The New York herald., 1868-08-19

lOliOWcu IL euCCessiuHy IreSluenL JOHuoou
has an opportunity to make himself famous on
this Mexican question, and if he will leave the
settlement of it to General Rosecrans that
statesman and hero may bring about the an
nexation of Mexico and his own elevation to
the Presidency for accomplishing 80 great
work. AT all events the crisis is at hand, and
the time has come when the United States
should give government and eace to Mexico.
Discussions of the Party Press-Insanity md
Drunkenness.
The party press no longer bothers it's readers,
as of yore, with discussion of statistics and the
immediate possibilities of the political conflict,
but gives its serious attention to topics of quite
another nature. 1t considers elaboraaely such
important moral subjects as insanity and
| drunkenness. These are handled with the
spirit Of party hate and the subdued style and
abstract manner of philosophy. The demo-
| Gratis know all about drunkenness; the radicals
| are in possession of all the facts regarding
insanity. Thus between the two the circle Of
knowledge on two associated diseases is COM
| plete The form tha. their discussion assumes
gives it something of patriotic, yet raw-head-
| and-bloody-bones character. Their problem
seems to be this: Supposing that the country
should at some future period be reduced to
such dreadful alternative that it must choose
for President either lunatic or a sot, in which
choice would lie the least danger and evil to
the nation? There is something of the air Of
the village debating society in this. It is,
however, not SO strictly philosophical as those
fruitful arguments whether the bird or the egg
is first in the order of nature, or whether the
hen that lays the egg or the one that hatches
it is the mother of the chicken. These are
superior in point Of purely philosophical inte-
rest but the new problem has claims on the
score of public spirit 1t is better to discuss
the good of the country, even in the most
visionary thesis, than to discuss chickens.
Neither is the manner of the discussion
more than the style of the problem free from
the village air. II Betsy Jane is assured by an
excited neighbor that her mother was not an
honest woman and spent an unusual number
of years in the county Jail, she, the said Betsy
Jane, always has it in her power to retort that
her mother was not hanged for killing he,
father-meaning to imply that in this he
mother exhibited record of superior virtue
and that oil the mothers of the neighborhod
are not in equally good repute on that particu
lar score. This is the precise direction tb
great moral discussion takes in the party pres.
80 tl0 IL 6o~ At~A
it is o question of ''the most serious import
nay, of "infinite moment'-to the people tht
the government should not fall into the hauls
of the insane. The democracy merely answers
if a man is not drunkard there is DJthing
else we should fear. This non seg1itur is
only an answer in Betsy James sense-it
establishes the balance of opprobrum. But
little attempt is made to expose the faliacies of
the opposition, each is so eager tc present his
own affirmative notion. In attempting to rebut
charge of insanity by showing good intel
lectual record in the family the democrats for
get that ''great wit to madness nearly is
allied" Nevertheless they do approach q
practical point when to assertions in regard to
inherited insanity they declare that it is not so
important that Presidents grandfather should
have been sane as that the President himself
should be sober.
For our part we cannot see much to choose
between two cerebral diseases 80 nearly re-
lated that one may be either the cause or the
consequence of the other, and either of which
may temporarily or permanently incapacitate
the brain of the victim. Insanity is disease
of the function of the brain or of its substance.
In the former case it depends upon some an
terror disease or arrangement of other Or
gans-the stomach, for instance. Insanity of
this sort-functional arrangement of the brain
may be temporary, passing away in short
time and leaving perfect health, so far as the
brain goes, or it may persist and finally induce
such changes as to become insanity Of th'
other sort. Men may be afflicted with disease
of this character and not entail it upon thei
posterity wherefore 1t does not always follow
that every man who has had his brain derangel
from any cause whatever is likely to haze a
insane family. People see q typical case o
this functional and temporary insanity ever
now and then. 1t is very common. If a ma
empties into his stomach from an ounce tOa
quart Of whiskey It affects his brain in sucha
manner that he presently ceases to be respor
sible creature. lie becomes insane, thoun
in popular parlance he may be only tips.
People make light of everything. This J.
sanity soon passes away but has tendeny
to recur. The fact that the two great eas
thus run into one another at certain poibs
indicates that the present great discussion,f
the party press is only over words and name
The French Elections and First Result