New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-12-18

measure proposed will name day for specie
payment, though four years distant. A lin
tied reduction of groenbacks, free banking,
and no repeal of the legal tender act. arc tho
other chief fruits expected of this compromise
1t might have been worse.
Since third gun has now burst in the costly
experiments on an island in Boston Harbor,
we trust there will be IN end OF this tom
foolery. The power exerted by powder III
rifled guns, the destruction that can be effected
at short and long ranges. the charge most
suitable for any required effect, the strain that
guns will endure-all these and hundred
similar questions have been determined years
ago. The nation is in no mood to see its
money blown to smoke in experiments which
prove nothing that is not already known.
A glimpse of probable Democratic policy In
the next Congress was given yesterday. A
proposition to increase the clerical force OF
the Bureau of Education was under debate.
Mr.. Cox. in opposing it, declared mmscir
against the whole system of bureaus at Wash
ington, and said that all of them which mad
| no warrant in the Constitution would DO
abolished by the next House. When this
| takes place the capital will compare with this
| city in the number of people out OF employ
| ment.
Arkansas politics already rival in intricacy
the Schleswig HOlstein question. A new ele-
ment is to be added to their confusion by the
partisans of Smith dropping him and taking
up Brooks. The arguments by which they
prove, that after all, Brooks is the only real
Governor elect of the State do not carry a
heavy load of conviction to their friends In
Congress. There are "reminiscences OF similar
arguments from the same source about Baxter
and Smith; and all three cannot be the Gov
ernor at once. Arkansas is in fair way to
! be severely let alone.
Rarely has there been so marked an illus
traton of the penny-wise spirit as in the
Naval Appropriation bill reported by the
Committee, cutting down the estimates for
the support of the Naval Observatory. The
Sums required for purely scientific work, such
! as the computation of the moons motions and
OF the transit of Venus, were very moderate.
The work done at the Observatory has brought
it into high credit throughout the world. But
the crippled condition to which this bill pro-
poses to reduce it is nearly equivalent to
abolishing it entirely. The Observatory is one
Of the few Washington Institutions in which
the country can justly take pride Our scien-
tific men have managed the business of
observing the transit with great skill and
success. But their labor must DO thrown
aside as vauelcss, and the other work of the
Observatory be indefinitely delayed, if this
measure of mistaken economy is adopted
Prince Bismarck is disposed to initiate
President Theirs by trying to coerce the legis-
lative power into adopting his policy by the
menace of resignation. President Theirs
usually had the decided advantage on his side
that the schemes which he desired the French
Assembly to support were more liberal than
those which it favored. The measure which
the German Reichstag desires to have incOr-
porated in the Constitution of Ger
many forms one of the fundamental
principles of most Constitutional States
and should have been included in the Consti-
tuition when it was drafted. Prince Bismarck
deserves much of his country, and his resig-
nation would probably endanger the peaceful
development of liberal institutions in Ger
many. But it would be unfortunate for his
reputation if he should resign on the issue
which he seems disposed to make 1t would
be nearly as unfortunate for him il he should
compel the Reichstag to abandon entirely the
claim to that privilege which is necessary to
its independence.