The Express.
London, England, 1858-10-26 00:00:00

SPORTING nnzuzamos.

A SPECIAL EDITION of the "EXPRESS'
eentaining the Twits of the day's Roma, is psb-
Sailed every evening daring the Sporting Sown, at
six o'clock.

THI Government of Portugal has, it seems,
yielded to the present* of the two French ships of
war in the Tagus, and has, in the interests of peace
and of Europe, consented under dames and protest
to the restoration of the Charles et Georges. By
adopting this course his Faithful Majesty Dom
Perm° V. and his Cabinet have entitled themselves
to the respectful sympathy of all civilised powers,
and of all rational persona both in France and
out of Franor.

Far otherwise it will he with the EMPEROR
and his Ministers. On them the censure of
Europe will deservedly fall. The confidence of
their Allies in the solemn assurance that the pre-
sent state of things in France is an Empire of Peace
will be shaken, for without justice there can be
nothing in the world worthy the name of peace. The
value of the principle of Arbitration inserted in and
consecrated by the Treaty of Paris will be diminished.
The reputation of LOUIS NAPOLEON for temper-
ance and moderation in his policy and treatment
of other States will be seriously affected. And by •
considerable party in England the violence teem
which Portugal has been compelled to shrink from a
conflict with France will be regarded es an attempt
to show the worthlessness of any dependence on an
English alliance. A great and deplorable mistake
has beam committed, the misehievous effects of which
we masa hope easily cer stem to get rid of.
Thee were two distiast mitten in this mu which
It is all-important to keep steadily in view. One is
the conduct of Portugal and its colonial authorities
and tribunal in seizing and condemning the French
vessel on the ground of being engaged in the Slave
Trade. On this we continue to think that we are
en. now imperfectly informed; and although all
the facts which have transpired lead to the conclu-
sion that the ship had committed an infraction of
Portugusee law in the Mozambique possessions of
Portugal, it is neverthelese still just possible that
Prance may, in respect of the seizure and condemna-
tion, have some just grounds of complaint. The
strong measures of the French Government certainly
suggest that there is more in the French case than
has yet been allowed to transpire.
Connected with this side of the question there are
two points that will occur to those who have paid
attention to these subjects. The first is that the
French Government has for some time past been car-
rying on a very extensive "emigration" of negrose
from the African shores of the Mozambique Channel
to the Isle of Bourbon. Several thousand blacks, as
many, it is said, se 10,000, have been deported from the
east comet of Africa to th►t French colony. It may
be, although it is extremely improbable, that all these
Africans have been obtained by the French agents
from parts of the coast over which the Portuguese
neither possess nor claim any authority. But
shoald it tarn out that the Portuguese either
permitted or connived at this deportation of its sub-
jects by the French to Bourbon, and then suddenly
without notice reversed their policy, seized • French
ship and condemned it, then, it must be admitted,
the French Government will not have been irritated
without some reason.
The other point is, that of all bad tribunals in
the world we believe there are none worse than the
Portuguese Courts of Law in the African possessions
of that monarchy. We have a right to say so; for
we have had long and melancholy experience of the
corruption, the vileness, and the perversion of all
moral sense, which characterised the Portuguese
functionaries in the Courts of Mixed Commission
established by England and Portugal to suppress the
Slays Trade. No doubt Portugal has, since Brazil
deprived her of the means of carrying on that
traffic, turned over a new leaf, and has
sent out higher and better officers to her
African settlenitnts. But there is always • tendency
in such cases to rush from one extreme into the
other ; and we must know a great deal more of the
facts and evidence before we can endorse the opinion
that the condemnation of the Charles et George. was
one that gave no cause for complaint. Caution upon
this point is all the more necessary as it was only in
this year ISM that Mr. PEMBERTON LEIGH, acting
in the name of the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council, had, in the case of the British ship New-
port, to correct as scandalous a perversion of law
sad justice by the British Vice-Admiralty Court
of Si. Helena as the entire annals of jurisprudence
preeest.
We look with horror and detestation on the
French scheme of free African Emigration (the true
character of which was first exposed in this journal),
bat obviously it is not enough to justify the seizure
and condemnation of French ships to assert, or even
to prove, that they were engaged in it. A great sad
aoble and is not to be accomplished by wrongful, or
doubtful, or indirect means ; and nee country is so
deeply interested in the protection of Maritime
Commerce aa England, some of whose ships were
actually engaged by the Colonial authorities of
Bourbon in transporting Africans from the Mozam-
bigots Channel.
Bat all these considerations are beyond and beside
the other part of this case, which is the treatment of
Portugal by France. There by no earthly possibility
can the French Government be otherwise than wholly
Inver, The judgment of the Colonial Tribunal
was in course of revisal by the highest appellate ju-
risdiction of that kingdom ; the owners and master
of the condemned ship had every opportunity of ex-

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