The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-08 00:00:00

ABUSES AND REFORIII.

Are the Anglo-Saxon race the greatest thieves
among mankind ? If this question can be answered
by the amount stolen we would unhesitatingly say
" Yes ;" but it is evident that other people only
steal less because they have less to steal. It is all
very well to prate of honour and to enunciate high
moral sentiments, but we now know by a sad ex-
perience that this is the veey guise most successfully
assumed by the thieves. If we want men to be
honest, we must leave as little temptation as possible
in their way, for it is an undeniable fact that that
temptation will breed corruption. The British Go-
vernment, by long experience, perfected a Civil
Service system by which the checks are too efficient
to admit of theft, the punishment too severe in de-
tection, and the inducements to remain honest too
considerable to fall—at least before the small
temptations only left open. Great ones have been
placed beyond their reach, and little ones are too
well fenced to be touched, so the service is thus far
at least honestly administered. But look at what
occurred in the commercial world when the chances
offered of cheating wholesale. Neverbefore weresuch
gigantic operations in swindling carried through.
The two great trading centres of London and
Liverpool became hot-beds of villainy, and the
wrecks and ruin spread around attest how well the
work was accomplished. Never had a better instance
been furnished of the lengths to which men of posi-
tion, character, and influence will go when strongly
led by temptation, and if this epoch of English
history proves anything, it proves that there are no
class of men in England qualified to be en-
trusted with the unchecked control of vast sums ;
and if not in England, we have no hesitation in
saying therb are none elsewhere. America imagines
that she can work a Governmental system much on
the same principle that English shareholders worked
the Limited Liability Act. Men are thrust into
office with the maximum amount of inducement to
cheat, and with the minimum amount of checks and
punishments. Under the circumstances the surprise
is that the nation has taken so long to reach the
unbearable point, not that it now approaches it.
Mr. WELLS says that a fourth of the revenue is
stolen. Everything becomes a job; no railway bill
is passed except by underhand means and chicanery;
even no territory ispurchased without some such deal-
ings as those used by Baron STCECKL, who gave
the Hon. ROBERT J. WALKER a large fee in gold
to carry through the Alaska business, and forthwith
his eloquence soared into the clouds, even above the
eagle, from which elevated position he gave a fas-
cinating description of that charming region bor-
dering on the North Pole. Who could have sup-
posed that these airy flights were taken with pockets
well ballasted by one of the heaviest of metals ?
How could the innocent hearer believe the ardent
patriotism, the philanthropy and love of his species,
which induced the orator to urge with the fire of
liberty brightly burning in his bosom the extension
of the area of freedom, that the inspiration had been
derived from a little business conversation with the
Russian Baron. The writers were paid who ad-
vocated the cause and the newspapers which in-
serted their productions. But around all hung that
atmosphere of high moral ideas through which the
gaze of the uninitiated could not penetrate. If
Legislatures and courts of law are tainted, it
would be something worse than folly to expect
individual officials to be honest ; and if officials,
paid to guard the public, use the trust to cheat,
can the outsider be free from the prevailing
corruption ? The revenue system comes to the aid
of the thief, in cases, indeed, compels a man to
join a ring or be ruined. Thus rings are fostered;
thus lobbyists grow powerful; thus interest is pitted
against interest in the scramble of protection ;
ea h step gained by one inducing a desperate effort
in the others to attain the same level, and a giddy
height it is to which some of them have risen, Yet
each step carries the manufacturing industry of the
States further from the consumer, and the country
which ought to be the cheapest in the world is ra-
paidly becoming the dearest. The insn who suffer
are the masses, and almost in direct proportiOn to
their poverty. While particular interests are fos-
tered, and monopolies created inimical to the national
welfare, the lobbyists and corrupt legislators thrive,
and the people permit inducements to be offered
to carry measures by dishonest means. If the
source whence laws emanate be impure, the
courts in which they are administered are not likely
to be pure. The system of election has lowered the
legal profession in its highest places, and a writer
in Harper's Weekly advocates the passage of the
Act, making two-thirds of the Supreme Court neces-
sary to declare an Act of Congress unconstitutional,
because the day has gone by in the United States
when the Bench of the Supreme Court can easily
be filled with eminent and incorruptible lawyers. A
writer in the Round Table attacked the Senate, de-
claring that men sent there poor returned to their
States after their term, with wealth that could not
have been honestly acquired. We all know how
the vote of the seven " recreant" Senators was at
once. attributed to bribery by those whose plans
that vote defeated—the belief not yet being wholly
exploded that bribery only could explain so erratic
a course. An English paper, alluding to New York
the other day, said—" It is seriously proposed to
establish a Vigilance Committee in that city. A
gang of murderers are at work, and the police fail
altogether in checking their crimes. But it is not
alone the failure of the police which encourages the
appeal to Judge LYNCH. The impossibility of
bringing a culprit to justice, in consequence of the
wholesale corruption of the Judges, is the worst
evil against which the people have to contend. A
murderer is arrested, and somehow or other bribes
his way out of prison, or escapes with nominal
punishment. The Judges will not sentence a man
who has influential political friends at his back, the
wire pullers of the ward." On the same subject the
Nation of the 21st January observes, " In States as
old and orderly as Ohio and Indiana (so inefficient
is the administration of criminal justice), supple-
mentary lynching and hanging of robbers and mur-
derers on a great scale has had to be resorted to
within the last year. We have had the same phe-
nomenon in Western New York. In this city, al-
though the police is perhaps as good as any in the
world, their vigilance and faithfulness are rendered
wellnigh worthless by the low character of the
police justices, the abuses of the District Attorney-
office, and the maladministration of the prisons all
over the State. The facility with which escapes
are effected from Sing Sing
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most sorrowful and disheartening tales of
the day."
In the working out of the motto, that "to the
victor belongs the spoils," we see the source of the
demoralization which has spread its baneful influ-
ence over the country. The victor is the loudest
and most energetic of the unscrupulous • the spoils
are the plunder of the nation, and it is his direct
interest to make the system as corrupt as possible,
for therein lies his best chance of gain. The ex-
ample spreads through all departments, and reacts
on the public till the vice becomes unbearable,
when a sharp reaction sets in, a great reformer
arises, backed by the good sense of the people, and
hard work purifies the Augean stable. This point, we
are happy to say, has been reached as well in the
United States as among the English commercial
community. If the President Elect does not belie
appearances, his will be an Administration of Re-
form—in the Civil Service, in the Judiciary, in the
Legislature, and in the general administration of
the law. It is a hard task that lies before the
General, but he is, perhaps, better qualified for such
work than any other man who has risen to emi-
nence in the United States, from the dogged per-
tinacity with which he fights out the battle on the
line of duty, alike regardless of the howl of indigna-
tion and the cry of suffering. Great as are the
heights to which corruption has gone, it is easy to
see how sound is the heart of the nation. Were it
otherwise CHANT'S task would be impossible, as it
is it will be comparatively easy, for although the
abuses make a great show, and really iu a measure
retard the growth of the Republic, yet they are
but parasites which cling to the tree, without real
connection with the truck,..tinglo-dmerican 2imes