The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-25 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

THEAT RE-ROYAL; HAY MARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Rucketone.
THIS EVENING, STILL WATERS RUN DEEP.
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Wigan, Mr. W. Farren, Mr. Chippen-
dale, and Miss Louisa Angel.
After which, an apropos Dramatic Sketch, introducing a.
Panorama of the Tour of the Prince of W ales in the East
To conclude with BORROWING A HUSBAND. Pamela
Miss Maria flares. Commence at 7.

THEATRE-ROYAL LYCEUM OPEN, under
the Sole management of Mr. PECHTER.
THIS EVE NIN Gat 7, to commence with an Original
Sketch, entitled A SUDDEN ATTACK. Messrs. Shore,
Garden, H. Widdicomb, Mss Henrade, and Mrs. Lee.
After which, at a Quarter to Eight, a New Romantic
Drama, in Three Acts, and Pr3logue, entitled THE
DUKE'S MOTTO, by Paul Feval and John Brougham.
The princloal character will be sustained by Mr. Pechter,
sunperted by Messrs. J. G. Shore, G. Jordan, J. Brongnam,
iddi:ombe, F. Charles, Garden, Raymond, Dawson ;
Misses Carlotta Lecleroq, Kate Terry, N. Lavenne, and
Elsworthy.
Acting-Manager, Mr. H. Barnett.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE
Lessees, Mess! s. Lindns and Vining,
THIS EVENING the drama of AURORA FLOYD. Miss
Amy Sedgwick. Miss Henderson, and Mrs. Simpson ; Messrs.
R. Roxby, G. Melville, G. Belmore, C. Seyton, Wallace, and
Cathcart.
After which, KILLING TIME. Mr. Geo. Vining, Mr. C
Seyton, and Miss Amy Sedgwick.
To conclude with a new whimsical Extravaganza the entitled
BEAUTIFUL HAIDEE ; or The Sea Nymph and
Rovers. Misses M. Oliver, Helen Howard, Hudspeth, Hen-
n, and Murray ; Messrs. C. Seyton, G. Belmore, Fitz-
dersojames, Moreland, and CockeriTh

NEW TrIFATRE-R0 YAL, ADELPHL-
Sole Proprietor and Manger, Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING, DOMESTIC ECONOMY. Mr. J. L.
Toole, Miss Kate Kelly, Miss A. Seaman. and Miss Stok q.
After which, at Eight o'clock, AURORA FLOYD. Miss
Avonia Jones, Miss IL Simms, Mrs. Billing,ton ; Mr. Benj.
Webster, Mr. Paul Bedford,Phillips, Mr. Billington,
lifr. Stuart, Mr. Sefton, Mr. Romer, Mr. C. J. Smith.
Commence at 7.

nriHE THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN,"
11 Containing the Latest SPORTLYG DITELLIGENCE,
can be had Every Evening of
G. R. GLENIE, NEWS AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

,The Weather—Sun Office, April 25, 1863.

THERMOMETER..
Highest since Noon yesterday .. 56
Lowest during the night
This day at Noon.. ~.
Wind—N.Westerly ; light, with fine weather.
---

HIGH WATER AT LNON BRIDGE.
Tins DA.S.—Morning, 6h. 290 m D
,—Afternoon, 6h. 50m.
To-stonnow.-Morning, 7h. 17m.—Afternoon, 7h. 47m.

,
t 5
jee,q1.40,,,

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1863.

The long debate on the seizure of the Alexandra
is full of interest, and it is important to note that
the Government seem determined to adhere to their
mischievous and mistaken policy. Mr. HORSFALL
spoke to the point, and with great discrimination
said that he wished to bring before the house an
individual case of hardship. It was the act of her
Majesty's Government that he now complained of,
the act which had done serious injury to the owners
of the Alexandra. He had received a communica-
tion from Messrs. FAWCETT and Co., stating that
the vessel was their property, and had been built
on speculation. These gentlemen had received a
notice that the Alexandra was " exchequered " for
being equipped, furnished, and fitted out with the
intention of being employed in the service of persons
exercising, or presuming to exercise, the powers of
government in a foreign state. Now he (Mr.
HORSFALL) would show that this seizure was not
justified under the Foreign Enlistment Act. He
quoted the opinion of the Solicitor-General, who
said that it was a great mistake to suppose
that the act was made to prevent all commercial
dealings in ships of war with belligerent countries;
he also added that " the United States Government
bad no right to complain of the Act in question, as
it is enforced in the way in which English laws
were generally enforced against English subjects—
that was, on evidence, and not on suspicion; on acts,
and not on presumption ; on satisfactory testimony,
and not on the mere accusation of a foreign Minister
or his agents." Mr. HORSFALL could not have
brought forward better evidence ; and if that law,
as here explained, was carried out, there would be
an end to all these vexed questions, since it is on
suspicious and anonymous information that all the
proceedings of the Federal officers are founded.
Messrs. FAWCETT and Co, forcibly put the case in
a letter to Mr. HORSFALL, in which they stated
that this was an anomalous state of things, " for
they might, without question, supply whole bat-
teries of field-pieces, with carriage equipments com-
plete, to known agents of the Federals, whilst they
were not permitted tobuila or complete an unarmed
vessel, because it was supposed that she might ulti-
mately, by re-sale, become the Property of the Con-
federate States." Surely this state of things is a
scandal to our Ministers, and they should be ashamed
to hear it said of them in the House of Commons.
The letter Mr. HORSFALL referred to contained a
postscript, which alluded to an order given to
Messrs. FAWCETT to furnish shells for the
equipments of field-pieces. The order was
given by General FREMONT. Mr. HORSFALL
emphatically said that "the people of this country
liked even-banded justice, if they were to have non-
intervention and strict neutrality, why not stop the
shipment of arms to the Federals when they stopped
the building of vessels which they supposed might
'ultimately fall into the hands of the Confederates.
The hon. member wound up his
observations by
stating that the country would not be satisfied with
this course of partial proceedings, and he called
upon Government to do justice to the owners of
the Alexandra. The Attorney-General endeavoured
to elude the recessity of answering an awkward
question by declaring that it was very inconvenient
to enter on a subject while it was sub judice. Now
this is exactly the line of defence that was before
suggested as likely to be adopted by the occupants
of the Treasury bench; but while they may con-
gratulate themselves on their ingenious arrange-
ment, the public will call these tactics by the right
name, as a paltry subterfuge, unworthy of the
:Ministers of the English people: A
great
injury is
inflicted on our merchants, and they are not per-
mitted to know what are the charges against them,
Mr. WHITESIDE forcibly stated this great injustice
to the House, and asked if the Government meant
to introduce this new principle that when
a crime was charged against a party, he was to
be told that he would learn the nature of the
accusation at a future time. The learned gentle-
man added that," If depositions were made against
the meanest criminal in the land, he had a right
to be furnished with copies of the information ;"
and. so far as matters stood now, the case was

clearly for the hon. member for Liverpool, and
as clearly against the Attorney, General. Mr.
'WHITESIDE has often before this distinguished
himself for the clear view he takes of a compli-
cation question, and on this occasion he has not
fallen short of the mark. Sir HUGH CAIRNS
brought the question back to its starting point,
and told the noble lord at the head of the Go-
vernment, that he had said the consequences
would be serious if they attempted to alter the
laws of the country at the request of a foreign
Power, but they must bear in mind also what would
occur "if they suspended or stretched those laws
in order to please or pacify a foreign Power."
In this case her Majesty's Government had been
put in motion by the American Consul, and the
House ought, therefore, to watch the result.
Sir HUGH CAIRNS then animadverted upon the
strange manner in which the whole proceedings of
the seizure of the Alexandra had been conducted,
and said that the House must expect to hear some-
thing more of this freak of the Attorney-
Genera], Mr. COBDEN made one of those
prejudiced and perverse orations for which
he is famous. He began by strenuously sup-
porting the Foreign Enlistment Act, but he did not
say that it should be employed to prevent the ship-
ping of arms to the Federals. He only insisted on
the necessity of stopping such vessels as the Ala-
bama and the Florida from entering any British
port. It would surpass even Mr. COBDEN, with all
his logic to prove the truth of one assertion that he
made, namely, that we were bound by all the tra-
ditions of the past to exhibit towards the Northern
States of America a generous and forbearing policy.
Mr. COBDEN is one of the last men that we should
have expected to appeal to the influence of tradition,
he is singularly hard and unimpressionable, but
perhaps it is his want of practice in that line of
argument that caused him to fail so entirely when
he adopted it. He was resolved to try the effect of
paradox last night, for he concluded by informing
the House of a fact of which they were doubtless
ignorant, that the Foreign Enlistment Act was a
benign law, and if they interfered with it, they
would roll back the axis of the moral world. It
might be suggested that, to carry out a moral law,

it is necessary to observe it strictly, and it is altered
from its original purpose if it is perverted to suit
particular ends. Mr. HORSMAN spoke strongly on
the subject, and declared that the secession
of the South was an accomplished fact. They
were prepared for peace, but the North had resolved
to make the South a desert sooner than acknow-
ledge its independence. Mr. HORSMAN exposed
the fallacious conduct of those who called them-
selves the friends of peace, but disgraced their pro-
fessions by sending a laudatory address to President
LINCOLN; " adjuring him to go on as he has begun,
burning and extirpating, and assuring him that the
hearts of Christian England are with him in his
holy work." Why, said Mr. HORSMAN, the blight
that has fallen upon free America has spread its
contagion, and the house should rescue the country
from the stain which such misrepresentations would
cast upon it. It should attest to all parties in Ame-
rica that these apologists for despotism were bat as
units among us, and that the general voice of the
country was raised against a suicidal war that is
destroying a nation and disgracing the age. Mr.
HORSMAN is one of the most decided speakers in
the House; if he is roused by any wrong or injus-
tice he does not stop short by any deterring in-
fluences of expediency, but goes straight to the
point, and states his case with force and
fervour. Mr, MILNES made a speech for
the Government, and said that as wise men and
patriots they repressed their feelings and kept to
neutrality. It is idle to bring forward such argu-
ments as these when they are showing their feelings
only too plainly. As Sir HUGH CAIRNS truely ob-
served, they are stretching and suspending the laws
till they answer their ends. Our merchants and
shipbuilders are to undergo an ordeal similar to that
experienced by those who slept on the bed of
PROCRUSTES—their rights are to be sacrificed
and their property destroyed, while, on the
other hand, the powers of the law are to be
augmented to their utmost limits against the
Confederates, and to be conspicuously waived to
suit the Federals. This question of seizing the
Alexandra ought to be considered separately, and
stand or fall by its own merits, but it needs no
prophetic power to know that such is not the treat-
ment that Englishmen will submit to. If Lord
PALMERSTON wishes to rouse the country against
his Government he cannot take a speedier step for
the attainment of that end than by making our fel-

low-citizens suffer the penalty of the law in a most
harassing form, and ref using to state the
charges against them in open day. These
are not the wrongs to which Englishmen will

tamely submit, and the Government need not
think that they will be allowed to make nameless
martyrs of the gentlemen whose case was brought
before the House last night. They are now the

tests of the limits to which forbearance will be
extended before a decided course is taken, and
the nations of the world who are looking on
with curious eyes must never witness such a
degradation as that we can submit to being
dogged by the spies and persecuted by the anon;
mous charges of the emissaries of a foreign
State, while our Ministers are not only too
tame or too unwilling to protect ns,
but offer every facility to the plans
and projects of the impertinent interferers with our
rights. The sooner such procetdings are summarily
stopped the better, and the longer our Ministers are
allowed to act in this unworthy manner the greater
will be the damage inflicted on the interests of in-
dividuals at home, and the reproach that is occa-
sioned to our reputation abroad.

The forbearance of the English public may be
tried too far. They have been willing to trust our
relations with America to the hands of the Govern-
ment, in common with our dealings with other
foreign powers; they have forborne from complaint
or opposition, although an important branch of
trade and commerce was paralysed and a large body
endured,
the populationwit hthe rceadiumcnedesstowphaiucphetrriusme .They have
dignity
con-
fers, taunts, vituperation, and insult from the in-
habitants of a so-called friendly state. So long as
any good or right end could be served by silence
and inaction, so long as any wise or
just reason could be adduced for such aH
line of policy, they were content to make
great and lasting sacrifices for the general good.
Bat the face of affairs is gradually changing. The
war, which was always deprecated among us, is no
longer conducted on reasonable grounds. The
advocates of Northern supremacy openly declare
they would rather reduce the South to a desert
than submit to acknowledge its independence.
Such a feeling may sometimes be tolerated, nay
even honoured, in a protracted warfare. In the
case of Polish patriots fighting for their national
existence, of Italians striving for the in-
dependence of their country, of brave Mag-
yars struggling vainly against the Austrian
yoke, the sentiment that animates the ranks is a
spirit of noble desperation. Death or victory is a
glorious warcry when men are fighting pro anis et
feels, and in any ordinary and allowable warfare
VP) can admire the spirit of the Grecian matrons

who would equip their sons for battle, and, giving
them their shields, bid them return either with
them or upon them. But for an invader of kindred
soil to consider the ruin and desolation of countless
homes preferable to his own temporary humiliation,
to refuse to listen to negotiation, to tolerate
no suggestions of peace, to accept as an insult every
offer of friendly mediation, is to outrage
the common feelings of humanity and to
range justice, patriotism, and common sense
at once on the side of the enemy. We have, there-
fore, in England long ceased to applaud the determi-
nation with which the North carries on the
war, and have been glad to mark in its en-
tangled finances and failing credit signs o f
approaching peace ; not suspecting that the
last effort of Federal ingenuity would be
the attempt to provoke a war with ourselves,
with the hope of combining all Americans under
one common flag against a national foe, or, if that
design should fail, with the anticipation of securing
a plausible pretext for suspending hostilities with
their invincible neighbours. In this attempt Pre-
sident LINCOLN and Mr. SEWARD are likely to be
disappointed, owing to the courteous subserviency
of the English Government. They are ready to do
all and more than all that can be asked. Does
Mr. Adams, thanks to Federal spies, obtain informa-
tion that a ship is building for the Confederates,Earl
RUSSELL will seize it at once without explanation.
Does Admiral WILKES think proper to stop an
English ship on what was once part of the English
empire—the open ocean ? Civil expostulation is
all that is likely to follow. Do our merchants ap-
peal to their Government for the protection they
are forbidden to procure elsewhere ? Earl RUS-
SELL can only express his unbounded confidence
in the virtuous intentions of the Federal authori-
ties. But above all and beyond all is the fact
brought forward in the Upper House lest
might, reluctantly confessed by Lord RUSSELL,
and met with expressions of indignant surprise by
the noble lords assembled—expressions which, how-
ever just and forcible, fall far short of the tumult
of popular feeling that will be awakened outside
the walls of Parliament when the English public
learns the indignity to which English Ministers
have submitted. It is scarcely to be credited, even on
the written evidence of Mr. SEWARD'S letter supported
by the confused admissions of Earl RUSSELL, that
an American Minister should have had the effrontery
to demand that the English mail bags should be
opened, in order to search them for letters which a
foreign Government should feel inclined to read.
It is still more surprising that such an insulting
proposition should have been listened to and tem-
porised with, instead of meeting at the outset an
unhesitating and uncompromising denial. Accord-
ing to this new reading of international law, an
Englishman is not at liberty to address a letter to
an official in the Southern States, or having written
such a letter and transmitted it by the ordinary chan-
nel, he has no security that, with the sanction of the
British Government, it will not fall into the hands
of Northern spies. Englishmen are very averse to
having-their correspondence tampered with. The
delay of a post may occasion heavy losses in a com-
mercial community. The interference with private
letters brought down upon the late Sir J. GRAHAM
a storm of indignation, that even he shrunk under.
The system of epistolary espionage was found in-
tolerable when our own Government declared it
to be desirable for their interests, how much less
then should we tolerate such unwarrantable assump-
tion on the part of a foreign power. Lord RUSSELL
having said that the letters of Mr, SEWARD came
within the terms of Lord STOWELL'S decisions, the
Marquis of CLANRICARDE very justly observed
that the matter was one which must be
considered in its bearing upon the present
day and not upon the circumstances of former
times. It is not a case to be measured by anti-
quated dogmas or the regulations of punctilious
etiquette. The question whether Englishmen are
able to protect their own property, whether it
ba merchandise sailing to a neutral port or mail
bags under the Government seal. No legal quibble,
no recondite authority will reconcile the British
public to such an affront. If it is to be submitted
to for the sake of universal peace, why then let us
close our arsenals and let us forbid the
sinews of war to leave our shores for the
Northern ports. If it is to be endured
for fear of offending the Americans, be they Federal
or Confederate, North or South, let our English
Foreign Minister come down to his place in Parlia-
ment and tell his peers so if he dare. It is begin-
ning to be felt that the course we are pursuing is

leading to no end, is exposing us to insult without
conciliation, is irritating all parties without vindi-
cating our honour. We heartily coincide in the
views expressed by Lord HARDWICKE when he
said, " that the best way to avoid a collision
was to show that we were most resolutely deter-
mined to support the honour of the country. It

we deviated from that position, the Americans
would be too ready to attribute our vacillation to
fear. He should like to see the Foreign Secretary
rise in his place and say at once that such a pro-
ceeding as that referred to was contrary to all law,
and upon no pretence whatever should any of our
consuls be placed in such a position." Such a bold
and straightforward answer Earl RUSSELL was il;
prepared to give, though the noble Earl at the head
of the Opposition expressed his surprise that,
he should appear to acquiesce in such pre-

tensions. The Foreign Secretary was glad to
postpone the awkward discussion till Monday,
when he will have obtained the opinion of the law
officers of the Crown. There is another opinion he
will also have to take upon the subject unless he
assumes an attitude at variance with his present
hesitation. He will have to learn from an out-
raged people and an indignant Parlia-
ment that, while Englishmen are willing to
sacrifice more than can be required of them in the
interests of justice and humanity, they will not
concede a fraction of their independence in favour
of arrogant assumption, however insolent its threats
or grandiloquent its boasting.

Among the many advisers how to settle the Polish
Question, one has just appeared under the title of
" D.," a thirty years' resident in Russia. He
was, in fact, 35 years in that country, and he heads
his little pamphlet, "A Constitution for Poland and
Russia, considered Politically and Commercially,"*
but he propounds no constitution whatever. He
merely recommends a moderato one, leaving the
details to be framed by others. The pamphlet is
rather crude both in idea and language, and the
author apologises for this latter defect by saying
that he has been so thoroughly immersed in the
gn languages that he nearly for-
acquisition of forei
got his own English tongue. Still, he is so anxious
to publish his thoughts, that, for the sake of hu-
manity, he has done so without waiting for correc
tion, trusting that their value will not suffer by
abruptness or incongruity. The present combina-
tion of circumstances may never occur again, and if
taken advantage of, a glorious work may be
accomplished—the procuring a constitution
for both the Polish and Russian people, numbering
73,551,942 individuals, or nearly treble the popula-
tion of the United States of America, and occupy-
ing more than three times the territory of that