Mr. Hume very properly calls attention to the solemn silence of our American churches on this subject. We are glad that he has done so. Our church organizations are verily guilty in the matter. They often lift up their voices on subjects of far less obvious and direct moral concernment. We are living in a state of the national law whose direct effect is to make every citizen a thief, a partaker with thieves in their violation of the eighth commandment. Decalogue religion is, we sometimes fear, a little below par. Thousands of our citizens who are church members fail miserably in keeping the Decalogue in their public conduct as voters and members of political parties. And yet we believe that the silence of our churches is due to the forgetfulness of the facts, or to despair of any real and permanent cure. It is a hard case. More than one newspaper has asked how many bonds Mr. Hume owns; and the ministers who urge the duty of public honesty will in fact find themselves aiding and abetting the schemes of Wall street speculators and lobbyists. The road to righteousness is so foul and so infested with thieves that sublime courage is necessary to him who attempts the journey. We have written every sentence of this article with a consciousness that we are offending men who see the uncleanness of the path to honor, and _do not_ see that it is the righteous road in spite of the foul smells with which it reeks. We recall such to the simple facts: First, by the eleventh amendment a state can not be sued. It is the only debt-creating power in the Union which is above any form of judicial inquiry or compulsion. Even the Union has a court of claims whose decisions are respected by Congress. Second, more than three hundred millions of money is apparently due by defaulting states to their creditors. The nation stands between the creditors and the states, and bars the way to the courts. It is our one colossal and unpardonable crime against the eighth commandment. THE FALL IN PRICES.