The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-01 00:00:00

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IBEIt 1, 1855.

Spirit of the Public Journals.

( From the Ilforning Herald of this day. )

We need not go back to the days of Alexander
and Thais, to prove how worthless an instrument
may suffice to plunge an empire into ruin. But
the parasites and prostitutes of modern times differ
in many external respects from the flatterers and
betrayers of ancient or mediaeval days. The
" three tailors of Tooley-street," with their mani-
festoes in behalf of " the people of England," con-
stitute one of our chief dangers—fearful, though
ludicrous ; destructive, even while it is contemp-
tible.

The great embodiment of the " three tailors," at
the present moment, is found in a London news-
paper, which not only pretends to speak in behalf
of the people of England, but has repeated this
fiction so long and so often, that it comes at last to
be believed. One of the most embarrassing circum-
stances, we are well aware, which attends any
Government in England just now, is, the fancy
which possesses many politicians on the Continent,
and many more in America, that the Times speaks,
sometimes for the Government, at other times for
the people. Both are fictions • but if they pass for
truth they do as much mischief as if they were
really true.
In this way the Times had a chief hand in
plunging England into the present war. In the
early part of 1853, when the Emperor Nicholas saw
his " old friend Aberdeen " in power, he desired
Baron Brunow to sound the English Cabinet about
Turkey. The language used was just that which
was used to Sir Eramilton.Seymotir Petets-
_
ip.Tg•, .71-irkki• `!-the. sick ttuuh'' and likely
.----Vtlitt'vrariTrbe done witWthe'Oitate;.'
which would be left without an owner ? Should
Russia begin to take measures ? The answer Baron
Brunow received was, "Do just what you like; we
shall not interfere with you."
Satisfied as to the acquiescence of the British
Cabinet, the agents of Russia next began to con-
sider how the people of England would be likely to
regard such a movement as the Czar contemplated.
We know not, nor does it much signify, whether
the Times merely " followed the lead" of Lord
Aberdeen, or whether it was propitiated by any of
the numerous agents, male or female, whom Russia
has been in the habit of maintaining in all the chief
European capitals. It is enough for us to know
that the Times said to Russia in leading articles
what Lord Aberdeen had already said in private
conversation—" Do what you please ; we shall
offer no objection."
It was on the 2d of March, 1853, that the Times
wrote as follows :

" The time is approaching when the maintenance
of the Ottoman empire in its present form will be
found to be impracticable, and acknowledged to
be undesirable : but whatever vicissitudes the
Christian and Sclavonic provinces of Turkey may
witness, they can pass under no form of Govern-
ment more barbarous, wasting, and oppressive than
that which has so long overwhelmed them. We
profess, therefore, to feel no anxiety for the main-
tenance of the Ottoman empire, which bears the
stamp of a tyrannical past, a worthless present,
and an extinct future." " The question is whether
we are to leave the tottering edifice to fall mole
sua, or to provide against such a calamity 9" Here
we had the Times " saying ditto" to the Emperor
Nicholas. " What shall we do about the sick
man ?" asked the Czar of Sir Hamilton Seymour.
" Shall we leave the edifice to fill, or provide
against such a calamity 7" echoed the Times.
Baron Brunow had thus made all safe, had se-
cured the acquiescence of the British Government,
and had induced the Times to talk as pure Russian
as could be learned in St. Petersburg. So pre-
pared, Prince Menschikoff was sent to Constanti-
nople, and the army was put in motion. Unluckily
the Emperor found out, atter a while, that neither
Lord Aberdeen nor the Times had any right to speak
in the name of England. The " old friend," " the
excellent Aberdeen," had to declare war ; and the
Times which, in March, " had no anxiety for the
maintenance of the Ottoman empire," had wheeled
right round before, and had resolved that the Otto-
man empire should be maintained against Russia
and against all colliers.
Unluckily, however, these conversions came too
late. The delusive encouragements of March had
induced the Emperor to embark in a course from
which he was too proud to turn back. His old
friend, Aberdeen, and his humble slave, the Tiimp,
had led him astray ; but the mischief was now
done. The war was, in fact, begun. And its;
origin was a mistake as to the influence of Lord
Aberdeen and as to the power of the Times. So
began this great war.
But we refer to this long-past fact, chiefly be-
cause we see too much reason to fear a second
blunder of the same kind, or even still more serious.
A misfortune of the gravest kind is threatening us,
and, again, the foolish pretensoius of the Times
may have some considerable share in bringing it
On.

For the last two or three weeks a most absurd
rumour has been bruited abroad—so absurd, in
fact, that we have not thought it worth while to
allude to it—namely, that England and France
were entering into a treaty with Spain, which king-
dom was to furnish, like Sardinia, a contingent of
25,000 men to the army in the Crimea, while Eng-
land and France, in return, were to guarantee to
Spain the quiet possession of Cuba. Now the
manifest absurdity of this was two-fold :-1, that
Spanish troops, in Russia, were likely to be worth-
less—a mere incumbrance ; while, 2, our inter-
ference between Spain and America exposed us to
the danger of a new war with a nation of 20,000,000
of proud and pugnacious men. We disbelieved,
therefore, the whole story, as one too bad to be
credited even of Lord Palmerston himself. But,
while we thus paused, there came out an article, of
a professedly Ministerial hue, in the 7'imes of last
week, which tended to make matters worse, if pos-
sible, than they already were.
This article avowed that the English Govern-
ment was reinforcing its West Indian squadron, and
thusinterposing a " powerful fleet" between this
country and the North American continent. This
avowal at once entitles the Americans to demand
some explanations. Now an evasive or false expla-
nation is an insult. What, then, are we to say of
such talk as the following :
" At this moment North America is in profound
peace with the whole world ; yet it is not the less
true that in her ports are fitting out at this moment
piratical filibustering expeditions, destined to carry
war and bloodshed into the dominions of an un-
offending neighbour. These explanations do not
receive the sanction of the American. Government,
are not equipped by its funds, will not be conducted
by its officers—but their preparation is neverthe-
less well known to the President and his Adminis-
tration, and receives no check from that quarter."
" That which she cannot do we are compelled, at
least so far as the lawless enterprises directed against
ourselves go, to do for her. We cannot wait
patiently till these lawless emissaries of insurrec-
tion and plunder have set their feet within her
Majesty's dominions, and encountered there the
resistance which is sure to overwhelm their wild
and desperate schemes. We cannot wait till we are
placed in the terrible dilemma of either sparing men
to whom clemency is cruelty to the human race, of
which they are the enemies, or of inflicting a just
punishment, which may be the means of inflaming
against us the passions of the American people and
leading to a disastrous and fratricidal war. We
will, if it be possible, prevent the crime that other-
wise it would be our duty most severely to punish,
and this we do in the name and in the hope of peace.
We cannot believe that those who are now engaged
in enrolling unhappy men for these desperate and
criminal enterprises really contemplate the success
of a descent upon Ireland, for instance, as probable,
or even possible."
The talk about a descent on Ireland is too ab-
surd to be maintained for a single moment. No
British Minister could gravely advance such a be-
lief in a conference with an American ambassador.
It is a baseless, and therefore a foolish pretext.
But there remains, unhappily, the avowed fact of
a "powerful fleet" assembled in the West Indies.
What rational account can we give of this to our
Transatlantic brethren ? If we say, frankly, "It
is to keep your people from seizing upon Cuba,"
that very reply may be the surest way of setting
America in a blaze, and of causing the whole nation
to resolve to take Cuba at once, just because we
were so insolent as to undertake to prevent them.
But of all possible follies, the worst was that con-
tained in the Times article. If that article is con-
ceived to speak the sense either of the English Go-
vernment or the English people, then a war',
most unfortunate, unnatural war—with the United
States is an event most alarmingly probable.

(Prom the Times of this day.)
When the war in the East first broke out, and
England found herself in new and unwonted alliance
with France, and an equally unwonted hostility
with Russia, there was no Power from which she
received assurances of support more hearty, more
satisfactory, and more spontaneous than from the
United States of America, gven the Minister of

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the Union in this country, unless we are misin-
formed, testified to the cordial sympathy of the
Cabinet of Washington and the nation over which
it presides. He expressed an apprehension as to
the durability of our alliance with France and
our ablity alone and unaided to resist the
overwhelming might of Russia. But he desired
us to be under no apprehension on that ac-
count, for the United States were willing to
make our quarrel their own, and aid us with
thousands of stout hearts and brawny arms, as

ready to pluck down the despotism of the East as
to subdue the wilderness and level the giant
forests of the West. If the English Government
believed these assurances, as we do not doubt the
American Minister believed them, we cannot rea-
sonably accuse them of rashness or credulity, or
say that they adopted on doubtful authority a
strange or improbable story. Was it unlikely a
priori that a nation whose noble boast it is that her
soil is the chosen abode of freedom, whose every
citizen is a missionar3 against the creed of despotism
should warm to a generous enthusiasm at a war
waged for no selfish motive, but to curb barbarous
insolence and save Europe and Asia from being
trampled under the heel of an overbearing autocrat
Was it likely that a population recruited annually
from the bitterest enemies of Russia, which has so
often evinced a mantial spirit, which swarmed to the
obscure conflicts of the Mexican war, and has shed
its blood so freely in nameless Indian quarrels,
should stand aloof from a contest in which world-
wide fame was to be won by the brave, and a fair
occasion was offered of making American valour il-
lustrious in the van of a conflict on the decision of
which depended the future destinies of the human
ni:Yirttja.9o,thibuk,eo4 -V flikefarg,-..
nat haebeen, the cannot W=leon/
nisters that, in their urgent need of men, they sought
to avail themselves of the resources of the West,
and to turn into a legitimate channel the irregular
energies of those ardent spirits which have appeared
so long to burn for au enterprise worthy of their
courage. At the same time the British Government,
while establishing depots for enlistment within its
own dominions on the American continent, gave
the most stringent orders that nothing should be '
done in the endeavour to obtain recruits to violate
the municipal law of the United States—a direction
which, with all deference to the American Attorney-
General, seems to us to show an intention to re-
spect, instead of to violate, the national sovereignty
of the Union.

However, it unhappily soon became only too
apparent that the American Minister and the Bri-
tish Government had alike mistaken the disposition
of our Transatlantic brethren. The sympathies of
the land of freedom were found in great measure
to be enlisted on the side of Russia. Whether

it was a jealousy of the French alliance, a secret
sympathy with the spirit of territorial aggression,
wherever displayed, a desire on the part of the
slave-bolding States to counteract influence-3 hos-
tile to their domestic institutions, or that the Irish
refugees had inoculated the Union with their
hatred of England, we cannot say ; but certain it is
that accounts began speedily to reach this country
of the hostile spirit in which our attempts at re-
cruiting were received, and the philo-Russian tone
adopted, with a few honourable exceptions, by the
whole American press, was but too apparent. The
English Government did not wait to hear more ;
it had been misled, and it hastened to retract its
error. Orders were immediately despatched to
America to desist from all attempts at recruiting,
and to give no cause of annoyance to the suscep-
tibilities of the nation. In the meanwhile the
American Government had, as well as the British,
made its observations on the state of public feel-
ing, and determined not to neglect the oppor-
tunity of , turning that feeling to account in tLe
interest of the corning Presidential election of
1850. Proceedings were instituted against
per-
sons who had acted, or were supposed to act, in
the interest of the English recruiting service, and
Mr. Crampton, the most popular Minister who
has ever been accredited from this country to the
Cabinet of Washington, was made the object of
unmeasured abuse and vituperation. At the same
time, the American Government desired their
Minister in London to make the strongest repre-
sentations as to the conduct of Great Britain, and
to demand a discontinuance of all endeavours at
recruiting in the States. The British Government
answered in the most conciliatory tone that what
was demanded had been already done, and offered
explanations on the subject; whivh proved perfectly
satisfactory to the American Minister, who could
not but remember his own sanguine anticipations
of a contrary feeling ; and so fora time the matter
terminated. But the American Government was
not so easily satisfied, and returned to the attack
with a despatch of which we will only permit our-
selves to say that it was ill-calculated to restore
good feeling between the two countries, and by no
means a fitting acknowledgment of the readiness
shown by our Ministry to recall a na'stake into
which they had been so innocently led. To this
despatch the British Government has returned a
temperate, but firm and dignified reply, and has
seconded its diplomacy by strengthening its West
India fleet with the ships that have arrived from
the Baltic.

In this position affairs now stand, awl we appeal
to the conviction of our readers whether these
transactions do not disclose on the part of our own
Government a most commendable spirit of for-
bearance and moderation, and on the part of the
Government of the United States a desire to force
a quarrel upon us at a period when we may well be
supposed to desire, above all things, the continu-
ance of our present friendly relations. We do not
appeal to our own countrymen, for there is no one
in England who has any other feeling to the
United States than that of amity and goodwill, or
who would regard a rupture with them as other
than a heavy and grievous calamity, to be averted
by all honourable means. But wo appeal to
the respectable, intelligent, and moderate portion
of the American community, whose influence
we aro sorry to see not very apparent in the
present proceedings of their Government, whether
they will submit to see the alliance—we might
almost call it the union—between the two coun-

tries endangered, and the vast interests of a
commerce reciprocally beneficial imperilled, for the
sake of obtaining a little popularity for a political
party, and influencing, in however slight a degree,
the elections of the coming year. Surely such mat-
ters as the continuance of a good understanding
between England and America ought to be too
grave for such heartless trifling. We cannot doubt
there is in the United States a large number of
persons standing aloof from the stormy conflicts of
political life who are yet not willing to abandon the
guidance of the vessel of the State in a moment so
critical as the present to the rash and inconsiderate
hands which are driving her straight upon the
breakers. We trust that no word may fall from
us to aggravate the ill-feeling which has been so
unfortunately excited, or to embitter a quarrel
which it is only due to our Government and peo-
ple to say that they have done nothing to provoke
and are willing to do everything consistent with
honour to allay. We cannot believe, notwithstand-
ing the extraordinary language and conduct of the
American Government, that they can really wish
to drive matters to the extremity towards which
they are so recklessly urging them ; but it is dan-
gerous to sport with the susceptibilities of two
brave and high-spirited nations ; and those who
are thus eager iu letting out the waters of strife
should consider well whether they have strong):
sufficient to close the floodgates they have opened

(Prom the Morning Post of this day.)
Although it cannot for a moment b
English Government has acted in stricetdoubted that the
conformityo Jeyerswittoh
law, in directing the Lieutenant-Governor f
remove from that island the 33 refugees, who have in-
famously violated the hospitality which in every por-
tion of the British dominions is extended to foreigners,
"so long as they behave
vetihnefrnselvdePoftpheealcneeacbil?re:o
,ittir is
e
(sanctioned by precedent well tharthe public should
beuld
andorine auth,rity) which has
been adopted in freeing Jersey from the presence of these
mi.l i.maries of assassination,trea-on, and infidelity.,land we ma But before we refer
to the law of the i
general question, observe that it it isy;
with respect to the g
clear principle of Englishe law that the Crown has an
inherent right, independently of any statute, to banish
aliens from the
realm. Blackstone stater that "great
tenderness is shown by our laws not only to foreigners
in distress, but with regard also to the admission of
strangers Rho come spontaneously. For, so long as
their nation continues in peace with ours, and they them-
selves behave peaceably, they are under the King's pro-
tection, though liable to be sent home whenever the
King sees occasion." A. more distinct and emphatic
declaration of the'royal prerogative in this respect it is
impossible to conceive. But in the first years of the revo-
lutionary war, when, hi consequence of the troubles which
prevailed on the continent, a vast number of foreigners
sought an asylum in this country, the Legislature thought
proper to pass an alien act, which provided machinery for
the removal of foreigners. This act, as well as subsequent.
acts passed for the same purpose, merely declared and
c•infirmed the inherent prerogative of the Crown. In
1848, when the continent again became troubled
Mr.
and
convulsed, the Legislature, on the suggestion
Hutt, passed an alien act which expired at the end ofnd of the
1 session of 1849. At the present time the state of the law
is this—the prerogative of the Crown, after a period of

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