A mneements. eir.. me Evening,
4
i
Boorn's THEATER. Joins Cesar.” Booth.


Fieri AVENUE Theater, At 1} and at 5: Ii
wore.”
GRAND OPER Horsey, At 2, German Opera: “The
Postion. Wacuul ALS: The Tile of Leave Mant The Flaronces
fans Bpwin's Taearn-- Opera Bontie. At: La
Perichole A181 Barbe Blen™ Nile. Aver
3 NIRiO'S GARDEN. At 2 aud at 8: The Black


wk
op ywete THEATER. —AL 2 and at 8: fLampty
DPempir GL Fox
CUNI0N-SQUARE THEATER, AE 2 and at Sg: Variety
Company.
WalT ACK's THRATER.—* Jim Garth.” L. Wallack.
Leavirt's Ant RooMs.—Daletie Exhibition,
STEINW AY HALL Oratorio: The Messials.” Miss
Kellogg
SN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS. At 2 and at 3: Bich,
Wambold, ew.
Eupikr Rink. —P. T. Barnum's Museum, Mens
ag re Hipsoirowe, and Circus. Day and Night
NEw- Youk Circus, Fourwenth-st., between Third
and Foorth ves at 2) and at 8.
Nixon's SOUTHERN Circus, Nos. 728 and 30
Rroadwar. at Zand at 4:
BA AA AA nr AANA Srv fee adios
Call and sce the fire-tried
Tigges SAFES No less than 127 firma
14 Chicago give wiliiug tesumony to the
Ceriaip protection of thir be ke, papers,
And valuables in the midst of that
Great and ter ib eo Narration.
Op’ depot in tient,
S11 oACWAY, CORNER oF MrUaRA eT,
“Tonipay Prestsis oi Atlection and Charity.
Mian alia £10 to Wom 5 wes ihe tewing Machine A better Loi
Ber vresei to a Wife ora» “0° or one hearer and dearer still th ua
WMoikknLrn WilB0N “Kv Au 'GaCHING cannot be dei ised. Their
pep hon is too well estaliisaer loned comment, and the prices se
Sov riably to suit the tives The splendid Depot 1s No. 63 Browiway."
[N.Y Dus T wes
THE BEs1 HorLivay PRESENT,
A Sewing Muciive, sul Jv bist Swi Machine is a‘ Froursee”
30 Union-squang, NY,
Comer Ful'on and Jar sta, Brooklyn
ma
NIEINW AY AND SON
Graxp, Soran, ann Uraaant PraNos,
OM Pianos taken on exon eo biastrated Catalogues sent ‘ree
application
War enoomMs, STEINWAY Harn
1654 -nl 8 3 8 East Fourtrenth-st.. N. Y.
02
Save C111 EN DOLLARS,
Ruy the celebrite: vi thst s SHO Tuk SEWING-M ACHING. The best in
the worid, Price $45. “oil ou eas, pay wits of $5 a month. War
pened Sr dre years Aw cod Canvas ard Agents wanted. Office
r salesroom, WiLsox Aw a0 MaCiing COMPANY, 707 Broadway,
PoRTABLE Winpow VENTILATOR, Mane’,
for private Louses, otices «1c Frew ain no draft; Gts any win.ow
"1 #5 Send for coreular. Gao Lane Co 45 Duane st

Woon Carrera. 450 Broadway.—Hotel pro
pricior PISLELE LRG La tha will wear
CorLaate Co's Casumere BouQuer,
for te Hobaavs.
ALTIVICIAY i= PALMER Lives,
#3 Rroadwit, N. Y.. Le (0 ostnut ot, Ploeg G0 Green »t., Boston.
Colds in the Head, Strictures of the Nasal
Or. ans, Lc, use RENNA Ayan so Masic Or.

REDEMPTION OF FiveE-TWENTIES OF 1562.
REDEMPTION OF IVE-1 WENTIES OF 15b-.
Shoo¥n REKIKS
Beside the 100,000,000 of Frik- WRNTIEs of 1702 (nt pories) now
be ug eadeeme by the Governme.t, two additional calls have been made
of twenty milon dollars each. of the SxcoND SEkigs, upon whiel in
eres will case on tue Teh ud 20th of March next, respectively
Tue two calls for $20,000,000 each, fullowing so closels upon earch
other, 1adieite 5 settled poicy on the part of the Goverument look.og to
regular <ul systematic re mptiou of the Five Twenty Bonds
Further calls of she second and subsequent series of the Five Taeoties
1362, will doubtless follow during the coming vear.
The recent re'at.ve market vines of called and uncall=! Bonis show
bat HULORKS CAN BEALIZY A BRTTEKK PRICE POR TOBIR DBusus BE:
PORN THRY ARE CALLED IN 7/15 APTKKWARDS.
Hollers of ant Pive-TwesTies oF L303, and especially of the BRCOND
®ruixs, will therefore do well to consider the subject of reinvestment in
wore permanent form withoant delay.
During tie trst three mouths of 1972 there will be disbursed for the
gedemption of Five-Twouties Inicrest on the United States, Central
#acife, and other Bonds, dividends on stocks, &e., not far from $100,
©0),000, a considerable portion of which will seek reinvestioent.
Government Bonds at present market prices (estimating the leagth of
Quze for wh 1 they are Kis to rau), yield but little over 4 per ceut ou
Que fuvestinen?, aod ib 1s row apparont that no higher rate of interest can
eraafier Ie derived from pve tment in our National Recaritics.
The smpount of real'y Lrsi-c fue end shsolutely safe six per cent Gold
Bonds, which can now be had at anyining less than par, is very Luited.
Pominent among them st ue <x PER CENT Gop BoNds oF THR
CHESAPRAEK AND OM10 iin of Coxpaxy, which we offer sud rece
or nd, Welieving them to be os al olu'ely safe as the Bonds of the
Gv rrnment, Less than 000 0.0 0ow remmn unso'd, aud ther will be
gr, ily talon np,
Present pre, 94, 6 coroolinera
C
In‘erest and princ.pal (ou able iv gold in New-York Cite. Interest
Mar 1 aod Nov. UL Devow nations, $1,000, $500, sod $100—coujon
or regiciored.
Upwaris of 300 mils of tue (lest cake and Ohio Railroad are now
eompletd aod equipped, wnt the remainder will be finished withiu a few
months, when we bel ove i ese Bonds will take raok lo market price
with the CENTRAL PA iri nov an for a long time past, above par,
au) currentin all the mone: ma aes of the world,
Y
We buy sad se!l as osual, GoverxuesT and CENTRAL Paciric
Yi wpe an! rece te then in exchange for CansarRAxs and Onto Boxps,
A counts of Banks cl others receiced, on which we allow [ntereet at
tbe rate of four per e-ut  Onlors for Investment Stocks and Bonds exe
ented at the Stock Exchange Fuk k Hatch.
Harvey Pisx
A Haicu,
Dany Trisvusk, Mail Subscribers, $10 per anavm.
Srni-WekRKLY TRIBUNE, Mail Subacribers, $4 per an.
WkrkLYy TriBUNE, Mail Subscribers, $2 per annum.
Advertising Rates.
Dany TRIBUNE, 30c., 40c., 50¢c., 75¢., and $1 per line.
RAI W FLY TRIBUNE, 25 and 50 cents per line.
VexKLY TRIBUNE, $2, $3, and $3 per line,
According to position in the paper.
Terms, cash in advance.
Address. THE TRIBUNE. New-York.
New Dork Daily Cribune.
MONDAY, DLCEMBER 25, 1871.
The Prince of Wales is gradually regalving his strength,
e=== The proposal to increase the circulation of the
Bank of France is still pending before the Assembly.
The question as to who will be French Minister to Wash.
ington ie still unsettled. A Radical newspaper has been
suppressed in Marscilles.
There were over 200 deaths from small-pox in Phida
deiphla last week. A terrible gale prevailed in
Ohio snd Indians on Saturday, doing immense damage.
e=-== The reports concerning the Arkansas negro troubles
were greatly exaggerated. One man was killed
and several injured by a railroad accident in Ohio. Gilde
The purifying house at the Metropolitan Gas Works ex
ploded, injuring two men and leaving ono-third of the
city in darkness. The Committee of Beventy hae
drafted 8 new Charter, Several members of the
new Common Council took tue oath of office. Goid,
1083 1064 1038
We are pleased to learn that the Committee
on Extortions of the Bar Association is to take
some action looking, to the reduction of the
enormous fees exacted by the incumbents of
the offices of Sheriff, County Clerk, and Regis.
ter. It 18 scandalous that these ministerial
officers should rucvive compensation amount
ing every year to a sum sufficient for the suyp
port of a hundred familics, The fact that a
large portion of this went to sustain the power
of Tammany ¥111 be no argnment now for
Locping np those yvergronn extortions. Mi
Enainess NOLES.
p—p— o
TERMS OF THE TRIBUNE.
O"Mrien ix still confident of getting his qnarier
of A million. But we presume (he tax-payers
of New-York have a better use for their mouey
han devoting it to build up an O'Brien Ring.

Oor Regular Correspondent mm the City of
Mexico gives a picture of the alternating
checks and successes of the revolution now
harassing the Republic, Juares still holds his
own with that impassive patience which has
wo often wearied misfortune and compelled
otory. and which may succeed again.




The Haytien President assures Mr. Bassett,
onr Minister, that he bears no ill will agninst
the Republic of Santo Domin zo, and ardently
desires its friendship and its prosperity. That
Mr. Bassett lends imperfect credence to these
protestations shows that an unbelieving spirit
is a natural growth of those pleasant islands,
where every prospeet pleases and only mau is
vile.
The Senate Committees on Retrenchiment ig
expected here on the 8d of January. Ii is te
be hoped that the merchants of the City will
uke this opportunity to lay before them, and
before Congress, and the country, the griev
ances of which they have so long timidly com
plained. Let the true friends of reform now
do their duty and leave with the Cemmittee
men, if they are so disposed, the responsibility
of negleetine or evading their own.
It in stated from Washington that Gen.
Schenck, desirous to give no cause for com
plaint even to malevolence, has withdrawn
from his Directorship in the Emma Mine Cor
poration. The name of the Field Marshal
Duke of Saldanha, the oldest and one ef the
most illustrious of continental statesmen, ig
added to the list of diplomatists interested in
industrial enterprises, which Tn TRIBUNE
published several weeks ago. Gen. Schenck
obeyed a delicate sense of propriety in resign
ing his Directorship. But the clamor which
called his former action unprecedented —in face
of precedents such as those we mentioned, and
most notably those of Gen. Dix and the Mar
Jal Duke of Saldanha—is as ignorant as it is
MTree Tvl
A dispateh from Washington gives some
ancient history about the Volunteers in Cuba,
<howing that the State Department, so long
ago as the Autumn of 1869, had full and de
tailed information from our Consul-General at
Havana to the effect that the Madrid Govern
ment was powerless in the Island, and that
any attempt made by Gen. Prim to fulfill his
solemn promises made to Gen. Sickles to sup
press the Volunteers and punish their out
rages would result in a revolt of the lawless
Peninsular party in Cuba. The fact that the
Government knew this two years ago is of
less importance than the question whether
they know it now. Things have been growing
worse in Cuba ever since. ‘I'he impotence of
the Spanish Government to rectify them is
every day more apparent. Yet not only we,
but all the rest of the world, still act as if
the Madrid Cabinet and not the Havana mob
were the true rulers of Cuba. Meanwhile the
savage ruflians continue their safe infamies,
separated from question or responsibility by
three thousand miles of sea.
We do not suppose that any intelligent per
son paid the slightest attention to the vindic
tive slanders wjth which the apologist of the
mail iy in this city pursued the
independent Republicans of the Senate who
demanded an investigation. Still, it is entirely
proper that the reply of one of them to these
characteristic attacks should be given, and we
publish to-day a conversation between Senator
Schurz and our Washington correspondent,
which at once disposes of all these reckless
charges. Neither he nor Senator Trumbull
hus any personal controversy with the Presi
dent there was no concerted action between
them they meant precisely what they avowed
—to have an honest inquiry into alleged
abuses. The threat of the Custom-House
organ to publish the list of recommendations
to office made by these Senators does not
appear to frighten them especially, as it is
well known to every one in Washington that
they, with Senator Sumner, have probably
demanded fewer appointments than any other
members. They needed no vindication from
the assault of the organ of Thomas Murphy.
The statement of Senator Schurz is enough to
justify them from much more respectable
criticism.
criticism.
It is, no doubt, out of the very reaction from
our bilious, nervous, overworked babits of
life that we have begun of late years, here in
America, to scize upon all annual holidays
with such avidity, and to strive to draw from
them all the zest, or fun, or elevating mean
ing of which they are capable. But it is a
deeper national want, we think, than either
lack of recreation or rest, that year by year
gives to Christmas a more sacred character,
and sets it apart from other days. Looking at
the matter in a common-sense light, it scems
little less than a miracle that the wheels of
trade should stop throughout a busy country,
courts adjourn, banks close, brokers give up
their gains, to celebrate the birth of a child
in a stable eighteen centuries ago, on a day
when it is far from certain such a birth oc
curred. Something in the pause in money
making, the sudden outbreak of general good
feeling, the uplifting of Christ in His cradle
into each man’s thoughts, touch all of us—
the clerk at his counter, the poor sewing-woman,
the girl at a ball, the prisoner behind his
barred window—as a strangely intelligible
supernatural call from the world beyond.
Once a year, says the old legend, the bell of
God strikes in the forest loud and solemn,
and they who follow the sound will reach the
country where He is.
Not that we believe that many of the citizens
of New-York, for example, attach any especial
sense of holiness to the day, For this man, it
means roast turkey and wince pie; for that,
a tree for the children; one gathers all his
kinsfolk about him for dinner; anotber sends
a little unwonted help to his hungry neighbor
in the alley, or a bank-note to some charity
but with every one, though taken in its most
meager, meanest sense, Christmas lifte home
and home ties aud brotherly good feeling into
view. It is an altogether wholesome and pure in
fluence which, even but for one day in the year,
will thrust public matters, politics, eriine, and
trade out of sight, and bring to light the swpet
family life of the nation; which makes oh
“dren and the poor for once the objects of all
our thoughts and cure. With many business
men, however, this morning is apt to indice
a semi-religious train of feeling, a vigue
comfortable remembrance that the day is a 20
called “Ch... tian festival,” and that to Chris
tianity we owe, no doubt, our civilization
public schools, humanizing efforts, .donwstic
deceudies that we are wot Thags or Jolin
T0.DA4Y.
NEW-YORK DAILY TRIBUNE, MONDAY, DECEMBER =o, 18/1
(hinamen, in short; 8 recognition of Christ
which perhaps is botter than none. Dub who
among us sees tho true meaning of the
day There ~is another old German
story of a stranger who once came in
wintry weather to a village, and went up and
down among the good people as though she
had been one of their neighbors for genera
tions. ‘The old women saw her as a kindfea
tured crone, aged as themselves; to the yonng
mothers, she was a cheery matron; to the
maidens, a maiden, light-hearted and gay;
only a little child, holding close by her skirt
and looking up in her face, saw that she was
‘Mary, the mother of the Lord. Only when we
become as little children, it may be, will this
day which gave birth to Him lead us to un
derstand aright Him and his message.
We have faith that the dny is not far dis
tant when that message will be understood
among us as it is not now; when indifferent
men of business will not vaguely thrust Christ
into a corner of their busy brains as undoubt
edly a power in the world, mt one bearing more
directly on women and children than themselves;
when Christianity will not mean the clashing
dogmas of Baptist, Methodist, or Preshyterian,
the mass, immersion, chasubles or drab coats,
but the simple truth of which this day is the
sign—the fact of an eternal omnipresent
Love. Every child is drilled into some doc
trinal ereed, but there is literally but one book
in the language begide the Bible designed to
show him the loving kindness of God in Na
ture, in the warm sunshine that embraces him
to the color of the worm which he treads under
foot. Yet it is there, a principle in every atom
of creation, a something beyond order or law,
or inexorable sequence, which no scientific
hypothesis can explain away or destroy. When
men's eyes are educated to perceive this om
nipotent element of love in Nature,and to read it
through the problems of history; when they com
prehend that the Child whom paupers and
kings and the beasts of the stall recognized
on that first Christmas day as their Savior,
was only that Love made flesh that it might
bind all human life into one brotherhood,
the day will begin to unvail its depth and
breadth of meaning to them. Then will the
Divine Child streteh His hand across the cen
turies, and bring from the hearts of Ilis broth
ers the high aspiration, the strong and tender
charity which will make infinite love a real
and present force of every day. 1 will grow
more actual to us year by year, and “the holy
“tide of Christmas all others shall deface.”
The Daily Saratogian, premising that Tne
Trisusg has “tooted long enough about the
Custom-hotise wing of the Republican party,”
NAYS:
“Ae cannot see that there is anything wrong in the
fact that the Custom-house oflicials are mainly Repub
hears: or why those officials should be abused beeauso
they manifest their iriendslup, politically, to the Ad
mt aimtiation of President Grant.
IieEPONSE OY Lae J 1Hoitie,
I. We, too, hold that there is nothing wrong
in the fact that the Custom-liouse oflicials are
mainly Republicans, and insist that they shall
not be abused for friendship to the Adminis
tration of President Grant. So far, you see,
we are entirely agreed. Then on what do we
difter?
Thue Trice se objects to the systematic, re
lentless proscription of those Republicans who,
in the slang of the day, are termed Fenton
“men.” Of these, not less than one hundred,
beginning with Gen. KE. A. Merritt, Naval
Officer, and Gen. E. W. Palmer, Appraiser,
and running down to low-water mark, have
heen ejected from their places, because of
their preference for our later rather than our
carlwr chosen Snator. No one acensed them
of incapacity or infidelity to their dutics; yet
they have been hunted down and tomahawked,
not here only, but all over the State, because
they belonged to the same wing” of the Re
publican party with Tie TeisoNe, Some peo
ple like this: others don't; we are counted
with the latter,
11. As to “manifesting their friendship to the
Administration,” we consider that entirely
right, when it is not done at the expense of
the I'reasury. But when three or four hundred
(tustom-house ofticers are disthibuted all over
the State, as was the case last Fall, expressly
to pack a Republican State Convention with
delegates subservient to the Conkling-Murphy
faction—these Cnstom-house officers regularly
drawing pay from the Treasury for the work
that they are persistently neglecting— we object
to that as a fraud on the Government and a
gross wrong to those thus unfairly overruled.
Qur last two Republican State Conventions
were thus carried and controlled and we don't
pretend to like it. Those who have their liv
ing to earn are most unfairly pitted against
a faction which pays its recruiting and drill
sergeants out of the Federal purse. Our po
litical education would have constrained us to
deprecate this, if our sense of justice bad not
already done so. Just consider these extracts
from our old Log Cabin of 1840:
“The President of the United States his seen, with dis
satisfaction tofficara of the General Government taking,
on various occas’ ni, active parts iw the elections of pub
lic functionaries whether of the General or Btate Gov
ernments. Fre (om of elections being essential to the
mutuai independence of Government, and of the differ
ent branches of the same Government, so vitally cher
ished by moet of our Constitutions, it is deemed fmpro per
for officers depending on the Executive of the Union to
attempt to control or influence the free exercise of the
elective right. It is expected that no officer will attempt
to influence the votes of other men, nor take any part in
the dusiness of electioneering—that being deemed incon
sistent with the spirit of the Constitution and bis duties.”
(THOS. JLFFERSON— Circular to Officers, 1803.
“The recent demonstrations offjpublic sentiment in
seribe on the list of Executive duties, in characters too
legible to be overlooked, the task of reform, which will
require particularly the correction of those abuses that
have brought/the patronage of the Federal Government
futo conflict with the frecdom of elections.” —(Gen.
JACKSON—Inangural Address, 1529.
“When 1 see an oftice-holder interfering in elections,
it occurs to me that he 1s thinking of his salary und his
bread, and is therefore an untit adviser of the people.”
[FELIX GRUNDY, 1828.
The Fxeentive should never attempt to influence the
elections, either by the People or State Legislature, nor
suffer the officers under his control to take any part in’
them, other than by giving thelr own votes when they
pokscas the right of voting." (Gen. WM. H, HARRISON
Letter to Harmar Denny.
~Does not The Saratogian consider the above
sound and wholesome doctrine? Tue Trin
UNE, having been reared in that faith,
certainly does.
William Elder has shown from the statistics
in the Treasury Department that the popula
tion of Great Britain is now consuming only
one peck of our wheat per head per annum,
while the Americans consume of their own
wheat five bushels per head per annum. To
the farmers of Town, Illinois, and Indiana this
single fact contains all the issue between Pro
tection and British Free Trade. It determines
the value to them of the Foreign Market. It
proves conclusively that it is only onetwen
ticth as good as the Home Market, as far as
demand is concerned, As far as price ix con
cerned, it is Yes valuable. Striking the aver
ace for a osenes of yews, if $163 is the price
PLEPURIICAN DIFFERENCES,
12esnonse bu The Tribune.
of British wheat in London, $1 47 per bushel
will represent the price there of American
wheat. What profit ia left to the Towa farmer
who thus sends bis grain 5,000 miles to mar
ket? It is he, and not the British purchaser,
who pays the commissions, insurance, freight,
and expenses from the Mississippi River to
London. These charges on a crop of wheat
are taxes imposed on the entry into the foreign
market. Ts it not astonishing that the farmors
of the West will stolidly pay them, and fight
the policy of Protection which assures to then
permanent markets in their own neighborhood
and ever-increasing prices 1
THE SEVENTY'S CHARTER.
The Sub-Committee on Legislation of the
Committee of Seventy has published the incom
plete draft of the proposed City Charter, on
which it has been engaged for some weeks; and
we reproduce it on our second page. It is not
to be taken as the matured work of the Com
mittee. It was prepared for the convenience
of the elected members of the Legislature
from this city, and no definite action upon it
will be taken until after the conference be
tween them and the Committee of Seventy,
which is to take place on Wednesday
of this week. Everything pertaining to
this subject will be read with grave in
terest at this lime, when the fruits sof
the Feat reform movement are to be reaped
in the adoption of an act which shall throw
around the public treasury overy safeguard
which it is possible to devise, and so
cure as honest an administration as hu
man enactments can compel. Fresh from ver,
bitter and costly experience, the Reform Com
mittee realize the necessity of this, and their
Charter, as far as completed, i3 calenlated to
lessen the power and increase the responsibility
of all the public offices. It vests the whole
legislative power in a single Board of Al
dermen, elected annually on the cumulative
principle, each voter having the privilege
of casting nine ballots. There are to be no
Assistant Aldermen. The Aldermen are to
receive a salary of $2,000, with deductions for
absence from any stated meeting of the
Board. They are to have exclusive authority
to appropriate money for city expenditures;
but shall not borrow money except in antici
pation of the revenue of the current year or
under authority of a special act of the Legis
lature; shall not give or lend money to any
private charitable institution without the
“recommendation of the Board of Charities and
Correction and shall not alienate or lease city
property, or pass any resolution involving the
taxing or assessing of the citizens without two
day! public notice. As a gencral thing, the
“maclmery of the Ring Charter is retained.
It had many defects and some advantages—
among the latter the fact that it was pot
cumbersome. This fact has doubtless recom
mended it to the Reform Committee, In their
scheme it 18 relieved of what was cumbrous
Ly the lopping off of the Department of Build
ings and the abolition of the office of Cham
berlain, making the first a Bureau of the De
partment of I'ublic Works and remitting tha
duties of the other to the Controller. Tweed’s
ample and much soiled mantle 18 divided
in this new scheme among five Commissioners,
only one of whom is to be appointed by the
Mayor; and the successor of the Controller
must be content, if this Charter prevails, to
share his great authority and patronage with
four Commissioners of the Public Treasury.
Additional powers are given the Department
of Public Works--the Croton Aqueduct Board
and Street Commission, as well as the Depart
went of Buildings, being wholly absorbed in
it. The Mayor is to be elected annually, and
may be removed by the Governor for cause.
The Executive Departments are eleven in
number, namely Works, Parks, Docks, Chari
ties and Correction, Finance, Sinking Fund,
Law, Instruction, Police, Health, and Fire.
Of these, the Departments of Law and
Public Instruction are not substantially
changed. An important provision does
away with the New-York Printing Com
pany, Transcript, corporation newspapers, and
all at a blow, and establishes instead a cheap
and handy daily register or “City Record” of
all departmental and legislative transactions,
including contracts and appropriations of every
character. There is no proposition of any
union, under one charter, of the Cities of
Brooklyn and New-York, of which there has
been indefinite talk from time time, but sug
gestions are made of revival in some shape of
the old Metropolitan system for the Police,
Health, and Fire Departments.
Of course, this and every other proposed
Charter which will be submitted to the Legis
lature will undergo strict scrutiny and receive
full examination. It is eminently proper that
this should be done. The liberty which we
have regained can only be preserved by wise
regulations, and the benefits of reform can
only be secured by thorough reorganization.
While no time should be wasted in providing
a Charter, there should be also no undue haste
to complete one without full consideration of
each of its provisions. The present corrupt
heads of Departments can be legislated out of
place by special enactment, and the existing
Charter, under. honest administration, will
serve us well enough while we are deliberating
over and concocting a better.
The Albany Argus, with reference to our re
cent exnoaures of the onnreasive official exac
The Albany Argus, with reference to our re
cent exposures of the oppressive official exac
tions and obstructions which are driving com
merce from this port, says:
“THR TRIBUNE, usually astute and far-sighted, fails,
we think, in this case, to comprehend the whole situas
tion. A rough and ready treatment of questions most
important to the present and future status of the great
city of New-Yosk is to whistle down her advancement
and prosperity by charging every obstacle to State inter:
ference, mainly beeause the State officers are of opposite
politics—that is, Democrats. For we infer that the
‘monopoly’ and ‘oppressive port cliarges’ mentioned
by Tie TRIBUNS relate to Stato officials of Democratic
appointment,
“The ‘monopoly and ‘oppressive port charges’ are,
however, no greater now than when the officials were
Republicans, 80 the present discovery of then must
have its origin in political discrimination against
tho office-holders, and not against the abuses cow
plained of.”
Comments by The Tribune.
The Argus ought to know that Tue Trisune
has exposed the exactions complained of with
utter disregard of partisan considerations.
The “General Orders” and kindred iniqui
tie of our Custom-bouse management are
not the work of “State officials,” nor yet
of Democrata; bug we have done our best to
compel their discontinuance, Nay: many
years ago, when our City's trade was in
fested by a horde of State “inspectors” of
Flour, Tobacco, Pot and Pearl Ashes, &c., &c.,
Tue TriBuNe protested and warred against
them till they were abolished, We did
not object to official inspection, per se, but
to the elaim set up by the State of New
York to bore a hole into a barrel of Olio
flour, take out a portion of its contents, and
charge the owner for an inspection be did not
wamt, when he was merely sending his thar
through or Slate, on its way to a dita,

perhaps foreign, markot. That was an out
rage, and as such we fought it, though those
who profited by it whon we began the fight
were our political friends.
m—
The Argus, we think, is mistaken in its facts.
We are confident that there has been no pre
cedent for the exorbitant charges of our pres.
ent Quarantine officers for lighterage, &ec.
We cannot believe that Quarantine ever yielded
guch lirge returns to the officers as since Dr.
Carnochan waa appointed Icalth Officer. But,
whether others have or have not cut as deep
as Dr. C., the extortion is fearful, and must be
stopped. We presume Dr. C's auccessor will
be a Republican, and we demand legislation
that will prevent his making wmoucy half 30
font as Carnochan has done.
Thea 1vyositmgton GREgnttte JRL AT AOA EE
gilence Mr. Sumner’s proposal that the Federal
Constitution shall be so amended that no
President shall, after 1873, be eligible to re
clection. That journal was not wont to be so
reticent. Four years have not yet passed since
it demonstrated earnestly, persistently, in
favor of One Presidential Term. Witness the
following leader from its issue of June 3, 1863:
ONLY ONE TERM.
“A difffenit question to settle was the term of the Preat
dential effieo in the Convention of 75. Scversl promi
nent momberaohanged sides upon it during the Maonseon.
Many of the views of those who desired the President to
be eligible to reificetion have not been realized. Most of
the objections urged against eligibility lave heen red
ized. Its dangerous cffect upon exoentive officers and
she administration of the Government waa observed and
commented on by Do Tocqueville in 1555, and, in his
Democracy in Ainerica,’ he pronounced it the iucura
blo disease, sappiug the vitals of our Republic, He
anid, with sadness and too much truth, that the personal
interests of the President became superior to his sense of
oficial duty, ond that everything was subordinate to
them. Ho wondered how the architects of the Federal
system, who had managed LO preserve so fair balance
of power through the organization of the three depart
ments of the Government, should lave been short
sighted enough to render their whole work insecure by
making the Prestdent eligible to a reélection. We won
der, too, for it has incontestably done more to deatroy
the conatitutional balance and weaken our institutions
than any other inherent defect of our system, or perhaps
all others combined. From the first, it has fndnced
Excentive activity, not in the adininistrative duty as
signed to the office of President by the Constitution,
but in leading legislation, in indieatiug and
foreing the internal and external polioy
of the Government. From the very beginning,
we have been in trenble with what were called ‘Admin
{stration moasnres.’ Presidents have conatantly gone
beyond the modest, but all-sufficient, limits prescribed
for them in the Constitution, of giving Congress informa
tion of the state of the Union and recommending to their
consideration suchqueasures as they shall judge necessa
ry and expedient, and have; resorted §to all the pressure
which the vast means and patronage of the Government
has placed in their hands. The result has been a magni
fying of the Presidential office as the center of all honor
and power, sud a consequent decrease of respect for the
other branches of Goverument.
We are glad to percelve that Gen. Grant, the Repub
lican nominee for the Presidency, las 80 siaecinetly
gtated his views of the office which he 13 destined to fll
Ho regards it a8 a ‘purely adminstrative office,’ and
says he will have ‘no policy of his own to enforce
against the people's will! This is constitutional view
of tho Presidential oflice, and one which, in its practical
influence, cannot fail to seoure harmonious cooperation
between the different departments of the Government
“and peace to the country. We most heartily echo the
sentiment expressed in the last line of our candidate’s let
ter: Letus have prace.’ To obtam this, it is of the first
fmport ince that the President should be satisfied with
performing the duty assigned to him by the Constitution
—that of administering the laws, not making them, nor
aitting in judgment upon them. He has neither 1»gisla
tive nor judicial powers, and when he attempts to sub
atitute proclamations for the authority of law, as Andrew
Johnson did in his restoration policy, or to substitute his
opinion In place of law, as he did in the case of Mr. Stan
ton, the President trenches upon the powers granted
to other departments. There is a constant temptation (0
do this, so lomg as a President may be reelected. Ho de
sires to be popular and sttain the credit for all
tho measures enacted during his term which suit the
popular taste. Hence the constant interference of the
Executive in the legislation of Congress and his efforts
to enforco a policy of his own. What the country needs
for pacification is a President without a policy. Such a
ona we shall have in Gen. Grant. He is, moreover, an
advoeale of the One-Term principle, as conducing
toward tho proper administration of the law —a
principle with which so many prominent Republicans
have identified themselves that it] may be accepted as an
article of party faith. Senators Wade and Sumner have
each amendments to the Constitution pending before the
Senate restricting the Presidency to a single term, and
on Saturday last the Hon, James M. Ashley of Ohio iu
trodneed two amendments to the Constitution into the
House of Representatives for the same purpose, nud with
the further view of electing the President by a direct
vote of the people, abolishing the office of VicePresi
dent, and providing a more satisfactory met ind of gen
eral election.
“These amendments he sustains in an elaborate argu
ment, indicating thorough research and perfect masters
of his subject. There was a time in our history when
reputations for statesmanship wore established by soable
an elucidation of the results to flow from a measure of
such importance. Many of his views will be novel and
striking to those who have uot reflected upon the subject
but they are evidently drawn from tho resource of a
large experience in the practical workings of existing
governmental machinery.”
—Will The Chroriicle be good enough to tell
us what it thinks of the above doctrine now
J.
THE SIGN OF THE ALMOND TREE.
In these days of medical investigation, a
reading man is an unresting shuttle-cock fly
ing between innumerable battledores of opin
ion. To-day, goaded by Mann and Franklin,
he drives his reluctant offspring to the infant
school. To-morrow, harried by Iligginson, he
declares Lamb's wisest saying to have been
his recommendation to a school-mistress to
adopt The Murder of the Innocents” as the
sign of her profession. It is only the jolly
dog without a conscience who may smoke his
after-dinner pipe in peace. What with the
fulminating Trask and the statistical Parton,
on the one hand, to warn him from that hell,
and the dreamy Bachelor” and the alluring
Byron on the other hand to woo him to that
heaven, how is the soul of the upright man
torn within Irim, whether he take or refuse
the fragrant temptation! And whether mind
and body thrive best on beef or barley,
whether there is slow death in the cup of cof
fce, whether a bath a day, or a bath a month,
or no bath in a lifetime, is Heaven's first law,
everybody pronounceth, but as the scribes, and:
not with authority. The world has rather gen
erally conceded, however, that deep potations
tond neither to health nor long life. And now
appears Bismarck, who of course knows, and
declares (if, indeed, he is not belied by an
unscrupulous interviewer), that the length and
strength of days of his august Master is the
result of his much guzzling of wine and beer!
(Guzzling is not exactly the princely epithet, but
it is a fair translation. We confess ourselves
floored. Drink beer and think beer,” says the
proverb. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is
“raging,” observes the Wise Man, and adds, It
“is not for kings to drink wine.” The Vice
President is a stern teetotaler. Even the great
Apostle conceded only a moderate nip to
Timothy's peculiar infirmities. And our own
notion of Iygeia, goddess of Health, has
always been one with that of the NewEng
land artist whose fine imagination bodied forth
that lady swathed in flannel drawers, and
with a glass of cold water in her hand!
Far be it from us to impugn the sagacity of
primes, We do not, however, recall any simi
Lar tn nce of cause and effect. Thoge was
ove TERM.

A A —_——— a
To phiosnphic Zeno, who waa accused of pat.
ting an.2nd to himself at the sober age of one
hundred an! two. Certainly it was not “the
“rosy” which cheated Time for him, for he
ate sparingly; Sin Sept bard, and kept the
body under, as becime the founder of his
school. And there was the silver-tongued
(Gorgias, whose charm of speech move wih
himself to wait for him a term of one huptéd
aud seven years; but he, too, was little heliolden
te? cooks and butlers, and tanght his simple
ways to his pupils, of whom Ixocrates imi
tated him so well that he achieved almost a
hundred years. Democritus had gotten cheer
fully up to one hundred and four when he
Joined the Shades; but in Lis case travel and
4 merry heart wonld seem to have been the
regimen. Then there was Terentia, the first
Mrs. Cicero, who, after ministering to her lord
for thirty years or so and bearing him the
worthless Marcus and the rave Tullia, was di
vorced one fine morning, after which she would
seem to have picked up amazingly, for she died,
dancing for all we know, at the age of one
hundred and three, She hd not even tea tg
exhilarate her, but scandal may have been meat
and drink.
Among more homespur folk, there was one
Petrarch Czartan, a peas.at of lHuogay, whe
hore the fardels peculiar to his condition for
one hundred and eighty-five years, Protestant
and Catholic had each other by the throat,
“when he wax born, through half of Europe.
The New World possessed a straggling Spanish
colony or two, while the French had eanght a
footing here and there. When he died, relig
ions wars had long been impossible, and thirteen
united Enghsh colonies in Ameriea were about
to declare themsclves a nation. He lived by
no means in a quiet era, and perhaps bore
arms himself for the Emperor Charles the
Sixth, At any ‘rate, he was poor, and hie
diet was thin, and he codd have wine and
beer only when the benevolent stood treat for
Lim, aud he lived in the dirt, like other
peasantsand pigs. And there was Parr, the very
archetype and symbol of healthy old age, who
was a baby when Edward IV. was King, and who
Lived to see two usurpations, a revolution,
eight coronations, the Reformation, the discov
ery of America, wars enough to craze Lim, the
execution of two Queens, and well-nigh that
of one King. He was a jolly blade, whe
sowed wild oats till he was eighty, aud then
married a wife and begat children and took
serious views of life. Mrs, Parr dying in the
bloom of her youth, he went a-wooing again,
‘with the gayety of one hundred and twenty,
and again entered the holy estate of matri
mopy. His food was chictly vegetables, and
his drink was sage tea, not wine, O my masters,
nor yet beer, save on occasions like Timothy's.
-n
What drank “My Cid, with the flecey
“heard T' Surely, not beer. Let us conceds
wine in moderate measure to blind old Dando
lo, elected Doge at eighty-four, storming Con
stuntinople at ninety-four, declining the throne
of the East at uinety-mx, and dying, Doge,
at ninety-seven. Dut Newton, whose eighty
five years were a cycle of common men's—
what nourished his mighty brain? Spare
vietual and thin drink.  Baeon, indeed, who
“took all knowledge to be his province,” took
whatever else he liked to be his provines,
also, and bad some knowledge of indiges
tion and gout in consequence. But
Humboldt, and Goethe, and Fontenelle, “that
precious porcelain vase laid up in the center
“of France to be guarded with the utmost
“care for a hundred years,” it was a finer fluid
than beer that tingled in their veins. Frank
lin, and Jefferson, and Washington, obgerved
apostolic strictness in table usage. Old John
Adams, ercet and noble at ninety, had drank
little stimulant but the New-England air, one
“draught of which,” said gnaint Francis Hig
‘ginson, ‘is worth a whole flagon of old
“English ale.”
After all, however, if these records prove
anything, they prove that one man's meat is
another man’s poison, and that lentils for
James and lamb for John are probably the
best regimen while James and John think
them the best. We own to a private belief
that boozing over beer helps neither the brain
por the morals; but that, so far as longevity is
concerned, to be a well-favored man is the
gift of Fortune; to live long would appear to
come bv Nature.
Most of the newspapers throughout the country
speak favorably of the suggestion that our ladies
should not ofter their guests wine on New-Year's
Day. Several things are indisputable. I'he custom
of giving wine, spirits, and punch to callers, does,
overy year, result in a great deal of inebriety, es
pecially among young men. There 18 little re
straint or none at all, und the day degenerates too
often into a drunken saturnalia, for which, we are
pained to say, women are mainly responsible. The
whole moral law of the matter is suspended, and no
body seems to deein it at all discreditable to be tipsy
on the First of January. If our matrons and maidens
will but think seriously of the dangers to which
yonng men are thua exposed, they will surely eon
sult their own happiness and social well-being by
demonstrating that genial good wishes are quite
consistent with a respectable sobriety. One's health
and good fortune may surely be drank sincerely
without an accompanying hiccongh; and a friend 18
a friend, althongh he may not reel about the draw
Ing-rooin. Eo
ere
The Puritan prejudice against Christmas Day has
not yet been entirely abated but the observance of
this chief of the holidays has now become so gen
eral that one newspaper, as nearly Puritan as any
journal can be in this year of our Lord, proposce
that Christmas shall be kept asa festival, but not
a8 a religious festival commemorative of the
Savior's birth -kept, in fact, like New Year's Day,
Thanksgiving Day, or, we suppose, the Fourth of
July or the Seventeenth of June. It is ratber too
late to make a change like this. For nearly uine
teen hundred years Christmas has been dedicated to
a specific remembrance, and, except as the anviver
gary which it profeeses to be, it would be hard to as
sign any reason for keeping it at all. It has been
abused, and so has the sabbath but this is no suf
ficient reason for ignoring its central idea. It nay
be founded upon s myth, but, having gathered
about it a thousand poetical associations, perhape it
will do no harm, in this prosaic world, to go on be
lionving in it to the end. 3
The Doctors of the Prince of Wales ave greatly i»
luck. Iu the first place, contrary to their expecta
tions, be is mending and that—whether justly or nob
it little matters—will be regarded as a professions)
triumph, to be followed inevitably by a grest
increase of practise. In the next plwe, Dr
Gull is to be made a baronet, and Dr. Lowe is tobe
made o knight. The affix of bart. never did meas
anything, but knights were ~ebody once, though
we do not remember any of the sort in “tho Faery
Queen” who wrote prescriptions snd physicked
folks.A gentle knight pricking o'er the plain” with
a pair of saddle-bags, and with lancet in hie
pocket, would have been, in the days of chivalry, the
rarest of birds, if we may indulge in a comfortable
confusion of metaphors. In the days of the Stuarts
something was said of the degradation of knight
hood,” but we are sure that iv is more sensible to
dub a man who cures than aman who kill. Botter
the lancet than the lance.
The first number of The New-York Lets
for the coming year contains a poem by Tenaysol sod
contributions from other well-known writes.