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

a NEW YORK HERALD RHROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT. PROPRIETOR JHE DAILY HERALD, published every Cay in the year. Four cents per copy. An- nal subscription price $12, NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New York Hzpaup will be sent free of postage. All business or news letters and phic despatches must be addressed New Yorx Hera. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subseriptions and Advertisements will be feceived and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. Volume XXXIX...... steeceeseereeeNOs 349 AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. THEATRE qourgns Fo, $id Broadway.—VARIETY, at 6 F. ‘M. ; closes at 10 30 BOOTH’S THEATRE, corner of re aon, — and sixth avenue.—THE HERO OF THE at 8P. M.; closes at l0:i0 P, M. Mr. Henri Stuart ROMAN HIPPODROME, sixth street and Fourth avenue.—FETB AT ‘Twen' PeKIN, alternoon and evening, at 2 and 8, WALLACK’S THEATRE, Brosaway. .—-THE SHAUGHRAUN, at 8 P. M.; closes at du 40 P. Mr. Boucicauit: TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE, Fifty-eighth street and seuipeton avenue.—VARIETY, at SP. M.; closes at 10-30 P. FIFTH AVENUE THEATR ‘Twerty-eighth street and Broadway. —SH CUNQUER, at8P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. Savenport. STOOPS TO BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Wegt Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO TRELSY, &c., atS P.M; closes at 10P.M. Dan bryant BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street—JANE EYRE, at8 P.M. Miss Char- love Thompson. Pr 8AN ree roadway, corner MINSTRELSY, at P. Si La, wenty-ninth street NEGRO closes at 10 P.M. OBINSON HALL, Sixteenth street. ASEGONE DULL “CARE. Mr. Mac- cal GLORE THEATRE, Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fonrteenth street and sixth avenue. —CAILPERIC, at 8 -4 Choses at 10:45 FM. Miss Emily Soldene. NEW PARK THEATRE, Fulton street, Brooklyn.—THE URPHANS, R, M. Car- roll and Sons. GERM. Fourteenth street.—U A THEATRE, ave P.M. woop’ USEU: way, corner Thirtieth street.—OLIVER. baie | Broad atnee M. QUITS, at SP. M.; closes at 10:45 P. M. METROPOLITAN THEATRE, poe Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:30 | OLYMPIC THKATRE, ie > aa Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 GRAND OPERA HOUSE, third street and Bighth avenue. !-THE BLACK At SP. M. j closes at Ll P.M. Twen' CR NO PARK THEATRE, Broadway, between Twenty-first ana Twenty- second | streets. GILDED AGE, at’ P. M.; closes at 1:30 P. Mr. Jobn I, Raymond. COOP2R INSTITUTE, SLAVE CABIN CONCERTS. The Tennesseeans. NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, Bowery.—DURCHGEGANGENE WEIBER, ‘at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 3 10:30 P.M. Miss Lina a Mayr. TRIPLE SHEET. Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1874. From our ‘iris this morning ij the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be clear and very cold. Watt Srreer Yesterpay.—The stock mar- ket was without feature other than an un- settled feeling. Gold advanced to 111%. Money was a shade more active. Tse Report of the Commissioners in charge of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank shows that the depositors are not likely to realize much from its ruins. We give the melancholy docu- ment elsewhere. Tue Waecx of the cable steamer La Plata, with the lose of sixty lives, was attended by exciting scenes and acts of heroic courage, and we supplement the despatches already published by a full account by mail of the thrilling events. Tue Senate Yesterpay considered a large number of subjects, including the grasshop- per plague, the rights of colored citizens in public schools and the Union Pacific Rail- road; butits principal action was the appoint- ment of a committee to provide for the enter- tainment of the King of the Hawaiian Islands. In the House there was a sharp debate upon Pacific Mail and on the Vicksburg affair, anda committee to investigate the latter was ap- pointed. A great many new bills were intro- duced in both houses. Tae Von Annu Triat.—The testimony in the Von Arnim case was closed yesterday and the arguments of counsel began. The prose- cution insisted that the Count had abstracted State documents to be used against Prince Bismarck, while his counsel declared that he had acted simply for the defence of his own honor. Great indignation was felt in Paris because of papers read in the trial which showed that Bismarck had declared it his pur- pose to keep France weak for the benefit of Prussia, Inscrcznt Successes 1x Cusa.—If the news which comes to us from Havana be correct the Cuban insurrection has taken s step forward most threatening to Spanish power. Formany years the Spanjish authorities have felt that their only hope of crushing the patriots lay in confining them within o narrow territory. With this object extensive fortifications were built across the whole island. The patriots have new succeeded in forcing this line. As it is their intention to apply the torch to the plantations of the Western Department and invoke # servile insurrection a complete parolyzation of business may be looked for. By destroying the material resources of the country the patriots hope to render it impos- sible for Spain to carry on the war. The remedy is a heroic one and tinged with bar- barism ; but those who stand by and see a weak people slaughtered in cold blood have no right to complain on the score of hu- manitvs ‘Miss Fanny | The Troubles im the Southern States— Duty of Congress. It is for many reasons desirable that Con- gress should act on the recommendation of the President, repeated from last year in his annual Message, and relieve him from his un- pleasant responsibility. With the single ex- ception of the Lonisiana case, in which the first steps of General Grant were precipitate and ill-advised, he has evinced praiseworthy caution and proper reluctance in interposing officially in the domestic politics of the South. When the application came from Texas he refused to interfere, and the result vindicates his wisdom, no State in the Union having been more quiet and orderly than Texas since his refusal. In the Arkansas excitement, last spring, he stood aloof as long as he could, and when he did act his recognition of Bax- ter was eo fit that it silenced adverse criti- cism in every quarter. Had it not been for the New Orleans émeute under Penn in September, which compelled a fresh interference in Louisiana, the President would have effaced the censure which fell upon him for abetting the Kellogg usurpation. But it was impossible for him to have acted otherwise than he did in Septem- ber, although if he had beon at liberty to abandon Kellogg at that stage Louisiana would have been thenceforward a quiet and orderly State. It is unfortunate that Con- gress did not intervene last winter to save the President from the necessity of going on in the path he mistakenly marked out for him- self when he made Kellogg Governor. It is to be hoped that Congress will now come to the President's relief and accept the responsi- bility which belongs to that body in all similar cages. Were it not for the new complication in Louisiana, which may require immediate action, this whole class of questions might safely await the action of Congress, Arkansas has a government which is, unquestionably, supported by a large majority of the citizens, and nobody can doubt that the tranquillity of the State will be maintained by the easy method of leaving it to itself. In the more recent Mississippi case it is not probable that an application will be made to the President, the action | of Governor Ames and the Warren county negroes being too utterly indefensible to in- vite official investigation and exposure. Not- withstanding the ominous state of things in New Orleans we trust that the action of the Returning Board may lead to no disturbance of the peace, and that nothing may occur requiring the President's intervention until Congress shall have had time to investigate the subject and define his duties. All the action of the President in cases of this kind is based upon an old law passed in the last century, by a Congress which had no foresight of the kind of difficulties which have arisen since the civil war. Nothing is more | certain than that the law of 1795 did not con- template a decision by the President between contesting candidates for State offices where the only point in controversy is which of two competitors was legally elected. Congress ought to amend the law and-adapt it to this class of cases, which never arose until within the last two years, but have since become so com- mon. The wisest law that could be passed would be one forbidding any interference of the President with the result of an election and | requiring him to support the officers whom an uninfluenced Board of Canvassers declared elected until Congress could make inquiries, and reverse the action of the State canvass- ers if it found reasons to justify interven- tion for that purpose. Had such a law been in force two years ago this scandalous Louisi- ana broil would not have arisen. No well in- formed man doubts that if the President had been compelled by law to keep aloof two years ago, pending the action of the Returning Board in Louisiana, McEnery would have been declared elected and that order and tranquillity would have been maintained in the State during these years of turmoil and disgrace. There will be no end of such troubles if a partisan President is left free to step in before the returns of a State election are canvassed and cut the Gordian knot by meas- ures for installing the candidate supported by his own party. It is indispensable that Con- gress should define his duties in a matter so delicate and so nearly touching the vital prin- ciple of free institutions. The President should be permitted to have nothing to do with declaring the result of a State election. This should be left entirely to State officers, acting under State laws, and it should be made the duty of the President to provision- ally support their declaration, whatever it may be, and, if he doubts the validity of a State election as declared by the State can- vassers, to submit the question to Congress, maintaining the officers returned as elected until Congress shall have acted on the ques- tion. Had such a law been in existence two years ago President Grant would have escaped all the embarrassment, the South all the con- fusion and the republican party all the scandal which started with the aid given to Kellogg's usurpation. It is evident from President Grant's recent Message that more precise- law on sub- jects of this class would have rendered his duties easy and have saved him from much embarrassment. After his intervention in favor of Kellogg he had doubts and mis- givings as to the propriety of what he had done, and he has since repeatedly referred the question to Congress, asking it to relieve him from a responsibility which he does not covet. He feels that the present law leaves too much to his discretion, as is evident in his repeatedly asking Congress to review his ac- tion in the Louisiana case, and to put him on sure ground by either indorsing his course or prescribing @ different one, President Grant himself does not believe that Kellogg was legally elected and legally declared Governor. He seems, in his last Message, to indorse Carpenter's opinion that neither Kellogg nor McEnery is legally entitled to the office, and says that he supported Kellogg because be believed, on other grounds than the election returns, that Kellogg had a ma- jority of the votes. Considering that the election returns are the only admissible evidence im such cases this admission of the President is sufficiently remarkable. That we may do him no injustice we insert his language :—‘‘I have heretofore called the attention of Congress to this subject, stating that, on account of the frauds and forgeries committed at said election, and because it ap- pears that the returns thereof were never le- PAINE, jh, yee jmngowsible to (oll thereby who were legally chosen. But, from the best sources of information at my com- mand, I have always believed that the present State officers received a majority of the legal votes actually cast at that election.” The frankness of this declaration and its freedom from chicaning sophistry give it a claim to respect; but the confession of the Presi- dent that he decided who was Governor of Louisiana on different grounds from the elec- tion returns is very noteworthy. The official returns are the only legal evidence in any such case, Attempts to decide who was elected on any other data are mere conjecture and guess work. The President ought to be not merely relieved by law, but to be pre- cluded by law, from usurping the duties of a State board of canvassers and assuming an authority which they do not possess of de- claring the result without reference to the re- turns. He should be strictly forbidden to interfere, directly or indirectly, with the can- vassing of the returns, and bound by strict statute to recognize the State officers whom the Canvassing Board declares elected until Congress can review the question. Had such a law been in force in 1872 the’McEnery gov- ernment would have been peaceably installed and Congress would never have interfered to disturb it. All these troubles have grown out of the necessity the President was under to act under statutes passed without reference to this class of cases and which ought to be rendered obsolete by new and timely laws, adapted to the present circumstances of the country. The Revelations in the Ross Case. Aman whose word is worthless during life is often believed in death, and thus the dying confession of one of the burglars shot at Bay Ridge, L. L, yesterday morning, that he and his comrade were the kidnappers of Charley Ross, is generally accepted as truth. Hoe had no motive for lying; he was dangerously wounded and knew that he must die, This man, Douglas, desired that the little money in his possession should be applied to procuring him a decent funeral, and said that-his dead companion had stolen the boy and that he was his assistant in the deed. It is strange how the punishment of one crime leads to the detection of another, and there is reason to hope that the tragic death of these daring men may result in the restoration of Charley Ross to his parents. Unless Douglas, in the moment of death, added an unmeaning and wanton fglsehood to his other sins, there is no cause to doubt that he and Mosher were the abductors of the child for whom, during five months, unavailing search has been made. The police authorities | now state that they had suspected these men, and had been in search for them; and that this is not merely an idle boast is shown by our full report of the facta to-day, The Su- perintendent of the New York police is said to have supposed Mosher and Douglas to be the kidnappers from the description given of them. There is, therefore, good reason, be- sides the confession of the dying man, to be- lieve that the perpetrators of the crime have been discovered, and the recovery of the child ought to be the consequence, The motive for further concealment is de- stroyed by the death of the principals. The storm of indignation which followed the kid- napping was wholly unexpected by these men, and they became afraid of the consequences of their own deed. They did not dare to surrender the child. But some person must have been in the confidence of Mosher, and as he is beyond all human power to harm, and as nothing now is to be gained by the retention of the boy, nothing risked by his restoration, it is probable that person will soon appear. The police have a clew now which they can hardly lose, and, un- less Charley Ross has been killed, which there is every reason to doubt, he is likely to be soon restored to his family. Thus a happy ending may be hoped for a domestic tragedy which has thrilled every home in America and has be- come, by its mysterious and exceptional nature, almost a national sorrow. If it were a romance it would not be believed, and as a true story it stands almost alone in the crimi- nal annals of our day. How to Clean the Streets. In Paris the streets and their contents are evidently contemplated in a very different light from that in which they appear to the eyes of our municipal authorities. Here the great problem is how to get somebody who will clean them for the least sum, though this ‘Jeast” sum is a very large one—indeed, con- sidering the service, a fabulous figure. In Paris the problem is who shall have the privi- lege of cleaning the streets and who will pay the most for it. With us dirty streets seem the one intolerable and unmanageable burden of life. In Paris the streets are contemplated as a sort of mine, the property of the author- ities, and the right to work this perpetual mine as a valuable franchise that competing capitalists bid for. Contractors purchase the mud of the Paris streets, and the present con- tractors pay for it $120,000 per annum. The terms of the purchase are that the con- tractors shall sweep up the filth and carry it away, and that the men whom they pay to perform this service shall be under the orders of the city authorities. Manufactured into fertilizers the material thus bought for $120,000 is sold for $600,000. And we pay enormous sums every year to have our mine cleaned out and its product carried away as rubbish. We Ang Occasronaty in receipt of letters from advertisers, who complain that they are charged by agents for advertising in the Henatp more than our regular rates. One correspondent tells us that he paid a certain sum for an advertisement at our office, and upon giving one precisely similar to an agent he was charged about ten per cent more. He asks usto ‘let him know if this way of charging is correct.” To this we answer that the Hzrarp has only one price, that it has no outside agents and allows no commissions to those in the agency business. We have our regular offices, No. 1,265 Broad- way, No, 530 Sixth avenue, Third avenue and 124th street, and in Brooklyn, corner of Boerum street and Fulton avenue, Our friends will find the advertising rates the same at all of these offices. If they choose to pay an additional commission to “agents” we shall feel sorry, but we cannot help it It is a matter over which we have no control. The way to avoid complaints is to deal with gus own offices directx NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, DEVEMBER 15, 1874.-TRIPLE SHEET. The Pacific Mail Investigation. Tho investigation of the bribery suspected to have been practised by this company in procuring the annual subsidy of five hundred thousand dollars in 1872 is expected to pro- ceed before the Committee on Ways and Means to-day by the examination of Richard B. Irwin, the most important witness and the supposed agent of the company in placing money where it would ‘‘do most good." Pub- lic expectation is active in relation to Mr. Irwin's disclosures in consequence of the ex- traordinary means that have been thought necessary for securing his attendance. When the first g@#®poena was issued to him last week he could not be found, and it was feared that he intended to slip away to Europe on one of the steamers which sailed on Saturday. The Sergeant-at-Arms of the House was accord- ingly ordered to proceed to New York, arrest Irwin for contempt and bring him to Washington. The arrest was made at the Hoffman House on Saturday, and Irwin, who was suffering or feigning ill- ness, was kept under guard by Sergeant-at- Arms Ordway and his assistant until yester- day morning, when they set out with Irwin for Washington, where he is expected to tes- tify to-day. It appears from the testimony of Mr. Hatch before the committee, on Saturday, that the records of the company show that checks amounting to seven hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars were drawn to the order of Irwin in May, 1872, when the Pacific Mail subsidy was pending in Congress. Mr. Hatch swears that he has no knowledge of the purpose for which those checks were given or of the uses to which the money was applied. Irwin, o! course, knows, but he may not be able to tell without criminating himself, and may prefer imprisonment for contempt in refusing to answer to the penalties to which a full statement of the truth might expose him. The company fell under suspicion soon after the subsidy was obtained, and at the next session an investigation was moved by Mr. Randal! and ordered by the House. It had proceeded but a little way when the Forty-second Congress expired, and the tes- timony was sealed up for the Forty-third Con- gress, which was so engrossed by the cur- rency debates last winter that it did not re- new the investigation. The recent trouble in the affairs of the company recalled attention to the subject, and an investigation was promptly ordered at the beginning of this session. The recent letter of Mr. John Roach, de- fending and lauding the company, has no real bearing on the subject of this investi- gation, Mr. Roach is probably under a bias in favor of a company which is bis best customer, as he is the builder of its new ships; but no one doubts that he states his honest opinion of the merits of the company. Nobody suspects him of using improper influences with members of Congress, and it is not likely that Irwin and his employers made Mr. Roach a confi- dant in their lobbying schemes for getting the subsidy. The advantages to commerce and the shipbuilding interest which he sets forth are irrelevant to the question of bribery which the Committee on Ways and Means has under- taken to investigate: But if the bribery should be proved by valid evidence the sub- sidy would doubtless be withdrawn, which would ruin the company and extinguish the hopes of all the applicants for Congressional aid at this session. The keenest interest will therefore be felt in the testimony of Irwin, to be taken to-day. This ugly crisis in the affairs of the com- pany affords a fresh demonstration of the im- prudence of President Grant in accepting its invitation last summer to the expen- sive and ostentatious trial trip of the City of Peking. The arraignment of the company for bribing its subsidy through Congress reflects an unpleasant light on the great excursion, in which the President allowed himself to be paraded as the chief recipient of its profuse hospitality. If the charges now under investigation are true the purpose of those prodigal attentions to the President and other officers of the gov- ernment must have been to make friends in high quarters and lay up ao store of official good will to shield the past from exposure and facilitate future raids on the Treasury. That flaunting and expensive pleasure trip was made at the expense of the taxpayers of the United States. It did not become a beg- ging company to spend the people’s money in junketing magnificence, and it became the President still less to give them his counte- nance and accept their scheming courtesies. We trust he will learn sufficient caution from what is now transpiring to save him from falling sgain into such thoughtless impro- prieties. Mr. Forster's Speech. America is a candid country, the more so, perhaps, because it finds concealment impos- sible. We cannot hide our faults as a nation, nor the imperfections of our government. Crédit Mobilier frauds, back-pay grabs, rail- road swindles, misrule at the capital and usurpation and chaos at the South, are things which cannot be put away from the sight of other countries, We make a virtue of this necessity and invite the criticism we can- not help. But we are fortunate and glad when the critic is at once so friendly and so capable as the distinguished Englishman whom the Union League Club of this city entertained last evening. The Hon. W. E. Forster is one of the few public men in England who, during the late war, professed faith in the stability of the Union and defended the policy of our government. While he no doubt perceives many things in our institutions which are to be regretted, he certainly has slways sympathized with their spirit and recognized their value. The welcome of this true friend of the United States has, therefore, been every- where enthusiastic, and that his prolonged tour through the country has been a pleasant one we have his own assur- ance. In his speech at the Union League Club last night he said that he had not heard one mention of his native country that an Englishman would not like to hear, and as we area candid people he may take this os a strong proof of good will. His speech is manly and thoughtful, and its con- cluding words respecting the duty of English speaking nations to protect their liberties by each preserving its own are those ef true atatesmagshin and wisdom, Uncle Dick im Congress. ; A careful correspondent informs us that Uncle Dick announces his purpose to vote for every railroad subsidy bill which is brought into Congress. Hoe thinks the country ought to be restored to ‘a pros- Perous condition,” that ‘‘capital should be able to employ labor,”” and that it would be “@ good thing to expend eight hundred million dollars." When the Hzratp nomi- nated and supported Uncle Dick for Con- Gress it was upon the express idea that he would represent the largest ideas of legisla- tion, that he would be the Colonel Mulberry Sellers of Representatives, that he would lead Congressmen from the barren pastures of economy into the high, bracing atmosphere of ‘public improvement,’’ “American indus- try” and “development of the country.’ For Uncle Dick, like Napoleon as described by Lamartine, has a mind “every thought ot which is an empire,” Weare not betray- ing any confidence when wo say that the cam- paign that will open in the beginning of the year under the command of Uncle Dick will be the most remarkable ever known in the annals of legislation, His campaign will embrace the- most comprehensive system of “public improvement’’ ever known. As we have no money now, and as money is an essential element in the campaigns of even as great a captain as Uncle Dick, we shall begin by purchasing one hundred new print- ing presses and setting them to ‘making money.” After we have printed several thou- sand millions of beautifully engraved ‘‘cur- rency’’ the work of ‘encouraging Ameri- can industry’ will begin. First comes the Alaska, Honduras and Patagonian Rail- way, with Brazil and Peru extensions. ‘Then comes the Alleghany, Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada Canal Company, which is to connect San Francisco and New York by a direct water route. Then comes the annexa- tion of Mexico and Cuba and South America, which is to be accomplished by diplomacy, the beginning of which will be ao vote of one hundred millions dollars to the secret service fund, in order that the Secretary of State may bribe the Pope and the whole Order of Jesuits, Then we will have war with England, for the pur- pose of encouraging our shipping industry and the bunting manufacture and our gun trade, and to collect. the balance of our indirect Alabama claims, amounting, in round numbers, to three thousand million dollars. The effect of this war, it is reasonable to suppose, will be the annexa- tion of Ireland, India and the Pacific Islands, and the election of General Grant as Presi- dent for a third term. Uncle Dick is not alone in this campaign. As Napoleon had his marshale—his Murat, his Ney, his Massena, his Berthier—so Uncle Dick has his gifted lieutenants. He bas taken possession of Welcker’s famous restaurant. That distinguished host has put under con- tribution the vineyards of France, the moors of England, the trout streams of the Adiron- dacks and the oyster beds of the East River. The finest brands of Chiteau Margaux, Cham- bertin, Sauterne and Pommery, with rare and exquisite cordials, whose golden glow repre- sents the bottled sunshine of the Rhine val- leys, have been imported for the feasts. Colonel Mulberry Sellers will be detained by New York engagements from visiting Washington until after New Year's. He will be there shortly after the holidays, accompanied by his secretary and manager, Hon. William Stuart. Those who know Uncle Dick and Colonel Sellers and Mr. Stuart— and who does not know them ?—will understand the wit, the flow of soul, the merriment, the classic taste, the remembrances of high society, that await the present Congress, while the house formerly occupied by the British Lega- tion has been taken by a distinguished New York statesman and banker, who will not play an obscure part in this canvass. We congratulate our statesmen upon their winter opportunities, Napoleon’s Hundred Days forma memorable epoch in the history of France; Uncle Dick’s Hundred Days will form a memorable epoch in the history of American legislation. But the parallel will end here; for Napoleon found a Waterloo—Uncle Dick will find an Auster. litz. In this canvass there will be no distinction of race, politics, reputation or color. Uncle Dick is too muclrof a statesman to despise the swarthy Carolinian, only fresh from the chains of slavery, or the needy carpet-bagger, wlio has spent the proceeds of his last cadetship and is anxious about his hotel bill, All will be welcome to these fes- tivities. Unless fate, which controls the destinies of the greatest men—Cmsar, Hanni- bal, Napoleon, and even Uncle Dick—should fall cruelly upon these noble designs, the Forty-third Congress will end its career by giving to the country a series of schemes for “the development of American industry,” for “the protection of labor,” ‘‘the revival of business’ and “the general prosperity of the masses’ that will excite the astonishment, if not the admiration, of mankind. Railroad Law in Kurope. With our extensive territory and one lan- guage and generally one law on all the ordi- nary points of human difficulty we are scarcely able to comprehend the troubles that beset mortality in Europe, where one railroad jour- ney may carry the traveller in a day or two through three or four nations of dif- ferent language, different law and dif- ferent views of life generally. Difficult as it often is with us to locate responsi- bility and secure redress for injuries, we are at least relieved from the very great embar- rassment in such pursuit that one always finds on the frontier of a foreign country. It . is, therefore, rather with benevolent curiosity than with personal interest that we may con- template the endeavors of society in Europe to secure the international recognition of some definite general principles for the satis- faction of grievances against railway com- panies, Suppose o manufacturer of fancy articles in Paris fills an order for goods to be delivered in Prague. He ships his case at ‘aris bya French company. At the frontier it goes into the hands of a Prussian company, which passes it on to the Nassau or the Hessian company; and that, in turn, gives it to the Bavarian company, which gives it to the Austrian company, which, perhaps, passes it on to Prague, Butit may get to Prague badly damaged, or it may not get there at all. In either case who is responsible? This is ESS EES Ee NT 2 nreciaely what phey want to know, Uf you. su the company that delivers a damaged package it proves that it received the package in a damaged state. You sue the next with a similar result, and the next, till you get to the first of the series, and that company perhaps Proves that the package left its hands in per- fect condition. With six suits determined against him a man is very apt to be sorry that he ever owned a package. It is to deter- mine a whole category of difficulties of this nature that an international railrosd con- gress is called for to consider the propriety of establishing some rules and usages on the basis of common consent. One of the rules proposed is that the company which delivers shall be responsible and shall have its remedy against any other company, as it is supposed that this will secure discrimination as to the condition of goods received. Inthe case of the absolute loss of goods the company which first received them will perhaps be held accountable. 1 0 hee Tae Lovina Trovsizs.—The situation’ in New Orleans has not been materially changed by the events of yesterday. The Re- turning Board met and proceeded to transact. business by investigating certain charges of fraud; but before any progress had been made the presiding officer, Governor Wells, ro- ceived information that the White Leaguers were in the vicinity and contemplated an at- tack. Upon the ground that he could not proceed with the canvass under the threat of violence, and that he did not wish to appeal to the United States troops for protection, Governor Wells compelled the Board to ad- journ till. eleven o'clock to-day. Nothing has therefore been done by either party, but the excitement is undiminished, and the dan- ger of trouble is not removed. The Board of Returns is evidently afraid to act, and the White Leaguers watch it closely. If any overt act of violence is committed the United States military force is sure to interfere, and such a necessity will be universally deprecated, Louisiana can win no good by revolution, and one blow may make her condition more des- perate. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Fortuny died of the Roman fever after an illness of eight days. Protessor Mark Bailey, of New Haven, is staying at the Irving House. Governor Henry Howard, of Rhode Island, is at tne Fifth Avenue Hotel. Hobart Pasna, the Turkish Admiral, resumes hia rank as Captain in the English navy. Commander 8. L, Breese, United States Navy has quarters at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Paymaster Israel U. Dewey, United States Army, is quartered at the Metropolitan Hotel. Governor Charles R. Ingersoll, of Connecticat, arrived last evening at the Albemarle Hotel. Rev. Dr. W. 0. Oattell, President of Lafayette College, is residing at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Ex-Governor Theodore F. Randolph, of New Jersey, has apartments at the New York Hotel. Congressman-elect N. Holmes Odell, of Tarry- town, N. Y., has arrived at the St. James Hotel. Sefior Don J. J. Emparanza, Spanish Consul at Key West, is sojourning at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. In meditating in a critical occasion a man says to himself, “What shall 1 do? a woman, “What sball I wear?’ Mr. Allan Kutherford, Third Auditor of the Treas- ury, arrived from Washington yesterday at the Metropolitan Hotel, Mr. James Tillinghast, Superintendent of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, is at the Windsor Hotel. Mr. E. A. de Pass, President of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway, of Nova Scotia, is registered at the Union Square Hotel. Ex-Governor J. B. Page, of Vermont, arrived in this city yesterday and toox up his residence in the dt. Nicholas Hotel. State Senator William B. Woodtu, of Auburn, and Assemblyman Thomas G. Alvord, of Syracuse, are at the Metropolitan Hotel. The death of General H. H. Heath at Lima, Pera, on the 14tn ult., 18 much regretted. He for soma time edited the first English paper published at Callao. Parties, says the cynic of the Vie Paristenne, are like women; they appreciate our fidelity to them, but they rejoice over our infidelities to another ia their favor. Judge Theodore Miller, of Hudson, N.Y., who was landed by the recent political tidal wave on the bench of the Court of the Appeals, is stopping at the Metropolitan Hotel. If you can prove that @ man has injured you, but cannot prove the date on which he did it, you can- not have aremedy. Such seems to be the point of law involved in that order Jor a bill of particu- lars. The government of Ecuador has ordered the ar- rest of the editor of the Nueva Era of Guayaqatt for speaking offensively of the President of the Republic and expressing an opinion adverse to his re-election. In the commane of Givors, department of the Rhone, France, there are 2,714 voters, aad at a re- cent election there was only one vote cast, Inal(- ference to the nominal right of self-government can no further go. The Emperor of Russia ts the greatest of naman potentates, measured by the thermometer. At Sebastopol, November 17, it was twenty degrees warmer, and at Archangel the same day twenty degrees colder, than the ireezing point. As the strict application of the Russian law to the Mennonites would drive out of the country an industrious population of 40,000 persons, it is be- Meved that the Ministry will accord to this sect complete exemption from military service. Our wild {ndians allege that one of their griev- ances ig the ‘‘anjust discrimination” against them on the matter of railroad tarif. With the Indiag | arguing tor his rights on the rall, it almost seems as if we could see daylight through the Indian problem. Russia comes forward tn the light of the Sultan’s friend. Wis dignity in the matter of the treaties of Western Powers with the Danubian principait- ties has been saved oy the Uzar. it tsa dad case for the sick Wan when his best friend is in St. Petersburg. Four brothers in Holland are aged respectively 88, 85, 83 and 61. The first two were in the grand army in Russia. The third was enrolied as an im- pertal soldier, but did not leave France, and the ‘aurth wasin the Dutco army. They are all in vigorous heaith. In Gespair a French capitalist has tnvestea ait his money in cosmetics. He says that cational obligations depend on politics and politics are un- certain, and every recognized security nas simi- larly some weak point, but coquetry ts human, flourishes everywhere and may always be counted upon. Augustin Cochin one day interviewed a Paris ragpicker, He said, “What loduces you to take up this occupation?’ “Pride,” was the answer “How,pride? “Yes. Iwasa carver; bat | tad a@ great deal to do with my wages, and my com- rades ridiculed my clothes, But { chose new com- panions among the ragpickers, who do oot lauga at-me, and J am happy in my tatters.” Captain Lanare, of the Beigian General Staff, has got into hot water by his book of the Service @ Etat Major. He recently tought one of bis critica, also an oMcer of the staf, in the litte riding school at Brassels. The duel was with sabres, and oy the terms every cut or torust was adimis- sible. There was bat one restriction, Neither could touch his adversary when disarmed. Captain Crousse, the critic, fell in the course o} the combat, but fell with nissword in bis band. He was, therefore, at Lahure’s mercy, who there DON digcgpiinnad the dual