Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-02-23

wAsHIHaroH NEWS AND GOSSIP.
The Prospect Of the Bil.-For ten or twelve
days after the discussion of the Nebraska
question commenced in Congress, it was very
evident to keen Observers in Washington thai
ii was losing strength; ina,much as more OF
less hmid gentlemen in public life mistook the
rearing and resounding frst guns q ainst the
measure, fred off nthenon- siaveholdiug States
for something more than mere Abolition dem
onstrations. Within the past week, however,
1t having become perfectly apparent that
nearly everything being published, done or
said against it, is being so published, done OF
said under the direction of Messrs. Hale, Ger
nit Smith, and G iddings, and by especial dircc-
ton OF friend Greedy the odd man of the New
York Tribune, the isa,iic under which nervous
members breathed, has vanished. We have seen
great many political fzzlcs in our day, and
never one more manifest than the effort n
get up q storm of northern Indignation
against this bill. The failure, SO universally
appreciable here, has strengthened it wonder
fully in the House We know half dozen
members, who fortnight ago, were protesting
mat fsey would not dare to vote to leave the
future settlers in Nebraska to regulate their own
domestic concerns, who now snap their fingers
right merrily at the public opinion appearing
In telegraphic newspaper dispatches manufac.
tured to order of the great Giddings- party
council of state, We are writing in sober
earnest, in assuring the distant public hat the
bill is hourly obtaining strength in the House.
Indeed, were the vote to be taken to. morrow,
and every member at his post, we knoac tn at
the majority for the bill would be quite forty
votes. .s,.
We mention this fact, that the country may
not be misled by the designedly false state
ments (as calculations printed in order to in
duce outside and far distant demonstrations
against the measure. The speech of Mr.. Ste
phens, of Georgia, and the more recent effort
of Senator Petit, have both fallen with pow
erful effect on the ear of Congress, serving to
clear away the obstacles Of Misrepresentation
and palpable, bold, falsi6cations of history
which have been essayed to defeat the triumph
Of the self-government principle on which the
measure is based.
Whatever may go forth from Washington to
encourage the -Abolitionists in their work of
getting up grand anti-Nebraska bill meetings
on paper, here, on the spot, no sane man pre-
tends to doubt its certain triumph.
Court Costume.-Mr. John Y Mason is very
generally judged in Washington to have put
his foot in it, in yielding to the earnest desires
Of the American funkies resident in Paris, in
the matter of appearing at Court en- costume
1t is believed here that the pertinacity Of that
class of nominal Americans, who are very
numerous in Paris, was too much for his easy
good nature, which was never yet known to
disoblige any one where he could possibly
avoid so doing. The truth is, Mr. Masons ex-
cessive good nature is the weak point in his
character as public man, though it has Ger
tainly rendered him greatly beloved in circles
where he is personally we'll known. The Amer
lean residents at Paris, principally persons of
wealth who reside permanently abroad, be-
cause they find luxuries there, and anti-republi-
can tastes. habits and associations, which money
will not buy even in New York, are, proven
bially, the most anti-American untitled people
to be found anywhere in Europe, in their SEN
timents. For quarter of century, they have
done their best to turn the American Mission
20 France into a sort of grand ehamberlaincy
designed tofurther their entyes into continental
land more especially French) aristocratic So
ciety. On the other hand, American sojouyu-
ers in Paris travellers transiently there, are
proverbially, inclined to be intensely repub-
lican. Coming fresh from home, they are
at first shocked and disguised with the glaring
funkeyism of their nominal countrymen above
alluded to. Now, the latter, according to let
tiers already received in Washington, are as
unanimously mortified with Mr.. Mason's act in
yielding the point on ibis dress, as the former
are known to be pleased with it. However,
the mistake has been made, and, it is thought,
is not to be repaired. We know not what the
Administration think of it. The Democracy
of Congress are, however, terribly chagrined,
not to write mortified, by this affair The
Wings, for the most part, insisting that there
was no little bamboozie in Secretary Marcy s
circular concerning the dress of American
representatives abroad, seemed to be great y
amused at Mr.. Ms faur pas, as we'll they
may be, under existing circumstances.
We have taken up the impression that but
for this occurrence in Paris in less than six
months positive orders would have gone from
the Government here, giving the Secretary
recommendation in this connection, the force
of positive ORDERS but we fear that MIR. Mason
has rendered it Unnecessary for the President and
Secretary Marcy to "rub out and commence
anew in their really iaudable efforts to Amer.
icanize Americanism on the Continent.
The Best Abused Man among rs at this
time, by long odds, is the Hon. Stephen A
Douglas, of Illinois. Were he q auld Hornie'
himself, "wi hoofs' of his own, he could
hardly be more vehemently thumped and
whacked in New England sacred desks,
than at present. The little man, however
bears the terrible infietion of clerical damna-
ton with great fortitude and self-possesson
sailing under It quite as complacently as here
tofore. We take it that he recollects that no
man draws down upon him the furious denun-
Citations of that class of over righteous fanatics
and bigots, until they begin to realize that he