The New York Herald Newspaper, February 18, 1875, Page 6

NEW YORK HERAL D 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 Henarp will be sent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- pual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New Yorx Hezaxp. : Rejected communications will not be re- tarned. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME XL. AMUSEMED ———>_——. ACADEMY OF MUSIC. DBAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT, in aia of the Masonic Dedication Fund, at5 P.M. Miss Lillie Eldridge. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, Xo, 201 Bowery.—VAitt at 3 P.M; closes at 104s M. LYCEUM THEATRE, th avenue. -OFF THE — r. M. : closes at 1U:40 P.M. Fourteenth street and THE DODGER, at 8 P J. L. loole. BRYAN A HOUSE, ‘West Twenty-third sti ‘Sixth avenue.—NEQRO MINSTRELSY, &c,, a ; closes at 10 P.M Dan Bryant iy BROOKLYN VARIETY, ai 8 P.M. ; clo GERMA Fourteenth street A) Bloses at 10:45 ¥'. M. PARK THEATRE, Broadway.—French Opera Boutfe—GIROFLE-GIROPLA, atsP. M. Mile. Corale Geofro: PARK THEATRE, t 10:45 PLM. “1 HOERNER, at 8P. M; NIBLI Broa@way.—THE OCTOROO! ¥.M. Edwin. Thorne, COLOSSEUM, Broadway and Thirty-fourth stree'.—PARIS BY NIGHT, ats. M. BOOTI E, corner of Twenty Sixth avenue.— HENRY V., at SP. . SAN FRA) YY. corner oi ELSY, at 3 P. CISCO MINSTRELS, | Broadwi i Twenty-ninth street-—NEGRO MINSTS M.; closes at l0.P. M, ROBINSON HAL Sixteenth street.—BEGONE DULL iL, CARE, at 6 P.M; closes at 1045 P.M. Mr, Macea ACADEMY O8 DESIGN, corner of Twenty-thir street and Fourth avenue.—EX- HIBITION OF WATER COLOR PAINTINGS. Open fram 9.4. M. to5 P.M. and frem6 P.M. to9 P.M. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway.—THE SHAUGHRAUN, at SP. M.z closes at 1040 P.M. Mr, Boucicauit STRINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street —DRAMAYIC ECITALS, Miss Jennie Hotchkiss. Broadway, LITE, até corner of T P. Mi; closes at TIVOLI! TH Eighth strect. between » TARTETY, at 8P. M.; closes at BROOKLYN ‘Washington strect.—Tiik closes at 10:45 P.M, Mr. way. ATRE, EVA CROSS, rank Roche, Mrs. ateP. M+ STADT THEATRE, Bowery.—THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, at 8 P. M. Miss Lina Mayr. OLYMPIC THEATRE, 3 a Broagway.—VARIETY, at 8, M.; closes at 10908 ROMAN HIPPODROME, ‘Twenty-sixth street and Fourth avenue.—Afternoon and evening, at? and & BOF THEATRE COMIQUE, a Broadway.—VaRIETY, at SP. M.; closes at 1045 — TARATRE, Twenty-eichth street and Broadway.--THE BIG BO- NANZA, at SP. M.; closes at 1): P. M, Mr. Lewis, Miss D. venport, Mrs. Gilbert. RIPLE SHEET, THURSDAY, t FEBRUAR From our reports this morning the probabil gre that the weather to-day will be ‘cold and clear. Warn Strerr Yesterpar.—Gold advanced to 1154, declined to 114], and closed at 115. Foreign exchange was irregular. Stocks were active and lower. Warr Is Uncle Dick? Ir Gexrnat Grant and his friends are not arranging for a third term what are they doing? Tae Revenve Question was debated in the House yesterday, but, of course, withont definite result. Tue Springfield Union suggests that the President and Congress should be abolished, and the country governed by a commission of independent editors. Tuer Costicas Brix reels at Albany. Yes- terday seventeen democrats, representing the wishes of Tilden, opposed it and voted with the republica’ Ir is Proposmp to waste the remainder of the session of the Senate upon Pinchback. The democrats announce that they will talk until the 4th of March rather than admit him, Tre Remor seems to be generally credited that Dr. Hayes will lead an Arctic exploration into Weatcheste Doctor goes by water he will ¢ t praise for his mwoirere. ‘Tar Latest News from John Mitchel is that he run for Parliament, aud that he is received with the utmost enthusiasm will a by the Irish. Disraeli has made Mitchel the most popular man in Ireland Coronano. Greele ‘ribune announces that the coal fields of Colc ure larger than the whole area gland. It wonld not surprise if this wonderful Territory developed as much wealth as California. Pact Cassaoyac’s Paris newspaper, the Pays, Bonapartist organ, announces gravely that the Prince Imper having graduated | at the head of bis class in fencing and horse- mausbip, will ‘from to-day wholly devote himself to the direction of the Imperialist party."’ France will be rejoiced to know that a nineteen-year old boy has lett his foils and ponies to devote himself to the Empire—to wait, if the truth were known, antil some General smspires a coup d'état, like Prince de Rivera in Spain. We do not know whether the Prince proposes to buy « tame eagle, as / hie father did, and make a descent upon France; but it would not surprise us. at$P. ML; closes at 1045 | | find his present situation embarrassing. In- F. B. Con- | NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUA | Costigan bill should receive bis approval. We | Governor Tilden and the Legisla- ture—A Threatened Democratic Schism, In order to get a clear understanding of the conflict developing at Albany between the Governor and his party in the Legislature it is necessary to bear in mind that Mr. Tilden is not only Governor of New York, but a can- didate for the Presidency in the election of 1876, HS aspirations impel him in one direc- } tion and his duties as Chief Magistrate of this | State should carry him in another. It is be- | coming evident that his State duties and his | national aspirations are incompatible, and | that his personal ambition is likely to ob- struct his usefulness as Governor and to cre- ate a breach in the democratic party of the State. The legislative measure known in com- | sion of this threatened split. The democratic members of Assembly have supported the bill, voting to order it to a third reading | and put it on its passage. The Governor has become apprehensive that republicans enough when he would have to take the responsibility | of signing or vetoing it. He recoils from this responsibility, and is understood to be | exerting all his secret influence to get the bill | killed in the Assembly. The reasons why he js neither willing to | siga nor to veto it, and therefore wishes it | strangled in the place of its birth, are quite obvious in view of his double relation to State | him into open collision with his party in the Legislature, and, by alienating the strongest | | branch of his supporters in the last election, | | prevent a unanimous New York delegation in | the Democratic National Convention. It | there should be a strong body of anti-Tilden | | delegates from this State he could have no | | reasonable hope of: securing the nomination. | | On the other hand, if he should sign the bill, he fears he would be signing | | bis death warrant as a Presidential | candidate. His political stock in trade con- sists in his reform record and the conspicu- | | ous part he took in demolishing the Tweed | ring. He knows how quick and keen his adversaries would be in taking advantage of | any act which could be made to wear the ap- | pearance of inconsistency with his reform record, The first practical consequence of his signing the Costigan bill would be the re- moval of his creature, Comptroller Green. It was he that put Green in office, and he fears that if he consents toa measure which would result in Green’s removal he would be ac- cused of deserting the banner of reform and be damaged in his Presidential aspirations. | | Ifhe had “an eye single’ to his duties as Governor there is no reason why he should | stead of interfering to prevent the passage of | this bill, as a means of escaping the responsi- bility of signing or vetoing it, Governor Til- den would allow it to take its course and ac- cept the consequences of his proper official action. 1 The Costigan bill, which is the occasion of this budding quarrel between the Governor and Legislatare, has two main features, and if we could separate the Presidential candidate | from the State Executive there is no discover. able reason why a democratic Governor should object to its passage. One of these features | curtails and the other somewhat extends the authority of the Mayor. So far as tho bill abridges the power of the Mayor we have seen | no objection to it in any quarter. | city charter, as enacted in 1873, declared that | “the Mayor shali nominate, and by and with | the consent of the Board of Aldermen, appoiut | the heads of departments and all commission- ers.’ ‘This was changed by a special act passed last spring empowering the Mayor to make appointments without the consent of | the Aldermen. When Governor Dix signed | this bill he was assailed and denounced by { leading democratic organs, and a brief experi- | ence proved that Governor Dix made a mis- take. When Mayor Havemeyer raised a gen- eral outcry against the appointments he made in pursuance of this unrestricted power, and Governor Dix was compelled to investi- gate charges of malfeasance brought | against the Mayor for his scandalous | appointments, the Governor did not think fit to remove the late Mayor for his abuse of the appointing power, but he acknowledged, in a published communication, that the law which clothed the Mayor with the sole power of appointment was a blunder. With this ‘The present | mon parlance as the Costigan bill is the occa- | support it to carry it through the Senate, | | 88k attention to one or two pertinent quota- ‘ tions from that document. The keynote of that part of the Message was struck in this sentence: —‘‘All the invasions of the rights of the people of the city of New York to choose their own rulers and to manage their own affairs—which have been a practical denial of self-government for the last twenty years— have been ventured upon in the name of re- form, under a public opinion created by abuses and wrongs of local administration that found no redress." The Governor then went on to expose the capital defect in all our recent city charters in this striking language:—‘“‘It is | long since the people of the city of New York have elected any Mayor who has had the ap- pointment, after his election, of the impor- tant municipal officers. Under the charter of 1870, and again under the charter of 1873, the power of appointment was conferred on @ Mayor already in office. There has not been an election in many years in which the elec- tive power of the people was effective to pro- duce any practical results in respect to the heads of departments in which the actual governing power really resides.” We beg that this significant complaint against the charters of 1870 and 1873 may be duly weighed. It cuts from beneath the Gov- ernor every inch of ground on which he might hope to stand in opposing the Costigan bill. | When Governor Tilden prepared his Mes- | and national politics. A veto would bring | | recent experience of the bad effects of that | law nobody can seriously maintain that the feature of the Costigan bill which secks to | restore to the Board of Aldermen its former check on appointments is not wise. Assum- ing this to be beyond controversy we proceed to consider the other main feature of the bill. ‘The Mayor's power of removal, as the char- ter now stands, requires the concurrence of the Governor in every case to make it effec- tive. This provision was first introduced into our municipal government in the charter of | is simply to throw money away. sage he was of the opinion that the people are entitled to change the whole personne! of the executive administration in every election of a Mayor. He said, very justly, that “the actual governing power really resides in the heads of departments,” and regarded it as a great wrong to the people that their choice of a | Mayor is made fruitless of practical results by the fact that the heads of departments ap- pointed by his predecessors continue to hold their offices in spite both ot him and of the people who elected him. The effect of the Costigan bill would be to clothe the Mayor with that control of the city administration of which Governor Tilden so strongly asserted the importance in his Message. When he wrote the Message,Le was a strenuous advo- cate of the right of the people to change the | whole body of administrative officers in every Mayoralty election. The Costigan bill would merely put in the hands of Mayor Wickhama power which the Governor maintained that every Mayor ought to possess, in pursuance of the right of the people to change the whole | body of their local officers in every election. On principle, and judged by his own recent official declarations, Governor Tilden is bound to give his hearty assent to the bill whose | passage through the Legislature he is exerting | himself to defeat. The warm language pointed | at him by some of the democratic speakers in the Assembly yesterday should convince him | ' that he is playing a dangerous game and that his course is calculated to divide and disor- ganize the democratic party of the State, Composition Pavements. If any fact is more definitely understood | than another, so far as pavements are con- cerned, it is that the project to poultice Fifth avenue, or to disfigure it by any chemical composition in the way of a pavement, meets neither the wishes of the people who live on the avenue nor the public generally, to whom Fifth avenue isa public highway. Already a remonstrance has been presented against the proposal to allow it to be covered with asphalt, signed by the best citizens of the avenue, As this avenue is to be paved by the taxpayers, however, the reason for this being that it isa | public highway to the Park, the special objec- tion of those who live on it should be re- | ceived with reserve. Our opposition to the proposition to poultice the avenue is not based so much on the wishes of the residents as for the good of the people. We have had already many of our streets ruined by experiments in wood, asphalt and tar. Let any curious citizen walk from Delmonico’s to Central Park, through Seventh or Eighth avenue, and up and down the cross streets, and he will see the lamentable results of these ex- periments. Let him study the pavement around the Worth Monument, which is held up as a model for Fifth avenue. Let him go into the Reservoir Pars and see the pave- ments which were carefully prepared under the reign of the Ring empire trom chemical recipes. He will then see just what it 1s pro- posed to do with Fifth avenue, and he can- not resist the conclusion that to cover this avenue with a substance which will crack in | winter and melt in summer, and which is un- fitted for our treacherous and extreme climate, Let us have a plain, substantially built Macdamized road, ‘ and it will satisfy not only those who live on the avenue, but the people of New York, who | are compelled to use it when they visit the | Park. | 1872, for partisan reasons which we will not | here recount or discuss. It is a strong pre- , sumption against its wisdom that it has no parallel cither? in any previous charter of this city or in the charters of | other American cities. That it is | unsound in principle might be proved by tie former arguments of some of our city con- temporaries who are now strenuously oppos- ing the Costigan bill The Hvening Post, in particular, contended for years, beginning in 1870, that the best scheme for a charter sponsibility for the heads of departments, [f it had one article it had at least fifty, first and last, advocating this view. It declared again and again, with nnwearied iteration, that the correct model for a city government in its executive branch is the constitution of the United States, which makes the President re- sponsible of departments by investing him with the power of removal. The Evening Post heid that concentration of authority in the hands of the Mayor would enable the pe to hold him responsible for the wise aud hone ministration of the city government and simplify the control of the people over their local affairs, We can imagine no reason, apart from some recent EBrening Post has re- for the heads festivities, why the would be to clothe the Mayor with full re- . Western newspaper says that nounced a principle for which it @o long and | so ably contended, | It is not, perhaps, quite so easy to show | | that Governor Tilden is equally reereant to former avowed principles, but we need go no further back than his Message at the begin- | | ning of the session to find reasons why the - or a Tse Brxcuzr Triau dragged its slow length along yesterday. One important letter from Mrs. Tilton was read, which will stand a large amount oi explanation. Mr. Tilton's examination closed, and he will no longer sit on the ‘ragged edge’’ of Mr. Evarts’ ques- | tioning. Mr. Tilton was not asked his opin- ions of “Paradise Lost’ or the transit ot Venus. But, then, counsel cannot think of everything. One the jurors fainted. It would ® calamity if any mis- fortune happen to the jury before the case closed. Mr. Beach said that the Heratp’s prophetic report of the twenty-fifth ot be year of the scandal seemed about to be real- | ized. Mr. Beach is a very sagacions man, A ¢ attorneys of Mr. Tilton will oppose Mrs. ness, This would jar every sentiment of fair play. There can be ne fair inquiry which does not embrace the evidence of Mrs. Tilton. For, although o a woman after all, she has some rights, @ nam should think, o story how neither plaintiff mor defendant cared much about the woman, who has only come into the case to be trodden under toot. For this reason, therefore, it is incredible that the plaintif’ should uot welcome Mrs. Tilton aso witness, She knows the truth and should be allowed or compelled to tell it. The de- cision which admitted Mr. Tilton would seem to make his wife eligible. But this, of course, is with the courts. Onr ouly point is that fair play requires that al! sides should be heard, ~s ‘Tae Narver of the republican opposition in the Senate to Mr. Pinchback’s admission is indicated by Mr. Ferry’s strong speech yester- day, printed elsewhere. RY 18, 18 John Mitchel. | rary, to fill the vacancy caused by the retire- ment of Colonel White. There was no opposi- tion to his candidature, and as Mr. Mitchel had recently visited Ireland without any interference on the part of the authorities it seemed natural that the government had consented to overlook the offence for which he was condemned twenty-seven years ago. This offence consisted in assailing the Queen and taking part ina movement to overthrow the British government. In 1848, when Europe was alive with revolutionary impulses, when the republicans were rising in Germany and Lamartine was endeavoring to found his sentimental Republic in France, John Mitchel, in conjunction with William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher and many others, engaged in an attempt to free Ireland. Mitchel was tried under an act which made it felony to ‘‘compass or to imagine the deposition of the | Queen, or to give expression to any such in- tention.” We believe it was the trial of Mitchel and his conviction that led to the rising when, under the command of O'Brien, the Irish patriots engaged in a conflict at Ballingarry, where severa) lives were lost. The result of this conflict was tbe trial of O’Brien and his friends for high treason, their conviction and banishment. O'Brien was allowed to return to Ireland in 1856, and the action of the English government in per- mitting this was regarded as a virtual par- don to all concerned with him, to none more than Mitchel. Others of the patriots escaped from trans- portation, with the connivance, it is believed, i the United States. Among them the most con- spicuous is John Mitchel. He has been a resi- dent of this country for many years. He has | tics. Nothing seems more natural than that he should return to feeling that an offence which was pardoned in O'Brien nearly twenty years ago should not be remembered to the disad- vantage of one of O’Brien’s comrades now. It Mitchel should elect him to Parliament. But | the British government proposes, as Mr. Disraeli announced in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening,’ to object to his taking his seat. The ground alleged is ‘‘that he is a felon under sentence.’ Mr. Mitchell is as much the representative of an idea as Sir Charles Dilke or Sir Wilifred Lawson. The offence charged against him was committed nearly s generation since. It was an offence against the government and not against | morals, or in any way affecting his integrity. There is no pretension that Mr. Mitchel returned to England on an illegal errand. It is certainly not an unlawful act for a subject of the British Crown to accept the suffrages of his own people, and sit in the House of Com- mons. Practically, even from Mr. Disraeli’s own point of view, as the head of the British | 1 | 1m all its relations the dignity of the law, it | would have been much wiser for him to either | pardon Mr. Mitchel outright or to consider | that time had accomplished a pardon, and | allow him to quietly take his seat. believe, elected O'Donovan Rossa to Parlia- | ment, Rossa had been sentenced to imprison- ment for an attempt to overthrow the British | of the British authorities, and have lived in | | taken an active part in journalism and poli- | Ireland, | is not surprising that the friends of Mr. | we cannot understand upon what reasoning | government, and bound, therefore, to protect | Some years ago this very same district, we | 75.-TRIPLE SHEET. ' aster in such a horrible shape, and the efforts Mr. John Mitchel was elected to Parlia- | °f the firemen should not cease until every ment on Monday, from the county of Tippe- | hydrant is in proper working onder. The Case of Dr. Kenealy. The announcement that Dr. Kenealy has been elected member of Parliament from Stoke-upon-Trent will attract attention to an extraordinary case and in some respects an extraordinary man. Stoke-upon-Trent is a parliamentary borough in the county of Staf- ford, in the valley of the Trent, composed of a number of townships and villages, in the district familiarly called ‘‘the Potteries."’ The people are a rude, ignorant type, who gen- erally devote themselves to the manufacture of earthenware. The borough is largely com- posed of laboring classes who have deep radi- cal convictions. Dr. Kenealy, it will be re- membered, was the counsel for the defendant in the famous Tichborne case. By his course he brought upon himself the severe con- demnation of the Lord Chief Justice. He was charged with having violated the courtesies of his profession, and was dismissed from his mess. He established @ newspaper called The Englishman, a weekly journal, in which he criticised severely the Court before which he practised, the govern- ment and many high officers. For this he was disbarred from the practice of the law and his name was stricken from the rolls as Queen’s counsel by the Lord Chancellor. The practical effect of these proceedings was to throw s lawyer, well on in life, with a large family, out of the practice of his profession ; to deprive him of social standing and any op- portunity of earning his livelihood. Notwithstanding the person claiming to be Sir Roger Tichborne was convicted and sen- tenced to fourteen years’ imprisonment—a | sentence which he is now undergoing—there | has been a wide feeling among the lower classes in England that he is the person he | claims to be, and that he is now suffering an unjust penalty. Of course, this sympathy extends to his counsel, Dr. Kenealy, who has fallen in his efforts to sustain his client. His | election, therefore, from the ‘‘Potteries” is a declaration by the people that they still be- | lieve in the claimant and his cause. Dr. Kenealy’s advent to Parliament is an | | interesting and will be a mischief-breeding event. He isa fine speaker, of marked abili- ties, and perfectly competent to take part in | any debate. He will scarcely have o hearing | in Parliament, however, as the public opinion | of that body is largely against him. The House of Commons has also a summary way | of stamping out a persistent member. Dr. Kenealy represents not simply the borough | which elected him, but a public feeling and a | public prejudice of the most extraordinary | character. He will hardly have it in his power | to effect his client’s pardon or to change the | opinion of the upper classes of England, who | regard the Tichborne claimant to be a | despicable scoundrel. But in the agitation | now pervading England, the growth of radi- cal opinions, the tendency to create “burning | issues,’’ the rise of the republican sentiment, | the presence of a man like Dr. Kenealy in | Parliament is an event not without signifi- | | i | cance. _He goes there as a firebrand, and at | | this time nothing would seem to be more dan- | gerous to the peace of England than a man of | | this quality and possessing the ability of Dr. | Kenealy. Rapid Transit Again. | A bill has been introduced into the Assembly by Mr. Smith, of New York, in reference to rapid transit. It provides for a special elec- government. At the time of his election he ilton asa wit- | bas | | was actually in prison, undergoing sentence, Mr. Gladstone moved that a new writ be issued and the election declared void, on the ground that Rossa was ‘‘a felon, undergoing punishment.’’ In the eyes of the English law Mr. Gladstone's position was a sound one, as it-would bave been impossible almost to have expected the House of Commons to admit to its deliberations a prisoner doomed to severe punishment. But this reason does not exist in the case of Mr. Mitchel. He was allowed to return to Ire- land to live without molestation or hindrance. The fact that he escaped from transportation was overlooked. “As we remarked before, twenty-seven years have passed since his sen- tence tor an offence purely political. Cer- tainly, therefore, to object to his admittance into the House of Commons on the ground that ‘the has been adjudged guilty of felony i and sentenced to transportation, and has neither endured the penalty nor received a pardon,” is @ grave error. A wise, a mag- nanimous, or even a prudent Minister would | have overlooked the fact that while, techni- | | either granted him a pardon or considered that his ‘‘offence” had been condoned by time. The effect of thisact of Mr. Disraeli will be | to revive ill feeling and agitation in Ireland. Mr. Mitchel might have quietly slipped into | except as acurious and gifted member of that | small body ot resolute nationalists who follow | the forlorn flag of Ireland. He could have been crowded out of general debate by the pressure of business and the overpowering majority | against him. At the very utmost he might have made one or two speeches amid the jeers | of his opponents. pushed aside by the lustier and younger men. | But Mr. Disraeli makes hié cause the cause of every Irishman aud his position that of the leader of those who claim that England has wronged Ireland, and that her rule is the rule of an oppressor. Furthermore, the English spectacle of a government attempting to punish a man for a nominal offence com- mitted twenty-seven years ago, and which it | had practically forgiven. Frozes Hyprants.—-Ot all the ills that a severe winter can inflict upon a large city there is none that calls for more grave reflec- | ' tion than the deprivation of means of defence st tires. When the F treezing of the hydrants, and that, too, during a season when fires ore generally more to be feared than at any other time of the year, this question becomes one of specia! importance. | We have already had a sad experience of the cally, Mr, Mitchel had neither served out his | sentence nor received a pardon, and have | the House of Commons unnoticed, perhaps, | As is so often the case with | revolutionists late in life, he might have been | sense of fair play will be jarred sadly by the | red temporarily powerless, owing to the | danger of frozen hydrants from the last tenes ment house fire, and without the adoption of speedy and urgent measures similar calami- tion to decide upon plans and estimates for the road, which are to be prepared by the Society of American Engineers in conjunction with the Engineer-in-Chief of the Department of Public Works, and to be approved by the Chamber of Commerce, the Society of En- gineers, the Cheap Transportation Association ; and the Common Council before being sub- | mitted to the people. The general featurs of this bill seems to be a good one, with the ex- | | ception that any measure ot rapid transit that is to be approved by as many bodies as is | here provided will be apt to perish trom | neglect. What plan the Society of American | Engineers, the Chamber of Commerce and the | | Cheap Transportation Association can all pos- } sibly agree upon in the way of rapid transit | we cannot imegine. We believe that | the best way to accomplish rapid | transit is for the Mayor and the Govy- | ernor to take the thing directly in hand. Let | them agree upona plan, and the people will be sure to approve of it. We should all trust | the judgment of a sound-minded business man | like the Mayor and a far-seeing, ingenious | statesman like the Governor ona question upon | which so much has been said and so mnch | is known, and which, after all, is simple in its | character. ‘The trouble in our country is that | ; Many great measures are destroyed by talk. | | “It seems to me,” said Carlyle, ‘as if the finest nations of the world, the English and i the Americans, were going all off into wind | | and tongue;’’ and the trouble with much of | | our rapid transit discussion is that it is wind | and tongue. We have very little contidence | in the practical wisdom or the efficiency of the | American Engineers’ Society or the Cheap | ‘Transportation Association. What we want is something done, and the Governor and the | Mayor are the men who can and should and | must do it. : | | ‘Tae Exousy Porar Expzprrion.—A special | despatch to the Hrratp from London con- | tains important news to all who are interested , in Arctic discovery. A motion has been made | in Parliament for the postponement for one | year of the Polar expedition now being organ- | | ized by the British Admiralty, in order that | the Austrian and other governments may | co-operate. It is probable that Parlia- | ment wil! act upon this suggestion, as | the advantages of such a course as Mr. Reed | proposes are obvious, The chances of success | would be ruch greater if several govern. | ments should a npon a plan for reaching | the Pole, instead ot depending upon isolated efforts. It is to be hoped, for the sake of | | American science, that the United States, in | case Mr, Reed's motion is carried, will join in the international undertaking. { Tne Leorstavune of West Virginia have elected as Senator Allen T. Caperton, who will enter the Senate, we presume, as an op- ponent of the republicans. Mr. Caperton is unknown, but the democrats as well as the republicans are succeeding admirably in ties may occur at anyday. The properauthori- | electiny obscarc aud appasently uscless men | ties shou!d exert every means to ward off dis | to (he uew Senate, | Liberty,” The Rights of Dramatic Autherg. Mr. Boucicault addresses us a card, else- where printed, in which he calls attention to his determination to protect his own rights as an author and actor and the rights of all who have any relation to the drama. The case is very plain. Mr. Boucicault, one of the most distinguished of living actors and autho rs composes a play, which is the dramatic event of the season. It strikes the popular taste sa deeply that it draws crowded houses for s hundred nights, and bids fair to do so for many hundreds of nights. By general consent and the unerring verdict of the people it becomes one of the most remarkable triumphs of the stage. How much is due to the genius of the actor or the author we, do not say, as it might be to consider too curiously to enter upon that question. But the plain fact is that the work is that of Mr, Boucicault, and the advantage belongs as honestly to him as if he had founded a pros- perous newspaper or built a profitable rail- way. No sooner, however, hag his success become apparent than a rival manager pro- duces a play, which is a copy of his comedy, embodying its attractive features, its business, situation, characters and spirit—all, in fact, that goes to give the ‘“Shaughraun” its success, Mr. Boucicault goes into Court and aske that he be protected in his property. The answer is that he stole it from two comedies, “Bryan O’Lynn” and “Pyke O'Callaghan.” Upon looking into these comedies, anxious to discover the theft, we find no resem- blance, nothing of the spirit, purpose or general conception of the “Shaughraun.”’ ‘We read a couple of indifferent, ordinary Irish comedies; one of them, ‘‘Bryan O’Lynn,” owing its whole value to the admirable acting of Mr. Barney Williams, and nothing at all without him. The Judge so decides and Mr. Boucicault’s rivals are turned out of Court like a band of gypsies who have captured a child and tanned it with the gypsy tinge and are compelled to return it. There can be na question about the justice of this decision. The ‘‘Shaughraun’’ is Mr. Boucicault’s child, his conception and creation. If the gypsie: | run away with it, and stain its eyelids and change its clothes, and dye its hair and deck it in imitation jewelry, and call it “‘Skibbeeah,’’ it is all the same its father’s child, and belongs to him alone. If the gyp- sies can carry off the ‘‘Shaughraun” from Mr. Boucicault, they can take ‘Colonel Sellers,” “Rip Van Winkle,” ‘Solon Shingle’’ or any other of the noted dramatic creations which have in the course of a few years appeared on the stage. There is no reason why Mr. Boucicault should not be criticised as severely as possi- ble. If he culls dramatic flowers from other gardens and offers the nosegay as his own let the literary flower fanciers expose him. But no one has as yet discovered the parterre from which he stole the ‘‘Shaughraun.’’ Ititisa theft our worst wish is that our original dramatists should cease creating and take to stealing. It is the most exquisite comedy we | have had for many a day, and it gives us a higher respect for law to find that Mr. Bouci- cault bas been promptly protected in the ene joyment of it. Comprroxuzn GREEX’s peculiar mode of transacting affairs in this city was partially investigated yesterday by a committee of the Board of Aldermen. Commissioner Wales, of the Dock Department, testified that Mr. Green’s interference was ‘‘very serious—in fact, ruinous”—in the affairs of his depart- ment, and that his opposition to public im- provements tended toward increasing the debt of the city. A number of other officials will be brought before the committee, PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Somebody bi olen the Paris guillotine. Malie, Aloant sailed for Europe yesterday in the Abyssinia. Vice President Wilson returned to Washington last evening. General Fitz John Porter ts registered at the Clarenaon Hotel. Tennyson’s poems are said to be the best literary property in existence. Garibaldi, as Deputy, proposes a bill for draining the Roman Campagaa. All the monarchs in Europe will recognise Alfonso—except Don Carlos. Congressman elect Charles H. Joyce, of Vermont, 1s staying at the Grand Central Hotel. Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, United States Army, is quartered at the Hoffman House. Messrs. Wiliam H. Seward and Elmore P. Ross, of Auburn, N. Y¥., are stopping at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Mr. Henry Adams, son of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, arrived trom Washington yesterday at the Brevoort House. t That dear child Alfonso XII. sent to his motner Isavella two pigeons as & souvenir of bis entrance into Madrid, Mr. John McCullongh, the tragedian, arrived in this city yesterday irom Cincinnati, and is at the Startevant House. Mr. George B, McCartee, Chief of the Printing Division of the Treasury Department, has arrived at the Fifth Avenne Hotel. Offenbach gave away his daughter as the bride o1M, Tournal, atthe Church of Nowe Dame de Lorette, Paris, January 30. “Dear Father” was perhaps not “the happiest uian in Brookiyn” when be beard of the testimony | of Mra. Carey, the wet nurse, Judge Ransom Balcom, of the New York Su preme Court for the Sixth Judicial District, i residing at the Grand Central Hotel. Several persons ave recently been arrested in ! Paris tueatres in the act of taking stenograpnice notes of the plays for ase tn London and tn this clly. Luis is the form in which they say the despatct first came:—“Emperor of China dead; Prince Kung will be regent; head physician o! the court decapitated.” Titian's “Dana” has beep sold to the Emperor of Kussia ior $126,000. The last owner was Prince Buoncompagni, of Boulogne, for one of whose an- cestors It was painted, Near the Morgue the small boy coming out 1¢ asked by the small boy Who bas not been tn, “Say! are there many to-day!’ “Many? They have te make up beds on the floor.”” An important geographical discovery of a greay lake ip the Brahmaputra Vallev has veen made by a half breed Thibetan, who had received instruc: tions trom the English engineers in India. Montalembert’s executors protes:, against the unauthorized publication in the Contemporary Review of portfons of his work on “Spain and which the review calls “Rome anu spain.” Soldiers of the garrison at Marseilles are having a mania for suicides, The commander has issuea agenerai order for ail soldiers who take theie own lives to be buried with disgrace in the nigat- time, a8 guilty of an act of cowardice, Joseph has just diea in Paris. He was remark. able only as the sole survivor of the family whic Traupiman triea to extirpate. He wrote a history Of that crime tn verses, and the verses were bad enough to inspire some regre: that Traupmas | pissed dim.