Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1857-04-22


postage paid there on transient printed matter
alone. We name these Offices only by way Of
illustrating the general effect of the change.
While more or less of the intense circular
senders have respected the prepayment Law,
not few of them continue to practice all con-
ceivable devices to cheat the Department out of
its dues. They essay to send their circulars
with q story printed on the back, which is
headed like q newspaper, and claim that those
to whom it is addressed are subscribers TO the
latter at rates varying from twenty-five to five
cents per annum. The device is EQUALLY To
cheat bona fde newspaper publishers; and as one
Of them, we thank the Department, Gnstead of
finding fault with i for its frmness in insisting
on the rigid enforcement of the law, and thus
preventing the gratuitous transportation in the
mails OF advertisements which are not nevspa.
pers, under the pretence that they are news
papers, and are, therefore, entitled to be sent
IN the mails to regular subscribers without pre-
payment of postage.
The Department is laboring with commenda-
bic zeal and energy to secure success for the
cheap postage system. To that end it seeks to
derive from the mails all the revenue to which it
Is lawfully entitled, that being necessary to its
support. Unless it prevents the preparation
OF such frauds and impostures as we discuss
above, instead Of being a public convenience,
our system of mail transportation will be little
else than hindrance to the prompt transmits
sion of bona fde intelligence in the way of let
tiers and newspapers at a cheap rate-or, in
other words, it will become little moro than a
Ga fba ok,,:x
sion, in all directions over the country, of pes
tiferous lottery scheme puffs, abortionists' cir
culars, and clap-trap advertisements, such as
few newspapers will publish at any rate of COM
pensation.
HE NEW GRANADIAN QUESTIoN-Our i'm
preston is that the officers in command of the
United States vessels-of-war at Aspinwall and
Panama, to whose aid, as all now know, addi-
tional forces have been ordered to repair have
been instructed to give our fellow-citizens
crossing that isthmus due protection, on the
transit route if necessary, we trust, as we'll as
In port. That such instructions were impera-
lively needed by our interests there, we have
not the slightest doubt
Our rights in that quarter of the continent
do not hinge on international law First of all
they are based on treaty stipulations, wherein
We guarantee to New Granada sovereignty over
the transit route and she guarantees to our cit
liens its free and unmolested use Upon that
treaty is based, first, the subsequent convention
between the two Governments, to secure the
observance and endorsements of rules necessary
In carrying out its provisions; next, the rail-
road charter granted by the New Granadian
Government to an American company and,
lastly, the law of the American Congress max
ing the isthmus railroad an American DOS.
(maiD route, enacted with the consent of the
New Granadian Government.
That We have thus acquired a legal right to
interfere 70 protect our own citizens there
against such insults and outrages as they have
experienced at the hands of the natives under
encouragement from the officials of their Gov
eminent, we also entertain not a shadow of
doubt. We are satisfied that the Government
here Is fully alive to the requirements of the
duty resting on it in connection with this right,
and are prepared to discharge them to the letter
The question seems to below shall they be
discharged? At present it appears to Us that
our commanders there will be ordered to send
guard of seamen and marines over the railroad
with the American mails and passengers, when
necessary; the latter to be armed from our
ships on entering port on one side, and to be
disarmed on leaving port on the other side
And, further, if needful that an American
force will also be ordered to patrol the transit
route, to prevent the natives from tearing up
the rails in ful6lment of their purposes of rapine
and murder on our people
We adopt this impression from the signs
around us, frankly admitting that we Judge
not from regular information of what has trans
pired in Cabinet council on the subject; but
from such inklings as we have been able to
gather, which in times past have rarely de-
ceived US in similar cases
FRosrs AND FAMINE IN TExAs.-We have
letters from San Antonio and Indianola, Texas,
dated respectively On the 7th and 9Th inst,
from which we make the following interesting
| extracts:
1--WE hoped to have had fine gardens, but this
year the frosts have been severe Only last ght
| april 81 we had frost that killed eyerv garden
in this part Of Texas. We have all to plant over
again While at Indianola / saw one of the
camels tried with couple of 500 pound bales of
| cotton. He moved off with them with as much
| ease as a mule would with a sack of corn. The
| natl yes looked astonished. He could have car
iicu dhotncl Ddie, L ain satisfied, with perfect
ease
| eve have wretched prospect before us for
| the summer Two ffosts-the last two days ago
have cut down the corn, cotton, vegetables, and
all the fruit. For the want of rain the ground is
now too dry to plant. Unless 1t rains in two
weeks, there is danger Of famine No grass *
| up Tor pasture; the streams dry that can get
SO; the cattle are some Of them, starving, and
nave 10 De thrown out to save the calves SO that
we shall soon be without milk; while butter is
already forty cents per pound, and rising II is
iamentable prospect which a mercifu1 Proyi-
dence can alone avert the realization Of"
Observation-Disclosures persons here are Of
opinion that the instructions which Minister
Reed will carry out to China, contemplate &C.
tive military operations there for the protection
OF our national rights and interests, whenever
the Chinese by confounding them with those of
the English, may make such a course on the
part of the United States necessary. As we
have no hope that the Chinese will discriminate
between the two nations in their war ON all the