The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-07-22

equal length Of time in constructing political
platform, the immediate effect Of which was to
disrupt the party itself. In every view Of the
case, therefore, the history of the last
sion was anything but creditable or
profitable to the country. If our in
sttutions could withstand the effect of
afew more sessions of the kind, they might re-
ally be regarded as indestructible But the ex-
pertinent would be rather dangerous one We
cannot avoid another such session. but fortu-
naiely its term is limited to three months. And
now we put it to the American people, North,
South, East and West whether they think they
! are forwarding the material, moral and politi-
cal Interests OF the country, or promoting the
cause of popular government throughout the
world, by sending to the grand council of the
nation the petty pothouse politicians and
county court pettifoggers who now dll the seats
intended for the worthy representatives of sove-
reign States. Let the people ponder that ques-
ton. II they do. We will guarantee that few of
the members OF the present House of Represen-
tasives will ever occupy that position again, aud
that the Senate will, more slowly but as certain
ly. be cleared OF the one-horse demsgogues who
bring discredit upon that assemblage which
ought to be the grandest in the world.
Celestial PhenSmes~-A Magnificent Me-
Astronomic annals do not, perhaps con-
tain the record Of a phenomenon occurring In
any sge Of the world more startlingly beauti-
E,1 $h.< i'll
locality on Friday night The great comet
which blazed in our harvest skies two years
ago WAS, night after night, an object of grand
attraction; but those who witnessed the flight
of that brilliant meteor through the air the night
before last. enjoyed spectacle eclipsing In its
splendor anything that they had srer before
seen. or that perhaps they ever will see again
Meteors, though regarded, like comets With
much superstitious awe, as portentous of some
great caamities. are not very rare. We read
from time TO time Of meteoric stones falling in
different parts of the country. There were
some remarkable instances of the kind few
months ago in Virginia; and those phenomena
known as shooting stars, and which are ascrioed
to meteorc action, may be Witnessed almost
every fine summer night But the display OF
Friday night was If not without precedent in
astronomic annals, at least without precedent
In the memory of any individual whom We have
heard speak on the subject.
We have received and publish elsewhere
in to-day's HERALD, various accounts of il
as it appeared to spectators in different
parts of the city and suburbs an Of
which agree in the mairl particulars, and may !
be thus summed up:-At about q quarter
before ten O'Clock on Friday evening,
the atmosphere being very sultry, and no per-
ceptibe motion In the air, light cloud APP
peared in the west, from which blue-tinted
luminous globe shot out. which at the first
artificial firework. Instantly it lost its globu-
lar form. bursting, like an immense skyrocket,
into four portions. The first two are repre-
sented by one of our correspondents
as resembling brilliantly illuminated chan
deliers, with innumerable jets OF purple
fame; the others were globular and com
paratively small, appearing rather as
the tails of the first They maintained their re.
lative distances as they flew athwart the sky
from west to east, occupying in their fight
something like minute Whether they vanish
ed in air or fell on the land or sea we have not
yet ascertained. About minute after their
passage a defamation was heard, as from piece |
of ordinances but whether it proceeded from |
the bursting of the meteor is matter Of con-
lecture.
One very curious optical delusion which II |
gave rise to Is worthy of remark. To the spec
tators IL appeared to be no higher than from a
quarter to half a mile, and to be almost direct
ly over their heads, and yet when the fact is
considered that ii was witnessed under almost |
identical circumstances at Philadelphia, some
ninety miles southwest of New York; |
at New Haven, eighty miles east; at
Barncgat, forty miles south. and at
Newburg, on the Hudson. sixty miles north, it |
will be perceived that the idea Of its insignif- |
cant elevation was most delusive. II must have |
been at an immense elevation to have been |
seen at these widely remote points, aud to have |
presented at all OF them the same appearance |
of being so nearly in the zenith.
II is also to be remarked In connection with |
the meteor. that for the previous two or three |
nights brilliant flashes Of the aurora borealis |
have illumined the northern skes-a most uu- |
usual display in the dog days, and one which |
we only look for in the late fall and winter |
months The aurora Is generally supposed to
indicate clear cold weather, but in this case il
has been followed by an progressively sultry
state of the atmosphere, thus contradictiig our
previously conceived notions 1t is alsD very
closely connected in point Of time With the
solar eclipse, which took place last Wednesday
morning.
Meteors, like comets and eclipses. have been.
from the remotest antiquity, regarded por-
tentous omens. II Il hard to get rid q such
superstitious ideas. Even in modern time. aud