Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-09-26

The companies announce that, for double the
rates, they will insure the proper discharge of
the duties Of their operators in each case
That is; that they will cause the latter, at the
point for which the message may be sent, to
send it back over the wires to the operator
sending it, to make it certain that it was prop
erly transmitted, originally. This idea is Pc
culiarly refreshing They publish to the world
that they viii transmit messages at given rates,
and then turn round and say that they must
be paid double price if the sender wants to be
sure of having the company comply with its
legal obligations to him. Now, it strikes us
that message goes over the wires precisely
as the operator sending it understands the
manuscript to read, the mistakes, when such
are made, being, in ninety cases in a hundred,
his, and his only. Under these circumstances.
the act of sending back the message to him is
worse than useless-not serving to correct his
mistake, unless the person for whom the mes.
sage may be sent is present in the telegraph
office until the return message shall be re-
ceived, which cannot be the case with business
men once in hundred times
But the indignation of the New York papers
against the imposture and virtual fraud in
volved in the new tariff of rates knows no
bounds, evidently, and they will do their best,
as will the whole press of the country, to com
pass the establishment of at least one more
line between Washington and New York, work.
ing under some one or other of the new patents
for telegraphing which must soon be granted,
as the Supreme Court has ignored the claim
OF Morse to have invented anything more than
ms peculiar apparatus for using electricity
for the transmission of intelligence, the said
new inventions being great improvements over
the methods Of Morse, House, and Balm, re-
ducing the cost of working the telegraph, so
as to do given amount Of work, perhaps nine
tenths, &c.
Much Ado about Nothing In view of the
fact that the unpublished history of Mr.. Sec.
retary-of-Legation Perry's SO Wanted dipIo-
matte services at the Court of Isabella, during
the absence Of the late head of the legation,
is about as we'll known as it is possible for any
matter of tho sort to be known, among the
diplomatists of foreign governments in Wash.
ington, and in view of the additional fact that
that knowledge renders it plain to all who
have taken the trouble to inquire of any Of
the foreign ministers, that he accomplished
just nothing at all, we are not little amused
at the heated controversy over the subject of
the result Of Mr.. Perry's independent labors
that has grown up between our grave and re-
spectful neighbors, the htelligencer and the
Union
The former is evidently cropping in the dark
in this matter, in the hope of hooking up
something on which accidentally to hang an ar.
gument; while the latter, aiming to be exceed
ingly diplomatic, as though fairly bitten by its
subject, is so obscure in its declarations as to
lead the casual reader to believe that, after
all, there may have been something extraor-
binary done fer his country by the young gen.
tleman aforesaid, who splutters so about the
result of his independent diplomatic labors.
The bateiligencer bases its confidence in
| Mr.. Perry's bombast on the general instruc.
tions given by the State Department to Mr..
Soule to impress certain things on the Spanish
Government to all of which Mr.. Perry says he
obtained promises after Mr.. Soule left, to agree
Now, the truth is, in conversations with the
Spanish foreign affairs minister, who evidently
knew that he had soft 'un to deal with-a
gentleman apparently anxious to create sem
sation at home-he was duly fed with any
quantity of soft sawder, with indirect promises
and professions that amounted to lust nothing
at all-not one Of which were of such char
acter as would justify even Mr.. Perry in
writing them to his Government as exploits of
his worthy of being placed on record.
| While he was thus "bobbin' around" in
Madrid, the tangible questions between the
two Governments-the FL Dorado and Consul
Thompson questions-were being discussed in
this city between Messrs. Marcy and Cueto /;
the Black Warrior question being also man
aged wholly by Mr.. Marcy and the Spanish
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr.. Perry's share
In that-the only question directly in issue in
which he had hand-being perhaps to stretch
out his hand to receive from the Spanish func.
tionary the answer to our Secretary of State
memorable dispatch which has already been
spread before the world.
1t is very clear, from the tenor of Mr.. Per-
rvs inflated letters, that the Spanish Govern
ment were not slow in comprehending the fact
that in him, as the head of the Legation, they
had caught a gudgeon, and were, of course,
anxious to keep him in that official position; 50
he was duly tickled with a straw by the Min.
ister for Foreign Affairs in the hope that he
might be able, by impressing his Government
with his own ideas of his success, to superin-
duce the latter to make of him full Minister
at the Court of Isabella.
Such is understood by hundreds here to be
the truth Of the matter, the information hay.
ing come to foreign ministers in Washington
through gossiping letters from their diplo.
matte colleagues stationed at Madrid That
information, if we are not greatly mistaken,
goes on to say, that Mr.. Perry, though vastly
| tickled with the fuss the Spanish officials vere