The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-16

jo1ity aS 1t is now, the veto power has existed
only in name. A two-thirds majority in Con-
gress rendered criticism futile, and Executive
correction mere matter of form. 1t will
be otherwise in the next Congress. And the
fact will impose upon the President serious
duty in the treatment of all matters that
come before him for approval. The Admin
istration may look for more cordial support
than it received last session, and the action
of Congress will be benefited, because re-
strain ed by the opinions of q President in
general harmony with the party out of doors
and with the people.
A NAVAL PRIZE FIGHT IN THE GULF
OF MEXICO.
From the NJ Y. Herald.
One Of the most insxplicable facts of the
present war has been the utter inaction of
both the French and German fleets. The
former, created by Louis Philippe and libe-
rally fostered by Louis Napoleon, was known
to be formidable, and the latter may boast of
some of the finest iron-clads afoat. Yet
scarcely anything has been heard of either
since the declaration of war.
At length, however, the long, strange
silence has been broken. 1t was reserved for
American waters to be reused by the first
thunders of the Franco German struggle for
the mastery of the seas. As the great naval
battle of our civil war-that of the Alabama
and Kearsarge-was fought on the eastern
verge of the Atlantic, so have the French and
German Vikings brought their dispute to its
western verge, seeking to emulate in the new
world what Americans had achieved in
the old. The famous battle between the
Scraps and the Bonhomme Richard was the
antelope of that between the Kearsarge and
the Alabama; but no other similar naval en-
gagement had since occurred, until the other
day the French gunboat Bouvet and the Prus-
sian gunboat Meteor blazed away at each
other for an hour in the Gulf of Mexico.
Both these gunboats entered the port of Ha-
vana on the 7th inst. The Meteor sailed out
again after the departure of the French mail
steamer Nouveau Monde, which Immediately
returned, fearing capture. On the night of
Tuesday, the Sth inst, the Bouvet left port,
but waited outside for the Meteor, which fol-
lowed after the expiration of twenty-four
hours-the time prescribed by lava naval
duel having been previously arranged be
tween the officers of the two vessels. The
Spanish war steamer fernando Cortez also
went out, bearing as umpire the Governor
General of Cuba. The crew of the Meteor
numbered sixty men; that of the Bouvet
eighty. The Meteor carried three guns
and the Bouvet five. Upon the coming
out of the Meteor the Bouvet, which was ten
miles beyond the offing, steamed inward
toward the neutral line. The Bouvet opened
the contest by firing five shots, which the
Meteor promptly returned. The Bouvet then
attempted to board the Meteor. In this she
was unsuccessful. Her rigging became en-
tangled, carrying away her maiu and mizzen
masts. The rigging falling with the masts
became entangled with the Meteors screw.
At the same moment the Meteor sent shell
into the inside of the Bouvet, smashing her
steam-pipe. The Meteor, by reason of the
disabling of her screw, became unmanage-
able, and the Bouvet, finding the quarters
hot and capture certain if she waited until
the Meteor could disentangle herself,
quickly made for port under
it is said, both steam and SAIL the
Meteor continuing to fire meanwhile. The
Bouvet succeeded in crossing into Spanish
waters before the Meteor could disentangle
her screw. At this time the fernando Cortsz
fired gun as a signal that the combat had
closed. The telegram which announces this
news adds that ''both fought bravely." Vic
tory was accorded to the German gunboat,
whose three guns seem to have been too much
for the French gunboat's fve thus calling to
mind the old English brag that one John Bull
was equal to three Johnny Orapeaux. Both
vessels are now in the port of Havana re-
pairing severe damages, but eager for another
fight The Meteor had three men killed,
whose funeral the German merchants in
Havana all attended, and one man wounded.
| The Bouvet had three men wounded, and,
perhaps, one man killed. The German resi-
dents were greatly elsted. and were arranging
grand banquet for the officers of the
| Meteor.
This unyarnished tale of the battle of the
gunboats offers no sensational horrors.
There are no scuppers running blood, no
magazines exploding and darkening the air
with the detached limbs of grilled Prussisns
and frizzled Frenchmen; no shoals of sharks
following in the wake of 'huge leviathans
atioat to gorge their maws with Gallo or
Teutonic tidbits. There is nothing, in fine,
that would do for yellow covered literature
or the crimsoned boards of Old Bowery We
hear, indeed, the thunder of guns, the angry
shri elk Of masses OF metal hurled innocuous
against iron plates, the scream of the Gallo
cock and the triumphant cry of the German
eagle, while above the asphyYiating volumes
of belching smoke rises sublime, like smother
Don Quixote, the figure Of that chivalric
hidalgo, Captain General de Rodas, who has
come forth to ''see fair" between the two bel
ligerents. 1t is q naval duel between France
and Germany, with Spain for umpire. But,
after all, were 1T not for the loss of three or
four lives and the groans of few wounded,
the fight would be but farcical fzzle.
The friends of peace may rejoice at the
result of this combat, since it demonstrates
that ocean warfare, at least, has reacned q
point where scientific defences have reduced
the loss of life to the minimum, and made
the deck of ship in action a much safer
place than many an American railroad car.
But the question of supremacy is not vel
settled. The belligerents are bent on renew.
ing the struggle. Having given the riparian;
81 kla H.rlE .f a nf A.s.