The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-24
Severe Reviews of the Me
GRANT IN ENGLAND.


from an article entitled president Grant and
Great Britain
Presidents for finite terms with renewable
leases of power are certainly not enviable poll
tcal Institutions. They are a good deal like
emperors of uncertain dynastic prospects, and
with heIrs-apparent whose hopes of the impe-
! rial reversion no insurance company would
value at any respectable figure. They get
fidgetty as their period of power passes its
middle point without their having done any
thing to eutitle them to tue enthusiastic graft
tude of their couOtrymen, aud begin specula-
tive recoDnoissances on difficult and delicate
international questions. President Grant is no
exception to this rule. He Will have been two
wears in power next March, aud it is already
two years since be was elected. In the mean
time, he has been a respectable mediocrity with
Il a some hat declining reputation.
ON the whole, when bis two years of Office are
at an end, he will have done nothing to sustain
in the field of politics the reputation he had
4 gained on the field of war, aud, therefore as
4 happens to al strong men who are discovered to
be strong only on one side, his popularity is on
the wane.
President Grants new message insists some
what ostentaiiously, II we may trust the tele-
graphic report of it, on three delicate points
suggesting possibility Of serious complications
i with two distinct foreign nations, Spain and
England.
With regard to our own empire the message
seems to have been unpleasant, aud by way of
being quarIelsome rather than really high-
handed aud dangerous. The President recon-
/ Investigate and buy no all the private claims on
Great Britain in relation to the Alabama Gues-
toD that 1t may hold in its own hands the title
i to compensation, and press it a. its own plea
sure in its own way. IL is for this reason, wd
suppose, that the Government has interfered to
4 prevent the citizens of the United States from
pressing their individual claims on Great Br-
lain. "Whcn Great Britain desires a full and
friendly ld ustneut of these claims, the United
STATES will enter into the consideration of the
subject with an earnest desire tor "a conclusion
consistent with the boDor and dignity of both
nations" But on the question of the rightfu-
ness of the claims themselves, which we have
offered TO submit to arbitration, President Grant
does not give the slightest hint that he will even
permit the reference OF that question TO an im-
partial authority.
war with America would be SO disastrous.
peace and friendship with America wouldso ines
Unable blessing, that we heartily wish our
Government would have thcetrength of mind to
waive its abstract legal rights in the in
VIII ch very considerable number even of Eng
lisbmen disposed to agree with the United
States that we were cupabiy negligent. But we
must admit that President Graut gives no slgu
that this would be enough, and that he does
give some very distinct sgus that he is disposed
to be itigious and keep open all causes of q1ar-
rel as long as he can. We hope that he will fail
ard we ieel sure that the American people will
not bear him out ia this.
On the fisheries question there is a much
more acrimonious tone taken, and as the world
happens to know that General Bltler has lately
been airing that question in public, and making
q serious attack on the Canadian Dominion in
connection With y, the aspect OF the case looks
not q little serious. General Grant does not
venture to state that the Canadian Government
bus done anything unlawful. He only asserts
that their action has 0een Every unfricndly,'
and that 'if the Dominion authorities attempt
to enforce the unwarrautable jurisdiction over
tue fisheries assumed by their statutes, it
would be his duty to take steps TO protect the
rights of American citizens" As we
know that only about week ago the fishing
vessel Friend, from Gloucester, Massachusetts,
within General Buffers Congressional district
had been seized by the British stea Der Piover,
near Charlottetown, Prince Edwards Island,
and carried into port for breach of the
fsberyI laws, the Presidents complaint looks
too like one of which the occasion had been
purposely furnished by that clever but uu-
scrupulous statesman who is just at present in
most hostile mood towards England, and is
supposed in the United States to be daily gain
ing influence with the President. That the Pre-
sident means war we do not suppose. But that
he means to have q good occasion for war
if war should seem politically desirable, we
very much fear.
Ii the colonial law authorized the seizure and
confiscstion of the ship for the first proved
offense, the United States would have no right
of complaint. great many of her own nav-
cation statutes have at different times imposed
the penalty of the eonfscation OF British ships
for the FIRST infringement of one of those sta
p tutes. As lar as We can see, General Grant has
no case, and knows that he has no case. When
the American law was enforced against English
ships-fOr breaking the blockade, for instance
we have not called it ''unfrendly;" aud when
the English law IS enforced against American
ships, why should the execution of the law be
bit more uElTiendyf There is no 'friendli-
ness in leaving any law dead-letter
This, however, is formidabe-that the Presi-
dent Is pLrposely accumulating grievances
against Us, as if 10 lrritate the public mind. We
can only appeal from the "politician" who
sits in the Presidents seat to the wisdom aud
sobrioty Of the American people, who have sell
dom allowed themselves to be maneuvred into
a Wa hplipuQ
indulge even their President with the satisfac-
tion OF rejecting that he has had the power OF
achieving it.
The London Saturday Reoie,0i of December
10 has an elaborate article upon the message,
from which we extract as follows
1t would be wrong either to slight or to over
rate the importance OF limited meuaces which
are at least in part intended TO serve domestic
purposes with which EngishmeH have no con-
cern. In the course of the last forty years
three Presidential messages out Of four have
indicated ill-will to England. Before the waI
the pretext for resentment was generally derived
from the English prejudice against the system
OF slavery which was supported by the dominant
party. II was only on the eve of secession
that Mr.. Buchanan, in his last message alb
stained from imputations on the character OF
the English Government. Mr.. Lincoln, greatly
TO his credit, offered 10 official cOunteuanc(
to the popular camor and il was reserved foI
General Grant to resume the interrupted Gradi
tiCn OF VituperatOn AS the alleged proyOca
tion has from time to time varied with the ne
cessites of party, it may be fairly assumed tina
the Presidents charges against England are in
tended rather TO flatter than TO instruct pOpula
feeling and opinion. Intelligent American
politicians are fully aware that the Englisl
Government and nation would at all times b
glad TO cultivate the most friendly relation