The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-20 00:00:00

4.e citoutiyi4e o")l2serber.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20,1865.

AMERICA-THE PRESIDENT AND

THE AMBASSADOR.

Events seem ta lie tending toward the election
of General Grant as the next President of the
I7nited States, and the declaration of his policy,
which has just reached us, induces us to hope
that he may be chosen to this exalted and im-
portant post. Writing to the President of the
Chicago Convention, he says that if elected it
will be his endeavour to administer all the laws
in good faith, with economy, and with the view
of giving peace, quiet, and protection every.
where. Without alluding to the policy of Pre-
sident Johnson, General Grant condemns it by
Implication. " New political issues, nr.t fore•
seen," he says, " are Constantly arising ; the
views of the public on old ones are constantly
changing ; and a purely administrative officer
should always be left free to execute the will of
the people. I alway $ expected that will, and al-
ways shall." This is very different to the policy
that has actuated President Johnson throughout
his terra of office. A man of strong political
opinions and of determined will, he, to a great
extent, gave up to a party what was ineaet.for
mankind, and his unhappy entagonism against
Congress teeded to keep the whole country in
turmoil. President Johnson is of a
turn of mind, but he has been for 116arly-foar
years placed iii a positim where despotiem *as
impossible, and whore any attempt to mecum it
could but result in embroiling the whole conntry
in bitter political quarrels. General Grant's pm
hey, if he acts up to his deelaratioe, s,lll be the
reverse of etis. Without Saying so in too many
words, he promi.es to carry out the decrees of
Congress, whatever they may be, It May ha
said that this is lowering the office ot President,
but we mast remember tliat lie is not the sove-
reign of a inegarehical state, lint the chief ma-
gistrate of a republic, of which this gnVerning
power is the Congress, and In tarrying out the
decrees of Congress, therefore, General Grant
will be doing his utmost to maintain the best
relations bet veen governed aid gaernors. lle
will, in fact, be acting up to the motto which we
may regard as heing the key-note of his pro-
graunne—" Let ns have peace." The W.Oltd, we
think, will be the gainer by such a man being
elected to the post he seeks.
An appointment which more immediately con-
cerns us is that of the American Ambassador to
the Court of St. James's. Mr. lleverdy John-
sen has been selected tor this important office.
Personally, lie labours under two disadvantages.
He follows art Ambassador who, taroughout a
trying period of office, alwaya maintained the
dignity of the country which he represented,
without coining into collision with that in which
he exercised his delicate and difficult duties;
and he has passed that traditional boundary of
three-score and ten years, which, to say the
least, is not suggestive of a new official career.
But be comes with the approval of a great na-
tion, the two recently conflicting parties of which
both approve of the choice. He is an eminent
lawyer, but not a partisan, and we trust will, in
whatever conffictof opinion may arise, know how
to maintain that juste milieu which usually repre-
sents truth. In the present state of parties the
appoiffiment of a partisan Ambassador would be
calamity.

' THE PRINCE AND THE ASSASSIN.
In anticipation of the arrival of the Gattien,
who is speeding to our shores by the protected
route of the Cape with the Duke of Edinburgh
on board, we have received Sydney papers,
1 which give us some interesting details of the
attempted assassination of the Duke of Edin-
burgh, and some more pleasant facts relative to
1 the loyalty of the colony and the conduct of the
gallant young Prince.
1 Shortly after the news of the attempted as-
I aassination of the son of elw Queen reached
1 this country it was followed by a statement
i which must have produced a thrill of horror
1 wherever it was read. It was said that the
murderous act of O'Farrell was the result of an
organised conspiracy among the Fenians ; that
1 orders lied been sent out from this county to
' amsassinate the Prince ; and that O'Farrell had
1 been designaied by lot to carry out this cow-
ardly crime. It is, therefore, satisfactory to
find that there is no ground for any such aaser-
' lion. " Alone I did it," the wretched assassin
might have exclateed. This non-complicity is
as clearly proved as a negitave generally can be
, proved, and, with death staring him in the face,
' the wretched convict soleninly asserted, repeat-
edly and deliberatedly, that no one else had any
hand in the crime or knew that it was about to
be perpetrated We had also received the news 1
that O'Farrell was insane. This, we now learn,
was the defence set up; and no wonder, for it
was the only available defence, lint it com-
pletely broke down; and O'Farrell was, on the
21st of April, executed. If man ever deserved
death at the hands of the hangman, and if it be ,
right under any circumstances to carry out capi-
tal punishment, O'Farrell undoubtedly deserved
to die. To all intents and purposes, he was a
mar lerer and an assassin, and be met a mur-
derer's death justly, so long as deeth by the law
remains the last penalty that can be inflicted.
To turn from this sad phrase of the last Aus-
tralian news to brighten features, it is pleasant
to read of the manly, generous, and Christian
way in which the young Duke of Edinburgh
acted throughout. Our readers are already ac-
(ln:dated with the incidents that immediately
succeeded the attempted assassination. The
further news shows, that while this dastardly
deed unmistakeably called forth the loyalty of
the entire colony, it did not cause the Prince to
abate one jot of his confidence in the Australian
subjects of his royal mother. His progress to-
wards entire recovery having been steady and
decided, he was enabled, for a week or so before
his departure, to drive about Sidney in an open
and confident manner, and to take a prominent
part in some public ceremonies—laying the
foundation stone of a Town-hall, assisting at an
University commemoration, planting some
memorial trees, and engaging in other public
ceremonies. In this way was a kindly feeling
of the representative of royalty manifested to-
wards the colonists, while they in their turn
were enabled to show a loyalty and affection to-
wards the Queen and the mother country which,
but for this dastardly attempt on her son's life,
would never have been called forth. There
will be many in this country who will regret
that O'Farrell's life was not spared till an appeal
could be made to the Queen; arid it would have
a doubly graceful episode in the royal annals,
after the Prince whose death was compassed had
pleaded for the assassin's life, for that life to
have been spared by the Queen; but we, at least,
have the pleasing fact to add to our history,
that Prince Alfred pleaded for his would-be
murderer, while we cannot but feel that, in ac-
cordance with the strict letter of Australian law,
justice was rigorously done.

--
THE IRON TRADE.
The irontnasters on 'Change at Wolverhamp-
ton, on Wednesday, were disposed to speak of
the trade as having a tendency slightly to im-
prove, considering the lateness of the quarter;