The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-05-31

who might have earned the greater part OF
this freight money, and who if our mercan-
tile marine stood now where it did in 1860,
would have earned two-thirds oft, shall not
be allowed to buy ships to put US back to
that period. From 1850 to 1860 the American
tonnage engaged in foreign trade increased
fifty per cent, we, are told-and without
subsidies, by the way and at that period
we were foremost among commercial ma
tions = now we are nearly the hindmost,
and yet the very men who speak OF this hui
initiating fact oppose most strenuousiy
change in the law which would allow
Americans to buy ships in the open market
prise had lost us the commercial supremacy
which was once our national boast we
might be silent; but it was the accident OF
great war which drove our fleets from
the ocean and compelled us to sell them to
foreigners, who were eager to buy them,
because they at least had sense enough to
know the value of ships as the tools OF
commerce. Suppose mans house burned
down. He would naturally go out and buy
another house to shelter his family. What
would he think of neighbor who should
come to him and say, ''This is all wrong !;
you ought not to buy another house you
ought to wait until your trees grow to
proper size; then you can send them
to the sawmill, have them sawed
into joists, flooring, Misunderstanding
and shingles, and when these are properly
seasoned you can then build your house?"
Would not this advice be absurd, ridicu-
lous, silly? Would not the reply be. ~
want house because until | have one
cannot work to advantage, and therefore
will buy the house where can get it most
quickly and cheaply?" Yet when by the
calamity Of war we have lost our fleets,
which it took US eighty years to build up,
we are forbidden to replace them even when
the plainest figures show that the lack OF
ships is constant and heavy loss to us and
drain on our resources. Are there not men
in Congress who can see this and impress
it upon their neighbors with force sufficient
to secure to Americans the right to buy
ships where they please?
An AnClo-R ussian Basis or Settle
The terms on which England and Russia
are said to have agreed to meet in q
congress Of the Powers Mt Berlin are set
forth in our special despatch this morning.
These terms, if accepted by both govern
ments in good faith, and not merely as q
means OF gaining time by discussion of
irreconcileable differences, afford basis Of
settlement and prospect that war be-
tween England and Russia will be
avoided for the present. The division
Of the Bulgaria of the San Stefano
Treaty into two States by the natural
boundary of the Balkans is simply making
two draughts of the cupful Of bitterness
which Turkey in any event must swallow as
the consequence of her defeat. But while
Russia is DESTROYS of erecting one Slav State
on the ruins of these Ottoman provinces
capable of self-protection other Powers,
notably England, recognize such political
creation as an extension of Russia from the
Danube to the Egean, and therefore a
menace to rival interests in the East.
Although the proposed Southern State
or more correctly province, because
it will have local legislature
and Christian governor, nominally sub
iect to tho Porte--would be on emancipa-
ton of people from cruel tyranny, it
must also be the barrier erected against the
advance Of Russia toward the natural out
let of her commemorative Egean Sea. We
therefore regard the proposition as STUN
bling block that may delay tho negotiations
conducted in the Congress under the dis
guise of discussion of the terms Of the
San Stefano Treaty.
Another important point in the basis of
settlement is the retrccession of Bessarabia,
which, it is stated, England deplores, but
will not object to. The granting of that
territory to Roumania under the Treaty of
Paris gave the only strength to Roumania's
title that could be claimed for it. Hence
if the signatory Powers consent to retro
cession it is equivalent to an abrogation Of
the Treaty of Paris. The force Of that in
strument being SO ignored by the Congress
Jnefc - HotHiHb icit W DiHu VIC IoWeIS
to common policy, and the buncombe
about maintaining the sanctity Of treaties,
&C., will be followed by efforts to secure in
dividual interests ut the expense Of the
probability Of a lasting European peace.
England, it appears, is also willing to
concede Batoum to Russia on condition
that the latter Power will make no further
advance in Asia. The import of this is that
England, recognizing her inability to pre-
vent the occupation of Batoum, endeavors
to make bargain at Turkeys expense,
by which she can maintain neu-
trail area between her frontiers and
those Of Russia in Asia, conscious
that Russian advance toward India
would be highly dangerous to her authority