Morning journal and courier., 1881-03-08

General have defined duties and discretionary
 authority conferred upon them by the Con-
 stitution or the laws, which they exercise in-
 dependently of the President. The duties of
 the Secretary of State are, of course, impor-
 tant, and his influence great, but of authority
 he has very little, and there is scarcely any
 matter in the whole range of his functions in
 which he does not act professedly in the name
 of the President. The officer who under our
 system comes nearest to the English premier
 in the scope of his authority is the President
 himself.
 President Garfield will be surrounded by
 quite menagerie if the story tellers do not
 run against snags. The latest addition is a
 yellow dog, which attached itself to him in
 Washington about year ago and was fed by
 him. It is related that the dog followed his protector to the depot when he went to Chi cago as 8 delegate to the convention that nominated him, and that before the news of the nomination reached Washington he set up joyful barking that was almost unbear- able. When General Garfield went to Wash, ington some weeks after his nomination, the story was told him, and he said he would take the dog to Ohio with him, but when the time for starting arrived the dog could not be found, he being of a rowing nature. Gen. eral Garfeld never saw the dog since until the day before hls inauguration, when, riding out with friend, he saw him. Calling him by his name, "Bab, :, the dog recognized the voice and appeared to be happy. AS the General arrived at the Riggs House the dog again disappeared. He saw nothing of him until just as the procession was moving from the White House. The dog followed the carriage all the way to the Capitol, but must have got mixed up or lost in some way, for he did not come back with it. He will probably reappear when he is needed
 The recent exercise by the English Home Secretary of the authority conferred upon him by statute to issue warrants for the opening of private letters at the general postofhce has called out numerous articles in the English newspapers on the history of the practice. According to The Globe, there was no statutory authority to open private letters prior to the restoration, when clause was introduced in the postoffice charter, forbid ding every one except ''under the immediate warrant of oue of our principal Secretaries of State" to exercise the privilege. Before that time, however, letters were frequently open ed without the sanction of any law, and in 1641 no less a parsonage than the Venetian 1 Ambassador complained that his correspond l ence had been opened and read, and no one l ventured to contradict him. Oliver Crom- well did not scruple to use this means to de- I fend the Commonwealth. In 1711, under | Queen Anne, a similar authority, though | rather more restricted, was conferred upon the Home Secretary, and the same act has been continued under each successive | including Queen Victoria. At | various times this authority has been used | to an unwarrantable extent and numerous | protests have been publicly entered against ! it's exercise. The last agitation, previous to | the present one, was in 1s44 over the famous | dazzini correspondence. At that time | special commission, having examined the | question in detail, reported against abroga ting the power conferred by Queen Anne's l statute. The agitation, however, served l useful purpose, for since that time the priv | lege has been most carefully and conscien- | siously exercised, so much so that it is be- | ieved that few persons in England were aware that such power existed until the re- cent application of it.