The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-08 00:00:00

Report on the General Land Offide.

The magnitude of the domain which has fallen
into the hands of the Anglo-Saxon race is best
estimated by the study of the Reports of the Teri-Ito-
rial officers of the United States Government.
England rules over spaces of the earth's surface as
large as that of the United States, and so does
Russia. But in none of these is the grasp so
broad and comprehensive. India is peopled by
numerous races, divided into numerous provinces,
writing languages so different that even the charac-
ters are wholly dissimilar. Great Britain has no
permanent hold of Hindostan —the English are there
as strangers and aliens, and will one day—perhaps
sooner than they imagine—have to withdraw. Vast
as is Australia our race has as yet no really substan-
tive possession of the country, the settlements being,
when compared with the area, but a few widely-
scattered localities along the coast. The regions
occupied by Russia, as well as those of British
North America, extend into the most unhospitable
portions of the globe, fitted only as the dwelling
place of the EsquimauX. The Indian Government
issues no reports for the information of the people
they rule, descriptive of the steps taken for
the advancement of their material wellbeing.
There the inhabitants do not organise themselves
into companies to open up districts by railways
and canals, to dig out minerals, and to clear and
plant waste tracts of jungle. Whatever steps are
taken in this direction are by their rulers, and
almost wholly in England, with English capital.
The colonies in Australia Are separate communities,
having governments as distinct as if divided by
oceans, and only connected by the chance of being
located on the same island. For grand figures con-
veying grand designs we must turn then to the
United States ; and there we will find all we can de-
sire in the last Report of the Commissioner of the
General Land Office. The entire area of the Re-
public is estimated at 3,250,000 square miles, with
a population calculated in 1865 at 35,500,000. Of
this area the public lands . comprise 1,465,468,000
acres, of which 474,160,551 acres have been sur-
veyed. During the year ending 31st May last
the Government disposed of 4,500,000 acres. A
portion of this became the freehold property of Eu-
ropean emigrants and other settlers. A liberal
portion was conferred on railroads along the line
of their tracks, and some went to endow schools
and colleges, as well as reserves made for other
purposes. The land thus appropriated was generally
of the richest soil, blessed with a genial climate,
and possessing great facilities of communication in
railways and navigable rivers. The mineral wealth
beneath the soil is only beginning to be known.
" The precious metals," says the Commissioner, " are
"deposited in three broad belts striking across the
" United States. One known as the Appala-
-44 Chian gold veld, traversing the older States
" of the Union, in a line parallel with the
"Atlantic coast,. and appearing in Virginia
and North Carolina ; theother is the Micky Moun-
" tain gold fields, traversing all the more recently
" organised territory; and the third, the Sierra
" Nevadagold fields, extending through the country
64 bordering on the Pacific." These metals exist,
chiefly, in California, in Nevada, in North Eastern
and South Western Oregon, in Washington terri
tory, in Idaho, Montana, Colarado, Southern Utah,
New Mexico, and Arizona. These districts will be
penetrated by the Union Pacific Railway and the gold
returns enormously increased. It is estimated that
the auriferous soil exists over an area of a million
square miles, and now yields an annual product,
adding the value of the silver to that of the gold, of
over 20 millions sterling. In California alone since
1848 there has been produced 200 millions sterling,
while the mines of Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Mon-
tana, New Mexico, and Arizona, are making large
annual additions to the yields of California. Iron
is distributed generally throughout these territories,
and copper can be obtained in immense quantities
in particular localities, while lead, tin, and zinc
are found in several of the States. Petroleum exists
in abundance in the public lands west of the Rocky
Mountains, as well as in the Eastern States. A
remarkable spring is mentioned under the ocean
opposite San Luis Obispo, north of Point Concep-
cion, some three miles from shore, from which
springs oil in such quantities that in calm weather
the surface of the sea becomes covered with it for
20 miles. Another curious feature is found near
Los Angeles, where a spring fills a small pond from
50 to 100 feet in diameter with oil tar, which the
inhabitants of the surrounding plain, known as Tar
Lake, use for the coating of roofs and otherpurposes.
There is no wonder that a country so enriched by
nature should be the great emigration field of the
world, and should possess such power of absorption
that, however great may be the flow, the demand is
still for more. In the olden times the settlers had to
hew their farms from the forest. But the country
now principally selected is the treeless prairie, and
attention is being strongly directed, not to the best
means of destroying timber, but to the best mode
of cultivating trees. The Commissioner pointedly
calls attention to this. All Western farmers are
urged to follow the example of Ohio, and to
begin the planting of woods, so successfully accom-
plishedmin that State. It is said that trees of some
sort will grow in the United States wherever men
will settle. The Bureau recommends that the home-

stead law should be amended, to make it compul-
sory on every settler on localities without trees, to
plant, and to require the Government surveyors to
scatter seeds over the places they survey. It is also
suggested that the military posts and Indian agencies
should inclose spaces for groves, and it is thought
that once the habit becomes general, and feelings
of emulation and pride are raised among the settlers
thus to ornament and utilise their homesteads,
that the practice will become universal. We have
even a better guarantee that the Government will
not direct the attention of its people to this subject
in vain, from the fact that it will be alike profitable
and useful.—,luglo-Anzerican Times.

MR' e OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

--4*---

TimEs.—The political commotion of the time is
producing its effects in a plentiful crop of per-
sonalities. Mr. Lowe's alleged demerits have been
the theme of every platform ; Mr. Bright began his
autumn campaign with tremendous philippics on
Lord Derby and the Tories. The political chiefs on
ei her side have had the discretion to keep clear of
the fray—the Ministerial party by preserving a rigid
and mysterious silence, which neither civic blandish-
ments nor agricultural joviality can induce them to
break ; the members of the late Government by the
device of a Roman pilgrimage. But the contest is
too exciting for the weaker and less experienced
partisans. More than one seems to have lost his
head entirely. Mr. Danby Seymour fe deceived by
obvious misprint into charging Mr. Bright with the
promulgation of a doctrine too absurd and monstrous
to be uttered by any but a French Communist; and
without even the excuse of a misprint he turns
" half " into " all," and makes the subject of his
criticism talk simple nonsense. But it has been re-
served for Mr. Garth to show how unruly a member
the tongue may become when the excitement of a local
election is added to the excitement of a national
agitation. This gentleman, an experienced lawyer
of the Home Circuit, well knowing the meaning of
defamation, and not ignorant of the nature of evi-
dence, has been hurried by party spirit into making
a number of assertions most derogatory to Mr.
Bright, and entirely, as it seems to us, unsupported
by proof. The correspondence which we publish
elsewhere shows Mr. Garth adopting mere hearsay
reports, and framing out of them definite charges
against Mr. Bright, less with regard to the latter's
political conduct than to his private relations with
his workpeople and townsmen. Mr. Garth, when
called upon to give his authority for these asper-
sions, is only able to quote au extract from another
electioneering speech, that of Mr. Pope Hennessy
a few weeks since, and some equally incon-
clusive accusations of Mr. Ferrand. No one
is better aware than Mr. Garth that such un-
supported statements do not justify any man in
attacking the private character of another, and it
was nothing less than an attack on private character
of which Mr. Garth was guilty. He told the Guild-
ford electors that Mr Bright had been hooted away
from his own premises ; that his own people distrust
him ; that when thousands of men were out of em-
ployment during the cotton famine, and people who
had no direct interest in the matter subscribed
liberally, Mr. Bright did not subscribe a halfpenny;
or, if this be an incorrect report, as Mr. Garth sug.
gests in his letter, he at any rate charges his ad-
versary with niggardly conduct at a time of great
national distress. The accusation of proposing a
loan to the working classes for the purpose of ob-
taining an unfair advantage over them in the matter
of wages is also as grave a charge against au em-
ployer of labour as can be imagined. In the corre-
spondence with regard to this matter Mr. Bright
has plainly the better of his opponent. Mr. Garth
may well regret that he ever permitted himself such
unworthy comments on a political adversary. Un-
doubtedly the hustings do tend to encourage a
licence of phrase, and much may be forgiven and
forgotten at election time. Mr. Pope-Hennessy's
display of Irish denunciation amused rather than
offended the public ; but when a grave Queen's
Counsel follows on the same side, and deliberately
states things to be facts for which, when questioned,
he can only adduce rumour or private conversation,
people will believe that platform recklessness has
been carried too far. The incident should be a lesson
to speakers in the position of Mr. Garth. He pro-
bably never gave his words a second thought. He
had heard it said that Mr. Bright had done this
and that, and, lending to the narrative the willing
ear of political dislike, he made the Guildford elec-
tors the confidants of his information. He doubt,-
less never reflected on the importan'e, we might
almost say the enormity, of the offences he imputed,
nor remembered that the reporters were there
to give his charges a circulation far beyond the
limits of his borough. The consequence is a humili-
ation at the beginning of his political career which
should make him a wiser and more cautious man.
The moral we may draw from this incident is a very
old one, but one which requires to be now and then
brought to the minds of all those engaged in politi-
cal discussion. It is, " avoid personalities." When
a man engages in public life his public conduct is all
that his opponents have a right to criticise. Whether
or not Mr. Bright's firm be popular with their work-
people ; whether or not they subscribed handsomely
to the Lancashire Fund, is no business of Mr. Garth
or any other politician, in or out of the House of
Commons. It is quite fair to reprobate Mr. Bright's
political harangues, and to resent his attacks on men
and orders of men whom we know to be upright and
patriotic ; but his speeches during the last few
months have been sufficient to furnish matter for
hostile comment enough to satisfy even the strong
partisanship of a borough meeting at election time.
It is by refuting the statements, and reasoning
against the conclusions, of the Radical party that
the Conservatives may expect to carry with them a
part of the British public. More particularly it is
their duty to avoid all excess of speech, since they
are for the most part the representatives of the
wealthy and powerful classes of the community—
classes which have had the advantage of education
and refinement, and whose cause is all the more in-
jured by the appearance of recklessness and injustice.
No public man of our time has done more injustice
to his opponents, or • made more enemies thereby,
than Mr. Bright himself ; and his conduct in this
respect ought to be a warning rather than an ex-
ample. Political controversies may be earnestly
and zealously carried on without the aid of such
weapons as have been employed in the present case,
and which have only wounded him who has used
them.

TIMES.—The grand disputation on Democracy
which was held at Edinburgh-last -week ought to
persuade us that, after all, we do not differ so very
much from our ancestors. Burke may cry out
that the age of chivalry is gone, and it is probable
that sophisters, economists, and calculators, have
increased in numbers since he uttered his celebrated
lament, but the perfervidum ingenium Seotorunz has,
at all events, not, yet died out. North of the
Tweed human passions and prejudices, sympathies
and antipathies, have somehow or other survived
the use of railways. The old order changes, giving
place to new, as Mr. Tennyson sings, but the spirit
remains. The canniest of nations got up the farce of
the Eglinton Tournament, and now a grave Pro-
fessor of the north Country runs a tilt against
Democracy and the passions of the crowd like a
very knight-errant, equally enthusiastic and im-
practicable, and unimpeded by any suspicion of the
value and effectiveness of his onslaught. It is im-
possible not to be amused at Professor Blackie's
enterprise, but it is equally impossible rot to feel
kindly disposed to him for his spirit in.uudertaking
it. We may laugh at Don Quixote gravely point-
ing out to highway robbers the impropriety of their
way of life, but respect is mingled with our
laughter. It seems that the annual soiree of the
Edinburgh Working Men's Institute has recently
been held, at which Professor Blackie was present.
Whether, like Don Quixote, he was in search of
adventure, we know not ; but, having au oppor-
tunity of speaking, he proceeded forthwith to de-
nounce Democracy. It need scarcely be remarked
bow completely this is in the style of the true
knight-errant. lie is ever ready to:attack a mon-
ster, and to succour the distressed. But your
knight-errant scorns to take an unfair advantage
of any one, and Professor Blackie doubtless felt
that in making this unexpected raid on the enemy's
camp be took them a little unawares. Accordingly
be offered to discuss the whole question at some
future time with any champion of Democracy who
might present himself to the encounter. The offer
was accepted, Mr. Ernest Jones was the champion
found, and last Thursday the jousting began.
Nothing could be more chivalric, mediaeval, dra-
matic. The professor is the new St. George, burn-
ing with a desire to kill the dragon which devours
all beauty. We are reminded again of the knight
who tilted at a windmill and challenged the world
to deny that his Dulcinea was the fairtst of her sex,
or of contending jongleurs in the Court of Love, or
of the wandering students of the Middle Ages, such
as the Professor's own countryman—the:semi-myth-
ical Crichton—who passed from university to uni-'
versity pinning up at the schools a declaration of
their readiness to dispute upon anything, from the
reconciliation of foreknowledge and free will down
or up to the question whether goods taken in
withernain be irreplegiable. Mr. Ernest Jones was
as confident and enthusiastic as the Professor, and
it must be acknowledged that the pair were not ill-
suited to each other. Both are by way of being
poets, though a heedless world has almost forgotten
the fact. Yet the praises of Mr. Jones' poetry
were trumpeted forth years ago in a most orthodox
periodical—the now defunct English Reviefv—and,
as it was reported at the tim?, by a cri.ic who has

since achieved the highest Parliamentary distinction ••,
and Professor Blackie's verses have beyond all doubt
the merit of vigor, if purchased at the cost of some
rudeness. Then, again, if one of the disputants was
a Professor of Greek, the other has been a Confessor
of Chartism, and it may be doubted whether, for the
purposes of the debate, the practical education in-
volved in some months' imprisonment were not as
valuable as a perfect knowledge of the history of
the ancient republics. Lastly, if Professor Blackie
be Scotch, Mr. Jones is, or ought to be, a Welsh-
man. Here are all the elements of a very pretty
encounter—imagination, knowledge, temper—at
which bystanders, and especially English bystanders, o
may look on, applauding a good blow n whatever
side it is struck, and inspired by a more assured im-
partiality because of the conviction that nothing
serious can result from the affray. The passage at
arms is gentle and joyous in spite of no blood flow-
ing from it. The Professor, by arrangement, com-
menced the attack. On Thunday night he appeared
in the field armed with a pamphlet of 54 pages,
wherewith to demolish his adversary and put down
democracy for ever. From this he discharged argu-
ment after argument, supplementing them occasion-
ally by oral additions'found when he the opinion of
the ring condemning his written words as too few
or too ineffective for his purpose. He concluded, we
are told, amid loud cheering. Mr. Jones took the
offensive on Friday night, and was equally vigo-
rous, equally declamatory, and equally successful.
But impartial bystanders must confess that the at-
tack and defence were alike superficial and unsatis-
factory. Professor Blackie's best arguments were
derived from the American Republic, and are worth
attention as so many reasons to dissuade men from
copying the institutions of the States ; but demo-
cracy and the Union are by no means identical. It
is quite possible for an advocate of democracy to
admit that the American Constitution is radically
wrong, and against such an advoeate Professor
Blackie would have little or nothing to say. If Mr.
Ernest Jones had replied that in a true democracy-
the representative or legislative body ought to cor-
respond in its composition to the varied character of
the people governed, and that each class ought to
find its spokesmen there in exact proportion to its
own strength; if he had gone on to admit that this
ideal is not approached, and never can be approached
under the present constitution of the United States',
and that the English House of Commons is far more
nearly a copy in miniature of the English nation
than Congress is of the Union ; but, allowing all
this, had contended that the representation of the
several classes of society in Parliament did not ob-
serve the law of proportion either in respect of num-
bers or of importance, and that it would increase our
strength and better our legislation if we made a
step towards observing it, what would Professor
Blackie have been able to reply ? lie might say,
and with truth, that his arguments had been directed
against Mr. Bright and the Reform Bills of the late
Government ; but when a learned professor descends
into the arena we expect him to do something more
than to expose elementary fallacies, or, if he defends
such a course by the position of his opponents, to
show that he is aware of the extreme narrowness of
his ground. But Mr. Jones was as feeble in defence
as his adversary in attack. Like many another rea-
soner, he glorified Democracy without attending to
what his opponent had to urge against it. He ad-
mitted, indeed, the shortcomings of New York, but
excused them on the ground of the mixed character
of the inhabitants of New York city. The plea is
not without force, but it leaves Mr. Jones's abstract
praises of Democracy without a leg to .stand upon.
If the form of government of a country must de-
pend upon the traditions, feelings, and habits of
its inhabitants, we cannot argue upon the applica-
bility of Democracy to a nation without taking into
account a thousand circumstances which Mr. Jones
disdained to consider. We are, in fact reieented
to the domain of expediency as the true method of
inquiry. We must weigh the history of the past
and the temper and composition of the present be-
fore venturing to recommend any alteration in the
constitution or government of any people. The due
between Professor Blackie and Mr. Jones over the
body of Democracy will probably do little harm if
it does not do much good. Should it set anybody
thinking on the subject, it will need no further jus-
tification, for nothing was more evident last sum-
mer than the ignorance of the House of Commons
on Reform. It was plain that it had never been
considered as a practical question, and that men
had talked about it for years without caring to ex-
amine what was meant by the phrases they glibly
repeated. Anything would be better than such a
condition of the Parliamentary mind. To be thus
ignorant is to be the subject of blind impulse, of
raw haste, and of rash errors which may ;be irrepa-
rable. We may hope that some improvement has
since taken place, but it would be idle to pretend
that much does not remain to be done before any
satisfactory legislation can be achieved, and if Pro-
fessor Blackie does nothing but draw attention to
the fact, that small result is not without its value.

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