The New York Herald Newspaper, March 16, 1876, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, THE DAILY HERALD, published every | the . Four cents per copy. Mate vey adie year, or one dollar per month, free of postage. All busimess, news letters or telegray eanaphe despatches must be addressed New Heraxp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re turned. PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO. 112 SOUTH SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—-NO! 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AVENUE DE L’OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will bo received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. i VOLUME XII..-++-+++ teeceeeescercoceeseseses NO, 71 AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, at 8 P. ML GLOBE THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P. M. =m eo g Gas MEBATER, JULIUS CASAR, ot 8 , Lawrence Barrett. OLY ies THE. ‘god TARIETY,atS P.M. Matinee at 2’. M. TWENTY-THIRD ET OPERA HOUSE, BALIFORNIA MINST! M. Matineo at 2P. M. ‘O01 TOTES GENERAL ot M uM. Matinee at 2 P.M, THEATRE, 1 FARIETY, at 8 P. M. WALLAGK’S THEATRE, THE WONDER, at SP. M. Lester Wallack, 4 PASTORS | NEW THEATRE, TON FARIETY, at 8 O G TALL. ULUSTRATED ger at 8 P.M. Professor Crom- well. CHATEAU MABILLE VARIETIES, FARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matinee ai BROO: ats EAT) Miss Kate Claxton. RE THEATRE, LED ASTRA U si ROSE MICHEL, a 8 } PAl BRASS, at 8 P.M. sees BO CELL 201, at 8 P.M "oh Lat PTH AVI PIQUE, at SP. M € TWN: FOU URTHT 8 oTREET OPERA HOUSE. FARIETY, oxnniZix “THEATRE. MEGENLIESCHEN, at papell: FARTETY, at 8PM TRIPLE § SHEET. NEW YORK, THURSDAY. MARCH 16, 1876, VARIETIES. From our reports this morning the probabilities are thal the weather to-day will be cloudy, with vain. ‘Tue Henawp py Fast Mam Taare, — Nerrs- dealers and the public throughout the country | decay. NEW YORK HERALD, TI THURSDAY, MARCH I6, 1876. —TRIPLE SHEET. A Centennial Lesom—What Have We 1, | the President when ibe ald obesplel to servo |The New Hampshire Warning to the | that could for » moment be taken for the| sons why they should continue. Oné Gained in These Hundred Years A Lesson for the Time. The law of life isa law of progress and This is what we learn from every history, of man as well asof nations. “ the days of a tree are the days of my people,” saith the Lord. We bud, blossom, flourish in leafy strength and majesty and die. There are no chapters of modern or ancient history so suggestive and at the same time so sad as those which tell of the rise and fall and deeay of empires. Carthage, once eon- tending for the mastery of the world, is only @ name. Assyria, Greece, Egypt, Rome, have all faded or live only in the ruins of a former splendor. The genius of an illus- trious historian has told of the decline and fall of the greatest of these empires, an em~- pire that once was mistress of the world, and | which leaves no monument of its pride and | power. If we study the lessons of the brill- iant Gibbon they will be found full of struction even in this centennial year. Our orators from now until we have celebrated the formation of the constitu- tion, will be full of what we have done in these hundred years, and of what we may do if we last for two or three centuries. Cer- tainly no theme is so inspiring to the imagination of orator or poet. Ina century we have grown from a sparse and feeble colonial condition to be one of the great Powers of the world, and even envy, which is as mucha passion among nations as among men, cannot refuse to acknowledge our wealth and our power. In the course of our national life the next Centennial should rank us notonly among the largest but among the most populons of the nations of the world. When we think of an empire stretching from the Gulf to the lakes and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with every advantage of climate and soil, with rivers and lakes and oceans to float our commerce, with mountains and prairies, with wheat and corn and iron and coal and gold, we can easily imagine, even without the stimulus of centennial fervor, how we could have within our borders a nation larger, more powerful and more prosperous than all the nations of Europe. Europe is under the dominion of struggling and rival races. Here we have one race and one lan- guage. It is the advantage of our system of government that all nations when they pour into our Republic become republican. They are American in sympathy and patriotism as in name,. Englishman, German, Spaniard, Irishman, African, whatever they may be when they come here, all gladly become American. The depth and the devotion of this American sentiment were seen in the struggle. for our national existence. Nor is there any fear that this sentiment will die will be a with the Dawx, Werxry and enpar Henan, free of postage, by sending their orders direct to this office. « . Waxt Srneer, Yrsreupay. ~—Money on call loaned at Sand 6 percent. Gold advanced from 114 3-8 to 1141-2. Stocks were firmer. Government bonds strong. Investment securities steady. The report ciroulates that the Bank of ghe State of New York will speedily resume. Tar Drmoc: namic State Convextron will meet at Utica on the 26th of April. Now let the logrolling begin. Nove Farwonrs 1 One Day and sixteen on the whole fortnightly settlement are an- nouneed from London. If Uncle Dick was there with his paper dollars he would prop up the financial structure, but would scorn to hear them called a ‘‘sovereign” remedy. Beroux Foncens go to Paris and New York. American forgers go to London. English forgers go to Paris and Brussels. Where do French forgers go? The men who sign other men's names to mercantile paper always seek to hide themselves in the wil- derness of 8 great city. Exciaxp has had her full share of stormy weather lately. March keeps up its roaring lion reputation over there, but we shall want & new set of weather proverbs here such as :— Winter is a balmy time, pring, look out tor hoary rime, Button, brothers, up with care, Burton up the gay Cistarre Ove Exocusn Manitime Wearnen Re- rort.— Merchants and ship owners, whose veasels or cargoes are in English waters, will find the Henarp special cable wind and weather report, published in our shipping news, of great service in calculating the time of arrival at, or accounting for delay in reaching English ports, We shall continue these reports daily hereafter. A Conaretiox.—-The street ramor printed in the Hens yesterday, that Mr. Isaac H. Reed bad overdrawn his account in the Bank of the State of New York, did that gen- tleman an injustice which we sincerely re- gretand hasten to correct. We print else- | where « contradiction signed by Mr. Duer, the President of the bank, and which is en- tarely conclusive on the point in question. Oveackowpixe ms THE Scnoors, —The rem- away. Even the rebellion was, with ail of its faults and crimes, an American movement, with Americans at the head and no purposes inconsistent with the traditions of the Amer- ican system of government. The issue then was not whether we should become a frag- ment of any European Power, but whether we should be two, and, in time, a dozen of American, republics. That is due to the daring men who founded the Confederacy. ‘They were American always, and if it had so happened that their government had become a fact it would always have been the ally of the sister Republic against the ambition of any European Power, such an ambition as that of Napoleon to found a Latin empire on the Rio Grande. Whatever the coming centuries may have in store for us, in the way of national unity, we need never fear that, while we are a nation, we shall be anything but an American nation, But have we failed in no essential of national duty? What do these thousand and one stories of corruption that come with every electric flash from Washington por- tend? We cannot attribute them to politi- cal enmity or the desire of unscrupulous poli- ticians to rise, no matter who falls—no matter what shame may come to the Republic. Something may be due-to angry partisans, but the whole story of administrative mis- rule is so sad that we can hardly bear to hear it. We can only find a parallel in those annals of the later Roman Empire which form so dark a picture of modern civiliza- tion. When Rome was in its splendor it was really beginning to decline, for the “glory” of the Cmsars was the glory of decay—a glory that exceeds all others when it comes even as the setting sun exceeds the rising. Rome fell when public virtue became tarnished, when the people worshipped a successful mili- tary adventurer, when a taste for display superseded the sober, modest manners of an earlier time, when offices were bought and sold, when the whims of a selfish, voluptuous tyrant were allowed to sway the judgment of a Senate, Of course there was ‘‘prosper- ity” in those days, the prosperity of good living, gayety and bright life. We question if there were ‘‘better times,” as we use the dy proposed by the Committee on Bylaws | of the Board of Education for the dangerous crowding of the schools is far short of what | the case demands. The Board did not act om the report yesterday, but there should be wo delay in doing so. present state of the schools involves more or leas injury to the health of the little ones. Any step forward will be a boon. Tae Rearexep Poor Tranensmrs..The Hienatn’s special despatch from Bismarck, D. T., throws fresh light upon the shame- fal traffic in post traderships, by which bendreds of thousands of dollars were extorted from the soldiers and Indians to give Belknap and his ring of fellow corruptionists | the means of extravagant living in Washing- ton. The republicans have been congratu- lating themselves by saying that it was only Belkmap. Now we shall see whom the light- Bing strikes. Every day in the | phrase, than when Rome was under the pol- luting sway of the later Cwsars. But the life of the nation was tainted, and it could only die, as die it did, amid the contempt and derision of the world. Have we a gov- ernment inspired by any higher motives than those which animated the men who ruled Rome in these days of corruption and decay? Have wea Senate more worthy to represent a free people than the degraded Senate of Rome? Our Senate, chosen to represent a free nation, has made itself the | slavish register of the President's will. Gorged with patronage, its members have never questioned when the President com- manded, His will has taken the place of the will of the people. In other words, the President has made a compact with the Senate, by which if its members will only sustain him in his ad- ministration he will give each Senator the absolute control of the patronage of the State | he represents, This compact has been ob- | served. Conkling has been made the pro- RTtae Peeen Minwrsaus Srarewent ap- | consul of patronage in New York and pears to have given general satisfaction to | Cameron in Pennsylvania, and so on those it was most necessary to please— namely, the large body of moderate republi- sans. M. Gambetta's organ is not wholly but the determination to wait for sets before judging the new Cabinet is cred- itable to the ex-Dictator, who has learned with more success than most Frenchmen, and certainly than any French republican, the motto of the watcher and worker, | through the States, until we see Common- wealths as proud as South Carolina and Ala- bema at the mercy of adventurers like Spencer and Patterson. the government has fallen into the hands of an oligarchy. Conspiracies defraud the revenue; military usurpations control the States in the South; civil service, which the President in earlier and better days really “Bverything comes to him who knows how | tried to sustain, is dead. The gorged and degraded Senate only questioned the will of | power of Alfonso’s government, do wait.” By this compact | the country at the expense of their patronage. All these developments of crime in the various parts of the country, “whiskey rings” in the West, “sugar rings” in the South, ‘railroad rings” in the East, all these manifestations of decay in national virtue, beginning with the appointment of vagabond relatives of the President to plunder soldiers on the Plains and ending with the disgrace of Babcock and the impeachment of Belknap, are to be at- tributed to the ambition of the President, sustained and strengthened by the Senate. Seeing these things we may ask ‘‘Have we reached that period in our national life which may be said to mark the beginning of decay?” Far be it from us to intrude un- } pleasant thoughts upon the patriotic mind | of the country at atime when we are to re- light the camp fires of the Revolution, which burned so brightly a century ago. But what would those firm and stern patriots who | gathered about the blazing fagots in the | dark hours have thought if some prophetic vision had shown them what we all see now? | Might not their hearts have failed? Might | it not have been said “better old England with her crazy king and her taxes than a Republic which will bring forth such fruits in a short century ?” These are thoughts worthy of the deepest attention even in a time that we propose by general consent to devote to the veneration of our ancestors and the glorification of ourselves. What is the remedy? It is not in political contro- versy, in the success or failure of any one party. The century which has blossomed into these pernicious results has been largely given to the political domination of the democratic party--a party whose record is tainted with as many crimes and follies as the republican, a party which began the evils of which we now complain when it al- lowed Jackson to treat the Presidency as a captured Indian camp, to be plundered by himself and his friends. It is not in poli- tics that we are to find a remedy, but in our- selves. Let us asa people look these mis- fortunes in the face, and, rising above party, put an end to the rule of men, democrats and republicans, who have given us as the ripest development of their career a Tweed as the master of New York and a Belknap as Secretary of War. Tho Syracuse Bottle Feeders of the Rag Baby. Given “Uncle Dick” Schell, Theodore E. Tomlinson and ex-Speaker McGuire as the leading spirits of a financial convention, what will the product be? Here you have an alarming combination of ‘‘puts and calls,” windy Communism and shillelah. Shake them in a pot, boil them down, serve up the mess and you have a dish which may be seen in another column, where the res- olutions of the Greenback Convention at Syracuse yesterday are published. Uncle Dick, with his dear old smiling face, must have presided there ina Pickwickian blazo of glory ; Tomlinson, who presents the odd political picture of a French Communist grafted on fhe ghost of an old line whig, must, in his ‘‘brief address,” have ut- tered strings of rag baby sublimity that made Unele Dick look. forward to the millennial period when one bootblack shall say to another, ‘I bet ye a million of Uncle Dick's dollars,” and then pay them if he loses. As to the redoubtable Jeremiah, we have no doubt that he made Uncle Dick feel a glow of warlike enthusiasm, as during his two hours’ speech he brought his stuffed shil- lelah down upon the heads of bloated bond- holders, jingling capitalists, hard money democrats and other public enemies, No wonder they fired a hundred guns in honor of General Jackson; they had to burn powder to get off their enthusiasm somehow, and perhaps the mystic Tomlin- son saw a subtle connection between Old Hickory’ and hickory hams, whence by wooden nutmegs he could slide down the greased pole of his imagination to rag money. The conventionists of yesterday call them- selves democrats of the toughest kind. They will call a State Convention to send rag baby delegates to St. Louis, where McGuire will thunder with his shillelah at the doors of the Democratic Convention until the rag babies within open wide the portals, and letting in Tomlinson and Uncle Dick, hurl ineon- tinently forth every New Yorker branded by a hard-mopey die with the name of Sammy Tilden. But the resolutions of yesterday! Gold and silver, those abominations of an effete mercantile system, fit only to make nose rings for cannibals, are merely men- tioned because it is necessary to condemn them. Paper is the only thing of fixed value, gold, unlike paper, being a whimsical commodity that rises and falls in price according to the supply. Silver, indeed, is such base stuff that you can buy tons of it with a’ note-of-hand—and collateral. But the base wheedling sixth resolution, meant as a bait to the Press! Ah, Uncle Dick, we did not think you were sucha sly old in- sinuator ! Tne Cunistian Insuncents will not lay down their arms and trust to Turkish kind- ness for the removal of their grievances as long as they can beat the Mussulmans as they did in the battle of Muratovizza. The Austrian proposals for reform, which were | backed by Germany, Russia, France, Eng- land and Italy, and accepted by the Porte, are not likely to have much chance to be put in operation. Surgery, not diplomatic emollients, is what is wanted. Tue “Nayicos” of Cuba exhibit very strange peculiarities in their hideous relig- ious rites, which seem an offshoot of African | heathenism. One hundred and fifty of these | deluded wretches were arrested in Havana / on Sunday. ‘This arrest seems to have given rise to a number of exciting rumors, among which was one that the negroes, who form the bulk 5f the “Nanigos,” had poisoned all the meat at a certain slaughter house. The only painful result of this rumor was the | spoiling of a number of breakfasts. — Tue Locic or Accomprisuzp Facts, | says Sefior Sagasta, is the only logic that | the Vatican will accept in dealing with | Church and State questions, In Spain this | would mean, accord religious toleration, and ask Rome to say how it likes it. Even that moderately liberal policy is beyond the Democratic Party. If the disgraceful Belknap exposure had not intervened to electrify the country the republican victory in New Hampshire would not need explanation. Up to the time of the exposure the political tide had been setting strongly against the democratic party both before the meeting of Congress and since. The “tidal wave" receded early last year, the loss by the democrats of the great States of Ohio and Pennsylvania and the heavy diminution of their majority in New York being conspicuous proofs. The democratic tide was running out when Congress assem- bled, and everything which happened in that body up to the exposure of Belknap lowered the party in popular estimation. Their divisions and imbecility on the cur- rency question disgusted the country, and the supreme folly of Mr. Hill, of Geor- gia, in giving the republicans an opportunity to revive and inflame the passions of the war, put the democratic party in such a pre- dicament that a humiliating defeat in New Hampshire was inevitable as matters stood previous to the testimony of Marsh before the Committee on the Expenditures of the War Department. The New Hampshire democrats felt this, and were making an apathetic and hopeless canvass when the sudden disgrace of Belknap stimulated them to activity. The event proves that the Bel- knap exposure had no political effect. Bel- knap’s fall did not inspire confidence in the democratic party, and the people of New Hampshire did not quite see the wisdom of jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire. They deemed it ‘‘better to suffer the ills we have than fly to others we know not of.” The impeachment of Belknap has been so mis- managed as to blunt the effect of his exposure, and the damaging charges made agninst prominent democrats have deprived the party of the po- litical capital it might otherwise have made out of the fall of President Grant's Secretary of War. When the pot party goes into a political canvass with the kettle party neither votes nor confidence can be gained by the pot calling the kettle black. The democratic party has a great deal both to Jearn and to unlearn before it can enter- tain any reasonable hopes in the Presiden- tial election. It needs to make ari entire change of base, but it is pretty late in the day to make such a change in the face of the enemy, even if the party would unanimously consent to it. The country would gladly fling out the republican party if it saw any chance of putting the government in better hands, but the people have no faith in the democratic leaders, for the good reason that they deserve none. They are doing some service as detectives, but detectives are not necessarily statesmen, nor even honest men; otherwise the maxim of ‘‘set a thief to catch a thief” would never have gained acceptance. The Alaska Swindle—Bad for Ex-Sec- retary Boutwell. We print in another column a detailed his- tory of transactions as scandalous as any which have lately shocked and disgusted the country, The scene of these transactions is so distant that remoteness may have its usual effect in blunting public interest, and the perpetrators perhaps relied on this very re- moteness to cover up and conceal their mis- doings. The company which, six or seven years ago, was awarded a monopoly of the fur trade in Alaska is making money by mill- ions, and could have afforded to pay roundly for®the illegal favoritism by which it was put in possession of its bonanza. By law this lucrative monopoly was required to be given to those who would make the high- est bid for it; but, in defiance of law and against the official opinions of two successive Attorney Generals, Secre- tary Boutwell awarded it to the par- ties making the lowest bid. Nobody knows the reason for Mr. Bontwell’s illegal decision; but anybody who examines the facts will see that it isa decision for which the favored party could have afforded to pay a large sum of money. It is certain that the bid most favorable to the government “was rejected, and that the Alaska Commercial Company, which put in the lowest bid, was awarded the privilege for twenty years, in defiance of law and of the official opinions of Attorney General Hoar and Attorney General Akerman. It is the plain duty of Congress to investigate Mr. Boutwell and give him an opportunity to explain that illegal transac- tion and clear himself of the suspicions which naturally arise out of the facts. The detailed statements, supported by docu- mentary proofs, which we print this morn- ing place the ex-Secretary in a light in which he cannot afford to stand. The Rifle Shooting Season. The National Rifle Association has issued its prospectuses of the three meetings for this year—the spring, the fall and the Centennial contests. Naturally the widest interest will centre in the latter. Of the three matches therein the International Long Range Match, open to teams of eight from any country, for the championship of the world, is by far the most important. ‘The ranges are eight hun- dred, nine hundreckand one thousend yards, with thirty shots at each distance, or double the number fired in previous international competitions. Fifteen shots are to be fired at ench range on the first doy and the same number on the second day, thus bringing the strain of eye, nerve and muscle for one day within the limits of endurance, although applying a very exquisite test to the skill and physical forces of the riflemen. Each team will fire seven hundred and twenty shots, and a contest of such Titanic proportions cannot fail to furnish a result which will be decisive, Here, then, is a match to make the months of the riflemen of the world water for its honors. If Sir Lucius O'Trigger lived in our | day he would become so enthusiastic over it that he would cross the Atlantic a dozen | times for the chance of seeing the Centen- nial trophy anywhere within rifle shot of Blunderbus Hall. We are already assured of having first class teams from Scotland and Canada. Ireland will undoubtedly respond, and when England reads the enticing form of the match we shall be very much aston- | ished if she does not waive all her objections, which are founded on a misunderstanding of © her own creation, and fall into line at Creed- moor next September. The spirit of Jack ghost of Bob Acres, ‘The Rivals” as it will be played at Creedmoor will be such pure sport that nothing should prevent the chil- dren of the English actors who performed in the great drama a hundred years ago from adding the crack of their pieces to the friendly rifle dialogue of next fall. The National Rifle Association should fol- low up the work it has so well begun by putting the range into first class condition. In the first place the iron targets should be changed at once for the more accurate can- vas targets. Telegraphic communication should be made between the targets and the firing points. There should be no question about these impreavements but how soon they can be made. The spring meeting will open on the 25th of May, and we observe that in the mid-range matches rifles are handicapped by distance; thus scores on military rifles are to be. made at five hundred, on special military at six hundred, and on sporting rifles at seven hundred yards. In the mid-range match of the Centennial contest the handicapping is military rifles at five hundred, and all other rifles at six hundred - yards. We are at a loss to know why the distinction is made between these matches. If allowances are to be made at all for differences doing it fairly in all cases—perhaps the dis- tance test is the best, but making a differ- ence of two hundred yards between one pattern of rifle and another is ridiculous. The allowance of one hundred yards, as in the Centennial mid-range match, is ample atasecond class target, and if three classes are necessary let the distance against special military rifles be not more than fifty yards, The Late George H. Pendleton. The political corpse of this distinguished Presidential aspirant will be conveyed from Washington, the place of his decease, to Cincinnati, the city of his birth, for final burial. “Man goeth to his long home,” says an ancient writer, ‘‘and the mourners go about the streets.” The greenback dem- ocrats will sincerely lament the untimely fate of their chief apostle, but their tears will be unavailing to restore their late candi- date to political life. Dean Swift had a whimsical fancy that the very seeds of hemp tend to suffocation even when steeped and passing down the inside of the throat in the innocent form of a tea; but there can be no doubt as to the external effect of full grown hemp when applied to that part of the hu- man frame, Poor Mr. Pendleton died of greenbacks, for, although he wonderfully survived the dilution of the currency when taken internally as mental theory, the external contact has proved fatal. The greenback theory is the seed of the greenback practice, inflation stimulating the desireto become suddenly rich. Mr. Pen- dleton has not been politically suffocated by greenback seed, but by the matured fibre applied, not-to his neck, but his fingers. There is no form in which either hemp or the greenback isso dendly as by external con- tact. With only the greenback heresy in his head Mr. Pendleton might have continued to goin and ont among us as an eminent politician, but with the conerete greenbacks of a railroad company and minor children sticking to his hands he is as dead as Schuy- ler Colfax. Those eighty thousand dollars area garment of greenbacks which serve both as a Nessus shirt and a winding sheet. The honest voters of no political party would desire a President who would admin- ister his public trust as Mr. Pendle- ton has administered a private trust. It was a double trust -which Mr. Pendleton abused. In the first place, he was president of the railroad to whom the money was due, if due at all, and he had no right, as the responsible guardian of its in- terests, by a bargain between himself as president and himself as a claim agent, to convey into his own pockets the greater part of the money which really belonged to the road. In the second place, he was the ad- ministrator of an estate which owned three- fifths of the road, and a great part of the money which he appropriated to his own use was the property of minor children in- capable of defending themselves and depend- ent on him to protect their interests. If he had had no official connection with the road and no fiduciary connection with the heirs of the estate, and his whole relation to the case had been that of an outside counsel or claim | agent, the driving of such a bargain would not have been creditable ; but in his double trust as the representative of parties to whom the money belonged such a bargain was | disreputable and scandalous, The consent of other parties in interest is no defence nor even a palliation. The minority interest could not help themselves, and he, as the representative of the controlling interest, betrayed his trust when he took advantage of his position to divert their property into his own pockets. It is idle to say that it was an agreement, because he was the only party to the agreement on either side. As president of the road it was his clear duty to collect the claim in its interest and exact no greater compensation than is ordinarily given for | similar services, A man of a fastidious sense of honor would have taken no pay at | all for such a service, beyond his regular salary as president ot the road of whose interests he was the guardian ; but he might honestly have reimbursed the expenses of his two journeys to Washington with ao | reasonable compensation for his time on the | seale he would have charged an ordinary client. His rapacity and breach of trust have given him an everlasting quietus as an | aspirant to high political honors. The Price of Gus. | Already the resolution of the people to burn kerosene has had its effect upon the impudent corporations which have so long extorted outrageous prices for gas and dealt | in astyle so peremptory and offensive with every remonstrance against their miscon- | | duct. Some have reduced their prices and | others promise toreducethem. In the latter | | category is numbered the Harlem company, which, a short time since, declared with } lofty defiance that it would never reduce its prices. Now it comes down and mounts a horse not half so high, But the people will make a great mistake if they relinquish the kerosene campaign because of these tactics | is that the reduction is a mere device, trap. If the people put aside their lamps, abandon their indignation and take to gas once more the first convenient or plausible pretext will be seized for putting up the price again, and the companies will stand ‘| more arrogantly than ever on the assump- tion that the people cannot do without them. Another reason is that the reduce tions are absurdly small—a mere drop in the bucket. Instead of ten cents a thousand the reduction should be from fifty cents to one dollar a thousand, and the people should persist in the kerosene movement until the companies would be glad to get customers at such a reduction on present prices. Eight thousand cubic feet of gas can be made from one ton of coal and at two dollars and a half a thousand the com. panies thus get for the product of one ton. of coal twenty dollars. It is not supposable that the gas companies are victims to the coal combinations as the people are ; and if is a very liberal allowance to count that the coal costs them five dollars a ton delivered at their yards, In the difference between the cost of coal to the companies and the price of gas there is, therefore, room for stupendous profits, and those profits must be reduced, not by ten cents, but by a far in patterns of | more important figure. But even if the com rifles—and we doubt the feasibility of | panies should satisfy the people by an ade- quate reduction in the price of gas what satisfaction will they give for the thefts prace tised under the cover of that mechanisel/ pickpocket, the meter? Richard H. Dana. What a wonderfully tender conscience the American Senate has suddenly acquired respecting the rights of literary property! It is about to reject the nomination of Mr, Dana as Minister to England on the ground that he appropriated some of the notes (unpro- tected by copyright) of another editor of “Wheaton’s Law of Nations,” although this virtuous body has again and again refused to take any action for the protection of the literary property of English authors whose works are pirated by Ameri- can publishers to the manifest injury of the foreign authors whose labors are thus habitually stolen, and of American authors, the value of whose copyrights is impaired or destroyed by the competition of these stolen productions. It is a truly refreshing spec- tacle to see the Senate so sensitive to the rights of literary property after the utter indifference to such rights which the same body has always heretofore exhibited. Even Mr. Lawrence does not pretend that Mr. Dana has taken a cent out of his pocket or added a cent to his own by the alleged literary pilfering. Mr. Lawrence freely gave, or at least professed to give, his labors for the benefit of Mr, Wheaton’s heirs. Mr. Dana equally gave his labors for their beng fit, and as Mr. Dana's edition had a sale while that of Mr. Lawrence did not, the real party in interest, the family of Mr, Wheaton, has yeason to be grateful for Mr. Dana’s edition. It may not be amiss to recur to the reason why Mr, Dana was requested to prepare his edition of Wheaton. It was solely because Mr. Law~ rence had foisted into his edition of that standard work the secession doctrines which had fallen into discredit with his country+ men. The interest of Mr. Wheaton’s heirs, for which Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Dana altke professed to work, was undeniably promoted by an edition which rejected the unpopular secession heresy, and the sale of Mr. Dana’a edition, while that of Mr. Lawrence encumbers the shelves of the booksellers, shows how advantageous to Mr. Wheaton’s family was the edition which did not insult the loyal sentiment of the country. It is curious to see the American Senate ranging itself on the side of secession under a pro« tence of zeal for the rights of authorship. ‘Nothing could be more shallow, false, hole low and ridiculous thon such a pre tence. It is not Mr. Dana's liters ary squabble with Mr. Lawrence but his political squabble with General Butler that lies at the bottom of his pro. posed rejection. The former is only a pro- text ; the latter is the real motive. Mr, Dana ran against General Butler for Con. gress in the Essex district in 1872, and, after an abusive canvass on both sides, Mr, Dana was badly beaten. His real offence ia his consent to be a candidate against the regular republican nominee. It is also charged that he voted for Mr. Greeley, which ig “the head and front of his offending,” and may reconcile the President to his rejection, But, apart from those miserable and passion- ate squabbles, Mr, Dana is. the fittest Mine ister to England that could be appointed, unless Mr. Charles Francis Adams would consent to resume his former post, Tux Spantanps have captured a British vessel laden with arms and munitions of wat off St. Thomas. If her papers are all right we think the Dons will give her up without the formalities so delicately observed by us in the case of the Virginius. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, The future way of the corner grocer is bard. It was a stove dealer whoéurnished Belknap's bail, A Jackson (Tenn.) mother is cleven anda half yearg old. Tho cold weather gives renewed hope to the sherry cobbler men, When Caleb Marsh was told “Dare to do'right’ he | said he dared, but wouldn't, A Concord (N, C.) man tried along time to open the first postal card he ever received. The great Calvert sugar rofinery of Baltimore ts to | be re-established with large capital. Governor Tilden 18 said to be jealous of Lieutenant Governor Dorshoimer, in a political way, | Josh Billings is creating a sensation in the South, and Conkling’s chances are diminishing, Senator Jones wants to get off anotber awfully smart thing. Let him call silver a tinkling symbol, Richmond Enquirer :— “Bet you a dollar he dies @ drink in less than five years from March 4, 1877." Danbury News:—There is no doubt that Blaine isthe coming man, The question is, Shall we wait for him Orville Grant is the only member of the vice cabinet | whe has @ comforter, and he wears his around hit neck. General Saigo, Chief Commissioner of Japan, with Suite, arrived yesterday on the City of Peking, at San | Fran¢tsco, bringing a large quantity of exhibits for the Centennial, The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage is on a lecturing tour in Canada, He 1s now in Montreal, On bis arrival ‘tere yesterday he was mot by a number of ertizens, among whom were several members of Parhamoot. He | addressed the Theological Seminary yesterday morning, | the Young Men’s Christian Association at moon and Absolute will effectually cover uv any spook | of their enemy, There are two good rea- | the public generally last night,