Morning journal and courier., 1884-01-16

l opened and the Senate adjourned. HoUsE.-Mr. Cox, from the Naval commit tee, reported 6 resolution originally intro dueed by Mir. Robinson (New York; calling on the Secretary Of the Navy for information as to whether sisv officer of the navy had received any gift Sr present from any foreign power; and whether any officer or sailor of the navy had aided the English st the bom- bardlnent of Alexandria in Egypt. Richelieu Robinson made characteristic speech in its favor. It was agreed to.
 Mir. Springer offered a resolution calling on the Postmaster General for copies of all cor respondence between the department of jus tice and the Postofice department touching the prosecution Of persons charged with fraud in connection with the Star route cases, also the names of individuals found to be in- debted to these cases with the amount due from each and an itemized statement of ex- penses incurred by the department in their prosecution.
 Mr Biscock objected to it's present consid- eration and the resolution was referred to MT. Springer's committee.
 Mir. Mills. of Texas. offered a resolution which was adopted directing the Judiciar committee to inquire whether the President, by and with the advice and consent Of tie Senate. can negotiate treaties with foreign governments by which duties levied by Con
 
 On motion of MT. Willis, of Kentucky, the House went into Committee of the Whole, MT. Cox in the chair, to reach the bill appro- priating $1,000,O00 for immediate use in the improvement of the Mississippi river
 Mr. Belford called attention to the fact that but few days ago the House had the spscta- cle of two committees quarrelling over the taken that while the Republicans are ready to make the most liberal appropriations, the De- oerats were wrangling over the matter.
 Mr. Blandiard. of La, said there was no division on the bill on the Democratic side and that for one Republican vote for it there would be given two Democratic votes.
 There was general airing of views by the friends of the bill mainly for home consump, tion. Mir. Hepburn, of Iowa, made a fierce attack upon the commission, charging that the expenses of this body outside of material and work on the river were $6i ,O0O annual ly- He stated that he had also been led to believe that the money was intended for the improvement of the banks of the river and not for the rIver itself. In support of this he quoted from speeches by advocates of ref erence to the committee on levees, which he said was the proper committee if the im- provement of the banks was contemplated. He questioned the constitutional right of Congress to appropriate the money to protect private property
 MT. dorr. or michigan, while heartily SUD- porting the plan Of the commission, still re- garded it as an experiment involving the ex- penditure of large sum of money before it would be completed. The levees he con- sidered a necessity. Eff the experiment fails, !" he sald. i've can stand it, and if it succeeds it will be a great glory to the na- tion."
 The debate promising to be interminable, on motion of MT Willis, the committee rose and secured an order of the House limiting debate to five minutes Numerous dilatory motions were interpesed to prevent again go- ing into committee, and yea and nay vote on an adjournment resulted, yeas 80, nays l90. compromise was finally effected al- lowing thirty minutes for general debate to the opponents of the bill and ten minutes to it's friends. The House then, at D. m., ad- iourned