The New York Herald Newspaper, March 23, 1875, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yorx Heraup will be | sent free of poniege: THE DAILY HE RALD, published every | day in the year. Your cents per copy. An- | pual subscription price $12. | siness or news letters and telegraphic uust be addressed New Youre Hierarp. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be properly sealed, VONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STRE Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME XL AMUSEMENTS. TO-NIGHT. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, M Bowery.—VARIETY, at 5 P. M.; closes at 1045 ‘0, . M. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, ‘Twenty eighth stree aad Broadway. —iiE BIG BO- NAA, at S ; closes at 100 P.M, Mr. Fisher, Mr. Dowia, iiss Davenport, Mrs Gilbert LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near avenue.—MARY STUART gud LADY MACBETH, Mine. Ristori, RE, , at 8 P. M.; closes at GRAND CENTRAL THEATRE, 58 Broadway.—VARIETY, ats P. M.: Closes at 10:45 | Hos P BOOTHS THEATRE Twenty-third street and’ Sixth avenue.— Vo, ator Mey P.M. Mr, Rignold. corner ot HENKY ) MINSTRELS, eet. NEGRO SAN FRANCISC Broadway, corner of Twenty-ninth, MUNSTRELSY, ats P.M. M. closes at 10 P. M. TIVOLI THEATRE, Fighth street. between © ou ‘and’ Third avenues.— VARIBTY, at 8 P.M. ; closes at 12 P.M. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway.—THE SHAUGHRAUN, at3 P.M; 1045 P. Si Mr. Boucicault closes at COLOSSEU. Broadway and Thirty-fourth street.—P FARIS BY NIGHT. ‘Iwo exhibitions sat Zand 3, MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, BIG BONANZA. Miss Sarah Jewett, Mr. Louls James. DE GARMO HALL, CONCERT, at8 P.M. M: Moilenbauer. WoobD’s MUSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirtieth sireet—THE RAG- PICKER OF PARIS, at2 P.M. THE FAS?EST BOY IN | NEW YORK, ais P.M; closes at 1045 P.M. | OLYMPIC THEATRE, 7,8" Broadway.—VARIETY, ats P. M.; closes at 10:45 ROBINS TALL, Sixteenth street and Broadway.—CAL! ENDER’S GEORGIA MINSTRELS, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 P. M. THKATRE COMIQUE, No, fll Broadway. VARIETY, at 3 Pad. ; closes at 10:45 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, West Fourteenth street —Open from 10 A. M. to5 P.M. BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, Hy ton avenue.—VARIBTY. at 8 ¥. M.; closes at 1045 BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSR, West Twenty third street, near Sixth avenne —NEGRO MINSTRELSY, &c., atS¥/M.; closes at WW P.M. Dan Bryant GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth (fitegi— GIROFLE GIBOVLA, at 8 P. M.; clowes at ly Broadway.—HERRMANN, ater M.; closes atl045P. M. NOTICE TO PU 3LIC. THE es Owing to the heavy pressure of advertise- ments on the columns of our Sunday edi- tions, advertisers will serve their own inter- este and enable us to make a proper classi- they nents fication hereafter send in the Sunday the week and early on will if advertise intended for Herarp during Saturdays. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be clear and cold. Watt Sreezr Yxsterpay.—The stock | market was excited and active. Gold was | firm at 116}, foreign exchange dull and money on call easy. Venice honors her heroes by statues. That of the patriot Manin was yesterday unveiled with appropriate ceremonies and amid uni- | versal rejoicing. | _—— | Tae Enousn Revivat.—There must be something sincere or magnetic in Messrs. Moody and Sankey or the excitement of their | revival movement would not be continued so long. The English clergymen have agreed to support it and to invite to England some of the leading American preachers. Tre Voveranp Suoortinc.—The latest news from Vineland, N. J., is that Mr. Carruth is still alive, and that the physicians attending him have little expectation of his recovery. In case of his improvement an effort is to be made to obtain the liberation of Mr. Landis on bail. The affair has already become the subject of partisan feeling, and the excite- ment in Vineland is inten Mr. GREEN AND THE ALDERMEN.—The law committee of the Board of Aldermen yester- day resumed ite investigation ot the charges against Comptroller Green. General A. G. Webb testified that Mr. Green’s conduct had impaired the credit of the College of New York, and Commissioner Howe reaffirmed the report he had already made to the Board. Ap- pended to this testimony is a letter from Mr. John B. Haskin in reply to ex-Governor Dix. ‘Tux Terran or Carraty Kiuimra before the Board of Police Commissioners for receiving money improperly will largely command the attention of the public, which has too much reason to fear that police officers are frequently too intimate with violators of the law. The offence of which Captain Killilea is accused is trifling when compared with the criminal leagues detectives are said to torm with coun- terfeiters and thieves, but the case deserves a thorough and rigid investigations | | to concoet plans for thwarting him. ' Mayor Wickham and the Tammany magnates | his rural supporters is the key to the | ‘Tammany for opposing the policy of the | Governor, they met with no encouragement. |The Tammany chiefs are too sensible that | Governor Tilden has the whipband, and that | ting the democratic party, and he would win over, if Tammany had unwarily consented to such @ bargain, it could have gained | nothing ; for, although home rule might have been carried through the Legislature, the exasperated Governor | the Canal Ring in the autumn necessitates a | juncture, quite apart from motives of pru- | enough to secure attention. ‘rations for the Presidency, and none of them has ever attempted to promote | his chances by a more legitimate _NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1875.—TRIPLE SHEET. Governor Tilden’s Canal Message—A Commotion in State Politics. The vigorous coup against the Canal Ring with which the Governor has enlivened the hitherto flat proceedings at Albany excites keen interest and forebodes a lively fight in which ‘‘somebody will be hurt.” The press of both parties is full of it. We rejoice to see that through the whole length of the State, from Long Island to Lake Erie, the Governor is indorsed and applanded, though with vary- ing degrees of warmth. The Canal Ring is struck with consternation, its leaders de- nouncing the Governor, impugning bis mo- tives and holding confidential consultations The purpose of their visit to this city on Saturday an alliance, offensive and defensive, with w on the joint basis of resisting the Governor's canal policy and of carrying the city measures which Tammany desires and the Governor obstructs. They should have seen, without the trouble of a journey and consul- tation, that such a bargain. is impracticable. The fact that they attempted it indicates the stress of the situation and shows to what straits they are reduced by the explosion of Governor Tilden’s bomb in their cawp. The members of the Canal Ring have short memories. They seem to have forgotten John Kelly’s denunciation of the Canal Ring just before the meeting of the Democratic State Convention last fall. Mr. Tilden was Kelly’s candidate, and the fierce anathemas which the ‘lammany chief launched against Mr. Til- den’s opponents in Western New York, brand- ing them as the allies of the corrupt Canal Ring, inflamed animosities and led to an angry struggle in the Syracuse Convention. The victory won by Tilden’s friends in that strug- gle, the triumphant majority by which he was nominated and his surprising victory over General Dix in the election made it apparent that Tilden is a tough customer to quarrel with. Nobody was more impressed with this view than shrewd John Kelly. When he found that Tilden would have been elected without the democratic majority in this city Kelly saw that Tilden was inde- pendent of Tammany, and could afford to pursue any line of policy he might select without abjectly courting the city democracy. ‘This was more than Tammany had bargained for. It wished to nominate Tilden and to elect him; but it expected the city vote to be the controlling element in the contest, and that the Governor would recognize his de- pendence on that branch of the party. When, for the first time in twenty years, a democratic Governor was elected by a majority so over- whelming that he might have dispensed with the city vote, Mr. Kelly saw, with prompt sagacity, that Tammany had no peculiar hold on the new Governor, who was emancipated from the influence of any local clique. Governor Tilden’s confident reliance on cavalier manner in which he has treated Mayor Wickham and the claims of the city democracy to home rule. But, al- though he has dissatisfied the home rulers, they dare not come to a rupture with him. When, therefore, the members of the Canal Ring came down to the city on Saturday to arrange a bargain with Mayor Wickham and he “means business’’ in his onslaught against the Canal Ring. Had Tammany consented to euter into a coalition to oppose him the oppo- sition would have been futile, because the republicans of the Legislature would have supported the Governor, in the hope of split- an easy triumph in spite of a coalition be- tween Tammany and the Canal Ring. More- would veto it, and they would be no better off in the end. ‘Tammany will therefore stand by the Governor in his attack on the Canal Ring, hoping to win from him by conciliation what they could not extort by an aggressive attitude. Mr. Kelly’s infuriated assault on support of the Governor in this exciting con- dence and policy. ‘The charge ot the Canal Ring that Governor Tilden bas ‘Presidency on the brain,” and that he has exploded this bomb to magnify his merits as a reformer and recommend him- self as a Presidential candidate is plausible There is too much reason for believing it true to make contradiction safe. But what then? Many of our public men have had aspi- method than by insisting upon honesty in public administration. ‘The proper ques tion in this canal controversy is whether the stand taken by Governor Tilden is right. | His measures, and not his motives, is the proper hinge ot the controversy. No citizen binds himself to support Mr. Tilden for the Presidency by indorsing his canal message. The canal question is a question of State | policy to be decided on its merits. Ii Mr, ‘Tilden’s views are correct and his damaging exposures true honest citizens should go with him, even though they may scout his Presidential aspirations. It is his duty as Governor to do what he can to eradicate frauds in the State administration, and of course his Presidential aspirations will be rather favored than thwarted by a zeal- ous warfare against swindling rings and official corruption. We concede that, if Mr. Tilden has any chances for the national democratic nomination next year, they are founded, almost entirely, on his recent career as a reformer. His election as Governor was due to his vigor against the Tweed Ring in 1871, and it is natural enough that he should wish to lift himself to national favor by further efforts of the same kind. As a game for the Presidency it is managed with considerable skill; citizens to lay Mr. Tilden’s personal motives and ambition quite out of the case, and judge but it is the duty of honest between him and the Canal Ring on the intrinsic merits of the controversy. He is so clearly right in this matter that he will carry popular sentiment with him, and the best card the republicans in the Legisl.- | concerts their calculations. ture can play is to ate Beet their cordial support and claim their share in a policy which would otherwise inure to the advantage of a democratic aspirant to the Presidency. If the republicans of the Legislature are shrewd enough to support the Governor against a corrupt democratic ring the honors will be divided, and the personal and party capital at which Mr. Tilden is sup- posed to aim be of small account. Governor Tilden is astute and: artful, and among the other objects he has in view in precipitating this canal controversy he wishes to withdraw attention trom city affairs by concentrating it on a more exciting question. ‘The ways of politicians are crooked, and if the Governor, now that he has discharged his bomb into the camp of the Canal Ring, does not im- mediately act on Mayor Wickham’s removals, this community will regard him as a dexter- ous political dodger who does nothing and abstains from nothing except with reference to his Presidential chances, The people will | support him in his assault on the Canal Ring because it is just; but, if they are constrained to believe that its motive is personal and self- ish, they will prefer a different style of man for President. It will not do for Mr. Tilden to make his assault on the Canal Ring an ex- cuse for shirking his duty to support the hon- est efforts of the Mayor to reform our muni- cipal government. Andrew Johnson’s Speech. The speech of Andrew Jobnson in the Senate yesterday will make a profound im- pression on the country, by reason of its energy, earnestness and courage. The Louisiana question becomes but an inci- dent in his sweeping arraignment of the administration. He passes at once from a brief consideration of the law and the facts to a bold denunciation of the President and a passionate appeal to the people. Virtually the address is an impeachment of General Grant. It was unnecessary in Mr. Johnson to com- pare Grant with Washington in order to make his argument more effective by the con- trast. The American people do not approve of cruelty that can serve no good end. If we were to institute comparisons of the kind how few public reputations would besecure! Mr. Johnson himself would not be benefited by such a parallel. ‘To insist upon judging General Grant by Washington is to be unjust, for there is no resemblance in their characters, and outside of the office- holders no one pretends to the con trary. Postmasters and revenue officers may speak of Grant as the Second Washington ; but their eulogy does not de- serve Mr. Johnson’s attention, This portion of his speech is, therefore, uncalled for, and the concealed malice is not to be justified even by the heat of political passion. The nature of Mr. Johnson’s mind is prac- tical. He cannot argue in abstractions, and thus rapidly passes from the theoretical merits of the Louisiana question to what he considers to be the political and personal object of the administration. When he sees military tyranny in the place of civil law he seeks at once for the motive of the usurpation. He finds it, where alone it can be} logically found, in the President's de- sire of a third term, and the dan- ger. to republican institutions in that innovation seems to him, as to all thoughttu men, the greatest of our national evils. he President, he argues, is already in certain por- tions of the country as absolute as an Emperor, and if the precedents of his rule in the South are permitted to stand the Empire itselt will soon be upon us. Mr. Johnson believes that the ad- ministration is trying to overthrow the gov- ernment, and we are sorry to say that he has plausible reasons tor the opinion. There are acts of the President that cannot be explained upon any other theory than that of a scheme to hold the Executive power for another term, and that means the end of the Republic our forefathers tounded. Mr. Johnson's speech will probably be con- demned for its impolicy, but policy is not to be expected from a nature so blunt and courageous. With too much passion for the time and perhaps too much exaggeration, he bas honestly uttered unwelcome truths and warned the nation of dangers it will be wise to heed. The Speculation in Gold. The ring which has been manipulating the gold market for the last two or three weeks has not yet been broken. The price of gold yesterday did not advance, but it did not recede, and untilnew supplies come into the market there is little chance of much reduction. ‘The importing merchants, vho cannot afford to lose the spring trade which is now opening, must have gold for the payment of duties; but the state of the gold market for the last two or three days may encourage them to believe that its price has reached as high a point as it will attain. The gold clique dare not carry it higher, and they will not consent to have it lower until they can unload, unless ® new supply dis- A small amount is on the waytrom California, but it is insuf- ficient to have any perceptible effect on the market. The situation hinges on the presen- tation of the called bonds at the Treasury for payment. They have not yet begun to come in, and as the interest on them is greater than the interest of money in | otherwise would, , the waters of the Tiber. base line of a triangle, of which the Anio and | the strect, it is quite possible that the owners | | may prefer to retain them until the inter- | est is stopped by the expiration of the three | months, when the whole thirty millions would be poured into the market at a season when importations are ata stand, But if the spec- ulators should be unwary enough to ran up the price of gold much beyond its present figure, the holders of the called bonds could make more by getting their gold at once and selling it than by allowing their bonds to run on until the expiration of the three months, This is a pretty good security that gold will not go much higher. It will, therefore, be safe for the importing merchants to buy no more than they need from day to day for paying | the duties on such goods as they wish to bring immediately into the market. They have a pretty sure guarantee that the price cannot materially advance, and from the moment that any considerable amount of the called bonds are presented for payment it is certain to decline. ‘Tweep Case has reached the Court of Appeals, and the argument of his counsel was begun yesterday in support of bis extraur- dioury demands Tur Civil Service in Tammany Hall. ‘The announcement that seems to be ac- cepted as official, that the Fitz Porters and the Fitz Kellys have come toan agreement by which it is arranged that all the offices under the control of the Commissioner of Public Works shall be fairly divided among the “honest workingmen” of the party, is most important. The situation is this: Ihe Man- hattan Club and the Fitz Porters who belong to it, representing the kid-gloved, perfumed, high society element of the party, have made General Porter Commissioner of Public Works, and before they are through will probably appoint the heads of every munici- pal department. Tho rank and file of the democracy are to bo satisfied by receiving all the appointments under these departments. They are to work and dig, to labor in Central Park and the Fourth avenue improvement, and to earn from a dollar and a half to five dollars a day for their pure democracy. The Fitz Porters are to be paid various sums, from five thousand dollars to fifty thousand dollars a year for their services, and the Fitz Kellys are to be paid anywhere from five hundred to five thousand dollars. The power rests with the Fitz Porters of the Manhattan Club. By power we mean easy work, honorable posi- tion and high salary. The ‘‘patronage” rests with the rank and file—the Fitz Kellys—which means hard work and steady yoting when the day comes. Of course, if the Tammany boys are satis- fied with this arrangement, it is no business of ours. But there is one point which we regret to say has escaped their attention. When this party came into power in New York it made certain promises that it would reform the government, give us a sound municipal system, do away with all the corruptions of the old Tammany Ring, and, above all things, establish a civil service in the city. Without curiously considering how tar these promises have been realized let us ask whether the Tammany ‘Ring ever did anything more cor- rupt than this bargaining and sale of the public offices of New York to the leaders of a political organization? Let us ask, also, where are those reforms which were to be introduced in the govern- ment of the city? If this city is to be gov- erned as a merchant conducts his business— by prudence, economy, justice; if officials are to be appointed only for merit, and to be kept in place and promoted according to their deserving, how can we have such an arrange- ment as is now proposed between General Porter and Tammany Hall, by which a com- mittee of noisy and scheming politicians have the entire power to remove every officer in a great department? What has John Morrissey done, either in the politics, the business circles or the society of New York, that he should have the power to name the officials who are to manage the Department of Public Works? Who has given John Kelly the attri- butes of authority to enable him to say whether two or three thousand men shall remain in their places? Are we to understand that the power of Morrissey and Kelly is the logical result of the last election? Are we to believe that this civil service reform was simply an election cry, and that this is to be the fruit of it—this pargaining and sale between the city government and Tammany Hall; this changing of the whole system of city government, not upon the prin- ciples of fituess and merit, but in obedience to a committee of eager, bustling politicians? We are so democratic in New York that we can probably stand this. If we look back upon the dynasties of the Tammany reign we are probably doing as well now as we have ever done before. But how can the demo- cratic party expect power in other States, how can it claim to carry the next clection to the Presidency, if here in New York, where it is strong, it signalizes its first accession to power by trampling under foot every promise made by its leaders and embarking upon the old sea of nepotism, corruption and political in- trigue? Garibaldi and the Improvements Rome. Garibaldi’s projects for the redemption of the country in the neighborhood of Rome are so far favored by the government that it will undoubtedly give its support in the Parlia- ment to any bill for raising the necessary fands ; but no close approximation of the ex- at penditure can yet be reached by estimate, be- | cause of the fact that no definite plan of operations has been settled. In fact, the pro- ject is yet rather in the drifting stage—pro- fessedly subject to any modification that may be supported by cogent reasons. As we pointed out two or three days since, there are two objects in view—first, the prevention in the city of the ever-recurring calamity of inundation ; next, the drainage of the malarious district of the Campagna. ‘T'wo distinctly separate systems of improvement are proposed to remedy these separate evils. Against the evils of the Campagna it is pro- posed to cut # canal some twenty-five or | thirty miles long, from Tivol on the Anio | far above Rome to the Tiber, near Ostia. This cut will not at any point come any- where near the city, and it will have no rela- tion to the inundations except in so tar as it may divert the water of the Anio, which It will run like the the Tiber are the two sides, and consequently | | will skirt for some distance the foot of the Alban hills. In times when the plain would be overflowed this cut will carry the water sea- | ward, while in seasons when the burmng sua turns the plain to the semblance of a place wasted by fire, it may, with proper crosscuts, serve for irrigation and so make agriculture posrible ; and it is tolerably clear that it is in agriculture more than in drainege that we shali find the true solution of the problem of the Roman Campagna. To prevent the inundations the project is to make a cut, or perhaps two cuts, skirting the city, starting, that is, at the Tiber some ways above, making the halt circuit and ending at the Tiber several miles below. double curve in the river of which advantage may be taken for these cuts ; so that whether | one be made to the east or west of the ri er | they will be practically rectifications of its course, and will be but slightly curved lines. One cut of this sorl, of proper dimensions, would doubtless divert the water sufficiently, and two would surely do it. In counection with the project for culs goes that for the improvement of the these of course, somewhat swell | There is a) river in the cily, the reduction of its bed to half the present width and the construction in the space thus gained of an embankment with ® promenade like the Quai at Paris, the Lungo l’Arno at Florence and the Victoria Embank- ment of London. It is a pleasant thing to have to chronicle of the City of the Soul such evidences ot restored vitality as these projects imply. The Astronomers’ Problem. Notwithstanding the praiseworthy efforts of the American observers in Japan to carry sion, the brilliancy of their success was cruelly dimmed by cloud-masses which caught the rays of victory beamed from the east during the decisive moments of the first and the last contact. The photographs taken there, like all the others, must fail to yield | perfect results, though they may evoke inves- ter for the observance of the transit eight years hence. The small number of cusp measurements made prior to the second con- tact will not enable the calculators to deter- mine the epoch of first contact by the laws of proportion. But inasmuch as the possibility of error in the notation of the sec- ond and the third contact is limited to a few seconds, and the English have chronicled the closing contacts in Africa, we are hopeful of asolution of the main problem by Delisle’s method closely approximating the truth. The micrometric measures of Venus’ apparent diameter and the records of the transits of the limbs of both bodies across the meridian fur- nish the key to a correction of the planet’s diameter and the longitude of its node. But in the determination of the former attention must be paid to a fact that has been ignored by some of the star gazera—the height and density of Venus’ atmosphere. Before the expeditions left this country their attention was asked, through these columns, to this important circumstance, and the propriety of that suggection is amply shown by the occurrences incident to the transit. The refraction of the planet’s light has unquestionably operated to accelerate the epochs of the first and the third contact and to retard the second and the tourth. This, together with errors of position, would ac- count for the discrepancy between the esti- mated and the observed periods of apparent collision between the bodies as viewed by the astronomers in Japan. The conclusions to which the reports thus far received seem likely to lead may be modified by the work of the scientists yet unheard from. But trom what may be surmised, we venture to think that the noble achievements of 1874 will merely prove preparatory to those which are destined to crown the astronomical progress of this century, when the silver orb will re- peat her journey over the solar globe, scanned by thousands of admirers from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore. The Fifth Avenue Pavement Bill and the Assembly Investigation. The action of the State Assembly in rela- tion to the Fifth Avenue Pavement bill in- vestigation will not improve the reputation of that body. After the bill in question had been reported favorably by the Committee on Cities and placed on the files of the members in its regular order, to be considered at the proper time in Committee of the Whole House, it was removed and destroyed, and an altered and fraudulent bill was put in its place. This substituted bill bore upon its face all the marks of genuineness. It was printed by the legislative printers, in the regular form and with the regular type; it bore upon it the number, marks and refer- ences of the original bill, and a forged in- dorsement of the favorable report and recom- mendation of the standing committee by which it had been considered. from the true bill consisted of the insertion of three lines, which, if the forgery had not been detected and the bill had be- come a law, would have added two hundred and sixty thousand dollars to the cost of the work authorized by the bill, and hence to the profits of the parties in- | terested therein. The legislative printer ad- mitted that he had printed the fraudulent bill, with all the genuine marks and notes upon it, for an outside and unauthorized person. The best defence that could be offered by the the filing of the bills, was that he had made some indorsement on one of the fraudulent bills, which indorsement had been mutilated and made to read like an order to place the bill on the files. The Sergeant-at-Arms and others in authority disclaimed all knowledge of the matter. he act of the substitution of the altered for the genuine bill must be placed on some one’s shoulders,and was at- tributed to a youth who had no position in the Legislature and no authority to touch any | file or any document belonging to the Assem- bly. Yet this youth, who is said to have been bill, was not subpoenaed or examined by the Committee of Investigation. In the face of these facts the majority of | the commitiee reporied that while “irregular | had been used to get | and improper means” the fraudulent bill placed on the files there was nothing whatever to show that such action was induced by improper motives, or was known to the officers of the House or the per- sons interested in the bill of the Assembly accepted and indorsed this scondalous report. If “irregularand improper | means” were used to place a false bill on the files of the members certainly some blame for inefficiency or wiiful neglect of duty must attach to the Clerk of the House, the Sergeant- | | at-Arms and their assistants, If, as is alleged, the boy Walters succeeded in making the | change by his own act or through his own instructions, all the regular officers of the House must bave been culpa- | bly remiss or incapable. How can the comiittee and the House fail to find “improper motives’’ fora fraudulent altera- tion of a biil by means of which over a quar- | ter of a million dollars would be put into the pockets of the persons interested in its pro- visions? How can they acquit these persons of any knowledge of the attempted fraud when they declare that a boy in their employ was the guilty party, and especially when the boy | | in question has not been made to testify | before the committee? How can they find no | officials to blame when the legislative printer | | printed the altered bill, giving it all the marks | of genuineness, and thus admittedly aided the imposition? We leave the Assembly to , out the instructions of the Transit Commis- | tigation and inventions of a crowning charac- | The alteration | Clerk of the Assembly, who is responsible for | in the employment of the promoters of the | A large majority | answer these questions, Spee pe our surprise that Mr. Frederick W. Seward should be found uniting in such a report. As to the bill itself, it can scarcely be aided by this scandalous episode. Its passage would bo unjust to the residents of Fifth avenue and to the taxpayers generally under any circum- stances. The attempted fraud only adds an additional reason for its defeat. Musical Prospects. The season of Lent has been a penitentiad one in a musical as well as religious point of view. Easter brings with it hope and flat- tering promises. The Kellogg English Opera Company finish their winter season at the Academy next week, and will be succeeded by Mr. Maretzek with an Italian opera company, mainly composed of native artists. An ex- periment will be made im this latter case to | popularize Italian opera and to take away from it the “spirit of exclusiveness and high | pricedness so long attached to it Among the artists who will appear for the first time on the boards of the Academy in Italian opera are Miss Hoffman, of Chicago; Miss Rokohl, of New York; Miss Morelle, of Savannah; Miss Randall, of Washington, and | Miss Sorel, of Louisiana. The enterprise is national enough, to judge from this list. Some of the male artists of the late Strakosch troupe have been engaged. The répertoire consists of Flotow’s ‘‘L’Ombre,’’ which will be Beensried for the first time in this city; “Martha,” “Provatore™ “and Brant, works calculated to test to the fullest the. capabilities of those aspirants for operatic honors. It is an experiment worth trying, and if successful will do much to advance and encourage native talent. Mr. Theodore Thomas will inaugurate his season of sum- mer concerts in May, after his return from the grand musical festival which is to be held in Cincinnati. Gilmore and his military band will also entertain the metropolis during the’ dog days with promonade concerts. The Oratorio Society, which has acqhired such fame and popularity this season, will produce “Samson” at Steinway Hall on Easter Mon- day. This is a favorable outlook, and will go far toward supplying the aching void left by the collapse of some of those musical enter- prises inaugurated last fall. Tux Coup Wearner of yesterday maitre tained the ice blockade in the rivers, and post. poned the impending danger. The water fell slowly at Port Deposit, but the flood is still locked up in the gorges, and warmer weather will probably bring disaster with its blessing. Tue Usrrunness or Sr. Joun’s Gump is so great and its needs so urgent that we hope the efforts now being made to replenish its treasury will be earnestly supported by the public. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Congressman Eugene Hale, o! Maine, 1s staying at the Fiftn Avenue Hotel. Captain W. H. Hains, of the steamship Abyssinia, is quartered at the New York Hotel, Mr. Willam Castle, the tenor, {8 among the latest arrivals at the Everett House. Senator Joseph E, McDonala, of Indiana, is re- siding temporarily at the St. Nicholas Hotel, Congressman John 0, Whitehouse, of Poughe keepsie, is registered at the Albemarie Hotel. Mr. D. W. Gooch, United States Pension Agent for Massachusetts, is sojourning at the Brevoory House. One of the papers very honestly heads its very tardy report of the transit of Venus, “fuli partic. ulars at last.’” Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson arrived in this city yesterday from his home in Concord, Mass., and ts at the St, Denis Hotel, Postmaster General Marshali Jewell arrived av the Fifth Avenue Hotel yesterday morning, aud left last evening for Wasbington. The Voce deila Verita states that Count de Chambord has sent to the Pope, through the Princess Francesca Massini, a sum of 10,000 francs in gold, with a tetter. A Savoy paper says that the watershed at the | tunnel having been adopted as the Franco-Italian | boundary oa Mont Cents Ltaly will have to cede to | France about 450 metres of grouna. Two young gentlemen at tne Jena University were killed in duels just before Christnas, and how the Jaw ts no more duels; but the tellows | who do not fear the sword will scarcely fear the he | . Whitelaw Reid, editor of the Tribune, was indice by the Grand Jury of the Disirict of | Columbia, yesterday, for the aideged livelling of | ex-Governor Shepherd, who also bears the grace. | 1ul soubriquet of “The Boss.” | “Le rol s’ennaie.” Alfonso 1s shockingly bored | With the part he .s compelled to play as a mere political puppet in the metropolitan viliage of Madrid, and has neither the capacity nor the spirit to cut the Wires and dance toa tune of his own choosing. English lawyers are disputing finely over the zie in the legal aspects of the case oi Jona The general judgment hag been that by his escape he made himself a feion for life. His sentence gave bim tue status of a felon, and tue law knows of no way to change that status save | by enduranee of the sentence or pardon. Lord St. Leonards taught that it was the sacred | duty of every man to make his will, anu he wrote a DOOK to show how it should be done. He made his own will with the sound of trumpe's, as it were, and now that wiil cannot be tound—iost, apparentiy, in the wilderness Of his papers, or, as conjectured, perhaps buried with bim—ior he kept ttsometimes in the pocket of his dressing gown. The Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung gives an exe | tract from the Leipsic ‘Booksellers’ Report,” from which tt appears that the number of works printed in Germany was the largest on record since 1849, and amounted to 12,000, including re- prints and maps of ail kinds, Theology, which | had hitherto stood at the head of the list, fell im | 187410 the third piace, jurisprudence and educa- tion taking precedence, Mr. Francis Pierce Connetly, an American | painter in Florence, has institute! proceedings against some of tie local journals for having | stated that he and some other American artists have been in the tiabit of emp.oyiug native artists in neeay circumstances to produce works whicn they have forwarded 1o the United States as their own veritable productions, and thas have found | name and s market for themseives. Here 18 aioreigner who applies ia the grocery | line one of the great ideas employed tn politica by His Exceilency the President. He sends arouna circulars with descriptions of his prime teas, and | adas, “Lf 1 do not hear from you 10 the contrary § | shall consider it an order and wil send you’ | pounds of the best by the 20th inst., and draw on | you sor the money.” Grant says the same to Con- | gress. “1 propose to put my foot on such a | Southern State; if you don’t make a law tothe } contrary J shall consider that you consent.” Isavelle, the flower girl of the Paris Jockey Ciub, has jast been sued by her mother to obtain | an alimentary allowance. The plaintid, a poor peasant woman aod widow, named Briant, is quite destitute and infirm, whtle Isabelle is in | aMuent circumstances, her income being esti. mated at 16,000 Irancs @ year, She lives ina | handsome apartment: in Maris, and has two houses | atpaunois. The Tribunal gave judgment against | per, and fixed the allowance at 600 Irancs a year, They soid at the public auction in Paris te other day @ revolver Wat has tad many owners, | and with which five of its owners bad committer BULCLUGs