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

IMPORTANT DEBATE IN CONGRESS.

In Congress, Dec. 17, the following important
debate ou the Mason and Slidell question took
place :
Mr. Cox, of Ohio (opposition), from the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs, reported a bill appro-
priating 1,000 dollars as full compensation to the
owners of the British ship Perthshire, in conse-
quence of her detention by the steamer Massa-
chusetts, in June last, for a supposed breach of our
blockade at the port of Mobile. He referred to
the fact that the President, in his Message, bad
recommended this satisfaction. Besides the papers
in the case show it to be a just cause. Mr. Cox said
that the bill was reported in accordance with the
recommendation in the President's Mamie, and a
letter from Secretary Seward, which be bad read.
He (Mr. Cox) had examined the faota, and believed
that the Perthshire was lawfully engaged in com-
merce on the high mess when she was seised and
detained by the United States steamer Massa-
chnsetta. She left Mobile, for Liverpool, with
oetton, on the 31st May. The blockade began
ea the 96th of May but the ship left within the
time allowed by the President's proclamation. She
was taken back two hundred miles to Pensacola,
and then released by the captain of our squadron.
The bill repairs the damege—one thousand dollars.
The amount is hisinteictemble, bet the prompt
action of Congress in awarding it is intended as an
earnest to Great Britain that this government will
I be as ready to indemnify fora wrong as to defend a
right, Our naval officers were as clearly m the

ws
esiffmtlits Ow*" wigs ritikt
inewesimaling the Treat. Is the jealous defence
of our maritime rights osireisere may exceed their
defy, but the moment that it is ascertained, as
in this mac, the government takes pride in amid-
*satisfaction. it is to be hoped that the adieu
of this house, at least towards foreign powers, will
show a wise and just oonciliation, without any
timid and time-serving companion. While
we would not yield an inch to any servile
fear or ungenerous compulsion, such as the
recent news threatened us with, it is becoming the'
dignity of the Republic to promptly remedy • wrests
Thus are we triply armed to demand F 11•11.11-
five§ belonging to our nationality at home and
abroad. Great %San should meet as in tide
spirit, when we demand of her why the Nashville.
her an asylum in her porta without any nationality,
and without even the pretence of the barbarous
privateering commission, and within a short die.
tance from her own shores, and bearing an envoy
from the rebellions States, Captain Peyton. She
overhauls the Harvey Birch, lower, her stare and
stripes, irons her crew, and with the red hand of
the buccaneer burns her to the water's edge, and
then finds a hospitable haven in Southampton, to
be refitted for another outrage, with warlike srma-
ments from inglish storehouses. We should de.
mend to know how it sessift wilis /instead's annek-
vaasleds asilltaiikr. to ail"-
-"616.1"): VC1111101""--

adjudisitiois -or 'ries a moakaey al punlament-.
Surely, if in this ceps of the Nashville England
should act as the noesitory to such an atrocity,
she cannot complain that in the midst of our great
national perils, and while the paths nerve is actually
aeraiiin to indignities awed in the time of
our trial, is pursued to the letter, as in the case
of the Tent, the international code she herself has
presented. Our justification in that awe is that her
act was one of hostility—hartility, whether it

oonsiet in carrying deeps-tithes, envoys, or other
and wines than contrabands, in a neutral ship. It
will not do to answer that no case like this is to
be found in the precedents. General Cushing, in
his recent letter, gives the reason why precedents
are not to be found in the geographical relations of
European nations. But the priusiple oovering the
case is most °weedy stated by Phillimore and other
writers; and the English jurisprudent unless de-
termined to be warped in his judgment by his pride
or prej udiasonnnot deny the doctrine of Lord Stowell,
which would stop, in time of war, on neutral
ships, the ambassadors of an enemy, and a portion
of en enemy whose government is not yet an sio-
complished and recognised fact. It seems to be
eonsecied that this principle would apply to the
ease of despatches. If so in a forum of pure
reason and enlightened oonscienoe which make up
the Code International, fora stronger reason it will
apply to ambassadors publicly declared, and whose
mission is of more importance than battalions of
armed men, and whole cargoes of shot, shell,
and sabres. An ambassador is the creator provided
of these. By his alliances he may win battles and
solve revolutions. To give him the protections of
the neutral flag in a public vessel is a corns belli--
to give him the protection of a neutral flag in a
private vessel is an act of hostility in aid of the
public enemy, and seizure and confiscation should
follow. The more this question is pondered and
examined, the more impregnate is our posi-
tion ; nor is there anything in our
previous diplomacy to weaken this posi-
tion, which, had I the time, I could demonstrate.
It is enough now for us that on this ground we may
safely say to England " Fulfil your neutral obliga-
tions ; you have assumed them voluntarily and
against our protest. Until you do so you cannot
quarrel with us for the exercise of our most indu-
bitable right*. If you insist on belligerent rights
between the North and South, do not as a neutral
help one belligerent to the detrimetforae other.
This is fraud. In this spirit alone can oar relations
with Great Britain continue amicable. We will
readily yield her rightful demands as in the case of
the Perthshire. We yield nothing, nothing to her
arrogance, passion, or pride, when we are clearly
in the right. The letter of General Jackson to
Livingstone, the original of which was read by the
historian Bancroft, at a New York meeting, and
applied by him to the disunionists here, may be as
appropriately applied to their sympathisers abroad.
The Union must be preserved without blood, if this
be possible, but it must be preserved at all hazards
and at any price. So with our honour among the
nations, fur it is thus in the gigantic conflict for our
national existence that we should avoid the entangle-
ments of a foreign conflict with nations whose
national interest, as they think, depend upon our
discomfiture, and whose chronic jealousy of our
Republican success has led their rulers to hail
such discomfiture with ill-concealed delight.
We are too sensitive of foreign opinion.
We naturally dislike to have our government
and institutions misrepresented. We have the
spirit of the Swiish motto, "De Sal rei solo." "No
one shall spaik of our King but ourselves," But we
can afford to be indifferent to the malignity of
foreigners, whose moral standard is increased by
their commercial loss or gain, and whose com-
placent neutrality can view a great Christian and
kindred nation humiliated without a regret or
sympathy, because of its splendid illustration of
commercial grandeur and democratic government.
Let us pursue our duty to our age and country with
unruffled composure. Heaven will nut desert the
, undismayed. To despair is to die ; and flinging
aside our national woe, lamenting nothing of the
past, doing all that is just and constitu-
tional, making no cruel and disastrous diversions,
from the great object or rescuing our nationality,
*rushing as we would a nest of adders those who
would divert us from that object to other and ig-
noble objects, involving fresh diversions, cruel de-
ception, social revolutions, servile insurrections,
perpetual penalties, and eternal hate—moving one
and all the heart, soul, and body of men, means,
munitions, intelligence, and patriotism to the one
grand object—the restoration of the dismantled
Union as it was and ought to be. We may
from this strife, and arise, like the fabled demigod,
from our prostration more grateful and strong, in-
spired with a larger measure of power, and a clearer
and less ostentatious consciousness of under-

standing.
During the debate a colloquy occurred between
Messrs. Colfax and Vallandigbam.

Mr. Comax, of Indiana (Rep.), in replying to a
remark of Mr. Cox, said he yesterday. voted to
refer Mr. Vallandighanes resolution justifying
Captain Wilkes' conduct, because he preferred that
whatever was sent out on the subject should ema-
nate from a standing committee of the house, after
grave consideration, instead of being impulsively
acted on by the house.
Mr. VALLANDIGNAX, of Ohio, said Mr. Colfax
was not so circumspect and explicit on the first day
of the session, when be offered a resolution pro
posing to closely imprison Mr. Mason in retaliation
for the treatment of Colonel Corcoran. The gen-
tleman had not then heard from England.
Mr. COLFAX further explained the reason why
he offered his resolution on the first day of the
session, which was, because Mr. Mason had, as a
senator, taken an oath to support the constitu-
tion, and had violated it. He was not only a
traitor, but bad perjured himself. " When we
deal with traitors it is a different thing."
Mr. VALLLNDIORAX could not perceive why the
gentleman was so ready to justify the act of Cap-
tain Wilkes on the firstday of the session but not
now. There were no fewer traitors now than at
that time. What made the difference

Mr. COLTAX replied that be wu still in favour of
meting Epunishment to traitors.
Mr. VALLANDIORAW predicted that in leas than
three mouths Messrs. Slidell and Mason would be
returned.

Mr. Cox hoped the prediction would prove un-
true,