The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-19

should go TO work Immediately and call pubic
meetings to memorialze the Legislature for
thoroughly effective and responsible city govern
ment. Ifyou saw man overheard you would
not inquire whether he was republican or. a
democrat before pulling him out. We present
the converse of the proposition. 1t is you, citi-
zens, who are overheard, and you should take
advantage of any plank in any party platform
which you can lay hold Of
SOME OF OUR DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR DE-
TICIENCIss- The Duty OF CoNGREss.-T Sc
nate, last week, rejected proposition reported
by Mr.. Mason, of Virginia, for the benefit of
another Mr.. Mason, of Virginia, our Minister at
ries of our Ministers at Paris and London, the
effect Of which, if passed, would have been, as
we understand it, small balance of five or six
thousand dollars in favor of Mr.. Minister Mason
We are sorry the bill was rejected. And why?
Because within year or two past house rents
and the costs of living have been almost doubled
in Paris; and because, as we all know, whether
the prices of oysters, for example, are up or
down, Mr.. Mason must have his oysters. He is
from the "oyster fundum" district of old Vir-
ginia, that "oyster fundum" so graphically
described by Governor Wise as an available
source of State revenue. Mr.. Mason, thus ac-
customed all his previous life to the finest oys-
tiers, and the largest oysters, and the cheapest
oysters in the world, fresh from the water, went
over to Paris, himself sort of "oyster fundum,"
and, high or low, scarce or plenty, good or bad,
it has been impossible and is impossible, and al
ways will be impossible, for him to do without
his oysters Thus, we suspect, it was the oyster
question that secured, by the casting vote of Mr..
Mason, the location of that famous convention at
Ostend which produced the Ostend manifesto,
although the oysters of Ostend are poor, little,
coppery things, which no regular tide water
Virginian would eat, except from sheer necessity.
With these facts before them, and considering
the Ohio railway speculations into which Mr.
Minister Mason, with our Minister at London,
Mr.. Dallas, and Mr.. ExPresident Fillmore, has
been drawn by Mr.. Samuel Hallett, of New
York, we hope the Senate will reconsider the
bill of Mr.. Senator Mason and pass it, so that Mr.
Minister Mason, before he comes home (ifhe
up in Paris his subsistence expenses, oysters and
ALL
Meantime, we learn that Mr. Beverly Tucker,
our Consul at Liverpool, finding it hard to get
along there upon 81 500 year, is at Washing
ton, casting about for an increased compensa-
ton. This is difficult case; for whether his in
come be seven thousand, ten thousand or twenty
thousand, Tucker is good fellow, and the very
man to spend it; SO that perhaps it would be as
well, for the present, considering the short sup
plies of the treasury, to let it remain at seven
thousand five hundred. We leave this question,
however, to the wisdom of Congress.
But again, within the last four or five years
there have been two or three subordinates attach
ed to our European diplomatic establishments,
whose deficiencies in the way of tailors' bills,
miliners' bills, restaurant bills, and other incl
dental contingencies left outstanding, ought to be
squared off by Congress, for the sake of our pub
lie character and the reputation of our official
representatives abroad, Of high and low degree
We CALL therefore, upon Mr.. Senator Mason to
bring in bill for the settlement of all such ba-
lances, so that each of our diplomatic officials
among the courts and potentates of Europe may
proceed to our Cuban negotiations free from the
reproachful "reminiscences of tailors, milliners,
restaurant keepers, and all such unreasonable
people of the retail trade. A saving clause
might also be inserted for the protection of our
diplomats against railway spectators, if it were
not found in conflict with strict construction of
the constitution. We turn over the whole mat
ter to the careful deliberation of the Committee
on Foreign Relations Of the Senate.