The New York Herald Newspaper, March 8, 1875, Page 4

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 Sditions of the New Youx Henarp will be | vent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- wual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic flespatches must be addressed Naw Torx | HERALD. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. ck il 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. AN FRANCI: rout onl of SiNSTE LSY, ats vr. M. TIVOLI Ti ter street, between secon: RIETY, at 8 P. M. ; closes at b ye O28) ¥. MRS. Conway's, nanor YN THEATRE. Brey: = GLAD M.; closes at 1030 P. Mr. Joba McCullor EB, i Third avenues. — WALLA‘ »—THE SHAU Mr. Boucica ATR: at Fr. M.; closes at WooD's edway, corner, of Thi ENS, a8 P.M. ; closes UM, h street—THR McFAD YM. Matinee atz P.M. TRE, atSP. ML; closes at 10:45 OLYM Fé 624 Broadway.—V AKit Etxteenth | wrreee -GhOw IA MINSERELS, at 8 P.M; Bloses at 10 dys THEATRE COMIQUE, Foe Broadway.—VARIETY, at8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 STADT THEATRE, LUM PACIVAGAHENDUs, at 8P. M.; cloess eric beat fo TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, * Bowery.—VARIETY, at 3 FP. M.: closes at 1045 | METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, West Fourteenth street—Open from 10 4. M. io 5 P. M.; free to-day. ROMAN HIPPODROME, and Twent th street.—CIRCUS, | M AND MED RIE, afternoon and Fourth avenu YEDESTRIANIS evening, atl BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, Fulton avenye.—VARIE Pp. M.; closes at 10:45 | BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, West preen third street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO | = RELSY, &c., at 5 ?. M.; closes at 10P.M. Dan ane MANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street.-DER GEWISSENSWURM, at 8 P, HM. ; closes at 1045 2. M. Miss Lina Mayr. PARK THEATRE Broadway.—French opera Boule “GIROFLE. GIROFLA, ats P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Mile. Coralie Geoffroy. Browns PACE yous, wt SP. M.; closes at 1025 P. E. Bad: FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broadway. wihe BIG BO- NANZA, at 5 P.M. 33 P.M. Mr. Lewis, ‘Miss Davenport, ir. NWAY HALL, 9 aaa street JEROME HOPKINS’ RECITAL, at3 BOOTH’S THEATRE, corner, 4 Twenty-third street and Sixth avenue — | NRY V. BP. si closes atli 2. M. Mr. Rignoid. SUPPLEMENT. MC NEW YORK, neler From our reporis this morning the probabilities | are that the weather to-day will be colder and clearing. | M an CH ‘1895, Tae New Casiver is sti!l unformed in France, and in the Assembly the Left propose | to investigate the cause of the delay. Tae Remors or War which appeared in the Calcutta press are declared to be un- | founded by the London Observer. As Eng- | land has few troops in India their move- ments are not particularly significant. Tae Bercure Tart will be resumed to-day, the sick juror having recovered. It requires | tonsiderable endurance, we should think, to withstand the strain which this trial imposes upon those who are finally to decide upon its merits. We are not sure that the jury does wot demand as much pity as the defendant or the plaintiff. “Tae Late Syow Storm has extended over @ vast portion of the Continent, reacuing as far south as Little Rock, Ark. In New York the winter has been remarkably severe, but the opinion is general that it cannot last much longer. Nature is exhausting herself in the attempt to prolong it, and spring will | soon come, with bluer skies and milder airs. Rapm Trayerr rv a Norsnei.—The way to achieve rapid transit is simple. Let us have the Elevated Railway on Greenwich street con- tinued as far as Kingsbridge. That will do | for the west side. Let us have the Vanderbilt toad, which is now nearly completed trom Forty-second street to Harlem, continued down Fourth avenue, the Bowery and William | street to the Battery. This will do for the | wast side. There might be a connection be- | tween the Elevated Railway and the Forty- vecond street depot, which could be made in % month, and would give us steam from the Battery to Westchester. These are practical | points, and why not consider them ? Isrerviews with tHe New Senxatons.—The fortunate fact that the Senate remains in ses- pion enabjes the Henarn to print the opinions of the newly elected members upon the im- portant questions of the day. There are valu- able indications of future political action in the interviews we print with An- drew Johnson, Mr. Kernan, Mr. Chris- tiancy, of Michigan; Mr. Eaton, of Con- necticut; Mr. Dawes, of Masachusetts; Mr. Randolph, of New Jersey; Mr. Jones, of Florida; Mr. Whyte, of Maryland; Mr. MeMillan, of Minnesota ; Mr. McDonald, of | Indiana; Mr. Paddock, of Nebraska; Mr. Withers, of Virginia, and Mr. Cameron, of Wisconsin, The questions they diseuss in- cinde Cosarism, civil rights, military rule, the | future of the republican party and the policy of the democracy, and their opinions will be weed with interest throughout the countxy, | in popular sentiment and to shape sympathy | devotes itself, and what we undertake we | now advancing to completion, will cover, it is | understood, an area of, as near as may be, | | | twenty acres. Already applications have been | | not will, see this, and not allow the exhibition | of our own local resources and industries to | narrow, | modation is beginning to be agitated in ear- | nest. Transit thither and accommodation | there are incidents closely interwoven. In | sideration of an influx of visitors from the | other side of the Atlantic, in which we of New | They will not remain long in Philadelphia, | for it, here in New York will be the superflu- NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, MARC |Our Material Interest im the Cen-/ Philadelphia has generously spent and i tennial. The more it is thought of the more obvious | is the necessity of making the Centennial a great national success, and the more utterly disgraceful would be its failure. Governor Bigler's illness has passed away, and the cold | snap to which, naturally enough, he attributed the tardy movement of New York in his favor has, we hope, come to anend. With the thaw he expects to see accorded that generous and munificent sympathy which this metropolis, when properly appealed to, rarely withholds. In the meantime it is the provi- dent duty of the press of all parties and of all | shades of thought—more especially the inde- | pendent press—to stimulate what is sluggish into its most effective form. To that duty—a duty we feel of high patriotism—the Hrpaup | generally accomplish. The great error which now operates ad- versely lies in this—that New York does not adequately estimate the especial benefit which | the Centennial commemoration—assuming it to be anything short of absolute failure—will betous. In this connection a striking fact | has come to our knowledge. It is this—the main exhibition building at Philadelphia, | made by exhibitors from the city and State of | New York for space which, if allowed, would | require an area of a hundred acres. Very | little arithmetic is needed to deduce from this that the New York department of fabrics, of wares and of products will be crowded, and probably in material exceed that of any | other State. This being so, who shall say New York has no substantial practical in- terest in it? Exhibitors, in some instances, are, andin some are not, capitalists. They, of course, are more or less selfish in their | contributions of handiwork. But with them capital is invested in the wares they send. | They transport them to Philadelphia and | bring them back again, if not disposed of, at their own expense. The cost of caring for them there must be | theirs. Hence is it that they, our New York fellow citizens, need outside help in the direction we have indicated. The capitalists, | the rich men of this city, ought, and we doubt fail for want of co-operation, which, as we have said over and over again, to be effective | must be timely. But again, and still limiting ourselves toa material view of the matter, we note that the question of transit and accom- referring to them we put out of view all con- York, of course, have an interest. It may be great, or it may not amount to much, but whatever it is it enures to our benefit, Sum- mer Atlantic travel among well-to-do people | outward. Next season, again assuming, as | we confidently do, success for the Centen- nial, this may be reversed. On this side | it will, or at least it may be, the fashion to | stay at home. This will be clear gain; and, | vice versa, it may be the fashion on the other | side to go abroad. One thing will be sure to come to pass, and to this, so far as concerns than mere numbers—the class of visitors trom abroad to be thus attracted will be of the highest rank, socislly aud intellectually—dis- tinguished and eminent men and women | whom it will be pure pleasure to welcome— and no one doubts for a moment where on this side in summer such visitors will chiefly so- journ. They cannot, even fora visit, go South. | though they may visit it repeatedly, and the headquarters, after all, must be here in New | York, radiating hence northward and east- ward and westward. It would not at all sur- prise us if nest summer should find our | streets and stores and theatres and hotels crowded as in the gayest autumn or winter season, and, as we have seid, that it will be the fashion to remain at home and not only “receive,’’ as the technical phrase is, but welcome the intelligent, well educated strangers from abroad. Such will hardly make their visit a brief one, and there is not a watering place in New York, or Canada, or New England, or New Jersey—not a nook in the White Mountains, not a corner in the Adirondacks, that in the unwonted presence of liberal and cultivated strangers from abroad will not have reason to be grate- ful for the Centennial which has attracted them. The great steamship companies have, then, direct interest in this success. We have said more of this influx from abroad than we intended, and now recur to | the matter of local material interest on the | | assumption that the crowd for Philadelphia | will be purely or chiefly a native one. It the interest in the celebration be reasonably prevalent then will the intelligent. curiosity of a proverbially sight-seeing people precipi- tate a multitude on Philadelphia. To remain there? No. To visit there repeatedly? Yes. But here—here in metropolitan New York—must the crowd in transit at least stop, and here amid the attractions New York alonc can furnish, spend what money they can spare. The Southern or Wostern visitor to Philadelphia will not retura home without | running over to New York, and the Eastern man will stop eundo vel redeundo. Our word ous crowd, Philadelphia, as they may, and the evening trains from let them be as capacious will be more closely packed than are street cars and stages at the end of a busy and stormy day. It is on this assumption that the railway adminis- trators, with their usual sagacity, are now act- ing. Every accommodation is to be afforded, not only to carry people to Philadelphia, but to bring them away again—that is, mainly back to New York. Hence it is that we do not altogether sym- pathize with the anxiety which just now seems to trouble our Vhiladelphia friends as to their want of accommodation, and if advice be not intrusive we counsel against any ex- penditure tor what may be termed makeshift accommodation—hotels built in town or out ot town to be occupied for five months, from April to September. | are inseparably interwoven, and thus is it that | counsel. This explanation is quite lucid, and | | time its subsidy biil was before Congress. | | He declares his intention to disclose that | gress we suggest that it might be well to put | him upon the new Committee of Inveatiga- | | glad that Mr. King has come back, and hope | | isgenerally, always, indeod, in one direction— | Commissioner of Public Works, and is an un- | foreign visitors, we attach more im ven | Yet the reasons for continuing the work of | absolute than that vested in the Mayor.” | of yesterday, which prevented thousands of | cently been showing the public at the Hippo- | spending money enough without such improv- | ident outlay as this. We meanto be Phila- delphia’s suburb then, Our hotels—numer- ous and ample enough for*any emergency, and we are adding to them every day—will bo open to her guests, and this, too, without dis- paragement to the private hospitality which she will, we doubt not, fully extend, but which, after all, has its limits. Thus is it that transit and accommodation New York has an interest in Centennial suc- cess hardly less than the community of which it is to be the central attraction. The Return of the Hon. Bill King. As Congress leaves Washington the Hon. William King enters it, and might well ex- claim, with the burlesque tragic heroine, ‘T've just arrived in time to be too late.” This is a remarkable example of exactitude in calculating time, and will strengthen the gen- eral belief in Mr. King’s sagacity. For months he has been the man whom Congress | especialiy desired to see; he has been looked foras energetically as Stanley looked for Living- stone, and his discovery in Canada was almost as unexpected as would be that of the North Pole. But Congress was the body which Mr. King especially desired not to see, and, as our correspondent’s interview with him shows, private business, fortunately, compelled him to spend the winter if Canada. Of course Mr. King tells a tale of griev- ous wrongs he hasendured in his exile. He never knew how rapidly the rewspapers could lie till they undertook to tell how fast he travelled. When they said that he was h'ding from the Congressional Committee of Investigation he felt virtuous indignation, the fact being that he was not hiding, but bad merely left the country by advice of his we do not doubt that Mr. King will be quite | as successful when he undertakes to show what he did with the large sum he received from the Pacific Mail Company about tbe | mystery at some unknown period, and as be is a member elect of the Forty-fourth Con- tion. But, dismissing all these matters, we are that before he goes away again, whether to | sell a bull, obey his counsel or collect his claims, his relations to the Pacific Mail affair | will be finally decided. He isa little bill | which it is the duty of the country to settle. Mr. Van Nort’s Letter to Mr. Wickham. | What one man can do to obstruct the | growth and development of the city has been \ proved by Mr. Green in his unpopular career | as Comptroller,‘and if further illustration | than his own acts of the evil he has inflicted on New York is needed it is amply afforded | in the letter from Mr. Van Nort, which we | print this morning. Wickham while Mr. Van Nort was still the | It was addressed to Mr. | answerable argument in favor of completing the uptown improvements which were long ago projected. Many of theseimprovements, } so essential to the progress and prosperity of | the community, were proposed and advocated | by Mr. Green when he was a Park Commis- | sioner, but have met with his bitter and unre- | lenting hostility sicce he became Comptroller. | opening new streets and providing for the wants of an increased population are stronger now than they were then, and the | hostility of Mr. Green cannut be as much to | the measures as to the men who urge them. This feeling of personal jealousy stands be- tween New York and her future, and the bar | must be broken down if we are to proceed with | the development of the city. The character of Mr. Green’s opposition is well summed up in one sentence of Mr. Van Nort’s letter: — “During my administration the Comptroller has repeatedly nullified the ordinances of the Common Council and the approval of the | Mayor by withholding his approval of the sure- | ties on contracts for reasons other than those affecting the sufficiency of the sureties, thus assuming and exercising a veto power more Mr. Van Nort truly says that this is a power which the Legislature never intended to conter, and | that its assumption violates the principles of democratic government. Since this indictment was made Mr. Van | Nort has ceased to be Commissioner of Pub- lic Works and Mr. Wickham has become Mayor. But Mr. Green still remains Comp- troller, and insists upon using both the legal and illegal powers of his position to stop the developmeut of the city. We suggest that if | New York is finished Mr. Green had better | build a Chinese wall around it, and so bring his policy of obstruction to a logical close. The Sermons. Again the close connection of religion and | rapid trangit has been illustrated by the storm | persons from going to church. With proper | travelling facilities the storm could not have been made an apology for this neglect of the pious services of the day. Those, however, who did attend church were fully repaid for their energy, as our reports of the discourses de- | livered will convinces the intelligent reader. | One of the principal events of the day was the sermon of Mr. Henry Varley, the English revivalist, at the Church of the Disciples, We | give it to-day in tull, as a specimen of the power of this celebrated layman. As Weston has re- drome how to walk physically, so Mr. Varley instracted his auditors how to ‘walk in the ways of righteousness and peace.” Mr. Beecher, at Plymouth church, chose for his subject the methods of growth in grace, Mr. Frothirgham preached upon a reasonable | lite and Dr. Wild on immortality. Services were held in St. Andrew's church for the first time since the disaster, and they were natu- rally solemn and impressive. Dr. Chapin, Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Maynard, the Rev. Mr. Hawthorne aud others, also treated of impbr- | tant topics, w whic li we present to our readers, | Tre Carnonsc Jusiee which ‘the Pope an- nounced in his Pucyclical, recently published in the Hznanp, is the subject of a pastoral | letter {rom Archbishop McCloskey, which was read yesterday in the churches of this diocese, It is but fair to say that | aud which will be found elsewhere, | | sanguinary. ; of St. | try. | transferable,” | and insist on admission. of this answer, eo Fits Kellys and the Fits Porters. The great question now in the councils of Tammany Hall is the nomination of the new Commissioner of Public Works. ‘The selec- tion of a Fitz Porter for this office is said to give offence to the Fitz Kellys. The Tam- many tribe is divided into two factions, as in- deed most tribes come to be sooner or later. The Fitz Porter faction claim to have the bluest blood ; the Fitz Kellys the most brawn. In elections and conventions and other neces- sary proceedings brawn is generally of more value than blood. The Fitz Porter spends his days on Fifth avenue, his evenings in the perfumed halls ot the Manbattan Club; he drinks champagne and sups #ith Delmonico ; he wears fine raiment and gloves of exquisite | fit and finish ; he reads the World with an in- telligent appreciation of its French wit, its Greek learning, and delights in the wonder- ful resources of its language; his theological views are remarkable for their ingenuity, if | not always for their orthodoxy ; he votes on sunny election days and never attends con- ventions. The Fitz Kelly spends his days mainly on the Fourth Avenue Improvement and his evenings in more modest mansions than the Manhattan Club ;_ he finds champagne in- sipid, and has never questioned the mysteries ofa Delmonico menu; the World is an un- known quantity in his literature, and he dis- | dains the effeminate kid and the genius of the Parisian tailor; he has positive views on religion and politics; he votes in rain and storm ; he is so conscientious a citizen that, | rather than have his franchise in peril, he will vote early and often. The head of the Fitz Porter clan, the new Commissioner of Public Works, is a guod officer and an honest man, and will do his work well—undoubtedly. His war record, like most war records, belongs to ancient history. We have had so many officials with a sangui- nary war record who have made dismal experi- ments in civil life that we may have the best hopes of an official whose war record is not So far as the public service is concerned, we are satisfied with the Fitz Porter. The Fitz Kellys do not like it. | The head of the clan, and some ot his lieuten- | ants, claim to be much gratified. But their enthusiasm lacks fervency, and we miss the old Tammany ring, the sentiment of noisy | support which Tweed and Sweeny, and | other leaders now in obscuration, were wont to inspire under the Empire. We are re- minded of the ‘‘atisfaction’’ which Napo- leon’s marshals were wont to express after the | restoration of the Bourbons, when they drew their swords and vowed to die under the white flag andin defence of the descendants Louis. Somehow, when Napoleon | landed at Elba the marshals soon found their way to his camp. So we fear that the Fitz | Kellys, who are now cheering the Fitz Porter restoration, would hasten to the Battery or to the Thirty-fourth street ferry, if they | heard that Napoleon Tweed had returned | from his Elba, or that Napoleon Sweeny | was coming back from his Parisian exile. | The Fitz Kellys are not without the qualities | of manly allegiance, and cannot forget the Empire, as they wearily delve in the Fourth | Avenue Improvement and think of the days when they were statesmen and lawgivers and basked in the bediamonded presence of the | | Boss, as he sat in the glories of the Blossom | and Americus clubs. But the old days are gone, and nothing shows it more clearly than | the presence of a Fitz Porter in the seat of patronage—one who did not serve the Empire and who cannot tell whether Mullingar is in the north or the south of Ireland. The old days are gone, and the imperiat fabric of Tammapvy—raised by Tweed to such gigantic proportions—has fallen into cureless ruin. The old days are gone—the Emperor is on the Island, some marshals are in Sing Sing, others | wander over the Continent, mourning over foreign immorality. The old days are gone— Fitz Porter Tilden proposes general confisca- tion of the imperial revenues, and Fitz Porter Wickham 1s sharpening his executioner’s axe, which became rather dulied in its attempt to hack off the head of Delafield Smith. The old days are gone, and we can imagine how ruefully the Fitz Kellys walk around the ruins of the old Tammany and look in vain for the sparkling shiet bosom and imperial eye of the Boss. For them memories alone remain. Naturally enough they view with lowering brow and hoarsely y hispered oath | the triumph of the Fitz Porter and the trans- | fer of so much precious patronage to men who were aliens in the old days, and who | have no sympathy with the men who once | ruted us with Americus splendor. Tne Civil Rights Hill in Virginia. The bill proposed in the Virginia Legisla- ture for defeating the operations of the Civil Rights bill is ingeniously contrived, but we doubt whether it will accomplish its object. On its tace it merely gives legislative sanction to the ordinary practice of innkeepers and theatrical managers in all parts of the coun- If a man wearing the appearance of a | rowdy, a woman suspected to be of bad character, or a person judged by his looks to be unable to pay his bill, goes to a hotel and applies for accommodations it is custom- ary to get rid of them by saying that the house is tull and can receive no more guests. The Virginia bill proposes to give hotel keepers the right to say this without respect to race or color, and tu punish as disturbers of the peace applicants who do not accept this anewer as final and quietly retire. It is the common practice of theatres to assign particular seats to purchasers of tickets, and by this means they can put all negroes by themselves in a separate quarter of the house. It is also a right of the theatres to issue, if they please, tickets marked ‘‘not and | tary service cannot last. | i the proposed Virginia | law proposes to make ita penal disturbance | | of the peace for any other person than the | buyer of such a ticket to present it at the door the theatres, like the hotels, to say that they are fall, and to prosecute for a breach of the peace any individual who disputes the truth Such a law, if it could be It also authorizes | executed, would no doubt keep negroes out of | hotels and wanted ; Civil Rights bill to be constitutional. The penalties of the Virginia bill are fine | and imprisonment. If a negro were fined he would refuse to pay his fine, even if he were able; so he would be sure to get into prison in theatres where they are not | tut we do not believe it can be | weather conditions on either side of the | | enforced if the federal courts should hold the | | | tense cold; or, in other words, | glass should be studied by the seaman as care- 8 1875. —WITH SUPPLEMENT, any event. His friends would thereupon make application to a federal judge for a writ of hubeas corpus and secure his immediate discharge, The Civil Rights bill gives the federal courts exclusive jurisdiction of cases aris'ng under it, and (he sentence of the State tribunal would be treated as a nullity. Moreover, the federal District Attor- ney would prosecute the hotel keeper and could subpcena as witnesses all the employes of the hotel to prove that the statement, that there were no vacant rooms or seats was a false pretence, and the proprietor would be subject to the penalties of the federal law. The only way to nullify the Civil Rights bill is by getting o decision that it is unconstitu- tional. The very cogent argument of Senator Carpenter leaves but little room for doubt cn this point, and the true course for those who feel aggrieved by the bill is to bring it as speed- ily as possible to a judicial test. The Mennonites. So quietly and unobtrusively has this large, flourishing and important sect accomplished its work that the general reader knows little or nothing of its existence. We should take no interest in its growth were it not for the fact that for the last few years its members have been emigrating to this country, and are likely within the next two or three decades to make themselves felt asan industrial element. | The sect originated with Menno Simonie, who was the contemporary of Luther. He gathered together the broken columns of tie descend- ants of the Waldenses and established a so- ciety whose peculiarities were like those of | the Shakers and Quakers. Their corner stone of faith was non-resistance. They were a | sober, thrifty, thoughtful people, and made, withal, as good citizens as any country could desire. But Europe was, and is, and for a long time to come will be, military in its ardor. One ot its prime demands upon a subject is for military service. Everything else may be ignored or avoided, but not that. For this reason the Menuon- ites had a hard time. They were shifted from place to place and lived uneasily, admired by a few and hated and despised by many. | the close of the last century a very large num- | ber of them were invited to settle on the | fertile lands of Southern Russia, and such | liberal concessions were made to them that they accepted the invitation, under the im- pression that at Jast they had found a perma- | nent home, They at once set about clearing lunds, raising cattle, building miils and doing the other work of a successtul colony, and in the course of a couple of generations grew to wealth and no little influence. In Russia, however, exemption from mlli- So long as the sect | was snsignificant it could be overlouked ; but when the covetous eye of war saw scores and hundreds of able-bodied men the government forgot its concessions ana pledges and de- manded the usual military tribute. So ob- noxious was this to the feelings of the Mennon- ites that they resolved to sell their immense property to the highest bidder and to emi- grate toa more friendly clime. Of course they turned their eyes toward America. Hero they can have all the freedom they can use and all the land they can till. They will be | left in peace to practise their peculiar cus- ; toms so long as they are ordcrly and law- abiding citizens. Last year they contracted for something over a hundred thousand acres | Near | |in Kansas. They have also property in | VUanada, Minnesota, Dakota Territory and | other places. It is expected that within a few | weeks at least one thousand families, die f | turbed by the bad faith of the home govern- | ment, will arrive in this country. The Mennonites are not given to the vagaries of most of the eccentric sects which gravitate to | the Western prairies, but are thoughtful, | skilled in the arts and industries, frugal and thrifty. Thsy wili doubtless, before many years, take the lead among the somewhat abnormal societies of America and constitute a new enigma for the politics of the next generation to solve. Atlantic Storms. A highly interesting communication on At- lantic storms has recently been published in the London scientific journal, Nature, from the pen of the French savant, M. de Fonvielle. His suggestive views are prompted by a brief editorial comment in our columns of January 23, relative to the terrible westerly gales through which the transatlantic steamships, then arriving, had to force their stormy west- ward way. The Henaxp article, to which M. de Fonvielle refers, drew from the long record of steamer detentions and ship disasters the lesson ‘‘that the severest cyclones may be | | looked for as the sequel phenomena of the | great winter areas of high barometer and in- the rising fully os tbe falling glass.” Citing these words of the Heraup, in which the French scientist concurs, he is led by them to make the very valuable suggestion cf connecting the barometer conditions in the United States with those simultaneously prevailing in West- ern Europe. He communicates to the Nature the significant information that the high ba- rometers or Polar waves at that time in the United States were associated and pet with very low pressures on the other side | of the Atlantic. On the 15th of Jan- | uary a strong southwesterly gale was raging at Valentia, which indicated the | presence of a storm centre west of Ireland, which must have greatly intensified the effect of the North American Polar waves on the westward-bound transatlantic steamers. | There can be little if any doubt that such a | barometric depression as M. de Fonvielle | mentions would producea powerful indraught of air from the American coasts and greatly | increase the force of our westerly coast winds | in front of a Polar wave. ‘Evidently,’ he remarks, “the danger is very greot when a | rising barometer in America is coupled with a | falling barometer in Europe, and vice verso.” The remark unquestionably holds good, but the application, as he sugyests, can be practi- | cally utilized for storm-warning purposes only when telegraphic information can be promptly passed from side to side of the ocean for the guidance of the meteorologist and ‘navigator. There is every reason to believe that the Atlantic are mtimately related and so inter- | dependent that when they can be reciprocally telegraphed from Europe to America the furious tempests of mid-ocean may be approx- imately predicted. When this is accomplished it will show the utility of the aystem of inter- | mate of his financial ability, | ing law has virtually national synchronous weather reports now @& dertaken by the different maritime Powers, as agreed upon at the Vienna Conference. Iti to be hoped that the French scientist's sug- gestion may be availed of as soon as circum stances permit. The Atlantic steamship might then leave port forewarned as to the character of the weather she would be likely to encounter on each voyage. R. M. T. Hunter on the Ginancial Question, ‘We call attention to the able letter of Mr. Hunter, in other columns, written at our re- quest on the most important question of the period. We think it will be conceded that the Heratp evinces discrimination in its invita- tions to writers to discuss difficult public ques- tions requiring special knowledge and train- ing. The admirable communication of Mr. David A. Wells, which we printed a few weeks since, on what he calls ‘the cremation theory of resumption,’’ is generally pro- nounced one of the ablest things that even Mr. Wells bas ever written. Our applica- tion to Mr. Hunter was also prompted by our high estimate of his qualifications t¢ handle such a subject. He is a statesman of mark, trained in the soundest democratic school. He served as Chairman of the United States Committee on Finance from 1849 te the beginning of the civil war in 1861, and tht fact that his party thought him qualified to fill for twelve years a position which had long been held bs Silas Wright proved their esti- It was not, however, merely on this accouot that we solicited Mr. Hunter’s opinions. He is a Southerner who held hgh offices in the Con- tederate government during the war. Ho has been an attentive observer of Southern affaira since, und we supposed the country would be willing to see the view taken of the financial question by the most competent judge in the Scuth. Our currency sysem affects the South in a different manner trom what it does the North. The prosperity of the country, ss a whole, depends on the separate prosper- | ity of its parts, and every survey of the situ» | tion is defective which overlooks the peculias condition of the Southern communities. We must not be understood as indorsing all the positions of Mr. Hunter; but we have not | space at this time to point out and contro- vert those trom which we dissent. We will merely notice his explanation of the reasons why the South has shown so little power of recuperation during the ten years since the close of the war. Mr. Hunter regards the destruction of the State banks by federal legislation as a great impediment to Southern prosperity. For a community which has been exhausted and ‘prosirated by a desolating war the first ne- cessity is ability to command and utilize capi- tel. Banks create no capital, but they are in- dispensable agencies tor extending and strengthening credit, ang the National Bank- leprived the South of this great resource by destroying the State banks. Had the South been able & substi- tute national banks in their place, as we did in the North, the evil would bave been slight. But under a system which requires heavy deposits of federal bonds the Southern people, who were not the owners of such bonds, were deprived of the ordinary facil- | ities ot credit. If the State banks had been permitted to stand Southern re- cuperation would not have been sa fatally obstracted. Banks could have been organized and secured on such property as the Southern people possessed. The bonds of their State governments, the municipal bonds of their cities and the bonds | of the Southern railroads would have been available for that purpose, and numerous local banks could have made advances to the planters on the strength of their growing crops and their real estate. But the property of the planters could not enable them to borrow money in distant parts of the country, and they were deprived of the great advan- tage of a well organized system of home credit. What would have been the condition of the North if, when the State banks were destroyed by federal legislation, we had been unable to supply their place by other institu- tions? Mr. Honter discusses emancipation only in its financial aspect. He dves not dispute that it may prove an ultimate advantage to the | South even ina pecuniary view, but its im mediate effect was undoubtedly disastrous. It is not, as Mr. Hunter puts it, a question | between the comparative economy of free and slave labor, but a question as to the means of recuperation atter the impoverish- ment of a great war. What the South most ot all needed was credit, and had slavery continued abundant loans coud bave been procured by mortgaging that species of prop- erty. We suppose this is undeniable as o | financial proposition ; but it is as futile to discuss it now asit would be to spend un- availing regrets over the war or to cry “for spilt milk. There are many interesting points in Mr. Hunter's letter which invice discussion, but we have no space for them al present. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, —_——_—_+—__— Rev. Brooke Heriord, of Manchester, England, ts staying at the Filth Avenue Aotel. Captain Eaward Simpson, United States Navy, 1s residing temporarily at the Everett House. Anew translation of the “Odesof Pindar," by Farnest Myers, iq highly praised by the Londos Academy. General N. P. Banks, of Massachusetts, and ex- Congressman HMngnam Lawrence, of Lonisiana, | arrived from Washington yesterday at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Mrs. Stowe's forthcoming novel, “We and Our | Neighbors,” 1s to startout in a first edition of | 20,000 coptes. Another book on the now popular subject of heridity and bybridism bas been Weltten by E. W. Cox, of London, A new work {3 tn press In Paris, under the | auspices of the Miaistry of Public Works, entitled “Les Travaux Publics de ja France, Routes et Ponts, Chemins de Fer, Rivieres et Canaux, Ports de Mer, Phares ct Balises.” Mr. George Fintay, who lately dicd as corre. spondent of the London Zines, wrote half a dozen careful aud intelligent works on the “Fis.ory of Greece, Ancient and Modern,” Fity-three thousand copies of the “ilandy-boox of Property Law,” by the late Lord st, Leonards, who died lave.y, ab tue age o1 ninety-iour years, alter seventy years of hard work, have been sold, Aminute acconat of a journey tor health and sport through the Hudson Bay Company's tert. tory to the Rocky Mountains bas been written by the Earl of Southeske, unaer the title of “Sas katchewan and the Rocky Mountains.” 1t avounds With auimuted descriptions of the killing of bears, buffaloes and other game, and their merits on tip