The New York Herald Newspaper, May 5, 1875, Page 6

5 NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1875—TRIPLE SHEET, eT REY EES ea SE SR ee a a a orsEnmnIsntmmem ream Wanesemeaemsmenms meme een na TE Aa RI ea eee TREE eRET ; Gevernor Graham on the Mecklen= NEW YORK HERALD! BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES. GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly seditions of the New Yorx Hunatp will be eent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day im the year. Four cents per copy. An- weal subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be sddressed New Yorr ‘Bena. Rejected communications will not be re- termed. Letters-and packages should be properly sealed. _ LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORE HERALD—NO, 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—NO. 3 RUE SCRIBE. ®ubscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms ss in New York. MOLUME XL. ---++ (AMUSEMENTS THIS APTERNOON AND EVENING. | BAN FRANCISCO MINSTRE: ; ei of Tweoty-ninth eyebt-—NEGRO ‘ats P, M.; closes at 10 P. M. pel TVOLL THEATRE, Loti sereet, betw en Second and’ Third avenses— ‘TY, ato P. Me: ‘closes ati2P. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Preeurston TO RUIN. ats Y. M.; closes at 10:40 | . ‘Montague, Miss Jetfreys-Le wis, sserescsserseeeNO, 125 BOWERY OPERA HOU! og Bowery.—VARIETY, at 8 P, AL" closes at 10:65 WOOD'S MUSEUM, wav. corner of Thirtieth ‘srect—O8 HAND, at 8 | 7 loses at 10:49 P.M. Matinee at 2 P. M. THEATRE COMIQUE, ya Sw ApTatE, arSP. 3; closes at 10:45 Matinee at P.M GERMANIA THEATRE se ‘adel street. FALSCHE BIEDERMANNER, at 8 | METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, | th street—Open from 104. M w5 P.M | | BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, tsa avenue.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M; closes at 10:65 | “West OLYMPIC THEA’ peseevey A a at mi rianes © 3 P. FIFTH AVENUE THEATR: heh srreet and roadway THY, Br BIG BO- 8 P. M.: closes at 10:30 P. Fisher, Mr. | iss Davenport, Mrs. tiilbert. | METROPOLITAN THEATRE, Me. 08 Brosdway.—FEMAL’ BATUERS, at 8 P.M. TEM; closes at 10345 UAT rasrcy, at 8.20 BOOTH’S THEATRE. Twenty-third street and cixth avenus—AMY | atSP. M.; closes atll P.M. Miss Neilson. | SoBeake, enth street. nenr Sixth avemue.—MARIE AN. | — roan M. Mme. Ristori. From our reports this morning the probabilities @re that the weather to-day will be warmer and partly cloudy. ei Watt Sreerr Yesrerpay.—Stocks were dull and irregular. Railroad bonds were moderately active. Gold closed at 115}. | Money was in larger demand, and on call | loans rated at 4.0 4} per cent. A Worrmizss Frtiow yesterday swal- | strides, We upon Rapid Transit an Immediate Duty. So long as rapid transit was a struggle be- tween the projectors of rival railroad schemes nothing was easier than for interested parties to interfere and paralyze any successful effort by arraying one enterprise against another. ‘In the old days it was always safe for the | patrons of one scheme to throw upon the | others the stigma of corruption. The barter | and sale of legislative franchise had become virtually a recognized industry in Albany, and members, emulating the pernicious but | dazzling example of men like Tweed, were only too anxious to combine into rings to insure the success of their own measures or dictate the defeat of those to which they were opposed. If the true history of the passage of the Tweed char- ter, the Erie Classification bill, and, in fact, every measure affectmg any of our great rail- roads, could be known, it would be easily seen how so long as any cne powerful in- terest was arrayed against rapid transit asa general measure of public welfare it would be impessible to induce the Legislature to adopt it, Happily, however, or perhaps we should say, to be accurate, unhappily, considering the condition in which New York is to-day, rapid transit is no longer a question of schemes and plans. The issue is no longer whether we shall have an elevated, or a sur- face, or an arcade, or an underground railroad. People are no longer divided into partisans, one class demanding a railroad on the east side, another insisting that there should be one on the west, It is not a ques- tion of tunnelling, or of bridging, or of exca- yations to buildan arcade. The general pub- lic sense of New York is that we need rapid transit, no matter in what shape it comes, The problem to be solved is, how to go from the Battery to the Harlem River in the shortest space of time. We are forced into a solution of this problem by the fact that, while New York has been retrogreding for the last ten years, the cities surrounding it have been advancing in prodigious see that Brooklyn and | Jersey City and Williamsburg, the towns on | the Erie and the Pennsylvania railroads, as | wellas those lying beyond the East River, have entered upon a career of unexampled prosperity. Their prosperity represents the atrophy of New York, the paralysis of ite | growth, the fact that, notwithstanding the | ferries and the obstacles of the Hudson and | East rivers, the people prefer to find homes | in other States and other couuties than to live | in the city of their choice, where they trans- | act their business, where they earn their money, where, if they were permitted, they would make their homes. This sentiment has grown slowly but steadily. Wedo not underrate the magnitude of the interests opposed to rapid transit. At the same time we think that the gentlemen in charge of these interests, as has been so often | the case, fail to rend the situation truly. | There is this general belief that the owners of | the surface lines running along our main ave- nues regard rapid transit as virtually the death of their franchise. They fear that in the | event of a steam line running, either on the east or west side, from the Battery to the Har- lem River, there wonld be a lessening of their revenue. Now, we think this is fear and not a demonstration. The addition of rapid transit to the present facili- ties of communication would be to increase the bulk of travel and not materially decrease the revenues of any of the companies. The fact is that none of these roads is competent | to transact the business that has been torced | it. Take the Third avenue line, which | is now our main artery to Harlem. This isa lowed a diamond ring, and nowanybody would | prosperous, shrewdly managed, advantageous value him ata thousand doilars. This is one way of becoming a valuable member of society. | Kiya Atronso has professed his gratitude and affection to the Holy Father. The boy is | 0 young and the Pope so old that Holy Great- | grandiather might have been a more appro | priate title Tue Exxcrion of officers of the Chamber of Commerce occurs to-day, and the canvass bas been unusually exciting. We print the oppos- ing tickets elsewhere, with an explanation of | the dissatisfaction of a portion of the mem- | bers. | Tue Foxrnat of the four children of Cap- | tain Costa, who were drowned by the East | River collision, will take place to-day. Tbe condition of the other members of this un- | happy family calls for the prompt attention of } the charitable community. Tae Canust Cavsz is Exotanp.—The effort has been abandoned in Parliament to induce Great Britain to recognize the belliger- ent rights of the Carlists in Spaiv. The gov | ezpment announced yesterday that the policy of non-interference would be continued. Tae Cause ano Errect.—There was an ‘attempt to shoot Deputy Comptroller Earle y by a city creditor who claimed | an old bill. It is rumored that Mr. Green on hearing of this went straight off and paid the wages of a scrubbing woman who was lying in wait for him with a broom. Bavorom axp Grnmany.—The substance of the Beigian reply to the German note is given in our cable despatches. It is dignified and tourteous, but affirms the determination of Belgium to fulfil the duties of a neutral Btate. After the note had been read in the Chamber of Representatives yesterday the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Aspremont, appealed to the patriotism of all parties to support the government in its course. Armuetic " Baxscenes Ix rae Pann.—-The @ammer garden of the metropolis is admira- bly adapted for all health-giving sports and fecreations, and the Commissioners owe it as & duty to the public to make liberal pro- visions for the same. The | profitably used in encotragi bests, and an occasional bos Increase its attractiveness considerably. Mhletic games, similar to those of the Cale- @onian Club and other organizations, would be quite in accordance with the spirit that suggested the formation of our be i Park and would add much to its nsefulness. Whatever is calculated to contribute to the health and enjoyment of the numerons visi- tors to the Park cannot be ignore: by the without rendering themselves | Commissioners [tiable to » charge of dereliction of duty. road, but for years it has failed to answer the | wants of the people. In the morning and evening, when the tide of business either goes up or down, the Third avenue cars are unable to accommodate their pas- sengers. A journey from Harlem to New York in the morning, or from New York to Harlem in the evening, 1s a most dis- agreeable undertaking, and it is because the travel bas outgrown the accommodation. Now, | if we had a steam line from the City Hall to Harlem there would probably not be as many passengers at certain hours of the day on the Third avenne line; but that line would still have its local traffic. It would still be able to pay good dividends on its capital stock. In- stead of transporting ladies and gentlemen very much as cattle are carried on cattle trains from the West it would have the op- portunity of accommodating them as ladies and gentlemen, in proper cars, at good rates of speed, and without any of the annoy- ances that now attend a trip to Harlem at cer- tain hours of the day. This we might say of the other lines, though perhaps not in so large a degree. The gen- | eral fact we present is this :—That rapid tran- sit does not necessarily mean destruction of Therefore, when the own- our surface lines. ers of these franchises spend money at Albany | to arrest rapid transit they do not gain any material advantage, becanse rapid transit must come, sooner or later, The longer it is po become for the proper measure the less dis- | position there will be to consider the just | rights of these railways. The people feel, and justly, that they have given the owners of these roads a certain valuable fran- chise. They respect built these lines in the beginning. They do not fee! that they have outgrown their useful- ness. y do say that New York has gone beyond their grasp. It is, therefore, as foolish to expect to confine New York to these slowly creeping, inconvenient railway would be to insist upon running stage coaches to Philadelphia in place of the Pennsylvania Central cars. Therefore, when we find the street railway interests arrayed against rapid transit we fecl that they should be dealt with as bodies who care nothing for | macy. gland refused to take part the common welfare of the people, but in that Congress and thus destroyed insist upon sacrificing it for their o in. | the imperial dream. She also now | They are but postponing a day that must | refuses to take part in the present | ¢ come. They are bat anticipating a iear that | and destroys another imperial dream. It is should ac- can never be realized. They cept the fact that New York is no longer within their reach and that it must have a new method cf communication to enable New York maintain its metropolitan greatness. ‘Therefore rapid transit has become the duty of the hour. We have said again and again, and we cannot be too emphatic in the asser- to | tion, that o failure to give New York rapid tponed and the more impatient the people | the enterprise which | lines as it | transit now is a confession on the part of those who rule this city and State that they are unfit for their government. | It will not do to postpone this matter, Such an act cannot be explained. It will be looked | upon by New York as a wanton ignoring. of | its just demands. The people will feel that they have again been sacrificed, either to cor- | ruption or imbecility ; they will ask properly | why it is that, with the democratic party in power, with its leadership in the hands of Gov- | | ernor Tilden, Mayor Wickham and Mr. Kelly, | | it is impossible to give us this measure of the point that to postpone or defeat rapid transit is to aim a blow at the prosperity of New York. Every citizen who suffers trom the want of swift communication ; every business man who is compelled to waste one or two hoursa day in slow and tedious means of travel; every laboring man who is doomed to live in the unwholesome purlicus of the city because he cannot reach the open country grounds and fields and the fresh air and sunshine, regards the failure to pass rapid transit as a personal wrong tohim. There is no reason why we should not celebrate the centennial year of our independence by the achievement of a swift and proper rapid tran- sit line. Already we have steam communica- tion from the Battery to Thirty-fourth street and from Forty-second street to the Harlem River. It is only necessary to bridge the little gap to enable us to attain at once this necessary result. Now that we have all agreed upon the measure the general demand of the people is that the bill now before the Legislature at Albany, giving the Mayor the power to deal with this work, should be promptly passed. The Assembly yesterday took an important step to this end, The three bills pending— the Prince bill, the Hess bill and the Com- mon Council bill—were taken up and dis- cussed, and all were passed to a third reading. The matter is thus referred to the Senate, which should lose no time in making a satis- factory decision. The duty is immediate, the issue is plain, the ways and means are, sim- ple and clear, Now let us see who will dare to go upon the record as opposing a measure so vital to the prosperity and comfort of New York. International Conferences. Arrecent despatch from London informed us that the Russian government was earnestly striving to induce England to take part in the “International Code Conference’’ to be held at St. Petersburg. Our readers will remem- ber that some time since there was a Confer- ence of this character beld in Brussels and an effort made to reconstruct the laws of war. Delegates attended from all the great Powers, the English government only consenting to be represented at the last moment and under reserve. When the delegates came to discuss the questions submitted to them by the Rus- sian government, under whose direct auspices the Conference bad been summoned, there was found to be radical difference of opinion upon almost every question of international law so far as it concerned military and naval operations. The Germans, for instance, were anxious to have a law passed forbidding citi- zens of any country to take up arms unless they were regularly in the army. The effect of this measure would be to give additional power to the standing armies of Europe, because it would subject the inhabitants of an invaded country to treatment as marauders and spies if. they attempted to defend their homes. France and Eng- land contended that the right of self- | defence, in other words the right of the inhabitants of a town to suddenly rush to | arms ard defend it from an invading party, | was sacred, and that those who did such an act of patriotism without happening to be in the regular service of the country could not | be dealt with as marauders. ‘The effect of such a law would have been to largely steengthen the power of Germany, espe- cially in dealing with a country like France, Another objection was in reference to the rights of maritime nations. The Russian government proposed a law in reference to | the rights of neutrals om the sea, and limiting the scope of naval officers in the pursuit of maritime war. England, whose strength is largely naval, objected to any enactment that would injure the usefulness of that arm of her service. Upon these two points the Con- ference broke down, and Russia retired from it chagrined, but at the same time madean effort to summon a new one. This new body is to meet in St. Peters- | burg, and it will continue the discussions of | the Congress at Brussels. The purpose which the Czar professes is to amend the interna- tional laws so as to assuage the horrors of war. England bas thus far declined to take part in the deliberations. The English statesmen feel. no doubt, that they can have no interest in common with the interests of the Continent onthese matters. In England the standing army forms but a small portion of the peoplo and there is a Jarge volunteer service. Tho policy of England is to depend upon a | small army but upon a large navy, and to | trust its defence, should ever the invader | come, to the patriotism of the people at large. The policy of the great Powers of | the Continent is to recognize the army | as supreme, to compel every able-bodied citi- zen to do military service, to deprecate any | | policy that does not strengthen the military | | spirit. As our correspondent telegraphed us, the refusal of England to take part in this Conference will probably lead to its complete abandonment. There could, of course, be no conference of a practical nature not bind England, and England can have no common ground with the other nations. The congress these questions in dispute recalls the attempt of the late Emperor of the French, | before the Danish war, to just possible that Eugland may not have for- gotten that the last Congress held in Europe was summoned by Prussia for the purpose of enabling Russian to abrogate the Biack Sea Treaty and destroy all the results of the Crimean war. Remembrance of this would justify even a less prudent states- man than Lord Derby in declining to have further relations with the Russian diplo- matista, necessary relief. Pablie opinion has reached | which did— attempt of the Czar of Russia to settle by | summon @ | European © ongress for the settlement of allthe | © Cf n disturbing European diplo- | °° burg Declaration. ‘We present at great length this morning the argument of Governor Graham, of North | Carolina, in behalf of tke authenticity ot the | Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. | Governor Graham is among the most eminent of our citizens. He was not only the Chief Magistrate of his native State but a Senator in | Congress, the Secretary of the Navy under President Fillmore, and the whig candidate | for Vice President on the ticket with General | Scott, Alike by eminent services and distin- guished descent, being the son of General fied to speak of the attitude of North Carolina in the struggle for independence, and his words on behalf of the Mecklenburg Declara- tion will have great weight, even if they fail to convince those who refuse to put their trust in that document. The original of that paper was in the hands of John McKnitt Alexan- der, the Secretary of the assumed Conven- tion of May 20, 1775, and was de- stroyed by fire when his house was burned in 1800. Mr. Alexander had previously given copios to different persons, among them General Davie, of North Carolina. This copy came into the possession of Governor Graham, and was published among the State papers of North Carolina. This may be ac- cepted as the authentic version, and all that Governor Graham has to say about it and its history receives additional interest from the fact that be was in part instrumental in its preservation, In the present state of the controversy it is impossible to accept anything as proved. All that we can do just now is to consider some of the isolated issues which spring out of the argument, leaving the main question to be determined after the whole case is heard. One of these sido issues is incidentally raised by Governor Graham in his efforts to sustain the genuineness of the docament. ‘This point is that either the McKnitt Alexander paper is ® forgery or that Jefferson drew from it the ideas and even some of the pbrases of the im- mortal Declaration of 1776, Ifit was not a for- gery Jefferson must have seen it, for it is dis- tinctly averred as part of the case that it was sent to the Continental Congress at Philadel- phia, of which Jefferson was a member. If this Mecklenburg claim can be sustained Jef- ferson almost inevitably must have been guilty of prevarication as well as plagiarism, As Governor Graham shows us, the memory of the Mecklenburg Declaration had been altowed to fall into oblivion, It was not revived until 1819, when Joseph McKnitt Alexander renewed the claim by the publica- tion of the paper in the Raleigh Register. It was copied into the Essex Register in Massa- chusetts, and so came under the notice of John Adams, by whom it was sent to Jef- ferson. Both of these eminent men denied any knowledge of its existence, and from the lively interest which Adams evinced in the discovery it is evident it was a thing he would not readily have overlooked or forgotten. Jefferson had even stronger reasons for re- membering it. The language of the resolu- tion under which he acted was either copied from it or it was copied from the Dec- laration of Independence, and Jefferson not only incorporated all this remarkable phrase- ology into his immortal State paper, but added to it that even more remarkable phrase, to be found also in the Mecklenburg Declaration, which is its concluding sentence. The charge based on the use of this last phrase, and he could readily have defended himself against it when Adams scemed to imply it, because the use which Congress had already made of the Mecklenburg Declaration would have fully justified him in adopting and using the other phrase. It is plain that neither Adams nor Jefferson were ever aware of this Mecklenburg document, and it is inconceivable that they the liberal use which Congress has niade of its peculiar forms of expression and the efforts which Governor Graham would have us imply were made to suppress the document by the very body which afterwards adopted it, both in spirit and phraseology. It will be observed that Governor Graham takes up all the points and establishes or an- swers them to his own satisfaction and that of the people of his State, if not to the ac- ceptance of historical critics generally. The claint is a simple but glorious one—namely, that to Mecklenburg is due the first open declaration of the necessity of separation from Great Britain. This claim is the proud- est boast of the people of North Carolina, and they have frequently commemorated it by ap- propriate celebrations and sought to preserve the memory of the event by legislative pro- vision. The historians and scholars of the they have succeeded not only in rescuing it from oblivion, but in strengthening it so that | it is not easier to overthrow it than to over- come a veritable “hornet’s nest.” ernor Graham reproduces all the guments, telling its very interesting history over again, and showing not | only how the Mecklenburg Declaration was | preserved, but why there is no Congressional | record of its existence, and why its authen- | ticity was not discussed previous to 1819. makes out a very ground for controversy. Many things may be | ment, and there are reasons for questioning | whether there ever was a Mecklenburg Decla- ration at all. Hither way there are difficul- ties; but the document was either a’ shrewd forgery or else the first American Declaration of In lence was allowed to fall into almost | In any case the disenssion is an interesting | one, aud the decision, whether it is in favor of verse to the Mecklenburg claim, can only e of good in turning the thoughts of the peop s of liberty and free government. Canapian Cawats.—The yent is moving in the work of im- principle proving the Welland and other canals in the province. The locks are to be enlarged and deepened, and other important improvements ave to be made, The activity of our neigh- bors should remind our State Legislature of the necessity of some action looking to the thorough fetorm of our canal policy. The foundation should be laid this session for the final disposition of the lateral canals question, | either by the formation of a special committee | or by instructions to the Canal Board, Graham, of Revolutionary fame, he is quali-. of plagiarism against Jefferson enn only be | tate have endeavored to fortify the claim by | all the aids of learning and literature, and | Gove | ar- | Mrs. Tilton’s Letter, All right-feeling people will approve Judge Neilson’s considerate treatment of this afilicted and most unfortunate woman. In any ordi- nary ca:e such an irregular attempt would have been regarded as an impertinence de- serving Judicial rebuke, But in every, point of view poor Mrs. Tilton has a strong claim to indulgence, If she is innocent few per- sons of her sex were over so cruelly wronged. Even if she be guilty groat allowance should be made for the kind of temptation to which she yielded. She was described in the well known letter of contrition as ‘‘that poor child lying there with clasped hands, sinned against, bearing the transgression of an- other ;"’ and supposing the worst to be true which has been alleged in this shocking seondal, she fell after long resistance and was the victim of a deliberate seducer, who took advantage not merely of feminine weakness, but of the trust of confid- ing friendship, the veneration felt for a re- ligious teacher and the admiration of an ap- preciative mind for splendid intellectual abili- ties. When ‘Satan is transformed into an angel of light’’ it is in accordance with Scrip- ture that he may ‘deceive the very elect.’’ Whatever may be the truth as tothe great point in litigation it would not be humane to pass a harsh judgment on Mrs. Tilton, and weare glad that Judge Neilson, though re- fusing her request, returned it to her witha respectful reply. While discharging his duty as & magistrate he has evinced the instincts of @ gentleman and the spirit of a Christmn. It is not Judge Neilson who excludes Mrs. Til- ton’s testimony ; it is the law that excludes it. So long as the counsel for the defence do not choose to call her the Judge cannot evon consider the question of her admissi- bility. And yet it seems incongruous that the one person who knows the whole truth cannot be permitted to tell it. Whether the alleged criminal conversation ever took place is, indeed, as well known to Mr. Beecher as it is to her; but on the supposition of his inno- cence his knowledge of the fabrication of the charges is very slight as compared with hers, Tilton swears that she made to him an oral confession in the early part of tho summer of 1870, five or six months before Mr. Beecher knew that she had accused him atall Mrs, Tilton knows what did take place between herself and her husband on that occasion, when he testifies that she made a confession of adultery and specified the times and places of the first two acts. She is the only possible person who can contradict Mr. Tilton’s testi- mony as to the fact or the substance of that oral confession. She also is the only person in the world besides her husbagd who knows the precise contents of the written con- fession made near the end of the following December. Mr. Beecher never saw it, nor even the copy of it, which Mr. Tilton says he held in his hand and tore up in the memora- ble interview at Moulton’s house. Mrs, Tilton is the only person that could be called for the defence who knows what the written confes- sion did really contain—whether it was a con- fession of adultery, as Tilton swears, or only an accusation that Mr. Beecher had made im- proper proposals. It would be easy to men- tion other points in respect to which she would be an invalnable witness if she were permitted to go upon could be relied on to tell the exact truth. The legal objection was waived by the plaintiff, and had the counsel for the de- fendant seen fit to call her she would doubt- less have been permitted to testify. As she cannot tell what she knows in court it only remains to consider the effect of her offer on the public judgment. With the discriminating part of the public it cannot be favorable. It proves, in the first place, that she does not share the opinion | | of Mr. Beecher’s counsel that he has made out should not have been aware of it in view of | a clear defence by the testimony already in, When Mr. Beach arose in court and consented | tothe introduction of Mrs. Tilton asa wit- ness Mr. Evarts said that “the defence believe that their case needs no more testi- mony,” and professed his belief that there is no weakness in his client's case which required to be supplied by further testimony. “Fortunately,” he said, “we have not been wrought by any doubt or hesi- tation as to the force of our defence into that great moral question.’’ Mrs. Tilton is as in- telligent as an ordinary juror. She has fol- lowed this case and listened to the testimony as closely as the jury who are trying it; and she is clearly of the opinion that the defence has not made out a clear case or she would not think her testimony necessary to her own vindication. Ifthe jury declares Mr. Beecher innocent that of course clears her; for if he did not commit adultery with her nobody is very likely to believe that she did with bim. Her letter is, therefore, a virtual declaration of her belief that the testimony for the de- | fence has not of Mr. Tracy's fulfilled the promises confident opening. Ac- cording to that opening speech the evidence / for the defendant was to be so crushing, so overwhelming, that the plaintiff would de- serve to be hooted oat of court. when this formidable and crushing evidenco | is ail in, Mrs. ‘Tilton publicly gives her opinion He | fair case, bit there is still | urged against,the genumeness of the docu. | Jete oblivion for nearly fifty years, | children. ‘‘My soul cries ont before you,” she says, “and the gentlemen |of the jury, that they beware how, | by a divided verdict, they consign to ¢ toward the consideration of the | Canadian | | if the e of its insufficiency in a pathetic appeal to the | Court to be permitted to go upon the stand and supplement it as a means of rescuing he reputation and the pride of her children from Unless the jury thinks | irretrievable ruin. better of the testimony for the defence than Mrs. Tilton does the most that Mr. Beecher can expect is a disagreement, and a disagree- ment would be as fatal tohim as Mra. Tilton declares it would be for herself and her This surely is in s very rain from the afr of triumph put mouth church in view of the testi- ut from the confidence mony, and very differ in its sufficiency ex sed by Mr. Evarts. | Here is a person who has listened to ifall, a person as intelligent as the jary, » person who | has a deeper interest in wn acquittal than Ply- mouth church itself, thrusting herself irrogu- larly upon the Court with a pathetic and peti- y which would be quite superfluous lonce strikes her as the Plymouth party are so forward to profess that it does them. There are other suggestive points in connection with this singular letter which we must omit at present. tho stand and | And now, | is the Brain the Sole Organ of the Mind} Where the mind zesides in the body bas been the subject of iuvestigation long before Dr. Hammond delivered his interesting lec- ture on the subject before the Neurological Society. Some of the avcients imagined it to be seated in tho stomach, and the old theory that the heart is the home of tender emotions has been impressed upon language, and upon pootic literature especially. Bowels of com- passion was once more than @ figurative ex- pression. But modern science has always regarded the brain as the orgay of the mind, and the other portions of the body as the in- struments of the brain, possessing automatic motion, as the heart, but incapable of conscious action. Tho interesting question is now presented by Dr. Hammond as ‘to whether the brain is exclusively the organ of the mind, and he is of opinion that it is not. Experi ments upon lower forms of animals havebeen made by removing the brain, and yet seysa tion and thought seem to have survived the operation, Shakespeare puts into Macbeth’s mouth the scientific remark that ‘the timer have been that when the brains were out the man would die ;” but this is not the case with frogs. A frog deprived of his brain will swim, scratch himself when tickled, will turn over when placed upon its back; the headlesa rattlesnake will coil and strike when it is annoyed; the decapitated alligator will show similar signs of consciousness. Hence Dn Hammond argues that wherever ther is gray nerve tissue there is alse mind. Children bora without brains some. - times act like other children, and breathe, cry, suck andeat. This is certainly evidence in favor of the theory that ‘the spinal cord is something more than a mere centre for re- flex action and a conductor of impressions to and from the brain,’’ and is a centre of per ception and volition. We cannot altogether agree, however, that other instances of une conscious action quoted by Dr. Hammond must be referred to the spinal cord. It is true that persons playing on the piano and conversing are unconscious of the movements of their hands, just as it is true that in the action of writing the brain seems to give no direction to the pen. The mind of the astronomer may be wandering in the zodiac while his hand unconsciously records his thoughts. But too little is knows of the brain to say absolutely that these strange manifestations are outside of cerebral com sciousness, There are depths of conscioum ness which we seldom sound and others which are actually inaccessible to the reason ing powers, They are so infinitely remote from the ordinary processes of thought that they cannot be examined, It seems arbitrary to say that these fathomless gulfs of mental consciousness reside only in the spinal cord The memory of the brain is still a mystery. No complexity, probably, is so great as tha web of associations into which memory is woven and through which it acts so swiftly that no man can detect the process by which he remembers even the slightest action. We need not accept the theorres of phrenology to believe that each of the great divisions of the brain has a mem- ory of its own, and that these memories are rarely, and perhaps never, united in one instant flash of consciousness. Our criticism upon Dr. Hammond's theory, if we should presume to criticise it, would be that he makes his division between the organs too absolute, that he defines too narrowly the separate functions of the brain and spinal cord. The dark abysses/of conscious thought and of automatic action of the mind will probably baffle experiment forever as they have forever defied introspection. Yet the conclusion of Dr. Hammond that “perception and volition are seated in the | spinal cord as well as in the central ganglia” seems to be justified by innumerable’ experi- ments of his own and other eminent scientists, | and if this be true of the lower animals it is probably true of man. We must then give our backbones a higher place than they have | held in our esteem, when the cranium was | considered the sole seat of the mind. It isan interesting question, and one of which we should like much to know the opinion of the Darwinians, for it has certainly profound relations with their theory, They once | examined the origin of language in reference to the light it throws upon the origin of species, and may now find the ‘‘missing link” in investigating the organs of the mind from the lowest to the highest forms of life. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. , Of Boston, | has apartments Mr, Joshua G. £ at the Everett H brevet Major General George A. Custer, United States Army, 15 at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Jadge Thacher, Commissioner of Patents, has left Wasnington, to be absent a lew weeks, Inspector General Randolph B. Marcy, United States Army, 18 quartered at the New York Hotel Mr. H. C. Jounson, United States Commissioner of Customs, 18 registered at the Grand Cental Hotel. ineer-in-Chief William W. W. Wood, of the y Department, has arrived at the Union Square Hotel. Judge Alexander 8. Johnson, late of the New York Court of Appeals, is residing at the Fite | Avenue Hotel, | Mr. Joun Knapp, of St. Louis, arrived in this crtp ay and took up his residence at the Fifth ‘ urnham, the new Assistant Secretary oF ry, qualified and entered upon his du- Judge the Tre: | ttes yesterday. Mr. N niel G. White, President of the Boston and Maine Railroad Company, 1s stopping at the St Nicholas Hotel. ‘Yhe man who bolted a diamond ring yesterday is likely to prove that one swallow does not make a summer—in prison | General . . Cowen, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, arrived from Washington yesteraay at the Firth Avenne Hotel, Mr. John King, Jr., Viee President of the Baiti- more and Otio Ratiroad Company, 18 sojourning at the Fifin Aventie Hotel. Mine, Rastoul writes that the escape of her has- band and other Communists from New Caledonia was provoked by ili trea aland srs 1 resident and Mrs. party in their honor } Hon, D. D, Pratt, ex-l my children o false and irrevocable stam | upon their mother.” differc aa are in Washington, No rece cently had a congestive chill and ‘dangerow iy i, is | rapidly recovering, aud was abie to sit ap yestete day. General Cowen, Ass stant Secretary of the lite terior, and Commissioner Smith, of the Indian Bureau, are now in this city for the purpose of assisting in the opening of bids for Indian sup- piles,