The Express.
London, England, 1863-06-30 00:00:00

THE EXITEV, TUES t IVENING, JUNE 30,
.1863,

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MONDAY, JUN 29.
The SPIRAL= took the chair at 4 deka.
PRIVATE RUBINEIR3.

The order that the South Mayo Railway Bill as amended
be considered was read sad discharged. The St. Ireland
West Coro wall Jeoctios Railway Bill, and the Victoria
Station sod Pimlico Railway Bill were read a second time.

i lowed to carry on a warfare by • semis chick would iniliot
on • country 3,000 or 4,000 mil. on greater is jury in an
eeooomioel sense, apart from the lattle-field sod its blood-
shed, than they indicted Imo° each other. Yek =eh was
the mire is the present war. He believed thetas Prestos,
or Blackburn, or Rochdale greater evil was amid by the
War than was felt by any town in the ()sited
States. Bat who were the principal authors of this
system of warfare I Undoubtedly the public men of this
country. The Chamber of Commerce at Liverpool had lately
paned a resolution in favour of this system of blockade as
eseential to our maritime supremacy. It was • pnnciple
which England cherished, antler the idea that when she be-
came belligerent it would be usef al to herself. The noble
lord had spoken or that blockade as being ineffective, sod
stated • fact to pi ...a it which involved a great fallacy. He
said that 40 1Y47 cent. of the vestal attempting to break the
blockade succeeded in doing so ; but he forgot that the great
porta of tmerica were sealed up, and that it was r. 2.111
the smaller ports, and by small mewls, that the ma
truck was carried on. Did the noble lord suppose that if
the trade was extensive cotton would be at its present
high price, or that the price of British goods at Charleston
and other porta would be so extravagantly high ? (Hear.)
He took it that the blockade waa cruelly effective ais sgaiaat
Ragland sad as against the Southern States of America.
The noble lord had referred to the law of blockade, sod bad
stated that the American cruisers bad no right to stop a
vessel going from this country to Nsasau, whatever might
be its cargo, provided the meal was ostensibly destined
for Nauru.
Lord B. CECIL—What I maid was that if the vessel was
bock Ade destined to Nassau, whatever the cargo might be
the vessel should not be stopped.
mfr. 00BDEN—The ship may be stopped whatever the
ammo.
Lord R. CECIL—I should have said seized.

Mr. COBDEN—The noble lord said slopped. Lend
Stowell laid it down that the ostensible destination of a vel.
ad should be its real destination. Suppose • maid started
from Liverpool to Nassau with regular ship's papers, but
the supercargo furnished with orders to run to Charkstou
if epportueity offered, and that the yowl was stopped and '
evidence of that sort found, the vessel might be carried into
• prize court in the United States. How was the endure
to be found except by stopping the vessel It
was no doubt an inconvenieeoe and • bee, and it
was this inconvenience and loss that the noble lard
was now making his grievance. He would admit the
noble lord's law, that if the venial were bona fide
intended for Nassau it was not subject to seizure. j
Bat everybody knew that • greet contraband trade was
being carried on with the Southern Stake—that our mer-
chants were engaged in it—that joint.stock companies
furnish the feeds; Lod, with this knowledge, was it not
eomethioglike affectatima to come down to the hum and
complain of some inoonveniesee arising from interference
with this trade. It was notonly affectation, it was. mad
unreasonable. We mans:cope the inconvenience as moat
He was not such • purist as to say that capitalists
might not be engaged in this contraband trade. The
Queue did not soy they must not, but by her proclamation I
she mimed her subjects that if they engaged in
i such
trade they would incur the penalties of nter-
satiosal law as administered by the pries courts
of the United Stake. Of course he claimed for English
mule and merchandise seined a fair trial ; but the noble I
lord had admitted that the prize courts, whether impartial
or otherwise, were the only tribunals where them trials ,
weld take place. Ilie noble lad mid • good deal against
the character of the American prize courts. He (Mr.
Cobden) did not think that the noble lord's opinion
coincided with the opinion of more competent judges. Lord
liyudhurst, in a case of maritime law, oftener quoted the
einem of Judge Story and Chancellor Kent, of the Anted-
-1111111 courts than of Lord Stowed, of our own. What
right, then, had the noble lord to annum that the
American courts would be more partial than our
own! He spoke about American judges delivering
their decisions with soldiers and bayonets at the door, but
he (Mr. (Nikko) asked what proof was there of such
as allegation! He believed he was as diligent an observer
et peseerg events in America as the noble lord, and he had
sot read that decisions in favour of President Lincoln had
been given under the pressure of military force. Let the
noble lord in future accompany such assertions by prods.
The noble lord had alluded to the case of the Alexandra.
He was not going to nay whether the law es laid down by the
learned judge who had tried that mu was right coons but
this he ventured to tell the noble lord—as • better friend,
he thought, to the commercial intereet of the country then
the noble lord was—that if the interpretation of
the judge in the late trial were confirmed by
the judges, or the House of Lords, sad the law,
is that events laid down should be adopted as
international law, it would be far more injurious
to the shipowners and commercial interests of this country
then to those of the rest of the world. As be understood
the decision, it amounted to this—that a neetrel power
might build ships of war for a belligerent ; and provided
ally that that power keeps the armament and the ships
apart until they get three miles from the there, those ves-
sels might, as armed vessels of war, without going home to
• belligerent port, take and seize and carry off any prises
that might fall in their way. Another consequence would
be this, if England were at war with Brazil—nay, if we
were at war with Ireland, provided only that Ireland were
acknowledged as • belligerent—it would be oorope-
teet for the shipbuilders of Boston or New York
to build • vessel of war, tow her out to sea, the same tug-
boat having attached to it another vessel full of munitions
el war, and provided only that the vessel was not armed in
port, bat had her armament put on board three miles from
shoes then that was a vessel which Dodd be seat to cruise
against us, during our war with Brazil or Ireland,
mad we should have no ground at complaint
spinet the shipbuilders of New York or Boston.
Was that ever a put of the law of nations? They might
claim • right to blockade the porta of New York and
Boston, and you thus invite America to blockade your
ports. Theo what was to_ prevent a note of anarchy arising
such as existed in the middle ages! Bat he understood that
international law was intended to prevent such a state of
:tr. If that decision of the Court of Exchequer was to
this country would lose one of the safeguards for
her commerce, for they might rest wand that
no nation was so much interested in ioteroational law
as England was. This was no doubt a digression from the
subject which had Dees introduced, but it emu the noble
lord's illogical statement which bad drawn him from the
to irk. Again, the noble lord had said that the Federal
agents had been enlisting in Ireland. Bathe (Mr. Cobden)
would ask for a proof of thee He believed that it was • gross
misrapreeestathar. and he charged the noble lord with exhi.
biting gram ignorance upon the subject, for if he had read the
bite-book he would have seen • contradiction by Mr. Adams
of the statement made by Lord Russell o the same effect.
Bat Mr. Adams had asked Lord Russell for proof,
sad Lord Reuell was obliged to admit that he bad no pre of.
What proof bad the noble 10-d opposite! Perhaps some
newspaper paragraph. The subject of emigration from
linked was one which bad been under discussion recently
in that house, and the emigration row going on had been
fully amounted for, and they had heard from the highest
authority that people were too numerous in lrelard, that
there was great distress in some places amongst them, and
that they would be better off if they left and went to
other countries. There was another great reason for this
emigration, but which wee not generally known, and it was
that within the last six months • law had been passed
by of • most important character ; it was in agite-
bon for tea years, and it had at last become an set of
the legislature, and was called the Homestead Law, and it
grel6o acres of land to every head of a family for 400.
(Hear, hem) Now, in America there were one thousand
millions of cultivable land, enough to empty all France,
Germany, and the United Kingdom. Besides that new law
is America, the high rate of wages given there was another
menu for the emigration going on, and there-
fore he might, like Mr. Adams, challenge the
noble lord to prove that tee recruiting sergeant
bad been operating in Ireland. The assertions which had
been made were roost vague, and ought not to have bean
repeated in that house. He begged pardon for the digres-
sion, but he felt that the observations of the noble lord
ought not to circulate there or elsewhere without contradic-
tion. The question of the prize courts in America might,
he thought, be safely left in the hands of the law office: a of
the crown. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. S. FITZGERALD confessed that he regretted
very much these continual discussions upon questions raised
upon the capture of British vessels by American cruisers.,
because the result was that English ministers of state and
English law decors were presented to the house in a novel
position. (No, no.) Yes, in the position of defending
every step take° by the American government, and of doing
everything they could as far as speeches in that house sod
another place were contented, to injure the cause of British
merchants and to ignore what they possessed. (No, no.)
The hen, member for Rochdale had always been a
friend of the commercial classes, but he au now
speaking against them and ignoring their rights
is this great crisis. (" Hear, hear." and "Nor no.")
The hon. gentleman had always been anxious to see
belli-
gerent rights loosened, modified, and controlled ; bat he
was now forced to come down and defend the mune taken
by the British and American governments ; sod press those
debts to an extent never heard of before, and urge new
principles of international kw which had nos been known
in former times. (Hear, bear.) The Americas government
knew perfectly well that tbie trade, which had been de-
scribed by Lord Ruud' es legitimate, had become one of
great impedes°, to the Confederate States, and therefore
the American government did not care for the interests of
Emeialimen, but were determined to put down that trade
with • high hand, and run all risks and 000sequenosa The
noble lord bad, in another place, the other evening, said that
so long as he was at the Foreign-office no British subject
should in any part of the world feel insecure in his person or
property. That was *sentiment which did the noble lord
11000er ; but it would do him more honour were it made of
usual and impartial application. He could not under-
Mead the *obis lord luting that language in reference to per-
,,eries who bed been shipwrecked on the coast of Brazil, sad
lAA applying it to the case of the Petaled, for that ship
was seized and detailed for three weeks before the British
subject, on board were allowed to laud or to hold any wen-
Ithineetina with the repressaktins of their ocustey. (Heim)
Whew he (Mr. Fitzgerald) called the attention of the borne
to • siabiaat similar to that now under easeideraties, the
soldelead at the head of the government used a peculiar
arpmeet which he (Mr. Fitzgerald) wield recommend to
the notice of the hon. member for Rochdale. The noble
lord depredated diecnesioe ea this subject, became there
was ao power on the face of the globe that ahould desire
the uteri/toe rather than the contraction of the belligerent
=6-there was no power morsioterested is that than Eng-
-11.• (Mr. Fitigeraki) did not believe that to he • right

and just doetrioa. He believed it lobe perfectly right that we
should stand by the acknowledged principles of iaternatiosal
law ; but he did not think it was for the iatereet
of this great commercial country to see thole
priociplas one whit extended beyond what the *aces-
'Wee of the case had driven us to lay down in former
yeast. And of this he was sure, that if we permitted those
priociples of internatimal law to be adopted against us by
the United States, or by any other power. the moment that
we, regarded as we were by all the world with jealousy and
mistrust, the moment we attempted to apply those Prin-
ciples we should find • lasso.) among °ther nations to peer
vest oar applying them, and we should find that we had
only subjected our own ditizens to great loss and indignity,
and that we should not have obtained our expected exten-
sion of belligerent rights.
The amendment was then negatived without a division.
Mr. B. COCHRANE brought under potion the report of
the select committee on the diplomatic service, and urged
the justice and propriety of carrying out the recommends.
lions of the rept" and treaties the service more liberally.
Mr. LA YARD said that all the recommendations of the
committee had been acted epee, exeeptiog one only, and
that was • quietest for the Chancellor of the Exehequer,
and must depend upon the disposition of the home to in-
crease the grant of public money for the purpose. He ad-
mitted that the diplomatic service was oo the whole under-
paid, and stated that in the one of upwards of seventy con-
suls the salaries had bona increased.

The motion led to some discuasion in which Mr. Massa,
Mr. Dods" Sir M. Farquhar, and other members took
Part