to say, that the Government should know that King George wore the uniform of a general, and the High-priest's back was stiff with gold embroidery. $7,500 a year and contingent expenses certainly seem a large price for the privilege of having Gen. Read in the public service; but the Secretary will certainly greatly miss him as a correspondent if Congress has its way and brings him home.

If it be true that the Democrats are discouraging in their Bourbonism, what can be said of one group of the Republican leaders? One might naturally suppose that Governor Chamberlain would have in his struggle with Whipper and Moses the hearty assistance of the leaders at Washington. Leaving out of consideration the questions of Honesty and Honor, it might be thought that self interest would stimulate men like Senator Morton, who is so anxious to be President, to stop the fight which is raging within the party in South Carolina. Gov. Chamberlain is a Republican by conviction, and has always been one: what were Moses and Whipper, and what are they now? It is a struggle between two distinct forces in the Republican party. They are diverse, different, irreconcilable. The one is the parent of safety, of honest government, of prosperity and peace; the other is the father of evil, of anarchy, of ruin. The party cannot take them both into its bosom: it must choose one or the other. If it elect the side of Chamberlain, it may regain its prestige and hold on to power: if that of Moses, it will not deserve to live, nor can it hope to do so, at least in the Palmetto state.

WORSE even than their coldness to Governor Chamberlain and the cause he represents has been the confirmation by the Administration leaders of Mr. Billings. Harsh as the remark may sound, it has been said that this was the worst appointment General Grant has made. At all events it is believed that Mr. Billings was Durell's assistant; that he drew the midnight order which led to the latter's fall and brought infinite sorrow on Louisiana; acted as counsel for Kellogg, and tried to suppress evidence before the Senate: and it is known that his confirmation was protested against by the bar of New Orleans without regard to party! It is such acts as this, whether looked upon as a Presidential nomination or an endorsement by the Senate, that dishearten thinking men of every party and both

races.

What can we hope for from the ignorant and vicious, when

the wiser and better cannot be trusted? What can be expected of the Bar if the Bench be dishonest-of the people when its leaders become corrupters and corrupted.

THE Brooklyn Council has begun its sessions, which promise to be about as satisfactory as the Committees and things which have preceded it along the dark and dingy path of the Beecher-Tilton scandal. There is very little doubt of its decision, no matter how far it goes towards the origin of the trouble, and none of its effect on public opinion.

The believers in Mr. Beecher's innocence will still believe it, and those who doubt it be "of the same opinion still." Meantime there is much eloquence-a quantity of epistolary wisdom and infinite learning-lavished on the subject. Dr. Bacon is satirical, Mr. Beecher hot and cold by turns, often cheerful and witty— flowers abound, women throng the galleries, the proceedings are sprinkled with applause and laughter, and Brooklyn is happy and much talked about.

THE President has signed the Centennial Bill, and the Board of Finance will get the $1,500,000. Nothing remains now to be done but to draw from the Secretary of the Treasury or from Congress a liberal construction of the revenue laws, and thus relieve the foreign Commissioners from all possible trouble in the future. Mr. Springer's amendment is of a nature unexpected to that gentleman. Instead of putting the Government in the position of a preferred creditor-thus taking advantage of those who had helped the enterprise in its days of doubt and danger, when it needed help the mosthis provision does not even leave it where the bill did, the position of a common stockholder. The United States might have given this money and done a handsome thing for an enterprise which had their honor in charge; they might have subscribed to its stock, which no doubt would have been prudent and business like and worthy of a Yankee nation-and which course indeed the bill originally contemplated; but Mr. Springer insisted on a provision that there should be no dividend of any profits until this money be returned into the Treasury. It is now claimed with great show of reason that no dividend of any profit can be made until the stock

holders are paid, and the Government must therefore wait until the capital is all refunded. A "Springer amendment" might be a useful phrase in parliamentary practice, for the thing without a name is

not uncommon.

THE Philadelphia municipal election has been very cheering to the lovers of Reform. In some places mistakes were made by the citizens, in others the politicians were too strong for them, but on the whole the general result is more than satisfactory. The citizen has tasted success and independence, and he will not return easily again into the fold. In some of the wards the change of vote amounted almost to a revolution. In the 8th, the stronghold of Republicanism, the Democratic and Reform candidate was chosen by nearly 500 majority; in the 23rd, the strongest of the Regulars was handsomely beaten; in the 21st an independent Peoples' movement swept everything before it; in the 15th Mr. Caven was triumphantly re-elected. Next year the Councils will contain a number of excellent and reliable men. Of course this result has not been easily accomplished: it has required organization and work. The newspapers, notably the Telegraph and Times, have been very effective, and their influence was perceptibly felt. The people have at last realized that the election of Councilmen is a matter of the first importance, and that they should go to the polls when they choose them as they would when they vote for Directors of any corporation of which they hold the stock: if they will do this persistently, we shall soon cease to blush for Philadelphia.

MESSRS. Moody and Sankey gathered and interested at their gospel meetings in this city at least twice a day for two months congregations numbering thousands of people, in which they inspired many rough and unromantic men to stand up and ask to be prayed for, to throng the inquiry rooms, and to return after their excitement, if such it were, ought to have sul sided to testify that they had undergone a real change of spirit. And these results seem to have. depended very little upon such contagious phrensies and excitements as often carry, at revivals, the preachers and preached quite out of their senses. These facts are quite extraordinary, and ought to be as much so to a skeptic as to a bigot. We would not offer any opinion as to the cause or usefulness or permanency of the effects, but it is certain that many explanations have been offered of them

quite below their dignity. The immense and continuing audiences, containing always the testimony of some rough and unaffected convert, have been ascribed to curiosity and excitement, and the profession and labors of the evangelists to effrontery and hypocrisy. Such explanations are, objectively treated, trifling as proposing causes very incommensurate with the results; and considered subjectively they speak very little for their source. One feature of the affair has naturally provoked a torrent of fun. When the furniture of the building was sold to help to defray the expenses of the movement, a curious contest took place over the possession of the chairs which had been sat upon by eminent persons. Those which had been occupied by Mr. Moody, Mr. Sankey, President Grant, Mr. Wanamaker, Mr. Blaine and Col. Scott, sold at figures varying from $5 to $55, and were caught up eagerly at those rather high figures. It is not remarkable that out of the many thousands who heard Mr. Moody preach and Mr. Sankey sing, two should be found willing to give $55 apiece for their chairs, nor that out of the millions over whom President Grant presides there should be one who would give the extravagant sum of $22.50 for the chair he occupied; Mr. Wanamaker's power to consecrate a chair, or Col. Scott's, may not seem at first sight so evident, nor can one see on what basis the values were put. But they were paid at least, and that is more to the point. It has been said that the towels used by the evangelists were consigned, not to the hands of washer-women, as would have seemed natural, but to those of enthusiastic followers who struggled for the possession of them "just as they were." This is certainly carrying the thing a peg too far. Virtuous and excellent as Messrs. Moody and Sankey doubtless are, they are still in the flesh, and more or less of the earth-earthy.

Reverence for them as holy men is all very well, up to a certain point, but beyond that it takes the form of something that is far less dignified, and may even be harmful; and, degraded to the low level of superstition, it ceases to be respectable. In the dingy twilight of such a story as this last, the bones of the eleven thousand Virgins at Cologne and other cheerful and authentic relics become almost luminous. But doubtless these stories have been greatly exaggerated. Slander would naturally roll such incidents under his tongue, and he may have licked a very harmless morsel into an ugly shape. At this very moment the depot church is tumbling down. The scent of the evangelists will surely hang around it still, though it is being broken and shattered, but thus far no hand has ventured to stay the destruction, and no voice plead with Mr. Wanamaker to "spare that" depot. If all were true which those who belittle the evangelists and make fun of their labors tell us in solemn tones, no clothing store, however orthodox, would have been suffered to rise out of the premature ruins of the depot church.

TH

THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES.

HE Academy of Natural Sciences has held its first meeting în the new hall at the corner of Race and Nineteenth streets, occupying its commodious building with the opening of the Centennial year. While thus changing its local habitation, it has found the occasion an appropriate one for revising its organization, and for adding some functions which shall, more nearly than heretofore, relate it to that public to whose generosity it is so indebted.

As interested in the development of facilities for scientific research and training in Philadelphia, the writer proposes to take a brief view of the Academy, endeavoring to discover what it is, and what it is not. And he here premises that the institution will be considered with reference to the only standard possible; viz: as occupying the position of the leading institution for the development of the natural sciences in the second city of the Western Hemisphere, the first in the field of science, with a prestige based upon solid work done in the past.

The objects of the Academy, as stated by its founder, and as recalled by its president in the late report of the trustees of the building-fund, are three-fold; the promotion of original investigation, of instruction, and of distribution of knowledge of the natural sciences in their broadest sense. And since all that is known of Nature is obtained by original research, this function may be looked upon as the most important. This office is indeed the distinguishing one of institutions of this class; for ordinary instruction on these subjects is given in all our colleges and universities; and the duty thus imposed on their professors necessarily restricts the time and opportunity for research. The Academy of Natural Sciences should bear the relation to the University of Pennsylvania, that the Jardin des Plantes does to the medical and other schools of Paris, or the Royal Institution of Great Britain to her universities. The fulfillment of this relation involves also instruction by lectures, which differ from those of the universities in important respects. The courses being more special, are necessarily more extended in their proper fields, while they have the special advantage of being fully abreast of the times in springing from original

sources.