The New York Herald Newspaper, May 20, 1876, Page 6

Ae od NEW YORK AERALD, SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1876—TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HERALD, published every | day in the year, Four cents Twelve dollars per year, or one month, free of postage. 2 All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Haxxarp. Letters and packages shculd be properly sealed. ‘ Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPH. SIXTH STRE er copy. ollar per )FFICE—NO. 112SOUTH LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. *LEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—-AVENUE DE L'OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. KELLY etSP.M. Matinee 'S MINSTRELS, FIFTH E THEATRE. ames Lewis’ Benofit at 8 P.M. PIQUE matinee at 1:30 .M. Fanny Davenport. GLOBE Ti VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matin Ss TRE. M. M. |. Matinee at 2 P. M. THEATRE. 12 P.M. Charlotte Thomp- woop" UNDER THE GALLOWS, BROOKL PRIDE, at 8 P. M, Matin gon, SAN FRA! MINSTRELS, otS P.M. Matinee at THEATRE z, VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matineo at 2 P.M. Gb PARK GARDEN, CHORUS, at 8 P.M GARDEN. Otfenbach, [EATRE, |. Matinee at 1:30 P, CENTRAL ORCHESTRA, QUARTET iW THEATRE. E THEATRE. Matinee at 1:30 P.M. ©. R, EAC VARIETY, at 8 P. M. PA RE, BRASS, at 8 P.M. Mantines at 2 P. M. cout Rowe. Mr. George Faw- THEATRE, M. iLb& VARIETIES, HEATRE, ‘ HUMPTY DUMP’ . Matinee at 2 P, My P. at 8 P.M. Matinee THIRTY-FOURTH VARIETY, at 8 P.M, ‘om our reports this morning he probabi are that the weather to-day will be warmer and cloudy, with, perhtps, rain. Norick to Country NewspgaLers.—For ‘ompt and regular delivery of the Henaup My Jast mail trains orders must be sent direct to this office. Postage Jree. Wan Srreer Yesterpay.—Gold opened at 112 3-4, advanced to 112 7-8 and closed at 112 5-8. The stock market was feverish, with a lower tendency. Coal stocks were weaker. Moncy on call Joaned at 2 1-2 per sent. Government bonds were firm, How tHe Corornep Proprz of the country ‘vere plundered by the managers of the ¥reedman’s Bank is shown in our Washing- on despatches. Rartroap Fenrtzes.—The property of New’ 'York city on the North River shore has been used freely by some of the railroad compa- mies, and the question has been raised whether they should not be compelled to pay for the privilege. The opinion of Mr. George Ticknor Curtis, elsewhere given, is to the affect that the railroads should pay the city fomething for ferriage. New York should protect itself and receive its due revenues ; yet we should regret to see any new impedi- ments to travel. : Mr. Bowen's Expvision from Plymouth Church reminds us of Falstaff’s mock trial at the Boar's Head Tavern, in which he ex- claimed, ‘‘ Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.” The Prince, personatihg the King, replied, as Mr. Beecher did, “I do! I will! But what Plymouth Church will do for dramatic effect without Mr. Bowen is hard to imagine, ‘‘ Othello” could not easily be played without Iago, and we are afraid that Mr. Beecher has injured his own popularity by the separation from his old friend and pitcher. Tue Exposttiox ox Suxpay.—The Pres- byterian General Assembly, which is in ses- sion in Brooklyn, yesterday adopted resolu- tions congratulating the Centennial Com- missioners on their determination to close the grounds of the Centennial Exposition on Sundays. The next resolution should bo to congratulate the authorities of Philadel- phia upon their success in not enforcing the laws which forbid the sale of liquors in the Park where the Exposition buildings stand, and which require the closing of the taverns on Sunday. The policy adopted by the Commissioners closes what Archbishop ‘Wood calls a harmless and instructive enter- tainment, and drives the people to seek more expensive and demoralizing amuse- ment. We regret to see that the Presby- terians still hold fast to the exploded theory of religion which would prohibit ‘Sunday newspapers, Sunday cars, Sunday parks and Sunday freedom, and which would stop the sun itself on Sundays, like Joshua, Tue Recertiox ov tae Parxce or Wares,— The reception of the Prince of Wales in London, after his visit to India, recalls the parable of the Prodigal Son. The Prince expended the money of the English nation freely in that visit, but the people are proud of their royal family, and seem to rejoice in the opportunity of welcoming the heir apparent to the city. It would be @ graceful act on the part of the Prince of Wales to use his powerful influence in * favor of amnesty to the Fenian prisoners. Great national festivals ought to be marked by great acts of mercy on the part of the government, and England has not yet | treated Ireland with that true justice which entitles her to look upon rebellion as an un- pardonable sin. Mr. Disraeli was prevented by illness from attending the banquet and the ball which the city gave to the Prince, but it # in his power to utilize the festival for the | benefit of his own administration and the good of the United Kingdom, The Revolt at Constantinople. Constantinople may send us any day some very bad news—news of a repetition of the tragedy of Salonica on a far more éxtensive scale. In any city in the world it would be ahorrible event for the soum of the people to be arrayed against all who are socially their superiors, Paris once had a faint taste of the possibilities of such an occurrence. It once saw for a few days what might hap- pen if all the repressive machinery that com- monly preserves order is set aside and the ferocious instincts of the mob are freed from every restraint. All who are familiar or have only a slight knowledge of the darker side of life in London can conceive the carnival that city would furnish in such circum- stances, and even here the people have once or twice had a vague sense of this hor- ror. But in every city in a Christian country some thought of humanity, some ray of com- punction, would mitigate the evil, as, even at the worst momentof the Paris community, the city was in a condition of tranquil secu- rity compared to what it might have been. But the Sultan's capital is the only city in Europe where murder, arson, robbery— the general butchery of a third of the popu- lation—could be presented to the minds of the perpetrators in the light of acts of the highest virtue by the priests of the orthodox religionof the country. Perhaps the class of the ‘Mfosiem population whom the softas could most influence in this direction would not go far out of its way to perform any acts of exalted virtue; but if acts that were agree- able to their impulses and that opened the way to rapine and plunder were presented in that attractive light it would increase the zest with which the knife would be handled. Unfortunately the world has seen what uses may be made in Christian coun- tries, by bigotry, ambition and political in- ¢rigue, of the zeal of the people in the cause of a religion that teaches charity and good will to all men. How much more terrible might it be to set loose the fanatic ferocity of a mob which is taught from infancy the bar- barous lessons that every Christian's life is an obstacle to the progress of religious truth ! But if the crisis in which the foreign res- idents of Constantinople suddenly find themselves shall pass away without a tragic episode then the Christian subjects of the Sultan will ultimately have cause to rejoice over the demonstration of the softas; for politically the effect of this event must be to deprive the Ottoman government of its last hope to resist the enforcement of such re- forms as must practically deprive Moslemism of all power to do further harm. As an actual government—as one of the political realities of the age—as an administrative machinery, which might be held responsible for the good conduct of many millions of people—the great Powers dealt with the Porte on terms of quasi equality ; they re- spected its existence, and they have on this ground repeatedly refused to take action or to permit action to be taken, on the ground held by Russia, that this gov- ernment was only a fictitious remnant of Asiatic conquest—a mere serpent’s slough, from which the serpent once terrible was gone. But now the Powers have their eyes opened to the truth of this view. Now they see for themselves that the government of Turkey is in the mosques—that the Sultan himself is the creature, the plastic tool of the last expression of the densest bigotry in the world. In the ages when the Sultan was sustained or dethroned as he acted the pleasure of the janissaries he was a picture of dignity and splendor compared to this, for it was no prejudice to the prestige of a ruler in the eyes of foreign nations to say that he held his throne only at the pleasure ofthe finest body of infantry’ in Europe. Roman emperors héld their thrones on no other tenure. But the power that was held by the janissaries must exist somewhere in every State. Countries that have no such institutions as exist in constitutional coun- tries for giving force to national purposes must have resolute and great willed sover- eigns; and when that resort fails the power to determine action in critical moments of the nation’s history will drift and lodge in some unexpected place, and in Turkey it is found now to have lodged with those who make trade of the national religion. It’ was to no purpose, therefore, that the janissaries were rooted out, since the Sultan has became not independent, but only the slave of more contemptible master, though of a master capable of terrible harm. Negotiation with the Porte by the great Powers must now all be seen in a new light. Such negotiation’ was necessarily based on faith in the Sultan's power to carry out any terms he might make with others, but the guarantee apparently given to Russia in the appointment of a Vizier is already broken. And if five great Powers are to formally con- fer and lay down a programme for the gov- ernment of Turkey, and to be treated on the first occasion just as Russia has now been treated, that sort of politics will become very farcical. It has been held by Count Andrassy that the execution of the reforms which would make life and property safe in Turkey might be intrusted confidently to the Turk- ish authorities. Austria does not wish to see the disintegration of Turkey at the present moment, because she is not herself in a posi- tion to profit by it, as she believes she may on some happier occasion. She wishes the day of partition to be deferred until the time when she may in some degree dictate the terms. At present, if Prussia and Russia should agree upon the division of the spoil, Austria could only tamely accept what they might accord. Her only hope to secure a Prussian support for her view of the equi- ties of such a division would be by dan- gling in the eyes of the statesmen at Berlin the tempting bait of a German province ; but the statesmen at Vienna are wise enough to recognize that it would be a poor bargain to | purchase gven a Danubian empire at the ex- pense of ahy one of the little States whose possession leavens polyglot Austrian with the spirit, energy and capacity of the Ger- man race. Austrian policy has, therefore, received a severe blow by the event which demon- strates the complete incapacity of the Sultan to deliver” the political goods he sells to his neighbors, even in very small lots. Rus- sia resisted resolutely the Austrian policy for many months, for the patent reason that it was mere nonsense to make with the Sal- tan compacts he could not keep. She was | not willing to concede that the reforms should be left to the execution of the Sul- tan’s authorities, but wanted them put into the hands of 1a commission so strong and so well guaranteed that it would have been, in fact, an actual protectorate. But when Rus- sia saw the apparent impossibility of obtain- ing her demand she set about to see what could be done next, and by compromise or in- trigue obtained the appointment of a Grand Vizier of her choice. If she could not have the reforms carried out by an independent | foreign commission she might assent to their execution by the Sultan, if she could choose | an important part of the Ministry that was to act on these reforms, Successful in this compromise, her support to the programme was epparently secured. But now the con- dition on which her assent was given is withdrawn. There is a possibility, there- fore, that the agency of the softas has been brought on the scene in obedience to some | intrigue. Russia is assumed to have as- sented without ostensible regard to the pres- ence of the Vizier of her choice, though cer- | tainly with an arritre pensée that involved him ; and it is thought, perhaps, that his re- moval would not justify the withdrawal of her assent, though it will defeat her purpose to have the reforms administered under her influence. But if they reason thus at Vienna they reason with shallow conceptions of Prince Gortschakoff's courage. He will not hesitate when an event has thrown the whole game into his hands, whether that event was pro- duced by intrigue or was the result of spon- taneous impulses. Centennial Mlusions, Our Philadelphia friends are awakening from their Centennial illusions, One was that all the people of Europe would hurry oyer to their placid town and there abide for six months, But there have been a half dozen exhibitions in Europe within twenty- five years, and foreigners, we are afraid, do not care enough about quartz mountains and machinery to run the risk of a stormy mid- ocean trip. Nor have our Philadelphia friends utilized their adyantages. Instead of accepting the Exposition as a material benefit, the results of which would he felt for a long time, they have done everything to keep people from their city. The advance in hotel rates, which was officially announced as twenty per cent, was a blunder. Vienna showed this in the long range of magnificent hotels which stood tenantless. Philadelphia passes through the same experience now, and it will be June before its people are wiser. There is no remedy for outside extortion ex- ceptthe Vienna remedy; but we are sur- prised to hear of inside extortions, Corre- spondents write us that they have to pay unusual prices for food and beverages. One angry German goes into detgils on tho beer question. The glass, he says, is much smaller than itshould be; there isa false bot- tom, and the waiters give him one-third beer and two-thirds froth, This may seem o small matter to write about, but any great enterprise like this depends for its success upen small matters. Not long since a riot took place in Frankfért arising out of the beer question. There had been eitheran in- crease in the price of the beer or a reduction in the size of the glass—we are not quite sure which—and the people, who had much stronger feelings about the integrity of the. beer mug than that of the German Empire, took to window smashing. This,complaint from Philadelphia is typical of the manner in which the Centennial is managed. Thus, on the opening day, as one of our correspond- ents noted at the time, the press accom- modations were something like the ac- commodations vouchsafed to beet cattle on cattle trains, We paid no attention to this, because as a general thing we have little sympathy with press complaints. Most of them when sifted down turn out to be efforts to ‘dead head” or blackmail, and we always direct our own people to attend to their business, ask no favors and accept none. But in commenting upon the Centennial management this press complaint comes be- fore us as a fair idea of the manner in which the show is managed. The truth, we fear, is that the Centennial is running itself. It needs a head. So far as it represents individual energy it is well. So far as it shows what a people can do toward beautifying and aiding their city it deserves commendation. But in the large sense there are many things to deplore. What was to have been a great national ex- hibition of skill, genius, energy and taste threatens to become a county fair. The only way to save itis for some stiong man in the management to take hold of it, bring order out of chaos, stop abuses, eliminate the narrow, selfish spirit, prevent it from degenerating into a mere advertising scheme and make it what it was intended to be—a World’s Exposition in the largest sense of the term. The Indian War.’ As soon as the fine weather begins we have an Indian war. This is the experience of years, and the Henatp has frequently called attention to the fact. Now we have another proof of it. The Sioux are on the warpath, and have massacred our citizens on the Plains, and, not contented with murder, have grati- fied their passions by mutilations of the dead bodies. Tho disorders in the Indian Terri- tory have, as usual, compelled the govern- ment to organize a military expedition at great expense to punish these savages. The old, old story will never have an end until the entire Indian policy is revolutionized. These barbarous tribes, whose utter say- ageness is indicated by their grotesque and wrotched names—Little Big Man, Run-Away- From-a-Bear, Spotted Tail, &c,—and whose actions are still more savage than their words, are fed by the United States all winter only to fight tho whites all sum- mer, It is folly to keep up the system of failure for the benefit of speculators, Indian agents and government rings, and for the injury of the whole West and the discour- agement of emigration and enterprise. The only true policy is to give the entire control of the Indians to the War Department. The army is needed every summer to whip the Sioux and the Pawnees and the rest of the savages, and it would be Better to employ it in preventing the hostilities which it is | now obliged to suppress. The Bayou Sara “Outrage.” The harrowing stories of riot and blood- shed in Northern Louisiana spread all over the country by telegraph several days ago receive no confirmation by subsequent ad- vices, The fact that three or four days elapsed without any further inteiligence justified a suspicion that the public had been imposed upon by the first despatches. Wishing to ascertain the truth we tele- | graphed to our correspondént at New Orleans to send us an exact and unvarnished statement of the real facts. We printed his answering despatch yesterday, from which it appears that the first accounts were wild and reckless exaggerations. It seems to be true that there was a small local riot. Some negroes had stolen a cow, and | the natural indignation of a rural commu- nity against cattle thieves was intensified by the circumstance that the culprits were ne- groes. The result of the disturbance was the killing of two wRites and four negroes (two of the latter having been hung) and the wounding of -a few others. Most certainly the stealing of a cow did not justify a resort to mob violence; but, on the other hand, there was no justification for the lying ex- aggerations which were scattered broadcast over the country to excite and unsettle the public mind and. poison Northern feeling against the South. In justice to President Grant we must say that he has acted with caution and discretion in relation to these. bloody tales. Governor Kellogg was in Washington when they came, and tried to induce the President to interfere; but General Grant wisely.decided to take no sudden steps on doubtful information. It was ridiculous for Governor Kellogg to ask the federal government to interpose for putting down a small local disturbance in a remote rural corner of Louisiana, Governor | Kellogg is commander-in-chiof of the Louisi- j ana militia, and ifhe had thought this affair serious he should have hastened home and have despatched a regiment or a few companies to Bayou Sara to quell tlie disturbance and __ restore order. If there should be a local riot in Chautauqua county, in this State, Governor Tilden would not make frantic appeals to the federal government for aid while he had the whole militia force of the State at his disposal and a single regiment froma neigh- boring county would be sufficient to disperse the mob if it should find a mob assembled on reaching the spot. A State government which applies for federal assistance to put down a local riot brands itself as imbecile and unfit'to be trusted with power. Weare glad that President Grant kept his head and declined to accede to Governor Kellogg's foolish and cowardly request. The wild exaggerations sent abroad in re- lation to this trivial affair are to be regretted as tending to influence pub!ic opinion. It is absurd to hold the whole Southern people responsible for every accidental local dis- turbance which occurs in any part of that vast region. Tramways and Cheap Cabs. The sketch of the Paris horse-car rail- roads which is givenin the Heraup to-day will show that the French have not been slow in adopting the cheap transit system of New York. At the same time it is well known that, despite the low fares and the extensive accommodation of the ‘‘tram- ways” in Paris, the cabs of that city are liberally patronized and are fairly profit- able. The principal argument against the experiment of cheap cabs in New York has been bused onthe idea that, as we havea number of horse-car lines running through the principal avenues of the city at cheap fares, the travel across town would be about all that could make a demand for cab con- veyances, But this ignores the fact that if cabs could be hired at reasonable rates many thousands who now travel by the street cars would gladly pay the extra charge and patronize the cabs. The truth*| is, that we are on the verge of an experi- ment; that we have not heretofore had an opportunity of ascertaining whether. cabs would be a success or a failure in New York, because we have never yet placed them within the reach of the general class of citi- zens, and that all calculations based upon the supposition that people would not patronize cheap cabs are a mere matter of guesswork. The cab proprietors are their own enemies in this controversy. The owners and drivers of cabs are an industrious and deserving class of men as a rule, but they fail to com- prehend that it is to their interest to estab- lish a reasonably low rate of fares for the use of their vehicles. They have hitherto found that few people, considering the population, ride in hacks, and have in consequence been disposed to make as much money as possible out of their customers. Heavy charges havo deterred persons from trying a second ex- periment with New York hacks, and thus the business has been restricted almost wholly to the absolute necessity of using that means of conveyance. If the hack drivers could be persuaded once to try the experiment of cheap fares they would soon find that a small profit would be attended by an increase of patronage large enough to secure them a very profitable business. It is certain that a fortune awaits any enter- prising proprietor who will place cheap cabs at the service of the people of New York, and it is surprising that with so many enter- prising men in the hack business we have not some one who will venture on the ex- periment. ‘Tue Srrvation 1x Turxey.—The most im- portant event in the Eastern situation is the refusal of England to join with the other great Powers of Europe in the memorandum to Turkey. The reasons given for this ac- tion are not without weight. The English government, ever since the downfall of tho imperial power in France, has been without an ally on the Continent, and the commer- cial influence of the country has been op- to any “entangling alliances.” Yet England will in the end join with Russia, Austria, Germany and France in any proper effort to protect the interests of civilized Europe against the anachronism of Turkish | barbarity. The interests of the English in nations in the settlement of the present question. We do not believe that the plucky little island would submit to see the affairs the East will compel them to act with other | of ‘furkey arranged without being admitted to the general council of nations. It is cer- tain, in any event, that, with England or without it, the troubles in Turkey must soon be brought to an end. . A Cloud on the Democratic Prospect. The silence of the leading democratic or- gan on the fresh folly perpetrated by its party in Ohio is in striking contrast to the scathing and contemptuous denunciations it launched against the Ohio inflationists when they first promulgated their heresy last fall. It seemed possible then to bring so strong a body of outside democratic opinion to bear upon them as to prevent the spread of that | political epidemic. The denunciations, how- ever, failed of their aim ; for within a few weeks the Pennsylvania democrats followed the Opio example. It then became the wish, more or less openly expressed, of the party in New York that the Ohio and Pennsyl- vania tickets should be defeated, in order that the inflationists might learn a whole- some lesson from experience and that the democrats of other States might profit by their punishment. & most signal manner ; but the inflationists belong to that class of political Bourbons who ‘learn nothing and forget noth- ing.” The only effect of opposition and denunciation from the hard moncy demo- erats of other States was to'arouse their ro- sentment and cause them to ascribe this | dofeat to outside interference rather than to | the inherent weakness of their cause. In- stead of abandoning this insane platform they clung to the wreck, and they have again put to sea in the same crazy craft. The strength exhibited by the soft money wing of the party in Congress during the winter has strengthened and emboldened the fol- | lowers of Allen, and they are certain tomake a strenuous and troublesome fight in the National Convention. The hard money democrats of other States, soeing that such a struggle at St. Louis is in- evitable and that its issue is doubtful, donot quite know what line of tactics they ought to adopt. They do not dare to denounce the inflationists with the same unsparing vigor with which they pursued them last year, be- cause it would further inflame and enrage them and alarm the timid hard money demo- crats of other States for the safety and unity of the party. If the supporters of Governor Tilden push the quarrel to extremities the rag money men will bolt from the St. Louis Convention if they cannot: control it, and a grand split in the democratic party now would prove as disastrous as it did in 1860, The bold action and defiant attitude of the Ohio Convention is a most untoward event for the democratic party. There is no cer- tainty that the hard money democrats would win at St. Louis if they should make an aggressive fight. The ability of the soft money democrats in Congress to foil the sounder wing of the party throughout the ses- sion is a bad omen which casts doubt on the result of a determined battle in the National Convention. If the hard money men make the fight and get beaten the party is utterly ruined. If they make the fight and succeed so much violence of passion will be engen- dered by the contest that the defeated infla- tionists will bolt and run a candidate of their own, which will leave the party only a possibility—the bare shadow of a possi- bility—of carrying the election into the House. But this faint possibility is not worth counting on. It is not likely that the rag money democrats could get the electoral votes of any State; and, in that event, the election could not go into the House, for the republicans would triumphantly elect their ticket. In any event the democratic schism on the currency will strengthen the republican party. It gives it all the political capital that is to be made out of the hard money issue. It will be ridiculous for the demo- crats to ask the confidence of the country on this important question in the face of the deadlock which has prevailed during the winter in Washington and the unabashed boldness of the Western inflationists, How the Cattells Have Wronged Robe- son—A Chance for Andy Garvey. It now appears in evidence that A. G. Cattell, the friend of Robeson, purchased cottage at Long Branch for the Secretary of the Navy, that E. G, Cattell loaned money to. Robeson and borrowed money, and, we suppose, loaned more than he borrowed, because he now has Robeson’s note for eight thousand dollars. The Long Branch place Cattell regards as worth thirteen thousand dollars—a figure so low that it will surprise holders of seaside cottages. This adds up, according to the evidence, twenty-one thou- sand dollars in all, money and property given to Robeson by the Cattells. It ap- pears, furthermore, that Robeson so favored the Cattells that they made three hundred thousand dollars in ‘‘commissions” out of naval supplies alone. This does not count the money A. G. Cattell made out of the Syndicate in London. It appears in evi- dence that one firm which had furnished live oak to the Navy Department for half a century was compelled to pay the Cattells fifty thousand dollars as “commissions.” Two things are apparent in this—first, the princely generosity of Robeson in al- lowing the Cattells to make three hundred thousand dollars; and, second, the un- paralleled meanness of the Cattells in only giving him twenty-one thousand dollars in property and notes, It is due to Garvey and Keyser to rescue them from any imputation of Cattell-like meanness. When Garvey was allowed to make three hundred thousand dollars in plastering and Keyser the same amount in plumbing they paid the Boss and his con- federates sometimes as much as sixty-six per cent. Cattell only pays seven por cent. If Mr. Robeson is a prudent man he will send the Cattells about their business and ask Garvey and Keyser to look after the “commissions.” The sun will not shine after March 4, and he should make his hay now. Losr Buoys.—Any changes in the guides to ocean navigation are of importance to our commerce, and the announcement that the buoys on Lone Rock, Old Man’s and Sand Hammock, in Vineyard Sound, have been gone since the 1st of May, will, therefore, be read with interest by merchants and sailors. Defeated they were, in | Christian Brooklyn is leading just now as the city | of religious gatherings. On Wednesday there | closed in that city the annual Convention ot | the Protestant Episcopai Diocese of Long Island. Seven years ago the island was created = ¢ a diocese, and its growth, under the adminis- | tration of Bishop Littlejohn, has been one of | the marvels of the Church in this region. | Sixty-four parishes are in union with the Con- vention, but there are many more thin this, including mission stations, which number sixteen in the diocese, There are ninety- five clergymen of the Church on. the island, ! and very much of the wealth and respec- tability and culture of the population is | represented in the Church, The Conven- | tion was large and dignified and its delibera- tions covered all the interests of the dioceso, including the ministry, the parochial, Sun- day school and mission wants of the Church, Some of the discussions were warm and earnest, but they were conducted with the utmost feeling of good humor, so that no | jar was heard throughout the proceedings, |The Convention deeply felt the ab- sence of Bishop Littlejohn, who has been visiting the European missions of the Ameri- ! can Protestynt Episcopal Church, and while abroad has been bereaved in the death of his son-in-law. This loss has detained hima few weeks later than he intended to be away, but the Convention, with feelings of kindly | Sympathy for him, recommended the Bishop Conferences. | to siudy his own and family’s health in his return home. ‘ On Thursday morning another, a larger and more important branch of the Church of Christ convened alsoin Brooklyn. The Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (North) gathered in the Tabernacle. This body consists of five hundred delegates or commissioners, representing more than four thousand ministers and one hundred and seventy. three Presbyteries from Maine to California, besides missions of the Church in every quarter of the world. Delegates from India, China, Japan, Western Africa and South America are present, so that even the most distant interests of the Church will not fail to receive due consideration. Of the delegates present a majority are in mid- dle life and not a few come here for the first time, so that New York and Brook- lyn and their appointments and surround- ings are new to them. But they will receive a warm welcome in Brooklyn, and when a couple of weeks hence they prepare for home it will be with regrets at parting from such warm friends. An indication of the welcome that awaits them here was given on Wednesday evening by Dr. Talmage and his deacons in the church prayer meeting, and several of the delegates expressed theis joy at the cordial reception they had met everywhere. This hearty greeting was re- peated on Thursday by the newly elected Moderator, Dr. Van Dyke, of Brooklyn, so that the commissioners already feel quite at home among their new made friends, Important questions will come before this body, and the very best and ablest men of the denomination have been sent | hither,to consider and act upon them. The proceedings of the Assembly will be given in 4 the Henarp from day today. Yesterday an important paper was presented by the dele- gates from the Presbytery of Newark, N. J., touching the relation of the Presbyterian ‘ Church to the German population of our country. The Germans ha. become so great an element in the Unite. States, and their influence in the future promises to be so weighty, it is high time that all the re- ligious bodies made note of the facts and sought by increased efforts to win them to Christ. The Improvements at Hell Gate. We publish on another page an article descriptive of the general plan of these in- teresting operation:, the causes which ne- cessitated the undertaking and the effects likely to be produced by its successful com- pletion. The experience of the past halfa century, during which New York has been growing steadily in commercial importance, has gone to prove that as long as Hell Gate remains a gate of terror and difficulty to the navigator ‘so long will a large portion of the island of Manhattan and of the neighboring counties of Queens and Westchester remain barred out from any share of the prosperity which has settied upon the lower parts of New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City. The intelligence and energy which have governed the operations are highly creditable to the distinguished engineer in charge, and New Yorkers may point with justifiable pride to & great work; designed and executed for the benefit of the city, which must be regarded as one of the: best illustrations of American engineering, both in point of conception and execution. Truly, the skill-and audacity of man are every day demonstrated to be supe. rior to almost every obstacle which nature erects to bar our advancement. We have seen oceans tied together by the iron links of the railroad and seas commingling their waters in spacious transisthmian ship canals, | The mountain chains are perforated and roads constructed through their rocky bowels, Time is set aside by our telegraphs and dis- tance annihilated by the messenger light. ning. The creation of new seas in Asia, Africa and Western America is gravely con- sidered and deemed practicable, and here at our doors our engineers dig the rocks out of rushing cataracts and burrow under whirl- pools or lower the bed of a river bodily without disturbing its flow. Surely these aro achievements in the physical sciences which go far beyond the wildest dreamings of the Eastern story teller, who had to call in the aid of supernatural agencies to render the wonders he related intelligible to hia hearers. Our slaves of the lamp are the busy miners who dig tho tunnels and gal- leries at Hell Gate for two dollars a day. Our winged horses are locomotives. The mythical roc is represented by the billoon of the scientific observer, and, with cur talis~ mans of iron and diamond drills, we say “open sesame” to the rocky gateways of na ture, and they open at the word. Our Op Prope are not old enongh. Now here is a young lady of ninety-one years talking about the Revolution. Then we havea young gentleman of ninety who had the honor of being blessed by General Washington. A third youth of only seventy. eight can hardly recall the Revolution, but