The New York Herald Newspaper, January 24, 1876, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per | month, free of pos! ‘i i All business, news letters or telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New YoRK | Herarp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPH FFICE—NO. 114SOUTH SIXTH STREE 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. AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. OLYMP! . VARIETY, at 8 P. 5g bsahigaam FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE. PIQUE, at 8 P.M. Fanny Davenport. TONY PASTO. EW THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 ¥. M. EAGLE THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M BOWERY THEATRE, UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, at 8 P.M. Mrs. G. C. Howard, PARISIAN VARIETIES. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. SAN FRANCISCO MIN t8 P.M. w RUM. DONALD McKAY, at 5 Oliver Dond Byron. Mat- inee at 2 P.M. ite ee GLOBE THEATRE. VARIETY, at8P.M. BOOTHS THRATRE, JULIUS CHSAR, at 5 P. Mr. Lawrence Barrett. THEATRE COMIQUE. VARIETY, at 8 P. M. THIRD AVENUE THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M, WALLACK’S THEATRE. MARRIED IN HASTE, at 8 P Mr, Lester Wallack. TIVOLI THEATRE, VARIETY, at 8 ATHLETIC ENTE! Cr PANORAMA, 1 to 4 P. ROOK POOR EATR BH E. ROMANCE OF A NG MAN, at 8 P.M. Mr, Montague. THIRTY-PFOURTH STREET OPERA HOUSE. VARIETY, at 8 P. M. UNION SQUARE THEATRE. ROSE MICHEL, at 8 P. M. a = ireeeorerecerisieererer KEW YORK, MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1876. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be partly cloudy, with rain or sno Tur Henarp py Fast Maw Trars.—News- dealers and the public will be supplied with the Damy, Weeety and Sunpay Henatn, free of Dosti, by sending their orders direct to this office, Jamarca is on*the road to progress after a long lethargic interval. They have the epi- tooty at Kingston alres Crnrenniat Prays.—Further descriptions of the dramas to which prizes were awarded {a the Parisian competition are given in our table despatches. A piece which did not gain a prize is also highly praised. M. Gamuerra’s Action before the Sena- torial delegates of Paris yesterday shows that he is bent upon carrying his policy of mod- gration into every place where his influence tan reach. The rejection of his views by the radicals shows that he has not their en- tire confidence, which is a good thing for Gambetta. Tue Iptness or -ANTONELLI, which our special despatch from Rome announces, will, ifit results fatally, prove of some conse- quence to the Roman Church; for, if the | Pope carries the key of Peter, the aged Car- inal has helped him so long to do it, that the support will be sadly missed. Turkey will not give up the fight in ferzegovina for many a day if she is not in- terfered with by the five great European Powers. How the Sultan will find money for war, and at the same time continue the ‘avish expenditure which makes Lombard street growl, is not apparent. He is acting like a man tempting fate, and he may not have to wait long for a settlement. Cremation was practised yesterday in Milan upon the remains of the Chevalier Rossi. The arrangements for this purpose there are very complete. The corpse is placed in a chamber in which one hundred | gas jets combine to raise a temperature of | one thousand degrees, and incineration is | neatly and thoroughly done in an hour, a mere “pinch of delicate dust” remaining. There is nothing spectacular about it. Tue Norrovg (Va.) Navy Yarp does not appear to be hastening its preparations as actively as if war had been declared, but | our correspondent at that point notes that the six monitors there have been placed in commission, and may be ready in a month. They are not getting up steam to fight the Spaniards or anybody else just now, but are they not quietly drifting into line of battle? Joun Barcur's Srezcn at Birmingham on Saturday has something of the old tone about it. The great commoner said some very telling things. He did not say anything very new in his speech, but an attack onthe laws of primogeniture and of entail, to- gether with a denunciation of the unequal distribution of popular power in Parliament, are indications that the boasted conservative reaction has awakened the foes of caste and | privilege to fresh assaults. The liberals have | long wanted battle cries, and here they have | a choice of them. Tae Dreecr Caste is once more broken. ‘The regularity with which this intelligence is flashed to us has made it almost as celebrated asthe old news that ‘Quiet reigns in War- saw.” Whether that terrible little crus- tacean, the Limnoria terebraus, which, al- though only a quarter of an inch in length, can render three thousand miles | of electric cable of mo more account than so much old junk, has been at work or not, we are not informed. | If the defect is in the quality of the cable | itself there is every probability of the above | announcement being repeated at intervals as long as the Faraday will hold together for re- pairing purposes. Without passing any opinion upon this point we would suggest that some scien not connected with tho company be deputéd by the shareholders to examine the break. NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1876, Are We Drifting Into War? For several months past the President has threatened Spain with some vague, mys- terious, incomprehensible something, the nature of which nobody can understand. On the 5th of November he caused Mr. Fish to communicate formally to the Spanish government his determination words :-— ‘Tho President hopes that Spain may spontaneously | adopt measures looking to a reconciliation and to the speedy restoration of peace and the organization of a | stable and satisfactory system of government in the island of Cuba. In the termination of the war, or of any change in the mai ner in which it has been conducted on either side, h feels that the time is at hand when it may become the duty of other governments to intervene solely with the view of bringing to an end a disastrous and do- structive conflict and of Teehoring peace in the island of Cuba. * * * He will, therefore, feel it his duty at an early day to submit the subject in this light, and accompanied by an oxpression of the views above pre- sented, for the consideration of Congress. In his annual Message he repeated, in the same mysterious language, his determina- tion to make a proposition of some sort— evidently unpleasant to Spain—to Congress. Belligerent rights, he explained in the clear- | est language, it was neither wise nor proper to grant the Cuban insurgents; recognition was still more out of the question. But peace in Cuba be believed necessary, and he added these significant words :— I shall fool it my duty, should my hopes of a satis- factory adjustment and’ of the early restoration of peace and the removal of future causes of complaint be unhappily disappointed, to make a further communica tion to Congress at some period not far remote and dur- ing the present eession recommending what may then seem to me to be necessary. Now what does all this mean? Why so much mystery? Why keep our merchants, our importers, our manufacturers and ex- porters, all the producing and trading classes, so long in terforof some vague some- thing which he says he will presently, by and by, directly, after a while, when it suits his convenience, propose? In the Message he speaks plainly of ‘mediation and inter- vention” as ‘the only remaining measures possible.” But mediation may be peaceful— indeed, must be so; intervention is neces- sarily an act of war. Which does the Presi- dent intend to recommend to Congress, and when? Astudy of the situation in Gaba, of the strength of Spain in the island and at home, and her consequent power to restore peace ; in Cuba, and a comparison of these with the menacing language of the Message, does not help to solve, but rather to deepen the mys- | tery. The precise situation may be stated in a few words. General Grant says that unless Spain restores peace in Cuba within a few months he will have to make arecommendation to Congress. But Spain cannot restore peace in Cuba ina few months. She is probably unable ever to restore the island to tranquillity, except by abandoning it, This the President knows as well as any- body else, But why, then, knowing this, ages he in his Message pretend to wait for what he knows will not happen? And why, when the House of Representatives asks him for the correspondence with Spain, does he send only apart of it? The House demanded of him to know the precise condition of our relations with Spain; the President has really told it nothing. There is one explanation, and only one, so far as we can see, of all this fuss and myste- rious threatening. The European Powers do not want to interfere in Cuba. We have no reason to—none sufficient to justify us before the world or to ourselves in so grave an act as intervention. The House of Representa- tives and the country will not permit the President to declare war against Spain, for the country desires peace and has no griev- | ance in Cuba which cannot be peacefully | adjusted. But it is not impossible that long continued nagging, a course of threatening, public but also private, and under the ! seal of diplomatic secrecy, may drive Spain—a weak but not the less a proud and sensitive nation—into some imprudent act of aggression, which would excite our own people to anger and thus allow the President to plunge us into war and make him the head of what in such a case would have the appearance of a popular movement. If this were the secret object of General Grant then his whole language toward Spain would be plain. If he means to bully the Spanish government until, goaded to fury, it rashly strikes out at us, | then not only his mysterious threats, but also the no less mysterious delay in their fulfilment, are at once explained. In that case, too, it would be easy to understand why he has withheld from the House the most recent, and, of course, the most important, parts of the Spanish correspondence. And there is no other explanation possible which would reconcile all the details of the President's Cuban policy. If he has any | recommendation to make to Congress there is no reason why he should delay it ; cireum- stances cannot change vitally in Cuba within a few months. If, however, he is waiting for Spain to take the offensive—if he is pushing and threatening, in the hope and expectation that she will presently, like a | goaded whale, lash out at us—then we can understand why General Grant is quietly concentrating an iron-clad fleet at Port Royal ; why ships have been ordered home from distant stations ; why the whole fleet has been put in order for war; why suddenly Port Royal has been found to be the best port for a fleet's winter quarters; why, finally, he utters threat after threat and delays action, meantime, he hus been careful to prepare the way for war by such notice to the European Powers of what he is threatening against Spain as will effectively disable them from remonstrance if a war does follow. Is the country ready to be drifted or cheated intoa war? The House of Repre- sentatives fairly expresses the sentiment of the country, and its leaders and the major- ity of both parties are strongly opposed to a war. The press fairly represents the senti- ment of the country, and, with the exception of less than a dozen journals, the whole press is opposed to war. And yet the President is probably drifting us toward war. Congress has, under the constitution, the sole power to declare war ; but Congress, unless it acts with extraordinary promptness | and positiveness, will have no more power in this case than it had in the Mexican war. in these | and why, | She was expected to show a quicker temper, it would seem; she has caused disappoint- | ment by her peaceful attitude. But who can tell what she will do next, or under the sting of what secret. provocation she may presently—as soon as our fleet is concentrat- ed at Port Royal, say—be goaded into some | rash act which will take the power out of the | hands of Congress and put it into the hands Italian Opera for America—The Titiens | ‘absence of uny prospect of a | Season. | ‘It has always been the position of the | Heraxp that America would support Italian opera in the handsomest manner if it was only given with the completeness which characterizes a performance by Her Majesty's company. at Covent Garden or at the Grand Opera House in Paris. The failures of managers who professed to give us such a representation, but broke the promise to the hope, have only pointed | this belief, for when the houses fell off after a few nights it meant that the public was | finding out that the article was plated and | not solid gold. Managers wishing to explain this circumstance to their own vindication | have recently put forth the assertion that New York will not support a long opera season | at high prices. Hence they say the only | way to fortune in that direction is to treat the public like an overfed spaniel that must be kept hungry for a month before he will eat broken meatsand table-droppings with a relish. In other words, they would starve the musical public into welcoming whatever flotsam and jetsam of opera in Europe their slender credit could draw hither or that fortune might cast on our shores, This view is not held by Mr. Mapleson, one of the few great European managers, an interview with whom is published elsewhere. He treats the ques- tion of opera in America from a purely busi- ness standpoint, and concludes that as the Americans who direct public opinion on matters operatic know by this time what good opera is, they will no more patronize bric-d-brac opera at honest opera prices than they would pay for a building lot on the Bow- ery what they would for realty on Broadway. This is the sense, although not the form, of his opinion. Holding these views we regret | that he finds it impossible to contribute to our Centennial with an operatic season such as he sketches, a season to which, as he says, “T should be willing to subscribe my name.” He does not, however, leave us al- | together without hope; but it is, unfortunately, that hope deferred which maketh the heart sick. His good opinion of many things connected with | our American theatres is pleasing to learn, and the high estimate he places on the American students in the European con- servatories gives good ground for the hope | that we may yet be able to see perfect Ameri- | can lyrical artists on a perfect American stage. ‘In ten years,” says Mr. Mapleson, | this may be so; the manager is not affected by illusory enthusiasms. This evening Mlle. Titiens opens in | “Norma,” at the Academy of Music, and | will be only with us fora two weeks’ en- | gagement of eight performances. Thereafter | the great prima donna leaves us; so we must be contented to hear her in opera under the | only conditions given us. Her impersona- | tions are historic, and would well repay a visit to the Academy, even if the “support” were all mutes. We shall, however, up to the last moment, hope that the support may be respectable. It would be folly to expect perfection, but we have no doubt that Mr. Mapleson’s presence here will have a good effect in putting spurs to | the management and extracting the best | possible work from the material at hand. This week will give us Brignoli once more, and he knows how to sing, if he is’still blessed with his olden tones. Double-Deckers ws. Does it ever occur to the average American that the straps by which he is expected to suspend himself in the street cars, instead of being a convenience, are an insult to his in- telligence as a man and his dignity as a citi- zen? If the cattle transported on the rail- | ways were compelled to undergo one half the torture which these straps signify we should have Mr. Bergh protesting within a week and exerting all the power of the Society for the end to the barbarities. Indeed, it is ques- tionable whether any other animal besides man would consent to be packed as closely | as the street railroads pack their freight. In no other city would like indignities | be submitted to, nor would any other people accept so submissively such badges of their degradation as a street car constantly exhibits before the New Yorker. Straps are an American barbarism, and it is only American good nature which makes them possible. But the time is coming when it will be unsafe, even here, to pack menand women into crowded cars and have them endure the annoyance and | discomfort with patience. If the companies | fail to provide better accommodation, and | the Legislature refuses to interfere for the public protection, the people will be com- pelled to take the matter into their own | hands. We shall yet find it necessary to | make war upon straps, and the sooner it is | done the sooner will a seat be provided for | every passenger. The car companies have | an easy means within reach of obviating a | great part of the difficulty they might find | in providing increased numbers of cars by | constructing double-deckers, such as are used in England, merely modified so as to | suit the climate here. One thing is certain, lic by packing passengers like sardines is [raving rpidiy toe close.__ A Conureny Viztacz in Pennsylvania has | been on the verge of a riot because a drunken | miner died in the police station. Bad whis- key seems to have been the cause of the whole affair. The citizens are living under | what our Wilkesbarre war correspondent | compnssionately terms ‘‘a mild state of mar- | tial law.” Tue Hot ron Tween has developed itself with great vigor in Jamaica, where the de- tectives are arresting’ everybody that has the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to put an. | their day for making money out of the pub- | The Case of General Babcock. The facts stated in a Washington letter which we print in another column are a cu- rious and painful preface to the trial of the President's private secretary, which is soon | tocome on at St, Louis. That the Presi- dent should be exceedingly annoyed by the indictment of General Babcock is perfectly natural, and his indignation is quite con- sistent with a full bélief in Babcock’s inno- cence. It is fair to presume that it is be~ cause he retains unshaken confidence in his invocence that he has resolved to protect him to the full extent of his power. But the steps taken in this direction present a singu- lar appearance when traced in the order of their dates, as is done by our correspondent in the light of some facts which have not be- fore been made public. When General Babcock's telegrams came out in the Avery trial they seemed so evi- dently to point to his complicity with the St. Louis Whiskey Ring that the air was im- mediately filled with rumors that he was to be indicted. Thereupon the President indi- cated to the Attorney General his desire that the.latter should interfere to stop pro- ceedings against Babcock in the civil court and before the Grand Jury. Mr. Pierrepont declined to take this responsibility. A con- siderable time elapsed and no indictment appeared. Meanwhile the military court was ordered at Chicago, and Mr. Pierrepont telegraphed to District Attorney Dyer, in- quiring how things stood at St. Louis, Mr. Dyer replied that the Grand Jury was con- sidering the case of General Babcock, but that he had not, ‘as yet,” been indicted. About that time Mr. Henderson made his speech, at which so much offence was afterward taken, although it was allowed to pass unpunished for the time being. The substance of it was at once telegraphed all over the coun- try and could not have escaped the attention of the President, but he did not think fit to express his dissatisfaction. Nearly a week elasped when, on the 9th of December, the Grand Jury took a vote and indicted General Babcock, a fact which was at once telegraphed to the Attorney General by Mr. Dyer. In an hour there came back from Washington the well known despatch calling District At- torney Dyer's attention to the fact that Mr. Henderson had reflected on the President in his argument against Avery the week before, and giving notice that the government did not -desire his further services. This con- nection of dates and events is curiously sug- gestive. Why did Mr. Henderson’s speech pass unnoticed until Babcock was indicted ? Why did the Attorney General decide on the instant to remove him, as swiftly as thunder follows the lightning flash, when news of the indictment was received? The circum- stances were such that these questions seem to suggest their own answer. Before things had come to this decisive pass the military court of inquiry had met at Chicago, and the curtain which our cor- respondent lifts on some features of its secret history is the most surprising part of his let- ter. The Attorney General telegraphed to Mr. Dyer directing him to furnish the mili- tary court with all the evidence in Babcock’s case. The indictment had not then been found, and the effect of such a proceeding (however intended) would, have been to withdraw the evidence from the Grand Jury and transfer it to Chicago. Mr. Dyer sent back to Washington a firm and spirited re- fusal, closing with this sentence :—‘‘The Court will not tolerate such a proceeding, and I could not personally take the respon- sibility without incurring its contempt.” Two days later the instruction of the Attor- ney General was so modified as to direct Mr. Dyer to furnish ‘‘copies” of the evi- dence. Meanwhile there came a very per- emptory demand from the Judge Advocate of the military court at Chicago for copies of the charges made against General Babcock by Mr. Henderson, which also had to be modified before the District Attorney would comply with it. Altogether, this is a very odd chapter in the preliminary history of the case, The German Language in America. We print this morning a communication signed ‘‘Several German Readers,” giving it a place in our columns notwithstanding it does manifest injustice to the Heraxp, to the writers themselves and to their race, simply because they are very much in earnest in the position they assume. In the first place, we believe there is no such prejudice against either the German people or their language as our correspondents assume to exist. The question of teaching German in the public schools, however, is a thing entirely apart from any issues of sentiment or national or race animosities. It is a mere matter of school economy, to beapplied, if it can be done well and wisely, and otherwise to be left undone. Neither can we agree with our correspondents in the assumption that the introduction of the German language into the public schools has caused some of the German-American schools to succumb. At the same time we recognize the excellence of most of those private schools conducted upon the German plan, and regret that the hard times have interfered with their pros- perity. Under present conditions these in- stitutions are the best means at the command of our people for imparting a knowledge of German among American and German- American children, and they ought to be en- couraged, at least until the modern languages can be taught in the public schools without detriment to the system. We believe in making the free schools as comprehensive as possible, but we would not have what are essentially fancy studies introduced into | them at the cost of the elementary branches, and we fear that only the latter can be taught with safety at this time. — | Another point in the letter of our corre- | spondents deserves a word of comment and | iiiustration. In spite of all the Wests and | Bakers in creation they say the German | people—meaning, we presume, their de- | scendants—will speak their language a hun- | dred years from now and yet be good American citizens. Without doubting the latter half of this proposition we are bound to deny the fermer. The experiment has been tried in this country under better con- Spain has hitherto been amazingly patient— | most remote resemblance to the “Boss.” It | ditions than those which surround the Ger- 80 say men whose intimacy at the White House gives weight to their opinions. She has acted, such men say, with unexpected nrndenca These are significant words. is, keeps eleven or twelve thousand dollars | secreted about him to prepare for such emer- | gencies as arrest by a zealous official. is to be supposed that Tweed, wherever he | man populatien of this city, and the result is a complete refutation of this theory, In proof of this we have only to point to the corruvtion and degradation of the German tongue among the “Pennsyl- vania Dutch.” In less than a hundred years the people of German extraction in that State had acquired a dialect incompre- hensible to those who speak the language in its purity, and before the close of the present century even the dialect will have disap- peared. Can the Gesman people of New York hope for a bettey result in a city where English is on every tongue? Even now the German language with us is an accomplish- ment, not a necessity. It is as an accomplish- ment that ite desirability asa part of the regu- lar course of study in our schools is to be con- sidered, both now and in the future, and this, we believe, settles the question with which the Board of Education has to deal, at least for the present. H The Talking Congress. We notice that a good many of the jour- nals of both parties are scolding at Congress because it has, thus far in the session, talked so much and done s0 little. In this they are falling into a very common and very mis- chievous fallacy—that the duty of a legisla- tive body is to adopt laws, and that unless it does this it is not ‘‘working.” Nothing is less true than such an assump- tion. A body like the Congress is never so usefally engaged as when it is debating. Long debates—‘‘interminable debates,” as it is the fashion to call them—ought to be en- couraged. They are the only means by which the sense of the country, the inten- tions of political parties, the justice or in- justice, expediency or folly of measures pro- posed can be ascertained. The “previous question” has been, during the last fifteen years, too much used to choke off debate and help a majority to cram a mass of ill-digested laws into the ponderous statute book without proper consideration. We are glad to see debate reviving in the House, and we trust the Speaker will encourage and foster it. Let us have all proposed measures and poli- cies fully, freely and elaborately discussed; then we shall be far’ more sure to have mod- erate, well considered, wise laws than under the system, too long in favor in the House, by which laws were secretly prepared in committee rooms and passed without de- bate under the pressure of that gag rule, the “previous question.” There was a time, thirty years ago, when the House debates had an effect on public opinion, and when, while fewer laws were adopted, far fewer leg- islative follies were found in the statute book. If any one looks at the report of proceed- ings in those days he will find that for weeks ata time the regular course was that after prayer by the chaplain ‘the House resolved itself into Committee of the Whole,” and de- bate was the order of the day. We should like to see the old fashion revived. Schools for University Life. In a land where education is so universally prized, and where, when thorough, it so surely opens the door to position and influ- ence, it is remarkable that even now, in our hundredth year, there is no preparatory school of national reputation. When the boy gets to be twelve or thirteen, and his father, always intending that his son shall have the best opportunities, gives a few minutes from engrossing business to settling where to send him to fit for college or the university, he usually finds the easiest solution in taking the school nearest home or that of his own religious creed. Beyond these he is utterly at sea. He has heard of the two Exeters and the Boston Latin School, and the Hopkins School at New Haven, and one at Prince- ton, and a few others; but none of them have much of a hold on him, not enough, at any rate, to cause any preference, and, turning to the boy, he often, for lack of bet- ter, reason, lets his inclination settle it. Almost any intelligent American could prob- ably to-day name three of the most famous English schools easier than he could those of his own land. He knows of some faithful man, here or there, doing his duty by his pupil as bravely and devotedly and well as if the nation was looking on and deeply interested, as it really is, in the re- suit. But usually, from lack of assist- ants and means and a name, he is forced to do it imperfectly and to send his charge up to the examination but partially fitted at best, and none better than he knowing the weak places, But the average teaoher of boys between twelve and eighteen, instead of being one who has chosen teaching for a life’s work and has his heart and soul in it and means to be worthy of his work, too often has his mind entirely elsewhere, is looking forward, maybe, to a professional life, and uses the teaching merely as a makeshift until a livelihood can be had in other ways. So the precious years, perhaps the most precious ones in life, those in which character and abilities so largely | develop, and which have so much to do with | the life's work and welfare, are intrusted, not, as in ancient days, to a Gamaliel or Socrates, or his pupil Plato, but to one un- qualified for his work or uninterested in it, or both. : If near each great city there were first class preparatory schools, such as those of Eton and Harrow and Rugby, or if those now existing and really deserving na- | tional prominence could receive it, we, too, would, ere long, have here and there our Dr. Arnolds, who would do as much for the moral lite blood of our | people as Tom Brown's master did for | England. A man of this stamp, one | who, the roommate of Wendell Phillips at | Harvard, became usher in the Boston Latin School in 1833 at twenty-one, died but a few days ago, its head master for twenty-five years, and of whom one writer well says:—‘His history has been simply the history of that school tor nearly half a century ; in that has been his life, and he has had no other; of | extensive and exact scholarship, a thorough disciplinarian, a man of pure life and gener- | ous aims, a devoted son and brother.” Years ago, in a crisis which justly stirred his in- most soul, he wrote to an old pupil that he | had never set himself so much to make great scholars and men prominent in public life, nor had he cared greatly for these things, but that he had aimed to make them “honestand brave, haters of shams and of sneaks, lynx- | eyed to see the right and prompt to strike in | its cause.” America suffered a loss when | Francis Gardner died. Preparatory Brazil ana the Centennial. Our Rio correspondence tells what the great South American Empire is doing for our Centennial. First, Dom Pedro IL will come to see it himself, and in this act signi- fies a great good will for the Power on the Northern Continent which has sprung to em- pire on the foundation of a democratic Re- public. He is a potentate whom the United States will be pleased to weloome, for his rule has shown an earnest respect for the will of his people and an intelligent patriot- ism whose constant exhibition has lifted Brazil in the scale of the nations of the earth to a foremost position. That he, the descendant of the lorily line of the Por- tuguese kings, comes, contrary to the typical character of his race, to learn something of a free people, stamps him as a king unusual in his order. From his personal interest in the Exhibition at Philadelphia we may assume that whatever is heretofore lacking in the colleetion of Brazilian products will be made up before the time comes for despatching it hither. From what our cor- respondent already has seen of this colleb- tion, and which is described elsewhere, it cannot fail to be unusually interesting. De- — pending in a great measure on native skill and materials for their accessories of life, the manufactured articles and natural products of the interior provinces will give the visitor to the Exposition an opportunity of learning more of the people than the reading of a dozen books of travel. We may be certain that the section devoted to this vast Empire will not fail of interested observers while the Exhibition remains open. im the Pulpits, From the pulpits yesterday our reports show that a great many words of cheer went forth to the Christians who gathered to hear the expositions of the Gospel. Mr. Hep- worth’s brilliant sermon upon the especial providence which guards our footsteps, and which makes all the most wonderful human coincidences appear the com- monplaces of Divine watchfulness, will well repay perusal. In the Swedenborgian church the Rev. Chauncey Giles elaborated a beauti- ful parable of the garden of the soul out of the biblical story of the garden of Eden. One such garden God plants in every soul, and it is for man to take kindly care in cultivating this gift of God. Mr. Beecher preached upon the fall of man, not from Eden, but from grace. He preached a beneficent and not an austere God; One who does not expect perfection’ from man, because He knows that man is imperfect, Among the Catholics, Bishop Corrigan, of Newark, described in touching language the martyrdom of the noble Roman virgin, St Agnes, and from the record of her blameless life and heroic death drew that lesson of fortitude in affliction which may be applied to Than in everyday life, as it has been the aim of his Church, The Church, he says, alone can be the mother of such virgins, Mr. Chamberlain, at the Church of the Covenant, invoked the aid of the congregation on behalf of the Protestant mission to Brazil. Mr. Talmage chose a subject nearer home. It was, in fact, home itself, and drew a very _ attractive picture of the ideal Christian home. Mr. Frothingham spoke of the Sermon on the Mount, which he does not think original or susceptible of applicatiom in its entirety. Ar Santraco pe Cuna the difference be tween France and Spain relative to the mur. der of Rygoudaud assumes a belligerent aspect. A man-of-war is, as Cromwell said, the best ambassador, and the French have 3 handsome frigate manned by warlike Cra pauds and commanded by officers who are the pink of politeness. They would bom- bard a city with as much punetilio as any Spanish don ever displayed in skivering an antagonist. » PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. ' The poet Stedman has gone to South Amirica fors few wooks. The Putnams announce President Hill’s treatise on “The True Order of Studies.” W. W. Story, Mark Twain, C. A. de Kay ant Mrs, Preston are among the contributors to the Febmary Atlantic. The “Snow Imago” and other “Twice Told Tales” ie the latest addition to Osgood’s little classic edition » Hawthorne. ‘The Boston Herald insists that if the young Christian soldier, Collector Simmons, of Boston, keeps on rising he will land in the United States Senate. Hon. Ellis H. Roberts says substantially in the Utica Herald that reconciliation must come on the basis of # victorious Union, and not on the basis of a martyred South. Nothing, in the dead of winter, will exasperate a sporting editor so much as to ask him what is the best bait for catfish at night, when it is really the season for stealing cord-wood. . J. B. Lippincott & Co. have nearly ready a visitors’ guide to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia and a new edition of Landor’s works, in seven volumes, edited by John Forster. Except for the tie of the common language, the Greek cities, says a political critic, stood to each other in much the same relation in which the States ofymodern Europe stand to one another. Science demonstrates that a pumpkin vine while growing will raise a millstone. And now the gentle granger may bave a pumpkin garden in the hallway and watch it lift a sewing machine agent off the front stoop. Lovers of mystery in novels will be glad to hear that Mr. Wilkie Collins’ new novel was commenced in the January number of Temple Bar, under the title of “The Two Destinies."’ It will appear simultaneously it Harper's Bazar. Tue real sherry district occupies a very small spot is the southwest corner of Spain, lying for the most part between the Guadalquivir and the Gaudalete. The small triangle in which the choicest wines are pro duced is scarcely more than twenty miles broad at iu base. The funny man of the Rochester Democrat frequently, when ata party, wanders dreamily to a window, grace. fully lifts aside the purple curtain, and while and looks at the stars the maidens whisper, ‘Ho is thinking out a piece of wit,” and that gives him time to chow up a couple of cloves. On a cold, dark winter night, when a young married man is taking in the clothes, with frozen fingers ands mouth full of clothespins, nothing gives him a greater feeling of despair than to hear his wife open the back window and say, “Joseph, you may bring yours in, but ‘I guess you can hang mine back.’’ Canon Girdlestone writes:—“During my ton years’ Tesidence in Devonshire I induced many farmers, mush to their own advantage as well as to the advantage their men, to adopt, whenever it was possible, a system of piece work. By this, a8 well as by migration and other means, the condition of the Devonshire peasant has been much improved,” Redfield says in the Cincinnati Commercial that Mor. ton’s chances are next to Grant's inthe South, He divides the States as follows :—Morton—Goorgia, Ala- bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, Bisine—Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida Bristow—Kentucky, Missourt, West Virginia and Tennesseo,