The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING,JTINE 3, 1868.

—had decisively pronounced their opinions against
the Impeachment, the public were sensibly im-
pressed. Such men rank their professional repu-
tation higher than any party allegiance, and as
men of high legal knowledge and constitutional
experience they could not bring themselves to ad-
mit the validity of the charges. If we look into
the terms of this eighth resolution, what do we
find ? A tissue of abuse and groundless accusa-
tions. The terms of it might almost apply to the
Radicals themselves, and one might fancy it had
been drawn up in satire. The PRESIDENT is ac-
cused of wholesale corruption by the very men
whose unscrupulous pressure upon the Senators has
been denounced by the more respectable portion of
their own press. He is charged with having
usurped high legislative and judicial functions by
members of that Congress which has arrogated to
itself the power to overturn the Constitution, to
regulate the Cabinet, and to decide upon the con-
duct of the Supreme Court. Most absurd of all,
ANDREW JOIINSON is charged with having persist-
ently resisted every attempt a the recon-
struction of the Southern States by the
party to whom America owes her present
dismemberment and discussion.

to acknow-
But even the Radicals are beginning
ledge that the South must be restored to the Union,
and the very first resolution adopted by the Con-
vention declares it to be the duty of the Govern-
ment to prevent those States falling into anarchy.
It has been hinted that the sudden anxiety of
the Radicals for the admission of Southern Re-
presentatives to Congress on the new terms is
dictated by their desire to re-enforce the Radical
party in the Upper House. It has even been said
that the remaining eight Articles of Impeachment
are kept in reserve for the time when the " loyal"
and black voters of the South shall have sent men
of the STEVENS and BUTLER stamp into the
Senate, so that a fresh vial of wrath may
be opened on the devoted head of the
man who dared to brave the Radicals. But
this would be too much for the American people,
who are already wearied and disgusted with the
manifest virulence and selfish greed of the prosecu-
tion. ANDREW JOHNSON has never been a very
popular man, not belonging to the class which caters
for the applause of the crowd ; but the feeling of the
country has endorsed the verdict of the Senate, and
any attempt to renew the trial after such a manifest
manceuvre would produce a popular outburst of in-
dignation.

The Convention has very ingeniously disposed of
the difficulty about negro suffrage, which its mem-
bers knew very well was more unpopular in the
North than in the South. They have resolved that
the suffrage should be equal, but that the question
of the particular conditions or terms on which it
should beheld belonged to each State. Reconstruction
is only referred to in general terms, the country being
congratulated on the " assured success" of the
policy of Congress and " the doctrine of Great
Britain," as it is termed, respecting natu-
ralisation, is emphatically condemned. If the
Chicago legislators had taken the trouble to read
Lord STANLEY'S speech on this very question in the
early part of the present session they might have
spared themselves the trouble of fighting a
shadow.

The financial position of the United States is
becoming so serious and important that we need not
be surprised to find a large proportion of the twelve
resolutions occupied by it. We are very glad that
the Convention has had the courage and the
honesty to declare openly its conviction, that
" the national honour requires the payment of
the public indebtedness in the uttno3t good
faith to all creditors at home and abroad,
not only according to the letter, but the
spirit of the laws under which it was contracted."
This, it will be seen, refers to the dishonest evasion
which some politicians proposed, by which while
the interest of the debt should be paid in gold, as
was stipulated, the debt itself should 1)e paid
in currency, or paper, now greatly depre-
ciated. Such an unfair interpretation of the
vague wording of the Acts of Congress would be
even more damaging to the national credit than
open repudiation, and the recognition of the na-
tional obligation to keep faith with the national
creditors not only in letter but in spirit does honour
to the Chicago Convention. We wish the mem-
bers could have carried their financial. wis-
dom a little further, and have denounced
not as a crime, but as a blunder, those
restrictive laws which press so heavily on American
trade. The sixth resolution declares with great
good sense that the best policy is to improve the
national credit, so that money may be attained at
easier rates than are possible while repudiation is
talked of ; but the fourth resolution, which declares
that taxation should be reduced as soon as pos-
sible, is less easily obeyed. The high tariff
which interested parties succeed in keeping up, and
even threaten to raise, is a heavy burden to Ameri-
can trade and commerce, which it proposes to pro-
tect; while Chicago, a great commercial centre,
might have learnt from Detroit, a city rapidly grow-
in wealth and importance, the evils which meddle-
some legislation has produced in preventing
the renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty. lhe
two last resolutions are manifestly introduced with
a view to conciliate the Hibernian heroes, and catch
that Irish vote which has often done mischief
enough in America. Foreign immigration, says
the 11th resolution, should be fostered and encou-
raged by a liberal and just policy ; but the fact is,
that the American working-classes are beginning to
have a little too much of it. The 12th resolution
informs the world at large that the Convention
sympathises with all the oppressed peoples who are
struggling for their rights, including, of course, the
heroes of Clerkenwell and excluding the rebels of
Charleston.

The Standard maintains it is quite too late now
to reopen the question as to the site of the courts.
But, whatever fresh delay such a step may in-
volve, it is absolutely indispensable that there
should be an entirely new competition, the archi-
tects being at liberty, of course, to send in either
their old plans or to alter and improve them as
they think fit. The Post holds that, for aesthetic
reasons alone, there should be no hesitation in
choosing the embankment as the site for the new
law courts ; but what will be thought of those who
obstinately cling to the old idea because it is an
old idea, when the public learn that by taking the
site of the embankment there would be a saving
of nearly a million ? The ground now in posses-
sion of the Government can be sold for its full
value, or even for more than the price originally
paid ; the approaches to the new embankment are
already made to the north and south ; those to the
east and west may be taken out of the length of
1,100 feet, which is more than is required for the
building, and the land and houses can be purchased
for less than £1,400,000. In the face of these
facts can it be imagined that Lord John Manners
repudiates Mr. Cochrane's proposition ? And
why? Not because the site at present determined
on is the best, but because it is a pity to unsettle
anything once arranged, and a change of place
may involve a delay of two or three years. It is
really quite impossible to treat such an argument
seriously. When we are about to spend millions,
when we have spent millions to adorn the metro-
polis, is a delay of two or three years worth con-