The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-15 00:00:00

CONSOLS CONVERSION.

The Times holds that the option which the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer is about to give the holders
of the New Three per Cents and Reduced Three per
Cents to exchange into Consols at the rate of
2100 ss. for every 2100 Consols will be regarded as
an advantage by all concerned. At all events, those
who wished to sell the New Threes or Reduced would
first convert, since by payment of ss. they would
acquire a stock worth 10s. more in the market. Never-
theless, considering the general apathy of the public it
is very doubtful whether it would not be better to
facilitate the operation by not exacting any percen-
tage whatever. It is an important fact that the
change is one that will not cost the nation a shilling.
Indeed, by promoting uniformity it is calculated to
diminish the future expenses of administration, and
it may be doubted if it be not the duty of a Govern-
ment to furnish gratuitously every facility in the
management of affairs, provided the working out of
such facility involves no favour to one portion of the
public at the cost of the whole

LIS7 FOR THE USE OP VISITORS TO

2VIE METROPOLIS.

INDIVIDUAL DISHONESTY URGED
AGAINST NATION4L CREDIT.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
We cannot conceive why the Governor of the
Empire State should be set up as a target for the
City Editor of the Times to shoot his arrows at.
The Hon. JOHN T. HOFFMAN is an able, successful,
and respected citizen, who latterly has attained to
a very prominent position in his party, which leads
many, to predict that the Democrats will run him
in 1872 as their candidate for the Presidency.
Recently the City articles of the Times have contained
a series of attacks upon this gentleman, and the
New York papers have been rummaged for para-
graphs to give them poir t. Last Saturday, for in-
stance, it was announced, as late news, the probabi-
lity of Governor HOFFMAN'S election as next Pre-
sident of the United States, and this contingency
was thus gravely brought to the attention of the
bondholders :

"It was by Mr. HOFFMAN, in his capacity of Governor
of the leading State of the Union, that the control of the
Erie Company was placed permanently in the hands of
Messrs. GOULD and Ftsx, be having, against the urgent
remonstrances of the most respectable journals of New
York, refused to veto the me3Eure. It is true that Gover-
nor HoFrmas has recently thought it expedient to -_put
forth a manifesto against repudiation ; but it may be asked,
what security is there in the face of the experience already
acquired, that he will, should he be called to the office of
President, appoint a Cabinet capable of giving expression
to ideas of financial honesty ?"

Messrs. GOULD and FISK are suggested as theanost
likely persons for "President" HOFFMAN to select to
control the Treasury, especially, adds the Times,
" would that gentleman be likely to place-the portion
of the National Debt held abroad in such hands."
This is as comical a superstructure as was ever
erected out of slender material. Because Governor
HOFFMAN did not veto a bill passed by the New
York Legislature, therefore he will, when President,
select GOULD and FISK for tie administration of
the National Debt, and after separating the portion
of it held abroad from the rest, hand over to them
especially that portion to manipulate. Because
Governor HOFFMAN has lately come prominently
forward, more through the collapse of other Demo-
cratic chiefs than from any efforts of his own,
therefore be is to be the next President. What
does it matter that General GRANT has only been
in his seat eleven months, and has three years and one
month still leftto run ? What does it matter that, if
IloFFmaN were in the seat, he could no more appoint
such persons as Frsx and GOULD to administer the
National Debt than could the writer? The English
are profoundly ignorant on American affairs, and
such assertions carry weight with them. The ob-
ject is to damage American credit, not to injure the
reputation of Governor HOFFMAN, who is merely
used as a convenient tool, and the audacity with
which this is done shows the confidence of the
Times in the ignorance of its readers. This was fol-
lowed, in the next issue, by a liberal quotation
from an article of its New York namesake, point-
ing out, in telling sentences, the harm inflicted on
American credit abroad by the passage of such Acts
as the iniquitous Erie Bill, which legalized " robbery,
fraud, and false pretence, perpetuating in the bands
of men guilty of these off epees theirill-gotten power."
If the object of the London Times had been to de-
nounce the passage of this Act through the New
York Legislature and Governor HOFFMAN for not
vetoing it; if it intended to point out asdoes the New
York Times, and as we have often done, the disas-
trous consequences to the mercantile community of
giving such scope to the Erie and other cliques, then
no American would have a word to say in objection,
New Yorkers knowing that they are open to rebuke
for allowing a splendid railroad, penetrating their
State and largely owned abroad, to fall a legalised
prey to the persons in whose hands it now is. But
while endorsing the spirit of the strong remarks by
the New York 7 imes westrenuously object to the con-
struction put upon its words, by the London limes.
It is evident that the article reproduced last Mon-
day suggested the remarks of the previous Saturday,
the latter being simply incomprehensible in their
folly until the clue was given by the former, which
perhaps somebody told the City Editor, and thus led
him to show the connection. The New York 7 imes
says that Governor HOFFMAN "may one day be Pre-
sident of the United States. We gave you ANDREW
JOHNSON, who wished to repudiate the debt, and we
may give you JOHN T. HOFFMAN, who will pro-
bably
put BARNARD in the place of Mr. CHASE,
and make GOULD the receiver of as many roads as
he cares to manage. It is painful to write this.
'The thoughts it suggests are full of shame and
grief. American credit is dying abroad because we
have permitted ruffians to slay it at home." Carried
away by a spectacle grievous to the best portion of
the New York community, knowing and feeling the
material injury inflicted on eomtnerce, as well as 'the
moral injury to the cause of liberty and universal
suffrage, the New York Times writes in a strain
which might otherwise be considered exaggerated
doubtless impelled by feeling how necessary it was
not to mince words in trying to open the national eyes
to the mischief caused. The London limes, however,
opens its own eyes to another effect of such writing.
Here we have the City Editor gravely putting Mr.
HOFFMAN in the Presidential Chair, and FISK at the
head of the Treasury, with special instructions to
manipulate that portion of the National Debt held
abroad, and in support of this absurd programme
the sentence above given is extracted from the New
York limes. Surely the London Times does nat
imagine that Mr. HOFFMAN, if President, could
supersede Chief Justice CHASE and place Judge
BARNARD in the most elevated seat of the Supreme
Bench ; or, if BARNARD were there, that he could
make GOULD thereceiver of as many roads as he cared
to manage. The Times knew that the sentences it
quoted from its New York namesake were far-fetched,
intended to illustrate and give point to the attack,
'just as a Tory journal might speculate on JOHN
BRIGHT usurping the throne of England, and turn-
ing Buckingham Palace into a Quakers' meeting-
house. Yet if a New York journal gravely based
its argument on any such satire of a London con-
temporary to show the rottenness of English Mo-
narchical institutions, it would be a somewhat pa-
rallel course. ANDREW JOHNSON wished to repu-
diate the debt, but did ANDREW JOHNSON suc-
ceed ? It may be said that he was in discredit as
PRESIDENT ; take then GRANT'S Administration, the
strongest known for many a long year. GRANT ear•
neatly desired to place one of the most upright
and learned lawyers on the Supreme Bench as an
Associate Justice, but failed in the attempt. Yet
with this failure almost recorded in the same issue,
" President" HOFFMAN is described as placing a
disreputable Judge in the highest judicial seat, to do
which he has first to oust the leading lawyer of the
United States. Of course this 'is all absurd, but it
serves the purpose of the 7imes, and it is used with-
out a scruple to lower the credit of the Republic.
We are as strongly alive to the injury inflicted on
the country by the proceedings of the Erie Clique
as any of our English or American contemporaries,
perhaps more so, as our attention is especially di-
rected to American affairs, and the feeling prevail-
ing on American subjects in Europe. We know
what goes on in the United States almost as
well as if the paper were printed in the Union, while
a great deal more sensitive than our Transatlan-
tic brethren to the effect produced on this side
by American proceedings, and we have never hesi-
tated to denounce the acts of the Erie clique, and
to point out the evil consequences. But we desire
to do and to see this done in a fair spirit, for he is
no true painter, who paints the devil blacker than
be is. The Erie clique damaged foreign investment
in New York, and even the mercantile credit of the
State in private transactions. It has succeeded in in-
volving in the disrepute, the State Legislature, the
State Judges, and even Governor HOFFMAN ; but we
cannot see the connection between these acts and the
'security of theNatiocal Bonds. The Times knows that
there is none, yet it never ceases to associate the
two, aware that English investors for the most part
are quite unable to discriminate or to unravel such
a tangle. We propose in the following article to
prove that national credit may stand high, while
the proceedings of individuals of that nation are
marked with a marvellous dishonesty.

Capt. A. E. Scott, RN., will read a paper at the
Royal United Service Institution on Friday next,
on " Naval armaments, or the past compared with
the present efficiency of guns? carriages, and ships."