New-York tribune., 1876-12-05

its interests will not need many days in the
House to make an exhibition of itself at full
length.
President MacMahon has acted wisely in call
ing upon the Duke d'Audiffret- Pasquier to form
a new ministry. This statesman loyalty ac-
cepted the Republic, and displayed great en-
ergy in exposing the misdeeds of the Imperial
Government He was President of the Cham
Der of Deputies, and was there elected Senator
by both Republican and Nonarchist votes. lie
ought to be able to select colleagues who will
disarm the hostility of the Senate to the real
party of progress.
This week the annual examinations take
place that form part of the intercollegiate con-
test The growth of this system of intellectual
competition has been most gratifying to all
those who saw in it method of stimulating
scholarly ambition and, in the distant future,
means of enabling sincere students to de-
vote themselves to study alone. On another
page vii! be found an interesting history of
the yearly enlargement of the scheme, TO-
gether with the arrangements for the coming
contest.
Among the very earliest on the ground are
the constitutional refOrmers with their carpet
bags full of amendments. The man with the
biggest bundle is Senator ingalls, of Kansas,
who doesn't want to waste time patching the
Constitution, but proposes to rip that venera-
BILE instrument all to pieces and make a new
one. The project won't work. The political
agitation has had the good effect not only OF
of bp q
the Constitution, but of giving them fresh
sense OF the far-sighted wisdom with walch IL
was framed. Ii may need little mendlng'
but it will wear just as well for the next cen
tliry as it has for the last.
The Democratic House starts on its home
stretch badly. It's refusal to allow members
having prima facie title to seats to be sworn
in before the election of the Speaker is con-
trary to precedent and in violation of the die
tatcs of common sense. Its Speaker began
badly in making a partisan speech on taking
the chair, and as the third officer of the Gov
ernment at the present time, his alusiOn to the
President was outside of all official decOrum.
The House went on from bad to worse with
its exclusion of the members-elect from Col
orado and South Carolina, and the Speaker
seems to have followed its example with his
final ruling. Altogether it was not Il day for
Democrats to be proud Of
As the naval ordnance report discusses the
merits of the most modern Inventions for naval
warfare, its topics have the charm of novelty.
For instance, revolving cannon is under con-
siderati0n-a contrivance to fill the gap between
the howitzer and the Gatling gun, with the
faculty of the latter for repeated or continuous
discharges, but firing stream of One-pound
shells instead of bullets. There is nothing very
new or satisfactory from the locomotive torpc-
does that promise to travel off under water by
themselves and to stop, if the operator on
shore desires it, under an enemy's vessel. Those
delicate devices do not yet work perfectly in
all required conditions and under stress OF
wind and wave. TO Ncw-YOrkers perhaps the
most important thing in the report is the hope
held out that as soon as another place can he
found for the surplus powder on Ellis Island,
the removal of that dangerous accumulation
will take place.
Inc ncsn ,v,npi,oauvn> cOutu ,aroiini,,
where the adjournment of the Senate in the
| face of an agreement 10 meet with the Repub-
| ican House and canvass the vote for Gov
eTnOr has given rise to suspicious of danger
from an unexpected quarter, lend especial in
tereSt to the dispatch from Gov. Chamberlain
printed elsewhere This is clear account
of the difficulties in that State since the
United States troops first appeared at the door
of the State House, and is designed to correct
the Misrepresentation of Democratic reports.
| Gov. Chamberlain clears up several important
points, among them the facts that the action
of the military was taken in pursu-
ance of regular requisition from him,
that it was State officer who was
in charge of the State House, and that the
soldiers made no attempt to decide upon the
validity of certificates, but acted only when
called upon to afford protection against threat
cned violence. Gov. Chamberlain's letter is
necessarily that of a partisan, but it aims to
be fair, and will make deep impression.
|
TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE RIGHT
| One wrong cannot Justify another. The dis
putants over the undecided Presidential ques-