The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-05-14
TIE FIRE DEPARTMENT AoArS-MR. B. !.

We publish to-day communicr don signed
d" Stephen H. Branch" which ,,arports to be
defence of tie volunteer ssystem. Mr. Branch
has style of HE own-the mock-her that,
however, is a matter Of taste, and its merits
must be settled by the gentlemen to whom the
manifesto is particularly addressed.
W.. intent to make few remarks arcut Mr..
Branch's arguments" They a.re all false,
though some Of his illustrations alS yFue enough
champion, there is conspiracy between the
press, (that is, the newspapers the insurance
companies and the politicians to break up the
present volunteer fire department. Mark the
motives Which Mr.. Branch ascribes to the three
powers. The newspapers desire to " blot out AL
fred Carson because che dared attack them,
and silence their Gbels on his good name.'' Mr..
Carson was attacked by the abolition press;
and he ought to recover twenty thousand
dollars for the damage done to his good name.
1t is ridiculous to say that the public journals
AMI the people combine against Mr.. Carson he
must be an important person to be the victim
of such conspiracy, at any time at present,
or abilities ef'any man or set of men.
The insurance corporations are charged with
ingratitude That's true-they are very migrate
ful-they never advertise in the HERALD. And
ii they are so ungrateful to us, is it singular
that they should so far forget the past services
of the fire department as actually to say that,
as it is acknowledged that there are gross
abuses in the department, they ought to be
reformed at once? 1t is really the most shock
ing case of ingratitude that we have seen for
a long time.
The politicians have joined the conspira-
cy against the department, because the firemen
defeated the old candidates for aldermen at the
last charter election. All those politicians are
great set of scamps-we would not trust one
of them with sixpence and for the sake of the
conspiracy we regret that they have joined
it. Mr.. Branch seems to know all about it,;
and it is to be regretted that he is not more
clear in his details
The firemen have never been " branded indis-
criminately," either as thieves or anything
else. The bathos about Greenwood would be
laughable under other circumstances, and the
given precisely as he gave it before the jury
Some of the editors are sad scamps no doubt :;
but the merchants do not entrust them with the
guardianship of their stores, and therefore the
comparison fails. As to the paid fremen, when
they steal we can punish them-when they are
lazy we can stop their pay or discharge them.
Mr.. Branch thinks Mr. Matsell desires to be the
Chief of the Fire Brigade. Very likely-Mat-
sell is ambitious. Very well. So is Mr. Branch,
we presume We know many good citizens who
would like the same place. Would Branch
object to it? Mr.. Branch thinks that if
Matsell were at the head Of the fire
brigade, and if Matsell kept his place as
Mayor would allow it, and if great many
other things should take place, the brigade and
the police would be consolidated and used for
political purposes. According to Mr.. Branch's
own statement, this would only be following
The example of the volunteers who drove their
g aldermanic cronies' back, and soforth. But
Matsell is "a volcano and The iiremen are re-
posing upon him, according to Mr. Branch
Mr. Branch makes no more tangible points in
his seven or eight pages lie developes bad
state of things when he says there is bitter
hatred between the police and the present fire
department. Unconsciously he gives the enc
mics of the department particularly the I'M
grateful insurance corporations) strong argu-
ment. The police and the firemen may fight
while the city is burning, and nobody will be
left to put ont the fires
We feel friendly toward the present depart
ment-we feel grateful to many of its members
for services rendered-we respect Mr.. Carson
his engineers and his men-probably we re-
spect them all as highly as does Mr. Branch
but the system we oppose, and Mr.. Branch
must give us some better arguments in its
favor, if he desires to change our opinion.
RIGHTS OF NEuTRALs.-In another part of this
paper will be found the concluding chapter of an
interesting history Of the controversies that have
been agitated between this and foreign countries
with regard to the rights of neurals We APP
prehend that the present war cannot last six
months without serious disputes arising out of
the British and French manifestoes We are
given to understand for instance that the whole
Va 'hN '"AsAN' anu PiOAupiy al tuc IIuNlnc pOTlS
will shortly be blockaded and the proclama-
tons declare that neutral ships shall not be al
lowed to infringe an effective bockaden The
apparent object Of the insertion of the word
effective was to relieve US of apprehensions
lest the old system of paper blockades should be
revived but if Sir Charles Napier throws his
force across the mouth of the Gulf of Finland.
and Admiral Dundas wakes up sufficiently to
perform similar feat at Odessa and Sebasto-
pol. it will be easy for England to declare that
these manGuvres constitute an effective block
ade, (which would at once put stop to our
trade with Russia" Again, neutral vessels are
not to carry goods contraband of war" by
which war supplies are usually meant But if
one were anxious to give as much latitude as
possible to the former expression, it would be
difficult to conceive any goods which might not
be compYisel under IT, For the discussion of