The New York Herald Newspaper, December 21, 1875, Page 6

NEW YORK HEKALD, TUESDAY, DEUKMBEK 21, 1875--TRIPLE SHEET * NEW YORK HERALD ANN STREET, BROADWAY AND JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR —_——_e -#—- NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and | after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly | editions of the New York Henarp will be | sent free of postage. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO, 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AVENUE DE L'OPERA, | Subscriptions and advertisements will be | received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. 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 Yon | eran. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. | tempted to control politics. Rejected communications will not be re- | SAN FRANCISCO MINSTREL one House, Broadway, corner of Tweu “ninth street, New as UM, ot.—KIT, at & P. M.; M. FL S. Chanfrau. WOOD'S MUSE Broadway. corner of Thirtieth closes at 10:45 P.M. GLOBE THEATS Nos, 728 and 790 Broadway.—VARIE ATRE, OONIE SOOGAH, 8 P.M. ‘Twenty-third street and Sixth atoP M Mr, and Mrs. Barney PASTOR'S NEW THEATRE. Broadway.—VARIETY, as & P.M. Mati- LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street and sixth avenne.—LES JOCRISSES DE L'AMOUR, at 5 P.M. Parisian Company THIRD AVENUE THEATRE, Third avenue, between Thirtieth and Thirty-Lrst streets.— MINSTRELSY and VARIETY, at 8 P. M. COLOSSEUM, Thirty fourth street and Brondway. —PRUSSTAN PARIS. Open trom 1 P.M. to4P. M. and froi tol P.M. WALLACK'S THEATRE, and Thirteenth street. —CAST M. Mr. Jobn Gilbert. Broadway 6 10-45, PARISIAN VARIETIES Fixteenth street, near Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matinee ac 22. M. BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street, Brooklyn.—HENKY V), at 8P.M Mr. Rignold UNION SQUARE THEATRE, <4 apa and Fourteenth street.—ROSE MICHEL, at & OLYMPIC 1 No. €24 Brondway.—VARIETY, STEINWAY HALL, ! fourteenth street,—OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS, at 8 M. Richard A. Proctor. UE THEATRE, Broadway.—l'1QUE, at 8 P.M, Fy g 3 THEATRE COMIQUE, ‘No. $14 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 5 P.M. TWENTY-THIRD STREET THEATRE, | ‘Tegaty-shied street and Sixth avenue.—THE FLATTEKER, aor. E. Broadway and Twenty-second street.—THE CRUCIBLE, at SPM. Oakey Hall, CHICKERING HALL, Fifth avenue and Eighteenth street.—MUSICAL SOIREE, a3 P.M. New York Quartet. GERMANIA THEATRE. a aaa street, near Irving place.—DER VETTER, at 8 | BOWERY THEATRE, Bowory.—1770, at 5 P.M. Mr, Stetson. EAGLE THEATRE, Broadway and Thirty-third street—V TETY, at & P.M. | TRIPLE SHEET. DAY. DECEMBER 21, 18' From our reports this morning the probabilities | are that the weather to-day will be warmer, oartly cloudy and with occasional snow or rain, Tur Henaxp ey Fast Man. Trarxs.—News- | dealers and the public throughout the States of | New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as | well as in the West, the Pacific Coast, the North, | the South and Southwest, also along the lines of the Hudson River, New York Central and Pennsylvania Central Railroads and their cone | wctions, will be supplied with Toe Henan, free of postage. Extravrdinary inducements offered to newsdealers by sending their orders | direct to this office. Watt Srnert.—Money on call, after rating at Gand 7 per cent, gold, closed at 7 per cent | currency. Gold declined from 113 3-4, the highest price of the day, to 1133-8. Stocks | were weak and feverish. Rag paper 87.42. Porto Rico has had the tropical luxury of an earthquake. ‘The town of Arécibo was laid in ruins. ‘Tax Spanish War Gaost is said by Sena- tor Cragin to be again looming above the horizon. Where away, Senator? Tax Dmecr Caste is soon to be repaired, the Faraday having cleared yesterday to per- form that work. The sooner she does her | work the better. —-_ ‘Tae Passewonns or THe Asrgrigur have gone bo their destination on the Ville de Brest, tnd the Amérique has gone into dock. Thus beppily ends » short season of anxiety. suratos against the Carlists Ty machines being putin lictory ac- Taz Worren ( (s about t 4 *t Madrid « order to give us th counts of every serum Paasce at Panavens lotted to French exbit Exposition will te filled ina ner that Will reflect credit om their great industrial gation. We are glad to see our old-time allies come thus to the front. e space al- nial ° Cen Tas Powers ov Sqvasa, os exhibited in Professor Doremus’ lecture last evening on the expansive force of growing vegetable tissue, is deeply enggestive. The great temples of India, we informed, are being slowly thrown down by the growth pf trees among the masonry, Why not, then, Plant a row of squash pits under Tammany Hall and tumble the old Wigwam in the sourse of three months? We give an inter. esting series of reams, illustrating the bootes are 1 dw sors lecture | almost fatal to it. | would have fallen into decay had it not been | it now exists the only secret organization in | and for ‘the defence of our liberties” against | and fanaticism. | attending those violations of the constitution | army, j alacrity. The independent press, like the | independent nation, rests upon public opinion. So far as it represents that | man as James Watson Webb, now living in Seeret Societies in Politics. The history of liberty shows that it is im- possible for a republic to live under any system but that of perfect light. The very essence of liberty is debate, inquiry, truth. Light is as necessary to freedom as sunshine to the earth, When it departs the Republic will surely die and become like one of the dead worlds that revolve aimlessly through space—barren, useless, extinct. The wisest men have viewed with alarm the growth of every institution of a secret character, or | whatever looked to the control of our politics | through secret influences. Even in coun- tries governed by tyranny, where the friends of freedom believe they can only succeed by | secret associations, experience has tanght | that it would be much better to have borne the ills of oppression than to fly to those of | darkness. Wherever we see a secret society in civili- zation claiming to govern political relations its fruition is evil, Even associations in themselves right and inspired by a high pur- pose have become pernicious when they at- Take as a con- spicuons example the Order of Jesus. In- spired at first by the religious enthusiasm of Loyola, its members going forth on mission- ary errands, spreading the religion of the Catholic Church throughout the world, dar- ing misery, death and martyrdom, they be- came illustrious for their meekness and de- yotion. But the moment the leaders began to concern themselves with the affairs of State the Order fell into disrepute and its name became a synonyme for intrigue and in- sincerity. When the society, under wiser teachings, returned to its former purposes it regained its pristine fame, and is now respected by all who respect conscience and courage. So also when politicians attempted to give the Order of Masonry a political ap- plication, a generation since, the result was It fell into disrepute. ‘The dark stigma of a crime was thrown upon its fairname. An Order going back, if we may accept its traditions, for ages, governed by a beneficent, humane policy and existing only for the good of mankind, was turned for the time into a political agency. It saved by the wisdom of its leaders, who rescued it even as the Order of Jesus was rescued from all political alliances—from the temptations of power. Asaconseqnence the world which protects and preserves its original purpose and is never drawn into political intrigues. It is among the evils of President Grant's administration, arising from the violations of the constitution which have marked it, that we should now find ourselves in the presence of a secret association aiming to control this country ‘‘in the interest of free- dom and the Protestant religion.” The fact that such a society exists under the patron- age of the President isa painful event. That it does exist there can scarcely be any doubt | from the disclosures we print elsewhere to-day. This exposure comes to us from good authority. We give it for what it is worth. It shows a secret oath-bound associ- ation, spread throughout many of the States, based upon opposition to the Roman Church the Papacy. It is the old business of Know Nothingism and Native Americanism in a new shape—the aftermath of that pernicious harvest. It comes in o more dangerous shape, because we believe the President is the only Chief Magistrate of this Republic who has ever willingly courted an influence like this, springing from bigotry and hatred and seeking its purposes through intrigue and darkness, It is a fruit of the same tree which has given us Cwsarism and ostracism It is among the phenomena which began with the illegal appointment of a Cabinet, and which thus far have ended in the dismissal of an officer of the government for doing his duty in enforcing the law. This secret society, so far as it is an ex- pression of a political ambition and so far as | it would foment religious hatred, is an evil of the gravest character. The only way to strike it down is for the independent press to treat it as the physician would a cancer in the system, the general a mutiny in the ora ruler treason in the State. It must be rooted out and made infamous. Herein comes that high duty which inde- pendent journalism should welcome with opinion it is the embodiment of wisdom and power. The old partisan press has died away, fading into oblivion and night like the Know Nothingism, Native Americanism and loyal leagues and dark lantern lodges of the past. Not even as accomplished a honored old age, and who, forty years ago, was @ conspicuous party editor, could save it. Mr. Greeley will probably be remem- bered as the only exception to this fate. Mr. Greeley, by the strength of his genius | and personal character, made journalism & power in politics. If he had been elected President—and the fact that he was not may be regretted more and more as time goes on—there would be no phan- | toms of Cmsarism and ostracism and demagogism and fanaticism to affright the people and threaten our liberties. It is to the independent press, headed by a jour. | nal like the Henxaxp, throtigh whose columns | yearly millions of dollars of business transac- | tions take place, that we must look for the destruction of this influence, Itis singular that republicanism should | generate this secret association at the time that the honest democracy are seeking to destroy the secret influence of Tammany | Hall. These symptoms—Tammaryism and | Native Americanism—are poisons in our | political system. This campaign for the Presidency develops their existence. It isa lar fact that the canvass thus far has .own nothing but intrigue, darkness and corruption, We lack that widely dissemi- nated ussion of grave events which before tked the opening of every canvass. We have no great princi- | ples to animate and strengthen our people; but we feel confident that before many weeks pass there will be seen under- lying these surface currents of the canvass the gravest possible issues, Thus far, then, the paramount question is no more nor less than the preservation of our public liberties. If eternal vigilance, as we are told, is the price of liberty, then we must look jealously upon every manifestation of tyranny, se- crecy and injustice. The narrative we print to-day is the most serious exhibition as yet. Unless it is arrested it will permeate every vein and artery of the national frame and taint it with corruption. For there is no corruption in a free government so deadly as that which aims to control public opinion and to affect the destinies of a great people by midnight lodge meetings, by arming creed against creed, by appealing to the | dark memories of the past for political cries and party platforms. In this aspect, | therefore, the exposure we make to-day, while an evidence of political disease, is also an admonition to wise men to unite and eradicate it’ The time has long passed when political campaigns in America can be fought upon any platform of ostracism or fanati- cism or of religion debased to political am- bition, We commend the exposure to the careful attention of the patriotic, and trust that our people, without distinction of party, will strike down this latest attempt to con- trol the liberties of the country by agencies which are only strong because they are dark, and are only to be feared so long as they work through secrecy, treachery and fanati- cis. The French Senate. There was a deadlock in the French Assembly yesterday in its election for Senators, the entire day being spent in balloting without result. The par- ties in the Assembly appreciate the full importance, politically and personally, of the formation of the Senate provided for in the new constitution. There is a political balance to be adjusted perhaps, and there are some honors to be bestowed of a kind very attractive toa people passionately attached to social and political distinctions. Senators who receive life places by the vote of the Assembly will stand before the country as a new political hierarchy, stamped as men whose eminent talents have been worthily employed in the service of the Republic, or as men of somuch account, socially or other- wise, that they could not be left out of any combination that looked for the support of the country. Places in such a body are naturally not to be lightly bestowed, nor is the chance to obtain them easily relinquished ; consequently, this list of seventy-five Sena- tors may give the Assembly more trouble than all the laws together which it has passed. Our despatches indicate the des- peration of the Bonapartists, whose in- trigue aims at the separation from the Left of a discontented faction large enough to make, with the imperial party, a vote that may defeat the attempts of all the other factions to agree ona list. It will be remembered that the law of February creates a Senate of three hundred members—two hundred and twenty-five of whom are to be elected by the departments and the colonies and seventy-five to be chosen by the Assem- bly. The Senators elected by the people hold office for three years ; those named by the Assembly for life. In case of a death among the seventy-five the vacancy is to be filled by the Senate itself, and always for life. The election in the Assembly must be by scrutin de liste, and by a majority of the House. Naturally, in the minute division of parties in the Assembly in the absence of any definite majority, it is not an easy labor to agree upon a list of seventy-five names that can have a prospect to stand with an absolute majority, There are too many factions to be disap- pointed, and the Bonapartists have been already so bitterly disappointed in their pretensions that they have gone into a sort of forlorn opposition. But theirs is a sort of opposition that is salutary. It prevents the existence of an opposition that might be more effective. In the presence of an oppo- sition merely factious all other discordant elements are disposed to recede from ex- treme positions and to make every effort to reconcile their various claims, and with such a spirit a legislative body may over- come graver difficulties than are presented in the construction of this Senatorial list. The radicals, by an absurdly ill-timed mo- tion, made a clean rupture between their faction and the Left. Seats on the Floor, Mr. Caulfield proposes that the members of the Cabinet shall have seats on the floor of Congress and take part in the debates. This is renewing the proposition offered by Mr. Pendleton, of Ohio, during the war. It is an endeavor to assimilate our form of gov- ernment to that of England. But there are many points to be considered before we can do this. In England the Cabinet is respon- sible directly to Parliament. Its members belong either to the House of Commons or the House of Lords. In America there is no such responsibility. The House of Repre- sentatives may pass as many resolutions of censure as it pleases upon the Cabinet. The President is not bound to notice them. Dur- ing the war a resolution of censure was passed upon a member of Mr. Lin- coln's Cabinet. Mr, Lincoln paid no attention to it, but took occasion after- | ward to send the Minister who had fallen under the displeasure of the House to’ an important foreign mission. Now, what use is thé? pf Cabinet officers sitting in the Honse of Représ@Mtatives, a deliberative body, if they can only speak when they are spoken to and have no voicé ig the legislation? It would be an advantage if sof “means could be devised to make our Cabinet in Washing- fon more responsible to Congress, The difficulty is the Executive power and the prerogatives we concede to the President. So long as the Cabinet is appointed by the President on the principle of @ general ap- pointing his staff there is no way of making its members responsible to the people, So it would be of little use to send members of the Cabinet into Congress, We are glad the question has been sug. gested, because it may be that the wisdom of our members in Washington will find some means of bringing the executive and the | representative departments of the government closer togethe: Vaumasepa’s Far fter a second at- tempt at bringing the Cuban rebellion to a close the present Captain General retires entirely unsuccessful. During his vresent incumbanav tha natriate hawe non. quered almost all the Central Department of the island, while holding the entire Eastern Department, except the seacoast towns, s0 that the reputation for cruelty and ferocity he brought with him did not avail the Span- ish cause much. He is to be succeeded by General Jovellar, who, like Valmaseda, has hada previous opportunity of proving his inability to reconquer and pacify the unfor- tunate island. Speaker Kerr's Committees. The new Speaker has had a more difficult task than any of his predecessors in appoint- ing the standing committees of the House, and is entitled to an indulgent judgment. The political revolution of 1874, which lifted the democratic party from a powerless minority in Congress to an overwhelming majority, has brought into that body a large proportion of unknown and inexperienced men. One of the most serious drawbacks to the efficiency of the democratic party results from its exclusion from power during the last fifteen years, which has deprived its capable men of opportunities for political training. The new House is composed, for the most part, of untried men, and Speaker Kerr is not to be blamed if he has made mistakes in assorting such a mass of unknown materials. It is only the chief positions on the most important committees that can come within the purview of criti- cism when the great body of the members from among whom the selections had to be made are alike unknown to the Speaker and the public. But if he has made mistakes in assigning the conspicuous positions no great confidence can be placed in his minor selec- tions. The appointment of Mr. Morrison as Chair- man of Ways and Means is, at least, a sur- prise. It may be a brilliant feat of wisdom, but the brilliancy and the wisdom are in- scrutable to common eyes. If Mr. Morrison were one of the new members who have never served in Congress before the public could more easily honor the check which Speaker Kerr has drawn on its confidence, It might then be assumed that Mr. Morrison is an able man who has failed to make a mark for lack of opportunities. |, But it so happens that the new Chairman of Ways and Means has already served four years in Congress and has been ranked with the commonplace members. He first came into the House in 1863 as a member of the Thirty-eighth Congress at the same time with Mr. Blaine, As both of these gentlemen were new members it is not discreditable to either that they were assigned to low places onan unimportant committee. Itso happened that they were put on the same committee, and near the tail end of it. Mr. Morrison, being from an adjoining State, was probably known to Speaker Colfax, while Mr. Blaine was not, for Morrison stood as the sixth and Blaine as the sev- enth upon the Committee on Militia. Mr. Blaine rose rapidly into high consideration in that Congress, participating largely in the debates and exercising a decided influ- ence. But Mr. Morrison was a cipher. During the first session he offered one or two unimportant resolutions, but took part in no debate. In the next session, while | Mr. Blaine continued to rise in the estima- tion of the House by frequent displays of | ability, Mr. Morrison never rose from his seat to address the Chair but once, and then on a point which was frivolous and ridicu- lous. On an occasion when many members were called to account and fined for absence Mr. Morrison rose to a question of privilege, saying that he had offered the amount of his fine to the Sergeant-at-Arms in bank | notes, and that he had refused to accept it because bank notes were not a legal tender. ‘This piece of small buffoonery is Mr. Mor- rison's only record during the whole session of 1864-5! He was then left out of Congress by his constituents until the session of 1873-4, when Speaker Blaine showed his ap- preciation of Mr. Morrison’s talents by as- signing him the tenth place upon the Com- mittee on War Claims. Mr. Blaine is re- puted to be a good judge of character and capacity, and as he had served on the same committee with Mr. Morrison in the Thirty- eighth Congress he had excellent opportuni- ties to gauge his abilities. Mr. Morrison's figure on the floor in the last Congress was on a par with his insignificant place on one of the minor com- mittees. It is, therefore, a matter of wonder that he has so unexpectedly risen to the | leadership of the House, or rather to a po- | sition to which that honor has been hereto- ; fore attached. Will the House accept as its i leader a man who has never yet been able to command its attention? If he has any quali- fications for the Chairmanship of Ways and Means the public does not know how he has acquired them, He has never Served on that committee nor any committee charged with the examination of similar subjects, This appointment is, as yet, an unsolved riddle, the public having no other evidence of his abilities than the encomiums of people who have discovered that he is a profound finan- cier within the last three days. We can appreciate the reasons why the Speaker thought it inexpedient to appoint | either Mr, Wood or Mr. Cox to this distin- guished position; but there are a dozen | democratic members who would have satis- fied public expectation better than Mr. Mor- rison, If, for example, this conspicuons | place had keen given to Mr. Lamar, it would | have been a fittitig réddzmition of the force | of his taleyts and the dignity of bis charaé- ter. He would have beeh leader whom | the most experienced menthets of the House | would have felt it no degradation to follow. The other prominent chairmanships seem judiciously bestowed, which increases the | mystery of Mr. Morrison's appointment. | Unless Mr. Morrison should make an unex- pected display of talents in the progsess of | the session it will be suspected that so | strange an appointment is the result of a Presidential intrigue. Renenstern’s Dream will leave as deep an impression as the dream of Engene Aram. It figures largely in the evidence before the | Coroner at the inquest yesterday over the | remains of Sara Alexander. The prisoner | is attempting to starve himself to death and | acts ina manner that does not at all agree with the innocence be professes, ‘The de- fence will be an attempt to prove an alibi ; 1 but the testimony of Gis cuilt is very strong. | | in fact, “put his foot down” on this subj | wasa bad ambassador, and demanded ad- | and is finally informed that her perpetual “Dark Lantern” Politics. It is safe to assume, as a maxim, thet in politics what seeks darkness dreads the light. ‘This is the reason why the people repudiated the Know Nothing organization when it took sudden shape and threatened to sweep the country. It was for the same reasons that intelligent governments, like those in France, Italy and England, have opposed secret po- litical organizations. This is one of the rea- sons why the Catholic Church, whose gov- ernment certainly shows the highest political and temporal wisdom, has fulminated anath- emas upon Ribbonmen and Fenians and Or- angemen and other secret societies in the Catholic country of Ireland. Now, when ina nation like ours, free and independent, with every opportunity for wide discussion, with the people keenly alive to political events and anxious to take part in the govern- ment of the country, we see a party de- clining to ask the people to its con- fidence we may be sure that the purposes of that party are baneful. This is our objec- tion to Tammany Hall on general principles. Our especial objection is that its history shows that from the time of Aaron Burr, who controlled it seventy years ago, down to the time of Tweed, it has gone from the government of one set of scoundrels to an- other, By its influence taxes have been raised property depreciated, the treasury plun- dered, our public highways ruined, our credit assailed and the good name of our city made a mockery in the world. All this is to be attributed to Tammany Hall, to the fact of the existence of a secret organization irre- sponsible, free from public opinion, governed by men who care nothing for what the world may say, who cannot be reached by popular suffrage or by removal or even by indictment. The people are pre- vented from taking part in their own affairs. The first practical step toward reform in New York is to strike Tammany Hall by cancelling the charter of the old Tammany Society, which has become vitiated, and to transfer the elections from autumn to the spring. Mr. MacDougall and the Third Term. Mr. MacDougall, of New York, was one of the eighteen who voted on the third term side on the resolution recently before Con- gress. He was the only New Yorker who voted in that way. He ‘explains his vote.” He informs the country that he voted that way asa protest against any Congressional meddling with the subject. ‘‘Congress,” he says, ‘hasas much to do with electing a Prosident as a Methodist Conference.” Well, that may be a great deal, if General Grant and Bishop Haven are not greatly mistaken. But Mr. MacDougall’s observation puts us in possession of a fact of some importance to his constituents, which is that their repre- sentative in Congress is not so well ac- quainted with the constitution of the United States as he is apparently with the art of shuffling. If Mr. MacDougall will give some leisure half hour to the perusal of the constitution he will learn that Congress is empowered to elect the President of the | United States in a contingency which may arise in any Presidential election. We never heard that a Methodist Conference had such a power. Therefore, we think it clear that Congress has more to do with this subject than such a conference. Congress, in fact, recognized this by a declaration of its views with regard to a constitutional duty it may | be called upon to discharge. But if the choice of a President was not just now before Congress there was another duty before it. At this time there is an uneasy sentiment abroad that the conspiracy to overthrow a great precedent in our constitutional law may succeed. presence of a great danger. At such a moment the friends of the government rally to its support and declare themselves in | tones not to be mistaken. In every crisis of national history this occurs ; and Congress deemed the time was come to let the country know where it stood. All the members but | eighteen yoted for the country against the | conspiracy; eighteen voted for the conspir- | acy and against the country, and one of them was Mr. MacDougall. It was not Presi- dent making that was on hand. It was a declaration of Congressional opinion in an important crisis. Mr. MacDougall expressed his opinion, no doubt, butit is characteristic | that he now endeavors to shuffle out of it | and pretend that his vote had another meaning. Alfonso and His Mamma. In the case of Spain the actual world bas | before it one of those serio-comic spectacles | in government that were very common in Europe in the last century, and in virtue of which » play like the “Grande Duchesse of ‘érolstein,” which to us is “merely @ musical extravaganza, would in many cities have been accepted or resented solely as a politi- cal satire. Fortunately for Spain, her young monarch perceives the scandal and the ridi- cule that would be brought upon his au- thority and his administration if he per- | mitted the extravagant antics and bad as- sociations that ruined his mother to be car- | | ried on in her interest about his throne ; and | he consequently will have none of it. He has, with an energy that is greatly admired in Madrid, and he keeps it down with a fipp. | ness that has astonished his mother and dis- gusted Marforio. Marforio was sent to | Spain by Isabella on a secret misgion—which | was to smooth the way for her return—for it | is better to bé & dowager in Madrid than an | exile in Paris with an allowance so small as to compel an occasional tesort to the police courts to determine the disputes of the kitehen administration. Marforio, however, missior to His Majesty with impertinent ad- ditions. He was, therefore, admitted to jail— and now we are informed he has been ar- raigned, Isabeila threatened to withdraw her abdication, and did many things extrav- agant and furious, but all to no purpose, banishment from Spain bas been formally | decreed, His possible complication with the entourage of his mother was not the least of the difficulties that threatened Alfonso on his accession, but be seems to have got over it very successfully; unless Isabella, like another ‘‘serpent of old Nile,” shall yet come Up in some more dangerous shapes There is a crisis in our | history, and our political machinery is in | The Chinese Question, The question of Chinese immigration is looming up in California. It seems that both parties in the Legislature have agreed upon & memorial to Congress to reform our treaties with China so as to make them trea- ties of commerce and to prevent the influx of Chinese immigrants, There is a great deal to be said on both sides of this question, but it is difficult to knew how we are going to prevent the immigration of the Chinese. On one side of the ocean we have an over- flowing country, teeming with hundreds of millions of people. On the other side we have a country sparsely populated, with hun- dreds of millions of acres waiting for laborers. Here is a country, as large almost as the Chinese Empire, with a population not over half a million or a million at tho furthest. Now, in the course of nature, the tendency will be for the crowded millions to seek space on the Pacific coast. Nor do we see how any legislation can prevent this, especially under our constitutional amend- ment which forbids Congress to make any distinction in race or color. We cannot keep the Chinese away by force. Many good people in California regard Chinese labor as underlying the prosperity of that State. ‘The difficulty is that we decide these ques- tions in our politics too often from passion or feeling. It is really a grave problem, one of the gravest in our politics. “Exhibitions” at the Centennial, We trust that the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia will not assume a circus aspect. Inamatter of so much importance to the nation we shall have a variety of coun- sel and a multitude of suggestions. A whim- sical correspondent suggests that we should dig up the bones of Washington and Lin- coln and have them exhibited atso much & head for the completion of the national monument on the banks of the Potomac. Another proposal is that the house in which Greeley was born shall be purchased, taken down and erected in the Centennial grounds. It is further suggested that the horse which General Sheridan rode on the occasion of his famous gallop to Winchester, now ‘out at grass” in the West, should be made to do duty as a cynosure of attraction, The ad- vantage about these suggestions is that they can be multiplied indefinitely. But if we once go into this ‘waxwork,” ‘old clothes” and “relic” business there will be no room for any honest ex- hibition. It is not the intention to have a museum in Philadelphia, but a real exhibi- tion. A few relics might be brought over from the Patent Office to give new interest to. certain departments of the display, but this should not be encouraged beyond a certain | point. ‘The exhibition should be repre- sentative of the industry and resources and genius of our people and of the nations who take part. Those who come to the Cen- tennial will come to see what the nineteenth century has achieved in the way of science and skil! and enterprise. This in itself is a yast field; so vast that even to partly cover it will tax the resources of its managers. ‘Therefore it will be true wisdom to dissuade ; any exhibitors from going outside of these defined limits. People will not go to Phila- delphia to see a suit of Washington's clothes or a horse which Sheridan rode. They will rejoice in an opportunity of seeing what England and France and Spain and America have done for the advancement of our gen- | eration. Reuics or Tweep. —Why it should take hours of argument and weeks of adjournment for fresh argument to settle the cases of T'weed’s bondsmen in the criminal suits it is diffi- cult to explain. The matter seems simple enough—Tweed tan away, and his bail is forfeit. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Bishop Haven is a millionnaire, Congressman Lamar is described as a man who shows traces of great suffering. ‘A Washington writer advises innocent girls mot to seek for government employment. It is said that a company has beer formed in Londoa to send Irish emigrants to Mexico. Fifteen million brooms are annually manufactured In the United States. And yet men will get married, | Mr. Tegg's volume of “Wills of Their Own’ promises to be amusing. America could send him some curious | Specimens. The President and his family returned to Washing. ton from Philadelphia yesterday afternoon in the lim- ited express train. | Mr, Justo Sierra, in an article published in the Federalista, proposes that a delegation of laborers ho | sent from Mexico to the Philadelphia Exposition, D. C. McEwen, formerly private secretary to Governer Seward, wag cleoted, on Saturday evening, President | of the Law Stenographers’ Association of New York. A correspondent says that Mr. Watterson’s passionate fondness for music has done much toward preserving his love of the beautiful atid the childlike simplicity of character, Now they say that the President has lost so much in stocks that he is poor, Was it not Wendell Phillips who said that the President bad made $1,000,000, and would not be satisfied until he had made $1,000,000 more? A resolution has been introduced in the Senate for an investigation into the manufacture, sale, use and effects of alcoholic drinks, The resolution has been referred to the Finance Committee, Who wouldn’t be on the Finance Committee? Levi Luckey, private secretary of President Grant, graduated at @ private academy of Dixon, Ill, He wrote Jonghand as fast as many men wrote shorthand, He was secretary to E, B, Washburne, The Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazetle says that Luckey had wild oats to sow. A number of over a hundred year old ladies af@ going tagitend tho Centennial next year; and it will be inter- * | esting to stand around and hear them say:—"'Laws, Jane, couldn't Tom Jefferson play that fiddle, though? ‘But he wasn’t a smiteh to that Aleck Hamilton a run- nin’ after grass widders.”” “By gravy, Marth, but do you remember Jim Madison in that—well, you know; and they do ey that Jack Adams—Marth, they was all ‘fathers of the constitution.’ ' The story gove that once in the game of poker Gen~: oral Logan held three jacks—jack of hearts, jack of diamonds and Jack of clubs. Atter running the beew up to the limit and calling down the hands Logao found that his opponent had four tens, when, witty true military fertility of resource, Logan furtively’ took out of his pocket one of his own photographs and played it upon bis unsuspecting opponent for the jack of spades, thereby holding four jacks and sweep. ing the board, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in bis new book published this week, ' snot firm nerves and has keen sensibility, it is, perhaps, a wise economy to £0 to a good shop and dress himeeif irreproachably. Ho can then dismiss all care from his mind and may easily find that performance an addition of confidence, a forti- fication that tarns Uhe scale in social encounters and allows him to go gayly into conversations where else ho had been dry and embarrassed. I am not ignorant—L have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared ‘that the sense of being perfectly well dressed gives a focling of inward tranouiluty which religion (8 powerless to buswoW.'