The New York Herald Newspaper, January 5, 1875, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD en BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON ‘BENNETT, PROPRIETOR NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editians of the New York Hznaxp will be sent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- nual subscription price $12, All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hera. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters ard packages should be properly sealed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME XL AM EMENTS TO-NIGHT. BOOTH’S THEATRE, corner ot Twenty-third street and Sixth avenue.— gyre EM LY, at 8 P.M; closes at 10:50 P.M. Mr, DROME, ‘ourth = ‘avenne. —BL UE ‘alternoon and evening, ROMAN nang xth street an BEAuD « and FETE ar Pik at2and 5 TIVOLI THEATRE, Eighth street —VAKIETY, at8 P. M.; closes at Ll P. M. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty signth street and sroadwa: way. THE oF TRUE P, M.; closes at lotia Leclercq, hr Louis James. BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, West Twenty-third street. near . ixth avenue.—NEG RO ee &c., at 8 P. M.; closesatloP. M. Dan ryan METROPOLITAN wosz0M OF ART, Fourteenth street —0; ALM. w5P. M. PAt ace ‘Miss Car- N a Broadway. —JACK AND JILL, at8 P. M.; closes at 1045 BROOKLYN age Washington street—A_ NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBIS ac8P.M. Mr. BL. ecrne SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, Broadway, corner of Twenty-ninih sreet—NEGRO MINSTBELSY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 ¥. M. ROBINSON HALL, eee street.—BEGONE DULL CARE, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Mr, Maccabe. GLOBE THEATRE, Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 1030 P. M. BROOKLYN PARK THEATEE. CLANCARTY, at8P. M. Edwin Adams. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth streetand Sixth avenue,—'[WIXT AXE AND CROW), at 6 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Mrs. Rousby. WALLACK’S THEATRE. Broagway. THE SHAUGHRAUN, at 6P. M.; closes at 40 P.M. Mr. Boucicault, WOOD'S MUSEUM, corner aerate wane ia atS P.M; jelvi Broadway, closes at 10:15 P. M. M"TROPOLITAN THEATRE, eo “ged Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:30 TONY PASTOR'S eae) HOUSE, Bowery.—VARISTY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 1045 P. M. PARK THEATRE, Broadway, between Twenty-first and emeney streets. —GILD«D AGE, at8P. M.; closes at ll Mr. John T. ee -second 30 P.M. OLYMPIC EATRE Xo, 6 Broadway. LY MRIETY. at 8 SL; closes at 10:48 ‘TRIPLE § SHEET. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1875, From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cold and clear. ; Watt Srreet Yesterpay.—Stocks were moderately active, with irregular and gener- ally lower prices. Gold opened at 113 and receded to 112}. Foreign exchange was steady. Money on call loans ranged from 5 to 7 per cent. Tue Rervpiican Caucus gave its compli- + mentary nomination for the Speakership to General Husted, the popular and estimable Speaker of the last Assembly—a compliment well bestowed. Tae Democratic Lecisnative Caucus at Albany last evening was careful not to break the prearranged Tammany slate. Maguire was nominated for Speaker and Calkins for Clerk, as everybody expected, demonstrating the futility of the rural protests against Tam- many dictation. Tux Bexcner Tria was begun yesterday, or, to speak more accurately, the preliminaries to the trial were,entered upon. Several days are likely to pass before the proceedings will have much interest, owing to the difficulty of procuring a jury. Out of the first panel of five hundred it is not expected that the full twelve can be made up, and another large panel has been ordered. It will not be easy to find twelve reputable citizens of Brooklyn who have not already decided in their own minds the question of Mr. Beecher’s guilt or innocence. Watxmc wir Gop has commonly been taken as a figurative expression to designate a life of piety; but at the Methodist preach- ers’ meeting Dr. Curry interpreted it as mean- ing that the physical act of walking is pecu- liarly acceptable to the Divine Being. Enoch walked with God three hundred years, says this erudite expounder, and he testified that he never has such areal sense of the divine presence as when walking in his room or in the streets. What a marvel of godliness Weston must be if walking is a form of | assumed to dictate the management of the worship ! ‘Tur Senate Fovance But seems likely to | the House on grounds of party ex- . tis well ascertained that the re- inflationists will abate no jot nor tittle of what the bill gives them, and will permit no amendments. It will be @ saving of time, then, to gag discussion im the House, as was done in the Senate, and force it through by the sheer power of party votes. Its passage will do no good and little harm. If it were probable that there would be considerable issues of bank notes under it it ought to be so amended as to forbid reissue of the retired greenbacks ; but as the law, if it passes, is likely to provea dead letter, amendments are of no conse- quence. It is only a party manceavre, and in no prover sense a measure of finance. NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5) 1875.—TRIPLE Mayor Wickham’'s Message. The keynote of this clear, business-like doc- ument is a strenuous assertion of the right of the city to the perfect control of its local government, claiming for the Common Coun- cil, now reduced to a single branch, full powers of municipal legislation. Meanwhile he calls on the Common Council to exercise such authority as the charter gives it, which is adequate, as he thinks, for establishing great improvements in the city government. He recognizes ‘the present general dissatis- faction with the management of the depart- ments,"’ and asks the Common Council “to enact such provisions as may enable the Mayor to require, and, if need be, compel from the several heads of departments such an admin- istration of the affairs of the city committed to their charge as will lead to greater efficiency and a reduction of expense.” We infer that Mayor Wickham, if properly sup- ported by the Common Council, sees his way to such a control of the departments as will make him an efficient executive and not a mere figurehead. He intends to “require’’ and, if need be, to “compel” the heads of departments to discharge their duties, not according to their-individual discretion, but in compliance with the Mayor's judg- ment. We rejoice that the Mayor has taken this high ground in asserting his just author- ity over the municipal administration, and as the credit and reputation of the Common Council are at stake as well as his own there is no good reason to doubt that he will secure their co-operation in reforming the abuses and curbing the eccentricities which prevail in some of the departments. The charter ex- plicitly confers on the Common Council power to enact ordinances for regulating, perfecting and carrying out the powers and duties pre- scribed to any department. If any head of a department refuses to obey such ordinances, that will be a sufficient cause for the Mayor to exercise his power of removal. Mayor Wickham does not leave it doubt- ful as to which of the departments de- serves his censure and most needs a re- forming hand. ‘The time has arrived,” the Mayor says, ‘“‘when the actual financial condition of the city should be ascertained and published in detail.” It is easy to sce how this reflects on the studied concealments and subterfuges of the head of the Finance Department, who has for three years kept the people and the other city officers in ignorance of our financial condition. ‘The taxpayers,"’ continues the Mayor, ‘should be in possession of the fullest information on this subject, without which it will be impos- sible to devise measures of relief.” Further on in the Message, after complaining of the defective and worthless character of all the financial reports he has seen, and the neces- sity of such information at regular and fre- quent periods, the Mayor adds, ‘‘A_ first step toward furnishing such periodical informa- tion is the prepafation, afas early a day as possible, of a balance sheet showing the finan- cial position of the city at the close of the past year; and I shall heartily co- operate with you in whatever measures may be necessary to procure such a balance sheet.” This is an unveiled expression of want of con- fidence in the present Comptroller and of the hopelessness of expecting from him a truthful and accurate balance sheet. There would be no necessity for calling on the Common Coun- cil to exert its authority for such a purpose if the Comptroller were disposed to do his duty. It is too evident that the new Mayor and the insubordinate Comptroller, whom he thus pub- licly puts beyond the pale of his confidence, cannot go on together in the same government. If the Comptroller insolently refuses the cor- rect balance sheet, which the Mayor asks the Common Council to assist him in compelling, Mr. Green will either resign or be promptly removed. He must already see that it is im- possible for him to remain in office, and he had better forestall his removal by a resignation. As the Department of Finance is the grand pivot on which the whole municipal machinery turns we will pursue this subject a little farther before noticing other topics of the Message; for the Mayor finds it impossible to lay down a correct policy without a clearly im- plied condemnation of the action of the Comptroller at almost every step. The fol- lowing passage, for example, has no perti- nence except as a censure of Comptroller Green:—“This legacy of the past can form no proper excuse or pretext for forcing cur- rent claims against the city to be put into liti- gation before the creditor can secure the amount to which he is justly entitled.”’ This is a palpable condemnation of the Comp- troller’s vexatious lawsuits. The Mayor pro- ceeds to say that, while he will resist all im- proper claims, he will ‘‘secure to every hon- est creditor a speedy settlement of his claim. It shall be my endeavor to see that no un- necessary delay takes place in passing upon claims, and as to just claims, vexatious and costly litigation will not be permitted.” This assurance can only be regarded as a rebuke to the contrary practice of the Comptroller. Another part of the Message which crosses the policy of Comptroller Green is that in which the Mayor favors the prosecution of public improvements. His appointment of William R. Martin as a Park Commissioner was a condemnation in advance of Green's policy of suffocation. Green has constantly done allin his power to obstract Commis- sioner Van Nort, and it is well known that Mr. Martin has been Mr. Van Nort’s most confidential adviser ever since the day he became one of his bondsmen at the time of his appointment. Mr. Martin is an enlight- ened but strenuous advocate of the city im- provements which Mr. Green has done all in his power to thwart. The Comptroller has Central Park since he has held his present office, and the appointment of Mr. Martin to the Park Commission rebukes that assump- tion as no other appointment could. Nobody can predict to what extent Mr. Green may his office ; but a man of pride and spirit would instantly resign after such treatment as ho has received from the new Mayor. If he his policy when he finds there is a Mayor whom he cannot cajole, the odium with to contempt. If, under the pointed rebukes of Mayor Wickham, Mr. Green passes from insolent swagger to abject submission the public will get a new glimpse of his real character. Mavor Wickham favors the prosecution of | humiliate himself in the hape of retaining | either waits to be put out or cravenly reverses | which he is regarded will be suddenly changed } all important “city PES including the Riverside roadway, the Morningside ave- nue, and especially the docks. He takes a deep interest in the question of rapid transit, and recognizes the fact that the problem is partially solved by the tunnelling of Fourth avenue and the immediate prospect of four steam tracks between Forty-second street and the upper part of the island, and by the Ele- vated Railroad on the west side of the city. He expresses his full approval of the action of Mayor Vance in expediting the payment of the city’s share of the Fourth avenue improve- ments, and thereby administers another re- buke to the obstruction policy of Comptroller Green, He favors the early completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, and thinks it will hasten the consolidation of the two cities. He recom- mends the building of a new bridge across the Harlem River and an accurate survey of the newly annexed district. He would have the Park kept in perfect order and well policed, but would leave its improvement for a few years to the growth of its trees and shrubs, which will constantly add to its attractiveness. He thinks it would be wise to sell the market property and leave markets to private enter- prise. He would have the cleaning of the streets taken from the Police Department and let out by contract. We will not follow in detail all the recommendations of this judicious Message, as they receive due attention in other articles on this page. We are confident that the whole community will agree with us that Mayor Wickham appears to great advantage in this first exposition of his policy. Governor Kellogg’s Message. After the federal soldiers had done their disgraceful work yesterday by dragging mem- bers of the Legislature from their seats and forcing the Speaker from his chair Kellogg sent in his Message, which we print this morning. We presume nobody even in New Orleans gave it any attention in the excited state of public feeling in that city, and it will be equally difficult to fix attention on it here in view of the startling news that comes with and eclipses it, The American people will in- sist on knowing whether State elections are to be respected and State Legislatures to be ex- empt from military violence before they will have patience to examine the statistics and recommendations put forth by a bogus, usurping Governor. There is a committee of Congress in New Orleans, and what the peo- ple of the country are most anxious to see is the report they will make on their return to Washington. When a house ison fire no- body cares to listen to a catalogue of proposed repairs, and until Louisiana is rescued from her prostration as a free State little interest can be felt in minor questions of State ad- ministration. Such of our citizens as have been bitten by the purchase of Louisiana bonds may run through Kellogg’s Message with some interest, but few other people will care for his elaborate whitewashing of his own administration. Mayor Wick#aM AND THE Porrce.—Mayor Wickham is in favor of @ police board non- partisan ‘‘in the fullest sense of the idea con- veyed by that expression.’’ In this declara- tion he strikes a popularidea. Every respect- able citizen feels that the Police Commission has for the past two years been a scandal to the city. The appointments made on the Board under the new charter where they have not been disgraceful have been ridiculous. Not a single commissioner has been sent to Mulberry street who would be dreamed of for such a position by the citizens of New York if the office had been elective. There has been neither position, capacity nor character to commend the appointments to favor. It is no wonder that, under such a head, the police foree should have become notoriously bad. As Mayor Wickham says, ‘There is no branch of the city government upon which the public welfare depends so much as upon the Police Department,” and it is tobe hoped that he will fulfil this promise to do allin his power to carry into practical operation his plan for making the Commission respectable and efficient. Tue Mayor anp THz Comprroter.—Mayor Wickham has very properly declined to accept the Comptroller's figures as representing the true financial condition of the city govern- ment, and contents himself with stating that he is not in a position at present to inform the Common Council what our public liabilities really are. A floating debt hangs over us, but no one knows its amount. The Mayor suggests that a balance sheet showing the financial po- sition of the city at the close of the last year is demanded in the public interest, and prom- ises to co-operate heartily in any measures the Common Council may adopt to procure such @ balance sheet. The confusion, uncertainty and concealment manifest in our financial policy for three years past has been long de- nounced by the Hzratp as a serious evil, and we again remind Mayor Wickham that no satisfactory reform can be expected so long as Comptroller Green, the author of such a policy, remaing at the head of the Finance Department. JvusticE AND Honzsry.—Mayor Wickham makes an excellent point in his Message on the honesty of paying our just debts with promptness. As a practical business man he can see no necessity for putting off an honest creditor because we are bound to resist the claims of a dishonest one. He admits that past mismanagement has rendered a vast amount of litigation unavoidable; but he bluntly declares that this is no good reason why just claimants to whom the city owes money should be forced into the courts to recover the money due to them. The Mayor pledges himself to aid the executive officers of the government in protecting the city against liabilities for which it is not by law responsi- ble with all his power; but he distinctly an- nounces that he will compel the prompt pay- ment of all just and legal obligations, and will no longer permit vexatious and costly litiga- tion. If Mayor Wickham will carry out effectively the programme he here lays down he will make his administration a success, But, in order to do so, he must rid the city of ® Comptroller who will continue to compel vexatious litigation in spite of the Mayor. Tnwry has concluded to: answer all ques- tions, if we may credit a despatch which we have received from Washington. The develop- ments before the committee in New York have convinced him that the subsidy fund will be traced to its ultimate disbursement, and he thinks he may as well make a clean breast, But with these slippery people promise is not always equivalent to performance. The Prostration ot Republican Govern- mm in Loutsian: There was witnessed in the Louisiana State House yesterday a spectacle which is the first of its kind in this country, and which should cause every trae American to blush with shame and indignation, A body of federal troops entered a legislative hall, took the Speaker from his chair, and forced a number of protesting members from their seats and marched them out with a soldier on each side, prepared to drag them along if they resisted. We congratulate the citizens of Louisiana and the people of the country that this extraordi- nary and most revolting scene did not pro- voke violence and bloodshed. Forcible re- sistance would have been justifiable in this case, if it be ever justifiable in any case—for greater outrage on every principle of free gov- ernment was never perpetrated—were it not for the fact that the people of Louisiana have @ surer resource for the redress of their griev- ances in thesense of justice of the whole coun- try and in the public resentment which will be kindled to the highest pitch by these atrocities and unexampled proceedings. Every maxim of free government was vio- lated and trodden under foot by the federal interference yesterday with the organization of aState Legislature. Our Declaration of Independence denounced the King of Eng- land for making the military superior to the civil authority, and for dissolving representa- tive houses for opposing his invasions on the rights of the people. President Grant has done these very things by the use he made of the federal army in New Orleans yesterday. Of course the responsibility must rest on General Grant, for without his orders none of his military subordinates would have dared to interfere with the organization of a State Legislature, It cannot be pleaded that this was done to preserve the peace, for tho citizens of New Orleans were never more quiet and orderly than at the time this great outrage on free institutions was perpetrated. It is a principle which pervades our sys- tem of government that every legislative body is the sole judge of the qualifications of its own members and of their right to seats—a principle so sacred that courts of justice never interfere with it or call it in question. But we are suddenly brought to such a pass that federal troops undertake to decide who are entitled to seats in a State Legislature and to eject members by force. The outrage is not extenuated by saying that the federal troops acted in obedience to Governor Kellogg, as was pretended, while these shameful scenes were enacting. No Governor of any State has the least shadow of right to interfere with the organization of its Legislature. Every State constitution, like the federal constitution, explicitly makes each legislative house the free, sole and unlimited judge of the right of claimants to sit as its members, Kellogg has no more right to decide that certain persons are not entitled to seats in the Louisiana Legislature and to put them out than the President bas to pursue a similar course respecting members of Congress. Kellogg is guilty of a new usurpation when he assumes to make such a decision, and President Grant acts in the arbitrary and insolent spirit of Cesarism in encouraging such interference on the part of Kellogg and supporting him in it by the rude hand of mili. tary violence. No rights are held so sacred in all free governments as those of their Legis- latures. Al) free constitutions protect them from every kind of Executive interference. Their members are privileged from arrest; they cannot be called in question in any other place for words spoken in debate; they can be expelled only by a two-thirds vote of the house to which they belong, and the ultimate decision on their right to seats is vested ex- clusively in that house and cannot be re- viewed or reversed by any outside officer or body. All these constitutional principles, which have always been deemed essential to free government, were trampled under foot yesterday by federal soldiers in obedience to the orders of President Grant. Hie only right to interfere in the domestic affairs of a State is for the purpose of suppressing violence, There was no violent resistance yesterday, either to State authority or federal authority, nor any offer of resistance or imminent danger of any. The President has no more right to unseat members of the Louisiana Legislature than he has to unseat members of the New York Legislature. The act of Congress which confers all the authofity he possesses to employ federal troops in a State empowers him to use them only in case of ‘‘an insurrec- tion in o State against the government thereof.’ The peaceable organizstion of the Louisiana Legislature was not an insurrection and justified no such high-handed proceed- ings as those which took place yesterday. The President's authority is limited in every case to the mere suppression of violence and preservation of order, and no stretch of the statute can make it extend to the organization of a Legislature and judging of the election and qualifications of its members. What General Grant has caused to be done in New Orleans wiil prove a finishing and irretrievable blow to him and the republican party, unless Congress shall promptly repair this mon- strous injustice which was perpetrated under the eyes of one of its own committees. Ta Mayor anp THE Pupiic Works.— Mayor Wickham declares himself in favor of proceeding with the public works at a pace as rapid as is required to keep up with the growth of the city, and he considers that this may be accomplished without increasing the debt beyond its present sum. Prompt pay- ment of assessments, he reminds the property owners, is one means by which substantial results may be secured. He thinks the River- side Park road should be proceeded with at once as an act of good faith toward the property owners, who have paid heavy assese- ments on the understanding that the work should be at once prosecuted to completion. He also considers that the work upon the road or avenue known as Morningside avenue should also be completed, as a large amount of money has been invested in it, and if it | should be left in its present condition the city would in the end Be at a Reavy loss The Mayor's opinf®ps as to the manner in which the publfe works should be conducted will be read with' interest, and it is to be hoped that his suggestions in relation to the improve- ment of our wretched pavements may be fol- lowed by practical resulta, SHEET. The Situation in Spain and Our Rela- tions with the Government. Our correspondent in Paris has been favored with an interview by the new King. The young monarch impressed our representative favorably, and announced that to-morrow he will leave for Spain. Among other things he promises to help usin our Cuban troubles, which is possible, and to endeavor to return Gibraltar to Spain, which does not seem to be 80 feasible. He will strive to form a consti- tution like that of England, and intimates that he will pay the Spanish bondholders. Altogether, the young monarch has a captivat- ing platform. There is a story that the father of Don Carlos, who abdicated in favor of his son, has given his adhesion; but this is one of the stories that will require confirmation be- fore we can believe it, It is interesting to note the strong influence which is brought to bear on publio opinion in the United States for the purpose of securing ® prompt recognition by the administration of the Alfonsist usurpation. The joyrnals are suddenly flooded with rosy despatches from Europe and Washington, telling us about the “enthusiasm’’ with which the new King is received; that the Carlists have suddenly resolved to disarm; that the great Powers are impatient to recognize Alfonso; that the Emperor of Germany has professed his will- ingness to do so at once; that the United States government will receive from the Spanish King a consideration that the Re- public never bestowed; that we are to have “great reforms in Ouba;'’ that Jovellar, who was a brute when he commanded in Havana at the time of the Virginius massacre, has suddenly become an angel of mercy and reform, and that, after all, the Republic of Spain was a despised, contemptuous thing, and that we Americans should rejoice in its downfall. Of course the policy of the United States is plain, so far as our relations with foreign governments are concerned. Spain’s prefer- ences are none of our business. But there is no country in Europe with whom our rela- tions are in some respects as close as with Spain ; none, certainly, upon whose govern- ment the diplomacy of the United States could have a more direct effect. When the Republic of Figueras was founded—and not only founded by the act of a sovereign Cortes but approved by the votes of the sovereign Span- ish people—the great Powers of Europe de- clined to recognize it, on the pretext that it had not suppressed the Carlist insurregtion and thereforé could not be considered “as established. Just as soon, however, as Ser- rano drove out the Cortes by military power the European nations, with the exception of Russia, gave his crime that in- stant recognition which they refused to the will of the Spanish people; and now, when by another series of intrigues and mili- tary usurpations Alfonso comes back to Spain, all the machinery of the government, all the resources of diplomacy, the telegraph, the press, every avenue leading to public opinion and power are taken possession of for the purpose of forcing his recognition, not only by the European Powers but by the United States, as “the beginning of a new era of happiness, honor and peace.” This whole Alfonsist movement is nothing but the culmination of an intrigue. The party this Prince represents wag driven out of Spain because, for thirty years under the reign of his mother, it led that country from one degradation to another. Is the party any purer now than when it ruled Spain under the influence of Narvaez and O'Donnell and Serrano? And if not, if it is the same cérrupt, wretched, dis- honest monarchy which for so many fears was the disgrace and pain of Europe, what is there in this young King, this half-formed boy, not yet in the early years of manhood, fresh from his books and ponies, his tops and velocipedes, that he should suddenly renovate the monarchy and make it at once so fair and beautiful that republicans in America should hasten to give it recognition and strength? Our policy should be governed by this rule: — That when the monarchy is accepted by the voice of the people we will accord it recogni- tion. Until Spain by its popular vote accepts Prince Alfonso as the King any act of recog- nition on the part of our administration would be in indecent haste, an approval of a usurpa- tion and a reflection upon our own republican institutions. Srazet CLeantnc.—The proposition made to the Common Council by Mayor Wickham that they shall take the control of the street cleaning business into their own hands, leay- ing to the police only the enforcement of such ordinances and regulations as the Aldermen may adopt, is an important one. The people have scarcely enough confidence in the Board of Aldermen to expect much benefit from their interference in the matter. The pro- vision of the charter empowering the Common Council “to regulate the cleaning of the streets, avenues, sidewalks and gutters and removing ice and snow therefrom’’ seems to give them the power; but how would they exercise it? What jobs might not be covered up under their management? To be sure, the present Police Commissioners have made street cleaning a farce as well as a public out- rage under their wretched management; but would the Aldermen do any better? Mayor Wickham might find it saferand more desir- able to reform the Police Commission and then to leave the street cleaning business where it is. With the right sort of men at the head of the police force we should prob- ably have clean streets, for the Street Clean- ing Department would then be efficiently and honestly handled. CHeaP Homes, —The problem of cheap homes for the poor, which now ercites the attention of all thoughtful men in New York, can only be solved by rapid transit. Let us have a railway system, under ground or over ground, which will enable a laboring man to leave his work at the Battery and. be at his home in Yonkers or New Rochelle in twenty minutes, and all that section of Westchester county will be covered with cheap homes. ‘The laboring man and the artisan will have their own dwellings, with a clear sky, fresh air, beautiful scenery and boulevards and streams, for Westchester is one of the most attractive sections in the State, Let them escape from the dirty, dingy, crowded quar- ters which now swarm the city with people who do not leave New York because they can- not. The absence of cheap homes, or the voasibility of building them, has long been a if reproach to New York. Give us rapid transit, and this reproach will pass away. The Mayor and the Common Couneil, Mayor Wickham isa strong advocate of home rule for the city of New York. He wishes that the entire legislative powers of the govern- ment shall be vested in the representatives of the people in the Common Council assem- bled, to be exercised subject to the approval of the Mayor. Errors or wrongs conimitted can be more easily remedied here, he holds, than at Albany. Hence he denounces in eme phatic but not too forcible language the sys- tem of legislative charter tinkering through which the city government has heretofore been kept in an inefficient and irresponsible condition. At the same time he does not be- lieve that under the existing law the Common Council is so powerless as has been generally supposed. He regards the authority vested in that body by section 90 of the charter to enact such necessary ordinances as may become re- quisite for “the fuller organization, perfecting and carrying out of the powers and duties prescribed to any department’ as sufficient to place the departments virtually under the control of the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor. This being the case the Common Council may make such provisions as may be necessary to enable the Mayor to require, and, if need be, to compel, from the heads of the several departments such an administra- tion of the affairs of the city committed to their charge as will lead to greater efficiency in the future and a reduction of expense in securing it. The new policy isa bold one. Properly enforced it may be productive of good. It certainly raises the importance of the Aldermen in the city government. Tue Dzsmz ror Pzacz.—We learn by tho cable that the Emperor of Germany expressed himself on New Year's Day as yearning tor peace, and saying that the duty of Germany would now be to “‘preserve the peace.” Con- sidering that there have only been three wars in Europe in ten years, and that this illustri- ous sovereign was the cause of them all; that last year his Minister was threatening France with a new invasion if the bishops did not moderate their tone and the French women did not behave more civilly to the German Ambassador, this aspiration is an instructive and interesting phenomenon. The Emperor of Germany will only be the friend of peace when he has no interests that can be served by war. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. pe AE hE Mr. Oliver Ames, of Boston, 1s staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. It ts not true that Susan B, has offered todarm - Sammy’s silk stockings, Tom Kari, the tenor, is among the Jatest arrivals at the Westmoreland Hotel. Tne Charley Ross found in Wisconsin seems the most likely one yet discovered, Professor F. L, Ritter, of Vassar College, fejourning at the Everett House. . Professor Mark Bailey, of Yale College, is resid-” ing temporarily at the Irving House, Congressman Tnomas C. Platt, of Oswego, N. Yo is registered at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Captain Hamilton Perry, of the steamship Adri- atic, 18 quartered at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Congressman John 0. Whitehouse, of Pough- keepsie, 13 stopping at the Albemarle Hotel, Commodore Francis B. Elson, United States Navy, has apartments at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. H, Alvord insists, as reported, that members of Assembiy shail take the new oath. Alvord is right. Adjutant General Franklin Townsend, of Gov- ernor Tilden’s staf, has arrived at the St. James Hotel | Moulton paid $5,000 for publishing what Henry told nim; but nobody proposes to sue Henry about It. ‘i King Kalakaua greatly enjoyed Aimée in opéra bouge at the dlobe Theatre in Boston last evening. Mr. 8.8 Merrill, General Manager of the Mil-; waukee and’ St. Paul Rallway Company, is at the Hoffman House. Butler looks apon his defeat as a blessing in dis- guise. Other people, also; but they regard the disguise as thin. General A. G. Lawrence, formerly United States Minister to Costa Rica, arrived last evening at the Aloemarie Hotel. At the Cape of Good Hope they have founds diamond weighing 290 carats. It has been sent to Amsterdam to be cut by Herr Casta. It is considered in English politics that a famine in Bengal Is a failure unless the man who happens to be Viceroy at the time is made an earl, Lieutenant Colonel Barton S, Alexander, of the Engineeer corps, Unitea States Army, has taken up his residence at the New York Hotel. Congressmen E. R. Hoar, George F. Hoar and B. W. Harris, of Massachusetts, arrived in this city last evening and are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Every man killed in New Orleans will represent. an addition of one hundred thousand votes in favor of the next democratic candidate for the Presidency. Dr. Deems, of the Church of the Strangers, goes. to Florida for a month’s rest, after upward of eight years’ continuous service. Dr. Moran has charge of his church meantime. ‘The report going the rounds of the press that Jefferson Davis 1s ill has no foundation infact. He Js in as good health now as at any time for several years, ana appears on the streets of Memphis al- most daily, There 1s one poor wretch who may be benefited by the accession of Alfonso, and that is Prince Perkins, who was lately incarcerated at Paris. As his wie is Dow the cousin of a king there may be help for him. Captain.J. H. Donovan, of the Seventeenth in- fantry, went to Europe by the City of Montreal om five momtha’ leave of absence, Although the Cap- tain was somewhat knocked to pleces in the war and notably at Malvern Hill and Fredericksburg, there is enough left of him to recuperate in a trip to Europe. In England Mr. Alfred Rubery bas ved Albert Grant and Mr. Sampson, formerly of the London Times, for libel, in charging him-with being a party to the “great California diamond swindle.’ In the course of the ‘trial it was testified that/ Grant said to plaintiff “that he could do what he liked with the money article in the 7imes—tnat he. had Sampson under his thumb.” Near to Colombo, in India, & anake, seeing @ par- rotin a cage, had made its way to a place where ; it could make an attack upom the parrot. A child observing this, and not knowing the danger, gTasped the snake by the tall, while the snake and the parrot attacked eaoh other. Just then an elder sister, observing the little one in danger, snatched the child away, and in so doing pullea the snake out of the cage. At this moment a dog came Op 4nd among them all they despatched the snake. The dog, the snake and the parrot ali diea trom the effects of the encounter, but neither o° the girls received any injury. A gentleman ts @ Western city, sitting ina pew with @ lady with whom he had formerly been on terms of intimate acquaintance, handed her @ Bivle with a pin stuck tnrough the following verse :—“‘And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.” After reading it she stuck the pin through the following verse and handed the book back to him:—‘Having many things to write unto you I would not write with paper and ink, but I trust to come unto you and speak face to (ace, that our joy may be full.”