New-York tribune., 1879-05-10

| drawing to close, the political prospects OF
the British Government are likely to brighten.
The letter of British official, which is
| printed on another page, is candid adnls-
! sion on the part of a clearsgbted observer
that in the world of manufactures America
must soon be supreme. In the cheapnesS OF
food, in the vast variety of soil and climate,
and in the cheapneSs of raw materials, TINS
writer believes, lies the strength of the United
| States over all the nations of the earth.
| Coming from an American. this would be the
merest commonplace of patriotic cOmplacency
coming from an Englishman, and following
| similar admissions by other Englishmen, 1t Is
| significant acknowledgment.
| Judged by the conditions which govern In
| ternatiOnal trade, the bulk of the foreign
goods consumed i'll Mexico should be supplied
by this country. This is confirmed 10y the
| opinions of an American merchant gwen on
| another page, who sees that our relative prox-
| unity to Mexico gives us special advantages.
! OF course heavy charges for freight and high
| duties on some articles stand in the way, but
as other nations manage to do a large trade
with Mexico, despite these obstacles, our
manufacturers should not fail to follow up the
successes which they have already achieved.
In establishing trade it is the first step which
costs.
Senator Edmunds's position at the head OF
| the lawyers of the Senate makes his opinion
of any pending measure of commanding
importance. This preGminence as law
yer and the fervency of his Repub-
lican faith combined to render it pc
Al, bo chn Gum N
the views of the minority III the Senate upon
the Army bill, as he did yesterday, before
the vote was taken. His speech is mastery
defence of the rights of the Executive De
partment against encrOachmcnts by Congress
and the States. and is thorough and unan-
swerable argument for the necessity of having
power where there is law to he enforced.
| Senator EdmundsS speeches are never sensa-
tional, and this one was not so, though made
upon a subject where warmth is 50
| excusable. But its arguments were none
the less effective on that account After
brief and telling speech by Mr.. Blaine,
the bill was passed by party vote, and now
goes TO meet, i'll all probability, second
veto.
A strong sentiment in favor of lower fares
on the elevated railroads seems to have devel-
oped itself in the Assembly yesterday. The
adverse report Of the Railroad Committee on
the bill extending the hours during which the
fare shall be five cents and directing that
there shall be one five-cent car on every train
throughout the day. was overruled by q vote
of Is 10 20, and the bill was thus brought
before the House in favorable position. The
arguments that were made in support of il
ed ct+, hon a
large part of the public. These roads
are making enormous sums upon fran
chises which they obtained for moth
ing, and the conviction is very general
that they can exact somewhat smaller returns
and still be abundantly compensated for their
enterprise and the outlay OF their capital
! When the bill comes up again for considera-
ton, some member might suggest feature
which might serve as a sufficient concession
to make the bill less Objectionable to the
| companies; in return for putting fye-cent
! car upon each train the companies might be
allowed to add ten-cent car to each train
run during the ive-cent hours. There are
many persons, especially ladies, to whom this
method of escape from the Overcrowded cars
at certain hours of the day would be very
grateful.
The curious sentimentality of recOnci!ia-
ton which finds its highest expression In
| praise of every man who fought against the
| Union, and is best illustrated by the new
rule that no soldier shall hold Office unless he
can show a Confederate commission, reached
| IFS climax in the House of Representa-
tives Yesterday when MIR. 5. S. Cox, OF
| New-York, spoke of ''the sO-called re-
" "belHon." "So-called," indeed! To Sthis
complexion we have come then-that
n wicked rebellion, fomentcd by leaders who
preferred to reign in hell rather than serve in
heaven, and aided by Northern weaklings
who dared to do everything against their
country except to fight; which sacrificed
hundreds of thousands Of lives and thousands
of millions of money, and left behind it bitter
hatreds between sec ctiOns and States that will
hardly disappear in generations; in short,
the least provoked and the least ex-
cusable revolt the world ever saw,
which was followed by the most remarkable
cemoucy known in the history of the race is
now termed q "sO-called rebellion" by a
fippant sympathzer with those who were at
once the perpetrators of this unexampled
crime and the objects of this unexampled
mercy Mr.. Cox is hardly person to waste
indignation upon, under ordinary circum-
stances, but just here he represents class in
politics which already controls both houses
of Congress. Ii it should ever control the
Presidency, we would have no right to be as
tonished if it were officially declared that the
d" so-called rebellion" was a real one, only
that il was the North which rebelled.
CALTFORNIA'S NEW CONSTITUTION.
! 1t will be a mistake to consider the effect of