The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-24
Post Prandial Diplomacy.


Post Prandial Diplomacy.
MIEIsTER Reverdy Johnson has been in Eng
land scarcely three months, and during that
time he has eaten more publio dinners than
his predecessor did during the six or seven
years in which he represented the United
States at the English Court, and he has made
more public speeches than all the American
Ministers together from the time of John Jay.
Mr.. Adams, it is true, was under cloud; it
was his duty to uphold the credit and honor
of his country during the darkest hour of her
peril; to oppose, in season and out of season,
the sullen anti. .Amerioanism of the British
Government, that was only prevented from
breaking out into open hostility by allowing
the "I dare not wait upon l would"
and to demand reparation for outrages
perpetrated upon American commerce by
British built, British. armed, and British
manned cruisers, with the oonnivance and
hearty goodwill of the British Government
and the British ruling classes. Mr.. Rsverdy
Johnson appears in England under more
favorable auspices; the American Republic has
come out of the satanic contest of the Rebel
lion triumphant in spite of British prophecies
of defeat and extnguishment, and it now
claims the fear as we'll as the respect Of Eng
lish ill-wishers. Mr.. Johnson finds the Eng
ish Government and people disposed to make
terms of amity, but with as little sacrifice on
their part as possible of the traditional British
policy of 'keep all you have and get all you
can" Mr.. Johnson apparently has more to
lear from British "soft soap" than he has
from British ohurlishness and hostility. The
line of policy pursued in his case has appa-
rently been as successful as his entertainers
could desire, and innumerable goud dinners
have put him in complaisant and happy
frame OF mind, that pTedisposes him to grant
everything and ask nothing.
Mr.. Johnson, at his speech in Liverpool on
Thursday, proceeded to ''lay bare his whole
heart" which reminds US of a would-be
diplomatist who not long ago "took his heart
in his hand" Let us hope that the one will
be more successful than the other. Mr.. John
SOD, having laid bare his heart, informed his
hearers that the peace of the two countries
was not likely to be disturbed that two great
points of dispute had already been settled
upon terms honorable to both countries; that
the third would soon be settled, and that thus
would be annihilated all peril of rupture of
friendly relations. The two points which have
already been arranged are, We suppose, the
question Of expatriation, what is commonly
known as the "breeches question:" by which
the American Ministers In future will be able
to appear at Court in the guise of Christians,
without being obliged to exhibit their attenu-
ated calves to the ridicule OF an assembled
multitude, and the third question yet to be
arranged is that of the Alabama claims. 1t
would be eminsntly satisfactory to know that
this vexatious matter was about to be def
nitely adjudicated to the satisfaction Of all
parties; but we have more than a shadow OF a
doubt that Mr.. Johnson's diplomacy will not
be received with favor in Congress or among
the American people. We all know what
trouble Mr.. Adams had to get
the British Government to con-
slider these claims at all, and the facility
with which Mr.. johnson has fixed matters up
is certainly creditable to him, il all is as We
would have it; but, under the circumstances,
it ia open to a sus pcion that he has laid bare
his breast under the influence of good cheer
to an extent that will induce him to grant
more than we will be willing to give. We
demand full and sufficient payment for the
damage done TO American commerce by the
Alabama, and We should not consent to any
thing short of this. II Mr.. Johnson cannot
obtain an acknowledgment from the British
Government of its responsibility for these
claims, and Of its willingness to pay the
money due on them, he had better close up
his breast again, come home, and allow some
one OF more determined spirit to take his
place.
AS usual thing, post-prandial declarations
are not Of much value, and post-prandial di-
plomacy is not apt to give the greatest amount
of satisfaction to those who are not under the
benign influences Of turtle and Olaret. Now