The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-08-15

ton, now on the retired list who has been
commissioned by President Diaz to inspect
the line of the Rio Grande. report its true
condition and suggest remedies for the con-
sideration of the appointing authority His
spondent prove that he is a man of intelli-
gence and judgment, and he. of course,
possesses the confidence of President Diaz.
who intrusted him with SO important and
delicate mission. He made it clear
enough that he thinks the border
as to remove all causes of COM
plant, although he thinks that SO chronic
an evil will require time for the complete
operation of remedies. General Benevides
belongs neither to the Diaz party nor the
Lerdo party, and states that his sole OBJ
ject in undertaking this mission is to assist
in bringing about mereu friendly relations
between the two republics. He has friends
among the supporters Of both claimants.
and President Diaza hos evinced tact iini
selecting man so free from party entangfe-
ments to inspect the borderand make recon-
mendations. We suppose everybody will
agree with him that President Diaz is not
responsible for condition of things which
grew up under Juarez and Lerdo, his prede-
cessors. General Benevides thinks that the
border brigandage is q manageable problem,
and his suggestions show him to be man
of practical sense. Hewould have Mexican
police, not large in numbers, but consisting
of picked, efficient, well paid men, sta
toned at proper intervals along the Mexi-
can side of tho Rio Grande, with o military
force of regular troops in the larger towns.
With efficient supervision and support from
the central government he does not doubt
that the raids could be speedily abated and
finally suppressed by Mexican frontier
guard thus constituted. If this plan, or
some plan akin to it, is adopted by Presi-
dent Diaz, our government may, at an early
day, be relieved from the necessity of taking
redress into its own hands. When the
Mexican government shall have resolved to
discharge its international duties there will
be no more talk of q new frontier. We do
not suppose that Mr.. Evarts ever contem-
plated anything of the kind, the whole OBJ
ject of his policy being to compel Mexico to
perform not difficult duty and remove the
question of annexation from the arena OF
political discussion.
The Russians Retreat from Roum ella.
Owing to the changed conditions north
of the Balkans arising out of the necessity
for an altered plan Of operations the
Russian force in Roumelia has retired to
the mountain passes overlooking the inter-
val between the armies of Osman
Pacha and Mehemet Ali. The with
drawal of the Russian troops from
Eski Saghra and Kasanlik exposed
the extreme right of their front facing
southwark to the army of Suleiman Pacha,
and, as our special dispatches from Kasan-
lik, published this morning, describe, the
Turks were not slow to improve their
opportunity. With o largo and well
equipped and organized force the Turks
attacked the Russian position at Kalofer,
west of Kasanlik. Recent accounts de
scribe Kalofer as being held by the
Bulgarian contingent of the Russian
army, but it is likely that many
Russian troops were also present. The
Turkish attack on the village was sue
cessful in dislodging the Russians, who,
according to our dispatches, retired pre-
cipitately after two hours struggle, and
with severe losses. The fight cannot be
considered as having the least influence on
the situation, as its results are merely the
. re-occupation of Roumelian village and
of one Of the many mountain passes in
the vicinity of the Shipka defile. If the
Turks could throw say thirty thousand
men into the lines of Osman Pacha or
commanders to take the offensive some
impression might be made on the Rus
sian forces facing toward Lovatz and Plevna
and Osman Bazaar. But there are no indi-
cations that this can be done while
Gourkha holds the practicable passes with
his troops. Judging from the manner
of the attack upon Kalofer and the brief
defence, the affair was one between
largely superior force of Turks and compar-
atively small Russian or Russo-Bulgarian de-
tachment. The losses claimed to have been
inflicted on the retiring Russians are natu-
rally exaggerated, as were those first an
nounced from Plevna. The explosion Of
magazine in the village probably inflicted
the heaviest damage. The affair at Kalofer
is the only one that breaks the monotony of
inactivity that has rendered the war news
of the past few days the most meagre and
unintercsting since the campaign opened.
The seventh Regiment Armory.
The project of raising sufficient sum of
money for q new and suitable armory for
the Seventh regiment, National Guard, has
been revived by the committee having the
matter in charge The necessity of placing
our State National Guard troops on sound
and effective basis was never SO evident as
ut the present moment The business inter-