The New York Herald Newspaper, May 13, 1877, Page 10

_ which doubtless liberated a great del of ter 10 tle NEW YORK HERAL “" BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. _JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, Ait bo: news letters or telegraphic despatches must te uddressed New Yous Hxnat. he should be rly sealed. _Rejecied communteatione will not be returned. ~~ AMUSEMENTS TO-MORROW. GRAND OPERA HOUSE.—Tux Puuxcess Roya. BOWERY THEATRE.—v ack PARK THEATRE.—Co.on: TREATRE COMIQU: TONY PASTOR'S THE. BOOTHS THEATRE... QUINTUPLE. Q — ——— ETAT DD : COUNTRY DEALE The Adn.as Expresa Company run a special newspaper train over the Pennsylvania Kailroad and its connections, louving Jersey City at a quarter past four A. M. daily and Sunday, carrying the regular edition of the HkRALD ns for estas Ilurrisburg und South to Washington, reaching just six A. M. and Washington at NovICE TO RS. Philadelphia ut quarter one FM. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather in New York to-day will be slightly warmer and clear or partly cloudy. Wain ‘The stock mar ket was active and generally higher, but the coal stocks continued very weak, At the opening the | whole list was lower than the closing prices of | Friday, but an improvement soon set in. Gold | opened at 10714 and declined to 1071y. Invest- ment securities were steady and in some in- stances higher. Money on call was easy at 2a 24g per cent, the former beiug the last quota- tion. A Litt Over Turner THovsanp Docs have been licensed as yet, and this fact stimulates the hope that the great body of New York eurs are really ownerless and subject to the tender mer- cies of the cit, Jom Pepro is reported to have said that he found only one truthful paper in America, but each editor in the land will feel sure that the Brazilian Emperor has been reading the said editor's own journal complaining of the quahty of the New Y rbage which has been dumped on their water front. If they ontemplated it at the source of its would be grateful at the thought that with them it is covered hy something more solid than nir and s Tue Sraven Ist in the condition which wonkl seem pecnliar anywhere else, but natural rnough in our sister Republic. Dinz is reported to have been elected President by the constitu- tional method, and accepted with general ap- proval; but two generals are quietly getting ready to “pronounee” in favor of ex-President Lerdo. Mexican generals, like New York dogs, should cither be licensed or destroyed. Proressor Rey of the National Entomological Commission, believes that the may of the grasshoppers in Texas and Arkansas will be limited to a comparatively amall area west of Junction City and Florence, Eastward of that li ly twenty-tivs per cent of the eggs are as yet hatched, and by timely precautious the destruction of crops may be prevented. When. the habits of the insect are thoroughly known he be they can be pre- vented from doing much harm by a combined movement of the furmers, The destruction of birds in the West by reckless hunters has con- tributed largely to the extension of the grass- hopper plague. Tur Sunmartn Eartugvake, the effects of which were noticed on the Puacifle coust by a suecession of waves from the westward at irregu lar intervals, isa phenomenon of unusual inter- est to meteorological science. For about a week the atmospheric density on the Pacific coast has been low, and areas of high temperature have been traversing the continent eastward in very high latitudes, The liberation of heat by terrestrial dis- turbances enters largely into the development of atmospheric phenomena. The earthquake wave that has caused this latest disturbance has possibly commenced in the volcanic regions of Japan and Kamtchatka, where voleanoes are in frequent eruption, Another and a stronger convulsion destroyed the town of Iquique, in Pern, onthe same day that the first voleanie waves were noticed in San Francisco harbor. There hus been, therefore, either a general up- heaval or disturbance in the Pacifie basin or a movement southeastward from Japan toward Pern, or possibly in the opposite direction. The disastrous loss of life reported at Iquique would indicate that the convulsion attained its greatest force at that place, which is also a volean region. It is probable that we will soon learn from Europe that Vesuvius and Etna, and Hecla in Iceland, are beginniug to grumble and show signs of eruption. Tre WEATHER.—The conditions yesterday pre- sented marked variations of temperature and pressure throughout the whole country. Local | storms are probable in the Mississippi Valley. | In the West the dividing line between the high and low areas runs northward through the Mis- | sissippi Valley, with several sharp westward curves. As we predicted, the great depression over the Rocky Mountains and the region of the Plains has divided in two, one area being now in Northwestern Dakota and Manitoba and the | other in the Indian Territory. Heavy rains fell yesterday in the Lower Mississippi Valley and on the Texas coast and light rain on the south- ern section of the Pacitic const, where the pressure is rising. The temperature continues | very high in the Northwest and in the central districts, while the surrounding regions have a moderate to comparatively low temperature. The barometer over the northeastern part of the United States is | bot is moving = custward, the low areas refervel to. Very winds will prevail during the next da) and decided changes of temperature. markable thermal phenomen: now prevailing must be attributed to the effects of the recent | volcanic disturbances in the Pacific regions, | trial heat into the atmosphere. The weather in| New York todlay will be slightly warmer and | Glear or partly cloudy. j . ;own country, NEW YORK H Dissension has arisen in Constantinople, as was inevitable, over Midhat Pacha's legacy to his country—tne Turkish Par- linment—and Midhat in exile will have the opportunity to observe in operation the po- litical principle in virtue of which a good institution prematurely given to a people who cannot understand or appreciate it is exposed to the assaults of its enemies and perishes for the time, and is secured, if ever, only ages later than it might have been under the auspices of a more judicious ad- vouacy. Midhat Pacha and the party of which he is the best known leader looked abroad in the world and saw the glory of England ; they looked at home and saw the degrada- tion and helpless wretchedness of their and they thought that all that was necessary to make Turkey like England was to give her a con- stitution and a Parliament. For a pol- ‘itician to be oblivious to all the other differences between England and Turkey, | , and to heed only the single difference that one has a constitution and the other has none, and to proceed upon that fact in sweeping and extensive reforms and revo- lntionary measures, is only to furnish one more illustration of the wild unreason with which States are agitated in nearly all climates. But the constitution was obtained, and now it is in full collision with the forces that it might have been foreseen it could not escape if the liberal party in Turkey had been able to distinguish between a constitutional country and a country with a constitution. In any time, in peace as well as in war, the parliamentary system must have been set aside whenever it came into collision with the essential spirit of the Ottoman State— that is, whenever it should cease to dawdle with the superficial facts of politics and take hold upon the State in reality, and when- ever it did so collide with the spirit of Mus- sulman government it must perish. This happens earlier than it would have hap- pened in a peaceful age simply because war has precipitated the collision that but for war would have been deferred till the sleepy Ottoman tumbled by accident some day upon the discovery that this Parliament was an invention of the Western infidel which, if it survived, must destroy the system founded by his prophet. In the refusal of the Sultan’s government to admit a news- paper correspondent into his army may be seen an casy illustration of that intol- erant spirit that makes a constitution im- possible. Constitutionalism, government in ita Western sense; administration of the State with on enlightened regard for the welfare of the subject; the supremacy, as guides, of laws and political principles; the concep- tion of political right—all these are incom- patible with Islamism. Theseand Islamism are irreconcilable quantities, And a land could no more produce by its own growth a parliamentary and constitutional system until it had absolutely ceased to be a land of Islam than the physiological re- sources of an animal could produce fins and gills unless that animal had ceased to live on the land and in the air. Islamism and constitution- alism are antagonistic not merely because constitutionalism is inseparably associated with Christianity, for nearly all the dogmas of religion as such are capable of modifica. tion with achangeof names. Although Mo- hammedanism and Christianity are opposite in their nature, as the spirit of one demands its propagation by the sword and by slaughter, and the spirit of the other de- munds nothing, but pleads for human- ity, justice, gentleness, pity and peace;, although these are so opposite, yet there is a sufficient relationship in the forms and main conceptions of both religions not to sunder them utterly, os is proved by the fact that Mohammedanism has some- times been as gentle as Christianity, and Christianity sometimes as fierce as Moham- medanism. ButStates founded on the Mos- lem idea are’ an extreme projection of its fierce spirit, and States that exist in the presence of Christianity are so far projective in the other direction that at least their one fundamental aspiration is for right and justice to be secured by institutions and laws. Christian States, therefore—that is to say, constitutional States—cannot exist where the Moslem spirit prevails; nor a Moslem State in the presence of the antagonisticand necessarily destructive institutions that are the product of what is conveniently called Christian civilization. cally, the real secret of the disquiet that has prevailed for centuries in all the lands where these two schemes of social and political organization have been in contact. Islam- ism, in its essential nature, is the primitive system. These systems stand on force and authority and ai set of rules which some man of superior talent, half im- postor and half lunatic, pretends to have derived directly from God Almighty. As the system of the primitive world this is still an appropriate government in all those parts of the Ottoman Empire where men live nearly as they did in the early ages of hu- man history ; but to call this a government in the modern sense would be as absurd as* to call Noah a naval architect in the day of ocean steamers, States, in the modern sense of the term, begin to arise where States of | this primary sort begin to decay. As soon as men begin to observe the world for them- selves and to apply in the concerns of daily life the knowledge that results from such observation, so soon do they find that the formalities and observances and rules of pretended divine authority are an impedi- ment and an obstacle, and so soon arises a | conflict against them and consequently against the government that enforzes them. | If the government has strength to repress the revolt that is the end of the rising spirit of progress. But it against repression main- tained in the interest of a priesthood or a royal family the idea of revolt is exten- sively spread through the nation, if the race 1s one of good intellectnal endowment and hardy spirit no repressive system ever keeps it down. It secures the performance of its will, the expression of which is a rnler to whose dominance it consents and whose government is qualified by such limitations as the case will justify, these making greater and greater progress through all And this is, politi- | stages until the nation reaches the full splendor of constitutional freedom. In every nation where the primitive sys- tem survives and is continued into a period marked by the prevalence of the other system the life of the people is dwarfed and crip- | pled, and that State is a mere monstrosity in the midst of vigorous neighbors that jostle it on every hand and finally trample it under foot. That is the relation to-day of Turkey to her great neighbors—to Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy; to any and every Christian State that is near her, and her simple destiny is to die in the midst of a civilization with which she cannot assimi- late herself, just as an Arctic animal must perish if suddenly exposed to the rays of the tropical sun, All the process of which Russia is now the most prominent instrument—the process of the pressure of civilization forcing Islamism back into its Asiatic lair—is as cer- tain in its operation as that the wolves and panthers and bears and Indians will be driven out of any new country in proportion as the settlements increase. It is the cons tinuation only of the process that began when the Mohammedan conquerors of an- other race were forced out of Western Europe. It would have been completed ere now but for the fact that it was the interest of a great Christian Power that the Moslems should remain in Europe. Therefore Moslemism was sustained by 2 power not its own. | England, out of regard to sordid interests, commercial greed and a timorous apprehen- sion of the progress of a great rival in the | East, stayed for a century the operation of the forces that must necessarily expel Islam- ism from Europe ; but now they are free and acting with accumulated power, and the end seems not remote. A Mormon Autobiography. | John D. Lee, Mormon bishop, who was executed Inst March for his share in the Mountain Meadows massacre, left behind him, in the possession of his lawyers, be- sides the confession published in the Henaxp, a manuscript story of his life and experiences as a Mormon. Our Salt Lake correspondent sends us some extracts from this autobiography, which we print else- where. Lee was himself a cold-blooded scoundrel, but he seems to have been regu- larly trained to murder under Brigham’ Young and the other Mormon leaders. The tales he relates in these ex- tracts are horrible and disgusting, but after all they make only another chapter in the history of fanaticism. When men as- sume divine authority, and succeed in persuading a parcel of ignorant and de- luded followers that they are inspired and commissioned by God and entitled to un- thinking obedience, all the bonds of morality are sure to be loosened and such horrors may be expected as Lee relates. Could anything more ghastly be imagined than the slang of these Mormon holy men, whio, when they ordered a man to be killed, told their followers to ‘put him over the rim of the basin” or to. ‘‘whittle him out of town?” When the story of the Mormon de- lusion comes to be fully told it will horrify the civilized world, We trust the federal authorities will go on with the work of in- vestigation. The Winter and Summer Season. It is a pleasure to look back upon the amusements which have cheered many an evening which had otherwise been dull and upon dramas and actors which have given us new ideas and deeper knowledge. To look forward to such amusements is also adelight. Just now we are in a kind of intervening condition; the winter season of thentricals has ended and the summer sen- son has not begun. This is the time for a brief retrospect and a pleasant anticipation. The winter season in New York had many attractions—more than can now be enu- merated. In tragedy we had Edwin Booth, Davenport, Barrett and John McCullough, in nearly all the great characters of the drama. Nearly all of the great characters of Shakespeare were acted and many of the famous creations of later dramatists. These entertainments were not in all cases pecuniarily successful, but they were artistic triumphs. Tragedy was often united with spectacle, and superb pageants moved before the eye. The mod- ern melodramas in their highest forms were presented at the Union Square ‘Theatre, The range of comedy was almost unlimited, The season began at Wallack’s with “The Forbidden Fruit” of Mr. Boucicault, and was followed by his own appearance in “The Shaughraun.” “My Awful Dad” introduced Mr. Wallack in one of his best parts. The Park brought out “Our Board- ing House,” which wus food tor laughter for months, and is succeeded by Mr. John T. Raymond in “The Gilded Age.” French opera and French comedy were liberally given, and Mr. Heller amused the city for more than seven months with his merry magic. ‘the minstrels and the variety theatres had a brilliant season, and there was no want of athletic exhibitions. ‘The winter was enriched with music, from the Wagner operas, some of which were | new, to the Italian adventures and the Eng- | jish opera of Miss Kellogg. The Thomas and Philharmonic orchestras supplied the finest symphonic music, while scores of excellent concerts were given by minor societies. That there was much that was bad; that many enterprises came to grief; that there were grave deficiencies is certain, but the winter season, altogether, had more merits | than faults. The summer season will be of a lighter | character, and its first garlands of roses are wreathed by Miss Neilson, at the Fifth Ave- nue Theatre, where: all the winter comedy and more serious drama alternated in a delightful dance. Lydian Thompson and her burlesque opera company will, on Wallack's stage, compete with their rivals in the Soldene troupe at the Union Square. Booth’s Theatre is now opened for comedy and tragedy with Mr. George Rignold, and many a mirthful com- pany will at other temples of the drama try to please our public, On the 26th of May Mr. Gilmore will begin his season at his pleasant garden, and the Central Park Garden will soon be opened. Outdoor KRALD, SUNDAY, MAY 13, 1877.-QUINTUPLE SHEET. | pects are that there will be plenty’ of theatrical and musigal entertainment for the metropolis this samme! An Insufficient Plea. The Aldermen held a special meeting yes- terday, in order that the Tammany members of the Board might put on record their con- demnation of the Omnibus bill as a partisan measure and their request to the Governor to withhold his signature therefrom. The resolutions were adopted by a vote of four- teen out of twenty-two Aldermen, showing that the opposition of the Common Council to the bill at least is strictly partisan and does not represent truthfully the views of the local authorities in relation to its pro- visions. Mayor Ely, on the other hand, while he may object to some details of the Omnibus bill, is avowedly in favor of its main fentures—to wit, a spring election, single-headed departments wherever practi- cable, a non-partisan police board and re- trenchment in our municipal expenditures. A protest against partisanship in the city government comes with an ill grace from the Tammany Aldermen who obstinately refuse to confirm a republican Police Commissioner | in place of Mr. Erhardt, a republican, whose termi of office has expired, notwithstanding the fuct that their own democratic Muyor solemnly pledged himself before election to keep the Police Board equally divided be- tween the two political parties and does not feel disposed to break his word. The Governor has declared his intention to discard all political considerations in forming his opinion of the Omnibus bill, to examine it. ina judicial manner, and to de- cide in accordance with what he believes to be the public good. He will assuredly keep his word. Governor Robinson’s nom- ination at Saratoga was made on the broad platform of retrenchment and reform, and le was not indebted for it to the especial favor of the Tammany democracy. Governor Robinson is honest enough as a man not to belie the principles he professed before election, and shrewd enough as a poli- tician not to give his opponents a justifi- cation for ranking him aniong the enemies of retrenchment and reform trom one of the earliest acts of his administration. If, on examination,, he finds that the Omnibus bill will give us more efficient local govern- ment, place more power in the hands of the Mayor, who is the responsible head of the municipality, separate our local affairs from purely political issues, and save public money, although the saving may not directly be very large, he will no donbt ; give it his approval. He will at least pay no heed to the cry of ‘‘partisansahip” while he finds almost the entire German democ- racy and a large number of other leading democrats as earnest in their advocacy of the bill as the Tammany Aldermen are in their opposition to i Pulpit Topics The feast of Ascension having just passed some of our city pastors will to-day call attention to the fact thus commemorated, and draw from it and from the subsequent gift of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost such les- sons as they severally see therein. Mr. Jut- ten and Mr. King will spenk more partica- larly about'the ascension, and Mr. Herr will indicate what the mission of the Holy Spirit is, one feature of which nndoubtedly is to help Mr.‘Knapp and his people to grow in grace, and Mr, Hull and his church to carry religion into business, so that the duties of the latter shall be as sacredly performed as those of the former. Godliness is profit- To-Day. able, and Mr. Plumley does well to encourage his people to pursue it, and as they do so they may hear with Dr. Armitage the Good Shepherd's voice calling them away from the bitter waters of Marah to the sweet waters and green fields of the spiritual Eden, It is as true that a church can make or unmake a pastor as the reverse, and Mr. Martyn, who has recently been installed in Thirty-fourth Street Reformed Church, will tell his peo- ple to-day how they can react upon him and either help or hinder him in his Gospel work among them. Mr. Bell will soar into the ethereal regions for a topic and will de- scribe the angels and their work, part of which, we hope, is to help Mr. Hubbell and other Christian racers to escape the day of wrath. The recognition of friends in heaven ought to be pretty well understood now ; and yet we suppose it is necessary, to keep people in good temper, that Mr. Hep- worth and others should reaffirm the doc- trine asa fact. To deny it would be to say that we shall know less in the other life than we do in this, which is contrary to Scrip- ture and to common sense, Mr, Johns will explain the doctrine of the real pres- ence, and Mr. Colcord will give emphasis to the backslider’s prayer. Current topics will give some of our city pastors a basis for dis- cussion to-day. For instance, the Prince- ton Professor Miller’s heretical book will be reviewed by Mr. McCarthy ; the insurance failures will give Mr. Searles a chance to contrast their policy with God’s; the claim of Theodore Parker, which has recently been discussed by Mr. Joseph Cook, of Boston, and Mr. Chadwick, of Brooklyn, will occupy Mr. Frothingham’s thoughts to-day: Jeru- salem and its environs will be described by Mr. Sweetser ; Dr. Crosby's position on the wine question will be reviewed by Dr. Ful- ton, and the antichrists of Christendom will receive the attention of Mr. Alger, and thus the series will go on to the end, King Carnival. Emperors, kings, princes and dukes, with or without crowns, have visited our city and have met with warm receptions, but on Tues- day next 4 monarch who reigns over all the world, and yet is a stranger to us, will have a welcome from the republican citizens of NeW York. Attended by his noble train’ His Majesty King Carnival will land at the Battery and make his triumphal entry into the city. His royal nibs will be helped out of the barge and placed in a chariot and drawn along the streets, which will be gayly deco- rated with flags in honor of his visit. There will be music and banners and knights and ladies, and strange figures unknown to our prosaic society will attend him to the palace—vulgarly known as a hotel—where he will banquet. After a nap sports will, of course, occupy much of the | attention of pleasure seckers, but the pros- in the afternoon he will again set forth of Fairy Beauty, where he will sit upon a throne and bold his regal court. The revels will then begin, and a grand ball will close the splendors of the day. The next morn- ing King Carnival will have disappeared as suddenly as hecame, He and all his quaint attendasts, in motley garb, will have van- ished into air, into thin air. Whether they will return depends upon the way in which the monarch and his troop dis- port themselves in their unwonted revel- ries. If their frolics are harmless, as we believe they will be, their humor genial and their influences for good, then the first visit of King Carnival will not be the last, aud New York will give him the same annual welcome that he has in Rome, Venice and New Orleans. In the meanwhile let us treat him in a manner worthy of his own dignity and of our hospitality. Gur London and Paris Cable Letters. If we could enter into Wagner's feelings as he sat in front of the orchestra at Albert Hall, in London, the other day, when he saw the English aristocracy filing out in tho midst of the wonderful harmonies of ‘Die Walkiire” we should probably find that there was a great deal more pity than contempt in his heart, but doubtless a little of both. With all her gigantic patronage of music London has looked at the Zulcunftmusil: with timidity as much as repulsion, The impresarii held back from Wagner religiously until very lately, and now only give him in small doses. They would give anything likely to pay, but a school of satirists had taken hold of the music of the future, and your solemn Englishman, though he can enjoy a certain kind of fun, always wants to know whether he is paying to be en- lightened or amused. The Wagnerian school is full of strong points, and such always attract the humorist. England, for lack of plucky managers, got the satire be- fore the music, and hence we may be sure that the fifteen hundred sent- holdets who went to Albert Hall last Monday expected nothing more than a whirlwind of brass, on thunder of drums and a roar of deep German voices. Thus prepared it is highly probable that they heard only what they listened for, and voted it a bore. But Wagner will grow on them in spite of their British impassiveness, and after a while we shall find them going for a enjoying it with as much languid delight as a Chinaman exhibits when he sits down with his opium pipe before a lamp to puff himself into pleasant dreams, Paris has a musical entr’acte just now, but she manages to fill it up with a couple of dra- matic successes, Wonderfully fecund fel- lows, those Parisian authors! The Prince of Wales has been catching it at the hands of the temperance people because he went to the Licensed Victuallers’ dinner, licensed victualler being Anglice for rumseller. The Prince went, however, so that those who look forward to a dinner with the future King need not be afraid that they will find only cold water on the table at the Eng- lish White House—Buckingham Palace. The action of Albert Edward is almost qnough to make Mr. Dodge go back to the Union League Club with its wicked bar, which we suppose has tin pipes in it, Cour- bet’s. prospective revenge in painting his enemies to pay for the column destroyed by the Commune under his direction has a delightful maliciousness about it, but the best point for Courbet is that he will prob- ably escape half the penalty through a pro- cess calied dying before the great fine is paid. Disensed Milk. Diseased cows cannot give healthy milk, and it is scarcely possible that people can use diseased milk and remain healthy, even if they are robust persons, while it is cer- tain that infants, invalids or persons to whom this article of diet is given witha view to its nutritious qualities and the ease with which it is assimilated must be swept off as if by a plague if fed on milk from such a place as is described in our columns to-day. This story of a stable containing eight hundred cows, standing in’ accumn- lated filth till they fairly rot away and milked until they fall dead, is one of abso- lute horror, and we cannot understand how milk consumers in this city or Brooklyn gan read it with apathy, especially if there is the slightest probability that their milk comes from that quarter. Is it not possible that Mr. Bergh can do something to abate this dreadful evil? PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Admiral Porter now wears a navy plug. Ben Wade wrote his last letter under oath, Colone! Butler will probably take a dug out, Jobo Milton also bad a bad temper, Mr. Phillips, The wan who talks **hoss’’ has become happy again. It is a poor thermometer that won't work both ways. Country brooks have a good many springs of action. Secretary Sherman depasted for Washington yester- day. The bunion smashets are beginning to think of cro- quet. Moody 1s no prophet, but he finds preaching profit. able, In a short time there will be some new tails about comets. : ‘The best fire escape is one of the old-fashioned baby Jumpers. William Lloyd Garrison’s house has been entered by burglars. Georgia girls tie swoct shrubs in the corners of their handkerchiels, ‘The South will not raise so much cotton and the devil this year, If all the modern saints go to not bo crowded, A party of Boston men have bought a box of kid gloves and gone West, Bob Ingersoll isu’t a timid man, but he won’t say that his soui is his own, Dr. Mary Walker sends her measure to the tailor. There ts nothing manly about this, Another Brooklyn woman sues for a divorce and wants alimony her husband has. When Mullett heard about the Post Uifice affair bis heart went to the roof of bis mouth, A Passaic ben built her nest in 4 hammook in the barn, She is swinging in tho layin’, Associate Justice Steplion J. Field, of the United States Supreme Court, is at the Windsor. Anna Dickinson will play in Chicago, and has been advised to treat the eritics to plenty of gin. AChicago woman with false hair was saved from drowning. She did not reach the under tow. Baron Max von Thieimann, Secretary o! the German Legation at Washington, 1s at the Branswick. Boys are palling town a good many big posters from the fonces, the chowder season having begun. on the place will course of musical sensations and tranquilly | | movement on Erzeroum. THE WAR. The Russians Defeated, with Heavy Loss, Before Batoum. senrciertgie=-diativens A CHECK IN ASIA MINOR, Preparations for a Russian Advance on the Danube. THE EXPLODED MONITOR Roumania Practically at War with Turkey. THE DIVIDED bNGLISH ——— CABINET, Inner History of the Recent Parliamen- tary Struggle. (BY CABLE TO THE HERALD.) Lonpon, May 12, 1877, The military Operations on the Danube and in Asia make slow progress on both side. The Russians, in spite of their great resources and fine organization, have a great many diMeulties to overvome. The character of the country and the fortifications render an advance tedious on land, and Hobart Pacha’s respectable Engush pluck and well drilled sailors keep the Muscovites trom mak- ing much progress in maritime operations. Apart from the actual warfare It is a question whether Russia or Turkey is suifering most. Both are im- pecunious, but the Turks are living on the manna of fanaticism. A statement has been published by the Paris Pafrie to the effect that the Russian debt ts Tw $3,000,000,000, while in 1830 it was scarcely $74,000,000, A TURKISH VICTORY AT BATOUM. An official Constantinople despatch says the Rus- sians, having attacked on Friday In great force the position occupied by the vanguard of the Turkish auxiliary troops im’ the vicinity of Batoum, an en- gazement ensued, lasting cight and one-half hours, resulting m the complete rout of the Russians, who lost 4,000 men. The Turkish loss was incon- siderable. Adespatch from Batoum, dated Thursday even- ing, stated that ‘‘no serious engagement had taken place since the battle at Tchurnkschu, but every day bashi-bazouk riflemen fired upon the Russian outposts, inflicting considerable loss.” THE RUSSIANS OCCUPY DYADIN. A Russian oilicial despatch from Tiflis says the Russians, uiuer General Tergoukassoif, occupied Dyadin unopposed on the sth inst. This shows where the head of the column on the Russian lett was four days ago, and that it is not making lorced marches, else it would before now have becn heard from in the direction of Erzeroum. THE RUSSIAN HALT IN ASIA MINOR, A Vienna despatch says:—‘According to the latest telegrams from Asia Minor all seems te-be still in a state of preparation for the concentrated The Russians seem to be still feeling their way. Possibly at the last mo ment some doubt may come over them as t¢ whether it was quite advisable to leave Kars and Ardahan in their rear, merely investing them with corps of observation, thug weakening their fleld army too.much, The coup de main with fleld guns not haying succeeded at Kars, they may now try to reduce Ardahan, against which, according to intelligence trom Tifis in the Presse, serious operations are now impending, s¢ ag to have at least their rear in that direction prov tected. There must doubtless aiso be difficulties of transport in that mountainous country. But whatever is the cause delay can only be of ade vantage to the Turks, If they use it for concentrat ing their forces in the right place and know how to use it afterward. Meantime, if the Turks, as would appear by official Russian telegrams, can send out soldiers and horsemen, and even guns, to form an ambuscade for Russian . recon. noitring parties, the fortress of Kars, from which they are sald to have come, cannot be so very closely invested, If not very in- teresting as a military fact it certainly fs so from @ political point of view, that wherever the Russians have hithetto gone they have at once established their own administration.” It is evident that the forward movement in Armenia has been suspended through want of stores and forage. The cavalry ia compelled to make requisitions over a wide extent of country. THE RUSSIAN CENTRE. A despatch from Erzeroum says news from Kars to the 6th inst. announces that the Russians are encamped three hours’ march from Senbatan and Yaghnilar. There have been only unimportant outpost skirmishes since the Ist of May, Communication between Kars and Erzeroum is infrequent and dimcult, The dearness and scarcity of provisions increase. The Russians find great dificulties in procurlag supplies. THE EXPLODED TURKISH MONITOR, A telegram from Kischeneff, dated to-day, says:—'‘It 1s officially confirmed that the Russiana sunk @ large Turkish monitor in the Danube yes- terday. A shell penetrated the boiler of the monitor, resulting in an explosion which fired the magazine. The monitor sank. The entire crew and 200 soldiers all perished.” HOT WORK SOON ON THE DANUBE, A Rustchuk despatch, dated Thursday, says “Prom the preparations being made on both sides it is pluin that the time for action on the Danube is close at hand. The Russians evidently intend to open fire on the Turkish positions along the whole line, and, under cover of an overwhelming artillery fire, attempt to cross the river at sev- eral points simultaneously. Notice has just been given by the military authorities here that Russian batteries on the opposite bank at Giurgeva may commence firing on this town and fortress at any moment. For the last two days the Rassiana have been establishing batteries on the left bank, from which a bombardment can be directed upon the forts and town of Rustchuk and the station of the Varna Rallway, which has @ terminus here, I believe these batteries will opet lire to-morrow. The Turkish fortresses on the Danube are in admirable order and are weil pre- The first fly it ona window pane yeaterday, and ull in state, escorted by torches, to the Garden | the old maids mobilized and crossed the Pruth, OOO pared to withstand an attack.” A Vienna despatch says:—“Despatches from