The New York Herald Newspaper, February 4, 1876, Page 4

0 4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, py d every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per month, free of postage. All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Heraxp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OFFIC E- NO. 114SOUTH SIXTH STREET. 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 “10. NIGHT, eating COMIQUE. VARIETY, at 8 P. ai DIE KONLENSCUCL: THIRD A VARIETY, ats P. M. 08 ; THEATRE, THEATRE, atSP.M, Mr. Lest TADT THE German Opera—PAPEN HEIN, at w MARRIED IN HA v VARIETY, at SP. M. col PANORAMA, 1 to4P. M E. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. BROOK FALSE SHAME, ut 5 P. TONY PASTOR'S VARIETY, at 8 P. a OL VARIETY, at 8 P. M Tittens PIF’ rh A PIQUE, at 8P.M. Fi THIRTY-FOURTH VARIETY, at P. M. BOWERY THEATRE. UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, at 8 Mrs. G. PARIST VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Mi SAN FRANCISCO MIN: OPERA HOUSE. ©. Howard. wooD BEN McCULLOUGH, at Matinee ac 2). M. GLOBE TH VARIETY, at 3 P.M. BOOTH iBA JULIUS CHSAR, at 8 P.M. From our aun this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cold and clear- ing with snow. Tue Heravp sy Fast Mar Trarns.— News- dealers and the public will be supplied with the Damy, Werexiy and Sunday ne Sree of | i ge, ly sending their orders direct'to this | Watt Sraeer Yesrerps Fancy stocks were lower and under the influence of large short sales. Gold was quiet at 113. Money on call loans found use at 5 and 4 per cent. Government bonds were eed and active. Perrrions in favor of repealing the law exempting clergymen from taxation are pouring m upon the Legislature. Tar Fonenat of Francis Deak took place yesterday at Buda-Pesth, and was worthy of the great Hungarian whose memory the peo- ple honored. Tas Coronen’s Jury brought a verdict against Andreas Fuchs for the murder of Simmons yesterday. The proceedings will be found eleewhere. Over Drvtxation of the matrimonial object of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's coming jour- ney to Germany is sustained by the an- nouncement that the Princess Beatrice is en- gaged to Prince Louis of Battenberg. Tae Revease or Carnpixa, Lrpocnowsstr has given occasion to great rejoicing among the German Catholics. The prelate arrived at Berlin, whence it is understood he will depart for Rome to receive his red hat. _ "Tux Bunotary yesterday morning in Union Square shows how poorly our citizens are protected by the police against daring thieves. The officers are stated to have been in the house before the burglars left, but failed to make any arrest. * GENERAL ‘Suxuuay, while reiterating his refusal to have his name go before the people in any shape as a Presidential candidate, takes occasion to speak in the highest terms of Governor Hayes, of Ohio, as such a can- didate. The Western men are making out a long list. Tue Swans or Canprvares for seats in the new French Assembly indicates the awaken- ing of a healthy political activity in France. A spasm of energy, succeeding to a long tor- por, has been the characteristic of its politi- cal life and one of its greatest dangers, mak- ing it always possible for a cry to be mis- taken for a principle. New Yorr's Aratuy in regard to complet- ing the suspension bridge over the East River only tends to making the burden of expense all the greater in theend. The true policy is to push forward the work and so unite the two cities in a way which will bring about a more complete union if it is | desired. Tar Senvians are represented to be in a} highly unrestrainable condition. Austria meanwhile is acting with great moderation, as she well may if the Servians will set the Sick Man’s house on fire in her interest, With the Montenegrins also calling on some- body to hold them back, it will be very strange if the fight with the Turks does not speedily take larger proportions. Tax Waser Rio Convicts of Indiana were taken to their quarters in the State Prison at Jeffersonville yesterday and began the penal purgation of their offences against the government, Our despatches describe the scenes of their first acquaintance with prison life, and it is likely that their fate will deter many in their respectable in life from betraying their honor | snd their trusts for paltry pecuniary consid- grations. We observe that the suits at Mil- @aukeo are being pressed and new indict- pnents are announced NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1876—WITH SUPPLEMENT. “Et Tu, Bratet” ‘The ‘tides of March” is a memorable point men who aspire to power at the expense of | the institutions of their country. Casar—we | mean the great Roman Cwsar who made the | | the ides of March,” but neither the ery of the soothsayer, nor the frightful dreams of his wife Calphurnia, nor the note put into his hands when he was on his way to the Senate House, could arrest the decree of fate or will of the gods which had ordained that the ides of March should be so fatal. Let the Amer- ican Cesar also beware of the ides of March, That will be about the date of the termina- tion of the Babcock trial, and the result may have a great effect, not indeed in implicating Cesar as a person, but in accomplishing the downfall of Cawsarism as a system. If it shall be proved to the satisfaction of a jury that corruption has nestled within the very walls of the imperial mansion that one stab | will be as fatal as were the twenty-three daggers of the noble Roman assassins. ay) | Between the American and the Roman Cesar there are some striking points of re- semblance, Although Cwsar had set his heart on being made a king he knew the strong traditional hatred of the Roman peo- ple to the very name of royalty, and he made an insincere show of refusing the crown. | But, like the American Cwsar in putting away the crowning honor of a third term, he did it in such a way as to convince beholders that he really wanted it and hoped that the reluctance of the people would be overcome. The most annoying part of the Roman pro- ceedings was their, shout of approbation when they witnessed his simulated refusal. It evinced too prompt a readiness to take him at his word and to strain it beyond his intention. The American Casar has been subjected to a similar ordeal of mortification. The indorsing shouts which have been widely raised in the form of anti-third term resolu- tions in so many republican State conven- tions must have grated on the nerves of the American Casar like the shouts of the Ro- man populace on those of his great proto- type. The Roman Cwsar's refusal of the crown in the presence of the people did not quiet the suspicions of the friends of the imperilled Republic; their confed- eracy to destroy him proceeded with equal secrecy and vigor, and the ides of March proved to be the fatal day which they had intended and the gods had ordained. The part acted by Brutus in that stupend- ous tragedy was its most singular and inter- esting feature. It is not probable that his was the dagger that dealt the fatal stab, for among the twenty-three that were dipped in | Cesar's blood it could not be determined which penetrated to the vital organs. And yet Brutus, by the mere pointing of his weapon, before he delivered its stroke, did more execution than all the rest. When the destined victim saw Brutus among his assail- ants, with his dagger pointed at his groin, he released the hand of the assassin which he had grasped at the first assault, and utter- ing the pathetic ‘Zt tu, Brule?” the foremost man of all this world veiled his sorrowing face in his mantle and resigned himself to his fate. The participation of his friend Brutus broke his mighty heart. He had spared the life of Brutus after the battle of Pharsalia; he had long held such relations with his mother that a story was current that Brutus was his own natural son—an incredible story considering that he was only fifteen years his senior—and he had heaped honors and favors on him both for the mother’s sake and his own love of the son. Considering the obligations under which he had laid him he intuitively saw that there was nobody he could trust when Brutus turned against him, and so nothing remained for him but to muffle his face in his mantle and die with dignity. Perhaps we tread on delicate ground in continuing the parallel. The ides of March have not yet come, and until they have not only come but gone the fate of Cresar may be thought to hang in doubt. If that should prove a tragic day there will be little ques- tion as to who delivered the fatal stab. When some Antony holds up the imperial robe at Cwsar’s funeral and exclaims, ‘See what a rent the envious Casca made!” no- body will doubt which zealous officer of the government is intended. But that wound will not prove the most cruel one. It is when the American Cmsar sees the weapon of his loved and trusted Brutus raised to strike that he will say, with mildly reproachful looks, ‘‘Ht tu, Roscoe?” and veil his face for the end. Bruths really loved Cwsar. He would have done anything to serve him short of consenting to the over- throw of the Republic. In joining tha con- spirators he did naught in hate, but all in honor; ‘‘not that he loved Cesar less, but Rome more.” By the ides of March, let the affair at St. Louis go as it may, it will be manifest that Brutus has made arrangements to displace Cesar, who will feel, when he sees that this friend has deserted him, that Cwsarism has gone into a fatal eclipse. We know not whether the friends of this Brutus | are practising the same arts with which the Roman was so industriously plied, and are causing him to find numerous notes left on his desk or flung to his lodgings, stimulating | his ambition and calling on him to awake and save ‘his country, but certain it is that a strong and concerted effort is making to array him against Casar, There is every reason to think that it will prove snecessful, and that by the ides of March Cwsar will see that his friend has turned against him. That would end Cwsar, but would it put power in the hands of | Brutus? The Roman Brutus, although he was a sincere patriot, an accomplished orator and an honest statesman, accomplished only his | immediate but not his ultimate purpose. The conflict between what he owed to his friend and what he owed to his country and his struggling surrender of friendship to public duty seemed to weigh on his mind | and fill it with anxious misgivings. While | seeking repose one night-in his tent and | vainly trying to still his thoughts in the oblivion of sleep he fell into a short doze, without quite losing his consciousness, and saw above his flickering lamp a phantom in the calendar and an ominous date for | name illustrious—was warned to ‘beware of | | which he took for the apparition of the mur- | some days Brutus reached Philippi, and the first day of the battle seemed to promise success, But in his tent at night the ghost of Cwsar fulfilled its promise, the same | eppetee appearing in the same appalling | shape, but without speaking a word. This second apparition unnerved the mind of Brutus. The next day he fought a desper- | ate battle, lost it, and ended his life with his own sword. Brutus was defeated by Cwsar's resentful ghost. It may also happen that the ghost of the American’ Cesar will “visit the glimpses of | the moon” after the ides of March and trouble the noble Brutus. As he repgses in his tent, when on the point of marching his forces to the place of the great battle, the ghost of Cwsar may make itself visible, and answer, when questioned, ‘‘You will see me at Cincinnati.” Even if the first day's voting should be favorable to the hopes of Brutus, the portentous apparition may shock his view again at night and turn the seale of the next day’s battle in fayor of the side which fights under the protecting guardianship of the defunct Cwsar. We may be pretty sure that his avenging ghost will not be idle in that conjuncture, and Brutus may be the chief object of its hos- tility. Cambridge Response American Challenge. As we had surmised, and as our special despatches show, Cambridge follows Oxford in declining the challenge of the Inter- collegiate Rowing Association. The whole tenor of the past despatches and letters shows that both would really like to come and meet our student oarsmen on their own waters. They see, apparently even more clearly than our men, that the oceasion is unusual and that none so good is at all likely to come again before their rowing days are over, The expense need not annoy them, for it is not proposed that from the moment of their landing they shall be troubled with any. On the contrary, they will find themselves guests in the full mean- ing of the word, and very welcome guests at that. The one difficulty is Henley. They have arranged for it, expect and are expected to be there, and should no more have been asked to ignore it than our students should in similar plight the University race. It furnishes ample ground for the present re- fusal. The prompt response which the Henarp correspondent's question met yesterday shows that the enthusiasm of the Cambridge oarsmen will probably send us a first class crew, and their request respecting graduates being allowed to row should receive consid- eration. The objection of ‘the Dublin oars- men we hope to see, also, in some shape re- moved. The prospects generally begin to brighten, Happily there is abundant time yet, and we renew our suggestion of yesterday. the Regatta Committee have not powers suf- ficient to.enable them to forthwith forward an invitation pressing them to row, not in sixes, but in fours, let. them write to the thirteen clubs, showing the exigency of the case and asking such powers at once. Then they will bring about the race they wish almost beyond a doubt. What is one of the princi- pal contests at Henley but a four-oared one ? Thus each university will have its very team which would row here already made up, fallen entirely together and in the very best shape to begin with. They do not want to be annoyed by having their builders get up sixes—craft they never yet built even one of—and then to be hampered with bring- ing two distinct and complete outfits across the ocean, A strong probability is ex- pressed that one, if not both, of them will row in the Centennial races, and when the rules of the latter already sent over Europe allow only fours, they will naturally wonder why a four should not suffice for both races. They can thus be sure of four first class men and no weak spots, and so equally can we. They will find the steering on our broad courses, all distinctly laned with flags of their own university or nation, delightfully easy compared with those they are cramped into on their own narrow, tortuous Cam or Isis. No hidden currents or eddies, as on the tidal Thames, to confuse and annoy. But rowing the students at Saratoga Lake—-on the grandest track in America, if not in the world—all can go to- gether right afterward to Philadelphia, and there, ten days later, share in the chief contest of all, that beside which even this of their own will be secondary ; where the Atalantas, Ar- gonautas and Beaverwycks, the London rowing men, Liverpool, Kingston and French crews will, doubtless, be waiting for them, witha million people to look on—the open four-oared rice for the amateur cham- pionship of the world. The to the Tae Enousa Rirtemen have not, it ap- pears, taken the steps reported by cable yes- terday, which would threaten a withdrawal of the team Sir Henry Halford has in charge because the Scotch have also accepted the American challenge. We are heartily glad of this. England has a larger field for the selection of a team of long-range riflemen than either Ireland, Scotland or America, and no matter what the original idea of an imperial team may have been, England can send out one chosen from her own sons with the highest chances of success, Soromon Kneaman proved a most impor- tant witness on the trial-of Rubenstein yes- terday, for he swore distinctly to having met the prisoner and the murdered girl on the road near the cornfield where the crime was committed; to having seen them cross the fence, and to having heard the cries of the girl appealing for help. ‘Ho stated that his reason for not interfering was his belief that although the girl was suffering harm he did not think she was being murdered. Tus Cuamper or Commence yesterday had a report of the condition of our commerce with Cuba laid before it, and therein we see stated that the problem of increased imports by the United States from that island during atime of decreased production is accounted | for by the falling off of Cuban trade with Europe. The ratio of exports from Cuba are said to be as follows :—United States, eighty- five per cent ; Spain, two per cent ; all other countries, thirteen per cens. The committee dered Cwsar. When he questioned the see me at Philippi.” could not deduce any unanimous recom- spectre the reply he received was “You will | mendation from these facts, and hence sim- After a march of , ply stated them If | German in the Public 8 hools. We entirely approve the action of the Board of Education in fixing the status of foreign languages fn the public schools as it has done. The -motion of Mr. J. Greville Kane, which brought the long discussed re- port to vote, has put an end to a controversy conducted with considerable acrimony on the part of those who desired to see the German language tgught in all the schools. Our Teutonic fellow citizens who waxed so warm over the question as to betray themselves into wild threats of the withdrawal of twenty thousand children from the schools, and even to hold ‘the German vote” like a Nemesis over the heads of the Commissioners, will, we trust, find their better reason. No one denies, and indeed the decision of the Board affirms, that instruction in foreign lan- guages should be open to the higher classes of the grammar schools, for to those pupils only can such study be a possible benefit. A mere smattering, such as the pupils who cannot from various circumstances ever rise to a high grade would receive, could only be adetriment to the elementary studies in English. Weare sure, also, that the Ger- man petitioners who aver that, our vernacu- lar being in a large part derived from Anglo- Saxon a thorough knowledge of German would materially aid in mastering the Eng- lish language, are aware of the folly of such an argument as applied to popular educa- tion, the difference between Anglo-Saxon and modern German being as great as be- tween Anglo-Saxon and its modern English derivatives. The Cubans, Italians and French Canadians settled here would have quite as sound an argument in dsking the introduction of their respective languages because the English language is in ‘‘a large part” derived from the Latin, and Irishmen and Scotchmen, even, might ask for Gaelic in the schools because the word ‘‘apron” has a Celtic root. Outside of all these arguments is the national one—namely, that the schools are American, that their object is directly to fitour youth for their duties as American citizens and to take their places as intelli- gent members of «society. To accomplish this a plain but sound education is needed, and we have no such lack of confi- dence in the English language as to think that a boy or girl cannot learn the spelling and meaning of its words without going outside of the lan- guage for the roots or cognate forms in other tongues. A philologist deeply versed in Sanskrit and familiar with all the Aryan tongues would, of course, scout the idea of such a limited linguistic education ; but he would equally cover with ridicule the idea of learning English by studying German. The mass of our boys and girls cannot devote a lifetime to studying the fine shades of meaning and form of words; they must be contented with learning our language as it is. So far as our public schools are con- cerned studics in other languages must be undertaken for their own sake and their practical use in the business of life, and in so limiting them ‘the Board of Education has acted wisely. The schooling time of our children is in the majority of cases so short that to instruct them in their own language is o sufficiently difficult task. To those whose condition in life allows or whose talents demand a longer stay in school the opportunity of acquiring a foreign language as “an accomplishment” should be and has been given. An International Money Unit. The paper printed by the Finance Com- mittee puts Senator Sherman's project in a clearer and more practical light than it has hitherto appeared in. By this it resolves itself into a proposition to make a very small change in the value of our coin dollar, and thus adjust it precisely to an easy division of the English sovereign, thereby making our half eagle and the sovereign identical in value, and gaining the great advantage in commercial transactions of accounts that can be easily calculated in sovereigns. As the depreciated paper rises in value, and before it reaches the full value of the gold dollar as now con- stituted, it must touch the point at which it will be exactly equal to one-fifth of a sov- ereign. It will reach this point when ‘worth ninety-seven and a half cents. Itis pro- posed to coin dollars at that time exactly equal im value to the paper at that price ; in short, to make the new coin dollar worth two and a half cents less than the former dollar. It will then be just equal in value to four shil- lings English, or one-fifth of a pound, and the English florin will be equivalent to our half dollar. There would be great future advantage in this, but two anda half cents on a dollar will be thought a great deal to re- linquish of the advantage that comes to many in the appreciation of the paper. Tynanny anp Corners.—In the case of Brodski, of Odessa, the average financier and speculator may contemplate at his leisure the beauties of freedom. In this country, thank$ to the exertions of some thousands of old gentlemen in buff waistcoats and small clothes, who “‘fit into the Revolution,” there is but little restraint on the eccentricities of the financial imagina- tion. If any one in Wall street is able to get the price of United States stocks down to twenty-five per cent on a dollar all the courts of the country will protect him in the exercise of this right; while if he is able to make a corner on wheat that will double or treble the prico of this com- modity there is ‘none to make him afraid.” Brodski tried these little games in Russia and discovered that the imperial administra tion has no appreciation of this sort of genius. Ho was admonished one day to come up and take an early train for Siberia ; but this, it appears, has been reconsidered, and he is now ordered to remain in a little town near Moscow. It is tobe apprehended, how- ever, that his financial ardor is dampened forever. ‘Tae Assemocy tried its hand yesterday at its old-time task of tinkering the New York charter. By a vote of fifty-eight to fifty- seven the House refused to recommit to the Committee on Cities the bill which it re- ported favorably and which legislates out of office the Park Commissioners except Presi- dent Stebbins. The first amendment should be one giving us a spring election for municipal officers, allowing the citizens to select their official servants without refer- ence to State or patianal politics. The Street Cars. Street car companies should be héld to a strict accountability under the local authori- ties, and it is a great defect in the laws by which they are incorporated that this is not provided for. To simply give up several of the important streets of a great city to certain corporations which propose to use them for a commercial purpose, and to per- mit them to use these streets without any regard whatever to the interests, welfare or convenience of the people, is one of those monstrosities of privilege which could only have grown up in such acorrupt and loose administrative system as culminated in the Tweed robberies. But as Tweed has ‘been driven, out, and as in the war against John Kelly the people bid fair to destroy and root up even the remnants of the Tweed system, it is possible that we may presently bo able to secure remedies for those abuses of legis- lation which have always characterized that system, and of which the street car franchises are among the more flagrant. ‘Between the rights of the people and the rights of the car companies the main points are clear, but some uncertainty is cast on a part of the subject by the technicalities of the lawyers rather than of the law. It may be well doubted whether when the Legislature has chartered a city government it has nog surren- dered to the Corporation auch a con- trol over the streets of the city as to render it improper for it to assume any authority in regard to them, such as is im- plied in giving a franchise to a company. It has surrendered to one Corporation all control with regard to certain specified pur- poses over a section of the territory of the State. How, then, can it deal with another corporation with regard to the same pur; poses within the same limits? Butif we ad- mit that the Legislature and not the Corpo- ration have the right to license car compa- nies it cannot be pretended by any one that this license becomes a right independent of all limitation and control. Railway com- panies may be authorized by the Legislature to build a line across any man’s farm, but they must pay the farmer for his land; and so if the Legislature authorizes the construction of a line in any street the company must deal with the Corporation for the use of that street, and must operate the line under regulations imposed by the city authorities. If this is not the law it must be made the law, and a good way to settle all doubts on the subject would be to pass a statute to this effect in the present winter. It is preposterous to suppose that any cor- poration will regard the convenience of the public when its own convenience is in the other scale unless it is forced to such a course, and it is equally preposterous to pre- tend that the city government should not have authority to do the forcing. With a local authority to compel companies to run their cars in a certain way, and a defined number of them in proportion to the traffic, if the duty were made so plain that the per- son charged with it would not dare sell out to the companies, one of the greatest griev- ances of city life could be redressed. The Authorship of “Pique.” There has been considerable discussion of late, not so much as to the authorship of the play of ‘‘Pique” as to whetherthe author has taken his materials by wholesale from an- | other writer without making proper acknowl- edgment. It is a question of originality. Mr. Augustin Daly, who claims the author- ship, is accused of taking the plot, the situa- tions, the characters and the dialogue of the first three acts of ‘‘Pique” from Florence Marryat’s novel, ‘Her Lord and Master,” and the charge has been boldly repelled by Mr. Stephen Fiske, one of the managers of Mr. Daly's own theatre. This question would seem to be easy to decide, for the play is now in the height of its success and the novel is on every bookseller’s counter; yet experience proves that disputes about plagiarism are apt to remain long unsettled. After a careful comparison of the novel and the play, however, we are compelled to decide that the charges are true. No one who has read the novel and seen “Pique” can fail to observe their extraor- dinary resemblance. Any defence fonnded on the theory of coincidence, or on the right conceded to the dramatist of using sugges- tive ideas in the works of other authors, is destroyed by the cumulative proofs of plagiarism. If a dramatist should claim never to have heard of Shakespeare and yet should exactly repeat the plot of “Hamlet” in his play we might wonder at the coinci- dence and yet admit his claim. If he should then reproduce the characters of “Hamlet” we should be incredulons as to his ignorance of that work. If he should use the dialogue in “Hamlet,” scene after scene, any further argument as to his originality would be\ a superfluous task. In ‘‘Pique” the plot of the novel is bodily transferred to the first three acts of the play, the fourth act intro- ducing a new element of interest. The situa~ tions in the first three acts are exactly those of the first half of the book. The characters might step off the stage into tho book without changing their relations to each other or anything more than their names. Their identity is absolute. Finally, the language of the play is, in im- portant scene after scene, the language of the story. We shall not undertake here to give the evidence of this, for it would re- quire the republication of half the book. We simply render a verdict upon the facts, and the reader who is at all sceptical of its justice can obtain all the evidence he re- quires by paying a dollar and ao half at the theatre and expending fifty cents at a book store. Nor shall we pronounce upon the extent of the guilt of the defendant in the case of Marryat vs. Daly. Woe are not discussing ethics, but facts. Other questions whioh may as well be left unconsidered are whether Mr. Daly has been pursued maliciously by some of his accusers and whether Rose Ray- land, who has been prominent in the debate, is really a woman or a man. The press is in- terested in the matter only so far as the pub- lic is, and it, we suppose, cares only for the principal facts. Certainly it makes little difference to the enjoyment of the play who wrote it or whence it came. The ordinary playgoer wishes for entertainment and amuse- nent, and will find both in “Pique.” It is also to be remembered that the question is -not one of transcendent public imnortance, “Pique” is spirited, interesting and effective, but it is not a great drama, and “Her Lord and Master” is a clever novel, but no more : ats Exploring the Sahara. In another portion of the HunaLp we pro sent an account of the progress of the French exploring party now making its way inte the great African desert under the lead of M. Largeau. The account is from the pen of a distinguished French journalist, and gives a lively picture of life in the southernmost portions of Algeria. The hold which French rule has taken there is remarkable, and -when we remember that in these districts of the province of Constantine where the breaks, as it were, around the nates human settlement the French have had almost to create the desert towns before ruling the inhabitants, a full meed of credit will be given them. The exploration is not undertaken purely in the interests of science, but science will benefit by it in the accurate observations .of the desert phenomena and geological formation which are made as the little expedition progresses. The destination of the party is Rhadamés, and it can be judged from the scenes de- picted by our correspondent how desolate a journey is before them when they plungo finally into the waterless waste of the Sahara proper. Among the curious phenomena already observed is the wonder- ful mirage of Chott ei Mir, whose arid white plain becomes at certain periods of the day a magnificent sheet of water to the eye, stud~- ded with numerous islands. The character sketches are also well worthy of attention; and, as the story bears that air of cheeriness characteristic. of the Frenchman everywhere, the most desolate scenes can be contem- plated through it with something of pleasure, + American Registers and Free Ships ‘The House of Representatives has passed a bill granting an American register to the Hawaiian bark Arctic, which was sold during the late war. Many of our ships, owing to the perils of war during that struggle, purchased safety by changing their flags, and the registers of only two or three of these have been restored. It is the general impression that thefact of Congress disallow- ing American vessels which have become the property of foreign owners to receive a new register, even when they are repurchased by American citizens, is a measure which sprung out of the war; but the truth is that’ this has long been the policy of our govern- ment, and it has only been felt-to be a real grievance owing to the exigencies of that struggle. Now a new policy has become im- perative, and instead of allowing a new regis« ter toa few vessels by special enactment a general law ought to be passed granting all the privilege of the flag. This would not only be just in itself but it would be an exemplification of the doctrine of free ships, without which a revival of American com- merce is impossible. A more liberal policy must be inaugurated, and the way to begin is to make our navigation laws broad enough for that new era in our trade which all of us have been expecting so impatiently. ine A Puorza Teme for the illustrated news- | papers is the overcrowded condition of our street cars, and we notice that Frank Leslie's has taken up the subject. The picture is in- tended to be a caricature; but, although the passengers crowd the platforms, perch upon the top of the car, mount the horses and hold fast by ropes, the. artist’s fancy scarcely’ exceeds the truth, Over Drromatic Representatives abroed: were in the hands of the shearers of the lower House of Congress yesterday; but the. gentleman having charge of the bill found: himself at the mouth of the Mississippi before he got through his speech on reduc- ing the salaries of our ministers and con- suls. Tue Jorsr Resonutron directing the Dis» trict of Colambia Commissioners to pay the interest of the 3.65 bonds out of any funds in the United States Treasury subject ta their requisition was passed by the United States Senate yesterday, a number of salu- tary amendments having been appended to it. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Nevada has icicles ten fect long, Mra, Burdeil lives in San Francisco. Oregon mails go by snowshoe express. James G. Wingard, an inventor, of New Orleans of- fers to seli an invention that will annibilate an irom- clad vessel at @ distance of five miles, A poor family, of Bangor, Me., applied to a charitas ble society for clotties. The next day the whole fam- ily drussed up, went down town and got their pictures taken. A Phiindelphia map gained four and a half pound® weight in one week by eating oatmeal. But he is wearing out his Ulster overcoat scratching his back against the door, ‘M. Jannett’s book on this country says that the Im stitution of the family ts rapidly declining in the United States before the immoral influences and tendencies of American society. An English banker wrote, January 11;—‘The great financial houses which now dominate the city of Lon- don, and bring forth at well chosen periods what is most suitable to the vitiated palate of the public, have not, asa rule, English interests at heart; cosmopolitan Jows or Greeks and wideawake Germans are prominent in these great operations, which dazzle and bewilder us.’” The Miliord (Pa) Herald announces the death of Mr. pley, who had lived in solitade many years in Green wuship, Pike county, Pennsylvania He had been a ealthy merchant of New York, bat failing in business is reverses so preyed on his mind that he fled tos ‘id and desolate place, several miles from any habita- ion, where for thirty-five years he lived alone, sustain, tig himeelf by fishing and hunting. ‘General Richard Irving Dodge, veteran Indian fighter, deer stalker and military pathfinder, who led the ex- pipring expedition in the Black Hills last summer, is néw sojourning in this city, The General has prob- ably built more frontier posts and established more roads in the bleak wilderness beyond the Missouri a any other field officer of the army, and has a keen. both as narrator and listener, for the tales of the camp fire. Augusta (Ga) Constitutionalist (dem) thinks is more than likely that ‘General Banks, Mr. that! id better elements of New "and adds that ‘‘n lofty and generous spirit by the South will win defenders and cham- pions fqr her amid the ranks of those who have in the past classed among her adversaries, If possible, should rise above revenge.”” A totter from St Petersburg, in the Borsen Zeitung, says ‘the Russian government has decided to im- crease the strengih of the army and navy contingent this by 30,000 men, so that it will now consist of 180, men instead of 150,000, as fixed during the last five The number of men entitled to claim ex+ empyion in Poland, owing to the suporior education of the people, is so large that in 1874 several of them had to be passed into the army, although they wore legally ei