The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-04-08
From the Londdn Star, March o.

From the Londan Star, March 21.l
LEGISLATIVE CoRRUPTIoN IN WASHINGTON AND
SMALL LEGISLATIVE PRoeREss.-The minority
of a Committee of the House of Represen-
tives at Washington have reported that
President Buchanan has been personally guilty of
corrupt practices for party electoneerng purposes
in the distribution of government contracts; and
such of our contemporaries as swear by and admire
the immaculate purity of our own system,
CARDS government patronage have greedily seized
on the circumstance and made it the text of no end
of homilies in praise of the high character of the
English arstocratic administration, contrasted
with the low, vile and corrupt government of the
United States. We have intention of offering
single word in defence of Mr.. Buchanan, further
than to observe that this charge of corruption
against him, rests no better foundation than the
mere personal statement of two members of COM
mittee which the report of the committee itself neg
atives emphatically, and that these two gentlemen
stand politically in the bitterest opposition to the
President and his administration. That great cor
ruption exists in the United States government is
unhappily true but it is equally true that English
publicsts have right to make that reproach
against the transatlantic republic. We have
own of that kind few of which have been
exposed partially, and many of which, known to
exist, have never yet been thoroughly probed.
'Parties" in Eng land who turn about profit by the
patronage of the government do not stand in the
same relation of uncompromsing hostility to each
other parties in the States. Investigations, such
as the one referred to at Washington, are always
resisted here by both parties, and are only under
taken because opinion out of doors is too strong to
be resisted. But then means are invariably found
to Illustrate them and the history of the last three
years is rife in examples of official corruption, mis-
management and malversatiOn ostenslbly inquired
into and really cloaked over by the influence of the
two parties, belonging however, to the same class
who share the government between them.
We had therefore, better let official corruption
in the United States alone. There other ques
tons alive in that quarter of the world which we
may with better taste discuss, and which do not
! yield in Importance to any others. The division
batur no Mort orlGn IF he fion on
the great issue of slavery steadily wdens and it is
now obvious that all the craftsmanship and frmness
of Mr.. Buchanan, so far from having any effect in
| narrowing the difference, have only succeeded in
breaking up the hitherto dominant section of the
republic to which he belongs, and in rendering any
decided action on the part of Congress impossible
| The session of Congress which closed fortnight
since, ushered in although twas by that portentou
| Presidential message which reused the eager ats
tentiOn of Europe by the boldness and extent of its
recommendations has been utterly abortive. 1t has
done absolutely nothing either to promote the pol
icy sketched in the message or to advance the leg
! islation Of the republic.
LATER FROM HAyr1.-By an arrival at New York
awe have dates from Port au Prince to March 49,.
President Gerard has issued several DEGREES rela-
| tive to the police of the island
The government of the Republic, upon the sug-
gestion of the Consul General of France and of H.
b. NJ. Vice Consul, has decreed a truce for five
years, from the 18th of February last, with the in
| habitants of the eastern portion of the island.
| CAPE HAYTIAN, March lG.-A cargo of provisions
and breadsufs from Boston, is still on the market.
Coffee is advancing, but logwood and money is
tending downwards.
PoRT AU PRINCE, March 19.-Business is mode
ratey active. Rice and flour tend downward
Douboons S154, and advancing Logwood $50.
JACMEL, March l5.-Trade is very dull, and sales
only be effected with difficulty. Coffee is active
at $104.
JEREMIE, March 15.-Busness is in the same quiet
and unsatisfactory state we noticed several weeks
since, owing to the scarcity of money. Coffee Sll0
| Logwood $50.