The New York Herald Newspaper, January 22, 1875, Page 4

‘NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and efter January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New York Henaxp will be sent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- uel subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic Gespatches must be addressed New Youre Besar. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be properly wealed, QONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Bubscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York VOLUME XL.. erseeroseeNQ, 28: ——— AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. NEW YORK STADT THEA’ | ya himaanal LEOPOLD, at 8 P.M. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Phd Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8P. M.: closes at 1045 . at 10: BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty third wirest and Sixth s' finite’: EM'LY, at 5 P. M.; closes at 10 30!P, DPERA venue. — uM. Mr. HOOL! RYS 4 HOUS! Brooklyn —THE Gk A MINSTBSLS, at 6 P. M.; Bloses at 10:30 P. M. THEATRE COMIQUB, bg Brosdway.—VARINTY, atSP. M.; closes at 1005 BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE. UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, at 8 I. M.; closes at ROMAN HIPPODROME, ‘Twenty-sixth street and Fourth avenue.—Afternoomand evening, at2 and & TONY Pastc 5g aad Bowery.—VARILETY, at 3 OPERA HOUSE, 8 PL M.; closes at 10:45 ‘igh ee Amd Br oan WOMEN oF let Twenty-eighth street and Broadway. —\ MY ate a closes at low) Pe ki. Mr Lewis, Miss avenport, ‘Miss Jewe! tt ANUS OPERA HOUSE, wrest, pear Sixth avenne—NEGRO MINSTRELS wen aro, Me: cloves at ld Me Dan ryant, PARK THEATRE, Broi between Twenty-first and Btroe' era Bonffe—l.A ee aNGOT, ars P.M. ; closes at 10: iS PM GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street —DER V CHWENDER, at 8 P. closes at 1045 P.M. Miss Lina Mayr. ms NIBLO’S, Broewey—UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, at 8 P.M. ; closes st TIVOLI THEATR! Eighth street.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M reloseeat 11 ru BAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELA, ‘Twenty-ninth street.—NEGEO SERSTRELSE. af6 e'M, Closes at WP. ae ROBINS Stxteenth street.—B DRGOS "DULL CARR.at 8 F, me loses at 10:45 P. M. GLOBE THEATRE, ‘Broadway. —vamiety, atSP. M.; clowes at 10:30 P.M LYCEUM THEA’ nth streetand Sixtn avenue.—” AXE ARD Bows at8P. M.; closes at 10:45 7. M. Mra Roushy. WALLACK’S THEATRI THE ShA'GHRAUCN, at Mr. Boucicautt. “Washiny Closes a oY. ML ;-closes at BROOKLYN THEATRE, ton street.—THE GILDED AGB, at 8 P.M; 1045 P.M. Mr. Ravmond. "=< MUSEUM, tieth street. THE FLYING esat4-5 P.M. ON HAND, Johnny Thompson. Tr) METROPOLIT 2°, 585 Broadway.—VARIETY, From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cloudy, with | wainor snow, and clearing up later. Wann Sreert Yesterpay. —The stock mar- ket was weak bntunexcited. The transactions ‘were small. Foreign exchange was steady. Gold strong at 11 1124, and money on call ebundant at 2} eT cent. Lovisiaxa.—The Louisiana conservatives are regretting their precipitate action in quit- ting the State House. They now propose, as B measure of compromise, a fair division of the offices the fies, reteining Kellogg as Governor and | making Penn the Lientenant Governor. This zolution is perhaps the best that can be reached at present. lature to proceed to business, Antoine, the republican Lieutenant Governor, objects to} being sacrifice a to (Mins conservatives. Gurzy R EBUKED. . Comptroller Green’s Gntest exhibition of good m@pners was made at n meeting of the Dock Commissioners, and in presence of a large number of citi- wens. Because the gentlemen of the Commis- ¥ion did not choose to wait the good pleasure ef his high mightiness the Comptroller, he | phoracterized their proceedings as ‘tindecent.” | The gentlemen of the commission naturally | Dbject to be addressed in the language of the | fish market, and have called the Mayor's at- tention to the ill manners of the Comptroller | by a unaniz resolution. Raupovsxicas at. Ostensibly republican fancus considers plans for protecting the | between kegro in the South; in reality it considers how it may carry the elections in the South- prn States; and in these two points are all the policy of the dominant party--how to parry the elections ; how to get the offices and flistribute the plunder, and how to make the gmang@uvres contrived for this end seem like movements taken toseenre the rights of an oppressed pe ; this is the whole wisdom and gospel of republ ism—how to cheat, and how to n your cheating look like virtue. Now-Resiwpin1s Ostracizep.—The Board of Aldermen have passed a resolution forbidding non-residents to hold office in any branch ot the city government. The edict, apart from its political side, is evidence that the Board of rmen are awake to the necessity of inducing people engaged in Dusiness in New York to look on the city as a counting house, to be escaped from as soou as business is over. But the most effective way to do this is to promote some system of rapid transit by something more tha which persons of moderate means may be | enabled to find homes in Westchester. In | "this way only can the evil be dealt with, 1045 P. M. | two par- | It would enable the Legis- | NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1875—WITH SUPPLEMENT. Is It Pence er Wart The Message of President Grant published in yesterday's Hematp, urging upon Congress special legislation in reference to the ‘‘im- portance of preparations for war, in the arm- ing of our seacoast defences,”’ is an event of unusual significance, It is a technical and brief Message, and on its face seems simply a suggestion to Congress of the necessity of the procurement of heavy cannon. The President properly says that in time of war such preparations cannot be made. Cannon cannot be purchased in open market nor manufactured at short notice; they must be the products of years of experienced labor. “Constant appeals for legislation,’’ says the President, ‘for the armament of fortifications -ought no longer to be disregarded, if Con- gress desires in peace to prepare the material without which future wars must evidently lead to disaster.” This Message comes at the same time with official and semi-official rumors to the effect that we are now about to have a ‘‘vigorous policy’? with Spain, that “American honor is to be vindicated,” that the Virginius question is to be redressed and that the Republic is about to assert its place among the nations. In this respect, and at the present critical time in our political affairs, it is a document of the gravest impor- tance. Nothing is more proper than that the Pres- ident should keep @ vigilant eye upon the condition of our national armament and es- pecially our forts and seacoast defences. But this is a duty that should be delicately per- formed. A communication to Congress, ask- ing for guns of larger calibre, should be made by the head of a department to the proper committee in the House, and not by means of e formal message. When the executive head of a great government publishes to the world that the fortifications are practically worthless, and that a new armament is necessary, he means one of two things—either to invite an attack from some enemy or to inspire legisla- tion of a menacingnature. A message of this kind, addressed by the German Emperor to his | Parliament or by Marshal MacMahon to the Assembly at Versailles, would set Europe in a blaze. Taken in connection with the general | dritt of events for the last few months we cannot solve the President’s meaning without arriving at conclusions that give us uneasi- ness and concern. What is the situation at present? President Grant is in the sixth year of an administra- tion that began by a violation of the traditions of the constitution in this respect—that the Presidency was to him a personal and not o representative power. The effect of this, at the time, apparently harmless innovation, has been to change the whole tone of our politics andourgovernment. Since the wara military -sentiment has controlled the republican party. The old fealty to ideas which animated men like Sumner and Chase and Greeley, and which made the party independent, aggressive and pure, has given way toan absolute sub- mission to the will of a chief. The Presi- dent commands the government and the party just as he commanded an army. There is no will but that of the silent, inscrutable master in the White House. Occasionally there has been a murmur, as in St. Domingo and more recently in Louisiana. For a moment we have expectations of a mutiny or division. One or two independent men venture to assert that they are the peers and not the slaves of the President. But dis- cipline is resumed, the murmur dies away, acts of an extreme and unconstitutional nature are condoned or forgotten, and the party moves on and on, obeying the will of a chief | as implicitly as that will was obeyed by the armies of the Potomac and the West. If the head of this party were a self-deny- ing, patriotic man, animated by the senti- ments of Washington, or even of Jackson, | with no ambition but the public welfare, no | personai friends to support and no personal | DE OE WADaMe | | interests to advance, we might be content with | this anomaly in government, feeling assured that in time it would right itself, and | that the nation, after passing through | | | its military fever, would drift back | | to a condition of pristine health and freedom. But President Grant is no such man. Obsti- | nate, able, independent, self-willed, amenable | to no influences except those which appeal to | his pride and his vanity, believing that he is | more necessary to the party than the party ever has been to him, and regarding the Presidency as a personal possession, flushed | | with power, he does not mean to resign the | office to which he has been chosen until he has exbausted every means of retaining it Upon this theory his policy is as clear as erystal We can understand it We can | see that he has been from the beginning driv- ing at one purpose, and in pursuance of that purpose nothing is more natural than that he | should threaten war with Spain, and ask Con- | gress to give him money so es to purchase guns of a larger calibre. The uprising of the people in the last can- | vass against the idea of the third term de- | stroyed every belief which the President had | entertained as to the power of party discipline to retain him in the Presidency. But two ebances remained—a rebellion in the South and a foreign war. Nothing has prevented | | the revival in the South of the rebellion but | the admirable patience of the Southern peo- | ple. Provoked as they have been almost be- | yond endurance—a high mettled, proud, iras- cible race—nothing was more probable than | that of a little Power with twenty thousand | reputation is not enviable, and we hope that tration of Jefferson, Adams, Jackson, Polk and Buchanan, and the Spanish question is constantly alive. This comes from the fact that this Continent, once practically a posses- sion of Spain, has been for two centuries the scene of a struggle between the descendants of Pizarro and Raleigh. Step by step we have driven the Spaniard from the larger part of North America. Our civilization has exhausted the civilization of Mexico and California. Our policy has usurped the traditions of the Span- iard, supplanted his laws and destroyed his power. All that remains of Spain in the dominion that once obeyed the orders of the Viceroy of Madrid, and which is now o wealthy and powerful Empire, is the soft.and musical names of villages, rivers and hills. We have no question with Spain that time will not settle. If President Grant ever intended a vigorous policy with Spain he should have shown this in the recognition of Cuba, and not made the government an ally in the infamous system which devastates that island. y question with Spain at this time is & pre! and not a purpose. We are solv- ing out the Spanish question by civilization. Cuba is ripening for annexation, just as Cali- fornia ripened. This pear will fallin time. ‘We do not need the sword to cut it down. An appeal to the sword would be a crime, and a crime perpetrated in the interest of the President's ambition. Nor should all independent men of either party ignore the gravity of the situation. They sneered at our prophecies of Cesarism, yet came to accept them when they could be no longer denied. Nothing is more the duty of independent men—democrats and republicans—than to deal with this war spirit that comes mutter- ing to us from Washington as they would deal with a crime against the integrity of the Re- public. Grant should be forced to resign, and the Presidency should be transferred to Mr. Wilson. Sharp, peremptory, decisive ex- pressions of opinion by Congress in the be- ginning may save disasters in the end. Such action even now may compel Grant to surren- der the office he uses to the injury of the | country. But the war purpose exists, and the President should be taught that he cannot thus trifle with the interests of the country for his own personal ambition. The resigna- tion of Grant means peace, and so long as he hesitates we are threatened with war.. Turkey and Montenegre. Our London telegrams seem to contemplate the imminent possibility of war between two Powers so little matched in strength as the Turkish Empire ond the small mountain state | of Montenegro, and war not made by Turkey— who might be supposed always ready to put her foot upon the thorn that has troubled her—but war declared by the pigmy against her comparatively gigantic neighbor. Toward the end of the last year an “outrage” was com- mitted in Albania, and within the Turkish jurisdiction, upon certain Montenegrins who had gona over the border on a commercial excursion, and some were killed. Reparation was demanded in the usual course and was supposed to have been made, for the Turkish authorities executed all the perpetrators of the outrage whom they could lay hands on, to the number of twenty, if we remember cor- rectly. But this was not deemed satisfactory. At Constantinople, however, there was os much spirit as there was in the mountains, and the Minister of For- eign Affairs was neither submissive nor conciliatory.. The case was not viewed by the whole Cabinet as he viewed it, how- ever, and he went out of office, giving place to one who was relied upon particularly to smooth the case over. He apparently could not assume an attitude sufficiently abject, and war is declared or is imminent. Now the attitude thus assumed by Montenegro is not fighting men confronting a Power which cana overwhelm her in a twinkling, so far as re- lates to mere force, and it is of consequence, with regard to the peace of Europe, to know | who stands behind these mountaineers. They are Slavs, and therein is perhaps the whole | story. Russia has always supported thom | hitherto, and is evidontly supporting them | again, ee she will either solicit them to be | tranquil, “the friend of Tarkey,” or she | means with ( this little flame to light up a war in Europe. Which will it be? Tae Derzat or Senator CHANDLER 85 8 candidate for re-election to the Senate from Michigan will give a sense of relief, although nothing is known of his successor, whose name is quite new. A dying warrior solaces himself that he did not fall by an ignoble hand, but ‘Old Zach Chandler’ has been de- feated by a man of whom nobody ever heard before outside of his own State, and who can be neither praised nor depreciated until we learn more of him. If he does not make a | better Senator than ‘‘Old Zach’’ he is a | very small pattern indeed. Mr. Chandler has | been conspicuous in the Senate as a howler | among howling statesmen, outhowling at | times even the loud-lunged Logan; but this his unknown successor may, in the course of his six years’ service, establish a character for | moderation and sound judgment which will | put him in contrast with the man whose seat he is to occupy. Tae Brooxtyn Scanpau—The cross-ex- amination of the Mutual Friend still engage# the attention of the public and Court, and the that they wonld have answered the usurpation of Kellogg and the conduct of Sheridan by in- | surrection. The South is in so volcanic a | condition that the flame would have blazed all | over the late Confederacy. Such an uprising would have given the President the oppor- tunity he and his friends desired. It would have aronsed the old war spirit; it would have sent him into the field at the head | of an army, and the result of such a cam- | paign would have been the certainty of a tri- umphant re-election as President. But, as we have said, this failed through the patience and wisdom of the Southern people, and ne what remains? A foreign war, and with no country but Spain. Our relat land are amicable. Mexico has been generally certain enough for a war in the is of an aggressive administration ; but the rulers of that Republic have been singularly patient and docile in dealings with | But with Spain we have | | the United States | an issue. There are burning questions be- | tween that country and our own. But these | questions have been in existence for a hun- | | dred years ; and we look back to the adminis- | The Mysteries of the City Finances. The evils of Comptroller Green's financial policy—if the reckless, witless, slipshod man- agement of the past three years can be called a policy—are forcing themselves into greater Prominence every day under Mayor Wick- ham's administration, The recent proceed- ings of the Board of Apportionment afford an illustration of the injustice to which the honest creditors of the city have been sub- jected through Mr. Green’s obstructiveness and obstinacy. There was money in the treasury only awaiting a legal transter to pay the poor scrub women their December wages and to meet the salaries of the clerks of the Courts. But Mr. Green regarded the settle- ment of these bills as a matter altogether too “‘insignificant’’ and ‘trifling’ to require at- tention, and argued that in a city where so much money is paid out for salaries it can be "of no consequence if a few employés remain unpaid. With the common sense and honesty of a business man the Mayor reminded the Comptroller that the clerks in the public offices and the women who do the cleaning are entitled to be paid as promptly by the city as they would be if employed in private offices and stores, and that it can be neither just nor logical to argue that two or three hundred persons who have honestly earned their salaries or wages may, without injustice, be left to suffer or starve because two or three thousand have been paid Through the firmness of the Mayor the neces- sary transfer of unexpended balances was yesterday authorized in the case of the clerks of the courts, and the Comptroller was in- structed to make the payments without any farther delay. The controversy over the question of trans- terring unexpended balances appears to throw some light upon Mr. Green's management. In his anxiety to prevent such transfers the Comptroller stated that they exist only on paper, and that there is no money in the treasury to meet them. This leads to the inquiries, what is done with the arrears of taxes and as- sessments of former years as they are col- lected; where does the ‘money to mect the year’s current expenditures come from when such expenditures exceed the amount of taxes collected, and how is it that no provision is made for a deficiency in taxation and no defi- ciency is ever reported at the time the esti- mates and appropriations are made, if any exists? The unpaid taxes on real and per- sonal estate for the year 1874 are in the neigh- borhood of seven million dollars, Are there seven million dollars of the appropriations of last year still unexpended? If not, out of what funds has the excess of appropriations drawn from the treasury over and above the actual amount of taxes collected been paid? Has the Comptroller been using the money realized from the arrears of taxes and assess- ments of former years to pay the expenses of the current year? Does this explain his un- willingness to liquidate old debts, his anxiety to delay payment by factious defences, taken through every stage of the law up to the last appeal? Is this the secret of his constant “bridging over” of assessment bonds as they fall due by the issue of new bonds to take their place under the authority of a law secured by his own lobby agents at Albany? Does he pursue this illegal and reckless course for the purpose of covering up and concealing the fact that a heavy deficit exists in the city treasury and in order to escape the necessity of increasing the debt or adding five or six millions to the year’s taxation? It seems clear that the arrears of the taxes of 1872, or of any other year, when collected, should be devoted to the payment of the outstanding indebtedness of that year, and that any sur- plus remaining after those debts are paid should be reappropriated by the Board of Apportionment. It also seems clear that the arrears of assessments should be applied solely to the redemption of assessment bonds. If any different use is made of the money derived | from such sources where is the law to au- thorize it? These matters should be scruti- nized at once. It is a criminal neglect of duty to suffer the city finances to remain an hour in their present intricate, incomprehensible and suspicious condition. Dishonesty alone fears the light. We repeat what we havo before | said, that resolutions calling upon Mr. Green for information are idle, A full and search- ing scrutiny into every nook and corner of the Finance Department, made by competent persons, is demanded in the puble interest and for the public safety. Now that Mayor Wickham has united with Commissioner Howe another gentleman of capacity and energy he should at once order such an in- vestigation. The Recent Wind and “Weather on the Atlantic. The wind and weather on the Atlantic during the last fortnight have been of the stormiest type, and have put the best navigation to the severest test. It is generally believed that the Atlantic storm season is at its worst during the equinoctial period, when the atmospheric equilibrium is most seriously disturbed, and that there should be an interregnum of com- parative quiet in July and one in January, This year, however, ceems to be exceptional, so far as the present month is concerned, and | the ocean, like death, claims the sovereignty of all seasons. The recently reported detentions of west- ward-bound steamers (though in part happily reduced by the arrivals of the last two days) show through what terrible battle these ships phia, in their practical, steady, sober way, | are pushing along the work of the Centennial exhibition. A report has been submitted to the President by the Director announcing | that twenty-four nations have already ex- | pressed a desire to take part in the exhibition. | ‘The building of the industrial palace is going on in Philadelpbia with earnestness and skill. One of the first acts of the new Spanish King is the appointment of a nobleman to be chief of the Spanish Commission in place of Caste- been nominated by Serrano, jar, who had but who will have no place in the new gov- ernment. Whatever criticism may have been made upon the inception of the Centennial | certainly it is to be an international exhibi- tion, Whatever objection cautious friends may have made to its assuming an international character that phase is passed beyond con- | troveray. ‘Ihe honor of the country is largely involved in its success, and it would be well | for the country—for the States especially—to | take 60 active a part in the movement that it | will become, in fact as in name, of a national | character, make their winter way to our shores. Some of them were over eighteen days ont, and seem to have been bafiled, not by o single storm, but by a succession of storms pressing upon each other's heels. These successive gales appear to have been connected with the high barometers, or polar air waves which have recently swept across | the northern part of the United States and | have been launched into the hot and humid regions of the Gulf Stream, off Newfoundiand, One of the merchant ships arriving here on the 12th reported encountering the polar wave of the Sth, about forty miles southeast of Sandy Hook, where she was quickly shrouded in the freezing vapor drift, and the ice deposited over her deck was twenty feet high. This, however, could occur only near shore, but the same frozen meteor plunging | into swarm water belt in mid-ocean must produce the most indescribable agitation of the elements. When itis remembered that one of these cold waves sometimes covers one- fourth of the area of this country we may get some faint idea of the extent of the disturb- ance it creates on the liquid oceanio plain, where the winds have an unobstructed sweep over thousands of leagues. The recent disastrous tempests seem to be thus traceable to the American weather changes of the last fortnight. The last great barometer fluctuation was followed by a storm centre which the weather reports recorded on the 15th inst. as then moving eastward over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. No doubt this particular storm made its power seriously felt along its track, which probably lay not far from the northern passage pursued by many of the steamships. It was followed by dangerous winds while yet visible off the ‘Canadian shores, and, when it reached the more humid air off Newfoundland, its violence was probably intensified. The weather re- ports very clearly show the seaman on the point of leaving port when these storms and storm breeders will bo likely to burst upon the scene of his expected voyage, and the knowledge now accessible suffices to warn the calculating shipper not to expose his vessel in front of either the very high or the very low barometer. In fact, the lesson apparently deducible from the recent steamer detentions and ship disasters we have had to record is that the severest cyclones may be looked for as the sequel phenomena of the great winter areas of high barometer and excessive cold, or, in other words, the rising glass should be studied by the seaman as carefully as the fall- ing glass. Scriptores in Porticu, Within a few years what is known as News- paper Row in Washington has become cele- brated, not so much on account of the journal- ists who had offices on that famons locality as from those who pretended to, but had not. The congregation of many newspaper offices in asingle block was a godsend to the lobby correspondent. It enabled him to be seen in the company of respectable journalists, and even to create the impression that he served respectable journals. The exigencies of the news market still further aided him, for news is like any other commodity, and must be bought from whoever has it to sell. The story of Newspaper Row has often been told—how from two or three letter writers for the New York press it grew into a great and command- ing influence, with ramifications all over the country. The lobby correspondent was the natural offshoot of the genuine article, and he not only grew out of the activity of the news market, but formed a part of it and prospered with it, until to-day it is not easy either for Congress or the lobby to distinguish between the real and the spurious correspondent, In that annual publication known as the “Congressional Directory’ nearly three pages are devoted to the ‘Representatives of the Press.’ An examination of this list is a curi- ots study. All the press associations are represented an all the leading newspapers in the country. Besides these there are prob- ably a hundred journals on the list of which nobody ever heard. The correspondents of the latter class are generally harmless fellows, clerks in the departments, often, who seek to give themselves a little greater importance by getting tre good-hearted Major Poore to put their names in the list. The Twilight Beacon, the Backwoods Statesman and the Ocean Wave each has its correspondent. But it is not only the unknown journals that have correspondents without correspondence. Some of the most respectable newspapers in the country appear in the list with “repre- sentatives,’’ who simply use the respectability of the journals as a cloak to their own schemes. Wecould point tothree or four such in the leading cities, and, what is more, everybody knows them and their business. Mr. Samnel Ward may be retained ina great lobby scheme like the Pacific Mail subsidy, as “the king’s name is a tower of strength,” but the lobby correspondent can show a bigger balance at his banker's, as has been most con- clusively proved, than the king of the lobby. Mr. Ward can only talk to people who know tho inspiration which moves his agile tongue, address an unsuspecting audience. It will thus be seen that Major Poore’s list is a very useful list indeed to the active young gentle- | men who are fondly believed to control the sentiment of the country. And just here we wish to say to the readers of the Henatp that they need not send us any communications suggesting that hereafter the list of Washington correspondents be omitted | from the ‘Congressional Directory.” It is too late in the day for such a simple device. There are half a dozen people in Washington who have been correspondents of the Hzrap for twenty years without having ever sent us a line of news or received a dollar of pay from gressmen who kuow better than we do whom we employ would laugh at us and believe in them all the same. Men like Mr. Irwin are always compelled to buy these, because the genuine article is not for sale. The lobby correspondent is a man of memories, and these are the foundations of his impostures. He is ali things to all men. His actual con- nection with the Podunk Press and the Okhotek Transcript enables him to enter the re- porters’ gulleries and show himself in the ante- rooms of the House and Senate. The rest he manages for himself, and he soon makes it to be understood that he is all- | powerful in the newspaper offices in New sides of the Capitol. He generally owns a Senator or two and ever so many common Congressmen. Ho is a magnate in his way, who not only talks like a statesman, but lives | like a gentleman. He has a house with ter- raced grounds, or the best apartments at the Arlington, Ebbitt or Willard’s, and his wife's receptions are the wonder of the capital. Sam Ward's dinners are dull affairs in comparison, He keeps his carriage in Washington and his , broker in New York, and yet he cannot write | tea consecutive lines of English and could not get them printed even if he conld write them. | But, thanks to the ‘Congressional Directory” and ‘Newspaper Row,” he is able to work on | froin year to year and from Congress to Con- gress, apperently as much esteemed as it he was nct an impostor, and to make more money than if he told the truth and accepted no | bribes. | sancti Pacnric Matt. —Irwin has at last spoken, and several gentlemen are in the same boat as Mr. | Schumaker, who finds himself ‘in an embar- rassing position.’ He exhibits quite a phe- | nomenal defectivoness of memory in relation to he so felicitously expressed it, simply because | but the lobby correspondent is supposed to York and in the committee rooms on both | monetary transactions, Like his companionsin misfortune he scouts the idea that he used for his own benefit any of the three hundred thousand dollars which Irwin alleges he paid over tohim. The moral of Pacific Mail is that bribe-taking is very dangerous to any man who hopes to preserve the appearance of honesty before the public. Questions of Privilege. We do not propose to enter into the contro. versy between the House of Representatives and the municipal authorities of Washington in reference to the arrest of Mr. Whitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, upon s warrant issued by a local Washington court charging him with the libel of Governa Shepherd. It is quite possible that the arrest of a witness in Washington under the control of the House, and to that extent covered by its protection, is an invasion of the privilege of a representative body. The matter, how. ever, has been referred to a committee of able, experienced jurists, and they will give us the law on the subject. But there is another point which concerm us as journalists. Mr. Reid has often said himself, in the columns of his newspaper, that he believes in frequent actions for libel. We share that belief. A journalist bas no more right to assail the private character of a citizen than he has to put a knife into his side or to fire a pistol at himin the dark. When we hear all this cant and noise about the ‘‘in- vasion of the liberties of the press,” ‘limita. tions of the rights of editors,” and an at- tempt to enforce a ‘‘gag law’’ and an interfer. ence with a prerogative of republican instita- tions, we despise it. Law is the master of all men, journalists as well.as the rest If we libel a citizen we are perfectly willing to answer for it. If the press ever gains sc much power in this country that it can assail private character, then, instead of being a safeguard of liberty, it will be the weapon of blackmailing and tyranny. For ourselves we wish no such immunity from the law. We are very sure that Mr. Reid will be only too glad to welcome the action brought against him by Governor Shepherd, and to prove, be- fore a jury of his fellow countrymen, what he has said in the columns of his paper. We are perfectly content with the freedom of the press as it existsin America. We do not believe in the license of the press. The Jaw is good enough for us, and we are quite content to have it enforced. We have no | doubt Mr. Reid shares the same opinion; and even if it should be discovered that there has been a breach of privilege in the manner of his arrest he will waive that protection and gladly accept the challenge of his antagonist to come into Court. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Colonel H. M. Black, United States Army, is af Jacksonville, Fla. Sir John Swinburn, of England, has apartments at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Admiral J. R. Tucker, of the Peruvian Navy, is residing at the New York Hote], General Elisa G. Marshall, United States Army, 1s quartered at the Sturtevant House, Mr. Harvey G. Eastman, of Poughkeepsie, te among the latest arrivals at the Fifth Avenue Hotei. Sefior Don Luts Polo, of the Spanish Legation at Washington, is registered at the Westmoreland Hotel, Here’s a new view of the Christmas stocking— The boy says he “set it, but didn’tcatch any. thing.” Gallant man, Victor Emmanuel. He went from Rome to St. Remo to pay his respects to the Em- press of Austria, Inspector General Randolph B. Marcy, United States Army, arrived in this city yesterday, and is at the New York Hotel. Jobn Pittman, who nas just died iu London, was baptized in that city, as evidenced by the offictal record, September 11, 1772. “{ sald happy New Year to the Judge,” says @ ruMan in Charwari, ‘And did he give you nothing ?? “Yes—five years.” Surgeon Major Grant, of the Ninety-seventh regiment, British Army, has taken up his rest dence at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Senator Jon P. Jones and wile, who have been sojourning at the St. James Hotel for eeveral days past, left this city yesterday tor Washington. Eugene Schuyler writes tals year again the annual article on Russian literature for the Lon- ¢on Athenarum, 101s of course very weil done. Right Honorable W. E. Forster, M.P., has cone sented to deliver a lecture on an early date in Bradford on his recent visit to the United States, “Scot wha’ hae wi’ Wailace bled’? 1s a true sub. ject to new interpretations in view of the Penn sylvania Senatorial contest, especially the word “pled.” Paris wits say that since Sardou bas dealt so unsuccessfally with ‘Hatred’ he should try “Vanity,” as he woula be moro at home on the subject. Nothing has helped Beecher so much in public opinion or pleaded so strongly his excuse as the publication of the portraits of “the Beecher group” in Court. One of Charivart’s funny men gave bis mother us. Ifwerepudiated them a hundred Con: } “marrons glacées” for her New “‘Year—“not that she was so fond of them, but because they were s¢ gloriously indtzestible.”” The Countess de Paris was delivered of a son, in Paris, yesterday. The mother ond infant are pro gressing favorably. Thisis the fourth child, and second son of the Count de Paris. Only @ military despot will be able to govern Spain, and it is a new illustration of the poverty of that wretched country that it does not possess, so far as known, even @ good despot, Mr. Jotham Post, who has resided in Paris fo many years, @ highly esteemed member of the American colony, fell on New Year’s night, owing” to the slippery state of the street, and broke his arm. ‘Yhe members of the Washington Club, in Paris, have resolved to entertain Colonel Hoffman, late Secretary of the American Legation in Paris, a¢ & grand dinner, beiore his departure for his new post in London. In Michigan the police have their hands en Albert Molitor, who is alleged to be a son of King William of Wtirtemberg, bis mother having been anattendant on the Queen, and married to one Molitor to cover the royal intimacy, ‘The ciumsy style of dancing now in vogue ip 1 which people merely shuM2 about the floor, pusn- | ing one foot after the other, seems to have come from Paris; for they have it there, and they call these ambitious young gentlemen “floor polish ers,"” ‘The Yope has intimated, in an encyclical letter, that a jubilee will be celebrated tn 1875, Such @ solemnity His Holiness constlers necessary in the present crisis of affairs, bothas a means of pro~ curing special grace for tae faivuful aad Divine favor for the world at large. ‘The latest funny poet thus accounts for the joy of the man who was happy ‘on the lone sea shore’? :— And why? In thot vessol that lert the bay His mother-in-law had sulted, To @ tropic country far aw Where tigers and snakes prevailed, The Shah's visit to Kurope avs occasioned many alterations in the exteraai appearance of the up per and middle classes in Persia, Shoes are worn, the baggy trousers are reduced, the chin 19 shaven—an tnnovacion oonoxious to the orthodox Mohammedans—the cap isnot so high and the whole dress 1s @ mixture of Armenian and Bure ean fashions.