Miscellaneous.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XIII, Issue 1373, 29 September 1858, Page 4

Miscellaneous.

Bhideky in American LsaiSLATuitßs.—. Recent advices from America furnish another illustration of a series of financial proceedingsdescribed by the New York Timer as “ the most stupendous system of wholesale corruption ever organised on.the face of the earth.” During the past few years the Federal Government, in whom all the public lands of the United States are vested, have been led to make free grants to various individual States in the West for the purpose of promoting the construction of railways. These grants have amounted in the aggregate to many millions of acres, and it is asserted that the passing of the requisite Bills through Congress was procured by the most open and shameless bribery of its members on the part of the concoctors of the several schemes. At the same time it was necessary that the local Government of each State to which the grants were made should also be brought into the arrangements. According to the journal just quoted, it is commonly understood that a majority of the States in the West thus became compromised in the most flagitious acts. Is is, however, with regard to one of them especially that the disclosures now alluded to have taken place. The State of Wisconsin is held up as that in which the exposure- has been most complete. The affairs of a concern called the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railway having lately led to a de. mand for inquiry which could not be resisted, a Committee of the Legislature was appointed to examine and report, and the whole history of the concern is now embodied in an official report of 400 pages. From this it appears that the company obtained their donations of lands by the direct bribery of the entire Government of the State. Thirteen members of the Senate received bonds of the company to the amount of £35.000, in sums varying from £2OOO to £5OOO each. Sixty members of the House of Assembly received sums ranging from £l,OOO to £2OOO each. Only four members voted for the Bill without pay. The Governor of the State received £lO,OOO, his Private Secretary £l,OOO, the Lieutenant-Governor, £2,000, the Bank Controller, £2OOO, and the clerks of the House from £l,OOO to £2OOO each. In addition, about £50,000 was distributed among a set of persons termed outsiders agents, &c. Among tbe witnesses examined was Mr. Byron Kilbourn, the president of the company, and this gentleman descrilied in a manner worthy of an accomplished hand, the operations which bad been carried on. He studiously selected his phrases, abstaining from u-ing the word *• bribe,” but admitted that the legislators had had “a pecuniary compliment.’’ In fact, “the subject of gratuities ” had been discussed with them, and he had said that in return for their votes, he would “exercise a reciprocal liberality.” The £lO.OOO paid to the Governor was “simply to propitiate his feelings.” Reviewing the entire narrative, tbe New York Times insists that the most summary punishment should be inflicted on the railway company as well as on the delinquent officials. The former, it is urged, should be visited with forfeiture of charter and lands, while the latter should be indicted ; but it is added, “we are only speaking of what should, not what will be done; for there is very little doubt that every Western State would present a picture equally infamous if the facts could be ascertained with equal fulness, and punishment for bribery of public officers is something of which as yet the country has seen no instance.”— Times City Article.

Strange Affair. —“ A singular affair,” says ibe Courrier de Paris, “ has just taken place al the couutry residence of M. de M- situated a few leagues from Paris, one of the members of whose family is a daughter of great personal attractions, and about 18 years of age. Some nights ago, while tbe young lady was lying awake, < w:ng to a storm of wind and rain, she heard the door of her room open, and then saw some one approach stealthily towards the bed. She at first felt so much alarmed that she could not cry out, and hid her head underneath the bed-clothes, but in a moment after, feeling the hands of the person endeavouring to lay bold of her, her courage revived. She hastily rose up, pushed tbe person away, aud jumped out of bed. A struggle then took place between tbe young girl and the interloper, whom she perceived wore male attire, the latter piecing bis band over her mouth to stifle her cries ; but she resisted so courageously that her cries were heard by tbe family, who t tithed to her assistance. The intruder, hearing persons coming, opened the window and jumped out into the garden. When her parents and the servants entered the room they found Mademoiselle de M ■ lying senseless on the floor. Ou being restored by proper remedies she related what had taken place, but she could give no description of her assailant, ss tbe darkness prevented her from distinguishing his features. The garden was searched in every part, but without result, when suddenly one of the servants in the room found a button which had bren torn off from the mao's coat during the struggle, and which on inspection was found to be tbe livery button of the ft Bly. It was then noticed that the coachman, named L , had not come in with the others, and he was afterwards found in tbe stable lying down on some straw, and pretending to be asleep. On being questioned he wee confused, and on hie clothes being afterwards examined a button was found wanting. He was arrested, and on being taken before t'e commissary of police he confessed that he was the person who bad entered the room, and io defence of his conduct said that be had fallen so desperately in love with bis young mistress that in a moment of frenzy ha had made an assault on her. He has been committed for trial."

The Police of Paris. —We glean a few extracts from an able enisle on thia important subject by M. Msx Berthoud, which has just appeared in the Revue Conlemporaiue, We may pre. mist that the author admits the principle followed

in the departments, viz., that the municipal police should exclusively belong to the Prefect of the Seine and the 12 mayors of Paris, the political police alone remaining in the hands of tbe Prefect of Police. This is, in fact, the great point of contention beiween tbe nto authorities, the Prefect of the Seine not only claiming the precedence, refused by his rival, but also the petite voirie, or lighting, sweeping, aud watering of the streets, and the clearing of the sewers, all of which the Prefect of Police claims as absolutely necessary to his authority. H's functions, as detailed by M. Bertbaud are indeed, immense. “He can republish all the laws and regulations of police, and issue ordinances to insure their execution; he has authority over all that concerns the petite voirie, though bis decisions may be appealed from to the Minister of the Interior ; he has under his orders a commissary whose duty it is to watch, permit, or forbid, the opening of shops, the establishment of permanent awnings projecting over the footpaths, and to superintend the conduct of itinerant renders. He can order the demolition of houses threatening ruin ; superintends all tbe regulations concerning the rain-Waier conduits and pipes, the circulation of hackney, conches, and the health of the city, patticulaily during the prevalence of epidemics he can forbid the establishment of insalubrious manufactories in the city, also of hospitals and mansions de santd; he can seize al) diseased meat or other ptov:.-ions ; he lakes all the measures requsite for extinguishing fires or preventing them from spreading, and can in such cases press all carpenters, slaters, and other working men into his service. Lastly, it is he who causes assistance to be given to the wounded sun to those who have been rescued from a watery death." M, Berthand here mentions what has been considered a just complaint against the man. net in which the police, since 1850, lids the city of its night-soil, by turning it off into the Seiire, instead of having it carried away in night carts. To tbis the author replies that a method having been discovered in 1850 for disinfecting nightsoil, M. Carlier, the then Prefect ot Police, caused the method to be investigated by the Council of Public Health, which found it to answer perfectly. It was then, and then only, that M. Carlier caused it to be put into practice, •.hue diminishing by two thirds the number of the offensive night car s which infest tbe streets at a late hour, Whe her it be politic to transform the Seine into a Lrge sewer by turning even tbe disinfected matter into it, is another question which, M. Bertbaud says, has been taken into consideration by the administration, The construction of a large tunnel, running parallel with the Seine, has already been commenced on both sides of the river ; this sewer, when finished, will carry the night-soil to a point below Paris, and thus leave the river within the city pure. The author then proceeds to detail the various duties of the police-agent, and the various stratagems he employs in tbe interminable war he wages with the fraternity of tbie> *eB and swindlers of every description, but, as our limits will not almit of our entering into that subject, we will conclude with the following statistical details : “Tbe Prefect of P. lice has daily to provide for tbe paving, macadamizing, sweeping, watering, and lighting of 1,474 streets, avenues, quays, and boulevards, forming a total length of 384.665 metres, and presenting a surface of 5,500,000 square metres. There are in the streets 13,000 gas-burners, which are lighted in tbe course of about 20 minutes. The length of the gas pipes is 485.000 metres ; that of the water conducts 330,000 metres ; and that of the sewers 163,000. Tbe city contains between 32,000 aud 33,000 houses, of which 6,863 are lodging-houses—that is, inhabited by a population requiring a special surveillance. About 137,000 persons circulate daily in carriages; the omnibuses al ne transport 25,000,000 persons per annum ; arid yet there only occurred last year 380 accidents, of which only 24 proved fatal. Every year the population of Paris cooiumes 80,000,000 k logrammes of meat, 970,000 hectolitres of wioe, 240,000 hectolitres of beer, aud 78.000 hectolitres of brandy and liqueurs. The Police has to verify the good quality of all these provisions, tnd therefore keeps its eye upon 10,000 dealers tu those articles."