Political and Governmental Notes.

Aguinaldo, the leader of the insurgent Filipinos, was captured on March 23 by an armed party under the command of General Frederick Funston. The party comprised 78 Macabebes in the American service dressed to represent insurgent troops, four American officers besides General Funston, and several ex-insurgent officers. The hiding place of Aguinaldo was betrayed by one of his trusted officers, who was captured with letters in his possession from his chief to generals in the field. The captured officer guided General Funston to the insurgent leader's stronghold in Isabella province, on the island of Luzon. General Funston and the other Americans were dressed to represent privates, and by means of forged letters purporting to be from General Lacuna, sent on ahead by courier, Aguinaldo was made to believe that the party was a body of reinforcements which had fallen in with an American engineering party and captured five of them. He sent them food and instructions to treat the Americans kindly. The party was received at Aguinaldo's camp without suspicion, his household guard of fifty men being drawn up to receive the party of supposed friends. When it was noticed that Aguinaldo's aide was watching the Americans suspiciously, a Spanish officer commanding the Macabebes for the Americans, ordered them to open fire, which they did, killing three of Aguinaldo's guards. When the firing began General Funston assumed command and without much difficulty captured the chief and all his supporters who did not flee. He was taken to Manila and put in jail. The general opinion in official circles is that Aguinaldo's capture will soon be followed by complete submission on the part of the insurgents.

Senator Platt, who has for years been the acknowledged "boss" of the Republican party in the State of New York, deferred to by governors and legislators and by the national party managers, has finally been compelled to yield to the will of Governor Odell, who has asserted his right to full authority, limited only by the legislature, and made his assertions good. Even Colonel Roosevelt, when governor, with all his independence of spirit, was not able to have his own way, but had to compromise with Senator Platt on many important matters. Governor Odell was put forward by Senator Platt himself, and was generally believed to be a subservient "machine" politician, but even before he was inaugurated it became apparent that he looked upon the office that he was called upon to fill as a sacred trust, not to be turned into an administrative branch of the party machine. After the inauguration Governor Odell showed in every act that he was the servant of the whole people, and last week came the climax of the struggle with Senator Platt, when the latter attempted to coerce the governor into favoring a bill intended to deprive the city of New York of self-government in the matter of police administration. The governor flatly refused. Senator Platt called a conference of the party leaders from all parts of the State to support his demand, and the conference endorsed the action of the governor to the great humiliation of Mr. Platt.

Both Secretary Root and Adjutant-General Corbin expected to take part in the ceremonies in the Philippines incident to the establishment of civil government in the archipelago. Judge Taft will be the first civil governor. When the change is made General Chaffee will succeed General Mac-Arthur in command of the United States troops in the Philippines, who will, it is expected, be employed only for police duty and garrison service.

During October, November, and December last year, 74,432 immigrants entered the United States by way of New York City. To the same port, counting from October 1, 1819, to December 31, 1900, there arrived by sea from foreign countries, an aggregate of 13,703,162 immigrants.

Attorney General Griggs handed the President his resignation on March 22, to take effect March 31. Mr. Griggs intends to leave Washington for his home in New Jersey, where hereafter he will reside. His intention is to resume immediately the practice of his profession.

The present plans of the War Department contemplate the maintenance of an army of fifty thousand men in the Philippines until order has been completely established under the proposed new civil government and the garrisons can be safely reduced to a peace footing.

Boston's financial statement for the last fiscal year shows that on January 31, 1901, the net debt of the city amounted to $53,847,593.75; the receipts were $48,637,081.10, and the expenditures reached a total of $45,391,700.41.

After a long deadlock the Nebraska Legislature on March 28, elected J. H. Millard and Governor Charles H. Dieterich to the United States Senate.

Foreign News.

It is said that the Czar of Russia is very much worried and uneasy on account of the student riots and the many threats agaizst his life. It is reported in the European press that a mine was discovered last week under the Czar's palace at Tzarskoe-Selo, seventeen miles south of St. Petersburg, which was intended to wreck the palace and kill the Czar. It is said that persons who thoroughly understand the conditions in Russia take a very grave view of the present political troubles.

The Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool has acquired the Lancashire Insurance Company of England. Both companies do an "all world" business, and their combined actual available assets in the United States alone exceed ten million dollars. The deal is the largest transaction in the fire insurance world since the acquisition of the Palatine Insurance Company of Manchester by the Commercial Union Assurance Company of London last spring.

United States Consul General Guther, at Frankfort, reports that on account of the lack of land and increased taxation, the religious sects in the Caucasus have left that country and settled in Canada, and also that the residents at Transcaucasia wish to leave that country to come to North America. The total number of these immigrants, it is said, is about fifty thousand.

The British report an engagement with fifteen hundred Boers under General Delarey on March 24, in which the latter were routed with a loss of one hundred and forty taken prisoners and "many killed or wounded." The British captured twenty-four carts, fifty-three wagons, nine guns, one hundred and sixty rifles, and a quantity of ammunition.

United States Ambassador Choate and the other ambassadors and ministers to Great Britain presented their credentials to King Edward at Marlborough House at noon, March 18. Each member of the diplomatic corps arrived in a royal carriage drawn by two horses, and were attended by three royal servants attired in long scarlet cloaks.

A special dispatch from Berne, Switzerland, dated March 21, says a vast glacier slide from the Rossboden Alps has destroyed a street in Berne. For a distance of a mile and a quarter the forests were swept down and the valley was filled with block ice.

Press reports from London on March 27, stated that the weather in Europe at that time was very bitter, there being frost and snow everywhere, heavy snowstorms having swept over northern France and England.

Industry and Commerce.

At a special meeting of the New England Electric Vehicle Transportation Company, which operates 245 automobiles of various types in Boston and Newport, to be held April 29, the president and directors will recommend to the stockholders that the company be dissolved because the business has not paid expenses, and there seems to be no prospect of earning enough in the future to make satisfactory returns to the stockholders. Up to February 28, 1901, the company had expended $769,036 in the purchase of vehicles and batteries.

The contract price for building the new Brunswick Hotel on the site of the present hotel of that name at the corner of Madison square and Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y., is six million dollars.

The savings banks of the world hold the immense aggregate of seven billions of dollars. More than one-third of this, sum is the property of depositors in the United States.

General News.

The Parthenon at Athens is being restored in part. One end of the noble structure has been completed, and the work is well advanced on the other portions. The Parthenon was erected under the superintendence of Phidias in the fifth century B. C. Various have been the uses to which the Parthenon has been put, and considering its vicissitudes it is a marvel that it is as well preserved as it is. It was transformed into a church to the Virgin once, but its architectural glory did not suffer much until 1687, when, in a struggle between the Turks and Venetians, a bomb hurled by the latter exploded upon the roof of the temple, and the structure was torn asunder.

Chief Johnson of the Taku tribe, one of the most famous Indians in Alaska, was recently in Salem, says the Oregon Statesman. He has under his charge from five to six thousand Indians, and they look to him as their ruler. He has six or seven large stores located at Dyea, Juneau, and other points, and practically controls the trade of his people. Every three years Chief Johnson has a big potlatch, at which time he gives away thousands of blankets and other things useful to members of his tribe. He had a potlatch in 1896 and it cost him $25,000, and the one held last year was almost as expensive.

It is said that the accidental discovery was made by two French chemists recently that bioxide of sodium will renew the oxygen in air, so that divers wearing helmets lined with bioxide of sodium could stay below water for an indefinite period.