The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-11 00:00:00

laws (if such exist) prohibiting such proceedings
shall be enforced. But whether a prima facie ease
of violation of the law has been established is for the
neutral Government to determine. If such a case is
made out, it is then the duty of the neutral State to
put its laws in operation ; but if otherwise, then any
compliance with the demands of the belligerent
Power amounts to a pure abandonment of national
independence. In a despatch, dated Sept. 5, Mr.
Layard informed Mr. Stewart that on that day her
Majesty's Government had directed the Commis-
sioner of Customs at Liverpool to detain the
steam rams. In the same letter, however, the Under-
Secretary states that the orders had been trans-
mitted previous to the receipt of Mr. Adams's
despatch of the same date pressing the Government
to adopt that course. Unless, therefore, we can
suppose that the Under-Secretary made a deliberate
misstatement, which of course cannot for a moment
be supposed, we must conclude that the transmission
of the orders for the detention of the rams preceded
the receipt of the American Minister's despatch.
There exists no doubt that the Government gave
directions for the seizure of the ironclads of the sth
of September; and as Mr. Adams's letter bears date
on the same day, it is more reasonable to suppose
that the despatch was received after the decision of
the Government had been arrived at, than that the
Foreign Secretary should have, immediately on its
receipt, determined on modifying his policy, though
in the absence of any additional evidence bearing on
the ultimate destination of the suspected vessels.

whatever may have been thought of the insuf-
ABT'„,,'. he evidence on which the Government
•h of September last, it is impos-
actea its tnc mont-
went events have justified
aisle to deny
-ve the consideration
their conduct. lie nosy wa., • ping
of these
of whether the building and equips._ement of
vessels does, in fact, constitute an infring' -fion
the Foreign Enlistment Act—that is a ques.
which still remains to be decided. But assuming
that this statute is not a dead letter, and until it 15
proved to be so the Government are bound to pre-
sume that it is not, the Executive is unquestionably
bound to put it in operation when acts are done
which to all appearances it was intended to pro-
hibit. That the iron-clads in process of construction
in Mr. Laird's dockyard at Birkenhead were not
intended for the Viceroy of Egypt, as was at first
alleged, but were in truth designed for the service
of the Confederate Government, the Secretary of
the Navy of that Government has himself expressly
admitted. His admissions will, of course, be value-
less as against those who claim to be the owners of
the vessels on the trial of a criminal information in
an English court, but they will go far to satisfy,th©
public of the soundness of the suspicions entertained
by the British Government when they gave ordefs
to their officers of customs to detain the rams..
Earl Russell, with no little dexterity, appeals tof
the report of the Confederate Naval Secretary 'as
affording the .nost convincing proof that in the
discharge of their neutral obligations the English
Government have furnished no cause for complaint
to that of the United States. If Mr. Mallroy, in
the name of President Davis's Administration, com-
plains of " the unfriendly construction" which we
have put upon our laws, and ascribes to that cause
the inability of the Confederate Government to
procure a formidable navy, it raises a strong pre-
sumption that England has not, as the Federal Go-
vernment are never tired of reiterating, treated
with favouritism the Southern States. The North
provided itself in the English markets with every
description of munition of war of which it had need?
but although our markets are equally open to the
South, the command of the sea possessed by the
Federal Government necessarily prevented it from
turning the advantages we offered to equal account.
No one but a Federalist will, for one moment, con-
tend that, since the commencement of the civil war
the Confederates have derived one-fiftieth part of
the material assistance afforded by British manu-
facturers to the Government of the Northern States.
But the fact is that, whether with or without cause,
a Yankee Government must, if only for the sake of
popularity, vituperate Great Britain. We are
blamed for recognising the belligerent character of
the Confederates, though they have for upwards of
three years waged war in vindication of their in-
dependence, and are still unsubdued. We are re-
proached for permitting any of the natives of the
Southern States to reside in our dominions, and
these reproaches come from a Government which,
like our own, prides itself on the hospitality which
it offers to the political exile. It must be a source
of regret to us that we have failed to give satisfac-
tion to either of the belligerent republics, but the
fact that we have not done so would seem to de-
monstrate the strictness of the neutrality we have
endeavoured to maintain.