The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-29 00:00:00

at which the harbours are to be constructed, it is
perfectly idle to talk about it. If the harbours are
to be of any use, they ought to be constructed, not
at points adapted for seats of commerce or among
centres of trade, but in the neighbourhood of dan-
gerous coasts, where nothing would ever create a
trade, and where, therefore, there is no money to be
obtained. The only alternative is that original►y
proposed by the Committee, and embodied in Sir
Stafford Northcote's amendment—to raise the money
by tolls on shipping. As, however, the shipowners
are confessedly opposed to the proposal, they would,
of course, avoid the harbours as much as possible,
and by rejecting Sir Stafford Northcote's amend-
ment by a still larger majority than the original
motion, the House expressed its conviction that the
plan of levying the money by passing tolls would
be impracticable. The whole expense would in the
end have to be borne by the country. Supposing,
moreover, that the construction of these harbours
would be the boon it is represented to the shipping
trade, and that a part of the money could be ex-
torted from the rocks and stones of a place like
Wick, it would still be contrary to all our princi•
ples of commercial legislation to vote millions of
money for the protection of a trade from the dangers
which are inseparable from its prosecution. If, as
Mr. Lindsay argues, the expenses of these Har-
bours of Refuge would be more than reimbursed by
the amount of capital they would save, let the ship-
ping trade, in their own interest, construct these
harbours on their own account. If they reply that
they cannot command the vast capital such a work
would require, let them ask the Government for
loans at a fair rate of interest. Mr. Milner Gibson
points out that this has already been done to a con-
siderable extent in many cases. A bill was passed by
the Government to enable them to assist Harbour
Commissioners for this very purpose, and under its
provisions nearly a million has already been
granted, and a further quarter of a million has
been applied for. It is, however, further alleged
that shipowners prefer to cover their own risks by
insurance, and that while they can protect them-
selves in this way they are indifferent to the security
of their crews and passengers. If this could be
made out, which we do not believe, it might follow
that Parliament ought to compel the shipowners to
perform their duty to their servants and the public,
but it would by no means follow that it ought to take
the duty off their hands. No one undervalues the
lives of our merchant sailors cr our sea-travelling
countrymen, but that consideration is beside the
question. It is often the duty of the Legislature
to provide, as in the case of railways, that a trade
shall take pro, er precautions to insure the safety
of the public by which it lives, but it is never the
duty of a Legislature to take those precautions
itself. All that Parliament can possibly be ex-
pected to do is to enforce such rules as may provide
that any trade or craft does not pursue its own in-
terests too grossly to the neglect of the public safety
and public rights. Above all, it is the business of
the trade itself to provide for its own interests and
security. All that can be done is to give it a tem-
porary help, and this the shipping trade is offered
by the Act we have referred to. But to carry out
Mr. Lindsay's proposal would be to give a bonus to
the shipping interest which no other branch of trade
or commerce has ever had the assurance to ask for.

HERALD.—The House of Commons took up last
night the theme which engaged the House of Lords
on Tuesday. Mr. Peacocke gave the law officers
of the Crown a direct challenge to defend the in-
structions emanating from them by virtue of which
the Tuscaloosa was seized, to be released soon after
because the seizure was found to be perfectly un-
justifiable. The challenge could not be evaded, and
both Solicitor and Attorney-General stood up to
admit that the instructions were not so full and ex-
plicit as they ought to have been, to declare that
fresh instructions for colonial governors were under
consideration, but that the point was so nice that no
decision had yet been come to about them, and in
the same breath to defend the instructions already
issued as being perfectly in accordance with the
rulss of international law, and contend that neither
Sir Baldwin Walker nor the authorities at home

could have acted in any other manner. "We did
wrong, but we were quite right," that is the argu-
ment which the legal advisers of the Government
have the courage to address to the House of Com-
mons, accepting in their own excuse precisely the
pitiful plea of Earl Russell on Tuesday, that whether
Sir B. Walker acted according to law or not, he was
justified in all his proceedings, because "common
sense" urged that they ought to be legal. This is
the substance of the argument of law officers who
took upon themselves to deprecate the discussion of
the question on the ground that it was extremely
improper for the House, iefluenced as it probably
would be by party motives, to pronounce an opinion
upon a question of international law. Physicians,
heal yourselves. Could there be a more scandalous
example of party feeling distorting men's judgments
than this attempt of two gentlemen occupying a
position of immense responsibility to vindicate what
they knew to be wrong in order to serve the inte-
r, sts of the party with which they are connected ?
Talk of a perversion of judgment front party pre-
judice : we had that perversion, to use the mildest
possible term, exhibited last night by the Attorney
anG Solicitor-General to an extent happily seldom
paralleled. It is the policy of the Government—its
necessity, perhaps—to grovel before the Federals.
l'o conciliate them it must, whilst professing to be
neutral in the contest, violate all the rules of neu-
trality and law in their favour; and, unfortunately
for the honour of a profession which has been wont
to supply guardians of the law, it has found legal
advisers who are eager to assist it in this dirty
work, and devote all their ingenuity to discover
excuses for the perversion of the law. Sir Roundell
Palmer and Sir R. P. Collier seem to consider
themselves advocates retained upon behalf of the
Administration, and to hold it as their sole duty to
make out a case for their clients—to have, i❑ fact,
precisely the same obligations as the gentlemen
who are engaged to defend a culprit at the Mid-
dlesex sessions. That was not the view which
their predecessors took of their functions ; it is
not the constitutional view of the offices of
Attorney and Solicitor General. No doubt the
Government finds it extremely inconvenient that
this question should be discussed. We can
readily understand that very devout wishes have
been offered up in Cabinet Councils, and in
more secret conclaves, that the Tuscaloosa had been
" farther"—from the Cape of Good Hope or any
British possession. But the convenience of the
Government is not the law of the house, and Earl
Russell has most emphatically laid it down that no
argumentum ab tnconvenienti can be offered in bar
to a just contention. The convenience of the Go-
vernment is not the concern of the House of Com-
mons, which has to watch that no injustice be
perpetrated, or if the injustice should be done to
enforce redress for it, or at least prevent its recur-
rence. We agree with the Solicitor General that
such a question should be approached in a judicial
spirit, apart from any sympathies which may be
entertained on the one side or the other; and the
violation of this rule is just the complaint we make
egainst her Majesty's Government and her law
officers. They never have approached this question,
or any one of the other questions between Federals
and Confederates, in a judicial and impartial spirit.
They have always been governed by their preju-
dices, and instead of holding the balance even and
maintaining the law, they have done their utmost
to wi❑ the favour of the Federals, and have scan-
dalously perverted the law with that purpose. The
very speech which the Solicitor General prefaced
with this appeal to an impartial and judicial exa-
mination is a rank specimen of partiality, partisan-
ship, and distortion of the law to serve party in-
terests. How inconvenient Mr. Peacocke s resolu-
tion was deemed by the Government was shown
clearly by the mean attempt to count the house out.
Mr. Mackinnon, who undertook this honourable
piece of business, is one of the most devoted fol-
lowers of the Government, and the rumour has
been circulated by its own organs that he is to receive
the reward of his zeal in a peerage. Such are the
services to their country of the men whom the'Whigs
raise to tee Upper House. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that a count out was planned by the
Government. It failed; but the absence of many
of the members of the Opposition at the division
saved them the censure they so richly deserved.
The result, however, cannot be claimed by them as
a victory. They were only excused because they
confessed that they had done wrong, and promised
to behave better for the future.

COMPLIMENT FOR COMPLIMENT.—.4II gratitude
for the English reception of Garibaldi, a grand demonstra-
tion and serenade took place on the 19th, at Genoa, before
the house of the British Consul.

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