The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

HERALD.—The maxim enunciated by Grotius,
" Hostem esse qui faciut quod hosti placet," as one
which should regulate the conduct of neutrals
towards belligerents, has been strangely disregarded
by her Majesty's Government in their treatment of
the Confederate States. Lord Russell's theory of
neutrality appears to consist in complacency to the
strong belligerent, and contempt to the weak. When
it is possible to strain international or municipal
law to the despite of the Confederates Lord Russell
exhibits extraordinary energy and determination.
Violation of British territory, hostilities earried
into British waters in utter contempt of the
rights and lives of British subjects, provoke from
him but a feeble remonstrance ; but when Federal
interests are threatened no language can be too
strong and no action too determined. The guise of
a faintly disputed legality is sufficient justification
for a blow to be dealt to the Confederates with the
prospective reward of an approving smile, or, what
is perhaps more likely, of a short intermission of
bluster, from the Federals. The last exemplifica-
tion of Lord Russell's peculiar view of neutrality
is the case of the Tuscalooza. The Tuscalooza, a
Confederate cruiser, was seized by the Govern-
ment of the Caps of Good Hope, under orders
from home, in Simon's Bay, on the 27th of
December last. She was formerly called the Con-
rad, but after her capture by the Alabama she was
rechristened, and converted into a man of war by
Captain Semmes for the service of the Confederate
State. Some three months ago she had been allowed
to remain unmolested in the harbour of Simon's Bay,
and had been recognised by the authorities there as
a Confederate man of war. She is commanded by
Lieut.:Lowe, who reported that since her last visit
the Tuscalooza had been cruising between the Cape
and Brazil, and had spoken nearly one hundred
vessels. But of that number only one was a Fede-
ral, which, having an English cargo on board, was
released on giving a bond. Thus no act has been
committed on her part which can render her more
liable to seizure than she was three months ago.
Lieutenant Lowe, in full confidence in his right to
British hospitality, came to Simon's Bay with the
intention of getting the bottom of his vessel re cop-
pered and of taking in supplies. But on the day
after his arrival, the admiral, Sir Baldwin Walker,
dispatched from the flag ship a lieutenant and a
boarding party of twenty-five men to take posses-
sion in the Queen's name. Lieutenant Lowe imme-
diately lodged with the admiral a formal protest
against the seizure, which protest it appears, has been
forwarded to the Home Government. And the United
States consul, on the other hand, lodged a claim tothe
vessel on behalf of her former owners, which claim
has apparently been recognised by the Government,
as he has been informed by the authorities that the
Tuscalooza will only be detained until she can be
handed over to them. The proposition is indisput-
able that when a ship is captured it is the duty of
the captors to send her into some convenient port
belonging to themselves for adjudication. But this
proposition can only refer to belligerents who have
some ports to which they can bring their prizes.
All the ports;of the Confederate States are blockaded,
so that the commanders of Confederate men of war
have been compelled to constitute themselves prize
tribunals, and to adjudicate upon the vessels which
they halve captured, simply because it is out of their
power to bring them before a more regularly consti-
tuted court. It is said that the point of difference
between the legal authorities of the Cape and this
country is whether Captain Semmes is competent to
condemn prizes without taking them before the
usual prize tribunals. If the Tuscalooza is not legally
condemned she has not become, by the rights of war,
the property of the Confederate Government, and
her owners may claim her as their property. If,
on the other hand, she was legally condemned, sh©
is entitled to all the privileges accorded by neutrals
to belligerents, and, amongst others, to the refuge
of our ports and to such supplies which are not of a
warlike character. Lord Russell has clutched with
his usual avidity the opportunity to inflict an injury
on the Confederate cause. If special pleading could
prove that Captain Semmes could not constitute a
legal tribunal for the adjudication of prize, a blow
would be dealt to the Confederates and a favour
conferred upon their antagonists. But we have
yet to learn that the Government of one nation can,
by any stretch of international law, dictate to the
Government of another nation which is recognised
by her as a belligerent, what tribunals it shalt con-
stitute prize courts. Captain Semmes claims to con-
stitute such a court by virtue of a special authority
from his Government; and surely his Government
has no less authority to appoint Captain Semmes a
judge of prize than the Federal Government has to
make Judge Betts the principal performer of judi-
cial farces in these very matters in the District
Court of New York. There is no regular interna-
tional, or even, says Vattel, municipal court to ad-
judicate upon questions of lawful prize or capture.
This is a jurisdiction assumed by the Sovereign, in
whom the right and power of declaring war and
peace is vested. In Great Britain the power to de-
cide questions of naval prize is delegated by the Sove-
reign to the Judge of the Admiralty Court, before
which tribunal it can only, in the first instance,
be brought. In like manner in the Confederate
States the Government de facto is equally em-

powered to delegate its power to such persons or
tribunals as they choose ; and other nations can
have ❑o right to dispute their authority. It so hap-
pens, from the peculiar circumstances of the Con-
federate State, that the court so constituted differs
from that of other powers. But for that reason,
unless Captai❑ Semmes's proceedings were charac-
terised by gross injustice, their authority is not,
therefore, to be impugned. The Tusealooza, after
being condemned as a prize, was duly commissioned
for the Confederate service, and thenceforward was
entitled to all the immunities of a ship of war, one
of which is freedom from arrest. There is peculiar
inconsistency in her present seizure, as she has once
been recognised by the authorities as a man of war;
and it is questionable whether they are not estopped
by their own former act of recognition from now
proceeding against her. however, whatever may
he the ultimate result of the protest made by Lieut.
Lowe to the Home Government, the delay c nse-

quest upon all legal proceedings will have produced
the de3ired result. The Confederate cruiser will be
under an embargo for some months to come, and
the Federal merchant vessels, whom their Govern-
ment are too weak to protect, will enjoy an immu-
nity from seizure under Lord Russell's protecting
cegis,

Tiam.—Mr. Gladstone introduced his bill for the,
better Collection of Taxes, which was read a secona
time on Monday night, is a speech which was a
miracle of ingenuity. Few could have supposed that
there existed on this dry ground so many varied
materials of moral and imaginative interest. It is
true that the greater part of mankind are hopelessly
ignorant as to the nature of the gulf between the
tax collector and the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and how it is bridged over. The tax paid and the
receipt filed, no one cares to know what becomes of
the money, except that one occasionally roads in the
papers the portentous account of a collector having
disappeared, and the taxes having actually to be
levied again. An event so hideous we class with a
conflagration or an attack of hydrophobia—a cala-
mity that only occurs to one in ten thousand, or not
so many. But the general public now learns from
Mr. Gladstone that there is a world of existence, of
incident, and of excitement in that fiscal hierarchy
of which the collector, with his iron pen, his ink-
bottle, and his book, is the humble messenger and
representative ; and that in it there are grievances,
jealousies, opportunities of spite and persecution,
and room for catastrophes, even to the chance of
whole parishes being laid under unknown
collectors against their will, plundered whole-
sale, and compelled to make good the defalca-
tions of men whom they had no hand in ap-
pointing. That taxpayers, indeed, should suffer
grievances is intelligible and probable ; but that
parishes, commissioners of land-tax, assessed taxes,
and income-tax, clerks, assessors, and even col-
lectors, should be actually suffering untold wrongs,
is a revelation which the world was hardly prepared
for. It is a new source of interest, and a new field
of sympathy. In the almost utter exhaustion of
domestic incidents our novelists might find a new
world in Mr. Gladstone's disclosures. A general
officer or a lady of rank compelled by a rejected
assessor, or a jealous Board of Commissioners, to
collect tax es and to sell up half the neighbourhood,
being thrice obliged to abandon the London season,
a Continental tour, and still more interesting en-
gagements, but taking a just revenge by bolting
with the money and leaving all the neighbourhood
to pay their taxes over again, the surveyor to go
into the Gazette, and the clerk to commit suicide,
would, at least, have the claim of novelty, and
a dedication to Mr. Gladstone would secure a
large and enthusiastic class of readers. For our
part, we will not rush in where the veil is so
recently raised, and where Mr. Gladstone him-
self cannot answer for the temper of the agen-
cies he has brought to light. Our interest is
that of the taxpayer. In that capacity we are
qui▪ te content to have no voice in the appointment
of the collector, particularly as we recognise the
pri▪
nciple involved in the present system of volun-
tary assessment, that so long as the Treasury does
not appoint the collector it will not be answerable
for his defalcations. Of course we consider it
an
object to secure that the ghost of a tax once laid, it
shall not revisit us. Then, too, we cannot but ac-
knowledge the simplicity and economy of making
one set of officials do all the work. On oue point
there must still be a difference of opinion ; or rather,
as Mr. Giadstone says, a decided objection, for the
present, to collection by the officers of the Inland
Revenue. In many places the office of collector is

be sert):
very valuable, and the commissioners will
to part with the patronage. But should the Jul
tilt
become law, and work well where allowed a trie.
no doubt the general interest will eventually r
vail against the very natural wishes of locnet al CO
missioners. As to the surveyors, they are 135i0
lested for the present, either in their office °
their pay: But though the Chancellor of th
at
e
chequer seems to have exhausted all the griev
of at' the classes concerned in the collection of taxes;
there is one class, not less interested, vfbici:jthe
still ask his sympathy and elucidation. fact Mot
taxpayer. Mr. Gladstone alludes to the
he is not always at home, that he is not alwara
in a good humour, and that he has not alwsYs„o4
handful of cash within reach. When this bag`till
he is sorry for the collector. So are we, but still af
more for the victim. Considering the multltu-„is
these calls, it is no wonder that a man isnot fOle-cic
prepared for them, and if he cannot write a erg
for the amount he must put the collector to
ever,
trouble of another call. That functionary, 111:g •
is either at no great distance or he is frequell'ir':at
ing his rounds, and in neither case is it Magness
hardship to have to call again. It is his os
to call, and call again. He generally l`rion..
people. He is chosen because his emploYineut.crata
pals a universal knowledge. Perhaps be or
collector; perhaps registrar; perhaps seid Bp-
clerk; perhaps schoolmaster, or auctioneer
into
praiser, or one of the trades which bring hinleople.
many houses and into contact with wail P,
Of ,tell
f course he knows when a man may be '-ibird
trusted for a few days. Even his second o
call does not drive poor householders wild and /13AO
are is
them dream of a distress. They knew 01 eat
elelsoc
gentle hands, and that the stern officiei
is tempered, with the softer spirit of tra3e: psid
man who is often soliciting orders, and v01%151)35',
his Christmas bills, some before New Yea,r','„, the
some before Easter, and equally thankfilinoet
latter, will not turn a man's house out of w 113,30
It
eis not his nature or habit. He bs3 iff,letr
trhe oil of humanity in his system. He has
st in things going on well all about Mei- ~.you
of one thing you feel most comfortably' Stireaself
will not forget to pay your tax, and filld,,/a° Tb
sold up without notice. You will be remillue;.yeat"
collector will call you to your duty at the e.,„„1,
hour. His memory is so faithful that You may e
spared the mental burden. You need net ~;" etel'
memorandum, or stick up the notice on the„—„atar iS
piece, or knot your handkerchief, for the celleid by
sure not to forget you. At least, if he shoo great
anyi. chance, you will not take it as acte.lgeoalci,
sf eght. You will not break your heart if be she
loirget you altogether. But as far ais cosl'
Mr. Gladstone's bill it will put an end to tilli"nisaci
fortable state of things. The officer of tii! Islaog
$
Revenue, in other words the exciseman,
market town, far or near, and perhaPe tbs.,
lvery little about you, is to drop his missive 1:
letterbox of his town ; repeat it, if eecesear' A's ice
sit in his office expecting your attendance, or of
presume, your answer by post. The snajor,,itioaicliS
accounts are small, and the majority will 1.43 'erg are
cash, not by check; so the majority of ta%PaYurpceef
expected to go to the market town for the Pf bi $
unless, indeed, they can forward them c)nehlale r;
neighbour going that way- But the 1,5,1-ted °;
sponsibility of the transaction is acculn—etieee
the taxpayer, who must receive the letter,
it in mind, and pay it, either in per se'
bear ve be
abearer, or by post. The officer is te
ready to receive payment, and,
notice of the days and hours in which "el 011'
no doubt, tbef
cases, it will be much the same thing When of
payment is made. Yet, there are maul
a different character, and many reell,l,l3° 6p bap
undeserving of oar sympathy, who sc"' bfeetit.
forget, even after a second warning, 'loci ,ta,";
have to pay their assessed taxes, or their '"t.
or their income tax, before the month is 0;100131s.:
frequent occurrence of exceedingly eilnils,4-i4tWeth';
makes it difficult to remember them 11-e,lll
You are sure you have paid the last quarte''
it turns out you are at least one in arrespr:‘ifilli'
are sure you have paid your assessed tal%;‘)
after all, it was income tar. Mr. Gleds'ille,r;se.
mates that some change is necessary 66 i; cleiles,te
sury has now and then to decide the ver„"tiete ,el
question whether to let off a parish Cofer
or to otio
collector cannot square his accounts,
itf to make good the deficiency. If ths° sqie C°11;
frequently arises, and if the revenue 813P.ertbat °re
sequence, or any parish suffers unjustly' 11130;ei
valid reason for a safer class of offleerfli Olfitilj 50
sponsibility will follow the power of aPP-tbs c3O
almost as a matter of course. This ie,oloceig
of the Treasury as against the local c 0 it,
and voluntary agency. But, we subinit'r to
still the case of the individual ta%Psie
considered.