The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-01-12

OF all men in the United States w. II.
Seward has been most active and instrumental
in producing the causes and consequences of
our recent party revulsions aud revolutions.
He it was who, in 1910 or al, succeeded in
inveigling Archbishop Hughes into the dirty
squabbles OF party politics or the school ques-
ton. 1t was the smooth and treacherous de.
vices of Seward that entrapped the Arch
bishop into the deiilement of his clerical robes
among the whiskey drinking Carbonari of Car
roll Hall. An anti Catholic reaction followed,
and riots, and CONGREGATIONS, and bloodshed;
and next there arose the Native American
party of 1874. They carried this city, they
controlled the elections in Philadelphia and
though in the Presidential canvass Of that year
they we're overshadowed by the two great old
national parties in the field, the nucleus Of the
American party Of 1874 has continued intact,
till we find it absorbed in the overwhelming
popular strength of the Know Nothings. So,
too, if Seward was identified with the cause of
Archbishop Hughes, for the sake of the Catho-
lie vote. in the movement Of IA, he and his
agents were no less active for the same object
in behalf of the policy of Bedini on the Catho-
lie Church property question Of the last year.
Tracing, then, directly home to w. Fl.
Seward this demoralizing and corrupting prac-
tice of trading for the foreign and Catholic
vote, which has broken up the late whig aud
democratic parties shall we not also hold the
prime conspirator himself responsible for his
plots and treacheres against the public peace
as public manf AS the instigator Of the ruin
GUS practice to the Irish Catholics of holding
their suffrages as q balance Of power in our
elections, he richly deserves to be broken upon
the wheel; hut considering his earlier and later
affiliations with the anti-slavery societies, and
especially his present formidable disunion
scheme of sectional agitation, Matched out
among the late pie-bald conventions of Sarato.
calls for his speedy execution.
The national wings in the Legislature are
few and feeble-the democracy are broken into
fragments task devolves upon the new
national and conservative party of the Know
NOthings. They claim the strength-they
know the Importance of the issue and it's conse-
quences. Let them act accordingly. Let them
defeat Seward, and not only will New York be
redeemed but Virginia will be regenerated,
and the track, North and South. will thus be
cleared Of all distractions for 1856. What say the
Know Nothingsf
Plans Of Municipal Reform In the Leglslature.
We publish elsewhere three curious bills
which have been recently introduced into the
Legislature Of New York. One, which is ia.
thered by Mr.. Stuyvesant, aims at amending
the law regulating the Police Department by
substituting for the present commissioners q
new body Of four men, named in the bill, and
whose successors are hereafter to be elected by
lst of July, 1855, the term Of Office of the
present Chief Of Police shall expire, and the
validity of all appointments by him made shall
be annulled; and that he shall be succeeded
by another Chief Of Police to be appointed by
the commissioners. This is fair sample of the
style of legislation in fashion at Albany. We're
the bill to become law, no conceivable benefit
would be conferred upon the community. No
reason can be brought forward to show that the
new commissioners would answer better than
the old ones, or that Chief Of Police who
should serve only four years would perform his
work better than one appointed during good
behavior. On the contrary, the bill would az
gravate the present crying evil Of divided au-
thority, by raising up new power in the shape
Of four commissioners independent Of the May
or and of every one else; it would ensure to
the city an inefficient ignorant Chief of Police
every four years at least; and it would help
four gentlemen to fatten on the treasury at the
rate of $4,000 year apiece This, in truth, is
the secret of the whole affair. The object of
the bill ia to supersede Mr.. Matsen for tue
benefit Of some one in the background, aud
to feed four anony nous cormorants. 1t is by no
means the first attempt Of the kind that has
been made. 1t has long been the custom
for disappointed applicants for Office to carry
their sorrows to Albany and to seek to repeal
or amend the law SO as to enable them to
obtain the place they failed to secure under Its
provisions. If Mr.. Stuyvesant's bill succeeds,
Mr.. Matsell will be thrown overheard and a
fresh man appointed. In July, 1859, the term
Of Office Of the latter will expire, and he win
be superseded in his turn whereupon his dis
appointed rivals will 60 to Albany and have
the law altered once more SO as to provide for
them. Talk of the paternal government of the
Gear! Give us snug republic for caring for
idlers.
Then Mr.. Atkin proposes quite seriously
to "legalize primary elections in the city Of
New York;" ard this a. time when the vice
and the corruption and the scandal and the rot
tenness of the hideous sham called primary
elections stink in the nostrils of every honest
man. Mr.. Atkins bill resembles Mr.. Stuy-
vesant's in one respect; it is scheme devised
for personal purposes by corrupt individuals.
Mr.. Stuyvesant says let us reform the police
laws 60 that Matsell may be sent to the right
about and that worthy fellow John or Thomas