New-York tribune., 1876-12-18

money for political expenses, and Mr.
Jackson 5. Schultz, whose heart is always
! better than his head, lost the lat
! ter once more for minute or two
bus that is about all 1t is absurd
to talk about any intentional aiironr
at this club to members who supported @ov.
! Tideu or sympatbze with his party. Gentle
men aie not likely to offer intentional aitronts
70 such men rs Parke Goodwin, VIM. II. Osborne,
Arson Phelps Stokes, Amos f. Emo, VIM. E'
Dodge, jT., Howard Potter, John Crosby
Brown, or .. Willis James. The club is over
wholmngly Republican, and is likely on any
proper occasion to say so, but it has
no members more trusted or hOnOrcd than
these Mr. Schultz was little too exnberaht,
il lis true. but that is not such an uhusuai
thing as to warrant all this fuss about IL.
Whether because the hard tunes nave
frozen ND the pockets even OF the checrl"
givcrs, or because people don't IKE TO reie'o
distress caused 10y the burning OF theater
bv going where both the place and the enter
taipment constantly remind them OF the trag-
edv. fhe fact remains that the subscriptions
foR those who have come to want
by the Brooklyn fire are insufficient. Inc
committee having the matter IN charge cail Tor
furtber contributions, and state that probably
seven hundred persons will need assistance
1t must he remembered that the victims OF the
fire were almost exclusively men and OF the
Doorrr class. and that thus each person lost
prob9b!y meant more than one reduced to
want There were sons who were the only
snpnort of widowed mothers and families OF
children there were husbands ana fathers,
and there were probably few among them all
that had not some dependent on them. To
meet all these cases of distress there must be
m re money. 1t is never necessary to make
such an appeal to our citizens a second Time
The approaching abolition of capital pun
ishmcnt in italy will help the advocates oi
that measure everywhere. In France, NJ.
Louis Blanc and Al other Radical Depu-
ties have submitted a bill to the
same effect. They assign the following
reasons for abOishing the guiilotine ::
THAT the right TO intlict an irreparable
"punisdment implies an infallihle Judge; that
"to inhict death is bad way on the part OF
"society Of intoxicating respect for life, anu,
consequently, of arresting the arm OF the
"murderer; that the spectacle of the blood
"sbed by the exccutioncr hardens perverse
"hearts, and is an obstacle to that re-
"Gnament of manners which should be the
"reslIlt and is the sign of au advanced clyiilZa-
"tion; that the punishment Of death has been
condemned by the greatest criminal lawyers !;
"t that the countries where it is abolished
." have only bad TO congratulate themselves OH
81 its abolition that the punishment OF death
O. in a word, produces effects in every way
contrary to those expected by its partisans."
Unless those who uphold capital punishment
can disprovo these propositions they ought to
yield gracefully to the reiOrmers.
The President OF the Western Union Tele-
graph Company has done very proper thing
in refusing TO violate confidence by permitting
a Congressional committee To rimriage the
flesOf tticgraDhic correspondence. England was
once conyIsed because an Unscrupulous Cabi-
NET officer seized letter belonging TO an odious
Red Repul lean refugee. " hat was here pro-
posed was cast drag MT for all the tele-
graphic correspondence of man against whom
there was not even a charge If we had not
grown used to invasiOns OF personal right,
such procedure would seem monstrOus.
1t violates the commOnest legal maXlms as TO
the right TO call for papers, and outr ges every
mans sense of his right TO the secrets OF his
| own correspondence. The telegraph au-
fborities have no moral right TO make such
betrayals that p0Stmasters do not also have.
! But would the public think it decent or toll
erable. if Mr.. Fernando Wood, for instance,
should demand that the Postmaster at wash
| ington should surrender all letters ariv-
! ing, addressed privately or coniidentially
| to U. S. Grant?-We believe the Western
! Union has never betrayed the confidence OF Its
patrons under demands of this sort without
protest. lis mistake has been to content
| itself with protests, and we are glad to wei
come the indication that it means to act now
with little liveler sense of the obligation ii