The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-01-15

brought against Councilman Bosle, ef the Thirteth
district, was commenced yesterday BY tAe special
committee, and will be continued ON wednesday.
We give q report Of the proceedings elsewhere.
The Board OF Aldermen met last evening. The
following appointments by the Street Commission
ers were cen6rmed:-Co Copying Clerk, Henry v. Lo-
veil; Map Clerk, John Mcclure; Superintendent Of
Lands and Places, VIM. H. Hebbsrd. The appoint
ments of Horatio N. Sherwood and Ira A. Libby as
Deputy Collectors Of Assessments. were also con-
frmed. No other business of general interest was
transacted.
The Board of Oouncilmen have not yet got under
Roadway. Up to this time they have transacted no
business OF importance. Last night the President
announced to the Board the standing committees
for the ensuing year, all Of which are published in
another column.
The argument in the Forrest divorce case. for
new trial was resumed yesterday the part of the
respondent. A motion is pending in the special
term Of the Superior Court on the part Of the re-
spondent to amend the amendment to the plaintiffs
exceptions.
The trial of NJ. Echeveri. for fitting out the
schooner Mary Jane Peck as an alleged SLAYER, is
still before the United States District Court
The Atantic's news produced no quotabte change
yesterday in cotton. The sales embraced about 700
or 500 bales, including middling uplands, at about
9lc. Flour closed at about &c. l2lc. per barrel
below the highest quotations of Saturday. There
was little done in wheat beyond sale of Canadian
white at 81 O5 per bushel. Corn was easier, with
small Gales Of Western mixed at 90c 92c. Pork was
again higher, and mess sold at SIC % SIC S74,
closing with an upward tendency. Sugars were
quiet while moderate business was done in coffee.
Room to Liverpool was somewhat scarce, and load
ing, on account Of the ice, difficult; hence rates
closed with tendency to higher rates. They were
| also firm for London, while to Havre they were
inactive and unchanged.
The speakership-a1r. Banks Declares Him.
sell the Abolition Candidate.
The resolution of Mr.. Zollikoffer, of Tennes-
see, institutiDg a rigid examination into the
party principles of the several candidates De
fore Congress for the responsible office OF
Speaker of the House, has at least resulted in
removing the last vestige of doubt concern
ing the position Of Mr.. Banks. Elected from
Massachusetts as Know Nothing, his precise
party relations as q candidate for the Speakers
chair were heretofore, to some extent an open
question. He had not declared whether he was
or the American brotherhood and his ultimate
choice, until the other day, was not definitely
understood.
But now. we have it distinctly declared by
Mr.. Banks that hostility to Southern slavery,
as laid down in the Seward programme, is his
platform, and that Seward and his abolition
confederates of the North are his party. Mr..
Banks, in word, appears to have courted the
support of the American party, like General
Wilson, for the purpose Of betraying it into
the hands of Seward and his allies; for the
GOODNESS with which the former repudiates his
obligations to the Know Ncthings is only
equalled by the audacity of the latter in his
declaration to crush the party to which he
owes his place in the Senate into ten thousand
fragments.
Opposed to the election of Mr.. Banks as
Speaker there is o clean majority of the
House and this majority is opposed to him
on the single issue of the slavery question.
Nor is there any probability that during the
existence Of this Congress this anti-Seward
majority can be overcome under the majority
rule. But this majority against Banks is in it.
self divided between the democratic and con-
sentative American parties; and as the demo-
Gratis have repudiated the American and the
Seward platform In the same resolution, the
chasm between the twelfth section Know
Nothings and the democrats ia scarcely less an
obstruction to coalition than the Wilmot pro-
viso Of Mr.. Banks Regarding the question of
slavery, however, as the paramount and only
vital issue OF the day, we regard the defeat of
Mr.. Banks as the first duty of all the conser-
vatives of Congress, of all parties opposed to
his election.
Yet the question recurs, how can the nation.
al Know Nothings cooperate with the demo
cratic party? The solution, we think, lies with
the Fuller party as between choice of evils,
and upon the old alternative of the prophet
that if "the mountain will not come to Maho-
met, Mahomet must go to the mountain"
MIR. Humphrey Marshall, Of Kentucky, in
late letter to the Louisville Journal, declared
that if reduced to the alternative of vote be-
tween Richardson and Banks, he should choose
the former. We presume that many of the col
leagues of Mr. Marshall are prepared to take
the same course, in the event Of simple issue
between the black republican and democratic
candidates We believe that Mr.. Banks cannot
be elected by a majority of the House, bat that
a conservative on the slavery question can aud
ought to be. We also undertake to say that
the country is thoroughly Disguised with this
useless repetition Of the same old farce from
day to day, and from week to week, Us carried
on between Banks, Richardson, Fuller, aud
others. The plurality rule would prooa-
hardly leave the Fuller men the privilege Of
DESERVING their candidate. What, then, IS the
expedient by which this Gordian knot can be
cut in twain? 1t is simple enough. 1t may be
done by resolution dropping the lowest nan
voted for; and every man having less than two