The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—A Foreign Secretary who has to explain
to merchants that their ships and cargoes are rea-
sonably detained, perhaps lawfully condemned,
must needs have a difficult task. Besides that it is
by no means agreeable to lose out of hand, with ex-
penses besides, and much insult into the bargain,
what was computed to be worth £lOO,OOO had the
enterprise prospered, the Englishman has a special
difficulty in understanding how this can be accord-
ing to law. Our own law between one British sub-
ject and another, the administration of that law, and
all our legal notions are proudly national. They are
in the spirit of our Constitution, and are supposed,
with good reason, to represent the moral peculiari-
ties of a free and liberal race of men. The indivi-
dual here has a larger measure of liberty than any-
where else in the world—at least, in his relations to
the State ; much is left here to public opinion
which elsewhere is rigorously enforced by law ;
everybody is assumed to be innocent till proved to
be guilty ; we give the accused every chance, and
give him an early, quick, and final adjudication.
It is almost needless to add that the tribunal is
without suspicion, and they that enforce the law or
lay it down are faultless and disinterested. When a
Liverpool merchant sends a valuable cargo across
the Atlantic to Nassau or Matamoi as, he finds him-
self in an entirely new region. The ship is over-
hauled and searched, before even it can be sus-
pected, in quest of possible grounds for suspicion.
When the closest search has not elicited anything
more than grounds for suspicion, the ship is
carried to a port far out of its course, and kept
there any length of time, till the owners,
at great cost and inconvenience, shall have
proved that the ship and the cargo were not so much
as intended for the blockaded or the belligerent port
in question. If in the opinion of the court the ship
or the cargo were destined for that port, even
though they have only a moral certainty, the ship
and cargo are condemned, and there is an end of
the matter. The owners lose ship and cargo, atm
are not a little aggravated. Nothing can be more
contrary to all their notions of law. They have no
respect for the captors, having probably supplied
them, perhaps being still engaged in supplying
them, with munitions of war to any amount. It is
the mere accident of superior force which enforces
the alleged law in one case and secures its syste-
matic infraction in the other. The same belligerent
maintains a strict blockade with the right hand and
holds out the left for contraband of war. It is but
too natural that the British merchant should ex-
pect the scales of justice to be weighted at Key
West. The judgment has been pronounced without
one tangible proof. What is worse than all, the
merchant k nows it to be founded on truth, but he
had taken a world of trouble, and gone to great cost
to disguise that truth, and that trouble and that cost
have been all thrown away. But the reason of the
case shows that the law cannot here be framed on
our principle of giving every chance to the accused
and requiring the most absolute proof from the ac-
cuser. The law must be set by the belligerent—
that is, the captors, who lay it down under strong
provocation to stretch the law, but also under great ,
inducements in the other direction. It is necessary
in their interest to stop the commerce of the enemy.
It is often, as in the present instance, the only way
in which they can effectually carry on a war which
they believe to be a war for self-preservation. If the
Federals cannot maintain the blockade they have
not a chance, for it is evident they are powerless
on land. The sea alone is their element. It is a fact
patent to all the world that commerce is not stopped,
and the blockade is run continually. Never was
there so much shipping in the Gulf of Mexico; never
Ras Nassau so lively ; never had Charleston itself
so brisk a trade. So many ships run the blockade
that it has been suggested there must be some un-
derstanding with the blockading squadron. No
doubt, however, the Government does its best, and
has good reason for so doing so. The American
Prize Courts, then, have good reason to push the
law to an extreme as regards the degree of evidence
on which the ultimate destination of a ship or cargo,
as well as the ownership, are to be proved. When
a man is engaged in mortal conflict he naturally
allows the instinct of self-defence to turn the scale.
On the other hand, the Courts have to consider,
first, that they do not pronounce so decidedly in the
face of facts and of law that they draw another
enemy down upon them ; and, secondly, that what-
ever law they lay down, or whatever precedent they
set, they will one day most assuredly have to accept
from another. The Federals must be well aware
they are fighting our battles as well as their own.
The time may arrive when we shall find ourselves
once more compelled to push to the utmost the rights
of maritime warfare. It will not, then, be safe to
bind ourselves to the doctrine that everything
may be permitted on land, even to the laying
waste of whole provinces, but that the sea is sacred
to commerce and peace, and must not be disturbed.
The sea is our element, and we must be jealous for
its rights, of which we are the chief guardians.
These rights are as much in the interest of political
liberty as of free trade. We will not enter into the
merits of the several cases referred to in the House
of Lords, feeling pretty sure that the unfortunate
owners of the detained ships will have as much
attention and consideration as Lord Russell can
give them without sacrificing the national birth-
right. But there is one remark we beg leave to
make, and we do it because the owners apps ar so
entirely and unaffectedly innocent of the destination
ascribed to their ships and cargoes. It would be in-
teresting to know precisely what these cargoes are,
and whether they are such as would be naturally
sent to the ostensible destination in the ordinary
course of peaceful trade. In the case of a ship
suspected of the intention to run a blockade, it may
he that the cargo is itself very inoffensive, though
still not such as might be expected to be sent to
that part of the world. The character of the freight
must always be a most important element in the
question, and we do not remember to have seen it
stated with any particularity in any of these in-
stances. Indeed, as Lord Russell observed on Mon-
day, the question of fact is at issue, and where
there has been a decision the terms of the judg-
ment are not yet in our possession. England must
consider well and long before she takes up the
quarrel of a few traders who may be doing
what they know to be substantially contrary
to international amity and law, but who had flat-
tered themselves they were clever enough to cheat
hostile cruisers and Prize Courts. If those Courts
have their opinion, so also have we, and it is
possible we may agree with them in thinking the
cargoes are meant for a more exigent and more
populous community than the inhabitants of Ber-
muda or the Bahamas. We shall not go to war for
a bad case or to avenge the injured innocence
of men engaged in a mercantile lottery. Their
gains we do not grudge. They are welcome
to all they can get by running the blockade.
They have lost their regular trade, and have a
sort of right to try their hand at that which
fortune and war itself offers them. The Fede-
rals cannot impeach its morality. What we ask is
that they shall not drag the British flag into the
question before it is absolutely necessary. It is
good for something better than the protection of
smuggling ; and, after all, blockade-running by neu-
trals
is no better. When there is a clear case of
gratuitous wrong, amounting to a national insult
and defiance, then we shall know what to say.

HERALD.—There is nothing more forgotten in
practice, and yet nothing truer. than the position
that the whole civilised world constitutes one great
family. The members may be far apart • they may
have divided, and even antagonistic, interests for
the time, but no injury can accrue to the one with.
out impairing the fortunes of the others, in some
manner. The relations of mankind in our days are
brought into close connection. Commerce and
diplomacy, intelligence and enterprise, bind them.
Steam and electricity, and the wonderful march of
engineering improvements, make the great capitals
like the leading cities of the same country. We
may be said to look upon the battles of _Europe.
Those of America are within a brief reach of us;
and the special correspondent brings the actual facts
in a series of graphic tableaux before our eyes. This
nearer intercommnication of modern society presses
on us with a heavy responsibility. There is no fair
excuse now for apathy. In former ages the. lands
were isolr, ted. The sea was dissociable, and forbade
communion, There was just and natural reason for
a selfish neutrality. The term, however much
in vogue now, does not belong to a humane and
Christian vocabulary. It is brutal to stand by
and see brothers tear each othQr's throats ; and
the nations of Europe cannot escape this censure.
We do not for the moment say that intervention
between power and power is always Wise,
politic. But we contend that the necessity, it an
any d
for abstention, is barbarous, and must weigh as a
The struggle taking
sin against a civilised epoch.
place now in America has every point to command
our sympathy and pacific interference. It is before
us. We cannot shut our eyes from it.
by day
messengers arrive with such a lively picture of the
whole conflict that we know more of its scenes and
affairs actors than we do of the air
in thesofouro country.cewnssati
onof
Our best interests are concerned
this quarrel. Its continuance is silently revolution-

ising our manufactures and commerce. The port of
London and the port of Liverpool are affected by
the same destroying agents which are gradually
shutting up the mills of Lancashire and Cheshire,
and changing their industry. The ruin of the Ame-
rican States. Confederate and Federal, is in itself a
loss to the whole human family. It is so much
riches and power taken from the civilise(' world. It
is so much progress cut off from the commonwealth
of nations. Ages will not repair the mischief done.
Centuries will not, restore the thrivance and happi-
ness ruthlessly abandoned. Is this a case, then, for
neutrality ? Or is not the policy here cold-blooded,
savage, and stupid? There is no appearance of the
end, Grant that Gen. Hooker were successful, and
Richmond in ruins ; that Lee and his army were an-
nihilated. Another Lee and another army would
spring from their gory remains. Girls and women
would fill the voided ranks, and take the place of
the youth slain. But conquest here li not subjuga-
tion. There is a vast area of territory, and there is
a scattered population. There is fierce hate. There
is black wrong. There is undying resolution. Here
there can be no victory. For the enemy will still
hold the field, only shifting its position. Mutual
extermination is all that can be expected. /s this
butchery to be permitted by the Powers of Europe?
Are crimes and atrocities which cast us back to
the days of early barbarism to be perpetrated al-
most before our eyes and amongst our kinsmen ?
If neutrality be wisdom here, then it is the wisdom
of the fiends. It is the cold Mephistophelian gaze
on the slaughter of brethren. It can effect nothing
for good ; it must be productive of evil. Let it not
be said that Europe has no power to stop this
quarrel. We assert that she has—a peaceful au-
thority, too, which need only speak and not draw
the sword. The Federals would listen to the voice
of united Christendom. Such an issue has been
sought by some, at least, of their chiefs, and would
have answered. But, admit that they were obstinate,
nothing but the refusal would be incurred. This
France has already experienced. But is France
worse off now for her interposition ? Are Paris and
Washington in less close alliance ? Has England
gained by cautiously standing aloof ? Ask our mer-
chants, interrogate our shipowners, question our
travellers, read the public dispatches, and the dia-
tribes of the Northern newspapers, to learn what
Great Britain has gained by her determined spirit
of non-intervention. The attempt at mediation in
any event would be humane and honourable. It
would draw the Powers of Europe into alliance on
a matter which concerns all nations in some degree,
less or more. England, France, Russia, Austria,
Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Holland,
Sweden, and Denmark, all combined in one pacific
and Christian request, would carry with them the
highest sanction. Here would be the vex populi in-
deed. That would be a bold and strong nation, or
fragment of a nation, which could successfully resist
such an appeal. A rejection might well be followed
by the recognition of the South, on the supposition
that it had accepted the mediation. Something of
this kind must be done at last. There can be no other
solution of the difficulty —no other termination
of the war. This is not like hostilities between
foreign nations. Here it is a veritable contest
of kinsman against kinsman, of brother against
brother, of citizen against citizen. Only some for-
cible and persuasive external power can drag them
asunder, Let there be an armistice—an armistice
will lead to peace. We know that while we write
the sudden success of either of the foes—an unex-
expected victory on one side, a signal defeat on the
other—might assure the conquerors. But the de-
struction of whole armies, the capture of an entire
commissariat, the utter rout of grand divisions, will
bring the enemies no nearer to final triumph or
final submission. To the victor proud and vaunt-
vlntitstitm:l:l:biai
ing here, the crushed and defeated foe there will
tatter defiance to his last breath, and wreak his
vengeance with shattered limbs and broken wea-
pons. Again, we repeat, there can be no subjuga- 1
tion—and even, if possible, its inevitable conse-
quence,
a military government, would be impossible.
The most shocking problem of the age is the apos-
tacy of the Peace party during this war. The
Friends have become bellicose and ready to battle
with fisticuffs. There is no mission to Washington
now. No mediatory addresses. No Exeter Hall
gatherings. No denunciations in Parliament.
Broadbrim is mute. His love for the negro has
made him obdurate to the woes of his master. Union
and Secesh may cut their throats, if Sambo can
wriggle off his shackles. This is not only hypocrisy,
it is fatuity. The extinction of negro slavery is not
advanced by a savage struggle—or, if it is, the do-
mestic treason and butchery stimulated are evils too
dark for comparison with the worst phase of servi-
tude. If these mouthing peacemongers, these osten-
tatious zealots for abolition, had only done their
plain duty this abominable contention would have
been ended long ago. The Peace party, as it is
called, is not powerful, but it has its influence.
This arises from the demonstrative turn of its
leaders. Their exertions in the cause of tran-
quillity would have found large support in this
country and elsewhere. It is Lot too late now. The
spring campaign has only just commenced. The
wrath, which had somewhat subsided for a time, has
not yet been entirely rekindled. Many weapons
are still in their sheaths. It is for this reason that
we ourselves attempt to renew the cry for mediation
—a cry which has been ours from the beginning.
There are cases where neutrality becomes callous
indifference, or coarse and brutal sanction and en-
couragement. The present issue is of this descrip-
tion. We cannot be neutral and civilised and
Christian here. And withal, our policy is narrow-
sighted and disappointing. For whenever the end
does come it will come by mediation, an:: not be-
fore. The present Government is doggedly sullen on
this subject; it has been said—God forbid the sus-
picion—with the diabolical intention of witnessing
the wreck and utter extinction of that great republic
which threatened the future of the old monarchies
of Europe. If this be the Machiavellian design of
Ministers, nothing can be more repugnant to the
sympathies and ingenuousness of the entire British
population—nothing more suicidal and destructive
to English interests, and nothing more hostile to
the progress of the whole human race ; for this is
not a question of policy, but of humanity, Chris-
tianity, and civilisation.
PosT.—To-day the great annual holiday of the
Londoner returns,and the metropolis and its suburbs
will be almost depopulated in order to cover with
their thousands the downs of Epsom. At an early
hour all will be astir. Every species of " trap," from
the four-horse drag down to the costermonger's
donkey-cart, will be put in requisition in order to
supply the necessary quota of vehicles which will
stretch in an unbroken line from Clapham-common
to the Derby race-course. Special acts are certainly
not passed by the Legislature to anticipate by a day
bills falling due on the great Wednesday in the
racing calendar, but in every other respect unmis-
takable evidences are afforded of the hasty and ear-
nest intention of the denizens of the greatest com-
mercial city in the world to discard the cares and
anxieties and obligations of business during the
hours devoted to ascertaining to what horse in par-
ticular for the current year ought to be awarded the
blue riband of the turf. On these occasions the
House of Commons invariably suspends its sittings.
No matter how grave may be the interest at
_sstsatkiel;
no matter how important the debate whichp i
A those
unconcluded on the eve of the Derby
e debatey, must
interests must still pend, and
remain unfinished until both
ofmmon a n
incident
ls!
brilliantly.
and
Opposition
debate on the
whichal
ce
ins.vuorlve.dae
othfea sta-
bilitydis_,
DOpowpoassi.tionsehmavee pfiavied tyheeeivreansiLuvaisit to the Epsom
Government of India,
of the then Administration in this kingdom,
was thus cut short, much to the surprise
marks
u hpourAatiti
M. de
that
dauetf happened
dis-
tinguished
etueiansmh eopdp
pamphlet
ns Frenchman
us. But
man
whichnw
ern art
shortly afterwards published mere forcibly
the distinguishing eharacteristics of our form of go_
irenhmheente°anand the future
vernment than that in_owvhe
Merits or, the
singular interruption of a great
solving the fate of a G Party contest, in-
destinies of a mighty and distant e
yetren t ltyh soat
isnimcipthl,entant
eds
tsi
tio
ecdo
metropolis.
rightly
s 0)
stn the
by appa_
horse-race in the vicinity
(athned
more
And
strongly than the most
institutions could have minute examination of our
dence placed by the
eystem by which the English people in that political
The fortunes of Ady.have elected to be governed.
be in the scale, but
itm.inistrations may at any time
the beam turns, those
is known that whichever way
will whoconscientiously
happen to be in the as-
cendantn io.usly study to advance the
true interests of the nation. The English, happily
for themselves, watch contests in the political
arena of St. Stephen's much as they will do the
race on the Downs to-day. They may have particu-
lar likings and partialities (and no one is free from
them), but as a class the pervading sentiment of all,
in the one case as in the other, might be fully ex-
pressed in the sportsman's wieh--. May the best
horse win." Regarded as illustrative of the estima-
tion in which a particular species of amusement is
held by the English of the 19th century, the vast
concourse of people which annually congregate at
Epsom will for many years to come attract the at-
tention of the commentator on our national cue-

toms. There may come a time when horse-rasing
will
cease to hold its present position, and the
planationhraBes may
aoyf
curious inquirer into the meanings of obsolete
pltihaevewtoorsdea.r.cthurfa.,, glßosustartlatfortimthee ewxe-
sbelieve
caonfdtibl
oo
spec ,aidsi
us tnicllt sfawr hdi auunt Regarded
have
now become inseparable. from it, the of
breeding and training horses with' the vie practicef de-
veloping those qualities with which rat viewhas of
en-
dowed
them, and subsequently testing urbey tnal
experiment the results of the labour dactual
experiment the time
which have been so employed,
one which ought to be long-liv would
edlt seemss seem to be
per-
fectly intelligible why the savage' amusements
which the people of past ages delighted have inne
of
out of fashion. The gladiatorial shows gone
ancientßL,
Rome have no parallel at the present da
y. Bear-
baiting has disappeared from this country, and
hull-fighting, there is reason to hope and
trill shortly cease to be the chief national amuse
ment of the Spanish people. But whilst we pride
ourselves upon the excellence of the motive which
has made horse-racing what it is in this country,
and the harmlessness of the amusement itself, we
would do well to consider whether horse-racing,
considered in its entirety with those adjuncts to
which we have already alluded, does not contain
within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Eliza-
beth honoured bear-baitings with her presence ; the
present Sovereign, until prevented by affliction,
-annually visited in state a neighbouring heath, and
sanctioned what she considered to be a becoming
national amusement. The time may come, however,
when the reigning Sovereign,with his or her Court,
would sooner attend a horse race than her present
Majesty would think of going to see an unfortunate
bear confined in a pit and worried to death by dogs.
That the " turf" is no longer what it was is a
fact which does not admit of dispute. It has sunk
below its former level. It is not composed of the
same men; we doubt very much if it has the same
code; and it certainly furnishes scandals more fre-
quently than of old. The objects of the turf have
also become singularly changed. Formerly the end
of horse-training was, as it ostensibly is now,
the improvement of the breed of horses. Then bets
were made on the trials of skill to which horses were
subjected; but the practice of making them was, so
to speak, ancillary to that of testing the merits of
the horses who ran. It is now, however, different.
Betting is the all in all of the racing man. Even the
cups and the other prizes awarded to the owners of
successful horses have ceased to possess that sub-
stantial attraction which they once possessed. To
come in first past the winning post according to the
present system, by which the making of " good
books" is the great end and aim of the horse breeder,
although it may make the owner possessor of a
valuable prize, will inflict upon him a pecuniary
loss by diminishing the odds given against hishorse
for future races. Hence the interest a man may pos-
sess in losing a race, an interest which in the infancy
of horse-racing was happily unknown. It would be
idle to multiply examples, or to show that horse-
racing, unless conducted on principles of honour
which many " respectable"
' ctable" men on the turf would
consider. Quixotic,is little else than a mockery, a
delusion, and a snare. It is impossible to divest
horse-racing of its concomitant evil, the practice of
betting; and when this evil has attained itspresent
gigantic proportions, we may well tremble for the
security of the r difice which it has already begun
to undermine. The race-courses of England unfortu-
nately hold out the same temptations as the gam-
bling establishments in Germany, the licensing of
which we so pharisaically deprecate, and many a
man will know to his cost to-day that he can lose
his money with the same facility on the green sod
at Epsom as on the green cloth at Hambourg or
Baden-Baden. It is indeed to be regretted that an
innocent and really meritorious amusement should
be inseparably wedded to one of the most degrading
vices with which humanity is cursed.