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

NEW YORK HERALD | BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On snd after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yorx Hznatp will be | sent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- ‘eual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New Yorx Hepat. 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. PARIS OFFICE—NO. 3 RUE SCRIBE. Bubseriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. THEATRE COMIQUE, ph dress. pa Alaery, at wr ‘M. ; closes at 10:43 NO, 18 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, ‘West Fourteenth street —Open from 10 A. M. to5 P.M. BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE. Sa avenue.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10x65 YMPIC THEATRE, ro Broadway eVanieTy. ats P. M.; closes at 10:45 THEATRE, Broad way. —THE BIG BO. at 10:20 bi M. Bir. Fisher, Mr. PARK TREAT! Beery Pays, © SROCKETN at'8 ¥.M.; closes at | Pp Mayo. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—TRUE aS STEEL, at 8 P.M. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, ) oy iets anes gue pegey third street—AHMED, at 8 closes at 1 rir THEATRE, vere third street and Sixth avenge. —. joses at ll P. M. ‘fis Neilson. | LYCEUM THEATRE, Fryar? street, near, Bixth avenue, —LA JOLIE PAR SB, atsP.M. Mile. 4 SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, Garner ct Twentrninth street. NEGRO | Higa Yat atS P, M.; closes at 10 P.M. pevory re Wars tween Ba “Thira avenues— revere Mj closes at 12 P.M. ALLACK ‘3 ‘HEATRE, Bregeryer cRon®, TO RUIN, at P. M.’; closes at 1040 . Mr. Montague, Miss Jefireys-Lewis. ROBINSON Fra th street—Li STATUE e. P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. acs P.M. GINAIRE, at 8 BOWFRY OPERA HOUSE, ppt seens-— Fanart, at 8 P. AL; closes at 1045 Woon's MUSEUM Broadway, corner Thirtieth strest.—TM OROUGHBBED, SSP. My closes at 10497. M. Matmee at? P.M. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street and Irving piace.—ERNANT, at 8 P.M.—Mile. Mohalbi. QUADRUPLE SHEET. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL SS From our reports this anand the probabilities @re that the weather to-day will be cool and clearing. Watt Sraeet Yesterpar.—Investment and some Western securities were strong. Gold opened and closed at 115}. Money on call was easy at last rates and foreign ex- change steady. Tue Rarm Taraxstr Brix was not debated In the Legislature yesterday, canal affairs taking precedence. The postponement of this important discussion should not be long, and when it does take place the people expect it to be thorough. 28 1875, Tae Cextensiit.—From all parts of France the cheering news is received that the mer- chants, manufacturers and wine growers aze | taking warm interest in our Centennial, and that it is likely our first ally will be one of the largest exhibiters in the International Exhi- bition. Pact Borxtox has declared his purpose to make another attempt to cross the English Channel, this time starting from a point on the French coast, Cape Grisnez, to Dover. The time appointed is the 27th of May. Although be has already virtually triumphed the formal success will be a compliance with the public desire. With fair weather we have no doubt that he will swim the entire distance, Tae Wearmre yesterday induced even seeptics to believe that spring bad come at last, and really come to stay. There has been a great deal of doubt on the subject, and the proverb that one swallow does not make a summer has been effectively quoted by the speculators in overcoats and flannels. Dut now we defy augury, and are ready for any- thing Old Probabilities has in store. Tae Beecnen Tran yesterday dragged more than usual, which is saying a great deal. The original crime, the secondary crime the progeny of miscellaneous crimes, which the others begat, and all the crimes which claim telationship with these, are beginning to be telipsed by the intolerable crime of delay. The Beecher trial is worse than even the Alexandrine kine, which, Uike a wounded snake, drags its slow length aiong. Traviax Iprovements.—Our correspond- @xce from Rome this morning explains the plane of Garibaldi reference to the irrigation of the Campagna and the opening of the Tiber. As we feared at the time, the General’s plans do not receive » that encouragement from the Ministry that was given in the first The sum of twenty million dollars was required and promised. Only abont five lion dollars will be given—‘enongh keep Garibaldi employed.” This will enable him to found the new port. It is a st q comment upon the condition of affairs in Enrope that hundreds of millions will be given to arm troops without a murwur, while for really noble and necessary enterprise like this even the smallest sum will be | eqadged, in place. mil- to | nobody had ever thought of in connection | title to be thought of in such a connection. | champion NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1875.—QUADRUPLE SHEET. Cabinet Mutations Under President Grant. General Grant is tho most unskilfol, or at least the most unfortunate, President we have ever had in selecting‘incumbents of the chief administrative offices. Among those who have already gone out are his first Secretary of State; his first, second and third Secretaries of the Treasury; his first Secretary of the Navy; his first and second Secretary of War; his first Secretary of the Interior; his first, second and third Attorney General, and his first Post- master General, In most of these numerous changes the country has felt no regret at the resignations of the retiring officers and no satisfaction with the appointment of their successors, The selection of Mr. A. T. Stewart for Secretary of the Treasury, though respectable in itself, was a ridiculous blunder, the result of sheer ignorance. There is a statute which forbids that office to be held by any person engaged in foreign commerce, and it was unlucky for President Grant that one of his first acts be- trayed his ignorance of the laws with whose execution he was charged. That blunder was the parent of several others. He was com- pelled to make a sudden recast of his Cabinet on the spur of the moment, and lost the ad- vantage of the four months of deliberate in- quiry and consultation which intervened between President's election and his inauguration. A President elect who em- ploys this period wisely can compose a Cab- inet with suitable reference to personal fitness, geographical distribution and party expedi- ency. President Grant forfeited this advan- tage by his blundering selection of Mr. Stewart. It was his original purpose to give New York one Cabinet office, New England one, Pennsylvania one, the border States one and the Western States three, which was a fair enough geographical apportionment in o condition of things which shut out the South. But his singular blunder in the New York appointment destroyed the sym- metry of his original arrangement and compelled him to repair the blunder by sud- den makeshifts. Mr. Fish was appointed Secretary of State for no other reason than because it was necessary to give one of the great Cabinet offices to New York; and as the law excluded Mr. Stewart the President selected Mr. Fish as the best impromptu ap- pomtment. Mr. Fish, who thus came in as the result ofa Presidential blunder, and was not selected by foresight or sagacity, has proved to be the most respectable member of a weak and changing Cabinet. The emergency compelled the President {o make a hasty ap- pointment of a Secreiary of the Treasury, and he caught up Mr. Boutwell, whom with the Cabinet, and he violated geograph- ical equity by giving two Cabinet appoint- ments to the small State of Massachusetts, Mr. Borie proved so incompetent that the Navy Department had to be given to another | citizen, and an obscure lawyer of the small | State of New Jersey was pitched upon, | neither Mr. Robeson nor his State having any | The Western appointments were equally un- secrets whose exposure would annoy and mortify the President. If President Grant has exposed himself to such humiliations, and made the continuance of disthsteful or dishonest officers dependent on their own pleasure or forbearance, his friends havo reason for deep regret, If he would boldly remove Delano and face all consequences the country would regard it as a proof of conscious innocence and the absence of any fear that exposures might prove uncomfortable for himself or anybody connected with him by near ties. President Grant’s last two Cabinet appoint- ments were respectable and creditable, and both Mr. Bristow and Mr, Jewell have steadily risen in public confidence since they became members of the administration. Let us hope that the new Attorney General and the new Secretary of the Interior, if Mr. Delano re- tires, may prove equally acceptable to the country. The American Cardinal. The investiture of the Cardinal yesterday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral was an important event in the history of America. The Catholic Church has played in civilization, for more than a thousand years, a part too active for such a ceremony to be without world-wide significance. Religion is a power in America, Though it has less control here over gov- ernment than in the Old World its influence is still a matter of anxiety to those who study the history of other nations, in order that by the lessons of their experience the dangers to the American Republic may be averted. If Catholicism in America could repeat the history of Catholicism in Europe, in the period when its temporal power reached the climax, the creation of a Roman Catholic Cardinal might be regarded as a danger. But there is no possibility of this evil. The Catholics are probably not one- eighth of our population, and so long as the Presbyterians fail in their favorite scheme to place ‘God in the constitution” we may hope that a union of Church and State in this country will be impossible. Interference with the absolute right of conscience in re- ligious affairs, no matter to what extremes the freedom of belief may go, must be re- sisted from whatever quarter it comes. But we cannot find any menace to our free constitution and non-religious and indepen- dent political institutions in the elevation of the Archbishop of New York to the Cardinal- ship. The Republic guarantees to every cit- izen political rights, without reference to his religious ‘belief, and if any laws of the States interfere with his liberty of conscience they should be repealed at once. But the erca- tion of the new Cardinal is purely a concern of the Church. It confers upon its | subject no new powers. It does not, and cannot, confer upon him any other legal status in the eye of our government than is possessed by the most obscure Methodist preacher. The great Cardinal is before the law only plain John McCloskey, nothing more. But when we remember that the Catholic Church has been and is one of the great civilizing agents of the world, and that it must continue to have a profound influence fortunate. Mr. Washburne remained but a | few days in the State Department; General | Schofield soon gave place to General Rawlins | as Secretary of War, and on his death Gene- | ral Belknap, a man of no mark and the most | slende? qualifications, was foisted into the place. General Cox quarrelled with the Presi- | dent on the civil service question, and this | of honesty was replaced by Mr. Delano, whose zeal for honesty never made him uncomfortable, Mr. Delano is now a candidate for retire | ment, and if the question were to be decided | by popular suffrage in the States where he is best known no member of the Cabinet would be so unanimously chosen to step down and | out. The three most important administration | papers of the West promptly and strongly in- | dorsed his expected withdrawal. The Cincin- nati Gazette, in the State of which Mr. Delano is a citizen and where he is best known, de- clared that the interests of the republican party in Ohio would be promoted by his re- | tirement. The Chicago Tribune and St. Louis Democrat expressed themselves with equal emphasis in the same sense. A)l these papers are supporters of President Grant, and their local position gives them facilities for judging of Mr.° Delano’s official conduct. The land offices and the Indians are the two great subjects committed to the Department of the Interior, and complaints against that Department soon come to the knowledge of the Western press. The fact that the three most important administration organs in the Western States declare their want of confidence in Secretary Delano and express their gratification at the pros- pect of his retirement ought to be duly weighed by the President. If he thinks the republican party can afford to lose Ohio in this year’s election it may be safe for him to defy local public sentiment | and retain Delano in the Cabinet. But the average sense of the party will not justify him in taking such risks. President Grant shrinks from removing any member of his Cabinet and gives those he wishes to get rid of an opportunity to resign. Why does he treat them with such tenderness? It looks too much as if he feared to remove them, lest they should turn upon him and prove that he has been their accomplice in the acis which have brought odium on their de- | partments. Is it true that he dares not remove Secretary Delano? Is it true | that a near relative of the President has prof- ited by the alleged irregularities in the Depart- ment of the Interior? If the President has forfeited his power of removal by conniving at improper transactions he is in a pitiable condition. It cannot with any truth be said that the Tenure of Office act ties his hands, That act was so amended within » month of President Grant's inauguration as to make it a nullity. As the law now ndé he can sus- pend any officer at his pleasure until the g of Congress, and the suspended reinstated. The President is required to send the name of a successor to the Senate for confirmation, and if the Senate rejects bis nominee he is required to name still r. But there is no of a provision for restoring the suspended officer. President Grant’s power of removal is, therefore, as complete as was that of the predecessors of Andrew Jobnson;’ and if an officer “sticks” whom he wishes to get rid of meetin, ofiicer cannot be shadow anc | tative in the honor which has been so gerace- | upon society, we rejoice that its position in the United States has bad formal and emphatic recognition from its supreme head. The ap- pointment of Mr. McCloskey as Cardinal by the Pope is a compliment of the highest de- gree to the millions of Catholics in America. ‘They deserve it, and this gentle, good and upright priest is entitled to be their represyn- fully done. We give to-day considerable space to the reports of the ceremonies of his | investiture into his sacred office yesterday.— just as we should do if under like cumstances a Jew should be made a Rabbi, Mr. Frothingham a Dervish, or Mr. Beecher a Benedictine friar—and are rejoiced to congratulate the Roman Catholics of the whole country upon the perfect suc- cess which attended the unprecedented event, Not three thousand persons witnessed the im- posing ceremonies, but millions will read of them, and not Catholics alone, but unpreju- diced Protestants throughout the country will approve the tribute toa good man and the recognition of a great Church which the creation of the American Cardinalate em- bodies. Axotner Oprortunitr ror Bismarce.— Prince Bismarck will now haye an oppor- tunity of addressing England in the same tone be recently assumed toward Belgium, the address of the Archb4shop of Toronto and the Canadian bishops to Cardinal Ledo- chowski being identical in substance and purpose with that with which he found so much fault, Whether the German Chancellor will attempt to hector England with anything | like the arrogance he used against Belgium | remains to be seen; but in view of the ad- dress of the Canadian prelates, so hostile to the policy of the German Empire and so out- spoken in denunciation of it, we cannot see | | how he can avoid a conflict with Mr. Dis- | racli's government on the subject. And if | the American prelates should follow the ex- ample of those across the border Bismarck’s opportunities will be still further enlarged. Neither England nor the United States are likely to make laws to suit the German idea of religious toleration, and it would be ab- surd to askit. Nothing better illustrates the weakness of Bismarck’s note to Belginm and, indeed, of the whole policy he has been pur- suing in regard to the Archbishop of Posen | and the Catholic clergy of Germany. Cant Scnvnz.—The banquet to the Hon. Carl Schurz last night was a fitting compliment | paid to that great Senator by many of the best and most independent citizens of New York. The speech of Mr. Evarts was a tribute which the distinguished guest of the evening tmoust have heard with more pleasure than the praise conveyed, for it bore the stamp of sin- cere appreciation, which is better than the | most elalorate praise. Mr. Schurz’s own elo- quent address, fall of strong thoughts per- | fectly expressed, is given elsewhere, Tax Srerer Cimaxine Fravr savory subject of our Street ¢ ¢ Bureau having been again brought up before the Legislature, it has been discovered that the most damaging portion of the testimony taken by last year's committee has been stolon. The Assembly, on learning this news from its | Clerk, ordered the stenographer to rewrite the -The un- | regard for principle than for personal objects. | ground of principle the democracy will find | of | tial rivals the Clerk's desk. The incident should make the passage of the Street Cleaning bill a cor- tainty. Is Governor ‘Tilden Aiming at the Presidency t It is the common impression, both in bis own party and out of it, that he is; and his friends think he is playing a dexterous game. But there is something to be said against this hypothesis. Let us say in the outset that we do not think it in the slightest degree dis- creditable to Mr, Tilden that he aspires to the highest office in the country. It is a proper and laudable ambition when the office is sought as @ recognition of great public ser- vices. Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Cass, Seward, Chase and many other statesmen of eminence who never attained that honor sought it; and it is as legitimate an object of pursuit by Governor Tilden as by Senator Thur- man, Governor Hendricks, Judge Church or any of the democratic competitors. If Gov- ernor Tilden’s assault on the Canal Ring was prompted by Presidential aspirations, that kind of ambition never selected a more legiti- mate or a more honorable path to the highest honors of the Republic, But when a public man comes to be regarded as a leading candi- date tora Presidential nomination he must expect his conduct to be scanned, and Gov- ernor Tilden can claim no exemption from ordinary criticism, We could easily, if so meclined, make a strong argument against the universal dem- ocratic and the universal republican opinion that Governor Tilden has set his heart on the Presidency. In the first place, if he is aiming at the democratic nomination in 1876, he has exposed his hand too soon. Every other dem- ocratic aspirant looks upon him with jealousy, and they have all a common interest in his defeat. As none of them ‘has any chance unless he can be put out of the field his too early exposure of his aims will combine all his democratic competitors and convert the friends of all other possible candidates into active opponents. They will say, with a great color ot plausibility, that » local struggle in New York has but a slight connection with national politics, and that the national canvass must be conducted with reference to broad national issues. They will contend that the manage- ment of the New York canal is o question with which the national government has no concern, and that it would be absurd to elect a President with reference to a local New York question. The democracy of the country will also look to Mr, Tilden’s political consistency. When they find that he claims for the State executive powers which he will not consent to have given to the city Executive they will be apt to say that Governor Tilden has less This contemptuous neglect of Mayor Wick- ham’s removals will be set in contrast to his own claims to remove’ State officers; and as both powers stand on the same it difficult to discover Governor Tilden’s con- sistency. If the Governor is aiming at the democratic nomination he should naturally be more careful to keep himself in harmony with the fundamental principles of the demo- cratic party. Moreover,, the conspicuous | manner in which he has made the Tribune his confidential organ, and given it information | which enabled it to eclipse democratic jour- | nals which have always been devoted to his interests, shows that he is looking outside his own perty for support—a circumstance which will be turned against him by bis rivals for the democratic nomina- tion. His coquetting with newspapers which | | deride the democratic party, making them his favored vehicles for communicating with the public, has no tendency to raise him in the | estimation of his party. The subscribers to the Tribune may not be represented in the | Democratic National Convention, and if Gov- | | | ernor Tilden were aiming at the democratic | nomination he would naturally refrain from | wounding the sensibilities of Sy He seems to think the demo. | cratic press will support him in art event, and that all the support he | can get outside the party is clear | | newspapers. gain. But he overlooks the handle which his democratic rivals will make of such a cireum- stance. He is‘ putting it in their power to render his devotion to the party suspected, when no such suspicion can be raised against Senator Thurman or Governor Hendricks. If | Mr. Tilden is arming at the democratic nomi- | nation he is playing his game badly. If he wishes to bes liberal republican candidate, like poor Mr. Greeley, with a democratic in- dorsement, his conduct is intelligible; but the success of the Greeley movement was not such ag to encourage a repetition of that sort of campaign. | Governor Tilden’s vigorous onset against the Canal Ring should help him; but when | he makes that a pretext for grasping at power | never possessed by any former Governor of | this State, and not conceded to the Governor | of any State in the Union, the people natu- | rally pause. The authority he asks is incon- sistent with the State constitution, becanse | the constitution does not make the State offi- | cershissubordinates. His attempt to establish o “one man power” is inconsistent with tho whole spirit of aninstrument which makes the heads of the State departments as inde. | pendent of the Governor os he is of them, | and his grasping at absolute power cannot | help him with the democratic party at a time | when anti-Cesarism is its most effective party ery. If Governor Tilden were really aiming at the Presidency in the present state of pub- lic opinion and the present temper of the democratic party, instead of grasp- | ing at more power than the constitu. | tion allows, and trying to establish a one man supremacy, he would pay implicit | deference to constitutional limitations. A man who puts it in the power of his Presiden- to fasten on him the charge of Cyevafiem ond aspirations to personal suprem- | aey isnot in a very hopeful way to the dem- juation, If he could sueceed in | measures throngh the Legis- on would bea little better; | ions the Re- the ferm he oeratic ne carrying lature his posi but according to present indic: si bill cannot be mo passed | wishes, and a defeat will break his prestige and encourage his President: tal compe titors. Tar Srummo Tamons. mothe injunction was yesterday issued against striking tailors who | purloined evidence. Butat this late day of | interfered with the business of a merchant the session the order is a mere farce. No tailor, which may have the effect to teach | it is ® presumption that that officer possesses | steos were taken to solve this now mystery af | other skilled laborers that while they havea | Green and his | of the Aldermen, and they, even moro than | | zens in filling the May vacancies. It is very | well known that the politicians are awaiting removals from office. | they will openly denounce the Governor | | perience. | the metropolis and a proper regard for the | Speaker of the Assembly, does not fully sym- | pathize with the sentiment of a member of | been manly if the quality of childishness | tacked some of legal right to stop work themselves they can- | not be permitted to combine to destroy the means of livelihéod of companions in their trade. Three tailors of Tooley street once proclaimed themselves thus:—‘‘We, the peo- ple of England;” but twenty-three tailors here cannot undertake to be the whole people of New York. The May Vacencies and Mayor Wick. ham’s Appointme: The anxiety to discover who are to be the new tenants of the well furnished official flats to be vacated by the present occupants on the Ast of May increases as the great moving day approaches. Allattempts to fathom Mayor Wickham’s depths have, however, hitherto proved futile, Hepersists inkeeping bis own counsel, only indicating by wise winks and knowing nods that he understands what he is about and will astonish the natives when he makes public his programme of patronage. The brogans kick impatiently on the stone steps and poultice walks of the City Hall Park, and their uneasiness indicates an ap- prehension on the part of their owners that the patent leathers are again to get the best of them in the race for municipal patronage. The only consolation they appear to have springs from the recollection that the Alder- men will have something to say now in the mat- ter of the appointments, and they express the conviction that these representatives of the un- terrified would not dare to confirm any of the Imperial Tokay and Schloss Johannisberg nominees who may spring from the dinner tables of Fifth avenue, but whose names are unknown to the voters who stand at the polls on election day from the rising of the sun until the going down thereof. The appoint- ments to fill vacancies, they say, were in the gift of the Mayor alone, but now we have our Aldermen to look to for justice, and woe to them if the hard workers, the iron-fisted rank and file of the party, are to be ignored after their four months of patient waiting in the first regular distribution of the spoils that has been made in the camp of the victors. The Police Commissioner to succeed General Dursee is, of course, discussed with more interest than any other coming official. Is he to be a military man or a civilian? Is he to be a well-gloved ex- quisite ora hard-handed voter? Is he to be selected to satisfy the pride of Manhattan or to gladden the heart of Tammany? Is he to be -one approachable only by broadcloth or free to corduroys? Will he make his appointments on the force on the strength of gilt-edged recom- mendations or on the strength of good ser- vices in the democratic cause? If he should be a person unknown to the working demo- erat, although highly respected among the select few who have the honor of his acquaint- ance, will the Aldermen confirm or reject bis appointment? Will Shandley, Blessing, Guntzer, Lysaght, Reilly and McCarthy “go back on the boys,” and place dilapidated Ap- pollos and unknown ‘‘swells’’ at the heads of the departments, to the exclusion of the “fel- lows who do the work,’’ and who have had no pay for it for three or four years? These are the topics of conversation among the agitated groups of politicians in barrooms and on park benches, and the commencement of May is lookell for with anxiety to furnish an answer to the questions, Then the still unemployed laborers ask with concern who are to be ths new men in the Departments of Docks and Parks, which give employment to thousands | of individuals, and which have here- tofore been under the control of republican allies? Aro they to be of the non-approachable character, or are they to be democrats who with the democratic masses? The solution of the question is known to be in the hands the Mayor, answer. It will be well if Mayor Wickham can at once satisfy the demands of his political friends and deserve the approval of the citi- are held responsible for the his action before taking sides as between him- self and Governor Tilden in the matter of If the May appoint. ments satisfy tho earnest men of his party should he persist in his refusal to act upon the Mayor’sremovals. Should Mayor Wick- ham’s present selections, on the other hand, disappoint the working democracy, Governor Tilden’s refusal to create other vacancies will be applauded by the party, Bat the Mayor has a matter to attend to still more im- portant than the favor or disfavor of his political organization. His own declarations | have placed him on record as ‘no man’s man,” and his appointments must be such as to satisfy honest and independent citizens | that they are fit to be made. He must place | at the heads of the departments, so far as his | present power extends, gentlemen of estab- lished reputation and admitted ability and ex- Let him do this, and public sen- timent, independent of the politicians, will compel from Governor Tilden a proper re- spect for the office of the chief Executive of interests of the people. _ If the Mayor proves his disposition to give usa thoroughly good local government Governor Tilden will no longer stand in his way and obstruct his ac- tion for the gratification of personal objects. Bays Private Maguire. | It seems that Mr. Jeremiah McGuire, another branch of his family who told us dur- ing the late unpleasantness: — “Och! it 1s nate to be captain or colonel, Divil a bit would I want to be higher; But to rest as a private | think’s an infernal Predicament surely,” says Private Maguire, It is to rust as a Speaker that Mr. Jeremiah McGuire detests, and so it often happens that | he comes down to the floor to do as his com- | patriot did before him Keep himeeil swees Yesterds bold, it was ¢ the Inimy’s fire, rer speech. It was | , and it would have e made anc racteri could have been eliminated fromit. He at- the newspapers which had | been attacking him, and after coquetting with ‘Tammany Hall for months he called the rep- resentatives of that political organization in our city government about the hardest names which have been applied to them. Mr. Speaker McGuire seems anxious to dig his own political grave, That Terrible “If.” Conductor Buchanan, of the Philadelphia express train, which caused the terrible acci- dent and loss of life on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, ont Monday, tells the old, old story of negligence or inattention in the performance of duty which has so common in the recital of railway and other disasters. If the gong had sounded and the engineer had heard and obeyed it the acci- dent would not have happened, or if the en gineer, not hearing the gong, had taken the responsibility upon himself to stop the train and wait the usual, time, the catastrophe would have been averted. Thero could be no clearer statement of the canse of the accident, but that terrible ‘af’’ shows how recklessly . the lives of the travelling public are daily and hourly perilled. It seems impossible that a railroad company would despatch a train with & gong that refused to sound or an engineer who would fail to hear and obey it. Yet had it not been for one or other of these hpothe- ses the conductor who pulled the bell rope dg clares that the accident would not have occurred. Mr. Buchanan’s other terri- ble ‘if’ suggests an even more perti- nent inquiry. Is it possible that trains which do not have the right of way violate the rules of the road unless a gong sounds oran engineer hears and obeys it? Is human life held so cheaply as this by the railroad companies? Ifit had been the engineer's duty to stop the train and he had failed in his duty the culpability would bave been less so far as the coinpany is concerned ; but that it was not his duty, unless the gong sounded, is plain, from the surprise of the conducter that he failed to take the re sponsibility of stopping the train if he did not hear it. This was a fixed waiting place, and under the rules of the company the train should be stopped with as much cere tainty asatthe most important station on the line. According to the reasoning of the conductor of the wrecked train an engineer coming into Jersey City might ran his cara into the North River, unless he heard the gong or undertook the ‘responsibility’” on hia own account. The public will not be satia fied with explanations like that conveyed in either of these terrible “if’s.’’ Another Spelling Match. The mania of spelling matches increases like other forms of madness, epidemically, and suicide and orthographical murder seem to divide the attention of intellectual persons. Many of those who. try to spell words and murder them while under homi- cidal delusion had better, perhaps, commit suicide first; but of that we shall say nothing. A very creditable exhibition, however, of good spelling took place at Zion church yesterday, in which the contestants were all colored students, and we must say that they ac qnitted themselves better than many whits scholars. Singular examples of exactitude may be noticed. For instance, one of them being asked to spell “negro,” gave the word in thirteen letters—thus, ‘fellow citizon.”! Another spelt ‘Grant’ as “third term,’’ “Wickham’’ as ‘‘whack 'em,” “Shakespeare” as “Boucicault,”’ “April” as December,” and the singular noun “Beecher,” in a hard case, despondent mood, and governed by the verb ‘to kiss," as ‘Jordan is a hard road te travel.” Tho greatest example of ortho. grapbical acuteness which was displayed during the evening was that of a young gentleman who, when asked to spell “Civil Rights,’”’ answered with ‘Let's all go to Wal. lack’s.”” If our colored youth keep on in this way the time will come when they will be able have feelings and sympathies in common | te spell Spe a (MORnO KOC | Scena | | way than “rebel. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Congressman G. M. Landers ts at the Fifth Aves nue Hotel. Dr. Backneil, F. R. S., of London, ts sojourning at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Chancellor Joon V. L. Pruyn, of Albany, has are Tived et the Brevoort House. Colonel A. K. Mevlure, of Philadelphia, ts stay. ing at the Union Square Hotel. Genera! Jonn McNeil, of St. Louis, is among the late arrivals at Barnum’s Ifotel, i Russian papers are discussing projects for the resumption of specie payments. Senator Francis Kernan, of Utica, is residing temporarily at the Windsor Hotel, Dr. Muretto has been appointed Minister Plem) fpotentiary of the Colombian Republic to Vene zuela. Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., of Massa chusetts, has taken up his residence at the Bre voort House. Miss Clara Louise Kellogg arrived in this city last evening from Philadelphia, and is at the Clare endon Hotel. Councillor A, P. de Carvalho Borges, Brazilian Minister at Wasbington, has apartments at the Albemarle Hotel. Forbes, Sala, Rasselt and Henty will go to India with the Prince of Wales, to write his journey for the London News, Telegraph, Times and Standard, Dreadful oversight! At the dinner by Marshal MacMahon to celebrate his reception of the Order of tne Golden Fleece, the Marshal did not weas the collar of the Order, ‘The Japanese Minister visited the Naval Acad. emy at Annapolis yesterday and was received with tue customary honors, after which he was the guest of Commodore Rogers. Mr, Edward P. Smith, Commisstoner of Indiag Affairs, and Messrs. J. D. Lang, A. C. Barstow, Wiliam Stickney aud F. H. Smith, of the Indian Commission, are at the Fifth Avenue flotel. Lieutenant Stummn, the Piussian officer who went with the Russians to Khiva and published an itinerary of the expedition, nas in hand, it 1s reported, a larger and more comprehensive dee scription of the whole campairn. Vice President Henry Wilson, who has been roe siding In this city for several days past, left yes. - terday fur Phiiadelpnia, on his way to the Hot Springs of Arkansas, From thers he wil! proceed to Denver, Col., and possibly to San Francisco, ‘The first mstitntion for the government of the United States of the World has been founced at Paris, It is called the “International Ofice of Weights and Measuces.” The convention for its establishment will be signed by representatives of all the great Powers except fngland. Itis suggested that for purposes of identificis tion (of criminals), ié is only necessary to geta distines photograph of t.@ palm ot ono hand, taken in a strong optique liga, 80 #5 to bring out the markings strongly. This will be f damap, wu is gall, mover alike in two persons; no disguise short of actual disfigurement will do away witu the difference. Two boys offered some Ger change in a Paris shop. Ww satisfactory account of how t give & id come by them, they said they had found the corpses of twe Prussian soldiers in the old que Montrouge, and on searching the pockets mot the pieces of god. An oMcer of police went to the spot imae cated, and in an abandoned gallery found the twe bodies in ao advanced state of decomposition. One of them bad been kijled bya bullet and tue | other by a baronet thrust,