faz North-German. Lloyd steamer Sauer, whose total loss with all on board is reported this morning, was a vessel of. 1,894 tons net and 3,083 gross measurement, and: 360 nominal horsepower, built and engined at Hull by Earles' Shipbuilding Company in 1875. wanty-one. years. is a good life for an ocean steam liner, but this does. not mitigate the horror of the catastrophe by which the Sauer has been wiped off from the roll of the Nord-Deutscher Lloyd. The north-west coast of Spain, on which the Sauer was wrecked, is one of the dangerous places of the world, and the ribs of many vessels, among them H.M.S, Serpent, still lie about the rocks that line the coast between Cape Ortegal and Cape Finisterre. here is an inset from the Atlantic into the Bay of Biscay that has put many a good ship out of her course, and brought ber suddenly, in the thick December weather, upon the land of which she thought she was far to seaward. This inset was probably the cause of the Saléer's loss but as all on board her were drowned, the truth can never be positively known. There is a pathos of its own in the thought that' her passengers were probably emigrants going out to begin a new life ina new continent. They bad probably got over the first miseries of sea life, and were beginning to settle down on board, and talk over their future plans, when the crash came that put anend to all their plans and schemes, their hopes and fears, their sorrows at leaving their old home and their anticiputions as to their new one. The population of the Argentine Republic of which Buenos Ayres is the capital is largely made up of immigrants, but of these nearly half are Italians, and only some three per cent are Germans. It is only a slight alleviation to know that there were no English among the lost, for out here we count all Westerners as members of one large family, and do not think much except under special circumstances of our separate countries. It is the sudden loss of a great ocean steamer with hundred of lives on board that we think of, not what happened to be her particular flag, and we. feel the loss of the Sauer as much as we did that of the Drummond Castle at the north end of the dreaded Bay.
We regret on some accounts the refusal of Germany, which has followed the refusal of Great Britain, to receive H.E, Huang Chun-hsien as Chinese Minister to' the Court of Berlin, It is true that, as we pointed out ten days ago, H.P. Huang is not the possessor of the brevet button the premier grade; but surely a man who is well acquainted with foreigners and foreign civilisation, and who has an established reputation. for liberality and progressiveness, should be more acceptable as the representative of the Emperor of China than a hide-bound literatus who has risen by favouritism and the skilful use of money to the rank of a provincial official. There is nothing necessarily anomalous in the promotion of a Consul-General to the rank of Minister. HE. Huang was called back to China recently by H.E. Chang Chih-tung to fill several important offices at Nanking in connection with foreign affairs and foreign inventions and he was then sent up to Peking by BLE, Chang with the recommendation of being "a very able and progressive officer, of experience in foreign affairs." We hailed his selection as a good sign, an indication that the Tsungli Yamen was recognising the value of a good acquaintance with Western way. But we understand that there are reasons connected with H.E. Huang's career in Singapore that have interfered with his promotion to a foreign legation. It is reported that he was so much addicted to squeezing his nationals that the Singapore Government had to take notice of it, "We have escaped," says the New York Wation two days after the Presidential Election, "from what a large number of people supposed was an immense danger, the danger of having our currency adulterated and our form of government changed, and a band of ignoramuses and Anarchists put at the head of what remained of the great American republic. Probably no man in civil life has succeeded in iuspiring so much terror, without taking life, as Bryan.... 'I'he whole episode has been utterly discreditable to our politics, as conducted by politicians, There is nothing partisan about the overwhelming majorities for Me-Kinley. It was not the Republican party which won; it was the cause of the nation." No doubt, the election of McKinley is due to a popular -uprising against the so-called principles of Altgeld and Debs, and Bryan and Teller; aid all the Democrats who really love and reverence their country and its institutions voted for the Republican candidate. But it was Republican money that fertilized the canvass for McKiuley, and while the Democrats helped to reap the harvest, it is the Republicans who will garner it. Already it is announced that the Republican Trusts and manufacturers that provided the funds for the campaign are to get their reward a new tariff; and directly after the inauguration of the President on the 4th of March next, a special session of Congress is to be held, to which the new tariff is to be submitted. It is not denied that the equilibrium of the U.S. Budget demands increased revenues. The States are still suffering from the calculated extravagance of Mr. Harrison's regime, extravagance incurred with the object of making a high tariff, which should protect those who find the funds for the Republican politicians, inevitable. "Many will sympathise with the Democrats who voted for McKinley, though they knew that they had to swallow his tariff with him; and during the campaign his managers did all they could to make him keep his tariff views in the background, while he was constantly trying to bring them forward. The original McKinley tariff was only passed by its promoters agreeing to facilitate the passage of the silver-purchase act but fortunately for themselves, the Republicans next March will not have the same difficulty. They " have carried the House of Representatives by a great majority," says the Nation, "the only question being whether they will have a full two-thirds of the body. The gains of seats in the Senate now held "by Democrats or Populists in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, South Dakota, and perhaps other States will give the Republicans also nearly, if not quite, a majority in the upper branch of men who have always been advocates of sound money... here is no reason to doubt that if the McKinley Administration wil! formulate a sound financial policy, there will be Republicans enough in each, branch of Congress to sanction it." Granted that this sound financial policy demands a revision of the tariff, it is hoped that the influence of the Democrats who helped to elect McKinley will be strong enough to give the revision the character of a tariff for revenue, not a tariff for the protection of flourishing industries that are quite strong enough to stand by themselves.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.