Editorial Notes and Comment

[…] For an appropriation for his services in defending that colossal criminal. Mr. Reed has gone to a poor market. We are afraid the American people do not appreciate his patriotic and disinterested services.

Mr. Joseph Cook has resumed his sledge-hammer assaults on Mormonism in his popular course of lectures in Boston. Like many strong fighters, Mr. Cook sometimes delivers a blow clean over the head of the adversary; but when he does strike low enough his blows are commonly very persuasive.

Perhaps, if Gordon is not dead, as some of our contemporaries insist on believing, it would be just as well to moderate a little the quantity and strength of the eulogies pronounced upon him. There should be some economy in ante-mortem obituaries; for they leave very little to be said when a man does actually die.

It is said that Gen. Wolseley is wont to refer to Gen. Grant as Mr. U. S. Grant. It once amused Lord Howe to direct a communication to George Washington, Esq. Gen. Washington survived, however, and Gen. Grant is likely to survive. Whether Wolseley will survive, will be seen, perhaps, when El Mahdi gets through with him.

Congressman Randall's plan for building a navy is to have a commission, of which the Secretary of the Treasury shall be chief, and the other six members civilians, skilled in the various departments of naval architecture. For four months the commission is to open to the competition of the world the submission of plans of five types of armored war vessels. For the models adjudged best, prizes of $10,000, $15,000, and $5,000 are to be given. The commission is then to invite bids from American builders at the lowest bid the contract for building one ship of each type. Any builder who wishes to construct a ship may have it accepted at the same price, provided it possesses greater steaming power than the one contracted for. The commission is to have money enough to begin the construction of these ships. The chief surprise is that Mr. Randall gives over his opposition to making appropriations for building ships of war, but he has recently visited Mr. Cleveland, and may perhaps have seen a great light.

To charge that Gen. Grant 'prepared' Badeau's book, or any volumes of it, is an outrageous slander. It is hard to believe [...] that Rosecrans can be fool enough to believe it, himself. There is, we believe, a better bill — one designed to obviate the President's technical objections to the present bill — in Congress, the object of which is the same as this, to secure Gen. Grant a place on the retired list. And when it comes to a vote, as we hope it will this session, we have no doubt that the vote on it will show that Rosecrans's snarling has only helped the measure.

Hon. H. C. [Bell?] of St. Johnsbury denies, in a communication to the [...], that he has ever indicated, in word or act, any desire to be a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, and the suggestion that the new newspaper enterprise in St. Johnsbury has had the remotest relation to any such candidacy is pronounced simply absurd.

French affairs in China have been rather obscured, of late, by the English campaign in the Soudan. The public will be reminded that there is more than one case of the cat-playing-with-the-mouse, by the official telegram from General Brière de l'Isle, stating that the Chinese army has been routed at Kulua, and that the French flag now floats over Langson.

The St. Albans Trust Company, under the honest and able management of Receiver Rich, seems likely to come out better than was expected. Indeed it has already discharged more of its obligations than the public had courage to expect at the outset. This is not a common thing, in settlement of the estates of broken and defunct banks.

In order to acquit Jefferson Davis and his confreres of the charge of treason the Charleston, S.C., News and Courier distinctly enunciates the doctrine that 'the moment that a State withdraws from the Union no citizen of that State can be guilty of treason against the United States.' State sovereignty was not more clearly asserted, 25 years ago.

Lord Wolseley's friends in London declare that he disapproved of the Nile route to the Soudan, preferring that by Suakin. This involves the assertion that the longer route was forced upon him by the English war department. Yet it was said, when he was appointed to command the expedition, and has not hitherto been denied, that he only consented to take the command when given carte blanche as to the details.

Few, perhaps, were aware that John Boyle O'Reilly of the Boston Pilot was a political fugitive from British authority, till the telegraph mentioned that he had asked and been refused permission to lecture in Canada. He was tried for high treason in Ireland in 1866, and banished to [...]

The riotous demonstrations in London on Monday show the insecurity of public order and safety, even in the stronghold of the great English government. Only the fickleness of the mob, probably, prevented the doing of some serious mischief to the obnoxious government board, whose police guard the rioters overpowered; and even Mr. Gladstone's official residence might have been forcibly entered, had not the hostile demonstration in Downing street afforded time for police reinforcements to arrive.

So uncommon a thing is it for a man in high position, whether of influence or wealth, to be made amenable to the ordinary and 'vulgar' requirements of justice, that the punishment of ex-Mayor Edson of New York, for contempt of court, by a sentence from Judge Freedman to fifteen days in the county jail and the payment of a fine of $250, is heralded by the newspapers as a great sensation, and some of them seem to look upon it in the light of an amusing improbability. Nevertheless, it is a fact. But whether Mr. Edson would have got fifteen days in jail, for stealing a hundred thousand dollars, is doubtful.

The Boston Pilot wants missions sent from Ireland, to present the cause of Ireland to Germany and Russia, and to secure an arrangement which will compel the presence of 110,000 English soldiers in England and 'hold the English navy in sleepless guard round the coast.' Should the storm burst that is now gathering, the Pilot affirms that Ireland must declare her independence, and that she would receive early recognition as a nation from France, Germany, Austria, Russia and the United States! Such are the sanguine hopes and plans of many Irishmen. Of course the work of the dynamiters is in direct opposition to such schemes. Russia, for instance, could not afford to encourage the Irish nihilists; nor could any civilized nation help a cause which uses dynamite as its chief instrument.

The New Orleans Exposition, it is said, is still running behind on its current expenses; and unless the general government comes to the rescue, a collapse is feared. The commissioners have a committee at Washington, urging a further appropriation of $300,000 in aid of the exposition. Col. Mead of Vermont is one of the committee, and spoke with marked effect, at a hearing before the House committee on appropriations on Wednesday last. The New Orleans papers generally favor the closing of the exposition this spring and reopening it next fall. As the winter must be the harvest time for the exposition, and this winter is practically lost, this would be a good thing, probably, for the exposition; but it would be pretty hard on the exhibitors.