The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-07-13

Capt. Hotham who conducted the lombard
ment of the city of Alexandria in 1882 The
fact would seem TO be ominous, and to call for
some more of that periodical alarm which a
certain hysterical class of newspapers make
about the unprotected condition of our coast
cities and their liability to bombardment.
X X X
But, seriouslyspeaking the British are making
bgbluff. Lord Salisbury and the British Minis
ter here have been using language as threatening
as is usually employed in diplomatic negotia-
tons. The British men -of-war are in the North
ern Pacific for the purpose of threatening and
coercing us, and the threat seems to have had
effect Two months ago the Secretary of the
Treasury, in accordance with the act Of March
2, 1889, and the Presidents annual proclama-
tion under that act ordered three revenue cut
ters to Behring Sea and instructed the com
manders to prevent all seal poaching by ar
resting the pOachers and seiZing their vessels.
But within the past few days the same Secre-
tary dispatched a special messenger to the
Pacific with new instructions cancelng those
formerly given, and practically directing the
commanders of the revenue cutters to refrain
from making arrests or seizures of men or
vessels flying the British flag; in other words,
instructng them to refrain from executing
the law of March 2, 1885, law which was
passed by Congress in circumstances of great
urgency, and which was intended as a declara-
tion by the highest constituted authority of the
American position in the dispute with Great
Britain about the seal fisheries Of Behring Sea.
Section of the act ITO provide for the pro-
lection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska,n ap-
proved March 2, 1899, reads as follows: "That
section 1886 of the Revised Statutes of the
United States is hereby declared to include and
apply to all the dominion of the United States
in the waters of Behring Sea, and 1t shall be the
duty OF the President, at timely season in
each year, to issue proclamation and cause
the same to be published for one month in at
least one newspaper, il any such there be pub
lished, at each United States port OF entry on
the Pacific Coast, warning all persons against
entering said waters for the purpose of yiolat-
ing the provision OF said section, and he shall
also cause one or more vessels OF the L nited
states to diligently cruise in said waters and
arrest all persons and seize all vessels found to
be or to have been engaged in any violation of
the laws Of the United States therein"
The terms OF the act are mandatory, and it
will be strange if the threats of Great Britain
prevent the execution OF the law.
4 4 K
The experience of the past gives the average
American great confidence in the future, even if
present appearances should be unfavorable.
This was illustrated the other day by discus
sion of the Behring Sea situation between an
American and an Englishman. The Briton, in
deal Of pride in British prowess aud the British
navy, said; "Well, we're going to whip you fel.
lows out of your boots" The Yankee simply
replied quietly: "What Again" ?"
Il X
1t was strange little circumstance which
deprived the shipbuilding firm of which Rep
resentatiye Wheeler, of Michigan, is the head
OF the contract which was awarded by the Navy
Department the other day for the building of a
new practice ship. Mr. Wheeler was the lowest
bidder, but because his ship-yard was situated
on Lake Michigan he could not get the con
tract. And why because in 1917 the gov
ernments of England and the United stetes
made an arrangement which still stands, that
neither power should maintain any naval forces