2 S!]r BcpnMnm. SPRINGFIKLiD. DECEMBER 22, ^S7L_ The tirur*> <'»i»wnn the general and lieutenant general of I the army "the authority to interfere in matters ■of purely local state concern.” The governor closes his letter by expressing confidence that the troops will at once be withdrawn from the state, or the orders under which they are there, so mod ified as to insure their keeping within the sphere of their proper duties. The president’s reply bears date of November 25. It is so short that we can afford to give it entire "I have received your letter of the 20th instant, and have referred it to the secretary of war, with directions to inform General Sheridan that if the troops under his command bare received any or ders which, in ar.y way, conflict with the provis ons of the constitution or the laws of the state of Illinois, he is instructed to rescind them.” Will it be believe! that this unreasonable Illi nois governor persists in grumbling? It is the fact. He says the president has “practically re ‘ferred the whole subject to the decision of the ‘officer whose conduct is questioned;” attributes to the general and the lieutenant general the be lief “that, under our system of government, it is ‘a part of the duty of the officers of the army of 'the United States to superintend the administra ‘tionof the local governments;” and closes his message with words which will make the loyal bair of our Mortons and Conklings fairly stand cn end with loyal horror: It is dne to the dignity of the people of the stato, that I should say that 1 cannot consent that the grave and important subjects that I have urged upon the attention of the president, shall be decided by an officer of the army; but I must hereafter, as I have done in the past, pro test against all interference by the officers of the armv, in the affairs of this state. I must protest against such interference, because it will estab lish a precedent dangerous to liberty, because it familiarizes the people with military rule and in spires them with distrust of the capability of civil government to afford them needful protection; and it is now for the representatives of the free people of the state to discharge their duties ac cording to their own convictions and subject to their own responsibilities. Gov Palmer is entirely right. He has acted manfully,—acted as it became the chief magis trate of an American commonwealth to act in the face of an illegal invasion of its rights. And he has rendered a valuable service to the country. We do not look to see the Illinois Legislature do anything in the premises. It is quite possible that the Illinois people may punish their faithful servant for his fidelity. But such a noble protest as this, is sure to bear fruit by and by. If Gov Palmer has sacrificed a temporary popularity, he has gained something which is of greater valne, —the respect and gratitude of a” right-thinking citizens, and an honorable place among those who have deserved well of the republic. Father Hyacinthe's Position. Probably no Catholic in recent years bus won for himself so much of the good-will of Ameri can Protestants as the great French friar preacher, Hyacinthe. His manly attitude to ward the spiritual despots of his own church, first conciliated for him this favor; then it was perceived that he was working zealously for the moral and religious improvement of his people, in France, where they need it so much; and finally, bis visit to this country, two years ago, confirmed and stamped this favorable impression on the popular mind of America. We always think better, in this country, of a great man who will take the trouble to come 3000 miles to see us as we are. It is, therefore, with peculiar advan tages that Father Hyacinthe addresses himself to our countrymen through the columns of the In dependent, which has been enterprising enough to obtain the substance of what he said at the Munich congress, thrown into the shape of one or two newspaper articles. In them he reiterates wbat he has so often said, that he has no thought of abandoning Catholicism; he speaks of Pro testantism as containing great defects and great errors along with much truth and Christian vir tue, and he.offers the following analysis of what he regards as the three great principles now con tending for the mastery in Christendom, —Catho- licism, Protestantism and Rationalism:— Rationalism suppresses revelation. Debasing the Bible to the level of a merely human book, degrading the prophets and Christ himself to the rank of mere heroes and sages, it claims to de rive religion exclusively from the depths of our own nature and the lights of our own reason. Protestantism maintains revela tion, but mutilates it; and, in fact, while exalt ing the Bible, separates it from the living tradi tion which complements and explains it, and substitutes the individual faith of the Christian for the collective faith of the church. Catholi cism alone remains faithful to the whole revela -1 tion, written and spoken—spoken before it was I written, and so written, let me repeat, that it al ways needs to complete and declare itself in speech. Only this speech is not that of an indi- I vidual conscience—of an isolated person—but the universal and constant teaching of the church, j Doubtless the faith of the pious and intelligent Catholic is profoundly personal; but it has for base and direction the collective faith of the church. These three methods may be summed up in three words: the abstract idea in Rational ism, the dead letter in Protestantism, the living word in Catholicism. This analysis, as will oe seen at once, is not ex haustive. It takes no account of Mysticism, for example, which depends not upon the human reason, nor upon written revelation nor tradi tion,—nor even upon a combination of the three, which Catholicism claims, but goes directly to the communion of man with his Maker by the inner light." Nor does it include what Father I Hyacinthe presently goes on to speak of and de nounce as the abuse of Catholicism—Ultramontan ism. On this point what he says will be more in accord with the sentiment of Americans than the passage above quoted.. After saying that Ultra montanism is, more precisely, Papism, or Infal libilism, he goes on The partisans of this system have the arro gance, nowadays, to put it forward as the only Catholic system. Its opponents too often make tha mistake of combating it as an exaggeration of Catholicism. I claim, for my part, that it is the antipodes of Catholicism. According to the Ultramontanes, in fact, it is not the church that is infallible, unt the pope; and the infallibility of the church (since they needs must retain this, at least, in word) is only a deviation from that of the pope—the passive infallibility of a pupil who says over the lesson of an infallible master. I would not lie want ng in rospeetto Plus IX. Four time* In my ife I have hud private conver sations with him; and. without disguising to my self his Infirm,t ea of intellect and will, I know me excellent qualities ol his heart 1 will not say then, that bo is personally blameworthy; but his words are blameworthy, beyond my power of ex pression, when be does not fear to proclaim tba-, be himself h tradition and the church. This under a solemn and mystical form, is only a pro posteions return to the Protestant principle of individualism—the substitution of one man’s private iiquiry and judgment for the inquiry and judgment of the universal church. For mr part, 1 freely own that I would prefer the method of Protestan i-m to that of Ultramontan ism—the slate of soul which the former implies to the state of soul which the latter produce,. Yes; if we had to choose between these two er rors, my choice would bo for the perilous emanci pation of ea-h conscience, set face to face with the Bible and with Christ, and against the pros tration of all consciences, sundered from the liv ing Savior and the Bible, in subjection to the un questioned word of a man who might lie John XII. or Alexander VI. A system like this is no more Protestantism than it is Catholicism. Its real kindred is with the religion of Buddha. I am not exaggerating. I have breathed that atmos phere; I know what there is in it! In all this, Father Hyacinthe does not perceive, apparently, that he is following step by step in the path of the men who began the German Reformation, and who had as little thought as he has of sundering themselves from the venerable church in which they were born and hoped to die. Luther and Calvin and Cranmer could hardly have gone farther in words than Hyacinthe does when he says, quoting the words of an Austrian C atholic professor: “If the ‘pope and the whole hierarchy turn heretics, the 'church is not where the pope and the bishops 'are; it remains where the faith is.” And though he may not be, as be says he is not, “going ‘toward Protestantism,” be is yet going toward that goal of spiritual freedom, under the guidance of faith, which is all that justifies the existence of Protestantism. Haul Aiwo Among the Prophets. It is a somewhat incoherent and illogical letter that Mr Alexander McClure, for many years a prominent Pennsylvania republican, journalist, politician, and lobbyist, has just written on the subject of his feelings toward Gen Grant, and the various questions of political reform. But it has an independent, saucy tone that is somewhat rare to find in men of his position and experience, while there are nuggets of golden truth scattered all through the document, that are quite worth the reader’s while to pick ont for himself. Mr McClure "knows how it is himself.” He has been familiar with the inner history of Pennsyl vania politics and Pennsylvania railroad rings for this many a year, taking a hand occasionally in the details himself; and when he bears his testimony to the necessity for higher standards and purer tests in the administration both .of the state and federal governments, it is a little something like a prisoner turning state’s evi dence. He certainly knows what he is talking about. The letter is among the signs of an impor tant division in the ranks of the Pennsylvania re publican leaders on the subject of the renomina tion of Gen Grant. Mr McClure represents not only himself and his own feelings, but, we sus pect, those of Gov Curtin, now minister to Rus sia, but about, we hear, to throw up that place, and return home and take a share in the presi dential election. Gov Geary is also on the same side, and the position of these three influential party leaders, first, in opposition to Cameron and his rule over Pennsylvania politics, and, second, in opposition to Gen Grant, is among the evidences that are developing more and more on all sides that the president is by no means the strongest candidate that the republican party can present in next year’s contest. But however people feel about this, or what ever the results that grow out of the jealousies and antagonisms in local politics, and the strug gle in the republican party and among the peo ple of the country to purify our politics and ele vate the tone of our public administration, Mr McClure’s letter will prove interesting and sug gestive reading. Jia- Colfax and the Vice Presidency. We have always supposed, in spite of Mr Col fax's oft-expressed desire and purpose not to oc cupy his present office another four years, that, if the republican convention renominated Gen Grant, it would also renominate him, and under such circumstances as would practically oblige him to accept. Gen Grant’s friends already see that they can carry the convention more surely on the whole of the old ticket than on a part of it, and we predict that they will go to the convention insisting that there shall be no change in the second of fice any more than in the first. They have lately brought this contingency home to Mr Colfax himself, and, according to the New York Times, he has made the only reply possible under the circumstances, namely—that it would bring with it considerations to which he should give all proper weight when it arrived, and that it would be a hard, perhaps an ungrateful, thing to throw back a nomination thus tendered; but that he could not and would not say anything now to authorize his friends to present his name for re nomination or in any way to excuse them in labor to bring it about. Air Colfax is certainly doing enough, both by word and action, to favor the renomination of Gen Grant without calling on his friends to labor for that end with a view to his own re-election to his present office. Schenck and “The £mma.” The statement of Senator Stewart of Nevada, who went over to London to put the Emma mine upon the English market, concerning Gen Schenck's connection therewith, certainly makes the case worse than the minister's friends had supposed it possible to be. For this statement shows that he only bought his interest in the mine lately, and since he has been in London; that he advanced no money for it, simply giving his note for his shares; that he was put upon the board of directors for the sake of his position and name; in short, that he was inveigled into the whole operation by the speculators in the property, in order to use his character and in fluence for selling it abroad. Now, Gen Schenck is not a corrupt man, but he is a comparatively poor one, with a speculative habit; and it is equally clear, with what we have stated, from the confessions of Senator Stewart that he was more the victim than the accomplice of the operators in the transaction, and that he did not realize how it would look to his countrymen at home and the world generally, to see his name, with all its official titles, used to float what is at best an uncertain and speculative property upon the foreign market. The Emma undoubted ly is, at least has been, a very promis- ing mine; it is a large "pocket” of very rich ore; but the prospects of Its contin uous or permanent vane are so doubtful, and nearly all mining operations, in America, at least, partake so much of the gambling quality, t^t it is not fit that an official representative of our government abroad should lend his name and po sition for its sale at a high and doubtfully just price to a people who naturally would know more of him and his supposed character than of the I mine itself. The whole transaction has an un pleasant flavor about it; anil’ while the candid j mind, familiar with the general integrity of Gen j Schenck’s character, must render for him a ver diet of “not guilty,” it will also bo moved to add with severe unction the advice not to do it again And wa imagine lie won’t, —for the latest reports on the subject are that he has explained to the authorities at Washington how he came to be drawn into the disreputable business, and in formed them that be has promptly backed outot it. A I.and <4rub to be l.ooked After. I The New York Herald’s Washington corre spondence exposes a primd /ocie case of gross fraud upon the government and the public in be half of the Burlington and Missouri railroad, which is an extension of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy road, not only through lowa, but through Kansas and Nebraska, to a junction with the Union Pacific road at Fort Kearney. This enterprise had a land grant for its exten sion from the Missouri river to Fort Kearney, a distance of 230 miles, of ten alternate sections per mile along its line, so far as said sections had not been sold, reserved or pre-empted under the United States laws. To a portion of the similar grants to other railroads was added a provision that, where the lands within the limits pre scribed bad been previously taken up, re served, or occupied, the road might go out side the limits, and take enough vacant lands to make up for these losses or reser vations. But this act contained no provision of this sort. The company argued, however, that they should have the privilege, notwithstanding this omission, and Mr Harlan of lowa, when sec retary of the interior, gave it to them. His sue cessor, Mr Browning, reversed the decision, and confined them to such lands as they could get within the prescribed limits of twenty miles. Now, however, the road bas re-appealed to the present secretary of the interior, Mr Delano, and induced him to yield to their demand and sus tain the original position of Mr Harlan. The dis- I ference is an important one. About half the I lands along the line prove to have been taken up, and under the natural construction of the grant, the road would get but a million and a half of acres; but if it is allowed to supply the loss or I pretended losses outside, they will get about three millions of acres. As all these lands would be in Kansas and Nebraska, and, whether near to or re- I mote from the line, are among the i most valuable of the vacant lands belonging to the government, the smaller amount is worth i a great deal more than the whole road will cos t. Thirty-three thousand dollars a mile is a large allowance for building and equipping such a road, so that the whole cost from the Missouri river to Fort Kearney would be $7,500,000; but the million and a half acres, which it is sure to receive any way, are probably worth something like 510 an acre, or just twice what the whole road would cost. Five dollars an acre even would pay the whole expense, of construction. But if the road gets the full 3,000,000 acres which it demands, its "steal” or profits out of the transaction will foot up something like $20,- 000,000. If the facts are as stated, a gross fraud is impending, and Congress should promptly in terfere by a declaratory act to stop it. While such things are undertaken, while there is a pos sibility even of their succeeding, it will not do for any partisan of the administration, however blind or devoted, to say that there is no occasion for investigation or reform in its service. A Wise Gram Jian. "Are you a spiritualist?” inquired one man of another, with a slight suggestion of contempt in the tone of his voice. "Yes,” was the reply, “I am a spiritualist,” but, with rising inflection, "I am not a fool.” If the Grant men are going on in the way of Conkling and Edmunds in re sisting investigation and economy and reform, and in trying to drive such men as Trumbull, Sumner and Schurz out of the republican party, the really intelligent supporters of the president will need to file a somewhat imilar disclaimer. Senator Wilson appears to be of that way of thinking, and does not mean that he shall be supposed to be a fool because he believes that Gen Grant both will and should be renominated and re-elected; for we notice that he expresses the very sensible opinion that Gen Grant is not the only person, by any means, whom the repub licans can elect next year, and adds, also very truthfully, that there are at least twenty men belonging to the party who could be elected president,—indeed that the probability is that it can elect any one whom it chooses to nominate. This is indeed very sensible in the senator, and if he had gone further, and said that there are twenty men in the party, either of whom it can elect easier than it can Grant, he would have still had the simple truth upon his side. But then he would have been called “a sore-head,” we suppose, and Wilson doesn’t like to be called hard names by anybody. Frie Tunabliug After Tammany. The breaking up of the infamous Erie ring must follow the downfall of Tammany, with which it was so closely connected. This has been evident from the first, and the only doubtful element in the prediction has been that of time. It looks now, however, as though the death blow to the Erie gang of swindlers would be struck very soon. The English stockholders, who at last have succeeded in getting back 47,202 of the 60,000 shares that Fisk and Gould stole from them, with a prospect of speedily getting the rest, have formed a combination with the McHenry party of the Atlantic and Great Western road, Gen Sickles is coming home from Spain to act as their agent and counsel, and they will at once begin a vigorous war for the possession of the road in the courts, and before the Legislature, which will be asked to order a new and fair election of directors immediately. This is a powerful combination, and will be aided by all who have been sufferers by the ras calities of the Erie ring in the past. Fisk and Gould are preparing for the fight but feebly, evidently feeling that it will be of little use. Still, they are not likely to give up without a contest, and the Messrs Field are sure to be given one more “Erie case," though it may well be doubted if it prove so profitable as most Erie suits they have had for the last year or two. Fisk has had the shrewdness to see that be could not go Into the strugg e weighted with the salt of Helen Jo sephine Mansfield, and the damaging develop ments sho bad it in her power to make from his letters. Her frowns have prov ias potent as her smiles, and James ha t again surrendered at dis cretion and settled the case out of court, paying the fascinating Josephine *15,600 to withdraw the suit. Whether the bargain insures the destruction of the famous Fisk-Mansfield correspondence or not, is not stated, but it is evident that Fisk expects its suppression, at least. It is too late, however, we suspect, for him to reap muci benefit from this truce with the lady who was so recently temporary mistress of his affections. The general tenor of these letters is now well known. They give a his tory of the whole Erie swindle, and its connection with Tammany, in Fisk’s mos graphic style and unique spelling. Thore must be copies of many of them in existence, which will I: sure to plague their author and amuse the public, even if the placated Josephine should burn or hide the origi nals. It has already been discovered from these letters that the terms on which Tweed entered the Erie directory, October 13,1868 were that lie should manage the Legislature, and the Erie ring, on the other hand, were to admit him to a share of the spoils and to circulate 10,000 fraudu lent naturalization papers along the line of the road, and compel all their employes to vote the democratic ticket. On the day of Tweed’s elec tion as director, Fisk, who seems to have been very near ruin, wrote to Sirs Mansfield, exultantly, “they are elected; we are saif;” and in the after noon Gould, Tweed, James McHenry and Mr Lane went, in the best of spirits, at, Fisk’s invita tion, to dine at the house of Mrs Mansfield. Among other things, these letters are remarka ble as showing Fisk’s ingenuity in inventing pet names. He affectionately addres-. bis fair cor respondent as “Measelem little url,” “Lump sum,” “Dumplins,” and “Little Girl with the black and tan dog;” and there is said to be ample evidence in the letters that among Mrs Mansfield’s visitors were distinguished railroad builders and Boston bankers of repute. The pub lic can no more afford to lose this, correspond ence than Fisk can afford to have it preserved, and we still hope that, either through the origi nals or through copies, it may be given to a waiting world. The Lobby in Connecticut —The Hartford Evening Post is rendering a valuable service to the cause of public honesty and good morale by its pungent and persistent exposures of the corrupt lobby which has fattened on the strife between Hartford and New Haven for the “sole capital.” It publishes in detail the bills paid by both cities in 1870 and 1871 for "legislative influence,” and a good many of the politicians who figure in this roll of dishonor would undoubtedly have paid back all they received rather than have the facts thusSlaid bare. The bills, gwliich are from official sources, show that New Haven was bled to the extent of 839 051 in the two years named, and Hartford $16,922, making a total outlay of $55,973. We find that ex-Congressman Augustus Brandagee of New London got S2OOO, 11. B. Har rison, the New Haven politician, SISOO, John T. Wait of Norwich S6OO, E. S. Day of Colchester SIOOO, Seth Logan of Washington 81200, T. E. Doolittle of New Haven SISOO, etc., etc. The figures show that several disinterested patriots, who lent their influence to New Haven the first, year, were induced by a larger consideration to favor Hartford the second, and vice versa; also, that Railroad Commissioners James Pike and J. I. Hutchinson, Sheriff Richard A. Wheeler, United States Collector Joseph Selden, United States Assessor Jeremiah Olney, United States Bank Inspector A. B. Mygatt and Henry M. Cleveland of the state board of education, were all employed in the lobby for pay. The republi cans of Connecticut cannot afford to look upon this flagrant defiance of honesty with any degree of allowance. The men whose names appear in that long list are no longer entitled to political respect or confidence, and the party that awards it to them indorses corruption and deserves de feat. SOTHERN, THE ACTOR, AND THE PRINCE OF Wales.—Among the witnesses who have been summoned to speak “nothing but good of the 'dead,"—as, a week ago, the prince of Wales was regarded,—was Mr Sothern, the famous actor, with whom the prince has been in the habit of drinking “brandy and seltzer" in his dressing room at the theater, and occasionally associating in hunting excursions, also. But, after all, it is not much that the actor-friend can say for hik royal associate. His testimony may serve him in sport ing and theatrical circles, but this, which is the most important part of the whole, will hardly benefit him among reputable men and women; while it is especially sad, as an unconscious and unblushing revelation of the low standards pre vailing in those classes of English society to which Mr Sothern and the prince were admitted: “It is rather a delicate question,"—said the in terviewing reporter to the actor, —“but may I ask 'of you anything concerning the rumors as to his ‘being eo fond of ladies’ society “I have not 'the slightest objection in the world to yonr mak ‘ing public all that I know on that subject. He ‘yielded to temptation no more than would have ‘done any man in his position subjected to the ‘constant inducements to go astray to which he ‘was always exposed. Indeed, he must have been ‘made of adamant to have resisted the—l may ‘say —pressure brought to bear upon him from ev ‘ery side. His wife was and is very delicate, and ‘companionship he was forced to seek else ‘where.’’ Seeking a Character. —Since the prince of Wales has been so sick, and people thought he was sure to die, there has been an effort, both in the English and American papers, to give him a better character than he has generally borne, and various witnesses to his tolerable and negative good qualities have been offered. Most likely his career has not been so bad as it has been painted by some gossipers and scandal-mongers; it is always the fate of men conspicuous in life to have either their virtues or their vices exag gerated but, admitting the most and the best that can be said in his favor, there is no material for the conclusion that his departure would be in any sense a public loss either to Great Britain or the world. His presence on the stage is a challenge to radicalism and revolution; his death would allow the inevitable reform in English society and politics to go on more slowly and smoothly, as Is the natural British habit; while its triumphs could hardly be less sure or bene ficial. The latest style of veils is pointed end thickly studded with small jet beads, which ate raining, the sight of fashionable women.