Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-06
Mr. Royali's Mission.

Mr. ROYALS Mission.
W. L. RoYALL. Esq, has gone to
England 10 confer with the clients who
have stood by him SO faithfully for the
last ten years, and by whom he hiss
stood 50 faithfully for the same length
Of time. His object is, of course, to
explain to them the dual form OF
government which we have in this co'ln"
try. He win try to teach them, as Mr..
WEBSTER tried to teach certain London
bankers and capitalists thirty-odd years
ago. that the United States Government
has no power to compel the State
Governments to pay their debts, and
vet that the former will not permit q
foreign Government to collect debts
here by compulsion--that is, by a war
wsged upon any one of the States of the
Union.
JOHN BULL cannot. we suspect, be
made TO understand how sucha state Of
things can consist with honesty and
fair dealing. lie viii persist in be-
lieying that UNcLESAM takes an undue
advantage of other nations in thus re-
fusing to compel his constituent States
to pay their debts, and at the same
time refusing to allow any other nation
to make war upon them.
Nevertheless, let the task be easy or
difficult, its performance must be at
tempted, and Mr.. RoYALL is Of all
men the one best qualified to undertake
Il. He knows that unless the whole
structure of our Federal system is
changed, no State can be forced to pay
its debts. He knows that the thin pre-
text upon which the eleventh article of
amendments to the Federal Constitution
has been SGT at naught-namely, the
promise printed upon the coupons of
the States bonds that these coupons
will be received for taxes--will not
avail the bondholders when it comes
TO real trial Of strength between
the doctrine Of Capitalization taught in
Mr.. Justice MATTHEW'S recent opin-
ions in the Virginia coupon cases, and
the doctrine Of the reserved and in
violable rights of the States taught in
the dissenting opinion in the same cases
Of Chief-Justice WAITE and the other
three Justices who concurred with the
Chief Justice. The eleventh amend
ment is not mere juggle Of words. 1t
is part of the Constitution, and over
rides any part Of the Constitution as it
was before that amendment was added
to Il which conflicts with the amend
ment.
Mr.. RoyALL, we say, is entitled to
the confidence and the ear Of his clients,
and will doubtless use his utmost ex-
ertions to induce them TO offer COM
promise Of some sort to the State of
Virginia. But what sort Of compro-
mise will II be? He will not ask his
clients to accept the RIDDLEBERGER
settlement, nor any settlement notmore
liberal to them than that settlement is.
He has fought against that settlement
in and out Of the courts, and has all
along claimed that he would succeed in
having it declared unconstitutional by
the highest court in the land. In thus
making war upon the Commonwealth
be has cut himself loose from all SYM
pathy with the people Of Virginia, and
has so offended them that with one
voice, or at any rate with substantial
.unanimity, they declare that they will
agree to no settlement more favorable
than tho one offered in 1882. And
some of the States bondholders-per-
haps one 9Th Of them--are arrayed
on the side Of that settlement and
against the foreign bondholders. We
mean. Of course, those who have al
ready funded 90 many millions Of dol
lars under the RrDpLEBERaER bill.
We hope for no good result from
Mr.. RoyAIL's mission. He cannot
secure . compromise that viii be ac-
ceptsd by the people Of Virginia. He
cannot please both sides. He cannot
bring them together. They are too far
apart. They have no common stand
point ftom which they can look at the
questions involved. The bondholders
slsmor for money and refuse to recog-
Mise constitutional restrictions as OBJ
structions blocking up their pathway
to the States treasury. The people Of
Virginia clamor for their rights under
The Federal Constitution, and refuse 10
agrse v any new settlement, or to
consider the debt question 1t ell, until
thsy are assured that those rights ere
70 b. respected.
Matchmaking the Pubic Service.
The cry ofthe organs that the South