New-York tribune., 1878-06-08

woods of Europe well secured by his commissioners
at So, 900 year salary and $50 day travelling
expenses perhaps even our Eighty and irresponsible
cergymen will begin to reflect that under our great
Secretaries of the Treasury, who had SO long our
public lands in charge under our able and patriotic
Secretaries of the Interior, to whom the truS'
was transferred. the great Northwest grew
and enlarged her borders, and strengthened
herself exceedingly with no Foresters save
those whose cubic feet were in their stout
broCans. and whose linear measure was In their
strong right armsl / think even the Rev. James
Freeman Clarke would then admit that 1t Is not
Senatorial slur but a National fact that Mr. Sehurz
seems not TO have informed himself Of the very
first element of the problem he set himself to
solve-I mean its size
Mr.. Clarke treats geography as amere luxury OF
the boudoir 1t is, on the contrary, the
first necessity Of statecraft. Mr.. Schurz's wild
and disastrous dabs at legislation made it
the Imperative duty of Senators to put upon his un
lawful and reckless ntermeddling the curb OF Geog
Taphy to acquaint him that the single Territory OF
Montana which he doing his best to inJure ana
retard is larger than the entire Kingdom of Prus-
sia which was evidently his mental unit OF meas
ure; and that the attempt TO apply to Montana the
land laws of Prussia, with its fifteen thousand
SQUARE miles of territory less and its twenty-five
millions of population more than Montana, was
the impracticable and intolerable empiricism of
political quack, and not the just, intelligent
and patriotic policy of practical statesman.
But very droll it is to see Mr.. Clarke mounting
that one little splinter and dtsporting himself as
if he doth bestride the whole timber tract of the
United states like Colossus. The slight rap which
a Senator or two gaveito the Secretary on account
of bis foreign birth, and rather by way Of excuse
than of attack, was but love-pat compared with
the thumps administered on the score of law and
Justice, precedent and principle, and the
final knock-down dealt by both Houses.
But Mr.. Clarke, oddly enough, has singled
out for .animadversion perhaps the most re-
spectful allusOn thar was made to Mr. Schurz per
haps the most respectable defence that could De
made for him. do not remember that any Cabinet
Minister in this country ever received such rebui
as Mr. Schurz received in the restrictions placed
upon him by the amendment. do not remember
that any previous Cabinet in entire history ever
contained member who would cling to his position
after such a rebuff
Mr. Schurz, however, judged from and by his pub
lie utterances holds his Office on the ground that
the Executive Department should administer the
Government independently of the will and wish OF
Congress- which, after all is said, is every two years
a fresh expression of the Will and wish Of
the people Secretary Schurz holds. as Lord Butte
held that party should be abolished and that the
Sovereign should be freed from Parliamentary ty-
ranny, and reign by his own will If could by any
means avert the tranquil nfaibility of Mr.. Clarke's
priestly maediction upon all reference to Mr..
Schurz's nativity, should suggest that the dis
tnguished reformer draws his model Of administra-
ton from the Teutonic rather than from the Anglo
Saxon standard, and that he has yet to learn that
he does not bear quite the same relation to the Con-
gress of the United States that Prince Bismarck
bears to tho Parliament of the German Empire. In
fact, the dazzled and jaundiced American eye finds
it difficult to discern any resemblance at all be-
tween Bismarck and Schurz, except the tabooed
fact that both were horn in Prussia.
Nor can our reformers derive countenance from
England. of whose ways they are so violently
enamored England would rock on her waves to
upset Cabinet Minister who should hold on to his
seat after vote of want of confidence. MacKnigbt
well describes in its duplicate application tho
recognized and time-honOred principle of English
government, which "prOnounces not more emphat-
ically that the King can do no wrong, than that n
Minister, without being subjected to the Jealous
vigilance of Parliament, will seldom do any right"
GAIL HAMILTON.