POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN AMERICA

Waikato Times, Volume II, Issue 95, 7 December 1872, Page 3

POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN AMERICA

Andrew Johnson, ox-President of the United States, addressed his fellow-citizens in Knox County, on tin: 14th of August last, in a speech which whs, in many respects, a (remarkable one. 110 told liis hearers that the founders of the American Ilcpublie liad wisely endeavoured to frame a constitution whieh should be u mean between the two extremes of monarchy and mobocracy. 15ut now the people were? living under "the moil, absolute government on the face of the earth. They were governed by a monarchy of •M 3 heads. Jle .should prefer to have but one, true and wise. Corruption was pervading the whole machinery of government, and ho charged the President of the United Sl.ales with having received gifts amounting in all to nearly ;C 100,0(10 during ]i|h term of otlice. What, follows is very explic I : " ]'ir sident (Irani, rece 7< d a bribe of .Cl.'{,ooo Jrjin A. T. SievViirl, and, in return, appointed Ste'.wirt, secretary of the Tn-HMiry. Hour, Mti.-.iiieiiiiseUs, was nopointed Attorney-General, in cjiinidt-ruLion uf the gilt of a library, valued at ,tZ,(><)(). boric presented him with a house and lot, (allotment) worth £8,000, for which lie was appointed secretary of the-Nary." In denouncing this political profligacy, Mr Johnson dwelt approvingly on the prompt and vigorous punishment, with which the House of Commons visited its venal Speaker, Sir .lames Trevor, in 1(395, when that functionary was adjudged guilty of a high crime, for having received a gratuity of 1,000 guinea* from tho city of London, and was expelled and disgraced. Rut no such punishment, awaited greater oU'enders in tho country of Washington j for the consciences of public men were seared by familiarity with such misdeeds. " Where are your public morals to be found," ashed the ex-l'resident, " wliori your offices of trust, mid responsibility are bargained and peddled . out by corrupt, rulers i'" The laivs of tho country were being violated with impunity, and the nepotism to be found in high places were naturally imitated by men in a subordinate position. As an illustration of the way in which the latter plunder the Treasury, the New York World furnishes a statement showing the amonnL of internal revenue collected in the Slate of Maine, and what, portion of it, sticks to the lingers of "Grant's beefeaters" —i.e., the assessors and collectors. The gross sum received from the taxpayers is S5:Ui22 ; Ihe Government, gets net $20,022, and the "beefeaters" 0(H). lu one district tlic cost of collecting is 90 per cent, of the entire amount received.

Tli(> following letter appears in (lie Times" We are threatened with an obliteration of the potato crop ; id any rale m> far as litis year is concerned. Yesterday I carefully examined a nimiher of fields iti tin- potato growing district around Lung Sutton, in Lincolnshire, and found limb, already lliree-l'ourl lis of (In; luliers (by weight) arc diseased, while the mischief is still in active progress. The testimony of Inauv growers in the neighbourhood is that, scarcely any sound potatoes can he discovered throughout whole fields, and Ihe general anxiety is to know, not. what may be the proboble amount, of ' ware' for the market, but whether enough produce will be forthcoming as 1 seed ' for next year. 1 have not, the slightest doubt that the same condition of the crop prevails over the ent ire tract of potnito country between lioslon and Wisbeach, and that, the yield, if anything ut all, can be little more than a return of the seed planted. The consterimlion among the farmers, wbo pay high rents, and applv lo Iheir land very large quantifies of artificial manure, mav he imagined, seeing that the loss can scarcsly bo less than sor perhaps £20 per acre. Disease appears to have smitten (he crop in all parts of the kingdom ; and ibis desirable that- accurate reports as to the present shite of the tidier snould be forthcoming from Fife, Forfar, Perth, Ross, Lanark, Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, F.ssex, Staffordshire, Keiu, Somerset, and Devonshire, counties growing the largest acreages in Givat I!ri:ain, and also from all the provinces in Irclcnd. For if the saleable produce of the entire potato crop of the liritish Isles is all but destroyed, the loss means something like 1 ,(>'.so,ooo acres (besides garden*)-at, say 4-.J tons per acre, amount ing to 7,!$""),000 tons, which at JL'4 per ton, comes to 1-0,000, or the value of, say ten million quarters of wheat.T have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, John Amihhn'ON Ci.akke," Central Chamber of Agricull urc. An Knglish Magistrate sentenced n eonplc to matrimony under circumstances which seem legally just, although legally curious. A young man and young woman were contest ing po.-session of a piece of property, the one claimed under an old lease, and the other tinder all old will. "It just strikes nu\." said the .lustice, "that there is a pleasant and easy way lo terminate the old lawsuit. The plaint id' appears lo he a respectable young man, and this a very nice' youn" woman. (Laughter.) They can both get married 'aud live on the farm. 'If I hey go on with law proceedings it will be frittered away between lawyers, who, I am sure, arc not ungallant enough to wis'h the marriage to come oil'." The ladv blushed, and the young man stammered—"they liked each other a little bit," so a verdict was entered for the plaint ill', on condition of his promise to marry the defendant within two months, a stay of execution being added to the verdict till the marriage ceremony should bo completed. (iuoWTii ok Cou.M.s.--An interesting fact has recently been observed respect ing the growth of corals. Somewhat less than two years ago Captain McGregor, of the steamer Kilauea, moored a buoy in k'ealakekua Bay. I.ast week he was ordered lo hoist the anchor and examine the condition of the chain. The latter, which is a, heavy two-inch cable, was found covered with corals aud ovster shells, some of which are as-liarge as a man's hand. The larger corals measure -I-.} inches in length', which represents their growth during the period of two years that, the anchor and cable had been submerged. The specimen which we have seen shows tie nature of it's formation by the little coral insects more distinctly than any we have before examined. When taken out of the water it. had small crabs on it. A query arises whether these crabs live on the coral insects, or whether they simply seek the branches of the coral for protection. The popular supposition is that corals are of extremely slow growth. Here we have a formation equal to 17 ft. in a century. —ITouolulu Gazette. In his private life the Pope lays aside all grandeur and display. We have never entered his more private apartments, but if we may trust, the report of those who have, they are as plain as those of the private priests. The papal throne-room, the first of his apartments, is indeed a large and well-proportioned hall, rich with gilding and arabesque and fresco. A company of soldiers might mnnomvre oil the marble floor. Here the Pope holds his public reception. This is his court -room, and here he does not lay aside his ecclesiastical splendour. But as you pass from this room to those that- are within, all showiness disappears. When at last you reach, if you are so favored, the private ofllce of the sovereign Pontiff, you find a plain room, about fifteen feet by twenty, not lofty, lighted by a single window, without a fireplace, with no other ornaments than two or three devotional paintings and an exquisitely chiselled statue of the Virgin Mary, and with no other furniture than a writing desk, a small book-ease, a thin carpet, and two or three plain wooden chairs. Here, after an early breakfast of bread ar.d chocolate, the Pope works until about eleven o'clock, when the routine of his public life ends. lie neither gives nor accepts entertainments. His table, we are assured, does not cost more than Jso cents (Is 2J-d) a day; for he is fruga l . Ami his chamber is as free from luxury as his office. His ostentation is for the Church. If it is, as we think it, a mistaken service of Cod, if is at least charitable to hope that it is an honest one. — Harper's Jlar/nzine. C.M.i; mk Cri-OKOK.—-There is a good story afloat about Mr Lhinerot't. The old fellow is quite a dandy, and very fond of tlirting with the girls. Passing out- upon a baleonv one evening with a gay New York lassie, he Began making love to her. She called him "Mr Bancroft." "Now really "my dear Miss C ." said the ancient- beau, "you should not call me that—cull me George." A few moments afterwards they returned to the drawing room, and mingled with the throng, when to the amazement and horror of the ambassador, the mischievous girl exclaimed, loud enough for the whole company to hear, " George, I have dropped my glove ; please go back and look for it." George went, but lias not returned with that glove vet. —-American paper. A diffident youth was paying his addresses to a gay lass of the eonntrv, who had long despaired of bringing things to a crisis. He called one day when she was alone. After settling the merits of the weather, the girl said, looking slily in.obis face: "I dreamed of you last night." "Did you? Why no>v !" Yes : I dreamed yon kissed' me." " Why, nsw! What did yon dream your mother said ?" " Oh, I dreamed she wasn't at home." A light dawned on the youth's intellect, a singular sound broke the stillness, and in a few weeks they were married. John Peerybingle in the Melbourne Times says : —" You don't believe in born murderers and criminals, do you ? It is too dreadful to think of that any one should be brought into the world so heavily handicapped with wickedness that- crime comes natural, but then it happens to be so. Every day you meet with men who wear good clothes too, and yet haven't any belief inright-, or any dislike to wrong. On the contrary, they prefer wrong to right for choice, and do dirty actions for'the pleasure they get out of scoundrelism. They were born so. The taint"of villainy is in their blood, and they escape the hulks and the chain gang by sheer good luck. Read the English story by the last mail—' a terrible story of child passion aud its results.' Some children (at Coalport Bridge) in Shropshire quarrelled while at. play. One of them, four vears old, threw a knifo at another, and killed him. The elder brother, seven years old, then set. to work to kill the baby murderer by " striking him on the head with such violence that the life of the little sufferer is despaired of,' as the papers say. There's an amiable family for you. The only pity seems to be that there wasn't a bigger brother about, to kill the young gentleman seven, years old ; and that the entire domestic circle, including father and mother, didn't murder one another, without standing on ceremony, so as to save the hangman the trouble. My friends, if you're got any sympathies, don't waste tha same on criminals and unconvicted scoundrels," as long as tlier e'eany honest poverty about."