The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-08 00:00:00

THE COLLECTION OF 111.41VUECRIPTS.

England may be justly proud of its collection of
manuscripts. In art we are a long way behind other
nations, for we allow the whole of the paintings of
the great master, Turner, to lie in cold oktruction
and to rot, because we have not a building in which
they may be displayed. But the British Museum
has collected one of the finest sets of books, manu-
scripts, and documents which the world possesses.
By putting one of our first lawyers, the Master of the
Rolls, to collate manuscripts of national importance,
we have shewn how much value we set upon these
works of other days. The author in England has the
best' opportunities of obtaining good information
directly from its source. And the Government,
wishing to increase his privileges, have taken a step
for which all lovers of historical correctness
and all archaeologists will thank them. In the
belief that belonging to many institutions
and private families there are various historical
manuscripts, a royal commission has been appointed
to inquire as to the places in which such papers are
deposited. Lord Romilly, as Master of the Rolls, is
chairman, and the other members of the commis-
sion are the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earls of Airlie
and Stanhope, Lord E. Fitzmaurice, Sir W. Stirling-
Maxwell, Bart., Mr. C. W. Russell, Ur, G, W,
Daunt. and Mr. T. Duffus Hardy.

REPORT ON THE ALLEGED CORRUPTION
OF THE NEW YORK SENATE.

It is seldom that a Legislative Committee has
been placed in a more awkward position than that
appointed by the Senate of New York State to in-
quire into and report on the alleged bribery and cor-
-1 1 ruption of that body. It is a difficulty almost in-
surmountable to obtain evidence sufficient in law
to convict men of bribery where the parties are con-
fined to two or three persons. Nor, indeed, is it easy
where a portion of a constituency, as so often oc-
curs in an English borough, are recipients of a
consideration for their votes. An assembly placed
so high as the Senate of New York State, and so
limited in number, would require a bold man for
its assailant ; nor would any one dare to make
such charges as have been openly published un-
less they wore a matter of public notoriety ;
neither is it likely that citizens of the Em-
pire State would be loudest in denouncing a body
drawn from rand elected by themselves, with-
out good grounds. Bat it is easier to hold forth
in strong condemnation of men elected to high
legislative posts, selling their trust for personal gain,
than to prove to the satisfaction of any legal tribunal
the charges they censure. Another and almost as
formidable a difficulty is in the way of the assailant.
Above all things it is necessary if the public are to
know the truth that those who summon witnesses,
take evidence, and report thereon, should have no
connection with the assembly whose conduct is im-
pugned. Yet 'the Senate, charged with corruption,
selects a committee of the Senators to inquire into
these charges made against themselves. With due
regard to this, we consider their report fair. It is
made by the members of an assembly denounced
in New York as one of the most corrupt, and there-
fore strict truth could not be looked for ; impar-
tiality under such circumstances it would be absurd
to expect, and we have then what might have been
anticipated, presuming that the committee acted as
might reasonably have been supposed. They exa-
mined the newspaper editors, who made the sweep-
ing charges, prominent among whom was Horace
Greeley, and those from whom the editors derived
their information ; they examined the directors and
treasurers of railway companies, with of course the
Erie figuring prominently in the front; they ex-
amined the agents and the lobbyists who received
money to get " the thing put through ;" and they
examined the Senators whose names came up in the
evidence tendered. The report is very hazy where
it ought to be clearest, and it is very clear where
the transparency matters little. There is a great
deal of mud raised about the spot round where the
public supposed the treasure to have sunk, but the
water is like crystal over the bottom no one cares
to look upon. It is shown that Mr. Eldridge, presi-
dent of the Erie, received from its treasury (we will
count in English money) ilOO,OOO, which was charged
to him on the books, and asserted to be advanced forthe
purposes of litigation, but themoney was expended at
Albany: Mr. Gould paid LewisF. Payne £l,OOO. Mr.
D. D. S. Brown, of Rochester, got between £5,000
and £lO,OOO ; Luther Caldwell got £12,000 through
Mr. Thompson, but traced to the Erie Company ;
so the Committee admit that large sums were used,
for—they can come to no other conclusion—for
corruption. They trace these sums to the lobbyists.
but no further ; then they ask certain Senators
whose names transpire whether they received any-
thing to influence their votes, which they, of course,
indignantly deny ; hence the lobbyists got the mo-
ney, and kept it. having shown this, they censure
in no measured terms the folly of those who allow
themselves to be gulled by agents, who pretend they
can influence the votes of Senators, and are thus
enabled to make capital out of the characters of
honest men. Of this, Payne's case furnishes an
example. As a New York harbour-master he was
not, nor had he ever been, in a position to do that
for which he was paid. Mr. Thompson advanced him
£l,OOO for a few days' advocacy of the Erie Bill at
Albany, and Mr. Gould, unaware of Thompson's
payment, gave him another £l,OOO " to soothe him
over." Of course he was supposed to control " a
Senator," but, unfortunately for him, his Senator
voted the wrong way. There was some stir about
the matter, and it then transpired how the Erie
had been "done." The case of Luther Caldwell
the Committee considered to be still more extra-
ordinary. He appears to have acted for both sides,
and when summoned to give his evidence he thought
he would turn it over in his mind ere he committed
himself to any answer. For this the time he asked
was granted, but the turning over process re-
quired a congenial climate for reflection, so he
went South, and was no more heard of. Indeed,
the committee appear willing to let this witness go,
and the report so confuses his evidence, that as we are
not paid to unravel it, we drop it as unintelligible.
So also with Senator Mattoon; Horace Greeley de-
clared that he sold his vote and influence in the
Erie, first on one side for £3,000, then to the other
for £4,000, insisting upon £2OO extra for his son,
which shows a most commendable family affection.
That Mr. Mattoon got the Committee to inquire
into the Erie business extended so as to include
himself, the evidence shows; that when the inquiry
of this committee. was progressing in New York
that Mr. Mattoon was in close communication with
all the accused parties, is also shown ; as well as
that after the report was drawn up and signed by
two on one side and two on the other, he withheld
his signature, thankful, we presume, for the com-
manding position in which he was thus placed ; and
that he eventually signed the report impugning the
conduct of the Erie directors as disgraceful and ille-
gal
is also true, though the signature took the breath
out of Jay Gould's body with surprise and conster-
nation when he saw it. The committee gently al-
lude to this eccentric conduct of Mr. Mattoon, as
well as the facility with which he swung round in
voting, but they treat it as the mere peculiarity of
a Senator desirous of getting to the bottom of the
subject he was investigating ; but the public are
left to their own conclusions whether some of the
treasure did not also lie at the bottom to which he di,l
get. Mr. Greeley speaks distinctly and unreservedly
on the subject, not only before but after the re-
port. Alluding to the Committee he says
44 They know that Mattoon was bought again and
again as palpably as any horse was ever bought, and
that he sought private interviews with parties that
might better pay for his voice and vote than do
without them, expressly that he might be bought,
and for no other purpose whatever." After show-
ng the value of Mr. Greeley's evidence, and cen-