Year: 1871

Mr.. Jones, the Kentucky Representative,
who submitted proposition In the House on
Friday looking to the restoration to the Lee
family of the property in which the National
Cemetery at Arlington Is embraced, seemed to
be cmulous Of the universal condemnation
which like suggestion brought upon his col
league In the Senate about month ago. He
had the good fortune to escape the castiga-
ton which Mr.. Butler, of Massachusetts, was
prepared to administer to him ut the time by
the House passing to another subject; but ha
had the pleasure yesterday OF hearing from
a republican member from Michigan, Mr..
Stoughton, that the people would never suffer
the bodies Of the Union soldiers to he dug up
by prowling hyenas or malignant traitors, and
of hearing democratic member from Indiana,
Mr.. Holman, repudiating the idea of interfer-
ing with any Of the national cemeteries. 1t is
just as well for Mr.. Jones that his Con-
gressional career is rapidly drawing to
close.


The Army Appropriation bill being before
the House yesterday, the member in charge Of
it, Mr.. Dickey, of Pennsylvania, took occasi ON
to reply to the tremendous outburst of Mr.
Brooks, on the previous day. in reference to
the interference Of the military at the elections
last fall, and to declare that there was more
danger to the existence of our free institu-
tions from the councils of the Tammany chiefs
and braves than from the councils Of the In
dams on the Plains, and that the army might
be used against the one with as much pro-
priety as against the other. This Pennsylva-
MIA Representative has evidently just appre-
citation of New York politics, and perhaps was
not very far astray in his estimate of their
destructive tendencies and of the good policy
Of applying little wholesome restraint to
them.


But Messrs Jones and Brooks were not the
only members who had unpleasant things said
to them yesterday. The other side of the
House had also it's share of castigation. Mr..
Dawes, Of Massachusetts,, the leader of the
House in his capacity of chairman of the Com
mittee on Appropriations, undertook to lecture
his party on the subject Of extravagances,
asserting that, in spite of the efforts of himself
and his committee to keep down appropriations,
the aggregate amount voted this session would
exceed by twelve millions the amount voted
at last session. This assumption of superior
virtue on the part of Mr.. Dawes was not very
much relished by his party friends, one of
whom-Mr. Judd, of Illinois-administere
cutting rebuke to him, charging him with
absenteeism and arrogance, and declaring that
1t was time that such habitual scolding on his
part should cease,


In this frame and temper Of mind the House
claim, which continued all day, and was
not closed at the hour of adjournment. The
most remarkable thing about this famous case
is that the members Of the Judiciary Com
mittee, which have had the matter before
them for the last two Congresses, have not
been able, any two of them almost, to arrive
at the same conclusion. The weight of opin-
ion, however, seems to tend in favor Of the
position which the HERALD assumed some
three months ago. that neither McGarrahan nor
the New Idria Mining Company has valid
claim to the property in dispute, and that the
true solution of the difficulty is for the govern
ment to GUST all the claimants, to sell the
property, either in large or small parcels, at
public sale, and to place the proceeds in the
Treasury of the United States. proposition
to that effect is pending and will probably be
adopted.


The session of the Senate yesterday was
spent principally in the consideration of the
Legislative Appropriation bill. Some adverse
reports were made from the Judiciary Com
mittee, among them one on petitions for
woman suffrage, and for amending the consti-
tuition by recognition of the Christian
religion. A grand scheme of annexation was
proposed in resolution offered by Senator
Howard, of Michigan, endorsing the wisdom
and policy of submitting all questions in
dispute between our own and the English
governments to joint international commits
sion, and suggesting to that body the question
of annexing to the United States the whole Of
the British North American possessions, or at
least that part of them lying to the west Of
Hudson Bay and the main channel connected
with the Arctic Ocean and the outlet of Lake
Superior. This is bold proposition, and the
Senate was fully justified in declining to pass
upon it in hurry. 1t is mere suggestion,
however, which may or may not produce
any result.


THE POPE, THE PEOPLES AND TILE LAY
CROWNS. We have special letter from Rome,
published in our columns to-day, which goes
to show that the aged Pontif, Plus the Ninth,
defends what he considers the right Of his sue
cessors and of the Church in the present,
sturdily and with brave spirit amid many
distracting and very Immediately conflicting
influences. His eminent and indefatigable
Secretary of State, Antonelli, standing on the