The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-24 00:00:00

fighting, and habit gives confidence : they believe
they can beat the natives, and " the natives are '
coming round to a similar opinion." It is to this
kind of warfare that we must look for an early end
of the war. Flying columns, penetrating into the
districts occupied by the enemy, and operating
boldly and suddenly, will strike greater fear than
the march of a whole brigade to attack a stockade
or a " pab," which the Marries have built to be be-
seiged, and can generally retire from whenever they
please. Why should not Englishmen be as active in
the bush as any native ? At home they are accus-
tomed to walk and run and climb, and what
is there but the restraints of conventional
discipline to prevent them doing so when an
enemy has to be pursued ? Tae email bodiea of
men whom the General is sending out in various
directions will probably harass the enemy more,
and give him a more disheartening notion of the
übiquity and power of the British force, than if ten
thousand men were drawn up in order of battle
before Auckland. There may be something re-
volting to European notions in the ambuscades
which are a feature in this kind of warfare, but the
ferocity of the natives and the danger which arises
from allowing bodies of them to lurk in the neigh-
bourhood of the settlers must be the excuse ±or
any departure from the usual practice of armies.
As- to the conduct of the settlers themselves, it is
worthy of all commendation, and the same may be
said'of the people of New South Wales and Victoria,
who have given all the help in their power to their
threatened brethren. The New Zealand Govern-
ment has promised grants of land to military set-
tlers who will serve three yelre, and a volunteer
force of 2,000 men has been organised in Australia,
of whom nearly half have been contributed by the
colony of Victoria. This force is independent of a
considerable body of men raised in New Zealand,
where in one way or another the whole population
of the country about Auckland is in arms. It is
from the co-operation of these large forces with the
stnall body of regular troops toot we hope for the
spe?,dy suppression of the disturbances. The time
has come when the Australian colonies are popc-
lous enough to carry on their own local wars, and
we hope that tranquillity will be restored without
further demands on the Hume Government. But
when that has been done, both the British and Co-
lonial
authorities will have the scarcely less ar-
duous duties of peace to perform. A correspon-
dent, whose letter we publish to-day, points out
the faults of our administration, and it certainly
seems that there has been a strange mixture of
weakness and false security. The Government
has left the natives so much to themselves that
they have come to look upon their tribes as inde-
pendent; while the white man with his habitual
disregard of a lower race's self esteem, has done
much to put enmity between himself and the Maori.
It is the history of the North American Indian over
again. The two races, if left to themselves, would
probably carry on desultory warfare for a genera-
tion or two, till the Maori would disappear like the
red men east of the Mississippi. But the Govern-
ment owes protection to the natives at the same
time that it has a right to exact obedience. It is
said that many of them desire a stronger and more
active administration, which will really make the
Governor their chief. Wnen reduced to submission,
they may easily be retained in it and made useful
subjects by a truly vigorous and paternal rule.

HERALD.—It is with feelings:of regret and shame
—feelings which will, we believe, be shared by every
Englishman to whom the honour of England is more
dear than the interest of a domestic faction or a
foreign belligerent—that we call the attention of
our readers to that part of the Mese.age of the Pre
sident of the Confederate States whicts deals with
the foreign relations of his Government, That
Message places on recoil before the world, foe the
information of our latest posterity, the conduct of
the British Government during this American con-
test; and in its simple narrative of facts are con-
veyed reproaches which must sting the heart of
every honest Eoglishman—reproaches too bitter to
be endured, and too just to be resented. It is not
now that we have to learn what a miserable thing
it is to be represented by Lord Russell. When his
lordship intrigued in Greece and Italy, England
bore the blame ; when he betrayed and menaced
Denmark, '° British faith" was the theme of con-
tempt uous 81 rcesm throughout the Continent ;
when he insulted Brezil,Eogland was taunted with
wanton insolence ; when he hectored Russia, and
inveigled Poland into delusive hopes and fatal ob-
stinacy, England received the harsh words which
ber Minister had deserved. And now the disgrace
falls not on him, but on the country by whose ill-
fortune it is rendered possible that her honour
should be in the keeping of John Earl Russell. He
has talked in Parliament about neutrality ; he has
pretended to observe an honest and impartial indif-
ference in a quarrel which is none of ours ; and
Parliament has been week and ignorant enough to
believe him. What language has he held in his
correspondence with his friends, and England's
bitter enemies, at Washington ? What has been
the bent and purpose of his arrangement' for en-
forcing his boasted "non-intervention ?" How has
he treated the Government and representatives of a
nation anxious to cultivate the friendship and good-
will of England? Let him speak for himself. In
May, 1861, he pleaded with Mr. Seward that her
Majesty's Government had only allowed to the
South a sort of intermediate position, and that
the sympathies of England were with the North.
Then he interdicted our ports to prizes taken by
either nation—a measure for which Mr. Seward
expressed his gratitude, as giving a death-blow
to Southern privateering. In June, 1861, Mr.
Adams had the impudence—we can call it nothing
else—to complain of the reception of the Southern
commissioners, and to threaten that the United
States would regard it as an act of a hostile charac-
ter, and take action accordingly. A man of spirit
would have administered a severe rebuke to this
impertinence ; an honest English Minister would
have reminded the Federal Ambassador that, ex-
cept as regards the formality of recognition, the
Confederate and the United States were on an
equal footing before the world, and that it was his
duty to receive the envoys of either party, not
indeed with the same formalities, but with equal
courtesy. What did Lord Russell ? He actually
apologised to Mr. Adams, and assured him that he
had no expectation of seeing the Southern commis-
sioners again ! We waste no words on this act of
gratuitous self-degradation and meanness, but pass
on to another instance. In October, 1861, Mr.
Adams again complained, this time that, in accor-
dance with every role of international law, the Con-
federates were purchasing munitions of war in the
Bahamas. Of course they had a right to do this ;
and at the same time the Federal agents were
avowedly making large purchases of arms in Eng-
land. Did Lord Russell state to Mr. Adams that
the Confederates had a perfect right to buy what
and where they pleased ? Not he. He obtained a
denial of the fact from the authorities of Nassau,
and forwarded it to Mr. Adams, to satisfy him that
" the unwarrantable act" alleged had not taken
place. In pursuance of the Fame policy he has re-
peatedly caused seizures to be made of vessels which
he thought might be sold to the Confederates, end
might be armed and equipped by them elsewhere
than in British ports; straining and perverting the
Foreign Enlistment Act to this end, while to his
knowledge thousands of Irishmen are carried over
in British ships to recruit the Federal army. These
charges are every one of them not merely sustained,
but proved beyond denial, by the language of Lord
Russell's own despatches; and they involve an
amount of treachery towards the Confederate
States, servility towards the North, and disloyalty
to England, sufficient to condemn to perpetual
infamy even a man of character previously stainless.
But Lord Russell pleads guilty to them all without
hesitation—pleads guilty, do we say ? He boasts
of his guilt. He points out to Mr. Seward that the
course of her Majesty's Government "has been ex-
ceedingly advantageous to the cause of the more
powerful of the two contending parties." After
this, Lord Russell's panegyrists had better throw
down their briefs. For, if they say that our neu
treaty has been honest and impartial they give the
lie to their client's own assertion that it has been
" extremely advantageous to the stronger party;"
and if they admit that he spoke the truth therein,
they convict him of a dishonest and unneutral
policy. We have spoken out, more than once, the
shameful truth on the subject of the pretended
blockade of the Confederate coast. We need do no
more, on this occasion, then call attention to the
masterly statement of the case by President Davis.
When that blockade was proclaimed it extended
over 3,000 miles of coast, and the navy that was to
enforce it numbered 24 ships of war. TheV thee
under the worst and most violent piecodien_tsaiid
by
worst times of old, the blockade _wasll hincoself, on
international law, and Lord
ocuredit with them
,11316:ethis fact to the
more than one occasion, poiote-e
derogation to
took credit
Federal Government, and
fur having acknowledged it,h
inte the
rests of Greet
honour and in contempt of
tdeubt
Britain. Subsequently, Do ioci 9 the blockade
a degree of force wn I would retl:?er it
acquired
untivr slit) law tam, v.,,aima hitfore 185 G,
11111, in the) tncaritii2ly, a, stew standard had ken
introduced. Her 141".i` 6'41'3 Government cton-
• • ti— -with that of .- ranee ,
14 ran h
in 11%
ained the adherence of the Conful
tasked and ob-
rate Stes to
the three last articles of the•
par:' Convention on
maritime law. Two of these
for the advantage of articles were purely
strictly observer; by fltutrals; and have been
The third was
of mutual interest to the weaker
maritime belligerent
and to neutral powers; it de-
clared that
force lnockade to be binding must be main-
tained be asufficient really to prevent access
to the coast ofthstu
enemy."
When
called upon. to
Carr
-3 Out this article Lard Russell pleade that it was