New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-18

Spccial Agent Jayne has reslgned-retlrcd,
we may perhaps say, to the enjoyment of that
elegant fortune which few years service has
enabled him to transfer from the bank accounts
of the merchants of New-YOrk and Boston to
his own capacious pockets. No doubt he will
be missed. II will not be easy to find new
man who can read other peoples private letters
with 80 sharp an eye, or carry out rad upon
u copnting-roOm with such thoroughness and
vigor The incredible abuses of the seizure
system, originating under the act OF 1877, nave
been developed within the past four or five
years principally by Mr.. Jayne. OF course we
do not hold him wholly or even chiefly respon-
sible for the wrongs of which he has been the
instrument He took bad law, and carried
it out TO it, legitimate consequences. When ne
had seized the books and papers Of an import
ing firm, on the information and belief that
they contained evidence Of fraud, and had car
rird them OIL carloads of them sometimes, to his
private Office, he made q rowing search, not
only for the particular entries his warrant
designated, but for any irregularities what
ever upon which he might base seizure In
his examination before the Investigating Com
lnttce of 1872 he acknowledged that he had
frequently got up eases in this way. lie con-
fcssed that he had paid merchants to inform
of their rivals in trade, and bribed clerks 10
betrny their employers. We have heard that
Mr. JAYNE could be very civil to his victims
when he chose, and could put them on the
rack and rifle their purses with all the suavIty
OF IN accomplished gentleman; but he told
us himself in his evidence before the same
committee how he had dangled a pair of
handouts before the eyes of a witness whom
he wanted to terrify, and snapped them
carclessy on one of his own wrists while he
waited for the answers to his cruel ques-
tons. lie was a perfect type OF the special
revenue agent of our enlightened day,--cold,
crafty, unmerciful, with manner adapted to
every occasion, gentle or severe, lnsoent or
deprccating. stern and menacing or genial
and confidential, according to the nature OF
the evidence in his Possession, or the char
acter of the merchants whom he sought to
tcrrily into compromise or entrap into
confession. He was not squeamish about the
means, 40 long ~ he got his mOiety. He had
no reluctance to deal with spies and traitors,
no scruple about corrupting young clerks or
proiing by any of the base arts by which
the professional informer gets his living. In
"a word he lived up to the law which made
him and we ought to be glad that the full
flower and fruit of that statute came to such
quick and conspicuous maturity.
When Mr.. Jayne was examined in 1872 1t
appeared that his personal share of the plum
der that had passed through his hands during
eighteen months was $12j,OO0, not counting
his regular pay and travelling allowances as
Government officer. In the report of seizures,
settlements. penalties, &c., sent to the House
of Representatives the other day by the Sec
rotary of the Treasury, it is shown that Mr.
JAYNE furthermore received over $4,000 from
the scandaous robbery of Phelps, Dodge &
Co.; S24,0 900 in the case of Way In Boston
and $4,000 in the Baker case in Boston; and
in other recent cases his interest is we'll
known to have been enormous. He can well
afford to retire now to the digniied repose
which awaits the decline of well-spent life.
He steps aside at a moment when the system
that he represents seems to be tOttering to its
fall,-when from every commercial resort
arises fierce, indignant clamOr for reform to
which Congress cannot well remain insensble.
Very probably Jayne will be remembered in
history as the last of the sellers.