The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-01 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, SEB. 1.

Ir is rumoured that both the Tuscarora and
the Nashville have been ordered out of the South-
ampton waters ; and the letter addressed by Earl
cs...zia. to the Admiralty, which will be found in
another column, confirms the truth of the
report. An English man-of-war is still watching
the exasperated rivals, and it is evidently feared
that some breach of neutrality may possibly
take place. Such a state of things could not
any longer be tolerated, and the fact tank
the Nashville, filled with armed men and WI,
plosive materials, is stationed in the very road edl
a fleet of valuable merchantmen, seriously *NW
vides the inconvenience. Net doss the late Manny
of the Sumter diminish the necessity for preempt
interference. It appears that in the neighbour-
hood of Gibraltar she has lately burned ow
Northern merchantman to the water's edge,
which was loaded with sulphur, though the
cargo was the property of English innehanta,
whilst another merchant venal has been "mined
to escape on the ground that the cargo heaMISIE
to English owners. Even during the war whisk
raged half a century ago such conduct would have
been a gross violation of international law; and
although the 31,,riiing Herald is ignorant of the
fact, nevertheless it is true that the Plait,
inentary Papers of the year 1814 contain snan.l
halm from the merchants of Liverpool, Greenesk,
and Glasgow, in which they protest spinet tie
novel practice adopted by the American endows
of " burning and destroying such prises as they
" have no reasonable expectation of getting into
" pert." Since those days the commerce of the
world has vastly increased, and the mutual inter-
course between various countries has been greatly
enlarged. The last despatch of Earl Itrssam. to
Mr. Sswar.o most justly claims special favour for
mail packets and passenger steamers, although
such a claim would scarcely have been lis-
tened to in former days. It may be that
neither the captain of the Nashville nor
the captain of the Sumter would venture
to attack the Arago or any Northern passenger
ship on her way to New York or Boston from
Europe ; but it is obvious that according to the
principle upon which these relentless men are
acting, they would consider themselves perfectly
justified in so doing. But even if they should re-
pudiate any such intention, it is surely impossible
that in these times neutral nations can submit to
have mercantile ships in every sea condemned to
the flames at the discretion of the exasperated gen-
tlemen in command of armed Confederate steamers.
It may be true that the new regulation by which the
belligerent Americans are prevented from bringing
prizes into neutral ports has compelled the
Southerners to adopt the barbarous practice
of burning their vine at sea in order to
secure them. But this difficulty is no reason
why the merchants of England and of the rest of
the world should forego the right to which they
are entitled, of having every captured ship taken
into port, and the ownership of the property ad-
judged by a competent tribunal.
The desire of later times has been to diminish
as far es possible the horrors of war ; and to this
end it has been proposed to put an end to pri-
vateering, and to exempt private property on the
ocean from capture. Gross as are the abases to
which privateering is liable, it is clear that it is
subject to restrictions from which the Sumter and
the Nashville seem to be free ; for, according to
Chancellor K ENT, the owners of privateers bind
themselves " to regard the rights of mistrals, and
"to bring their prizes in for adjudication." Even
under the best regulations, it is truly said
that in privateers the discipline of the
crews is not apt to be of the highest
order, and they are often guilty of
enormous excesses, and become the scourge of
neutral commerce. They are sometimes manned
by foreigners, having uo permanent connexion
with the country or interest in the cause. It is
true that the officers of the Sumter and the Nash-
ville have regular commissions, and therefore
these ships are not privateers ; but, on the other
band, considering the character of the ships
themselves and of the crews, and the lawlessness
of their conduct in burning and destroying
merchant ships on the high seas without autho.ity,
they are not less obnoxious to neutral commerce
than professed privateers. But further, even
supposing the timo has not arrived at which it
would be possiUle to exempt private property
on the ocean from capture, it is the
bounden duty of the British Government
and of all other neutral Powers to give
no aid, however indirect, to the wanton
destruction of private property on the high
seas. It may be assumed that the object of pro-
hibiting either of the belligerents from bringing
their prizes into neutral ports was to diminish the
horrors of war. But the actual result has been to
aggravate them. It is well known that Northern
commerce if not carried on in English ships
is carried on by means of English capital.
The result, therefore, of the new rule in question
has been to compel the Ceelsidelrall ships to de-
stroy a mat amount of English property. IS