The New York Herald Newspaper, January 16, 1875, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD} BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, 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 Henatp will be sent free of postage. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York | Henavp. Rejected communications will not be re- | turned. | Letters and packages should be properly sealed. pe 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 AMUSEMENTS THIS APPERNOOY AND. EVENING, GLOBE THEATRE, Rroadway.—VARIMIY, at8P, M.; closes at 10:30 P.M. Matinee at 2 P.M. BROOKLYN PARK THE | THE PEARL OF SAVOY. ats P.M. Miss Maggie Mitchell. Maunee at LYCEUM TH Fourteenth street and sixtn ave RF, C ie, — | WIXT AXE AND CROWS, at 8 P.M; closes at 45°. M. Mrs. Bousby. Matinee at 130 P.M. WaLLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway.—TH SiA GHRAUN, a8 PY lu:tu P.M. Mr. Boucicault. at.nee atl 30 P.M. WOOD’. MU Broadway, corner of Thirtieth si EDMUND KEAN, at? P ML. closes at 4:49 P. M.; aud at 6 P. M., closes at 20:45 P.M. Ciprico. METROPOLITAN THEATRE, No, 585 Broadway.—VARL ’. M.; ‘closes at 10:30 P.M. Maunee at2 P. M. PARK THEATRE, Broadway. between nty-first and Twenty-second smeets,—Opera Boum VOYAGE SN CHINE, at 8 | Mz closes at 10: Mile. Manelly, M. Matinee at 1:3) P.M. TONY PASTOR! No go Bowery.—VARIET 3 OPERA M10 NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, Bowery.—Di.t VERSCHWESDER, até P.M. Miss Lina ayr. A OLYMPIC THEATRE, No. 6% Broadway.—VARIETY, at 5¥. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Matinee ai 2 P.M. BOOTH’s THEATRE, corner of Twenty third street and Sixth avenue.— LITTLE EM'LY, at 8 P.M; closes at 100 P.M. Mr. Rowe. Matinee'at 1:30 P. M. ASSOCIATION HALL, Fenrth avenue and Twenty-third s reet.—CONCERT, at THEATRE COMIQUE, No. 514 Broadway. +-VARIKTY, at SV. M.; closes at 10:45 | P.M. Matinee at2 P. M. ROMAN HIPPODROME, Twenty-sixth street and /ourth aveaue.—Afternoon and evening, ab 2 and 3. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broadway.—MERCHANT OF VENICE, at P.M.; closes at 1:0 P.M. Miss Carlotta Leclercq, Mr. E. L. Davenport Matinee at 1:0 P. M. BRYANI'S OPERA HOUSE, West Twenty-third street, near sixth avenue —SEGRO MINSTRELSY. &c., at@ P.M. closes at 10 P.M. Dan Bryant. Matinee at2P. M. GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth stree.—ME&IN LEOPOLD, at 8 P. M. NIBLI Rroskver- —UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, at 8 P. M. ; closes at P.M. Matinee atl BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street —THE COLLEEN BAWN, at 8 P.M. ir. W. J, Florence. Matinee at? P.M. SAN FRANCISC! NSTRELS, Broadway, corner of Twenty-ninth sireet.—NEGRO Pg ie LoY, at8P. M.; closesat lu. M. Matinee at ROBINSON HALL, Sixteenth street.—BEGONE DULL CARE, at 8 P, M.: closes at 10:45 ?. M. Mr. Maccabe. Matinee at2 P.M. TRIPL NEW YORK, SATURDAY. JANUARY 16, 1875, £ SHEET, From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cloudy, with probably light snow. Wart Sreeet Yesrerpay.—Western Union declined to 70} and caused excitement. Gold receded to 111}, closing at 112. Money loaned at 24a 3 percent. Foreign exchange was firm. Apprication Was Yestenpay M{pe to the Supreme Conrt for a new trial of Mr. Temple- NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, President Grant's Retreat=The Yalue of a Wise Cou»<ellor. It should cause universal congratulation that the President has been rescued from the impulsive blunder on the edge of which he stood seven or eight days ago. On receiving Sheridan's ‘‘banditti” despatch the President's military instincts got the better of his judg- ment, and the indorsing reply, made with his sanction by @ecretary Belknap, foreshadowed a policy which would have subverted the foundations of civil liberty. Had that policy been persisted in the country would have rocked from side to side with the mighty up- heaving of @ political earthquake. It is fortu- nate for the President and the country that the Cabinet, at this juncture, was not wholly composed of unflinching partisans of the type of Williams and Belknap. ‘The inestimable value of a prudent, unimpulsive statesman like Secretary Fish, who stands so aloof from vulgar partisan intrigues that the dis- interestedness of his advice could not be suspected, was manifest on this occasion, when the President stood on the brink and had de- cided to leap into the abyss of a stupendous political mistake. It was chiefly owing to Secretary Fish’s sobrieiy of judgment and firmness of purpose that President Grant was prevented from ruining himself and his party and plunging the country intoa dangerous agitation, of which no man was wise enough to foresee the result, Whatever praise may be due to Secretary Fish for his success in settling the Alabama claims controversy, he has done an infinitely greater service in re- storing the imperilled tranquillity of the coun- try on this occasion. If a foreign war had resulted from this dispute with England it would have been a lighter calamity than the domestic consequences of such a policy as was recommended to the President by ‘General Sheridan. If it has ever happened that the right man was found in the right place Mr. Fish’s position in the Cabinet in this crisis isan instance. He has saved the administration from an incalculable blunder and the country from a civil contest which would have stirred popalar passions to their profoundest depths. Secretary Fish’s success in arresting the madness of the administration was due in great part to his firm determination to re- sign if he did not carry his point, but it would not have been so effective if it had not been supported by a powerful rising tide of publicsentiment. The popular indignation first exhibited in the press and afterward by calls for great public meetings, signed by citizens of the highest standing, strengthened Mr. Fish’s position and reinforced his personal influence. Not even the President, not even Attorney General Williams, could be insensible to the electrifying effect of Mr. Fish’s resig- nation on popular sentiment, already heated to the point of explosion. If this fresh fuel bad been added to the flame the republi- can party would have been cleft asunder and the support of a servile Congress, even if that could have been farther relied on, would not have enabled the President to breast the storm, unless he fell back on his military prerogatives. Moreover, the resignation of Secretary Fish and other members of the Cabinet who were ready to retire with him would have given Speaker Blaine a strong vantage ground for prosecuting his canvass for the Presidency, and this astute politician would have made a dexterous use of the op- portunity. He could easily have cut all the ground from under General Grant or the man whom Grant might favor as his successor, un- less restrained by military force. The Presi- dent was therefore compelled to back down and out and relinquish the policy on which he had set his heart. The practical fruit of this moral coercion was the disclaiming, apologetic Message, in which he washed his hands before the country of all complicity in and all responsibility for the military interference with the Louisiana Legislature. The President covered his re- treat on true military principles. It is cus- tomary, we believe, when ah army is forced to retreat to post a formidable looking body of troops in front of the enemy, whose aggres- sive attitude may serve to conceal the with- drawal of the main body. This kind of tactics was practised by General Grant in his Message, and the feint was so successful as to be mistaken by the democratic press for a | veritable attempt to hold the position from ton, who was recently sentenced to prison for | which he was retreating. The inconsisten- wounding his wife with a pistol. The Court, | cies, which are so easily pointed out, are of | after hearing argument, reserved its decision. | the same nature as the inconsistency between Mrz. Dow Pratt appeared before the Ways | McCleilan’s resistance at Malvern Hill and and Means Committee yesterday in the suc- | his strategy for bringing his discomfited cessful attitude of Ajax defying the lightning. The lightning got the worst of the encounter, and vanished. Ajax departed trom the scene of battle triumphant, Tae Tore or THe Court in the Beecher case | yesterday was occupied by the eyumination of | Mr. Moulton by Judge Fullerton fer the plain- tiff. A number of letters and papers were identified, and our report of the scenes will be | found very interesting. The trial 1s to be re sumed on Monday, when Mr. Moulton will again appear in the witness box. Tae Execvution of Jarvis and Jackson, at North Hempstead yesterday, was attended by a horrible scene, caused by the breaking of the rope. Itis strange that after so many shocking instances of the kind criminals can- not be hanged withont inflicting such unneces- | sary torture. Our report of the execution | to-day includes history of the crime and | the means by which the murderers were de- | tected. | | people will never blame him.’* army under the protection of the naval guns on James River. Instead of exulting in a signal victory the democratic organs are still arguing that the rear guard of a de- moralized retreating army is a formidable | aggressive force. The Evening Post, whose | venerable, patriotic editor headed the call for the late meeting, and made the opening | speech when the meeting assembled, has a clearer understanding of the situation. The Evening Post says that President Grant has “yielded’’ to the force of public opinion, and has been driven by it to a “surrender.” It goes on to say, “It is a surrender of which he need not be ashamed and for which the And again, “The surrender of the President suffices to illustrate the power of public opinion. Let it be remembered by the people that when they are united in sentiment nothing can stand before them.”’ But the Evening Post omits to say that the prompt effectiveness of public | opinion in this perilous emergency depended Coxaress anp Cvpa.—A strong effort will be | on the powerful lever it had in the Cabinet made by the representatives of the Cuban Re- public to interest Congress in the affairs of that unhappy island. A pamphlet has been pre- It is because Secretary Fish had the sagacity to anticipate what public opinion would neces- sarily be on such a question; it was because pared for distribution among the members of he took his firm stand, in fall reliance on its the two houses furnishing, in 4 plain, straight- forward manner the main facts upon which the | would support; because his purposed resignation have fanned the popular flame claim for recognition is founded. According , to fierce consuming intensity, that the Presi- to the showing of this document the force dent was forced into his reluctant retreat from | of the Cuban Republic at present in arms | the policy to which Secretary Belknap's in- ‘amounts to seventeen thousand horse and foot. | dorsing despatch publicly committed him. It A long list of successes in the field during the | is, indeed, as the Evening Post asserts, a signal | past ten months is cited to show the growing | victory of public opinion, but its surprising gtrength of the insurgents, Weighing the | promptness is chiefly due to the fact that pub- | facts so calmly stated it is impossible to deny | lic opinion had so faithful and influential « that the insurgents have partly established their right to recognition as belligerents, It {is evident that Spain is as impotent to put an ‘end to the War now as she was six years ago. ‘Our duty in the matter seems plain. The use- ‘less slaughter ought to be put an end to, andit eafi only be done by the recognition of Cuban belligerency. representative as Mr. Fish in the Cabinet, with power to break down and demoralize the administration by his resignation, and with sufficient force of will to stand by hif'views. Had the whole Cabinet been as idan pees as Williams or as subservient as Belknap popular indignation would, by this time, have been kindled to a devouring flame, while the Presi tent was precluded from retreat by a message in the tone of Belknap'’s despatch. | The country has escaped a great danger by the prudence, firmness and patriotism of Sec- retary Fish. It is due to a faithful public functionary that this great service. be ac- knowledged. Discreet and sagacious democrats will ap- preciate this service as well as wise repub- licans, There is no knowing to what lengths a dogged, persistent, ambitious military man like General Grant would have gone if once launched on this stormy sea and supported: by unscrupulous, headstrong partisans like Morton, Conkling and Logan. “It is the trst step that costs; and it a stubborn mili- tary President like Grant had embarked ina policy like that recommended by Sheridan and indorsed by Belknap there is no telling where the voyage might have ended. Within the two years before President Grant's term | expires he might have done irreparable mis- chief. No judicious democrat could wish to purchase party success at so heavy a price, even if he could be assured that the sword would not be thrown into bhe scale to defeat the publio will in the Presidential election. Instead of ignoring this great victory of pub- lic opinion over the President democrats should unite with their fellow citizens in cele- brating and rejoicing over it. Kernan for United States Senator. The strong majority of eight or nine to one by which Mr. Kernan was nominated yester- day in the democratic caucus explodes the boasts with which Mr. Murphy’s supporters have been practising on public credulity since the reassembling of the Legislature. We would have preferred a different candidate, but as between Kernan and Murphy we are quite satisfied with the result. Mr. Kernan is a gentleman of spotless honor, solid abilities, great industry and a personal bearing which converts all his acquaintances into friends, He is no demagogue, and is singularly exempt from the vulgar, self-seecking qualities of ordi- nary politicians. His modesty, dignity and conscientious fidelity to every duty and trust will make him one of the most respected members of the Senate. He has a clear, logi- cal mind, is a good speaker, and will rank among the most useful of the working members of the body to which he is now certain to be elected. There are in this State four prominent and distinguished democrats who have long filled a larger space in the public eye, and the election of any one of whom would confer more immediate éclat upon the New York democracy; but, with the exception of those four, there is no democrat in the State whose election to this exalted trust would give such great and well-founded satisfaction. Mr. Kernan will be a more diligent, painstaking Senator than any of | those four would have been. He has more eloquence than either Governor Tilden or Chief Justice Church, and if he lacks the persuasiveness of Mr. Seymour or the acumen of Mr. O’Conor%he is fully their peer in sound judgment and incorruptible integrity. We congratulate him on the new prospects of usefulness which are opened before him, and are confident that none of his friends will ever have oggasion to apologize for anything he may do in the discharge of his Senatorial trust. It is also satisfactory to believe, as we un- doubtingly do, that no improper means were employed to secure Mr. Kernan’s election, either by himself or his friends. If there was ever an honest Senatorial election this is one. There was no bribery in the Assem- bly districts with a view to pack the Legisla- ture, and no money has been spent in Albany to influence members, {r. Kernan is the real choice of the democracy of the State, who feel a sincere pleasure in bestowing on him this mark of their confidence and award- ing high honor to genuine merit. Mr. Ker- nan is a thorough-going democrat and devoted partisan; but even thé republican members of the Senate will be constrained to respect his motives and his character. Francis The State Banks—Report of the Su- perimtendent of the Department. ‘The report of the Superintendent of the State Banking Department is not now of so much importance as it was before the national bank. system came into operation. Nevertheless the report of Superintendent Ellis, a synopsis of which is published in to-day'’s Henaxp, will be found to present many points of interest. The number of banks organized under the State lawson the Ist of October last was about the sanie as at the same date in the preceding year, and the capital employed showed but very little variation. But there was a shrink- age of deposits and of loans and discounts amounting to nearly fourteen million dollars, an indication of the contraction in the volume | of business since the panic of 1873. While | | this decrease shows a falling off of business, | however, it is also an evidence that less specu- | | lative adventures are indulged in, and may be accepted as a proof that the country is getting on to a sounder and safer foundation than that on which it rested two years ago. A notable feature of the report is the state- | ment that mortgages have nearly disappeared | in the list of securities now deposited by the | | banks; the small amount remaining, only a | little over twenty-three thousand dollars, | having been placed in the department many | years ago. United States stock and stock of | the State of New York have displaced the old | securities. The Superintendent snggests that | he should be authorized by law to call for a | statement of the condition of the banks at any | | time during the quarter, giving the banks five days to make out their statement after the | call. He takes up the cause of the banks in | the matter of taxation, and seems to regard | the present system as one oppressive and un- | | just to those institutions. He also advocates | | the right of the banks to reduce their capital and withdraw their securities whenever they | may see fit to do so, and suggests a general law on the subject. The repeal of the Re- straining act, prohibiting private banking, is | stated to have produced some evils that de- | mand new legislation of a restrictive char- acter. Under the present condition of the law wild cat affairs are started, taking the | name of banks and thus inviting public con- | | fidence under a false pretence, as it were, but destitute of any security. Some thirty such institutions exist in the State, which by the titles they assume are believed by the general public to be incorporated banks, but which are under none of the safeguards thrown up about genuine banks. The practice is de to the incorporated banks. Mr, Gladstone's Retirement. Shortly after the result of the elections which drove Mr. Gladstone from power he addressed a note to Lord Granville, his col- league in the Cabinet, intimating that his time had come to retire from the leadership of the liberal party. It was thought then that this was an expression of disappointment and defeat—of some hidden pique, perhaps, at the apathy which important sections of the liberal party had shown toward him. But it now seems that the ex-Premier was sincere in this expression. He writes another letter to Lord Granville, saying that forty-two years of public service enable him to ask for release, ‘This retirement,”’ he says, ‘is dictated by personal views regarding the method of spend- ing the closing years of my life.” In other words, the eloquent and illustrious statesman feels that he may now be permitted to gratify his tastes as a student in that country life congenial to the character of the English gen- tleman. Mr. Gladstone has been in public life: since he was twenty-four years of age, entering Parliament in 1832, under the patron- age of the Duke of Newcastle. He had won celebrity in the University as an orator, and Sir Robert Peel—then in the zenith of his power, and in pursuance of the custom of English politicians of advancing young men to be cadets in government—appointed him to a subordinate position in the government in 1835, when Mr. Gladstone was in the twenty- sixth year of hisage. As an author he came into notice in 1841 by o book on church questions. This work may be regarded as memorable, because it gave rise to Macaulay’s criticism on his character, which is worth reading, as a tribute to his early rep- utation and a prophecy of his fame. ‘The author of this volume,’’ says Macaulay, “‘is a young man of unblemished character and dis- tinguished parliamentary talents, the rising hope of thdése stern and unbending tories who follow reluctantly and mutinously a leader whose experience and eloquence are indispen- sable to them, but whose cautious temper and moderate opinions they abhor.’’ This “rising hope’ of the tories became the leader of the liberals; and ‘‘one of the most unpopular men in England’’ became the leader of a triumph- ant party and was for years the master of the English Empire. The success of Gladstone as Prime Minister, like that of Sumner in our own public hfe, is largely to be attributed to that influence which character is beginning to exercise in politics. The mistakes of such o man do not detract from the splendor and usetul- ness of his example to young men. As to who will succeed him we can- not say. The natural leader of the liberal party after Mr. Gladstone is Mr. Forster, recently our honored guest, and one whose name will always be cherished by Americans, He is, comparatively speaking, a young man, being now about fifty-six years of age— ten years Mr. Gladstone’s junior. He has shown great political tact, and recently a writer, in critcising the ruling statesmen ot England, described him as ‘‘the chief trimmer of modern politics,’’ saying that it is his effort ‘to produce measures which shall please “both sides of the house,” that “he is a genuine Englishman in his solid qualities of mind and character, his earnest- ness and thoroughness.” Whether a politi- cian who represents so radical a school as Mr. Forster will be allowed to lead the liberal party is a question. Another candidate is named inthe Marquis of Hartington, a young man, heir to the dukedom of Devonshire, now about forty years of age. If the liberal party will not follow the leadership of a radical statesman who has risen to pre-eminence by his intellect and character like Forster, it will certainly not accept the guidance of a gentle- man who has no claim to the position but the fact that he is the heir to a great house and has no sympathy with liberalism except so far as it is consistent with the old whig traditions of his party. The retirement of Mr. Gladstone marks a new departure in English politics. That “great crisis” which Mr. Disraeli is so fond ‘ of prophesying seems to be at hand even in England. We can understand why the ex- Premier, after forty years of labor, should seek to retire to his tent and leave the battle to younger and bolder minds. There will be no difficulty in finding a leader for the party as it now stands; but the days of ‘liberalism’ in England are at an end. Another party will arise, animated by new and daring sentiments, and led by men who have not yet made their appearance in public life. What Is the Remedy? President Grant's retreat from the policy of military violence recommended by Sheridan | and publicly indorsed by “all of us,’’ on the mustaken supposition that the whole Cabinet would assent, remands the Louisiana question to substantially the same position in which it stood before. It has become again a ques- tion whether a State government installed by judicial usurpation and military force, which is repudiated and detested by the intelligent classes ; which, though pretending to have | been elected by @ majority of the citizens and having the command of the militia, could not maintain itself an hour if the fed- eral troops were withdrawn ; the question is again, we say, whether this hollow pretence of government shall continue to be upheld against the will of the people and the interests of the State. A truly republican government is, in its own nature, self-sustaining, because the majority of the voters who elected it are also a majority of the arms-bearing citizens, who can be sum- moned to support the officers of their choice, Except in the most extraordinary circum- stances a pretended republican government | which is not self-sustaining is a self-branded lie. Where universal@ suffrage prevails the preponderance of physical force is necessarily with the majority of the voters, and accord. | ingly for the first eighty years after the adop- | tion of the constitution there was put one application to the President for federal as-.| sistance in maintaining a State government, and that came from Rhode Island, where a large proportion of the citizens were excluded from suffrage by a property qualification. Had universal suffrage prevailed in Rhode Island the Dorr rebellion would not have taken place to break the uniformity of eighty years’ duration. Such an exception confirms the rule, becausa the ohvaical force of that JANUARY 16, 1875—TRIPLE SHEET, ) if \ : 2S CUE RRS ales SEY TE ee LTE BEE ee ean) orem enon erUe Dot nounced as unsafe for the people and unjust Stor was not wielded bya majority of the |The Meetings im Boston and iaiti- voters. It is repugnant to the genius of republican institutions that the government of a State should constantly depend for ite existence on the federal army. ‘By the federal constitution every citizen is entitled to bear arms, and therefore the majority who elect a govern- ment are, in all ordinary circumstances, able to protect and defend it. The fact that the Kellogg government cannot maintain its au- thority unassisted is a strong prima facie proof that it was not elected by a majority of the citizens, The well-attested history of the election frauds in that State converts this presumption into a certainty. The proper remedy, therefore, lies on the surface. It is simply to put the preponder- ance of physical force on the side of the State government, and thereby make it selt-sus- taining. In other words, the people must be permitted to elect their own government, and if their will is fairly ascertained and duly ‘respected the same majority which triumphs in the election will possess both the will and the ability to make their free choice respected without outside assistance. It is the duty of Congress to re-establish republican govern- ment in Louisiana by this method and leave the State to itself. But if Congress insanely recognizes the Kellogg usurpation a federal army will have to be perpetually kept in the State, at a heavy expense to the Treasury, to protect the rickety fraud against a ma- jority of the citizens. The Condition of the City #inances— Points for Investigation, In his budget for 1875 Comptroller Green asked for interest on $21,791,372 of temporary debt, of which $1,306,900 is at six per cent and the balance at seven per cent. The total amount of interest asked for on this portion of the public debt is $3,072,832, all of which is included in the estimate for 1875, and is to be raised by taxation, The temporary debt is made up as follows :— ori i ay bonds, payable in 1874 to ceca y Laks eGloess vivre secess caccccs= O11, 080) 600 Street improvement jund bonds, pay- Able 1D 1874 to 1878.... 4,510,100 Central Park Commissio; bonus, payable in 1874 to 11 1,270,000 Department of Parks impr bonds, payaole in 1874 to 1878... 3,841,472 Improvewent bonds, payable 1874. 600,000 Total......0006 dee cecceccsecerteceeees + $21,791,372 Of this amount $7,817,500 falls due on or before November 1, 1875, yet the Comptroller asks for and receives the interest on the whole amount for the entire twelve months, or up to January 1, 1876. He may calculate that the bonds falling due this year will be paid by the collection of assessments, but that their place will be filled by new bonds issued for new im- provements. But, meanwhile, what becomes of the interest received from the payers of assessments, and what use is made of the money received on ‘assessment rolls until it is as they fall due? The interest collected o1 assessments not paid within the allotted tim can only legally be applied to reduce the amount to be raised by taxation to pay in- terest on assessment bonds. It is not soap- plied. Where does it go? The Comptroller is authorized under chap- ter 756 of the Laws of 1873 to issue consoli- dated stock of the city, to pay assessments upon the real estate belonging to the city and to meet the aniounts fastened on the city by reason of deficiency or vacation of assess- ments. How much stock has been issued for that purpose? and is there uny portion of the twenty-one millions of outstanding temporary debt thus payable by the oity and properly belonging to the funded debt ? The Comptroller reports the amount of debt payable from the sinking fund on which in- terest is due in 1875 to be $23,841,826. He asked in the Board of Apportionment that the interest on $13,664,671 of this amount should be raised by taxation, and the required sum, propriated for interest in the tax levy of 1875. This leaves interest on $10,177,155 only, or on less than half the sioking fund debt, to be paid from the receipts of the “sinking fund to provide interest on the city debt."”. Sbould fund debt be paid from this interest fund? What are the receipts of the latter tund? Is there any surplus there? Why is it that it only yields enough to pay interest on less than one half of the sinking fund debt? How much interest does the Comptroller really pay out of the fund in question? and, if there is a surplus, what becomes of it? Of the debt on which interest is paid by taxation, five hundred thousand dollars is at five per cent, fifty-three millions at six per cent, and eighty-eight millions—besides rev- enue bonds and newly issued stock and bonds for the current year—at seven per cent. A competent financier would not have continued for three years to pay seven per cent interest on nearly two-thirds of the debt, and on all new bonds and stock, when money could | easily have been had at five per cent. But the trouble is that Mr. Green is not a financier. He is a charlatan, who uses his po- sition in the city government for his personal purposes, and who is altogether too small for the position he assumes to fill. Spain, His gracious Majesty Prince Alfonso has arrived in Madrid, and is now probably at home in that beautiful palace of his ancestors, in the dingy, disagreeable capital, which, wo have no doubt, will frequently prompt home- sickness, when he thinks of the gayety and comfort of exile in Paris. The young King has thus far done two things which may ‘attract attention. The first is the elevating into the peerage, with the rank of Marshal, of General Martinas Campos, the officer who betrayed his government for the pur- pose of proclaiming him King. His Majesty's second act was to revoke ao decree suppressing Protestant journals. This is understood to be in response to the demand of Bismarck, who declined to recog- nize Spain and the new King unless liberty was allowed to Protestant forms of thought and worship. In the low stage of Spanish morality it is not to be wondered at that the King should give a title to the soldier who betrayed one master that he might have a crown, We are glad to observe that the liberal influence of Germany is not without its effect on the new dynasty. Bismarck means to exercise a dominant influence in Spain, if at all possible. And the fact that the first act almost of the new reign is to amend a decree in obedience to his instrac- tions indicates the possibility of an alliance between Spain and Germany, appropriated to redeem the assessment oof not the interest on the whole of the sinking” $830,052, is included in the $9,300,000 ap- + more. The intense excitement which was shown at the mass meetings in Boston and Baltimore yesterday proves that the people have not been quieted by the President’s Message in respect to Louisiana, but that public opinion is divided both as tothe act and the apology. Although it is the genera! opinion that the President retreated and retracted, we find a man like Wendell Phillips justifying his orig- inal position, and boldly arguing that military interference with a Legislature is right. On the other hand we find Mr. John Quincy Adams asserting that the Message is more menacing than the act which it excuses, and warning the people that they have come to the point where the roads divide, and that they most choose between the easy path to despotism and the difficult way to freedom. The position assumed by so able aman as Mr. Phillips is especially alarming. We hear the orator of freedom eloquent in defence of despotism. The negro that Mr. Phillips helped to liberate has become his master. He is like many of the old abolition- ists, who can see little beyond negro interests, and who are without any confidence in the magnanimity of the white people of the South. Gerrit Smith revealed a like spirit of natural prejudice when he declared that he would accept a President for a third term or a President for life rather than a democratia victory. Mr. Phillips has given his whole life to the cause of the negro, and is probably too old to change. He cannot see that new dangers threaten the Republic, that slavery is forever dead, and that it is not disorder in New Orleans but usurpation in Washing- ton that the people have reason to dread. Negro citizenship and white citizenship were equally attacked in Louisiana. There- fore we are grieved to find Wendell Phil- lips defending Grant, not merely on the apologetic grounds of* the Mes. sage, but on the rightfulness of the original act of military dispersion of the Legislature. Yet we must remember that Mr. Phillips isan American citizen who never cast a vote. He considered for the greater part of his life the constitution of the United States to be a compact with hell and a covenant with death, and cannot be expected to look with much reverence upon it now. But if he does not prize the right to vote his countrymen do, and they are not willing to see a single free ballot transfixed with the point of @ federal bayonet. The Boston meeting was turbulent and di- vided in its sympathies, but its moral weight is cast against the President and in support of the constitutional government our fathers established. The issue was not mistaken and proper resolutions of censure were passed. In Baltimore the meeting at the Masonic Hall was more of one mind, and the masterly argu- ment of Reverdy Johnson, which’ we else- where present in full, will stand by that of Senator Schurz as an unpartisan appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the people. Tae Lovrstana Report.—The report of the sub-committee on Louisiana affairs is laid be- fore the public to-day, and as the work of three Congressmen who personally in/esti- gated the condition of the State, and whose ability ond impartiality are rot to be questioned, it will have great weight. It is, indeed, the only au- thoritative and trustworthy statement of Tonisione affairs that has yet been mde, and in many essential points contradicts the in-~ formation on which the President based his Message. So great is the contradiction that it is almost safe to suppose that if the report had been given to. Congress early in the week that Message in its present shape could never have appeared. What Congress will do with it itis impossible to say, but the country will accept it as the vin- dication of Louisiana. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Only eight articles are dutiable at British ports, Mr. James R, Osgood, of Boston, is staying at the Albemarle Hotel, Judge Charles Wheaton, of Poughkeepsie, 18 ree siding at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Assemblyman George West, of Ballston, N. Y., is stopping at the Grand Central Hotel. Genera! John N. Knapp, late of Governor Dix’s staff, is sojourning at the Windsor Hotel. Chief Engineer Charles H. Loring, of the United States Navy, 18 quartered at the Union Square Hotel. State Senator Daniel H. Cole, of Albion, N. Y., has taken up his residence at the Metropoittan Hotel. Mr. E, R. Chapman, of the Treasury Department, arrived irom Washington yesterday at the Fifth Avenue Hote. Deimonico in Berlin has been eaten up by a lions Many alion has exhausted his appetite with our Deim nicos, but they rather enjoy it. Ex-Senator Nye ia prostrate with “incurable soitening of the brain,” which disease, it is thought, will in this case be of rapid operation, It is our opinion that that man Berret did not deai handsomely with Sam Ward; in short, that he chiselied him out of $1,500. Isn’t he the cham- pion mean man of the United States? At Liverpool an Irish girl, ages thirty years, sueu @ soldier for breach of promise, though they had never seen one another, but had exchanged | photographs and kept up some correspondence, Yhe new German North Pole expedition, if the necessary iunds can be procured, 1s to leave in June for the eastern shores of Greenland, and to follow the route explored by the !@@t German ex- pedition under Captain Koidewey. England notices an enormous increase in the number of her rats, and attributes it chiefly to gamekeepers, who, in their successful endeavor to preserve game, have nearly exterminated wild- cats, weasels, Owls, hawks, Magpies and other natural enemies of the rat. Still a remnant in the Paris courts of scandals left over from the Empire. Mme. the Princess de la Moskowa sues her daughter, Mme. Lemoynae, widow of the Duke de Persigny, for money which itis alleged on one hand 1s the property of the mother, and on the other was given to the Duke by the Emperor, In the Bank of France they have got a brick for which fhey paid 1,000 franca in specie, It was taken from the ruins ofa burned house, and the image and figures of a note for 1,000 francs are bnrned on the surface, transierred by the heat from areal note, This brick the bank redeemed on presentation, as if it were the note itself, Rix Robinson, who settled in the Grand River Vailey in 1815 and married an Indian maiden, has just died at Grand Rapids, He was President of the Settlers’ Society. Two other pioneers of the West are also gone to their long homes—Dantel Cosgruve, the first settler of La Salle, Il., aud Richard G, Murphy, one of the early settlers of Minnesota. France annnually consumes 24,000,000 pounds of tobacco, All this tobacco is bought by the gov- ernment from the growers, manufactured and sold in the government interest, for the tobacco tramc is in France as mach @ government concern as the Post Office ts here. In 1874 the gross re. ceipts from sales 287,000,000L,, of $57,400,000, In 1816 16 was only $6,000,000, eee