as to the
plans used.

It will be remembered by all who have watched the case, that the
"Dolphin" was found satisfactory and in full accordance with the terms
of the contract by one naval board, and that it was then condemned by
another board of no greater weight or capacity. If this fact be
remembered, it should be weighed with the full understanding that naval
officers, chosen by Mr. Whitney for this service, are just as much
dependents of the new Secretary as their predecessors were of Mr.
Chandler. The last set of officials, as experts, were not superior to
those which constituted the first; and yet Mr. Whitney bases his refusal
to accept the vessel upon the contradiction of the first report to the
second. If the first report was worthless, why not the second, in the
light of all the facts?

What is needed to-day is a board of examiners fully competent to
pronounce on the merits, of not only the "Dolphin" but of any and
every other ship that shall be built, and fully sundered from, and
independent of, political and official relations with the Navy
Department. The nearest approach to this is the report of the body of
experts--ship-builders, and ship-captains, experts in ship's materials,
and the like--whom Mr. Roach invited to examine the "Dolphin." The
report of these gentlemen flatly contradicts Mr. Whitney's board on
points which are matters of fact, and not of opinion, and therefore
throws the burden of proof upon Mr. Whitney himself. Until some equally
unpolitical and unofficial body refutes it, the treatment Mr. Roach has
received will be set down to other motives than the best.

* * * * *

The republic at last bows its head in sorrow at the death of its
greatest citizen. In awe and admiration it honors the character which,
heroic to the last, has never been more conspicuously shown than during
the months of that depressing illness, the end of which must have been
to him a welcome entering into rest.

The same unquailing courage, and the same calm, grim fortitude which
shed their fadeless lustre upon his whole extraordinary career were
evinced by General Grant at the last moments of his life. For months the
nation has hung over his bedside, awaiting the silent foot-fall of the
unseen conqueror of all that is mortal.

The nation's loss is not measured by the vacant place. For nearly a
decade General Grant had been only a private citizen, wielding no
sceptre of authority, a