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Show ssi I AGAIN THOSE TOLLS. ! The New York World tells what the Bulwer-I Bulwer-I Clayton Ireaty of 1850 bound us to, which was S not to obtain or maintain exclusive control over I any canal at the isthmus. Great Britain agreeing to the same terms as to itself. But continuing, the World says: "The Hay-Pauncefote treaty, which we now seek to evade, was accepted by both nations in i lieu of the previous arrangement." Very if that la true why call up the old treaty? That is ded. and why say lr.tor, "We arc bound by these treaties"? We certainly are not bound by a treaty that has been abrogated. "That we are under bond not to do the thing that we have done." That i., not to charge coast steamers of the United States tolls on the Panama canal, and it treats Mr. Chambers' proposition for the abrogation abro-gation of the canal treaty as a breach of good faith. And the Tribune of New York says: "It is the baldest kind of contract breaking, nothing more." That practically, it says: "We want to break the terms of the treaty, but if we do we shall be brought to book for it, wherefore let us avoid the reproach of treaty breaking by abrogating abro-gating the treaty." And says "that cannot be done." For that matter the highest lawmaking power in this country is congress, and it can abrogate any treaty it pleases to. But the usual form is to give notice of such intention. But all that direct charging of dishonesty on the part of our government does not cover the case, because all we have done is to continue what we have been doing with the consent of the nations for a hundred years. If our government should exempt our ships in the trade off across the sea from tolls, there would be some occasion for all this professed horror; but for thej coasters there is nothing more self evident than that neither of the gentlemen who negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote treaty ever thought of interfering inter-fering with our coast ships, and a fair construction construc-tion would be that where the treaty says all nations na-tions shall be treated alike, that that ought to include our ships trading with foreign powers, but not the coasters, which merely trade between American ports and in which trade no foreign government in the world is interested. |