The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 813, 16 May 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. TUESDAY, MAY 16, 1871.

The new frontier demanded by Germany, and conceded by the Treaty, includes the whole of the Germanspeaking territory, the whole of the parts in which the mixed tongues are spoken, and for considerably more than half of its course includes a broad fringe of the puro French. After the first decisive victories Germany made it known that the result of the war should be a now frontier and a money indemnity, but plausible pretexts were advanced for the apparent pretentiousness of her designs. She would only take back the spoils of previous ce'ntucenturies, and these were to be recovered on the plea of race and language. This line of .demarcation has been entirely over-stepped. The new line commences near the fortress of longwy thence running south.ea3t between Met2 and Gravulotte and parsing east of Ponta - Musaciij .Nancy and Luneville joins the line, of the Yosges Mountains a fe v miles north of •St l.'-iey. Thence it continues along the boundary of Alsace to a point near t Maurice, and turning westward leaves Belfort with a Btrip of French-speaking country to Frame, joining Switzerland at a

point ue;.r Te Ie At all p lints the Genua i fr ntier is adv need some twenty miles; at some points it is advanced nearly a hundred and twenty miles nearer Paris. The loss is a terrible one iu every respect, whether reg irded in its territorial, military, commercial or political aspect.

It has become the custom of late to cite, in mitigation of defalcations of officers of the Civil Service, or the employees in Banks or other large establishments, the inadequate scale of remuneration which attaches to these services. Remarking on the salaries paid to clerks in Banks/the Wellington "Post" says:—"lt was discovered a few weeks ago that a young man, a junior clerk in one of the Banks, had been helping himself to the funds. The amount of defalcations at first traced to the delinquent was small—some £lo—but it has since been found out that other sums have gone in the same way, and possibly the Bank is a heavier loser than it is at present aware oft We canuot avoid saying that this and other cases of defalcation which have occurred under similar circumstances in this colony are, in a great measure, duo to the ill-judged parsimony of the Banks theuiselve. They put young men into situations of trust and responsibility in which very strong temptation lies in their way, and expect them to keep up a respectable appearance and maintain the highest integrity of character, at the same time only paying them a miserable pittance. The defaulter whose case we have mentioned, was receiving some £125 annually, an amount certainly not adequate for a person who was trusted with the handling of large sums of money, and the result has been that he has perhaps cost the Bank two or three times the amount which would have remunerated him well, and kept him honest." Now, the reasoning adopted by our contemporary is not in the majority of instances borae out by facts, and certainly is in no case conducive to the cause of public morality. In the case referred to, any semblance of excuse that might have been raised is destroyed by the fact that the amount tampered with represented a considerable sum in excess of what might be required to keep up a " respectable appearance." Neither is it conclusively shown that a salary of £125 per annum is so inadequate as our contemporary would have it. As a general thing, the junior clerks in our public offices and banking institutions on entering upon their duties have to master a number of details and routine, and until these have been ac quired, it would be unreasonable to form a high estimate of the value of their services. There, doubtless, are in. stances in which the matter of compen" sation is not adequate to the services rendered, and it is quite possible that the claims of many meritorii us servants are overlooked or neglected, but this c nnot be pleaded as an extenuation of dishonesty.