Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-20

he was mistaken. MT. Maskelyne convinced him that he had not yet achieved the manu- facture of artificial diamonds but MT. Mac Tear believes the time is not distant when he will give the world crystalline carbon in the form of dust, which will have before it "a great future in the arts"
 There are times when a negro ought to be ''a white man. if he isn't, as is illustrated by a curious question which has lately been sub mitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. There is a clause in the Revised Statutes which directs that any white man convicted of appropriating personal property belonging to friendly Indian shall be com pelled to make restitution and amends. A colored person recently did that thing and the point was made that the statute did not apply to him.
 The Pope is going into the newspaper busi- ness rather extensively. Not content with establishing an 'torgan" of his own, he has under consideration proposition to establish a Congregation of the Press. All the Catho-- lio journals are to have at the Vatican seat of tribunal and office for giving and receiving instructions. In other words, the whole Catholic press would take their tone from the Vatican. It is evident what power this would place in the Pope's hands, and he needs it.
 The Engineering, the leading English pa- per of it's kind, attributes the Tay bridge dis aster to one of four causes: That the train was forced off the track by the wind, and thus injured the lee girders to the destruction of the bridge that the girders failed lateral ly; that they were canted over on their piers, and in falling, destroyed the latter or that the piers were not able to stand the lateral strain of the wind pressure. The paper be-. ieves the last theory, and there is much evil dence to support it.
 It is to be hoped that no such fate is in store for any of the jurymen in the Hayden trial as overlook one of the men whose mis- fortune it was to be impanelled on the jury before which the Tilton- -Beecher case was tried. He was grocer, doing small busi- ness in the city of Brooklyn. During his en- forced absence at the court, which extended over several months, the grocery business went to rack and ruin. The amount paid In witness fees proved quite an inadequate con- pensation for the loss involved, and after struggling for some time against the inevita- ble, the grocer gave it up and thankfully ac cepted position as night watchman. The pay to be received was small the family to be supported was large, and the man has just died in extreme poverty.
 Boston has been trying an experiment dur ing the last year or so in the administration of justice which appears to have worked we'll and is worthy imitation. It is 'sthe probation system," some account of which has previ- ously been given in these columns It had been felt that the law officers of the courts had not authority to exercise sufficient dis continuation in the treatment of culprits, and it was believed that many not hardened might be saved from 8 career of crime by being taken out of the courts and properly guided and counseled instead of being incarcerated. A veteran police officer was therefore appoint ed to examine cases brought before the minor courts of the county for the lighter crimes, and to recommend suspension or mitigation of sentences, when he thought proper, to the justices His duties and purposes were de fined in his title of Probation Oficer." When it is considered that prisoner may be