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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIDIES.—Mr. Cobden embarked last night on the
very old attempt to measure and enforce a moral
duty by appeals to self-interest. It is without a
question that common humanity, Act of Parliament,
and international law forbid any d irect and palp-
able assistance in the wars of other countries. Mr.
Cobden assumes that, for some ream or other,
the British Government has not been as prompt
as it might have been to enforce this obligation,
and that it ree-;res the additional stimulus of an
appeal to its prudence and the instinct of self-
preservation. If we require Mr. Cobden to give
()over' went some crcdie for an honest desire to do
their duty in this matter, we must also give him
credit for having no other end in view, though we
certainly could wish that his argument embraced
all the facts of the question, all that has been done
here, whether for Federals or Confederates, and all
the forms and modes in which actual assistance has
been rendered to the two causes. To the first sen-
timents of honour and religion it is utterly hateful
to give two parties in a civil war the means of mu-
tual destruction ; and in that point of view it is less
odious to be a partisan, and to mix sympathy with
profit, than to care nothing for the question and
deal with one or both of the belligerents simply for
lucre. Mr. Cobden's tone implies that England is
guilty of the more honourable error, and that our
deep and ineradicable aristocratical prejudices have
disposed both Government and large classes among
us to side with the Confederates, and to connive at
irregular but scarcely secret aid to their cause. This
supposition we believe to be unfounded. Wo are
compelled by our sense of truth to take a less com-
plimentary view of the conduct of the British people
as regards the American civil war. We see, indeed,
the great mass of the people talking a good deal
about it, and profoundly impressed with the feel-
ing that the American Government and the North-
ern States are engaged in a struggle for empire
which has no prospect of success; but when we
look to facts, we find this supposed sympathy with
Secession to end in mere talk. We have not yet
heard of a single British subject willingly fighting
in the Confederate armies; and, certainly, no per-
suasion or inducements, no facilities or promises
would succeed in enlisting one Englishman, Irish-
man, or Scotchman to set sail to assist in the de-
fence of Charleston, or Vicksburg, or Richmond.
Nor has there been any attempt to ennoble and con-
secrate Secession by exalting it above the common
rank of human motives. No recruits have been
raised, no crusade has been preached, in behalf of
the Confederates. But recruits have been raised,
levies have sailed, a erased() has been preached,
and Heaven publicly invoked for the Federal
cause. Not only many thousands of men fresh
from the British allegiance, but men who had
never left these islands, have been induced to
join a cause which a certain instinct told them
was antagonistic to the British Government and
nation. For the rest, and going out of the sphere
of political passions and prejudices, our manufac-
turers and merchants have supplied all the material
of war with a most impartial indifference to both
sides, and evidently with no other hope than to
make a large profit. Such is the matter of fact view
blockade, molesting
trhAoai.
itrE.ei\L:
of the case, but it is not Mr. Cobden's. Even if
this gentleman dealt fairly with his own argument
of interest, he would be bound to reprobate all.ucle;
Aoat the
rrd. redressso
o nb-e.
monstrations of feeling on either side, and all actual
osfi
assistance to either by supplying
sentiment, much less the irrcpressibolen
:3/node of as-
war. He does not, however, undertthaekeo7tl reer.e...,
trade. He confines himself to tbatiin
sistance which, originating
b purely ready
t h e
t emoodopsreseiosrfte
leither
fired
Fbbuettdethraelsßoth
and rendered by men
equailkent to
cause, happens by meresancc y
rsintwant of war,
wseaar-going ships cape
by the Confederates than
of assistance
Confede-
ratessbilde e sides
faN'VrarenuentsnP4lslnlcgitahlken d doing something
orth
com-
merce of the foe,
lyentht
ieo
needverband.
1s evident Cobden
if
his manifest superiority ,
powder,
the sea, It is to this
attention, and it
• Federals with muskets,
one ..r. 1
confines
swords at
peetieuilsar form
we continued troastuepspnl
trhifieese,noprmerocuusssion raps,
Cob-
den. Hui indignation
onfed is reserved
months ago, that would n
for the one
e.rates are more likely to
want from us thane
thing which the
of warlike build is theirlaid enemy does. A vessel
world-wide celebrity. I . down in a shipyard of
wanted for commerce. tis not of the form usually
body can want it except It must be for war. No•
they are so much
mct the Confederates At least,
a better price than the in' want of it that they give
for them. This
is their opponents ; so it must he
now feels himself
called
for Mr. Cobden. He
and the enforcement to preach a rigid neutrality,
he demands G of the Enlistment Act. What
what overnment has already done; and
Government has d
some very natural done forms the subject of
resent so special an application
by other members, who
Mr. Cobden, who application of our neutrality.
nyast have been aware—and, vigilance nothing can escape,
he might have ware—and, had he been unaware,
learnt from a speech of Mr. Laird's
already referred to—that within two years the Go-
vernment of
British firm Washington has negotiated with a
for the building of •plated
lid our ehipb lel•
In ing firms continued to supply the