The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-02-04

MS own expenditures only to $I, l32, 1886
per annum.
The Bitter Enders must give up their
reliance upon Mr.. WALKER. The late
Secretary Of the Treasury will not sustain
them. He cannot. We have no doubt
that he would say, if General BAYLY
should venture to ask him the question,
that the public service requires the prompt
appropriation of the amount asked by Mr..
MEREDITH, and that the withholding it
without cause is an act of miserable fac
ton.
General Bayly ON Topography and LAW.
Extract from his late Speech.
"The United Kingdom has larger seacoast than
we have"
=
The consequence is, in England the strongest
preventive force in the form Of cruisers, harbor
vessels, and what they call land guard, is neces-
sary."
General BAYLY INDUCED in this species
of remark the other day in his first official
introduction to the House as its Premier.
His position was, that the coast of Great
Britain and Ireland (the United Kingdom)
was larger than that of the United States,
but that it cost there FIVE nineteenth
twentieths per centage to collect the reve-
nue. /; while here, Mr.. MEREDITH was ex-
pending seven per cent, and asking nine
per cent. from him (the Premier). Mr..
BROOKS, of New York, set him right upon
the floor in his absurd effort to prove the
United States had smaller frontier to
guard from smuggling than the United
Kingdom /; and he subsequently, in a card
in the newspapers, brought Mr.. Secretary
WALKERS report of December, 1S48, with
Professor BAcHE and Colonel ALBERT, to
show that the United States had " an en-
tire line open to smugglers of 1892
miles," Mr.. Brooks might further have
justified his statement by quotation to
the like effect from Mr.. PoLK's message
Of l84S. General BAYLY replies in Al
card:
"I have not had time (what pity, after two
daysD to refer to Mr.. WALKERS report-but /
presume Mr.. BRooKs has quoted il correctly. If
80, there must be Typographical or other error; for
an intelligent boy Of ten years of age, with an
ordinary atlas (having scale Of miles) and a
string, would detect its fallacy in two minutes and
such one would not be misled by it for a mo-
ment"
The typographical or other error, we
think, we may safely leave "the intelligent
boy,'' who ciphered and measured for the
Premier, TO settle with the science of Pro-
lessor BAcHE and his coast surveyors, or
with Colonel ALBERT and his corps of en-
gineers. II they cannot overcome the
string and the atlas Of "the boy" we must
then all fall back upon President Polk and
Secretary WALKER, whose authority, il
not respectable, General BAYLY, at least,
cannot long gainsay.
The pith of the controversy between the
Premier and the science of the Depart
ment, and the heads of Government, seems
to be this The Premier AYERS, Great Bri-
tain and Ireland are larger nations in ter
ritory-that is, have larger frontiers to pro-
tect by custom-houses-than these thirty
United States, with California and Ore
gon; and, therefore, that Mr.. MEREDITH
is extravagant in expanding seven per
cent, and asking for nine per cent, when
John Bull spends only s 19-2Oths per cent.
But the Premier is just as wrong in his
arithmetic about the comparative per-
centage cost Of collection in the two coun-
tries, as he is in their size. The same
"intelligent boy'' of ten years of age
probably did the cyphering land with Ca
stringl") in both cases for the Premier.
The cost Of collecting the revenue in the
United Kingdom is good deal more
yes, good deal more IS 19-20ths) than
the intelligent boys string has measured
il out. II is certainly ~ per cent, and
really 8 5-8ths per cent, the result de.
pending, say upon the stretch OF atbe
string" If the Premier will set his
"boy" to work to show his arithmetic for
the s 19-20ths, we will show our authority
to prove il 8 5-sths per cent; more than
Mr.. Secretary MEREDITH has spent, and
about as much as the Premier imputes to
him as wanting.
Then, the Ian Of the Premier is about
equal TO bis fact Both, we presume, he
studied in the same school, with the same
boy, and the same string. Mr.. MERE.
prrH, he tells us, ought to cut down the
So, 400 collectorships, although these max
imum salaries are given by special law.
The necessity of spending only 81 $50, 900
for the collection Of the revenue, he in
slsts overridps the snec,ai art of r.