The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-27


| Good Time Coming.
There are some things in this world inter-
esting, useful, even grand in their way, that
from the force of circumstances are destined
to become public nuisances Of course we do
not refer to Fourth of July celebrations, Pill
grim Fathers anniversaries, Boston Jubilees,
and international rowing matches, which are
nuisances any way, but to affairs which grow
to be annoying sometimes through the folly of
individuals and sometimes through their acct
dental intrusions upon us at all hours in and
out of season. The Treaty of Washington is
one of these infections and yet, but for Gran
vile and Fish, it might have become very
respectable International contract. When it
started in life it received with such universal
satisfaction that no person could have pre-
dicted for it an unhappy career. The press of
two nations hailed it as the harbinger Of uni
versal peace, good will and brotherly love. The
tea tax was to be forgotten; Bunker Hill
CORVALLIS surrender was to be remembered
only as pleasant tea party; bonfire was to
be made of the Queens neutrality proclama-
ton; the Alabama claims were to be paid, and
Lord John Russell was to be transformed into
q pleasant and amiable old English peer, with
q gracious smile and kind word for every
Yankee he might meet. The treaty was to in
troduce sort of international millennium;
Anglophobia was to be eradicated from the
list of American diseases; we were to allow
our Englishman in the play to use the letter
''h'' in its proper place, and the conventional
Yankee of the English stage was to cease
whiting shingles speaking through his nose,
and taking everybody in with wooden nutmegs
and cheeses.
But in very short time after the treaty had
been thus graciously ushered into the world, it
received its first unwelcome buffet from the
brawny fist of John Bull. The terrible Dis
raeli opposition had discovered that Eng
land might be called upon to pay
large sums of money for her singular
construction of neutral obligations, and Lord
Granville, practised, no doubt, in the manly
art of self-defence, threw himself into boxing
attitude, and, in the parlance of the British
prize ring, ''got home" on the treaty's indi-
rect claims, endeavoring to knock them out
of time. He was met promptly by Secretary
Fish, who put up his guard, and countered on
the English members of the Joint High Com
mission, declaring that they had known all the
time of the intention of the American govern
ment to make claims for indirect damages, and
refusing to withdraw them from our case.
From that time to this the diplomatic sparring
= 4. u: r IL.
ring, now in that corner, and now in the
middle-this combatant hitting, feinting,
guarding and lodging by turns and that COM
Blatant following his example-until the set-to
has become as tresome and as stupid as
prize fight between Mace and Coburn, and the
disguised spectators are ready to cut the ropes
and break up the ring
The fuss over the treaty was begun by Eng
land, and she is, no doubt, mainly responsible
for turning respectable contract into public
nuisance. The grave Brazilian Baron d TIA
juba, wisely says to a HERALD correspondent,
cit was very unfortunate, the more so as there
| was no occasion for it. It ought to have been
avoided The irrepressible Partisan in La
Patrie Enthusiastically hits off the folly of the
| diplomats in dialogue that reads like scene
! in one of his native farces, and thus happily
illustrates the absurdity of the controversy
| which the two ministers have inflicted upon
the world :-''Do you mean consequential
damages in earnest?" demands Granville.
| '.But no !; we are bon enfants; it was only
| figure Of Speech" replies Fish. ''Withdraw,"
suggests Granville ''We refuse to withdraw"
says Fish. "Modify, then," cries Granville.
1--WE will; but how?" answers Fish, 'Swal-
low this supplemental pill" says Granville.
Willingly, with coating of sugar." responds
Fish. ''Take off the sugar." insists Gran
vile. "We'n see you further first an
| swers Fish. This is in substance the
| Frenchman's translation of the solemn
| diplomatic twaddle that has been passing to
and fro over the cable and through the mails
between England and America for the last two
| or three months, and no person who has
waded through the correspondence will deny
| the force or Justice of La Pdtries criticism.
| The worst feature of the affair is that, in
spite of our rose-colored dispatches from
Geneva, the tongues of the controversialists
have not yet ceased to wag, and that there is
a prospect of being still further deafened by
the tiresome and discordant medley of Alabama
claims, indirect damages, Washington treaties,
San Juan boundaries fishery questions and
| Geneva conferences.
The voice of the press has long been declar-
| ing Dr. Livingstone and his search after the
sources of the Nile a public nuisance. The
journals have been bored, they say, with
repeated stories of his discovery and with as
repeated contradictions. To-day he has been
killed, and tomorrow brought to life again;
now he turns up very ill, and anon he is
restored to perfect health. One moment he is
safe in Ujiji, and the next he is vending
his way among the African wilds, Heaven