The Portland daily press., 1866-07-23

Brief Comments ON Current Topics.
The report of the City Engineer, sketch
of which was given in our last issue, is one of
the most important documents ever laid be-
fore the government or people of Portland
Nobody who studies it with map of the
recommendations For instance, there is the
proposition to continue Wilmot street straight
across the city and discontinue Church, Gar
den, Vine and Deer streets. Here we have
one straight, broad avenue to take the place of
no less than four of the narrow lanes in which
our ancestors delighted. THE amount of
land available for building lots, will be actually
increased by the proposed Improvement, and
the lots will be in better shape to accommo-
date the business which is likely to need the
space formerly occupied in this region by de-
cayed dwelling houses. This is only one of
Mr.. Goodale's suggestions. The others
equally commend themselves to favorable no.
tice. If now the legislature should author
ize the City Government to take lands with
power to sell after improvements, it is reason
ably plain, as Mr.. Goodale urges, that the i'm
provements can be made without cost. The
location of the streets may be changed with
out increasing their superficial extent, and
the principal objection hitherto made to re-
vision of the plan of the city, falls to the
ground. We hope to publish the report in
full, in few days. sla2HC lq ~
M, cs,x,-,~ ,r,c ,c d;v,,, iii which, ,,,oco3
the Senate last Friday, has been so modified
that it would hardly be recognized by its best
friends. The most odious feature of the orig
inal bill, the authorization of new series Of
bonds exempt from local taxation, has dis
appeared. The compound interest notes are
no longer to be used by the National banks as
apart Of their reserve fund, which must con-
sist wholly of legal tenders. The Secretary is
instructed to keep gold in the treasury until it
amounts to fifty millions, to be applied first to
the payment Of interest in coin; then to the
payment Of appropriations in coin; and then
al debt, as it natures. The surplus over fifty
millions, after these demands are satisfied, is |
to be sold in open market in New York, and
the notes received for it are to be cancelled.
In this manner we are at last entering upon
that every necessary reduction Of the curren-
cy," the opposition to which, in Senator Fes-
senden's judgment, is creating great part of
the difficulty we are now laboring under.
THE Alliance News, the organ Of the Tenn
perance Alliance in Great Britain, reports UNI
der date Of July Z, that Gen. Neal Dow had
been greeted by friends of the cause in Bel
fast, Ireland, the week before, in Glasgow,
Scotland, Monday evening, I'd inst, in Edin-
burg Tuesday, and in Newcastle Wednesday.
At the tea-party in Glasgow, Gen. Dow told
his Scottish friends very plainly that so long
as elders Of the church are engaged, without
reproach, in selling liquors by the glass, they
have but little to hope. 1t is difficult, in New
England, to conceive of community in which
public opinion countenances clergymen in
drinking and church members in keeping grog
shops; yet this, as Gen. Dow asserted and his
friends admitted, is the state of things in
Scotland. The cause however seems to be
gaining, as it is claimed that third of the
Scottish ministers now abstain entirely fro m
intoxicating drinks 1tA