , Bie. E” ‘QUirs at UF. Me; Cloves at 104s P.M. Sea METROPOLITAN THEATRE, ae Broadway.—V ARBIETY, at 8 P. M.; closesat 10:3) | OLYMPIC THEATRE, 5 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M.: aloses at 10:45 GRAND OPERA IIOUSE, -third street and Kighth svenue.—THE BLACK ac8P. M. ;clososat 1 P, M. Twen' CROO! WITH SUPPLEMENT.| New York, Monday, Dee. 14, 1974. —_-— eed From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cold and cloudy, with rain or snow. Tux Aznzsr of a member of the German Beichsteg bas caused au unusual sensation, | and the Deputies have unanimously united in demanding his release because of the invasion of privilege. Even Bismarck may find that it is easy to go too far. Kno Kataxrava was so ill yesterday that the reception at the White House bas been postponed. It is to be hoped the Hawaiian King may soon recover from the fatigues of what to him was a severe journey and be able to enjoy his visit to this country. ‘M. Oscan vz Layayetrz was congratulated yesterday by the Deputies of the Left on the good feeling displayed toward him by the eitizens of the United States, The return of the Washington watob to the Lafayette family 4a accepted in republican France as a sign of national and political brotherhood, In this action, so slight in itself, there is a good omen for the future and a trust that the two countries will continue the friendly relations begun nearly a century ago ond go on in the main- tenance of republican liberty. Tux Lopmuaxa Taovnte.—The excitemsnt in New Orleans continues, but no attack upon the Returning Board has yet been made, nor bas the Board yet given any pretext for vio-~ lence, It bas done nothing, and the outrage upon justice which it is ssid it contemplates remains unexecuted. The conservatives oan | do nothing that will injure their canse more than to wppeal to arms, for in that case the Gecision will certain‘y be against them, and we are glad to bear that Governor McEuery | and the White League sro opposed to any violence. Congress can this session be vom pelled to rodeem Louisiana from misrule, unless the democracy blunder in making party measure out of what should be a na- tional duty. Waat Is Famz?—The French journals are disputing over the proposition to place the stutue of Mirabeau in the Court of Justice of Aix. The republicans insist that this honor is due to the cloquent champion of the Revolution. The conserva- tives argue that as Mirabeau had been im- prisoned in this town for heinous offences, and condemned to imprisonment in the very wourt where it is now proposed to erect his statue, the houor would be a bad prec- edent. Among the statues already erected is that of Portelis, who, in passing judgment on | Mirabesu, stigmatized him as ‘a bad son and # bad citizen.’’ It would be o singular dine. tation of the irony QP fame if the prisoner who was these oondemsed and the judge who | NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1874.-WiTH SUPPLEMENT, The Religious Strife in Germany—Bis- marck, Arnim and the Herald. Those who look at national events in their in- ternational aspects cannot fail to note the rela- tion between the ultramontane contest in Ger- pervading England as to whether allegiance to the Pope is to govern the allegiance of the Catholic to his sovereign. The coincidence in the two controversies only indicates that Ger- many and England are controlled by similar emotions. We see what we have seen so often, that between the two systems, civil govern- ment as seen in the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon countries and réligious government as seen in the Papacy, there is an irrepressible and constantly recurring conflict. The war of Luther against the indulgences and of Henry VII. against the Papal supremacy were early phases of the present strife. Those who study | the career of Luther will see that his success came, not from any sense of an outraged religious sentiment on the part of the German Catholics, but from a patriotic opposition to Italians and the rule of Italian prelates over defender of the faith by appealing to that sturdy English patriotism which was as strong then as it is now. The contest in Germany, the earnest effort to convict Count Arnim, the bitterness that marks the relations between Bismarck and the Pope, the efforts of Disraeli and Gladstone to vie with each other in their appeal to the Protestant sentiment. of Eng- land, show that we are in a new phase of the religious movement known in history as the Protestant Reformation. Theretore every phase of this contest, no matter how minute, becomes of the utmost importance. The conviction or the acquittal of Count Arnim is 4 small matter, so far as that nobleman is concerned. He can have no more punishment than what he bas already undergone. The world well understands that there is no crime in what he has done. There may be infractions of the Prussian civil ser- vice law. The averment that the publication ot the questionable documents will be re- garded as high treason shows the anxiety of the government as to the moral results of the controversy. It is possible, and no doubt very probable, that in his efforts to protect himself against Bismarck Count Arnim has violated the technical regula- tions of the Prussian Foreign Office. But no one believes that he has done anything | inconsistent with his honor and his duty as nobleman of the German Empire. There- fore the harshness of his punishment does not mean the vindication of German law, but satisfying the policy of Bismarck. It is another phase of the strife for power. Prussia is governed by a capricious king—one who is as absolutely master as the Tudors. He selects ministers, -commands armies, makes war or peace, as he pleases, and accepts the advice of a cabinet only when the advice pleases him. Perhapa the protest of the Reichstag against the sum- ; mary arrest of one of its members may have | some effect in changing the royal decision, but we do not so anticipate. To be the Minister of an absolute monarch has its advantages. There are no parliaments to | dread—unless the Reichstag shall really be- come a parliament, jealous of its dignity, as now seems probable—no budgets to discuss, no ultimate legislation to punish or reward. When it is necessary to wield the resources of @ great empire, to make sudden, swift, unpausing and unexpected war, when it is deemed best to suddenly sum up all the resources of an empire for an instant purpose, then this relation of a favored minister to an irresponsible king has itsadvantages. Without such a relation it isa question whether Prussia could have won Sadowa or Sedan. On the other hand, there are disadvantages. A statesman may rise like Wolsey, resting on the affections of his prince, only to fall like Wolsey when those affections grow cold, It may be a question of grave State policy, or it may be a simple bodily distemper wearing upon the nerves, this royal power to build up and tear down is unquestioned and from it there isnoappeal. With such a power Bismarck has to desl. He servesa master who may dis- tobe him to-morrow and no one to dispute the act. So when he fights it is for power and nota principle. He is strong when Germany is behind him, for Germany will always be re- spected, even by the Prince who rules it. Therefore he summons up the same old feeling for the Fatherland against the foreign priest and the foreign prince which nerved Luther in his journey to Worms and which led Prussia from Jena to Waterloo. Bismarck sees that in this struggle there is againet him a power he cannot but fear, He is the Minister of a very old man, In the course of nature this Kaiser must soon go and “‘rert with God.” In his place a new prince will come, a young man who will be as anxious to emulate his ancestral glory as was Frederick when he sent his father’s veteran generals bome from the wars, saying that a king of Prussia could not “march with oa tutor in the field.” All the tokeus that come from Germany show that | the new Kaiser will not rule with bis father’s | ministers as his military or civil tutors. Be- | tween Bismarck and this Prince there have not | been the most cordia} relations. A prince by tho force of intellect, like Bismarck, is not apt always to be patient with a prince by the grace of God, like Frederick Wiliam. We saw this in the deslings of Wellington with George IV. Considering the Crown Prince oy the imperial family as supporters of Arnim this proceeding becomes very plain. Upon any othey hypothesis it is altogether a mystery, Everything that Bismarck has thus far done shows that he is simply making a desperate contest for power against high royal influ- ences, Arnim is nothing tohim. He invokes the Protestant sentiment of Germany against the reactionary power that waits expectant for the throne, and the effect of which may be ill to German unity and freedom. Else why this impatient nervous scrutiuy of what is called ‘the relations between the Hzzatp and Count Arniin?'’ As ous special gable despatch shows, the guilt or inuocence of this accused Minister is practically a question of the enterprise of the New Yorg Henao. We learn that on the trial intercepted copies of the telegrams sent irom our Berlin correspondent to our Lon- dou bureau beve been pend, One of our correspondents bas been plaged under po- condemsed him should stand side bv side in marble of bromen lice surveillance, Detectives have tollowed Abie movements from day to day and isetily to many and the extraordinary excitement now | the Catholic world. Henry VIIL became the | his going and coming. A letter addressed to the Henatp is read in court. This letter must have been taken from the | Post Office, as it mever came to us. | Detectives have prowled about our Lon- | don office, as we learn from a prominent Lon- don newspaper. For all we know our office in New York has been similarly honcred; for, as our correspondent says, “Prince Bis- marck has spared no trouble or expense to know the relations existing between the Heravp and Count Arnim.”” We cannot refrain from acknowledging these attentions on the part of the Prince Chancellor. ‘The Heraup has only the kind- est feelings toward Prince Bismarck. We have received many courtesies from him, and not many months have passed since he asked us to become the medium for the republica- tion in America of the Falk laws. gladly do him any serviee thatan independent journal can render to a great minister and prince. It may, therefore, be a service for him to know that the exact ‘relations be- tween the Henatp and Count Arnim”’ are the relations between a cosmopolitan journal looking for news and a nobleman whose movements and fate interest mankind. We have the same interest in Prince Bismarck that we have in Count Arpim. It is a mystery that so shrewd and gifted a minister, who has been a strenuous journalist in his day, should not understand this independent attitude, and that the fact that such a relation is possible is the best evidence that America enjoys a free- | dom that Germany with all of her glory does not yet possess. The Bogus Correspondent. About this time, when the Christmas holi- days unbend the hearts of hotel keepers and the Legislatures and Congress assemble, the bogus correspondent of the Hemarp resumes his wild career. We heard of him frequently during the summer, when the various water- ing places were open, and Long Branch, Saratoga, Newport, Atlantic City, Cape May and the White Sulphur Springs were central points over a large field upon which he gayly dispotted. When the summer season of dissipation ends he generally disappears for a short time, leaving a trail of unpaid bills behind and a vista of dis- appointed hotel keepers in the distance; but he only goes ‘to come again,’’ like Monsieur Tonson. The winter opens a new sphere for his impudence, his invention and his indus- try. When fashion ceases to furnish an op- portunity it is afforded amply by politics, Hotel keepers are to blame if they are victim- ized by the bogus correspondent who repeats himself so often, They can detect him by severalsigns. In the first place he is always impecunious, always extremely important in his own person and always expecting remit- tances, He is very apt to confuse the newspaper profession with that of the mendicant, and to play the riles of King Oophetua and the beggar maid at the same time. Clothed in the grandeur of his confidential connection with the Hzratp and ite ‘mysterious influ- ence,” he believes, with Pistol, that ‘‘base is the slave who pays."’ He will board with the cheerful hotel keeper for weeks, and promise him enormous compliments when his letters are published. But the letters of the bogus correspondent are never published, and some incredulous persons suppose they are never written. These are sure signs by which this peculiar being may be detected; but in justice to ourselves and to the army of regu- lar and occasional correspondents, who are solvent and responsible gentlemen, we would say to bankers, hotel keepers and other confiding persons whom he may ap- proach, that whenever there is any question of the authenticity of a correspondent they have simply to telegraph an inquiry to New York. It will cost them nothing—indeed it may save them something—and we shall be obliged for the chance of exposing some of the numer ous frauds and adventurers who trade upon the reputation of this paper, not having in their own names any capital of the kind. We have heard of the bogus correspondent re- cently, and we would like to do to him as Mr, Tackleton did to the crickets—‘I scrunch them,” said Mr. Tackleton. John Stuart Mill and His Opponents. The late Mr. Mill advanced in his posthu- mous essays singular opinions concerning the usefulness of religion. He did not consider either faith in God or in the immortality of human life necessary to the noblest interests of map. The consciousness that our infu- euce is for the good of the generations which follow, he argued, should give more satisfac- tion than the selfish hope of continuing in- definitely our merely individual existence, Tt was an humble belief, but as it carried the doctrine of renunciation to its extreme there is no probability that it will become popular. Men cling to the ides of their immortality with indestructible fervor, and what has given Christionity its wonderful power over all races is the promise, the revelation, the di- vine pledge that what ig sown in corruption shall be raised in inoorruption, and that the miracle of Christ's resurrection shall become the natural law of the world, Mr. Mill's contentment with the extinotion of personality in death may be accepted by philosophers of his own kind, but it can never replace Chris- tianity in the estimation of mankind, This fandamental doctrine of the Christian religion had several expositions yesterday from the pulpits of New York, one of the most notable being the sermon of the Rev, Dr. Hepworth upon ‘The Victory in Obrist." Jesus, he said, was ‘the matter and substance of life,” and this seems to resemble the idea of Thomas De Quincey, that immortality is not the natural inheritance of man, but the pre- cious gift of the Savioug of the world. Whether Dr, Hepworth agrees with this idea we are not certain, but surely the argument of Plato, which Addison has made familiar to the Eng- lish reader by his famous soliloquy in the tragedy of ‘‘Cato,” ig strengthened by the teachings of St. Paul. The natural argument of the Greek philosopher in favor of immor- tality bas, in the example and the words of Christ, supernatural indorsement. If the longings of the sou) itself are evidence of a fnturo Ute, the promises of Christiauity be- | gome 9 double assurance to the believer, subject, but directed his attention more imme- diately to the practical question of the amuses ments which are proper for religious people {a this world. The Rey, Dr. MoGiynn spoke Of the dimility of Mt, Joby the Baptsct, nud We should | the Rev. Dr. Rylance of Christian duty toward the poor, Mr. Beecher chose for his subject the slow development of Christian character, | and the Rev. Mr. Van Buskirk more closely considered the subject to which we have referred. ‘There is a scene in which we shall live after the grave has closed over us," he said, and he also dwelt upon Mr. Mill's the- | ory of the value of one life's influence upon other lives. Mr. Frothingham, who is, per- haps, nearer to Mr. Mill's ideas than any other | of our clergymen, spoke of the coming dawn, and beautifully used the transit of Venus to illustrate his argument. Altogether the ser- mons of yesterday are full of interest, espe- cially as they show the Christian side of the great discussion now carried on by the ad- vanced thinkers of our time. A Threatened Ruid on the City Charitable Institutions. It is evident that an attempt is to be made after January 1 to obstruct the payment to the city charitable institutions of the excise and other moneys appropriated to their use under existing laws. The amendments to the State constitution adopted at the last election are interpreted as prohibiting ‘‘the application of the excise moneys to any of the charities heretofore benefited by them,” and also as affecting ‘‘the right of disposing of the eight hundred thousand dollars or so, included in next year’s tax levy, for charitable institu- tions.” It is argued, in regard to the excise moneys, that, if paid into the city treasury before the 1st day of January, 1875, they may be distributed among the charitable institu- tions, but that atter that date ‘“‘there can be no question that the constitutional amend- ments authoritatively prohibit the application of the excise moneys to any of the charities heretofore benefited by them.” It is also held, in reference to the appropriations to charita- ble institutions included in the city estimate ‘for next year, that as the tax levy for 1875 must be finally closed before the end of this year, the Board of Apportionment, under ex- isting laws, ‘‘will have no choice but to incor- porate the sum named in their appropria- tions; but after it has been inserted it is very questionable whether taxes can be raised for any such purpose, and after they have been received it is tolerably certain that payments under such appropriations will be illegal."’ The fallacy of this is apparent, The amend- ments to the constitution adopted at the last election are in force from the moment the yote adopting them is officially declared by the State Canvassers. They do not take effect on the Ist day of January next. The consti- tution as it existed before the last elec- tion simply provided that amendments, after undergoing the requisite legislative action, should, upon receiving the approval and ratification of a majority of the qualified voters, “become part of the constitution.’ This, of course, incorporated the amendments in the constitution from the moment the offi- cial declaration of their adoption was pub- lished. That this was the intention of the con- stitution is shown by the fact that amendments might be submitted to the people “in such manner and at such time as the Legislature shall prescribe,’ and were not required to be submitted only at a general election. The new article 16, adopted at the last election, provides that ‘‘all amendments to the consti- tution shall be in force from and including the 1st day of January succeeding the eleo- tion at which the same were adopted, except when otherwise provided by such amend- ments.’ But as this article could not become @ part of the constitution until after its adop- tion and incorporation in the consti- tution it applies only to future amend- ments, If, therefore, the appropriations to charitable institutions in the city estimate for 1875 will be unconstitutional after the 1st of January they are unconstitutional now. In like manner, if the excise moneys cannot be applied to charitable purposes under the amendments to the constitution after January 1, they cannot be so applied subsequent to the announcement of the resuls of the State canvass. But the only restriction to the appropriation of county and city moneys contained in the amendments is to be found in the new section added to article 8 of the constitution as section 11. This provides as follows:— “No county, city, town or village shall here- after give any money or property or loan its money or credit to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation * * * This section shall not prevent such county, city, town or village from making such provision for the aid or support of its poor as may be authorized by law.'! Ohapter 642 of the Laws of 1874 provides thatall moneys received for liquor licenses, after payment of the expenses of the Commission, shall be appropriated by a ma- jority of the Board of Apportionment to whatever charitable institutions may seem to such Board deserving and proper. The Comptroller is required to pay the money as thus directed. In like manner, various State laws authorize the levy of @ tax for the sev- eral amounts appropriated in the city estimate “for the aid and support’ of the city poor. All these laws remain in force, and are not in- validated by the adoption of the constitutional amendments. For these reasons we believe that the attempt to divert from the charitable institutions the moneys derived from licenses or appropriated by the city estimate will fail. It will be unfortunate if the City Comptroller should insist upon withholding these moneys from the city charities, Suoh a policy will only lead to litigation, and in the end entail loss upon the taxpayers, besides causing much unnecessary suffering, Mr, Talmage’s Sunday Logie. Evidently the Rev. Mr. Talmage believes that, in opposition to the theatres, he has found a fruitful theme, and as he promises to discuss the subject still further there is no present hope of his yielding itup, His sermon yesterday was a plea for the American Sab- bath brought over on the Mayflower and fashioned in severity upon tho Jewish model, So far as his discourse related to the theatres it was not so marked as his previous efforts, but both as it related to the stage and the ob- servance of the day it was suggestive of » few thoughts, The first of these is that in either case the laws of the State | regulate the duties of the citizens. If any The Rev. Dr. Doems also touched upon this | manager violates or has violated the statute forbidding theatrical or other entertainments on Sunday it was only necessary to jnvoke the courts to atop that which the law forbade, No virulent sermon againet the stage eauld effect ony good im the matter, Neither is a plea ide the American Sabbath, as Mr. Talmage calls our Sunday, likely to have any better results, The law regulates the duty of the citizen on Sunday, and, so far as the law goes, the courts will enforce it. Beyond this neither Mr, Talmage nor the law can go. Under a gov- ernmeut which prescribes no creed and no religion for the people it is impossible to en- force the Sabbath brought over in the Mayflower. The law cannot command it as part of the citizen’s duty that he shall go to church on Sunday. It may pre- scribe that he shall follow no business avoca- tion on a particular day of the week, but it cannot make a Jewish or a Puritan Sabbath. Mr. Talmage insists upon too much. Most people will sustain him in enforcing the Sun- day laws but very few liberal-minded men will go with him in framing an American Sabbath. We may not want the hilarity of a European Sunday, but that is no reason why Mr. Tal- mage and the class to which he belongs should limit the liberty of the citizen toan extent to make the interference a tyranny. Charles Ross Once More. It is hardly to be wondered at that the lapse of time since his disappearance, now more than five months, should have driven the story of the stolen Ross child almost out of notice. Now and then a report creeps into circulation that he is found, but is re- ceived incredulously. The public has made up its mind either that the child has been murdered or that the thieves will not dare to risk the exposure of returning him. His parents, according to popular opinion, may as well tace their inevitable loss and bear it as they can. Now we have good reason to believe that Charles Ross is not murdered, but that his captors still hold him ready to give up so soon as the ransom is paid. It would serve @ good purpose at this precise juncture if every newspaper in the country would recall the facts of the child’s sbduc- tion to its readers, and urge them to fresh efforts to solve the mystery. During the first few weeks after it occurred, in the general alarm and horror, a dozen dif- ferent hypotheses were offered. Suspicion was thrown firston one side ond then an- other; the Ross family, being unknown, were dragged ‘before the bar of public opinion, in- dicted for prevarication, then licentiousness, and finally fora deliberate scheme of swin- dling. The people caught at any theory which would disprove the irightful possibility of the presence among us of an organized band of kidnappers—the advent of a new crime more terrible than murder. While press and people were following these false scents the thieves disappeared. Sufficient time has, however, now passed to dispel all these groundless theories. The character of the -Ross family, and of every one connected, even remotely, with them, has been brought to the glaring light, and tested bya strict judicial investigation, and by the yet sterner tribunal of a suspicious public with its myriad watch- fal eyes. The facts of the case now remain, clear and indisputable, ready for our action, and as such we offer them to our readera. First—Christian K. Ross, the father of the stolen child, is a man of unimpeachable in- tegrity and honor. The theory once advo- cated that the boy was secreted by his con- nivance that he might obtain the ransom Money was met by an indignant and over- whelming refutation from all of his business associates, representing the largest commer- cial interests of Philadelphia. It is worth mentioning in this connection that neither the committee holding in trust the twenty thousand dollars offered for the boy and his captors, nor any one of the various corps of detectives, public and private, employed in the case, whose interest it naturally would be to find Mr. Ross guilty, entertain the slightest suspicion of bim, but all have a profound and thorough belief in his uprightness aud re- spect for his sorrow. Seoond—The allegation that Mr. Roas was a debauchee, ond that his discarded wife was really the kidnapper, was the fabrication of a Beading newspaper, for which its publishers have been found guilty in a criminal suit for libel. Mr. Ross’ affidavit in this case, deny- ing one by one all the allegations in the Read- ing article, was proved at every point. The brothers and near friends of Mrs. Ross, and the poor, broken-hearted woman herself ap- peared upon the witness stund to testify to the exceptional purity and fidelity of his life asa | husband and father. ‘Christian Ross,” said his brother-in-law, with o natural touch of bitterness, ‘‘has but one fault to excuse this attack—he is poor.” The Ross family led a quiet, reserved life, and this very reserve, this distaste for playing any melodramatic rile before the public, irritated the press and was the chief cause of the unjust aspersions cast upon them. We fee) it is but proper in this connec- tion, asa concession largely due to the bereaved family of the stolen child, that the Hzaanp should say that while its investigations of the matter carried on at a distance were meant simply to serve the public, they were in certain particulars erroneous in theory ond facts. Onr correspondent, acting upon false information, believed by him to be true, did the character of Mr. Ross gross injustice, and we would be wanting in the commoner feel- ings of humanity were we not thus to dis- tinetly disavow his erroneous accusations and express our sincere sympathy for the afflicted family of the gentleman whom they affected. Third—It ia now reduced to a certainty that the obild was stolen from no motive of revenge, or for other ill purpose than simply to com- mand the ransom. It has become customary of late years to bargain with burglars for the | return of stolen bonds and jewels; this is but @ new branch of the same business. The case, then, stands thus:—The child stolen on the first day of last July, it is be- lieved, still lives; his abductors hold him tri- umphant, defying the law and vutraged domestic life of the nation. The sum of twerity thousand dollars offered by the citi- gens of Philadelphia 19 not, let it be under- stood, to be paid for the child alone, but tor the child and its captors. Meanwhile help, if there be any under God, must come from the people. Itis not possible in these days of close communication that the child can be always hidden. If he be in the country some human eye must seo hia, The more remote or isolated tho village or hamlet the more obance that he is secreted there, It is not for poor Charlvy Ross’ belp alone that we would have every man and woman in the land serve 9 & detective, but Cor their own child's sake; that their owa baby and that of every mother vhs toi asain ated may sleep henceforth securely in its cradle, and not become 2 subject of barter for mep more cruel than death. “Alas! Poor Yorick.”” Our irrepressible and benevolent friend Bergh makes his appearance in a new charac- ter. Having fulfilled his mission as the cham. pion of the animal kingdom he now becomes the champion of the plays and the players. It is perhaps the most natural transition, for after his crusade of benevolence what remains to a philanthropist of an active nature but to try his skill on the comedians. A few days since Mr. Daly, the enterprising manager of the Fifth Avenue Theatre, having exhausted the literary resources of France, made an ad- venture into Spain. He discovered the play ot “Yorick.’’ It is a good play of the sombre, gruesome school, with touches of sadness that evidently suit the tastes of a Madrid audience fresh from the bull fight. Somehow our American taste does not welcome “Yorick.” We have our merry moods, ond shrink from entertainments tbat strain the nervea and keep us awake at night. Then Mr, Daly igvoked the sacred figure of Shakespeare, dragging it from the Olympian heights of an almost holy fame to walk up and down the stage as a mere man. The play oppressed more than it amused, and presumed it would gently sink into the wel filled sepulchre of unappreciated dramas, Mr, Bergh insists that it shall not die; that no such play was ever written or acted, and that we must all hasten and see it. For Mr. Daly’s sake we should like to see Mr. Bergh’s advice accepted, for he is an im genious, original man, who has labored hard to elevate the stage and has won golden opinions, It is not pleasant, especially in these mellow, gracious, Christmas times, to see & manager with so many natural resources and so high a purpose buffeting the cruel waves of a receding sea. He has a fine thea- tre aud a splendid company. But who can rule the uncertain chances of popular taste? We can imagine that, for a bull-fighting com. munity, ‘Yorick” would bean attraction. But we have no bull-fighting fancies, as Mr. Bergh toust be happy to feel, and Mr. Daly cannot even get up a newspaper controversy as to the merits of his play. - Just now our theatrical people are under the spell of a great genius— of one who can write a masterpiece and act it, Boucicault dwarfs everybody else, and all the world is concerned about the ‘‘Shaughraup.”* If there is one thing the people know, it is what pleases them. Mr. Boucicault has suc ceeded in pleasing. He has written one of the best comedies that has appeared since the “School for Scandal.’ Envious critics may say it isall stolen ; thatit contains effects taken from Byron, Shakespeare and Hugo; that the dog is only a copy of the dog Schneider; that there is the same old priest, the same hand- some officer, the same forward Irish girl anze ious to be kissed, the same police spy and informer; that the fox hunt is repeated from ‘London Assurance,” and that Conn, the Shaughraun, is o kind of Irish Rip Van Winkle, who drinks, idles, poaches, sings @ song, plays on the fiddle and dances with the lasues. But a genius for stealing is genius after all. If Boucicault can steal so well why can not his critics do the same? The field is open to them ‘just as it was open to the rivals of Shakespeare, who proved that he stole his plots from Plutarch and Boccaccio, old jest books and wherever he found anything worth taking. If the dra. matists cannot write as well as Boucicault let them steal as well, and the people will be satisfied. We welcome Mr. Bergh into the guild of dramatic criticism. He makes a brave battle for “Yorick."” We wish it were a winning fight. But the misfortune with Mr. Bergh is that, like his immortal prototype, the last of Spanish chivalry, he always puts on his armor in alhqpe- less cause. He cannot fight public opinion any more than Don Quixote could fight the windmills of La Mancha. The mills will tura when the wind blows. Just now the wind blows in the direction of the “Shaugbraua,'* Good Mr. Bergh may shoulder his lance and go home. As for Mr. Daly he bas won so many fights with his splendid company and his own unsurpassed taste that he can enter with courage and the sssurance of renewed success upon brighter campaigns, PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Rev. Dr. Colton, of Philadelphia, is staying at the St, Denis Hotel. Lotta, the actress, arrived in this city yesterday, and is at the Fitth Avenue Hotel. Rev. Dr, Harrold, of Washington, is among the latest arrivals at the Westminster Hotel. Lieutenant H, T. Stewart, of the Royal artillery, Britisn Army, is quartered at the Grand Central Hotel, Mr. James F. Joy, President of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, has apartments at the Winusor Hotel, Mr. A, B, Mullet, of architectural fame, 10 se Journing atthe Astor House, whence he surveys the new Post Office, Lieutenant Governor sohn ©. Robingon, whose home is st singhamton, is residing temporarily at the St, Denis Hotel. Mr. Charles P, Kimball, of Portland, formeriy » favorite, though unsuccessfal, democratic candi Gate ior Governor of Maine, is at the Futh Avenue Hotel, A deputation of Knights Templars from the United States bave been visiting Havana aod the faterior ofCuba, They will return to New Orleans to-day on the steamer Wilmington. And now here is the Empéror of Austria up for economy, A sort time ago one of his Imperiat Majesty's ships arrived at Stamooul, and the Aus: trian Interaunsio, Count Zichy, at once chose ber for @ gai pleasure trip up and down the Bos phorus, Av official and grandiloquent report to headquarters seems to have been drawn up about the event, which was even sabmitted to the £m peror. On the return of the diplomatic documens the following pencil query, written by the Em peror, was found on the margin:— “Who paya for the coal f”” It {a reported in London that tne ramor abous the Queen's alarming filness bad ita origin in the following circumstances:—“In a certain London hewspaper oftice tuere is @ biography ot the Sov- ereiyn, which was written ten years ago, and the editor, with the provident forethought of nis clase, deemed it desirable that it should be revised and brought down to date, It was given out to one of the erat aud duly ‘revised and corrected.’ The @ditor thought 1 would be well to see the article in type, and he consequently gave it out to be set up. & compositor happened to see the notice when it Was in type, read the solemn and alfecting Qnpouncement with which it cpened andimme diately proceeded to disseminate the melancuoly Incelligence, As soon as the story was ialiy set W going It travelled in all directions and uuder. Went all soria of modifications, Im one af ite forme it reached @ ‘Lomdom correspondent,’ and Ws Obsained B WIAS Gisculation al over the counts,