The New York Herald Newspaper, March 28, 1874, Page 6

Pua) ge Ae NEW YORK HERALD|™ rmteers mecrmsaint 0» tor BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the qear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. <sciieiieaane AJ) business or news letters and telegraphic | espatches must be addressed New York Hepa. Rejected communications will not be re- tuned. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. + LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subseriptions and Advertisements will be | received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. F Be 4 Begins at 3 P.M; closes at 10:15 Aunee. Matinee at 1:30 P. French Opera sCHONELECRE . Mile. Mario ND DUCHESSE, | woe Broadway, corner Thirt CRUSADE OF TEM A P.M. Same at 8 2. M; .; closes ‘at 4:30 | M, JE THEATRE, HARITY, at 3 P. Dyas, Miss Fanny | atinee at 1:30 2. M. UE, VTERTAINMENT, at 8 t2 P.M. BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF M 5 Montague street.—English Opera—FPAUST, at 8 P.M; closes at ll P.M. Mme. Van Zand. MARTHA at2 P.M. | ue. Brignoll BOOTH'S THEATRE, Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street.—THE COLLEEN BAWN, at 745 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. Dion Bouci- | present One of those sturdy axioms which lie at the basis of General Grant's peculiar popularity is—‘T will have no policy against the declared will of the people.’’ The significance of this announcement will be better understood when we recall the circumstances under which it was spoken. President Johnson had teased and worried the country beyond all endurance. He had built up a policy aggra- vating to the public sentiment of the North, destractive of the results of the war, calculated to surrender to the Sonth, in a series of unworthy and unnecessary conces- sions, all that had been gained in five years of conflict and in the end lead to new hostilities. Bat the resolute, genuine sense of the North, its loyalty and vigilant patriotism rose above party and power and all the blandishments of patronage and pro- nounced against the President. The irrita- tions that came from this conflict were oppressive to the country and restricted the prosperity of North and South. Warned by this, General Grant uttered his famous axiom, supplementing it with the declaration no less famous: ‘‘Let us have peace !”” bres The position of affairs has changed in some respects, but the principle which inspired want is financial peace. With inflation there can never be peace. President Johnson arrayed himself against the people, | and dn Wns cerake’: ., Conasens hag: in the | proclamation to the foreign nations that we do same way arrayed itself against the will of the people—and not only their will, but their best | interests. There is no real public opinion in | favor of inflation. On the contrary, the gen- | uine, honest sense of the country was never more clearly expressed than in the revolt against the principles of inflation. Wherever we see charac- ter, probity, courage, statesmanship, far- seeing devotion to the best interests of cault. Matinee at 1:30 P.M. WALLACK’S THEATRE, | Broadway and Thirteenth street. — PRAL PARK, at M., closes at P. Mr. Lester Wallack. Matinee 01:30 P.M, | MRS, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street, Falton. street, Brooklyn.— CHARITY, at 3 POM oh aad at P.M. Miss Minnie Conway. ‘Matinee THEATRE, Fourteenth ng place.<EIN GEADEL- TER KaUry closes at 1 P.M. | es | OLYMPIO THEATRE, Proadway, between Houston and Bleecker streets — VAUDEVILLE and NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT, at T 49 P.M, ; closes at 10:45 P. ac Fourteenth street BP. M. ; closes at Miss Kellogg, Miss Cary, Puente, Wien’ | awski, P * LOHENGRIN Matinee at 130 ¥. M.' Mune. Nilsson, Misy Cary, Campanini, Del Puente. BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, Opposite City Hall, Brooklyn.—LITTLE NELL AND THE | MARCHIONEXS, at 8 P.M.; closes at I P.M. Lotta. Matinee at 2 M. BOWERY THEATRE, Powery.-NECK AND NEC TAINMENT. Begins at § P. | TONY P. | No. 21 Bowery ‘M. i closes at LL EGRO MIN- . Matinee at COLOSSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirty-firtii street.—PARIS BY MOONLIORT, at IP. closes at 5. M. Same at7 P. M. ; closes at 1) P. M. E H New York, eekacaas March 28, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be rainy. One Veto from the President just now would be equal in its usefulness to the coun- try to any battle he ever won at the head of our armies. Baron Banrnotpy, the snecegsor of the | Marquis de Noailles as Minister trom France, arrived at this port yesterday. His hopes and views of the relations of France and the United States, as given in a pleasant conver- sation, will be found in another column. Tse Conprtion or Sovrn Carozrya was represented to the President yesterday by the delegation from the recent Taxpayers’ Con- | vention in that State. General Grant in reply | hinted vaguely at some measure of Executive or Congressional relief, but the rale of igno- | rance and corruption has had such complete | sway in South Carolina that it is difficult to imagine what can be done either by Congress or the President to alleviate the situation. The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and ansiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- nent and a shame.—Cuaries SUMNER. Caxapa.—The Governor General of Canada | yesterday opened the Dominion Parliament at any be that our repetition of this declaration | when the honor of the Republic is at stake, | from the breezy Rocky Mountains or the airy | Ottawa, and ran over the general catalogue of topics before the Canadian public in his | address. He said that ‘the question of com- | pensation due the Dominion for fishery privi- leges conceded to the United States by the | ‘Treaty of Washington has given rise to a renewal of negotiations tending to widen the reciprocal trade relations with that countzy.”” | Tue Doty on Wixe.—The Committee on | Ways and Means has agreed, it is reported, to | modify the duty on still wine, making it fifty cents a gallon in cask and two dollars a case when bottled. It would be well if the com- mittee were to go further and bring the duty down on all cheap pure wine to the lowegt point possible, so that the mass of the people might be induced to use this beverage, as the people of France do, in preference to strong © intoxicating liqnors. Such a measure would go far to cure much of the drunkenness we see and to promote the health of the people. Tux Fentan Paisoners.—It need surprise no one that Mr. Disraeli declares that the | Fenian prisoners are not to be released. Eng- land never forgives a political offender, espe- | cially if he be Irish, and even the grave is no sure defence against the exhibition of English hate. These men have now been in prison nine years and seem doomed for life, as administration after administration resolves ‘‘to let the law take its course." Itis a harsh and cruel line of policy which only begets like offences to those it punishes; but it is vain to hope for eny change without o change in English buman nature, | Speculation will take the place of judicious the country, we see an opponent of the policy of dishonesty. From the living Adams to the dead Sumner we have but one senti- ment—that the issue of inconvertible currency would be “a detriment and a shame.” It has been persistent. But in a time like this, when the whole matter rests in the hands of the President, when it is for him alone to say whether we shall have peace, we cannot be too earnest in impressing this truth upon him and upon others in authority. Whatever value belongs to the life and character of Sumner | should be felt at this time, when his words \ have been made almost sacred by his death. | Sumner may have been a fanatic in some | questions, in those particularly affecting | slavery and the reconstruction of the Union; | but to a subject like finance he brought the | ripest culture, the fullest knowledge of his- tory and the most comprehensive statesman- ship. He did not absorb his financial idcas prairie wastes. He learned the wisdom of | | honesty from the examples of the centuries, | and his warning comes upon us now with | | the solemnity of a voice from the other world, | reminding the people that inflation makes | financial peace impossible and that the course | of Congress at this time can only result in “‘a | these declarations still remains. What we j ledoom * currency—we should be richer to-day by thousand millions of dollars. That was a severe blow! No one will see more clearly than the President ita effect upon our credit. Furthermore, he knows well that the only way to remedy those evils will be to make a manly, strenuous, united struggle for solvency and specie payments. He will reason promptly that the world would have pardoned us for extreme legislation in time of war. He will ask, Can the world pardon us or can wo par- don ourselves for repeating deliberately in a time of peace the disastrous and humiliating experiments of the war? He will sce better than most men how disastrous and humiliat- ing they are, remembering especially what befell his administration when it went to Lon- don to find a market for its funded five per cent loan. There was never a better bond. The interest was larger than that paid by Eng- land—larger than we should pay for our money. But our loan was re- jected. We were compelled to withdraw it, and yet about the same time Gambetta at the head of his fugitive French Republic raised one loan, and the Russian government raised another. There was not a merchant or a banker in London who did not know that the bonds of America rested upon a greater material security than those of France or Russia. But with all our wealth and pro- prospects and opportunities we had an ill name. We had tampered with our credit and it no longer served us. This is what we have done now. The passage of this inflation law is simply a not regard the sacred and time-honored laws of finance in our business relations with the world and with one another; that, instead of redeeming the paper we have already issued and supplanting it with honest money, we mean to add to the unsavory and repelling burden from day to day, until we have no more credit than Turkey or Spain. | hesitate in his duty? detriment and a shame.” | The veto power may become, as in the hands of Johnson, a capricious, whimsical | | exercise of authority, a source of injustice to the people, and, eventually, a method of tyranny. We could deprecate nothing more than the growth of sucha power. But, on the other hand, it is at times an act of the gravest necessity. The constitution never intended that the President should abnegate this power. The fathers saw clearly, for the French Revolution was luminous with les- sons, that the time might come when popular clamor, party feverishness or adroit political combinations would lead to leg- islation of the most dangerous character. They reasoned truly that nations, like men, were guilty of excesses, and had their moments of mania and irresponsibility. So it was felt that there should be an ultimate power, represent- ing the calm majesty and sovereignty of the people, armed with the veto. We have come | upon such a time. The legislation of the present Congress on the question of finance is an imitation of the French assignat laws, and we enter upon a deceptive and ruinous | career, just as the French did after that most disastrous enactment. No one disputes the earnestness and honesty of the friends of this measure, of Senators like Morton and Logan. Ignorant men are generally honest, and, consequently, more dangerous. Robespierre was a fanatic and a Puritan in his convictions, and truly believed his rude assignats to be more precious than gold, just as Logan pre- | fers his bloodstained and __battle-indorsed greenback to California bullion. But, unfor- tunately, it is not a question of rhetoric or of conviction, but of fact. We may call | spirits from the vasty deep, but will they | come? We may vote all the paper in the Re- | public to be money, but will the world so accept | it? And if our money is dishonored by the world it is no longer money. The whole sys- tem of credit and business will be shattered. business tact. Every citizen with a fixed income will find it lessen in value, be- cause all the things which money can buy will rise in value. Merchants will have no assurance that their con- tracts will be honored, and there will be no contracts except in gold. All business will become tainted and poisoned by suspi- cion and uncertainty and restlessness, The “relief” that is to come to the West and the South will be delusive; for if these sections are as pooras their champions contend what | Felief will there be in an issue of currency? The currency will follow the money necessary to buy it, and this money is in the East—in Wall strect. “Relief” to the West will simply become a new temptation and opportunity to speculate in the East. We shall probably not feel the effects to-day, but we shall feel them and our children likewise for many genera- | tions. Tender act alone and kindred acts of legis- lation, made necessary as then seemed by the exigencies of war, cost us a thousand millions of dollars. That is to say, that if we had managed our finances during the war in a solvent people we should not have had to manner worthy of a proud, rich, honest and | As we showed yesterday the Legal | | Surely never was a record clearer than this—clear in its folly and its shame. Is it any less dishonest because there is a Western and Southern ‘‘public opinion’ sustaining it? We had a “public opinion’’ in Mississippi once which resulted in repudiation, and from which we suffer to-day. Can the President He is above pas- sion and bias. He can afford to make a sacrifice of temporary popularity in behalf of national integrity, for if any man can be said to be above the temptations of human ambi- tion it is Ulysses S. Grant. The culminating supreme honors of the Republic have gathered | upon his head. But even a greater honor re- mains. It wasarare and noble deed to win the peace of Appomattox, for there he saved the unity of the Republic. Now let him save its honor, and those who honored him then will bless him now. Let him say em- phatically that never shall the hand which made the peace of the Republic write its shame; that, having saved us from the conse- quences of successful rebellion, he will never drive us into the Niagara tides of inflation and bankruptcy. We are in the Niagara tides. The President by his veto can say whether we shall return while it is time or take the un- certaim, fearful and irreparable plunge. Vickspure was taken gloriously after a per- sistent and patient struggle, but the President ‘8 | may now, bya stroke of the pen, secure for his name a more enduring honor. Bergh and the Macadam Pave- ment. In another column will be found a letter Mr. | from Mr. Bergh, in which he gives an opinion and makes a joke. He apologizes for his joke, and thus exhibits some critical percep- tion, for it is, as he suppcses, a poor and feeble little joke, that can hardly stand alone, and should have been sent in an ambulance. His opinion, however, is better; and this, perhaps, because he is used to giving his opinion, right or wrong, and not used to making jokes. The great philanthropist associates in his humorous fancy two uses of the word Macadam—one in which the word describes an excellent pavement, the other in which it describes a judge of limited capacity. There are not many points of similarity between a judge and a pavement, unless the judge’s head may be supposed to be hard and impermeable as the stone—a thing over which wagon loads of law and reason and logic and justice might roll, as the myriad feet pass over the well made pavement, | and never penetrate. Or another point of vague resemblance might be that every judge is supposed to have good intentions, and good intentions are themselves a tough pavement in a place to which splenetic people might natu- rally consign some judges. But altogether, as we have said, the point is poor, and only illustrates anew the intellectual curiosity that great men are sometimes unduly amused at very poor fancies. But Mr. Bergh’s views on the pavement aresound. He is right, we | believe, in regarding the Macadam pavement as the best for the horses, and it is surely the cheapest, and, with the bituminous improve- ment or any other improvement to adapt it to our climate, we should have it on Broadway. The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and anxiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and a shame. —CuanLEes SuMNER. Tne Barrtzs Bzrorz Brpao.—Marshal Serrano claims decided advantages over the insurgents at Bilbao, while the insurgents claim successes only. No decisive action has yet taken place, but there have been two days of battle, with some very severe fighting. The | real fighting strength seems to be with Ser- rano’s forces, and even defences fall before superior force. As yet the reports are too meagre to give any fair idea as to what has | been or is likely to be done, though the news so far argues the final success of the repub- licans. Tae Monarcuists i France were again | defeated in the Assembly yesterday upon a motion of M. Dahirel to name the Ist of July as the day for settling the future form of gov- ernment, Triumphs of this kind add to the stability of the Republic, though they will have to be gained again and again before France can be freed from the pretensions of her different lines of princes. Ar Cuarranooca General Grant saved the country, and he hes now an opportunity to save it again by giving to the instructed opin- sell our bonds for one-half their value and | ion of the country its due weight against the buy gold at twice the cost of our legal tender | Inflation bili, SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1874.—TRIPLE or Oxford? As evening came on, on the 10th of June, 1829, Oxford and Cambridge men first rowed for the fair name of their universities at Hen- ley, on the Thames, and Oxford won. Six- teen times more before 1861 they met—usually on the Putney to Mortlake course—and in these meetings Cambridge was oftenest in first at the finish. Then for nine long years Oxford would not be beaten, and poor Cam- bridge's heart wellnigh sunk within her; but, with true British pluck, she never said, “Enough!” and in 1870 won; and in 1871, 1872 and 1873 she did the like. That made them tie— fifteen to fifteen—so to-day’s work is the rub- ber, and it is not singular that the interest is keen and deep among a good deal of the young blood outside of England as well as in it. The principal element in deciding which is the favorite is often nothing more than the fact that that side won last—a foolish enough reason often, for, though the name stays, new men take the place of the old. But this time a better reason exists, in that Cam- bridge retains several of her last year’s men, Oxford scarcely any, and the natural result is that the former’s practice has been the better. If the reports are correct the Cambridge men are decidedly the lighter though, a bad thing in coxswain, carrying over a fourth or fifth mile. Among them is Mr. J. P. Close, who had the bow oar of the London Rowing Club when the Atalantas, of this city, took a turn with them from Mortlake to Putney, while Mr. Darbishire, who was Oxford’s stroke when Harvard led her for two miles in 1869, | and she Harvard for two, is now his univer- sity’s coach. The Lord Mayor has asked the crews to dine with him after their work is over; but, though Cambridge accepted, Oxford declined, on the ground that of late years there had been a tendency to make this a national rather than simply an interuniversity struggle, and that this would be buta step still further in the same direction—an excellent reason, as we | think. On both sides of the water the stu- dents have been careful in this respect, and that is one reason why the University races have kept so deservedly popular. If Cam- bridge wins to-day, and especially if she is easily first, she would make no blunder by keeping some of her men together, say her | best four, and coming over to Saratoga Lake on the 16th of July. Boats and every other thing needed would qvickly be at her disposal; and if she would, on the 17th, row the winner of the day before, the greatest concourse that America ever witnessed ata boat race would be there to see, and we doubt much if our guests would be sorry that they had come. The possibilily of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and anziety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and a shame.—Crartes SUMNER. Bohemians on Soup Houses, It is proverbially difficult to please every- body, and the man who would hesitate to act until gssured of universal approval would never be able to accomplish any good or beneficent work. Ata time when the poor of New York were suffering extreme want, and the complaints of the indigent and distressed were unheeded by professional philanthropists, the Henaxp suggested the establishment of soup houses to alleviate the temporary distress. We may be pardoned for having thought it no crime to assist the humble sufferers left without bread through the monetary crisis caused by respectable and pious speculators, but there is a class of men connected with the press who never forgive a contemporary any act which is likely to be ap- plauded by the public. They never do an unselfish act themselves, and never pardon one in another. Praise bestowed on a contem- porary is to them so much gall and bitterness, and they needs must sputter out their spite without waiting to consider how in endeavor- ing to belittle others they lower and degrade themselves. An insignificant contemporary has shown a strange example of this mental blindness. The cause is not far to seck. By one of those strange freaks in which nature from time to time indulges a man becomes an editor who was born to be a lackey, but the traces of his original vocation always remain with him, ~ Because the Hzraxp first proposed the gen- eral establishment of soup houses Bohemians have circulated the silliest and most un- founded reports about them. They were Tepresented as attracting to the city the poor and the dangerous element from other cities, and when this stupid report was exploded the unemployed poor who sought relief were heartlessly denounced as ‘“‘bummers.” This latter charge is best answered by the reports of the police captains under whose super- vision and charge the soup houses are placed. If any abuse has taken place, and we doubt it, the police, and not the Hxnaxp, are responsible. Nor was the service rendered confined only to the poor. Want and famine stared a large portion of the community in the face, the streets had become infested with beggars, and a general demoralization was spreading among the poor with alarming rapidity. But when the soup house brought its ready and unques- tioning aid to the famine-stricken homes the storm that was gathering in men’s hearts dissolved under the softening in- fluence of human sympathy. Contemplated bread riots were stopped, and the Com- munistic agitation, which was gathering strength from the despair of the unemployed poor, was checked and brought to an end be- cause all excuse for its continuance was done away with. These are some of the benefits conferred on the community at large by the establishment of soup houses and the consequent alleviation of distress, We recommend them to the consideration of those Bohemians who denounce needy bum- mers while they are hand and glove with the pious Aminadab Sleeks who have professed charity for ‘twenty-one years,” and grown fat and prosperous at the expense of the poor. The cry to do away with the soup houses is needless; the opening of the spring trade will soon, we hope, render their continuance un- necessary, and the professional charity- mongers will once more have the field to themselves. In the meantime, however, there remains much to be done, and we have no doubt the charitable will perform their duty without heeding the heartless criticism of men without decency or the common feelings of humanity. The Henaup proposed soup houses es it advocated charity performances in the theatres—not to court popularity, but to relieve distress and save the honest poor from the sufferings and temptations of hunger. If jeal- ous contemporaries endeavor to belittle and misrepresent what has been done the Hznaup is content to appeal to the bar of public opin- ion for justification. i The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and anwiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and a shame.—CHuARLES SUMNER. The Veto Power—Relation of the Ex- ecutive to Financial Legislation. It is a noteworthy fact that previous to the time of Johngon’s administration the power of the Executive to return to Congress for further consideration any bills of which he could not approve was well nigh restricted to money bills, and dealt, in the large majority of cases, with the constitutionality or expediency of acts whose important aspect was the finan- cial one. Jackson and Tyler opposed with success the early attempts to fasten on the na- tion an enormous financial monopoly, which only finally secured a throttling hold in the emergencies of a great war, when the nation could not choose what was wise but was compelled to grasp at whatever it could hold by. On the early financial struggle were the most famous of the older vetoes, and the one other subject that led to the re- peated exercise of this power was also an opposition to extravagant financial notions of Congressmen from impecunious sections of the country, This subject was the so-called ‘internal improvement’ fury; for internal improvement projects covered for- merly as many latent jobs as banking bills cover now. Madison, Monroe, Jackson and Polk vetoed ‘internal improvement” bills for digging out harbors, cutting rivers and making roads; which bills, if they had passed and were in our time to be summed up in the aggregate, might leave little for our Crédit Mobilier imaginations to improve upon in the way of expenditure or fraud. Aside from vetoes on these two great points there has been comparatively little occasion for the President to oppose his constitutional power to the action of Congress. Washington vetoed an army bill, Madison vetoed a bill proposing certain changes in the federal courts, and Jackson vetoed a bill that pro- posed an unconstitutional limitation to the sessions of Congress and one for the settle- ment of State claims for interest on advances of money made to the general government during the Revolutionary war. Congressional views on financial topics present, therefore, the point at which the col- lective wisdom of the nation has oftenest and most commonly been at fault; the point where Congressrfien least recognize the proper limits of the function, and most expose themselves to become either the dupes or con- federates of outside sharpers who need the cover of law for their schemes, and the point at which the President is and will be perenni- ally called upon by the obligations of his oath to exercise that power given him by the con- stitution, especially to ‘increase the chances in favor of the community against the passing of bad laws through haste, inadvertence or | design.’”’ Another such case is before us now. If ever there can be a thoroughly clear case for returning o measure to Congress to try its power to pass a severer ordeal than that of a simple majority vote, it will arise when the inflation measure now in Congress is presented to the President for his signature. It is a case in which local and sectional pressure has notoriously carried the day against the conviction of the whole practical wisdom of the nation, to the im- minent injury of the general welfare. Wisdom was scorned because demagoguery was pitted against it. No man acquainted with the consequences of bad financial laws will for amoment dispute that calamity must neces- sarily come in the train of this law. Even the very men who have voted the law know that its inevitable tendency is toward national bankruptcy and dishonor, and that it will cover their names eventually with ignominy ; but they suppose that ‘‘eventually’’ is a long time from now, that it is in the uncertain fu- ture which they may never see, and so they have given way to the more immediate calls of clamorous jobbers and hope to be per- sonally safe before the storm comes. For the public interests, for the national welfare, these men have no care; and to have a care for these is pre-eminentiy the function of the Executive. He represents no section, and holds a balance of power between them all, and a casting vote where their strife in- clines to a determination that seems momen- tarily to the advantage of a part but is ob- viously and permanently to the detriment of the whole. And this casting vote he must use especially on financial differences. So thought the President who wrote that ‘‘we have seen in our States that the interests of individuals or neighborhoods combining against the gen- eral interests have involved their governments in debts and bankruptcy, and when the system prevailed in the general government and was checked by President Jackson it had begun to be considered the highest merit in o member of Congress to be able to procure appropriations of public money to be expended within his district, whatever might be the object. We should be blind to the experience of the past ifwe did not see abundant evidences that, if this system of expenditure is to be indulged in, combinations of individuals and local interests will be found strong enough to control legisla- tion, absorb the revenues of the country and plunge the government into a hopeless indebt- edness.’’ So, also, thought General Jackson when he wrote as follows in his great bank ment now encounters and most of the dangers which impend over our Union have sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of government in our national legislation and the adoption of such principles as are em- bodied in this act. Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection | and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by acts of Congress.” These extracts describe in principle the present case, and indicate the propriety and expediency of the President putting the measure for inflation to the true constitutional test of a two-third vote. It can get that vote if it is worthy to becomealtaw, The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper 1 regard with amazement and anwiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and a shame,—CmaniEs SUMNER. veto:—‘‘Most of the difficulties our govern- | The Freedom of the Prews—Engiand Expects Every Man Te Do His Duty.” Our apprehensions of international compli- cation in case the minions of power in drag- ging the editors of this city to Albany should Propose to include the illustrious British sub- Ject who is a member of the fraternity were evidently prophetic. At the very mention of the possibility the British lion roars with such lusty fury that the “thick carnivorous passion in his throat”’ startles the whole forest. Nob only does the gentleman from England roar like an aroused lion, but he bellows like an exaggerated bull; he even blows like Roland at Roncesvalles, and if his trumpet holds out those poor creatures at Albany will be compelled to apologize or put cotton in their ears. One of Scott's heroes, so Scott said, could blow a blast worth ten thousand men; but it may be found that ‘‘one blast upon the bugle ‘orn” of an indignant Briton, bugling for his rights, will be of so much greater con- sequence that the insignificant toot of the Highlander will be no longer remembered in musical circles. H . Our Briton says, with a lofty scorn which takes the reader up in irresistible sympathy, that those chaps at Albany ‘pro. pose to try whether it is not possible to frighten journalists.” There is a fine touch of spirit in this. He might have said, ‘Frighten a British subject ;” but he refuses to avail himself of his whole advantage. He will not assert just yet his peculiar privilege. He takes his chance with the journalists simply, and in this modest generosity we see the distinctive trait of a heroic nature. An attempt thus to silence the press by intimida- tion will not be successful, he says, ‘‘so far as we are concerned.”’ Here again is a calm, self-contained defiance that is thoroughly and magnificently British. No bluster, no un- seemly noise; but let them come on if they dare. There is one part of the defiance we do not like, however. He says, “If Mr. Alvord and Mr. Lincoln suppose they can intimidate us by dragging any portion of our staff to Al- bany,”’ &¢. Now, we are rather astonished at this reference to ‘any portion of the staff.” Does this mean that, doubtful of the mgis of British nationality, the distinguished subject of Her Majesty would decline to be dragged in person—would delegate to some mere acolyte the honor and glory of going to prison for the freedom of the press? Do his limbs shake at the thought, and is he already wondering upon what particular subordinate he may cast this cold, damp and tedious duty? Perish the thought! For in another place, in refer- ence to the possibility that he may quake at the summons, he says confidently and most significantly, ‘We shall see about that.” Now, this is a diplomatic phrase, and, there- fore, suggests immediately the British Minister. Sir Edward Thornton no doubt has the pa- pers open on his table at the present moment. His recent observations at Washington of the conduct of our State Department in the Vir- ginius case have shown him what a little place our Secretary of State will creep through, and the jolly Englishman has rubbed his hands with glee as he has figured to himself the ap- pearance that Fish would present after he had drawn him through a knothole. But Sir Ed- ward need not fancy the case an easy one. Though the man is a British subject other people have some rights. There, too, is the difficulty of the relation of the States to the general government; and then it isa point of privilege. Privilege is the only thing in the world whose limit nobody knows ; unless Cushing may know it; but as he is gone to Spain solution may be indefinitely deferred. In view of such a possibility, apparently, our bold Briton says:—‘‘At any rate we shall defend our rights, even if we stand single handed.” This seems as if he doubted the courage of the other journalists ; from which, however, no offence should be taken, for itis natural to a true Briton to doubt everything but himself. The significant point is that he will fight, and, of course, he will not fight alone. Perhaps that recent discussion in Oon- gress as to the quantity of water on the New York bar may become of sudden importance. How much water is there really, and how much water does the Warrior draw? Mr. Blunt knows all about that, and ought to tell. He can reckon on hia fingers the quantity of cinders in our harbor to a square inch, and even knows the very barnacles and nail-heads in the Warrior's bot- tom, and whether she has any guns that will bombard Albany from Sandy Hook. Peter Cooper, in case of emergency, can be called upon for a plan to stop the shells somewhere in. the neighborhood of Anthony's Nose, or, perhaps, even to convert their acquired force into a kind of boomerang action and return them to explode on board. The details must, of course, be left to Mr. Cooper. But this ia a little in the future just yet. Mr. Alvord, we rejoice to notice, has been somewhat fright- ened by our suggestion of complication with England, and puts on manners as mild as Snout, the tinker. He invites the editors to come up to Albany and meet him at the Dela- van ony day but Saturday—a significant éx- ception. If this disposition continues there will be no trouble; but this may be only a ruge—a treacherous assumption of good in- tent meant to disarm watchfulness and lure victims to their ruin. All must be on their guard, therefore, especially our friend from over the water; for on this, as on other peril- ous occasions, “England expects every man to do his duty.” The possibility of a new issue of inconvertible paper I regard with amazement and ansiety, and, in my judgment, such an issue would be a detri- ment and @ shame,—CHARLES SUMNER. Steam Lanes on the Atlantic. We have repeatedly urged upon the trans- atlantic steamship lines the necessity of ad- hering to fixed routes of travel in crossing the Atlantic. We are gratified to perceive that the Cunard, Inman, National and Transat- lantic lines have adopted our suggestions, ag will be seen by reference to our advertising columns. Now, we wish to go further, and in- sist that steam lanes should be fixed and fol- lowed by all the steamers crossing the ocean, and that this belt, of determined width and situation, should, by treaty, be constituted and declared the Great International Highway, not to be trespassed upon by sailing craft of any nationality or class. Such a lane, conspicuously and accurately defined on all maps and charts, would be a great acquisition