The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-12 00:00:00

HINI WATER AT LONDON BROOK

Mr DAT------igaiiTgriii7i.7.7.7iteoss. —ns. 61a
l'aliceaow—llardaig. ft. 111......Abirears. as I.

LONDON, THI7RBDAY, FEBRUARY 12.

Tun promptitude with which Earl R MENU,
when personally introduced into the Brazilian
difficulty, has accepted the arbitration of the King
of the BELGIANS as to whether any offence was
given to the British navy by the manner in
which the laws of Brazil were enforced in the case
of the three officers of her MAJESTY'S ship Forte,
indicates a due sense of the importance of the
British interests affected by the rupture of our
relations with that Empire. For had that arbi-
tration been rejected, it is obvious, from the in-
structions given by the Government of the EM-
PEROR to his representative in London, and which
were published in Rio, that the arrangement
provisionally made with Mr. Camerae on
the case of the barque, the Prince of Wales,
would have been regarded as null and void, and
the English Government would have been left to
its own remedy, at a moment when that remedy
could hardly have been a repetition of reprisals.
We have, then, to thank Earl Roseau. that there
is at least a pause, and time fir reflection in this
unfortunate transaction.
Reduced to its due proportions, the ques-
tion as to the loss of the Prince of Wiles
really is : did the Brazilian Government do its
doty in its efforts to punish the "pillagers" of the
salvage! The true point in the case has no further
extent than this. Now, from the papers published,
it appears that it ordered and instituted two in-
vestigations, that it dismissed at least one negli-
gent functionary, and that it apprehended eleven
persons charged with participating in the pillage.
It might possibly have done more, and it might
have done even this more expeditiously. But,
having done so much, it had not, it must be ad-
mitted, been guilty of such laches as to render it
responsible in damages. Neither had itexhaustedita
efforts when Mr. Cannerrs came down with
his ultimatum. Again, the Brazilian Government,
in reply, appealed to the arbitrament of the Bri-

fish Government from its Minister. Bat hers,
. too, that Minister would listen to no delay, would
allow no each appeal ; he refused, in a matter
which did not press for an immediate solution, to
wait for sixty days ; he resorted to force without any
real or overwhelming necessity ; he drew upon
himself the censure of his own countrymen h
Brazil; his proceedings are condemned by the
entire press of England, with only one important
exception ; and be has embarrassed the Govern-
ment he serves.
Reprisals made, some dozen email coasting
vessels captured, the position in which Mr.
Cliaurriz involved himself was this : he could not
proceed to sell those vessels in the port of Rio de
Janeiro ; he could not send them for sale to any
neighbouring neutral port. To have sent them
across the Atlantic to England at the tail of the
capturing steamers would have denuded the Brazil
station of a great part of our squadron when its
presence was necessary to protect the British lives
and property he had endangered. In truth, be
had reduced himself to this ridiculous dilemma,
that he had no alternative but to come to terms
with the Brazilian Government ; sod, in the nego-
tiations which ensued as to the terms of their re-
lease, Mr. Cultism was very much at its mercy.
What those terms were as to the officers of the
Forte we have seen. As to the salvage of the
Prince of Wales they are more discrsditab'e and
embarrassing. The Brazilian Government, pro
testing against the justice of any payment, and
refusing to concur in any liquidation or apprcia-
tion of the value of the "pillage," simply says
it will yield to the force Mr. Cluny:is applied to
it, pay any sum of money, great or small, that
may be assessed against it, and will then claim
satisfaction for the disregard of its territorial
waters. What • plight for an English Minister
to have thrown his Government into
Such are the incidents which Mr. Cmairris hes
exasperated and exaggerated into questions of
magnitude and importance; such are the trifles out
of which he has inflamed passions, excited dangers,
and then abandoned the reprisals he made and the
captures he effected. The whole affair has these
fatal vices in it, that the remedy was altogether
disproportionate to the complaint, and that the
protection offered to British commerce British
merchants repudiate.
It is under such circumstances that we turn
from Mr. CIIRISTIZ to Earl Rumm,confident that
a statesman who has so frequently censured and
condemned excessive diplomatic zeal and indis-
cretion, will take the proper steps at once to place
our relations with Brasil on a better and sounder
footing. That done, the errors committed by Mr.
Cannella will not bawl marred in vain.

FLOGGING It TEN ABUT AND KILITIA.—Tbis
morning • pulisawaskry retain was honed, setting forth
the aumbss al BM flagged in the army and militia of Great
Britain awl .'""lied in the year 1861. There was so sue la
the militia. In the arm, ••1444. wars 49444 8,204
leases Mier in all ielioted. The gosio•C•49 amen ems,
assn was fifty lashes. In the Seats Fusilier (lairds, Pa&
man street barracks, • man who wag semtonaed to 50
lashes for hembeediestkm neeived only 14, sod lime an
two or three eases et man on whom • airailsr emstemes wee
weed, megrim( ZS ar 40 beim. 110 at the Royal Artißmy
were M 4 9at the lOW 11 et the Military Tide, 7 of
the 32m1, 4 el Ne 31146 Dewertime, making away with
uscusessies, and hambortinatien an madly the offences.