The New York Herald Newspaper, February 15, 1875, Page 4

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yorx Heraxp will be sent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published yond day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- | nual subscription price $12. i All business or news letters and telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New Yore Henan. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be properly scaled. 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...--0essceeree seveeeeNO, 46 AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. ROMAN HIPPODROME, epph and Fourth avenue.—Afiernoon and nd & | THEATRE COMIQUE, ap ae Broadway.—VARIETY, at 31’, M.; closes at 10:45 | FIFTH AVEN Ewrenty-cighth street and Br THE Day. ats closes al Miss Davenport, Mrs Giibert. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.—VARIETY, at 5 P.M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. LYCEUM THKATRE, Fourteenth street and 8 avenue.—OFF THE LINE bog ioe DUDGER, at ; closes atl045P.M. Mr. | oole. | BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, i West fated third street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO } Ee _ a&c,, ats. ; closes at 10 P.M Dan | ryan i BROOKLY: COLONEL SINN’s VAR. P. M. RK THEATRE. Y,atSP. M.; closes.at 10:45 GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth pas is to FLEDERMAUS, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 Pr. M. Miss Mayr. PA RK THEATER. Broadway.—French Upera Haute G{ROTLE- GIROFLA, .| atsP.M. Mile. Coralie Geoffroy. NIBLO'S, Brosdway.—THE OCTOROON. at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 45 | ¥.M. Edwin F. Thorne. PRG THEATRE, reet and Sixth averse— | atilP. M. | corner of Twei HENRY V., at 3 if CO MINSTRELS, Broadwa: mh ‘street—NEGRO | MINSTE. oF Sixteenth street ‘Gary, ates P.M; tloses at 10:45 P, } corner o} ty HIBITION OF WA from 9 A. M. 10 5. M. treet ana a Hour avenue. =EX- NGS. Open Toor. RAUY, at SP. M.; closes at WALL Broadway.—THE SHA 1040 P.M. Mr. Boucica WOOD'S MUSEUM. Broadway, corner of Thirties street.—MARKED FOR LIFE, at8'P. M.: Clowes at 10:45 P.M.” Matinee at 2 P. M.—MOLL PiTcHE TIVOLI THEATRE, Eighth street. between Second 3 at avenuea— VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 12 P, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Noe 4 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 PF. M.; closes at 1005 Rica S NEW U PPLEMENT. MON D. ay, YORK, ~ FEBRU ARY 15, 1875, From our Paporis this morning the probabilities | are that the weather to-day will be colder and clear. Home rx Jensery and Brooklyn is only home when you reach there. i Tae Deranrcne of King Kalakaua for the | Sandwich Islands is picturesquely narrated in our San Francisco letter to-day, and his opin- ions of his American tour are given in an inter- view with our correspondent. Tae Procuamation of the Cubans, setting forth their grievances and complaining of the inefficiency of the Spanish rulers, is elsewhere published. The ‘good Spaniards’ are evi- | dently weary of the ‘fruitless struggle, and NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1875—WITH SUPPLEMENT, | Martial Law in Time of Pesce. The republican caucus on Friday night, at @ stormy meeting, determined on a bill ‘for | the better government of the Southern States,” | in which, after providing for the punishment | of a number of offences and the arrest of | offenders by United States officers, a final clause empowers the President, ‘in his discre- tion,” to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in any State of the Union, powerful as to be able, by violence, to set at defiance or overturn any State authorities.’’ It would be well before any member of Congress votes for this monstrous proposi- tion that he should take the trouble to read | over the constitution and study for a little while the system of government of which Congress is a part. He will discover that when in any State a case of rebellion against the local or State authorities happens, too powerful for the local authorities to deal with, the Legislature of the State, or the Governor in case the Legislature cannot be assembled, has the right to call on the President for help, and it is his duty to give assistance to the State authorities. In that case he has abundant authority under the con- stitution to act, and he acts as the auxiliary of the State government. Is not that suffi- cient? Does it not cover every possible case? ferent principle. It ignores the constitution | entirely. It proposes that the President shall decide when, where and how to interfere—he, and not the Governor of a State, is to be the | judge of the emergency. He, and not the Governor, is to decide what is rebellion, what | is a combination, when it is numerous and when it is about to overturn the local govern- ment, and “in his discretion’ to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and, in effect, declare martial law. tional, ought not to be intrusted to a ruler in are not foundin the bill or thought of by those who framed it. tutional liberty. But they are to be intrusted toa President who has shown himself con- spicuously regardless of constitutional limita- tions and contemptuous of the laws, whose capacity to comprehend civil government, | alarmed the whole country. The ‘discretion” which allowed a State Legislature to be dispersed by federal troops ; which authorized the ‘‘banditti” despatch ; | ‘which allowed federal soldiers to drive j; out of office a sheriff at Vicksburg; | which, but the other day, amazed and alarmed the country by a cool proposi- tion to overturn the established, and by him- | self acknowledged, State government in Ar- | kansas, to such ‘‘discretion’’ are now to be | intrusted powers clearly unknown to the con- | stitution, and involving the gravest ques-— tion—the question ef peace or war. Ten years after the surrender of Appomat- | tox, ten years after the close of the great war, the party which has been uninterruptedly in unconstitutional legislation. Is it not start- ling? Is it not shameful? But it is not the republican party which proposes thus to make General Grant dicta- tor. The republican party contains a great | part of the intelligent, the moderate and con- servative people of the country. The republi- can party in Congress has among its mem- | bers many of the ablest statesmen of the | land. Does any one pretend that this prop- | osition has their approval? No; it is pro- | posed, it is urged, it is pressed by the bum- mers, the hangers-on of the party, by South- | ern members who have no constituency, by | Northern members whose political career | ends on the 4th of March, by the adventurer | element which remains to us from the war. their name? If any republican is attached future, or any future at all, it is high time for especially tired of taxation and tyranny in Havana. Tae Larz War bequeathed France many | military lawsuits, the question generally being one of treachery to the Empire or infi- | delity to the nation. The Wimpffen case is | one of the recent instances, and sHows that after Sedan it was difficult to reconcile service to the Emperor with duty to France, Tae Ice still continues | to “obstract the | rivers and the bay, and was yesterday a serious | obstacle to local travel between New York and the adjacent cities. The only persons | who seemed to enjoy the ice were the skaters, and they certainly have had no such opportu- | nity for years. Toe Exact Trvra Axnovr Arkansas is very important for the country to know now, when the President proposes to Congress the | destruction of the State government and threatens to undertake the task himself. The personnel of the government, the political situation and the general condition of Ar- kansas society are described in our letter from Little Rock to-day. Mr. Brooks, as will be seen in our Washington despatches, antici- pates trouble next summer which may require the interference of the President; but his views are not supported by those of our cor- respondent, who is in a better position to judge impartial! facts. y of a letter from Mr. vr of England, ad- de- 1 to its Chancellorship. We Poeuise Ersr Giadsione, dressed to the I lining th ty of Union College, Mr. @ ne writes that nothing but his con- stantand overwhelming occupation prevents his aceepting the honor conferred upon him by the Board of Governors of Union College; that he laments to say that he must ‘make ) younger and to less occupied of crossing the Atlantic.” The | election of Mr. adstone to the Chancellor- ship of thi itution is the first time that | an honor ofthis kind has been paid to a for- | eigner. The compliment could have been | bestowed upon no one more worthy. We are sorry to abandon the hope of seeing Mr. Glad- } stone in this country, where he would be re- | ceived with all the honor due to his character, his genius and fame, over to other, t men the hope him to speak. | before the House it is not for the democrats to | oppose it. Let them put the responsibility where it belongs. It is for the republican leaders—the Blaines, the Hales, the Daweses, the Willards, the Pheipecs } to rise in their places and declare that they are the republican party, and that | they are not concerned in this conspiracy | against the public liberties and the public i safety. It belongs to them to denounce it, not as individuats, but in the name of the re- | publican party. They have been silent long enough: just as long as the country will bear. If now they are not bold and outspoken they may as well die, for their political careers will be ended in disgrace. The country will not forgive the carpet-baggers and adventur- ers who have concocted and who favor this shameful proposition; but it will forgive still | less those men of honorable fame who shall now pass it by in silence, or with a timid and faltering opposition. If these men are wise they will not suffer the infamous cancus | bill—they will meet it in the House, and con- | demn it in the name of the party whose leaders they aspire to be. The object of this extraordinary measure is not to correct an existing condition of dis- order, but ostensibly to provide for disorders | which may happen hereafter. It is intended to give the President supreme power during the vacation of Congress, and virtually to place at his feet the Legislatures and the Governors of all the States. In other words, is created for political purposes, and not to meet any practical necessities of the country. We have said that the conntry will not forgive the men who have coneo we may now add that it will not forgive the man who inspired that cauens. ‘there is good reason to believe that this scheme for establishing martial law throughout the coun- try in time of peace was proposed to the republicans by the President himself, and that his influence will be exerted to carry it through Congress. This is made probable by the fact that he alone is to possess and exer- cise the unconstitutional authority the bill proposes to confer. If this belief be true, tin canens, and | then the people will be forced to receive the attempt as a new step in the intrigue for a | third term. The President is constructing a | mined the question of the constitutional bills, | it. One sermon like that of Mr. Hepworth | his feet are placed. The people of the United | States; however, may say, as Richelieu said “whenever in | any Slate unlawful combinations shall be | | organized or attempted, and so numerous and But this bill proceeds upon an entirely dif- | Such powers, even if they were constitu. | a time of peace, except with safeguards which | They ought not to be | intrusted to any ruler who had not given the | Strongest evidences of attachment to consti- whole course as President has shown his in- | and whose more recent acts have shocked and | power since 1861 proposes this monstrous and | But is it not time for the decent members of | the republican party to assert themselves and , to put down the camp followers who speak in | to his party and hopes for it an honorable | It this wild scheme is brought | | ladder upon which he expects to mount to imperial heights of power, and Louisiana, Vicksburg, Arkansas, and martial law in the South, are but some of the rounds on which of Baradas, ‘‘But I hold the ladder, and when I shake he falls.’ The Fitth Avenue Pavement. The impression seems to be universal that any experiments with the pavement of Fifth avenue will be a blunder. The history of pave- ments in great cities is a simple and expres- sive one. We want a pavement that will stand the test of time—not simply a chemical experiment, which may or may not be suc- cessful. The argument in favor of an asphalt pavement is not sustained by experience. Asphalt can be tempered into a very useful commodity ; but with our experience of ex- treme heat and cold it would be madness to expect the good service from asphalt that wo have had from stone. Even granite is so ir- regular in quality that there would be no assurance that a granite pavement would be useful all the year round. There | are many varieties of granite—soft ard hard, crumbling, rotten and sound—and when the blocks are massed together in a pavement, under the pressure of wheels and hoofs, they very soon present an uneven and un- | pleasant surface. | have seen no pavement that satisfies the wants of a great city as well as the one laid down by | Macadam in England. It may costa little | more to Macadamize Fifth avenue. When once done it will bo forever. Let us have an avenue worthy of the Park, worthy of the metropolis aud of the great wealth and beauty of this thoroughfare; but do not let us de- | stroy Fifth avenue by foolish experiments in | chemistry. Thus far, therefore, we | “The Good Old Times.” | In these days of corruption and miscellane- ous depravity it is interesting to observe how politics and statesmanship were managed in | the good old times ‘‘when George III. was | King."’ Lord Russell, in bis recent book of “Recollections and Suggestions,” gives us | an idea of the Parliament of 1812. Those | statesmen who desire to go back to English | precedents in order to reform our present po- litical system will find many of the Earl’s | it. | to drive to the thinnest possibie edge and | terously insinuating sincerity makes such gen- ; tleand gradual gains that they are carried | and he is especially a gentle ard persuasive | 1870, and if its definition of the Pope’s infalli- | The Religious Controversy in England. } The dispute provoked by Mr. Gladstone, | without any apparent necessity or any very intelligible object, is kept up with vigor on bota sides. Intelligent Protestants who wish | to undevstand the merits of this controversy, and are willing to see what the case of the | Catholics really is as presented by one | of the very ablest of their champions, | will find Dr. Newman one of the most courteous, considerate and pleasant of guides. He is, perhaps, the most ex- quisitely accomplished master of the English language among the living authors who write The delightful grace, ease, simplicity and perstusiveness of Dr. Newman's style have always excited the admiration of those differ- ing most widely from him in sentiment, and his new book in reply to Mr. Gladstone, which he regards as his last, is a model of contro- versial writing which may be studied with ad- vantage by disputants in every cause who would qualify themselves not merely to con- fute but to convince. Dr. Newman's Catho- licity is not pitched in a very bigh key, and perhaps no writer ever so perfectly under- stood the art of tapering the wedge he intends prevent it from flying back under the heavy strokes of his beetle. On readers not utterly impervious to argument Dr. Newman's dex- along with him further than they are aware; guide for weak or doubting Catholics, or, as he calls them, ‘‘the little ones of Christ.” | dn considering Dr. Newman’s positions we may be pardoned fora remark or two on the chief point in discussion as viewed by American minds. It is not easier for the Protestants than for the Catholics of this country to see any im- peliing necessity for Mr. Gladstone to stir up and inflame the slumbering animosity of reli- gious sects, Why should he have sounded this sudden note of alarm against the pretensions of the Pope four years after its ostensible occasion? The Vatican Council was held in bility and jurisdiction is so truly alarming, as Mr. Gladstone contends, why did he not sound his trumpet at once, while the occasion was fresh? It cannot be pretended that in | these four years the Pope has done anything | statements to be interesting. In this Parlia- | ment there was one noble lord who used to go | | out hunting, followed by a detail of six or | seven members of Parliament of his own | | making. This reminds us of the time when | | the absent Tweed wes wont to take a carload | of statesmen to Albany to vote for his meas- | | ures. ‘Another lord,’’ says Lord Russell, | | “being asked who should be returned from | | one of his boroughs, named a waiter at | White’s Club. But as he did not even know the man’s name the election was declared to | | be void, and another special election was | held, when the waiter was duly elected.’’ It | isa matter of regret that His Lordship did | not give us the name of this peer, who took | | this means of strengthening the representative influence of Great Britain, as weil as that | | Of the member of Parliament who found him- | self so suddenly transferred from the kitchens | of a club house to the venerable halls of St | Stephen. There was quite an industry in these good \ old times in the way of ‘‘borough mongering,”’ | gs it was called. The object of the professors | | of this singular art was to buy up freehold | | tenures in a small borough, so as to reduce the number of electors to a ‘manageable | quantity.” “‘If a freeholder refused to sell,” says Lord Russell, ‘‘ it was not a very uncom- | mon practice to blow up his house with gun- | powder, and thus disfranchiso a political op- | ponent. In this manner a number of nomina- tion boroughs were created, and they became a | valuable property.” In these good old times, when everybody was virtuous and statesmen were especially pure, a seat for the whole du- | ration of a Parliament was sold for $25,000. Subsequently, as political controversy be- | came more acrimonious, when Parliaments were subject to sudden dissolution, pru- dent men made a bargain to pay $5,000 a | year so long as they sat in the House of Com- | mons. Among those who obtained seats in this way was Sir Francis Burdett, a celebra- ted radical reformer.- These glimpses of the good old times are instructive. When we read the works of Wal- | | pole and Greville and the memoirs of the | men who surrounded the court of George Ul. and who followed in the train of Fox | and Pitt, wo wonder if, after all, our grand- fathers were as goodas the preachers would | have us beli The Plumber of the Period. In such weather as this the plumber be- comes a household necessity. He is like the tinker and the doctor, difficult to keep away, and, once admitted to the house, more difficult to get rid of. The Arctic cold which has for the past few weeks visited New York has played many tricks with the water pipes and hydrants, and the plumber is catled upon to remedy the ravages of the frost. In the dis- charge of his task he necessarily pulls down | | and then charges for building up again, and | his miscellaneous items are the terror of the unfortunate proprietor. The trozen pipes are typical of his icy heart, and when he relieves our distresses it is only to impose other obli- | gations. A plumber in a house is the next | worse thing to the evil he undertakes to re- | move, and to engage him is like inviting your mother-in-law for a week orso. In neither | case do you know when the visit will end. At present there are not enough plumbers in the city, and those who know the trade | | bave more to attend to than they can readily perform. Probably in two-thirds of the houses of this city the water pipes are | frozen, or have burst, or are otherwise dis. | abled by the intense cold, Our reports show the many and dangers which result from this condition of affairs, Fire and frost are, irreconcilable foes ; but now we find them allies, whose nnited force we have ‘The plumber, who can alone liberate the water in our frozen pipes, public benefactor, and we must admit that he has this merit, if we even feel that he is sometimes a private misfortune, Now is the time to send for the plumber and to take proper precautions against fire, not discomforts asa rule, many reasons to dread. becomes a merely for our own sakes, but for the safety | of the whole community. | | A New Carver, it is thought, will not be formed in France till the Assembly has deter- | powers which the Ecumenical Council con- | | Quixote of civil allegiance, after waiting four | dogma of infallibility. He speaks their lan- | is so utterly powerless to control civil alle- | | can mind, Protestant as well as Catholic, that | ment he has been wagiug a long contest in- | | acountry whose whole population is Catho- | | that he will disturb the loyalty of distant | | British subjects! to weaken the tie of allegiance which binds British subjects to their government. Be the ceded to the Pope greater or less, certain it is that they have been as yet mere brutum ful- men so far as any use could be made of them in dissolving or weakening the allegiance of | the subjects of Queen Victoria. Pope Pius IX. is bowed down beneath the weight of years, and after forbearing so long | | to interpose between British subjects and | their sovereign nothing could seem more visionary and chimerical than a fear that this Pope, in the little remnant of his life, will raise any practical question which would cause British Catholics to hesitate between | the duties they owe to the head of the State and the duties they owe to the head of their Church. It is quite possible that the personal char- acter of the successor of Pope Pius may cause uneasiness; but as neither Mr. Glad- stone nor anybody can foresze who he will be it might have been as well for this Don years since the Vatican Council, to have stayed his hand a few months longer, until he | could judge whether the dogma of infallibility would not prove as harmless in the hands of | Pope Pius’ successor as in those of Pope Pius himself. The recent history of the Papacy renders alarm ridiculous, so far as political or civil allegiance is concerned. Within the last | few years the Pope has been deprived of his temporal dominions, has been reduced to the | condition of a subject of the King of Italy, has no longer a rood of territory over which he can | claim to exercise the rights of a political sovereign, and it is in this period of deep humiliation and political impotence that Mr. | Gladstone feels impelled to raise a cry of | | alarm against a dissolution of British alle- giance ! If the Pope can absolve subjects from their | civil allegiance why has he not done it in | Italy? It is there, if anywhere, that the in- terests of the Papacy require him to stand on the extreme boundary of his rights. Italy is | a Catholic country; its people are nearly | unanimous in acknowledging the spiritual | | jurisdiction of the Pope and accepting the | guage, understands their character, has greater facilities tor influencing them than for influencing any other portion of the Catholic Church. He has for years maintained an | obstinate dispute with the government of | United Italy. Why, then, has not the Pope | released the subjects of King Victor Emmanuel from their allegiance? What danger can there be in England when facts demonstrate that he } giance even in Italy? It seems to the Ameri- the history of Italy sinco the Vatican Council refutes and explodes the position of Mr. Gladstone by a signal reductio ad absurdum. Ifthe Pope exerts no power over allegiance in the country of his birth and residence, in a country with whose govern- volving all his political and territorial rights, lie—if in such a country the Pope is without | any power to prevent the obedience 0. sub- jects toa hostile civil authority, how utterly absurd and preposterous it is to affect fears The Sermons Yesterday. | The tendency of the modern pulpit to teach ' | morality rather than to discuss doctrines is | again illustrated in ovr reports of the sermons | delivered yesterday by our most eminent di- vines. The theology of Jonathan Edwards | and great biblical students of his class is be- | | coming obsolete now, when clergymen seem | to be more concerned about the: cxist-, ence of sin than the question of its origin. The mysteries of ‘fate, free will, foreknowledge obsolute,’’ have been debated for thousands of years, and still remain mys- terieg, as of old; and it is not likely that they will ever be solved by man. It is well, there- | fore, for our religious teachers to dwell more | earnestly upon the plain truths of Christian- ity than upon the metaphysics connected with | | discussing it on that basis? | belittle it to a mere case of a disputed election | establish one. upon the search for divine trath is worth volumes of abstract reasoning upon subjects which transcend human powers. The Rev, Mr. Moran preached upon the elements which insure the progress and perpetuity of the Christian religion, another practical subject, and the Rev. father McCauley described the temptations that beset the path of humanity, and the means by which they can be success- fully combated. Mr. Frothingham treated of a devout life, which he thought was not peculiar to any form of religion and not dependent upon any creed. These and other sermons, elsewhere published, show the practical ten- dencies of the pulpit in our day, as distin- guished from the speculative character which it possessed in earlier periods, when religion was more of a philosophy than a daily life. Another Letter from Mr. Curtis. Mr. Curtis “thinks that in our recent com- parison of his views with those of Mr. Cal- houn we misrepresented him, though not in- tentionally, and informs us that he accepts that statesman’s construction of the guarantee clause as “‘entirely right.” Of course we must consider that 1 writer is the best judge of his own meaning, but without the assist- ance of so authentic an expositor we should never have discovered the accordance between the construction of Mr. Curtis and that of Mr. Calhoun. In his previous letter Mr. Curtis stated in effect that he had changed none of the views expressed in his ‘‘History of the Consti- tution,” and we felt authorized to regard his history as a correct statement of his present opinions. In that work he quotes the guaran- tee of “a republican form of government’’ as applicable to cases like Shay’s rebellion, which was a mere case of domestic violence against the government of a State. According to Mr. Calhoun's exposition the guarantee quoted by Mr. Curtis has no application to cases of domestic violence against a State, like‘Shay’s rebellion. Also in the letter which Mr. Curtis complains that we misrepresented, and which discusses the guarantee of republican govern- ment, he strongly reprobates the idea that Congress can interfere under that guarantee “without any call by the State or its people, and constituting itself the sole and absolute judge of the exigency.’’ But, according to Mr. Calhoun “‘it would bea perfect absurdity” | to require an application im cases arising under the guarantee of a republican form of government, Calhoun’s argument hinges in great part on the fact that the constitution requires an application under the guarantee against domestic violence and not under the guarantee of a republican form of govern- ment. We think, therefore, that the con- formity of Mr. Curtis’ construction of the guarantees with that of Mr. Calhoun could not have been discovered by anybody but himself. According to Mr. Calhoun Congress is necessarily the sole judge of the exigencies which permit it to exercise its right of inter- ference in cases of usurpation. ‘While I admit the right,’’ he says, “I also admit that it is a high and delicate one; the highest and | most delicate of any conferred on the federal government.” This delicacy explains why Congress has never passed a general law for carrying out this particular guarantee. There isa general law clothing the President with authority to act in cases of domestic violence and in cases of invasion, but Congress has reserved to itself the sole authority to decide oneach case as it arises under the guarantee of republican government. Mr. Curtis discusses the Louisiana case as | if it were only an ordinary case of a disputed election, and on that theory of the facts no- body could very well differ with him as to the impolicy of federal interference. But is ita mere case of a disputed election? If so, there has been a great deal of misplaced denuncia- tion of the Kellogg ‘‘usurpation.” It it be in truth the flagrant “usurpation” which has | been declaimed against with so much demo- cratic fervor why does Mr. Curtis shrink from unless he is conscious that if he admitted it to be a usurpation his arguments would not hold? A republican form of government is one in | which the rulers are the free choice of the people and hold their offices in conformity with the constitution and laws, If Mr. Curtis believes there is such a government in Louisi- ana he is quite logical in contending that there is no occasion for Congress to execute the guarantee of a republican form of govern- | ment, But if, as a majority of Congress be- | lieves, Kellogg is a usurper and McEnery has no legal title to the office, there is at present | no government in Louisiana republican in form, and it is the duty of Congress to see that the people have an opportunity to re- as we are aware, has ever yet defined what it is, The Democracy in Council. The festivities at Albany this winter are made more delightful by the novelty of the situation, and the astonishment from which the participators have not yet fully recovered, It has been so long since the democracy had anything to be festive about that they can be pardoned for any exuberance of spirits. The inheritor of a fortune late in life is not more elated than these gentlemen are who have come into possession of power after years of painful deprivation, officers. To-day we have another letter de- seriptive of the entertainment given by a dis- | tinguished lady of Albany society to Governor ‘Tilden, which Mr. Bryant and other eminent persons in politics and literature attended, lt is a great thing to be able to entertain a democratic Governor, and the rarity of the event naturally creates unusual excitement. One featnre of these gatherings 18 the political significance they assume, as, for instance, | when we find the gentlemen present nominat- | ing each other for the Presidency. My. Bryant ‘has nominated Mr. Tilden, Mr. Tilden has | nominated Mr. Seymour, and now Mr, Sey- | mour should nominate Mr, Bryant. We only hope that these courtesies will be continued and that the conrse of the democrs.ic party in | Albany will not make them a mockery in the near future. There are. plenty of candidates for the Presidency, but what the party most | needs is a few statesmen who will make the | Why does he | If there be any other way of | restoring republican government than by | | giving the people a chance to elect their rulers | and revise their constitution, nobody, so far Our Albany correspond- | | ent told us the other day that there were | sixty-three leaders of the democracy in the Assembly—a fact which recalls the story of | the regiment in which all the men were | nomination of any one something more thap the compliment of a social gathering. The Government and the Telegrap® Lines. We have read with some interest an impor- tant bill introduced into Congress by General Butler, entitled, ‘An act to establish ¢ertain telegraphic lines in the several States and Territories as post roads, and to regulate the transmission of commercial and other inte} ligence by telegraph.’’ This bill proposes that all telegraph lines be made post road:, and that the government shall advertise for proposals to send messages over the telegraph lines on the same principle as ¢the mail is transmitted over the post roads. The tele. graph companies are directed to receive all messages sent to them from any other com. pany-at the regular rates. It forbids all companies from taking part in the collection or purchase of commercial news. It pro. vides that the tariff on messages by cable from offices in foreign countries shall not exceed, in addition to the cable rate, the ordinary rate. It directs that press despatches shall be sent to all journals and associations without discrimination, and that there shall be no favoritism shown to any newspaper. It provides that all telegraphic messages shall be privileged communications under the law; that tariffs shall be uniform; that government messages shall have priority; and any person violating this act can be fined one thousand dollars and imprisoned for two years, This bill is one of the most important meas ures that has been introduced into Congress, Many features of it we approve. At the same time, there are other features of it which do not commend themselves to us. We fear that to have the government interfere in a private business is a bad precedent. Nor do we see very well how any government can tako pote session of the telegraph wires as post roads without making some com. pensation to those who own these roads, who have established and supported them from the first, taking the risks ot their success, A bill might be introduced, on the same principle, directing the Hzranp to pub- lish all the advertisements sent to the other papers at the rates which the other papers charge, and forbidding us from choosing our own rates. These, however, are objections that occur to us ona hasty reading of Gen- eral Butler’s measure. Our view has always been that the best way to solve this protlem, which is always a serious one, is for the gov- ernment to adopt the postal system. if we are to take possession of the telegraph wires, let us do it on the principle upon which it has been managed in England, But how we can take possession of the lines without com- pensation to the companies isa matter which may be clear to General Butler but which is not so to us. At the same time there is enough good in the bill to justify its immediate consideration. This business requires reform, and under the pressure of public opinion reform must come. To-Dax the Beecher trial will be resumed, and we give a recapitulation of some ime portant events and a sketch of the career and writings of the celebrated d2fendant. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Robert Browning’s new poem is entitled “Arise tophanes’ Apology.’” Ex-Governor Robert McClelland, o/ Michigan, ia etaying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Atranslation of Sainve Beuve’s “English Pore traits’ will be publisied by Henry Hoit & Co, Vice President Henry Wilson arrived at the Grand Central Hotel yesterday from Washington. General Robert U. Schenck’s little book on the great game of draw poker is to be printed in New York. Mile, Albani arrived in this city yesterday from Pittsburg, and took up her residence at the Clar- endon Hotel. Of 55,000 babies born in Paris every year 20,000 are “put out to nurse’—thatis, put out to be done jor by process of slow murder, Victor Cherbulicz’s novel, “Miss Rovel,! hae been translated by Francis A. Shaw, and will be published by Estes & Lauriat, of Boston, In Paris they are talking of Canrobert as likely to play one of these days Jor the Prince Impérial the httie game recently played in Madrid by Gen- eral Primo de Riviera to the profit of Alfonso, Asumptuous book has appeared in Paris, en- titled “Jesus Christ, par Louis Veuillot.” The book is magnificently filustrated with sixteen chromo-lithographs and 180 engravings of every school of Christian art. The Britisn public oMcers now print most long ofMicial jetters, instead of having them writven. For £100 a year, including the cost of paper, the work of several copying clerksis done. It thus appears that the printer Is driving out the copyist. Dr. .Kenealy, a8 @ candidate for Parliament, saya to the voters of his ditrict:—“I belleve that in ten years, with the Magna Charta Association at my back, I shall make our country prosperous, happy and free.’”? While he was atit he might a@ weil have given himsel! eleven years, A learned German critic, Dr. Godeke, has written & pamphlet on the long-disputea question whether Shakespeare's sonnets were addressed to a man or a woman. He attempts to show that not Lord Southampton but Anne Hatheway was the “irtend and love’? to whom the poet addressed his im- passioned verses, In so far as Dr. Newman’s letter is a reply to Mr. Gladstone's impeachment of ultramontanism itis an abatement of the extreme claims of the ultramontane party, and consequently his treat ment of the qnestion ts not at all relished by the thoroughgolng party in the Church, and is"only not disavowed because they do not care to indi- cate any want of harmony just now. Although the editions of the Holy Bible are reckoned by the thousands, there has never yet | been a portable edition in good type until the ap- | pearance of tne new naudy volume edition of the Bible in London, This is in eleven little volumes, any one of which will goin the pocket, the whole text being printed in large clear type and on good paper. : In Stelly @ woman who seemed dying from con- sumption, but was without many of the common symptoms o! that disease, was found, by the use of the laryngoscope, to have a leech firmly ad- herent by both extremities to the walls of the air passages at their upper portion, and so the dim- culty of breathing, speaking, coughing, &c., were easily explained, He was got out by surgical operation. Itis said in Berlin tnas the Vatican has asked the Prussian bishops to declare whether there are no means to fillup vacant Itvings in their dioceses consisiens with canonical law, yet compatinne with the new ecclesiastical statutes of the king- dom, This remarkabie step of the Papacy is sup. posed to have been occasioned by the constantly increasing number of vacant livings and the con- | stantly decreasing number of students of Catholte theology. Maurice Grau has his neat perception of the humorous as 18 proper for % manager; but ape parently he had less faithin the “New Magdelen” than he might have had, and on the first might he thonght It would be judicious to “paper” the house liberally, But, strange to say, the public that re ceives iree tickets Was, for the occasion, Inaccess + | wie, Tooker nad been before him, Everybody | poittely declined the “complimentaries,” because “we have iast received tickets for ‘Henry Vv.