The New York Herald Newspaper, February 28, 1875, Page 8

& W 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 gent free of postage. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hanan. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. 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. sees NO. 59 VTS TO-MORROW, NIBLO'S, Broadway.—CORD AND CRKuksk, at8 P. M.; closes at Qiao P.M, DEMY OF MUSIC. BROOKLYN A HUMPTY DUDMPIY, ais P.M. George L. Fox. COLOSSEUM, Thirty fourth street—PARIS IN A Broadway and B.ORM, Two exhivitions daily, at 2 aud 8h. M, BOOTHS THEATRE, corner of Twenty-chird street and Sixth avenue.— HENRY V., at 5 /. M.; closesatli YM. Mr. Rignold. SAN FRAN STRELS, Broadway, corner of wen h street-—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, at 3 P.M: closes at 10 P.M. WEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1875—QUADRUPLE SHEET, The Lessons of the St. Andrew's Church Disaster. If the dead could be called to life, or if the sufferings of the wounded could be assuaged, we could enter upon the investigation as to the causes of the Duane street disaster with a more hopeful spicit than that with which we contemplate so much misery and death. But no power can summon the departed, and our duty is to search out the causes that led to their terrible fate and to do what we can to allay the sorrows of those who live. A move- meht is on toot, as we observe in our news columns and in the columns of other journals, to alleviate in some way the wants of those who are left in distress by this calamity. That is an appeal which none of us can resist, and we trust it may enter into the thoughts of the kind-hearted this morning. But the lesson to the community is, What caused these disasters, and how can we prevent their recurrence? This special calamity is not of an exceptional character. It may occur any day. New York is a city pre-eminently subject to fires and high winds. Nature with us—and especially as manifested during such @ winter as the present—is capricious and severe. We never know what we may not expect from the cold, the ice and the snow— from the gale and the flames. Consequently our duty now is to see how far this disaster is the fault of those in authority, and to what extent others are liable to occur. In all inquiries of this character it is hard to search out the truth. It vanishes at every step. No question is more difficult than who isto blame. This is not a case of positive moral turpitude, like setting fire to a hotel or sending a railway train off the track. Ng one wanted to throw down this wall. It was to no one’s interest that death and pain should sud- deuly fall upon a congregation of pious wor- La Fixteenth street —B JUL CARE, at 8 P.M; | closes at Wd P.M. M. | | r, ACADEMY OF DESIGN, corner of Twenty-third street an! Fourth avenue.— EXHLBIVION OF WALTER COLOK PAIN SINGS. Upen row 9.4. M. to 9 P. M. and trom 6 P.M. (0 9 2. M. r | TIVOLI THEATRE, | Eighth street, between ecou VARIETY, at 12 P.M. ; closes ac ai’ Third avenues. — AM. | WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway.—THE “HAUGHRAUS, at oP. M: i closes at quae Fr, Mr. Boucicault | MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, | Brooklyn EDALE, at 5 P. closes at 10230 P.M. | Bir. Lester Wallack. WOOD's MUSEUM, eeairey. corner of Thirtie’h street.—KIDNAPPED, at P.M. ; closes at 1040 P.M. Matiuee at2 P.M. closes at 10:45 OLYMP! ATRE, No. 6% Broadway.—Vakii! fas YM, HIPP( ROMAN ME, Twenty-sixth streei and Fourth aVenue.—PEDES- TRIANISM, Protessors Judd and Weston. | TRE COMIQUE, Foe Broadway.—VAKIETY, at3 P. M.; closes at 10:45 FIFTH AVENUE THE HE BIG BO. . Mr. Lewis, TONY PASTOR OPERA HOUSE, } Yo Bowery.—VaxIEIY, at $F. . M.; closes at 1045 LYN PARK THEATRE, ' Fulton avenue —VASIETY, at 2 P.M. and at 8P.M.; | Closes at ls P.M. BRYANT’S UP ‘West Twenty third sireet, ue INSTRELSY, &., at 5 P. yant. GERMANIA THEATRE, | Fourteenth | street.—GIRUFLE-GIRUFLA, at 8 P. M.; | ses at Lo Ad. M. HOUSE, ixih avenue.—NEGRO | ; Closes at WPM. Dan PARK THEATRE, Broadway.—French Upera Boufle- LROFLE-GIROFLA, | atSP. M., closes at 10:49 P. M. Mile. Coralie Geoffroy. | | QUADRUPLE SHE NEW YORK, SUNDAY. From our reports this morning the probabil @re that the weather to-day will be clear. Watt Srazet Yesterpay.—Gold advanced | to 114§. The stock market was unsettled. ". Foreign exchange was steady and money at | the rates last quoted. night, but may even yet be talked to death in the Senate. 4 } Tue Force Brix passed the Honse at mid- j , Tae Spantse GoveRnmeNnT announces that the campaign against the Carlists will be | _ brought to a close this spring; but we think | it was announced that it would be ended last | fall. Such a speedy termination of the war is | hardly to be expected. | Twrovcuovr the country travel has been ‘ impeded by the floods. Railroad bridges have been swept away in several places and | EI on some of the roads have been unable | ran. The return of the cold weather will ly increase the danger hereafter. | Tae Swe Scenzs in the Beecher case are | ot the least interesting features in the great trial, and we present a view of these this | morning, especially with reference to the part | Mr. Henry C. Bowen would play if brought upon the stage. E Tue Mrvens’ Riots at Hazleton, Pa., are likely to be more formidable than is usual, even in that turbulent region. We have the mews to-day that the strikers stopped the pumps, set fire to the engine house and shot | one of the engineers. This is a rough day’s | work, yet the men are gathering and further trouble is feared. Sm Cuartes Lyzii’s Remains have been ‘buried in Westminster Abbey. The scientist reposes in his mortality next the grave of Ben Jonson, the dramatist and humorist. England does honor to herself by giving | Lyell’s body @ funeral in the Abbey, and | Jonson's spirit doubtless smiled an approval | on the ceremony of interment. Tue Detams of the Schuylkill freshet, es- pecially as regards the damage done to the factories at Manayunk, show that our reporis of yesterday were not exaggerated. Immense masses of snow and ice yet remain to be dis- | | entailed. But, while we do not seek for abso- | sibility is even greater. | tobe always in such ‘peril as this of Duane | is not political—the outgrowth of ambition | resolved to ‘‘stick,’’ or a slippery Corporation | be could send Delafield Smith a most elaborate | | Here was a case demanding even more promp- |} sin is clear enough. The department in shippers, deep in Lenten devotions. Not one ot all who are in any way to blame who will not feel the keenest sympathy in the misery it lute guilt, as with murder or arson, the respon- What is the use of law and authority and a police system and all the machinery of order and society if we are | street? We have laws and magistrates and officers to prevent these occurrences. Nat- urally, therefore, we turn to the Mayor. He is the head of the city. It is his duty to see that the ordinances are enforced. The case and strife. It is not a reluctant Comptroller, Counsel, who will not be caught. A great wrong has been done to the people, and the question is, How far has the Mayor enforced the ordinances made to prevent and punish | such a wrong? Well, nothing has been done. The Mayor has surveyed the church, tapped the wails, walked around the ruins and will now consider the matter. With him rests the power to investigate and punish. What he does, to be efficient, should be prompt. He was not in office more than a few days before suddenly abandoned? Are the doors properly arranged? Are the windows easy of access? These are simple questions, but upon their answer depends the safety of nine-tenths of | all who attend the sanctuary to-day for the worship of God. Nothing is more easily caused in a large bedy of men and women than a panic. An unusual noise, a lightning flash, a puff of smoke from a censer, the sudden springing of a bolt ora plank, a cry healed. The early history of Christianity is so little known that some of our city pastors are now giving sketches from it. Mr. MacArthur will tell us something about the first Euro- pean convert, and Father Bijerring will | show us how Christianity was first in- troduced into Russia. Mr. Platt, of Brook- lyn, will indicate the Christian's God of alarm, any of these incidents might lead to | and religion and experience from the assump- such a result in any of our churches as that | tionsand deductions of scientists and sceptics, seen in Duane street on Thursday evening. Therefore the duty of our city officials—of our tardy inspectors and our patient Mayor— is at once to rigidly examine every church and theatre and place of resort. Let them be ex- amined with a view of their safety in the event of a panic or a fire or any other real danger. Let some wise rules be adopted as to the opening and closing of doors and win- dows. Such an examination would be of great value, and might prevent untold misery in the future. We print this morning a report upon the exact condition of many of our churches which will assist His Honor in carrying out this inquiry. If the Mayor finds any embarrassment in enforcing the ordinances calculated to secure safety—if his labors are arrested by the apathy or self- ishness of the owners—he has only to signify that a certain church or a certain theatre is unsafe, and the people will protect themselves. Passage of the Civil Rights Bill. The passage of the Civil Rights bill by the Senate yesterday completes it so far as Con- gress is concerned, and it is now left to the | President to say whether it shall become law. Upon this point we presume there is no and Mr. Corbit will describe the rock in the midst of the river, but whether the East River or North River he does not indicate. Mr. Terry will continue his Apocalyptic sketches and treat of the mystic Babylon and the white horse to-day. Mr. Cameron will open heaven and Mr. Phelps will open hell to the wondering gaze (figuratively) of. their people, and Mr. Hathaway will step in and illustrate how a saint got ipto helt and how he got out again, notwithstanding the impos- sibility of such an excursion, as declared in the parable of thé rich man and Lazarus to the contrary. But modern theologians will differ with patriarchs and prophets and apos- tles concerning these things. Mr. Wolff will tell us how to investigate Spiritualism, which we have been so variously informed how to do within the past few weeks that our readers ean hardly beignorant of the way. The Scales of Justice. Justice is a word that in common use has almost reached that stage in the history of words where they assume a_ significance exactly contrary to their primary import; a change which seems to result from the fact that the ironical use of the word becomes 60 doubt. Though it was confidently expected in the beginning that General Grant would | disapprove of the bill, the events which | occurred while it was pending in Congress and the change of the President's attitude toward the South, render his sanction almost acertainty. In the shape in which it finally passed the House and has now also received | the indorsement of the Senate, it is shorn of | its most offensive features. Practically it is little more than a reassertion in the form of a law of undoubted rights belonging to every | citizen. Legally, railroad companies and inn- | keepers and possibly theatrical managers | were bound to afford equal accommodations | to all who were willing to pay for them | before Mr. Sumner began to urge the pas- sage of his bill We cannot doubt | that these rights so strenuously denied | | before will continue tobe refused. The | manager ofa theatre will ran the risk of a | verdict for damages before seating black men | by the side of white ones in the parquet and | dress circle. It will be some years before the | 4ristocratic denizens of Sullivan and Thomp- | son streets will be allowed tv occupy the boxes | at Wallack’s or Booth’s or Daly's. In reality | | the bill is a pretence, nota measure, and it results in pleasing nobody. Mr. Sumner | | would have spurned it from him with con- | tempt. In omitting the school clause every- \ thing that was vital in it is destroyed. No- | and able document removing him from office. titude. As it is the investigation begins as leisurely as if it would last as long as the Beecher trial. We are to have inquiries and discussions and examinations, a tedious in- quest, prolonging and postponing the real in- quiry until the feeling passes away, new themes arise to attract popular attention, the guilty are forgiven and forgotten, while the public conscience will lie dormant until shocked by another calamity. We confess we are disappointed at what seems to be the apathy of the Mayor. The city looks to him, as its natural guardian, to do something at once. We can never have the laws enforced unless punishment tollows swiftly upon sin. Looking at this case from the superficial testimony already given the charge of unsafe buildings did not do its duty. Notice was given that the wall was in @ dangerous condition nearly six weeks ago. Yet in all that time nothing was done. The | law provides that a warning of this kind eball be obeyed within twenty-four hours. Why |*ence, was this warning allowed to go unheeded for six weeks? That point is very clear. Any department which takes six weeks to remove @ public danger, which the law commands to be removed at once, is at fault. Next to the officials in charge of this department the blame falls upon the priest in charge of the church. A priest has a post of peculiar responsibility. Thousands are under the influence of his holy office. He asks them to church, and it is his duty to see that the building in every way answers the purposes of devotion. It | was not for the worshippers—not one in twenty of whom had ever heard of this threatening wall—to pause and ask whether the house of God was really & place of safety. This is not the spirit in which the faithful attend charch. They go in security and comfort, feeling that the priest or the clergyman has done all that can be done to enable them to worship in peace. The priest in charge of the church knew of this wall. He knew of the fire and the danger which it entailed. He knew—no one better—what would be the probable effect of the falling ot such awall upon a church filled with worshippers. He knew that in these wintry times nothing is more probable than a high, severe, sweeping gale. It was therefore his duty to compel the authorities to remove the peril that hung over his church and his flock, and until the authorities did | their duty he should have closed the church | and sent his people elsewhere. For the duty | of -aving souls does not justify our clergymen | in bringing the bodies of their followers into | danger. | Tuere is also a higher duty, and to this we also call especial attention. What is the present condition of our churches aud places solved, and though the change in the temper- tare may prevent fresh floods, the events of the past two days show that it is necessary to prepare for the coming freshets. Postmaster James bas proved @ very efficient officer, and, as the result of his strict business principles, he has turned more rev- enue into the Treasury than any of his pred- ecessors, Yet his salary is only six thou- ; dollars a year, less than the pay of the oe of New York twenty-five years ago. It ought to be increased, and the eum fixed by Office Appropriation bill, as it passed apres on Taceday-—cight thousand not too large. We trust the House imation ins enone ~ | of public amusement? How meny churches have we that are as difficult of exit as this on | | Duane street? Have we any theatres that in | | the event of a sudden panic, a fire or the fall- ing of a wall, would become a trap of death, like the Richmond Theatre, which, although | burned more than sixty years since, is remem- bered in the history of appalling catastrophes ? Have we a chorch that would furnish a scene | like that in the Cathedral of Santiago a few years since, when thousands of worshippers | were killed and wounded because of a panic | | during service and the impossibility of | opening the doors? Are our churches it built and so managed that in body supposed, «ven in its most radical form, that it was a bill to make a white man marry his daughter toa negro; bui its great pur- pose in Mr. Sumner’s bands was to open all | the public schools to black and white alike. This being refused it was stripped of every- thing which the law, in so far as it was operative, did not guarantee already. Even the negroes are not likely to be deceived by | so lame and impotent a conclusion, and we | doubt not that the Civil Rights bill, which | occasioned so much angry comment while it | was under consideration, now that it is out of | the way, will be forgotten in a shorter space of time than was required to pass it. The Subsidy Report. The report of the Committee on Ways and Means upon the Pacific Mail investigation gives emphasis to the astounding robbery of the corporation by Stockwell and his agents. Nearly eight hundred thousand dollars were | taken out of the treasury of the company, and | the part of it which was disbursed was mostly given to people without character or influ- | Where any services were rendered at | all they were insignificant when compared | with the compensation. The summing up | of the testimony, while it leaves Congress | free from the proof of corruption—not a | dollar of the money having been traced to the hands of any Congressman—shows the evil surroundings which must inevitably degrade and debase that body unless this crime is sternly punished. So far nothing hhas been done in the way of punishment. Mr. | | Samuel Ward was dismissed with a laugh, | because he met the committee with a brazen jest. Mr. J. G. Schumaker was allowed to retain his seat to the last, becanse there was | not virtue enough in the House to expel him. | Even the newspaper correspondents who con- fessed they were bribed were allowed to go in | and out as if they were still fit to be seen in ‘the company of decent people and honest | legislators. The committee brings before the | House little more than the suggestion of a measure by which crimes like this can be | punished. The next Congress will have the work to do over again, and we trust it | will begin by expelling Schumaker and King and provide against future corruption of this kind bya bill which shall make the occupa- | tion of a lobbyist extremely hazardous. The | adventurers who infest the Capitol must be | treated as common swindlers, and when de- tected in selling their ‘‘influence’’ they must be punished as common swindlers are pun- ished in other countries. common from the greater frequency of the occasions when it must be used ironically that this use displaces the employment of the word in its simple original sense. Justice was once right as secured and defined by the law. Law was made to secure to every man his own, and the result was justice. Law and justice were therefore inseparnble—ngcessary correlatives. Already, however, the separa- | tion of the two is recognized, and law and justice are so plainly felt ta be widely differ- ent that we have one class of courts for the | | determination of law and another class for | the rendering of justice under the name of equity. Justice, therefore, is now in common | use directly opposed in meaning to o word that was formerly its synonym ; and if the lawyers continue for a few generations more to refine away right by legal subtleties this word will come to express the idea now ex- pressed by injustice. In watching such a change in fundamental ideas and words it is pleasant to come across a case which indi- cates that there are people less progressive than ourselves, and that there is one corner of the civilized world where the primary rela- tion continues and the law is contemplated as the simple means of securing justice in defiance of technicalities and other devices ot the enemy. Dubois and Genin were neighbors in a lit- tle French town, and Genin borrowed from Dubois the sum of one hundred and fifty | francs, giving in exchange his note, payable on the Feast of St. Fortunatus. Dubois was not a‘ learned man. He was only a good- natured neighbor. He did not trouble him- self to study very closely the paper given | him, and he troubled himself even less at all times about the saints ; consequently he did not know the days on which their festivals came, It is, perhaps, alittle odd that he was not acquainted with St. Fortunatus, who is well known even to the unlearned, from the fact that the occurrence of his day is incon- veniently uncertain. Itis, therefore, a very bad day for the date of a financial obligation. In fact, it is a period analogous to our famous “When two Sundays come together,” and is the same with that classical date, the Greek Kalends, Dubois was not ina hurry for his mo: ey, and he waited a year. It then oc- curred to him that, as three hundred and sixty- five days had gone by, it was odd that some one of them had not proved to be the day of the first saint in whom he ever felt an interest. He, therefore, abrubtly asked his neighbor upo what day that saint's festival was celebrated. His neighbor calmly referred *him to the calendar. He studied the calendar deeply, but found no such saint. He had loaned his money to he repaid on a day that wouldnever come, His faith in human nature was shaken when he found that through his neighborly simplicity—through Leing a specimen of that best variety of the human species, a man not in the least degree smart, sharp or shrewd—he had been made the victim of a vulgar and familiar swindle. But his faith in haman nature was not all gone, and his faith in justice and the judges was as fresh as that of a child in the oracle of | the buttereups. He brought that mean rogue, his neighbor, into court. There the case was all gone over with the usual flourishes of “anc” and “but? and “aforesaid.” It wasa simpio case, for there was the note and the | signature was acknowledged. All that was necessary was to fix the period when the pay- | ment therein provided for should be made. There was a judge on the bench compared to whom that young man Daniel was a mere Babylonish prig. He observed that the ques- tion whether or no ‘Mr. Fortunatus’’ was a saint was not before that court. This person Fortunatus was described as a snint ‘in the document in evidence, and that dignity must be accorded him on the author- ity of the maker of the document, who was clearly more familiar with the quality of this | Fortunatus than the Court was. It is clear Pulpit Topics To-Day. that the point to determine was what day in The charge of narrowness is one very com- monly made against Christians by those who are not believers or who are liberal in their faith and feelings. Dr. Deems will analyze the accusation to-day, and show that Chris- tinns are neither narrow nor insane ; but, on the contrary, as Mr. Pullman will demon- strate, they comprehend the significance of the life that now is in its relations to the life that is to be, and with this knowledge they urge their fellow men not to procrastinate the day of their espousals to Christ—the causes and the cure of which delay and the benefits of moral grafting Mr. Alger will present to- day. This moral grafting is what is generally called conversion in Protestant churches, and which Mr. Hawthorne will explain, It is the result of pointing sinners to the Lamb of God, as Mr. Kennard will direct them to-day with the eye of faith, as the Israelites in the the year is sacred to this saint. It is true the | Court had not been able to find his name in | the calendar, ‘“‘but. this does not prove that he has no day.’ At these ominous words the | defendant certainly felt uneasy ; ‘‘for,’’ con- | tinued the Court, ‘‘there have, happily, been more saints in the world than there are days in the year, and every saint, therefore, could | not have a particular day; but there is one day sacred to all those saints together who were not of sufficient importance to have days | of their own. This day is sacred to St. For- tunatus in common with all the others, and the sum named in the bond therefore justly | fails due on. All Saints’ Day.” And this | beautiful piece of justice was the issue of a | suit for thirty dollars. But let us not regret | that the sum was so small. If it had been | thirty thousand dollars there would have been | more lawyers in the case, and therefore morg tho event of @ panic they can be, wilderness looked toward the brazen serpent, , law—and thereiore tgs less justice, about which Mr. Pierce will speak, and were | The Return of Ristort. The return of Mme. Ristosi to the United States must naturally be a pleasure to her, and we can readily understand the feeling that prompted her own words, uttered in a conversation elsewhere printed, “When I found myself back in New York I felt as though I was again in my country, surrounded by my friends.” Other causes than the meet- ing with old friends and the hope of achieving new triumphs contribute to this sense of home- like happiness. Alison, the historian, speaks of “that peculiar delighf which has been often observed in the later years of literary men—the delight of returning again to the studies of their youth, and of feeling under the snows of age the cheerful memories of their spring.” Though the great tragedienne is not oldin years her dramatic career has been so brilliant and extensive that she may be said to have the whole world fora stage and all mankind for an audience, and thus to have anticipated, in the maturity of her genius, the honors which are usually the property of age. In the splendor of such a career the artist crowds into a decade the events of half a century, and even the near past seems distant. It is buteeven years since Madame Ristori played in New York, yet in that time how many triumphs has she not won? The laurels she has gathered are like “the wildernesses of fruit and worlds of flowsg, era” in the forests of South America, frori which she returns, yet still the Pomona and the Flora of her beautiful art have not perished but flourish in their summer youth. She will find the garlands here as bright and fresh as those she bore away. Our delight will not be less sincere and deep. Ristori is undoubtedly one of the few great actresses of our day, and her return reilluminates our stage with that tragic light which is so rarely seen. Elsewhere we have recalled some of the great characters which she first made known to the American public, and to which her Lady Macbeth, Lucrezia Borgia and Renata will be added. Two artists alone that we now recall can be'classed with Ristori in tragedy, in the power to reveal the mighty passions which the great dramatists have described. These are Charlotte Cush- man and Mme. Janauschek. Yet how different in kind is the genius these three women possess! When we remember that Cushman was recently crowned in public by the oldest and most venerated of our poets, on an @ccasion at once splendid and sad, we rejoice the more that the farewell of Ristori is yet an event of the future, and that before she leaves America, probably forever, Medea, Elizabeth, Mary Stuart, Deborah, Marie Antoinette and all her attendant train of heroic figures will pass again before our eyes and dwell hereafter more brightly in our memories. The Principle of Local Self-Govern. ment—The Oostigan Bill. The Committee of Seventy was a body that enjoyed a good reputation during its exist- ence. Itlabored in a disinterested manner for the reform of the city government and did valuable service in the overthrow of corrup- tion. Three years ago it prepared a charter for the city of New York, upon which much deliberation and research were bestowed. The charters from 1830 to 1870 inclusive were carefully examined and maturely considered in order that their desirable features might be culled and their faults and errors discarded. These laws, viewed in the clear light of ex- perience, were useful in guiding the committee | in the right path and leading it to correct | conclusions. The result was a charter which received the warm approval of professed re- formers, A republican organ in this city, prominent in the cause of reform, spoke of it in this eulogistic manner:—‘‘It is essentially the people’s charter. It was drafted in their interest, amd not in the interest of political parties or politicians. It is the deliberate and carefully considered work of a body of men selected by the people without distinction of party and charged with the duty of rescuing the city government from the abyss of infamy, degradation and threat- ened bankruptcy into which it has been plunged by politicians and thieves.’’ The | charter did not become a law, it is true; but ite defeat was attributed, justly or unjustly, | to the corruption of the Legislature, and we | have a right to regard its provisions with re- spect despite its failure. This charter of the Committee of Seventy | indorsed emphatically the principle of ‘home | rule.’ It provided maiuly for municipal | boards of five commissioners for the several | departments, and gave the appointment of | one commissioner absolutely to the | Mayor and the election of four to the Semator Robertson's Rapid Transi¢ Bill, The political standing and legislative ex- perience of Senator Robertson entitle any, measure proposed by him to respectful exam~ ination, His Rapid Transit bill does not seem free from constitutional objections, and is exposed to formidable financial difficulties. It would be unfortunate if the Legislature should pass a bill which would be practically inoperative, and therefore serve no purpose but to obstruct and postpone action, and, create a necessity for a new application tos’ future Legislature. Mr. Robertson's bill is unconstitutional, because it disregards that provision of the amendments which declares that ‘no law shall authorize the construetion or operation of a street railroad: except upon the condition that the consent of the owners: of one-half in value of the property bounded: on that portion of a street or highway on which it is proposed to construct such railroad be first obtained;”’ or, in case it cannot be obtained, the Supreme Court shall: have power to decide, after hearing all par- ties, whether such road ought to be con- structed. This provision of the amended. constitution is clear and explicit, and no law which does not respect it would be worth the paper on which it was engrossed. Mr. Rob- ertson’s bill provides for acquiring the route without any previous attempt to get the con- t of the adjacent property holders, and would therefore be a mere nullity if it should pass. Itis open to other objections. It re- quires a company to be formed and a certain amount of stock to be subscribed and paid in before any legal steps can be taken for fixing the route. The subscribers would therefore be taking a leap in the dark; for if the city authorities should disapprove of their pro- posed route the project would tall through and all the time and effort bestowed on the subject be wasted. The route and plan of construction should be definitely settled before capitalists are asked to take the - stock, Mr. Prince’s bill is in this respect much more sensible and business-like than Mr. Robertson’s. The Prince bill gives the initiative to the city authorities and not to private projectors or speculators. This seems fit and wise, as the municipal authori- ties or commissioners appointed by them would be more likely to take a large view of the city interests, When the plan had been determined with sole reference to the wants and conveniences of the city a successful appeal could be made to capitalista if there was a reasonable prospect of good dividends. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Wordaworth’s prose works are to be collected and published. Mr. Hepworth Dixon sailed for Europe in the Adriauic yesterday. i Assemblyman Warner, Miller, of Herkimer, N. ¥Y., is at the Union Square Hotel. Mme. Adelaide Ristori and family have apart- ments at the Clarendon Hotel. Assemblyman W. W. Braman, of West Troy, is registered at the Metropolitan Hotel. Rev. Dr. T. K. Conrad, of Philadelphia, ls resid- ing temporarily at the Hotel Bronswick. General Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, yesterday arrived at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Mr. Ferdinand Strakosch and Mlle. Donadio are among the late arrivals at the Everett House. Senator-elect A. S. Paddock, of Ne»raska, ar- | rived in this city yesterday and is at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Count Max Ugarte, an Austrian noble of the Paris monde, died at San Remo of scarlet fever, aged twenty-four. General Adrien Wolf, aged eighty-four, has just died at Montauban, France. He was on Maximil- fan’s stam in Mexico. Senator-elect Ambrose E. Burnside, of Rhode Is)and, 18 at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. He will leave for Washington this evening. The Carlista, in Gring at a railway train on gen- eral principles, sent some bullets through the car in which King Alfonso was riding. In Kent, Lngland, the British gentleman is in distress for want of ‘oxesto hunt. His game is the victim of the steel traps and strychnine of the small farmera, In Sweden, and Norway also, January was colder than for..many years, So it was a very wide wave, or the cause was & more general one than bas been thought. The London Atheneum justly compares tho “Lotos Leaves” to the papers current ‘in the | most unfortunate days of the Annuals,” and saya that ‘‘nearly ali are flimsy.’? Garibaldi commends his plan for the redemption of the Agro Komano to British capitalists; but she British public which had tue Garibatd madsess was not made up Of the largest investors, Hon, Spencer Povsonby, of the Queen's house- hold, will call himself Fane hereafter, because bis aunt, who left him the money, made this a condi- tion. Fain wouid we do the like on similar terms. Another clergyman to whom the excitement of the puipit was deficient in “true inwardness’— Rey, ©, W. Wilkinson, in England—throwa from bis norse in the hunting fleld, has died trom bia Injuries. The German Federal Council has resolved to recommend & grant from the funds atthe Em- Board of Aldermen, It empowered | peror's disposal ior the completion of Grimm's the Mayor to remove at his pleasure | Dictionary. The recommendation is equivalent all commissioners and other officers of de- | to # grant. partments appointed by him, and to remove “for cause” any commissioner elected by the | Aldermen; “assigning his reasons to the Board | of Aldermen,” in the words of the charter, ‘in | which case a majority of those members of the Board by whose votes said commissioner | was chosen shall proceed to elect another | commissioner in the place of the one so re- | moved.” ‘Thus in the case of elected commis- sioners even the power of removal vested in | the Mayor was final and could not be set aside | by the Board of Aldermen, who were re- quired to elect another in place of the officer | ed, The Comptroller and the Corpora- were to be ‘appointed by the removable at his pleasure.” This inly is an influential and disinterested indorsement of the principle contained in the Costigan bill—to wit, the investment of the Mayor of New York, elected by and re- sponsible to the citizens, with the power to control the subordinate de- | partments of the municipal government, and to make a vigorous, efficient and harmo- nious administration. It is a little singular that the politicians and the party organs whose voices were raised in eulogy of these | provisions of the charter of the Committee ot Seventy three years ago, should now be howl- ing so piteously about the iniquity of the | Costigan bill, and denouncing the proposi- tion to bestow the power of removal upon the Mayor as corrupt, iniquitous and tyrannical. ‘The people, however, who want a charter as | @ permanent law for the interests of the city, and not as a temporary expedient to subserve the purposes of the politicians, approve tha principle of local responsibility, anu will be | glad to receive. it even at the hands of,’ the democracy. Victoria has received the gift of a war club from Fiji. She has no immediate use for it, but it wilh be hanay to have in the house, as it will makea good shillaiah for the Duke of Connaughi when he visits Ireland. And now 8 Joint-stock religion. The British National Association of Spiritualists have tormed themselves into a limited liability company, wm order to propagate their creed by means of lec tures and publications. * London has no morgue, but may get one now, as & woman taken out of the river and Kept in a sta- ble uli they could find the coroner was meanwhile eaten up oy the rats, who, like every one else, have had a bard winter, i Mr. Thomas Holloway, the British Brandreth, | gives $250,000 fur establishing at Egham, tn Eog~ | land, @ university for the higher education of wom'n. A Dicely sugared pill jor the “sweet gizk | graduates with golden hair.” | In 1873 Prussia contained 1,037 monks and 8,081 noms, In the diocese of Cologne the numoers | increased between 1850 and 1872 from 272 to 3,131; | in Breslau, from 228 to 1,458; in Posen, trom 10 to 337, and in Kulm, from 8 to 191, | The London World said that Mr. Bradiaugh bad deserted his children and left them on the parish, | and now it is compelled to apologize, which, how- | ever, leaves the case open tor a wicked world to say that “where there is smoke," &c. ‘Tne Russian /avalide states what England has supplied 60,000 rifles to the Kast Turcoman tribes and that one of Major Napier’s projects in travel. ling north of Mesched probably was io. instruct the Turcomans la the use of the new weapon, An jnch on & tau’s nose 18 proverbially of some | account, and M, Derrisart, of Paris, ts likely to know of exactly what account. His nose has tuken to growing lately, aod grew half an inc) im ght days. He is at the Hotei Dieu, in Paris, And the surgeons of France are rashing thither to seo him, Financial returns in Ravsia are an uncertain subject, as the only law in the Case is the Emje- | ror's declaration that he will never restrict him. | gel to any arbitrarily limted sum in public ex- | penditures; bat will spend in the various branches | of administration what he deems fil, aDd havo the public treasury supulied 9a need pe.