The New York Herald Newspaper, June 11, 1875, Page 6

6 ; NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIBTOR. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yorx Hsnaup will be went free of postage. ———_>——— THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per month, free of postage, to subscribers. Letters and packages should be properly pealed. tamed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—RUE SORIBE. Subscriptions and advertisements will be eoeived and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME XL.-« AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. GILMORE'S SUMMER GARDEN. am’s Hippodrome.—GRAND POPULAR CON. BEARS? wt oes at il PM. Ladies’ and chik Gren’s matinee at2 Y. M. PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN. WARIETY, at §P. M.; closes af 10:45 P.M. MUSEUM OF ART, pen from 10 A. M. toS P. M. PARK THEATRE, ere CALIVYORNIA MINSTRELS, ats. OLYMPIC THEATRE, a Broadway.—VARIb TY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE. E eightn street and Broadway.—THE BIG BO- ANDAs ae P. M. ; closes at 103) ¥. M. OENTRAL PARK GARDEN, WHEODORE THOMAS’ CONCERI, at 8 P.M METROPOLITAN THEATRE, Mo, 585 Broadway.—VARIETY. at$ P.M. sKATRE, at P. M.; closes et 10:49 Sixteenth str GIHOFLA. ate P.M WOOD'S MUSEUM, ‘Broadway, corner of Thirtieth street —SHERIDAN & MACK'S GRAND VARIE(Y COMBINATION, até P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Matinee at? P. M. TRIPLE SHEET. =—_ NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JUNE ll, 1875, From our reports this morning the probabilities @re that the weather to-day will be warmer and clear. Persons going out of town for the summer can have the daily and Sunday Henaup mailed to them, free of postage, for $1 per month. Wart Srezer Yestenpay.—Stocks were firm in the early part of the day, but suffered from a raid at the close. Gold was steady at 146§. Foreign exchange firm and money easy at recent rates. ak Disaster at Sza.—The sad news comes to ‘as of the destruction of another steamship ‘with the greater part of the passengers and | crew, but five persons as yet being reported saved out of a total of eighty-three. A graphic report ot the disaster will be found in our news columns. Tae Porato Buo.—In another column will ‘be found a further communication from Mr. Dodge, the entomologist, which deals with the enemies of the Colorado beetle, gives the names of at least twenty insects, some of ‘which have the credit of destroying so large a proportion as ten per cent of one brood of the beetles and fifty per cent of a later brood. ‘These little creatures, theretore, are well worth the farmer's attention as itmportant allies in his war against the destructive beetle. Srecutation 1n Wixat.—-We commend the movement now under way in the West to put an end to the business of buying and selling wheat “on call." This is the worst form of | gambling, far worse than the tricks of Jay Gould and his comrades with worthless shares. We trust the movement will prevail and that | the time will come when an honest merchant | will as soon enter a gambling saloon and bet on a roulette table as to buy and sell wheat | as is now done in so many of the Western ‘ towns. NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1875—TRIPLE SHEET. The Ratiroad War—To What Does It Tend? The damaging competition between the great through lines which sprung up after the refusal of the Baltimore and Ohio road to be bound by the Saratoga compact, and has been kept up with increasing vigor since the beginning of the year, is as great an evil to the community as it is to the roads. In pointing out some of its injurious effects we will first notice one which interests the State of New York. The ruinous underbidding of the railroads against one another has de- stroyed all possibility of a surplus revenue from our public works, and made it doubt- ful whether they will this year yield income enough to defray the expenses of management and ordinary repairs. In the early part of January, when Governor Tilden sentin his annual Message, he opposed any further reduction of canal tolls. He main- tained, on what then seemed to be solid grounds, that the canals should be made to produce a revenue large enough to relieve the State from taxation on their account and to leave a surplus for deepening their bed and permittmg boats to sink deeply enough to take larger cargoes and carry machinery for propelling them by steam. This recommen- dation was made on the assumption that the railroad war, which was then just beginning, could not extend beyond the opening of navi- gation in the spring. But it was kept up with spirit during the long session, and before the Legislature adjourned Governor Tilden withdrew his opposition toa reduction of tolls. Even with the reduced toll sheet the business of the canals is likely to be small if the railroad war should continue through the season. This ruinous war is not only a heavy and destruo- tive blow to the New York canal interest, but to the prosperity of lake navigation, Our lake tonnage exceeds all the American tonnage employed in foreign commerce, and is quite as valuable as a school for training seamen for the navy, which ,is one of the most im- portant considerations connected with the national defence. But the railroads are car- rying freight at prices with which the lake vessels cannot compete, and many of them are laid up, because their owners will not incur the risk of engaging crews for the season without any reasonable prospect of business. This deplorable condition of the lake navi- gation interest and the canal interest, which own thousands of vessels and boats, and give employment in prosperous seasons to many thousand men, would mot be a thing to be mourned over if the cheap railroad freights with which they cannot compete had any reasonable chance of permanence. In that case the general public would profit by the destruction of particular interests, as so often happens by the invention of machinery which throws large classes of laborers out of em- ployment. If it were a demonstrated fact that railroad transportation is hereafter to be per- manently cheaper than transportation by water the country at large should feel no re- gret at seeing the lake vessels laid up to rot, and the great Erie Canal, ou which so mych money has been expended, converted into an uoprofitable ditch. But this is not the state of the case. The present rates of transportation cannot continue with- out bringing ruin on the railroads and anni- hilating the vast amount of capital which has been invested in them. The Erie road has already succumbed to this destructive compe. tition, as s man whose constitution is ex- hausted by excesses falls the first victim to an epidemic. But stronger and more healthy roads than the Erie suffer, though they may not succumb. Of course npne of them could stand if they continueu to do business at rates they cannot afford; but atter a while they will conclude that they have punished each other enough, when they will combine to put up freights and try to fix them high enough to recover what they have lost in the quarrel. And they will succeed more easily in this in consequence of the prostration they | are inflicting on the lake interest and on the canal interest. While the present state of things continues new canal boats and lake vessels are not built, the old ones are not re- paired, the hands employed on them get scat- tered and go into other employments, end, meanwhile, it is in the power of the railroads to substitute combination for competition without previous notice, and extort high prices without any immediate fear of cheaper trans- portation by water. As soon as the new grain | crop begins to come forward and treights begin to crowd railroad rates are certain to go up, and the crippled condition of lake | Taz Froatuxc Hosrrrat.—One of the good | end, it is to be hoped, permanent results of | the St. John’s Guild charity has been the establishment of the Floating Hospital. This institation has proved a real blessing to the | sick and suffering poor, and the active mem- bers of the Guild are exerting themselves to place it on a solid foundation, so far as its | fands are concerned. They will have to taise twenty thousand dollars to pay fora suitable barge for a permanent hospital, and have already collected eight thousand of the amount required. When the winter season closes we are too apt to forget the work of charity forced upon our attention by the severe weather. But it is to be hoped that in- terest enough will be felt in this useful under- taking to insure its permanent establishment pnd a continuance of its good work. Cor Day at Ascot.—By special cable tejegram from London we have a fall report of the brilliant scene which was witnessed on Ascot Heath yesterday during the period of the great race for the gold eup. The ground was crowded. from the forenoon to the evening, by « dazzling representation of British and African royalty and American fashion. The Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Beatrice—Victoria’s only unmar- ried daughter—the tan of Zanzibar, with many other attractive and remarkable person- ges, were present. were very fine. It is no small honor to be thle to chronicle-the fact that an American Phe toileta and equipages lady was the belle of the course. Doncaster won the Gold Cup, having been ridden in «plendid style by Fordham. Our local sporting reporters are enabled to show that the racing at Jerome Park yester- day was of the most excellent characier and that the xport to 1 ¢ most favorable circumstanc » yes of 4 fine sisemblage of the American people, each man being sovereign o4 a saltan in himself and every lady yraceiul as a ducuess. and canal facilities will remove the most effec- tive ordinary check to railroad extortion. The railroad war is, therefore, in spite of transient cheap freights when little business is to be done, a general evil to the business commu- nity as well as a calamity to the stockholders of the roads. It discourages investments in | railroad property by fluctuations of value and uncertainty ot dividends, which is of itself a great evil, considering the importance of railroads to the comfort and convenience of modern lite. It forebodes a coalition after the war is over to reimburse the losses entailed by the contest. Commerce will be obstructed and the community fleeced as soon as business presses to ten times the amount that is saved by the temporary low prices of transportation during this period of finan- cial suspense. It tends, moreover, in its ul- timate results, to revive the intense hos- tility to the railroad interest which prevailed in the West two or three years ago and threatened to destroy the value of railroad property by injurious legislation. The high prices which the roads will adopt when this mutually destructive struggle is ended will revive the old conflicts and make the railroad question again a disturbing eletuent in the politics of the country—a species of controversy by which the railroad interest is sure to suffer in a country where legislation is controlled by popular impulses. The encouragement given to Mr. Garrett | by the directors of the Baltimore and Ohio road in their meeting on Wednesday to con- tinue the war is a challenge and a signal whieh the New York roads ought not to dis- | They can easily bring Mr. Garrett of regard. to terms if they will exert their power. course they will have to underbid him and do business at a still greater loss; but if they are resalute and efficient they ean make the contest short by making it sharp and decisive. The trade of the West tends natural) | timore, and to New York, and not to Bal- , e New York roads con make | limits. The only arguments they advance for freights cheap enough to prevent any diver- sion. They will lose less by breaking down Garrett's ambitious obstinacy within a month than by half measures, which wil! only serve to protract the war. It is better to sacrifice two millions in one month—if that be neces- sary—than to allow the contest to go on indefinitely, with a constant and incal- culable drain upon their resources. All the roads are losing money so long as the war continues, and it is for their common interest to end it at once and know where they stand. To be sure, they must submit to losses themselves in inflicting chastisement cn the enemy; but a short and vigor- ous war is always more economical than along one. The permanent prosperity of the New York roads depends on their keep- ing the Western traffic for this city, which they can do with absolute certainty by fight- ing Garrett with his own weapons and con- stantly underbidding him in prices until he has got enough of it. It is undoubtedly in their power to force him into a combination, and every New York interest requires that this be done speedily. If this should be accom- plished by the end of the present month, and all the through lines agree on remunerative rates, those who are interested in lake and canal navigation could organize for the fall traffic and prevent the railroad rates from being excessive during the heavy business of the autumn months, when the Western grain harvest will be seeking a market. The canal traffic necessarily centres in New York; but al- though the canals are competitors of the New York roads during the season of navigation they tend so powerfully to maintain the supremacy of New York city as the great mart of foreign commerce that the New York roads have an interest in their success. So long as the bulk of the summer and autumn business comes to New York the winter and early spring business will come here too, and the prosperity of our New York roads depends upon the continued commercial ascendancy of this metropolis, If the Erie Canal, boats and all, belonged to a private corporation, it could end this railroad war at once by put- ting its rates so low as to defy all competi- tion. The State, ownirg only the canal, end not the boats, can do _ nothing effective so long as the roads are carrying freights st a great loss; but the New York roads, which have an equal interest in maintaining the commercial supremacy of this city, have only to put forth their strength for a brief period to break down all competition which tends to divert business out of the State. They have nothing to fear from the competition of the canal, whichcan only keep their profits within reasonable limits, whereas the railroad war precludes any profits at all. As Garrett's directors have decided to support him the New York roads should exert all their power and crush him at once. They might end the war by a vigorous campaign of.a single month. " The Incorporation of Villages. Notwithstanding the suggestiveness of the figures relating to municipal taxation which accompanied Governor Tilden’s recent Mes- sage many of the villages in this State are anxious to become cities. The Governor's Message shows that Schenectady, Rome, Og- densburg, Watertown and Hudson, none of which possesses a population exceeding eleven thousand, raise annually from fifty-six to seventy thousand dollars each for munici- pal purposes. These sums are simply enor mous, and yet smaller places, especially in the neighborhood of this city, are anxious to assume like burdens. There, for instance, is the village of Huntington, on Long Island. The village proper has a population not ex- ceeding fifteen hundred, and yet the villagers are anxiotts to become a municipality and to include a large part of the farming land in the neighborhood within their corporate this change are the increase in population which they believe would be the result of calling their village a city, and the necessity of local improvements. No reason- ing could be more unreasonable. Population is not secured by high sounding names, and a system of comprehensive local improve- ments is the most dangerous of experiments at this time. Good roads are always desira- ble, but these every town can secure without the expensive machinery of a municipality, wile village boulevards are an expensive Inx- ury, without which many communities are better off. If this plan of incorporation should succeed taxes would be greatly in- creased, and in ten years the city of Hunting- ton will be so heavily in debt as to find difficulty in paying the interest on its indebt- edness. Such bas been the experience of most of the cities in the State, and a like fate shonld be avoided, unless it is unavoidable. The villagers, not in Huntington only, but in other places where the population is inspired by « similar ambition, would do well to con- sider the step they are meditating, for almost without exception they will find that they have bought the name of a city at a cost too great for the luxury. Commopors VaNpeRnpintT as 4 Pacper.— Although this may naturally strike the aver- | age citizen as a new view of the gallant Com- modore, he will be troubled to account for the | attitude assumed by the New York Central before the Department of Docks on any other theory than the one involved in the above | rubric. An appeal to official charity is made | by the demand that the city give the Comm dore the use of two piers for his freight traffi It is a privilege for which people pay, if they | have the money or can borrow it; and as the Commodore reqnests that it be extended to | him gratuitously, it must be that he cannot | raise the funds, It is our opinion that a col- | } | lection should be taken up and that Mr. Garrett should carry around the hat. Pio Nowo’s Apvick to tan Catnowe Cuercy mm Amentoa.—The Pope received ad- dresses from a number of American Catholic students destined for the missionary work of the Church on this side of the Atian- tic, at the Vatican yesterday. His Holiness referred to the elevation of Archbishop | McCloskey to the Cardinalate, and ex- patiated on the grand field which tha | territory of the tolerant Iepublic pre- | sents for {he exertion of the pastoral office, He cautioned the young mon to practice as weil as preach; to show their | confidence | ts a thrifty rather than an ambitious man. | aspirations at once. | larger salary than he now receives, it is pretty in the divine commission by | daily personal example and conduct. This latter part of the Pontifical instruction was well timed, just in place. The Pope has sur- veyed the American field. He has read of the demoralizing disintegration which is taking place in some of our greatest church com- munities, He has heard of the dismay and doubt which just now afflict many of the lambs not of his fold. .He conse- quently speaks very plainly to the youthful Catholic missionaries, hoping that when they once ‘‘step in’? to the pulpit he may not be suddenly forced to cause them to ‘“‘step down and out,” ‘ The President Misunderstood. Some of the Western papers suggest that General Grant's third term letter was written on the theory on which an Irishman shot, so as to hit if it was a deer and miss if it was o cow. They mean, we suppose, that the letter is disingenuous; but we do not like to see anybody accuse the President of such a thing as trimming. Nor do we see that his letter can lie justly under that imputation. It speaks directly enough. Hoe does not believe in a third term for everybody. He would not have supported Mr. Buchanan’s or Mr. John- son’s or, perhaps, even Mr. Lincoln's preten- sions to a third term. He thinks his own case different, which is not unnatural. He remarks that he sacrificed a good deal in ac- cepting the Presidency—a life office anda | good salary were what he gave up; and these things appear to him more important, per- haps, than they might to persons more accus- tomed to public lite and used to making per- sonal sacrifices. Mr. Fish, for instance, has given up a good deal to serve the country in the State Department; Governor Tilden sur- rendered a very profitable practice at the Bar to become Governor of New Yorkat a salary which would appear to General Grant ridicu- lously low; Judge Pierrepont gives up a large practice to be Attorney General. But these gentlemen look at such things from a differ- ent point of view. To the President the life salary and the life office are very important. And so, if the people will give him an- other term of the Presidency, he does not think they would do too much. It would be four times fifty thousand—that is to say, two hundred thousand dollars in salary and a pleasent office and sufficient employment to keep him agreeably busy. If the President's Western critics will put themselves in his place and will try to look at the matter from his standpoint they will see that he could hardly think differently. That he does mean and expect a third term no one who has attentively watched the course of his more recent appointments to office can have the least doubt; and this is a kind of evidence which would be—were there any just or strong reason to doubt his intention— of the most pertinent kind. On the adjourn- ment of the last Congress he made a number of more or less important appointments, and of these all, so far as we now remember, were men who had previously acknowledged them- selves more or less favorable to a third term ; not to three terms asa principle, but toa third term for General Grant. In the Southern States, whence he must ex- pect the main body of delegates to come, who, in the National Convention, will insist on his renomination, almost the whole body of fed- eral office-holders are strong advocates of a third term; where they are not they are prudently silent. In Louisiana Marshal Pack- ard thinks Grant is good enough for him, and Packard and Casey control the federal ap- pointments in that State. In Alabama it would be difficult to discover a federal office- holder who is not devoted to General Grant's re-election, and Senator Spencer would make short work with one if he did discover him. In Arkansas Brooks, Snyder and the*other federal officers, especially those most recently appointed, are almost to a man third termers. In Mississippi ex-Senator Pease, Postmaster at Vicksburg, is the fugleman in the same cause. In Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia the case is the same. Nor is this all. Such recent federal appoint- ments in the South as that of Wells, ex-Presi- dent of the fraudulent Louisiana Returning | Board; Pease in Mississippi, Brooks in Arkansas, and others we could name, point directly to the President's intention to be re- elected, if, as he remarks, the necessities of the country should demand it. These men | have no possible political future in the States where they live except as Grant men. No | other republican President would kesp them in office a moment longer than the time needed to make out the commissions of their succes- sors. Under a democratic administration | they would, of course, sink out of sight as quickly. They are third termers, therefore, in | self-defence; they could not afford to abandon General Grant. When aman notorious for | his skill in selecting the agents who are to do his will picks such men for office it means that he is in earnest. It will be seen, therefore, that the interpre- tation commonly put upon the letter is con- sistent with those acts of its author by which, if the letter were of doubttul meaning, we should naturally seek to discover his inten- | tions. If you are in doubt look at the men he appoints to office. If you do not know what the President wants ask his dependents and favorites what they want. If they are | third termers that would seem to settle the | question. But as we dislike to see the President mis- | represented and misunderstood we will add that we thoroughly believe him when he sug- gests that he is notin love with the Presidency. He likes a good office and a large salary. He He is fonder of money than of authority, and he has got accustomed to the privileges and honors of office, and fears he would not be comfortable without these. If he could be made General of the Army, with a handsome retiring pension besides his salary, we firmly | believe he would give up his Presidential If Congress should offer fo create for him a life office, with little work, a sufficient show of authority and a certain that he would not care who was Pres- ident. Everybody who has been much near him knows that the Presidency bres him. He fecls that he does not know anything of statesmanship; the company of statesmen tires him; they do not talk horse nearly ag well as the kind of men he likes better. The criticisms of the newspapers annoy him. The troubles of the country irritate him. The people seem to bim like a parcel of | is good reason to and then there is Congress, which not un- frequently interferes with his wishes. No, it is unjust to say that Genetal Grant is ambitious in that sense in which Blaine, or Washburne, or Tilden or Bayard is ambitious. He asks but little here below, but wants that little long. He will take another term of the Presidency if he cannot get anything better; and like a prudent and thrifty man he means to keep that in sight until somothing better offers. He feels that when he sacrificed a life office and a large salary he ought not now to be turned adrift; and the republican leaders may as well know this and trim their sails accordingly. As for the general interests of the country, the President does not think much of them. Why should he muddle his mind about mat- ters he does not understand? The Indictment of Claflin & Co. Occasions not untrequently arise when pub- lic journals would gladly be spared the pain of publishing, and still more of commenting on, the news of the day. When reputations hitherto unsullied are aspersed, even by legal proceedings, the reluctant journalist shrinks from the task which he cannot avoid, and would gladly be spared the infliction of distress and humiliation on the parties im- mediately concerned and the shattering of public confidence in men who have long been esteemed as models of integrity and honor. But journals make an implied engagement with the public to give all important news, and an indictment by a grand jury of a commercial firm of the’ highest rank and standing has too deep and startling an. interest to be concealed, even if all the newspapers of the city should charitably attempt to suppress it. An indictment by a grand jury is no conclusive proof of guilt, All the evidence presented to a grand jury is ex parte. The parties accused cannot be heard in explanation ; the witnesses are not sub- jected to a cross-examination ; all the testimony is op one side, and it is always possible: that a fair and open trial may result in a complete exculpa- tion. But until such a trial can be had the indicted parties must suffer in public estima- tion. Even if they are supported by con- scious innocence their sensibilities and pride of character must be deeply wounded. Every citizen of this metropolis has an interest in wishing that this grave accusation of one of our most eminent business firms may prove to be unfounded. The character of our great merchants is our most precious possession. Confidence in mercantile honor is one of the main pillars of public prosperity. One of the most ennobling features of modern life is the existence of great and stable reputations which excite such feeling of trust that men dwelling on distant conti- nents feel it safe to send their property across wide oceans, with a perfect assurance that the firms to which it is consigned will protect the interests of owners as if they were their own. Consignors of valuable cargoes often sleep in as perfect security as if their merchandise were in their own warehouses and under their immediate inspection. We have always had, and still have, such merchants in this great emporium, and it is a shock to the community anda mortification to our commercial pride when doubts are cast upon. any one of their num- ber. It will be seen by the statements made by the inculpated firm to our reporter that they confidently assert their innocence; and their card, which we also publish, asking a sus- pension of judgment until they have an opportunity to be heard in defence, will strike the public as reasonable. The only thing which we are yet justified in regarding as established is the fact that large amounts of French silks have been smuggled foto the country and have founda market. Shrewd merchants, long in business, who closely watch the foreign markets, who are judges of the qualities of silks and know the prices at which they can be purchased in France, cannot easily be made the dupes of illicit importers; and we suppose it to bé mainly on this presumption that the house of Claflin & Co. fell under suspicion. They are too well acquainted with the trade to be deceived, and if they have been in the habit of buying silks in this country at prices far lower than they could import them and pay the duties that fact would naturally excite the suspicion of Custom Honse officers, and it is a fact (if it | be a fact) which they are bound either to dis- prove or explain. We sincerely hope, and every right-minded citizen will agree with as in hoping, that they may succeed. There believe that the smuggling of silks has been enor- mous, and it is not easy to imagine that a large illicit trade could be carried on for years upless some of the great merchants who supply the country trade were pur- chasers of the contraband goods. It is essen- tial to the business of smugglers that they | find a ready market, and the security of | their illicit trade depends on the few- ness of their purchasers and their ability | to get their goods distributed through unsus- pected channels. Their ability to make great fortunes without hazard depends on the con. | nivance of great firms who will quietly and promptly take the goods off their hands. But no really great firm in that branch of trade ean do this without conscious com- plicity, because such a firm has constant knowledge of the foreign prices of the goods, the rates of daty and all the elements of cost in the domestic market. If they are offered to such o firm at prices considerably below | those at which they can be honestly im- ported, it is prima facie evidence that they bave been smuggled, and the | purchaser receives them at his risk and peril. It is difficult to see how so experienced a firm as that of Claflin & Co. could b sceived on such a point, or why they should even take the risk ot baying silks in large quantities im the domestic mar- ket when their own facilities for cheap and honest importation are equal to those of the most favored buyers. [fthey had never dealt in silks whieh they did not impors themselves their defence would be perfeet. If they have | really bought silky in the home market at much lower prices than those at which they conld themselves import them they are in the unfortunate predicament of having to make We sincerely hope indicate their inno- difficnlt explanations. that they will be «bie chilareu, who will neither be happy nor quiet; | ceuce, The Spanish Kaleidoscope. In the Spanish political situation, jvet before the advent of Alfonso, the great neces’ sity was that some one section of the political elements should become supreme—that is to say, that out of the thirty or forty so-called parties which divide the allegiance of the ever loyal hidalgos at least half a dozen should so far agree on a common policy that they could act as a unit on the two or three public topics that are of consequence, and in virtue of their unity and the continued divi- sion of all the others should rule the coun- try. It was because of the failure of Spanish politicians to frame any such combination through the invincible conceit and personal pride of many leaders that the republicans © came to the surface and remained there long enough to show that they within their lines were scarcely less divided on primary ideas than the many factions of royalists respec tively. But the combination which brought in Alfonso seemed to have secured the need fal cohesion—by what compromises or bar. gains the world did ,not care; for some political immorality in that way was less offensive than the disorgan- ization of a great country threatened to be- come. It is, however, likely to appear that there was no chemical combination of the political elements in that cohesion, but only a mixture ; that it was a mere truce by which the parties agreed to forego their hostilities till they could make a general effort to cheat one another, each with the aspiration te govern under Alfonso’s name. But they have come again to a standstill, and the govern- ment and the juvenile Majesty are in a hope- lessly false position. ‘They cannot govern the country absolutely, for want of strength ; they cannot govern it liberally, for want of faith in the people. They are unable to seize the nation in that absolute grasp which uses force wherever it finds it to accomplish what~- ever the peril of the country requires; for there is in their circle not a mun of the right fibre ; but they cannot throw themselves upon the country and declare what they want; for if their helplessness were declared they would be driven out by as small a display of force as brought themin. So we may anticipate an early and dramatic change jn, the bits of painted glass that make up the picture of Spanish politics. Taz Founrs Avence Tuxxet.—Whatever may be thought about the justice of making the people pay a portion of the expense of getting rid‘of the nuisance of the surface railroad on Fourth avenue, no one will deny that the improvement of that avenue is worth all the money it will cost. It will add to the value of all property east of the line of Van- derbilt’s road and will prevent the annual sacrifice of life at the crossings. But now that the cars have commenced running through the tunnel it will be well to promptly pass an ordinance forbidding the blowing of their steam whistles within the city limits. As the trains pass under the street crossings the shriek of the whistle has already caused a number of runaways and some aécidents, There should be no necessity, with the present electric signal facilities, for blowing the whis- tle at all; and if it be necessary to announce the approach of a train by noise a bell would answer the purpose as well as a shrieking whistle. The Common Council should attend to this matter before we have some distressing calamity to record. : PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Commodore A. K. Hughes, United States Navy, 1s quartered at the Gilsey Louse. Iu France there were at the end of 1874 just 15,000 miles of railway in operation, Chancellor Joun V. L. Proyn arrived from Al bany yesterday at the Brevoort House. Senator Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, is residing temporarily at the Fifth Avenue Hote). Onief Judge Sanford E. Church, of the Court of Appeals, arrived Jast evening at the Metropolitap Hotel. State senator George F. Verry, of Massacha- setts, 18 among the late arrivals at the Windsor Hotel. Sefior Don Antonio Mantilla, Spanish Minister at Wosnington, has apartments at the Clarendos Hotel. Mr. Ruskin has in the press “Notes Oa Some of the Pictures in the Exhibition of the Roya Academy.” Secretary Delano left Washington for Moum Vernon, Ohio, Wednesday night. He will be absent several days. Mr. N. R. O'Conor, Secretary of the British Lega- tion at Washington, is sojourning at the West- moreland Hotel. The Count de Chalus, grandnephew of the Count de Chambord, has married the daughter of the Count ae Polignac. It is estimated that each of the dioceses ot France sends an average annual sum of 100,000 francs to the Vatican. . Some Frenchman is expectea to make a hie torico-mythologic picture of Prince Gortschako@ as the Angel of Peace. The catfish In the Chattahoochie are eating the Garkies whd go to caten them, and are likely to largely reduce the repubditcan vote. Mr. Jona ing, Jr., Vice President of the Balti more and Otio Ralirvuad Company, has taken ag his resiaence at the Fifth Avenue totel. Secretary Robeson left Washington yesterday morning ior Rye Beach, N. H., with nis family, and ‘will be absent till the middie of next week. Coionel Thomas A. Scott, Presiuent, and Mr. A, J. Cassatt, Vice President of the Pennsylvania Ratiroad Company, are at the Brevoort House. mm the ert prizes awarded this year in France @ sculptor has taken a medai fora painting ana @ | painter has been equally successful ta sculpture, It is rumored that a volume, consisting of the most important philosophical correspondence o the jate Mr. Jona Stuart Mull, will suortly be pub lishea. An Italian expedition for the exploration of | portions of Tnnts has started from Naples. it ts under the auspices of tne Itaiian Geographica Soctety. The “Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay,” by Ins | nephew, Mr. G. 0. Trevelyan, M. P., is now in tne printer's bands, and will be pubiisbed in the nexs publishing season, Anew story, by Thomas Hardy, author of “Far | from the Madding Crowd,” will be begun in the Cornhiit Magazine for July, entitied, “The Hand of Etueioerts.” State Prison Inspector, George Wagener, arrived at Sing Sing Prisom yesterday, and commenced his Grat supervision of that iastitition, which post he will retain during the ensuing four months, Will Mr. Fieh please appoint & new consal at Marseilles, France, vico Frank W. Potter? ft ta Not Much of a place, but it siould ve filed by somebody Who can reirain from writing to watig nani on American politics An Englisuwoman, woose husband was to be hanged next day, asked it she should bring the enildren to see the , Dut fe obfectod, “Ah, that’s just like you," she suid. “You never | liked them to bave any fun.’ | The committee named by the Fronch Acadomp | to award the priges of history hax conferred thew On M. Tusiel de Coulanyes, author of ihe “Cité AB ue.” and M. Charles Yriarte, tor his “Vie dag | #atsicien de Venise au XVime, Siecio.”!