The New York Herald Newspaper, July 28, 1875, Page 6

6 NEW YORK NEW YORK HERALD]: Faitare of Huncan, Sherman & Co. BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yous Hzraup will be tent 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. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore Herarp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—RUE SCRIBE. Subscriptions and advertisements will bo received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York, VOLUME XL... AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT, CENTRAL PARK GARDEN. THEODORE THOMAS’ CONCERT, at8 P.M. ROBINSON HALL, ‘West Sixteenth strect.—English Opera—THS ROSE OF AUVERGNE and CHILPEKIC, at 82. M. TIVOLI THEATRE, Eighth street.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway. corner of Mhirtieth strees—THE SPY, at 2 2. ak aud 8 P.M. closes wt 10:45 2, ML | GILMORE’S SUMMER GARDEN, Inte Barnum’s Hippoarome.—GRAND POPULAR CON- CERT, at 52, M.; Closes at il P.M OLYMPIv THEATRE, No fat Broadway. —VARIBTY, at3 ¥ closes at 10 45 ‘TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK, WEDNESDA TUB HERALD FOR THE SUMMER RESORTS, The suspension of the well known banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Co., yesterday, created a great deal of surprise and some dis- may. It was an event entirely unexpected. Up to the hour when the doors of the house were closed there had been scarcely a whis- per of impending misfortune. Not only was the solvency of the bankers unquestioned, but 80 great was the public faith in thelr ability to meet all their obligations that they are justified in their boast of an unexampled credit that was unimpaired up to the very moment when they felt compelled to go into liquida- tion. In spite of this unusual confidence and of a credit that could only be fitly described as unexampled, suspension was in- evitable. Although it came as a surprise to the public its necessity was not so sudden a shock to the principals, if we may judge from their published card. “A careful examination of our business and affairs,” they say, ‘shows us most unexpectedly, through losses and misfortunes, our available assets are so much reduced that we are compelled to go into liquidation.” But they had time to arrange everytning for the evil day that, sooner or later, was destined to overtake them, and this was accomplished with a secrecy that has no parallel in finan- cial history. All this adds a painful and pe- culiar interest to a misfortune that all will unite in regretting, and lifts the failure out of the ordinary category of commercial disas- ters, When we look about us for the cause of the downfall of this house we find the subject to be one of unusual difficulty. In this country our business prospects had only begun to brighten. A prolific yield at home and the promise of an active demand abroad were teaching us to expect from our wheat crop a revival of trade. The corn and cotton crops also give excellent promise. There is no un- usual stringency in the money market and ro fears have been entertained of a commercial crisis. In Europe, however, and especially in England, business has lately presented a gloomy outlook. Many of the banks and some of the greatest com- mercial houses have been overtrading. The depression in the iron trade caused the downfall of the Aberdare Company. Another class of misfortunes led to the suspension of Alexander Collie & Co., and many houses al- most as prominent were dragged down with will not suffer to any appreciable extent. As we said before, the misfortune is to be regretted, especially if the cause is to be found in overtrading, but beyond this the cpse is not one of profound public importance. Natur- ally the first fear upon such an occasion would be for the American tourists and travellers abroad, who are dependent upon the letters of credit of this house ; but upon this point wo have the assurance of Mr. William Butler Duncan that every precaution has been taken for their protection. Thus the gravest danger of the situation is averted, and we turn from the event as from something startling in itself, but not of sufficient siguifi- cance to give it national importance. We have shown that the failuro cannot affect the national credit, nor impair the banking or other business interests of the country. Even those institulions with which Duncan, Sher- man & Co. did business, both in this city and in London, are unafiected by the failure. The whole matler now rests between the bankers and their creditors, and, although their liabilities are large and delay will be nec- essary to liquidation, we believe the business honor of these distinguished merchants is untainted, and that no one will have cause to complain of them. In their failure they have the sympathy of the entire community and the good wishes of all for their recovery and future prosperity. In saying this we have said everything that we conceive neces- sary to be said, and, while we regret tho announcement wo are compelled to make, we rejoice that there seems a prospect of so little evil as a consequence of so great a misfortune. The Governor and the Mayor. ‘There is a rumor that Governor Tilden has at last made up his mind that the law which requires him to approve or disapprove any re- moval of municipal officers that may be made by the Mayor of New York means something, and imposes upon him a duty which he must some day perform. Nearly six months ago Mayor Wickham, having received charges against the Corporation Counsel and the Fire Commissioners of the city, gave the accused parties a hearing, as required by the law, found the charges sustained, and removed them from office. The certificates of the re- movals, accompanied by the reasons of the Mayor for his action, were sent to Governor Tilden, at Albany. It was supposed that no more important business would claim the Governor's atiention than that of deciding pons igs on At. ag eg Sa whether heads of leading departments i th ici t To New Loaxcewgbens ey Pusrrc :— } ability to withstand misfortune. It a a rH Re 2 ei Moinele aaitit Tue New Yonk Heraxp runs a special | ig now believed that the difficulties aia train every Sunday during the season, between New York, Niagara Falls, Sara- toga, Lake George, Sharon and Richfield Springs, leaving New York at half-past two o'clock A. M., arriving at Saratoga at nine o'clock A. M., and Niagara Falls at a quarter to two P. M., for the purpose of supplying the Strpaxy Hxraxp along the line of the Hudson River, New York Central and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern roads. Newsdealers and others are notified to send in their orders to the Heraxp office as early as possible. For further particulars see time table. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the wealher to-day will be a litile warmer and partly cloudy. Persons gomg out of town for the summer can have the daily and Sunday Henatp mailed to them, free of postage, for $1 per month. Waxt Srrezr Yestenpay.—Gold advanced qnickly from 1123 to 116§, with a reaction, and closed st 114}. Stocks were generally lower in consequence of the failure of Dun- ean, Sherman & Co. Tue Tammany Trovnre continues to be the talk of the town. In tam Feencu Asszmpuy the final debate on the Senate bill is fixed for Monday. Tae Panx Poricemen suffer while Green and Wickham dispute over the manner in which they shali be paid. Tue Ractna at Sanatoca yesterday pre- sented an excellent day’s sport, and gives | promise of an unusually brilliant meeting. | eer ESATA EST | Tue Ovenatrves’ Sreme in England is becoming dangerous. Out of one hundred | and sixty-two mills at Oldham only six are running. Taz Perce or Breapsrcerrs in Europe fluctuates with the indications of the yield of the harvest, but in a week or two the prospect can be forecast with something like certainty. Tar Srzamsute Companzes, according to the testimony of Mr. John G. Dale and others, are as imnocent in the matter of head money as the Artful Dodger was accustomed to de- clare hiniself in his sweetly ironical way. Tur Fioops rmx Exoranp are treated at some Jength from our London mail this morning. Though not so terrible as the recent floods in France they have done much injury, and the details will be read with interest. Tur Brooxtyn Yacut Cuve is now on the | annual cruise to the East, and the fleet has reached New London. The sail has so far proved an interesting one, and forms the sub- ject of a very readable report in our columns this morning, Tor Haninm Piacce Spots are not yet eradicated and the copious rains, followed by a hot sun, which have been so frequent of late, are increasing the danger of an epidemic. ‘Wo implore the Board of Health to complete the work of filling in the flats as soon as possible. Nonan’s Bosom Fureyp, Assistant District Attorney Bussell, was before the Emigration Committee yesterday, and testified to his friendsbip for the suddenly famons lobbyist, and to having him appointed an Assistant Dis- trict Attorney by Mr. Phelps. The two friends go lightly ovar the lobby experiences of applicant that Mr. Phelps cannot fail to i charmod with both of them. » lhe OTIS oo Side Barres bad an excursion up the atadison yesterday. Thisis @ very worthy pod excellent charity, in every way desorving of sapport, as are also the free picnics to tho poor childrop. Now ia the time to contribute to these ebjeots, and we know it is only nec- casary to suggest that assistance will be well bestowed to secure it, in their affairs and all the real dangers of the situation have been successfully tided over. Yesterday, however, there was a story of the failure of the Union Bank, of London. Had this been true we would have had in ita ready explanation of the suspension of Dun- can, Sherman & Co. With heavy advances made upon both grain and cotton, and with immense liabilities constantly pressing them from all parts of the world, it would be simply impossible for the New York house to go on in the face of the London disaster. It is fortunate for the commercial world that a story which received universal credence early in the day yesterday is proved to be without foundation; but had it been true it would not only have fully explained the event we now deplore, but disarmed criticism for the sus- | pended bankers. As it is we cannot look upon their misfortune with entire com- placency. In any event, or from whatever the cause, the failure of a house like that of Duncan, Sherman & Co. is to be deplored. If overtrading is the cause of the disaster the event is one to be regretted especially on that account. This was a banking house that was eminently o credit house. Their drafts were cash all over the world, and Amer- ican tourists and travellers carried their let- ters of credit everywhere. Their boast of unexampled’ credit was true only because people believed that it was impossible for such a house to indulge in overtrading in any direction. It was not expected that they could be “long” or “short” in anything, or that their dealings, either at home or abroad, could affect their solvency. The fact of their failure in itself apparently tells a different story. Their losses and misfortunes which came to them so unexpectedly could have come in mo other way than through speculation. It is because of this fact, neces- sary upon every hypothesis except that they were dragged down by the ruin of their cor- respondents, that the failure is #0 complete a surprise, and the wonder is all the greater be- cause the crash came at a time of business serenity, when the prospects for the future were not only bright but brightening. In this respect, however, their story is only the old, sad story common to business misfor- tune in every age and country, and we can scarcely expect that the lesson of their failure will be less true or more regarded in the fu- ture than it has been in the past. The effect of the failure isa problem not less difficult than its cause. As it came almost without premonition, so we trust it will not be productive of any widespread alarm or other evil consequences. The banke, feeble as they are in themselves, cannot be impaired by the downfall of these bankers. | Duncan, Sherman & Co. in no way assisted | in sustaining the great fabric of the national | credit except as all reputable American banking houses assist in sustaining it. Their failure, though it will be the cause of much private grief, cannot be regarded as other than a private misfortane widely disseminated. That the business com- munity so regard it is evident from the effect of the news upon the gold market. the centres of business gold went up with a bound when the announcement of their suspen- sion was made, Sober second thought brought it back again, and business was not visibly affected by the disaster. So far no other houses are involved, and if this mis- fortune is regarded as it ought to be, simply as o private misfortune, af- fecting only those immediately concerned, the general consequences will be of no very great importance. ‘There is mo reason that wecan see why the gencral business pros- pects of the country should suffer even by the failure of so eminent a house as that of Dun- can, Sherman & Co, Assuming that it is owing to advances upon grain and cotton that the house has suspended, there is sti nothing in the assumption to affect the busi- ness of the country, The European demand will not thereby be increased or diminished, jand the abilily to move the orons Tn ail | feasance, and were or were not fit to be in- trusted with the great interests confided to their hands. Governor Tilden, however, found other matters of greater moment to occupy his attention. It is now alleged that he has re- solved to take up the subject, and that his de- cision will be made known in a few days. After the Governor has acted upon the cases of the Corporation Counsel and the Fire Commissioners perhaps the Mayor will remember that he, too, has duties to perform, and will supplement his former removals with others even more necessary to be made. ‘The charter requires him to see that the laws are properly observed and enforced, and that all the departments of the city government are managed in accordance with the provis- ions of the charter and with honesty and capacity. He has before him an official re- port charging wilful disregard of law as well as gross official incompetency on the Comptrol- ler. Witl he remove that obstructive officer ? He is supposed to have had under investiga- tion charges of criminal official neglect, ignorance and incapacity against the Superin- tendent of the Building Department, backed up by the censure of a jury on that official for the Duane street church calamity. Will he let the people know whether he has “pigeon-holed” those charges, after the Albany fashion, and decided to keep in office a super- intendent whose official incapacity is a mat- ter of judicial record and public notoriety? The Police Commission is a disgrace to the city as at present constituted. The charges against the department now brought to light prove either corruption or utter incapacity in its management. Will he do his duty by attempting a thorough reformation of this important Commission? If Governor Tilden during the summer months can find time to pay some attention to New York city matters it is to be hoped that his example will have a good effect upon the Mayor, and that we may at last secure some of those municipal reforms so liberaily promised before the last election. The Court of Appeals. One of our contemporaries does not think that the discussion arising out of the letter of Mr. O’Conor in reference to the Court of Appeals will terminate without further inves- tigation into the charges made against the members of that Court by the distinguished leader of the New York Bar. Some of our journals deprecate criticism on the Court of Appeals and wave Mr. O'Conor and his criticisms to one side, as though in writing to Judge Davis he was putting his hand on the ark of the covenant. As we said yesterday, Mr. O'Conor, in making his attack on the Court cf Appeals, did, perhaps, as much as anything else to strengthen that tribunal in the affections of the people. At the same time it isa mistake to accept as a doctrine that our courts should be beyond criticism. In country like ours the action of the judicial tribunals is as much 6 matter of de- bate, of censure and of praise as the action of Congress. This is raore especially the result ot our system of elective judiciary. If the people elect judges they have a right to criticise them. Judges are human beings, with the same temptations, the same opportunities for failure, and under the same influences that govern the rest of the community. We know to what depths judges have falen in New York in the last few years, and into what infa- | mous attitudes justice had been dragged, and from which it was only rescued by the inde- | pendence ot the press and the freest possible criticism. To advance, therefore, as an argu- ment against Mr. O'Conor that the Court ot Appeals should not be criticised is to do vio- lence to the whole spirit of our institutions. The anti-slavery men, before the war, did not hesitate to assail with continued violence the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Taney’s administration tor tne Dred Scott decision. This violence continued even after the death of the Chief Justice; for as fair a man as the late Senator Sumner publicly opposed an ap- propriation to place Taney’s bust in the HERALD, WEDNESDA Supreme Court room, because he had granted this decision. Now, if the Su- preme Court of the United States could be held up to public criticism for a decision upon what was, afterall, a subtle question of law, and it was proper for Mr. Sumner to not only arraign Chief Justice Taney during his life, but to insist upon depriving him of his due honor when he was dead because of his part in this decree, why should not our own courts, which are elective and more directly amenable to public opinion than the Supreme Court, be open to the most direct and public examina- tion? If Mr. O'Conor believed what he wrote in his letter—and no one questions it for a mo- ment—then it was his duty as an honest, straightforward man, to write it. As to the wisdom of what he said and the justness of his criticism, that is entirely another question. It will be a misfortune if the effect of the dis- cussion arising out of his letter will be to re- move our courts from the jurisdiction of pub- lie opinion, A Short Lesson for Ohio Farmers, ‘The democratic speakers in Ohio are mak- ing a wonderful muddle of the financial ques- tion. They tell the people that the govern- ment stamp is the only thing that makes money, and that if it stamps paper that makes it dollars just as good as gold. But if that is true, why is it, why has it never been, since the government began to stamp paper with dol- lar marks, as good as gold? At the moment when Governor Allen uttered this piece of nonsense every farmer who heard him knew that the whole power of the strongest govern- ment in the world, fuliy exercised, was then insufficient to make the paper dollar in his pocket equal to gold. Mr. Pendleton tells his hearers that coin is best ; but that we have now paper, and it would be well to have more paper for a while before we return to gold, But how can he get more paper? Mr. Pendleton is said to be aman of brains, Why did he not tell his audience that more paper is an absolute im- possibility unless the government is so ex- pensively run that its receipts in taxes would not pay its expenses, when it might either borrow on bonds or issue more irredeemable promises to pay called greenbacks? ‘These Ohio democrats are dealing dishon- estly with the people ; that is the plain truth, and it is about time to tell it plainly. There is no excuse for what Pendleton and Allen are doing, for they know better. What is a green- back? In what follows we promise the Ohio farmer who may read it to tell him nothing but what Mr. Pendleton, Governor Allen and every democratic leader in Ohio, except Carey, knows perfectly well. As for Carey, he is what he always was, a Know Nothing; and, like all of that kind, his con- tempt for the ‘foreign vote’’ leads him to im- pose upon what he supposes its ignorance, What, then, isa greenback? It is an irre- dcemable promise to pay money. It does not even pretend to be money. No Congress, no Secretary of the Treasury ever had the folly to declare it money. Look at a five-dollar greenback and you will see that it is not de- clared to be five dollars; on the contrary, in as plain language as can be used, the govern- ment asserts that this piece of paper is not five dollars, for it declares, on its tace, “The United States will pay the bearer five dollars.’’ It seems, however, that Governor Allen would change all this, and make the bill read, ‘This is five do!lars.” Whata genius for finance he has! Well, how came greenbacks to be issued? We were in the midst of a great war, which, it is plain truth to say, the Southern people would not have ventured on had it not been for the encouragement they received in the fall and winter of 1860 from just such men as Governor Allon and Mr. Pendleton, Northern democrats who loudly promised to “stand by the South,” but left it in the lurch as soon as the deluded Southern people were too far in the mire to draw out without sn actual and brave fight. So gallant and vigorous was the fight made by the South that the govern- in maintaining armies and navies. In fact, it sometimes spent more in a week than it could collect in taxes in a year without ruining the people. But when a man or a government must spend more than it has he or it must borrow. The government borrowed many millions for which it gave the lenders as se- curity its bonds, which are promises to pay in a fixed number of yeara with annual inter- est meantime. But finding it difficult to bor- row money on bonds, because the Southern men made so gallant a fight that people doubted if they would not win, the govern- ment began to borrow in another way— namely, by the issue of bills called ‘‘greon- backs.’’ As it needed more money to buy supplies and pay the soldiers it issued more of these. If the taxes had been sufficient to pay the current expenses, it could, of course, have issucd no greenbacks at all. Now a greenback is a promise to pay money, Which does not specify any day of payment, nor give the bolder any interest for his loon. If any farmer who hears Mr. Pendleton should sell him his farm he would hardly take in payment a note of Pendleton’s merely promising to pay him the purchase money at some indefinite time—whenever it might suit Mr. Pendleton’s pleasure—and with no interest in the meantime. That would not be a business transaction, and if Mr. Pendleton proposed it the farmer would think him a fool. But men deal with a gov- ernment just as they deal with a neighbor, and the government saw that its promises to pay five dollars at some indefinite future time, without interest, would be refused. It therefore used a doubtiul power and declared them a legal tender, which means only that it forced us all to take these greenbacks these promises to pay money, and give for them our services or our goods; and, as nobody would have dealt with the government if it had forced only him to take these promises, it went a step further and forced everybody to tuke them of every- body else. Now, two things are plain: —Virst, that if the taxes had then been sufficient to pay the government’s expenses it would not have is- sued greenbacks. It could not, in fact, for it would have had no use for them. It would simply have paid its debts in money. How, then, can we have “more greenbacks” now, when the taxes do pay the expenses? Bat, second, if a merchant or farmer who had been obliged to borrow money found. Y, JULY 28, 1875—TRIPLE SHEET, ment was forced to spend vast sums of money | when his necessities ceased, that he had given two sets of notes, one promising to pay in thirty years and one promising to pay at any time—that is to say, whenever he could—he would, asan honest man, take up first the last-named notes—his greenbacks, so to speak. ‘This he would do not only as an honest man, but a8 @ shrewd ,man, desirous of improving his credit and securing good character among his neighbors. The great financial fault and blunder of the republicans since the war has been that they did not do this. Had they done so we should not have had the panic of 1873 nor the hard times which have followed since. We owe this blunder to the ignorance of General Grant and of his tavorite Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Boutwell; but it is fair tosay that they were encouraged by a large number of democratic and some republican leaders, who united in a howl for “more greenbacks,"’ and succeeded in forming a pub- lic opinion opposed to an honest and wise financial policy. Now all this is known to Mr. Pendleton, to Governor Allen, to every democratic leader who has brains enough to understand the A B © of finance. It is intelligible to every farmer in Ohio. The democratic party pretends to be a reform party, aud we really need reform, But what do we see? Instead of explaining to their people the real history and nature of the greenback, and showing them what both honesty and good policy demand, they pettifog in ponder- ous speeches and muddle the minds of tho honest farmers so far as they can. Why do they do this? It is because they have uo confidence in the honor or honesty of the American people, That is the only reason. Pendleton, Allen, Carey and all ihat set believe the people to be at heart rascals, and wishing to rule they appeal to what they believe to be a general desire among their hearers to swin- dle their creditors. There is not one of them who, if he believed that the farmers of Ohio were honest, would not gladly and vigorously oppose inflation and advocate an honest policy, which alone can lead us to prosperity. Disraeli’s Surrender. Mr. Disraeli’s failure as Prime Minister has never been more clearly shown than in the case of Mr. Plimsoll. As we said a few days ago in commenting upon Mr. Plim- soll’s remarkable speech in the Houso of Commons, Mr. Disraeli had made a mistake in not considering the romantic aspect of politics, He forgot, what he of all men should have been the last to forget, that there are no questions more powerful in a free country than questions that appeal to tbe sentiment and the imagination. Mr. Plimsoll has for years been agitating England in behalf of the sailors. He claims, and be has shown the truth of his claim by a burden of proof, that many of the shipping masters of England are so indifferent to the lives of the sailors, and so anxious to obtain large revenues from their freights, that they allow vessels to go to sea so badly built and so heavily overladen tbat in the event of a storm they are sure to sink. He has shown that vessels have gone down at sea from shecr wantonness on the part of their owners and after they had been warned of the danger. Like most men governed by one idea, Mr. Plimsoll, in pursuing his agitation, has, no doubt, said and done many foolish things. But he believed in his work. He was con- vinced that this great wrong existed. Eng- land, mistress of the seas, was deliberately allowing her sailors to be sacrificed to the avarice and neglect of shipmasters. A man in this mood may say in the words of Mac- beth :-— Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyatand reutral, ina moment? No man. - Mr. Plimsoll may well say in extenuation of his attack on the government in the House of Commons that the “expedition of his jio- lent love outran the pauser reason.’’ Our readers will remember when his bill compel- ling the shipping masters to use proper care as to their ships and their freights was with- drawn by Mr. Disraeli in anticipation of the speedy close of the session, that Mr, Plimsoll, ina furious manner and in violation of all Parliamentary usage and propriety, denounced the goverument and many members of Parlia- ment on the floor as “villains,’’ as men cog- nizant of a great crime and neglecting to remedy it. The seene was so violent that Mr. Plimsoll was directed to leave the House, and all that his best friends could say in his behalf was that he was probably insane. It was expected that unless he made an apology for his conduct he would be expelled from his seat. A debate on the question of expelling him is set down for to-morrow evening. But, thanks to the public press, it was seen that, whatever Mr. Disraeli and his Ministry might think, the people of England were with Mr. Plimsoll. His friends might say on the floor of the House that he was in- sane, but in the eyes of the people of Eng- land his course was a wise one. Conse- quently we have Mr. Disraeli publicly avow- ing his dofeat, and hastening to puta new bill on the calendar to meet the case, No Prime Minister ever suffered a more hu- miliating defeat. Lord Palmerston made a mistake of this kind when he imagined the English people would consent to change their laws at the pleasure of the late Emperor of the French. Mr. Disraeli evidently looked upon Mr. Plimsoll as a persistent and rather foolish fanatic, to be pushed asiJe in any con- tingency of public business, Behind Plim- soll and Disraeli and the governing party in Parliament there is the great English people, a people who when roused can speak with an emphasis that not even Ministers or thrones can resist. The fact that Mr. Disraeli should have invited a discomfiture so humili- ating is only another illustration of the truth of those critics who see in his present career only a succession of failures, At the same time the fact that England rose like one man, as it were, to the defence of this honest, plain, private member, who was championing tho rights of the sailors, and compelled the gov- erument to assent to his wishes, is one of the noblest illustrations of the power of free thought and free speech over the administra- tion of a groat country that we have scen in modern times. Tux Grocrapnican Conaness which is about to assemble at Paris is the subject of an interesting letter which we print this morn- ing. Geography is a science which is nowhere more thoroughly cultivated than among the French savans, and our correspondent’s letter | gives us an excellent idea of the progress it is making in France, -photograp' i Shamefal Treatment of a Planet. ‘Thero has certainly been queer weather in North America and Europe this year. Floods, thunder storms, cyclones, tornadoes, droughts. In fact, it could not have been worse if Old “Probabilities” had also gone off to Long Branch and left the weather in charge of a junior clerk with a fouduess for fishing. And now the wise people pretend that itis all because Jupiter is out of order and Venus oc~ cupies a peculiar position in the heavens. It may beso; but these planets ought to affoot the Southern as well as the Northern Hemi- sphere, and so far they do not complain of unusual weather in Australia and South America. Until a better case is made against Venus and Jupiter wo advise everybody toi hold General Myers, who attends to the weather for the people of this country, strictly accountable for all irregularities. When he first established weather observers in Northern Florida the intelligent people of that region drove them out, because they dis~ covered that ‘Old Probabilities,” with a shameless disregard of their interests, day! after day prophesied “severe rains,” and thig began by and by to endanger the cotton crop., There is nothing like holding the right mam responsible, Tre Brnon Memorian, which it is intended to erect to the memory of the poe! in England, called from Mr. Disraeli one of those charac- teristic speeches few men can make so well or with so little effort The Premier touched with a light, graceful and gentle hand all tho phases of Byron’s career and defended the poet while scarcely seeming to praise him, We reproduce the speech in full this morning, together with the reports of the meeting at which it was made and the comments of tho press. Most of our readers have had their “Byronic days,’? and for all these the Byron memorial will have a special interest. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, The ‘National Transition Moonly Voice" basa lcony sound. Gladstone—Please, sir, is the Church of England worth preserving? Britannla—Worth preserving ? Dear me, Wiliam, don’t you know it’s been In @ pickle ever 80 long ?—Punch, Nolan retires, but does not fy—wnerefore tt ie not nolens volans. Captain Cook, of the steamship Russia, is quar- tered at the Brevoort House. Rev. E. « Orger, of Canterbury, England, ts staying at the Gisey House. Judge Jeremiah 8, Black, of Pennsylvania, 1s re- siding at tne Fifth Avenue Hotel, Major George A. Williams, United States Army, 18 registered at the Grand Central Hotel. . J. D. Cameron, son of the Pennsylvanta is sojourning at the Breyoort House. Count and Countess de St. Paul and Count Cas- tell, of Paris, have apartments at the Filth Ave- nue Hotei. In Bishopgate street, London, they have found a Roman pavement tweive leet below the present suriace. Mr. Thomas Dickson, President of the Delaware and Hudson Cana! Company, ts at the St, Nicho- las Hotel. The Vokes family arrived from Europe yesters day in the steamship Russia, end are at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Mr. A. N. Chrystie, Vice President of the Ono and Mississippi Railroad Company, bas arrived & the Gilsey House. Mr. Joba 1, Raymond, the comedian, returned from Europe m the steamship Russia, and is at tue New York Hotel. Jesse Pomeroy's first lecture on morbid impulse will, in reference to one of nis peculiarities, be entitied “All ln My Eye.’”? Rear Admiral A. M. Pennock, Captain de Kraft and Surgeon Thomas W. Leach, Unitea States Navy, are at the Everett House, Mr. Jonn King, Jr., Vice President of the Balti- more snd Ohio Rallroad Company, arrived last evening at the Hofman House. Hon. John Young and Secretary Braun left Hali- fax, N.8., yesterday jor Prince Edward Island to collect information relative to the Bate Verte Canal. * Rear Admira! Alfred Taylor, who has been trav- elling in Kurope on leave of absence, returaed in the steamship Russia and took up his residence at the Gilsey House. The Count Susini Ruisco, @ Havana tobacco miliiopnaire, bas spent his million gaily in Paris within tne last ten years, and now he is rathur worse than bankrupt and tp charge Of the police. And if Plymouth church is mortgaged to raise that $80,000, what will they call that debt? Nota missiodary debt, of course; not a building debt; not even a debt incurred for the propagation of the faith. It will be trouvlesome co find a nice name for It Peopie seem to be dissatisfied with the fact that it is 0 diMcult to punish crime. For @ bundred years or more we Rave been tinkering at the law to guard the rights of individuals against the rights of society; and we don’t like the resuit, But who's to blame ? in Webb, who swam twenty miles in the Thames, is about to swim across the English Channe} from Dover to Calais. It will bea great individnal achievement, but, unlike Boyton's swim at the same place, It indicates a capacity that {s “not transferable,” Appletons’ Journal for July 17 has some souve- nirs of Buchanan Reaa, Rhinehart and Hiram Powers, by Sallie A. Brock, and @ paper on the question “Who waa the first Faust?” oy Rev. RB. G. Holland, in which toat noted character is traced to the Garden df Eden, Mr. R. G, Haliburton, says the Athenmum, wil publish in October a number of essays on colonial subjects, The most important one ts entitie), “ flow we Lost an &mpire a Hundred Years Ago.” This is evidentiy centennial, and the London Standard will have more spasms, The wife of that volumtnous bookmaker, Cap- tain Richard H. Burton, has made a book on “The: Inner Lite of Syria, Palestine and the Holy Land.’ ‘The lay iived long at Damascus, and her two vols umes filustrate Oriental lie and manners, with , Dorsraits and descriptions, M. Alphonse Pinart, wnose expedition to Alaska in 1871-2 was for the purpose of studying the eth- nography and languages of the natives of that region, will publish vocabularies and songs In the dialects of the Aleutians, Esquimaux ana other indigenous tribes, with French translations, Alarge number of Americans, now in Englaua, celebrated their national Deciaration of Inde- pendence bya /éte held on the 5th of July at the Crystal Palace, Not one of the speaker: avused the British, Was it that they recolleciod thas they were in a glass house, and so must not throw stones ?—Punch. Another newspaper correspondent has tins. trated the Hiber Gefinition of a posthumous work “@ book th man writes aither ne is dead.) “My Private Diary During the Sieve uf Paris,” by the late Felix M. Whitehurst, a London journalist, is @ brilliant pic are of the terriniy year that pat au end to the Second Frenca ka~ pire. Father Tom Burke, th eat Domimean’ preacher, continues to / \ beniuh, He w at his home in Irelane & tho best of spirits, but trom the + ady bis con- yalesence must neo ‘rt, Brown, his medical attendant, “inion of him, The distingaishe ‘ously watched by his venerable end nieces, who are in constant ‘m, Secretary Belknap arrivea tana last night, Ho will sta Park on Thursday, “