New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-12-31
TBE SINKING OF TIE VIRGLNIUS.

| Inere arc Few peOplo WIN Will 10 SiiONOu
to hear that the Virginius now lies in eight
| fathoms of water off the coast OF North
Carolina. The accident of her sinking is so
opportune that there may even be some
suspicion that the officers of the Ossipee, like
Bazaine at Metz and Byng at Minorca, had
not exhausted the resources of their science
to bring her safely into port. But such
suspicious would be unfounded. The cutting
down of the Florida, and the sinking of the
coal-barge in front of the Arapiles, were not
more clearly accidental than the laundering OF
this Inflated bark off Bald Head Light The
popular imagination likes to attribute such
events to some Scampish cunning OF the
powers that be, but the Intervention of the
Government in such matters is simply i'm
possible 1t is out of the question that
chain of instructions commanding an unlaw-
full act should ever be completed from the Pres-
dent to a bargeman without protest or be-
trayal from any of the human links. But the
accident cannot but be regarded as q happy
one. The divergence at present existing
between the Attorney General and our new
Minister to Spain must certainly have been
widened by the proceedings in our admiralty
court against the Cuban cruiser, and so much
now depends upon friendly settlement of
the colonial question that the disappearance
of any cause of quarrel can only be heartily
approved.
The sinking of the Virginius is regarded by
the law officers of the United States in New
York as virtually putting an end to the discus
sion of her legal status This question will doubt
less arise again, by virtue of some sort of claim
which her real or putative owners may bring
against the United States to recover her value,
but it can never hereafter excite any public
interest. Mr.. Patterson, who has already be-
gun his campaign against tho Department of
State, is saved by the statute of limitations
from prosecution for the alleged perjury by
which he is accused of having obtained the
registry of the Virginius. If be is as sure of
the justice of his case as he seems
to be in the letter we published
Yesterday, we may expect to hear Of him
for the rest of his life as one Of the innumera-
bic caravan of men with claims who haunt
the corridors of Congress year after year, ask
ing for justice and gaining the warm adhesion
of lobby agents. But 80 far as the relations
of tho Government to the crazy craft are con-
cerned, they were virtually ended when the
Ossipee parted her hawser and allowed her to
sink into the sand. Her ?risOners have been
released from the Juniata and restored to
their liberty. There is little use now to be
made of the voluminous dispositions which the
District Attorneys Office secured from them
before they landed. The question OF repara-
ton for tie slaughter of Capt Fry and the other
American citizens shot ut Santiago is now the
only important matter at issue between the
| two Governments. This of course cOmpre-
bends the subject Of the trial and punishment
of the Spanish officers who are charged with
having "infringed Spanish laws or treaty OBJ
"ligations," and of those reciprocal reclawa-
! "tcnsn under which may be included pc
cuniary indemnity to the families of the muir
dered men. The Spanish Government has
this branch of the case yet to consider, and
our own Government has to act lin relation to
the "persons who may appear to have been
equity of illegal acts in connection with
the Virginius But the most sanguine on
either side can hardly hope for any very Wig
orous measures against the crew OF the Viz
! ginius or the court-martial of Santiago.
The principal effect Of this case must have
reference rather to tho future than to the
past. Our Government will not be likely
hereafter to look with such easy indulgence
upon the fitting out of hostile expeditions from
our ports against friendly power, and the
"@n:a. &c @:.,.1sil viii not 10 inclined to lose