Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1874 — LATEST NEWS. [ARTICLE]

LATEST NEWS.

Destructive Fire in the Philippine Islands. Baxter and Brooks Decline to Compromise In Arkansas. * Extensive Forest Fires Near Saginaw, Michigan. Other Interesting Personal and General News Items. " TUB OU) WORLD. Bilboa was occupied by the National Republican forces on the 3d. On the evening of that day Madrid was brilliantly illuminated In honor of that event. On the 6th four Carlist Brigadier-Generals were arrested for treason. Madrid dispatches of the Bth announce the defeat of the Carlists under Don Alfonzo. A recent London dispatch announces the arrival at Jerusalem of the American Oriental Topographical Corps after a successful exploration In the vicinity of Mount Sinai. The details of a recent destructive firs In the Philippine Islands were published On the Bth. Two children started a fire which was not extinguished until over 2,000 houses were consumed. A great number of cattle perished, and fifteen persons were burned up. According to recent Pans telegrams severe frosts had seriously injured the prospects of this year’s vintage. THE NEW WORLD. On the 4th Judges Searle and Bennett, of the Arkansas Supreme Court, were arrested by Baxter’s forces. Chief-Justice McClure, on the following day, caused a writ to be served upon the captors, directing them to produce them before him. They replied that they recognized the existence of no law but the will of their superiors. On the 6th the Judges reached Little Rock, having been surrendered to the United States forces by the officer having them in charge. On the 7th they met in the State House, inside the Brooks lines, and directed a writ of mandamus to Issue to Henry Page, the State Treasurer, commanding him to pay a warrant drawn upon Brooks’ requisition for SI,OOO, in effect deciding that he was properly in possession of the gubernatorial office, and overruling a decision made by the court in October last, which declared that the determination of the question'waa vested solely in the General Assembly. On the night of that day the Brooksites fired into the steamer Hallie, which had previously captured a barge containing 160 stand of arms .belonging to the Industrial University and intended for Brooks. Shots were fired on both eides and several men were killed and wounded. On the 9th the. friends and attorneys of both contestants at Washington agreed to a plan of settlement proposed by Attorney-General Williams. This plan provided that Brooks and Baxter should join in a call for a meeting of the Legislature, submit their claims to that body, and abide by its decision, the President to designate the ad interim Governor. On the 10th both parties telegraphed their refusal to accede to the proposed compromise. The New York Legislature at its recent session passed a Compulsory Education bill. The Indiana farmers arc to hold a Btate convention at Indianapolis on the 10th of June. The lowa State Republican Convention haß been called to meet at Des Moines on Wednesday, July 1. The basis of representation will be the vote cast for Hon. James Beck, Supreme Judge, at the last general election, towit: one delegate for every 200 votes and one for each fraction over 100 votes. The Ways and Means Committee reported in regard to the Sanborn matter on the 4th, that most, if not ail, of the taxes collected by Sanborn could and should have been collected by the Revenue Bureau. In regard to the conllict of testimony between the officers of the Treasury Department, the committee express their regret that it should exist, and say that they “cannot in justice to themselves ignore the fact that they deserve severe condemnation for the manner in which they have permitted the law to be'administered.” The opinions -of Messrs. Curtis and, Evarts on the constitutionality of the Railroad law of Wisconsin were published on the sth. Both gentlemen held the law to be unconstitutional. > r . The Advisory Committee of the Illinois State Farmers’ Association met in Bloomington on the sth. Almost every county was represented, and after a harmonious session it was resolved to call a State Convention to meet in Springfield on Wednesday, June 10. The formal call was Issue* on the 9th Inst. An appeal was published in Washington on the 6th urging immediate relief of sufferers by the floods in the Southern States. It was stated that over 140,000 people had been driven from their homes, and that provisions only for their relief would cost $25,000 per day. The Connecticut Legislature was organized on the 6th. T. E. Doolittle was elected Speaker of fee House. Gov. Ingersoll discussed the financial question at length. THR.Michlgan State Woman’s Suffrage Association met at Lansing on the Bth and continued in session two days. About 3do delegates were In attendance. Officers were elected and preparations made for the approaching campaign. Three hundred of the employes of the Treasury Department are to be dismissed by July 1. Tg those who resign leave of absence and pay will be given Until that time. The United States Supreme Court has rooeutly decided to confirm the confiscation of Slidell’s property. The Ohio Constitutional Convention has adopted a plan for legislative apportionment, and Incorporated the principle of cumulative voting. Hon. E. B. Washburne, It is reported, declined, on the Bth, the tender of the position of Secretary of the Treasury. Gov. Beveridge, of Illinois, on theßth,lssued a proclamation appointing the 30th inst. aa the day for decorating soldiers’ graves. Over $500,000 worth of vessel property was destroyed at Quebec oh the Bth and 9th by the moving of the ice in the Bt. Lawrence River. Late Havana dispatches say that a number of Cubans have recently been condemned to Heath for treason.

It will require $14,000,000 internal revenue during the months of May and June to reach the estimate made by the Commissioner of $100,600,000 for tbe fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. The court convened to try Gen. Howard, of the Freedmen’s Bureau, for malfeasance has honorably acquitted him. Secretary Richardson returned to Washington on the 9th. It was believed that he had not tendered his resignation of the Secretaryship, and that he had no present intention of doing so. The Pennsylvania Legislature has passed a joint resolution asking the President to reopen tbe case of Fitz John Porter. Extensive fires prevailed throughout the Saginaw (Mich.) lumber region on the 10th. The woods were burning in many places, and there were grave apprehensions that in respect to their extent and the value of property burned they would equal those of 1871.

CONGRESSIONAL. In the Senate, on the 4th, bills were introduced—to resume legislative control of the District of Columbia and provide for a government thereof; relating to army distinctions; to aid the construction of a steamboat canal from Gadsden to Wetumpka, A1a....A bill was reported, with an amendment, from the Committee on Pensions amendatory of the act to amend, revise and consolidate the Jaws relating to pensions. Placed on the calendar.... The Senate bill to revive and continue certain grants of lands heretofore made to the Territory and State of Minnesota, to aid In the construction of the several lines of the St. Paul and Pacific Railway Companies, was passed—Bß to 12... .The House having, in compliance with a resolution bv the Senate requesting the same, returned the bill appropriating $90,000 for the relief of persons suffering by the overflow of the Mississippi River, on motion the vote by which the bill was passed was reconsidered, and an amendment was offered and referred, appropriating $250,000 instead of $90,000....The Supplementary Civil Rigbts bill was further considered, and an amendment was submitted providing that its provisions shall apply ;to schools and public institutions of learning or benevolence authorized by law and indorsed by the States, or hereafter indorsed by any State or the United States... .Adjourned. In the House, on the 4th, among the bills introduced were the following: For the Issue of additional bank-note circulation to States or Territories having less circulation than $lO per capital ot population, and for a withdrawal of the legal-tender notes at the rate of 25 per cent, of additional issue of National Bank notes until the outstanding legal tenders shall be reduced to $350,000,000, and prohibiting the National Banks charging more than 7 3-10 per cent, for interest or discount; to extend for six years the time to complete the railway from the St. Croix River to the take at the lowest end of Lake Superior, and to Bayfield, Wls.; to promote Internal improvements by the issue of United States bonds, and to provide for a sinking fund to facilitate the resumption of specie payment.... Bills were passed—to establish an assay offlee at Helena, Mont.; to create two addiUonal land districts in Kansas: extending to Indians the penalties provided against the liquor traffic among Indians.... A report was made from the Ways and Means Committee on the Sanborn contracts, the committee recommending the passage of a bill repealing the provisions of the act of May 8, 1872, under which those contracts were made, and directing the revocation and annulment of all such contracts, and providing that the Court of Claims shall have no authority to consider or decide upon any claims for damages by reason of the discontinuance of such contracts nr Jor any profits or percentages under them.... Ad joumed. In the Senate, on the sth, the bill for the relief of persons Buffering from the overflow of the Mississippi River, which appropriated $90,000, with an additional section directing the Secretary of War to Issue temporary supplies of food and army clothing to those suffering, and appropriating $60,(M0 additional for that purpose, was reported from the committee and an amendment was offered providing that the provisions of the bill shall expire on the Ist of September next, and after considerable debate the bill was recommitted ....A favorable report was made from the Committee on Public Lands on a bill to extend lime to pre-emptors on public lands in Minnesota to make final payment,,. .The Supplementary Civil Rights bill was further considered.... Adjoarned.

In the House, on the sth, a bill was passed providing that in the adjustment of all railway land grants, if any of the lands granted be fonnd in possession of aq actual settler whose entry or filing has been allowed under the Preemption or Homestead laws subsequent to tbe time when tlm right of the railway company was declared to have attached to such lands, the company shall be entitled to select an equal quantity of other lands in lieu thereof from any public land, within the limits of the grant to which the comfiany shall secure title, the same aa though orignally granted... .The bill defining the rights and duties of citizens abroad was recommitted to the Committee on Foreign Affaire....Tne Centennial bill for an appropriation ot $3,009,000 was debated at considerable length in Committee of the Wh01e.... Adjourned. In the Senate, on the 6th, the House bill amendatory of the National Currency acts and to establish free banking was reported from the Finance Committee and placed on the calendar, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute... .Bills were passed—to establish an assay office at Helena, Mont.; to facilitate the exportation of distilled spirits, and amendatory of the acts in relation thereto... .Executive session and adjournment. In fee House, on the 6th, a minority report was made from the Judiciary Committee and ordered printed on the condition of affairs in South Carolina, briefly reciting the list of grievances complained of, and predicating from them that the charges of the memorialists are true, and stating that “in view of the whole case, we cannot hesitate to recommend the appointment of a committee of both houses of Congress, with power and authority to go into tbe State of Bouth Carolina and fully inquire and investigate into the condition of the State, and the charges and complaints of tbe memorialists.”....Bills were passed—to amend the Consular and Diplomatic bill; Senate bill for the relief of settlers on the Fort Randall military reservation in Dakota, confirming the right of settler* who had been in occupation of their lands prior to June, 1860, when the reservation was established, and of those who made settlements tn good faith between 1867 and 1870, when the reservation was not occupied for military purposes.... The Centennial Appropriation bill wft further debated in Committee of the Wh01e.... Ad johrned. In fee Senate, on the 7th, sundry memorials from citizens of Wisconsin asking for an appropriation for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers and the mouth of the Mississippi River were presented and referred.... Bills were Sassed— House bill for the relief of persona sufferig from the overflow of the Mississippi River, with an amendment as an additional section which authorizes tbe Secretary of War to issne temporary supplies of food and army clothing to destitute persons there, and appropriating $109,000 for such purpoae, the provisions of the hill to expire on the *-lst of September; authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to transfer, from time to time, to the. office of the Assistant Treasurer at New York, from the bullion fund of the assay office at New York, refined gold bars bearing the United Stales stamp, or bare from any melt or foreign gold coin of bullion of a standard equal to or above that of tbe United States, and to apply the same to the redemption of coin certificates dr in exchange for gold coin at not less than par, subject to such regulations as be may prescribe; giving the assent of Congress for the imB lent of Wolf River across the Menomonee reservation tn Wisconsin....A Conference Committee was asked for by the House, and ordered, on the Senate amendments to the bill to facilitate the exportation of distilled spirits and smendaturr of the acts in relation thereto... .Bills were introduced -amendatory of the act to aid In the construction of a railway from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, providing that the bridge acroaa the Mlssonri River from Omaha, Neb., to Council Bluffs, lowa, shall be operated as part of tbe continuous Une o$ the Union Pacific Railway; for the relief of settlers on odd-num-bered sections of land within the limits of the Union Pacific Railway in the Territory of Dakota ....Executive tension and adjournment In the House, on the 7th, the Senate amendments to the House bill to facilitate the exportation of distilled spirits and amendatory of the act in relation thereto were non-concurred in and a Committee of Conference was ordered.... The Centennial Celebration bill was taken up in Committee of tbe Whole and, after a lengthy debate. a motion ordering the bill to a third reading waa rejected—yeas 92, nays 188. A motion was made to reconsider, and amotion to lay the motion ,to reconsider on the table waa lost—ll 7to 120—and the motion to reconsider wss agreed to—ll 4to 112. This result was brought about by the personal Influence and persuasion of the Pennsylvania member*, with the understanding that the bill would be

recommitted. A motion was then made to lay the bill on the table... .Adjourned. In fee Senate, on fee Bth, several House hills of a private nature were passed, including one to relieve certain persona, members of the Fifty-eighth regiment of Illinois Volunteers, from the charge of mutiny....A favorable report was made on the hill explanatory of the resolution for the relief of the settlers upon the Shawnee lands in Kansas .. The bill to enable Indians to become citizens of the United States was reported withont amendment.. ..The Geneva Award bill was on motion taken up and briefly debated... .Executive session and adjournment until the 11th. In fee House, on the Bth, fee motion to lay the Centennial bill on the table was withdrawn, and the bill was recommitted.... The Senate amendment to the bill for tbe relief of the sufferers by the Mississippi River overflow, changing the amount from $90,100 to $190,000, was concurred in.. ..The rnle setting apart Fridays and Saturdays for private business was changed so as to leave Fridays only for that purpose... A hill was passed directing the Secretary of War, under the advice of the Attorney General, to compromise, adjust and settle all demands, legal and equitable, between the United States and Tennessee, in reference to railways and railway property purchased by various railway companies from the United States, and to charge for the actual market vaine of the properly gurenased, at the date of the purchase, with W iterest....Several private hills were passed. .. An evening session was held for debate.... Adjourned. Senate not in session on the9fe. .In the Honse, a resolution of inquig; relative to the landing in the United States of foreign convict* Was adopted....A bill was reported, ordered printed and recommitted providing for the collection of money dne the United States by the Pacific Railroad Company.... The Indian Appropriation bill was considered and passed in Committee of the Whole and reported to the House. ....Adjourned.