Slk ^rpubliran. SPRINGFIELD. DEC KM HER 22,7871. I We anticipate several intermediate letters of western txper'.eme end observation tn the writs of "A Wintet Trip Went" to give, while tAemblJ fresh, “another look at Chicago.” Tho story ot the great tregedy of that city, with its sequences and coneojacnces, is one of which the reading world will vcarcelv erer tire. Hrau< i»«i aterewe. The president has made another bit, and again turned the tables on ais opponent)—and h»’ friends. Alter the bad behavior of the Utter in the Senate, last week, there was no other way for him'to escaoo its evil consequences to hlssrelf. ant the republican party than that which be bat folowed in giving hearty and prompt wo’onr e and adoption to ths recommendations i< t'ac i •Civil Service Commission, fils message w Cm- j cress on tteesubjoct, yesterday, restores Sim to; .publie cotJideu.e it that tv alter, and mcJes him the hiswrictJ leader, the inaugurate: -of Civil I Service 'Reform. The work is not W w alt on Congressional arioti,—te launches the reform full-fledged through his own power O’rer the offices at rhe beginning of the New Year, —red otly suggests that Cw.gr jss may add mere permanence to the new rolirybyfor miHegislaucn, and trvites it to appropriate tin money necessary te pay the exposes of its ar plication. That Ger. Grant has had the wit to see end ten this opportunity to establish a popular and ^ru< tiy seeded reform, dote not necessarily j tncte bin the best president the country can lave, nor the strongest candide.e the republican party erm nominate; but it is greatly to his credit, end wUlwdd largely teats popularity and •strengthen his prestige for the mat campaign,— and should. If bis own often wo reckless and undftc iminatfcg distribatioe of the offices has •exhibited the necessity of such reform in the manner of appointmest as. he now establishes, and s rengtheued the populer demand tor it, the glory is none the less hit-. I a one sense it is hightened by such self-denying victory -over his own infirmities and condemnation of his own conduct. A: any rate, we are altogether too gialofthe result to begrudge tae president even the undue share of the honor that may possibly -accrue to him from it. The Victwv: wf Keforiu Mr Curtis's admirable report on Ute civil ser 'rice, bringing the quesiien sharply and directly before Congress, leaves,no further cause for re gret or cor :plaint that that subject is omitted from the senatorial resolution of investigation and reform; while Gen Wilson’s success in re storing She power ot the committee to make their investigation effective and thorough, by the au thority to send for persons and papers, gives to the resolution, at least -ell the value and force which tie mo vers desired. Nothing remains now for the aitisf sctionoUde public mind, and the cause at reform, bet the reconstruction of the committoe, so as to insure thorough, impartial and earnest 'work under the resolution as finally agreed to. Without this is done, the committee will kasa neither the confidence nor the respect of the country, and ate injury to the republican party a®d ttte administration, which the factious andk^cxdeting course of many of their leaders and friends inflicted, by resisting the resolution ..aid emasculating the committee, will remain to fret and fester with greater or less degree. Bat party and persons out of the question, this blundering and otherwise barren controversy be tween republican senators must operate to give final and full success ta the cause of civil service reform. Th sir opposition to Mr Trumbull’s reso lution cud sneers at his arguments will oblige tbe ad ministration senators, as a matter of personal a nd party .policy, to give the heartiest and prompt!st supper: to Mr Curtis's recom mendaticns. Elecitat.ee and cavil over them now would adranc e the present public suspicion of their enmity to reform to conviction, and so strengthen th 3 opposition to their presidential -candidate as to mate his cause doubtful, if not hopeless. Mr Curtis is thus fortunate in bringing out his -report in the m idstofthis senatorial disputation. Ee will find a h eartier welcome for it in conse quence, both from the public and the politicians; and he is touch more certain to gain for it a prompt adoption and a fair trial than he would hut for thatquar rel. Gen Grant and his friends are trebly pledge-1 now to inaugurate a civil ser vicereform; first, by their repeated promises and assurances to the public;, second, by their quarrel with those leaders of the republican party who are-recognized by (A® country as the earliest and truest advocates of such a reform; and, third, by their hopes of continuing-to be the leadersand the candidates of tilt repaid;can party. Thecountryds thus on the eve of a great re farm vietory ami of sa immense revolution in its political machinery. The consequences of the proposed severance of the patronage of the fed eral government from the direct disposition of the members of Congress and the heads of the de partments can hardly becveraitimated. It strikes a fetal blow at the whole existing process by which parties have been held together, and men have .been kept in place and power. It must rev olutssnive and elevate the whole tone and charac ter of our personal politics, as wall as of our pub lic adstinistrttion. £t wi„ bring a better class of men, not only into the executive offices, but into legf-slative places; it will free members of Congress from subserviency to local rings cf office-hoWers; while it will displaee-s.r ratorm the latter altogether. It is a revolution and a victory that makes very acail tb< questions As president or cabinet ministers, of tariffs or currencies. Ard Gm Grant is agria most fortunate in easing ar.d accepting the opportunity Au admit ana organize jhe popular demand for it. Of course, weare well aware that n« regulo- Gons or laws can alone eradicate the evlU of our ssiril service system. Along with them must go the active public opinion which animates their purpose, and insists on tiieir generous fulfillment. Aiocg with them, too, must be the executive, who appreciates the spirit and value of the reform, yields* welcome to Its suggestions, and gives a vigorow and fail enforcement to its provisions. The XeW Apporiionment for (longress me* in If the apportionment bill which has already passed the Hoose P»ss the Senate without material amendment, Massachusetts will gain a t in^rWliT. while New Hampshire and Ver mont each lose one. The method of computing Among the (MN ii this; Taking the total TilE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1871. population pf th e states exclusive of territories i j|) and dividing it by 283, the number fitted v pon for the Eoc« to contain, we get the num’oer for each congfossman, which is 184,675, Tb on dividing the •papulation of each state by this, wesret the nv.mlor of congressmen for each state, with a frfo 'loa of the population over. I Every •state num# ,ve at least one member, and j so Dataware, N«»atka, Nevada and Oregon get each a tnemfcsr, though they have less than 131)875. The ether 33 states get 263 members by the first division, and there are still 17 mem- j hers to be given to the states with the largest re- i aiaitriers. Tonnccticut, which bad but three,, now geta another for a remainder of 133,429, ami M jssachveetts, which had but ten, as before, now gets mother for a remainder of I ID.fix, Maine gets its fifth member by a fraction ol I 88,215, aad Rhede Island her tecond by 81 f i«, i while'Vermont, with her remainder of t'l,2Ul, i falls of her third member, and so does New I Hsmrsbire with a remainder of 48,950: the low. I est fraction that secures a member being rO.H'i, in Atrtausas. New Ipoking at our state population of 1.457,- i 351, we no longer take the general standard (P'’ ,675) in order to determine our eoagressiowl I districts, but a new one, 132,486, the quotient Of our population divided by 11. Let us see what districts can be made on this basis. Htmp den and Berkshire, which now go together, have a population of 148,225, and therefore wes can spare Holyoke and Ludlow to the Hampshire aud Franklid district. The two counties just named have a population of 17,023, ard with Holyoke and Ludlow 88.883, requiring nearly I 41,000 trom Worcester county tc make up the i district. This number could oe had aid yet set off Berlin, Bolton, Cdntea, Harvard, Lancaster, Lunenburg and Sterling te the present seventh district. But of the fourth, fifth and sixth dis tricts a new district should ba formed, made up 'of the cities and large towns near Boston,— 1 Cambridge, Charlestown. Lynn, Chelsea, Sum erville, with a few small ones like Revere, Win- I throp and Saugus thrown in to fill up. To the fifth district Haverhill, Bradford and Boxtord should be given to make up for the loss of Lynn; j and to the sixth should be added Lowell, to re place Charlestown and 'Somerville, Woburn, j Waltham and Lexington taken away and added Ito the seventh district, which should then give I up some of its Norfolk towns to the third dis trict, and borrow about 10,000 from the eighth I district, which would have them to spare. The first and second districts might remain as they I are, or Dorchester might be added to the third j district. The first seven wards of Boston should I form the fourth district, the other wards with i the towns of Brookline and West Roxbury i should form the third district, and the few towns left over should be distributed among the nearest districts. This would secure to the democrats, in ordi nary years, the northern district of Boston, which ought to be represented by a democrat, while the republicans would carry the other en districts as now. It would break up the poll cal rings in the fifth, sixth and seventh distri, is, and make the latter more decidedly a rural district, while it would unite the suburban cities about Boston in a combination that would soon seem a very natural one. It is plain from the local increase of population that the new district must be made somewhere in the vicinity of Boston, and it is better to arrange it as on the above plan than to put parts of Boston into three districts, in order to swamp the democratic vote of the city by the republican vote of the adjacent cities and towns. The details of our plan can of course be much improved, but something like the grouping we have indicated will be found, we believe, to be best adapted to the new arrangement that the next Legislature will be called upon to make. Mr Hoar’s <,abor Commission. Whatever may be thought of Mr Hoar’s bill to establish a commission of three to inquire into the condition of the laboring people of the coun try—and we think very well of it—the debate upon it does not present our legislators as know ing much about the matter. And there is this to be said in favor of Mr Farnsworth’s suggestion to have the inquitf made by Mr Hoar’s commit tee,—that such a course would compel five or six members of the House to learn something of a question that the whole 240 have no hesitation in discussing, whether they know anything about it or not. la other respects the proposition to have the work done by a committee of Congress is a very silly one,—for no such committee can make the proper investigatiens for want of time and preliminary knowledge. It would be as sensible to appoint a House committee to make a Cainese dictionary, or translate the Sanscrit sacred books. If the time of the inquiry is limited to one year, as by the bill of Mr Hoar, it will be needful to select men for the commission who are already at home in such investigations,—men like Mr Wells, whom we nominated a few days ago, and whom Mr Cox was wise enough to propose on the floor of the House. The other names men tioned there, of Messrs Day, Troup and Trevel llck, were brought in for party effect, but very likely one of these persons may be familiar with the matter. Trevellick professes to be, but is merely a brawling demagogue, who, judging by his speeches, is ignorant of the simplest rules of arithmetic. Tbe men selected should not be par tisans, and it would be well if one of them were a practical working-man, in sympathy with what is known as the labor movement. But the other two should be men of as profound acquaintance with the history and the existing facts of our in dustrial condition as can be found. The debate just ended developed a good deal of positive, though scattering and unreasonable opposition to the bill. The dtmocratic members did not venture, generally, to oppose such an in quiry, but they made every effort possible to cast reproach upon the republican) in connection with the labor question. Fernand® Wood was the most ingeniously ab^rd and outrageously parti san in his remarks of this nature. He declared that the republicans were wholly to blame for the woes of the working-men; before they came into power with Liacoln, the working-men were happy and prosperoas; labor received its just re ward, and held an equal position in the favor of the government. Gold and silver were the only national currency; duties levied on foreign goods fart liked the only source of revenue; there was no public debt, no class legislation, no discrimi nation in favor of capital against labor, no land bounties nor railroad subsidies, and no mammoth corporations upheld by official favor. And it is only in the restoration of the party to power which governed in 1860, that the working-men of the country can find relief, said Mr Wood. His colleague, Mr Slocum, did not take so gloomy a view bf the miseries of our laboring men, who enjoy many advantages in this country unknown In any other country on «artb; bat he admitted that «ome evil, existed which could be remedied by Congress. Among these evils were many un necessary officer*, great extravagance in ixpendi- i turcs and dishonretv in office. He called atten tion particularly to the southern atari s, to the frauds In the custom b.iuso at New lork and; other foands. These eelts, he claimed, increased the cost of the necessaries of life and the taxes i imposed «po j the people. Mr Cox, who favored the bill, spoke in a more pertinent manner, but could not forget to address democratic buncombe. Now it there is any question which ought to be whol^ removed from the arena of party politics it is this ot inquiring into the actual condition of our poople. Politic) have no more to do with it than '.hey have with the census; Indeed, the in- I instigation which Mr Hoar proposes is simply an expansion ot' the social statistics of the census in this particular direction. He raised a needless alarm by some rhetorical remarks of his the other day about the French Commune and the interna- I .ional society, which also are as foreign to the matter under consideration as the dead and buried 1 pro-slavery administrations that Fernando Wood laments. The true business of a labor commis sion is to ascertain the facts concerning the j 30,000,000 people, more or less, who in this coun try support themselves by the labor of their hands. Till those facts are found out and placed on record, all this talk about tariffs and monopo- I lies has nothing to do with the present inquiry; when they are reported we shall know what ba sis of truth there is in declamations about tho es feet of thia dug or that on the condition of our working men and working-women. At present we are in a state of chaotic ignorance about it, I which gives occasion for the wildest nonsense under the forms of political economy and philan i thropic appeal. Let us keep our facts and our j buncombe in separate parcels, so iar as the labor j question is concerned, and so far as human frail |ty will permit. The bill as it finally passed the House by a great majority was foolishly amend ed so as to limit the commission to a single year, instead of two, but in other respects was some what improved from Mr Hoar’s first draft. It is as follows Section 1. There shall bo appointed by the president, by and with the advice aud consent ol the Senate, a commission of three persons, of whom one shall be practicady identified with the laboring interests of the country, and who shall be selected solely with reference to their charac ter and capacity for honestand impartial investi gation, and shall hold office for the period of one year from date of appointment, unless their duties shall have been sooner accomplished. They shall investigate the subject of wages and hours of labor, and the division of thejoint profits of labor and capital between the laborer and the capitalist, and the social, educational, and sani tary condition of the laboring classes of the United States, and how the same are affected by the existing laws regulating commerce, •finance and currency. Provided, that the said commis sion shall be appointed irrespective of political or partisan considerations, and from civil life. See. 2. Said commissioners shall receive an annual salary of SSOOO each, shall be authorized to employ a clerk, and shall report the result of their investigations to the president, to be by him iransmitted to Congress. A Kighteons Verdict. A case of great interest to all life insurance companies and the public generally, aud of spe cial interest here, because the Massachusetts Mu tual life insurance company was one of the par ties engaged, has lately been decided by the court of quarter, sessions for Bucks county, at Doylestown, Pa. The case in brief, was this: Some years ago a man named Oliver J. Stirk, through an insur ance broker named Owen Groom, procured by fraud and forgery a policy of life insurance in the Massachusetts Mutual company on Stirk’s wife, who then lay at the point of death. The company speedily discovered the imposition, re fused to pay the amount of the policy, and Stirk, on attempting to compel payment, had his case summarily thrown ont of court. But the compa ny did not let the matter rest here. Major Knox, the eecretary, sought and found evidence proving the fraud and forgery on the part of Stirk and Groom, brought suits against them, and Stirk, being convicted, was sentenced to six years and four months in the Eastern penitentiary at Philadelphia. Groom confessed his guilt by forfeiting his bonds of SIOOO and clearing out beyond the reach of the court. In these days, when attempts to cheat life in surance companies are so frequent and too often successful, it is refreshing to see one of the swin dlers brought to justice, and the Massachusetts Mutual company has not only done a good thing for itself and its policy-holders in pushing this case at a»large expense of time and money, but has rendered a service to all other companies in setting up the fate of Stirk as a warning to other rascals who may think life insurance com panies lawful sources of plunder. If all cases of successful or attempted fraud were prosecuted as vigorously, there would soon be fewer of them. Fisk, Mansfield, et ai..—The report that Jim Fisk, Jr., had compromised with Josephine Mansfielj, paying her a good sum of money to withdraw her suit, does not seem to be quite cor rect. An attempt was made to settle, not by Fisk, but by two Boston bankers, prominent in financial and social circles at the hub, who would be implicated in a very unpleasant and disrepu table way if Fisk’s letters to Josephine should be published. These bankers had an interview, last week, with Miss or Mrs—which is it?—Mansfield, »hich resulted in a settlement satisfactory to the lady if not to the bankers. But it was not car ried out at onee, owing to the fact that Fisk in sisted upon other exactions which the Boston financiers refused to accede to, and the only re sult was to postpone for three weeks the hearing which was to have taken place before Judge B xby of the Yorkville police court, lastfiaturday. There seems to be a good deal of sharp practice going on on all sides in the case, and it is still very likely that the famous letters will soon he published. Mr Henby Theodobe Tuckebman’s sadden death removes from among our elder literary men an industrious and genial writer, who, with out great force of thought or beauty of sty le, yet held as honorable place in American literature. He was born in Boston in 1813, early went abroad, without graduating, and spent three or four vears there, chiefly in Italy, with the lan guage, scenery and art of which he became very well acquainted. His first volume, the Italian Sketch-Book, was published in 1835; since then he has published a dozen or fifteen volumes, and his written frequently for the magazines and newspapers, fn 1845 he removed from Biston to New York, and has since divided his time be iweon that city and Newport. He died at New York on Sunday of rapid consumption, leaving an enviable reputation for kindness of heart and courtesy of manners, among hit nnmeroM friends. A WINTER 7'RIP WEST. ANOTHKK look AT aitCAtiO. he l*r»r.m» es tUbalMing—The Pvlcsm o' Ite H.I«V The CkaMV» as n Fnll— The Hevrlassau «f -I Mens* I*llll Mmp»»'Wic in Park—Thr I.u iriised Pm»»*'vHy nt she tSirnl Sioux The Hellef Maelviy nn