The New York Herald Newspaper, March 14, 1876, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD | ANN STREET. BROADWAY AND j 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 e. | All business, news letters or telegray hic | despatches must be addressed New Yore i ERALD. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. i . \ Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO. 112SOUTH 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 VOLUME XLL AMUSEMENTS 'TO-NIGHT. GERMANIA DIE VALENTINE, ot 8 THEATRE. PARISI VARIETY, at@P.M. M BAN FRANCISCO MINST! GLOBE VARIETY, at 8 P. M. ROOTINS THEATRE. SULIUS CHSAR, at P.M. Mr. Lawrence Rarrett, OLYMPIC THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. TIVOLI THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P. M. EATRE. ; Wallack. THEATRE. M. MABILLE VARIFTIES, THEATRE. P.M. Miss Kate Claxton. UNION SQUARE THEATRE. ROSE MICHEL, at 8 POM. PARK THEATRE. George Fawcett Rowe, LYCEUM THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P. M, BOWERY THEATRE. BERTHA, at8 P.M. Charles Foster. FIFTH A PIQUE, at8P.M Fanny THIRTY-FOURTH oT VARIETY, at 8 P.M. CHATE, VARIETY, at 5 P. BROOK THE TWO ORPHAN: BRASS, at 8 P. M. E THEATRE. nport. BET OPERA HOUSE. TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK, TUESDAY. » 1876, Pe a eee From our reports this morning the probabiliti @re that the weather to-day will be generally clear. Taz Henap sy Fast Mau Trarns.— News- dealers and the public throughout the country will be supplied with the Datry, Wxexiy and BKunpay Henarp, free of postage, by sending their orders direct to this office. Wart Srnert Yzsrerpay.—Stocks were unsettled and not understood. Gold was tirmer at 1145-88 1143-4. The Pacific Mail Company determined to issue $2,000,000 31-2 per cent. Government bonds were strong. Investments steady. Axsent Epwanp is on his way home, with the prospect of being Emperor of India some day. Tae Frexcn Repvsricays want the spoils of office already. They seem disposed to give the Left Centre Cabinet a chance, but the faint promise of support is so con- ditional that before long we may expect animated debates, Amnesty appears to be the order of the day in Europe. France will amnesty the Communists, more or less ; England is about to set her Fenians free, Spain is pardoning her Carlists and the Porte offers amnesty to the revolted Christians. Has amnesty been forgotten here ? Tur Hovsr or Representatives yesterday lost a good deal of valuable time by voting and talking on a two-and-two-make-five buncombe resolution introduced by a repub- lican member. It is a great pity to notice how a fool on one side of the House can always count on rousing a dormant dool on the other side. Waar Wu Become of the insurrection in | Bosnia and Herzegovina, now that a num- ber of its unpronounceable chieftains have been arrested in Austrian territory, remains to be seen. Servia is seething in a manner which must lead to an outbreak in some di- rection, and either Prince Milan or the | Turks will suffer in consequence. | | Tae Lerrer rrom Wiruiam Wersn, the friend of the Indians, which we publish elsewhere, should commend itself to those who wish to see the red men get a chance to live and be civilized... He proposes to hand over the care of the Indians to the War De- partment, and in spite of an occasional | Belknap there is no doubt they would be better off than in the hands of the ring-rot- ten Interior Department. Tae Recommenvations of the Coroner's Jury in the case of the old men who lost their lives in the burning of the Home for | the Aged are not by any means what we had | hoped for. There is no reference to any one's , responsibility for the disaster, and the only | thing the carrying out of what they recommend | would insure is that nobody would here- | after be burned on the fourth floor, because | nobody would then sleep there. Must wo | wait for another such calamity to see some | wholesome rules in the construction of such | buildings laid down as the condition on which people, old or young, should be per- mitted to sleep in them? Eoyrr axp Anrsetxra.—The hostile move- | ments on the Abyssinian frontier have re- sulted in desperate fighting, which is tele- | graphed from Alexandria as a series of | Egyptian victories. The Abyssinians, em- | boldened by their late success, assumed the offensive ; but this time they had been pre- | pared for. The Egyptians twice routed their foes with-great loss on both sides ; but as we | do not hear of any sustained pursuit of the fleeing Abyssinions it would seem that | the Egyptians are not in sufficient force to follow up the two repulses by a vigorous | advance. A curious feature of this war is | that England stands metaphorically between | the combatants, like the fencing master in a | seemed calculated to provoke the fierce Georgia. bonds. Money on call was easy at 3 and | the propriety of disconnecting the revenue service from party politics? Why should | [should feel very much like praying, ‘Lord, NEW YQKK AERALD, TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 1876—TRIPLE SHEET. Senator Gordon’s Speech on the Col- | lection of the Whiskey Tax. { The speech delivered in the Senate, a few days since, by General Gordon, of Georgia, was immediately replied to by Mr. Morton | and Mr. Sherman in so invective a spirit and with such bitter partisan vehemence that readers of the telegraphic summary were led to infer that Senator Gordon had overstepped the proprieties of discussion and made a | violent party harangue. As there was noth- ing in the brief summary of his speech that | philippics of his assnilants we were curiods to read the full debate as officially reported in the Congressional Record. After a careful perusal we find nothing to justify that re- markable outburst of party virulence. We are less surprised that Mr. Morton should begin such on assault than that Mr. Sher- man should support it, for the last named | Senator has a reputation for moderation and candor. General Gordon's speech was really marked by singular elevation of tone and forbearance to turn the subject to party advantage. In- stead of making the recent frauds a topic of party crimination he only attempted to erect barriers against their repetition. The reme- dies he proposed would, if adopted, require the renunciation by the democratic party of the maxim that ‘to the victors belong the spoils.” General Gordon’s propositions were—first, to regulate the whiskey tax by the capacity of the fermenting tubs, and collect it monthly or weekly in advance; and, second, to make the internal revenue officers irremovable ex- cept for dishonesty or incapacity. The first of these changes is no doubt open to some of the practical objections raised against it by Mr. Sherman, but it has no apparent con- nection with party politics. Mr. Sherman virtually conceded that it was based on a sound idea by his statement that the ca- pacity of the fermenting tubs is now care- fully measured and recorded, and that it is one of the chief tests of the honesty of the reports made by distillers. But Gen- eral Gordon laid the stress of his speech on the other part of his proposal, thinking that a separation of the revenue from party poli- tics is the essential and indispensable re- form. There is no reason why republican Sena- tors should have worked themselves into a rage of party hostility against General Gor- don for offering such a proposition. Its plain effect would be to debar the democratic party from filling the internal revenue ser- vice with its own creatures and tools if it should come into power next year. Sucha proposition from a prominent democratic Senator should have been received with grateful satisfaction by honest republicans. Most certainly it should not have been made the occasion of a furious partisan attack on Senator Gordon and of dragging in such irrelevant topics as his former connection with the rebel army and the local politics of What have these to do with General Gordon be browbeaten and aspersed and his military record be raked up against him fora speech favoring in one branch of administration the same civil service reform which President Grant was at one time understood to favor and the republicans in Congress made a pretence of supporting in all branches? The scorn poured on General Gordon's proposal of a non-partisan revenue service by Messrs. Morton and Sherman demonstrates the hypocritical insincerity of the republicans in Congress when they professed to support the same kind of reform and to favor its ap- plication to all departments of the civil service. If of any value at all it would have the most salutary effect in its application to revenue officers, as proposed by General Gordon, for this is the department where it is most necessary to guard against abuses, The Herarv, which has been the steady, zealous and sincere advocate of civil service reform, will not look on with indifference when a Senator is assailed with violent par- tisan abuse for no other offence than a wise, temperate and courteous advocacy of an im- portant reform in the collection of the rev- enue. What could be more forcible and pertinent than General Gordon's explanation of the fact that England can collect a tax of $2 50 on distilled spirits without frauds or evasion while we fail to collect one-third of that sum ? “The reason,” said Senator Gordon, “is this:—England appoints her officers solely to collect her taxes, while here they are ap- pointed to collect the taxes and to aid the party which happens for the time to have the appointing power.” This hits the mark in the centre, and it is no wonder that it was greeted with ‘‘applause in the galleries,’ which the President of the Senate | checked by a loud ery of “order.” The | non-partisan tone in which this view was urged may be made apparent by a féw brief quotations from Senator Gordon's speech. ‘I wish,” said he, ‘‘to repeat my profound conviction that whatever party shall be called to administer the govern- ment and shall proceed to appoint men to | oftice and to collect the taxes because of the | influence they can bring to the party we | shall be forced to blush at these revenue crimes.” ‘Convinced as I am of the fact that any change of parties would be benefi- cial, yet so fully persuaded am I of the | power of these temptations to appoint party | agents and the temptation to party agents to use the government money to perpetuate the | party in powet and themselves in place, that deliver the democrats also from temptation !" “I believe, as I have already said, that the people of this country have determined upon a change of rulers, and party patronage would be as potent in the hands of the dem- ocrats as it has been in the hands of those who now administer the government.” All fair minds will concede that re- marks in this strain rise above low) partisan politics, and such minds will be astonished that they subjected their author to violent partisan vituperation. It is the wish of Senator Gordon to take the | revenue service as completely out of partisan politics as the military service has always been. The army officers retain their com- missions through all changes of administra- | | illustrious | patronymic, and one shudders to think of selves in their fortunes, not one army officer in ten taking the trouble to vote. If the officers of the revenue were equally inde- pendent they would be equally indifferent to party movements, and we might expect the same high sense of integrity which pervades the regular army. At any rate the English revenue service is free from the scandalous frauds practised in our own, and the rev- enue officers are never dismissed except for misconduct, General Gordon dwelt with just emphasis on this example as well as that of our own army officers, and the scofls of his assailants about ‘‘a privileged class” were a shallow and contemptible eva- sion of a sound argument. During the first forty years of our government removals were seldom made, and that period was re- markable for purity of administration. Gen- eral Gordon merely wishes to restore by law a state of things which formerly existed by the public virtue of our Presidents. The cry of “‘a privileged class,” when raised against the only method which can secure an honest civil service is disreputable demagogism, and Senator Sherman, at least, should be ashamed of it. With revenue service formed on the model of that of England, we could collect a tax of two dollars on each gallon of whiskey as easily a8 a tax of fifty cents, to the great advantage of the national revenue, and a still greater benefit to the public and private morals of the country—to public morals by an honest civil service, and to private morals by restraining the vice of drunkenness. We would go further in this direction than Senator Gordon, and are confident the best moral sentiment of the country would go with us. We would extend his proposed reform to all ‘branches of the civil service (excepting Cabinet offi- cers and Ministers to foreign governments), and, while diminishing the number of offi- cers, we would give them a liberal compen- sation and retire them on moderate pen- sions after a long course of faithful service. By enabling them to live respectably on their salaries we would both remove the temptation to seek illicit gains and make their offices so valuable that they would take care not to forfeit them by inefficiency or misconduct. By cutting off the hosts of sinecurists who are appointed for political reasons and render only partisan services money enough would be saved to make all the hard working public servants comforta- ble, and cause them to set such a valuo on their places as would best assure their in- dustry, integrity and zeal for the public interest. Centennial, As the centennial craze, so far from waning is daily increasing in force and in the number of its votaries, it seems probable that the reckless abuse of that unfortunate word will not abate until the end of this an- niversary year, when, let us fervently hope, it may be allowed to return to its own modest uses, congratulating ourselves mean- while if some uncouth verb is not violently compounded from it to enrich the large vocabulary of modern colloquial slang. But there is another horror now hanging over the whole country, like the sword of Damocles, which is more entirely connected with the coming Exposition in ‘Philadel- phia, and which can only be averted by the most vigorous measures; this is a growing tendency, especially in the rural districts, to look upon the whole thing in the light of what is usually called in this country a “museum.” It is undoubtedly very proper that a de- partment for patriotic relics should be formed for the exhibition of genuine and historical remembrancers of the great events now being commemorated ; but even that department can be sadly overdone if the in- troduction be permitted of numberless only original ‘‘little hatchets,” small furniture made of the wood of the sacred cherry tree, skulls of horses once bestridden by the Father of his Country, or bands of toothless and in- firm colored people claiming to have be- longed to his household. This will be sad enough, although it will perhaps give an amusing variety to the de- partment; but it is more dreadful still to ob- serve how completely the bucolic mind is overcast with the vague idea of a “big show” in prospect, and then to contemplate the avalanche of calves with two heads, tront with two tails, in short, all the usual and un- usual rural and aquatic curiosities that will shortly roll down upon the devoted Centen- nial Building. ‘The soft, half-effaced mem- ories of the woolly horse, the Fiji mer- maid, or of that protean personage Joyce Heth, that still gild the past, will be effectually extinguished by the similar won- ders in store for us, if we are to believe the crisp little paragraphs that are beginning to crop ont in the various country news- papers. If this additional attraction to the Fair- mount Park Building is tobe allowed then we must suggest that it should be rendered com- plete. Let us have a vast baby show which shall cast into the shade all previous ex- hibitions of that nature, and astound envious foreigners by the beauty of our coming generation; and, above all, let the Com- missioners provide space for a cireus and the | inevitable menagerie. In the burst of patriotic enthusiasm now | blazing up on all sides it seems more than | probable, too, that every boy who has the luck to be born in 1876 will have to bear the initials of G. W. before his the hopeless confusion of the future census taker, especially in a neighborhood enjoying # wealth of Smiths or Browns, and rendering that individual, if not idiotic, at any rate very sorry that there ever was a celebration of a centennial year. Warr Warrmax has found a friend in England in the person of his brother poet, Robert Buchanan. The latter's indignation at the ‘impoverishment” of the bard of | “Leaves of Grass” leads him to have a fling | at “the literary coteries which emasculate America.” The harmful work of such co- teries we admit; but Homer, we are told, | begged for bread, Chatterton was driven to | suicide, Otway was a starveling and Milton in his day fared no better than Walt in ours. Let us hope, however, that the liberal think- ers of America will not leave the work of | The Sovereignty of the People and @ Responsible Cabinet. We may reasonably hope that by the changes which are to take place this year men of high character and ability will be placed at the head of affairs, But should it for- ‘tunately be within our power to bring about such a reformation can we maintain it per- manently ? We are continually preaching about the insensibility and apathy of the people—that is, ourselvyes—as to public affairs, and some- times even goad each other on to temporary political action, Americans are as patriotic, as sensitive to the national honor, as much concerned about publie affairs and affected by political changes as any people on the face of the globe; yet we often charge each other with a want of these qualities so essene tial to the preservation of true liberty, But is it not natural that our good intentions should have but little result and that our efforts should be spasmodic and con- fined to the fixed periods of elections, since we all know that the moment a President {has been elected the country has lost its control over the administration? It is true, we may attempt to exercise an inflnence by electing members of Congress who are op- posed in polities to the Presidént and his Secretaries ; but then, as is at present the case, a deadlock is produced, every one is at cross purposes, and the business of legisla- tion is impeded. High officials never before held responsible before the Legislature and the country are brought to justice, but in the meantime we must have impeachments and indictments, able men must. serve on committees of investigation and important measures of policy must be postponed. The people are therefore compelled, in order to make an effectual and satisfactory change, to wait until the stated time of the Presiden- tial election, and the result is that their long severance from politics renders it diffi- cult for them to arrive at correct conclu- sions, and places their votes at the dis- posal of a party organization. Imme- diately after the election the rivets are again fastened, and we are once more saddled with a horde of partisans and federal office-holders, The President and the victorious party at his back are to remain in power during four years, and per- haps for eight; we may then grumble, and generally do to our hearts’,content, but soon relapse into inaction, with a consciousness that we are powerless to exercise any authority over our rulers. We could, however, so amend our political system as to make it necessary for one or all the members of an unpopular Cabinet to resign when in a position of hostility to the majority in Congress, and whose successors would be in harmony with public opinion, The will of the people would then be constantly re- flected ‘at the seat of government, and this power of control and share in the policy of the administration would remove the causes of that popular apathy of which we hear so much. On the other hand, the Presidential office would become one of greater dignity and could no longer be reached and retained by the promises and distribution of patron- age, and there would be a corresponding effect on the civil service. This element of responsibility could be in- troduced without doing violence to the spirit of the constitution, of which the fanda- mental principle is that sovereignty is vested in the people. On the contrary, in estab- lishing a responsible Cabinet we should be carrying out the expressed intention of the constitution, because this sovereignty would actually assert itself atall times, and not as at present only at stated periods and @ long intervals. But an exact copy of the English Parliamentary system would neither be de- sirable nor possible, for the constitution re- quires us to preserve our executive and leg- islative departments distinct from each other. If, however, the substantial benefits which would follow such an alteration in our po- litical organization became generally recog- nized, and the matter were fairly debated in the public mind, some plan adapted to our institutions would surely be devised. The American Railway Bond Forgers. It is evident that Harmens and Rollins, who were arrested in Paris on a well founded charge of negotiating forged bonds on Amer- ican railways in Belgium, had great faith in the apparent genuineness of their spurious paper, ifwe may judge by the boldness of their transactions. That they were able to impose the forged bonds upon two promi- nent European brokers, and that the ficti- tiousness of the paper was only discovered by a third, tells a good deal for the high character of the felonious workmanship. Jnfortu- nately for the high art of counterfeiting the timely discovery by Messrs. Taxeras shows that there is a quality which the forger’s inks, his engraver, his pens, his caligraphy article he would imitate, but he cannot help writing dishonesty somewhere on the face of his work. He imitates closely as far as he sees, until there is nothing to distinguish the imitation from the original to the casual eye; but there is yet some- thing overdone, something left undone, which stings an astute observer .with he can differentiate the apparently true from the palpably false. with, can never work with the free hand of honest toil. cess, a groping to put together the separate parts of a thing which has been ‘‘created,” chemist will tell you what milk is composed of, but give the best of them the most accu- | pint of the lacteal fluid, and he will in all humility take off his hat to the nearest cow. There is the same differ- ence between the work of the most expert there would be between the concoction of the learned chemist and the product of the tion might be sweet and white and have something creamy on the top, lut a baby would reject it, The Batik of England's notes are confessedly the hardest to forge | becanse of the peculiar strong, white, crisp qualities of the paper, together | San its ‘water mark.” Some years ago a | quantity of this paper was stolen from the work always falls short of. His paper, his | may be each as good as those used on the | a sense of its fraudulence even before | The forger, to begin | It is a painful, synthetical pro- | soto speak, in the first instance. Every | rate formula and ask him to make youn | forger and that of the honest workman that | unsophisticated cow. The chemist’s concoc- | for successful forgery if ever there was one, It was as though the milk-making chemist had the fluid caseine given him. But the forged notes were promptly discovered, and the dangerous rivals of the Bank of England were clad in felon’s garb before they could realize a hundred pounds apiece from their subtle knavery. Like that strange product of decaying organism, the vibrion, with which M. Dumas illustrates, in his latest play, the certainty of corrupt exerescences being flung off the stronger body in natural course, these latest experts in criminal handiwork, Messrs. Harmens and Rollins, were foredoomed to destruction, although they had guarded against ninety- nine chances out of the hundred. Very skilful forgery, indeed ; daring operators ; got two thousand dollars on their bonds ; fifteen years each in a Belgian jail. That is their story. The Effects of Bad Ventilation in the Public Schools. The experience of nearly every parent whose children attend our ill-ventilated and overcrowded schools is that the little ones are constantly liable to attacks of illness which tend to weaken their constitutions and lead to prolonged periods of delicacy. The evil effects of inhaling a vitiated atmos- phere are so numerous that we can properly attribute to that cause most of the ailments of school children. Bad water and food may introduce poison into the system, but the effects of its action on the tissues of the stomach usually manifest themselves with such rapidity that promptly administered remedies will to a large extent neutralize them and the cause of the trouble is easily detected. In the case of air poisoning it is differ- ent, for the assault on health is made through the vital channels of the lungs and the blood, and the evil effects are apparent only when the system becomes impregnated with the insidious venom that saps the foundations of life itself. Tho celebrated Dr. Carmichael drew attention in, 1809 to the production of scrofulous diseases among school children by want of proper ventila- tion, and in referring to the over- crowded and ill-ventilated condition of the House of Industry states that ‘there was no enduring the air when the doors were thrown open in the morn- ing,” the cubic air space to each inmate being under one hundred and twenty feet. We have many schools in New York where the air space per pupil is less than sixty feet, and the atmosphere is loaded with the accumulated impurities of many hours during which the children inhale it. Innumerable evidences exist that the preva- lence of consumption is largely due to blood poisoning caused by bad ventilation. The medical records are filled with instances bearing out this fact, which it is not neces- sary to repeat here. The origin and spread of typhus fever and its variations through an insufficiency of pure air are so well estab- lished that no doubt any longer exists re- garding the causation of that disease. Aéri- form poison— “Whose effect Holde such an enmity with blood of man ‘That, swift as quicksilver, it courses throug} ‘The batural gates and alleys of the body; And with a sudden vigor it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blvod”’— is the primary cause of many of the ailments of children, and nowhere does there exist more angerous reservoirs of this deadly agent than the ill-ventilated school rooms of New York city. True Economy—How Not to Save. The more we think of the proposed plan to cut down expenses by reducing the sala- ries of the necessary officers the more we feel that it is not the way to secure an efficient government. No one doubts that the time has come for the city, State and nation to economize, and if there were a plan for reducing expenses that did not mean the injury of the public service we should only be too glad to give it our support. But there are certain offices which cannot be cut down without injury to the public. The proposition at Washington to reduce the salaries of the President and the members of the Cabinet is demagogical. It would be much better to give the President a hundred thousand dollars a year and the members of the Cabinet what are paid to the same officers in France and England than to reduce them to what is now proposed in the bill of Mr. Randall. The American people are neither small nor mean in their notions, If a statesman is worthy to be President or to sit in the Cabinet of a President he is worthy to be paid what a successful lawyer in city practice would re- gard as a moderate income. How can we expect to have Presidents and Secretaries who will do the country the best service on any other plan? If we come to the business of stinting the salaries of these high officers we shall have one of two things—either Bel- knaps or millionnaires. The President is said to be so much impressed with the impor- tance of this truth that he is reported as say- ing that he would have no one in his Cabinet who was not amillionnaire. Now there could be no precedent more unfortunate than that no one should be in public place who did | not have a large fortune. We should have been deprived of some of our most efficient | Presidents if we had made the property qualification imperative. It is the first step | toward the establishment of an aristocracy of the worst kind—that of money—to con- | sent for a moment to what the President proposes. The idea in the mind of the President is that men worthy to sit in execu- tive council should not be expected to live and labor on a pittance. So far he is right. But the remedy is not in having milliqn- | naires in office, but in paying statesmen good | salaries. So also in our New York government. We hear that it is proposed among other things to ent down the salaries of the judges. This wonld be a serious blunder. We pay our | judges good but not by any means ex- travagant salaries. There is not a lawyer of | eminence in New York who would not scorn the income we pay to our judges if he were asked to accept it in lieu of his annual pro- fessional earnings. Why, then, should we expect the judges to do for the people what | would be declined by lawyers of eminence? Should we not so pay our judges that it | would be an inducement for the best men to | German students’ duel, to see that neither tions, and, being independent of political helping Walt Whitman in his time of suffer- | mills, and skilful engravers set to work to | go onthe bench? That inducement does imitate the printed face, Here was a chance | not now exist, And if we cut down judicial | Growing 0-uid” party is too much hurt - parties, they do not actively interest them- | ing entirely in foreign hands, | feparation. Salaries {t will grow weaker. The result will be in the future as in the past, that men will go on the bench to make money by the use of its power and patronage, to the scan- dal and the shame of justice. The way to economize is to cut down the number of offices. New York is burdened with sinecures created and protected for the purpose of strengthening the influence of political organizations. Here is the true road to economy, and our Legislatures should hasten to seek it. Cut down the bureaus with which the city abounds. Re- duce the staffs. Make those who are neces- sarily in office do a good share of work. But economy is never found in paying good men poor wages. That always ends in mal- administration. It is unworthy of a thrifty and well managed government. Weare con- fident that the more our legislators think of it the more they will see that it is the worst kind of economy, and not what the people desire in the administration of affairs, New Hampshire To-Day. Our despatch from Concord, the capital of the Granite State, seems to betoken a repub- lican success in the election which takes place to-day; but our correspondent ascribes it to a reason which is disgraceful to the republican party. He thinks they have bought up the greater part of the pur. chasable voters, and that the elec tion will be controlled by corrup-_ tion. We are reluctant to believe this; partly because we do not regard bribery as a legitimate electioneering appliance, and partly because a strong rebuke of the ad- ministration would have a wholesome politi- cal effect after the recent exposures at Wash- ington. We should be sincerely sorry to think that the people of any State are indif- ferent spectators of official corruption. If the election returns should verify the pre- diction of our correspondent we hope it may turn out that the result is not due to bribery, for we would more willingly accept any other explanation than this, which is so discreditable to the character of Amer- ican citizens. Astounding disclosures of cor- ruption are less likely to have their full effect on an election which takes place im- mediately than after the lapse of an inter- val. On the eve of an election people are apt to suspect that such reports are invented or exaggerated for the occa- sion, and when a set of counter reports are put in circulation by the other party that portion of the voters who either accept both or discredit both are* not likely to change sides. The Belknap exposure has been offset by industriously diffused rumors af- fecting the character of distinguished dem- ocrats; and, although the latter are un- proved and Belknap's corruption is con- fessed, the stories may not be very closely sifted in the heat of a violent party ccatest. Had the New Hamp- shire election taken place o month ago the republicans would easily have car- ried the State, as the party has been steadily gaining since the subsidence of the great democratic ‘‘tidal wave” of 1874. The legit- imate effect of the Belknap exposure should be to arrest the gains of the republican party and set its prospects back, and we still hope that the actual returns will show, even in New Hampshire, that political suc. cess is not independent of mpral character. Dr. Srorrs’ Church of the Pilgrims be- lieves that the principles deducible from the action of the late Advisory Council are ‘novel, false and revolutionary, and sub- versive of the platforms and polity of the Congregational communion, and that it does not hold itself bound to continue denomina- tional fellowship with any church which ad- heres to those principles.” At this rate Mr. * Beecher, while he may not serve his denomi- nation, forces at least one of his doubtful friends to commit theological hari-kari. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Senator Edmunds has a long head and a long face, Queen Victoria wears black, with a white tulle votl, Robert Dale Owen is about to sail for Europe in good health. Princess Beatrice wears pale lilac, with syringe bow quets. A sudden thaw in aris has caused on opidemic of influenza, Pendleton gave Belknap’s bride away, and ever since that time somebody has been given away. Tho Right Hon. W. KE. Childers has returned ta Ottawa, and is the guest of the Governor General, Franklin (Ky.) Patriot:-—“Mrs, Belknap has got the biggest “pull-back’ of any woman in America.” Dr. Hans Von Bulow swung his hat under the piano at Washington this week, and it was a very good hat. Alexandre Dumas favors the making of a new French flag out of all the rival ones, with the tri-color as « base. Secretary Chandler has just learned with alarm that the tobacco crop in the Remedios district in Cuba is @ failure. Said a Dutch diplomatist, “Holland had a literature beforo Germany had grammar."’ This was bright; but, now? The Chicago Tribune complains that several items ig this column are not strictly “personal.” Why, then, does the C. 7. talk so much about them? Mr, William Beach Lawrence, of Newport, the pub. licist enemy of Richard H, Dana, Jr., is im Washing. ton opposing the confirmation of the latter, Hon. Alexander Mitchell arrived im New York last evening on his way to Florida, probably to escape the Commercial Times, which insists oa making him Mib waukee's Centennial Mayor. It is not often that we say mach; bat if the Wash- ington Chronicle does not like the personals of the Henratp it ts not forced to copy them, We have been writing for the Chronicle just for fan, In the olden days, at the time Miss Patterson mar- ried Prince Jerome Bonaparte, a gentleman who was at the wedding said, ‘Ali the clothes she had on I could have put into my waistevat pocket.’ The fritish Medical Journal says that persons with light-colored eyes make the most succossful shots, both with the billiard ene and the rifle. Bnt you conldn’t expect a man to do well with a black ere, Professor Crookes discovers that tho light of » candle weighs 0.001,728 grains, Ifa follow could get ap a step of two farthor without trying to slide the candle down the baluster there might be a small difference, but not much. ‘The late Horace Greeley amused himself with entting down trees. Mr. Gladstone also cuts down trees, Ever Lord Derby 18 eaid to be clever at cutting down trees Bat we still point with pride to George Washington the original Woodsman, Who wouldn't spare that trea Liebig says:—“The animal is, in organic nature, the fron; the plant ts the water, for nature begins with the relative separation of the sexes and then ends in thu The animal decomposes the iron, the plant decomposes the water, The female and the male sex of the plant is the carbon and the nitrogen @ the water.” Here comes a scientist to say that as civilization ad. vances longevity increases, and that this longevity be longs to the class of Vrain workers rather than to the class of muscle workers, Correct. This 1s what makes those brain workers get up early, evon as carly at nearly the day before, and sing “Doar Mother, I Am . . ‘