The New York herald., 1875-08-24
THE GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS.

PALACES AND REPUBLICS os-PRANcE AND GER
MANY IN THE P1ELD-THE AMERICAN DEPART
MENr.
PARIS August 9, 1875.
When in the funess of time ethe monstrous faith of
many made for one" the genuine creed upon which
royalty built has given place the better ideal OF
democracy, in which the duty Of each Is TO strive for
the wellboing of ALL the artist may possibly ask him
self this question: What is to be done with tho palaces
OF the ancient kngsY" In the future, toward which
mankind must aspire, one may be permitted TO hope
that tho worship of human idols, bedizened with out
ward splendor will have ceased and
t'MAN BE IIKER MAN''
throughout the world But the monuments Of creative
energy and of architectural beauty with which the
earth is adorned will remain be put TO worther
than Of old Instead of serving the abodes of kings
who kings, but only phantoms of more or less
lurid brancy, they may receptacles for the
great thoughts of nations In other wor ds become
the worlds palaces Of art and industry and science
Such reflection would naturally suggest itself TO any
one who should pay visit to the
SALE ETArs
of the Tuieries destined by Napoleon Ill for the
sessions of a Legislative Assembly which should be ip
trusted with no more arduous task than to register the
edicts of imperial despotsm This noble hall saved
from the fires of the Commune and reserved to a hap
pier fate 1t is now with the flags of republics
and empires, blended in friendly unison with the tri-
coored ensign OF France and devoted to tho exhibition
of tho highest results yet attained in what may fairly
be termed
THE COSMOPOLITAN SCIENCE GEOGRAPHY.
AT one end OF the room is gigantic map of France
(said to be the largest map in the worid some forty
long with the territory Of Lorraine loyalty
one might say ostentatiousy, marked of. Right oppo
hfoh
the French standards seem unwiningiy TO lean. The
''great nation" is always courteous, and wish could
add that it is disposed to accord It's present rival
hearty welcome on the neutral ground Of science This
the Perhaps it could hardly be so with that
gloomy map still staring Frenchmen in the face In the
German section of the Exhibition noticed young
man who had evidently entered it by mistake He took
up an atlas which lay of the tables marked the
grabbed characters and abruptly closed 1t again with
expression of disgust, in which the single word
ePRUssIAl"
was sufficiently audible
For, besides the Sale des Etats, there thirty
other stored with the products Of scientific re
searches The American department is not large, but
what has been sent is extremely valuable Especially
worthy OF note are volumes furnished by Gen
eral Meyer Chief Signal Officer of the Army, and which
are truly marves of labor and accuracy such those
-four in number containing one yek of the large
ing minucness of detail the varying phenomena Of the
atmosphere from hour to hour. In view Of such dill
gence of research one IS tempted 10 ask where the WORK
Of meteorologiss will stop Already the prospects OF
fair weather foul be foretod with almost unerr
ing certainty May not man. forever pursuing the same
study with increasing knowledge OF facts ultimately
learn the secret of the winds and direct or at least
modify their by the application Of discov
eresY II is more than century since johnson sneered
at such hope when he pictured in Rasselas the phoso
pher who vanly dreamed he could control the ee-
ments but then feels that Johnson, had he lived,
would have been incredulous Of the discoveries Of
Fitzroy he ncredulous regarding the very papa
BILE fact of the earthquake of 1855 at Lisbon
The Secretary Of the Treasury sends various docu-
ments from the United States Coast Survey and the
Bureau Of Statistics. The special report on immi-
grafton Is TO command an unusual degree of at
tention. Indeed some eminent Fundamentally
General Faidherbe who so nearly the battle Of
Bapaumehave gwen good deal Of thought to this sub
ject years. and would like their country to obtain
amends her losses in Europe by colonial extension
in Asia or Africa General Faidherbe thought and
with good reason, that the Power which held Algers
might well become mistress Of the whole of the south
ern of the Mediterranean. But there one fatal
obstacle to the resumption by France OF ner Old posi-
ton as
.coLoNrzEG STATE,
and that is the fact that her population remains sta
tonary Since the last has positively decreased
without counting the lost provinces so that French
men have the melancholy satisfaction of knowing that
there is enough room in their native land for all
From the Department Of the Interior Mr. Delano
sends complete of the reports for 1850 and
1870 in quarto volumes the dry figures OF which
seem strangely eloquent They deserve 70 be compared
with interesting publication in the English Depart
ment entitled ''The Moral and Material Progress OF
India" While in America, and, it may DO added, IN
Australia the native tribes dying out before the ad
vance Of the white the teeming millions OF India
thrive and multiply under the rule of the stranger 1t
probably question Of race the Hndoo being after all,
but distant cousin Of the AngloSaxon and speaking
dialect Of the same mother tongue which their common
ancestors spoke the tabelands of Central A
Before taking leave Of the American Department
ought TO mention that no small praise is due to Dr. W.
f. Johnson the eminent physician Of Paris who, at the
request OF the American Geographical Society, has con
sented 10 act as the United States Commissioner and to
take charge of the interests Of countymen in the
Exhibition Dr. johnson has sacrificed much valuable
time and labor the efficient discharge Of his office
which, II need hardly be observed, is wholly unre
munerative and even entails considerable expense.