The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-19

IHE new treaty, WHICH seems 10 De mutually
satisfactory to Great Britain and the United
States, has aroused the ire of New Brunswick,
one of the petty little British American pro-
vinces. The Attorney General of that insig-
nificant appendage of the dominions of Queen
Victoria has GRATED against the treaty in
speech which has for its climax the idea that
while the tendency of the treaty would be to
promote annexation, the speaker would still
ceave to the mother country, and trust in
her though she should slay him. The
speech puts New Brunswick in the ridiculous
attitude of an idle and foolish overgrown boy,
whose mother, having many other children
and many more important cares, is anxious
that he should attempt to make an honest
living for himself, or at all events cease to
be bother and burden to her, while he
blubbers out false and stupid protestations
of maudlin affection, which are mere excuses
for his own Incidence and lack of becoming
spirit of independence. To Attorney Gene
rails and other favored officials, who
draw larger salaries from the British
Exchequer than they would ever receive
from Colonial Governments, and to the
provincial snobs who hope to be dubbed with
titles, the continuance of English rule in
British America may be desirable thing
but the welfare of the masses of both coun-
tries would be promoted by severance of
the old connection. And nothing would be
more supremely selfish and absurd than that
any protest New Brunswick is capable of
making should jeopardize the friendly rela-
ton of two great countries. Perhaps, how
ever, the New Brunswick Attorney General is
only bidding for bribe to ensure his silence;
sop to this Cerberus, the distributors of the
British Secret Service Fund should take his
claims into respectful consideration.
The UNITED STATES SENATE would be in
finitely better employed if it devoted its ener-
gies to the task of considering the provisions
of the new treaty, instead of making vain
effort to discover from whom.the document
was procured for publication. The Senate
should content itself with knowledge of the
fact that the treaty was published at an op-
perfume moment, and that if anybody at all
is to be blamed it should be those
Senators who opposed the motion
providing for its authorized publi-
cation. 1t is very petty business to
imprison reporters for procuring copy
of document that ought to have been
printed, and then refusing to disclose the
name of the person who furnished it, Even
in the harshest legal proceedings certain
points of professional honor are respected.
The priest is not required to tell the secrets
of the CONFESSIONAL the lawyer is not asked to
disclose evidence he receives from his clients;
the physician is not compelled to rehearse the
confidential disclosures of his patients And
it is time that Senators should learn that
authorized representatives of the press con-
stitute profession quite as important as
that of either priests, lawyers, or physicians;
that they are entitled to similar professional
privileges; and that an American Senate will
only sink instead of elevatiDg itself in public
estimation by any form of warfare against
journalism.