GENERAL GRANT’S OPINIONS ABOUT ENGLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5142, 15 September 1877, Page 6 (Supplement)

GENERAL GRANT’S OPINIONS ABOUT ENGLAND.

(From the World)

“ So, dining out every night has not killed you yet, General 1” “No, although it is rather severe work. But then I am much interested, and everybody treats me with a kindness for which I was quite unprepared ; and I sleep well in this country. Altogether, I have nothing to complain of.” The conversation took place with an old friend, in the house of a much older one —that of General Badeau, the companion-in-arms of General Grant in the days when destruction seemed to threaten the Union, and when many a bloody field still lay between the armies of the North and the memorable day of Appomattox Court House, when the great captain of the South, General Lee, called hia broken and starving troops together, and said to them, “ Men, we have fought through the war together. I have done the best I could for you. My heart is too full to say more.” To conquer the enemy was General Grant’s duty, but he would not witness their humiliation ; and when the last request was made to him that the Southern troops might take away their horses with them to their homes, he yielded a ready assent. Before that time came, however, General Badeau and his chief (now living together for a time in a pleasant street in Brompton) had yet to pass through the dangerous but heroic siege of Vicksburg, the battle of Chattanooga, the awful carnage of the “ Wilderness,” the long siege of Richmond, scenes which present a strange contrast to those which the two soldiers are now witnessing in the height of a London season.

“And now that you have seen a good deal of England and Englishmen, pray how does it all strike you ?” “Well, it would take a long time to tell all that one thinks about England,” said General Grant. “In the first place, the country is so beautiful everywhere that one never ceases to admire it. I have been to Bath and to Southampton, and driven a good deal in the neighborhood of Loudon—to Richmond and ether places—and everywhere it is the same. All the land is cultivated ; one sees comparatively little wood, and it is difficult to imagine anything more beautiful than it all is. Yet, of course, one cannot but recollect how over-populated the country is. Here you can no longer produce enough food for your own people. In our country we could raise the means of support for five hundred millions, and to-day we have only about two millions more than England; We might not be able to buy anything'whatever outside, and be cut off from all the rest of the world, but yet we could get enough out of the ground to live upon. What could England do if any disaster happened to cut her off from the rest of the world in a similar manner ?” “ Mr. Disraeli said that in such a case the United States could begin ‘all over again’—. England could not.” “ I have met him,” said the General, “ and find him a very clever man in your English sense. He seems to be thorougly posted about our country. We were talking about Mexico last night, and ho expressed a wish that wo had kept Mexico after the close of our war with her. I said that there was a party in our country which had always opposed the annexation of Mexico ; but that the Mexican people would welcome annexation, for it would more than double the value of their property, and give them a quiet and secure Government.” “The old question is reviving again, I see.”

“ Yes ; and it will always be coming up till it is settled. A clever man, I should think, is Lord Beaconsfield, though I should say a sufferer physically. He seems to me a man who could put up with any amount of insult or unpopularity if ho were pursuing an end, and would patiently wait for the result.” “He has been unpopular enough in his day,”

“ Perhaps so ; but your public men here get fair play. It is different with us. A man has only to be put into a public position to be a mark for every calumniator ; the object on almost all sides is to destroy him. There has got to be a great change in that in our country some day.” , . “And then you have the Prince ol Wales as well as the great politicians ! ” “ Yes ; and a very amiable and genial man he seems'to be. I have had three or four conversations with him, and always found him very pleasant. The Queen has kindly asked me to dine at Windsor Castle on the 26th and my wife will go with me ; and I believe we are to stay till the next day.” “You ought to be a great judge on the dinner question now ; don't you think we can dine better as a rule in the United States than here ? ” “ Well, the dinners are good enough here ; but I think they are better in America. Our markets offer a more varied supply of provisions. Here the dinners are nearly all the same wherever you go.” “ That is partly the fault of the cooks, who persist in sending up the same old dishes year after year.” _ “As tor the cities and large towns, I have never seen any so well managed. All that I have been to are governed on sensible principles. Here in London, for instance, you have a Lord Mayor, who is choseu from the board of aldermen in his turn, and aldermen are men who take an interest in the welfare of their city.” (Here General Grant went over the framework of the city government with great accuracy.) “ What a contrast all this presents to the state of affairs in New York ! There money raised by taxation has been stolen by wholesale, and now property will not sell for the value of the mortgages that are on it, and I declare I do not see what is to become of the city. The debt is_ enormous. See how well the paving and lighting are looked after here, and how carefully the traffic is managed. The police, too, seem to be excellent.”

“And yet they have quite as ‘hard’ a set to do with as the police of New York, and a good many more of them. “No doubt. I have not noticed so many of the poor about London as I expected to see, although I have been down Whitechapel and the Mile-end road and other places. At Bath the people were most enthusiastic, and I was much gratified with their kindness to me ; they were very noisy and good-natured.” It is no wonder that the General noticed the latter characteristic, for an American crowd is generally very quiet, never indulging in “ horse-play," seldom cheering, and not always good-natured, or at least not demonstratively so. “I hope still to go to Birmingham and Manchester, and other large cities, for I am very curious to see them. Then I shall go to Scotland, and be back in London about two months from now. I cannot speak too warmly of the reception I have everywhere met with thus far. It was quite unlooked for.” “ The people of the two countries like each other well enough ; it is the writers who have made most of the mischief.”

“Yes,” said the General, “ and I think good feeling has been increasing ever since the settlement of the Alabama claims. I was very glad they were settled ; for if they had not been undoubtedly a war would have arisen out of them some day, and the constant anticipation of that would have led to exasperation and ill-feeling. I was very glad,” he repeated, “to get the question out of the way.” “ But is it not a pity that more money was asked for than can be distributed ?”

“ That is a mistake,” said the ex-President, with some earnestness, “ as I will explain to you. At first, Congress thought that the sum awarded would not nearly suffice to meet the most obvious and pressing of all claims for compensation those which had not been covered by insurance or byanytningelse. Therefore Congress said to the Insurance Companies, ‘You cannot have a portion of this award, for you have already recouped yourselves by war premiums;’ and to persons who had their property destroyed by the Alabama and other cruisers, but who were partly insured, it said, ‘You cannot have any, for you have received your insurance.’ So that it ruled out the larger part of the cases. But so high was the rate of insurance in those days that scarcely any one insured his property for anything like its full value. These sufferers by the depredations of the cruisers are entitled to some compensation ; and when their claims are fairly regarded, the surplus now remaining will not go far. Congress originally limited the claimants to a very small circle ; and that is why it happened that there was a surplus at all. Besides, you must remember that the amount was awarded for injury done to the United States ; and no one can doubt that , the injury, if fairly appraised, would represent even a greater sum than that given at Geneva. To distribute it fairly among the persona moat entitled to it may not be an easy matter ; but we sustained damage to the full amount awarded, to say the least—how we shall divide it among the injured persons is another matter. You may depend upon it Congress will do what is right about it next session.” “ I am sure there are many who will be glad to hear this explanation of the matter; for it is much misunderstood, and has caused some little feeling.” “ I find that it has; a gentleman spoke to me soon after I came here about it, and I talked the subject over with him. We were not paid too much for the damage done to our commerce, although to find the very men who most deserve to receive the compensation may be a work of some difficulty. That is just the truth about it.”

“ What you say will be read, I am confident, with great interest, and it will tend to clear up a prevalent and growing misconception. And now will you tell me anything in London you have not seen?” “ I do not know—my son and I very soon went to the Tower, and I think we have visited nearly all the public buildings.” “ And seen The TimesV’ “ 0 yes, I Went down there one night after a party, and very interesting it was.” “ Go anywhere but to a restaurant for something to eat—there we cannot afford to be mentioned the same day as New York.” Thereupon the General related a little experience he had met with in London in search of a luncheon, which ended, as does that of moat people, in getting indifferently-cooked food served up in a very uncomfortable manner. But there are no Delmonicos or Brevoort Houses on this side the Atlantic. “And now,” said the General, as his visitor bade him good day, “Twill have a smoke.” We hope our readers will think he had by this time fully earned it. '