Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 23, Number 29, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 February 1874 — Page 2

THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1874.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3.

A correspondent reproduces elsewhere, for the second time in the Sentinel, the text of Judge Taney's famous Dred Scott decision. Gov. Ames declines the nomination for Senator from Mississippi. Otherwise the situation is about as clear as a well developed London fog. Beware of the hog when it is dead. The trichina worm has invaded the porkers of Southern Indiana, and seven persons living in Aurora are badly poisoned by eating infected pork. The Massachusetts legislature, sent up by the awakened people last fall, are on the way to the repeal of the odious censure of Sumner, which the pig headed partisans of the last body rushed through in spite. The christian soldier, Howard, whose financial shortcomings are engaging the attention of congress, was the object of prayer in his own peculiar temple in Washington, on Sunday last. The reverend sympathizer with sin and extenuation of iniquity, called upon the Lord to confound the enemies of the truly good general, whose sins were unlike those of common mortals. He belongs to the great party. General Coburn, as usual, touched the marrow of the matter Wednesday by demanding that the army appropriations be put down in proportion to the economical demands of the times. He argued very properly that a country like this can arm itself in any emergency, and ward off danger without draining the energies of the people by a cumbrous and expensive military establishment. The army is now somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 men, and that is just 20,000 too many. The less we have of the military in this country in time of peace, the less debt and the less Louisiana conspiracies. Senator Carpenter uncovered the Louisiana conspiracy Thursday to the bare body. There is not a vestige of covering left. The unseemly pack of lepers stand before the country in all their unsheltered hideousness. In this unveiling the Wisconsin senator took occasion to hint, merely hint at Mr. Morton's tergiversations in the dastardly business, and in flinging defiance at him the jaunty Carpenter declared his hands washed of the disgrace, even if his republican friends made up their minds to carry it through the next presidential campaign. The speaker called further attention to the enormities practiced, and that the senate committee had unanimously with the exception of Morton, agreed that the Kellogg conspirators should be overturned. It was to make himself certain in the business that Senator Carpenter visited Louisiana last summer, when he learned for himself the atrocious lawlessness of the judicial felon Durell, by whose simple order the state had been snatched from the lawful authorities and put in the hands of a robber ring. The brief abstract of Carpenter's speech elsewhere presented is the most significant utterance of the session, and plants the deadliest blow at the scoundrels who rule and ruin in the name of party. The communication presented elsewhere from a townsman of Col. Dawling seems to authenticate the statement of the public press, that the colonel has resigned his place on the state executive committee of the democrats. Col. Dowllng is just the sort of metal that the country can least spare from politics, and his withdrawal should not be passed over without a word of cordial approval of along career of honest, disinterested and patriotic service. From a hasty glance at his work in politics, it can be said of him that his first thought was never for himself nor his efforts, looking for place. He has given time and labor to the upholding of honorable party measures, and has saved by a sterling good sense, when more showy men pointed out the path of political destruction. He has been the steady, consistent champion of whatever was pure and of good repute in politics, and leaves the active arena unblemished by a taint of ill doing. Though upholding, and sustaining party for years he was among the first to recognize the newspirit of independence and counsel his associates to welcome the revolution by anticipating it. His counsels have not always been heeded but when they were the people were the gainers. Although retired from the function of executive work, the colonel will be free to aid the better impulse of the people outside of the restraint of office. A descriptive telegram from Washington on the occasion of the Pinchback debate, represents our Oliver as greatly riled by the trenchant blows of the Kentucky senator, McCreery. From leader of the senate he has sunk to the smallest sort of potatoes through his singular shuffling of the last six months. He first dragged Pinchback in as the legitimate claimant of the senatorial seat from Louisiana, refusing to accept the evidence of competent witnesses. He is for some cause afterward moved to throw up the fight for the colored gambler and felon and still persists that though Pinch. is a cheat and a felon, the people who sent him are the lawful representatives of a great state? It is said that Mr. Morton has dropped this conspiracy for the colored claimant to make up with the president, who is said to be anxious to got rid of the Kellogg rogues and have his brother-in-law Casey elected senator. It is further understood that the liberal legislature has given pledges to that effect, and that the new election will bring this about. However that is of no particular consequence. The point the Sentinel wishes to impress upon those observant in current events, is the perverse and unmanly shiftings of Senator Morton. Without knowing Pinchback's method of selection and election, he, as careful legislator, should never have consented to champion his notoriously corrupt claim. All that Mr. Morton confesses to

know now was free of access before the colored felon reached Washington, and it was the business of a man of the senator's rank to hold aloof from a vulgar adventurer of that sort.

While Prof. Cox and the enterprising folks of Indiana are telling us about the coal and iron reserves of this immeasurably rich state, a notion comes from Illinois which should arouse Prof. Cox to the search for another source of wealth for the Hoosiers. The Illinois press is just now animated by the wonders of a gas well near Mattoon. It is the discovery of Mr. Champion, who lives near Mattoon, which opens a field for practical investigation in this state. He tapped the deposit some two years ago while boring for an artesian well. Since that time he has warmed and lighted his residence with this spontaneous gas. It is further related that a neighbor, Mr. Dole by name, has struck gas on his farm, and now has fuel and lights as free as water. Granting that these statements are half true, it is not presumable that these two denizens of an Illinois prairie are to be the only favored ones exempted from sawing wood and digging coal. Some very wise scientist has been lecturing the Vigo county folks of late and showing by indisputable proofs, of course, that this mundane sphere is not a solid institution at all, but a hollow shell, something after the manner of the roc's egg that Sinbad once spent a day or two in circumnavigating. Taking this new revelation of science with the Mattoon gas wells, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the vast internal concave is a grand gasometer filled with just the article required to illuminate and warm the world. Here's business for Prof. Cox. Indiana wants an orifice down to the central gas works. Oil may do for Pennsylvania, but it is too common an article for the Hooiier state. Ready made gas is both more agreaable and convenient. Mr. Jefferson Davis is a singularly unfortunate man. He had greatness and likewise unbecoming female costume thrust upon him His figure was quite unsuitable to the toggery of the great man, or the frightened woman. In both cases he seems to have petered out, through inability to fill the bill, as it were. As president of a segment of the union, he begged to be let alone, and wasn't. As the feminine fugitive in the Georgia swamps, he was equally unsuccessful. His latest appearance upon the stage is in the character of correspondent of the Washington Capital. His fine frenzy was aroused by a reminder of some recent maunderings of a pre-Adamite relic known upon the political stage as Hangman Foote. This old chap had contributed sketches of a fiercely feeble nature, anathematizing Davis and the confederate personages of distinction. To Foote's virulence Davis makes answer: I have not seen any of the articles which you inform me H. S. Foote had written in abuse of me, nor have I had any desire to read whatever he might write. In the year 1851 I published him as constitutionally a liar, and his subsequant career only served to confirm me in this judgment. Since that date, therefore, I have taken no heed of the utterances of said Foote. His flattery when he was seeking political preferment in the confederacy, and his abuse when, faithless to his trust as a representative in the congress of the confederate states, he was preparing for his subsequent desertion to their enemy, were alike disregarded by me. To this emphatic piece of composition, Foote makes response in the Harlan organ in a perfectly stunning display of italics and hard names, the meat and marrow of which appear in this paragraph: He has cherished an undying hatred for me ever since his own presumptuous arrogance, on a very noted occasion, compelled me to slap his jaws in this city, in the winter of 1847-48. The hostilitty thus engendered was afterwards much heightened by my defeat or his treasonable aspirations to the office of governor of Mississippi, as a secession candidate, in 1851. My constant and unyielding opposition to him and his nefarious schemes in Richmond, during the war of the rebellion, for three years, was not at all calculated to assuage his enmity. Having hurled this thunderbolt, the warlike Foote goes on to intimate that he can still wield a sword as vigorously as a pen, and that Mr. Davis will have no difficulty in finding him in case he desires satisfaction for the epithets bestowed upon him. Messrs Davis and Foote are old enough to know better than to make such spectacles of themselves; but if they have really reached driveling imbecility, their friends, if there are any bold enough to endure that term, should see that they are put in some safe asylum where feeble minds are protected from such humiliations as this. Clermont county, Ohio, which has furnished the greater part of the great men hailing from the Buckeye State, including President Grant, has recently been furnishing material of another sort. Some time ago readers of the Sentinel will remember a petition sent from this cradle of great men to the Fulton prayer meeting in New York, asking supplication for New Richmond, the post town near General Grant's birth place, to save it from intemperance. It will interest not only the readers of the Sentinel, but the world at large, to know that these petitions have been graclously answered. The spirit of evil is being exorcised in a stirring way. The drunkenness which had been heretofore stalking the streets was shortly beset by emphatic agencies, inspired by the Fulton prayers, and chased from the town. The agencies were principally the women of Clermont, who, like the illustrious men of that Spartan spot, can do their whole duty when the tug of war is put upon them. Clermont county thus fills another niche of interest to the world beside being the birth place of the president. To that moral center the opponents of Prof. Tyndall may turn in triumph and dare him to come on with his prayer guage. It is impossible to contemplate this interesting segement of the Buckeye soil without longing for a more general recognition and intimate acquaintance with its people. When, for instance, we read of its Amazons arising in their might, unimpeded by crinoline nor top heavy with chignons, and smiting wickedness hip and thigh, we are naturally moved to a desire to know more of these daughters of Israel. It is in answer to this yearning that the truly good Deacon Smith of the Cincinnati Gazette, gives place in his columns to the following comforting sketches from a Clermont special correspondent, who writes from the very center of sanctity, so to speak, Batavia: The patrons of husbandry are increasing very rapidly in our county, and will hold the ma-

jority of the voters by the beginning of summer,

time enough to control the nominations for county officers the coming fall. Then will come the "tug of war" to show whether it is to be a useful institution or the cat's paw of the politicians. There is a great deal of discontent among the people at the enormous salaries now paid county officials. The grangers propose to remedy this and bring the fees to a proper level. Apropos to this subject, why would it not be a good plan to sell out each of the county offices every two years at public auction to the lowest bidder, who would, under bonds, agree to do all the work required in his office under the laws of Ohio? Offices that now bring in the shape of fees $4,000 a year, would find plenty of competent men who would do all the work required for $1,000 per annum. Would not this be the surest way to reach low salaries and give every competent person an equal chance to hold office? An old gentleman residing near Stonelick bridge in this county, by the name of James Moore, committed suicide yesterday morning by cutting his throat with a razor. He went out while the family were at breakfast, into his garden lot on his farm close to the house, and there did the deed. The family found him dead about one hour after he left the house. He was highly esteemed and was an elder in the church at Stonelick. A son of his was sent to the Dayton lunatic asylum, and this preyed on his mind so terribly that reason was dethroned. PRYING IMPERTINENCE. [From the New Orleans Picayune.] Now that the republican party have set the president at defiance, (in the Cushing matter) we hope that he will publish all the letters written by republican leaders to Mr. Jefferson Davis, and which are doubtless among the confederate archives at Washington. Let us know whether Postmaster General Creswell did not seek a Maryland colonelcy from Mr. Davis. We all know that Gen. Scott was willing to let the wayward sisters depart in peace, and that Mr. Greeley was opposed to pinning one section of the union to the other with bayonets. Did not Mr. Seward commit himself to Judge Campbell in the matter of relieving Sumter? Wasn't Douglas against coercion? Wasn't ex-Attorney General Akerman a confederate sutler, or something of that kind? Wasn't the ex-collector of customs at this port a chieftain in the confederate war? Wasn't the late minister to Russia a confederate senator? Wasn't Attorney General Williams a friend of the Dred Scott decision? Wasn't Morton opposed to negro suffrage? Weren't Butler, and Carpenter, and Logan all roaring democrats? PARTISAN PETTINESS. DIRTY WORK IN OWEN COUNTY. The Owen County Journal makes indignant protest against a recent change in the post office at Spencer by the "great party :" Miss Mittie E. McDaniel has been removed from her position as postmistress at Spencer, and A. J. Buchanan appointed in her stead. Had the wishes of a majority of the citizens of both political parties been respected, Miss McDaniel would have been retained in the place. But the behests of a handful of political wire pullers and schemers are more potent with the powers at Washington than the expressed will of the majorities. Disregard to the wishes of the people is the rule of the party in power in small as well as great things, and had Miss McDaniel been retained it would have been an exceptional case. Without doubt Miss McDaniel has a valid claim against the government that should entitle her to its recognition and favors, but the influence of those who, from petty spite (it can be from no other motive) have sought her removal, is paramount to all other considerations. All else must go down before this great American juggernaut. The ends and aims of the obscure wire puller must be promoted and encouraged in order to preserve the party alignment, even should it demand the sacrifice of widows and orphans. The nearly unanimous sentiment of this community is with Miss McDaniel, but as has already been demonstrated, it is powerless to aid her. The power behind the throne, which is the local politician in this case, has done the mischief, which the people are impotent to repair. A SlGHT. LACERATING OLIVER -- A TOUCHING TALE. The Herald's Washington telegram of Wednesday says: Now Morton, when he is most unsparingly pitched into for his defense of Pinchback heretofore, reads a newspaper and anon walks round the chamber, treating the raps he gets with an assumed air of indiflerence. Conkling breaks out into a broad smile as McCreery makes occasionally a bitingly sarcastic description verging on ridicule and wit. Boutwell bends forward with absorbed attention; Schurz and Oglesby join in smiles, provoked by McCreery, and occasionally Sumner unbends his senatorial gravity when something more remarkable is said, and he laughs heartily. Barrett, who has been guiding Morton in the matter, and is working to help Judge Durell out of his impeachment trouble, is, by some inscrutable means or some unwarranted privilege of the ser-geant-at-arms, allowed to have a seat on the floor of the senate. Pinchback sits in Cragin's seat watching every move made and nervously pulling his short black beard as McCreery says something touching his improper conduct; but he does not pay much attention to the claimant, seemingly thinking him worthy of only passing remark. He attacks Durell with crushing force, however, and drives his rhetorical dagger into Packard and the instruments he used tor expulsion, and characterizes the whole business they transacted as the darkest and foulest which has been ever committed in the history of this country. Mr. McCreery, proceeding, said that high republican authority estimated the fraudulent voting at 6,000 in each parish, and he gave a full description of all the nefarious circumstances which attended the election. He referred to Durell's decision, and said if there were another man in history who had made a three days' record like his, his name was lost. Pinchback, in conversation with your correspondent afterward, said that if the object is to prove that the governmen of Louisiana is not legally constituted, there is an end of his being called on to fight for the senatorship, and this appears to be the way that the difficulty will be handled, viz: Durell impeached, the legislature by consequence illegal, a new election ordered and Mr. Pinchback, if he wants to be senator, to fight the battle over again. Thus the senate is relieved as well as the administration. Ex-Mayor Hall has five daughters and one son. The latter busies himself with a printing press, preparatory to learning the art of printing practically, and then journalism; one of the daughters is a designer and etcher; the second, a writer of children's books and a pianist; the third, a student of lyric art; the fourth, an accomplished amateur actress; and the fifth is learning to be a modiste and milliner. Ulke, a German artist, at Washington city is at work on two full length protraits of Senator Sumner one for the legislative assembly of Hayti, and the other for the Sumner school building, one of the finest in Washington. Morgan, a young Philadelphia artist, is also at work on a portrait or the senator from sketches made in the senate chamber. This is the way it works in Connecticut: Abner Beers, of Newton, wealthy and obstinate, refused to pay a school tax that he considered unjustly large. He was locked up in jail, but when it was ascertained that one of the bequests of his will was $5,000 to the town schools, they let him out as soon as possible and lambased the sheriff for imperinence.

PERSONAL. In five years of office, Gladsotne has created 45 peers. The Boston Post says Chang's last words were "just a siam." It is Morrison Reinich Waite. (No puns allowed on the name.) "Gone aloft" is what an exchange heads an article on the death of Parepa. Ohio had Ben Wade a long time ago, but this is the first time the country has ever known her Waite. -- Syracuse Courier. Ex-Governor Henry A. Wise continues very ill. The carbuncles with which he is afflicted are enlarging. -- Richmond Whig. Mrs. Sarah Aldridge, the reputed widow of Tom Sayers, the pugilist, was recently fined, in London, for neglecting the education of her children. "Gath," also called George Alfred Townsend, is the happy father of a young Gath. Which he weighs ten pounds, and is called Ralph Gath Townsend. Senators Schurz and Fenton, and Governor Ingersoll, of Connecticut, are among those who will be at Meriden, Conn., on February 3. at the celebration of Greeley 's birth day. The British settlers of Virginia are preparing to celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria, May 25, in Richmond, with a banquet at which Sir Edward Thornton is to be asked to preside. Wilkie Collins has been obliged to abandon his intended trip to the Pacific coast, as he can not stand long railroad rides. He will begin giving "farewell" readings in New England soon. Baron Schlozer, the German minister, professes an unconquerable objection to wearing gloves, but wears them nevertheless. It is the style of his people to handle diplomatic questions without gloves. Ex Senator Doolittle, of Wisconsin, has been installed president pro tem, of the Chicago University, to which he is only to give one day in the week. But he is expected to do much in that time. Agassiz's small handwritting, "which seemed unnatural in so broad and impulsive a character," says a brograpbical writer, was the result of early necessity. On the backs of old letters, and on odd scraps of paper, he copied, as closely as possible, many volumes which he needed, but which he could not buy. The party recently returned from Washington, who had an audience with President Grant, state that he appeared to be in the

best of health and spirit, and thoroughly engaged in business, leaving but little time to be devoted to society. He didn't seem to be annoyed at the rejection of Williams and Cushing. Mrs. Grant is not receiving at all this season. N. N. Smith, who owns Goldsmith Maid, Lucy, Lady Thome, Socrates, Tattler, Jay Gould, General Knox, Hotspur and a number of other celebrated trotters, has lately suffered heavy reverses, and discharged William H. Doble, the well known and able trainer and driver, and B. Jackman, his former superintendent, and will now exercise personal supervision over his stock farm in Trenton, New Jersey, in order to reduce expenses. ' A beautiful southerner called upon Sherman recently, to obtain some evidence from him concerning a cotton claim she is prosecuting, "How many children have you, madam?" demanded the general. "I have six; I have had nine." Then," answered the general, deciseively, "you had better stop bunting up cotton, and go to Grant and tell him I say to pension vou. Any woman who has had nine children, and looks as young and handsome as you do, deserves a pension." Treasurer Dickson, of the State Board of Agriculture, has sold the $40,000 of State Board five year ten per cent bonds, authorized to be issued at the late session of the board, to a Baltimore house, at par less the usual commission. Bankers consider tbe terms of sale advantageous. The bonds are expected to arrive from Laporte to-day, and will be immediately forwarded to Baltimore. The proceeds will probably be deposited in an Indianapolis bank by the 5th proximo, when the liquidation of floating claims against the exposition managers will be commenced. G. M. D. Bloss, the fearful penman and heavy editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer for so many years, has retired from that paper, with which he has been connected since 1842. There is sorrow in some quarters, but compositors rejolce. His "hand write" was most fearfully and wonderfully made. It is said there were only two or three compositors in the office who could set his manuscript, and it was a standing joke to give a new compositor some of Bloss' manuscript. One man who went to work at the Enquirer office for the first time was given, a "take" of this copy, which he took to his case, and after studying at it for a long time, came back to the foreman with the meek request "just rell me which end of this thing to begin at." THE WAY TO UNLOAD. HOW GRANT BEGINS THE WORK -- RINGING IN OLIVER -- PINCH'S PREDICAMENT. The Boston Post's Washington dispatch says: The unloading process decided upon by the administration has commenced with the Pinchback incubus or the Louisiana election case, and a heavy load is to fall with the draying of the linchpin. But there is doubt as to where and when it shall be dumped. Now it seems that Mr. Morton, who has been devilled by West and Pinchback for several days in the Senate, finding that he can not sustain the election of Pinchback, has moved an investigation in order to decide his unfitness. In this Grant and Morton are once more together, chief justiceship differences to the contrary notwithstanding. Pinchback, however, has it in his power to make disclosures which will affect high officials, if not the republican party, very unfavorably. These disclosures will be in regard to the election, and if the contest is made on Pinchback personally he may be disposed to make them pubiic, in which event astounding developments may be expected. From this it seems that Pinchback is disposed to fight, and Grant's refusal to receive him to-day at the White House will not produce a more friendly feeling. If Pinchback goes it is a moral certainty that the Kellogg government will have to go by the board also. McEnery is said to have placed some testimony in Morton's hands to-day which is very damaging, and on the whole the thing has a bad look all around it. A bill has been prepared by the committee of elections of the house, it is understood, declaring the election null and void and ordering a new one, but either for stragetic or discreet purposes it has been withheld for the present. However, there seems no doubt in the minds of leading republicans here that a new election will be called. It may be that this conclusion will act as a compromise between the warring interests and that the hideous ulcers connected with the New Orleans political body may be thus temporarily concealed from public gaze. But, endorsed as he is by the presence and co-

operation of determined and desperate

men, and with this mulatto blood just a shade remote from the white. Pinchback may, with the fierceness of a Salnave, fight back, tiger-like, to the death, before he will submit to being stamped out by his supposed friends. He is just the man to take desperate chances in a strait, and if there is not an electrifying denouement in the case, it will be because shrewd management and compromise have been able to settle it, which event there seems at present the best ground for doubting. Witnesses are in the city to prove that a trade was made between Pinchback and Norton, in which Norton gave Pinchback $15,000 to withdraw from the senatorial fight and assist in electing Norton, which money Pinchback put in his pocket and kept untii the election was over, when he returned it. This was done not only with the knowledge and connivance of Governor Kellogg, but at his suggestion. He gave as the reason why Pinchback should take the money and withdraw from the contest that Judge Durell would rescind his interlocutory order relative to holding the state house with troops and marshals, and thus overthrowing the Kellogg government. Further witnesses are here to prove that Durrell sent threatening messages to the negro members of the legislature to induce them to vote for Norton for Senator, saying: "Tell those d--d niggers if they don't behave themselves I will rescind my order; that I have set the d--d government up and I will pull it down." It will be remembered that B. P. Blanchard, the late state registrar of Louisiana, and W. L. Long, his chief clerk, some months ago published affidavits in which they pretended to tell how they had perpetrated frauds in favor of McEnery and secured his election. It is known that Mr. Morton, in the senate, and the Kellogg party depend upon the affidavits of Blanchard and Long to vindicate them on the merits of the question when it shall arise for sustaining the Kellogg government. It now appears, and the evidence is here to sustain it, that Blanchard received for his services, first, the appointment of two personal friends, Lynn and Long respectively, as state registrar and chief clerk of registrar; the first being the same office held by Blanchard, and Long having been Blanchard's chief clerk, and, as alleged by Blanchard and Long, a party to the frauds perpetrated in the interest of Mr. McEnery. Second, Mr. Blanchard's brother was a tax collector in Morehouse parish and a defaulter in the sum of $20,000. He was indicted tor embezzlement and his sureties held for the amount. It appears that, in further payment of his services Blanchard was permitted by Kellogg and his auditor of state to settle the claim of the state to the amount of $20,000 with $5,500 of state warrants, which cost Blanchard $900 in the market, and had been previously rejected by the same auditor as fraudulent, and so endorsed on their backs by the auditor. Third, Mr. Blanchard has recovered and is now receiving money from Kellogg, and is still to receive a lucrative office for his services in this affair. The revelations in regard to this whole affair will be rich and entertaining, and it will appear that Pinchback, who has been used by Durell and Kellogg, is much the least culpable of the prominent figures in this drama of corruption and fraud. DEPARTMENT ROBBERY. A GLANSE AT THE BURSON PLUNDERING -- FACTS AND FIGURES. The Herald's Washington dispatch says: The retrenchment measures of the house committee on appropriations are being pressed so vigorously that the various branches of the executive departments of the government are beginning to show signs of alarm. As an offset to these operations a flank movement is contemplated by again bringing forward the resolution of General Coburn, chairman of the house committee on military affairs, introduced in the early days of the session, which contemplated the restriction of the committee on appropriations to the general consideration of the appropriations, and the assignment of all details to the different committees entrusted with matters of legislation directly connected with the business of certain departments. The military committee favor this and will make the first move looking to an evasion of the prerogatives of the appropriation committee, by attempting to have the estimates for the army referred to them. The military and appropriation committee are at variance on the question of army reduction, and the carrying of this point will make a very material change in the manner of disposing of appropriation bills. The committees on post offices and post roads and foreign, naval and Indian affairs have direct reference to those branches of the government. An alliance of these in the house, in the campaign contenplated by the military committee, will gite that on appropriations a lively fight, if they do not gain their point. The house commitee on appropriations to-day made another inroad upon the army. Aprominent member of the committee remarked that the ordnance department has for a long time attracted attention as being an extremely close corporation; that the committee have always been politely bowed out whenever they have made any attempts to investigate the internal administration of that branch of the service. At the meeting to-day the committee determined to make a reduction of $75,000 in the allowance for the pay of the civil and military members of the corps. The quartermaster general's office at the same time was reduced $50,000 in the same way. In the investigation of the clerical force of the treasury department the committee has discovered that notwithstanding the reduction of internal revenue taxes, the abolition of the offices of assessors and assistants and supernumery offices under them, and the consolidation of collection districts in all parts of the United States, thereby materially reducing the expenditures for officers and clerks necessary to the transaction of the business outside of the burean of internal revenue, the force inside is as large as it was when the revenues from this source were $100,000,000 greater than now. On the rolls of the bureau in addition to the commissioner and three deputies, there are 5 clerks in the appointment division ; 37 clerks, 10 copyists, 1 messenger and 6 laborera in the law division; 8 clerks, 33 copyists, 1 messenger and 9 laborers in the division of correspondence .and statistics; 28 clerks, 7 copyists, 1 messenger and 4 laborers in the division of accounts; 51 clerks, 16 copyists, 1 messenger and 5 laborers in ths division of distilled spirits, assessments, etc.; 26 clerks, 18 copyists 2 messengers and 4 laborers in the stamp division. This makes a total of 278 employes of all kinds a an annual expenditure of nearly $500,000 for salaries. The committee have also discovered that the large majority of the clerks receive the highest salaries allowed, and the copyists and laborers the same in their grades. The pay here is higher than in any other branch of the department. As the service has not suffered from the reductions made within the past year in the employes of the various collection districts, it is believed that the same rule will work in the internal organization of the bureau. There is some talk of a reduction of as high as forty per cent. This would make a saving of nearly two hundred thousand dollars in salaries alone. The committee are much struck with the large number of clerks in the law division, and are decidedly puzzled to know what part of the legal business is performed by the six laborers. Several propositions have already been present, ed having in view a reorganization of thisbureau, but from some cause or other have hitherto always failed. This time the ax of reform seems certain of its work.

BUSKIRK TO BAXTER.

A SUPPLEMENTARY TEMPERANCE LECTURE -- HOW A TEMPERANCE MEETING CONCLUDED IN BLOOMINGTON. Readers of the Sentinel will remember a week ago the full report given of the Hon. Mr. Baxter's temperance lecture at Bloomington and the reply thereto by the Hon. Judge Buskirk, of the supreme bench. The meeting passed a resolution censuring the majority of the supreme bench for deciding the ninth section of the Baxter bill unconstitutional and commending the minority, of which Mr. Buskirk was one, for dissenting. Mr. Buskirk being in the audience, was observed and called to the platform. The Bloomington Democrat gives this account of what he said: When I was elected to the office which I now hold, I determined that l would not during my continuance on the bench take any part in politics or engage in public discussions. I have thus far strictly adhered to my resolution and intend to continue to do so. While the recent action of the coordinate departments of the state government has done much toward taking the subject of temperance out of politics, it has not so far removed the subject from the arena of political discussion as to permit me to express my views in reference to such legislation. Besides, I am restrained by the respect and deference which are due a co-ordinate department of the government from expressing any opinion as to the policy of such legislation. It Is the exclusive province of the legislative department to enact laws, and such department should be held responsile for the laws it may enact. It is made the duty of the judicial department to construe such laws and determine whether they are in conflict with the organic law. Upon the executive department is imposed the duty of seeing that the laws which have received the sanction of the other departments are faithfully enforced. Any expression of opinion by me as to the merit or demerit of a law might embarass me in passing upon its validity. But there is a stronger reason than I have yet stated, why I should studiously abstain from any expression of opinion as to the Baxter law, and that is, that the supreme court will soon be required to pass upon the constitutionality of and places constructoon upon several sections of this law. Such questions should be derided without reference to whether the law is wise or unwise, politic or impolitic. With such questions the courts have nothing to do. If the law is not plainly repugnant to the constitution, it should be sustained and enforced. If it is constitutional, but unwise and impolitic, the legislature should amend or repeal it. I, however, avail myself of the opportunity to enter MY SOLEMN PROTEST Against the policy and propriety of the resolution, which expresses disapproval of the opinion of the majority, and approval of the opinion of the minority of the supreme court, holding the ninth section of the Baxter law to be in conflict with the constitution. While it is very gratifying to me to have my official conduct approved by my neighbors and friends, I am unwilling to see a precedent established which may result in great injury to the public service. If the friends of the law in question have a right to call public meetings and denounce the opinion of the majority and approve that of the minority of the supreme court, the enemies of the law have the same, if not a greater right, to call public meetings and approve of the opinion of the majority and denounce that of the minority. If such a practice is to be tolerated then the independence of the judiciary upon which depend the protection of the lives, the liberty, the character, and the property of the people of the state, will be greatly impaired if not utterly destroyed. It is indespensible to the due administration of justice, that the judges should be independent of public opinion and indifferent to and uninfluenced by popular clamor. It is their duty to decide the very law of the case, and this they should do regardless of consequences personal to themselves. I trust that you will excuse me for saying, that in my opinion, you are incompetent to pass upon the question at issue between the members of the supreme court. I am quite sure that, notwithstanding the varied and profound learning of the members of the faculty of this university, they do not fully comprehend the question, and are not prepared at this time and in this manner to either approve or disapprove of the action of the court. The question involved was whether the ninth section of the law was embraced by the title of the act or was properly connected with the subject expressed in the title. The majority of the court held that it was not, while THE MINORITY Were of the opinion that such section was properly connected with the subject expressed in the title. The solution of the question, depended upon the construction which should be placed upon a section of our constitution. The two opinions review the decisions of the supreme court of this state upon the point involved and those of sixteen j other states, where similar constitutional provisions exist. The question received very careful and mature consideration from each member of the court. The preparation of the dissenting opinion cost me much time and labor. The question is one upon which judges learned in the law and familiar with the rules of construing constitutions, might honestly differ. Each member member of the court was required to decide for himself, according to his judgment and conscience. I do not mean by what I have said, that judges are not to be held to a strict accountability for their official conduct, nor that their decision should not be reviewed and criticised, but what I depreciated in any attempt to influence, control, intimidate or overawe the judges by the expression of public opinion. The other resolutions relate to your action as citizens and voters, and if the sentiments expressed meet with your approval, you have a perfect right to express such approval by voting for them. I desire to say in conclusion that I have listened with much pleasure and profit to the very able and instructive lecture of Mr. Baxter. He is engaged in a noble and praiseworthy work. He is giving his time and talents to the cause of humanity. My prayer is that God will prosper and sustain him in his effort to lessen the terrible evils of intemperance. But I sugeest to him whether there is not danger of his impairing his usefulness by permitting his meetings to be used to impair the independence of the courts of the state. The Porte de Hal, the Hotel Clunyof Brussels, and the only remnant of the old Spanish fortifications erected in 1381, and formerly Alva's Bastile, after having been closed for repairs for nearly two years, has very recently been opened to the public. It contains a large and very splendid collection of arms and ancient armor, both of the middle ages and modern times; also, a very valuable assortment of mediæval antiquities. The liberals at Rome are making a pretext of the pope's obstinate rejection of all proposals for accommodation to urge that the late separation of the temporal and spiritual kingdoms should be carried out logically and completely, and that the church buildings of the city, the monuments of all kinds, and above all the Vatican library and galleries, should be taken over by the state, since to this as the present temporal power in Rome they belong, and not to the bishop.