The New York Herald Newspaper, February 22, 1876, Page 6

6 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 postage. All business, news letters or telegra] is despatches must be addressed New Hera. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. . PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO, 112 SOUTH SIXTH STRE LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AVENUE DE L’OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME XLIs-newrensensaneosd AMUSEMENTS ‘THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. BOOTH’S THEATRE. JULIUS CASAR, at 8 P.M. Mr. Lawrence Barrett. Mati pee at 1:30 P.M. NO, 53 THEATRE COMIQUE, VARIETY, at 8 P. M. Matinee at 2 P. M. E. TIV VARIETY, at 8 P.M. M TWENTY-THIRD 5 OPERA HOUSE. CALIFORNIA MINSTRELS. P. M. Matinee at 2 P. M. WAL tag STOOPS TO CON . OLY) VARIETY, at 8 P. M. GRAND OPER. USE. DLIVER TWIST, at 8 P.M. EAST LYNNE, at 2 P.M. Lucille Western. EAGLE THEATRE. UNCLE ANTHONY, at8 P.M. Matinee at 2P. M. BROOKLYN THBATRE. UEEN AND WOMAN, at 8P. M. Matinee at 2 P.M. Mr. red. Robinson. TONY PASTOR'S mp “3 agg VARIETY, at 8P. M. Matineo at UNION SQUARE dh TRE. 208k MICHEL, at 8P.M. Matinee at 1:30 P. M. YN A pee. gr. wet P.M. C. Howard. BROO UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, at PARK TH gases. atSP.M. George Fa TIONAL AC EXUIBITION al WATER THIRTY-POURTH VARIETY, at 8 P. ia we vee . 8I SLOCUM, at Po he ask R. Frayne. PARISIAN VARIETIES. VARIETY. at 8 P. M. Matinee at 2 P. M. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, at 8 P.M, Matinee at 2 GLOBE THEATRE. ‘VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matinee at 2 P. M. TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK, TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 29. 1876, ee ts From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be colder and Wearing. Tue Herarp sy Fast Mar Trarys.— News- dealers and the phiblic throughout the will be lied with the Dany, Wexxix 8 postage, ending Yaw onige direct rds office. me Watt Srazer Yestexpay.—The stock mar- ket was heavy and without feature, save a tendency to lower prices. Money on call was supplied at 21-2 and 3 percent. Gold advanced to 114, Foreign exchange firm. Government and railway bonds were steady. Mors Watrr.—A summary of the surveys and estimates for a new Croton aqueduct are printed elsewhere, Nineteen million dol- lars are asked for. Tae Warxer Divorce Svurr contemplates a variety of issues'and is planned on both sides with as much magnitude as though the parties were two empires march- (ng their armies to the field, and not an old man of seventy against a lady who atknowl- edges to forty-one summers. Tue Curzse Pam PMovusrer receiving New Year's calls is a subject for congratula- tion among the nations. The great wall might keep out the Tartars, but the di- plomatist, in his gold-embroidered swallow- tail, has vaulted over Celestial prejudice, which is a still higher obstacle. Recxiess SramansurP has been punished in the case of the Italian bark I. Mille, sunk by the City of Brooklyn, of the Inman line, off Fastnet light last June, by a verdict of fifty- five thousand dollars damages against the steamship company. In the case of the American ship Harvest Queen the White Star Company have it all their own way, not a soul being saved to state the case for the American owners. Purrme a Wer Branxet on the rayahs' insurrection against Turkey is an ungrateful task for the great Powers of Europe. It is an organized hypocrisy, of which each Power is at heart ashamed, and it only re- mains for one to throw off the mask of friendliness to the Porte to find all the others drawing their swords to get a share of the spoils. They ate possibly waiting to give the Mussulman a last chance. The news from Epirus and Thessaly is not cheer- ing to those who accept a Sultan's firman as an earnest of reform. What happens now in the South would be repeated in the North as soon as the present trouble would blow over, and hence we cannot blame the Herze- for kicking as lustily under the Christian wet blanket as they have kicked against Osmanli misrule. Cxurmation rm Itaty.—Cremation seems to meet with more favor in Italy than in any other country, and the letter from Rome which we print this morning gives an in- teresting accopnt of the experiment at the burning house in the cemetery at Milan. It is natural, perhaps, that the Italians should be more favorable to this mode of disposing of the bodies of the dead than the other peo- ples of Europe; but in spite of the erection of the burning house at Milan, and the actual ase of it in the case detailed in our columns this morning, cremation is not likely to pecome general even in Italy. We might, as readily expect the people of Rome to'adopt the religion of the Romans as the Roman mode of burial. Still, the ques- tion is one which has » good deal of interest, and some day it may also have great im- nartanc® NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1876. The Father of the Republic.’ Unusual interest is taken at present in the birthday of Washington, for this year we shall also celebrate the centennial anni- versary of the birth of the Republic. The two events are indissoluble in history. The American people have been taught to look up to him with reverence as the Father of | his Country, and it would be almost impos- sible for us to imagine the creation of the Republic without his aid. Conjectures about history are generally fruitless, and it would be idle to speculate upon what form the Revolution would have taken, and what its end might have been, had not Washing- ton been its leader. When the time comes for a people to be free and independent fate hurries the event irresistibly, and men seem to become only the instruments of a myste- rious and omnipotent spirit. This was seen in our late rebellion, which rapidly passed beyond human control, and it was equally plain in our Revolution against Great Britain. Washington did not precipitate the struggle. New England, New York and Virginia had- long been restless under taxes imposed by the British Parliament upon the American colonies, and he was but one of many loyal subjects of the Crown who were anxious to reconcile their allegiance and their lib- erty. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765, when Patrick Henry declared that the Assembly had the exclusive right to tax the people, and that whoever else claimed the right deserved to be held as an enemy. There is no question that he sympathized with this doctrine. In 1774 he was elected a delegate to the first American Congress. Even then he was no more: of a rebel than his companions, and not so much one as Samuel Adams and Pat- rick Henry. He was unable to say where the line between Great Britain and her colo- nies should be drawn, but he was ‘‘clearly of opinion that one ought to be drawn and our rights clearly ascertained.” Even in Oc- tober of that year he wrote to a British offi- cer :—“‘Although you are taught to believe that the people of Massachusetts are rebel- lious—setting up for independence and what not—give me leave, my good friend, to tell you that you are grossly abused. * * * Give me leave to add—and I think I can announce it as a fact—that it is not the wish or interest of that government, orof any other on this conti- nent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence. But this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights and privileges which are essential to the happiness of every free State, and with- out which life, liberty and property are ren- dered utterly insecure.” These are expres- sions which show that at this time Washing- ton was no rebel, but, on the contrary, a good subject, trying to avert rebellion. ‘Thousands of good patriots were with him in this endeavor; but it was useless. The separation of the colonies from the Crown was decreed, and if Washington had not ex- isted the Declaration of Independence must have been made. We do not owe to him, therefore, nor to any man, our independence, our freedom or our Union. The people won these blessings for themselves, and that they only can win what is worth having is a truth which it is well to remember in our hero wor- ship, no matter how illustrious our heroes may be. But, although in the absence of Washing- ton from the council and the field the Revo- lution would have probably ended’ success- fully, and at some time or other the Union would have been established much as it was, we must not forget the immeasurable value of his presence. Claim as much as we may for the people, we must still pay our debt to the hero. If we do not know exactly what could have been achieved without him we do per- ceive the extreme usefulness of his personal services to the cause. Washington could no more be left out of the Revolution than Achilles out of the conquest of Troy. At the end of a hundred years his great figure towers above all others, distinct and dilated, against the fiery sunrise of American free- dom. From those who would now dwarf his greatness let his countrymen appeal to the judgment of his own time. America had many a noble son and liberty many a devoted lover, but none of them were chosen to do his work. There were Adams and Jefferson and Frank- lin and Hamilton and Rutledge and Lee and Henry and Greene and Warren and Putnam, and others, some one of whom might have commanded in his absence, but could not while he was present. Some of these leaders were statesmen, such as Adams and Franklin; others were soldiers, such as Greene and Lee; but Washington was the only man in whose military and civil abilities the colonies had perfect confidence. Like Lear, he seemed to have that in his nature which men would fain call master—authority. The acknowledgment of his superiority by his contemporariesis binding upon us. The greatness of Washington is no delusion, Others had more genius for politics and finance, but none equalled him in strength or wisdom. The personal character of Washington was of inestimable value to the American cause, As we look back now upon the Revolution we see that the faith of the people in their chief was itself worth more than another army. This firm faith in his ability, his in- tegrity and his sublime courage defeat might diminish but could not destroy. Probably he was a greater soldier than many men be- lieve, for he organized an army as soon as he was called to the command in 1775. He in- sisted on discipline and order, Even in the retreat from New York he retained the con- fidence of the country and preserved the nucleus of an army. He surprised the enemy at Trenton and compelled him to abandon New Jersey. His defensive positions were always well chosen ; even at Valley Forge he reformed the army system; he de- prived General Lee of his command ; he subdued the jealousy the American officers entertained of Lafayette, the Count d’Estaing and the French allies; he advised Congress against the dangerous scheme of an itivasion of Canada, which France, for her own ends, desired to make ; he captured Cornwallis and his army, and the strictest scrutiny has not yet detected any serious errors in his plans, A weak man would have been destroyed by the superior foroae of the onomy in his front or ruined by the cabals of the foes in his rear. But the faith of the country in Washington sus- tained him. His countrymen trusted him, for he was not untried; he had fought in Indian wars and had sat in the Assembly of his State. His moral influence was extraor- dinary. We may forget the victories of his little armies, the acts of his Presidency, s0 unimportant now, but we can never forget the morality of the man. His conscience illuminates our earlier history ; its pure and serene light is blended with the ascending dawn of the Republic, till the soul of Wash- ington and the spirit of Freedom are like those double stars which kindle heaven with united splendor. We cannot separate him from the Revolution now. It is the ped- estal upon which his heroic figure stands— the Father of his Country—with hands out- stretched in benediction over its unknown and infinite future, It is one hundred and forty-four years to- day since Washington was born and seventy- six since he died. In this year, when the American people celebrate their century of existence as a nation, there is no nobler ex- ample than his to which they may turn. His ambition was only for his country. He did not desire the Presidency, and the proposition of certain army officers that he should become a constitutional king was re- ceived by him not only with astonishment but with horror. He was sincere in his love of private life. ‘The great Searcher of human hearts is my witness,” he said, ‘‘that Ihave no wish which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm.” The wish for such a death was granted him, for after he had consented to serve a second term at the request of all his countrymen he refused to accept the third. He passed his few re- maining years in peace at Mount Vernon, more honored and loved than if he had clang to power which wisdom taught him no man should hold in a Republic. He be- queathed his example to all successive Presi dents, and to his country he left a testament whose solemn warnings they never had more cause to heed than now. The French Republican Triumph. From what is already known of the results of the election in France it seems safe to infer not merely a general victory of tle republicans over all ostensibly non-republi- can elements, but specially a victory of those republicans who desire the welfare of the country and not simply the success of their theories—who are not less opposed to the madness of the radicals than to the duplicity of the Bonapartists. In the returns given the number of republicans of all shades is in overwhelming proportion to the number of all others; but these returns are from the great cities or from towns that are proxi- mately like the great cities in their political character. Paris, Lyons, St. Etienne, Mar- seilles, Lille, Bordeaux are as distinctly republican in all cases as this city is dis- tinctly democratic in all elections, Indeed, it is the rule of French politics that the republican vote is stronger at the great centres and yields to the monarchical or Bonapartist sentiments most in the remoter rural departments. This is not necessarily because the mass of people at the great centres are more intelligent than others, though they are likely at least to be more enlightened. It may be merely that, gath- ered in great cities, occupied in mechanical occupations and spending their spare time in the cabarets, the hundreds of thousands of workmen are carried in a current of public opinion, made in a great degree by the familiar arts of demagoguery; and from this in their country homes they are saved by the many conservative influences to which they are there subject. But from whatever cause it arises the republican sentiment is stronger in the great cities than elsewhere, and stronger in the departments that are near the great cities or that are much traversed by railways or oc- cupied with manufacturing industries than in the remoter districts that are still mainly concerned with agriculture. Now it is pre- cisely these points of republican strength that are best supplied with every kind of communication and in which the telegraph particularly is most in use. Consequently we hear first and most fully in an eledtion like the present from the points where republican opinion is most apt to be domi- nant, and we shall not hear for several days from the points that will most strongly sup- port the other party. It follows, therefore, that the proportions in which the republi- cans are superior to their opponents in the reports from the great cities will not be maintained when the return is counted upon a larger area. But an indication in which the figures cannot change is that the kind ot republicans who appear to pre- vail are not red republicans. In Marseilles, for instance—Marseilles always more radical than either Paris or Lyons—Gambetta gets seven thonsand yotes against one thousand nine hundred for Naquet. Naquet isa sort of radical savage whose pet fancy is to de- mand amnesty for the ‘‘patriots” who mur- dered the hostages in the Rue Haxo—and his friends class Gambetta as a reactionary, Altogether the most satisfactory feature of the result is this indication of the character of the republican victory. There could have been no serious doubt following the elections for the Senate that the Chamber would also be substantially republican ; the great doubt was what kind of republicanism it would exhibit, It was to be apprehended that the fervor of the national character might develop such a spirit as would carry the party beyond the country, and so once more put the Republic in the wrong. From that danger the nation is saved, and we do not doubt but this result isin great part due to the new system of voting by districts. Party leaders in Paris did not make up tickets for the whole counties this time; and so the result does not represent party opinions and programmes, but the national thought. ‘Tue Nearorrran Carnrvat opened yester- day, we are informed, without accident, Why not? And yet the Fourth of July never passes here without Young America shooting off a number of legs, arms and lives. If we could have all the Chinese crackers and torpedoes fired off in one grand Vesuvian blaze the effect would be better and the result less dangerous to our possible Presidente The Cabinet Rumors. So far as we are able to discover, the only grounds for the recent flood of conjectures relating to impending changes in the Cabinet are the expected retirement of General Schenck from the London mission, and the supposed exasperation of the President at Secretary Bristow’s unsparing zeal against defrauders of the revenue. The common estimate of President Grant is that he is a man who does not hesitate to reward his friends and punish his enemies, and it is hence inferred that Mr. Pierrepont will be rewarded with the mission to Eng- land, which will create one vacancy in the Cabfhet, and that Mr. Bristow is doomed, which will create another vacancy. There are also rumors that Mr. Jewell will be forced to resign, but they have nothing to support them beyond a vague impression that he is unwilling to make the Post Office De- partment a political machine. The Treasury Department and the Post Office Department control nearly all the patronage that can be made effective for electioneering purposes, and neither the President nor the republican party would be content to havethem in luke- warm hands during the Presidential canvass. If we could blot out the history of the last ten weeks there is no public man in the country who would be so universally in- dorsed as the successor of General Schenck as Attorney General Pierrepont. He has all the political qualifications and social accomplishments requisite for filling that important station with honor to himself and credit to the country. But it would be fatal to his reputation to have it believed that he has attempted to earn that promotion by complaisance to President Grant in trying to thwart Secretary Bristow. The removal of Mr. Henderson immediately after the indict- ment of General Babcock had a color of justification, but the Attorney General's subsequent acts in apparent sympathy with Babcock, and especially his surprising and unexplained circular to the district attor- neys, have excited in the minds of his real friends a feeling of profound regret, for which the London mission would not be deemed a compensation. His fellow citizens of New York would be proud to see him in a position which he is so well fitted to adorn, but they would be unwilling to have him present the faintest appearance of a willingness to purchase it by unworthy compliances with the personal resentments of the appointing power. Unless the con- cealed facts on which Mr. Pierrepont rests his ultimate defence shall prove to be a complete vindication all who value his honor as a man would be unwilling to see him ac- cept further favors from President Grant. As to Secretary Bristow, the country would be sincerely sorry if he should gratify his enemies by a voluntary resignation. The fact that his post of duty is also a post of danger cannot release him from his obligations to the country. He must conquer his disgusts and “stick.” If the President undertakes to remove him he must take care that the whole respon- sibility be made to rest on the President. Whatever coldness or insults he may en- counter in official quarters the people will support him. Thus far he has faithfully done his duty, and he must not quail beneath the frowns of the President. While Congress is in session he cannot be removed without the concurrence of the Senate, and the republicans of that body should hesi- tate long and weigh their action well before consenting to the removal of a man who has done more to redeem the charac- ter of their party than all other officers together. He has killed off one conspicuous democratic candidate for the Presidency and given the republicans a virtual monopoly of the reform cry, unless they are insane enough to abandon it and furnish their opponents with a most effective weapon. If the Presi- dent waits until after the adjournment of Congress he can suspend Mr. Bristow; but such an act would. be a confession that he durst not consult the Senate and would cover him with irretrievable disgrace. If Mr. Bristow refuses to resign President Grant is the last man in the world who should object to his contumacy. The country has not forgotten that General Grant himself, when he was Secretary of War, stoutly refused to resign at the request of President Johnson, although he had taken the office on an explicit promise to surrender it whenever the President desired. His de- nial of that promise raised a question of ve- racity between him and President Johnson, and all the other members of the Cabinet united in testifying that the truth was on the side of the President. We hope Secre- tary Bristow will stand as the resolute cham- pion of official honesty and refuse to accom- modate his enemies by a voluntary resigna- tion. A Moustcrean Discrace.—Part No. 2 of the Court of General Sessions is yet with- outa court room. It was again adjourned yesterday without being able to do any busi- ness, although the calendar is as heavy as usual, Rarm Transtt.—Now that the vaporous arguments of the objectors to rapid transit are all in, and the Commissioners have closed the hearing on both sides, the public will look for an early decision in consonance with the wants of the city and to the real benefit of the property holders. The law lays down the mode of proceeding very distinctly, and we look to the Commissioners not to retard the accomplishment of this great good to New York. The horse car companies will be rushing to buy rapid’ transit stock one of these days. ‘Tax Ants or Conripencs Mew as visible in the robbery of Mrs. Polhemus are well worthy of study, for more heartless and more cleverly planned deed of the kind has seldom been recorded. Why the police should pronounce hopeless all chance of the thieves we cannot, however, see, Adroit rascals of the kind that robbed the old lady of all she possessed are not im- possible to catch. They are only higher game for a good detective. It is hard to blame Mrs. Polhemus for keeping her money in a bag, for if she had lodged it in one of our explosive savings banks it might have disappeared just as suddenly, It might, however, have been some consolation for her, like the sailor who dropped the tarpot into the sea, that she would heve known where it had gone —TKIPLE SHEET. A Flauk Movement Against Secretary Bristow. The scheme described by our special Wash- ington correspondent for forcing Mr. Bristow out of the Cabinet by depriving him of his faithful and energetic associate in the whis- key prosecutions is exposed to every objec- tion which lies against the bolder‘ course of making open war upon the Secretary, besides involving the confession always implied in cowardice. Mr. Wilson, the Solicitor of the Treasury, is specially charged by law with the superintendence of prosecutions in reve- nue cases, and Secretary Bristow could not have had a more efficient coadjutor in his unsparing efforts to expose and punish the Whiskey Ring. He has not only co-ope- rated with the Secretary, but has made a signal display of tact and ability. During the many months while Mr. Bristow was se- cretly attempting to ferret out the frauds on the revenue and entrap their perpetrators Mr. Wilson was the only person whom he took into his confidence—the one man whom he felt that he could safely trust. He would be crippled if he were deprived of this skilful and vigorous assistant; and as his enemies do not dare to make a direct assault upon him they have hit upon the plan of removing the Solicitor of the Treas- ury, hoping that Mr. Bristow will be pro- voked to resign when he finds that he can be no longer useful. Such a stratagem is too easily seen through to have any success in shielding the adminis- tration from censure, Everybody would see that it was a skulking attack on Secretary Bristow. Everybody would say that it was an act of political cowardice as well as an attempt to protect thieves from punishment. Its effect would be as fatally damaging to the administration as an open attempt to oust Mr. Bristow, while the indirect method would show a guilty consciousness that the result really aimed at is indefensible. We trust that Mr. Wilson will not accom- modate, the enemies of Mr. Bristow b a “Fesignation, Wit is “asked for. e must not be an accomplice in the official assassination of the Secretary of the Treasury. The full responsibility of every step in this iniquitous process must be fixed on the President, to whom it exclu- sively belongs, if he intends to get rid of Mr. Bristow. As we understand the law the only way in which even Mr. Wilson can be re- moved during the session of Congress is for the President to send to the Senate the name of his proposed successor. If the Senate eonfirms the nomination Mr. Wilson goes lvout, of course, but not otherwise, until the recess of Congress. At any rate, it would be well to test the meaning of the Tenure of Office act as amended in 1869, and to havea decision by the Senate as to whether it will espouse the personal animosities of President Grant. It isthe clear duty of the Solicitor of the Treasury to “‘stick” until he is forced out. He cannot afford to desert the cause of reform and aid the enemies of Secretary Bristow by any voluntary act of complicity. The Horse Car Ristum-Kitherum. The stalwart citizen who, in the sturdy spirit of a grizzly bear among his native forests, is prepared to fight to the death for his strap in the horse cars, must be looked at with wonder by the public, He would plant his gigantic feet on the tenderest corns, crowd a poor tired work girl indelicately, growl savagely at everybody round him, and sway his ponderous body backward and for- ward at every motion of the car, knocking the breath out of every one near him, be- cause he must have his strap. The simple onlooker will say he isa disguised director of one of the grasping car monopolies or a well paid emissary of those public extortion- ists; but, fortunately for common honesty, he may only be a man whose selfishness is inor- dinate and congenital—what is poetically called a bear. He has an iron constitution, sound digestion and lungs ‘of leather, He can breathe poisoned air with the exhilaration pure oxygen would pro- duce on an ordinary mortal, and thinks that the gases which he emits from his breathing apparatus are good enongh for his fellow travellers, His sense of smell is not delicate, for he can draw through his nostrils the noxious effluvia of o sar- dine-packed car on a rainy day with the unconcern of Hercules in the Augean stables. The Framazugs of Dr. Mayo's -African romance, who had refined their nasal organs to such an extent as to perform tunes upon smells, would find him a Philistine indeed. Did, however, one of the children of that interesting nation take a ride on a Third Avenue car in the afternoon, he would imagine that the directors had thrown in a number of odorous battle pieces, He would find there all the objectionable smells in every variation and harmonic blending which are used in his native land to illustrate the more violent emotions on the Framazug nose- harp, or ristum-kitherum. He would find, moreover, a number of unique odors which had never penetrated his happy land, and which he could only hope to reproduce on his return by enclosing in a big unventilated box as many unwashed Framazugs as cowd be packed into it, and then shaking them up for an hour or so. He would thus possibly get most of the Third Avenue smells, in full tones and semitones, and all its fortissimo im- pure airs; but he would soon need a fresh sup- ‘ply of performers, as these odors are only to be obtained from the livinganimal. We could supply him with a few inveterate strappers and a whole corps of horse car directors to begin with. Possibly in time, by having pipes leading from hospitals, sewers and old clothes stores, he might become indepen- dent of the human sacrifices at first necessary to play the “Third Avenue Battle Piece” or “Belt Line Thunder Symphony” on the nose- harp, as the Chinese finally gave up burning the piggeries to produce roast sucking pig when they found it could be done otherwise less expensively. For New York, however, says:the strapper, the present method is good enough. A man or woman, however delicate, can take part in the generation of the most exquisitely impure air for five cents, They will die of it in the end, but they will only point the stern law of the survival of the fittest. Offensive smells, suffocatingly impure air, laden with disease and death, can be had in the crowded cars, and woe to him who would rob ‘the poor man or girl of the right to be cheaply poisoned. That is nat our aranment, We beliave in vantilatad cars, a seat for everybody who pays and no strappers. Mr. Castelar’s Letter. We print this morning an eloquent letter from ex-President Castelar giving a picture of one of the closing sessions of the French Assembly. Remembering that Mr. Castelar himself is among the most distinguished ot living orators, and that he has just passed from trying @ grave experiment—namely, the foundation of parliamentary government in Spain—his views on the subject of the French Assembly are worthy of profound attention. The difference between the vivacious, eager, irrepressible Assembly in Versailles, and the grave, majestic, almost religious Cortes, of which Castelar himself is a member, is pic- turesquely described. We have a generous and just estimate of the power and foresight of Mr. Thiers. Mr. Castelar makes an elo- quent reference to the historic fame of the royal theatre which is now the hall of the Assembly, In this hall the French Repub- lic found its birth, for here took place the famous dinner of the Royal Guards, which awoke the anger of Paris and precipitated . the fall of the Bastile. It would be a singu- lar illustration of the harmony and justice of history if the Republic which then came into being, to die amid bloodshed and terror, should finda new and lasting life in the same hall under the beneficent influences of the wisdom of Thiers, the honesty and pa- triotism of MacMahon. France is now pass- ing through a grand and interesting period. The observations and criticisms of a specta- tor like Mr. Castelar belong to the history as well as the literature and news of the day. Tue Caruists have been literally driven to the wall, as they find themselves hemmed in against the mountains of Guipuzcoa, Ii Don Carlos has not actually fled to Franet- he may soon be expected there, for the line: of his followers have been broken every: where; their strongholds, which nature and sejence had rendered all but impregnable taken, and nothing left the Pretender but to fly or to fall. He is probably satisfied to leave the lion-hearted Basque mountaineers to do all the dying, and ii they have not imbibed too strong a taste fot fighting to return immediately to work in the fields and smuggling contraband articles through the passes of the Pyrenees the war will soon be over. Arrorney Gunerat Prerrepont has been called to order by the House of Representa tives, it wanting to know by what authority and for what purpose he issued his late ex traordinary circular to the United States district’ attorneys engaged in fighting the whiskey rings, Let us have a frank, and not a specious, explanation, Mr. Attorney General. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Spiritist Foster is in Washington. Mrs, Speaker Kerr has white hair, Mrs, Potter Palmer wears silk of faint blue. Poet Lowell’s home is called ‘‘Elmwood.”’ It is ax ancestral ball. Mr. Moody says:—“If we can’t bea lighthouse let us bea tallow candle.’’ But by no means let us be gas, Philadelphia City Item:—‘‘Paul Butler, son of Gen, B..F. Butler, is one of the prominent beaux in Wash- ington this winter.”” ‘A foreign critic thinks that England’s boasted powes was only moral influence coming from Wollington’s defeat of Bonaparte. The wealth of England was never so groat as at this time, and the thoughtless improvidence of Englishmen ‘was never more conspicuous. it was Talleyrand who said that “one must have loved a woman of genius in order to comprehend what happiness there is in loving a fool.’” In Cashmere, India, it may require thirty mon for » Year, or many months, according to the fineness of the texture, to produce a dozen shawls, When the affairs of the Bank of California are cast up it will be found that Senator Bill Sharon is: much more of a man than his enemies pretended. ‘Those persons who have read with intense interest George Eliot’s latest work will be glad to learn that the second book will be called “Meeting Streams, ”’ From the State press of New York we undorstana that, as a political sentiment, Horatio Seymour is far abead of 8. J. Tilden in the candidacy for President. Colonel W. M. Grosvenor has assumed fall contro! of The Public, a high toned, erudite weekly, in the style of the Nation, We wish it the success that it it will never get. The London Times says itis authorized to say that there is no foundation whatever for the statement which have been made with respect to the marriage @ Princess Beatrice, An Eastern legend says that the human head wa originally composed of peacocks’ tails, This was be fore Senator Morrissey used to say to Heenan, ‘Heads 1 win, tails you lose.” Says a European writer :—-‘The very power and prida the very raison d'etre of music is that it expresses thm which words are powerless to express, which can be expressed in no other way.’’ ‘The Georgian who was cast off by the nineteon-yeas old bionde for the sixty-four-year old Christiancy fy going to hang around Washington until she becomes « widow and gets her thirds, On the Pacific slope squirrels and rabbits are se bothersome to crops that squads of tarmers go out te have three and four day bunts, on the plan of our olé ‘time baro raisings and stone frolics. At a dinner to Senator Sharon in San Francisco the menu appeared oma solid silver bill of fare worth $44 for each guest. The St. Louis Republican says that the question & greatest concern with the Eastern wholesalers at pres ent is how to become independent of their drummers and resume control of their own business. An English critic says that the whole philosophy o musical composition, broadly stated, is the art of pro- gressing logically, and yet with apparent freedom trom one point of repose to another. * “The wealthiest man among us is the best,” ex claimed Wordsworth, who lamented the loss of plais living and high thinking; and there is truth in Mr, Smiles’ assertion that “accumulation of money has be come the great desire and passion of the age.” A New Hampshire paper says that the English spar. row which drives out native birds is a good doal like the distinguished foreign counts who are reported at our summer watering places, and who usually turo out te be Bavarian barbers or something of that sort. A Nyack Indy asks what the New York boys with little boxes, like hand organs, on their backs, mean by orying out, “Hay, shine?’ Madame, these young gentlemen are perapatetic philosophers, and they mean to inculcate the postulate, ‘Make hay while the sun shines,”’ They have a still more brief way of expross- sng their philosophy In “Shinem."” Lafayette and De Tocqueville tell into the error of believing that the early prosperity of the United States was the result of republiean institutions, whereas, it really originated with the virtues of men trained under the English monarchical régime M. Le Play is of opin- tom that since the publication of Rousseau’s “Contrat Social” no work has done so much harm as De Tocque- ville’s “D6mocratie en Amérique,” Tho Nashville American, speaking of the death of the Atlanta (Ga.) Herald, says:—‘The Herald’s suspension supports the proposition ave heretofore advanced, that to each city. of not less than 35,000 population only one daily journal can have reasonable hope of re- Manerative existence, One daily to every 40,000 of population is about the newspaper supporting capacity of the largest and most prosperous cities. Its surviving tival had an older existence and more permanent good will, for papers long established seem to have a mar- wslious tenacity of life