The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY: EVENING, JANUARY 29, 1869.

ment. Mr. Henniker-Major, another local member,
promised to support Mr. Corranco. A resolution was
passed denouncing the present system of taxation as
unfair, and recommending that a remedy should be
found in the extension of Government allowance to
local institutions.

one of its most brilliant ni ern hers would (Helmlinctu any
before it died corporally. It has just met, and
passed a resolution expressing deep sorrow at the
untimely decease of Mr. Ernest Jones. It was pro-
posed that a deputation should attend his funeral,
and Mr. Beales, Mr. Howell, and Mr. Bradlaugh were
named. It seems to have struck some of the mem-
bers that it was scarcely decent for a man who denied
a future state to take part in a service whose key-
note is the sure and certain hope of a resurrection.
So the name of Mr. Odger was substituted for Mr.
Bradlaugh's, and on a division was carried by a large
majority. Other matters then engaged the atten-
tion of the Lague, among them its own dissolution.
Eventually it was decided that the date of the happy
despatch should be left undecided.

GRANTS DIFFICULTIES.

(From the Nation.)
Grant's opinions about the course the Govern-
ment ought, in his opioion, to pursue on the leading
questions of the day, both home and foreign, begin
gradually to leak out, through the medium of
"conversations" with newspaper correspondents and
politicians ; and although conclusions drawn from
reports of this kind have to be accepted with a good
deal of allowance, both for misreporting and misun-
derstanding, we have no hesitation in saying that
the country is now in possession of the leading out-
lines of his policy—using the word in the constitu-
tional sense, as covering the set of measures the
President is prepared to recommend to Congress,
and the set of principles in which he is prepared to
act on matters lying within his discretion, and not
in the Jobnsonian sense, as covering what the Pre-
sident thinks ought to be done, or is determined to
have done by any means, fair or foul, within his
reach, and without regard to the opinions of Con-
gress or the public. The most interesting and trust-
worthy account of Grant's views and aims we hap-
pen to have seen has appeared in the Boston Adver-
tiser, whose Washington correspondence has long
enjoyed the rare distinction of being sensible, accu-
rate, and decent. According to that writer, Grant
is in favour of " honesty, economy, and manliness."
These are, of course, vague terms ; but the corres-
pondent gives some illustrations which help us to
fix their meaning. For instance, we get a good
idea of what Grant means by honesty from what
be said of a certain legislator's speech —that
" it was a falsehood ; there was nothing on which
you could put your finger and say, This is
a lie,' but the whole thing was a falsehood, for all
that ; I've despised him ever since I heard him
make that speech." This is excellent, it fore-
shadows much trouble. We can assure him that if
he criticises speeches in this spirit he will speedily
find himself at daggers drawn with a host of " good
men," " sound on main questions," and brimful of
" moral issues," whose friends will not relish the
application of the army standard of truthfulness
and candour to their "great efforts" to help humanity
along the road of progress and this great country
to fulfil its destinies. He must be more careful in
bis analysis. As regards economy, he is opposed to
all machinery of Government and all Government
undertakings which facilitate the growth or exist-
ence of " Rings," or which promise to make the
payment of the national debt doubtful or difficult.
He hopes somehow to secure peace and freedom at
the South, through the co-operation of the Southern
people, if possible; without their co-operation, if
necessary. About the Tenure-of-Office Act be says
and has said nothing ; about his opinions on the
Civil Service Bill the correspondent makes no re-
port; but the General's view with regard to the ap-
pointments in the civil service appear to be precisely
those on which Mr. Jenekes's bill is based ; that is
to say, using the discretion which the absence of
such a bill still leaves him, and obeying the party
traditions to the extent which prudence and ex-
pediency seem to warrant, he will select his em-
ployes, whenever he can do so with a proper re-
gard to the public interests, from the ranks of the
Republican party ; " but his aim first and last will
be to get upright and efficient men, rather than to
reward party services." " Copperheads, political
time-servers, and blatant Democratic politicians"
may, however. "as well send in their resignation to
take effect on the 4th of March next," the fact being
that no person answering to this description can pos-
sibly have got into the public service during the last
four years by any honest arts or for honest purposes.
This all reads very well, and is very assuring, but
does not furnish sufficient basis for a judgment as
to the character of the Administration, without
some account of the strength with which the jobbers
and intriguers and plunderers of the Treasury are
mustering for the defence of the old regime. The
correspondent of the Advertiser says that " if he
could show how the jobbers are organizing their
forces and how adroitly they are laying their plans,"
people might be afraid about the future. The ac-
counts which appear in nearly all the papers are of
much the same tenour and effect. There is to be
during the coming winter a real gathering of the
clans of corruption at Washington. The various
"Rings" were never so strong or so well organized
and audacious. The beauty of the case is that they
all, knowing the noble weakness of the American
public, pretend to be operating on behalf of some
great moral or humanitarian idea. For instance,
there is a great Ring working, as in the case of
Alaska, for the extension of " the area of freedom."
They want to purchase Cuba and pieces of Mexico,
and it has even been suggested to annex Canada by
force. Now, no great purchase or annexation of
this kind can be made, in the present state of the
art of peculation, without the Ring pocketing enor-
mous profits. They probably secure in the first
place a share of the purchase money by bringing the
scheme to a head and getting it through the Senate ;
they then secure another share by having the vote
of the money hang fire in the House long enough to
frighten the vendor, as in the Alaska case. We pass
over without notice the smaller fees to " counsel"
and patriotic editors of wholesome and independent
papers, and the dinners and champagne to lobby
agents. We pass over, too, the arrant dishonesty on
the part of a nation, as of an individual, involved in
borrowing money to buy real estate on speculation,
when it is unable to pay debts already contracted.
The Indian Ring in like manner is fighting its
battle by drawing fearful pictures of the cruel and
inhuman treatment which the Indians would be
subjected to if they were transferred to the juris-
diction of the War Department. It accordingly
demands for them continued subjection to the en-
lightened ministrations of the bureau, with its
gigantic yearly almsgiving, its " snug" agencies,
and its total exemption from real responsibility ;
for it is easy to see that when an agent opens an
account with " Black Kettle," the balance at the
end of the year, owing to " Black Kettle's"Jimited
knowledge of book-keeping, is hardly likely to be
in " Black Kettle's" favour. It says, moreover,
that all would go well if the naughty white men on
the frontier would only treat the red man pro-
perly ; but as there is no immediate prospect of any
change in the white man's character, the excuses
for the present abuses promise to last as long as
the Indians. The Whisky Ring are confidently
reported by the Western press to be preparing to
operate on the temperance line. They are, it is
said, going to call for a rise in the whisky tax from
fifty cents to two dollars, in the interest of " mo-
rality" and " public order." They are going to
show the desolation to homes, the injury to health,
the increase of crime wrought by the poisonous
bowl, and they are buying up all the whisky they
can find and advising all their friends to do so, so
as to create an interest strong enough to force the
rise through Congress. They then will sell out,
pass the profits to their bank account, make
contracts for future deliveries of whisky, and
begin to work for a reduction of the tax next
year, on the scientific principle of " undulations."
Whether General Grant can stand firm against
all this, or whether, if he gives way, we shall not
see a worse crash, a greater loosening of the bonds
of morality, than has yet been witnessed in Ameri-
can history, are points on which a great many
people feel a good deal of the anxiety which
it finds
expression in the letter of a correspondent in an-
other column. The suggestioncontains as to the
means he should adopt of relieving himself of a
portion of the labour and care which lie before ,him
is certainly worth consideration. Our confidence
.
in Grant continues unabated,and is strengthened
by the almost unanimous support he is likely to re-
ceive from the Press. Papers of all shades of opi-
nion seem to be encouraging him to resist the plun-
derers, and it will-be well if the public which lies
behind the press does its part in strengthening him
for the shock. The ways in which the breath of
popular feeling reaches a statesman are innumcr-
tble. The press is only one of its channels. No-
body can say a good hearty word against specula-
tors and sentimental knaves and hypocrites, in the
counting-house or club or parlour, without contri-
buting something to the unseen but mighty and all-
pervading force by which nations arc saved.

DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, •are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re.
commended by the medical profession in preference to French
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta
lion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Danville and Co.,
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buildings, Strand, London W.Cl—[Ad
vertisement.]