New-York tribune., 1874-12-11

born of fear.
Proceedings in the suit of Tilt0n against
Beecher have drawn from the plaintiffs cOun-
sci statement as to what would be supplied
in bill of particulars. 1t does not
promise to be formidable as to length,
and will only specify offenses in two days
and places discOuragng feature in this
case is the expectation that if strict bill OF
particulars is ordered and declined, the suit
may be dismissed; resulting in more pro-
tracted litigation instead of reaching and de-
Gliding the merits.
The hopes of the more sanguine of the
Southern Pacific Railroad lobby are recounted
in our Washington dispatch. They expect that
q maximum of strength will be developed IN
the House, favoring their project by Feb. l..
There is to be solid vote of Southern and
California members, and heavy proportion
of the Pennsylvania vote. The latter, Col.
Scott is expected to manage. The influences
which are to effect all this are not 80 pre-
cisely detailed; all that tho lobby mOdestly
ask is that the newspapers will refrain from
remark till the work is accomplished.
A full report which we print of meeting
at Whitehall of those interested in the matter
of the enlargement of the Champlain Canal,
shows clearly two things: a. That great
deal of money has been wasted already in that
work: (2) that it is feared that still more is
to be wasted. 1t is gratifying to know that
the attention of tho public has been reused,
and that so capable a man as Emerson E.
| Davis has taken hold of the business. Mr.
Dayis's exposures of these very jobs in the
Assembly last Winter have not been forgot
ten, and as he is again elected we shall expect
to hear more from him on the interesting SUBJ
ject of canal frauds
| Two out of three il as large proportion of
| good appointments as any one could reason
ably expect in our service. The nomination
of Mr.. Moran as Minister to Portugal is a
thoroughly good one, if he will accept it, and
his refusal of promotion to Washington
some time ago would seem to indicate the
contrary. Col Hoffman, who has done so well
in Paris, is equally qualified for the post in
London to which ne is transferred. Mr.. Hit, the
stenograpber of Senator Mort0n's Committee,
| is named for Secretary of Legation to Paris.
He is not so good Secretary of Legation as
Moran or Hoifman-but then they are not so
good stenographers as he is; and it may have
struck the President in that light.
Our correspondent in Alabama some weeks
ago described the use made of "overhow
bacon " at the polls. 1t was brief and dis
graceful story. The bacon given by the United
States for the benefit of sufferers by the over
flow of the Mississippi was withheld from them
when most needed, before the crops Tipened,
and long afterward distributed by politicians,
like the Credit Mobilier, "where it would do
Z" the most good" The freedmen of Green
vile received theirs the day before election.
All these facts have been corroborated in
report from the War Department placed be-
fore the House yesterday and the Hon. Charles
Hays of Alabama figures in it as the presiding
genius of the distribution.
There is striking similarity between affairs
at Vicksburg and recent events at New
Orleans. In each case the root of the trouble
was the system of governing Southern State
from Washington. Partisan mismanagement
and official corruption at last exasperated the
citizens beyond endurance. But in the Mis-
sissippi case the negroes took the initiative in
the resort to violence. Beyond this, the par
allel holds again; the Governor of the State
sustains the opposition to the will OF the citl-
zens, and they are represented In this morn
ing,s dispatches as declaring that military
rule would be preferable to their present
servitude under carpet-bag government
Our readers will recall despairing cry in
| similar words from New-Oreans.
We gladly give space elsewhere to plea
by Mr.. John Roach in behalf of the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company. which has been his
most profitable customer. Mr. Roach gravely
mistakes the nature of the present dis
cussion, so far at least as THE TRIBUNE
ia concerned, if he imagines that the vital point
in it is in any way affected by the pending strug-
giles in Wall Street. The point which Mr.. Roach
fails to see is the gist of the whole matter.
Is our impoverished Treasury to be called on for
fresh subsidies for corporation which spentOver
q million dollars in debauching Congress in
order to get the last one 7 Are the Com
mittees of Congress to be encouraged to
shirk an investigation of the notorious facts
of that corruption, when the men who paid
the money are known to be within their easy
reachf Is Mr.. Roach in favor of having an
| investigation, instant, thorough, and open
That is the main question.
They have begun again the summoning of
witnesses in Washington for a renewal of the
Pacific Mail subsidy investigation. We trust
that the Committee have not failed to address
a summons to Mr.. Richard b. Irwin, an old
employe in the Pacific Mail Office in this
city, in charge of the business of the China
line, transferred hence to San Francisco and
ordered from San Francisco to Washington