The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-13

koffwll subsde and that cool discretion will
take its place.
Nevertheless it appears to us that he is cot
without some grounds Of justification for his
displeasure al the conduct OF Mr. Flsh
Surely, without further parleying, our pune
tilons Secretary Of State might have tolerated
Mr.. Catacazy for the time and on the terms
proposed by his government, and that would
have been "a final settlement of the ques-
ton Prince Gortchakoff had substantially
met the request made upon him, and, as no
suggests, according to the rules Of cour-
tesy between two friendly nations, this should
have been sufficient. We fear that General
Grant, without his knowledge of the influences
operating In this business, acted with some
thing less than his usual good judgment in the
peremptory dismissal Of Mr.. Catacazy. The
offences proved upon him are justly con-
demned by Mr.. Fish; but still toe reparation
offered by Russia might have been accepted.
1t has been charged, upon the other hand,
that clique, or several cliques of intriguing
spectators have had their fingers in this pie,
and that here these INSCRIPTIONS spectators,
as In the ST. Domingo scheme, humbugged
the administration with their cunning devices.
They certainly proved too much for the un-
fortunate Minister, who vainly thought him
self more than a match for them all. The
Minister, however, who conducted, at our
national capital, the Alaska treaty business
was the man who knew how to deal with the
Washington lobby.
But our correspondent, in communicating
to us this st. Petersburg despatch. says that
its publication in the official journal there sis
an unusual course for the Russian government,
and has been adopted in order to express re-
sentiment at the peremptory dismissal Of Mr..
Oatacazy." We suspect that the publication
and spreading abroad before oil the world Of
Mr.. Fishs extraordinary accusations against
the offending Minister was the thing which led
to this retaliatory publication at St. Peters,
burg. Mr. Fish invites the world to hear q
terrible lecture to Russia on the proprieties Of
diplomatic intercourse, in which he says, ''the
President directs me to say he cannot look on
with Indifference to sec this extraordinary at
tempt to introduce at Washington the diplo-
matte practices of Constantinople. This par
ticular allusion to ''the sick man of Turkey"
with all the other illusions in Mr. Fishs note.
nettles the Russian Chancellor, and he lee
lures back again on the ''rules of courtesy
between friendly nations" and publishes his
lecture to the world, taking care to give the
impression that Russia, In high diplomacy,
needs no instructions from Mr.. Fish.
Well, we suppose this little diplomatic
breeze will produce no mischief; but it is to
be deplored that the emphatic and decisive
treatment of the Cataoazy question by Mr..
Fish was not long ago adopted, but has been
all along and still Is studiously avoided by
him In his diplomacy upon our numerous
little unsettled accounts against Spain. One
might think that, assured of peace with Rus
STA, Mr.. Fish does not hesitate to clap his
wings and crow over and fout the unlucky
Catacazy; but that, half suspecting that the
Bombastes Furioso of modern nations, poor
Spain, is ready for fight, he treats her as
gingerly as an amiable Quaker would dis
course with bloody border rufian. We
would call the attention of General Grant to
this subject and to the expediency and pro-
priety of applying Mr.. Fish's caustic treat
ment Of Catacazy to the more serious offences
of Spain. You have had Mr.. Fish show to
Russia, Mr.. President, that he can thunder;
and why not have him thunder to some pur-
pose?