The New York herald., 1872-11-02

NOVEMBER 2. l872.-TRIP
the Prince and Judiciary of Roumania viii be
enabled to assure the Israelites of complete
justification and protection under the law, and
thus prove the government worthy of the con-
fdence which this class of people place in it.
Mr.. Secretary Fish's Bill OF Consequent
tial Damages Against SIR stafford
Northcote.
Mr.. Secretary Fish, in the conduct of our
foreign relations, appears to be governed by
two rules of action, viz, the rule of COM
pounding, temporizing evasion, or mastery
inactivity in reference to great international
questions requiring bold and dexterous treat
ment, and the rule of pursuing to the death
and grinding to powder the offending party in
the secondary matter of personal dispute.
Careful to avoid any dangerous commitment
in his official intercourse with other men, he
is singularly active, systematic and remorse-
less in saving up and collecting the facts and
the testimony needed to crush the rash official
who assumes to question or to doubt his
diplomatic infallibility. Thus, with his care
fully preserved facts of circumstance, wit
nesses, time and place, Mr.. Fish pretty effec-
lively disposed of the wrath of both Sumner
and Motley, and automatically pulverized
the unfortunate Catacazy. This cruelty to
Catacazy was like the crushing of butterfly
upon wheel but the provocation to Mr..
Fish was ample, and the temptation was ire
sistible to make an example Of the offending
Muscovite which would sfartle from his slum-
bers even the drowsy Gortschakoff.
In the American case on the Alabama claims,
touching those indirect or consequential dam
ages as submitted to the Geneva Tribunal Mr..
Fish tried upon the astounded John Bull the
experiment Of overwhelming him with the law,
the facts, the evidence and the argument, as
he had overwhelmed poor Catacazy. But John
Bull proved different customer, and what
with his terrible wrath and his peaceful pro-
testations, and what with his knowledge Of the
rules and the bubbles Of neutral duties and
pies of justice which governed the Geneva
Arbitrators our consequential damages were
thrown out, and thereby the tables were turned
upon Mr. Fish. His brilliant victory over
Catacazy was eclipsed in this brilliant success
Of John Bull. But Mr.. Fish had still his little
bill Of consequential damages against Sir Stat
ford Northcote, and, as our readers will have
seen, he has settled it very much after his
fashion Of settling with Catacazy, which is the
way of the anaconda, in coiling around its
victim and tightening the coils upon it till
every bone is crushed in its body.
At Exeter, England, on the 17th of May
last, in a speech denouncing the American
case on those indirect Alabama claims, Sir
Stafford Northcote, in behalf of the responsible
Gladstone government in the matter of the
Joint High Commission, had the temerity to
say that the English Commissioners under
stood that promise was given by their Amer
lean colleagues that those indirect claims
"were not to be put forward and were not to
be submitted to arbitration" and that, such
being the case, 1--WE (the English Commits
sioners) are brought into painful relations
with, and painful questions arise, between our
selves and our American colleagues upon
that Commission. On June 5, however, in
letter to Lord Derby, Sir Stafford Northcote
explained away to O mere inference his bold
charge made at Exeter; SO that there was
really no occasion for Mr.. Fish to take any
further notice of this small affair. But the
| opportunity for administering the punishment
Of Catacazy to the offending English brother of
the Joint High Commission was too good to be
lost Accordingly Mr.. Fish has summoned his
| IN, ryixy fha;r
lump he proves conclusively that the Offend
ing English High Commissioner was very
much mistaken in his understanding that in
any Of the sittings of the Commission, or by
any party connected with it, promise was
given that in the matter of those Alabama
claims our inferential or consequential dam
ages should not be submitted to the Tribunal
Of Arbitration. But after the explanatory
letter Of Sir Stafford Northcote all this signi-
fies only tempest in teapot, or ''much ado
about nothing" The moral of it is, that
if Mr.. Fish had devoted more Of his time
and attention to such important public affairs
as our relations with Spain and Mexico, and
less of his energies as Secretary of State to his
paltry personal controversies, he could and
doubtless would have made for himself, his
department and the administration q much
better record than he can now produce
That Four Hundred Pounds Sterling
The Banks OF France and Eng.
land.
From the announcement just made, and
communicated through our special telegram
from London. that the Bank of ENGLAND had