The New York Herald Newspaper, December 27, 1875, Page 4

4 NEW YO ORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and efter Jannary 1, 1875, the daily and weekly éditions of the New York Heraxp will be | sent free of postage. geek NEES 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 York Herawp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. —-—_— THE WEEKLY HERALD, every Saturday, at Five Cents per copy. Annual subscription pr! One Copy. Three Copies Five Copies. Mian GRIN sock snvunccnencevectaeiséoeet en 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 om the same terms as in New York. VOLUME X AMUSEME) TONY PASTO) Wos. 585 and 557 Broadw: . 861 IGHT, THEATRE, BTY, a5 P.M. THIRD AV E THEATRE, Third avenae, becween Thirtieth and Thirty‘first streets. — | MANSTRELSY and VARIETY, at 3 P.M, M. Chirty-fourth street and Broadway.—PRUSSIAN SIEGE OF fants Open trom 1 P. M.to4P. M. aud trom 7 0 P. M. ‘o10 P.M. * WALLACK’S THEATRE. Broadway and Thirteenth streat.—THE ROMANCE OF A POOR YOUNG MAN, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Mr. John Gilbert PARISIAN VARIETIES, Sixteenth street, near Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M. GERMANIA THEATRE. Fourteenth street.—COMTESSE HELENE, at 8 P. M. CHICKERING HALL, Fiat or ne and Eighteenth strees.—CONCERT, at 8 P. M. ‘on Bul BROOKLYN THEATRI Washington street, Brookiyn.— HENRY y Riguolde atSP.M. Mr. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Bngiver ana Fourteenth street.—ROSE MICHEL, at 8 OLYMPIC THEATRE, No.9 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P'M, Matinee at 2 FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty sighth street, uear Broadway.—PIQUE, at 8 P.M. Vaany Daveuport STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—THE MESSIAH, at 8 P.M. New York Oravorio Society. PARK THRATRE, Srosdway and Twenty-second street.—THE CRUCIBLE, at P.M. Oukey Hall, ACADEMY OF MUSIC 4 hee ieee Gormne Opera—WILLIAM TELL, at 8 ach EAGLE THEATRE. Broadway and Thirty-tnird street —VARIETY, at 8 P.M. BOWERY THEATRE, fowsry —VaLLEY FORGE, and 1776, at 8 P.M. Mr, ton. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, Sew Opera House, Broadway, corner of Tweuty-ninth street, Meo P OM, WOOD'S MUSEUM, roadear, commer of Thirtieth street THE TICKET OF- AVE MAN. at 8 P. M.: closes at 10:45 P. M. haufrau. Matinee at 2 PM. M GLOBE THEATRE. Nos. 728 and 730 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M. BOOTHS THEATRE, bees 4 third street and Sixth avenue.—JULIUS CESAR, SP. M. Mr. Lawrence Barrett. TIVOLI THEATRE, Eghth street, near Third avenue.—VARIETY, at § P.M. “OMIQUE aah THEATRE No. 514 Broadway. —V ARIE" WITH SUPPLEMEN’ sce YORE, MONDAY. DECEMBER “ae our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cooler, cloudy and clearing. Tax Heravp zy Fast Mau. Trarss.—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 aiong the lines of the Hudson River, New York Central and Pennsylvania Central Kailroads and their con- nections, will be supplied with Tue Henarn, free of postage. atraordinary inducements offered to newsdealers by sending their orders direct to this office. Lrrriz ALFonso must not be discouraged if one of his palaces is burned down. The royal houses of Spain have been ‘‘on fre” for @ great many years. M. Turers has been invited to stand for an election to the French Senate, but it is not stated whether the veteran statesman will consent. Possibly, like a true leader, he may prefer to take his chances in the popular branch of the Legislature. Matania.- No subject can n be more inter- esting to New Yorkers than this which con- cerns the air we breathe and the water we drink. A chapter of startling information from the pen of a physician will be found elsewhere. It should be heeded by all. Tae Ovrrace Briterin from the Rio Grande seems destined never to be left with- out amame upon it. A Texan storekeeper has been left for dead by the bandits who tobbed his store, The Harris case remains ansettled. Much as we look with aversion ‘o foreign complications on the eve of the sentennial year there is no doubt but some- thing effective should be contrived to protect purfrontier from the thieving Mexicans whom their own government confesses itself unable ‘o control. ‘Tue Story or tax Wrecr of the Deutsch- land is told in our special correspondence ts it fell from the lips of the survivors, It ig the old, sad song of the sea set to new words. The narrative of the perish- ing of the passengers during the long hours when they watched in vain for help from Harwich is simply heartrending. There is always in such cases a heroine. is in this shipwreck Miss Petzold, the dauehter of a New York doctor She | WEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DEUKMBEK 27, 1875.—W ITH SUPPLEMENT. | diame or ‘ays and Means, We have borrowed our parliamentary phrases from English usage, but it would be an error to suppose that they have always the same meaning in the practice of the two governments. Our Committee of Ways and Means—a designation which we have of late years modernized by substituting ‘‘on” for “of’—bears little resemblance in its duties and functions to a committee of the same name in the House of Commons. The Eng- lish Committee of Ways and Means is not, like ours, a special standing com- mittee charged with an original inves- tigation of matters of revenue, and required to form plans for meeting the expenses of the government, but a committee of the whole House for the consideration of the budget. In the Parlia- mentary reports the introduction of the budget is always prefaced, “Che Honse having | resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and | Means, the Chancellor of the Exchequer | rose and said.” The revenue legislation is prepared by this o‘ticer, and not by the com- | mittee, and he takes the same leading part in | the discussions which belongs to the Obair- | man of the Committee of Ways and Means in our House of Representatives, He needs a clear head and good de- bating powers to discharge his duty with credit, and, in point of fact, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is | always an expert debater as well asa ca- pable financier. He would make a disastrous | Bagusagis both for himself and his party if | he did not combine these two kinds of talent. In our government the Committee of Ways and Means did not at first play that im- | portant part in the machinery of legislation which belongs to it at present, Indeed, it = | did not exist at all asa regular standing com- mittee until about the middle of the admin- istration of John Adams. In the First Con- | gress the only standing committee was | | one on Privileges | our present system of apportioning out the and Elections, and business of legislation to numerous standing committees grew up very gradually. At the beginning of Jefferson's administration not more than five or.six regular standing com- mittees were appointed at the opening of a new Congress, instead of the forty-four which we have at present. A Committee of Ways and Means was occasionally appointed during Washington's administration, but only for some temporary purpose. The du- | ties which are now performed by that most | important of the committees were discharged | by other methods. | gress, | of revenue, before the. executive depart- | ments were organized and a Secretary of the In the First Con- which had to devise a system Treasury appointed, Mr. Madison took the lead to which his talents entitled him, and united in himself nearly all the functions which at present devolve both on the Com- mittee of Ways and Means and its Chairman. He prepared the first revenue bills and was their foremost expounder and advocate, dis- playing financial and debating capacity which has been rarely equalled and never surpassed even by the ablest finance minis- ters in the English House of Commons. The great figure he made would have | been impossible without his remarkable talents as a debater which, in the language of Jefferson, ‘made him the first of every assembly of which he became a member.” The description of Madison's eloquence is, perhaps, worth pursuing. ‘‘Never wander- ing from his subject,” said Jefferson, ‘into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in | _ language pure, classical and copious, sooth- ing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the eminent station which he held in the great National Convention of 1787; and in that of Virginia, which followed, he sus- tained the new constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic of George Mason and the fervid declamation of Patrick Henry.” We are sorry that one of our contemporaries is forced by its advocacy of a weak cause to describe such consummate powers as ‘‘gab” and to pour contempt on faculties which its protégé does not possess. Even so solid an understanding as that of Chief Justice Mar- shall held Madison's “gab” in the highest | estimation. Having been asked in one of the last years of his life which of the many | public speakers he had heard he considered | the most eloquent the Chief Justice replied :— “Eloquence has been defined to be the | art of persuasion. snasion by convincing Mr. Madison was the most eloquent man I ever heard.” This was the opinion of a man of the most robust structure of faculties who had listened to Henry, Ames, Pinckney, Clay, Webster and every great orator of America, whether forensic or parliamentary. Until the erudite World condescended to correct the error it was the prevailing opinion that Mr. Madi- gab” on financial questions was the most valuable part of the proceedings of the First Congress. Our modest and courteous contemporary is distressed at our mentioning “the able succession of men who have acted as chair- men of the Committee of Ways and Means in our House of Representatives” as worthy of comparison with the Peels and Glad- stones of English finance, and, with patriotic alacrity to relieve them ‘from so dishonoring an imputation in the Henaxp, it says, ‘‘we must enlighten its ignorance of our political history.” This is very consid- erate, both to us and to the American states- men whose memory we aspersed by intimat- ing that they had anything resembling the “gab” of the great English Chancellors of the Exchequer. We are, of course, very igno- rant in supposing that Mr. Morrison's prede- cessors possessed any talents of which this paragon is destitute, and especially that of eloquence. We will insert some of their names merely to show the great injustice com- mon fame has done them in imputing to them remarkable ability as speakers, Beginning with Robert Goodloe Harper, who was the first Chairman of Ways and Means ap- pointed at the opening of a Congress, the list for the ensning forty years includes these names :—John Randolph, George W. Cam- pell, John W. Eppes, Langdon Chevea, William Lowndes, George McDuffie, Louis | McLane, Gulian 0. Verplank, Churchill 0. Cambrelling and Millard Fillmore. This list | comprises a large proportion of the moat dis- | tinguished names in our yarliamentary bia son's ‘ If it includes per- | tory. Besides their other talents they | were all good speakers, and many | of them gifted orators. Harper was one of the best speakers of his time both at the Barand in Congress; the eccentric and brilliant Randolph combined, as Mr. Cal- houn once said, the wisdom of Bacon with the wit of Sheridan; Eppes, Cheves and | Lowndes never rose but to command atten- tion. We will insert what Benton said of one of them (Mr. Lowndes) :—‘‘He was one of the galaxy, as it was called, of the brilliant young men which South Carolina sent to the House of Representatives at the beginning of the war of 1812—Calhoun, Cheves, Lowndes—and was soon the brightest star in that constellation. He was one of those members, rare in all assemblies, who, when he spoke, had a cluster around him, not of friends, but the Honse; members quitting their distant seats and gathering close about him, and showing by their attention that each would have felt it a personal loss to have missed a word that he said.” We appreciate at its full value the debt we owe to our erudite and urbane instructor for informing us that Mr. Morrison’s predeces- sors did not surpass him in ability and were scarcely his superiors even in eloquence or, to borrow the World's tasteful word, “gab.” This is a piece of information in ‘American history” which we were not likely to dis- | cover without assistance. Shade of John Randolph! shade of William Lowndes! what injustice your ignorant country- men have done you in supposing that you were more gifted than men of the calibre of William R. Morrison! The word ‘‘gab” indicates empty loquacity ; but it does not follow, as the World seems to think, that the fact that a man cannot speak well proves that he is not empty. Where did Mr. Morri- son pursue his studies in finance? He has served four years in Congress without show- ing the slightest knowledge of or interest in that class of subjects, and the World virtually concedes his ignorance by its daily attempts to coach and cram him. the Secretary ot the Treasury. By our Washington correspondence in another column it will be seen that the first person to connect the President's private sec- retary with the operations of the whiskey thieves was the Secretary of the Treasury. This is an odd incident in the history of the case, Ata period in the investigation when the detectives and lawyers had no suspicion Babcock and House they came upon the ‘“Sylph” tele- ton office of the telegraph company the original copy of this despatch, and were then none the wiser as to who sent it. It was shown to the Secretary of the Treasury as a piece of paper that promised to be of great importance, when he immediately recog- nized that it was in the handwriting of Bab- cock. It was taken to the White House and shown to the President, who called in Babcock to explain it. This he did “to the satisfaction of the President,” but not to the satisfaction of Mr. Bristow or Mr. Wilson, the Solicitor of the Treasury. Since then much other evidence against the private secretary has accumulated in the hands of these gentle- men, and has fortified them in their refusal to accept the view charitably taken by the President of the innocence of his favorite, From that first appearance of Bristow as his accuser it is in the nature of things that Bab- cock should see the Secretary of the Treasury behind every charge or imputation ; and it is perhaps not unnatural if the Prosi- dent sees, as it is said he does, in Mr. Bristow’s activity not so much the im- partial discharge of a great duty as the machinations of a rival endeavoring to under- mine the great fabric of the third term. This view of the relations of Mr. Bristow to Bab- cock’s culpability, and tothe President's readiness to believe in his secretary's inno- cence, throws some light on the intelligence from Chicago which we published yesterday to the effect that ‘“‘Sylph’s” defence will be somehow twisted into an accusation against that the enemy had a friend in the White | gram. They secured in the Washing- | the Secretary of Treasury for relations with | whiskey makers before he entered the Cab- | | inet. This line of defence will scarcely es- | tablish the innocence of Babcock. | Tuer Istumus or Panama is tranquil. The leave very little raw material for a revolution. Bnazi. opened its Exhibition at Rio on the army of the State is to be reduced to one | | hundred and twenty men, which should | | 2d inst., which was the Emperor's semi-cen- | tennial. This advancing State will be well its section will be a study for all who desire The Proposed edustion of the Army. If the democrats in Congress carry out their purpose to reduce the army from 25,000 to 15,000, they will perpetrate a political blunder for which the saving in expense will not be a compensation. There is no first class Power in the world which maintains so small anarmy as ours. France, with a popu- lation of 36,000,000, has a standing army of 303,000 men ; Great Britain, with a popula- tion of 32,000,000, has an army of 225,000 ; Germany, with a population of 41,000,000, has a peace establishment of 274,000. Even our weak neighbor, Mexico, with a population of only 9,000,000, maintains an army nearly as large as ours is at present, the Mexican army consisting of 22,387 men. Our military burden in time of peace is alto- gether smaller than that of any other nation in proportion to our territory, population and resources. If there be any reason why we should maintain an army at all it ought to be at least as large as it is at present. In 1855, twenty years ago, under a dem- ocratic administration, with Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War, the army consisted of 12,729 men, say in round numbers 13,000. Our population at the preceding cen- sus was 23,000,000. Our population in 1870 was about “40,000,000; and if our army bore the same proportion to the population at present that it did in 1855 it would amount to about twenty-three thousand, or only two thousand short of the actual number. But we have a greater pro- portionate use for troops than we had twenty years ago. At that time our settlements had not penetrated through the whole region be- tween the Mississipp! Valley and the Pacific coast. Our new settlements and mining establishments throughout the vast region on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains re- quire military protection against the incur- sions of the Indians and create a necessity for a corresponding army. Twenty years ago the Mexican border was not in a state of chronic disturbance as it is at present, nor was there the same necessity for taking precautions against a conflict of races in the Southern States. Moreover, we had not then purchased Alaska, which requires constant military superintendence, We quite agree with General Sherman, in his recent speech at the New England din- ner, that it would be unwise to reduce the army below its present number. Even when the troops are not called into active service, the Indians are kept in awe, and the South is perhaps kept tranquil by the knowledge that there is a force that could be promptly used inan emergency. In matters of this kind the proverb holds good that an ounce of pre- vention is worth a pound of cure, as was signally demonstrated by our military help- lessness at the outbreak of the civil war. Had we possessed 25,000 troops at that time® the rebellion might have been nipped in the bud, and the country have been saved stupendous sacrifices of blood and treasure. It would be a political mistake to cut down the army to the extent proposed, because the army is popular and is administered with more honesty than any other branch of the public service. A reduction of the rank and file would naturally be accompanied with a corresponding reduction of the officers; and if the democratic hostility to General Sheri- | dan and those who share his political views should cause their dismissal, there would be @ popular commotion, which would revive and enlist on the republican side the senti- ments which made that party so strong and irresistible during and subsequent to the war. If the democrats in Congress are pru- dent they will curtail expenses in those | branches of the public service which are cor- | rupt before meddling with the army and its | tional countenance it was expressly stipu- popular officers. General Sherman and His Critics. General Sherman's ‘‘Memoirs,” besides be- ing an extremely interesting book, has done a most important service for the future his- torian of the late great war. It has drawn out a large number of writers, participants in the events he speaks of, who have, in | criticisms more or less effective, corrected his errors, or presented events from a differ- ent point of view. The remarkable freedom with which he has dealt in his book, not only with events but with the principal actors in them, was sure to expose what he wrote to searching examination at the hands of those he attacked or their friends. General Sherman would probably have been a more comfortable man had he left the book, as we believe he originally intended, to be pub- lished after his death; but he certainly would have deprived us of a very entertain- | ing book, and would have prevented the cor- represented at Philadelphia next year, and | | to know more of this Land of the Amazon | and its products. “Caste” IN THE Grave. —The case of the right of the corpse of the colored man, Henry Jones, to be buried in the Mount Moriah | | Cemetery, comes to us with sad suggestive- | ness from the City of Brotherly Love. A | colored brother may vote in the same box as a white man, but, say the cemetery company, he cannot return to clay in the grim republic of the grave by the side of his pale-faced fel- low citizens. It recalls the well known lines which, by the substitution of one word, will exactly apply :— I dreamt that, buried with my fellow ciay, Close to a common “nigger's’ side I lay; ‘And as #0 mean an object shocked my pride, Thus, like a corpse of consequence, | eried:— “#coundrel, begone! Henceforth touch me not; More manners learn, and at « distance rot," When, with a hanghtier scowl, cried he:— “Proud lump of earth, I scorn thy threats and thee, Here all are equal : now thy case is mine; This is my rotting place and that is thine"? Transrivvian New Yors.—The selection of a proper plan for laying out the lately an- nexed districts beyond the Harlem River is something that ought not to be long delayed by the Commissioners of Parks, The pres- ent lullin the building trade will not last al- ways. With all the experience of the past to guide us, the best and most suitable sys- tem of laying out and draining should be adopted, so that, when capital is loosened once more, the work of erecting dwellings for our increasing population can proceed inamanner that will not require undoing halfacentury later. An unfortunate dead- lock in the Park Commission appears to pre- vent action being taken, but it is to be hoped that, in view of the public desire for | Some result, these gentlemen will hasten their work in the premises to a conclusion, | pokerpagpmnipntege t rection of many errors, There can be no doubt, we think, that he trusted too much to his memory in writing of important events. But this does not now matter to the American reader, who has abundant op- portunity, in the publications of others drawn out by Sherman, to correct the latter's testimony. The columns of the Hwratp have con- tained a number of letters from officers who | thonght themselves or their friends or cer- | tain military operations misjudged by Gen- eral Sherman. A recent number of the Galaxy contained a valuable article by Gen- eral W. F, (Baldy) Smith, designed to correct some misapprehensions about the famous battle of Chattanooga, and last of all comes General H. V. Boynton, in a volume which we cannot help confessing is damaging to Sherman. General Boynton has taken the | trouble to compare some of the most notable passages in General Sherman's book with the actual despatches and orders now on file in the War Department. He places the two side by side in successive chapters, and the result is more amusing to the enemies of the General of the Army than it can be to his friends, for it convicts Sherman of careloss- ness in statement, of misapprehension of events, and of disparaging without cause some of his fellow officers. General Boynton’s book is one of the most important contributions that has been made to the history of the war. It is neces- sarily controversial; but he has in almost every case contented himself to let the official records speak for themselves, and has thus cast a new and interesting light upon some of the most important events of the war. Thus his documentary evidence es- tablishes that General Grant deserves the | credit of having suggested the brilliant cam- An examination of the various plans will be | paign against Forts Henry and Donelson, | pay this small tax rather than have the Cen- u a thera ys aameorigg Ak Shiloh | toamial aid, that Sherman was as much surprised as any one, and that Buell did important service there. This last point is made very plain also in the first volume of Chaplain Van Horne's important ‘History of General Thomas’ Army,” just published. General Boynton's documentary evidence does jus- tice to Rosecrans at Iuka and Chickamauga, and to General W. Sooy Smith, whom Sher- man blames for failing him at Meridian. It puts a different aspect upon the battle at Resaca, where Sherman seems to have un- justly blamed McPherson; it rescues the “political generals” from the slurs of Sher- an; it gives to General Grant the un- doubted credit of having conceived the march to the sea; it shows, somewhat awk- wardly for Sherman, that he left Thomas with an inferior force and scarcely any material of war to check and defeat Hood, and we are sorry to say it looks a little as though Sherman had left upon Grant the im- pression that Thomas had a much larger and more effeetively equipped force than he actually left him. In the matter of the captured cotton we are bound to say that General Boynton’s documents show Sherman to have made in his book a most unfounded assertion regard- ing Secretary Stanton. But perhaps the most remarkable, as well as one of the most damaging chapters of the book, is that in which Sherman's terms to Johnston are com- pared with the Confederate Postmaster General Reagan's draft of proposed terms, and the two are shown to be almost precisely alike, which was not altogether unnatural, considering the further fact that Sherman wrote his with Reagan's manuscript lying before him. Against documentary evidence nothing ean be said. A log book, if it has been fairly kept, is unimpeachable evidence ; and it is from the log book of the war that General Boynton has drawn his material. There are, doubtless, people wicked enough to rejoice at what will appear to them a very decided discomfiture for Sherman. We are not of them ; his book is so entertaining that wo must always be grateful for it in this age of | too many dull books, But every man to whom truth is dear will welcome such cor- rections as General Boynton has supplied, and thank him for the industry and faithful- ness with which he has done his work. Nor can we help feeling pleased to see the proper credit given to General Grant for the earliest campaign in which he distin- | guished himself; and to General Thomas, | beloved of all men, and, in some re. spects, the grandest figure in the war, for the difficulties which he and his noble army patiently and silently met and overcame. We do not think General Sher- man treated his companions in arms very generously ; this was the one grave fault in his book. We understand that the Generai means to wait until his opponents have all | spoken and then claim a last word for him- self. He will be entitled to it, and he will have his hands full. Meantime, and await- ing a revised and corrected edition, we repeat that Sherman’s book deserves all our grati- tude, not only because it is one of the most | entertaining and characteristic of modern memoirs, but because by its timely publica- tion has been drawn out a mass of important testimony from eye-witnesses concerning the matters of which he treats. An Appropriation for the Centennial. There will be an urgent application for Congressional assistance to the Centennial Exposition, and we incline to think that, on the whole, it ought to be granted. We are well , aware that in the original act giving it na- lated that it should occasion no expense to the national treasury. This was wise at the | time, for the country was then in a state of great apparent prosperity, and had that buoy- ancy continued there can be no doubt that the voluntary contributions of citi- | zens, the State pride and city pride of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, and appro- priations by the Legislatures of other States, | would have carried the enterprise through without pecuniary aid from Congress. But the great panic which set in in 1873, and the stagnation and discouragement which have since prevailed, have altered the situation and dried up resources that might otherwise have proved abundant. The government has meanwhile committed itself to the Exposi- tion by official invitations to foreign nations and by changes in the revenue laws to facil- itate the introduction of foreign articles for exhibition. It 1s a very awkward thing to invite guests to a shabby entertainment, and as it is too late to recall the invitations it is difficult to see any creditable way out of the mortification except by government assistance. We should be ashamed of our government if, on any adequate occasion, it failed to protect the national honor and dig- nity, The constitutional power of Congress to make such an appropriation may be de- fended on several grounds. In the first place, all matters connected with our foreign rela. tions and intercourse belong to the federal government, If the Centennial Exposition had been merely a domestic and not an in- | ternational affair, the credit and dig- nity of the national government wonld not have been involved. But the government has indorsed it as an international exposition, and it may as legitimately appropriate money to make it creditable as to furnish our naval commanders with the means of giving enter- tainments on board their yessels in foreign ports. In the next place the constitution ex- pressly authorizes Congress to promote sci- ence and the useful arts, and such an Expo- sition will contribute more to that end than any patent right ever granted to an inventor, patents being permission to tax the people by a monopoly of useful inventions. In the third place an appropriation to the Cen- tennial would not be dangerous as a precedent, since the occasion can recur only once in a hundred years, We are aware that there are two sides to this qnes- tion, but it seems to us that the people would prefer a slight tax for so landable an object to the national mortification which would attend a failure now that the thing has gone so far. With our population of forty millions, the appropriation of a million and a half, which is asked for, would be only thirty-seven and a half cents a head, and we are sure our people would prefer to NS Nowspaper Falso Pretences, It has long been a matter of notoriety that certain newspapers priding thomselves on their moral and religious tone have beom selling their opinions for the purpose of leading the people into unsafe speculations. On Friday the charges against one of these journals were proved in Philadelphia, Mr. Edwin M. Lewis, the assignee of Jay Cooke & Co., testifying before a commissioner for this State that Mr. Henry C. Bowen entered intoa contract with that house to publish editorial articles in his newspaper advising people to exchange United ‘States bonds for those of the Northern Pacific Railroad. We are glad that this exposure has come in official form, for nothing can be more dangerous than a corrupt and subsidized press. When a newspaper sells its opinions for money it becomes a public enemy. There will be no safety, even in matters of business, if 4 popular journal is permitted to misrepresent the condition of a cor- poration like the one in question with impunity. From the beginning the Northern Pacific Railroad was a chimera; it was based upon nothing and began and ended nowhere. All this was known when Bowenagreed to hold up its claims to publie confidence as well as now that the whole scheme has exploded. But for such assist- ance as it received from papers like the In- dependent it would not have had any existence at all. Thousands of persons lost the say- ings they could ill afford to lose in an enter- prise which had no foundation simply be- cause a journal they trusted counselled them to the course of folly they pursued. No species of false pretences can be so bad as that of a newspaper which agrees to puff doubtfal enterprises, and there ought to be a remedy ‘at law as in other cases of obtaining money by misrepresentation. The National Banks and the Usury Laws. Tho question decided a few weeks ago by the United States Supreme Court in the case of the Farmers and Mechanics’ National Bank, plaintiff in error, against Peter O. | Dearing, related, not to the amount or per- centage of interest which may be charged by | a national bank—which is strictly limited by | act of Congress—but to the penalty which may be enforced against the bank for charg- ing usurious rates. In the case before the | Court the bank had charged ten percent, and | the maker of the note which it discounted at his rate endeavored to enforce against the bank the Usury law of this State, which de- lares not only the interest but the principal | of a debt forfeited for usury. The State courts gave judgment in his favor, and con- demned the bank to lose principal and inter- est. The Supreme Court of the United States, in its decision which has. been made public, reverses this judgment, on the ground that the act of Congress regulating | the course of national banks not only pre- seribeg that they shall not charge or accept a higher rate of interest than is allowed in the States in which they are situated, fixing seven per cent as the maxi- mum rate where no State law de- fines a maximum, but, in addition, pre- seribes the penalty which the bank shall suffer for exceeding such a rate; and the Court declares that, Congress having thus fixed the penalty, it is not in the power of a | State Court to vary from it or to condemn a ‘national bank to a different penalty pre- scribed in a State law. According to the act of Congress a national bank charging a higher rate than that pre- scribed loses the whole interest, but not the principal. If a greater rate has been actually paid twice the amount so paid may be recov- ered. Thus the Supreme Court does not inter- fere with the power of a State to fix the rate of interest, nor does it relieve the national banks from conformity to State laws in re- gard to interest charges, but only from the penalties prescribed in such State laws for the offence of usury. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. General Custer will commence a new series of papers on army life in the Galary for 1876. A new translation of the ‘Zendavesta”’ into French, by M. Harlez, is appearing from the press of Didot. Good Words for 1876 bas secured from Professor Jobn Stuart Blackie lis work on the “Natural History of Atheism,’? The story of Prince Charles Edward Stuart hag deen most picturesquely told by Alexander ©, Ewald tm his new book. Harper & Brothers will commence George Eliot's new novel, entitled “Daniel Deronda,” in the February number of their Monthiy Magazine, That booksellers’ Bible, “The American Trade List Annual,” for 1875, has just been issued, in improved shape, by F, Leypoldt, of New York, The Leisure Hour series is to be extended by two new novels—Mrs. Alexander’s “Her Dearest Foe” and “The Hand of Evhelberta,’’ by Thomas Hardy. A correspondent of the Pall Mail Gazette notes the difference found by English travellers between Bostow and New York as summed up in the saying that “Bos- ton is English, but New York is Frenchy.” “The Baron Thielmann’s Journey in the Caucaaus, Persia and Turkey in Asia,’’ just out in London, in two volames, is full of brightness, variety and excellence, and deais with a country rapidly acquiring interest among all nations, The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr. MacSwincy, has gone to Rome, to be invested by the Pope with the insignia of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, conferred upon him for his exertions in connec- tion with the O’Conneli Centenary. The war of the political economists goes on vigor- ousiy in France, M. de Laveloye replies in the Jowr- nal des Eoonomisies to M. Bandrillast, who had severely reviewed Laveleye’s article in the Revue des Deus Mondez on the new schools of political economy, A frighttully real book im natural history is Mr, Henry Lee’s ‘The Octopus; or, The Devil Fish of Fie- tion and of Fact,” This soft and flabby fish is frat cousin w the paper nautilus and second cousin to the cuttie fish and the squib, Mr. Lee defends the octo- pus against Victor Hago's cruel and damaging imputa- tions, French novels are all running upon women atill, Those of last month are “Mesdames les Pas by Hervilly; “Les Dianes et les Vénus,” by Houssaye; “Les Femmes,’ by Choysale; “Mémoires de mea Mait~ resses,”’ by Lespéyes; ‘Madeleine Miller," by Navéry; “(La Revanche du Mari,” by Vantier, and “Un Mariage dans le Monde,” by Octave Feuillet, The Rey. John Glendenning, formerly of Jersey City, has caused the oreaking up of the Henry (Ill.) church. He asserts his innocence; but the manner in which be traduces the character of men Who are opposed to him, and the fact that he charges the dead Mary Pomeroy with wholesale wickedness, proves that John Gienden- ning ia not, to say the least, a Christian gentleman, Colonel Lopez Fabra, Spanish Commissioner to tha Centennial Exhibition, accompanied by the following subordinate members of the commission, arrived frotn | Europe in the steamship China;—Alvaro de la Gandara, | Director of the Industrial Department; Count del Do. | nadio, Director of Fine Arta; Joaquin Oliver, Gonoral laren and Alfredo Kscobar, Official Secretary ta tue commission, Thax asa at Hho Grad Camipad Waka,