The Sun. — 1869-02-08 (London, England)

ROBERT J. WALKER a large fee in gold to carry through the Alaska business, and forthwith his eloquence soared into the clouds, even above the eagle, from which elevated position he gave a fascinating description of that charming region bordering on the North Pole. Who could have supposed that these airy flights were taken with pockets well ballasted by one of the heaviest of metals ? How could the innocent hearer believe the ardent patriotism, the philanthropy and love of his species, which induced the orator to urge with the fire of liberty brightly burning in his bosom the extension of the area of freedom, that the inspiration had been derived from a little business conversation with the Russian Baron. The writers were paid who advocated the cause and the newspapers which inserted their productions. But around all hung that atmosphere of high moral ideas through which the gaze of the uninitiated could not penetrate. If Legislatures and courts of law are tainted, it would be something worse than folly to expect individual officials to be honest ; and if officials, paid to guard the public, use the trust to cheat, can the outsider be free from the prevailing corruption ? The revenue system comes to the aid of the thief, in cases, indeed, compels a man to join a ring or be ruined. Thus rings are fostered; thus lobbyists grow powerful; thus interest is pitted against interest in the scramble of protection ; ea h step gained by one inducing a desperate effort in the others to attain the same level, and a giddy height it is to which some of them have risen, Yet each step carries the manufacturing industry of the States further from the consumer, and the country which ought to be the cheapest in the world is rapaidly becoming the dearest. The insn who suffer are the masses, and almost in direct proportiOn to their poverty. While particular interests are fostered, and monopolies created inimical to the national welfare, the lobbyists and corrupt legislators thrive, and the people permit inducements to be offered to carry measures by dishonest means. If the source whence laws emanate be impure, the courts in which they are administered are not likely to be pure. The system of election has lowered the legal profession in its highest places, and a writer in Harper's Weekly advocates the passage of the Act, making two-thirds of the Supreme Court necessary to declare an Act of Congress unconstitutional, because the day has gone by in the United States when the Bench of the Supreme Court can easily be filled with eminent and incorruptible lawyers. A writer in the Round Table attacked the Senate, declaring that men sent there poor returned to their States after their term, with wealth that could not have been honestly acquired. We all know how the vote of the seven " recreant" Senators was at once. attributed to bribery by those whose plans that vote defeated—the belief not yet being wholly exploded that bribery only could explain so erratic a course. An English paper, alluding to New York the other day, said—" It is seriously proposed to establish a Vigilance Committee in that city. A gang of murderers are at work, and the police fail altogether in checking their crimes. But it is not alone the failure of the police which encourages the appeal to Judge