The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-20 00:00:00

THE FOURTH OF JULY.

The Fourth of July, 1870, is more truly an occasion for
national self-gratulation than any the American people
have ever seen, not even excepting the days in which they
immediately celebrated the assurred fact of independence.
It is the first return of our great anniversary that sees all
the States in the enjoyment of the rights that constitute
them equal members of the Union, after the privation of
these rights in a struggle of greater danger to us and
greater moment to humanity than that against the
British tyranny. Had our forefathers failed to
make good against Britain the claim of 1776,
that they were of right entitled to the control of
their own destinies, that failure would not have given
the English domination a respite of twenty years. In
that early age we were already a resolute race, and if ever
there was a people fitted to bequeath " from bleeding sire
to son" the unfinished fight for freedom it was the people
that bred their cool temper and firm will on every slope
from the cold shores of Maine to the blue hills of the old
Mother of States. The power competent to hold this
people in a system of government against the general con-
sent bas not yet grown upon the earth. Looked at justly,
therefore, our independence of a domination beyond the
Atlantic, if it had been deferred in one decade, would have
been secured in another ; it was simply no more
than. a question of time as to who should pre-
vail; and we cannot believe that our defeat in
the first war would have ultimately imperilled this
grandest humane experiment of all the ages by which we
are endeavouring to demonstrate that the best government
is that which views humanity from what we may suppose
to be the standpoint of God Almighty Himself, and
recognises no distinction between His creatures but such as
we must believe He also would recognise. . .

But there was a greater danger than that with which
we were menaced by the Government of the country from
which the first colonies came. It was a danger that was
great only because it had its growth among ourselves,
because it was rooted in our vices, weaknesses, passions,
and vanities. This danger was that the consent of the
whole people to a single system of government would
not continue long enough to give our experiment a
fair trial—that it would fail not on a test of its merits,
but because on minor points the great nation would split
up into half a dozen or more parts as contemptible as the
worst of antiquity in their pitiful bickerings and wasted
wars. This danger arose from two facts. Slavery was
one of these ; the other was that mischievous invention of
small politicians, inspired with geographical prejudices—
the notion of State rights. In the organization of the
country there was a seed of civil war—of bitter collision
between the parts—which needed for its germination only
the heat of party contests. The States, it was con-
ceded, were separately sovereign within certain
limits. The whole nation was sovereign also
within certain limits. If either power should pass its as-
signed limit it must collide with the other. Here, then,
were hostile sovereignties operating within the same
circle, and each kept in its proper sphere only by the
intellectual restraint of a set of legal definitions. Legal
definitions are an infinite subject of dispute, and it there-
fore could not but happen that such differences of opinion
should arise touching the respective theatres of the two
systems of government as would put the whole people by
the ears. Conciliation, mutual deference—a spirit of
giving away on the smaller points in the view of greater
ones—the moderate tone of public thought which was
not swayed by party passion from the regard
to public welfare—all these things kept the
national, harmony until the fight arose and the
quarrel was pushed on the topic of slavery. Here the
time had come when there could no longer be any com-
promise. The founders of the Government had first
assented to this institution from the necessity of the case.
On no other terms could the slave States have been
brought into the same unity of government with the free
States. But undoubtedly the true spirit and aims of the
American republic were more nearly laid down in the
Declaration of Independence than in the constitution,
and it was the aspiration and tendency of the
national thought to grow towards the better
ideal. Half a century made a sentiment against
the institution, which, while it was morally praise-
worthy, was fanatically aggressive in taking no regard
to the right of the other side and to the compromises that
bound us to respect that right. Some were thrust into a
war to determine whether slavery should perish, or
whether, slavery surviving, the union of the States
should give way and the future should see on one hand a
slave republic, on the other a fanatical puritan republic,
with a great group of commercial States growing between,
and the West behind all with a destiny vague and unde-
fined. No human creature can doubt but that we have reached
the better result, and certainly none among us dispute
this but those to whom the issue was individually oppres-
sive in crushing aspirations of personal ambition and a
pride that could only have been gratified at a price that
no pride is worth. We have come gloriously through the
war, and at last are escaped from even the dangers of
anarchy that threatened as a consequence of the war.
Safely for the present, therefore, we stand, a republic of
thirty-seven States and a dozen Territories—without an
immediate internal danger and without a foreign foe—
and the Fourth of July that finds us thus is certainly
the most truly glorious the nation has ever known.—New
York Herald.

MR. CHARLES READE'S WORKS.—There have
been some very sharp criticisms uttered in reference to
the publication of Mr. Charles Reade's story of " Put
Yourself in His Place," by three separate firms. It has
been assumed that Messrs, Harpers, who issue one edition
of the novel, pirated the work from the Messrs. Sheldon.
This is not the case. The Harpers paid a price agreed
upon for the right to publish the novel, and they have a
proper understanding with Messrs Sheldon on the sub-
ject. The same remark applies, we believe, to the house
of Fields, Osgood, and Co. It is only right that this
should be understood by the public, since more and more
importance is very justly being attached to the necessity
of fair and honest dealing between publishers and authors.
—New York Times.
RETIREMENT OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER WELLS.
--The Hon. David A. Wells retires to private citizenship
to-night, with the expiration of the office he has held for
four years. It deserves to be said of him that he has
shewn rare faithfulness to duty, and that his name has
never in the least degree been mixed up with any of the
jobs in or out of Congress. He goes from his duties with
the personal good-will of nearly every public man here,
and the complimentary letter, which has been sent to
him, is signed. by some of those strongly opposed to his
recommendations on the tariff and taxation. The tender
of an appointment from Governor Hoffman he still holds
under consideration. The office has no connection with
politics, and his acceptance or declination will have no
political significance.
THE ALASKA FUR-SEAL BILL.—The Alaska Fut-
seal Bill has been signed by the President. The contarct
under it will undoubtedly be given to the Alaska Com-
mercial Company, which consists of ten California and
four Connecticut gentlemen, with General John F.
Miller as its president. He was a good soldier from
Indiana during the war and, then for some time
collector of the port of San Francisco. This
company is largely in business with Alaska, has
three steamers and eight schooners in the trade,
and holds seal privileges from China, Japan,
and Russia, on the islands westward from
Alaska. It did something in the salmon fishery last year,
and this year is greatly increasing that branch of its busi-
ness. It has from 30,000 to 50,000 seal skins now on the
islands of St. Paul and St. George, on which it must pay
a tax of one dollar each, and has supported the natives of
those islands for about a year on the chance of getting the
contract provided for in this measure. General Miller
has had a talk with the Secretary of the Treasury, who
must make the regulations governing the seal business,
and said to him that his company had no other purpose
than to work in full harmony with the department.
Poston Advertiser.

SILVER MINES IN NEW MEXICO.
SANTA FE, July 2, 1870.

A letter to the Daily Post from Grant county, New
Mexico, descriptive of the new silver mines, states that
the newly discovered mines are 5,000 feet above the sea
level. There is a population at Ralston, the new
village, of two hundred persons. It is located about
twenty-five miles from the nearest river. Two hundred
and eighty-five ledges have been discovered, and over
fifty miles of claims have been located. Many of the
claims not being designated in accordance with the laws
of the territory are thrown out, but almost immediately
relocated. A municipal government has been formed and
a recorder elected. There is no doubt of the immense
wealth of a great many of the claims. A canal and rail-
way company, with a capital of $1,000,000, has been
formed to take the ore to the mills at the river and to
carry water in canals to the mines. The mines are in the
heart of the Apache Indian country, and the settlement
will be a great security to the pioneer settlers and
travellers. Very rich silver mines have been discovered
eight miles from Fort Bayard.

THE SMALLPDX IN PARIS-AMERICAN
ABSENTEEISM IN EUROPE.

We are sorry to hear that there is no apparent dimi-
nution of the smallpox in Paris. It has been prevail-
ing there as a sort of epidemic, and the Paris
comic papers have found in the ruling passion
of the citizens for vaccination frequent subjects
for amusing caricatures. One thing, however, will be
apt to follow these reports of the continuance of
this loathsome disease in the gay French capital—
to wit, a reduction this year of the usual heavy American
summer migration to Europe, for Paris is the grand ob-
ject and centre of all the hopes and aspirations of our
young moths and butterflies of fashion, who find life at
home too slow, too monotonous, and too precise to satisfy
any but "old fogies." How many millions of American
money are thus yearly squandered abroad we
have no means of ascertaining ; but we dare
say that the sum of twenty-five millions, exclu-
sive of the passage money of the European steamers.
is within the mark. We have here the beginning of that
absenteeism which has been the ruin of Ireland, and which
is yearly increasing the piuperism of England. But how
are we to remedy it ? Only by making the attractions of
our own country, even to summer tourists, equal to those
of Europe, and by making the city of New
York, which we can make, as attractive as Paris. Thus
a hundred millions, yea, five hundred millions, as
we go on, to five millions of people, expended
in beautifying the city, will, in the long run, be the most
profitable investment that can be made for the people of
this island, and so in proportion to its importance with
every place of any consequence throughout the United
States. Louis Napoleon, understanding this secret, has
made the four quarters of the globe tributary to the
atrractions of Paris, and so with a tithe of his outlays
wisely applied we can make New York in its attractive-
ness the peer of Paris.— New York Herald.

THE DOMINICAN PRISONER.
(From the New York Herald of July 4th.)

Mr. Davis Hatch, a resident of South Norwalk, Connec-
ticut, left this city in 1862 for the island of St. Domingo,
to assume control of a salt mountain in the Neba dis-
trict, about fifteen miles from Barona and 100 miles from
St. Domingo city, and for the working of which a number
of New York capitalists had obtained a grant from the
government of Spain. Mr. Hatch subsequently returned
to the United States, and again in 1865 went to St.
Domingo to resume operations at the salt mine. Yester-
day he again returned to this city, after an absence of
nearly five years, although only expecting, when he went
to the island the last time, to be absent two or three
months. In the course, however, of the many revolu-
tionary movements going on there under Cabral, Baez
and the triumvirate—Pimentel, Garcia and Luperon--
Mr. Hatch became involved in certain official transactions
with them, growing out of his assertion of the rights of
the corporation which he represented, and ultimately fell
under the ban of President Baez's displeasure, the result
being that he was arrested, charged with inciting
hostility to the designs of the government (which was
President Baez), treason, &c., was finally tried
without any opportunity for a defence and sentenced
to death. The sentence was subsequently commuted, and
an immense amount of the customary indifference of the
United States Government for the rights or protection of
its citizens abroad was manifested throughout the entire
transaction. Another phase of the trouble has, however,
been brought very prominently before the public lately in
consequence of the investigation by the United States
Senate into the question of a claim asserted
by Mr. Hatch against the Baez Government.
This inquiry has brought up the whole Domini-
can question, including the overtures made by our
Government for the annexation of St. Domingo, and
the result has been the " washing " of some very
dirty diplomatic linen, and in the course of the disclosures
there are many hints and riddles about Mr. Hatch having
been imprisoned by Baez because he opposed the scheme
of annexation, and was influential in that opposition
among the Dominicans. Whether he were guilty or not
of such an indiscretion is really a matter of no importance
in justification of the act of imprisonment, but the main
prominent fact is that an American citizen has been treated
with unusual severity, imprisoned, tried, sentenced to
death, without any cause to warrant such action, so far as
has yet .been shewn, and that prominent government
officials have been fully aware of the fact by written and
verbal notifications, yet have winked at the outrage and,
apparently, have been in collusion with the perpetrators.
One thing in this connection is certain, and that is, that
if Mr. Hatch had been a British subjecf Baez would
never have imprisoned him, or if he did, and refused to
surrender him on demand, even without diplomatic
formality, a British frigate would have made the tem-
perature even more than tropical about Baez's domicile.
Mr. Hatch arrived here by the steamer De Soto
from Habana, and is evidently suffering from nervous
prostration, consequent upon his incarceration and the
harass of mind and body to which he has been subjected.
He is a man of about fifty years of age, gentlemanly de-
meanour and pleasing, frank appearance and expression.
When visited yesterday by a Herald reporter he declined
to give any details at present for publication of his
difficulty in St. Domingo, as he did not wish to place him-
self in the position of endeavouring to create any outside
feeling during the Congressional investigation now pending
at Washington. However disappointing this course may
be to the public, it must be admitted that it bears the im-
print of a frank straightforwardness, as his statement of
actual facts would perhaps put affairs in a startling
aspect ; but he prefers to allow matters to take an official
course without prejudice on his part, and if the Senate
Committee desire to hear his evidence, as it seems
they should do, he will doubtless respond with alacrity.
Mr. Hatch was released by Baez, with his sentence
commuted to immediate and perpetual banishment,
and has since that time been detained in St. Thomas,
endeavouring to effect a settlement of this business and
private affairs in St. Domingo. This he was unable to
do before leaving, as by the arrangement between Rear-
Admiral Poor, commanding the United States West
India squadron, and Baez, Mr. Hatch was obliged to
" make tracks " direct, in a " bee line," from his prison
quarters to the ship which bore him away. He was, in
fact, unable even to procure the necessary wearing ap-
parel. Mr. Hatch will leave for Norwalk to visit his
family.

The Narcissus, Aurora, Cadmus, Immortalite, and.
Wolverine will be commissioned next month for the Fly-
ing Squadron. The three first are at Devonport, the
Immortalitd at Portsmouth, and the Wolverine at Sheer-
ness. The squadron will be under the command of Rear-
Admiral Beauchamp Seymour, who will hoist his flag on
board the Narcissus at Plymouth about the end of Sep-
tember, and the squadron will leave England early in Oc-
tober. We understand that Captain W. Codrington will
be his flag captain.

TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES.—When the Indian tele-
graph was lately set to work for the purpose of offering
congratulations to eminent officials, a message was dis-
patched to the Governor-General of India from his wife
in nine minutes. The distance travelled was about 12,000
miles. A message to the Governor of Bombay found that
potentate in bed, and he was obliged to get up to answer
it,
_seeing that it came in the name of the Prince of Wales.
Perhaps the message to the President of the United
States arrived at an equally inopportune hour, which
would account for the allusion in the reply to " balance of
the world."—New York Times.
CLOSE OF WHITE CROSS-STREET PRISON.—Mr.
Leonard Edmunds is still confined at the suit of the Crown
a prisoner in Whitecross-street Prison. It appears that
this prison is to be closed within a few days, and the in-
mates, 34 in number, will be transferred, by order of the,
Secretary of State, to the criminal convict prison at Hol-
loway. It appears that these 34 prisoners are Mr.
Leonard Edmunds, the one solitary "prerogative " State
prisoner—the only " prisoner for debt" within the United
Kingdom ; 2. Mr. Fennell, under sentence of imprison-
ment for 12 months in the late Bridgwater election case
—a " State," but not a " prerogative " prisoner ; and 3,
A floating body, never exceeding 32 or 33, committed
either for contempt of one or the other of the superior
courts of law and equity, or for a limited number of days
in contempt of county courts. Both Mr. Edmunds and
Mr. Fennell have been informed by the authorities that
cells are assigned to them in the criminal convict prison at
Holloway.