The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The question of the Confederate steamers
is becoming both serious and urgent ; we wish we
could add that it is also becoming more clear. Un-
fortunately, it is full of the gravest doubts, and
though probably not one Englishman in ten would
be under any uncertainty as to what he would wish
to see done, it is by no means certain that the power
of action exists. Common belief, as well as current
report, assigns to the service of the Confederate Go-
vernment two powerful ironclad vessels now ap-
proaching completion in a well-known yard on the
Mersey, That these ships are war-ships, and of the
most formidable kind, cannot be disputed. They
are plated with 41-inch armour, they have turrets
for mounting heavy guns, and their stems are so
constructed that they may be used as rams. On
this point, therefore, no question can be raised. But
our builders are constantlyconstruotiog ships of war
for foreign Governments, and it is only on the pre-
sumption that these particular vessels are intended
for a belligerent Power that the lawfulness of their
destination can be questioned at all. Such a pre-
sumption, however, undoubtedly prevails. The ships
themselves, as stated in our intelligence yesterday,
not only bear French or Algerian names, but are
distinctly alleged to be built on French account, and
one of them actually carries the French flag. Never-
theless, people persist in believing that, sooner or
later, and in fact very soon indeed, they will hoist
Confederate colours, and that, whatever pretext
may be employed to disguise their destination, they
have been designed from the beginning to join the
Florida and the Alabama, and prey upon the com-
merce of the Federals as those ships have done. The
consequence is that the Federals and their friends are
naturally enraged,and we are assured that if the sus-
pected vessels are allowed to escape peace between
America and England can no longer be maintained.
To the correspondence on the subject which we pub-
lished yesterday we now add another communication,
containing an exposition of the existing law on this
critical question. According to the views which,
not without authority, are there laid down, a ship
of war is so far contraband that if it is sold by a
neutral to a beldgerent, the other belligerent would
be entitled to make prize of it, exactly as prize
would be made of arms or munitions. But it is only
on the high seas, or in the passage of the vessel from
the neutral to the belligerent port, that the seizure
can be effected. An English shipbuilder may Bella
ship of war impartially to either a Confederate or a
Federal purchaser, and deliver it without any
breach of law; but the vessel is liable to capture
and confiscation if she is overtaken at sea and her
destination can be proved. " There is nothing in
our laws, or in the law of nations, that forbids
our citizens from sending armed vessels as well as
munitions of war to foreign ports for sale. It is a
commercial adventure which no nation is bound to
prohibit, and which only exposes the person en-
gaged in it to the penalty of confiscation." That is
the doctrine laid down, not by the British Court of
Admiralty, but by the Supreme Court of the United
States. It is American, not English law, and no
law can be clearer. The lathes, in fact, is with the
Federals themselves. They are foregoing their own
rights in order to carry out more effectually a
certain paramount object. Their cruisers should be
where the Florida is, and the Confederate steam
rams, if such they are, ought, instead of meeting a
consort, to fall into the hands of a captor ; but such
is the overwhelming anxiety of the Federals to
press the blockade of the Southern ports that they
can spare no squadrons for the police of the seas.
However, after stating the facts as far as they can
be ascertained, and the law as we find it laid down,
we are ready to admit that there is much more to
be added. There is a comparatively recent statute
called the Foreign Enlistment Act, which was cer-
tainly designed to control the proceedings of neu-
trals in dealing with belligerents, and there is an
instinctive feeling on the part of the public that the
construction and sale of such vessels as the Ala-
bama for such uses as those to which the Alabama
is turned ought not, whether actually lawful or
otherwise, to be allowed by law. After making all
abatements due to the exceptional character of the
war betweenTederals and Confederates, we must
needs admit that the case of war-ships is not like the
case of munitions of war. There is not so much di-
rect intervention or provocation in the one as in the
other. Rifles and gunpowder are soon lost sight of,
but a ship of war is an active engine, endowed, as it
were, with life and personality, and traceable in her
achievements from day to day. Indeed, if we sup-
pose that not only the hull, but the guns, the stores,
and the men are furnished more or less circuitously
from the neutral State, it is hard to see how the
supply differs from that of a regiment of soldiers.
We have only to ask ourselves what our feelings
would have been if, while we were blockading the
Russian ports during the Crimean war some neutral
State had furnished the Russian Government with
cruisers enough to close the sea against oar com-
merce. Of course we should never have allowed
them such a range as the Alabama has enjoyed,
but some day or other even we, with our enor-
mous navy, may find our hands too full. It is not
our interest to allow such a precedent to be esta-
blished for the first time, if it does not exist
already, nor to connive at its extension, if it
has any existence. Of all the doubts which the
question contains we ought to give ourselves the
benefit, and our interests, as it happens, coincide on
this occasion with the desires of the Federal States.
Still, the Americans, whether of the North or of
the South, must be perfectly aware that we can
make no concession to menace, and that the laws of
England, whatever they may be, are not to be
changed at the dictation of a foreign State. We
believe that if our Government could feel itself
justified in stopping any suspected vessel, the
public would be glad to see the power exercised.
We do not thing it morally right that ships like the
Alabama should leave our ports for such service as
that on which they are engaged. We do not wish
to see any more of them sail on the like errand,
though the Federals have themselves mainly to
thank for the mischief which these cruisers have
been permitted to work. We are even disposed
to think that if the Foreign Enlistment Act is not
comprehensive enough to prevent such dealings, it
might be advantageously made so, but our authori-
ties can only administer the law as it stands. The
alleged destination of the vessels in question is ap-
parently denied, and, even if it were admitted, the
absence of any " equipment" might render the bar-
gain lawful. The leederals, too, should be reasonable
enough to remember that our impartiality in respect
of this kind of trade has been abundantly proved.
Whatever may have been the sympathies of the
country, there has been no favour shown in the mat
ter of commerce. The Northerners have had, with-
out stint or molestation, cannon, rifles, power, and
every other description of warlike material ttheir
heart's content. They best know what they have had
added to the
besides, and what other items might
list of their imports from England. 'l,i be
thoutenterin:,
into these questions we can truly say that the Fede-
rats have found a free and fair market
in this coun-
try for all their wants, and have never had an
im-
pediment thrown in their way. Our neutrality,
therefore, has not been vitiated by anything like
prefereacs, and so little,
even in the present case,
are we influenced by
sympathies that if these steam
rams are really destined for the Confederate Go-
vernment we sincerely hope the law may be strong
enough to stop them.
HERALD.—Mr. Nassau Senior's note-book must
be a very compendious one if that gentleman re-
ports all private conversations as fully as the
he held recently with Mr. Dayton, the Fede-
ral(n)e ambassador at Paris ; but it will certainly
not be a very valuable addition to current political
history. Mr. Dayton is, doubtless, all that Mr.
Senior describes him. He is besides a very
earnest, indefatigable, and zealous Federal agent.
But for these very reasons his opinions are hardly
worth recording with the exactitude and fulness of
which they have been thought worthy. If any writer
of ordinary observation had sat down to give a
Federal view of the relations between this country
and the United States he would have expressed him-
self very much as Mr. Dayton has done, and pro-
bably nine Unionists out of ten would regard our
obligations to their Government in the same light
as Mr. Senior and Mr. Dayton. There was
needed no prophet, not even such an authority BP
Mr. Seniors note-book to convince us that the
Federals are not exactly pleased with our neu-
trality. The New York Herald, in somewhat
more forcible language, has for two years past
indulged in the threats which peep covertly out
of "the conversation" with Mr. Dayton. And
Mr. Seward himself, when it was a question of
according belligerent rights to the South, was
equally threatening. But it is something new to
find this threat of war reproduced in the limes
ne.wspap3r in the name of En Euglit,h writer of re-
putation ; and We can only attribute the novelty to
the recent development of amateur diplomacy, which ,
8(.0313 to be rapidly driving the profe,bBionals out
of the field. It appears that Mr. Senior "had con-
versed with many persons of political eminence on
American affairs," and that he was so impressed
with the gravity of these conversations that he
hurried off to Paris to communicate their gist to
Mr. Dayton. The eminent political personages
who were posted in the inevitable note-book were
then and there introduced to the ambassador, who
acknowledged the introduction with gratitude, and
in his turn favoured Mr. Senior with his own
convictions. These were that the opinion of
England was the opinion of the Times ; that that
journal had one mad on American aff.drs, and that
the English public vs as Equally frantic.
,Mr. Geo.
Fran& Train arrived at (~,:ftetly the sain,-3 eoLein-
ien some two years ego. We can find no fault with
the Federal ambassador for making the avowal of
such a belief, But it is somewhat strange, to say

the least of it, to find the English writer more than
tacitly admitting its justice. Mr. Dayton assures
his obliging informant that the disruption of the
Union can do England no good, and that the Con-
federates hate England as bitterly as do the Fede-
rals. Mr. Senior at once agrees. "If we knew all
that they think and feel we probably should feel
towards them as you seem to be trying to make us
feel towards you." That is a great point gained by
the Yankee minister. If he can convince English-
men that the South hates them, he will have
achieved much. Mr. Senior's note-book will not
very much aid him in this respect. What follows
is still more interesting and curious. Mr. Senior
changes the form of dialogue—the Socratic—and
offers himself freely up to the victim of his oppo-
nent's logic and ingenuity. Not all the world, says
Mr. Dayton, could influence the North in favour of
peace. " Not by persuasion ?" mildly suggests Mr.
Senior, " Not by force," severely retorts his oppo-
nent, and then Mr. Senior is silenced and Mr.

Dayton has it all his own way. His argument is
singularly inconclusive. " What the South wants
is food, and that you cannot give her. She has
arms enough, but she is starving, and she will be
starved out." Yet the whole purport of the conver-
sation is a warning to England not to permit the
egress of arms or armed ships from our ports. If
the South has arms enough, why all this fuss about
these terrible phantom ships ? They will not give
the South food; they will not prevent her being
starved out ; but they would provide her with an
effective force wherewith to strike a blow. How soon
the process of starvation is to accomplish its object
we are not told. But, considering the state of the
grain crops of the present year in the Confederate
States, it seems likely to be a very tedious one ;
and as to our not being able to send food to the
South, Mr. Dayton ought to know that with open
ports where there is a demand there will soon be a
sufficient supply, and that Europe, with its abun-
dant harvest, has plenty and to spare for cll the
necessities of the South. However, we will let that
pass. The argument was grave enough for Mr.
Senior's note-book. But Mr. Dayton went on to
show our Government how the alleged Confederate
iron-clads were to be estopped, in somewhat the
following words :—" We maintain that these ships
aro intended for the Confederates. We cannot

exactly prove it, except by inference. But do as
Mr. Lincoln would do—compel the builders to pro-
duce their orders. If they refuse, detain the vessels.
If you cannot do this, amend your laws, Get an
edict from your dictator, Lord Palmerston, upset-
iug all Tour old ideas of justice and all your consti-
tutional practice. In short, violate your constitu
tion at the shortest possible notice, or—take the
consequences." What these consequences are Mr.
Senior tells us. Fairly to starve the South Presi-
dent Lincoln will go to war with this country. But
surely Mr. Senior, who has so many Federal and
Confederate friends, ought to know which party
has most benefited by our neutrality, and bow many
tons of powder, how many rifles, cannon, &c., have
left English ports for the United States. He might
be aware, too, that Federal agents have been busily,
recruiting in Ireland and in many parts of Eng-
land ; and that although some persons have "main
tained" that recruiting was a breach of the Foreign
Enlistment Act, and although the " inference" was
obvious enough, our Government took no steps to
put a stop to so flagrant a violation of our munici •
pal law, simply because the effort would have been
useless. What have the Federals done for us that
we should swallow a camel when their interests are
at stake, and strain at a gnat when it is a question
of Confederate gain P Mr. Senior, of course, writes
in all sincerity, and is honest in his alarm about the
prospect of war ; but if he had held a brief for the
North he could hardly have spoken out more
strongly and partially. Like all Northern parti-
sans, however, he has overshot his mark. English-
men may entertain this or that opinion respecting
the war in America, and the building of iron ships
for belligerents; bat they are all prone to resent a
threat, and both Mr. Dayton and Mr. Senior may
rely upon it that if they wish to prevent a rupture
they must appeal a little more to an Englishman's
reason and forbearance, and a little less to his
fears.

POST.—We are not surprised to find that the Con-
gress of German Princes at Frankfort has failed to
attract as large a share of public attention in Eng-
land as it deserves. The report of the proceedings of
the British Association at Newcastle will probably
be read with as much interest as the accounts which
reach us from Frankfort; and the results of scienti-
fic investigation during the past year will very pos-
sibly absorb to a greater extent the leisure hours of
the holidays than those deliberations of crowned
heads which affect the destinies of a continent. In
the one case the subjects discussed interest the
masses, in the other only those who are conversant
with the complications of European politics can
appreciate the influence upon them which the Frank-
fort Conference may exercise. While the Newcastle
philosophers are expounding to listening crowds,
the German princes are secretly laying the founda-
tions of a new system of Confederate government.
Perhaps if the public were admitted behind the
scenes, instead of speculating upon the nature of the
discussions which arise, we might follow their pro-
ceedings with greater interest; but even then few
would care sufficiently about the individual opinions
of the Duke of Baden to follow the objections which
he opposes to those clauses which more particularly
affect the status of his own dukedom ; nor should we
sympathise very warmly in the grievance of the
Elector of Hesse, who, it seems, might once have
been a king if he had chosen, but who clung to a title
to which so many great associations were attached,
and who now finds himself classedamong the princes
in consequence. These details would only possess
importance in our eyes as bearing upon the general
result; and we must remind our readers that this
result may actually affect the funds—an achieve-
ment which will be impossible for the wise men of
Newcastle, or may involve the necessity of making
use of those formidable engines of war which the
president of that learned body has made himself fa-
mous by inventing. If we fail to attach sufficient
weight to the Frankfort Congress, it is because we
have not been in the habitof making the political chess-
board of Europe our study. Otherwise we should see
that whatever be the result of that Congress, it must
indirectly affect the balance of power. If it fails,
the cause of the failure will be Prussia; and the
efftct of a more complete isolation of that great
German Power from the rest of the nationality will
be to give Austria the very preponderance which
her rival has hitherto dreaded. Although the Im-
perial project may not be adopted, the Imperial
influence will have been extended and consolidated,
and Francis Joseph, even if he go back re infecta, so
far as this particular scheme is concerned, will
henceforward occupy a new and much higher posi-
tion than he has hitherto done among the Sovereigns
of Europe. Prussia will, consequently, feel the ne-
cessity of looking for some ally to compensate for
that support which the North of Germany had been
in the habit of affording her, and this ally she can
only find in Russia ; whether as a consequence of
the increased intimacy which common misfortune,
arising from misgovernment in both cases, may en-
gender, some territorial changes may not ensue is a
matter for conjecture. There can be no doubt that
an arrangement might be arrived at in connection
with the German provinces of Russia which both
Powers, isolated as they will be from all European
sympathy, may find it convenient to make. Under
any circumstances, the effect of a persistence on the
part of Prussia to refuse any consideration of the
project after it has been agreed to by the Princes,
will be felt by Europe at large, and not by Ger-
many alone. On the other hand, the Continental
equilibrium will bo still more decidedly affected if
the King of Prussia repents him of his folly and ob-
stinacy, and reunites himself to his colleagues. In
that case, we hope to see that vision of a German
fatherland realised which has only heretofore existed
in the imagination of its poets, and every European
question now on the tains will assume a different
complexion. We need scarcely say that this is the
result which in the interest of Germany, of Eng-
land, and of Europa, we should most earnestly de-
sire; if we are sceptical upon the subject, it is because
it would be one of those things " which are too good
to be true." The day does not seem yet to have
come when Austria and Prussia can play the parts
of the lion and the lamb. Certainly we can scarcely
put Count Bismark into the latter category. At
the dictation of his Minister King William writes
to "his exalted federal allies" that he "Can
only fix his determination when by business,
like deliberations on the matter by his council, the
proposed changes in the Federal constitution may
be harmoniously discussed in their relations to the
just interests of the nation." In other words, says
Count Ilismark, " my Sovereign is not to be trusted
in a room in Frankfurt atuoiae a lot of German
princes by himself." Inasmuch as the will of the
Minister is law in Prussia, the discussion iu coun-
cil is likely to be exceedingly harmonious; and
inastutr:h. :13 " the just interests" of Count Bismuth
possess a considerable higher value in his eyes than
" the just interests of the nation," it is not likely
that he will make a concession which would compel
him to return to a coasatutional form of Gm em-
inent, and render it impossible for him any longer
to play the part of a despot. As, however, the
ratification of the Chambers in the different States
is necessary to legalise the AllE4l'l3ll project, it may
fairly be assumed that, until it hue been 'ejected
by a representative body, it is still pending. Count
Bismatk may feel confident that the Chambers at
Berlin would withhold their consent, on liberal
grounds, to the project ; but unfortunately for him
he hos debarred himself by his own act from appeal..
ing to the constitution he has violated, and the'
Prussians are suflicientiy credulous to believe that
the real reason fur their So verei gtiiti t
s opypt te)scirt4itoariintuo
the Austrian scheme was that it a